MTGNexus

Clearly good in Eldrazi Tribal (usually with Morophon, the Boundless at the helm), or purely colourless decks like Karn, Silver Golem.

Are there any other decks where this card has a home? I was thinking that you can play a 2-3 colour deck, and still be able to leverage the extra mana via utility lands, painlands or filter lands. Maybe there's a manifest/morph deck running this? Or an Artifact themed one?

What are your experiences with this thing?

This one falls in a weird place, on several levels. First off is the cost. 5 is great for an anthem+ramp effect in eldrazi decks, but it's a lot for most other artifact-related decks. I am sure there are artifact decks in which the lifegain is relevant, but a) that's probably niche, and b) again, 5 mana. Having Sol Ring, Thought Vessel, etc. tap for an extra 1 mana can be very strong, but it it worth 5 mana? Again, definitely yes in eldrazi, but in most colorless/artifact-centric decks, I suspect there are a lot of better things you can be doing with 5 mana.

My Jhoira build runs a ton of artifacts but relatively few creatures, and half of the creatures it does run are ones that lower the cost to cast artifacts and aren't likely to be attacking. The lifegain isn't relevant enough there for me to consider running this card. I considered it for my Rebbec/Silas build, but a) a lot of the artifact creatures in that one are not colorless, b) the lifegain is again not super-relevant, and c) I am already running a crapload of mana rocks so that by the time I would be casting this, I am instead putting out big threats then cloning them, so I decided to run Tempered Steel as a cheaper anthem effect that works better in that particular deck.

I can see this maybe being good in Sai thopter swarm decks and some Daretti builds.

It also goes infinite with basalt monolith, which isn't nothing. 5 is a really awkward mv though.

I have not been disappointed that I added this to both Karn, Silver Golem (Golem Deck) and Sydri, Galvanic Genius (Vehicle deck).

In Karn, I already had a life-gain subtheme (Golem's Heart inspired) and the deck's plan B is proliferating Armageddon Clock counters and gaining enough life to live the longest. It was a natural fit there.

In Sydri, I tested it and decided to keep it because being vehicle themed the color requirements could afford the slot and animating a 7/7 Forsaken Monument with deathtouch and lifelink after a board wipe is fun (Being vehicles themed, much of the deck is animating and attacking with non-creatures).

On the other hand, I tried it in my Breya, Etherium Shaper Thopter deck, but the color requirements combined with the number of non-colorless creatures (artificers that make thopter tokens) meant it did not make the cut.

Morphs can do well with it I guess.
I don't think I would play this unless at least half my lands were colorless.

Dunharrow wrote: ↑

3 years ago

Morphs can do well with it I guess.
I don't think I would play this unless at least half my lands were colorless.

Yeah, I mean, I would try and game it a bit with cards like Underground River|ICE or Sunken Ruins|SHM. You know, where you can have colourless mana easily, but it wouldn't cripple the mana base.

I've contemplated Forsaken Monument for my Thada Adel, Acquisitor deck. I'm running a bunch of mana rocks (in addition to the ones that Thada provides), and I have a fair number of artifact and colorless creatures that I beat down with. That said, I don't quite feel like I'm as artifact-focused as the card requires. While I do have a fair number of colorless utility lands, my manabase is still mostly Islands. The +2/+2 anthem also feels sort of redundant when my colorless creatures are already massive beaters - the equipment I run leans towards things that grant protection or evasion, not stats. The opposite would be true if I had a lot of small, evasive creatures (like thopter tokens). The lifegain is nice, at least, but I'm already running Loxodon Warhammer and Batterskull.

Anyway, if I were to run Forsaken Monument outside a colorless deck, I'd probably want a deck where colorless / artifacts were a primary theme, and not a subtheme. Sai, Master Thopterist seems like the most natural fit due to the anthem being relevant for the thopters. Maybe Saheeli, the Gifted? I'm not sure what other artifact aggro decks there are. I suppose Alibou, Ancient Witness and Losheel, Clockwork Scholar both seem pretty friendly to Tempered Steel effects. Morphs could be interesting, but given that the intent of most morphs is to turn them face-up into colored creatures, I don't think the anthem is quite as relevant.

I will definitely try this out in my next brew of affinity.dec. Seems like a pretty great rate for what it does, and the infinite outlet definitely doesn't hurt.

I had some pretty nasty games with Tempered Steel where I just 40'd some people out of nowhere with some thopters, so +2/+2 can really scale fast.

I think this can work well in two/three color artifact/Eldrazi decks, as long as you have around 25 mana sources you can boost. Between pain, filter, multicolor lands like Tarnished Citadel and Spire of Industry, tainted lands, deserts ( Ramunap Ruins), Odyssey utility lands (Cephalid Coliseum), utility lands and mana rocks (Talismans particularly relevant) this is by now quite possible. Aside from the mana you do also want to be in the market for the +2/2, which makes artifact aggro decks a natural fit. I've found it to be a good fit in Marchesa artifacts, which as an aggro deck with heavy life loss also appreciates the life gain, but also has natural synergies with the life loss heavy mana base thus requires.

I've found it to be a lot better than Tempered Steel, as the mana boosting, being an artifact itself, and an easier mana cost to cast off of in these types of decks is worth the two extra mana. I've always found Tempered Steel a bit awkward in EDH in that it's not an artifact and is tricky to cast.

I think the deck that likes this card the most is Sai, Master Thopterist. For him it has everything. Ramp, buffs his army of thopter tokens, and he is going to be casting colourless spells often enough to benefit from the life gain.

Affinity, Eggs, really most artifact decks. Animorphs?

You can combo it with Mycosynth Lattice but that's a bit of work for essentially a universal double lucky charm and double anthem with a sorta mana doubler.

Generally speaking you probably want to be on either:

• Colorless swarm
• Big on mana stones

I have a Sai deck (link in sig) where I included it and it has been quite reasonable. The pump effect, life gain, and ramp have all been relevant there and it opened me up to having another nice top end artifact outside of just Coat of Arms I can get.

I could also see it potentially in an eldrazi heavy deck with lots of mana rocks too. I think offhand though a swarm based artificer seems a touch more natural for it.

Traxos, Scourge of Kroog is the first place that comes to mind.............because he's not a man, he's a MACHINE! Brian Cage reference.

I've been toying with the idea of a K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth deck with no swamps. I'm not sure if Forsaken Monument would be good or mediocre in it. On one hand, the 5cmc slot is always really weird when you're running a lot of fast mana cards and it seems a bit slow in a deck like K'rrik where you're just trying to "go off" and win the game. On the other hand, the way I intend on building the deck makes the card seemingly made for this.

Mookie wrote: ↑

3 years ago

Maybe Saheeli, the Gifted?

I play it in a thopter/X spell list. Best card in the deck.

Remember Sol Ring, Mind Stone painlands, utility lands, OG Karoos, Soldevi Excavations and friends, etc. tap for colorless.

Basalt Monolith goes infinite.

I think you really need to care about both the mana doubling and have a very large amount of colorless swarming, the life gain is just gravy.

It's extremely niche, already I find mana doublers to be pretty niche, but if your deck is running a lot of colorless mana rocks, unwinding clock and a bunch of mana sinks, then it'll probably be an all star.

I really wouldn't play it outside mono brown though, or at least a mono colored deck that is almost all colorless cards.