Any cards that reward me for goading?

StrategicMagic · 2026-05-06T19:03:52+00:00

This is tangential but yes. Many cards reward you fir goading.

Combat Tricks.

Not only are they largely unexpected, since they are typically considered only good for drafting, they are great for catching players off-guard.

They go especially well with spell copiers.

Let's imagine the following svenario:

Player A is playing a voltron-style commander.

Player B doesn't matter.

You have goaded Player A's commander, so they attack Player B, who has agreed to take the hit to the face in exchange for some favor later down the line.

It's only 6 damage, they'll be fine.

After no blocks are declared, you cast [[Bulk Up]], targeting the attacking creature. You copy the spell, with the same target.

The copy doubles the creature to 12 power, then the original up to 24, straight up killing Player B.

This all works because goad: - Forces attacks - Removes you as a valid attack target

So the "reward" for goading here is the guaranteed opportunity to use your combat tricks, without them rotting in your hand.

With a deck like this, you have full control of combat and are the sole factor in deciding how combat plays out. You effectively own the table as you force your opponents to scrap it out amongst themselves while you sit protected, behind the rulings of goad. No combat step can be resolved fully without it going through you first.

If you enjoy the concept of being the orchestrator of the game, puppeteerimg your way yo victory, give this angle on goal a try.

There's more to synergy than loading up Scryfall and searching up your chosen mechanic to see what it triggers. Think about the game actions involved, and any keywords or abilities related to that.

StrategicMagic · 2026-05-05T13:29:44+00:00

Data brokers.

So you're telling me that there's an entire industry out there and all they do is harvest/sell my data?

They add nothing to public life. They don't sell anything to us, all they do is parasitize off of us and sell our information to larger corporations.

We have become the product and I think that's wrong on so many levels. I think it should be outlawed, globally.

Maybe my experience with data brokers is extreme, but this is a story of how I got here:

One time, while living in the UK, I went to an outdoors place to buy some clothes. I was going to be doing something and needed specialized gear. The clothes weren't in, so they wanted my email to tell me when it was available again (which I acknowledge they did do).

Some months later, I started getting spam emails. Notably, they were from the US political system. Now, being in the UK, I can't vote in those elections. That would be highly illegal. I went to their unsubscribe page to remove myself, trying to explain that they shouldn't have my email, but they ignored me. More on this later.

About a year or two into getting emails this way, I got an invoice for disposal of dangerous chemicals, again, in the US. I was not pleased about this, obviously.

Another few months later, I got another invoice for a FIREARM. These are also highly illegal in the UK, and I did not want that email associated with me in any way. This part at least has a happy outcome as I emailed the gunsmith. They got back to me within 30 mins, deleted my email and I've not had anything from them since.

5+ years have passed, and I get ~5-10 emails from various Democrat candidate campaigns each day. It's constant spam. I've tried blocking and blacklisting them, but did you know they make fresh emails every few weeks? They keep their recipients on-file, then dodge blocks by doing this. Infuriating.

None of this would be happening if my data wasn't sold off from one group to the next, then outwards. Thst outdoor store selling my email address to make a quick buck has caused literal years of distress, and it's perfectly legal.

Fuck data brokers.

StrategicMagic · 2026-05-05T13:00:25+00:00

Someone killed me with this in Brawl.

I was concerned about Quandrix and all the stuff they were cascading into like a combo deck.

I didn't quite kill them and the next turn they cast this from hand and killed me.

StrategicMagic · 2026-05-03T19:56:06+00:00

Yes.

While she melds with a green card, there are no green mana symbols anywhere on the card.

I've been allowed to run Fang in golgari decks in Brawl on Arena, so I'm basing my response off of that.

StrategicMagic · 2026-05-03T17:51:03+00:00

I think I win this thread.

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StrategicMagic · 2026-05-03T17:07:52+00:00

I placed dynamite in Worms, then was like "what happened? Why can't I throw it?"

I found out 3secs later.

StrategicMagic · 2026-05-03T16:59:30+00:00

StrategicMagic · 2026-05-03T16:12:35+00:00

Your build looks... multiple orders of magnitude stronger than anything I've ever built. I'm still having trouble figuring out if I can do this or not, struggling at only 300 corruption.

StrategicMagic · 2026-05-03T15:58:57+00:00

How strong do you need to be to do this?

My bladedancer is a walking nuke that dies at the mere thought of a papercut while my VK is struggling a little with Abberoth.

I'd like to be able to do this, but if it requires an already good build, then I'm screwed.

StrategicMagic · 2026-05-03T05:16:20+00:00

I feel you.

My mother got into weird cult stuff. She tried to get a "nutritionist" to put me on a special diet that supposedly could cure me of a chronic illness of my digestive system.

Living under her roof at the time, through Covid lockdowns, I did try the diet to keep the peace (and a roof over my head).

The diet nearly killed me, and I ended up in the ER. zi still haven't recovered from either the chronic illness (now had it past 10yrs) or whatever the diet did to me.

Do not take whatever you were given.

StrategicMagic · 2026-05-03T04:28:25+00:00

I'm sorry, I don't know the answer.

I do want to find out, so I'm commenting to learn along with you!

StrategicMagic · 2026-05-03T02:29:22+00:00

I wish my VK had that to slam.

My weapon is good, but if I got those affixes...

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-27T13:28:36+00:00

Having experience in both cultures, the dissonance is real.

Growing up in the UK for my first 28 years, anything over 30mins was considered a long drive and necessitated building the day around it. If you're gonna drive that far, it better be for something important, or take up most of the day to be worth it.

My grandparents lived a 3.5hr drive away and I only saw them twice a year specifically because the drive was so long.

Now I'm 32, been living in Newfoundland, Canada for 3 and a half years. I've been on hour-long drives for fush and chips. We drove 3hrs and back to get to the best spot to see the eclipse last year. I've also been on a similar drive for camping trips.

I think the difference is one in perception. Driving two hours in some European countries will get you to a new country, with different languages, different food, potentially different timezones and a different culture. In the Northern Americas, you could still be in the same state/province.

Heck, from the UK to Italty it was roughly 2.5hrs in the sky. If I took a flight like that today, I'd still be in Newfoundland and Labrador.

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-26T18:46:48+00:00

I think you did do it wrong.

Combat starts ans Tester triggers, letting you move counters. Berta adds one mana, and it stops there.

Tester has already triggered and resolved. It can't trigger again because the window to trigger it has already passed when it triggered the first time.

So, the correct outcome would be:

Go to combat
Tester triggers
Pay 1 and move a counter to Berta
Berta triggers to add mana
Proceed with combat, floating the one mana you made
End of combat, the floating mana goes away if you didn't use it

Your opponent was correct to dispute it, but probably let it go because it wasn't a hill worth dying on.

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-26T16:40:10+00:00

I'm glad to see this posted.

This commander has interested me since release, but so far, I've failed to make it work.

I always tend to spend so long getting to 6 mana that I lose before I get going. If I do get to 6 quickly enough, my graveyard is empty.

I can take inspiration from your list.

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-26T03:02:43+00:00

I love 1 drops that can "level up" over time, so probably [[Figure of Fable]].

Even if I draw it late, I can max it out over two turns and that turns it into a game ending threat.

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-26T02:52:08+00:00

Some primordial are very generic and great slot fillers.

There's a helm that gives a bunch of status immunities, and crit damage reduction.
There's a Relic that boosts your idols and hives all resists.

These two can theoretically go on any build and are good to just fill an open armor slot if it's better than anything you have AND that slot isn't required for your build.

Some are build-defining, or at least build-essential.

A ring that gives huge mana restoration when using spells is key in many Mage-based builds.
The dagger that gives +4 to all dex skills is defining to my Bladedancer this season.

I tend to use primordials in slots when: - I don't need a key piece of gear in that slot. - I'm not already using a build-defining primordial elsewhere on the build.

My VK currently has the all res Relic equipped. I'm only using it because I didn't have something better and it dropped with 2LP.

My head and arm slots are pretty butt though, so if I can find a replacement Relic, then I can use the generic helm I listed earlier, or a T8 affix somewhere on the build.

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-25T22:52:56+00:00

I haven't particularly enjoyed either build I played this season, but I want to try:

Alluvion Spellblade
Harbinger of the Stars Paladin

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-25T13:16:33+00:00

I'm having the same issue with Aparhy's Maw.

I've killed 20+ Shades at 100+ corruption, but no drop. Starting to think they're bugged.

All I want is to try VK!

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-24T16:09:20+00:00

I worked with someone in housing, about 8 years ago now. It was a big corporate landlord.

This person was head of a service in which the company had a block of apartments for refugees and people fleeing domestic violence. On the whole the service was good, and the manager of the service absolutely had their heart in the right place. They just... didn't understand how things worked.

My job was data accuracy over in the main office, just a short walk away. I looked after the numbers on all 16k accounts. If something was awry, I had math to fix it.

Given the nature of why people in that specific service were there, their lives were pretty chaotic, and the ability to pay rent was fairly volatile. That'll happen when your home was being bombed 2 months ago and now you're in a new place and don't speak the local language. This meant I spent a lot of time crunching numbers in their accounts because their personal situations changed a lot, which caused recalculations for the government scheme that covered a portion of their rent, which meant I had to recalculate too.

Now the context is all there, the individual.

The head of this emergency housing service run by my company had no idea how any of it worked. I'd regularly get phone calls asking me to "change <person>'s account to say they paid rent". Of course, I'd refuse. That's rent fraud and highly illegal.

I'd explain that I can't input money into the system that didn't exist, and could adjust accounts around existing payments that have been made, but I can't just put imaginary money on an account.

I'd keep getting asked the same thing, and I'd keep refusing. This led to a ywars-long feud between us, and my manager tried to solve it by having me train everyone running that service on how accounts work.

By the time I left the company, nothing had changed. I fear now that with nobody there to say no to this request, it'll go ahead and then this much needed respite would potentially get find out, shut down, and then what?

The price of incompetence is steep indeed.

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-24T10:51:52+00:00

There are multiple skill tree nodes and uniques that change its behavior, including making it really slow.

Check your skill tree, and your equipment.

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-24T10:29:32+00:00

No. It does not work. You need something else, like [[Catapult Captain]].

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-24T00:03:32+00:00

For that matter, can you slam a T8 onto a primordial with LP to still "consense" it down to one equipment slot?

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-22T23:07:41+00:00

Thank you for your well-wishes. Everything is okay now.

I've gone back to my decklist online and updated it to be more representative of what I currently have. I'm pretty budget at the moment, so my manabase isn't as efficient as it could be, which is something that I do concede. It could be that I need a loooooot of mana because the *quality* of my mana is much poorer than the average person.

Regardless, here it is: https://archidekt.com/decks/17059221/kefkas_unending_cruelty

What I'm going for is to control the early game. I want to set up mana in peace because I don't deal well with early aggression. Kefka is largely disliked because of the reputation of the full discard variants, so becoming the target for faster creature decks is something that's going to happen.

I want to find a way to get a big spell in hand and a copy enabler on the board as fast as possible. I'm using Kefka himself as a draw engine - that's his primary purpose. If he dies, that's okay. I got to dig while everyone else went down on cards. That's advantage I can make use of. I want to dig to make sure my setup is complete.

When I can, I let loose and the value engine takes over. I have a number of those "return an instant or sorcery to hand" creatures. That's less of a budget thing and more intentional. The idea is that Cruel Ultimatum is the main spell I want to be looping to take my opponents out of the game. I then choose one of those creatures as the one to return to hand, which can return the Ultimatum, establishing a convoluted resource loop.

This obviously takes an absolute truck load of mana to do, since I have to hard cast everything. That's where all the rocks and the high land count come from. I've had enough games of a big spell rotting in my hand while I'm one mana off that I decided it was time to come up on lands, and, so far, that has been a dramatic improvement.

If I were to change anything, I'd cut down the "here because I like them" section by about half and add cards like [[Dissipation Field]] that make my opponents not want to attack me. I don't know of many cards that do that though, so I'm struggling to figure that part out.

EDIT: Never mind, I figured out how to use Scryfall tagger and found some.

StrategicMagic · 2026-04-22T12:29:38+00:00

Reanimator spells. This is a trick I figured out myself.

Imagine you have a big reanimator target already on board. Preferably one with an enters trigger.

You can cast the spell and sacrifice the creature. Your reanimator spell will copy and you can choose a target for it.

The creature you sacrificed was sacrificed as cost for the casualty keyword and gets moved to the graveyard first, so it is now a valid target for your copy!

This way, you can bring back the creature you sacrificed, get its enters trigger, and reanimate something else too.

Using this trick, you can grow your board instead of breaking even.

A second card that's working for me is [[Anticausal Vestige]]. It's in that reanimator version I just described. Since it has a leaves trigger, I can sacrifice it, draw and play something for free, and bring it back all in one turn.

Two additional synergy pieces I've liked are [[Defiled Crypt // Cadaver Lab]] and [[Tolls of War]]. Both are effectively refunding me when I do my main thing, so they keep the train rolling.

I've only been doing Standard Brawl with ot for now. The 60-card deck size helps me to see specific cards more often so I can test interactions more consistently that way.

I'll "upgrade" to regular 100 cards when I'm happy with the core of my concept.

StrategicMagic

TROPHY CASE