MTG Salvation

Quote from Lord0fHam »

What does everyone think of Extraplanar Lens?

It's usually not run in this deck. Let's look at same-turn and next-turn requirements for getting benefit from it. In both I'll assume only using lands for mana to cast it since it's going to be inconsistent to have fast-mana sources before going off, and because I don't want to look at optimal scenarios but instead look at liabilities.

To benefit from it same-turn, having tapped 3 mountains to cast it and exiling one of the tapped ones, you would have to have at least 4 other mountains (total 7) in play to benefit. And at that point you can make 8 R from those 4 mountains, but could have made 7 R without the Lens. That's not much of a ritual (unless you have way more lands). 2: That's a fairly late turn to have 7 mountains (at least in the combo-ish Arcane version).

To benefit from it on your next turn the requirements are a bit lower. You could have 3 lands on turn 3, cast this and exile one, then drop a new third mountain on turn 4 and have 6 mana. However, the Lens has to survive. If it gets blown up (and someone will gleefully do so if they are able) then the damage to your tempo is huge because not only are you down a land but you spent all your mana for a turn for naught. It's like a combination of missing a land drop and doing nothing for a turn. Even if one misses a land drop, there are things one should do to advance board position in early turns that are not "lightning rods".

Extraplanar Lens works better if it can stick around for a couple of turns, at least. It also works better not in early-game, but mid- or late-game when one has more lands. In my opinion it's the kind of thing I might run in Big Mana Green as third- or fourth-string mana acceleration since the ramp and the other land-mana accelerators greatly diminish the downsides of losing the Lens (and the imprinted land) before benefiting from it.

I think it's going to be next on my list, as that seems like it's going to be easier than my other pending rebuilds and new builds. I'm definitely going to need to do some substitutions for cards like Mind Sculptor, Wrenn and Six, The Abyss, etc., but I'll figure it out. Garruk, Cursed Hunstman would indeed be good, and might warrant Garruk, Primal Hunter in my version. Probably the only extra turn spell I'll be running is Savor the Moment, so that frees up some room for other proliferate sources instead. Also I'm trying reduced combo pieces in Chainer, which freed up Rings of Brighthearth for this deck.

BTW, that list you gave is 3 cards short at 97 (including the commander).

Any other specific cards from Eldraine you're referring to?

I still check in here occasionally, so you could duplicate it to Nexus if you want since there's more EDH forum activity there, now.

Rebuilding to the token theme is on my to-do list, but I'll also be using token doublers like Anointed Procession and Parallel Lives instead of Doubling Season. The latter was causing too many blow-outs with ultimates... and Ayula needs the help maybe. Comment #1061 was still accurate for the token sub-theme build, right?

Quote from kocbftn2 »

Ok I'm gonna make a superfriends server and see what happens: https://discord.gg/33m3RkH
I did notice that the thread has really slowed down, maybe because of the impending closedown of mtgsalvation. I think it is important that we continue a place for discussion for this deck. My first post (albeit on a different account) on this thread was like 4 years ago and I would be sad to see it die without succession. I do not think that EDH superfriends is going away anytime soon.

Pretty sure MTG Salvation isn't closing. But the EDH section here mostly slowed down due to the EDH folk primarily being active on MTG Nexus now.

Quote from slikwilly »

Is Spark Double plus River Kelpie as nuts as I think it is?

Yep. That is a 3-card combo there (third being the sacrifice outlet).

Quote from Kitsune_18 »

What are your thoughts on Thought Sponge? It seems like a decent card draw engine, but competes for a slot with Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain and/or Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. I do like that the sponge supplies itself with its own +1/+1 counter, and that as long as you're sacing it on your opponent's turn, it will come back with a counter.

I'm definitely going to try Thought Sponge. If sacrificed on each opponent's turn, that should be 2 cards for me each time.

Quote from HandsomeP »

Despite the fact that the frame around Cascading Cataracts has a goldish hue, the card is in fact colorless and can be played with a colorless commander, correct?

Correct. Edit: Because there's no mana symbols on it that would restrict it.

Correct. Your clone of Thing in the Ice is not a double-sided card, so the trigger to transform just won't do that and it'll stay there. It would still remove Ice counters, though.

Quote from Lord Akuvar »

So, can she wait to find out that I am selecting an enchantment that will prevent her, in the future, from targeting Zur with her Lightning Bolt? It looks like from your steps she only has the option to place the Lightning Bolts on the stack when I trigger Zur's ability to go fetch an enchantment from my library.

If your opponent waits to see what enchantment you get, that means you're already resolving Zur's trigger and nothing can be done during resolution of that. By the time they get priority again, the trigger will have resolved and Diplomatic Immunity will already be attached to Zur.

It'll be an Awoken Horror. It won't trigger since that's a transform trigger rather then ETB, but it will copy what is face-up on the permanent (that is copyable).

Quote from Lord Akuvar »

I have two questions about timing.
1) When is the first time you can interrupt someone during their turn? I have seen rules that say certain phases can't be interrupted or start a stack. So If I want to use an Icy Manipulator to tap an opponent's Maze of Ith, when is the first time during her turn I can interrupt her and declare I'm doing that? Does this same timing apply to casting a creature with Flash or with Flash as an ability?

The first time you can do that during their turn is during their upkeep, when you get priority. If triggers/abilities/spells go on the stack during the upkeep then in the course of any of them resolving you will receive priority and can activate it then. Beyond that, leaving upkeep (like other steps/phases) occurs when everyone passes priority with nothing on the stack, and you'll have a chance then, too.

Quote from Lord Akuvar »

2)I control Zur the Enchanter. I declare that I am beginning my attack phase. I declare Zur the Enchanter as an attacker. I activate his power and search my library and place Diplomatic Immunity onto Zur. My opponent has two Lighning Bolts and two untapped mountains. When, if ever, during this entire process, is it legal for her to cast those Lighning Bolts to try to kill Zur?

Here's when they can do those:

• When you declare your intention to go to combat phase, leaving the pre-combat main phase, and they receive priority during that.
• When they receive priority on the attempt to move from the beginning of combat step to the declare attackers step.
• When they receive priority during the declare attackers step, after you declare attackers and Zur's trigger goes on the stack and you pass priority.

Not really. You may simply need to run stuff like Lightning Greaves, Darksteel Plate, and cheap reanimation like Reanimate/Animate Dead.

Quote from Gutterstorm »

I've always wondered about the basic land thing. I've never asked because I've never cared to build a colorless deck. But by all rights basic lands have no rules text. The big mana symbol on their text box is essentially flavor text which is why full art lands can exist without issue. The ability to tap for mana is all wrapped up in their sub type. For evidence of this see the Shock Lands such as Steam Vents whose only text is technically the shock ability, while the ability to add mana is parenthetical reminder text.

The mana symbol is in the rules text implicitly due to the basic land type(s): https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Basic_land#Basic_land_types

Dominus of Fealty
Zedruu the Greathearted

No, it will remain under the new controller from Zedruu's ability. Control-changing effects stick around on the object as long as its on the battlefield, unless something like "until end of turn" ends that specific effect on that object. Whichever effect has the most recent timestamp in the game is the one that "wins" and determines who has control of that object. tstorm823 has a section (inside a spoiler tag) explaining important things about ownership, control, and what happens when a player leaves the game in their Zedruu, the GOAT thread.