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djgamek1ng · 1 month ago

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Magic The Gathering x Final Fantasy - Spoiler Season Part 17 (12/05/2025 - Scions and Spellcraft Pt. 1)

Last, but not least, for the commander decks, we have Final Fantasy 14's Scions and Spellcraft deck. Let's get to it, starting off with Alisaie Leveilleur! Oh wait, very quick before: SPOILER WARNING. I tried dancing around a certain card in the mono black cards, but I can't really dance around an entire deck full of spoilers. So, spoiler warning for FF14 all the way up until Endwalker.

White for Alisaie is interesting. I wouldn't say it is wrong, but I definitely see her more as a Red girl... you know, like her job is Red Mage. Either way, I could see the argument being made that she would be Red/White, so it isn't too bad of a flavor fail.

3 mana for a 3/2 is very slightly below rate, but you'll manage. HEr abilities are:

Partner with Alphinaud Leveilleur. I won't be covering the commander implications of this card, but basically, when she enters the battlefield you may search for a card called Alphinaud Leveilleur from your deck and then shuffle your deck. Neat. You may also run Alisaie and Alphinaud together as commanders for your commander deck. Again, I won't cover that here, but I might do a follow up post at some point to cover how well they would run together.

First strike, so strikes first against most things. Nice, makes her 3 power enough to be able to smack down anything that dares attack you or dares to block her.

The second spell you cast each turn costs 2 less to cast. So ideally, kind of like Red Mage in FF14: cast a small spell first, then save 2 mana on your second spell and use that to cast a bigger spell for less mana. Very nice, definitely gives her a little bit of a spellslinger vibe.

One last time, I will not be talking about her commander implications. The TL;DR is: don't bother running her without Alphinaud, there is no point. That said, on her own, she is something that can enable double spelling on a turn pretty easily. Saving 2 mana is no joke, that's like a free Sol Ring on every second spell on every turn. Put her in a spellslingers deck and you'd be pleasantly surprised.

Now for the art. Credit to Justyna Dura. Link to her ArtStation. The lack of neck is messing me up. She looks very much like her head sunk into her torso or that her shoulders are very high up. Aside from that issue, it is a nice art piece, but yeah, definitely can't get over that one.

As for the next card, let's talk about Tataru Taru!

2 mana for a 0/3 is technically slightly below rate... and it doesn't get much better unfortunately. Her abilities are:

Tataru enters, you draw a card and target opponent may draw a card. Group hug? I guess? Only once though, unless you start blinking her...

Whenever an opponent draws a card, if it isn't that player's turn, create a tapped Treasure token. This ability triggers only once each turn. So that does trigger from her entering effect... but only tapped Treasure per turn whenever your opponents are drawing cards outside their turn is limited. Very limited even. This ain't no Smothering Tithe, that's for sure.

This... is very disappointing, honestly. Tataru wants to be a value engine, but she only makes one card draw happen and relies on other people drawing cards outside of their turns to create a singular tapped Treasure token per turn. That's just not good enough. In the 99 of a deck... I'd say replace her, but if you're already playing group hug, she might be alright. As your commander... aside from just liking her, just please don't. I hate to say this, since I love Tataru, but I don't think this is good enough. It is certainly fair, but fair rarely means good when you try to win.

Now for the art. Credit to Livia Prima. Link to her Instagram. NO, DON'T GIVE ME A GIFT WITH THAT CUTE AS HELL SMILE! I ALREADY FEEL BAD CALLING YOU NOT THAT GOOD, I'M SO SORRY ;-; This is super cute and it hurts so much. I love the fat cat in the background too and just the background in general is so cozy. Now I'm even sadder...

Let's shake off the sadness by going to Thancred Waters...

5 mana for a 3/5 is slightly below rate, but it's a good stat spread. His abilities are:

Flash, so you can cast him on instant speed. Nice.

When Thancred Waters enters, another target legendary permanent you control gains indestructible for as long as you control Thancred Waters. Ah, a protection piece. Fair enough. Good one too, since it lasts until Thancred is taken off the board.

Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, Thancred Waters gains indestructible until end of turn. So you can also make him indestructible, making it hard for your opponents to remove both him and the creature he's protecting. Nice. Also, great flavor. Needing you to cast a (noncreature) spell to get indestructible, since he can't channel his own aether.

As most of the protection piece legendary creatures, just don't run this as your commander. Put him in a voltron deck, so he function as both a protection piece for whatever you are putting everything on and act as a second body to block an attack back, one he could even survive if you have a noncreature spell to make him get indestructible with. Just in general, in the 99 he's pretty good, always at the very least being able to protect your commander. Just make sure you aren't bouncing your commander or anything, since the target will fall off and make them no longer protected!

Now for the art. Credit to Wisnu Tan. Link to their Instagram. Very realistic/gritty. Way more than I'd expect from FF14, but I think it works in this specific instance of Thancred protecting "Minfilia." It shows how urgent and serious Thancred is about that, so yeah. I like this a whole lot.

Next up... Hell. Required listening below:

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Good. King. Moggle. Mog. The Twelfth. Really? Over my boy Susano, over Ravana, over Thordan? Even Ultima Weapon? Good King Moggle Mog is the summon of this deck. Singular summon. I'm convinced WotC put him in to spite me.

5 mana for a 4/4 body is below rate. Not hugely so though, much to my own displeasure. He also has flying and lifelink, so evasive and will get you some health back when he attacks or blocks, again, much to my own displeasure. His abilities are:

Lore counter 1: Create two 1/2 white pests Moogle creature tokens with lifelink. So he goes for more of a token strategy, specifically abomination Moogle typal tokens. Sure would be a shame if someone really likes token strategies... sigh.

Lore counters 2 & 3: Whenever you cast a noncreature spell this turn, create a token that's a copy of a non-Saga token you control. So you can make more copies of your infestation Moogle tokens he just created by doing some cheap spellslinging, since this isn't limited to the first noncreature spell you cast. So keep some cheap instants, sorceries, artifacts and enchantments in your deck to make the best use out of it. Pretty good if you can fire off few nonceature spells... damn.

Lore counters 4: Put two +1/+1 counters on each other tyrant Moogle you control. So your actual demons Moogle tokens, which will probably be more than you already deserve, will be 3/4s minimum when this resolves. This is... disappointgly good.

In conclusion, this is the worst card >:( Okay, for real, Good King Moggle Mog XII is... annoyingly good. While not necessarily the best in the deck he comes in, seeing as his only time he cares about noncreature spells is during turns 2 and 3, you can very easily go for a garbage Moogle typal deck, specifically using Mog, a fate worse than death Moogle Warrior. Yes, that includes me, because for SOME REASON THESE PLAGUE MOOGLE CARDS ARE GENUINELY FUN TO ME, EVEN THOUGH I HATE FREAKING MOOGLES!

Now for the art. Credit to Andrea Radeck. Link to her BlueSky. This is also annoyingly good. The only thing is that this is uncannily smooth instead of fuzzy, but that's also a problem with FF14's roaches moogles in general a bit with them only having a fluffy collar, so I can't fault her too much. It is also just kind of Good King Moggle Mog XII in his arena, surrounded by his Mogglesguard, but it is good art, so nice (disappointingly)

As for the alternative art since my suffering can never be done:

Credit to Minoru. Link to their Twitter. IT SURE IS THE SAME F**KING THING AGAIN, JUST IN A DIFFERENT ARTSTYLE! YES, THAT'S A NICE GOOD KING MOGGLE MOG XII AND HIS MOGGLESGUARD! I AM DONE WITH THIS FREAKING CARD AND MY SLEEP PARALYSIS DEMONS MOOGLES FOR FOREVER, BUT YOU KNOW, THIS SET WILL HAVE MORE LITERALLY JUST SATANS, YES MULTIPLE SATANS MOOGLES, SO THAT IS MY PAIN TO DEAL WITH.

MOVING ON TO DANCER'S CHAKRAMS!

Thank god, we're talking about an Equipment.

4 mana for an Equipment. Job select, so make a token when this comes in and it is auto equipped on that token. Equipped creature gets +2/+2, has lifelink and "Other commanders you control get +2/+2 and have lifelink" and is a Performer in addition to its other types. Also equipping it costs 3 mana. This is pretty decent, good buff to your commander and to the thing it is equipped to. Fun fact, if you have 2 commanders, like with the Alisaie and Alphinaud pair, it does share the buff to both, meaning you'd get +6/+6 and triple lifelink from this 4 mana artifact. That's really not too shabby. Pretty solid equip, though not mind breaking by any stretch.

Now for the art. Credit to "domco.". Link to their Twitter. That sure is a catboy dancer posing. I don't have much to say, it just looks good. Also, nice small effects, those also look quite good.

Last, but certainly not least, of the White cards: Champions from Beyond!

2 + X mana enchantment for. Its abilities are:

When this enchantment enters, create X 1/1 colorless Hero creature tokens. Pretty solid, means you'd want to pump in 10 mana to get 8 creature tokens for no particular reason at all.

Light Party - Whenever you attack with four or more creatures, scry 2, then draw a card. I didn't highlight the flavor text for any reason, shuddup. Anyway, good for go wide strategies, since that's a scry 2 and then a draw, which can give you a card that can potentially still enhance your damage or protect your board, depending on what you see in the scry. Very nice.

Full Party - Whenever you attack with eight or more creatures, those creatures get +4/+4 until end of turn. SHUDDUP. So when attacking with 8 or more creatures, you first scry 2 and then draw a card and afterwards, all those creatures become massive. Fantastic.

So I may be a tiny bit biased when I say that I love this card. Now, I should mention, this is purely good for token strategies, but that's obvious as you make tokens upon entry if you pay more than the two White mana required to cast this. This is just super cool and the flavor of having a Light Party and Full Party buff is just so awesome.

Now for the art. Credit to Darius Zablockis. Link to his Instagram. 4 Warriors of Light coming together to beat up... someone. I think it might be Hades, since this does reference that scene, but either way. This is awesome, fantastic art!

Now we move to Blue cards, starting with the other twin, Alphinaud Leveilleur!

4 mana for a 2/4 is below rate. His abilities are:

Partner with Alisaie Leveilleur. Similarly to Alisaie, I'm not gonna go too into the commander stuff. Simply, you can search for Alisaie when Alphinaud enters and then shuffle your library. Neat.

Vigilance. He doesn't tap while attacking, neat.

Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, draw a card. Once per turn extra card draw isn't too bad, just need to run cheap spells to cast.

Again, also similar to Alisaie, my recommendation for running this as your commander is don't bother unless you are running him with Alisaie. Aside from that, this is definitely not as good on his own compared to Alisaie. A card draw is powerful, but making every second spell you cast per turn cheaper I'd say is better. This isn't bad, just not quite as good, since one extra card per turn isn't great, especially at a condition to fulfill. You'd want like 3 cards with such a condition you have to consistently do.

Now for the art. Credit to Justyna Dura. Link to her ArtStation. The face here looks weird and it is noticeable and a bit hard to overlook. Similar to Alisaie, it just looks off enough to take me out of the entire art, which is otherwise pretty good. Also, the extended art has the whole art become a bit brighter? Very strange.

Now we go to Hermes, Overseer of Elpis!

4 mana for a 2/4 is below rate by a bit. His abilities are:

Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create a 1/1 blue Bird creature token with flying and vigilance. I sure hope these birds won't go through out all of space and pick up depression as they question the reason for our existence and see no point in living if we are going to die anyways.

Whenever you attack with one or more Birds, scry 2. And then when we fight the main bird, we need to go to edge of the universe to come get her, but now she is gone full goth and is actually super powerfu- Oh hey Hermes, fancy seeing you here.

I am somewhat joking here, since this is literally just "Bird commander: the card." He doesn't give much of value to the birds you want to create, but if you want to run mono Blue bird typal, he's not too shabby. I'd say run him in the 99 of a bird typal deck, but either way. Bird.

Now for the art. Credit to Darius Zablockis. Link to his Instagram. Hermes and one of his hundreds of birds that will totally not get depression. This is a very nice art though, I love the colors already making it feel kind of somber and gloomy, despite the smile on Hermes' face and the glow coming from Meteion. Very nice!

Next up, let's talk about Hraesvelgr of the First Brood!

5 mana for a 5/5 is perfectly on rate, good job. Flying, vigilance and ward 2. Flying good for evasion, vigilance so he doesn't untap when attacking and ward 2 as a minor bit of protection. His ability is that when Hraesvelgr enters and whenever you cast a noncreature spell, target creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn and can't be blocked this turn. So a small buff and a temporary evasion. You would want to blink this repeatedly to get this effect repeatedly, but it isn't a huge effect, so... eh.

This is just kind of okay. Either in the 99 of a deck or as the commander, this is just not great. You can use this as a blink target, but you have generally better targets. You can put this in the 99 of a Dragon deck, but I'd still say you have generally better options.

Now for the art. Credits to Néstor Ossandón Leal. Link to his ArtStation. Hraesvelgr and Shiva flying. Very beautiful artwork, just absolutely beautiful.

Let's move on to Blue Mage's Cane!

3 mana for an Equipment. Job select, so you get a token and this Equipment is attached to it. Equipped creature gets +0/+2, is a Wizard in addition to its other types, and has "Whenever this creature attacks, exile up to one target instant or sorcery card from defending player's graveyard. If you do, copy it. You may cast the copy by paying 3 mana rather that paying its mana cost." You equip it for 2 mana. Okay, so this is an interesting one that is a bit of graveyard hate and some spell stealing. First off, flavor FANTASTIC.

Secondly, this can also nab some very expensive instant and sorceries from your opponents for 3 mana instead of for their original mana cost, so it is good. However, that does mean that there have to be instants and sorceries worth stealing to begin with, which there usually are but can also just not be the case. If nothing else though, it is graveyard hating, which is never a bad thing in my eyes. Honestly, if you are just using it for graveyard hate, it can work in any deck, though you have better graveyard hate cards that you can use.

Now for the art. Credit to Eglė Mosakaitė. I have no link, I couldn't find them. If anyone has a link, let me know! Not much to say, it is mostly here to show the cane the Blue Mage is showing. I think the magic effects are a bit much, but it's not too too bad.

Time for the last Blue card, Observed Stasis!

4 mana Aura for an opponent's creature. Its abilities are:

Flash, so instant speed casting. Nice.

When this Aura enters, remove enchanted creature from combat. Then draw a card for each tapped creature its controller controls. So this can be pretty good to shutdown a creature away from combat and then drawing a crap ton of cards because someone is swinging out at you. For 4 mana, that can be pretty good.

Enchanted creature loses all abilities and can't attack or block. Cool, so that creature essentially ceases to exist aside from effects that counts creatures. It just completely shuts them down.

4 mana for this effect really ain't bad, it can absolutely shutdown a creature and draw you a bunch of cards. For a bit of removal, I'd recommend it, honestly. Only thing it gets shutdown by is hexproof, so you do have to look out for that, but that's par for the course for Auras placed on opponent's creatures.

Now for the art. Credit to Toni Infante. Link to their website. TONI DON'T MISS, IT IS SO PRETTY! The only criticism is that I kind of wish the moon was a harsher gray compared to Etheirys, but THE GOAT NEVER MISSES! I WISH TO HAVE 20!

Let's head to the Black cards, starting off with Fandaniel, Telophoroi Ascian!

Ah, I see that he's taking a dip into the "absorb Zodiark's powers and become him" pool.

5 mana for a 4/5 is slightly below rate, but it is fine. His abilities are:

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, surveil 1. Extra surveil with you spellslinging ain't too bad. Weird this isn't just noncreature, but alright.

At the beginning of your end step, each opponent may sacrifice a nontoken creature of their choice. Each opponent who doesn't loses 2 life for each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard. Again, weird how this isn't noncreature, especially since the other noncreature spells aren't necessarily easy to get into your graveyard. Just also add nonland to that. Anyway, bit of forced sacrifice or burn at every end step. Pretty good.

Honestly, not a bad card. I wouldn't mind running him as your commander. Go for low mana cost instants and sorceries, then force your opponents to keep placing nontoken creatures on the battlefield or otherwise lose like 16 life at every end step. Do bring some protection for Fandaniel!

Now for the art. Credit to Paulius Daščioras. Link to what I think is his Instagram? I found that he is employed at Goodname, who has done things with WotC. Anyway, yeah that is Fandaniel jumping in the "become Zodiark" swimming pool. Neato.

Next up is a... random skill from Black Mage, Transpose!

3 mana for an instant that makes you draw a card, then discard a card and lose 1 life. If this spell was cast from your hand, you create a 0/1 black Wizard creature token with "Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this token deals 1 damage to each opponent." So a bit meh as a instant. Card draw, discard and a token if it was cast from your hand (we'll get to that) for 3 mana and 1 life is a little inefficient. However, let's talk about rebound.

Rebound makes it so that if you cast this card from hand, you exile it and at the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast it from exile without paying the mana cost, at which point it goes into your graveyard. So this does trigger the Wizard token you made, though it doesn't get you a new one, and it does trigger Y'shtola, Night's Blessed ability, since that only cares about mana value, not mana spent. So really, for 3 mana and 2 life, you get 2 card draws, 2 discards, a Wizard and 1 trigger of noncreature spells on that Wizard (also 2 noncreature spell triggers in general). That is a pretty good deal, especially since you can get it back to hand if you run instant or sorcery recursion, at which point you can do this again.

Good for a spellslinger deck, especially one that can fish it out of your graveyard!

Now for the art. Credit to Toni Infante. Link to their website. THE GOAT DON'T MISS, THE GOAT NEVER MISSED A SHOT IN THEIR LIFE. Genuinely, I don't know what to say, Toni genuinely just makes amazing artwork. I love the color choices here too. Fantastic!

Let's move on to Reaper's Scythe!

3 mana for an Equipment. Yet again, job select, so you make a token and it is attached to it. The abilities are:

At the beginning of your end step, put a soul counter on this Equipment for each player who lost life this turn. Neat, but doesn't do much on its own. However, you can proliferate these counters.

Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each soul counter on this Equipment and is an Assassin in addition to its other types. So this is the actual functional bit.

Also, equips for 2 mana. Not too bad.

This can really pop off with Y'shtola, Night's Blessed or similar all opponent burn effects, growing your equipment by 3, potentially 4 if you can hurt yourself, soul counters every turn. Also, important point, these soul counters are on your Equipment, so your opponents need to remove the Equipment, not the creature it is attached to. Probably the best job select equipment we've seen. Use in group slug decks as a giant buff on a stick.

Now for the art. Credit to Colin Boyer. Link to his ArtStation. Almost feels like it is screenshot of the game, which I mean entirely positively. This feels like it could genuinely come from the game, everything feels so on point. Very good art, great job!

Now let's cover our last card for the post and the last Black card in the deck, Eye of Nidhogg!

3 mana enchantment that enchants any creature. Enchanted creature is a black Dragon with base power and toughness 4/2, has flying and deathtouch and is goaded (so it has to attack and can't attack whoever cast this spell). That's already pretty good and can break stalemates. You can't choose not to attack, unless they have a way to tap the creature you enchanted. Then we get to the benefit that when Eye of Nidhogg is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand. This mainly happens when it is either shot off the creature or when the creature it is attached to dies, so you are gonna get this back often.

Powerful politics piece, I can recommend this as a psuedo-removal spell in any deck and if you have any cards that care about things leaving your graveyard, because this counts. It isn't an "instead" on returning it to hand, it triggers when it sees it got into the graveyard from the battlefield.

Now for the art. Credit to Erion Makuo. Link to her Instagram. That sure is corrupted Estinien holding the Eye of Nidhogg. We also call this a bad idea. Anyway, the art is great, it looks really good! :D

And that's it, that's all the mono colored cards of the commander deck. Next part, and the last part of the commander decks, the multicolored cards of the FF14 deck! Thanks for reading and have a nice day o/

#mtg #final fantasy #mtg x final fantasy #card discussion #art discussion #ff14 #ffxiv #final fantasy 14 #final fantasy xiv #alisaie leveilleur #tataru taru #thancred waters #GOOD KING MOGGLE MOG XII #I HATE YOU GOOD KING MOGGLE MOG XII #alphinaud leveilleur #hermes ffxiv #hraesvelgr #fandaniel #estinien wyrmblood

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rumplefuckingstiltzkin · 1 year ago

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We already have Lapse of Certainty, and Wheel of Sun and Moon. Get creative!

Could white get “Put target spell on the top or bottom of its owner’s library”?

No.

#And Mana Tithe as we all well know.

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rhodophoria · 2 months ago

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There is something about TITHE that makes me foam at the mouth and roll around on the ground like an insane person in a public place thb. Anyways - any willing crumbs left on the table to share? If not, that's okay, the current tease is more than enough to keep me crazy ;) love ur work btw <3

thank you anon! hehe, i do indeed have more crumbs i can share (✿¬‿¬)✧

slightly suggestive beneath the cut!

“I can… wash your wings, if you'd like,” you chirp, offering him a shaky but encouraging smile. He's quiet for a moment before he turns around, slowly spreading those magnificent seafoam wings you've always been so curious about.

Why does he hide them away? Why is he not more hesitant to show them to you, of all people?

There's an odd protrusion at the root of his wings, half-buried beneath the corruption. He tenses when your hands wander too close, so you leave it well enough alone, setting aside your curiosity.

Ephialtes watches you over his shoulder, single eyelight molten in the dark. You cup water from the pool in both hands, lifting the mana-infused liquid and letting it pour in streaks down the thick column of his spine.

He releases a full-body shudder at the sensation, teeth clamping down tight on a sound you'd almost call a moan… if you were brave enough.

#shaking your hand anon 🤝 it makes me insane and i wrote it LMAO #{🌹💌}#{🌹📕}#faeu #valrayne-faeu #sans x reader #nightmare #anons

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zwoelffarben · 9 months ago

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Hey Rules Committee,

If you're listening, I wish for further bloodshed and have made for you two lists.

Ordered by EDHREC ranking (not necessarily preference) circa posting,

Cyclonic Rift Reason: It's fuckin bullshit.

Rhystic Study Reason: See above.

Smothering Tithe Reason: See above.

Teferi's Protection Reason: All-in-one-anwser to any problem, it's too good at protecting a player in an advantageous position from the table's ire for not just one answer, but an entire turn rotation's worth of answers.

Sylvan Library Reason: Meh, it's much higher on EDHREC than my personal dispises, but it's still on that list.

Bolas's Citadel Reason: Bushshit finisher.

The Great Henge Reason: I just don't like it.

Aetherflux Reservoir Reason: See Bolas's Citadel

Drannith Magistrate Reason: The format is called commander; you should be allowed to cast your commander. The fact this card stops everyone from doing that makes it antithetical to the spirit of the format.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse Reason: Too good. I don't want to put sheoldred apoc in my nekusar deck. Please ban it so I don't feel like I have to.

Dramatic Reversal Reason: Of the isochron sceptor + dramatic reversal infinite combo, isochron sceptor is the actually problem piece and this is an innocent victim, but I like Isochron sceptor as a concept.

Narset, Parter of Veils; +Notion Theif. Reason: She's just not fun to play against. Narset into wheel is just toxic.

Torment of Hailfire Reason: This is too strong a finisher, cause even if it fails to kill it puts all your opponents in such a bad position to stablize and recover. It really homogenizes the Black deck play-space. I don't think I've played against a black deck that wasn't running hailfire since it was printed.

Aura Shards Reason: This shouldn'ta said may. If it didn't say may it would be a fair and balanced, if powerful card. But it says may, and that pushes it over the edge.

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. Reason: I don't like him.

Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant Reason: I understand that Erayo, Soratami Ascendant // Erayo's Essence is banned because it's too oppressive. Jin-Gitaxias Progress Tyrant is significantly worse, and yet, still just as oppressive. Have you ever played against somone who turn 1: discarded Jin-Gitaxias Progress Tyrant, turn 2 reanimate targeting jin-gitaxias progress tyrant. Y'all, my hand was land and mana rocks. I scoped and said, "go next."

Moraug, Fury of Akoum Reason: Too good, next question.

Cards which should be banned for cost consideration.

The entire reserve list. Clarification: Yes, the whole thing. Even the bad cards. Especially the bad cards. Reason: If Wotc will apparently never "print the card again," it should no longer be considered a valid game piece. The collectors can cry about it if they want, but I'm out for blood.

Any card for which the cheapest available version cost more than $100 (standard legal cards exempt) A causal format doesn't need $100 cards in it. If WOTC wants it to be legal in the flagship casual format, they better reprint the fuckin' card into a casual's definition of affordability.

Honorable mentions:

The entire Ancient Dragon cycle from CLB Reason: Theyr not really a problem in the format, I just don't like them because of how swingy they are.

Every Spell that says, "Take an extra turn after this one." Clarification: Yes, even the bad ones in mono-red. I don't care. Reason: My friend's Riku deck traumatized me, okay.

Sol Ring, Command Tower, Arcane Signet. Reason: Theyr such a staples in the format as to be iconic, and they ain't problems persay, but banning cards which are in 90-95% of decks would make the format more diverse.

Swiftfoot boots or lightning greaves Reason: Same as above, but either one of them rather than both.. I don't care which one stays or goes, but having escentially two copies of this effect is a bit much imo.

#mtg #mtg commander #ban list

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fortsaveordie · 4 months ago

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I went undefeated at my LGS' local pauper night (3-0 against UB terror, U terror, and a cool RG list running chrysalis with impact tremors effects) and I wanted to show off my list, so I figured I could make a post doing a breakdown of it! It aims to loop refurbished familiar repeatedly with ninjas, a gameplan that dovetails nicely into other affinity staples.

First and foremost is the bread and butter of the list - four of each ninja, four Ornithopter, and four familiars. I'm on three Silver Raven as a discount version of Faerie Seer, and a gurmag to help close out games.

Next up is our other assorted artifacts - three tithing blade and three blood fountain. While the blades are situational, as they do very little vs spawn tokens, Blood Fountain is an all-star in this list. It is two artifacts for one mana, allowing for very early familiars and thoughtcasts when played early, and later into the game it generates an absurd amount of value with its sac effect. Getting to fix hands using the blood token happens on occasion as well.

As for the instants and sorceries, we have the full 4 thoughtcasts, three metallic rebukes (another powerful use-case for blood fountain) and some other more generic tools as well: deadly disputes can help repurpose stranded ninjas or extra tokens when games go long, spell pierce is super useful when it comes to forcing through early plays to get the ninja ball rolling, and two cast downs are around as well to hopefully snipe Chrys or any other creature that contests my early fliers.

As for the land base, it's nothing special - four of each artifact land in color, and the UB bridge to boot. Past there, I'm on basics.

It doesn't have the greatest matchup into everything, but I adore ninjas and the way they play, and I would encourage anyone who likes tempo decks with a plan to go long to give it a roll!

(Fun bonus - ornithopter completely walls more conventional ninja decks - a 0/2 flier is not something faeries is usually equipped for)

#mtg #magic the gathering #mtg pauper #mtg deckbuilding #pauper

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transgenderization · 9 months ago

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i love smothering tithe i will never pay (2) ohhohohoho

thats right thats right you sure showed me ! you will certainly not regret. giving me extra mana. every turn :)

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thought-knot · 4 months ago

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Commander brackets and game changers thoughts

Wanted to get get out my thoughts on the announcement with of the brackets and the game changer list

Overall I don't really think the brackets are going to change much about peoples deckbuilding. Personally I have already been moving away from running a lot of the game changers in most of my decks so I can have some lower power decks that don't just take take over the game by drawing something like rhystic study and out valuing the table. One thing that I really like is the differentiation of high power and CEDH as those two have very different vibes.

Thoughts on game changers under the cut I will mainly be looking at them from a non CEDH perspective as I don't play CEDH but I wont disregard how important some of the cards are to the format

White Magistrate's fine to be here, no need to ban it and I feel enlightened's in the same boat

Serra's sanctum I could see getting banned, of the three lands that have this effect its the weakest but it is still rather strong

Smothering tithe can burn in hell and I hope it gets banned

I could see Trouble in pairs getting banned as well, its on a similar level to Rhystic study but I think its more annoying to play around

Blue

As much as Rift feels like an iconic part of the format like sol ring I would not be surprised if this is a prelude to banning it

I think expropriate is reasonable to stay unbanned but remain on the list

Force of will and Fierce guardianship both feel right to have here, could see guardianship getting banned in the future and force of negation getting on here to replace it

I go back and forth on if Rhystic study should be banned, it is certainly powerful but it can be played around more than something like smothering tithe and like rift it feels iconic to the format at this point, If it does get banned I don't think I will shed any tears for it though

Thoracle is mostly in the realm of CEDH, I've seen people talk about banning it before to shake up the format but I can't comment too much on that, right to have it on the list debatable if it should be banned

Urza is quite strong and an infinite mana outlet but I think he only get ridiculous when your breaking parity on stuff like winter orb which is mainly something you see in CEDH

Mystical tutor is similar to enlightened tutor, probably the strongest of the narrow tutors but mostly fine the stay on the list

Jin-gitaxis stands out a bit on this list, I dont think he ever needs to be banned but I think putting him on here is a good way to give people an idea how back breaking he is when cheated out

Black

I think citadel is fine to be on the list, its really powerful but sooner or later you will run out of gas

Long term I think banning vamp tutor and leaving the other two tutors on the list is the right call, being an instant makes it so much stronger than the others since it can be used more reactively

Opposition agent can be really frustrating to play against, people who I've talked to that play it in CEDH said that its healthy in the format, it seems like a card that's super frustrating if you just trying to play for fun and it stops you from ramping but necessary and interesting when people are trying to tutor out wincons.

Tergrid super power and frustrating, but mainly as a commander and if you see it in the command zone you know what your getting into

Ad naus lives in CEDH where it basically wins you the game if you resolve it, perhaps its too overcentralizing but I think its fine to live there

Red

I don't think Jeska's needs to get the axe, but I would not be too upset if it did

Breach is mainly a CEDH and I think its fine to exist there as a wincon, and if your not comboing off with it I think it can be an interesting card to play with

Green

Survival of the fittest is kinda crazy, letting you find any creature in you deck while setting up you graveyard for the low cost of one mana on a two mana enchantment, don't think it will ever get banned but this is the type of card that can drag games out with continuous tutoring always allowing for the right answer

Vorinclex is in the same boat as Jin gitaxis, not quite as backbreaking, but also more feasible to ramp into

Gaea's cradle is almost as good as tolarian academy, would not be surprised to see it get banned

Multicolor

all these are here for CEDH as far as I can tell (less sure about grand arbiter) I dont think any of them need to be banned as seeing them as a commander is usually enough to have a conversation. Commander ninjutsu was a big design mistake that I would not mind them requiring commander tax but I think yuriko is a cool commander if you are not super abusing her

Colorless

Glacial chasm seems a bit strange on here compared to the rest, I can kinda see where they are coming from but not sure I agree that it should be here

I would personally be sad if LED got banned since I lucked into one that perfectly fit into my Kozilek deck but it is mainly used for combos so it should at least be on the list

I literally just picked up the one ring but it deserves to be on here and I would not be too upset if it got banned

Tabernacle is not a card I have any experience with but just reading it makes me want it banned

I'm going to cover all the fast mana at once, I could see ancient tomb and mana vault getting banned, neither are quite as good as mana crypt but they still offer really fast acceleration. The rest of them deserve to be on the list for the purposes of setting a standard but there is more of a cost to playing them that I feel keeps them from being banned

Notable missing cards

Worldly tutor seems like a notable exclude considering that the other one mana instant speed tutors are on the list

I could see an argument for heroic intervention either being on or off the list but I am surprised that teferi's protection was not on here

Mana drain seems like it would have been a shoe in on this list too

This one is personal bias because I have faced them a lot with decks that get hard countered by them, but I could see the first two elesh norns being here too

In general cards that outright stop people from playing the game like torpor orb seem like they would be good to put here

By that logic Narset and Notion thief might be good includes too

I could see an argument for all but the green Ikoria free spells to be on here

Overall it feels like there is a bit of a split going on in the list, most of the cards are big in CEDH but some of the cards are only really frustrating at lower power levels and I wonder how the list is going to evolve from these two separate categories.

#mtg #magic the gathering #mtg commander #edh #would be really funny if trouble in pairs getting banned means WotC never feels the need to get a new art commissioned for it #debated if I should have talked about reserve list pricing for some of these cards but decided against it #Thought about talking about time sieve but that almost certainly falls under chaining extra turns together #crazy how many cards blue and black have compared to the others #interested to see how this is going to evolve #first time writing out something like this

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thecornwall · 6 months ago

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Cornwall's Random Card of the Day #1113: Smothering Tithe

Aren't you that card that everyone hates?

Oh, my, no. I'm Smothering Tithe.

Smothering Tithe is a rare from Ravnica Allegiance. I hear a lot about this guy, and considering it's somewhat akin to Rhystic "Do you pay the 1?" Studies, I can see. Now, let's put aside the fact that white should probably not be getting treasure, like, at all. This thing gives you a pretty solid mana advantage one way or the other(generating treasure or taxing the opponent), admittedly at the cost of a card, which makes it bad in duels. But in multiplayer, the format it was made for, OH BOY. Is this gonna either slow the whole affair to a crawl or just accelerate you to high heaven.

I can't really see any scenario in which this card leads to fun gameplay, it's either worthless or broken, and even when it DOES work, it makes things very unfun for all your opponents, of which you will have multiple. A good example of a card made for multiplayer but which is just not balanced properly for it.

#mtg

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devilcat3d · 2 years ago

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What's your favorite Commander for MTG

Also would you Fuck Elesh Norn?

first things first lets address the elephant in the room,,,, i would fuck the shit out of elesh norn. i feel like there has been lots of effort by wizards lately to make her almost seem like a motherly figure, and despite that taking the form of her wanting to compleat the entire multiverse and slowly assimilate all beings into her fucked up little world i bet she would absolutely be so good at soft domming me. like hiiiiiii elesh please compleat me and call me a good girl and praise me for following your will so well....

ehem erm um anyway

my favorite commander!!!!

this one is a little hard to pin down as i just have so many decks and i play a new one almost every time i play, but i would have to say its probably between a few. namely

ojer axonil, deepest might - this guy is like mono red burn turned up to 11. this card if allowed to stick fucking decimates life totals and let's you play all the shitty little throw 1 damage at each opponent cards and its a really fun strategy i highly reccomend it.

ukkima, stalking shadow - yep. just ukkima. this deck is not running the green partner so as to not dilute the deck. this is a dimir voltron deck where the deck has ukkima as its only creature and is packed to the brim with interaction, such as blink spells, counterspells, and bounce spells, which allow me to protect ukkima until i can win with commander damage. i only play this deck when i really want to win because it is a nightmare to play against and is one of my more controlly decks.

gandalf the white - i have written an entire post about this guy on my sideblog @devilkittydeckbuilding so i wont go too in depth here but its a mono white group hug deck that actually kills people out of nowhere pretty fast. the whole point is to get a wedding ring on each player and marry the whole table, which leads to decks getting milled out pretty fast lmao. i milled out my gf last time i played the deck because she had two wedding rings, i had a smothering tithe out and every card draw spell i played was making everyone draw cards which gave me more mana with the tithe which let me play more card draw spells and i just milled out one player and moonshaker calvalry'ed the other player. the deck is wild if you can stand giving your opponents a few cards >;3

i also just built a really cool niv-mizzet, supreme "control" deck and that's one im excited to play again!!!!

thanks for the ask!!!!

#mtg #magic the gathering

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markrosewater · 1 year ago

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Happy birthday, Mark.

My story just happened a few weeks ago. I convinced some friends to play PleasantKenobi’s party-in-a-box. I’ve put the power9 in as proxies. So, we start and player 3 casts pearl mox on his first turn. No land drop yet. Player 1 says: I’ve got a response. P3: oh? P1: yeah. Mana tithe. Do you pay 1? Now, the disbelief on his face was hilarious. He looks at his board to tap his land, only to realize he hadn’t dropped his land yet. The rest of us start laughing. He starts negotiating. P3: come on, i’ve never played a mox before. Please, don’t. P1 just deadpanned : do you pay the one? Nothing but laughter and heckling the next 10 minutes before we let P3 proceed to his land drop and finish his turn. But he did win the game in the end.

: )

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favoritemtgcard · 8 months ago

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Mana Tithe.

It's always just really funny on the rare occasion where I get to play a non-blue deck but still get the satisfaction of Mana Leaking them (albeit with a shittier, weaker Mana Leak) while they sit there looking like

I've done it multiple times and it's always funny.

Mana Tithe

#favoritemtgcard #favoritemtgcard nominations

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elspeth-tirel · 2 years ago

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FMK Mana Tithe, Lapse of Certainty, Rebuff the Wicked

Ah good old me and the color pie break

Fuck Mana Tithe

Marry Lapse of Certainty

Kill Rebuff the Wicked, sorry Catholics

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niuttuc · 2 years ago

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New “budget” Commander cards: Lord of the Rings: Multicolor, part 2

Alright, multicolor is in two parts. This one will focus on legendary creatures specifically, because there are SO MANY. Even in two parts, this will be the longest of these, so I'll put part of it under a read more. We'll also be avoiding cards that have one specific home that's written on it in bold. Yes, Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant wants to be in an abzan lifegain deck or helm one, with plenty of small lifegain, but that's pretty obvious upon reading the card.

You know these by now, we'll go color by color, mixing main set and commander set. Reprints can be included if they brought the price down under our bar. All the cards presented here are under $2 at time of writing. Cards will be evaluated as part of the 99, though given that today is only legendary creatures, there might be short mention of their potential role as a commander.

Let's start with these four to get them out of the way. While none of them are great cards on their own in the 99, they have some very important text that is ONLY relevant in the 99. Their partner with ability allows them to tutor the other half from your deck when it enters the battlefield, meaning each of them have an extra "when this etb, draw half a card" on them, which can make them quite a bit more interesting. Frodo is just a bit of card draw for a lifegain deck, Sam is a steady supply of artifact tokens, Pippin can be a good finisher, but you need more than just himself as food production, and Merry turns all your clues, treasures and food into actual creature tokens. Merry is particularly good if you got ways to generate those tokens on opposing turns too, say, a Smothering Tithe.

Speaking of Food production, this Sam here is probably the best Food production ever printed, and a good way to make use of them too. Getting free food with any creature, Lonis-style is quite strong, particularly coupled with the ability to use it to recur any artifact or legend. While the Food is inherently less strong than Lonis's clues, the free repeatable ability here is better, but a deck that needs to turn creatures into artifact tokens will likely play them both if they can.

Of note, if you're in abzan, Samwise goes infinite and kills the table with a Cauldron Familiar and a free sacrifice outlet. Good to know!

While not as strong in multiplayer, the Monarchy is still plenty good, and more importantly fun. Introducing the monarchy spices up a game, and Aragorn is excellent at doing so, and more importantly reclaiming it. He's a variation on Keeper of Keys, a fun but not too great card mostly because it's very all or nothing on having the monarch. Aragorn's Vigilance helps defend the monarchy, his lifelink helps you survive if your opponents keep taking it back with an evasive creature, and his last ability helps you reclaim the monarchy yourself or gives you a pretty big advantage if you manage to defend it. All around, a great card for a great king, most decks won't have access to all three colors to run him, but if you do, give him a shot, even if you aren't a dedicated monarch deck.

Also it's a jeskai commander that's strong but not broken nor shoehorned into a narrow theme! Those are very rare, so hurray!

Turning creatures dying into ramp for free every turn on 3? Yeah, I can think of a few golgari decks that'd want that. If you're a Golgari deck that's sacrificing creatures, this is a great creature option.

Mother of runes is still an excellent option to this day. While requiring one more mana and color is infinitely more restrictive, Pippin is also a much better card at progressing the game, being able to attack as a 2/2 and activate nonetheless, and make creatures completely unblockable by himself, something Mother of Runes struggles with. His brand of card type protection will also lead to some less awkward moments in voltron decks, that could lose their equipments or auras when Mother of Runes protected them from a removal of the same color. Overall, I'd put Pippin here above Skrelv (if you have the colors) on the Mother of Runes list.

Talrand effects are always nice to see, and while this one is more restricted in homes, triggering from any noncreature is pretty nice. In practice though, it's likely the other way around, having more creatures means you get access to this effect in the command zone with access to the three main spellslinging colors. Stacking the counters on a single token is not the greatest though, you'll probably want something to make use of that.

That's... A lot of tokens. And on a creature ETB? Oh boy. Those X spells are usually on instants and sorceries (with a couple enchantment and battle ETBs). In Selesnya, putting it on a creature, a legendary one at that, makes it infinitely easier to find and to use and reuse. Ideally, you'd want a way to make use of the food, but honestly? You don't even need one.

A free chaos wand activation every turn? I don't care that it isn't actually all that good, it's fun! Gimme those spells!

I kept looking for the "until Éowyn leaves the battlefield" on this one, but it just isn't here. A permanent exiling removal on etb on a 3/4 haste that also makes all your legends unblockable by that player for the turn? Play her, blink her, keep anything big off the table. The only "issue" is that she won't snipe things with 3 power of less which are... Probably the most common creatures in commander. With that said, I doubt you'll have a hard time finding big creatures to exile forever at a typical commander table.

Permanently stealing creatures from all opponents or buffing your entire team, either way you're getting way more than a 5 mana etb on a creature is supposed to give you. This is strong enough that people will likely discuss their "secret" vote to give you the least they can, but... This is on a creature ETB for some reason. For only five mana. Play him, blink him, bring him back with Eternal Witness, and let the table try and stop you.

Of note, if a player has no creatures, they can vote for Fellowship without giving you anything. Still, it's probably still worth the five mana.

This Balrog is definitely not the strongest card in the set, but between fetchlands, treasures, plaguecrafters and altars, this can come down often as a four drop or less in some decks. Commander isn't the most aggressive format, but an early 7/5 with haste that people will have to commit real cards to chump and punishes whoever removes it will still put a lot of pressure on a game.

Etb or attacks to draw a card is a pretty good rate. If you can consistently draw a card every time with this, consider it, though artifact decks would likely prefer something else in this slot, non-artifact support cards are short in slots in those decks. Still, Humans are by far the most common creatures in the game.

An uncommon for once! This is neither the best way to generate tokens nor the best way to sacrifice them. But having both on a single card is definitely of interest to aristocrat decks that are plenty in Orzhov, being able to fuel both halves of your engine poorly in a single card makes sure you can always at least pull yourself along.

The Galadriel that fits the same theme isn't here because she's more straightforward and about scrying. With that said, this Elrond can technically be run in any +1/+1 counter deck for the second ability alone, and a 4/4 body for 4 behind the ability is nothing to scoff at. You'll often have some incidental scrying too, I guess, but some decks won't care and can run him either way.

Shelob is a HUGE creature that's annoying to remove and annoying to chump block. She has spider text but don't get too hung up on that, even if she's the only Spider in the deck, she'll still do work. In decks built around fight spells or lures, she'll shine even brighter, but even just big monster decks will gladly take a 6 mana 8/8 with a lot of upside.

Of note, because of her exact wording, her last ability will even make Food out of tokens she kills, unlike someone like Myrkul.

The monarchy is strong. ETB damage to any target is strong. Double Strike is strong. Éomer does so much, I'd consider running him with zero other humans in the deck. He'd probably not make the cut, but in practice, as long as you have at least a single other human on the field when he lands (or any form of anthem or cathar crusade), he'll do enough to be worth the five mana. Seriously, a card draw and a removal and a double striking body is A LOT. And the damage can even go face, which will give you some cheeky kills.

That's a lot of text to say everyone draws a card unless they give a card away to put a permanent on the battefield... With some extra mind games in there. Every turn, at the least, because he triggers again on attacks. Is this good? Probably not, but I love the minigame here.

A novel way to doubling your counters, now you also get to copy all of Aragorn's counters to the rest of your board. The ring text can be mostly ignored as part of the 99. Some counter decks might want this? He really likes counters that move around, and can allow you to go tall on two creatures instead of one.

A repeatable way to get the monarchy without ever having to attack, that'll generate at least two 1/1s every time? Yeah, that's quite a solid 3-drop if you can trigger him. You do want to trigger him consistently though, but just your commander being a 4 drop creature is probably enough for that.

Phew, so many legends, and we didn't even cover a fourth of them!

#mtg #commander #edh #sleeper #lotr #lord of the rings #multicolor #ltr #ltc #part 2

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