tbh I think Rage Reflection would be a better choice over Battle Mastery

Well, it does give double strike to all my creatures. But then I'd prefer True Conviction since it has both Double Strike and Lifelink for the same CMC. Yet none of them can be easily tutored for (only Idyllic Tutor finds them) and they can't be recovered with Retether , Nomad Mythmaker or Sun Titan ...

Then again, I already have several targets for those... So yeah, good call. Removal of Battle Mastery for not Rage Reflection but True Conviction instead. :)

Thanks.

I'd forgotten about True Conviction actually. Glad you didn't.

Cage of Hands and some things to get enchantments out of your graveyard.

@ Call911FTW, I had ((Cage of Hands)) here at some point. But then I changed it for ((Gelid Shackles)) due to versatility since the Shackles block activated abilities too. As for artifact recursion, that issue is well addressed: ((Sun Titan)), ((Crystal Chimes)), ((Auramancer)), ((Retether)), ((Monk Idealist)) and ((Nomad Mythmaker)) are there just for that.

I've been updating the deck, adding some more interactions. Will keep changing it slightly in the next days so it might take a week or so to get it back at 100-cards. :)

I'm amazed at the aura synergy you were able to find building Anax and Cymede! I'm in the developing stages myself and will have to borrow some card slots of yours. The problem I thought I'd have would be running out of gas/cards, but with many aura tricks perhaps not. Did returnable cards like Conviction, Mark of Fury, and Ghitu Firebreathing not work out in practice? they seem great!

Some cards I'm looking to run that I didn't see in your deck/change log...Anger Burnished Hart <-- Great with Sun Titan Plea for Guidance Sword of the Paruns Hero's Blade will double up your commander's power + toughness and self equip when you cast it (seems nice) My current decklist runs more small human people inflating by commander's heroic stature. Was Martial Glory just not good enough? It would double trigger on Anax and Cyamede right? Too many cards not enough room I know.

Lastly, it might be meta, but I'm trying out Precursor Golem and Thatcher Revolt to use as big unexpected swings late game after a wrath effect. Cast/bounce/Cast certain aura's and that's a lot of damage out of nowhere!

Great Job and thanks!

First of all thanks for the input. Its good to see people enjoying our builds. More so with what I'd consider to be a difficult commander to build around since red isn't as good as green or blue in the aura department (I'm looking at you, Bruna, Light of Alabaster and at you Krond the Dawn-Clad). Its hard to find satisfying stuff in red. But don't take me wrong, this is a very fun commander, if you build it right.

Regarding your suggestions, lets check them one by one:

Conviction is fun but a bit underwhelming. I know that being able to return it to your hand makes it appealing. But consider the fact that it gives +1/+3... You want to be extra offensive. If it were a +3/+1 boost, it would be awesome and an auto-include. As is, I find it subpar when you have better things to play. For example, Flickering Ward can be both defensive and offensive since it can turn creatures unbloackable.

Mark of Fury is another cool aura. But not more than that, I'd say. Giving haste to your commander turn after turn after turn... Ok, its like paying (R) for +1/+1 and trample on everything you control but still... I prefer to spend that card slot on something that does more. Besides, Emblem of the Warmind is superb in this deck since it gives haste to everything you control. Its a Fervor in aura form. Just what the deck wants.

Ghitu Fire... Ah, one of the enchantments I "regret" not having on the deck. I had to cut down cards and this was one to get removed due to mana restrictions. The deck is mainly white and since only 13 out of 35 mana sources produce red mana, the chances that I can pump it are a bit slim. In the direct comparison with Scourge of the Nobilis the Scourge wins the slot. In a different build, more foccused on red, no doubt I'd play... both! Still, a very, very decent card, no doubt.

Anger is excellent but my meta excels at graveyard hate. I used to run it on my Kaalia's Hordes. Removal of Anger each and every game made me avoid using Incarnations on my EDH decks. And again, Emblem of the Warmind is a much more interesting card: its an aura, has a lower cmc, can easily be retrieved from the grave if the enchanted creature dies and has the same effect.

Burnished Hart is good. But I prefer Expedition Map. It fetches any land (although it puts it into your hand) and can be abused through Sun Titan too. Would have a hard time to add Hart.

Plea for Guidance is superb on an aura deck. I own none though and thus built the deck with what I have available. Didn't see the need to go and buy it. But yes, almost as good as Three Dreams and quite complementary if you need to go big on tutors.

Sword of the Paruns and Hero's Blade are interesting cards, but they don't trigger heroic. I hadn't considered the Blade (new card and all) but not too fond of it in this build (gonna try it on my Kemba's xXx Toys next time I have a chance to play it though). Sword is something much more interesting and something I did consider in a previous version. Ended up cutting all equipment I considered except Livewire Lash since it grants me another stance of heroic. Wish there was more stuff like it out there.

Martial Glory is interesting but I found it a bit subpar. Idealy I don't want to cast it twice on my commander. I would chose both the commander and Phalanx Leader if both were in play. If you ask me, Phalanx Leader is one of the best heroic cards ever printed and works wonders in this deck. Yet Martial Glory ended up loosing its slot for Anoint due to buyback. Where Glory fails since it can only be cast once to pump a creature, given enough mana Anoint does the same and saves your creature's bacon. ;) And the we have Seething Anger, another card I would prefer over Glory. As a matter of fact I might have to add it to the deck. Buyback can be invaluable.

Thatcher Revolt isn't what I was looking for when I built this deck but if you're more foccused on humans, go for it. 3 creatures that can be pumped by the rest of the deck if you build with humans in mind and get trample can be quite aggressive. I do recomend aggressivness in this deck.

Precursor Golem is something I did look into, too. But ended up retracting from it since its a good but fragile card. If you use it, be sure to protect it somehow. If you do it can do wonders.

Regarding my choice of creatures, I don't have anything set on stone. I wasn't going for tribal or anything alike. I did end up looking for low mana creatures that could grow. Figure of Destiny, Fabled Hero, Hero of Iroas, Phalanx Leader and Serra Ascendant do just that and almost all of them are humans (FoD's the black sheep on the list). But creatures that are cheap and efficient are great here. But then again I thought about creatures that I'd want to see connect, no matter what and ended up adding bigger things like Blinding Angel and Steel Hellkite. Enchant them with Flickering Ward, Holy Mantle, Pentarch Ward, Spectra Ward or Unquestioned Authority and you'll see your opponent's squirming in their seets. More so if one of them has Destructive Urge. If only there were more things like Urge out there... :D

Its a bit late. But I'll be sure to take a look at your Cyanide and Happiness once I get the chance.

this is fucking awesome.

Oh? Care to elaborate on that, please?

Would love to add in Gleam of Authority, Graceblade Artisan, Sunbond and Plea for Guidance. But not sure about what to remove.

Wow! Just... wow! I've been looking into starting commander, but I know it's an investment, and I really wanted a deck that expresses my favorite cards, play style, and personality. Anax and Cymede is one of my very favorite cards, and I knew I wanted it as my commander. This deck you have created has composed an amazing way to utilize them as a commander! My all time favorite card Akroan Crusader will be swapped in because... well it's my favorite card. Yes, I'm going to teach summer school to afford this deck, and I look forward to future updates! I'm going to go watch 300, workout, and grade some essays now. :)

My only suggestion is considering Temur Battle Rage. I've seen it win many games in pauper (my current format of choice), and it might be relevant here. Thanks again!

I've been tweaking the deck a lot and haven't played it in a while (due to work I tend to play less and less and with all the decks I have, I don't have a chance to test them all). But I like it a lot and it can have some brutal moments. :) Besides, a deck that capitalizes on enchantments is always fun. As a plus, I love the art of most cards.

Temur Battle Rage looks fun. I just don't think it to be better than the options I'm already running. Akroan Crusader is cool too but on a deck where your commander already has Heroic and is a spell magnet (please, note that it already grants trample to all your creatures, making Battle Rage a bit subpar) you'll want to run as few Heroic creatures as possible. I'm running Hero of Iroas and Fabled Hero although I don't intend on targeting them often (a double striker and a creature that reduces aura costs are great all by themselves) plus Phalanx Leader which is the only other creature wanting to be targeted by spells, pumping everything else!

If you want Akroan Crusader for the tokens, I prefer Ajani's Chosen since it gets me slightly sturdier tokens whenever an enchantment comes into play, no matter where from without competing for the commander's Heroic stance.

Also, this is a low-cost deck (unless you have to buy every card in it). It shouldn't take you much money to build it. :) My main grip with it is the amount of good cards I'm not running because there's only so many slots one can fill.

Anyway, thank you for the post. :)

No Monastery Mentor? seems good 38 noncreature spells in your deck

It is quite good. But I'll wait until its price drops. Its very expensive. I'll keep it on my maybe board so that I don't forget it. Thanks for the suggestion.

Major updates have been made to smooth the mana curve and to add some form of card advantage.

Many cards were moved to the maybe board, meaning that I'd like to have them in the deck but can't figure out what to remove for them. Ideas on how to accomplish this are most welcome.

I feel Ethereal Armor is a must-have mainboard. First strike + trample is not to be trifled with, especially with the massive boost that comes from running 24 enchantments.

I know. Same goes for Helm of the Gods. But I don't know what to remove for them. Everything in the deck seems quite important.

Other than those, I feel that both Sin Prodder, Pentarch Ward/Spirit Mantle and Sunbond should be mainboarded.