You Break the Card!

[BigBlue]

In the spirit of Magicthegathering.com's "you make the card" program. We present, "You Break the Card!"

Each Week we'll select a different underused card from T2-land and get your Ideas on how to break the card, and if it can't be broken, we'll relegate it to the newbie scrub pile.

Since "You make the Card" is featuring a Creen Utility creature, we'll start there.

How can you abuse Elder Druid?

Cost 3G, P/T = 2/2

3G, Tap: Tap or untap target artifact, creature, or land.

A good ability, if expensive, but Green can usually come up with mana easilly.

If anyone has a favorite card which has not been broken yet then PM me and we'll consider it for next week.

 

[Spiderman]

I'd say pair it with Winter Orb....

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

I think the point of this card is not that it can be broken, but that there are myriad situations in which it can be put to medicore use, which is more than can be said for some rares.

(Tapping Winter Orb doesn't work anymore, anyway.)

 

[FoundationOfRancor]

Collosus of Sardia and Levithan!

More fodder for my awakening deck....

 

[BigBlue]

Originally posted by Thallid Ice Cream Man


(Tapping Winter Orb doesn't work anymore, anyway.)

Oracle wording actually makes it so it does work. It is one of the few artifacts you can tap to stop now.

From CrystalKeep.

Text (5th+errata): As long as ~this~ is untapped, players can't untap more than one land during their untap steps. [Oracle 2000/02/01]

 

[Istanbul]

Gaea's Cradle and Squirrel Nest (though obviously not one on the other). Talk about a mana-making engine...

 

[Spiderman]

Well, probably to make it broken, you'd have to go infinite in some way. So combo it with Malachite Talisman

Malachite Talisman
Color= Artifact
Type= Artifact
Cost= 2
IA(U)
Text (IA+errata): Whenever a green spell is played, you may pay {3}. If you do, untap target permanent. [Oracle 2000/10/24]

something that lowers the 3 in it, and something that can continuously let you cast green spells

 

[Killerbob]

might be annoying with sands of time...(not to tap the sands -that doesnt work).

 

[BigBlue]

Anyone have a deck to submit with the Elder?

What about ideas for next weeks card, I've not gotten any yet and I'd like some input.

So far we have a mana engine which denies others with Winter Orb, I'm not sure it's broken, nor am I seeing potential that otherwise doesn't exist. I think the activation cost is a bit heavy, though I was trying to avoid "easy" cards or ones which were already broken like say Masticore, which is even sicker now with Basking Rootwalla and Arrogant Wurm. (Drawbacks, we don't need no steenking drawbacks).

 

[Spiderman]

I'm just not knowledgeable about the cards right now, but you could throw in Heartstone to lessen the activation cost.

Isn't there some Elf that you can use to untap a creature (Quirion Ranger or something?)

And another where you return a forest to untap a creature?

Is there anything that lets you put unlimited land into play?

I don't know, I agree that Winter Orb is not really broken, just a soft lock.

Maybe somehow combine Second Chance, a Tim creature, and the Druid so you take infinite turns and ping someone to death?

I don't know...

 

[BigBlue]

Originally posted by Spiderman

Maybe somehow combine Second Chance, a Tim creature, and the Druid so you take infinite turns and ping someone to death?

I do that in a different deck. it's U/G and involves a huge combo.

Intruder Alarm + Tim + U mana producer (BoP, Quiron E) + Shrieking Drake.

When I pull out that deck I'm target du Jour and don't last long enough to get it. I've had it go off on turn 4 though with luck.

Intruder Alarm (Creatures do not untap during untap phase, untap all creatures when a creature comes into play)

Shrieking Drake(CC=U, when shrieking Drake comes into play return a creature you control to owners hand)

Tim opponent, tap BoP to cast drake, untap all creatures, return drake to hand, rinse, repeat. Works best if a city of solitude is in play to avoid interuption.

 

[rkoelsch]

Now this is off the top of my head so don't sue me

4-BOP
4-Quirion Ranger
4-Ley Druid
4-Elder Druid
2-Atalya, Samite Healer

4-Sterling Grove
4-Stream of Life
4-Life Burst
4-Crop Rotation
2-Test of Endurance
2-Worldly Tutor

4-Gaea's Cradle
4-Savannah
4-Brushland
10-Forest

I know most people concentrate on killing your opponent but this might work.

 

[BigBlue]

Maybe use a little red for some fire to kill with, with a skybreak elf to translate into W or R mana. you could use energy bolt which would swing either way too.

 

[Spiderman]

Well, there you go. Except instead of Tim, you use the Intruder Alarm, the Drake, the Druid, a bunch of Manakins, and Rod of Ruin

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

Spiderman: The problem with your Malachite Talisman example is that anything that you could untap by untapping the Elder Druid could be untapped just as easily by the Talisman itself.

I see the Elder Druid as a workhorse reusable green control creature. As such, it's hard to "break," but it's still useful.

BigBlue: I have a U/G Alarm deck like that, but instead of using Shrieking Drake I use Thopter Squadron, and instead of focusing on tims I use mana elves and/or Skyshroud Rebel (so amazing in the deck, all but the Thopters are Elves in my deck) to get out the mana elves, with Symbiotic Deployment for card draw. (I also have a R/U design, with Moggcatchers and Shrieking Moggs and Rishadan Pawnshops etc.)

 

[Spiderman]

Yeah, I was just trying to throw out ideas, hoping it might help someone else who had a better grasp of the cards

 

[BigBlue]

I use tim's and call it Machine Gun Tim, or Tommy Gun Tim, or Mac Tim depending on my mood. And when it doesn't work, it is just a pile, or it dies in 3 turns to all the other players before it goes off. It isn't always effective, but it is "fun" to see it go off. City of Solitude is a must though or you get dead Tim.

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

(My kill method is a Coat of Arms, which my Elves can hopefully slip into once I draw it, and proceed to kill.
I also try turning my lands into creatures, so that I can untap the lands directly with the Alarm.)

anyway, *cough* Elder Druid is cool.


EDIT:
Oh, a new card, right.

I nominate Overabundance.