MTG Salvation

I am all about the last two.
The first one I had to see the other four to make sense of the art choice.

The second one (Generous Gift) has me on the fence. I like the art, but I do not like it for magic as it is too "real life".
You got to understand, my sister had a cat that just LOVED her and would allow herself to be dressed up and pushed around in a stroller. So cats in costumes with toys were essentially part of my childhood. My childhood was happily devoid of Real Shivan Dragons, Eldrazi, and Phyrexians... though I did once find a piece of wood that looked like Red Mana Battery and I tried summoning a Raging Goblin and a bright red sports car sped into the parking lot...so that was the biggest M:tG overlap my life ever had...
...aside from teaching it to kids and a parent said they didn't want their kid playing because of the monsters and demons summoned. I told her we all know it is just a game and we aren't really summoning demons, to which she said "I don't want me kid to learn how to summon demons" to which I knee-jerk replied "I have been playing this game for longer than your kid has been alive. Do you think if I could really summon demons I'd be here right now?"
It surprised both of us but it very much ended the conversation and I am strangely comfortable with the fact that I would not be working with children if I commanded a demon horde...it just sort of makes sense. I could do so much with Demonic Hordes or an Archfiend of Depravity, especially Kardur, Doomscourge...of course a lot of the demons want sacrifices or life payments and I got a sinking feeling I would be a 1/1 (so Pestilence Demon would be a terrible idea for myself/friends/family/neighbors/schools/nursing-homes in the immediate area plus I think we've ALL had enough Pestilence for this lifetime IRL). Though I think we'd all aim for Elixir of Immortality, Voltaic Key, and Time Vault.

Thank you, this answers everything!

Dungeon of the Mad Mage

I have two decks that can venture into the dungeon multiple times a turn I am wondering about the length of the ability for:
Runestone Caverns - Exile the top two cards of your library. You may play them.
Mad Wizard's Lair - Draw three cards and reveal them. You may cast one of them without paying its mana cost.

What is the window of opportunity for both of these? Do they have different windows? Is it only while the dungeon ability is on the stack? Is it until the end of turn? Is it forever (but only once: meaning if I cast lightning bolt from exile and it gets re-exiled I cannot recast it again, nor if it is one of the revealed three and I cast it for free, get it back to my hand with Archeomancer I cannot cast it for free again from my hand even though it was the chosen card)?

I ask because I had been both as an "until the end of turn" effect, but if it is shorter, it brings into question cast timings such as what if I get only permanent spells with any of these and the venturing occurred during combat, does it get around cast timing restrictions or did I essentially lose the top two cards of my library/not get a free spell?

Thank you in advance.

Quote from Dontrike »

Quote from Rat Terrier »

An honest question for players who object to this based on its chance to ruin one's immersion in the game's story: How does it make you feel when someone plays an altered card that touches on another IP? Is Dr. Doom on a Force of Will similarly jarring? Is the rarity of this enough to make it negligible as a concern?

Not really, that's their property and they chose to do something with it, though I would wonder why they would effectively ruin $50+ to have Dr. Doom on it, but again their property.

If we are going to switch IPs for Force of Will, it is going to be of Will Smith either in his Fresh Prince or ID4 role with the flavor text:
"This is the story
All about how
your spell got flipped
turned upside down
so I'd like you to take a moment
and sit right there
and move this card that's countered into your graveyard right over there"

I don't know much about Warhammer...does it even have "magic"? This is still Magic: the Gathering after all.

This is why I first called the Godzilla cards fake (check my old posts, I didn't delete them). I accepted that they were alters, because I've seen alters all over, but they were always alters of cards that existed in a non altered form.

Ponies: the Galloping was Silver bordered. Good. I actually like silver bordered cards.

Walking Dead should have been Silver bordered or alters...but they weren't. They had all the time in the world between the announcement and the drop date to switch to one or the other (or both!). Can you imagine how much of an uproar of EXCITEMENT when the first TWD secret drop was opened and there was the name of a card that did not exist yet underneath? The internet would go mad! Is it appearing in Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim, Strixhaven, the new Innistrad decks???

So here is what I have to say: treat these Expanded Universe cards as silver bordered cards.

I'm up for silverbordered games or decks that just run a few silver bordered cards (aside from the recommmended banned list and Meddling Kids, I ran that myself until I decided it was just too powerful) but of the two silverbordered decks one I'll always have an extra deck if people say "no" and the other I have a "regular board" to replace each silverborder one (even the commander).

So in short: I would like to see the rules committee treat these new sets like silver bordered cards.

• Odric, Lunarch Marshal
  
• Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo
  
• Sensei Golden-Tail
  
• Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant
  
• Avacyn, Angel of Hope
  

Rune-Tail will typically automatically flip if played on your third turn, which means your creatures just don't take damage.

Well for starters, you simply can, but typically there will not be too many replies.
The Facebook commander group is rather good at responding, but typically it is better to ask what cards go well with a commander/build and then supply your color/budget.

Most people won't look at your decklist. It isn't simply because they are lazy (though it is some of that and that they don't want to spend the time looking at what you already have). It is the fact that usually people will just post the decklist and say, "I am trying to build this, help!".
The problem with this approach is that there is no correct way to make the perfect deck and it is highly subjective. The art of building a commander deck is not like trying to draw a horse and then comparing it to a photograph of the best horse at show this year, it is more akin to abstract art. There are all sorts of things that could possibly be going on. Perhaps the person wants to keep running this card be cause the old nice guy at the book shop gave it to him. Perhaps the point is that all the artwork contains stairs. Perhaps Someone is trying to make a Voltron deck with an Azusa, Lost but Seeking. An outsider with limited information is like Clippy from Office 95: we can say "hey it looks like you are trying to do XYZ" but more often than not we are not 100 at the meat of what you are trying to get your deck to do. That is also often an issue with the person creating the deck, they just want the deck to do something well but they are not sure or don't care what, just as long as it somehow wins at their table. Some people want to know the cEDH options. Other people don't want to hear about obvious things like Sol Rings or Command Towers (though some people might not even know about these cards, the responders have no real idea).

This is why I more often than not when I am stuck with a current deck's iteration check what other people have already done.
There are a lot of decks to look at on this site, as well as at Tapped Out and MTGgoldfish, though that pales in comparison to EDREC.

I don't stop there though, I look for build types and what people use for similar commanders, I heavily use Youtube too.
After getting all that, I take everything I found, factor in my budget as well as the cards I already have on hand, and then I make my deck an amalgamation of all the things I liked that I found (and can afford).

It doesn't hurt to know what cards exist out there either. Using Gatherer's advanced search or Scryfall's I can look for key words or phrases for things I want more of in my deck. When I started playing, it was easy to spend a weekend and learn all the cards...there are a lot more out there now, but knowing things exist and watching posts like "card of the day that you might not know about" will keep you in the loop with lesser known tech that can really be a boon.

Lastly spoilers (shown on this site for example) are not just good for playing Standard (I mean honestly it is necessary to know your draft options if you want to stand a chance these days). Knowing what is coming out will tell you what you can add to your deck as well as what you need to worry about/plan for when it is coming at you across the table next month.

That being said, you can always also peruse this forum's archives if you are using an older, more established commander.


So if you are going to post a decklist, don't just post a decklist. Tell us what power level you would like it to be (helps if you tell us what power level you think it is now), whether you want it to be cEDH or not, what you are married to (ex: must it be this commander? must it be this archetype? Is there a theme? Are you telling a story? Must it be by a specific artist or cards from a certain year?), and your budget. What is easiest is if you ask us non-open-ended questions: should I do A or B? I feel like Card X isn't quite working with ______, any suggestions for substitutions? How can I deal with Cyclonic Rift when it is played against my deck?

Apparently prices have gone up on the cards I am about to suggest, but none are as expensive as Demonic Tutor:

• Diabolic Intent cost the same to cast as Demonic Tutor, but also requires a creature sacrifice. I am assuming the reason you are not running Diabolic Tutor is due to it needing BB. Still I would like to see how your deck performs with one DT and just 3 CPs.
• Forbidden Orchard not only gives you the black mana you crave but also gives your opponent an extra body to help Defense of the Heart to trigger.
• Torment of Hailfire over Exsanguinate. Just put in one ToH and take out one Ex and see how you like it. If you are facing token heavy decks, please ignore this suggestion.
• Insist or Vexing Shusher can protect your Emrakul casting from being countered (VS can protect your Exsanguinate and everything else too). Again not sure about your meta but figured it might be helpful.

I am not sure how some of these missed the list.

• Possibility Storm
  
• Justice
  
• Pox
  
• Lord of Tresserhorn

Akroma, Angel of Wrath (original printing, as Vigilance was not a keyword yet).Okay this one isn't as wordy as others, but it does require the reader to know what all of those things mean within the context of the game.

What do you think the secret foil is going to be? C’mon now. We all know what it SHOULD be.


But also, this is dumb. Like “I’d make fun of you if you bought this dumb”...I’m ordering this on the 3rd...aren’t I...just checked, I am. YOU FINALLY GOT ME WotC!

[Whenever ~ enters the battlefield for the first time each game, create the emblem, “At the beginning of your end step, you get a doom counter. You lose the game if you have over 4 Doom counters. Whenever a spell or permanent you control reduces an opponent’s life total to 0, remove this emblem and your doom counters.”]

Transformative medium needs to be at least a rare.
The white cards look neat, though I’m unsure if practice for greatness should be uncommon or rare, I’d need to see the play testing data. The reason I’m leaning towards uncommon
due to the counter being added post combat.

It says you must play a nonland card to use your mana for drink related things. Does this include countering drinks with blue?

I find it interesting that no one has brought up cards to deal with the chance of you actually drawing your beaters.

Scroll Rack and Brainstorm seem like great adds (if you have the budget for the former).

Blood Sun should be run anywhere there are bounce lands.
I find it odd that this card gets almost no use when there are some many people running bounce lands especially in red.