Casual EDH for Darien, King of Kjeldor.
Important Notes:
-This is a casual to semi-competitive deck. This will not see play in large tournaments. I only play EDH with friends or at the very rare EDH FNM.
-Sideboard represents cards that I would swap into the deck when it goes to FNM, or cards that I'd swap in for even more casual games as opposed to an actual sideboard.
-Maybeboard is consistent with cards that I am considering putting into the deck, or that are going in but have not been acquired.
-IF you want to give advice, please take a look at the coming changes and advice sections of the primer if nothing else.
Basic Premise
The basic premise of the deck is that of a noncompetitive to semi competitive EDH deck centered around Darien,King of Kjeldor that is functional and not god awful that is also somewhat faithful to the song Carolus Rex. In this case, gameplay and "artistic" choices will be explained in separate sections. The primary theme is soldiers (Caroleans) with Darien as King and allegory for Charles XII, with secondary themes being token generation (Mass Conscription) and Religiosity, Clerics and Angels as well as "God" (Heliod in this case), which represent the "chosen by heaven" lyric and the whole messianic anthem feel of the song, with a tertiary theme in Reanimation.
Guide to the terms
Ramp Those cards which ramp up my deck to get high cost cards out faster and to make X cost spells and effects more punishing when they hit. Additionally, the ramp section will choice in nonbasic lands
Token Generation Cards which generate large numbers of tokens to quickly beef up the size of Darien's Army.
Field Buff Cards that buff most or all of the creatures on my field, or give them an ability that is helpful, generally in combat.
Threats Cards whose task is to improve my board state, generally at the expense of my opponent, and puts me in a better position to win.
Triple R (Response, Recursion, & Removal) Cards that protect my own creatures, remove key opposing threats, or support my strategy by bringing back my own threats.
Win Conditions/Combos Cards that act as finishers to end the game in in favour, alternatively neat combos.
Cards that do not fall under one of these categories are the most likely to come out when cards are added in the "upcoming changes" section of the primer
Why Darien?
I chose Darien, King oh Kjeldor as a commander because he has a decent ability that dissuades people from going aggro on me, to allow me to get out my cons, and also because he seemed to be a strong authority figure to have a gravitas fit for the king described in the song.
Ramp
-Sol Ring, a respectably cheap (money and manawise) EDH ramping staple, a one drop that can give me most of my other mana rocks and equipment pieces on turn 1.
-Caged Sun generates a lot of mana, with a field buff on the side.
-Marble Diamond, produces colored mana, in the single color I have in the deck.
-
Pearl Medallion
, makes white spells cheaper.
-Mind Stone, a mana rock with the side ability to draw cards as a side ability.
-
Pristine Talisman
, mana rock with a life gain upside.
-Thran Dynamo, a big mana rock.
-Gift of Estates, a means of land search.
-Arcane Lighthouse, strips away protection of Hexproof and Shroud for my opponents.
-City of Brass, primarily in the deck for the ability to damage myself for a soldier (with Darien, King of Kjeldor), and Lifegain (with Darien and one or more Soul Sisters)
-
Drifting Meadow
, primarily in for the cycle effect.
-Emeria, The Sky Ruin, provides reanimation effect once it comes online.
-Ghost Quarter, destroys pesky land based threats.
-
Karoo
, produces two mana.
-Secluded Steppe, card draw with cycle effect.
-Temple of the False God produces two mana.
-Reliquary Tower, infinite hand size is extraordinarily useful, even in a deck that doesn't draw a lot.
Token Generation
-
Evangel of Heliod
produces tokens equal to devotion. In a mono white deck, devotion to white is not in short supply.
-
Decree of Justice
produces what can be a fairly significant number of 4/4 Angel tokens. What's more, this card can be cycled and still produce 1/1 soldier tokens, at a significant discount, that also can't be easily countered.
-Deploy to the Front more than doubles the amount of creatures I control.
Nomads' Assembly doubles the amount of creatures I control, then doubles it again next turn, potentially quadrupling the number of creatures I control over two turns.-
Field Buffs
-Archetype of Courage gives all of my creatures first strike and blocks my opponents from having first strike at all.
-Captain of the Watch buffs all of my soldiers +1/+1 and gives them all Vigilance. Comes with a side of 3 additional soldier tokens.
-
Field Marshal
buffs all my soldiers +1/+1 and gives First Strike.
-Heliod, God of the Sun gives all creatures vigilance.
-Cathars' Crusade very quickly makes all of my creatures huge, turning an everyday soul sister into a combat monster.
-
Dictate of Heliod
buffs all creatues +2/+2, and can be flashed in at a moment's notice.
-Honor of the Pure acts like a mini
Dictate of Heliod
, buffing my creatues only at +1/+1, but at less than half the cost.
-Marshal's Anthem gives +1/+1, and a nice little recursion kicker on the side.
-Mobilization gives everything vigilance, and provides a source of soldier tokens,
-Spirit Bonds protects my important creatures from harm by giving all of my nontoken creatures a spiritual bodyguard.
-True Conviction grants my creatures both double strike and lifelink.
-Coat of Arms a huge buff for most of my creatures, that will likely enable me to start killing people the turn it hits the field.
-Spear of Heliod a buffer that also enables me to pop creatures as necessary.
Threats
-Darien, King of Kjeldor, dissuades opponents from attacking me without first using a destruction spell and temporarily bouncing Darien back to the command zone, as I get soldiers if they do hit me.
-Avacyn, Angel of Hope a big flyer that makes me field indestructible. Given her position on the mana curve, it is likely that if she resolves I will win within the number of turns that there are opponents.
-Brimaz, King of Oreskos, a fairly sizable body, with vigilance that produces tokens when attacking or blocking, which given the nature of EDH can be more than 2 per turn.
-Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, she slows down control decks. So that opponents must chose between burning her at the cost of a spell that could target another threat, or having their responses slowed allowing more of my own threats to hit the table, and start going into action, as well as slowing down tutoring effects.
-
Crusader of Odric
a body that can grow very quickly to the point of swinging for lethal over the course of a few turns.
-Mentor of the Meek a card that can turn into a draw engine if my creatures don't get buffed enough.
-Odric, Master Tactician, Captain no blocks can dispatch opponents quickly as is required.
-Precinct Captain a fast creature that forces opponents to decide on whether to potentially lose a creature or give me one and take two damage to the face, or to burn a perfectly usable instant to stop the damage.
-Soul's Attendant Gains life whenever a creature hits, in concert with the commander it renders me essentially immune to damage.
-Soul Warden (see above)
-Suture Priest Gains life whenever one of my creatures hit, to similar effect of the other Soul Sisters. Slows down creature based decks of my opponents, and others to a lesser extent.
-
Godsend
a card that can quickly become a removal engine if it hits, in concert with
Palace Guard
it means that I can effectively end any ground rush by my opponent.
-Howling Mine, the classic card draw engine for the card draw impaired.
-Skullclamp can turn into a card draw engine.
-Elspeth, Knight-Errant makes a soldier, makes that soldier into an angel, ults and makes everything indestructible.
-Elspeth, Sun's Champion makes three soldiers, wrath's the fatties, and makes for an army of 3/3 flyers on the ult.
-Elspeth Tirel gains life, makes soldiers, wraths.
-Gideon, Champion of Justice, gets very tough to remove easily upon hitting the field. Turns that toughness into a big beatstick, and resets the game as necessary.
-Gideon Jura, essentially a target removal engine.
Triple R
-Adarkar Valkyrie essentially tap regenerate. Can be used as a recursion engine as necessary.
-
Angel of the Dire Hour
can be used to hose down infinite token decks in the event of an Alpha strike.
-Catapult Master creature removal, commander bouncer.
-Grand Abolisher prevents my spells from being countered or rendered dead on entry, all of my things resolve until the abolisher is dealt with.
-
Gustcloak Savior
protects my creatures from a botched attack by withdrawing them from combat, potentially acting as a "mini-Odric".
-Karmic Guide recurs a creature on entry, can itself be recurred.
-
Palace Guard
infinite blocks at least once, in concert with
Ghostly Possession
or
Godsend
(or both) this card essentially prevents all attacks against me.
-Sun Titan a recursion engine on a body.
-
Ghostly Possession
, makes one well defended flying blocker, makes a potentially game breaking infinite flying blocker in concert with
Palace Guard
.
-
Elixir of Immortality
gives me at least one way to shuffle back all of my dead things. A precaution against milling engines that don't go infinite.
-Swiftfoot Boots protects any of my creature combo legs from direct removal, in concert with Avacyn, Angel of Hope, renders me completely immune to almost everything the kitchen table has to offer, and most of what other groups use.
-Wrath of God a mandated wrath effect for when someone manages to outpace my board position.
-
Acolyte's Reward
, protects a creature from burn, fight,or other damage sources, and allows me to redirect as necessary.
-Brave the Elements protects most of my board from targeted removal.
-Pull from Eternity Allows me to bring something back from exile, a left hand hook that most opponents will not expect if I bring back something they had thought was securely locked out of the game forever.
-Erase Targeted exile for 1
-Gods Willing protects a creature of mine from harm and provides a modicum of much needed scry effects
-
Oblation
bounces opponents and acts as a card draw engine as required.
-Path to Exile, targeted exile for 1.
-Return to Dust, removes two noncreature, nonland threats.
-Silence allows me to prevent counters to my Threats.
Win Cons/Combos
Odric, Master Tactician +
Decree of Justice
/Deploy to the Front/Martial Coup/Nomads' Assembly: I'm sorry, you wanted to block? No sir I'm afraid I can't let you do that. Gotta start whacking you in the face for game soon.
Cathars' Crusade/Coat of Arms +
Decree of Justice
/Deploy to the Front/Martial Coup/Nomads' Assembly: A huge army of huge creatures that will eventually swing for lethal.
Darien, King of Kjeldor + Soul Warden/Soul's Attendant: renders me virtually immune to damage.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope + Swiftfoot Boots: Makes Avacyn very difficult to get rid of, allowing me to start ending people shortly afterwards.
Palace Guard
+
Godsend
+
Ghostly Possession
: What attackers?
Elspeth, Sun's Champion/Elspeth, Knight-Errant (going ult) +
Decree of Justice
/Deploy to the Front/Martial Coup/Nomads' Assembly a large number of evasive, or hard to kill creatures swinging in every turn.
Why Darien? I chose Darien, King of Kjeldor to be a fitting powerful ruler, a good allegory for the Charles XII presented in the song. Darien, in the storyline that WOTC provided us, unified Argive under his banner.
Themes
The primary thematic of the deck is around soldiery. Soldiery represents Darien's Army when unifying Argive. Cards around this theme are broken up by subtheme.
-At the top we have Darien himself. But under him are a number of field commanders, the most prominent being Odric, Master Tactician & Brimaz, King of Oreskos, though Darien's other Lieutenants are
Field Marshal
, Captain of the Watch, Precinct Captain, Catapult Master, & Mentor of the Meek, the soldiers that make my other soldiers better.
-Then we have the "Heroes" the big named soldiers who are big hitters themselves, or "inspire" other troops through their heroics. Archetype of Courage,
Crusader of Odric
,
Palace Guard
, & to a lesser extent Sun Titan.
-Finally, we have the mass body of soldiery, the 1/1 soldier tokens that are generated a number of ways throughout the deck. Which are "trained" and given "morale boosts" through field buff spells like Mobilization and Coat of Arms respectively.
The secondary theme of the deck is religiosity and is meant to represent the "Chosen by Heaven" lyric, and the overall messianic anthem feel of the song. These are represented three seperate ways, clerics, angels and field buffs, as well as a representation of "Heaven" and "Divine Birthright" through Heliod, God of the Sun's presence on the battlefield.
-The first of the sub themes, clerics, who support the soldiers indirectly, primarily through life gain, butt also through protection. For example: Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Grand Abolisher.
-The second, Angels represent the more direct support that "Heaven" provides for Darien. Generally speaking they provide recursion, board wiping, or other boosts on top of a big bodies. Though
Gustcloak Savior
may not be an actual angel it too fills this role.
-The third is provided through field buffs. Especially True Conviction & Cathars' Crusade.
Cards that will be going in (and to a lesser extent what they replace.
-Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, massive amounts of mana generated through devotion (a monocolor's speciality). (Replacing Plains or
Karoo
).
Ancient Tomb, produces 2 mana with a self burn at the side. (replacing Plains or
Karoo
)
Tarnished Citadel, produces mana with an optional self burn effect for colored mana. (replaces Plains)
Windbrisk Heights, Hideaway Effect (replaces Plains.
Nomad Stadium
, produces mana with an optional self burn effect for colored mana. (replaces Plains)
Grand Coliseum, produces mana with an optional self burn effect for colored mana. (replaces Plains)
Forbidding Watchtower, is a manland. (replaces Plains).
I am primarily looking for answers to the following gameplay related questions.
What is a good, challenging (to get off) infinite combo for mono-white? In particular I am especially looking for a combo that is somewhat difficult to get off (I really don't like the "race to combo out" that dominates current EDH meta but I understand that I need some means to combo out) combo for mono white. In particular I would greatly prefer something that falls into one of my themes and/or makes use exclusively or almost exclusively of cards I've already put into the deck or on the "Coming changes" section above.
What other ways can I (without breaking theme) get wincons without comboing out? What other wincons can I pack into the deck within its theme. Preference is given to reasonably inexpensive (money wise) cons over $20+ money cards.
What can I sideboard to make this deck slightly more competitive without making it downright unfun to play against?
That being said I cannot stress enough that this is NOT a competitive deck. It will only see play among friends, and maybe to the occasional small (16-20ish) player events. I do not want to make the deck unfun, nor do I want to drop more than $500 on it. Additionally, I would only like to break artistic theme to the barest minimum to make the deck playable. I will not make a bog standard competitive Commander deck for any reason. Any suggestions that do any of these will be laughed at.
