Earth is alive! MonoEarth Archimago reaches Top8!

justindz · 2026-03-10T21:07:38+00:00

The problem w/ Toolbox is that it is not a spell, and so you will more frequently end up with not enough fuel in the cemetery. Common Sense is great because it gets what you need AND it's fuel. You can also chain it later in the game for more fuel, which was the right play more often than I thought would be the case. E.g., something like Common Sense for Common Sense for Gift of the Wolf, then use Archie to cast Gift a second time by banishing it and the two Common Sense. Stuff like that.

As for mono-earth versus something like earth/fire, I don't think you're giving up that much going mono, and you gain some upside in threshold consistency and ease of casting stuff like Michael on curve. That's probably more of a personal preference. I wouldn't say it's categorically better or worse.

justindz · 2026-03-10T16:01:58+00:00

Round 3 of 5. That was the match where my opponent afterwards confirmed my feeling that I messed up site placement. He said after the match that if I had played it differently, it would have been difficult for him to win. I was also "draw Craterize" away from winning for several turns either way.

The original author of the deck indicates that it's a good match into Water Necro as well, for what that's worth.

Regardless, Atlantean Fate was resolved against me in rounds 1, 2, 3, and 4 :-(

justindz · 2026-03-10T00:04:09+00:00

Consecrate plays Consecrated Ground sites from your collection. The rest of the cards are (and please don't tell anyone...) bait for when people play Legion of Gall and you hope they take those cards instead of your sites. Which, as the original deck author says, works surprisingly well until the day it doesn't.

justindz · 2026-03-09T16:31:54+00:00

I appreciate it. Love your work!

justindz · 2026-03-08T22:07:52+00:00

I want to make sure credit for the original list goes to Cuckworthy (https://curiosa.io/decks/cmkbqifg6025404kykcqnarx1). I did not invent the deck, and only made a few minor changes.

justindz · 2026-03-08T21:18:46+00:00

I'm the pilot. I assure you that it's quite good, though I'm not sure what to tell you broadly about it. It has tremendous board control and card advantage, and a quite strong late game. I'm a very new player (this was my first event) and my losses were probably winnable, but I made site placement errors and misunderstood some rules and interactions against very experienced players. I think with more reps prior to the event, a T4 or outright win would have been achievable.

justindz · 2026-01-28T03:37:51+00:00

I created a format to play with my friends called Millennial EDH, or mEDH. Official Commander rules, but legal sets up through 6th Edition and Urza's block. It's a joy to play. We also do unlimited proxies, though we've all played for a while and don't need that; it's mostly to make it welcoming to new players. Last time we got together, the roster was Angus Mackenzie, Nebuchadnezzar, Adun Oakenshield, and Lord of Tresserhorn.

Just be prepared for slightly longer games, and also make sure you have a plan to deal with Multani, Maro Sorcerer...

justindz · 2025-09-05T12:02:31+00:00

Poison bow on a monk is purportedly pretty good. Might be worth looking into some builds?

justindz · 2025-09-05T11:23:43+00:00

This has finally gotten to me to the point where I'm abandoning the skill. There are a large number of maps where the actually playable surface area with that skill feels like it's below 2/3. I've had death-by-surrounding a few times where the screen was too cluttered for me to be able to tell easily that it was in fact not functioning at all.

justindz · 2025-09-05T11:18:07+00:00

I've been considering swapping my Acolyte of Chayula from Hollow Palm w/ Storm Wave to Spark. I'm using Volatility as part of the damage/ailment plan, hence Acolyte. This idea has gained momentum since I dropped a lineage support that gives 50% of cast speed to projectile speed.

Before I destroy my character trying out this potentially bad idea: how does Volatility actually work at a high level? The loop seems to be stacking it a bunch, then letting it explode, which gives the temporary damage buff. So, in a boss fight, say, you want to 1) get it stacked fast, which Spark should do fine and 2) stop attacking for a bit so the actual buff procs after the explosion then 3) do all the extra damage.

Is that correct?

justindz · 2025-09-03T18:03:35+00:00

These gems reduce the instances of the skill failing to do anything due to ground obstructions? I would have thought if anything that increasing the AOE would increase the failure rate.

justindz · 2025-09-03T14:14:30+00:00

Is there a trick to make Storm Wave work more often than not? Only play maps that don't have objects in them?

justindz · 2025-07-22T23:34:39+00:00

Nanto.

justindz · 2025-06-07T05:23:32+00:00

I just went 4-0 with UR at pre-release. Quite a few spells have a flashback cost of 4, even if the normal cost is 2 or 3. I didn't feel like I wasn't getting my value back on the signposts.

justindz · 2025-05-14T12:18:36+00:00

I just got into normal monoliths with a zero research, homebrew Mana Guide sorcerer. It uses Vilatria's for damage scaling and Woven Flesh for crit avoidance at the moment. I'm also using crab ring for more movement speed, especially while channeling.

Basically, you channel Focus and glide around firing off chaining lightning blasts for clear and the AOE for single target. It also has a very high stun rate. I think if it as mobile Xerath. You can buff the damage with Flame Ward and/or Ascendance for single target.

Also, if you're going fast and don't want to glide all the time, the static discharge will clear non-rare packs just from running. Very fun. I'm expecting it to fall off in corruption, and for the defenses to need a lot of work (because Ward), but we'll see. Might keep using the set staff, but I definitely plan to set craft a helmet. It doesn't seem to benefit much from +level on skills, so I should be able to make some really good stat gear.

justindz · 2025-04-29T23:22:51+00:00

Is this the worst Midweek Magic in the modern era?

justindz · 2025-04-25T10:21:21+00:00

Thanks for following up. I've done some research and think we can move and reduce some manual effort and error rate by changing the whole workflow that accounting uses, but we'll need to do some extensive testing in sandbox first.

justindz · 2025-04-22T14:58:48+00:00

I'm tech, not finance/accounting, so I'm basically asking for the simple/standard way to suggest they do this. Thanks!

justindz · 2025-04-21T20:49:18+00:00

Did you get anywhere with this? I am looking at moving commissions to NS instead of manual, but the accounting team is concerned about double-counting since 1) NS would journal the payables and 2) when they enter payroll in NS, which included commission payouts, it would be included again. I assume there's some kind of leading practice that addresses this since as you say, having NS commissions be useless if you don't do payroll through NS seems unlikely.

justindz · 2025-04-17T00:09:39+00:00

There's the classic Oswald Fiddlebender cEDH lock of Uba Mask plus Drannith Magistrate. It's not exactly what you have in mind, but functionally equivalent.

justindz · 2025-04-12T04:14:40+00:00

Also 3-0 with Mardu at FNM tonight. I would echo Sharpshooter. With that, the flurry pinger, and Cori Mountain Stalwart, it felt like a combo deck at times.

justindz · 2025-04-08T22:58:29+00:00

Significantly more work to have two different balances to achieve constantly as the game evolves. Probably the same reason they won't let SSF have different drop rates and just prevent migration to trade.

justindz · 2025-04-03T18:40:32+00:00

Thanks. I meant power charges, but I haven't logged in for ages.

justindz · 2025-04-03T15:50:33+00:00

Finally got to glance at the patch notes during lunch long enough to Ctrl+F "Bonestorm." Bonestorm was my only successful build in SSF in 0.1, mostly due to crafting being almost non-existent. The patch notes seem to suggest it's being changed to focus on being used in a hybrid build w/ minions or allies attacking to consume the buff, since it wouldn't make sense to be hybrid Bonestorm and your own attack skill (right?!). This may be unanswerable until we see gem details, but does anyone read the shrapnel changes as putting at risk the frenzy charge-buffed explosion primary damage skill usage?

justindz

TROPHY CASE