Pyrostatic Pillar

Pyrostatic Pillar


Whenever a player plays a spell with converted mana cost 3 or less, Pyrostatic Pillar deals 2 damage to that player.

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Set Rarity
Scourge (SCG) Uncommon

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Format Legality
Tiny Leaders Legal
Noble Legal
Leviathan Legal
Magic Duels Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Vintage Legal
Vanguard Legal
Legacy Legal
Archenemy Legal
Planechase Legal
1v1 Commander Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Unformat Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal

Pyrostatic Pillar Discussion

BS-T on Pillow Fort Bleed - Protecting ...

1 month ago

This is tricky - I like it!

There are a few decent prevention effects among these: Scryfall, the best for you probably being Light of Sanction .

Though you've likely tackled this angle fairly well... The best repeatable ones on the list are Story Circle , Circle of Protection: Red / Rune of Protection: Red - and the slightly spicier Shieldmage Advocate , Protective Sphere / Righteous Aura .

Urza's Armor is decent if you're using things like Pyrohemia and is useful to a degree vs Spellshock or Pyrostatic Pillar (also have you got Eidolon of the Great Revel ?) Similarly the ult of Ajani Steadfast seems good.

B.A.N.E. on Pillow Fort Bleed - Protecting ...

1 month ago

I'm interested in creating a R/W/B bleed deck and need a little advice regarding the right ratio of cards.

Here's the idea. Using Spellshock , Pyrostatic Pillar , Earthquake , Inferno and similar cards paired with Furnace of Rath and Repercussion I'm looking to deal massive damage across the board.

To protect my self I've looked at Solitary Confinement and Glacial Chasm to protect my self from all sources and Personal Sanctuary to protect myself from myself.

What proportion of protection / pillow fort cards should I keep to damage? Do you have any other suggestions for this?

SideBae on Devouring Despair

4 months ago

So the main bonus of green in EDH is its access to mana dorks. Llanowar Elves , Elves of Deep Shadow and Orcish Lumberjack all belong in this deck, and you may want to find a place for Elvish Mystic , Priest of Titania , Fyndhorn Elves , Birds of Paradise , Deathrite Shaman , Arbor Elf and/or Bloom Tender . Note that Arbor Elf is especially powerful if you end up running cards like Wild Growth , Elvish Guidance and/or Wild Growth . Dorks will accelerate you early game and provide sac-fodder in the late game.

Regrowth is a strictly-better Nature's Spiral .

Faithless Looting is a really good source of card selection for one mana. You're probably going to want to run it, as it makes a lot of mediocre hands much more keepable.

Green Sun's Zenith is a great card to consider, especially since you're already running Dryad Arbor . If you cast Green Sun's Zenith turn one for X = 0, you can fetch Dryad Arbor right away. It's a good form of one mana ramp outside dorks and enchant-lands.

A lot of your dudes are gonna die in a sacrifice deck. In order to get card-advantage out of this, you should run Grim Haruspex , Midnight Reaper and/or Harvester of Souls . Unfortunately, these don't trigger with token-deaths, but they'll still help a lot. Deathreap Ritual is similarly powerful and triggers with token deaths, though it only triggers once a turn.

Speaking of card-draw, you have access to some good stuff there. Painful Truths is a three-mana draw-three I've been very impressed with, and Shamanic Revelation is also helpful. From a permanent-based point of view, Phyrexian Arena and Slate of Ancestry are the way to go.

A lot of your removal are one-for-ones (see Terminate , Hero's Downfall , Doom Blade , etc.). In general, I find one-for-ones are usually not very powerful in a format with three opponents, as you're facing three times as many cards as you have. Your Damnation is a great start; consider Toxic Deluge , Hull Breach , Decimate , Casualties of War , Windgrace's Judgment , Reckless Spite , By Force , Ancient Grudge , etc. I've found these to be more efficient, and therefore more powerful, than one-for-ones. Some one-for-ones, though, are so tough to counter or are so efficient as is that they're worth including: Nature's Claim and your Krosan Grip come to mind.

Runes of the Deus comes to mind as a good way to force through commander damage.

Command Tower , City of Brass , Mana Confluence , Reflecting Pool , Forbidden Orchard , Exotic Orchard and friends are all good ETB untapped lands to consider.

I've always liked Smallpox , both in general and in EDH. You might have luck with it in this deck; similar cards include Innocent Blood , Smokestack and the card Pox itself. If you choose to go the Smokestack route, Bitterblossom and/or Ophiomancer are worth considering. They might be worth considering anyways, though.

Spellbreaker Behemoth is an efficient creature that disrupts countermagic. Harsh Mentor , Pyrostatic Pillar , Eidolon of the Great Revel , Shattergang Brothers or Stranglehold are similar ways to punish opponents while having good cards on your side.

Finally, you should consider Overrun effects as secondary win-conditions. Using Natural Order to grab Craterhoof Behemoth while you have a wide board can easily win you the game; Green Sun's Zenith or Chord of Calling also do the job, though they're more expensive mana-wise and therefore worse. Triumph of the Hordes is a similar card that can snatch games, though it cannot be tutored as easily.

Ok! Good luck -- that's all I got.

SideBae on float like a gruul, stangg like a stangg twin

5 months ago

So there're a lot of different directions you can take RG decks. I'll suggest some basic, universal additions first, and then suggest some win conditions:


  1. The best part of green in EDH is the dorks. You should definitely run at least Llanowar Elves , but there're some other cards you should consider: Fyndhorn Elves , Elvish Mystic , Birds of Paradise , Arbor Elf , Shaman of Forgotten Ways , Somberwald Sage , Joraga Treespeaker ... If you end up having a lot of elves, running something like Priest of Titania is worth including. Depending on your meta, Carpet of Flowers can get a lot of mana. Finally, Orcish Lumberjack is a card I have been very impressed with... turning a forest into effectively a better Black Lotus is a good thing. (Note that Arbor Elf is especially good if it untaps lands enchanted with Utopia Sprawl , Elvish Guidance or Wild Growth ).

  2. Red-green decks tend to poop out a lot of creatures and go lightly on the spells. Slate of Ancestry is an EXCELLENT way to recoup card advantage, provided you have a critical mass of creatures on the table. Commune with Lava is another excellent pseudo-card-draw thingy. If your games are usually four player games, Decimate is frequently a four-for-one, meaning that it's another good source of permanent-count advantage. Shamanic Revelation is another good draw-spell. If you have fat enough creatures, Rishkar's Expertise may merit an include. Hull Breach is a great two-for-one.

  3. Green-red decks, which tend to be creature-heavy, can be soft to boardwipes. Heroic Intervention is a good way to protect your duders; Grim Flowering and Nature's Resurgence are good ways to recoup cards after losing a bunch of guys.

  4. Tutors are good. Gamble is cheap these days, due to the recent reprint. Green Sun's Zenith , Tooth and Nail and Chord of Calling can all grab powerful creatures to play -- note that GSZ for X = 0 can grab Dryad Arbor , if you run it. Worldly Tutor or Sylvan Tutor are also good.

Win Conditions

Oftentimes, green-red decks win through a combination of Stax pieces and aggro cards.

Potential Stax Pieces:

  1. Blood Moon / Magus of the Moon : If you craft your land base carefully, you can make these into a near asymmetrical effect. A lot of decks benefit from greedy mana bases in EDH, and these are a way to punish that.

  2. Artifact hate is pretty awesome. Collector Ouphe is powerful, since you can get your ramp from creatures while shutting off non-green players' artifact ramp; as an added bonus, you can grab it with Green Sun's Zenith or Chord of Calling . By Force is an excellent card that can nuke a lot of permanents at once, and Nature's Claim is a very efficient removal spell. Krosan Grip may be justified in a heavy-blue meta. Gorilla Shaman is good as a method of artifact-destruction that does not cost you cards. Also Reclamation Sage and Manglehorn .

  3. Gruul has access to a lot of hatebears. Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is a really powerful dude you've already got, as he can club combo players like me really hard. Harsh Mentor is good for punishing all sorts of decks. Eidolon of the Great Revel , and his cousin Pyrostatic Pillar , are both good. Scab-Clan Berserker is similar to Kambal, Consul of Allocation in Orzhov. Runic Armasaur , too.

  4. Cards like Root Maze can shut down combos really quickly, and City of Solitude / Price of Glory can prevent/discourage countermagic. Pyroblast or the Maybeboarded Red Elemental Blast can also be worth running.

Aggro Cards:

Most of the best green decks end the game with an alpha-strike. Craterhoof Behemoth is the best for this, as it can be tutored out with Natural Order or a high-cost Green Sun's Zenith . Similarly, Overrun is good, but I suggest Triumph of the Hordes as a more potent alternative. This does, of course, require creatures on the board, so I suggest some of the following duders:

...and the aforementioned hatebears can also attack.

Good luck! That's all I got.

SideBae on Arms Dealing 101

5 months ago

Ponder and Preordain are worth including in any blue deck. They dig you to whatever you need, and past what you don't. Brainstorm is good, too, but you'd need to run more shuffle effects to make it worth playing. Slow fetches, like Flood Plain or Rocky Tar Pit , are cheaper alternatives to the Onslaught and Zendikar fetches.

You can probably do more in terms of artifact ramp. Talisman of Progress is good in addition to your Talisman of Conviction and Talisman of Creativity . Thought Vessel is also great; I suggest cutting Reliquary Tower for a basic land if you run it, as one of this effect is probably enough, and Thought Vessel can ramp you fast if it comes down turn two. (In other words, it doesn't cost a land drop.)

City of Brass and Mana Confluence are great ETB-untapped lands that produce all your colors. In a format with forty life, they're frequently just redundant Command Tower s.

You should consider Treasure Cruise or Dig Through Time -- both may be difficult, as delving for one means the other is harder to cast. I think in this deck, which appears more control than combo, Treasure Cruise is likely the better choice. It provides slightly more card advantage, and Dig Through Time is good mainly for card selection, rather than advantage.

Windfall is a great card-draw spell, especially if you pair it with your Narset, Parter of Veils .

Enlightened Tutor seems like it'd be kinda a powerhouse in this deck. It's on the pricier side of cards, but being able to tutor for whatever prison effect you need is a really, really good thing.

In terms of planeswalkers, Rowan Kenrith seems real good; needles to say, the +2 ability is especially good if you target an opponent who can't attack you. If you choose to, Will Kenrith is also ok. He tutors for Rowan Kenrith , and vice versa. Note that the partner effect triggers even if you don't have the other half, so if you really wanted, you can search and fail to find, then shuffle. This is useful if you get Brainstorm locked, but I don't advise planning on doing this frequently.

Grand Melee and Disrupt Decorum happen to be... right up your alley.

There're some hate-filled cards you can consider running, in order to pressure opponents' life totals not exclusively through combat. Scab-Clan Berserker , Harsh Mentor , Eidolon of the Great Revel , Pyrostatic Pillar , Sulfuric Vortex and friends are all worth considering.

Supreme Verdict and Wrath of God are good boardwipes to clean up your mess.

Cleansing Meditation can be good in the right meta.

Council's Judgment and Grasp of Fate are both excellent removal.

Good luck man!

SideBae on Gas Powered Stick (Complete)

7 months ago

Yo! RG decks are interesting. Here's what I think -- feel free to disregard it:

The main attraction of running green is having access to one-mana mana-dorks. Llanowar Elves , Birds of Paradise , Fyndhorn Elves , Elvish Mystic and Orcish Lumberjack will all speed up your deck tremendously, while giving you bodies for Overwhelming Stampede or similar finishers. Exploration is a good accelerator, though it can be expensive; search for tomorrow is similar. There are some two- or three-mana dorks you might also want to consider, like Priest of Titania , Shaman of Forgotten Ways and Somberwald Sage . Having dorks ramps green faster than any other color is capable of.

Overwhelming Stampede is an excellent card; in that vein, Overrun and Triumph of the Hordes are both good finishers. If you want to put money into the deck, Craterhoof Behemoth is a great card in Legacy Elves that also works here. Grabbing Craterhoof with something like Natural Order can produce a really fast win. Green Sun's Zenith is another good tutor-spell, which can also fetch Dryad Arbor turn one.

I see you're running Nature's Lore . Farseek is a great card to fetch a mountain, especially if you choose to run Stomping Ground , Sheltered Thicket and/or Cinder Glade . Taiga is good, too, but that's pushing $200 these days... effing OG duals.

Growing Rites of Itlimoc  Flip is a good card, and an affordable version of Gaea's Cradle . Similarly, Slate of Ancestry is a very underrated EDH card that would be a powerhouse in this deck. In the line of card-draw, Beast Whisperer and Harmonize are worth considering.

Karplusan Forest , Spire Garden , Command Tower and Grove of the Burnwillows are four excellent non-basic, ETB-untapped lands for your colors. You should run these, if at all possible. I think they're better than Jund Panorama and Naya Panorama , as well as Rogue's Passage . You should consider Kessig Wolf Run , as well as cutting one or two lands from the final list.

Depending on how sadistic you are, you may also want to consider running some stax pieces. Thorn of Amethyst is an excellent card in most green decks, as these decks tend to produce oodles of mana and not cast too many non-creature spells. Pyrostatic Pillar and Eidolon of the Great Revel are excellent ways to keep low-curved decks in check. Harsh Mentor varies with meta calls, though it can be very strong. Stranglehold can ruin some strategies, and Price of Glory can nuke counter-heavy decks. Similarly, Vexing Shusher is useful to avoid getting countered, especially since you don't have to activate it until after an opponent casts a counterspell. Scab-Clan Berserker is worth considering.

I suggest Gamble . It's the best tutor in your colors. Eternal Witness is another pretty good card you may want to consider to get you back in the game after a board-wipe. I suggest running Grim Flowering or Nature's Resurgence for the same reason.

Your spot removal will be dependent on how hard you want to lean into Ruric Thar, the Unbowed . If you want to keep him, Reclamation Sage and similar effects are the way to go. Without him, or while thinking of him as a secondary creature, you should run Nature's Claim and/or Krosan Grip . Chain of Acid is an interesting card I've been wondering about recently, so you may be interested in experimenting with it. Hull Breach is similar to Decimate , and is often a two-for-one. Shattering Spree , By Force , Ancient Grudge , Vandalblast and Fiery Confluence are good as well.

Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion is an efficient, powerful creature that helps cycle away dead cards in your hand, all while generating mana. Huntmaster of the Fells  Flip is another super-efficient creature. Boartusk Liege is valuable for its anthem effect and not-insignificant body. Siege Behemoth is another recommendation, for obvious reasons.

Depending on your meta, Sunder Shaman , Choke , Carpet of Flowers , Flashfires and Boil are options. If you keep your mana-base with only a few non-basics, Blood Moon , Magus of the Moon and Ruination are good cards. If your meta is super aggressive, you should consider Loxodon Warhammer or Basilisk Collar in order to recoup life points. Runic Armasaur is another good consideration if your meta has a lot of fetch lands and the like.

Using Sylvan Tutor can let you stack your deck for Lurking Predators , and you can cast Worldly Tutor in response to it triggering to just fetch whatever creature you want from your deck for .

Strionic Resonator is a way to copy your general's trigger, and may be tremendously helpful. Resolving them in succession on the same creature results in quadrupled power.

From Modern Horizons, Collector Ouphe and Throes of Chaos are worth considering.

Alright, that's all I got for now. I hope you found these suggestions at least a little helpful. Good luck with deck building!

SideBae on 5 Color Dragons

7 months ago

The easiest way to speed up a deck is by removing ETB tapped lands. I highly suggest running Command Tower , as well as City of Brass and Mana Confluence . If you have access to it, Cavern of Souls is a good option for any tribal deck, but Unclaimed Territory is another good option. Forbidden Orchard , Exotic Orchard and Reflecting Pool are more interesting lands to consider.

Green dorks and two-mana rocks are also very good. I see you're running Birds of Paradise , but Elves of Deep Shadow , Llanowar Elves , Rampant Growth , Fyndhorn Elves , Orcish Lumberjack and (if you can) Noble Hierarch are also great additions. If you want to invest relatively heavily into your dork-base, Bloom Tender is REALLY good in chromatic decks. If you find yourself facing a lot of blue decks, Carpet of Flowers is a good idea, too; Joiner Adept acts as a second Chromatic Lantern .

Fellwar Stone is good. The talisman cycles ( Talisman of Dominance , Talisman of Indulgence , Talisman of Impulse , Talisman of Unity , Talisman of Progress and the new five from Modern Horizons) are all good; I suggest that most, if not all, of your mana rocks should be two or less mana. Using a land like Ancient Tomb also helps cast these turn one. Signets like Dimir Signet or Boros Signet are good too, although I think most of the time the talismans will be better. Gilded Lotus is a good exception to my CMC rule in a deck with as many fat creatures as yours.

I don't think Nissa's Renewal is very good; generally, ramp is good in the early game, but not so good by the time you reach six mana. Nature's Lore , Rampant Growth , Farseek , Cultivate and/or Kodama's Reach are all powerful ramp spells you can fire off early. I think the first three are better, if only because they can fetch non-basics like Breeding Pool or Godless Shrine . I'm not as much a fan of the other two, but experience will show if they're worth including. Finally, I think Skyshroud Claim is better than Explosive Vegetation .

If you're going in the Quicksilver Amulet direction, Elvish Piper and Thran Temporal Gateway are good ideas as well.

If at all possible, tutors are good. Demonic Tutor is the gold standard here, but Diabolic Tutor is a good, more affordable alternative. Vampiric Tutor , Worldly Tutor , Sylvan Tutor , Dark Petition and Gamble are all good cards as well, though their affordability varies tremendously.

Red comes with good counter counter magic options. Price of Glory is a good card if you want to discourage opponents playing on your turn, and Pyroblast is a good way to stop Counterspell and friends. Cards like Pyrostatic Pillar can punish decks with lower curves.

Card draw is at a premium in EDH. Staff of Nin is easy on the colored mana and gives you an extra draw each turn, and Phyrexian Arena is another good option. Harmonize , Concentrate and Painful Truths are good draw-threes.

Because your deck is running a LOT of fatties (and the best fatties, at that, 'cause they're dragons), you may find cards like Lurking Predators is be pretty good; Descendants' Path is a similar card. Depending on how fatty-heavy your meta is, Eureka effects like Show and Tell may be good. Sneak Attack is good if you want to use one-time face-smacks like Nicol Bolas or your already included Oros, the Avenger .

If you DON'T want to run dorks, and opt for artifact ramp instead, depending on your meta you may have a good time with cards like Porphyry Nodes or Night of Souls' Betrayal . Effects like Pyroclasm and Volcanic Fallout can also wipe out opponent's boards if they choose to go wide.

I think EDH decks tend to need a lot of mass removal. By Force is a favorite of mine, and Toxic Deluge , Wrath of God , Ritual of Soot and Supreme Verdict are all great if you have access to them. Back to Nature is good if you choose to cut down on the number of enchantments you're running, but Nature's Claim or Krosan Grip are also pretty good options.

If your curve is really high, things like Timesifter can be pretty brutal.

I'm not super sure Niv-Mizzet Reborn is very good. I don't know if you'll be getting very much card advantage, because you have a lot of cards that are more or less than exactly two colors. I think a card-draw spell like the ones I mentioned above would be better, like Treasure Cruise or Dig Through Time .

Good luck with deck building my man!

SideBae on Rise of the Underworld

7 months ago

As with most Rakdos decks, I advise a reanimating package with Sire Of Insanity as the target. Animate Dead , Reanimate and Necromancy are all rather good when paired with Entomb or Buried Alive . In Rakdos, you’re generally the king of top decks. So embracing it with Sire is typically a good play.

One mistake I find in a lot of EDH decks is the prevalence of one-for-one removal. Cards like Demolish , Roast and Necrotic Wound are alright if you’ve only got one opponent, but in EDH you’re already facing 2x-3x as many cards as you have in your 2-3 opponents. This is why I suggest more efficient spells, like the Ritual of Soot I see you’re already running. Fire Covenant , Ashes to Ashes , By Force , Toxic Deluge / Damnation / Blasphemous Act and Syphon Mind are all good ways to regain card advantage when you’re facing down multiple opponents.

Another thing I suggest is that you run more mana rocks. In any non-green deck, artifact mana is the main form of ramp available. I’ve noticed there’s a tremendous difference between 2- and 3-mana ramp; cards like Mana Geode and Rakdos Locket are generally worse than Rakdos Signet and Talisman of Indulgence . Mind Stone , Coldsteel Heart , Fire Diamond , Charcoal Diamond and Thought Vessel are also options. Treasure Nabber is a good way to disrupt opposing mana.

Hand-in-hand with what I’ve been talking about is card draw: You need cards to cast with your mana, as well as powerful spells in the first place. Phyrexian Arena is an excellent source of card advantage in black, as are Night's Whisper and Harvester of Souls . Faithless Looting , Magmatic Insight and Cathartic Reunion are ways to filter your cards from red, as well as ways to get creatures you want to reanimate into your graveyard from your hand.

Fighting counter magic is something red does very well. I advise cards like McToters suggested: Price of Glory is one of my favorite cards to run in red. If you want to go deeper on disruption, his suggested Stranglehold is good, as well as Blood Moon , Ruination and Magus of the Moon (though you’d have to craft you land base to accommodate these last three). If your meta is blue-heavy, Boil is good; white-heavy means Flashfires and Dread of Night may be helpful. I don’t know your meta though, and that’s what will dictate if the color-hate cards will be good. If your meta is filled with pesky dorks, Blast Zone is a good consideration.

Harsh Mentor is a card I like landing early, as is Scab-Clan Berserker . Because your curve is relatively high, Pyrostatic Pillar and Eidolon of the Great Revel might be helpful as additional repeating burn effects. If their life-loss becomes too great, a Whip of Erebos can help you survive.

At least consider Necropotence if you decide to run life-gain. It’s typically only found in combo-decks, but in my experience it’s a powerhouse across the board. Getting a card for one life is typically a good deal.

Alright. That’s all for now. Good luck building your deck!

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