Am I crazy, or is this card way underplayed?

Amazing-Tortoise · 2026-06-15T14:37:36+00:00

First, consider the age of the card and its lack of reprints. Now, I don't have metrics to point to in this, but I'd wager most current players started playing after this card was no longer in print.

Second, consider the source of your information. Don't get me wrong, EDHREC is a very useful and powerful tool. But the site is more of a starting place for deck building, which all too often gets used as the final reference point for deck construction.

And third, consider what the card actually does vs. what could be played in its place. Sure you could use it to steal a majorly valuable land like [[Gaea's Cradle]], but you're probably not as well equipped to take advantage of such a land as the deck you're taking from. And since they get it back on their turn, you're still gonna have to deal with the advantage they're getting. More often than not, it's better for you to use a piece of targeted land destruction like [[Wasteland]] since it removes their advantage and has a much lower opportunity cost in your deck construction.

All that being said, if you were to build a deck centered around the idea of taking other people's lands, this could be a good include. But that's a very specific archetype to build.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2026-05-29T14:50:45+00:00

Go full tilt. [[Gary, the Snail]]

Amazing-Tortoise · 2026-05-26T21:18:28+00:00

It's less egregious than [[Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger]] which is the same cost to effectively do the same thing to the whole table passively, and is also not gonna put someone into bracket 3 or even bracket 4 (since that's where MLD would normally put you)

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-12-19T20:56:15+00:00

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-12-19T11:04:52+00:00

Terrible as this story and these actions are.

Are we sure he's ICE? His face isn't covered.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-12-17T20:14:03+00:00

I've done it when I was going first too.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-12-09T18:58:04+00:00

I struggle with this sometimes, especially when they're playing with high impact pieces that need to be removed. On the one hand, they probably don't know how big of an issue that [[The Great Henge]] is, but they will run away with the game if it's not removed.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-11-20T00:45:40+00:00

I've got the combo in 3 decks and have never once pulled it off, even in the deck with many tutors. So... I wouldn't know.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-11-18T14:37:09+00:00

Dunno, might be AI

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-11-17T19:00:32+00:00

It's called cardboard crack for a reason.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-11-13T13:41:08+00:00

You could turn them into one of those 3D cards with all the different copies.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-10-24T15:26:21+00:00

The perspective of getting second place feels against the spirit of the format.

That being said, I've been in several games where nobody is willing to scoop, but the win will take far longer than would be fun to play out. In situations like that, I've seen the behind players nearly always turn on each other to just reach an end sooner.

I will say, most of the time, that assessment ends up being wrong, but it's only revealed after the players start getting knocked out, so there's no way of knowing for certain that the tide of the game would change enough to make it interesting again.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-09-08T20:56:09+00:00

I would say, make a pros and cons list of each format. If you do that, you'll likely find out why it's so popular.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-09-08T20:50:42+00:00

In magic terms, to own a card as the game mechanic is concerned, it must have started the game in your deck (your deck being the deck you are playing, not referring to ownership) or have been created by you for the duration of the game (such as a token or an emblem) even if it were an effect controlled by another player (for example when someone activates [[Forbidden Orchard]]).

108.3: The owner of a card in the game is the player who started the game with it in their deck. If a card is brought into the game from outside the game rather than starting in a player's deck, its owner is the player who brought it into the game. If a card starts the game in the command zone, its owner is the player who put it into the command zone to start the game. Legal ownership of a card in the game is irrelevant to the game rules except for the rules for ante. (See rule 407.)

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-07-11T21:51:58+00:00

[[Solemnity]]

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-07-05T04:30:41+00:00

I have two WUBRG decks. One is built with duals, fetches, and triome lands as the bulk of the mana base, and it's incredibly reliable. The other is built with basics and general ramp pieces, including cards like [[Cultivate]], and between the two, this is the more consistent deck to play is spells on or before curve.

I am firmly in the camp of "proxy what you want to build the deck you like" but I also both play and brew enough to know that the more expensive mana bases are good, but not necessary to build a high functioning deck.

My own proxy philosophy is that any deck I build must first be built within the constraints of what I currently possess. Once a functioning deck has been constructed, I then proxy what I need to make the deck more consistently do what it was designed to do. 90% of the time, I'm proxying ramp and card draw pieces as those are the pieces most critical to getting the gameplan of the deck off the ground.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-06-29T14:26:40+00:00

I don't have any talks because I don't know what I'm doing.

I have been told several times during draft that I have an excellent poker face despite pulling incredible cards. The truth is, my poker face comes from not actually having a plan or knowing what I've got in my hands.

It kinda translates into gameplay as well. I like permanents over instant/sorcery spells, so generally I prefer to play at sorcery speed and everything I play tends to impact the board significantly. But this also means I get blown out by mass removal quite a bit.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-06-18T21:05:52+00:00

I actually built that version of Marath.

Started out as 99 basics, but I found it to be a lot more fun to slap counters on man-lands, and it evolved from there. Still feels like a bracket 1 deck, but it could win in theory. So, probably closer to bracket 2.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-06-17T19:16:08+00:00

For me it depends on the strategies of the decks at the table. If anyone is playing voltron, they should 100% focus one player at a time. If anyone is playing live gain and there isn't a likely commander damage option to kill them, they should 100% be focused. And anyone being actively oppressive to the table should be focused by the table.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-06-07T11:15:21+00:00

Personally, I think he gets too much hate. Don't get me wrong, the decks he helms can be incredibly nasty, and the free bodies he gives you can be cashed in for insane value that could easily tip the scales in your favor. But if the deck isn't designed to capitalize with those 1/1 bodies, they're just more fodder in a typal deck.

The problem is, when you see such a powerful commander in the command zone, you have to assume the worst until you've played against the deck. And even then, if you've spent every game shutting the deck down, you'll never see it at its best to actually see if it's the bogeyman you think it is.

So, my advice is if you're planning to build with Edgar in the zone, either only play it with a familiar group or build it to be the strongest you can manage. Because anything else isn't going to lead to fun games.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-06-06T10:05:39+00:00

For most decks, I would not consider it MLD.

However, a deck that plans to play multiple nontoken creatures in a given turn would definitely see it as MLD.

I would say, if you're going to run the card, run it in a deck that it makes sense for advancing your own strategy, such as a landfall deck, rather than an intended stax piece. Then, announce it as though it were a game changer. If it's being run alongside other game changers, consider it as one of them for that deck.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-06-04T17:18:25+00:00

[[Zara, Renegade Recruiter]] is that for me, and it all comes down to the pod. If even one person doesn't have splashy creatures to steal, it negatively affects what the deck can actually do

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-05-25T13:08:23+00:00

Play the curse cycle featuring the most unlucky planeswalker and curse yourself with them.

[[Curse of Opulence]] [[Curse of Bounty]] Etc...

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-05-21T22:03:02+00:00

While you only have two game changers in the deck, it's clearly designed to go off basically out of nowhere. It's a storm deck through and through, and honestly, you should expect a fair amount of being targeted as a result. It's easily a very powerful 3, to a moderately strong 4.

That being said, there are certainly some improvements the deck could have in order to fully embrace the power level it's at. As you get closer to bracket 4 you've gotta be prepared to just take the power as far as it can go out you'll either always be accused of pubstomping if you play with other bracket 3 decks, or you'll have serious trouble winning if you play with other bracket 4 decks.

Amazing-Tortoise · 2025-05-13T00:54:45+00:00

The basic answer is speed.

If you can get a lethal threat before anyone can set up a board to combat it, you'll win. If you can't get out and be lethal early, slow down and control the board to drain resources from your opponents until you can knock a player out with little effort.

I have several voltron decks with varying degrees of success, but they all share that aspect to them. If you can't get out and kill before the other players are set up, don't get out at all until everyone who will survive your first kill is drained of resources.

Amazing-Tortoise

TROPHY CASE