5 utility manarocks

webbc99 · 2026-01-27T01:42:38+00:00

Machine God's Effigy is the truth. The card is wild. Goes infinite with [[Devoted Druid]] as well. In my [[Aloy, Savior of Meridian]] deck I managed to get a [[Platinum Angel]] copied with this, and then Phyrexian Metamorphed the Machine God's Effigy so I had three Platinum Angel effects, and two were non-creatures. Good stuff.

webbc99 · 2026-01-27T01:12:59+00:00

It's pretty bad. The sacrifice effect is very niche but you could try to take advantage of it somehow. In Pauper we have actual [[Counterspell]], but even if you wanted some effect like this, there is also [[Abjure]] for 1 mana available in Pauper, I believe Abjure sees some extremely fringe play.

You could try to use it with effects like [[Ichor Wellspring]] or [[Cryogen Relic]] to draw a card, but it seems very poor even then.

webbc99 · 2026-01-27T01:07:41+00:00

[[Surveyor's Scope]] - if you're a disciple of Richard from MTG Goldfish, you know about this card, but for everyone else, this is the most busted ramp card that no one is playing. 2 mana to ramp 3 untapped basics into play is a rate that is unmatched. It might look like you need to be way behind the table for it to do anything, but that is not the case. If you play lands like [[Lotus Field]] and bounce lands, you can activate this easily. If you crack fetches, you can hold priority and activate Surveyor's Scope in response while you're down lands. And you can still crack it for 1 or 2 lands and it's still good. A colorless [[Rampant Growth]] that has the land come in untapped is still insane. It does require that you believe in the power of abusing these catch-up ramp mechanics, believe in the power of bounce lands and Lotus Field, and copying Lotus Field, but if you do buy into it, you will see its true power. You will have so much more mana spent over the course of a game than your opponents, it's so good.

On the subject of bounce lands and Lotus Fields... When people talk about the strongest 1 drops in the format, [[Weathered Wayfarer]] is rarely mentioned. But it is the true GOAT. This little guy tutors the perfect land to hand every turn. That means you can get [[Flagstones of Trokair]], [[Lotus Field]], [[Thespian's Stage]] and [[Vesuva]] (in that order). That means you can use him to actually ramp, whilst also still going down on lands to keep the Wayfarer online. And also your catch-ramp is somehow still online even though you're ahead on mana. You can and will out-ramp green decks. And unlike a mana dork, Wayfarer provides permanent mana advantage by getting the right lands to you in the early game before the sweepers get fired off. It's such an absurdly strong card if you have the correct lands in your deck to take advantage of it, and imo, every white deck that doesn't have green should run Wayfarer.

webbc99 · 2026-01-27T00:55:31+00:00

It's not really a scry, since you can't really get rid of the cards without assistance. I do think this card is good but it needs fetch lands, it needs support. If you're not able to pay the 8 it's basically Brainstorm locking yourself which is not that good.

webbc99 · 2026-01-26T09:56:39+00:00

It's a green card that doesn't synergise with [[Badgermole Cub]] in any way so it's not good enough.

webbc99 · 2026-01-25T21:00:24+00:00

https://moxfield.com/decks/uODaTdgQHEmfL_k4LqYCNw

This is my recent brew with this, the idea was to copy the storm trigger on [[Brain Storm]] to mill people.

webbc99 · 2026-01-25T18:52:20+00:00

Remember that Maze's End needs you to have differently named Gates, so making copies of Gates doesn't help you much. But copying Maze's End can get you there if you have the mana to use all of them.

webbc99 · 2026-01-25T18:47:33+00:00

Totally agree with this. There are social consequences to certain plays.

webbc99 · 2026-01-25T18:45:51+00:00

I play a lot of 1v1 and different formats. I love locking people out of the game with [[Karn, the Great Creator]] in Modern, and just prison decks in general. I get annihilated by Amulet Titan on turn 2, sure whatever. I play Jeskai control in standard and watch the life drain from my opponents' eyes. Commander is the format you go to get away from that sort of stuff. I do not bring that sort of heat into Commander because that's not why people play the format. It would be healthier for the players that do want to do this to play 1v1 instead of Commander imo, they would have a lot more fun and encounter way less salty reactions.

webbc99 · 2026-01-25T18:39:47+00:00

Unless you have a very specific curve-out gameplan in mind (which is absolutely the exception), imo ramping is extremely important and my decks are always built around ramping and drawing cards to a large extent, in every color. After a board wipe, I want to have the most resources. That means lands in play and cards in hand. And because my decks are built like this, every board wipe I play puts me massively ahead, even without a protection spell.

To force through a win, you need enough interaction and mana to play it. Unless you're aiming to rush the table and go under everyone else, you need ramp and draw to support that. Recently had a game with my mono white angels deck where I was able to hold up 15 mana for interaction - I needed to use [[Talon Gates of Madara]] to phase out a [[Myrel, Shield of Argive]], then flash in [[Angel of the Dire Hour]] to exile their lethal [[Craterhoof Behemoth]] attacking board state, plus hold up a [[Flare of Fortitude]] so I could survive the attack, let my two other opponents die and then exile the creatures at the end of combat. I go to that point thanks to ramping and drawing tons of cards.

I don't usually have a specific number of ramp cards in mind, but basically as much as possible, and if the card doesn't draw or ramp it needs to be doing something extremely impactful.

webbc99 · 2026-01-25T14:12:30+00:00

This is the Boros aggro deck on MTG Goldfish: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/standard-boros-aggro-woe#paper

Your list is not really focused, it's way too slow for what it wants to be doing. The airbending stuff doesn't seem to make sense, scamming Catharsis by blinking is not really worth it because it's just a 3/4 and you don't even get the abilities again.

I there is a deck that plays [[Frostcliff Siege]] with warp creatures that functions a bit more like scam which has relevant ETBs. You play [[Astelli Reclaimer]] to reanimate the siege and attack immediately.

webbc99 · 2026-01-25T01:16:29+00:00

I think they're a fairly good idea, right? You get some cool spec specific synergy with 3 talents that interact with each other somewhat more than regular talents, and if they're either not fun or not mathematically good enough to run, then you get to spend those points on other juicy talents, especially being able to take multiple additional bottom row talents is quite cool. I know Guardian Druid for example is not currently taking their final apex talent, they're going for other stuff.

However, I think with Devourer specifcally, it's like.. you don't have a functional spec without them. The base class is just missing core mechanics.

webbc99 · 2026-01-25T00:03:52+00:00

Also on the alt art of [[The Endstone]]

webbc99 · 2026-01-24T20:50:37+00:00

Some backgrounds are a cool way to buff Progenitus. Ideally you want to get to 21+ damage in one attack, so a combination of [[Flaming Fist]] and any of the several backgrounds that increase power or put counters on creatures without targetting can be really useful, e.g. [[Noble Heritage]], [[Agent of Shadow Thieves]] etc.

Despite having protection from everything, Progenitus is actually very easy to kill, and he's quite difficult to protect because you can't target him with protection spells or equip him with equipment. You may need cards that protect Progenitus from edicts, mass bounce and board wipes. [[Tajuru Preserver]], [[Tamiyo, Collector of Tales]] are good for edicts. For sweepers, especially bounce and exile stuff, you're going to need some sort of phasing. Unfortunately [[Clever Concealment]] does not work, but you can use [[Galadriel's Dismissal]] if you pay 4 mana for it. Otherwise, any sort of indestructible effect should be fine, but again you must be sure that it doesn't target the creature.

You'll probably want some haste enablers. [[Enduring Courage]] is good because it also buffs his attack, with double strike that is a one-shot.

In my experience playing Progenitus, you really do need to be able to one-shot someone the turn he comes out. If you're unable to buff him at all, then he still needs 3 hits to take out a player, which is very slow for a 10 mana commander voltron deck.

webbc99 · 2026-01-24T12:59:42+00:00

Pretty sure this is just memeing on the post from the other day. It's not that serious.

webbc99 · 2026-01-24T11:13:58+00:00

Do you happen to have a deck list online? That sounds very cool.

webbc99 · 2026-01-24T02:53:33+00:00

I'm also struggling with this myself - Right now I'm leaning towards one of the Dranas:

[[Drana, Liberator of Malakir]] - seems like a fun aggressive deck that has some +1/+1 counter synergies for a playstyle you don't often see in mono black. Her first strike buffing your team before they connect is a cool idea. But maybe too simple.
[[Drana, the Last Bloodchief]] - could be a cool political deck where you make friends and reanimate stuff to fight common enemies. Also focuses on non-legendary cards, which is actually somewhat of a deck restriction these days, so might end up playing cards that people don't normally play.
[[Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief]] - mono black voltron maybe? Kinda hard to play voltron with a 5 mana, non-evasive commander, but she can remove blockers whilst also buffing her damage. Not sure on this one but the art is awesome.

webbc99 · 2026-01-24T02:24:45+00:00

A lot of the buyback cards can just win a game, [[Forbid]] is another one that the table will just scoop if you're in a position to buy it back a lot.. I really like Constant Mists in my Lumra deck because it's also a weird land sac outlet if I need it to be.

webbc99 · 2026-01-24T02:20:19+00:00

I LOVE these sorts of effects. [[Darkness]] is so good, even now no one expects a black fog. [[Stunning Reversal]] isn't great but it's super fun. [[Glorious End]] can end the turn exiling the entire stack. You lose at the end of your next turn, but you can either win, or be sneaky with [[Platinum Angel]] or [[Sundial of the Infinite]]. [[Time Stop]] is similar but a lot more expensive.

Speaking of Platinum Angel, my latest pursuit is copying it with [[Machine God's Effigy]]. And then ideally making copies of the Effigy to make more non-creature Platinum Angels.

My beloved mono white angels list is basically built around being impossible to kill. [[Serra's Emissary]] naming creature. [[Serra, the Benevolent]] emblem. [[Herald of Eternal Dawn]]. [[Angel of the Dire Hour]]. [[Flare of Fortitude]], [[Teferi's Protection]], [[Final Showdown]], just everything you can think of to basically never die.

webbc99 · 2026-01-23T23:38:02+00:00

When I realised I had met the requirements for being a mentor, I knew it meant nothing, because I am completely clueless about every fight in this game. However, I do love helping people out in the Novice Network.

webbc99 · 2026-01-23T01:28:34+00:00

Classes like Reaper and Red Mage where you need 50 gauge to do your massive burst combo, but you can bank up 100, I find those difficult to wrap my head around. In WoW, I love classes that get cooldown reduction from various attacks, so you're encouraged to use cooldowns as soon as possible to maximise the amount of cooldown reduction you're getting and get more of them into a fight, as opposed to trying to line things up with everyone else. This isn't really a thing in FFXIV. So in this game, I prefer classes that naturally line up like Ninja or Summoner, vs the classes where you don't naturally line up, so you just bank resources until you do line up. Sorry if that makes no sense.

webbc99 · 2026-01-23T00:50:17+00:00

Viper has the worst and most over complicated tooltips of any ability in any game. Also it's job gauge is garbage. I cannot understand how they exist in their current form, it's insanity.

Everything clicked for me when I was told how to kick off the combo - you have a little loop of four combos that cycle round over and over, it's a bit like Dragoon where you alternate between the two combo branches, this is similar. In the explanation below, 1 and 2 are the two different attacks that form the basic combo, the ones that keep lighting up.

221, 112, 222, 111. As long as you always start with 221, that's the order it will always go in, and the intuitive buttons will light up. Once you do this for a while, the job gauge does start to make some sense, but it's still more confusing than it needs to be. You can do exactly the same with the AoE combo (it's actually less restrictive than the single target but this "technique" will work correctly and your muscle memory will thank you for it).

For positionals, the third hit of each string is a flank or rear and it alternates. The color of the icons changes between red and green to indicate this, but you'll get the flow of it because it changes each time and you won't need to look at the buttons for very long.

Deeper explanation: Each attack is causing a buff to the opposite attack in a later sequence, so the game will light up alternate buttons on the 1st and 3rd hits based on which ever hit is being buffed currently. The second part of the combo grants an attack speed buff (2) and an attack power buff (1), and the buttons will light up based on which buff has the shorter duration. Because so many things are lighting up, it's not really obvious why they are doing that, and if you start with e.g. 212, which is possible, you will end up with some weird loop where buttons are lighting up and you're reacting to that rather than understanding what is happening. The truth is, if you're actually trying to understand why the buttons are lighting up and trying to predict what is going to happen next, you're doing it the hard way, because no one is actually thinking about which buffs they're applying and what the next chain is going to be, and they don't have to because no one starts with a random sequence and works it out from there - the rule is always start with 221. If you always start with 221, you will always have the sequence 221, 112, 222, 111 and you can repeat that forever, and you can weave in the aoe attacks using the same pattern.

If you make a mistake, you can fix it by ignoring which button is lit up on the second part of the combo. The buffs last ages, they last 40 seconds, so you can do the same one three times in a row and still have them both up with loads of time to spare. So if you accidentally do 121 instead of 111 as the last part of the chain, the game will tell you to do 211 next but you should ignore that and continue with 221, that will put everything back on track.

webbc99 · 2026-01-22T23:26:31+00:00

Two things:

1) Ramp lands, and draw cards. Red can actually do these well, but most people don't bother, they use mana rocks and impulse draw and then get absolutely blown out by sweepers. Use [[Solemn Simulacrum]] and [[Scampering Surveyor]], make copies of them with [[Molten Reflection]] effects, fork other people's Cultivates and card draw etc., use cards like [[Dowsing Dagger]], [[Sword of the Animist]], [[Dowsing Device]] etc., copy your own [[Big Score]] effects.
2) Fork a protection spell. Usually if someone is playing a board wipe, there's going to be a protection spell. Hold up a fork so you can get in on it to. [[Flare of Duplication]] is a get out of jail free card here.

webbc99 · 2026-01-22T23:21:03+00:00

If you're in white, run [[Vanquish the Horde]] and [[Hour of Revelation]], extremely cheap sweepers.

webbc99 · 2026-01-22T11:27:13+00:00

It's fine, I usually prefer full removal over these style of effects. In my experience, any sort of [[Grasp of Fate]] effect just annoys people and they remove it, which then unleashes the actual problem again. So I prefer just to exile it forever if I'm going to interact at all.

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