General CBS
- Thread starter James Stevenson
- Start date
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Ignoring land tutors and planeswalker ultimates, I only run three.
Ranger is just a way to give white some card advantage, and the other two can find pivotal pieces for certain archetypes.
Ranger is just a way to give white some card advantage, and the other two can find pivotal pieces for certain archetypes.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I did opt for a custom entomb (Hoping people would take this as a sign that it wasn't intended as a reanimator signal)
I do also run Demonic Tutor, it's okay.
I ran this over demonic tutor until yesterday, and I can honestly tell you the juice is not worth the squeeze here. While resolving this is occasionally interesting, I'm not sure there's a number of cards where it's big enough to make an interesting decision, but small enough that it doesn't add time to an already time consuming card.
Also I 100% admit this is a tribal sorcery for mostly no reason. In my defense I am running delirium (turns out the deck is fine without it)
I do also run Demonic Tutor, it's okay.
I ran this over demonic tutor until yesterday, and I can honestly tell you the juice is not worth the squeeze here. While resolving this is occasionally interesting, I'm not sure there's a number of cards where it's big enough to make an interesting decision, but small enough that it doesn't add time to an already time consuming card.
Also I 100% admit this is a tribal sorcery for mostly no reason. In my defense I am running delirium (turns out the deck is fine without it)
I'm on the high end of the power level spectrum, so nothing you're not expecting: Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Survival of the Fittest, Primeval Titan, Natural Order, Green Sun's Zenith, Finale of Devastation.
Golos, Tireless Pilgrim also technically counts even though it's just for lands? I'm hot and cold on Entomb and could easily be making a mistake not running either Imperial Recruiter and/or Recruiter of the Guard. People who aren't me love those! I don't have kiki-twin combo in so especially the red one feels like it'd be a rude signal to a newer drafter.
...and Dig Through Time / Once Upon a Time could be relevant to what you're asking. I guess those might count too.
just checked through and i'm currently using 20 tutors and/or seekers in my cube.
i really like seek (i house rule it to resolve without shuffling) as a faster alternative to tutoring, so i use it often in custom designs.
i really like seek (i house rule it to resolve without shuffling) as a faster alternative to tutoring, so i use it often in custom designs.
Last edited:
I'm mostly asking to get an idea of what your players are grabbing with the more open-ended tutors. What are common lines for play? I like the idea of tutors for consistency and picking up specific cards to make an archetype function, but I also prefer to limit them for the most part as the added consistency is less important compared to something like 100 card singleton in EDH. It's just easier to get there in a 40 card deck usually.
Mystical Tutor is a great way to grab an emergency wrath or something like Living Death to set up a big turn that flips the game in your favor. Gifts Ungiven is mostly used as a EOT super tutor, but it can be used creatively to pitch uncommon card types into the grave to fuel something like a cheaper Emrakul, the Promised End. Goblin Engineer is a more limited Goblin Welder for the artifact swap, but it's basically an artifact Entomb and can play double duty setting up bigger targets for a Weld or just sticking a big artifact ala Myr Battlesphere or Phyrexian Fleshgorger in the grave for reanimation in an R/B Reanimator deck.
I'm looking at cards like Worldly Tutor as additional support in grabbing the key cards for a given archetype like The Gitrog Monster or Titania, Protector of Argoth. Or a crucial piece to set up a Birthing Pod chain or to grab recursion ala Reveillark or Eternal Witness to get going again.
Mystical Tutor is a great way to grab an emergency wrath or something like Living Death to set up a big turn that flips the game in your favor. Gifts Ungiven is mostly used as a EOT super tutor, but it can be used creatively to pitch uncommon card types into the grave to fuel something like a cheaper Emrakul, the Promised End. Goblin Engineer is a more limited Goblin Welder for the artifact swap, but it's basically an artifact Entomb and can play double duty setting up bigger targets for a Weld or just sticking a big artifact ala Myr Battlesphere or Phyrexian Fleshgorger in the grave for reanimation in an R/B Reanimator deck.
I'm looking at cards like Worldly Tutor as additional support in grabbing the key cards for a given archetype like The Gitrog Monster or Titania, Protector of Argoth. Or a crucial piece to set up a Birthing Pod chain or to grab recursion ala Reveillark or Eternal Witness to get going again.
Ignoring land tutors and planeswalker ultimates, I only run three.
Ranger is just a way to give white some card advantage, and the other two can find pivotal pieces for certain archetypes.
What are your Ranger targets nowadays? I ran it for years but dropped it at some point because it was mostly middling to mediocre the majority of the time. Probably different now with more options to tutor up, but even then I think there are other ways to generate advantages in W/x decks (not necessarily card advantage) that make more sense in my environment.
damn these are beautiful customs/alters!
thanks! some of them i got off MPCfill, but the ones that don't use any "official assets" i made myself on Canva.
my Stoneforge is mostly just grabbing a Sword of X and Y, but the tutor i love the most is Trinket Mage. I've actually made multiple custom juiced 1-cost artifacts (for example, Trading Post but it costs 1) just to make the little mage that could a spicier pick. (plus, y'know, Skullclamp and Retrofoundry)
i also love that T-Mage can get colored artifacts like Esper Sentinel, Portable Hole, Experimental Synthesizer...
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Currently the most exciting targets to fetch (in Mardu, because black and red are white’s allied colors in my cube) at that stage in the game are probably:
Yes, there’s two Figures in my cube. There are a bunch of other one drops, but these are the ones that allow you to push damage through or use that mana you’ve got (considering that you got to four already) efficiently.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Other solid 1 drops for Eos:
There's also several colorless X creatures. Walking Ballista, which is in your cube and I assume you forgot since it's listen as a 2, in addition to Stonecoil Serpent and Hangarback Walker.
edit: sarnath'd on serpent, was in response to Onder.
edit: sarnath'd on serpent, was in response to Onder.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Oops, yeah, Walking Ballista is definitely a good target as well 
Literally a Ghost pushing over candles.
My cube is leaning more on the combo side these days, so tutors are pretty important for setting up more elaborate engines. They also give consistency to more unique cards.
Very high powered cards that get you pretty much anything you need. I'm always on the fence about these because in the right deck, it gives consistency to a crazy build around, but it can also be generically good and a bit boring, removing the variance in the draft. Being combo-centric right now, I have them included.
I could see Dark Petition replacing Demonic Tutor since it would be less good-stuffy and more likely to go to the combo player. Likewise,Wishclaw Talisman could be an alternative with Goblin Welder/Engineer potential. With this one though, I feel like you really have to go off the turn you use it to not get wrecked by the opponent. I don't have much experience playing it, so I could be wrong.
This hits some high impact build arounds like Oath of Druids, Urza's Saga, Earthcraft and Sneak Attack. You can also grab some generically powerful cards like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Phyrexian Metamorph, but then you feel the card disadvantage more.
I've also really like the GW control shell that uses White's wrath effects, Green's land recursion alongside Field of the Dead and Felidar Retreat as win conditions. Here Enlightened Tutor can grab the Retreat, Golos, Tireless Pilgrim or a Crucible of Worlds.
I enjoy this lands tutor package to fetch lands like Field of the Dead, Urza's Saga, Tolarian Academy and creature lands.
The Saga and Academy are especially valuable to make that Green artifact deck you mentioned happen more reliably.
I also run a bunch of creature tutors in Green
Survival and Shaman really make the GY creature decks pop. Here are some premium targets:
Jund
Anger
Phoenix of Ash
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
Sultai
Bloodghast
Vengevine
Master of Death
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
Then, if you also have Wild Mongrel and Noose Constrictor alongside Basking Rootwalla and Blazing Rootwalla you have a very solid and explosive Green aggressive discard shell that can bleed into other themes (Berserkers, Reanimator, Dredge and lands).
As a bonus splash to really tie everything together, Bazaar of Baghdad is a great land to include. It adds another target for your land tutor packages and can help you dump your hand into the GY. I think there is enough recursion and recursive threats that if you include most of them, Bazaar makes sense.
Green Sun's Zenith usually plays like a scaling, inefficient mana dork. Cast it on turn 2 for ramp or turn 4 for a Tireless Tracker or something.
Finale is similar, but more open-ended. Hitting the GY is huge, especially with the discard package mentioned above and fetching a creature of any color means you can fetch your one of Urza, Lord High Artificer and make your deck come together more regularly. If I didn't include Earthcraft and Fastbond as big mana producers, I am not sure I would have Finale.
Are there other tutors you folks run?
Today I learned you can explicitly search for keywords
okoliferate (when you okoliferate, for each oko on the battlefield, add another oko that's a copy of those okos.)
What would be the difference to "o
I think it doesn't really matter for proliferate but, for a keyword like "scavenge" you will get hits for cards referring to their own name like Scavenger Folk if you only search in the oracle text.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
For proliferate it (currently) doesn’t matter, but for other keywords, likeWhat would be the difference to "o
dammit Rasmus
It actually does matter for proliferate... except someone messed up and tagged the cards from ONE that care about you proliferating but don't proliferate themselves (like Scheming Aspirant).
For a different example, something like this...
Would give you every card that cares about flying (whether by granting it, making a token with it, or giving you tribal benefits for it) that doesn't have flying itself.
Or, alternatively, just search
though tag-searching unfortunately relies on people thinking to tag a card — for example, Ardoz, Cobbler of War doesn't have the synergy-haste tag despite pretty obviously being designed with haste in mind.
For a different example, something like this...
Code:
o:flying -kw:flyingWould give you every card that cares about flying (whether by granting it, making a token with it, or giving you tribal benefits for it) that doesn't have flying itself.
Or, alternatively, just search
Code:
otag:synergy-flyingthough tag-searching unfortunately relies on people thinking to tag a card — for example, Ardoz, Cobbler of War doesn't have the synergy-haste tag despite pretty obviously being designed with haste in mind.