Walking Ballista
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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
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Walking Ballista

Artifact Creature — Construct

Walking Ballista enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.

: Put a +1/+1 counter on Walking Ballista.

Remove a +1/+1 counter from Walking Ballista: It deals 1 damage to any target (creature, player, planeswalker or battle).

Niko9 on WOTC announcement - All Commanders …

4 days ago

You know, this is exactly the kind of thing that I really like in magic. Not necessarily the format that this makes, but just wotc doing an event just because it's fun for players, that's something I haven't seen for a good bit : ) I could definitely build something fun out of what I've got laying around and have a good time with this.

That being said, I think it would make a terrible format, but a great event. Imagine somebody playing 5 color Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Walking Ballista combo that could hold up Fierce Guardianship and Force of Will to protect the combo. Or Yawgmoth, Thran Physician with an undying partner for a command zone combo.

I like that it's a fun event, it's a theme that just works great for me, and I don't know, I think it's kind of nice to see wotc saying to players, fun is playing the game, after so long of them saying, fun is buying the game.

Gidgetimer on Build a Deck with Me …

1 week ago

An important part of deckbuilding that I haven't seen you mention in either of these first two articles and that is especially important in this once since it is based from a combo is metainformation. This is not to say information about the meta that you will be playing the deck into (though that is important too), but information about the game in general.

One example would be existing archetypes or general categories of decks. With a mono-blue blink combo and wanting to add colors metainformation informs us that a established archetype is Bant Blink. It is tried and true and has a proven depth of field for support of blink. You subvert this by going Dimir, which I appreciate.

Another consideration is known synergies with cards you are already running.

By no means do you have to follow all metainformation. And you also don't need to worry about missing something and therefore stress about knowing all the info. But just being generally aware of what is possible and proven will allow you to make informed deckbuilding decisions.

Gidgetimer on EDH Merens Reanimator

2 weeks ago

The most compact Hulk line is going to be Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista which requires you to add only Protean Hulk and Walking Ballista both of which are decent outside of the combo. The combo does require a sacrifice outlet, and I was having trouble thinking of how to grab one since the combo already uses all 6 CMC of the tutor and I am most familiar with the combo in Abzan where you get Karmic Guide. Luckily DreadKhan supplied the missing piece, if you add in Activated Sleeper you can tutor the Sleeper and Viscera Seer to provide the sacrifice outlet.

Combo I am describing in case you are not familiar with Mike and Ballista. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed gives non-human creatures +1/+1 and undying, so the Ballista enters as a 1/1 and doesn't die. Sacrifice Walking Ballista and it comes back with a +1/+1 counter. Remove the counter from Ballista and deal 1 damage to an opponent. Repeat loop of sacrificing Ballista and removing counter until all opponents are dead.

You are also already running Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, so you can add in a few low cost undying creatures and get that combo with low opportunity cost. Young Wolf and Butcher Ghoul are the easiest to cast ones since they only have a single colored pip. Treacherous Pit-Dweller, Geralf's Messenger, and Strangleroot Geist are perfectly defensible options too, though the pit dweller is more all-in on having a way to sacrifice for value before the trigger to give an opponent control resolves and as such I think isn't a great fit here.

In general you can also up the power level of the deck by adding tutors. The "good" ones you are not running are Worldly Tutor, Grim Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor.

Spell_Slam on This Is Going To Hurt

1 month ago

Good list! I got some ideas for my own, so thanks!

In terms of enablers, Keen Duelist and Descent into Avernus are quite strong. Walking Ballista (and to a lesser extent Hangarback Walker) also makes a great enabler in the early game or a giant threat in the mid/late game. Cryptolith Fragment  Flip is great as a ramp spell that fixes and also enables casting Rakdos. I am also playing Insolent Neonate, which has worked out surprisingly well, though there may be better options out there. I see you're not running Heartless Hidetsugu, which I think is a must-have for this deck. It makes dumping out your hand and killing every opponent trivially easy.

When it comes to payoffs, I really like playing as many colourless cards as possible to really take advantage of Rakdos. I see you're missing Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Emrakul, the Promised End in your top-end. In terms of other colourless cards, I like Duplicant as a potentially free removal spell, Wurmcoil Engine for the value, Myr Battlesphere for early damage output and Steel Hellkite as a flying threat that can wipe out huge chunks of the board.

When it comes to coloured payoffs, I stopped playing cards that cost more than or in their costs, as they wouldn't play well with the Rakdos discount. I do like Sheoldred, Whispering One, Knollspine Dragon and Balefire Dragon.

With Whip of Erebos and Exquisite Blood in the deck, is seems like Sanguine Bond would be a great include as a combo finisher.

In terms of cuts, Lightning Bolt seems like an easy one to let go. I stopped playing haste-givers because I found myself playing creatures post-combat most of the time anyways, so something like Rising of the Day could be an easy cut. Read the Bones seems like a really weak card that could be replaced with better card draw or recursion (Necropotence?). I see the combo with Tectonic Hazard and Death-rattle Oni, but that seems pretty niche otherwise and could be replaced with more reliable/repeatable enablers instead. Spawn of Mayhem seems pretty awkward in this deck, as you'll rarely be able to cast it before turn 4 even with Spectacle (and we know what turn 4 is for! :) ). The triple-black on Bloodletter of Aclazotz and Dread Cacodemon are pretty restricting, in my opinion. Indulgent Tormenter seems very unreliable and probably not worth the cost.

Jet Medallion and Ruby Medallion are not at their best here, as they reduce colourless costs instead of adding mana, which means that with Rakdos out they may not even do anything.

JimboSliceJr on Infinite Wheels of Death

2 months ago

Profet93

Sure thing! Bloodchief Ascension & Mindcrank create an infinite mill and damage cycle.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed & Triskelion create an infinite damage cycle where you remove counters from him to do 1 damage to a player & the rest to kill himself. Then he is returned to the battlefield and you repeat. This also works with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed & Walking Ballista, but he needs a third card like Zulaport Cutthroat or Blood Artist to create the infinite cycle of damage/life gain. If you can’t get one of those two cards, Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos will create infinite sacrifice cycles. Then you could also create infinite Eldrazi tokens/treasures with either Pitiless Plunderer or Pawn of Ulamog.

Next is the Ashnods alter & Pitiless Plunderer combos with either Bloodsoaked Champion or Reassembling Skeleton that can infinitely sacrifice to create infinite colorless mana for cards like Exsanguinate.

Finally if you have Sensei's Divining Top, Bolas's Citadel, & Sheoldred, the Apocalypse you can draw a card with Sensei’s, gain 2 life, then pay 1 life to cast Sensei’s, and repeat until you can find a combo while gaining life with each draw.

Hope this helps!

bluusteem on INFINITE MANA COMBO AND CREATURE COMBO

3 months ago

I do agree with wallisface with the removal spell's. I need a lot of time and removal so I can continue trying to get the combo. Thanks so much wallisface for the suggestion of Walking Ballista I have been trying to find cards I can mana dump.

Im not saying IXALAN_Crazy that your suggestion is wrong. I do believe that your card suggestion is great but I do not see it working in this deck. Because of its high mana cost.

wallisface on INFINITE MANA COMBO AND CREATURE COMBO

3 months ago

Contrary to IXALAN_Crazys thoughts, having 12 pieces of interaction seems good to me, as your deck needs to assemble a lot of pieces, and as part of that you need to buy yourself a lot of time.

I also don’t think Collected Company is ideal here, your creature density is too low even if you add in a few more, and it’s more important to get the right creature to complete the combo, rather than a random smattering.

I think Eladamri's Call could be good here for finding you the pieces you need to get the combo rolling. Duskwatch Recruiter  Flip could also be very strong for both finding the combo pieces and also digging for a wincon once you have infinite mana (it can only grab creatures, so you’d want to swap out Gelatinous Genesis in place if auto-win creatures like Walking Ballista or Emrakul, the Aeons Torn).

Last_Laugh on Animar Tyrrhydras

3 months ago

What kind of budget are you working with? A combo Animar list can be a pretty expensive undertaking thanks to things like Palinchron, Cloudstone Curio, Walking Ballista/Purphoros, God of the Forge, etc. More of an aggro build can be done a budget though.

I have an Animar list here on tappedout but it's retired and hasn't been updated for a few sets. It's a combo list built around Ancestral Statue and Cloudstone Curio combos. Animar, Gaea's Hemorrhoid ⫷PRIMER⫸

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