I'm glad that the staff are working on something to continue the community - unfortunately I don't have a phpBB2 forum hosted on a random friend's server to pull out of my pocket, this time
-
- Kelzam
- Registered User
-
Member for 19 years, 9 months, and 5 days
Last active Tue, Feb, 27 2024 20:02:49
- 14 Followers
- 7,182 Total Posts
- 923 Thanks
-
May 28, 2019
Kelzam posted a message on The End of an EraI'm still processing that this is happening. Thank you, everyone, who helped get the forums on it's feet; who has kept them afloat since then; who has used or frequented the forums and added to or been part of the community here. It's been almost 15 years ago now, and it's crazy to think Sally has been around this long.Posted in: Articles
I'm glad that the staff are working on something to continue the community - unfortunately I don't have a phpBB2 forum hosted on a random friend's server to pull out of my pocket, this time -
Dec 29, 2017
Kelzam posted a message on MTGSalvation's Deckbuilder is Here!A few things I feel need to be introduced to make this worth using over other similar resources, that I currently find a little frustrating:Posted in: Articles
- The ability to re-position each section. Right now, no matter what, any section I add using the Add Section widget on the side appears below the Early/Mid/Late Game section. There can be information that is better explained in sections before those. Before I get into the early game, it's probably better to tell them how to mulligan, which I want to be it's own section. Also, I feel like Quick Info makes more sense as a section above the deck list for people to have a quick read about the deck before they start pouring through the deck list to see if it sounds like something they even want to read on about.
- The same ability to add card images to the pre-made text sections that you can add to the sections made with the Add Section feature; as well as the ability to create card links in the input text that appears in the text boxes, like we are able to do on the forums in our existing deck threads.
- Sorting capabilities for the deck list. Custom categories like those on TappedOut and the ability to tag cards with another tag other than it's default type. For example, I might want to use add the tag "Mana Acceleration" to Sol Ring instead of Artifacts, and have the capability of viewing the deck listed using custom tags to make it easier for readers to understand.
-
Feb 3, 2014
Kelzam posted a message on Launch Giveaway!My favorite card is easily Arcbound Ravager. I've always loved Artifact-based decks, so when Mirrodin block was releasing I was in heaven. The deck it was part of was definitely too powerful for Standard (thanks in no part to Disciple of the Vault and the cycle of Artifact lands). But, now I play Affinity in Modern and get the same enjoyment as I did in Standard. The reason Arcbound Ravager is my favorite about all the rest though is that he let's you play both in proactive and reactive manners. The versatility is just amazing, letting you prepare an Etched Champion for an alpha strike or respond to removal of him by pouring all his counters on your Inkmoth Nexus. He's also a centerpiece in one of the few decks that aren't tri-color goodstuff.decs. There's an unfortunate lack of focus in most decks and many are simply piles of good cards that happen to fit into a guild or wedge combinations.Posted in: Announcements
-
Jan 26, 2011
Kelzam posted a message on Project thoughtsIt's always good to see someone getting enjoyment out of their work or projectsPosted in: Nis Blog
While I don't have any suggestions for it personally, I thought I'd post to thank you for essentially doing the forum community a service in the process. -
Jun 23, 2009
Kelzam posted a message on The Moldy, Rusty GoodbyeBasically, after deciding I really want to start playing Magic again, I found that my 8 years worth of collecting cards were victim to a basement flooding, and only 3 cards survived.Posted in: Xenphire Blog
I decided to add a TL;DR summary -
Jun 8, 2009
Kelzam posted a message on Selective ReadingI'll quote the posts I was referring to for clarity:Posted in: Xenphire Blog
Quote from The RiddlerI cannot see the Angel art being a Threaten-like spell, because whatever is threatening the angel into being evil, somehow also gave the angel the dark crown and glowing eyes, and whoever is controlling it isn't even present in the picture. Like the original art, I'd expect the person(s) threatening the victim to actually be present. I would also expect the background to be more in line with the soldier she's beating than the bloody palette selected (If the background were blue or white for example, she'd stick out showing something isn't right, for example).
Judging by the the glow, she's either been possessed by an evil force or she's just evil to begin with. The guy has clearly been beaten, he looks worn down and like he's struggling to get away - just look at his posture. The angle of his legs suggest he's nearly crawling.
While she wouldn't be the typical Fallen Angel what with lacking the black wings, the art tries too hard to make her look evil for it to be used on something like Threaten, IMO. I would have to doubt it's any form of control Magic, because while red might cause rage, she's clearly being driven by magic or has been possessed. The only other color possibility would be blue and blue wouldn't have an effect like that on a creature. Black doesn't do control Magic.
Re: the Sphinx: Oh god my eyes.
Quote from Ash316It would be funny then if this turned out to be Ritual of the Machine.;) I don't think it is, but there have been control cards in black. It's just doesn't go along with what they would want to do with a Core set. But as others have said, because of the background it does look more like a Red card. I just think it will be Threaten.
To answer your question, I'm not saying someone can't disagree with someone else, what I'm saying is it'd be nice if people that post in the Rumor Mill weren't so terrible about selective reading. The Riddler made several good points against the already lacking-in-reasoning assumption most of the sheep have made that the artwork has to be Threaten. The one guy who quoted him clearly didn't even bother reading his posts or didn't even try to understand his points. You have one guy posting something logical, breaking away from the mindless masses that make up the Rumor Mill posters and shining a light of intelligence on a thread, and it goes by practically unnoticed. I just find it frustrating, because it's like people there are a bunch of zombies.
You might disagree because of how you feel about reading longer posts, but I personally would rather read some posts with content that are actually logical, than the posts of hundreds of mouthbreathers repeating "Cool card" "This must be X" ad infinitum who don't even think about what they're posting. I do realize the moderators do their best to curb the spam, but I find the very nature of the average Rumor Mill poster to be quite frustrating. Different from person to person I suppose, but I think the quality of poster should be higher in the 'Mill. The Rumor Mill for a lot of new users will be the first impression of MTGS because early spoilers have been an attention-getter that has brought a good chunk of the user base to MTGNews, and now here. You come on as a new user and see a bunch of sheep, you're inclined to register and start the same sort of habits you see.
And yeah I have seen the *** vs. Damnation thread. It's another example of sheep posting the same thing over and over despite any amount of evidence to prove one way or another. Reading people's response to Charlequin's last few posts has been nervewracking at most. -
Jun 8, 2009
Kelzam posted a message on Emotional rollercoasterLife is what you make of it, but ending is never the answer. In a lot of ways, suicide is a selfish thing - you probably know or have heard of many people that have lived much more painful lives, but they've endured it and it made them better people. Love is all around you, and when you end your own life, you hurt those around you.Posted in: Archon Kamigawa Blog
Let me relate your personal life to mine:
I was bullied from my pre-teen years until I graduated because I was gay, I became depressed and went from 150lbs. to 215lbs in a matter of a year and a half before graduating. I finally got accepted to a good college, got in a bad relationship, shot up to 250 lbs., and failed out of college and got terminated. Now, things like a suspension from school or the illnesses I've had seem like nothing compared to the $30,000 of debt over my head.
That is a lot to deal with. But you know why I don't kill myself? Because I'm only human, and I can endure it. We all make mistakes, we go through bad times, but we can learn from our mistakes and endure our tough times and be stronger people for it. I have family and friends that love me, and you probably do too. You haven't even begun your life yet, you're still in school - you have many years ahead of you for things to get better, to be happy and shape your life as you see fit.
Life is a gift, don't throw it away. Taking your own life is only running away from your problems, and should there be a God in the afterlife your karma will follow you. You can endure, and see that maybe things really aren't that bad, and that there's more to life than the negative side of things. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
And our first foil Phyrexian Tower, as well!
Yes, Plaguecrafter indeed replaced Merciless Executioner/Fleshbag Marauder in all of my decks. I'm still shocked at how good the thing is.
Other than that, I can't say I was too happy with the set as far as Ayli goes. I was so excited for Mausoleum Secrets the first time I read it when I didn't read that it specified the target had to be a Black card, and Gruesome Menagerie would be sweet if I were running more Entomb-like effects or Buried Alive, but I think the curve is such that it won't consistently a good selection of targets to choose from that would make it effective.
Hey there CinnamonBlue! Thanks for taking the time to post! Sorry for taking so long to reply. It's been a heck of a couple months and I haven't even gotten to play Magic more than maybe three times. Anyway, I'm glad you like this spin on Ayli! Orzhov is my favorite guild because you can go so many different ways and be very effective and still do so on a budget
There are some very interesting and neat choices you've made for the deck. I hadn't even heard of Children of Korlis. I can appreciate having pet cards, and although I don't think I would personally play Enduring Renewal because I have a pet peeve about giving my opponents information (revealing every card I draw), I'll stop short of putting it down by any means. It's quite a unique card!
Regarding discard: While there is no denying that the deck can feel like it's faltering against spellslinger or Storm type decks and that discard would help this, it can be a bit of a meta call. I very rarely play against Storm or other spellslinger variants, and thought I do play against Mono-U on occasion, table politics usually drags those players down due to all the players at the table not wanting to put up with getting everything counterspelled or bounced for an hour or more
I feel like Oath of Lieges's worth in the deck definitely depends on your playgroup. I certainly wouldn't want to play this against a Lord Windgrace or Omnath, Locus of Rage deck where they can constantly ramp out lands by sacrificing lands to various effects. I appreciate that it's a somewhat budget Land Tax, but I really try to not help opponents ramp in Commander before I'm set up to deal with what might come from it. It's not an awful card by any means! But in my meta, Oath of Lieges would probably helps my opponents a bit too much
I will say that Kormus Bell is a very, very risky card, and can lead to other players easily causing a mass land destruction of the table. I personally philosophically avoid mass land destruction or things that enable it because games go so long in Commander, as it is.
Lastly, I'll offer some suggestions/questions!
Condemn vs Swords to Plowshares - Putting creatures back in people's libraries makes me uneasy with all thetutors out there and the chance of seeing that threat again. I was curious why Condemn over Swords?
Unmake vs Other Options - Right now Unmake is sitting around $0.50 USD. Some other options could be Ashes to Ashes letting you hit two targets at the cost of 5 life, and Utter End can hit a wider range of targets, and can be found for around $0.70 these days thanks to being printed again
Planar Cleansing vs Hour of Revelation - A really great card very similar to this is Hour of Revelation! It's only $0.50 if not less, and does the same thing for the same default cost! But often, you'll be able to reduce the cost to only WWW
Mana Rocks - It may be worth trying to trade out Mind Stone and Traveller's Amulet for either Orzhov Signet or Fellwar Stone, or to make room for either/both. It seems like your build is also very colored-mana hungry and these would help activate that Vizkopa Guildmage some more
Tutors! - A couple of great options have become available or cheaper here recently! Diabolic Intent is almost as good as a Demonic Tutor in a deck like Ayli and is sitting around $4.00 since it was reprinted in Battlebond. Additionally, Final Parting can be worth it over Diabolic Tutor for one more mana, especially since you run a lot of recursion from your graveyard to your hand!
That's all I can think of at this moment. I enjoyed reading about your build and some of the different/unique cards you're utilizing!
Fortunate indeed! I think that says more about the other players in your meta than the necessity of graveyard protection, though
My 2cents: When I ran this list, I couldn't imagine not having both Eldrazi. Consistency is key. The graveyard is absolutely necessary for this deck to function and you NEED to be able to protect the graveyard, and having to shuffle a bit more is worth that utility. Personally, I do not feel like having only one or the other of the Eldrazi titans would cut it in any meta where players know better than to leave your graveyard alone. There's precious few ways to protect one of the key functions of the deck, which is the recursion engines. Having both for the effect has felt like a must-have.
I have to say Price of Fame is a pretty swift pass for my list, but I'll elaborate on my feelings about it. It might hit Commanders occasionally for 1B, but more than half of the time it's a 4-mana Murder with Surveil attached to it and I really don't feel like Surveil is necessary. Sometimes you're also better off with leaving Commanders on the battlefield and disabling them with Darksteel Mutation or Faith's Fetters instead of letting them re-cast them from the Command Zone, so it feels bad to have a 4CC Murder. Much like Doom Whisperer, I really don't care to dump stuff in my graveyard until I actually want it there. Having a large window of time in which people can start looking for graveyard hate before I'm ready to utilize those cards in the graveyard always goes badly. With my feelings on Surveil aside, I'd rather play Path to Exile, Ashes to Ashes, Rend Flesh, Eyeblight's Ending, Unmake or a number of other removal spells I'm not currently running before trying Price of Fame.
You're actually totally right about Midnight Reaper. I'm probably going to make a note. I was somewhat stretching trying not to add so few points of discussion to the set review and kind of reached trying to find something else that interested me to talk about
As for Doom Whisperer: I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I have decks I'm certainly adding it to, such as Muldrotha, the Grave Tide where the vast majority of my action is coming out of my graveyard. With Ayli, there's a decent amount of stuff I don't want in the graveyard, to begin with. I really don't like to fill the graveyard until it's time to utilize it, because I don't like my graveyard just being open to graveyard hate, and that's why I'm not excited about Surveil for Ayli. If you're not at a point in the game where you want to start using your graveyard, you don't want to draw attention to it. By now when I put Reveillark, Karmic Guide or most of my game changing reanimation targets in the graveyard, people go "OH NO" and immediately start digging for graveyard hate. So, that makes him a decent bodied Creature with half of Scry a lot of the time. I also try to avoid Creatures that if I do draw them or wind up with them in my graveyard, that I can't find a use for them or set up a line of play immediately or gain some kind of benefit from them. Doom Whisperer is so separate from any of the large web of interactions in the deck that he can just end up being a dead draw where you have ample amounts of other things you'd rather be doing. I really try to avoid that. I'm not convinced by him, to be perfectly honest.
Wowiee! It's that time again! And I'm actually getting on this set review on time! Guilds of Ravnica is packed with powerful cards. Although we don't have Orzhov in the set yet, there are a few cards worth discussing
White
Dawn of Hope - Here's another way to draw cards that can trigger often in an Ayli build. While I don't believe it's as good as a guaranteed draw from Phyrexian Arena (you may not always want to pay the 2 at the time you gain life to draw the card). It's bound to be budget friendly with Phyrexian Arena creeping back up again. It won't be making it into the main build, but is a decent consideration if you're looking for more card draw and more mana sinks later in the game.
Divine Visitation - If you've built your Ayli deck to focus on creating tokens to use as sac fodder and whatnot, this may be a consideration for you. Turning all those tokens into 4/4 flying Angels with vigilance is pretty amazing. It makes cards that come with tokens or create tokens that much more deadly in the late game, if you like getting into Combat. This is only worthwhile if you make tokens consistently and it won't be a dead draw, but the payoff could be great.
Black
Mausoleum Secrets - Ayli is a fairly creature heavy deck, and this tutor scales with the state of the game. Early on you're not going to be tutoring for your expensive combo pieces, but usually removal or other card draw effects. In the late game when you want to find something expensive, you'll more than likely have the cards there. The real kicker is that this is an Instant, allowing you to tutor for a response in Orzhov colors. I'm going to give this some very real consideration for the main build and will be looking to test it out to see how consistently Undergrowth will be a down side. I anticipate that the Instant speed and the low cost of our removal spells and other cards we want on the fly will make this a worthwhile addition. Also tutoring for combo pieces at the end of our last opponent's turn is extremely valuable.
Midnight Reaper - Card advantage is pretty amazing and this guy could result in a huge amount of card draw in addition to our normal sac engines. Much like Mausoleum Secrets, I'll be testing this to see the consistency with which his triggers happen. He's not a creature with an ETB or dying effect but a lot of potential to help with card draw in the deck.
Plaguecrafter - I never thought it'd happen, but we have a straight up, strictly better Fleshbag Marauder/Merciless Executioner. This guy will be replacing Merciless Executioner in the main build immediately once I acquire one!
Conclusion
Well that was quite short, wasn't it? But the select few worth looking at this time around have a lot of potential - particularly the Black cards! The Multicolor didn't have anything as Orzhov won't appear into the next set, and the Artifacts and lands don't offer any points of discussion. It's been a few sets since there's been anything really tempting to look at, so it's nice that even in the Ravnica set without our guild that we've seen some options pop up! I'm looking forward to testing Mausoleum Secrets, Midnight Reaper and being able to eat away at Planeswalkers and hands with Plaguecrafter
Well that is quite interesting! Thanks for correcting me. I was considering her for fun and clearing out blockers, anyway, but this sounds pretty dang interesting!
Ninjitsu happens during the Declare Blockers step if no blockers are declared, before the Combat Damage step. The Ninja you Ninjitsu into play replacing her is the one dealing combat damage. If you Ninjitsu, she never deals the Combat damage for her trigger.
I've truly tried Cabal Coffers several times over the years, between Ayli and my other decks running Black. Some people swear by Urborg + Cabal Coffers, but I feel severe resentment every time Coffers is a dead land drop producing no mana so often until I have Urborg, and Urborg is more of a happy convenience when it comes up and seldom what I'm searching for during most games, as opposed to other utility lands.
Ayli has some potential. In truth I don't think there's a specific good Commander for Orzhov Stax. Kambal, Consul of Allocation would depend on what kind of stax deck you're running. If it's a hard stax deck looking to lock opponents out of the game, then Kambal isn't great because his trigger won't be happening too often. Obzedat, Ghost Council may do well here, but the down side is if they get around the stax lock and remove it, it'll be difficult to get them back because you too are running on little mana. That said, I do have an idea of how I would go about a hard stax build, so if y'all are curious read on below
The first thing to note about Stax is you want to get your Stax/lockdown pieces online ASAP. You'll need plenty of them. This puts a greater emphasis on more early game mana ramp. Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond and Mox Amber will be really important. The idea is to get ahead of your opponents and lock them down before they have the chance to respond or set up any board presence that will interfere with your strategy. While you'll still be playing a game of attrition, the importance the game shifts from the mid game to early game.
Next, you're going to want to find your stax effects. Orzhov doesn't have the best ability to search out Artifacts and Enchantments like Commanders with access to U. So running as many low mana tutors as possible will be ideal, as well. The usual tutors such as Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Enlightened Tutor are a must, but it's also worth considering Imperial Seal and Cruel Tutor because to play Stax you have to find those pieces ASAP. You may consider more draw spells, as well. Plunge into Darkness would probably be pretty amazing.
After that, it comes down to what stax effects you want to run, and especially important is how you get around them hurting you. One of my favorite combos is Bitterblossom + The Abyss (or the more affordable Magus of the Abyss). You may consider running Call to the Grave and Anowon, the Ruin Sage to force opponents to keep creatures off of the battlefield. With those in mind, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet becomes pretty amazing for the deck since each time your opponents sacrifice a creature, you get a free 2/2 Zombie to sacrifice to your various effects. Ophiomancer is also amazing at helping pay for your various sacrifice upkeeps because you can sacrifice the Snake from him at the end of each opponent's turn to whatever sac outlet suits you.
With Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos or Zulaport Cutthroat and Blood Artist the drain builds up very quickly, and so does your life total. Hand disruption is also a must to ensure they can't answer your effects. Bottomless Pit, Necrogen Mists, Mind Slash and Cunning Lethemancer come to mind, as does Sadistic Hypnotist. For further resource denial, you'd consider Desolation, Pox and Contamination. One combo I can think of is Felidar Guardian + Gift of Immortality + Sac Outlet + Tanglewire. Smokestack does amazing work[/c]. If you run it, run Bloodghast, Nether Traitor and Reassembling Skeleton + Ophiomancer and Bitterblossom. These with regular reanimation effects like Sheoldred, Whispering One or Debtors' Knell in concert with Desecrated Tomb or Open the Graves will slowly build you an army to overwhelm opponents while keeping them locked down.
You'll probably want fast and hard reanimation such as Reanimate and Animate Dead. Win Conditions can be big dumb Creatures that give you value easily like Grave Titan or Wurmcoil Engine. Running Approach of the Second Sun wouldn't be a bad idea because ideally no one in any position to do anything about it. A Stax deck grinds out game wins very, very slowly. Bloodchief Ascension + Mind Crank is an old but classic combo.
If you're wondering what you'd take out of the deck to make the switch, it'd likely be the vast amount of creatures with removal effects attached to them like Angel of Serenity, Archon of Justice, Ashen Rider, etc. You'll still be running removal and board wipes just in case, but you'll be shifting from controlling their board via recycling ETB/death triggers to locking them out early and grinding the win out the rest of the game. Many of the creatures (some that aren't part of combos and some that are) become worse with this strategy, such as Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter, Yosei, the Morning Star, False Prophet and Knight-Captain of Eos. Mana intensive cards like Corpse Dance, Nim Deathmantle, Merciless Eviction and Vizkopa Guildmage are worse because you're working with much less mana than normal. But, creatures we normally don't care about like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Leonin Warleader become that much better and can be easily reanimated or cast despite the stax effects.
Anyway, these are some thoughts on how to run this archetype. Depending on how early you can get a lock down on the table. I'm going to note here that this is a high risk, high reward play style. You're going to be trying to ramp up your mana as fast as you can, as early as possible to get ahead enough to establish your lock down effects and slow down your opponents for a hard stax deck.
However...
All of the above was written up with hard stax in mind. Winter Orb and that type of thing. If you're looking for a soft stax, more pillow-forty build, I'd simply take out some of the creature with removal attached to them, a couple board wipes and targeted removal spells and toss in the usual suspects: Blind Obedience, Ghostly Prison, Aven Mindcensor, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Vryn Wingmare, Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst etc. This route will still make the most mana intensive stuff in the deck pretty bad and require you to look at replacing them with all of this.
On the contrary, I'd rather have a guaranteed way of Haste sitting on the board to enable any creature and Ninjitsu Yuriko back in ASAP than hope I have access to the very few creatures that have Haste in these colors. To each their own, I suppose.
I'll check out Teferi's Veil. Getting hit with Merciless Eviction last week was pretty painful. The deck can't run enough control elements with how hellbent everyone is on playing everying as low to the ground as possible to avoid every board wipe, though, which is why I like Mutavault. Having that there as a backup after opponents board wiped on their turn has several times allowed me to get Yuriko back onto the battlefield attacking and getting triggers a turn sooner than I would have otherwise. In my testing it's been worth it. It doesn't need evasion because the reason I play it generally means there's nothing to block it, anyway, and it's another trigger if there's no blockers out otherwise.
-Mutavault has actually felt great. It's a colorless source, but one land that can count as a Ninja for extra triggers has been sweet. Have had opponents board wipe thinking they got read of ways to enable me to Ninjitsu Yuriko back in, only to realize I still have that Mutavault. Has been fantastic so far.
-Lightning Greaves feels like it's a must at this point, because after bouncing my board and trying to re-cast to avoid board wipes or when trying to ramp up into multiple triggers, this is where the deck feels slow. I don't know about adding it and Swiftfoot Boots both, but I feel like Lightning Greaves is a must.
-Aether Vial. I'm seriously considering making a slot for Aether Vial, because I often have more 2 mana dorks in my hand than I can cast, and with Ninjitsu costs I want to free as much mana up as possible. I have the feeling Aether Vial could do some pretty great work at all stages of the game. It'd let me re-cast the Ninjitsu enabler Creatures after bouncing them to save them from a board wipe, or leave more mana open for responses.
-Nexus of Fate. I don't have a Time Warp so I added this in, and it's as absurd as you imagine.
-Dimir Infiltrator. Transmuting this guy into Snapcaster Mage or a few of the other 2CC spells in the late game has saved me a few times and I'm very happy running him.
-As far as how my test runs have gone: Yuriko has taken most people by surprise because I've been dealing anywhere from 8 to 20 damage to the table within the first two attacks before anyone can even think about having removal. As I eluded to with the Lightning Greaves, it feels like the ability to give creatures Haste is needed, and protection for Yuriko isn't bad either. Most of my games so far have had me getting a max of two triggers with Ninjas a turn, so it feels like games are moving at a crawl, as though there's potential for it to go much faster. This is part of what lead me to adding Mutavault for an extra, ez-access Ninja, and this is what has me considering Aether Vial, as well. I feel like as soon as my meta catches on, it's going to be pretty difficult to keep Yuriko on the table and any kind of board state for fear of everyone taking 8-20 damage in one turn (and the fact that I'm playing ample extra turn spells for their high CC + effectiveness).
This makes me feel like I need more triggers, faster. Overall it's a very fun deck and a lot of people said they had fun playing against it, especially because of that unknown of never knowing what I'm about to hit the table with when I connect with Yuriko or another Ninja. I'm considering a few different cards: Expropriate, Clone Legion, Bribery and Cryptic Command. The first three help fill up my board and if I can have them all be Ninjas via Arcane Adaptation then even better. Cryptic Command is a nice control card that can also make way for attackers to get through unhindered. Will post when I've played more and if I make any of these changes.