I have not tried Cradle of Vitality . It seems great if you can get it online. I am trying to get my mana costs down, so I'd need a minimum of 6 to get a benefit from it. The others I'm using cost me less. But, I can see if you can get multiple benefits from it, it could get out of hand really quick...

Oh yeah. Just click on the mana symbols next to the specific commander in my signature. I took a few ideas from @RogHimself .

Recently modified my deck from a primarily muddled lifegain/stax theme to more of a lifegain/pain/less-staxy theme. It's playing SOOO much better now. Dropped the CMC down to 2.68. Had a fun time shutting down a Heliod, Sun-Crowned lifegain deck with Tainted Remedy and thoroughly enjoyed taking out ...

BTW...I'd never heard the term "toplocked" before, but that's a great way to word it. Thanks for that too!

Thanks to the both of you. That really spells it out clearly. I really need to read all the cards more carefully and mentally play out what the cards actually say. I can see the case where being able to shuffle away the top few cards of your library could be helpful if the top three aren't what you ...

toctheyounger I'd be curious to see your Liesa decklist if you're willing to share. I run her myself and have really gone all over the board with her. Still trying to settle on a theme, but I'm much closer now than I had been. Also to ALL, any idea why you'd not run Brainstorm over Ponder ? Ponder ...

I would also consider dropping Prismatic Lens and Azorius Signet (since this is primarily a black deck) in favor of more 1 or 2 drop zombies. Ideally, you'll want them on the board before Varina so you can take advantage of her attack triggers. You might also consider dropping Orzhov Signet and the ...

Taking a very cursory glance at your deck I'd recommend replacing Morbid Opportunist with Midnight Reaper to stay on-tribe. AND…the most glaring one…Varina and mass reanimation are like peanut butter and chocolate, they just go together. If you can afford a Weathered Wayfarer, DON'T start with that,...

Some recent deck changes. I decided to go away from all mana rocks and towards 2-CMC mana producing spells to put lands onto the board. Lands are less fragile than rocks. I net removed one land down from 35 to 34 as my overall CMC is quite low at 2.39. Cyclonic Rift is quite expensive at 7 mana, so ...

Such that I didn't really want that card in my hand at that moment. I'm wondering if since my curve is a running a bit higher than Pokken's,@Reya's, or @plaganegra's that my deck is more mana hungry, so-to-speak, and thus Crucible isn't necessarily Crucible has two main uses, in Intuition packages ...

So I've modified my deck some to lower the curve. Overall non-land CMC is running just below 2.8 now. I like some of the ideas pokken has run with, so I'm trying them too: more fetches, more 1 and 2-drops to trigger Varina earlier and more often, no more mana rocks, etc. However, I don't plan to go ...

Just writing to say "Yay!" that you're keeping your Liesa deck alive. I'm still around as I'm sure RogHimself and Ruiner are as well. My deck is still in a state of flux as I haven't focused on a single theme. I shifted to a mostly life-exchanged deck and really didn't enjoy it as much, so...

Wow! Such a glowing review. Care to share your current decklist? This is what I played with, except I had in Mikaeus and Grimgrin for Leyline and Haakon. Grimgrin was an important sac outlet in the game, so I might have to add him back in actually... Commander: 1x Varina, Lich Queen Creatures: 1x C...

Wow! Such a glowing review. Care to share your current decklist?

Thanks for the 101! More MTG school for me. I appreciate hearing your logic behind flicker being proactive versus a more defensive card like Blacksmith's. Prior to Arcades, I hadn't really played a deck with flicker in it, so I wasn't well versed in the mechanics and the when and why. I have a Ranar...

So, I originally thought you were using single creature blink cards like Ephemerate etc to avoid all forms of removal. Then I realized/learned during a game that they don't work for board wipes, but work for targeted removal. Good to learn!! Thus, Eerie Interlude and Ghostway are generally saved for...

Meekstone --> Giver of Runes
Fell the Mighty --> Unnatural Growth
Nature's Lore --> Plains
Forest --> Plains

Chulane, Teller of Tales --> Mnemonic Wall Tree of Redemption --> Wall of Reverence Dusk//Dawn --> Tragic Arrogance Akroma's Will --> True Conviction Cloudstone Curio --> Teferi's Ageless Insight High Alert --> Cultivate Wall of Frost --> Kodama's Reach Wargate --> Eerie Interlude Steel Wall --> Ep...

Some things to consider adding to your list: Fierce Guardianship is amazing backup / protection for the commander as it does catch a lot of the things that will take him out (not creature based removal but a lot of other things). I noticed you don't have one in your list which I would strongly sugg...

Ah, good vibes from reminiscing on Arcades. In fact, I might have to rebuild it. Hmm... Good to see you @ChocoDude. We had some good times on the Arcades thread and I always liked the discussion we had. I think a card that would be super powerful for value-based builds is Reveillark . It's dirt che...

High Alert might be a good backup plan if Arcades gets popped. I realize you have many ways to protect him, but... Also, Steel Wall and Wall of Runes are cheap. I would probably play Talisman of Curiosity and Talisman of Unity over the two like-colored signets. Those two talismans fit into your bud...

Would you be willing to share your latest decklist @Eburon ?

Nature's Lore and Three Visits also barely fit into your price criteria. And, Profaner of the Dead is a decent one-sided wipe in a toughness-matters creature based deck.

High Alert might be a good backup plan if Arcades gets popped. I realize you have many ways to protect him, but... Also, Steel Wall and Wall of Runes are cheap. I would probably play Talisman of Curiosity and Talisman of Unity over the two like-colored signets. Those two talismans fit into your bud...

I agree with most of the sentiment here regarding the new cards. I myself am running Headless Rider and Repository Skaab . I tried out Necroduality (proxy) and got it in two games, but based on my board state I ended up pitching it to the yard both times as I got it through Varina triggers and neede...