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Combo Name: Cheap, huge Golems! Submitted By: Zark-the-Damned
Card Name
Type
Cost
P/T
Editions (ordered by release)

Emblazoned Golem
 Artifact Creature 2 Apocalypse, Uncommon

Mycosynth Golem
 Artifact Creature - Golem 11 4/5 Fifth Dawn, Rare

Brass Herald
 Artifact Creature 6 2/2 Apocalypse, Uncommon
Estimated Combo Cost: $11.36
Date Posted: Sun Mar/07/10 at 11:06 am

Zark-the-Damned
Posts: 523
Joined: 24-Feb-10

You need some other artifacts in play to get the most out of this combo. Probably best with Artifact Lands.

Brass Herald isn't necessary, but is nice pump and deck searching when you set it to 'Golem'.

Anyway, the crux of this combo is knowing how the rules work when it comes to the calculating the cost of a spell.

With Mycosynth Golem in play, all your other Artifact Creature spells gain Affinity for Artifacts. You can abuse this fact to get stupidly big Emblazoned Golems by declaring a high value of X for it's Kicker cost (601.2b), and then not paying it (601.2e)!

e.g. you have 10 Artifacts in play including the Mycosynth Golem. Play Emblazoned Golem and declare you are using it's Kicker ability, with X equal to 10.

This locks the cost in at 12, which is then reduced to 2 because of Affinity. Pay your 2 mana, Emblazoned Golem comes into play with 10 counters, and enjoy your 2-mana cost 11/12 creature!

(alternately, declare X=8 and get it for free!)

Another trick is knowing that Affinity STACKS! If you have a second Mycosynth Golem, you would reduce the cost of any Artifact Creature spell you cast by twice the number of Artifacts you control! (702.38c)
Date Posted: Mon Mar/08/10 at 3:48pm

meisveerysmurt
Posts: 31
Joined: 01-Jan-10

cant the embalzoned golem only be kicked a max of 5 times?
Date Posted: Mon Mar/08/10 at 3:52pm

Zark-the-Damned
Posts: 523
Joined: 24-Feb-10

Technically it can only be kicked once, since it doesn't have Multikicker.

There isn't a limit on the value you can declare for X, only a limit on the mana you can pay for it (thus forcing you to make a legal declaration when playing the spell)

Using cost reducers gets around this limitation, since you aren't actually paying any mana you aren't restricted by colour.
Date Posted: Mon Oct/11/10 at 7:55pm

Bladelord00
Posts: 112
Joined: 13-Nov-08

Except affinity has no effect on the kicker cost because kicker is not part of its mana cost
Date Posted: Mon Oct/11/10 at 8:12pm

Turbine
Posts: 10194
Joined: 26-Oct-09

I'm not sure if this would work, but it would be great if it did.
Date Posted: Mon Oct/11/10 at 8:39pm

Tony_the_Brit
Posts: 36
Joined: 20-Mar-10

You can only use colored mana, and only one of each color, for X. So max X=5, meaning you'll get 5 +1/+1 counters tops unless your using doubling season, or combo with graft/modular creatures.
The Mycosynth Golem only reduces the cost by one colorless mana, but you can't use colorless to pay X anyway, unless you have a Mycosynth Lattice out so you can play mana as if it were any color (red, blue, green, black, white, puce, mauve, veridian, turquoise, octarine, etc) and would also allow you to make X>5.


[Edited by Tony_the_Brit on 11/Oct/10 at 8:45PM]
Date Posted: Tue Oct/12/10 at 7:21am

Zark-the-Damned
Posts: 523
Joined: 24-Feb-10

The combo works.

Bladelord - Affinity does affect the kicker cost. You always apply cost reducers (like Affinity) after cost increases (like Kicker).

Tony - The coloured mana thing doesn't apply as the Kicker cost is not being paid - it is being reduced due to affinity. The card does not state a maximum value for X so it can be whatever you want.

---

It helps if you read around, this combo was posted on the MTG site: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mg134 (about halfway down)
Date Posted: Tue Oct/12/10 at 9:03am

Tony_the_Brit
Posts: 36
Joined: 20-Mar-10

Hold on a sec. I read the article you're referencing.
So if you had Mycosynth Golem and at least one other artifact in play, Glaze Fiend would be free, even though it costs 1B? At what about this guy:

If you had Mycosynth Golem and 4 other artifacts in play, would this be free to cast also? I would have played it for WU instead believing it only reduced by 1 colorless for each artifact in play and that you still had to pay the colored mana cost. If it reduces colored mana too then that going to be a real game changer for a lot of us.
Date Posted: Tue Oct/12/10 at 9:57am

gericault5
Posts: 2788
Joined: 13-Oct-09

Affinety does not affect colors you would still spend B on the fiend and WU on the husk.

for this combo-The thing to remember is when looking at cards with multiple lines (paragraphs) each one is treated seperately, so you need to look at the golem line by line.

1)  The kicker is X.  As we know X can be any amount and that X is a colorless amount

2)  the line creates a restriction on what mana can be SPENT on X-in this case 1 of each color

3)  This line says you get +1/+1 equal to X (as determined in line 1).  this is not sunburst the number of counters is not determined by the mana SPENT but what you choose for X

Now that you understand the lines, you need to know how they apply.  There are 7 steps to playing a spell, we'll cover the ones that apply 

At step 2 the kicker cost (X) is determined = so after step 2 the cost needing to be paid is locked in as 2 + X  (we will give X a value of 8 for this)- so the total cost needing to be paid is 10 colorless

At step 4 any cost reducers are applied, such as the bannernets, medillions, edgewalker or in this case affinety.  So for this example we will say he has 10 artifacts out.  so the total cost he needs to pay is 10 colorless as determined in step 2-with affinety he takes 10 colorless away from the cost 10-10=0 is now the cost

Step 6 is when the costs are actually paid.  It is at this step line 2 applies its restrictions, however since the cost is 0 their is nothing to apply it to.  If he had less then 10 artifacts at step 4 then at this point he would have to pay only 1 of each colored mana for the difference

Step 7 creature goes on the stack.  when it resolves step 3 kicks in and it takes a look at the amount determined in step 2 and adds that many counters, in this case 8

So ultimately you are not limited to color mana because you don't need to spend anything, since affenity reduces the total cost
Date Posted: Tue Oct/12/10 at 12:33pm

Turbine
Posts: 10194
Joined: 26-Oct-09

So. . .it works?
Date Posted: Tue Oct/12/10 at 3:04pm

JMDin83
Posts: 880
Joined: 30-Jul-09

yes, it works quite well.

the best reason to have Zark around is because he provides rules-correct Shenanigans to pull off vs your friends lol.
Date Posted: Tue Oct/12/10 at 7:15pm

Turbine
Posts: 10194
Joined: 26-Oct-09

My friends thought that you payed separate costs for both Xs in Gelatinous Genesis. They didn't even believe me when I corrected them. . .
Date Posted: Wed Oct/13/10 at 3:47am

Zark-the-Damned
Posts: 523
Joined: 24-Feb-10

Heh, I wish this site had signatures so I could quote you on that, JM :)
Date Posted: Wed Oct/13/10 at 5:50pm

Turbine
Posts: 10194
Joined: 26-Oct-09

I can think of some pretty great signatures.
Date Posted: Thu Oct/14/10 at 5:42am

JMDin83
Posts: 880
Joined: 30-Jul-09

you can, Zark! just copy/paste something like a bunch of hyphens or underlines into notepad, then paste it every time you post. could get tiresome tho lol




____________________________________________________________________________________
Oh look, a siggy!

   -JMDin83
Date Posted: Thu Oct/14/10 at 12:16pm

Turbine
Posts: 10194
Joined: 26-Oct-09

I guess, but it's not the same!



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