SCD: Freestrider Lookout

[pokken]

This card is so, so very stupid. The first and obvious combo is with Stone-Seeder Hierophant, but man there have to just be infinity ways to generate a trigger each turn -- Retreat to Coralhelm is fairly synergistic one too, where you crack a fetchland and it triggers a crime with the tap trigger, then you get another land and a scry (presumably you don't whiff).

Chatterfang, Squirrel General is a pretty fun way to make a trigger every turn (sacrifice 0 squirrels :D)

Klothys, God of Destiny gets a trigger each turn at least which is cool.

Marath, Will of the Wild has a similar option, but runs out of counters of course

Pharika, God of Affliction is good.

Rhonas the Indomitable is decent but expensive

Rocco, Street Chef is pretty funny; basically you can pump one of their creatures and trigger lookout

Aragorn, the Uniter has some free triggers


Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn probably has the bog simplest way to guarantee a trigger each turn. Gain life, get a counter on one opponent's creature and get a land, :D

Combined with a few other of the 'when you crime' effects, I think there's probably a janky deck, stuff like Gisa, the Hellraiser and what not.

Maybe even a pretty good deck with Chatterfang, Squirrel General since he self-supports it and the landfall triggers to make tokens are fairly strongly synergistic.

--
starting search
oracle:":" oracle:"target" (type:artifact OR type:creature OR type:enchantment) color<=G (game:paper)

Can't find any great way to exclude the Tap symbol :D

Independently powerful cards that generate repeat triggers for cheap-ish

Scavenging Ooze
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Altar of Dementia
Walking Ballista
Staff of Domination
Hex Parasite
Umezawa's Jitte
Quirion Ranger ( this one is super cute, you can potentially chain it with the forest in mono green for landfall triggers )
Wirewood Symbiote
Earthcraft
Eldrazi Displacer
Mirage Mirror
Spike Feeder
Spike Weaver
Clock of Omens
Nullmage Shepherd
Wickerbough Elder
Aura Shards
Asceticism
Vilis, Broker of Blood
Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
Karn, Silver Golem
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
Triskelion
Memnarch
Maze of Ith
Deserted Temple
Thespian's Stage


--
garbage cards
Spearbreaker Behemoth
Elvish Herder
Jawbone Skulkin
Intrepid Paleontologist
Jhoira's Toolbox
Lesser Masticore
Thallid Germinator
Tangle Angler
Predator, Flagship
Grim Poppet


still workin :D

[Mookie]

I did some analysis for Samut a while ago, which apparently has around 17 repeatable targeting abilities (including Samut herself and Stone-Seeder Hierophant). Most of them are positive effects intended to target my own creatures... but I'm not entirely opposed to targeting my opponents. Unfortunately, Magda, Brazen Outlaw is the only other crime card worth consideration in Naya, and tapped treasure isn't quite worth going out of my way for.

I'll call out the Maze of Ith + Krosan Restorer / Ley Weaver combo as something that meshes nicely with Freestrider Lookout - all of the pieces are also incidentally capable of committing crimes. Armored Scrapgorger is also a nice crime trigger. I'm not currently running many pingers in Samut other than Goblin Sharpshooter, but they're also options.

[Cyax]

I'm not sure how good these synergies will be for most decks. The ceiling is high if paired with Stone-Seeder Hierophant, but I would not run Stone-Seeder by itself and there are better two-card combos to run.

Freestrider seems great with Chatterfang midgame as it could ramp out 4 lands each turn cycle. Trostani, Three Whispers does something similar with her second ability. Needing to reserve mana to get full value from this synergy really sucks the first couple turns you get this online.

If a commander commits a crime once per turn cycle, the card seems akin to an Oracle of Mul Daya that requires more support to work. I would be hesitant to run such a commander just to abuse this card unless the strategy is heavily focused on committing crimes on your opponents' turns.

starting search
oracle:":" oracle:"target" (type:artifact OR type:creature OR type:enchantment) color<=G (game:paper)

Can't find any great way to exclude the Tap symbol :D

As for your query, add this bit to your search to exclude all cards with Tap symbols.

oracle:":" oracle:"target" (type:artifact OR type:creature OR type:enchantment) ci<=G (game:paper) -o:"{T}"

[pokken]

As for your query, add this bit to your search to exclude all cards with Tap symbols.
oracle:":" oracle:"target" (type:artifact OR type:creature OR type:enchantment) ci<=G (game:paper) -o:"{T}"

this is helpful but the issue is it winds up excluding cards that have secondary {T} abilities; you can't say "I want at least one non-tapping ability" because you can't specify separate sections of the oracle text.

Trostani, Three Whispers is another great one, good idea.

If a commander commits a crime once per turn cycle, the card seems akin to an Oracle of Mul Daya that requires more support to work. I would be hesitant to run such a commander just to abuse this card unless the strategy is heavily focused on committing crimes on your opponents' turns.

Oracle of Mul Daya requires support to get 2 lands reliably and costs more and has a more vulnerable body, so I think -- if your commander can at a low to no cost repeatedly commit at least one crime per turn cycle, I think this card is likely to be very good and often better than oracle simply because you will also play removal spells.

That said, I think your assessment is not far off :D

Another big thing is, the closer your land count gets to the 30 side of things, the more likely it is that you whiff occasionally, which is really annoying. At ~40 lands I think you almost never whiff.

[Cyax]

Try this query:

f:c not:digital oracle:"target" (type:artifact OR type:creature OR type:enchantment) color<=g o:/^((?!{T})(?!has).)*:/

It filters for cards that are:
-commander legal
-not digital-only
-contains the word target
-is artifact, creature, or enchantment
-is mono green or colorless
-contains an activated ability without a tap symbol anywhere in the cost.

The query tries to exclude accidentally matching cards that make tokens with activated abilities.

The query also does not match color identity, so there are cards with various multi-colored identities mixed in. If you are looking for all possible cards for a specific commander you could replace "color<=g" with "ci:bg" (ci standing for Color Identity on the query) using Chatterfang for example.

[DirkGently]

I just picked up my arabian Hurr Jackal. I suggest you all do the same. Hurr Jackal combo winter is coming...and it's going to be a long night.

Jokes aside (I can't believe I paid $8 NZD for that stupid card xD) while lookout is definitely very strong, I think most decks won't really have the support to make it great. Some decks (like chatterfang) will be able to exploit it, but if your commander doesn't innately target for cheap, and targeting enemy stuff isn't a core theme of your deck, it's probably borderline? Like firing off removal on a subpar target in order to ramp yourself is fiiiiine but it's not really a huge payoff imo. And I'm not throwing random stuff like Stone-Seeder Hierophant into my deck in the hopes that I draw both of them and then nobody kills them.

Easiest stuff to include imo is some of the good grave hate like Relic of Progenitus. I'd focus much more towards the "free to include" side over the "maximum potential" side.

[darrenhabib]

I started drafting a Marchesa, Dealer of Death so I've got some ideas around committing crimes in Grixis.
Hex Parasite, Spatial Binding, Unspeakable Symbol are ones that can give you crimes without mana.
I had these as potential cards as well, Gorilla Shaman, Opposition, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.

Because Freestrider Lookout suggests a lands deck, and it only triggers once each turn, lands that target can be leveraged.

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Basilisk Gate, Blinkmoth Well, Deserted Temple, Duskmantle, House of Shadow, Eiganjo Castle, Flamekin Village, Hammerheim, Hanweir Battlements, Heart of Yavimaya, Kessig Wolf Run, Minamo, School at Water's Edge, Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress, Moonring Island, Nephalia Drownyard, Nesting Grounds, Oasis, Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers, Orzhova, the Church of Deals, Rishadan Port, Rogue's Passage, Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Skarrg, the Rage Pits, Slayers' Stronghold, Stensia Bloodhall, Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion, The Black Gate, Thespian's Stage, Tolaria, Tower of the Magistrate, Tyrite Sanctum, Urborg, Witch's Clinic, Yavimaya Hollow.

There are tons more lands that target, but they are once off effects like sacrifice, etb, require attacking creatures or opponents having particular types.
If you have something like Amulet of Vigor and you have cheap to activate lands that target then you can string them together to commit a crime each players turn.

[darrenhabib]

Freestrider Lookout reminds me a lot of Rootpath Purifier in that it looks amazing if built around, but on its own it might not do anything.

A deck that has a lot of counterspells and removal would suite Freestrider Lookout.
I did a spell count check and have 18 cards that target in my cEDH Tymna/Thrasios deck, with Carpet of Flowers, Deathrite Shaman, Orcish Bowmasters allowing ongoing targeting. Is this good enough? I'm not sure actually, but I've tried Deeproot Wayfinder in the deck before as it is a control deck that's looking to slow down games and making additional lands is welcome.

As far as picking a Commander if you specifically wanted to build around Freestrider Lookout and consistently get it into play, then either Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer or Prime Speaker Vannifar work.
Often the plan with Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer is to initially search up Wirewood Symbiote so that you can return Rocco to cast each turn for additional creatures, plus gives Rocco protection. So this already has a natural way to trigger crimes with Wirewood Symbiote.
Prime Speaker Vannifar is similar in that you can search for Freestrider Lookout but often the deck contains cards that untap creatures, so I can see a build that does this.

Other Commanders that can trigger crimes each turn are Kaseto, Orochi Archmage and Koma, Cosmos Serpent.

Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith is a partner Commander that can get you a trigger each players turn once you get an engine going.

[pokken]

Freestrider Lookout reminds me a lot of Rootpath Purifier in that it looks amazing if built around, but on its own it might not do anything.

So my thinking on this card is more like...

- if your general makes it goodstuff (e.g. Chatterfang, Squirrel General who likely has two angles to benefit from it from, landfall making tokens and his ability triggering it, or Derevi, Empyrial Tactician who can easily trigger it on his turn every single turn for almost free)
- if your general deck strategy has a lot of targeting things *and* benefits from the landfall/digging for nonbasics off the top; generally if you're a lands deck that wants to play Maze of Ith I think this is a pretty good card most of the time (so you're on Deserted Temple and Scute Swarm type stuff)
- if you're pretty focused on build your own Seedborn Muse effects it can be pretty strong too (e.g. Unwinding Clock ) since you can easily then get +3 lands per cycle off a card that you can likely trigger easily 1-2 times to get you going with like a Relic of Progenitus or Voyaging Satyr or whatever).

Then in all those shells, you get incidental benefits off your removal triggering.

I don't think it's a card you would entirely build around, but I think a lot of decks can randomly support it and it generates a lot more advantage than Farhaven Elf or Cultivate while being tutorable off GSZ.

A deck that has a lot of counterspells and removal would suite Freestrider Lookout.

I am not sure this is enough on its own but I think being able to turn interaction into more mana is desirable. What might tip it over the edge is a 3/3 dude with Reach who doesn't need to attack to do anything has some advantages for those types of decks. It blocks Aven Mindcensor and Tymna the Weaver profitably and who the hell is going to remove it.

That said, in CEDH the land counts are dangerously low so it's significantly worse :D

[darrenhabib]

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower could be your Commander and combine with all the lands that tap and sacrifice to get Forest like Evolving Wilds. There are 23 of them that can do this. The idea is that you put these into play off Freestrider Lookout and just wait until each players turn to actually crack one. You have a 74% chance to hit another one of these off Freestrider trigger so the odds are great to keep the engine going. I think this would be a fun budget build played with all the other green landfall creatures that like tap to search lands.

[Cyax]

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower could be your Commander and combine with all the lands that tap and sacrifice to get Forest like Evolving Wilds. There are 23 of them that can do this. The idea is that you put these into play off Freestrider Lookout and just wait until each players turn to actually crack one. You have a 74% chance to hit another one of these off Freestrider trigger so the odds are great to keep the engine going. I think this would be a fun budget build played with all the other green landfall creatures that like tap to search lands.

Most fetchlands you mention are either rather pricey or bad compared to basic forests. Amulet of Vigor effects would make the strategy work more smoothly, but the chances of hitting none of those 23 lands is roughly 20% per Lookout trigger. Running cards just to support the Lookout weakens your deck when the synergy is offline. The additional requirement of needing to buff your opponents' creatures means that they might come swinging at you and that other times you may be unable get any lands.

Granted, I run Azusa, Lost but Seeking as a commander, and the deck consistently pulls out a Crucible of Worlds effect with a good fetchland. This allows me 3 untapped land drops every turn without needing additional mana or to play any specific cards from hand. Freestrider Lookout has a higher ceiling, but the self-sufficiency of the Crucible/fetchland/Exploration combo allows for more flexible deckbuilding that in my view easily compensates for the lower ceiling.

[darrenhabib]

Most fetchlands you mention are either rather pricey or bad compared to basic forests. Amulet of Vigor effects would make the strategy work more smoothly, but the chances of hitting none of those 23 lands is roughly 20% per Lookout trigger. Running cards just to support the Lookout weakens your deck when the synergy is offline. The additional requirement of needing to buff your opponents' creatures means that they might come swinging at you and that other times you may be unable get any lands.

It's a landfall Commander by nature so as I said you are playing landfall creatures naturally like Avenger of Zendikar, Evolution Sage, Embodiment of Insight, Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer, Lotus Cobra, Nissa, Resurgent Animist, Rampaging Baloths, Scute Swarm, Stone-Seeder Hierophant, Tato Farmer, Tireless Provisioner, Tireless Tracker.
So the deck works without ever putting Freestrider Lookout onto the battlefield, with the fetchlands giving you bonuses to the rest of the 99.
Amulet of Vigor give more speed, but isn't necessary for the engine.
As I said its 74% chance of hitting a search land, so in fact 26% fail rate if looking at glass quarter-empty. But if 3 of 4 of your triggers allow you to trigger for another 3 times, then you'll be able to fill the gap with a few other tricks to support the general landfall theme.
Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth nullifies any downside you might have with the fetches and Crop Rotation is a nice one to trigger in an opponents turn.

You can easily turn putting +1/+1 counters on opponents creatures into a deal of you'll do it as long as they attack other players, so all upside. My playgroup are like elephants-never-forget, so if you break a deal, the consequences for other games become a problem. Basically deals are never broken.

[yeti1069]

Blood Artist. If you're already looking at making tokens, BA can cash them in (with a little help) and generator a trigger on each player's turn.

[pokken]

Blood Artist. If you're already looking at making tokens, BA can cash them in (with a little help) and generator a trigger on each player's turn.

It's hilarious to see blood artists biggest downside being useful XD I like it.

Likely there is a whole decent deck full of garbage that targets on death and sacrifices. Pharika, God of Affliction is kinda cool in that she could make snakes for you to kill and also does crimes (so you could target peoples stuff then kill their snakes, or give yourself snakes and sacrifice them).

[ISBPathfinder]

My concern here is that this seems like a narrow setup of a few cards that has a decent payoff that doesn't win the game. Its probably Seedborn Muse level of concern or more if its actually set up but it doesn't win the game and it takes a combo of cards. Its cute don't get me wrong but I just died on turns 5 and 6 in 2/3 of the games I played this weekend. I am currently looking at like, how can I be an evil permission control bastard more so than I am assemble something like this right now.