This set keeps on giving!

Sting is nice, could replace Boots if you don't mind loosing the hexproof for the P/T increase. I love the gotcha effect the Mithril coat will have, flash with a free equip onto a legendary is perfect especially with it giving the equipped creature double strike thanks to our commander.

Ohh well...

Any thoughts on Sword of Once and Future? Scry feels like card draw, and we have about three instants and about three sorceries we can target with it (that are not counterspells or X spells) for that card advantage. I am thinking of replacing Strength-Testing Hammer with it since we no longer have to hope for a high roll or us having the highest power for the card advantage, and this has better protection/evasion for our commander, although not tutorable by Urza's Saga like the hammer is.

@gzusvictory

I'm not a fan of it, specifically because I have very little that can be cast off of its trigger.

Sadly I think for this deck in particular it falls into a odd spot of being too specialised for us to use. If it was scry instead of surveil maybe I could have got behind it, if it was CMC 3 instead of 2 again maybe but as it stands its just to narrow.

Are you going to be running Reprieve?

Two more LOTR suggestions would be Minas Tirith and Anduril, Flame of the West. What do you think about them?

@Monomanamaniac

Minas Tirith is going in. A card draw engine land that produces is hot.

Anduril is pretty mediocre for Voltron. The small, vanilla P/T boost isn't good enough on its own. The 1/1 tokens don't help.

I replaced Mana Tithe with Reprieve. Yes, no one expects the Mana Tithe with a ceiling of not letting them get a recast on the spell, it can also make the opponents leave 1 land untapped every turn if they are playing around it, and it feels amazing pulling it off. The floor of Mana Tithe feels so incredibly bad in the late game where mana is commonly plentiful and you have to hope your opponent sequences their play so that they cast the spell you want to counter last. I have died too many times with Mana Tithe in my hand lol.

With Reprieve, no worries if the opponent has mana left, it does not give your opponent the option of paying 1, and the floor on it doubles the mana cost of their spell, and you cannot forget the value of card draw in white. Using Reprieve also delays uncounterable spells and harder to play around compared to Mana Tithe. Just like Remand, you can target any spell, like on a spell you are casting that’s about to be countered, or using politics to save an opponent’s spell from getting countered.

There’s argument to remove Lapse of Certainty for Reprieve, but I cannot get over the ability to counter any spell regardless of how many mana they have left up. Sure, lapse costs more than Mana Tithe, but I like that it takes up their next draw (making it similar to making them lose a turn if used on a spell that the opponent spent all their mana to cast. In many cases, it may also stop them from using shuffle effects as well. If it’s a game winning spell, it gives the whole table time to find an answer to it too.

What's everyone's thoughts on the new Teyo?

A relatively cheep source of repeatable card draw that provides it's own blocker is pretty neat. I wouldn't mind dropping it T3 but later than that and it's all about if that -2 is effective.

I was able to play a few games recently, and I just want to tell you how impressed I am with Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus. Having 2 of that effect in the deck that can stack on each other is absolutely worth it. It often feels cheaper than Sword of the Animist in the early game since you don't need to immediately equip it for it to start gaining value (3 mana with a free body for the effect instead of 2+2). It also doesn't feel bad to attack with it into blockers since you still get the effect and the equipment hangs around afterwards. I'd try and find some space for it if you can (maybe in place of loyal warhound or a similar effect). I like the other changes you've recently made as well. Forge Anew is big value and instant-speed equip leads to nice interactions with first-strike + swords and 2 creatures.

Thoughts on these cards?

The Irencrag is fun, maybe in the place of Arcane Signet?

Unfinished Business looks pretty good but I wouldn't know what to take off for it

+3/+3 Is nice but lose all abilities sucks so hard. Recursion is recursion, the fact that it brings back two artifacts is the sweet spot. Bring back your stoneforge and go looking for another equip, make sure that you bring back something with haste so they can tap before your next turn to play your new toy out.

Spyrechild
The artifact loses all other abilities (that is to say, it loses the mana ability and the ability to become and equipment), equipped creature gets +3/+3

In that case I stand corrected. Even with that though its not the best equipment or mana rock, sure its effectively +6/+6 with our commander out but it's lack of supporting abilities puts me off.

Should you really value the scry 1 that highly in Loran's Escape rather than running Blacksmith's Skill?

Blacksmith's Skill can also protect your planeswalkers, enchantment, land, and occasionally boost our ArtiFact CreaTuRes.

@gzusvictory

Safeguarding my Equipment or the creatures wielding them is far more important than anything else. Because of that, the deciding factor between those two spells is the bonus. The guaranteed scry 1 is better than the very situational +2/+2.

If we had a higher number of key enchantments or walkers for Blacksmith's Skill to target then I'd probably run both. Escape fills a key spot of hidden protection to get you out of tight binds, nothing worse than blowing a Teferi's just to get scalped the next turn your in.

Everybody Lives! instead of Blacksmith's Skill?

@gzusvictory

Everybody Lives! only protects creatures. I'd prefer spells like this to protect artifacts as well.

How has the smithy been performing so far? Shame we didn't get much to think in in Murders at Karlov Manor.

Thoughts on Unexplained Absence?

I am thinking it would replace Stroke of Midnight or Generous Gift since it exiles and can hit multiple creatures for one more mana.