for me fae offering is worth giving a shot in any deck that is already doing a clue, food, or treasure tokens and just seeing how much value you can get off of it.
For me, an older card that has become much more relevant with the plethora of treasure making cards, and now food cards with the LotR set, with only 157 entries on EDHREC, is Vermiculos. Yes, it's a high CMC for a 1/1, but this card absolutely goes off in the right deck, and it can be a phenomenal blocker if you give it vigilance. Pop a Bootleggers Stash in a Mazirek deck, along with an Academy Manufactory, and you have an easy one shot kill creature. Works well with a Dockside Extortionist, or if you can give your creatures doublestrike, it is awesome with Old Gnawbone. Brass' Bounty is a killer combo with the card, and there are so many artifact token generators out there, and Vermiculos doesn't care if YOU create the artifact or others, so it's actually rare that Vermiculos stays a 1/1 most turns. This card has won me SO many games and is so overlooked simply because it used to actually be a terrible card before all these token generators!
I have lots of these cards currently employed in many decks! 1. Surge to victory is in Magnus the Red, (izzet tokens/spell slinger) and Zada 2. Taunt from the rampart is in Marici, breaker of the coil, and Commander Lirara Portyer, both go wide Goad decks. 3. Fae offering I'm running in Jahira, friend of the Forest, and passionate Archaeologist. It's like a proper deck, in gruul. GLORIOUS in that deck cuz I usually cast 3/4 spells a turn, and the ratios are just right
I have Seize the Day in two decks: Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient (extra combats) and White-Whiskered Wizards, Warlocks & Warriors (art meme deck with Kenrith as commander).
Path of Discovery is actually amazing in Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. If you have a huge amount of creatures in your deck like Sidisi wants, this card can allow you to make five or six 3/3 zombies with one instance of mill to set it off. Highly recommend.
Joey saying “oh my sweet prince” to individual magic cards he loves is hilarious. I picture him flipping through his trade binder like Wolverine with the photo
Path of Discovery goes so well with Desecrated Tomb in a casual Grolnok the Omnivore deck. If you're playing with any effects that have you play with the top card of your deck revealed and dorks like Millikin or Deranged Assistant or any tap-to-mill artifacts, you can ditch lands cards before the explore trigger resolves to make an absurd number of 2/2 flying bats and dig through dozens of cards
I very rarely have this problem because I work backwards: if I see a sweet card or synergy, I find a commander that supports it and build that. My favorite example is Bludgeon Brawl, where I crammed it, every d+ or better mana rock and card draw artifact, and budget tutors into Syr Gwyn to make an all-in Voltron tower of power. Similaly, I'm working on a Nazgul deck, and despite the many flavorful LotR commanders, I'm going with Tayam, Luminous Enigma for the counter synergies and recurring threat potential. Nazgul and Bloodbond March: a match made in Barad-dur.
The interaction described at 15:38 with Surge to Victory exiling Seize the Day does not work, as at the time of casting the copies you would still be in the Combat Phase, and Seize the Day only grants an extra Combat phase "After this main phase, (...)". Quoting Seize the Day's rulings: "If you somehow cast it not during a main phase at all, all that happens is you untap the target creature." Incidentally, Surge to Victory and Taunt from the Rampart are both excellent inclusions in Narset, Enlightened Exile: make a lot of Creature Tokens with cards like Monastery Mentor and Hordeling Outburst, Prowess them all up with Narset, then cast a free Surge or Taunt from your graveyard for big value! While I'm on the subject; Savage Beating is an extra Combat spell that does work with Surge to Victory (and Narset, Enlightened Exile!), and it just got a reprint in Commander Masters! When casting it for free, you can even still pay its very affordable 1R Entwine cost to grant your team Double Strike in addition to the extra Combat Phase!
Grim guardian fits well into a Tatsunari, Toad Rider deck. It fits into the overall theme and strategy the deck is trying to pull off so might be worth a look
I run Fae Offering in a Jaheira and Agent of the Iron Throne deck. Having access to both types in the command zone make it easy to find one or the other. I find that if I get a few triggers from it it is worth it. Jaheira effectively making them into forests is really good. Plus if you cast a creature in the same turn you cast the Fae Offering, you will trigger it.
So I played Fae Offering in a mid power Kinnan list. It worked pretty well in the early turns when you are ramping with dorks, rocks, and or sorcery ramp spells. I found the weakness to be that once you have crossed out of the early game, if you didn’t draw Fae Offering, then when you get it in the late game it is almost a dead card.
Casting Surge to Victory in an Ovika deck is just the most fun I’ve ever had in a game of magic, even with just ovika out and an empty board, surge can straight up win the game pretty much by itself. My favorite is targeting something like an Unexpected Windfall, drawing you a massive amount of cards, making an insane amount of treasures, and fueling your graveyard for more Spelltwine type of shenanigans. Maybe this could be a challenge the stars?
I think the reason there's not that many Dreadhorde Invasion cards in Sauron decks is the large proportion of players who are running LotR-only decks. It's cheap, recent, and highly available - but very thematically-specific to a plane and storyline.
Swans of Bryn Argol is a really neat card that I played in standard way back when. It would be really cool to have a Jeskai "burn value" commander. Turning a lightning bolt into an ancestral recall was a lot of fun. A deck like that would also potentially give a home to brash taunter and stuffy doll, which are also neat cards.
I run aminatou's augury in my maelstrom wanderer cascade deck. So, so good there as the deck tends to run a variety of card types (as cascade exists in a lot of card types and there is a bunch of artifacts and enchantments that are synergistic with the deck). The augury usually gets at least 4 cards and a land and then I get a couple cascades. Wonderful in that deck and I am never short on mana to cast it there :)
Same idea as Maelstrom Wanderer: Aminatous Augury is a triumphant, fabulous card in that deck. It cascades itself, and chances are you get another 2 spells that will also cascade. It’s a fantastic fit.
Hate to necro this, but I actually run augury in my go-shintai of life’s origin. I run hella enchantment creatures so I can almost always guarantee land + 2 and a lot of my instant/sorcery is either ramp or impulse/looting/draw so it’s fantastic there. Pay 6UU, get up to 2 shrines or shrine plus cost reduction creature/constellation creature or just two great cost reduction/constellation creatures, ramp 1-2 lands, draw 1-3 cards. Insert Simpsons meme ‘I gotta say this is pretty great’ XD
This episode is excellent. Lots of hidden gems. Path of Discovery works SO well in my Sidisi zombie deck, and I'm excited to try Taunt from the Ramparts in Marisi.
Wild Pair, Grave Betrayal, Predatory Senses, Lurking Predators, Death’s Presence and Retribution of the Ancients are all cards that I never seem to find a deck for it but I love them all
I run Retribution on a Ghave, Guru of Spores commander. It is good if you're able to produce a ton of counters and also want to leave some mana open. Grave Betrayal I got it to work on Group Hug decks, with either Belbe, Corrupted Observer or Shadrix Silverquill as commanders. It is more fun than efficient.
Lurking Predators finally found a home in my Kenessos Krakens etc deck. I am already manipulating the top of my deck, so it's a good way to get even more cheap/free Krakens etc on the board.
Fae Offering is a huge win in an Adventure deck (with Chulane or Gorion at the helm) - then you can pretty reliably play the adventure side of a creature and a creature in the same turn! :)
What about an adventure deck like "Gorion, wise mentor'' for Fae Offering? I put symmetry matrix in my "watcher in the water" deck. Once a 1/1 tentacle comes in because of a card I draw, I just pay 1 to draw once more and spawn another tentacle (and on and on if I have the mana for it). I have an ashnod's altar to sacrifice my tentacles if I need mana, meaning that I can also untap my krakens and stun opponent permanents at the same time.
I don't really know if it's challenge the stats worthy but fae offering is in like 50% of Gorion wise mentor decks, the adventure commander it goes really well in that deck as you cast the spell half then the creature in 1 turn and profit
Venetrated Rotpriest is in my Ixhel deck, not necessarily because of its specific ability (though that does discourage target removal), but because in its core it is still a one mana body that gets the counters going when they most crucially must get going.
Joey, on the topic of finding a home for Tormod, have you considered Sivriss, Nightmare Speaker? Sivriss's ability to mill a card for each opponent, and then return the card to your hand unless that opponent pays life cannot be processed simultaneously, and so Tormod will see each card leaving your yard separately. Sivriss is just generally slept on I think.
Offspring's Revenge is a card I find very interesting but difficult to find a home for. I want to use it in a deck with creatures that have multiple triggers (so creatures that have an ETB and an attack trigger for instance) but there just aren't that many and so it doesn't feel worth running over other methods of reanimation.
Yeah, I lost to Taunt from the Ramparts this past week - it took out a couple players and brought the game to a rapid close. 10:16 - In answer to Joey's question, there are a handful of decks out there helmed by either Piru or Queen Marchesa that run all of the Stuffy Doll/Boros Reckoner/Mogg Maniac variants alongside Simulacrum (not Solemn) and Gideon's Sacrifice/Pariah's Shield effects to blow out opponents. It's not the most competitive, but it is hilarious when it blows people out. I may have to add Taunt to my Queen Marchesa build.
I've only had Tormod, the desecrator work in one deck, but even then, he was just okay. I ran him in my retired Kethis, the Hidden Hand deck. Tormod is three mana with Kethis' cost reduction and gives you a zombie everytime you activate Kethis' exile ability. The additional token per activation was good, but felt like a consolation prize. The trouble is that tornmod's wording is one or more cards as opposed to a card.
For grim guardian, you want it to be at least rakdos. There are a lot of red enchantments that ping down players. Forgeborn oreads and descent into avernus are a couple of examples
One of my favorite cards ever is Illusionary Mask. The way that it works is so bizarre. I love it so much. But because you still have to spend AT LEAST the actual mana cost to cast the creatures, it never really had a good home. Until they printed the Morph Commander Pre-con: Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer. It was like the Heavens opened. It was the perfect place for my beloved artifact and I was so happy that it lived there.
Path of Discovery is perfect in a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck. It buffs your tokens, it can chain with Sidisi’s triggered ability to mill until you hit a non creature, and finally finds you lands to keep fueling your turns.
Tormod and Sidar Kondo was my specialty deck. Uses a lot of under the radar cards to spam the board, plays usual drainer to prevent board wipes. The you find yourself with 40 power on the board and play SK to finish off the table.
I have a Kaza UR wizard tribal with big spells and Aminatou's augury is one of the best cards in it. Often times you can cast it pretty early with Kaza's ability and the deck has enough balance that it always gets at least 3 or 4 different card types (instant sorcery creature almost certainly, artifact and enchantments sometimes). Also, given that the deck has some pretty big spells/mana production/ recursion effects, you are almost guaranteed to cast something that will keep your snowball storm going
I use war cadence in my Magar of the magic strings deck as a way to help get basic 3/3 spell creatures to hit people so they can cast themselves. Been pretty useful for that deck so far
I can imagine Cankerbloom fitting into almost any green deck, particularly +1/+1 counter decks. 2 mana for a 3/2 that can sack to Disenchant or proliferate is amazing as either a removal piece or as an engine to make more of all your lovely counters. I view it as a modal spell stapled to a creature, a little overcosted mana wise but never a bad draw due to its ability to do a bit of everything.
I use lux artillery in my Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice charge counters deck. Specifically it is amazing when played with eternity vessel or vexing puzzle box which naturally get to 30+ counters total the turn they are played. (Plus Tawnos can copy the triggered ability)
I have surge to victory in my Ovika deck which both makes 6 goblins and when those connect copies the spell, AND since the copies from surge to victory are CAST without spending mana, they trigger Ovika for each spell you cast making even more goblins. The silliest thing I've managed to do is cast Twinferno into Complete the circuit which gets copied, resulting in 4 copies of surge to victory. With these I exile the twinferno and complete the circuit and Time Strech, resulting in each copy of twinferno and complete the circuit copying eachother and then all copying Time Stretch resulting in basically infinite turns :D
I love Aminatous Augury in my Elminster deck. Not only you can exile it to make a bunch of faeries, but you can also play it really early. And yes the deck tends to be a bit more heavy on instants and sorceries, but it still got enough variety and a bunch of the spells in the deck are really expensive and really explosive. Its perfect there!
Notion Rain was a favourite card for its art and I love surveil, and it was when i stumbled into my Alora, Merry Thief/Criminal Past self mill voltron deck that I finally had the perfect place for it and it made me very excited to be able to use it!
To Joey, I have a Tormod + Ravos partner deck that is Zombie tribal. It's definitely not a fast deck by any means, but I think it's kinda unique at least. It's not doing anything too creative, it just wants repeatedly cards leaving the graveyard and ways to pump zombies; both with lords and anthems. I call it Doots of the Dead!
Aminatou's Augury is in a lot of Neera, Wild Mage decks (the ones without the Displacer Kitten to go infinite Storm) but I personally cut it out because it misfires a lot: even if you cheat it out with Neera, you will burn 8 cards with high chances to hit a) a lot of cantrips, and/or b) a lot of high mana threats and you can cast very few of them. Yes, you can hit 2-3 big things and get a lot of value instantly, but you usually give up a lot of other powerful cards in the process and the deck itself has really no problems cheating things out of your library each turn and has no needs for such a burst of speed. It is a cool card to use, but easily the first one to cut out to make it down to 100, IMHO. War Cadence is spectacular in a Karona, False God enchantments deck to the point I honestly consider it a staple: you usually unleash Karona around the table with goad and hexproof/shroud, so you can't Rogue's Passage her, and even so you can't do every turn unless you run something like Seedborn Muse. War Cadence goes around that and you can activate it on each opponent's turn, and it scales very well if the opponent controlling Karona has already a wide board (and probably not attacking you behind your pillow fort).
Sivriss Nightmare Speaker's trigger are separate instances. So if you have Tormod on the field and all 3 cards are returned, that's 3 tokens. Sivriss paired with Cloakwood Hermit is extremely fun. Works well with Syr Konrad too.
Symmetry Matrix goes wild in Adeline. It doesn’t turn off after anthems like mentor of the meek and welcoming vampire. If you run Divine Visitation, it lets you continue to draw cards while the rest of your “weenie draw” turns off.
Surge to victory goes in Faldorn the exit from exile precon. Surge to victory CASTS the copies. And the copies are considered being cast from exile. You can copy a delayed blast fireball 10 times and get 10 wolves. Or more.
My challenge the stats submission is that only 14 out of 520 decks with Elrond, Master of healing run Cultivator of Blades. Which is a cheap card, it is an elf, it enters with +1/+1 counters that works with your commanders ability and you can very easily buff that creature a lot with Elrond and then potentially smack your opponents with massive damage. Seems like a must include if you ask me.
i've got a will and rowan kenrith (partner pair from battlebond) deck with Aminatou's Augury in it. it works there because there's a lot of copy effects. one time i cast it and it was copied four times. top 8 cards may not hit much variety, but top 8 cards 5 times... the whole theme of the deck is 'spells that cast spells' to get the most out of will's emblem. it can get out of hand fast. i had to take thousand year storm out just to reduce confusion.
Challenge the stats suggestion: Leyline Immersion in Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief. Two reasons it's overplayed: if you are running mutate cards in Ivy, you usually put the larger mutate creature on top of the pile, thus making Ivy no longer legendary; LI has to target a legendary creature so, if you want to get maximum Ivy value (doubling targeted spells), you need a non-Ivy legendary creature to target (and, of course, Ivy has to still be legendary when you target another legendary creature), and Ivy decks run as few as zero legendary creatures in the 99 (though I'm seeing 1GG Legolas show up in some lists lately). There are cheaper and instant speed) ways to protect Ivy and Simic doesn't need to spend four mana to ramp.
I would recommend using Twinning Staff, just to see how good it actually is. With no other copy support, you can copy an instant or sorcery spell twice for 7 mana. Which is a good rate for everything 4+, but having the option to get additional value out of removal or card draw spells is just great. If you happen to have a few copy spells anyway, this card can really do some heavy lifting
I love Combat Tricks but it’s hard to find space for them sometimes for my Narset, Enlightened Exile deck. It’s such a flexible Commander that you can build in so many different ways. But after Ramp, Card Draw, and Removal it’s tricky to find enough space for enough Protection and my Combat Tricks. For Narset, Enlightened Exile I like to use card with a lot of flexibility in how they can be utilized. Modal Spells and Spells with an Additional Cost are really good for Narset in particular if it can be weaponized by her Attack Trigger. Boros Charm, Twinferno, and Jeskai Charm are great flexible utility cards that can easily be used in great effect in a Combat focused Toolbox deck like how I like to play it. My Spellslinger ain’t shooting Magic Missiles, it’s throwing Fists and Curveballs.
I have a ghired, conclave exile deck that I made into a spellslinger deck (I like doing things in the wrong colors). Surge to victory is a banger when it targets second harvest. I know people think second harvest is a win more card but I view it as something to move the goal posts closer.
I got a budget Feldorn list and it makes disgustingly good use of Surge to Victory. Somehow it has already happened twice that I exiled an Inspired Tinkering with it and connected with 7ish 7/2 wolves. Now because Tinkering is in exile, so is the copy that you cast, meaning I got 7 more wolves before I even started to exile my top 21 cards and make 21 treasure tokens. And it's not like that's the only hit either. Hits like Escape to the Wilds, Titanias Command and especially Volcanic Torrent are nothing to scoff at either.
Aminatou's Augury is great in a copy tribal deck (as is twinning staff). Kalamax or something. Casting it once doesn't always feel good, but twice, or even three times, that can feel really good. Taumt fron the Ramparts (and Brash Taunter) are great in a Jarad Carthalion, True Heir deck. Grim Guardian is one I use in my Experience Counters Tribal deck, but that's a very unique build. You can also use it as a wincon with Mourning Surge to Victory is great in any extra combat deck (though they don't all work), self-mill, or, the aforementioned Jared Carthalion, True Heir. Fae Offering is great in any token deck, especially Adrix and Nev (as is Symetry Matrix, Parh of Discovery, Gemstalker Patriarch and Littjara Mirrorlake). I think Dana's right that modular tribal is really the only decent home for Lux Artillery. I use life of the party in my Subira deck, since it doesn't grow until I attack, so it's almost always able to be unblockable. Venerated Rotpriest is a lot of fun in an Enchantress deck thar runs a lot of auras. Whip Silk's a great finisher. I love War Cadence, and it's an easy finisher in any Gruul deck doing Gruul things. I use it in Omnath, Locus of Rage.
Both Fae Offering and Academy Manufactor are all stars in my Jinnie Fay deck because of the token replacement to cats and also a majority of my spells, both creature and non-creature are low mana value.
I've been looking a long while for a deck to run Dreams of the Dead, but neither of my Esper blink decks wanted it (Zur Astral Slide and Aminatou Miracles) - cards can be oddly specific even within a given deck archetype. I also had a copy of Teleportation Circle sitting around to go with it, so I went down the rabbit hole of trying to find a new commander (as if 50+ commander decks wasn't too many), and I'm going to try Sefris reanimator/blink with dungeons.
It may just be because I'm working on the deck currently, but Lux Artillery is fantastic in any deck focused on charge counters. I'm currently working on a Jhoira, Ageless Innovator deck based on charge counters, and this will likely go in there.
22:40 with cards like Myriad Landscape, I wonder if EDHRec could create a flagging system for people to flag "non-bos". Then, after deck-building, users could click on something to run their decklist through the non-bo checker. It would need some level of community involvement to get the interactions flagged, along with some kind of oversight system to moderate/verify.
Surge to victory targeting any extra turn spell in Ovika, Enigma Goliath has won me many a game. Once my opponents see that I’m about to take 30 turns in a row that’s it!
For the Fae Offering card. I put together a deck that loves it. It’s the Bant Adventures matter deck. Since half of your spells can be either a creature, non creature or both, it becomes rather easy to trigger.
I've only seen the thumbnail, but Aminatou's Augury is BIG in my Vega, the Watcher deck - Sieges will get cast from exile too on flips, so they're not too off-flavor to run a couple lol. It's a mix of Cast-From-Exile stuff and UW Flyers
Okay now you made me build a goad goat deck (zedruu). I thought the tokens would work with zedeuu's ability but the deck turned out a lot different then I had imagined! Giving away creature tokens and goading the creatures would give zedruu an unique spin. No need for dumb pillowfort cards and even running cool cards like bedlam to ensure the creatures dont die in combat. Also the perfect place for taunt from the rampart and might try aninatou's augery there :).
War Cadence is a house in my Krenko deck, you can wait until you have 5/6 mana to cast and activate it in the same turn so people who tapped low without expecting it get locked out of blocking! Evolving Door is one I want to find a home for, I was thinking about Oviya Pashiri, Lifecrafter but I never went through with the deck in the end
Grim Guardian is a staple card in my Eriette of the Charmed Apple deck, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it would work well in one of the Abzan enchantress decks, using either Anikthea like they mentioned, or Myrkul!
Grim Guardian works well in my enchantment reanimator deck helmed by Ghen, Arcanum Weaver. A filled graveyard, Grim Guardian in the yard or on the field and something like a Brilliant Restoration is a wincon of the deck
Hey matt, Grim Guardian is pretty great in my Yarok enchantress deck! Obviously can double your own enchantment triggers but can also double the triggers of enchantments that trigger off opponents like Lifegift or Trespasser's curse
For Lux Artillery, the deck other than Zabaz/Modular, is Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch. Use Urtet's tap ability and then you should have all the counters you need for Lux Artillery to do its thing.
Path of Discovery is nuts in a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck. Make a 2/2 when something goes to the graveyard from the library, then explore and if it's a creature, create a 2/2 and do it all again. I've chained 5-10 2/2's (really 3/3 with the +1/+1 counter) per cycle.
There's an Isshin deck that runs Life of the Party. It makes the game so fun and it works really well since Isshin doubles the attack trigger so even if you only have a few creatures, it still hits like a truck.
Joey!! Taunt from the rampart and taunter, I raise you Queen Marchesa Goad!! It’s my favorite deck to play by miles and has all of the fun goad mechanics AND the taunters!!
I use Grim Guardian as a wincon in my Ertai, the Corrupted Esper enchantment deck that wins via a Day of Dragons loop. It's like 4 cards, a billion mana, but when it's happened it's been awesome.
Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos likely plays the hell out of a Lux Artillery, being a 2-color deck that not only already plays a lot of artifact creatures, but also creates artifact tokens when doing so, proliferates, AND is slower when it comes to translating that into a victory because of the 2-mana tax on incubate. Also, I feel like it would already be playing a Strionic Resonator depending on the build, and Lux Artillery seems to be a nice sinergy with that too.
Symmetry Matrix is pretty cool in my Polukranos Reborn (the new transform one) deck, since there are many hydras entering as 0/0, and then Polukranos creates 2 3/3s, so usually, for 4-5 mana, i can get 2 3/3s and 3 cards, which is pretty good. also, its really flexible with how i want to use my mana, i can pay for all 3 triggers, or only 1 or 2 if i got other things to do
So one place I could see myself running Life of the Party is in a Jetmir deck. You want lots of creatures for Jetmir, you're in white for some blink shenanigans, and running Primal Vigor just gives your opponents even more Goaded LotPs to kill each other even faster.
My picka: -) some overpriced Level Up creatures: kazandu tuskcaller, Echo Mage and Brimstone Mage are awesome but the price is kinda the double of the maximum acceptable.... Even Joraga Treespeaker, she's barely useful in some minor, for fun decks. -) Herald of War: by the time cast that 5-mana value (yes, 3WW) Angel AND you attack in the very next turn, you will not need some discount upon casting Angels. Sad -) Elvish Clancaller: a truly fast and stormy elf deck doesn't have the mana to pay 4GG to tutor into play another copy of that small Lord. a slow, grindy and big-creatuee focused elves needs to cut cards in order to let space to mana dorks or big stuffs, so ... Nope 32:45 Verdant Force or Verdant Embrance: creates a 1/1 in each upkeep, and you're done :D 36:30 Shalai&Hallar deck surely wants a bunch of +1/+1 :D 37:50 yes, an Sage of Hours synergy in a Bant deck (With Orion) and +1/+1 manipulation is very nice
Lux Artillery may be fun in Urtet maybe? Myr's have multiple colors to tap for mana and if you pair with cards that make Oil counters it may boost the counter number up higher.
Scourge of Geier Reach is a card I've wanted to use in a deck for a while. It's 3RR for a 3/3 elemental that gets +1/+1 for each creature your opponents control. It's not a great card, but I think it has potential
So back when Grim Guardian first came out I saw it and immediately thought of Aluren and made a legacy constellation deck. Aluren was MUCH cheaper back then. Also multiple Grim Guardians are where the real fun lies in that deck. I am in the process of making an Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin deck and I think I would use one there if I have a fifth one currently unused.
The Mirrorlake and other kaldheim utility lands are fantastic at low-power tables. My highest priority is always playing the game, so having mana sinks and extra value in my land slots feels so fantastic. I imagine the 1 mana landcyclers from LOTR will function similarly.
For me, an older card that should "Challenge the Stats", which has become much more relevant with the plethora of treasure making cards, and now food cards with the LotR set, with only 157 entries on EDHREC, is Vermiculos. Yes, it's a high CMC for a 1/1, but this card absolutely goes off in the right deck, and it can be a phenomenal blocker if you give it vigilance. Pop a Bootleggers Stash in a Mazirek deck, along with an Academy Manufactory, and you have an easy one shot kill creature. Works well with a Dockside Extortionist, or if you can give your creatures doublestrike, it is awesome with Old Gnawbone. Brass' Bounty is a killer combo with the card, and there are so many artifact token generators out there, and Vermiculos doesn't care if YOU create the artifact or others, so it's actually rare that Vermiculos stays a 1/1 most turns. This card has won me SO many games and is so overlooked simply because it used to actually be a terrible card before all these token generators. If you can get a Mycosynth Lattice out there too...
Aminatou's Augury is probably the best card in my Elminster Deck. While the deck is mostly instants and sorceries, there's quite a few high mana value permanents that are also in the deck for Augury to potentially hit (and I have more control over what it might hit with all the scrying the deck wants to do). Also, assuming Elminster lives, I can generally cast Augury the turn after.
Dauthi Embrace is an interesting card as you can give ANY creature shadow. Ive used it during other players' turns to make one of their creatures unable to block for the turn, which usually lights up the eyes of the person who is yet to declare an attack phase 🥳
Ammonotou's Augury is an MVP in my Jeleva deck. Especially with Scroll Rack being able to set it up as well as some other spells Jeleva will hit. Then if you have something in your hand, you may wait a turn before attacking with Jeleva and put it back also with scroll rack before casting AA.
Animatou's Augury is fantastic in my Imoti big mana deck. Has a solid spread of perfect hits and cascade doesn't care about how you cast the spell, only about its mana value
I put War’s Toll in a Naya deck, and it’s just a blast to watch my opponents’ heads smoke while they are trying to decide whether to develop or hold up answers. I think War Cadence would be great in Gahiji, Honored One or anything else that is encouraging combat, not just the aggro/smash decks.
I have never heard a more pure thought spoken than "I got a foil sitting in a box and he's just so lonely" I feel that in my soul
My foil grim guardian and hateful eidolon are why I built my Eritte of the charmed Apple deck. And they’re both amazing there lol
for me fae offering is worth giving a shot in any deck that is already doing a clue, food, or treasure tokens and just seeing how much value you can get off of it.
hey, it's a DEMO sighting out here in the wild! (Love your content too, bruv)
Gyome is the answer. Love that deck.
For me, an older card that has become much more relevant with the plethora of treasure making cards, and now food cards with the LotR set, with only 157 entries on EDHREC, is Vermiculos. Yes, it's a high CMC for a 1/1, but this card absolutely goes off in the right deck, and it can be a phenomenal blocker if you give it vigilance. Pop a Bootleggers Stash in a Mazirek deck, along with an Academy Manufactory, and you have an easy one shot kill creature. Works well with a Dockside Extortionist, or if you can give your creatures doublestrike, it is awesome with Old Gnawbone. Brass' Bounty is a killer combo with the card, and there are so many artifact token generators out there, and Vermiculos doesn't care if YOU create the artifact or others, so it's actually rare that Vermiculos stays a 1/1 most turns. This card has won me SO many games and is so overlooked simply because it used to actually be a terrible card before all these token generators!
I have lots of these cards currently employed in many decks!
1. Surge to victory is in Magnus the Red, (izzet tokens/spell slinger) and Zada
2. Taunt from the rampart is in Marici, breaker of the coil, and Commander Lirara Portyer, both go wide Goad decks.
3. Fae offering I'm running in Jahira, friend of the Forest, and passionate Archaeologist. It's like a proper deck, in gruul. GLORIOUS in that deck cuz I usually cast 3/4 spells a turn, and the ratios are just right
Seize the Day fizzles with Surge to Victory damage triggers, because you aren't casting during the main phase. You need Savage Beating.
Came here to say this.
It doesn't "fizzle" it just doesn't create any extra combats. It'll still untap the targeted creature(s).
I use these both with Magus The Red from the WARHAMMER Precons, token spellslinger. One of my favorite two card combos ❤
I have Seize the Day in two decks: Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient (extra combats) and White-Whiskered Wizards, Warlocks & Warriors (art meme deck with Kenrith as commander).
Path of Discovery is actually amazing in Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. If you have a huge amount of creatures in your deck like Sidisi wants, this card can allow you to make five or six 3/3 zombies with one instance of mill to set it off. Highly recommend.
It’s duuuuumb in my Sidisi deck. One of the cornerstone cards. I also love it in my Anikthea deck too
Joey saying “oh my sweet prince” to individual magic cards he loves is hilarious. I picture him flipping through his trade binder like Wolverine with the photo
Path of Discovery goes so well with Desecrated Tomb in a casual Grolnok the Omnivore deck. If you're playing with any effects that have you play with the top card of your deck revealed and dorks like Millikin or Deranged Assistant or any tap-to-mill artifacts, you can ditch lands cards before the explore trigger resolves to make an absurd number of 2/2 flying bats and dig through dozens of cards
I very rarely have this problem because I work backwards: if I see a sweet card or synergy, I find a commander that supports it and build that. My favorite example is Bludgeon Brawl, where I crammed it, every d+ or better mana rock and card draw artifact, and budget tutors into Syr Gwyn to make an all-in Voltron tower of power.
Similaly, I'm working on a Nazgul deck, and despite the many flavorful LotR commanders, I'm going with Tayam, Luminous Enigma for the counter synergies and recurring threat potential. Nazgul and Bloodbond March: a match made in Barad-dur.
The interaction described at 15:38 with Surge to Victory exiling Seize the Day does not work, as at the time of casting the copies you would still be in the Combat Phase, and Seize the Day only grants an extra Combat phase "After this main phase, (...)". Quoting Seize the Day's rulings: "If you somehow cast it not during a main phase at all, all that happens is you untap the target creature."
Incidentally, Surge to Victory and Taunt from the Rampart are both excellent inclusions in Narset, Enlightened Exile: make a lot of Creature Tokens with cards like Monastery Mentor and Hordeling Outburst, Prowess them all up with Narset, then cast a free Surge or Taunt from your graveyard for big value!
While I'm on the subject; Savage Beating is an extra Combat spell that does work with Surge to Victory (and Narset, Enlightened Exile!), and it just got a reprint in Commander Masters! When casting it for free, you can even still pay its very affordable 1R Entwine cost to grant your team Double Strike in addition to the extra Combat Phase!
I noticed the same thing.
Grim guardian fits well into a Tatsunari, Toad Rider deck. It fits into the overall theme and strategy the deck is trying to pull off so might be worth a look
That is where I would try it.
Had Grim Guardian in my Tatsunari deck, and can confirm, it did pretty good work.
That and azumi??? I forgot the name but it gives a creature card in your graveyard encore
@@gerardoramirez6854 You mean Araumi of the dead tide?
@@KingKoral yeah that one
I run Fae Offering in a Jaheira and Agent of the Iron Throne deck. Having access to both types in the command zone make it easy to find one or the other. I find that if I get a few triggers from it it is worth it. Jaheira effectively making them into forests is really good. Plus if you cast a creature in the same turn you cast the Fae Offering, you will trigger it.
So I played Fae Offering in a mid power Kinnan list. It worked pretty well in the early turns when you are ramping with dorks, rocks, and or sorcery ramp spells. I found the weakness to be that once you have crossed out of the early game, if you didn’t draw Fae Offering, then when you get it in the late game it is almost a dead card.
Casting Surge to Victory in an Ovika deck is just the most fun I’ve ever had in a game of magic, even with just ovika out and an empty board, surge can straight up win the game pretty much by itself. My favorite is targeting something like an Unexpected Windfall, drawing you a massive amount of cards, making an insane amount of treasures, and fueling your graveyard for more Spelltwine type of shenanigans. Maybe this could be a challenge the stars?
I think the reason there's not that many Dreadhorde Invasion cards in Sauron decks is the large proportion of players who are running LotR-only decks. It's cheap, recent, and highly available - but very thematically-specific to a plane and storyline.
If you wanna play Grim Guardian --> Myrkul, Lord of Bones. Love it in that Deck.
Araumi of the Dead Tide also has amazing synergy with Grim Guardian - if I'm not mistaken, they've also did Challenge the stats on this
Swans of Bryn Argol is a really neat card that I played in standard way back when. It would be really cool to have a Jeskai "burn value" commander. Turning a lightning bolt into an ancestral recall was a lot of fun. A deck like that would also potentially give a home to brash taunter and stuffy doll, which are also neat cards.
I ran a janky Swans deck yeeeeears ago for a Standard Game Day. I ran no-format all-star Intimidation Bolt for hilarity and card draw.
I run aminatou's augury in my maelstrom wanderer cascade deck. So, so good there as the deck tends to run a variety of card types (as cascade exists in a lot of card types and there is a bunch of artifacts and enchantments that are synergistic with the deck). The augury usually gets at least 4 cards and a land and then I get a couple cascades. Wonderful in that deck and I am never short on mana to cast it there :)
Same idea as Maelstrom Wanderer: Aminatous Augury is a triumphant, fabulous card in that deck. It cascades itself, and chances are you get another 2 spells that will also cascade. It’s a fantastic fit.
Hate to necro this, but I actually run augury in my go-shintai of life’s origin. I run hella enchantment creatures so I can almost always guarantee land + 2 and a lot of my instant/sorcery is either ramp or impulse/looting/draw so it’s fantastic there. Pay 6UU, get up to 2 shrines or shrine plus cost reduction creature/constellation creature or just two great cost reduction/constellation creatures, ramp 1-2 lands, draw 1-3 cards. Insert Simpsons meme ‘I gotta say this is pretty great’ XD
This episode is excellent. Lots of hidden gems. Path of Discovery works SO well in my Sidisi zombie deck, and I'm excited to try Taunt from the Ramparts in Marisi.
Wild Pair, Grave Betrayal, Predatory Senses, Lurking Predators, Death’s Presence and Retribution of the Ancients are all cards that I never seem to find a deck for it but I love them all
Retribution works amazingly well in Yannik & Nikara
I run Retribution on a Ghave, Guru of Spores commander. It is good if you're able to produce a ton of counters and also want to leave some mana open.
Grave Betrayal I got it to work on Group Hug decks, with either Belbe, Corrupted Observer or Shadrix Silverquill as commanders. It is more fun than efficient.
You can play most of those in a Vaevictus deck:)
Lurking Predators finally found a home in my Kenessos Krakens etc deck. I am already manipulating the top of my deck, so it's a good way to get even more cheap/free Krakens etc on the board.
Wild Pair is nuts in any sliver deck but other than that yeah it's hard to find decks for it
Fae Offering is a huge win in an Adventure deck (with Chulane or Gorion at the helm) - then you can pretty reliably play the adventure side of a creature and a creature in the same turn! :)
What about an adventure deck like "Gorion, wise mentor'' for Fae Offering?
I put symmetry matrix in my "watcher in the water" deck. Once a 1/1 tentacle comes in because of a card I draw, I just pay 1 to draw once more and spawn another tentacle (and on and on if I have the mana for it). I have an ashnod's altar to sacrifice my tentacles if I need mana, meaning that I can also untap my krakens and stun opponent permanents at the same time.
I absolutely love surge to victory. Currently running it in my Ovika Enigma Goliath
Aminatou's Augury also works great with Ovika
Just seen this but I'm gonna give it a go because I have a free slot right now@@maxwellschad9555
I don't really know if it's challenge the stats worthy but fae offering is in like 50% of Gorion wise mentor decks, the adventure commander it goes really well in that deck as you cast the spell half then the creature in 1 turn and profit
Venetrated Rotpriest is in my Ixhel deck, not necessarily because of its specific ability (though that does discourage target removal), but because in its core it is still a one mana body that gets the counters going when they most crucially must get going.
Joey, on the topic of finding a home for Tormod, have you considered Sivriss, Nightmare Speaker? Sivriss's ability to mill a card for each opponent, and then return the card to your hand unless that opponent pays life cannot be processed simultaneously, and so Tormod will see each card leaving your yard separately. Sivriss is just generally slept on I think.
Offspring's Revenge is a card I find very interesting but difficult to find a home for. I want to use it in a deck with creatures that have multiple triggers (so creatures that have an ETB and an attack trigger for instance) but there just aren't that many and so it doesn't feel worth running over other methods of reanimation.
Yeah, I lost to Taunt from the Ramparts this past week - it took out a couple players and brought the game to a rapid close.
10:16 - In answer to Joey's question, there are a handful of decks out there helmed by either Piru or Queen Marchesa that run all of the Stuffy Doll/Boros Reckoner/Mogg Maniac variants alongside Simulacrum (not Solemn) and Gideon's Sacrifice/Pariah's Shield effects to blow out opponents. It's not the most competitive, but it is hilarious when it blows people out. I may have to add Taunt to my Queen Marchesa build.
Aminatou's augury was so good in both Anhelo and Yarok!
I've only had Tormod, the desecrator work in one deck, but even then, he was just okay. I ran him in my retired Kethis, the Hidden Hand deck. Tormod is three mana with Kethis' cost reduction and gives you a zombie everytime you activate Kethis' exile ability. The additional token per activation was good, but felt like a consolation prize. The trouble is that tornmod's wording is one or more cards as opposed to a card.
For grim guardian, you want it to be at least rakdos. There are a lot of red enchantments that ping down players. Forgeborn oreads and descent into avernus are a couple of examples
9:08 I built a Gisela, Blade of Goldnight deck that was a goad deck. Taunt from the Rampart was really fun
One of my favorite cards ever is Illusionary Mask. The way that it works is so bizarre. I love it so much. But because you still have to spend AT LEAST the actual mana cost to cast the creatures, it never really had a good home. Until they printed the Morph Commander Pre-con: Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer. It was like the Heavens opened. It was the perfect place for my beloved artifact and I was so happy that it lived there.
Path of Discovery is perfect in a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck. It buffs your tokens, it can chain with Sidisi’s triggered ability to mill until you hit a non creature, and finally finds you lands to keep fueling your turns.
Littjara mirror lake made it into my uncommon only Moritte Slivers deck! Wow… yeah Matt’s right about magic players. Hoops.
Tormod and Sidar Kondo was my specialty deck. Uses a lot of under the radar cards to spam the board, plays usual drainer to prevent board wipes. The you find yourself with 40 power on the board and play SK to finish off the table.
I have a Kaza UR wizard tribal with big spells and Aminatou's augury is one of the best cards in it. Often times you can cast it pretty early with Kaza's ability and the deck has enough balance that it always gets at least 3 or 4 different card types (instant sorcery creature almost certainly, artifact and enchantments sometimes).
Also, given that the deck has some pretty big spells/mana production/ recursion effects, you are almost guaranteed to cast something that will keep your snowball storm going
I use war cadence in my Magar of the magic strings deck as a way to help get basic 3/3 spell creatures to hit people so they can cast themselves. Been pretty useful for that deck so far
I can imagine Cankerbloom fitting into almost any green deck, particularly +1/+1 counter decks. 2 mana for a 3/2 that can sack to Disenchant or proliferate is amazing as either a removal piece or as an engine to make more of all your lovely counters. I view it as a modal spell stapled to a creature, a little overcosted mana wise but never a bad draw due to its ability to do a bit of everything.
For Grim Guardian, zur works pretty well as a commander and gets you Niko Aris that makes x enchantments on etb 13:32
I use lux artillery in my Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice charge counters deck. Specifically it is amazing when played with eternity vessel or vexing puzzle box which naturally get to 30+ counters total the turn they are played. (Plus Tawnos can copy the triggered ability)
I have surge to victory in my Ovika deck which both makes 6 goblins and when those connect copies the spell, AND since the copies from surge to victory are CAST without spending mana, they trigger Ovika for each spell you cast making even more goblins.
The silliest thing I've managed to do is cast Twinferno into Complete the circuit which gets copied, resulting in 4 copies of surge to victory. With these I exile the twinferno and complete the circuit and Time Strech, resulting in each copy of twinferno and complete the circuit copying eachother and then all copying Time Stretch resulting in basically infinite turns :D
Lux Artillery is pretty cool in Vrondiss. If you have vexing puzzlebox, sun droplet you can easily get 30 counters on it
I love Aminatous Augury in my Elminster deck.
Not only you can exile it to make a bunch of faeries, but you can also play it really early. And yes the deck tends to be a bit more heavy on instants and sorceries, but it still got enough variety and a bunch of the spells in the deck are really expensive and really explosive.
Its perfect there!
Thanks for this one. I just built Elminster and I put it in with exactly that reasoning but haven't got to play it yet but this gives me confidence 😊
Notion Rain was a favourite card for its art and I love surveil, and it was when i stumbled into my Alora, Merry Thief/Criminal Past self mill voltron deck that I finally had the perfect place for it and it made me very excited to be able to use it!
To Joey, I have a Tormod + Ravos partner deck that is Zombie tribal. It's definitely not a fast deck by any means, but I think it's kinda unique at least. It's not doing anything too creative, it just wants repeatedly cards leaving the graveyard and ways to pump zombies; both with lords and anthems. I call it Doots of the Dead!
I was brewing a Isshin, Two Heavens as One, this episode actually helped me finish the deck. Shout out to War Cadence and Invasion Plans.
Aminatou's Augury is in a lot of Neera, Wild Mage decks (the ones without the Displacer Kitten to go infinite Storm) but I personally cut it out because it misfires a lot: even if you cheat it out with Neera, you will burn 8 cards with high chances to hit a) a lot of cantrips, and/or b) a lot of high mana threats and you can cast very few of them. Yes, you can hit 2-3 big things and get a lot of value instantly, but you usually give up a lot of other powerful cards in the process and the deck itself has really no problems cheating things out of your library each turn and has no needs for such a burst of speed. It is a cool card to use, but easily the first one to cut out to make it down to 100, IMHO.
War Cadence is spectacular in a Karona, False God enchantments deck to the point I honestly consider it a staple: you usually unleash Karona around the table with goad and hexproof/shroud, so you can't Rogue's Passage her, and even so you can't do every turn unless you run something like Seedborn Muse. War Cadence goes around that and you can activate it on each opponent's turn, and it scales very well if the opponent controlling Karona has already a wide board (and probably not attacking you behind your pillow fort).
Sivriss Nightmare Speaker's trigger are separate instances. So if you have Tormod on the field and all 3 cards are returned, that's 3 tokens. Sivriss paired with Cloakwood Hermit is extremely fun. Works well with Syr Konrad too.
That opening was genius, thanks Matt for a great laugh! 😂
Symmetry Matrix goes wild in Adeline. It doesn’t turn off after anthems like mentor of the meek and welcoming vampire. If you run Divine Visitation, it lets you continue to draw cards while the rest of your “weenie draw” turns off.
Surge to victory goes in Faldorn the exit from exile precon.
Surge to victory CASTS the copies. And the copies are considered being cast from exile.
You can copy a delayed blast fireball 10 times and get 10 wolves. Or more.
My challenge the stats submission is that only 14 out of 520 decks with Elrond, Master of healing run Cultivator of Blades. Which is a cheap card, it is an elf, it enters with +1/+1 counters that works with your commanders ability and you can very easily buff that creature a lot with Elrond and then potentially smack your opponents with massive damage. Seems like a must include if you ask me.
i've got a will and rowan kenrith (partner pair from battlebond) deck with Aminatou's Augury in it. it works there because there's a lot of copy effects. one time i cast it and it was copied four times. top 8 cards may not hit much variety, but top 8 cards 5 times...
the whole theme of the deck is 'spells that cast spells' to get the most out of will's emblem. it can get out of hand fast. i had to take thousand year storm out just to reduce confusion.
Challenge the stats suggestion: Leyline Immersion in Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief. Two reasons it's overplayed: if you are running mutate cards in Ivy, you usually put the larger mutate creature on top of the pile, thus making Ivy no longer legendary; LI has to target a legendary creature so, if you want to get maximum Ivy value (doubling targeted spells), you need a non-Ivy legendary creature to target (and, of course, Ivy has to still be legendary when you target another legendary creature), and Ivy decks run as few as zero legendary creatures in the 99 (though I'm seeing 1GG Legolas show up in some lists lately). There are cheaper and instant speed) ways to protect Ivy and Simic doesn't need to spend four mana to ramp.
I would recommend using Twinning Staff, just to see how good it actually is. With no other copy support, you can copy an instant or sorcery spell twice for 7 mana. Which is a good rate for everything 4+, but having the option to get additional value out of removal or card draw spells is just great. If you happen to have a few copy spells anyway, this card can really do some heavy lifting
Season of Growth is great in Zangief (with fight spells) and Blanka decks. I'm running it in both. Helps keep the destruction engine churning.
Grim guardian is cool with araumi
I love Combat Tricks but it’s hard to find space for them sometimes for my Narset, Enlightened Exile deck. It’s such a flexible Commander that you can build in so many different ways. But after Ramp, Card Draw, and Removal it’s tricky to find enough space for enough Protection and my Combat Tricks.
For Narset, Enlightened Exile I like to use card with a lot of flexibility in how they can be utilized. Modal Spells and Spells with an Additional Cost are really good for Narset in particular if it can be weaponized by her Attack Trigger. Boros Charm, Twinferno, and Jeskai Charm are great flexible utility cards that can easily be used in great effect in a Combat focused Toolbox deck like how I like to play it. My Spellslinger ain’t shooting Magic Missiles, it’s throwing Fists and Curveballs.
I have a ghired, conclave exile deck that I made into a spellslinger deck (I like doing things in the wrong colors). Surge to victory is a banger when it targets second harvest. I know people think second harvest is a win more card but I view it as something to move the goal posts closer.
I got a budget Feldorn list and it makes disgustingly good use of Surge to Victory. Somehow it has already happened twice that I exiled an Inspired Tinkering with it and connected with 7ish 7/2 wolves.
Now because Tinkering is in exile, so is the copy that you cast, meaning I got 7 more wolves before I even started to exile my top 21 cards and make 21 treasure tokens.
And it's not like that's the only hit either. Hits like Escape to the Wilds, Titanias Command and especially Volcanic Torrent are nothing to scoff at either.
Aminatou's Augury is great in a copy tribal deck (as is twinning staff). Kalamax or something. Casting it once doesn't always feel good, but twice, or even three times, that can feel really good.
Taumt fron the Ramparts (and Brash Taunter) are great in a Jarad Carthalion, True Heir deck.
Grim Guardian is one I use in my Experience Counters Tribal deck, but that's a very unique build. You can also use it as a wincon with Mourning
Surge to Victory is great in any extra combat deck (though they don't all work), self-mill, or, the aforementioned Jared Carthalion, True Heir.
Fae Offering is great in any token deck, especially Adrix and Nev (as is Symetry Matrix, Parh of Discovery, Gemstalker Patriarch and Littjara Mirrorlake).
I think Dana's right that modular tribal is really the only decent home for Lux Artillery.
I use life of the party in my Subira deck, since it doesn't grow until I attack, so it's almost always able to be unblockable.
Venerated Rotpriest is a lot of fun in an Enchantress deck thar runs a lot of auras. Whip Silk's a great finisher.
I love War Cadence, and it's an easy finisher in any Gruul deck doing Gruul things. I use it in Omnath, Locus of Rage.
Both Fae Offering and Academy Manufactor are all stars in my Jinnie Fay deck because of the token replacement to cats and also a majority of my spells, both creature and non-creature are low mana value.
I've been looking a long while for a deck to run Dreams of the Dead, but neither of my Esper blink decks wanted it (Zur Astral Slide and Aminatou Miracles) - cards can be oddly specific even within a given deck archetype. I also had a copy of Teleportation Circle sitting around to go with it, so I went down the rabbit hole of trying to find a new commander (as if 50+ commander decks wasn't too many), and I'm going to try Sefris reanimator/blink with dungeons.
It may just be because I'm working on the deck currently, but Lux Artillery is fantastic in any deck focused on charge counters. I'm currently working on a Jhoira, Ageless Innovator deck based on charge counters, and this will likely go in there.
Lux Artillery is made for Urtet. Most of the red combat cards fit really well in pramikon, which can have good spell and or enchantment recursion.
13:57 I know I’m very late to the party but Esper pillow fort seems like the perfect place for Grim Guardian.
22:40 with cards like Myriad Landscape, I wonder if EDHRec could create a flagging system for people to flag "non-bos". Then, after deck-building, users could click on something to run their decklist through the non-bo checker. It would need some level of community involvement to get the interactions flagged, along with some kind of oversight system to moderate/verify.
Surge to victory targeting any extra turn spell in Ovika, Enigma Goliath has won me many a game. Once my opponents see that I’m about to take 30 turns in a row that’s it!
That's my choice as well!
For the Fae Offering card. I put together a deck that loves it. It’s the Bant Adventures matter deck. Since half of your spells can be either a creature, non creature or both, it becomes rather easy to trigger.
I love Taunt from the Rampart in my Aragorn, King of Gondor deck. It's all about becoming the Monarch and goading the table to keep it for yourself.
I've only seen the thumbnail, but Aminatou's Augury is BIG in my Vega, the Watcher deck - Sieges will get cast from exile too on flips, so they're not too off-flavor to run a couple lol. It's a mix of Cast-From-Exile stuff and UW Flyers
Okay now you made me build a goad goat deck (zedruu).
I thought the tokens would work with zedeuu's ability but the deck turned out a lot different then I had imagined!
Giving away creature tokens and goading the creatures would give zedruu an unique spin. No need for dumb pillowfort cards and even running cool cards like bedlam to ensure the creatures dont die in combat.
Also the perfect place for taunt from the rampart and might try aninatou's augery there :).
War Cadence is a house in my Krenko deck, you can wait until you have 5/6 mana to cast and activate it in the same turn so people who tapped low without expecting it get locked out of blocking!
Evolving Door is one I want to find a home for, I was thinking about Oviya Pashiri, Lifecrafter but I never went through with the deck in the end
Grim Guardian is a staple card in my Eriette of the Charmed Apple deck, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it would work well in one of the Abzan enchantress decks, using either Anikthea like they mentioned, or Myrkul!
Grim Guardian works well in my enchantment reanimator deck helmed by Ghen, Arcanum Weaver. A filled graveyard, Grim Guardian in the yard or on the field and something like a Brilliant Restoration is a wincon of the deck
Surge to Victory is amazing in Ovika, because you smash peoples faces with 1/1 goblins and other tokens in an Izzet spells deck
I have a hope of one day exiling a Time Warp with my Surge to Victory. Sure it's probably overkill but it'll be fum 😁
Hey matt, Grim Guardian is pretty great in my Yarok enchantress deck! Obviously can double your own enchantment triggers but can also double the triggers of enchantments that trigger off opponents like Lifegift or Trespasser's curse
For Lux Artillery, the deck other than Zabaz/Modular, is Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch. Use Urtet's tap ability and then you should have all the counters you need for Lux Artillery to do its thing.
Path of Discovery is nuts in a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck. Make a 2/2 when something goes to the graveyard from the library, then explore and if it's a creature, create a 2/2 and do it all again. I've chained 5-10 2/2's (really 3/3 with the +1/+1 counter) per cycle.
10:00 I could see both cards going into Basandra, Battle Seraph or Marchesa
There's an Isshin deck that runs Life of the Party. It makes the game so fun and it works really well since Isshin doubles the attack trigger so even if you only have a few creatures, it still hits like a truck.
Joey!! Taunt from the rampart and taunter, I raise you Queen Marchesa Goad!! It’s my favorite deck to play by miles and has all of the fun goad mechanics AND the taunters!!
I use Grim Guardian as a wincon in my Ertai, the Corrupted Esper enchantment deck that wins via a Day of Dragons loop. It's like 4 cards, a billion mana, but when it's happened it's been awesome.
Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos likely plays the hell out of a Lux Artillery, being a 2-color deck that not only already plays a lot of artifact creatures, but also creates artifact tokens when doing so, proliferates, AND is slower when it comes to translating that into a victory because of the 2-mana tax on incubate. Also, I feel like it would already be playing a Strionic Resonator depending on the build, and Lux Artillery seems to be a nice sinergy with that too.
Symmetry Matrix is pretty cool in my Polukranos Reborn (the new transform one) deck, since there are many hydras entering as 0/0, and then Polukranos creates 2 3/3s, so usually, for 4-5 mana, i can get 2 3/3s and 3 cards, which is pretty good. also, its really flexible with how i want to use my mana, i can pay for all 3 triggers, or only 1 or 2 if i got other things to do
9:30 Taunt from the Rampart is good in Human tons-of-tokens (a.k.a. "Coat of Arms") deck
So one place I could see myself running Life of the Party is in a Jetmir deck. You want lots of creatures for Jetmir, you're in white for some blink shenanigans, and running Primal Vigor just gives your opponents even more Goaded LotPs to kill each other even faster.
My picka:
-) some overpriced Level Up creatures: kazandu tuskcaller, Echo Mage and Brimstone Mage are awesome but the price is kinda the double of the maximum acceptable.... Even Joraga Treespeaker, she's barely useful in some minor, for fun decks.
-) Herald of War: by the time cast that 5-mana value (yes, 3WW) Angel AND you attack in the very next turn, you will not need some discount upon casting Angels. Sad
-) Elvish Clancaller: a truly fast and stormy elf deck doesn't have the mana to pay 4GG to tutor into play another copy of that small Lord. a slow, grindy and big-creatuee focused elves needs to cut cards in order to let space to mana dorks or big stuffs, so ... Nope
32:45 Verdant Force or Verdant Embrance: creates a 1/1 in each upkeep, and you're done :D
36:30 Shalai&Hallar deck surely wants a bunch of +1/+1 :D 37:50 yes, an Sage of Hours synergy in a Bant deck (With Orion) and +1/+1 manipulation is very nice
Aminatou's Augery clicks in my Neera Wild Mage deck. So dope to wheel for it for one mana then copy it twice!
Lux Artillery may be fun in Urtet maybe? Myr's have multiple colors to tap for mana and if you pair with cards that make Oil counters it may boost the counter number up higher.
Scourge of Geier Reach is a card I've wanted to use in a deck for a while. It's 3RR for a 3/3 elemental that gets +1/+1 for each creature your opponents control. It's not a great card, but I think it has potential
So back when Grim Guardian first came out I saw it and immediately thought of Aluren and made a legacy constellation deck. Aluren was MUCH cheaper back then. Also multiple Grim Guardians are where the real fun lies in that deck.
I am in the process of making an Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin deck and I think I would use one there if I have a fifth one currently unused.
The Mirrorlake and other kaldheim utility lands are fantastic at low-power tables. My highest priority is always playing the game, so having mana sinks and extra value in my land slots feels so fantastic. I imagine the 1 mana landcyclers from LOTR will function similarly.
For me, an older card that should "Challenge the Stats", which has become much more relevant with the plethora of treasure making cards, and now food cards with the LotR set, with only 157 entries on EDHREC, is Vermiculos. Yes, it's a high CMC for a 1/1, but this card absolutely goes off in the right deck, and it can be a phenomenal blocker if you give it vigilance. Pop a Bootleggers Stash in a Mazirek deck, along with an Academy Manufactory, and you have an easy one shot kill creature. Works well with a Dockside Extortionist, or if you can give your creatures doublestrike, it is awesome with Old Gnawbone. Brass' Bounty is a killer combo with the card, and there are so many artifact token generators out there, and Vermiculos doesn't care if YOU create the artifact or others, so it's actually rare that Vermiculos stays a 1/1 most turns. This card has won me SO many games and is so overlooked simply because it used to actually be a terrible card before all these token generators. If you can get a Mycosynth Lattice out there too...
Aminatou's Augury is probably the best card in my Elminster Deck. While the deck is mostly instants and sorceries, there's quite a few high mana value permanents that are also in the deck for Augury to potentially hit (and I have more control over what it might hit with all the scrying the deck wants to do). Also, assuming Elminster lives, I can generally cast Augury the turn after.
Dauthi Embrace is an interesting card as you can give ANY creature shadow. Ive used it during other players' turns to make one of their creatures unable to block for the turn, which usually lights up the eyes of the person who is yet to declare an attack phase 🥳
Ammonotou's Augury is an MVP in my Jeleva deck. Especially with Scroll Rack being able to set it up as well as some other spells Jeleva will hit. Then if you have something in your hand, you may wait a turn before attacking with Jeleva and put it back also with scroll rack before casting AA.
Animatou's Augury is fantastic in my Imoti big mana deck. Has a solid spread of perfect hits and cascade doesn't care about how you cast the spell, only about its mana value
I put War’s Toll in a Naya deck, and it’s just a blast to watch my opponents’ heads smoke while they are trying to decide whether to develop or hold up answers.
I think War Cadence would be great in Gahiji, Honored One or anything else that is encouraging combat, not just the aggro/smash decks.
Such a good episode, I've already watched it back like three times, well done fellas
It's been out 1h 🤣