#somberwald

[incorrect-mtg]

Flavor Text Highlights - Avacyn Restored

<- Previous Set | Next Set ->

Cool - Somberwald Sage

“You can face any danger when all of nature is on your side.”

Worldbuilding - Avacyn, Angel of Hope

A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

Emotional - Latch Seeker

It seeks a tomb that will hold it, a coffin that will give it rest.

Emotional - Angel's Mercy

“I understand your fears. I pity your doubts. I absolve you of both.”

<- Previous Set | Next Set ->

[pulpsandcomics2]

Somberwald Vigilante by John Stanko

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Somberwald Beastmaster by Marta Nael

[dailymtgflavortext]

"You can face any danger when all of nature is on your side." 

-Somberwald Sage

[markrosewater]

The new Somberwald Beastmaster creates a Wolf, a Beast, and another Beast. This feels atypical. All three being beasts wouldn't feel odd, nor would three different types (perhaps a 3/3 elk). Any idea (or speculation) why it was done specifically like this? It's a cool card, and I'm sure it's just me, but I still thought I'd ask.

My best guess is the creature types were chosen to match the art and that’s what those individual animals are creature typed as.

I agree it’s odd. : )

[magicjudge]

Hi there! I was wondering, if I had Chorus of the Conclave and Somberwald Sage, could I use the mana from Somberwald Sage to pay for additional counters on a creature I am casting? Thank you!

Yes.

The additional mana you can pay because of Chorus of the Conclave is an optional additional cost which is part of the total cost to cast the creature. Therefore you can use the mana from Somberwald Sage to pay for it.

[dhb912]

Magic the Gathering Innistrad Midnight Hunt Prerelease Pack bought from Bearded Browncoat Comics Ocala, the cards from the Draft Boosters: All Green Commons: 175 Candlelit Cavalry 185 Eccentric Farmer (I'm gonna need a bigger pesticide) 186 Harvesttide Sentry 189 Might of the Old Ways (We gots a #stronk witch!) 191 Path to the Festival 193 Plummet (Another card printed multiple times) 198 Shadowbeast Sighting (It needs a beauty, for #whocouldeverloveabeast?) 199 Snarling Wolf 201 Tapping at the Window 202 Timberland Guide #becomewhatyoufear #magic #gathering #mtg #tcg #innistrad #midnighthunt #prereleasepack #beardedbrowncoatcomicsandgames #shadowsoverinnistrad #eldritchmoon #innistradwerewolves #werewolf #therewolf #arlinnkord #shewolf #hungrylikethewolf #thehowling #dayandnight #harvesttidefestival #eternalnight #daybound #nightbound #darknessisyouronlyhope #dawnhart #kessig #somberwald #ulvenwald https://www.instagram.com/p/CUDiPjfFgpe/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jones-friend]

More Tips for Building Decks

Ikoria is just around the corner, as a distraction from other terrible things I wanted to go over my deckbuilding process and how I take a strategy from idea to finished deck.

What is the heart of the deck? It could be a commander you love like Doran or a mechanic from a set like Investigate. Archetypes like Political or Reanimator are fun. Working of a card type like Artifact or Enchantment are good. Then there’s tribal, building around a creature type like zombies or elementals. There’s also game mechanics like +1/+1 counters that are very fun.

How will this deck ramp? Ramp isn’t always necessary but it does facilitate reaching higher costed cards in your deck. The more 5 drops and higher you run the more you might want to add some. Green based ramps like Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach will do it. Forest-based ramp like Nature’s Lore, Ranger’s Path, and Skyshroud Claim hit dual lands like Cycle and Tango Lands (and Shocks!). Artifact Ramp like Sol Ring and Commander’s Sphere help. Do you want creatures who generate mana like Somberwald Sage? Or enchantments like Mirari’s Wake?

How will this deck draw cards? All decks need to draw, even white decks. If you don’t run any draw each turn you play two cards sets you down a card in hand permanently. Tying your draw to the heart of your deck is vital in making your deck have synergy. Do we draw off big power creatures? Sacrifice? Attack triggers or combat damage? Casting card types? There’s a lot of ways to trigger draws. Find what works best for your strategy?

How will this deck hinder? Deterring your opponent’s strategy is very important. In 100 card singleton other players will pick up more steam faster than you. Having resources to hinder and slow them or stop plays is important, but not so much where you should make more than 10-20% of your deck removal. Counterspells, kill spells, and board wipes fit in this category. I’ve found anything more than 5 board wipes in a deck is gratuitous, look at how much removal precons run. They’re geared for fun over competitive play. Tying your removal to the heart of the deck is very important in making effective synergy. Go for the Throat is an objectively good card, but if you’re in reanimator wouldn’t you want that on Ravenous Chupacabra so you can repeat the effect?

How will this deck recur? This is vital to working around your opponent’s removal. Your opponents will counter and kill your things, what are you going to do about it? With Underworld Breach every color can recur now. If you DON’T go with recurring, which is an option, how can you make that work for your deck? Rest in Peace and Militant Dryad both work into the idea of “if I can’t recur nobody can recur”.

How will this deck compete? Or, what is the output of this deck? Decks need ways to win. You can tinker all you want in red artificing but if you don’t output damage or mill you aren’t getting anywhere. Turning your strategy into an output of damage is critical. Not all decks need damage specifically, my Alela has alternate avenues to win with mill if I have to. Or use milled resources to output damage. Each deck of mine has a clear strategy for how its going to lower your deck or library to 0. Now, I see alternate win conditions. I don’t consider them a viable way to win. If a Sadistic Sacrement kicked (exile 10 cards from target player’s library) makes your deck unable to win that’s a problem. If a T1 Extract (U: exile 1 card from target library) makes your deck unplayable you’ve messed up.

A longer list, but these are different things I check through when making a deck. What do I want? Can it ramp? Draw? Hinder? Recur? Compete? And by what parameters?

[commandertheory]

I’ve been a big fan of Somberwald Sage and this is mostly an upgrade in monogreen lists.

[yarana-stonescale]

Mavis Dusken

Name: Mavis Dusken

Gender: Female

Race: Vampire (formerly human)

Colours: B

Homeplane → First Planeswalk: Innistrad → Ixalan

Age: 25 (biologically 21)

Backstory: One of the last of the near-extinct Dusken bloodline, Mavis was once a mere human ghoulcaller from a small village on the outskirts of the Somberwald while raising her little sister, Edith, after their parents abandoned them. She would scout the outer reaches of the village nearest to the forest at night, looking for prime targets to reanimate. One night, however, things went a little pear-shaped...

As she was performing her nightly corpse hunt, Mavis wandered away from the village. Too far away from safety. In the blink of an eye, she was ambushed by a vampire of the Duskens. That was the night she was sired. And when she got back home... The thirst overwhelmed her to the point of draining Edith's veins dry. They had celebrated Edith's 13th birthday that day. The gravity of what she'd just done hit her like a tonne of bricks. Guilty over killing her beloved sister, Mavis sat in a corner of their home and wailed loudly. In that moment, her spark ignited, sending her to the sunny hellscape plane of Ixalan. She spent one and a half years on Ixalan, learning to control her thirst and honing her necromancy. When she returned to Innistrad, she was a new woman. She spent another 2 years learning and mastering sangromancy and shapeshifting into a bat. These days, she metes a cruel sort of justice on those she either dislikes, or has done something she deems evil to a child.

Weapons, Magic, and Skills: Mavis doesn't use weapons, unless one were to count claws and fangs, instead preferring to either incapacitate her prey from a distance, or by using ghouls to attack. As a vampire, her skills as a tracker are nothing to sneeze at. Her sense of smell is good enough to determine one particular person's smell from a crowd. Her magics consist of her highly refined necromancy, the ability to transform into a bat, and sangromancy.

Personality: Mavis is a callous woman, bloodthirsty and selfish, though deep down she's fairly amicable, maybe even kind. Her sister's death is a sore spot for her, causing her to lash out whoever she's talking to when they bring it up.

[edh-a-to-z]

19 - Animar, Soul of Elements

Whew. It’s been a while. Been busy with a new job. Finally gonna get back to working on commander deck techs. Here we go with a fan fave, Animar.

The beast of war.

The original stompy commander.

The counter voltron.

This is Animar, Soul of Elements. It comes for thee.

Aminar, Soul of Elements; by Peter Mohrbacher

LORE

There’s not much, only a snippet from here.

In the folklore of its plane, the Animar is the ultimate source of all life—the seed from which all creation grows. In the presence of Animar, crops blossom and herds thrive, and the wake of its wanderings determines the course of the seasons

THE CARD

It’s already a lot of text to throw at anyone. Three abilities, all of which are relevant, looks good.

Protection abilities - anything that keep a commander safe, helps a lot to make a Commander better in a Voltron role. Also helps that some of the best single target removal for EDH is in White and Black. Protection can also mean evasion, another boon.

The next two abilities synergize with counters and themselves. Play lots of creatures, get Animar bigger, make creatures cheaper, and keep going.

Builds

Beat down and Voltron is our game plan.

There was a time when I considered Animar one of the best commanders - an assessment that was common in many a player a while ago.

My build following is focused on getting some counters on Animar, then powering out big creatures and smashing in Animar Voltron style.

Battle Plan

We want a selection of High CMC creatures. But not just any creatures, creatures with a high neutral mana number. Khalni Hydra going for GGGGGGGG? That’s not gonna work for us.

Next, we want a suite of +1/+1 counter granting abilities, primarily to amp up Animar, and also to amp out team. Things that care about counters also synergize well.

We can also add a touch of Elemental tribal.

High CMC

Maelstrom Wanderer; by Thomas M. Baxa

So Animar likes getting out there and dropping a ton of creatures. But we want the best.

Maelstrom Wanderer can be played if you could play Animar, and has some sweet powerful abilities that let your army really rage. Soul of the Harvest can let you replace all the creatures you’re playing

Any solid fatties work here - Carnage Tyrant, Eldrazi fatties, Dragons - so long as it’s big nasty with low colored mana, it can wreak havoc. Basically dump your favorite Leviathans and co that can’t get played outside of a Ramp deck.

Synergstic with these fatties is Fierce Empath, who you’ll likely play for G, can tutor anything with Power >6.

+1/+1 Counters

Counter synergy is useful, and is an option to become a core strategy.

Hardened Scale makes a great choice here. Shaman of the Great Hunt keeps the Naya, Temur 4-5 Power theme going. Increasing Savagery goes once then goes again.

Rishkar, Peema Renegade helps counter do even better, 

Elemental Tribal

Nominally useful, but not needed that much. I’d say you only really need Omnath Locus of Rage, with maybe Brightheart Banneret and Smokebraider as Animar synergy. The wider you go, the more you can justify Incandescent Soulstoke, 

Any other elementals are player for non-tribal purposes - like Avenger of Zendikar is just great to have, especially in a deck that can ramp well. Soul of the Harvest, Bane of Progess, and Magmatic Force are also solid options here.

The Rest

The Ramp

Kodama’s Reach; by Heather Hudson

AKA the Ramp spell to compare all ramp spells to

We do want some ramp. Since we’re a 3 color deck, the ability to fix out mana for Animar and the creatures he power out, it’s a high priority. 

We want a mix of spells that “Find Basics” like Kodama’s Reach, Solemn Simulacrum, Sakura Tribe Elder, Wood Elves (works great with any set of Dual lands, from Amonkhet’s cycle lands to Battlelands to Shocklands) and Cultivate. Fetchlands are ideal, but basic versions like Evolving Wilds are serviceable.

Rocks are important -  Ravnica Signets are great, Chromatic Lantern is always good, 

On the Dork side of things, Shaman of the Forgotten Ways is a champ. Beastcaller Savant, Rattleclaw Mystic, Somberwald Sage, Bloom Tender (pricey, and more like a would-be-nice), 

On the non-basic lands, Ancient Ziggurat is great, 

Random Fun

Ancestral Statues can blink itself infinite if Animar has 4+ counters on it. So...Impact Tremors and Purphoros!

Morph creatures get played for free when Animar has 3+ counters, so that’s pretty dope on the options side of things. 

Weaknesses

Board wipes. Animar loves the board, and his protection doesn’t cover Red Damage, and most Black and White board wipes are non-targeting killers. For going big creature or big Voltron, you depend heavily on the board. Personally I pack in some counterspells, especially ones that hit Sorceries (most board wipes), so Flusterstorm, Muddle the Mixture (or plain ol’ Counterspell), or Swan Song to disrupt this.

RATINGS

Aggro 9/10

Animar can run lean and green, pouring out creatures and generally smashing face. Aggro usually gets a bum rap in EDH, but Elementals can make it work for some reason.

Combo Potential 10/10

A self-contained combo machine, Animar is one of the best at enabling combos, as well as benefiting from combos. Big creatures, big counters, and three colors to play with are greatly conducive to combos.

Overall Power 7/10

Power creep has pushed Animar off the peak, but in any given group, Animar remains a threat in any group of assorted commanders.

Versatility 8/10

Animar can support a variety of builds, from Fatties, Ramp, Voltron, while usually having a mix of them.

Affordability: 6/10

With a fresh, and sorely needed, reprint from M25, we see the price drop to 2/3rds of its old cost. Animar is still 10+ and the decks material isn’t cheap, but it’s much better than before.

Overall Score 40/50

1 of 99 Oddball

While it technically fits into any creature based Temur deck, the building around and availability from the Command Zone make it far less useful as 1 of the 99.

FINAL VERDICT

A great commander by any standard, who’s a great addition to any EDH collector. Grab it if you get the chance.

See you around campers.

[doctor-roman]

So what is her magic like, I know you said she is a alchemist but how does she uses her alchemy, are we talking turning led into gold with mystical elixirs or are we talking full metal?

Think more like an herbalist! Mixing newt spittle with moonglove extract and Somberwald spider venom to see what it makes. Her advantage is that she can mix and match stuff from all over the multiverse, whereas most people are stuck with whatever they have available to them on just their plane.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Somberwald Beastmaster by Marta Nael

[nitramellicano]

Crónicas de Nitram (on Wattpad) Capítulo 1

Sentí que el licano tenía mucho para dar todavía.

Esta vez nos enfocamos en él porque el grupo de personas con el que me juntaba a jugar Magic, por diversas razones, se dispersó. Llegado aquí, ya deberían saber cuál era el personaje que representaba mi mazo.

Nitram, los bosques de Somberwald y los demás...

[mtgbracket]

Round of 512 - Batch 8

You can now vote in Batch 6.8!

Today’s feature card is Wrath of God.  Currently holding the all-time high score, Wrath is a serious contender for the top spot.  So far the cards unlucky enough to cross its path have been Searing Blood, Somberwald Sage, Holy Strength, Mind Grind, and Joraga Treespeaker.

Currently open batches:

Batch 6.8 Batch 6.7 Batch 6.6 Batch 6.5 Batch 6.4 Batch 6.3 Batch 6.2

Batch 6.1 results will be up shortly.

Full list of matchups:

Azorius Charm vs Fact or Fiction Leyline of Sanctity vs Primal Command Faithless Looting vs Iona, Shield of Emeria Elvish Spirit Guide vs Street Wraith Flametongue Kavu vs Detention Sphere Price of Progress vs Baneslayer Angel Wrath of God vs Dig Through Time Capsize vs Consecrated Sphinx Fastbond vs Mikaeus, the Unhallowed Phyrexian Unlife vs Ensnaring Bridge Parallel Lives vs Sphere of Resistance Baleful Strix vs Flash Descend upon the Sinful vs Bribery Oona, Queen of the Fae vs Gaea's Cradle Omniscience vs Academy Ruins Duplicant vs Coalition Relic

[magicjudge]

What happens to the mana produced by a somberwald Sage if unspent with a Kruphix in play? Does it still have the creature spell restriction?

Yes.

“ If unused mana in your mana pool has any restrictions or riders associated with it (for example, if it was produced by Cavern of Souls), those restrictions or riders will remain associated with that mana when it becomes colorless.