Gilded Lotus

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Gilded Lotus

Artifact

: Add three mana of any one colour.

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

5 days ago

Sometimes when I'm deckbuilding, I focus less on the commander and more on an interesting concept/combo that I want to use or exploit. This is the case with one of my favorite decks in my profile and actually one of the first commander decks I ever built. This deck began years ago when Magic finally started caring about the EDH format. It was a more simple time then, Rhystic study was $1.27 (exactly the price I paid for mine over 10 years ago), Cyclonic Rift was a bulk rare, and demonic tutor could be found for $10.

The combo that I was interested in was Palinchron and Deadeye Navigator. The latter was my favorite card at the time and is still one of my favorites. It was a great tool and with all the ETB effects that were out around then it was an underrated and uber powerful card. In fact, the entire blink mechanic was and is a very powerful strategy.

When I built this deck, I played a few times in shops and was quickly told that edh is a casual format and interaction of any kind is not fair (was told this by a land destruction deck...) So this deck is definitely more on the competitive side, but it would be the distant fringe of cedh. Alright with that let's get into it.

Initial thoughts

So we have a combo that we like Palinchron and Deadeye Navigator, but we don't even have a commander yet and going mono-blue seems not great, so we want to figure out what color(s) to add and what commander to choose. In a combo deck, there are generally three things that I like to make sure I include beyond the normal ramp, and card draw. That is redundancy, the ability to tutor up my combo pieces, and ways to protect my combo. So when thinking about tutoring up my combo pieces, I generally like to have the best tutors. Those are in black. So things like Wishclaw Talisman, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Imperial Seal (if you have money to burn or your playgroup is fine with you proxying the best cards so you can obliterate their precons j/k I proxy all my expensive cards and put them in a binder in case someone has an issue).

So we have Blue and Black and we can certainly add another color if we wanted to, but at the time I liked Dralnu, Lich Lord because Snapcaster Mage was in standard and flashback was cool. So I stuck with it when I revamped it, but decided that I wanted something that could ensure I can protect my combo from any threat and then also use it to win if I wanted to. The answer came in the form of Ertai Resurrected. He can counter basically anything from spells to activated abilities (which will come in handy) or he can take a threat on the field at the cost of letting your opponent draw a card.

So now that we have our commander, how to build the deck?

Redundancy

Combo decks need redundancy. If you don't get your two cards or one of them gets exiled, you need a backup plan, or scooping is your only option. Fortunately, there are some great redundancies here. We have Ghostly Flicker and Displace. Both of these will blink your creatures (ghostly flicker will also blink artifacts). Displacer Kitten can be helpful too, but I don't own it and it is a little more chaotic than I need it to be. Palinchron is great because you can return it to your hand and potentially play it again and create infinite mana through the use of High Tide, but a similar combo that has added benefits is Peregrine Drake, Archaeomancer, and Ghostly Flicker. This bounces both the drake and the archaeomancer untapping 5 lands, and returning ghostly flicker to your hand. Rinse and repeat for infinite mana. Archaeomancer also will help in returning key counterspells and tutors to your hand. Nothing like doing double duty. Mnemonic Wall and Great Whale also fit here. The great thing about this combo is that each component is useful in and of itself. Bring out your Great Whale early untap some lands and do some other stuff or play out the rest of your combo with the untapped lands. Cast Archaeomancer to grab a used tutor for another combo piece.

One note here, if you get Peregrine Drake (or one of the other two) paired with Deadeye Navigator and you generate infinite mana you can now draw your deck with Ertai as commander: Step 1: Bounce Deadeye, when he enters don't soulbond with anyone.
Step 2: Cast Ertai, don't choose anything or if you want kill one of your opponent's creatures. It doesn't matter.
Step 3: Soulbond ertai and deadeye. Step 4: Bounce Deadeye and while that is on the stack bounce Ertai. Step 5: Ertai enters the battlefield counter the Deadeye bounce on the stack Draw a card Step 6: Soulbond ertai and deadeye again rinse and repeat. Draw as many cards as you need. Which means draw until you find your wincon.

Wincon

Since this is an infinite mana combo we need something to use all that mana. Obviously the activated ability on deadeye is great, but we need something to actually win with. I went with Commander's Insight and Blue Sun's Zenith. Both of these cards are useful even when they aren't being used to force your opponents to draw their cards. Blue Sun's Zenith works nicely because once you cast it goes back into your deck, which I showed above you can draw as many cards as you need so you cast it once, put it in your library draw again until you find it, cast it again on the next opponent, then again. You can also tutor them up or bring them back from the graveyard with the tutors or the archaeomancer/mnemonic wall from earlier. I like this more than straight damage, because if you don't have infinite mana these cards will still draw you cards.

Tutors

This is a fairly simple step, we need some good tutors. There are a number of good choices in black so I won't belabor that too much. I don't have some of the standard ones and feel like the deck performs fine with the ones it currently has. I do have a Tribute Mage in the deck because nearly all my mana rocks are 2 mana and so is Wishclaw Talisman. I found that the consistency with the deck is vastly improved by being able to tutor up my ramp. Also with deadeye I can bounce it multiple times and get more rocks or the talisman.

Protecting the combo

So I needed to figure out how to protect my combo and do so in a way that is flexible or can be used as needed. So Counterspell. Honestly, this part was fairly simple, most blue counter magic is here. Only reason Fierce Guardianship isn't here is because I don't have it. Other than that we have the typical cards here Force of Will, Mana Drain, Cyclonic Rift, Force of Negation, Pact of Negation, etc.

I also have a couple other standouts. Venser, Shaper Savant is great here as it can be bounced with Deadeye Navigator to essentially boomerang my opponent's board and all their spells. Ertai Resurrected also protects the combo and with deadeye becomes a nice repeatable counter/removal spell.

glen_elandra_archmage can be bounced when she has her -1/-1 counter allowing her to be used again and again to counter noncreature spells.

Typical stuff

There is a lot of ramp in the deck, so Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, and other mana rocks including some larger ones like Gilded Lotus and Basalt Monolith to really get the ramp going, the sooner you can get to 7-8 mana the sooner you can combo out.

For card draw some key performers here are Rhystic Study, Black Market Connections, Phyrexian Arena, The One Ring. Mystic Remora. In my initial hand I want to have 3 lands, and one of these/tutor to find one or I typically mulligan.

Special notes

A couple other cards deserve mention here. Time Stretch and Time Warp. These are both repeatable with Archaeomancer and Mnemonic Wall and I can honestly say that if I'm able to resolve either of these, it is unlikely that I'm going to lose, especially Time Stretch. With the ramp in the deck or a well timed Dark Ritual/High Tide I can play this fairly early and get a huge advantage.

Lands

Since this deck tends to be fast, you don't want lands that come into play tapped, so this deck uses fetch lands, shock lands, and duals that have the ability to come in untapped. (there are a couple that come into play tapped, but they are fetchable so I fetch them only when I know that I'm not going to be able to use the mana and only on an opponent's turn.)

I've had this deck for a while and it performs far better than any of my other decks. It always presents interesting lines that if followed will lead to surprising victories. As always let me know what you think in the comments and if you have a commander in mind that you want to see me build put it in the chat.

Here is the final decklist: Unlimited Power!

HeavenlyAxe on

1 month ago

Hey Indie,

First off I really like the lands you have assembled and the suggestions from SufferFromEDHD are all good.

You are definitely going to want an artifact ramp package.

Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo

Special Mention to Nyx Lotus, it could be good being in mono black. and Jeweled Lotus, pays for your commander for free on turn 1 even.

Sword of the Animist is not bad ramp at all and buffs yours rats

Commander's Plate might be cute.

Liliana of the Dark Realms, makes sure you always get a land drop and could make your swamps tap for four.

Chittering Witch if your playing with more opponents.

Crypt Ghast is sort of ramp, but doubles your swamps. Very good in mono black.

Dauthi Voidwalker is not on theme at all but is just sooo much value in a two cost card I have to recommend it.

God-Eternal Bontu is excellent draw power in the right situation.

Dont forget you can run any number of Relentless Rats

Gray Merchant of Asphodel will heal you up a lot and hurt your opponents

Krav, the Unredeemed is also great card draw.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, has card draw, removal, and proliferate all on one card

Deadly Rollick, potentially free removal

Defile, cheap good removal

Thrilling Encore saves you from a board wipe or lets you bring everything back after sacrificing it all to like God-Eternal Bontu

Phyrexian Arena some ok card draw.

Bojuka Bog if you are worried about graveyards

Mutilate, a good board wipe in mono black

Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, are a great draw package for mono black

Toxic Deluge a great board wipe for when things need resetting, and you could follow with Thrilling Encore and get it all back

Syphon Mind is great draw if your playing with more players

Victimize - is really really strong, get rid of one weak thing for two of your best things

Yawgmoth's Will - lets you treat your graveyard like your hand for a turn

Lord Skitter, Sewer King makes rats

Marrow-Gnawer - lets you make lots of rats

Infectious Inquiry - good draw and gives poison

Ogre Slumlord - makes rats when your creatures or your opponents creatures die.

Tangled Colony - if your opponent has to block it or it dies to like Blasphemous Act will make you rats

Vraska's Fall removal and poison counter

Drown in Ichor removal and poison

Bontu's Monument all your creatures cost less

Rat Colony can have any number and they buff themselves, and cost less mana than Relentless Rats

Typhoid Rats deathtouch rat opponents wont want to block

Crypt Rats can board wipe but can also win the game if you give it infect, doesnt work with your commander because toxic specifies combat damage but does work if you give it infect and deal damage with it's ability.

Ratcatcher tutors rats, and gives you card advantage

Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm - buffs your rats and lets you get rats back

Wave of Rats has blitz and reanimates itself

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni rat that steals opponents stuff

Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion rat that steals opponents stuff

Adaptive Automaton is a rat and buffs rats

Okiba-Gang Shinobi rat makes opponents discard and has ninjutsu

Filth gives all your rats swampwalk pairs well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Dark Ritual lets your get a head start or some extra mana a turn you need it

Tainted Strike instant speed infect, funny in multiplayer because you can use it on anyone's creatures.

Phyresis Outbreak gives poison and might kill opponents creatures

Feed the Swarm enchantment removal in black

Vat Emergence gets a creature back and proliferates

Spread the Sickness destroys a creatures and proliferates

Pact of the Serpent strong tribal card draw

Living Death swap graveyards with battlefields, great after sacrificing your whole board to draw cards

Skullclamp sack small rats for card draw

Thrumming Stone if you go the Relentless Rats or Rat Colony route

Coat of Arms your rats will be huge

Bolas's Citadel this card is dumb lol, lots of casting power and then you hit Gray Merchant of Asphodel and keep going lol

Icon of Ancestry kinda draw buffs rats...is ok

Contagion Engine proliferate twice each time you activate

Eldrazi Monument gives creatures flying indestructible and +1/+1

Grafted Exoskeleton gives a creature infect, great with Crypt Rats

Sword of Truth and Justice proliferate sword

Bad Moon buff all black creatures, opponents too

Phyresis gives infect again good with Crypt Rats

Greed card draw

Vraska, Betrayal's Sting proliferate planes walker

I know that's a lot but hopefully gave you some ideas to work with!

DemonDragonJ on How Can I Put Ziatora, …

1 month ago

Caerwyn, I originally built this deck when EDH was still a new format, and I have been slowly upgrading it, since then, so I was not as skilled at deckbuilding at that time as I am now (if you look at my profile, you can clearly see how my newer decks show that I have gained experience as a deckbuilder).

I must disagree with you about my mana rocks, because I think that every one of them is a good card, and I actually used to have both Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus in this deck, but I removed them, because I decided that they simply were too expensive. I also do have several destruction spells in this deck that cost a mere 2 mana, so that should not be a problem.

I like Temple Bell, because it is free after its initial casting cost, can be used for political reasons, and I always use it during the end step of the player immediately before me, so that I benefit the most from it.

Also, since when is an average converted mana cost of 3.92 considered "high?" Perhaps for a 60-card deck, that is high, but not for an EDH deck, in my experience.

I do agree that Darigaaz is the best candidate for being replaced by Ziatora, but I would like to receive further feedback before I make my final decision, on this matter.

Thevenom on Angel tribal EDH

2 months ago

i have Caged Sun, Sol Ring, Gilded Lotus, Urza's Incubator i could put in here, also Belbe's Portal. Using this in a handful of games, it worked pretty well considering the mana issues i was looking at. Thanks for the info NV_1980 and taking time to stop by!

NV_1980 on Angel tribal EDH

2 months ago

Fun Angel-tribal deck! I like how you've gone all in with this strategy :) I have some suggestions but I'm not sure how much you want to spend on this, so just let me know if I'm going over the top.

Let's start with your mana. Right now, you've got 31 lands and one ramp-artifact. This is really on the low side, consdering the average amount of mana you need to spend for most of your creatures. I'd really recommend some mana-rocks like Arcane Signet, Caged Sun, Gilded Lotus, Pearl Medallion and definitely Sol Ring. Some more ramp like Archaeomancer's Map, Land Tax and Weathered Wayfarer. Lastly, I know it's expensive, but if you can get a cheap Urza's Incubator somewhere, go for it; would be awesome in here. Any of these suggestions (and there are cheaper alternatives to most) would increase the speed of your deck.

Next, let's talk opportunities this deck offers to draw additional cards. You've got five options, of which three are repeatable (because they're permanents :)). Some additional ideas on this: Archivist of Oghma, Endless Atlas, Mind's Eye and Smuggler's Share. Like with the stuff mentioned for mana, all of these would increase your deck's pacing.

To strengthen your angelic forces, you could consider Adarkar Valkyrie (which is awesome at resurrecting any Angels you lost during combat or even better, an opponent's creature lost in battle!), Angelic Arbiter (cast or attack, your opponents must choose), Battle Angels of Tyr (expensive card but insanely powerful balance-bringers in case you're behind with card-draw, mana or life) and Platinum Angel (as long as it's got indestructible and hexproof, opponents will have a very hard time snatching victory from you).

In case you're looking for more ideas, here's my Angel tribal deck, enjoy!

Profet93 on This Deck Does Not Believe In Free Will

2 months ago

Westvale Abbey - Weakest land. You aren't a token deck, it costs a lot to activate and is hard to pull off only for a creature that is helpful, but not nearly powerful enough in EDH or relevant to your overall strategy

Phyrexian Tower - Black has other sac engines and you don't have any relevant death triggers that would warrant it's inclusion. The mana ramp is minimal

Maze of Ith - Meta call like against xenagos or voltron? It can have it's moments for sure but it doesn't produce mana unless you have urborg and unless the voltron strategy is prevalent in the meta, it can be swapped out

Lotus Vale - Scorched Ruins is strictly better and can combo with rings of brighthearth + deserted temple for infinite colorless or infinite black as long as you have a swamp. Not even saying to add them, because these lands are stripmine targets. If you were playing a lands deck, sure.

Lake of the Dead - The least likely card to cut from the list. This card I've never personally liked because it goes against my philosophy, short term gain for long term loss. Losing lands, similar to lotus in a deck that can't recur them just seems off to me. It's definitely a helpful ramp piece for sure. But that usually paints a target over your head and they remove whatever you cast (assuming it's a permanent, or can use a counterspell if non-permanent) and then you're just down one land. If this were a more cEDH build or lower to the ground I could understand it's inclusion.

Sceptre of Eternal Glory - With all the basics you will presumably add, this will be a cheaper version of Gilded Lotus at the cost of a Thran Dynamo.

Throne of Eldraine - Ramp or draw

Mana Vault - Turn 1 ramp

Extraplanar Lens - Works best with snow-covered swamps depending on the meta

Caged Sun - Expensive but does the job.

Not saying to add all of these, just some choices to see what works best with your deck/curve.

Let me know if you want some suggestions for non-land cuts as well.

leon_bulminot on We're All Friends Here

3 months ago

Okay so couple cards to consider, specifically for planeswalkers.

First off, activating MULTIPLE planeswalker abilities of a single planeswalker in a single turn: The Chain Veil. And if you have Teferi, Temporal Archmage out with Chain Veil, and a few mana producing artifacts and a Proliferate effect from say Viral Drake or something, infinite counters on your walkers. I usually did it with Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo and a Sol Ring, with Chain Veil being the fourth untapped artifact. Proliferate with Viral Drake and you negate Temporal Archmage losing counters.

Next up is additional Counters. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider and Doubling Season. Enough said right? Contagion Engine is a tad expensive to get online but, double proliferate. And if you had a Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus on board, quadruple proliferate for 4 mana. So starting out, with everything on the field, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon enters the battlefield with 28 counters from just from Vorinclex and Doubling season. Add in the quadruple proliferate and it just gets dumb. Generally once Doubling Season hits, you can ult your planeswalkers THAT turn. Also, Nesting Grounds pairs well with Tekuthal to move indestructible counters onto other permanents.

Best five color mana searcher ever that is expensive but at one extra above Migration path, especially since planeswalker decks are more mid game, Shard Convergence is like a mega Expedition Map but in green.

A walker that’s good for searching anything, Liliana Vess.

If you want solid searching combo that also lets you untap artifacts as well as hunt for whatever you want is Tezzeret the Seeker and Mycosynth Lattice. And if you want to shut the game down for a win, so long as you have enough creatures to protect him, Karn, the Great Creator and Mycosynth shuts down ALL opponents mana flow. Wanna blow it up? Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Kormus Bell, and then some blanket -1 toughness effect.

There are so many ways you can go with walker decks. But those are some things I use and still use.

Profet93 on Kira the Thief

6 months ago

Mind Stone - Ramp when you need it, draw when you don't.

Sky Diamond - Almost as good as arcane signet

Maybe Sceptre of Eternal Glory - Easy to pull off. While it doesn't get you early game ramp, given your high avg cmc, some late game ramp can't hurt.

Gilded Lotus - Similar to above.

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