It's really hard to justify the inclusion of a card like Corridor Monitor, IMO. Like I asked earlier, is there anyway to build the deck without it?

Btw, I noticed Wintervoid (and others?) talking about a UW version of the deck. I think there might be a lot of justification for that. Sure it would inhibit the combo slightly, but if the goal is to protect the combo instead of just going off immediately, I'd think UW should have a lot of tools in its arsenal. (I might be wrong here). I'd also look at UG with (for example) Hydroid Krasis, Kiora, and/or Tamiyo as testable options which wouldn't hurt the deck much and could give it either increased survivability, or consistency or both. You'd just have to avoid putting too many in for the splash.

Minamo, School at Water's Edge might be the best substitute for it in older formats but there’s not a better option in standard for what it offers the deck. You could replace with an unrelated card that has higher inherent power level, but monitor is the difference between comboing off and churning through your deck in 1 turn, or hopefully still pulling off the win some number of turns later.

Suspect if A) this is viable as a combo deck, then monitor is an essential piece. If B) this is only viable in a version with expanded paths to victory where the combo is incidental, then monitor can be a replaced with something that serves other paths

You might see an Amulet of Vigor appearance instead, if it's even a deck, powered by bounding the Lotus instead.

I just checked, and I'm surprised to say you're right.

In fact, I may be underrating Corridor Monitor, tbh, because even though it's a common in this set, not a lot of cards have been printed with that kind of an effect - in fact, close to none at 2 mana, which is a key facet of the card.

Different deck style of course and that matters but Corridor Monitor is one of the key cards I have in my Emry Brawl deck. Using multiples to lock down the op's board with Entrancing Lyre is an idea I've had in building a new deck. Those would almost have to go into a ramp deck to ensure multiple lock downs so I'm still not exactly sure as to the shell but it's an idea I have anyway whether I build it or not. Pretty fragile combo so I doubt I ever build it if it takes me wildcards. More memey than anything really.
Two examples of why CM isn't such a bad card.

Jebus... This U lotus deck is cute and all but holy hell Nyxbloom breaks the game... Ali Aintrazi casts a Kraisis for X=235 at time stamp 29:20 in this vid


What is going on? It’s blowing my mind, some of the things WotC doing with the game now. Stuff like Teferi breaking the rules for instants and sorceries, and Nyxbloom breaking limits on the resource of mana... and so many decks are drawing cards like crazy - UG/R midrange, cat/oven/reaper decks when they hit the loop, GW/B aura decks with season of growth going off...

Add to that scry lands hampering the speed of aggro and you have time to do this absurd stuff ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I still think mono-black devotion with underworld dreams sounds fun, lol

Good god. Another absurd Nyxbloom deck, this one using Protean Thaumaturge to increase mana production off Nyxbloom cloning, and essentially free cast Nyxbloom if you have 8 mana available on the turn. He loses one of the games because he treats his last turn like you would with a normal deck and not one that has broken the limitations of mana.



A) This particular version is fully meme. That’s just what MBM does. I think he’d be better off putting a single Jace in and winning of self decking rather than the 5/5 white legend. Alternatively could run a single red X burn spell. He plays hella loose here and deck could have more efficient win con, but he still wins games off sheer brokenness of Nyxbloom.

B) Thaumaturge looks way more fun than I originally thought. Some really cool interactions where he copied opps creatures in the video, giving the card legs before he can cast Nyxbloom. Spicy card.

C) I still can’t process how hard this card breaks the game. Feel like there has to be a T1 deck this guy could be part of, as he makes the game’s primary resource irrelevant...