Portal Mage

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Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's …

2 years ago

Ancient Gold Dragon is pretty sweet. It's nice to see white get one of the strongest iterations in the cycle. I think the black one is still the best though.

Ancient Bronze Dragon is a bit underwhelming, but green having the weakest of the cycle is good for once.

Wild Magic Surge will be Chaos Warp v2.0. This is an instant staple in all mono-red decks, as well as probably Rakdos and Izzet decks. Not sure G or W aligned red decks will want it since they can already deal with most permanent types. The card definitely has a higher worst-case-scenario probability than Chaos Warp does, but I think it's flexibility will outweigh the negatives.

I really like Vexing Puzzlebox. It's a nice payoff for dice rolling decks that isn't too powerful.

Windshaper Planetar is interesting. On one hand, it's a better Portal Mage/Illusionist's Gambit, on the other hand, it costs 5 mana. Not sure how to rate this one yet.

Barroom Brawl is freaking hilarious and I love the card. Probably not terribly strong, but I think it creates a fairly entertaining play pattern.

I think Earthquake Dragon is going to be really strong in certain decks. This will reliably be a 3-5 cmc 10/10 with Flample in dragon tribal decks.

Eldritch Pact seems cool. My Balthor the Defiled deck may want this for mass card draw late game. It's also a decent finisher for mill decks after a Traumatize is fired off.

A few more decent reprints like Nature's Lore and Traverse the Outlands are trickling in, but I really hope they spoil a few more tomorrow.

I am pretty sure I know the answer to this already, but I'd like some quick clarification on Acolyte of Bahamut. Your commander has to be on the battlefield for the ability to take effect correct? So if it were paired with Ganax, Astral Hunter, it couldn't actually be used to reduce the cost of Ganax correct?

multimedia on Talrand master of drakes - [Primer]

4 years ago

Hey, good budget version of Talrand, nice Consecrated Sphinx .

Budget cards to consider adding:

• Peregrine Drake and Displace
  

Peregrine + Displace + Archaeomancer / Mnemonic Wall makes infinite blue mana from blinking Peregrine and infinite casts of Displace which equals infinite 2/2 Drakes from Talrand. Displace is an instant meaning can do this combo on an opponents turn and then attack with infinite Drakes on your turn.

• High Tide : excellent ramp when playing so many Islands and cards that can recur it to cast it again. Can get more ramp out of Tide with Peregrine, Frantic Search , Snap as these cards let you untap Islands to make more mana.
  
• Bident of Thassa : more repeatable draw with 2/2 Drakes.
• Mystic Speculation : buyback.
• Capsize : buyback.
• Forbid : buyback.
• Brainstorm
• Impulse
• Serum Visions
• Reality Shift
• Reliquary Tower

Cards to consider cutting:

• Temple of the False God
• Spell Snuff
• Thought Collapse
• Of One Mind
• Dazzling Lights
• Stream of Thought
• String of Disappearances
• Unsummon
• Dictate of Kruphix
• Ethereal Forager
• Hieroglyphic Illumination
• Chemister's Insight
• Portal Mage

Good luck with your deck.

Yesterday on Can Portal Mage cause you …

4 years ago

I'm not asking if one of my opponents can cast Portal Mage to redirect my attacking creature at my other opponent. As you said, yeah, that basically does nothing.

The reminder texts on Portal Mage and Capricopian specify the you can't redirect a creature to attack its own controller (or planeswalkers they control) — but can you choose to have the attacking creature be redirected to its controller's own teammate?

Tylord2894 on Can Portal Mage cause you …

4 years ago

I don't know if that was a rule change, but that is how it works. You must choose which "head" you're attacking. You can use cards like Portal Mage in a 2HG game, but they do almost nothing. In 2HG each player on a team can block for the other.

I am unaware of any specific interaction when something like Portal Mage might affect your combat decisions in 2HG. That said, you do have to choose a player that you are attacking.

Hope this helps!!

Yesterday on Can Portal Mage cause you …

4 years ago

I believe there was a rule change starting a while back where, in a Two-headed Giant game, you now declare your attack against individual players rather than against the team.

I attack an opponent with a creature, they cast a Portal Mage, can they choose to send my attacking creature at my teammate instead? Same question for Capricopian.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Gavi´s Rrecycle Bin

4 years ago

Neat idea! I feel like any deck running Portal Mage also wants it's bigger, older brother (and one of my personal pet cards): Illusionist's Gambit

omega1563 on Azami's Wizard Gang

4 years ago

Planned Changes:

• Coming Out:

  • Sphinx of Uthuun: Not a wizard. Already have draw elsewhere.
  • Gather Specimens: Fairly expensive. Most of the time just gets one creature. Feels bad to play against.
  • Clone: Not a wizard (unless we clone one of our wizards)
  • Willbender: Can't use for draw unless face up, at which point it's just a body.
  • Voidmage Apprentice: Can't use for draw unless face up, at which point it's just a body.
  • Deadeye Navigator: Not a wizard. Offers some protection for VIPs and synergy with ETB effects, but we can probably find more utility elsewhere.
  • Thassa, God of the Sea: Not a wizard. Scry is ok, but we have draw elsewhere. Not swinging, so the unblockable component isn't used much.
  • Ixidron: Not a wizard. Hides our wizards. We have other boardwipe options.
  • Skullclamp: We prefer to keep our wizards on the board, and we don't have many tokens to sac to this, so we can get more draw elsewhere.
  • Ancestral Memories: Decent filtering, but we can get more draw and other utility elsewhere.
  • Simic Manipulator: Slow to build up. Not many big bodies to keep him growing.
  • Urza's Bauble: Just filler.
  • Fact or Fiction: We get enough draw elsewhere, we don't really need conditional draw.
  • Treasure Cruise: Potentially cheap draw is good, but we don't fill up our graveyard quickly and we generally want to keep things in there if we can.
  • Guile: Not a wizard. Fairly big body, and synergy with counters, but a bit too threatening. Want to keep a lower profile.

• Going In:

  • Stonybrook Banneret: Make all of our wizards cheaper.
  • Thassa's Oracle: Make draw a win condition
  • Laboratory Maniac: Make draw a win condition.
  • Dakra Mystic: Some group hug to make as a less likely target.
  • Baral, Chief of Compliance: Value without tapping. Synergy with spells and counters.
  • Ertai, Wizard Adept: Counterspells on a stick.
  • Naban, Dean of Iteration: Value without tapping. Synergy with ETB effects.
  • Graceful Adept: Value without tapping. Uncaps hand size.
  • Patron Wizard: All wizards are now cheap counterspells.
  • Portal Mage: Send a big bad away. Synergy with Naban.
  • Sage of Fables: Makes wizards bigger. Allows for more draw, without needing to tap. Synergy with Naban.
  • Glen Elendra Archmage: Repeatable counters when combined with Sage of Fables.
  • Surgespanner: Repeatable bounce when combined with Azami, Lady of Scrolls or Patron Wizard
  • High Tide: Instant speed ramp. Cheap enough to throw on Isochron Scepter
  • Cyclonic Rift: Clear the board. Roughly replaces Ixidron

KongMing on True Control UW [Primer]

5 years ago

Can you give more information about the dominant threats in your pod? It will be a lot easier to recommend adds and cuts to the main and sideboards that way. Some of my best control decks were ones built specifically to take advantage of the meta of my pods. When I make my decks, I think about the cards they use, and that comes into heavy consideration when making cuts. So, if you would, maybe include a bit more information on your pod, specifically about who you lose against, and who you don't have trouble with at all. You might find you have some redundant coverage that you can replace with very niche removal or protection.

An example of this is my Wizards deck - I initially included Portal Mage thinking I would be able to redirect two big attackers at a critical moment. Thing is, once people saw the control power of the deck, they opted to not attack me at all and save me for last (the fools), and Portal Mage became kind of useless... So I swapped it for Peer Pressure . Normally it's a crappy spell, but because people in my pod run a lot of Wizard or Human commanders and creatures (my wife has a Marchesa deck), and I have a ton of Wizards and Humans, it lets me steal at least two things most of the time. It's like a two-for-one Control Magic that's not on an enchantment, as long as I have the Wizards to do it (and I always have the Wizards).

tl,dr: There are likely niches in your pod that you could exploit. Effective control, as you already know from your profile description, is about playing the players, not playing the game. What still beats you? Who still beats you? How do they beat you? Including that information for the deck will really help with sideboard recommendations.