MTGNexus

I play it in my Breya, which is all about... spamming cheap/token artifacts and abusing about seven billion repeated triggers akin to Sinis' list above and then some.

The deck also land-ramps decently thanks to ramp of choice being artifacts that actually get you lands as they come or go, as opposed to just mana rocks. Makes the deck a bit less vulnerable to artifact sweepers too.

So, under this rather specific circumstance, Brass's Bounty can be a game-ender.

This card is a very strong ritual that I've seen a bunch. Sets up a combo turn next turn or finishes one, makes tons of colored mana. It's a bit too slow for the higher end of competition but I've seen it end higher power level games too (mostly in Brudiclad, telchor engineer).

I actually play this in a non-artifact deck, namely Kess. It's basicly a worse turnabout in that deck, which mainly focuses on copying spells a zillion times and epic experiment. I do think it's better than mana geyser in that specific deck.

Obvious synergy with Revel in Riches is obvious.

The obvious comparison is to Boundless Realms. In both cases, you're really not just playing this for mana.

Brass's Bounty can be powerful, but it needs setup - it's not mana-positive until you have at least 8 lands, which means it's more of a lategame play. Ramping into it with mana rocks or other rituals isn't particularly valuable. I guess you can bank your mana for a future turn if you want to set up a massive Comet Storm or something, but seems easier to run Mana Geyser. I've considered it for Mizzix, but that deck doesn't get to sufficient lands consistently enough.

It does get significantly more interesting if you're copying it with Wort, the Raidmother or another effect. Alternatively, if you've ramped a lot and have 15+ lands, it's going to be absurd there too. Seems good in a RGx ramp deck like Omnath, Locus of Rage.

The alternate route is to take advantage of all the treasure tokens - sacrifice them to Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast, transform them with Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer, or use them to power up Akiri, Line-Slinger.

Thursday, October 31st, 2019; Ash Barrens

AB is an auto-include and one of the best cards in the format.

- GY filling
- color fixing
- T1 play
- activated ability
- cycling/discard
- colorless-mana-producing
- CIP untapped
- deck thinning

EDIT: If they ever banned tutoring, which I hope they do, this card is the only one I would miss.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Thursday, October 31st, 2019; Ash Barrens

I really like Ash Barrens. I think Serenade pretty much got all the points I'd be interested in mentioning.

Serenade wrote: ↑

4 years ago

AB is an auto-include and one of the best cards in the format.

Is it? I'm not saying it isn't, but thats clearly not an opinion shared by the wider community. Of the top decks it appears in on EDHREC, the only 1 that isn't a precon commander that came with it is The Gitrog Monster.

It's not a bad card. It's definitely underplayed. But I'm pretty sure that unless restricted to a budget, most mana bases don't want this card. There are a lot of little uses for it, but unless I'm setting the deck up to exploit its synergies, I can't see myself choosing to run it.

I know as a 3c non-g player, I don't play this card. But I also have a 10 fetch manabase with no expense spared. Playing on anything less than those conditions, I'd totes play it. Or if the deck cares, a la astral slide then I'd totes be comfortable calling this card a snap pick.

Fundamentally it's still a land that essentially enters the battlefield tapped if you want to fix your mana. but it's significantly better than evolving wilds or the like for a variety of reasons (the obvious one being that it can tap for C untapped).

I would not mind if Wizards made more of these of various colors, honestly. But ash barrens is budget fixing period outside of a deck that's abusing lands hitting the yard.

Probably not an auto-include in mono-color decks.

It's a great card. If you run basics in two or more colors, it fixes your Mana when you need it to and enters untapped when you don't. It's on par with the new super evolving wilda that gets you the basic untapped when you have 4 or more lands. There's going to be times you use the latter to get an untapped basic of the colors you need so it's better than ash barrens, and times you'll play ash barrens as your third land because entering untapped turn three is more important than Mana fixing at the moment. Lots of people get greedy with their mana bases and don't run enough basics to rely on cards like these, but this really should be an auto include in.most decks. It's another example of not being able to rely in edhrec to see what's good, because it's a lot better than evolving wilds and terramorphic expanse but sees less play (and it's only not strictly better because decks that care about landfall effects are common enough to make the fact that the latter hit the battlefield before tutoring out the basic to the battlefield matter, and they work better with crucible). It's also important to note that although paying one for cycling ash barrens for the basic means you will only have as much Mana available that turn as you would without making a land drop or by playing an etb tapped land, it still let's you fix your Mana that turn, as you can tap a colorless source to cycle up a basic of the color you need, making ash barrens better than evolving wilds and similar at doing it's primary job of tutoring for a basic. If your running a gold plated Mana base this probably won't make the cut, but if you have 10 plus basics in a multicolor deck its usually worth considering. You can't run all 10 fetches outside of 5 color, so for 2 or 3 color this does a fine job of replacing a fetch that only searches for lands you can't run.

onering wrote: ↑

4 years ago

You can't run all 10 fetches outside of 5 color, so for 2 or 3 color this does a fine job of replacing a fetch that only searches for lands you can't run.

*11. The eleventh fetch (and indeed, the 10th in 3c) is Prismatic Vista.

I should probably be playing Ash Barrens in more decks, given how many copies of Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse I'm currently playing. On the other hand, I do think the upgrade is marginal - I've been gradually cutting tapped fixers for untapped ones, and I consider Ash Barrens to ultimately be a land that enters tapped most of the time. The actual tapped fetches also work better with Crucible of Worlds / Ramunap Excavator, trigger landfall an extra time, and trigger revolt and other sacrifice synergies. There are definitely decks that will favor one over the other.

Still, Ash Barrens is a solid budget fixing land.

Serenade wrote: ↑

4 years ago

EDIT: If they ever banned tutoring, which I hope they do, this card is the only one I would miss.

Cards like this (tutoring for basic lands or basic land types) aren't really in the same category as Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and friends. Neither is Diabolic Tutor or Beseech the Queen or "I'm only played because my owner is nouveau riche af" Imperial Seal*, but for different reasons.

*How do I explain this?
Broke: Instant-speed topdeck for b and seriously you're actually worried about shocking yourself?
Joke: Sorcery-speed topdeck, regardless of what it costs.
Woke: Understanding that a strictly worse card isn't worth an additional $400, especially taking a whole extra turn.

Oh, anyway, I do like this. As I said, I don't consider it a tutor, more like a fetch that you crack form your hand. It's great color-fixing in 3+ colors, and it even has benefits like graveyard-filling. You can even use it for colorless mana if you're using Kozilek's buddies.

hyalopterouslemur wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Serenade wrote: ↑

4 years ago

EDIT: If they ever banned tutoring, which I hope they do, this card is the only one I would miss.

Cards like this (tutoring for basic lands or basic land types) aren't really in the same category as Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and friends. Neither is Diabolic Tutor or Beseech the Queen or "I'm only played because my owner is nouveau riche af" Imperial Seal*, but for different reasons.

*How do I explain this?
Broke: Instant-speed topdeck for b and seriously you're actually worried about shocking yourself?
Joke: Sorcery-speed topdeck, regardless of what it costs.
Woke: Understanding that a strictly worse card isn't worth an additional $400, especially taking a whole extra turn.

Oh, anyway, I do like this. As I said, I don't consider it a tutor, more like a fetch that you crack form your hand. It's great color-fixing in 3+ colors, and it even has benefits like graveyard-filling. You can even use it for colorless mana if you're using Kozilek's buddies.

On the imperial seal price thing: it's $2.30 on modo. It's a lot easier and cheaper to build tuned decks there because you only need one copy for all your decks and no reserve list. ABU duals are pretty cheap too. It really opens up deckbuilding options because you can put what would be a few grand worth of cards in paper into a wacky idea to boost it and not feel like it's a waste.

There was a considerable time after Ash Bartens was printed in which it wasn't such a budget option. I don't know exactly which set it was that finally brought it under a dollar, but for the longest time it was a bit of an odd outlier in terms of mana fixing lands, as it essentially "comes into play tapped" but was more expensive than a whole laundry list of lands that don't come in tapped.

At least that's my theory to its subpar EDHrec numbers.

gilrad wrote: ↑

4 years ago

There was a considerable time after Ash Bartens was printed in which it wasn't such a budget option. I don't know exactly which set it was that finally brought it under a dollar, but for the longest time it was a bit of an odd outlier in terms of mana fixing lands, as it essentially "comes into play tapped" but was more expensive than a whole laundry list of lands that don't come in tapped.

At least that's my theory to its subpar EDHrec numbers.

This is because it was only in a commander deck but as common it instantly earned a spot in the Pauper metagame, where it still rests today. Iconic Masters brought it's price down considerably.

Friday, November 1st, 2019; Wash Out

Fun with Painter's Servant, countered by Mycosynth Lattice.

More seriously, Wash Out is a pretty efficient and potentially one-sided mass bounce effect. It is high-variance though, since it depends on the colors being played. Blue does have ways to alter the colors of permanents (or you could use Distorting Lens), but that's not a thing that every deck can support. Better if you happen to be light on colored permanents yourself (I could see it being sweet in a heavy-artifact deck). Alternatively, bounce Archaeomancer or Eternal Witness and do it again.

3drinks wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Friday, November 1st, 2019; Wash Out

I like that Wash Out generally rewards players for playing fewer colours. I would absolutely run in mono-blue, or a blue guild, but at 3 or more colours, it gets sketchy. It's also very underrated, IMO; 4 mana to bounce is a bargain, and (at least at my tables) simply killing creatures invites your work to be undone with something like Living Death.

Less fun and more dangerous with painters servant. You really have to be floating Mana to land threats after it resolves or your just doing an annoying reset.

Saturday, November 2nd, 2019; Roil Elemental

Okay for a Raymond Swanland deck. Never played it due to its fragility.