Another great alternative use of Tainted Strike: Use it defensively on a creature attacking YOU. As long as nobody else is playing infect or proliferate (which often nobody is), then casting it on a creature with 8 or less power is just damage prevention.
One of my favorite memories in all of Magic is when we invited a pair of newer players to join us for a 2013 core set draft. We played a large free for all game with the 5 of us. On turn 2, one of the newer players targetted the other with Sign in Blood, and before we could chuckle, he retorted with a Redirect to send it back at her. The three of us that were experienced died laughing, begging him to send the Sign in Blood at one of us instead.
It's very important to note that maze of ith doesn't remove the creature from combat. It untaps and prevents the damage but it is still considered attacking.
Got to the 10 minutes when oblation was talked about for feather. Took it from a random pile of cards and put it right in to the deck. Thanks for the new synergy piece 🤯
@@TyranitarStudios probably is the CZ indeed since the CZ team do the post production for the show. I wish he was recording there for a GameKnights not only for comercial reasons.
I love how Dana started the episode with Arcane Denial! It's such a great card in my Krark and Ramirez partner deck with that copying and countering itself synergy he discussed
I love Matt bringing up the ghost quarter trick. I love doing that in my own Omnath deck (gruul) and targeting my own darksteel citadel. It doesn't destroy the land due to state based effects but you still get the land haha
Found some unexpected synergy playing two headed giant the other week, someone was using varragoth to tutor stuff to the top of their library for pako to exile and cast whenever. They built a nice little spell book over a few turns before we could break it up
great episode! off the top of my head i use tourach's gate in my beledros. combined with his own ability and let's say something like earthcraft, i get to pump my team for a huge attack OR attack with pest tokens in order to kill them and gain a bunch of life or kill the creature with pattern of rebirth on it. i keep it around with szat's will and it's great with lifelink creatures as well. Sometimes i've killed people with commander damage in one shot with more support.
Blood Frenzy from Tempest is another great trick that works similarly to Berzerk. 2 mana red spot removal that’s not damage based and can be used offensively as well
Yes! I did a search before posting this same thing. I love Blood Frenzy, and it's shocking that it's in less than 300 decks on EDHREC. It should be in every deck that runs Berserk and shares red. I love it in Goad decks and have it in both Marisi and Kardur.
@@beurtalvarez fair enough. (if you're hesitant about League - and listening to an MTG podcast - you should definetely try Legends of Runeterra, also recommend Ruined King)
I have used mirror entitiy 10 years ago as a combo engine in my karador deck by using x=0, holding priority and doing it repeatedly with a revalark, karmic guide, and another creature with power 2 or less that i wanted to loop
Was playing my Xanathar deck and the person I picked I picked had an arcane denial on top. I cast a fellwar stone from my hand, countered with their Arcane Denial, denied them a counter, drew 3 cards at the low cost of some mana and a rock.
Really excited to try March of Swirling Mists in Hinata-not sure what I’m doing with the rest of the deck but Hinata seems sweet (and I opened a pre-release foil to command!)
Magnetic Theft is a favorite of mine... It can be used to equip a Colossus Hammer for cheap, it can be used to borrow a Sword of X and Y for a hit, or it can be used to equip a creature attacking you with an Elbrus, The Binding Blade. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can fit into a mono-white deck to make things like Karma and Crusading Knight very good. Righteousness a creature blocking a Boros Reckoner to deal 7 to an opponent's face. Failure (of Failure//Comply) and Unsubstantiate counter uncounterable spells. Ertai's Meddling... is a mess and does all kinds of weirdness and probably warrants an entire discussion on it's own. The best use is probably countering counterspells. I think its important to note that failing-to-find after destroying your own land with a Ghost Quarter can be useful when you're resolving a Balance effect. With all the talk about Maze of Ith and removing creatures from combat after damage, you forgot to mention Reconnaissance and how it gives all your creatures vigilance. You most showed good things you can do with cards, but something else that is along the same subject: Greater Good is an over-played card. I've seen several games get ruined when a player plays Greater Good and an opponent takes control of that player. The opponent sac's the big threats to draw a bunch of cards and then sac's the mana dorks to make the player discard their hand. The Greater Good player is left without a board, without a hand, and a significant chunk of their deck milled.
Love the Settle the Wreckage effect on your own stuff. I play mono-white decks pretty often and only ever use it that way and it's amazing. Another card that has had the coolest unexpected effects for me has been Karn, the Great Creator. It's great as a stacks piece and comes down early enough to be impactful, and you would think the wish effect isn't usable without a wishboard, but it's actually the opposite. A lot of the removal that's out there is an exile effect so often Karn acts as reccursion, but also a lot of the best artifacts cards in the game are kept in balance by exiling themselves so having access to those can be really spicy. I had a game where someone tutored an artifact out of my deck and stored it in exile and Karn got it back for me and allowed me to swing that game very easily. This is crazy to think about because that doesn't even cover the craziness of the first ability, to animate something. I've managed to get so many problem artifacts off the board just by animating them into spot removal or reused tap abilities on artifacts just by animating them and having a way to untap creatures. My favorite moment with that effect was animating a Mindslaver and equipping it with the Helm of the Host. You could also amimate an Aetherflux Resevoir and find a way to give it lifelink. Or you could also animate a Chain Veil and if you find a way to untap it, that lets you go infinite with planesewalkers. I really think it may be one of the most flexible cards in mtg right up there with Narset's Reversal and Teferi's protection
I really like your point with Access Denied, to look at it as a 5 CMC token maker that also happens t o counter a spell, instead of a 5 mana counter spell that also makes tokens. JLK from Command Zone had the "classic" 'counter spell with an effect'-view on it. Neither approach is wrong by any means, but switching up the angle is crucial with cards like this.
You can also use Entrapment Maneuver on your *own* attacking creature, either because it would be sacrificed anyway, because you need blockers or because it got targeted by a removal spell after attacking (which happens quite often).
It outramps green decks. In a four player game, you can ramp four lands per time around the table. And if you combine it with Mavinda, Students' Advocate, it gets super nuts. Each player's turn, you can exile an opponent's creature, then cast it from the graveyard for no extra cost targetting your token, exile it, and then Feather gives it back at end of turn. Rinse, repeat, remove four creatures and ramp four lands. Every time around the table.
I saw obeka decks stifle themselfs to have an additional option to not die on the own triggers. Also something insanely good to get around the negative etbs of creatures you might play in obeka is scroll of fate. A friend of mine also use it to surprice kill with phage :)
10:30 Oblation was the first one I thought of on the topic! It got me 20+ cards on multiple occasiosn when someone went to boardwipe when I had a Zada or Mirrorwing dragon out
Keruga, the Macrosage is actually a great card in Volo, guide to monsters. normally it would be a waste to create a copy of a legendary, but you get 2 Keruga triggers and draw twice the number of cards, not to mension Volo loves spark double and at least 1 shapeshifter, which either copy volo for more clones, or keruga if its already out to draw even more cards
Unusual benefits: Mutate cards are a non-copy effect way of altering a card's text and attributes in weird ways. For instance, Mutating over a legend will render the overall creature most likely not a legend, but the entire stack copyable with a clone. (Ergo using Cackling Counterpart to copy a mutate stack with a Vadrok in the middle.) Mutate can even alter the card/tokeness of a creature. For instance with Progenitor Mimic, you can mutate onto one of its Token copies and thus have multiple Mimic as cards spitting out more token copies. Also due to the meld nature of Mutate stacks, one of my next achievements is to try and get Cosima to take multiple mutate cards on a voyage. In Exile each one will end up with Cosima's lndfall in exile because of how that's setup by the exile ability itself and not other card text.
Joey, I find it interesting that we had exactly opposite thought processes on March of Swirling Mist: My first impression of the card was that it seemed to be designed as a temporary removal spell, and I thought I was being clever by looking at it as a protection spell instead.
Tibalt's Trickery is a great include in Sun Forger decks also. Along with Lapse in Certainty its great to catch people out when they don't expect counter magic in boros colours. :D
On your analysis of Omnath decks, I played an Uro Food Chain deck with 45 lands and all my friends said that's too many you should just play rocks if you want the deck to be faster. That's when I cut all of my rocks but sol ring and thought vessel and replaced them with every 2-3 land ramp spell I could find including growth spiral type cards. The deck could not have played any faster with them and I got to dodge any coincidental artifact wipes that would be going at the Sharuum player in my group. TLDR if the lands matter then play more lands 4head
this episode has me considering adding a maze of ith to the maindeck of a legacy primeval titan brew ive been testing to help me race uro decks. Keep up the good work fellas
Yeah I used Path to ramp on my Ranar deck more than one occasion. You can assign a spirit token to block, exile it, then replace the token and get a land for a single mana.
I remember agreeing with my friends to take down the archenemy at the table (he was the biggest threat at that point), and then he played Disrupt Decorum. and we were like "well, what now?" and after the goad effect went away, our board was a lot smaller than before
When my brother borrowed my Quintorius deck and looping Evolving Wilds and Angelic Renewal with a Trove Warden and a sac outlet, I was like, "What?! I built an amazing ramp package in Boros and didn't even know it?!" Best MTG moment ever. Also, I didn't catch this when it came out, so it really threw me for a loop when Joey got to transition to Challenge the Stats.
I have a shrine deck where I use Enduring Ideal in combination with Sanctum of All to get a crazy number of shrines out really fast. The problem is that while I have Enduring Ideal going, I keep drawing but cannot cast the spells that I draw. The answer: Pursuit of Knowledge. I just keep skipping draws and adding counters to it with no intention of ever using its second ability. I also use Curse of Misfortunes and a bunch of other curses just to be mean.
It's odd. When I looked at Mirror Entity, I didn't see it as a pump spell. I saw it as an arcane adaption etc that you can turn on and off. You don't even have to name a creature type since they are all covered. The last time I used it was with some persistent petitioners since there weren't too many other advisors in the game. (There still might not be. I would have to do that search.)
I feel like it was kind of hinted at, but I think high risk high reward cards in addition to cards that are flexible are what make commander so fun. Sometimes that moment where one player goes oh no even if your plans get foiled by another player are so fun
I appreciate you pointing out that Gruul Lands decks should not be running Gruul Signet or Arcane Signet. It also irks me when people don't run creature based ramp in Meren, and run gobs of ramp spells or worse, artifacts. I can see Sol Ring or Mana Crypt in a higher power version of either, but yeah, 2 mana rocks are usually subpar in Green decks, but are actively bad cards in Lands builds where they are terrible to draw late compared to a ramp spell or land. You either want lands in Green, or creatures, and there are tons of creatures that get lands one way or another. I run some ramp rocks in a weird Gruul deck, mostly for Colourless ramp because it's an Eldrazi deck, but it also has very little synergy with lands as built, so perhaps exceptions exist, but that is not one of my stronger decks. Your talk about Sign in Blood reminds me of Clutch of the Undercity, one of the worst Transmute spells, a 4 mana bounce spell that can target any permanent at least, but 4 mana! Then I noticed it also does 3 damage at instant speed, which is a pretty cool upside on your tutor, especially in Greedy Naus country. Narset's Reversal shines in a fairly high power meta, and in decks already running plenty of removal. It will feel restrictive to not be able to just counter something, but if you've got +10 actual counters, this is a fun surprise for your opponent. Plenty of big spells will win the game when stolen, IE aren't deck dependent, and Reversal outright takes away the opponent's value, so even if they can recast that Expropriate next turn, it doesn't really matter if they fall far enough behind because you spent UU to steal their effect. I run Transmogrifying Wand in decks that generate a lot of token generators, I can always upgrade a creature if there is literally nothing worth killing. A 2/4 is a half-decent blocker, and in a pinch it can wall two other 2/4s I made out of opposing Commanders. Such a weird card!
Probably pretty well known, but I like using Sun Titan to ramp via fetch lands in my Mayael deck. Thins the deck nicely for more consistent Mayael hits and helps with hard casting fatties.
Joey + Matt forgot to mention you can use Mirror Entity @ X=0 to sac your board in response to a Living Death so that you get your whole board back upon resolution.
I have a Syr Konrad that uses shadowborne apostles to get doom whisperer. Giving lifelink to Konrad is a dead table. Getting them below 20 then nuking your grave does the same even without lifelink. Crazy fun deck and people usually don't see it coming.
Seeing the animation in the background, with the single black vertical separator, that looks like Command Zone location. Also, his microphone isn't his usual one. Also, there's a fantastic framerate on his recording, like on Command Zone. I'm convinced.
Komainu Battle Armor, that new reconfigure card that goads on hit, kept me alive in a game for several turns last time I played my Akiri deck by slipping in to hit the player with a huge board of huge creatures and making him my other opponents' problem so they'd use resources to survive. I should have died so many times and so many ways, but I lived till the Aminatou's infinite combo landed.
Ive been absolutely blown out by narsets reversal. I was on my turn 3 and i cast harrow and sacrificed my land to ramp, but then the player across from me casts narsets reversal on my harrow. For 2 mana, my opponent stone rained me, and then cast explosive vegetation.
Ghost quarter is great, aside letting you break your own Nythkos or Cradle, it can do friendly things like give an opponent (ally) one more mana for a boardwipe or whatever good will.
Another peculiar use for Ghost Quarter and other land destruction: You can get your commander back if someone plays Imprisoned in the Moon on it. Has saved me more than once. Bounce lands can do the same job.
I won the Neon Dynasty prerelease that I played in because of March of Swirling Mist. I think i protected my creature once. I mainly used it to phase out my opponent's entire board in the late game. It worked every time. I love that card
Relatedly when I was doing the test run of Gyome. Got down to the endgame, I had lethal on board, my opponent left back like two blockers. "Cool, sac two food to make your creatures indestructible and tap them." My opponent proceeds to pick up Gyome and read him again.
Without looking it up, what does the card “Death Watch” do? I’m pretty sure even Dana does not know what this card is. Give up? I makes my Licia, Sanguine Tribune deck absolutely filthy. For those who don’t know, it’s a common black aura from Visions, that for B that says “When enchanted creature dies, its controller loses life equal to its power and you gain life equal to its toughness.” One of my wincons is Greven, Predator Captain and here’s the interaction: I’ll pay 5 life to buff Licia to a 7/7 (or more if I used this ability in other turns), put the aura on her, and then attack with Greven. I’ll sacrifice Licia to the Greven’s trigger. This results in me losing 14 more life, gaining 7 of it back, and drawing 7 cards. Since life loss and life gain are tracked separately, Greven’s power on this swing, with no other life lost, is a whopping 24. Licia’s recast cost, barring no other lifegain, is -7, which would allow me to recast her for only RWB due to her cost reduction ability, in 2nd main phase. Sometimes I like to throw a Shadowspear on Greven and go completely nuts. This whole interaction stems from a little insignificant card that no one has ever heard of or has completely forgotten it even existed. I guarantee this was not what they had in mind when they first made it. This interaction also works for other deck synergies that rely on gaining or losing life, such as Vilis, Broker of Blood or Vizkopa Guildmage.
Challenge the stats for you: Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr in Light-Paws. If you cast her for her disturb cost, she is a zero-MV aura so LP can't actually search for another aura. That said, yes, the front side is a good beater and the back side is a good late-game buff, but I suspect that a non-zero number of people are trying to cast this into a free Angelic Destiny or similar.
For Esix's ability to work, you'd have to cast Access Denied on your own turn, which is definitely possible, but probably not ideal. Maybe late game you draw a Cultivate when you don't need it, so you cast it, counter it, and get 3 tokens that become whatever you want.
I have prosperity and prosperous bloom my Zaxara deck. It's a fun draw spell and makes people happy with me. One of my proudest magic moments was using it to kill a player who dropped a notion thief.
Narset's Reversal an opponent's extra turn, go to "your" extra turn, play mystic sanctuary, put narset's reversal on top, go to your normal turn, draw the narset's, look at your opponent, smile, and pass the turn, that's what I did a few days ago, narset's reversal is such a great card
If you have Ramunop Excavator you can use Ghost Quarter to ramp yourself. Ghost Quarter your Ghost Quarter to put a basic on the field, then replay your ghost quarter for your land drop^^
Blue Sun's Zenith... be careful. I've had people try using Deflecting Swat on my Pull from Tomorrow, but of course it doesn't work as it doesn't target. This actually is the main argument for me to not risk targeted card draw as it can be deflected in a couple of ways.
Access Denied countering a Myr Enforcer or the like in 8 drum affinity sounds pretty sweet. 5 mana counter spell? Wack. 5 mana create 7 thopters? Pretty sweet
I run a Blightsteel Colossus in my Purphoros Bronze Blooded. I just added Chandra's ignition. I think I can sneak in Blightsteel and take a sneaky win with that card for 8 mana if Purphoros is already out.
besides the shuffling back into your library foe Blue zenith, Stroke of genius does the same thing but it's easier to cast because it's X2U and also at instant speed. I have it in my Eligeth/Kydele deck or that reason, much easier to keep 1 blue mana up, go infinite colorless with kydele and cast Stroke of genius for 1,000
Ive ghost quarted myself in my omnath rage deck.. for this. I also have crucible and a few of the gaea in there to recur the lands. + literally every basic fetch land possible
I don't know if anyone has said it but if you are gonna put any mana rocks at all in a landfall deck put in the borderpost rocks. Pay 1 bounce a land for a duel color mana rock this at least gives you another landfall and is one cheaper than A.S.
I actually use a Seizan deck exactly how you kill people with Damnable Pact. Also can use peer into the abyss to really make people suffer with Underworld dreams or a Psychosis Crawler
Playing a list with ((Selvala, Explorer Returned)), ((Umbral Mantle)), and ((Zirda, the Dawnwaker)), can allow you to mill your opponents, by having everyone draw endlessly, unless you are very unlucky. Ensure you have a win by casting ((Angel's Grace)), and voilà! Mill in Naya!
Had a friend use bounce lands in an esper deck to continuously exile a gitrog decks graveyard with the bog and this made me think 4 color omnath with bounce lands and the ability to play multiple lands a turn tap a land bounce it with a bounce land with an extra in your hand and never miss landfall for the rest of the game
I lived through an alpha strike because of an Angel's Grace to leave me at 1, only to be targeted by Sign in blood. Angel's Grace only prevents "damage", so it puts me to -1. Oddly, I was still alive because I "can't lose the game" until my own upkeep, then died.
Another great alternative use of Tainted Strike: Use it defensively on a creature attacking YOU. As long as nobody else is playing infect or proliferate (which often nobody is), then casting it on a creature with 8 or less power is just damage prevention.
I pray for the day someone does this while I'm playing Feather. I would totally turn that super non scary 8/8 infecter into lethal for you
@@bladetb3934good luck with that. Using tainted strike on opponents voltron commander attacking you 😂
One of my favorite memories in all of Magic is when we invited a pair of newer players to join us for a 2013 core set draft. We played a large free for all game with the 5 of us. On turn 2, one of the newer players targetted the other with Sign in Blood, and before we could chuckle, he retorted with a Redirect to send it back at her. The three of us that were experienced died laughing, begging him to send the Sign in Blood at one of us instead.
Matt intermittently looking down at his keyboard through the entire intro to find more puns is wonderful.
It's very important to note that maze of ith doesn't remove the creature from combat. It untaps and prevents the damage but it is still considered attacking.
Right. You can use it for infinite mana on Argothian Elder, Ley Weaver or Krosan Restorer. Add in Shivan Gorge for the win.
Got to the 10 minutes when oblation was talked about for feather. Took it from a random pile of cards and put it right in to the deck. Thanks for the new synergy piece 🤯
1 second in Joey's either in the CZ studio or bought a greenscreen, either way HYPE
I really wish is the CZ reason!
@@TyranitarStudios probably is the CZ indeed since the CZ team do the post production for the show. I wish he was recording there for a GameKnights not only for comercial reasons.
I'd really prefer to see EDH content creators on the show for once! (I know there have been, but it tends to be celebrities)
I love how Dana started the episode with Arcane Denial! It's such a great card in my Krark and Ramirez partner deck with that copying and countering itself synergy he discussed
I love Matt bringing up the ghost quarter trick. I love doing that in my own Omnath deck (gruul) and targeting my own darksteel citadel. It doesn't destroy the land due to state based effects but you still get the land haha
Found some unexpected synergy playing two headed giant the other week, someone was using varragoth to tutor stuff to the top of their library for pako to exile and cast whenever. They built a nice little spell book over a few turns before we could break it up
great episode! off the top of my head i use tourach's gate in my beledros. combined with his own ability and let's say something like earthcraft, i get to pump my team for a huge attack OR attack with pest tokens in order to kill them and gain a bunch of life or kill the creature with pattern of rebirth on it. i keep it around with szat's will and it's great with lifelink creatures as well. Sometimes i've killed people with commander damage in one shot with more support.
I'm not convinced to run so many cards that I've always considered but never made the cut before. What a great way to look at cards differently.
Blood Frenzy from Tempest is another great trick that works similarly to Berzerk. 2 mana red spot removal that’s not damage based and can be used offensively as well
Yes! I did a search before posting this same thing. I love Blood Frenzy, and it's shocking that it's in less than 300 decks on EDHREC. It should be in every deck that runs Berserk and shares red. I love it in Goad decks and have it in both Marisi and Kardur.
Yes Joey, you should stop denying yourself the wonder that is watching Arcane. Good show.
@@beurtalvarez fair enough. (if you're hesitant about League - and listening to an MTG podcast - you should definetely try Legends of Runeterra, also recommend Ruined King)
The dad jokes make this channel worth it the magic info is just icing on the cake
Hey, Dana picked up my challenge for Overgrowth! That's so cool! :)
I have used mirror entitiy 10 years ago as a combo engine in my karador deck by using x=0, holding priority and doing it repeatedly with a revalark, karmic guide, and another creature with power 2 or less that i wanted to loop
😧
Lit also did ‘over my head’ for Titan AE technically not a 1 hit wonder
Was playing my Xanathar deck and the person I picked I picked had an arcane denial on top. I cast a fellwar stone from my hand, countered with their Arcane Denial, denied them a counter, drew 3 cards at the low cost of some mana and a rock.
Really excited to try March of Swirling Mists in Hinata-not sure what I’m doing with the rest of the deck but Hinata seems sweet (and I opened a pre-release foil to command!)
So theres a card called robe of mirrors, an aura that gives shroud
The tech is using it into oponent voltron commanders so they cant equip/enchant it
Magnetic Theft is a favorite of mine... It can be used to equip a Colossus Hammer for cheap, it can be used to borrow a Sword of X and Y for a hit, or it can be used to equip a creature attacking you with an Elbrus, The Binding Blade.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can fit into a mono-white deck to make things like Karma and Crusading Knight very good.
Righteousness a creature blocking a Boros Reckoner to deal 7 to an opponent's face.
Failure (of Failure//Comply) and Unsubstantiate counter uncounterable spells.
Ertai's Meddling... is a mess and does all kinds of weirdness and probably warrants an entire discussion on it's own. The best use is probably countering counterspells.
I think its important to note that failing-to-find after destroying your own land with a Ghost Quarter can be useful when you're resolving a Balance effect.
With all the talk about Maze of Ith and removing creatures from combat after damage, you forgot to mention Reconnaissance and how it gives all your creatures vigilance.
You most showed good things you can do with cards, but something else that is along the same subject:
Greater Good is an over-played card. I've seen several games get ruined when a player plays Greater Good and an opponent takes control of that player. The opponent sac's the big threats to draw a bunch of cards and then sac's the mana dorks to make the player discard their hand. The Greater Good player is left without a board, without a hand, and a significant chunk of their deck milled.
To reduce some salt I'm replacing Cyclonic Rift with March of Swirling Mist in my decks... Figured it was flexible enough to be a decent replacement
Nice
One of my favorite unintended synergies with Berserk was with Conjurer's Closet. Blink my creature, and I don't have to sacrifice it!
Fun episode, guys. Highlight of Friday afternoons. I really like March of Swirling Mist, that flexibility is always nice.
Love the Settle the Wreckage effect on your own stuff. I play mono-white decks pretty often and only ever use it that way and it's amazing. Another card that has had the coolest unexpected effects for me has been Karn, the Great Creator. It's great as a stacks piece and comes down early enough to be impactful, and you would think the wish effect isn't usable without a wishboard, but it's actually the opposite. A lot of the removal that's out there is an exile effect so often Karn acts as reccursion, but also a lot of the best artifacts cards in the game are kept in balance by exiling themselves so having access to those can be really spicy. I had a game where someone tutored an artifact out of my deck and stored it in exile and Karn got it back for me and allowed me to swing that game very easily. This is crazy to think about because that doesn't even cover the craziness of the first ability, to animate something. I've managed to get so many problem artifacts off the board just by animating them into spot removal or reused tap abilities on artifacts just by animating them and having a way to untap creatures. My favorite moment with that effect was animating a Mindslaver and equipping it with the Helm of the Host. You could also amimate an Aetherflux Resevoir and find a way to give it lifelink. Or you could also animate a Chain Veil and if you find a way to untap it, that lets you go infinite with planesewalkers. I really think it may be one of the most flexible cards in mtg right up there with Narset's Reversal and Teferi's protection
20:00 Joey, winning with a land gets you style points. :D
I love that Mirror Entity trick!
I really like your point with Access Denied, to look at it as a 5 CMC token maker that also happens t o counter a spell, instead of a 5 mana counter spell that also makes tokens. JLK from Command Zone had the "classic" 'counter spell with an effect'-view on it.
Neither approach is wrong by any means, but switching up the angle is crucial with cards like this.
You can also use Entrapment Maneuver on your *own* attacking creature, either because it would be sacrificed anyway, because you need blockers or because it got targeted by a removal spell after attacking (which happens quite often).
I have a Feather deck and never thought of using Path to Exlie on my tokens. Holy crap.
It outramps green decks. In a four player game, you can ramp four lands per time around the table. And if you combine it with Mavinda, Students' Advocate, it gets super nuts. Each player's turn, you can exile an opponent's creature, then cast it from the graveyard for no extra cost targetting your token, exile it, and then Feather gives it back at end of turn. Rinse, repeat, remove four creatures and ramp four lands. Every time around the table.
I saw obeka decks stifle themselfs to have an additional option to not die on the own triggers.
Also something insanely good to get around the negative etbs of creatures you might play in obeka is scroll of fate. A friend of mine also use it to surprice kill with phage :)
10:30 Oblation was the first one I thought of on the topic! It got me 20+ cards on multiple occasiosn when someone went to boardwipe when I had a Zada or Mirrorwing dragon out
Keruga, the Macrosage is actually a great card in Volo, guide to monsters. normally it would be a waste to create a copy of a legendary, but you get 2 Keruga triggers and draw twice the number of cards, not to mension Volo loves spark double and at least 1 shapeshifter, which either copy volo for more clones, or keruga if its already out to draw even more cards
I learned a lot from this great video. Thank you.
I was OHKOed when one opponent cast Boros Charm on another opponent’s Ghalta, giving it double strike. And they didn’t even discuss it ahead of time!
Unusual benefits: Mutate cards are a non-copy effect way of altering a card's text and attributes in weird ways. For instance, Mutating over a legend will render the overall creature most likely not a legend, but the entire stack copyable with a clone. (Ergo using Cackling Counterpart to copy a mutate stack with a Vadrok in the middle.)
Mutate can even alter the card/tokeness of a creature. For instance with Progenitor Mimic, you can mutate onto one of its Token copies and thus have multiple Mimic as cards spitting out more token copies.
Also due to the meld nature of Mutate stacks, one of my next achievements is to try and get Cosima to take multiple mutate cards on a voyage. In Exile each one will end up with Cosima's lndfall in exile because of how that's setup by the exile ability itself and not other card text.
Joey, I find it interesting that we had exactly opposite thought processes on March of Swirling Mist: My first impression of the card was that it seemed to be designed as a temporary removal spell, and I thought I was being clever by looking at it as a protection spell instead.
I've used Damnable pact against other people. Force them to discard a lot of cards and lose life.
Just recently started listening to the podcast and I'm now binge listening to several podcasts. My favorite part is definitely challenge the stats
Tibalt's Trickery is a great include in Sun Forger decks also. Along with Lapse in Certainty its great to catch people out when they don't expect counter magic in boros colours. :D
On your analysis of Omnath decks, I played an Uro Food Chain deck with 45 lands and all my friends said that's too many you should just play rocks if you want the deck to be faster. That's when I cut all of my rocks but sol ring and thought vessel and replaced them with every 2-3 land ramp spell I could find including growth spiral type cards. The deck could not have played any faster with them and I got to dodge any coincidental artifact wipes that would be going at the Sharuum player in my group.
TLDR if the lands matter then play more lands 4head
Was Joey at the Command Zone Studio for this episode as I know that Background and the Mic looks familiar too from Command Zone UA-cam content??
Great episode. Thumbs up!
this episode has me considering adding a maze of ith to the maindeck of a legacy primeval titan brew ive been testing to help me race uro decks. Keep up the good work fellas
Yeah I used Path to ramp on my Ranar deck more than one occasion. You can assign a spirit token to block, exile it, then replace the token and get a land for a single mana.
I remember agreeing with my friends to take down the archenemy at the table (he was the biggest threat at that point), and then he played Disrupt Decorum. and we were like "well, what now?" and after the goad effect went away, our board was a lot smaller than before
44:12 those are my fav type of agendas!
OMG!!!! JOEY is in THAT place!!
When my brother borrowed my Quintorius deck and looping Evolving Wilds and Angelic Renewal with a Trove Warden and a sac outlet, I was like, "What?! I built an amazing ramp package in Boros and didn't even know it?!" Best MTG moment ever.
Also, I didn't catch this when it came out, so it really threw me for a loop when Joey got to transition to Challenge the Stats.
I have a shrine deck where I use Enduring Ideal in combination with Sanctum of All to get a crazy number of shrines out really fast. The problem is that while I have Enduring Ideal going, I keep drawing but cannot cast the spells that I draw. The answer: Pursuit of Knowledge. I just keep skipping draws and adding counters to it with no intention of ever using its second ability. I also use Curse of Misfortunes and a bunch of other curses just to be mean.
It's odd. When I looked at Mirror Entity, I didn't see it as a pump spell. I saw it as an arcane adaption etc that you can turn on and off. You don't even have to name a creature type since they are all covered. The last time I used it was with some persistent petitioners since there weren't too many other advisors in the game. (There still might not be. I would have to do that search.)
I put Grinding Station in my Osgir Deck to Sacrifice Artifacts but I use is most for insane untap shenanigans with Clock of Omens!
Mana rocks in Omnath 🤣
I feel like it was kind of hinted at, but I think high risk high reward cards in addition to cards that are flexible are what make commander so fun. Sometimes that moment where one player goes oh no even if your plans get foiled by another player are so fun
I appreciate you pointing out that Gruul Lands decks should not be running Gruul Signet or Arcane Signet. It also irks me when people don't run creature based ramp in Meren, and run gobs of ramp spells or worse, artifacts. I can see Sol Ring or Mana Crypt in a higher power version of either, but yeah, 2 mana rocks are usually subpar in Green decks, but are actively bad cards in Lands builds where they are terrible to draw late compared to a ramp spell or land. You either want lands in Green, or creatures, and there are tons of creatures that get lands one way or another. I run some ramp rocks in a weird Gruul deck, mostly for Colourless ramp because it's an Eldrazi deck, but it also has very little synergy with lands as built, so perhaps exceptions exist, but that is not one of my stronger decks.
Your talk about Sign in Blood reminds me of Clutch of the Undercity, one of the worst Transmute spells, a 4 mana bounce spell that can target any permanent at least, but 4 mana! Then I noticed it also does 3 damage at instant speed, which is a pretty cool upside on your tutor, especially in Greedy Naus country.
Narset's Reversal shines in a fairly high power meta, and in decks already running plenty of removal. It will feel restrictive to not be able to just counter something, but if you've got +10 actual counters, this is a fun surprise for your opponent. Plenty of big spells will win the game when stolen, IE aren't deck dependent, and Reversal outright takes away the opponent's value, so even if they can recast that Expropriate next turn, it doesn't really matter if they fall far enough behind because you spent UU to steal their effect.
I run Transmogrifying Wand in decks that generate a lot of token generators, I can always upgrade a creature if there is literally nothing worth killing. A 2/4 is a half-decent blocker, and in a pinch it can wall two other 2/4s I made out of opposing Commanders. Such a weird card!
Where am I putting settle the wreckage immediately?
*Maja, Bretagard Protector*
Probably pretty well known, but I like using Sun Titan to ramp via fetch lands in my Mayael deck. Thins the deck nicely for more consistent Mayael hits and helps with hard casting fatties.
Joey + Matt forgot to mention you can use Mirror Entity @ X=0 to sac your board in response to a Living Death so that you get your whole board back upon resolution.
Mercy Killing the treefolk my Elvish Branchbender made me so my Drove of Elves xwent lethal by itself was an awesome trick. Great video.
Chromatic Lantern isn't used as a mana rock... it's a color fixer that happens to have a mana rock stapled on.^^
I have a Syr Konrad that uses shadowborne apostles to get doom whisperer. Giving lifelink to Konrad is a dead table. Getting them below 20 then nuking your grave does the same even without lifelink. Crazy fun deck and people usually don't see it coming.
Is... Joey on the GK set? Please let it be true!
Seeing the animation in the background, with the single black vertical separator, that looks like Command Zone location. Also, his microphone isn't his usual one. Also, there's a fantastic framerate on his recording, like on Command Zone. I'm convinced.
That Devoted druid combo is insane in Tayam, Luminous Enigma...
Also with Feather, Favored Hoplite, and Orim’s Thunder you can have repeatable Artifact/enchantment removal
I use March of Swirling Mist in my Beckett Brass deck, makes getting that end of combat trigger WAY easier
Komainu Battle Armor, that new reconfigure card that goads on hit, kept me alive in a game for several turns last time I played my Akiri deck by slipping in to hit the player with a huge board of huge creatures and making him my other opponents' problem so they'd use resources to survive. I should have died so many times and so many ways, but I lived till the Aminatou's infinite combo landed.
Ive been absolutely blown out by narsets reversal. I was on my turn 3 and i cast harrow and sacrificed my land to ramp, but then the player across from me casts narsets reversal on my harrow. For 2 mana, my opponent stone rained me, and then cast explosive vegetation.
Ghost quarter is great, aside letting you break your own Nythkos or Cradle, it can do friendly things like give an opponent (ally) one more mana for a boardwipe or whatever good will.
Another peculiar use for Ghost Quarter and other land destruction: You can get your commander back if someone plays Imprisoned in the Moon on it. Has saved me more than once. Bounce lands can do the same job.
As a johney this might be my favorite episode.
The Mirror Entity for zero thing has come up on me once... Because my opponent Mindslavered me.
JOEY!!!! WHERE ARE YOU AND WHY IS MY LEADING THEORY GAME KNIGHTS?!?!?
WOA! he is at the command zone HQ! maybe there will be a episode on the podcast with them? O_O
Was just about to make that comment.
To be fair, it’s also possible Command Zone HQ Is at Joey’s house and he’s just never recorded from that room before.
@@danaroach29 Ohhh so that's how he got them to edit the podcast
I won the Neon Dynasty prerelease that I played in because of March of Swirling Mist. I think i protected my creature once. I mainly used it to phase out my opponent's entire board in the late game. It worked every time. I love that card
Relatedly when I was doing the test run of Gyome. Got down to the endgame, I had lethal on board, my opponent left back like two blockers.
"Cool, sac two food to make your creatures indestructible and tap them."
My opponent proceeds to pick up Gyome and read him again.
Without looking it up, what does the card “Death Watch” do? I’m pretty sure even Dana does not know what this card is. Give up? I makes my Licia, Sanguine Tribune deck absolutely filthy. For those who don’t know, it’s a common black aura from Visions, that for B that says “When enchanted creature dies, its controller loses life equal to its power and you gain life equal to its toughness.” One of my wincons is Greven, Predator Captain and here’s the interaction:
I’ll pay 5 life to buff Licia to a 7/7 (or more if I used this ability in other turns), put the aura on her, and then attack with Greven. I’ll sacrifice Licia to the Greven’s trigger. This results in me losing 14 more life, gaining 7 of it back, and drawing 7 cards. Since life loss and life gain are tracked separately, Greven’s power on this swing, with no other life lost, is a whopping 24. Licia’s recast cost, barring no other lifegain, is -7, which would allow me to recast her for only RWB due to her cost reduction ability, in 2nd main phase. Sometimes I like to throw a Shadowspear on Greven and go completely nuts. This whole interaction stems from a little insignificant card that no one has ever heard of or has completely forgotten it even existed. I guarantee this was not what they had in mind when they first made it.
This interaction also works for other deck synergies that rely on gaining or losing life, such as Vilis, Broker of Blood or Vizkopa Guildmage.
Challenge the stats for you: Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr in Light-Paws. If you cast her for her disturb cost, she is a zero-MV aura so LP can't actually search for another aura.
That said, yes, the front side is a good beater and the back side is a good late-game buff, but I suspect that a non-zero number of people are trying to cast this into a free Angelic Destiny or similar.
I'd love to see an episode about top cards that synergize with the end-of-combat step!
For Esix's ability to work, you'd have to cast Access Denied on your own turn, which is definitely possible, but probably not ideal. Maybe late game you draw a Cultivate when you don't need it, so you cast it, counter it, and get 3 tokens that become whatever you want.
I have prosperity and prosperous bloom my Zaxara deck. It's a fun draw spell and makes people happy with me. One of my proudest magic moments was using it to kill a player who dropped a notion thief.
Narset's Reversal an opponent's extra turn, go to "your" extra turn, play mystic sanctuary, put narset's reversal on top, go to your normal turn, draw the narset's, look at your opponent, smile, and pass the turn, that's what I did a few days ago, narset's reversal is such a great card
If you have Ramunop Excavator you can use Ghost Quarter to ramp yourself. Ghost Quarter your Ghost Quarter to put a basic on the field, then replay your ghost quarter for your land drop^^
@@arcroy7 I'm guessing ghost quarter can't target itself because you have to sac it for the effect?
@@zackkelley2940 correct. Ability would fizzle if it tried to target itself.
Re: Forbidden Orchard
It is 100% because it's unreasonably expensive for what it does.
Blue Sun's Zenith... be careful. I've had people try using Deflecting Swat on my Pull from Tomorrow, but of course it doesn't work as it doesn't target. This actually is the main argument for me to not risk targeted card draw as it can be deflected in a couple of ways.
great topic, very cool
Access Denied countering a Myr Enforcer or the like in 8 drum affinity sounds pretty sweet. 5 mana counter spell? Wack. 5 mana create 7 thopters? Pretty sweet
I run a Blightsteel Colossus in my Purphoros Bronze Blooded. I just added Chandra's ignition. I think I can sneak in Blightsteel and take a sneaky win with that card for 8 mana if Purphoros is already out.
besides the shuffling back into your library foe Blue zenith, Stroke of genius does the same thing but it's easier to cast because it's X2U and also at instant speed. I have it in my Eligeth/Kydele deck or that reason, much easier to keep 1 blue mana up, go infinite colorless with kydele and cast Stroke of genius for 1,000
Minsc is like Mirror Entity but only single-target, which makes him a good Naya sacrifice commander.
Ive ghost quarted myself in my omnath rage deck.. for this. I also have crucible and a few of the gaea in there to recur the lands. + literally every basic fetch land possible
Lit had 3 good songs!
That I remember
I sometimes cast arcane denial on my own ornithopter for a 2 mana draw 3
Berserk+ Whipporwill's ability is particularly hilarious.^^
Why are only 160 Aesi decks out of 3340 running Augmenter Pugilist? The back side is phenomenal.
I don't know if anyone has said it but if you are gonna put any mana rocks at all in a landfall deck put in the borderpost rocks. Pay 1 bounce a land for a duel color mana rock this at least gives you another landfall and is one cheaper than A.S.
LOVE Matt’s Challenge. My 4 color omnath only has sol ring as a mana rock
I actually use a Seizan deck exactly how you kill people with Damnable Pact. Also can use peer into the abyss to really make people suffer with Underworld dreams or a Psychosis Crawler
Playing a list with ((Selvala, Explorer Returned)), ((Umbral Mantle)), and ((Zirda, the Dawnwaker)), can allow you to mill your opponents, by having everyone draw endlessly, unless you are very unlucky. Ensure you have a win by casting ((Angel's Grace)), and voilà! Mill in Naya!
Sometimes I’ve ghost quartered myself just to mana fix.
Me too thanks
Had a friend use bounce lands in an esper deck to continuously exile a gitrog decks graveyard with the bog and this made me think 4 color omnath with bounce lands and the ability to play multiple lands a turn tap a land bounce it with a bounce land with an extra in your hand and never miss landfall for the rest of the game
I just got an Idea for my deck - BRILLIANT!
I lived through an alpha strike because of an Angel's Grace to leave me at 1, only to be targeted by Sign in blood. Angel's Grace only prevents "damage", so it puts me to -1. Oddly, I was still alive because I "can't lose the game" until my own upkeep, then died.