By Stones and Swords, I Will Defend My World

Commander / EDH ItchiUchiha117

SCORE: 7 | 19 COMMENTS | 4749 VIEWS | IN 9 FOLDERS


I like this deck. It's cool and who doesn't love cats? :D

Swords to Plowshares and Luminate Primordial would be great removal for this deck. Oust and Condemn are also great ways to remove unnecessary creatures from the battlefield.

Pretty good build though, +1

December 21, 2013 3:09 a.m.

NensouHiebara says... #2

Burnished Hart and Solemn Simulacrum are good ramp options.

Eternal Dragon is a great utility card. Early game, it tutors for land. Late game, it's a back-up fat flier to hold Equipment.

Stonehewer Giant is one of the best Equipment tutors ever printed.

Weathered Wayfarer keeps you from falling behind on land. Can tutor for nonbasics.

Trading Post is a great utility card for artifact-based decks.

Caged Sun doubles your White mana and pumps Kemba's army.

Leonin Sun Standard pumps Kemba's army. Great mana sink.

Spear of Heliod pumps Kemba's army and deters attackers.

Land Tax keeps you from falling behind on land.

White is the King of Board Removal. Run its sweepers. All Is Dust is a board nuke that spares your Equipment. Austere Command is a Swiss Army Knife sweeper. Day of Judgment and Wrath of God are basic creature sweepers. Terminus tucks all.

Remember the Fallen is a great recursion card. Brings back a Sword and someone to hold it.

Enlightened Tutor is a versatile tutor.

Oblation and Unexpectedly Absent can tuck Planeswalkers and Commanders.

Return to Dust is a fantastic artifact/enchantment removal spell.

I second Swords to Plowshares . It's one of White's best creature removal spells.

31 land is a bit low. Up your land count to 36-38.

Buried Ruin is a handy piece of artifact recursion.

Emeria, The Sky Ruin is a powerful creature recursion engine.

Kor Haven deters attackers.

Mistveil Plains tucks cards from your graveyard. Has synergy with Stonehewer Giant , as you can tuck destroyed Equipment to be re-tutored back onto the field. It's also can be tutored with Eternal Dragon .

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is able to produce a lot of mana.

Rogue's Passage makes Kemba unblockable


Maybeboard:

Mycosynth Lattice : Don't bother. Without Darksteel Forge on the field, it's a useless card and gives the Red player an auto-win with Vandalblast . The Forge-Lattice-Disk combo won't happen consistently enough without tutors, which mono-White doesn't have enough of.

Raksha Golden Cub : Great when you have an army of cats, mediocre when you don't. Run Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite first.

Swords: Great cards, especially Fire and Ice & Light and Shadow. I don't recomend using War and Peace unless your meta has a lot of Blue players that like to have over-sized hands.


Potential Cuts:

Auriok Sunchaser , Leonin Elder , Porcelain Legionnaire : Mediocre creatures.

34 Equipment is overkill and is a waste of deckspace. Run 18 maximum.

Accorder's Shield , Explorer's Scope , Fleetfeather Sandals , Mask of Avacyn , Prowler's Helm , Ring of Thune , Runed Stalactite , Sai of the Shinobi , Silverskin Armor , Strider Harness , Trusty Machete , Viridian Claw , Vorrac Battlehorns : Mediocre Equipment.

Worldslayer : Extremely bad. Needs too much set-up for it to work favorably.

Armillary Sphere : There are better options for land tutoring, especially in White.

Nevinyrral's Disk : White is the King of Board Removal. You don't need it.

Otherworld Atlas : Staff of Nin is better. Mikokoro, Center of the Sea provides a similar effect that only takes up a land slot.

Prototype Portal : Not worth getting 2-for-1'd.

Unwinding Clock : You barely have any cards that can use it. Not worth keeping.

Evolving Wilds , Terramorphic Expanse : Near useless in monocoloured decks. Creates unnecessary tempo loss.

New Benalia : Mediocre land. One-shot scry 1 isn't worth the tempo loss.

December 21, 2013 6:56 p.m.

I have to disagree with a couple things NensouHiebara.

Explorer's Scope helps remove unnecessary land draws, and also ramps. It can mean a huge difference in a game where mana ramps quickly.

Prototype Portal may have a potential 2-for-1 but so does a ton of things in EDH. I say run it since it can put mass copies of equipments on the field.

Sai of the Shinobi is great as you don't have to worry about investing mana in it's equip ability, so long as the card enters the battlefield.

Raksha Golden Cub doesn't just give your army of kitties +2/+2, it gives them double strike as well. That's pretty deadly, though if you're looking for double strike I'd consider True Conviction cause of the lifelink bonus and slightly harder to remove.

December 21, 2013 10:23 p.m.

NensouHiebara says... #4

Explorer's Scope is inconsistent as a source of land ramp without support from deck manipulation effects. Relying on it isn't ideal. White has access to better cards for ensuring land drops.

Prototype Portal is a removal magnet. A smart opponent will blow it up once he/she has the chance to keep you from flooding the field with Equipment copies. It's also slow and the imprinted Equipment remains exiled. Too much of a gamble for slow advantage that can be easily disrupted.

Sai of the Shinobi is still an extremely weak Equipment. Only offering +1/+1 is a waste of space, no matter how little mana you're investing in it.

Raksha Golden Cub is heavily reliant on you already having an established board presence. If Kemba is kept off the field, kept unequipped, or a sweeper just killed all of her tokens, Raksha isn't going to do much. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is more reliable and also shrinks your opponents' armies. Raksha is too much of a win-more card.

December 21, 2013 11:48 p.m.

Well, judging by his deck description, this is his go to deck for a more casual setting, so I don't think he exactly wants it to be ridiculous. When I build, I build for a casual game but meant to win. Balancing the two is hard but makes the game more interesting and fun than doing the same old same old.

The Prototype Portal argument seems nothing more than the "dies to doom blade" argument. Yeah it's a risk, but so is any other card you play. If you are a smart player you can play around the removal. Force them into a lose-lose situation.

Overextending is bad, so if you can manage to not do so, Raksha Golden Cub is viable.

These are just my viewpoints though, and my side of the argument. I see your points, but I must respectfully disagree (even though this is someone else's deck lol).

December 21, 2013 11:58 p.m.

ItchiUchiha117 says... #6

@NensouHiebara

Honestly, this is my go to deck for the games after the ones I've slaughtered everyone. It's not going for boardwipes, because that's not fun. If I wanted boardwipes, I'd have left in Planar Cleansing , Wrath of God , and Terminus but I just don't.

31 is low, but it's been working and I'm alright with screwing myself in a couple games, especially given a house rule of infinite free mulligans (as long as you aren't being a complete ass about it. And only one partial).

The Leonin Elder is mostly there as an early game boost so I don't fall too low to begin with. The Auriok Sunchaser has won games for me because it's a great thing to put equipment on. Porcelain Legionnaire is good, too, because I can play it turn two and defend myself.

To be noted, I do not own: Stonehewer Giant , Solemn Simulacrum . Return to Dust , Oust , Condemn , Oblation , Remember the Fallen , Enlightened Tutor , or any of the lands mentioned above (except Rogue's Passage which may or may not go in). If I did, many of those would go in. Some would also not. It's a toss up as it stands (although some are going straight in if I find them).

On to stuff that wasn't suggested to be added:

Mycosynth Lattice I really just want in for the one game where I drop it and Nevinyrral's Disk and get to say, "Alright, who wants to piss me off enough to restart the game?"

Raksha Golden Cub will be going in for the exact reason UmbrotheUmbreon (always wanted to say, sweet name, man. Second favorite Eeveelution behind its counterpart.) said. My army of cats will be primarily defensive until I Alpha Strike. I'd probably use True Conviction if I owned another copy.

I really just wanna have all five swords in here. There are quite a few players using blue where I play and every deck has Reliquary Tower . There's also the guy that runs a group hug Edric, Spymaster of Trest deck that screws over everyone quite easily. mumbling ten frigging turn cycles with a damn Prophet of Kruphix end mumbling

The equipment level is there because that's what I want the deck to do. I want Kemba to be covered from head to toe in equipment and have cats just flying out of her all the time. And a lot of the equipment you listed off are there for very specific purposes that I'd tell you if we were face to face, but would take up more time than I actually have tonight if I type them.

Worldslayer is there because holy crap, I just killed a man and blew up the world around him to spite his grave.

Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse are in because Sun Titan . Mono white Ramp was absolutely hilarious a couple weeks ago. Especially when my friend used the deck, go one first turn, dropped it, and yelled, "Why the hell is this in here?!" "Sun Titan." "... I accept your answer and find it satisfactory."

New Benalia has been completely worth the tempo. Especially seeing as how I've never lost tempo off of it.

Prototype Portal has always been worth it, though I've never used anything under it except Sol Ring and Batterskull , sooo... But what do I know?

Otherworld Atlas is in because I am completely fine with helping my friends draw at the end of their turns.

Unwinding Clock is in because I am completely fine with helping my friends draw at the end of their turns. Yes, I did put it in for that. And the Prototype Portal . And the possibility with stuff making other stuff into artifacts (hence the Lattice).

Armillary Sphere ... I have not found stuff that's all too good at white ramp. Land Tax , yes (which will probably be going in here from Saproling Armaments), but not much else. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but I'm good with it so far.

@ UmbrotheUmbreon

I used to have Luminate Primordial but took it out for... Something... Can't remember what, but it was probably one of the other 7drops in here.

Swords to Plowshares will be getting put in (albeit grudgingly, because it's one of the few pieces of removal in Saproling Armaments (yes, that's twice that has come up in this post and both about white 1 drop EDH staples. Whoo!)).

Oust and Condemn will probably come in if I can find them, but they are currently missing from my collection. Oh well.

True Conviction is one of my favorite cards, but I've had bad experiences with it. Like Sen Triplets stealing it and putting my Serra Avatar under a Mimic Vat ... with my Trostani, Selesnya's Voice stuck in the command zone by an Evil Twin .

Thank you both for your suggestions and comments. Some of them will be going in and others will not. If you truly feel that something you said should carry more weight, feel free to state your case.

December 22, 2013 12:32 a.m.

shaistyone says... #7

I like the devotion to theme a lot. I do have some suggestions, and can echo some of the previous comments (especially Leonin Sun Standard , it is a beating)

Suggestions:

Diviner's Wand
Eldrazi Monument
Trailblazer's Boots
Steelshaper's Gift
Open the Vaults
Mass Calcify
Absolute Grace / Absolute Law
Cathars' Crusade - so insane with Kemba
Crackdown - to go with your Blind Obedience
Mentor of the Meek
Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant
Endless Horizons
Reconnaissance - amazing card

January 3, 2014 4:43 a.m.

ItchiUchiha117 says... #8

I think the only ones in there I don't want to add are Cathars' Crusade , Absolute Law , and Absolute Grace . The Absolutes because I believe I'll be getting an Akroma's Memorial soon which covers that and more, and the Crusade because I hate doing the math on that every single turn. Gets very long, tedious, and boring. That said, I actually own a Mentor of the Meek . What do you think should be taken out for it?

January 4, 2014 1:21 a.m.

Knight-of-Blue says... #9

Basically I wanted to make this deck yesterday but lacked the stuff to do it, good show.

(+1)

January 6, 2014 4:08 a.m.

Yeah, and it's slowly improving. In the next week, I'm gonna get my hands on two more Swords, the Lattice, and Stonehewer Giant . So excited!

January 6, 2014 4:17 a.m.

what about the new kitty that got spoiled for Born of the Gods? Brimaz, King of Oreskos

January 19, 2014 11:35 p.m.

I certainly shall. Brimaz has been pretty much my favorite Born of the Gods spoiler so far.

January 19, 2014 11:52 p.m.

cschiller says... #13

I'm going to suggest Kjeldoran Outpost for token fun, as well as Intangible Virtue to maximize kitties.

Cool Deck though, I love fun legends like this one.

KITTIES

February 1, 2014 12:39 a.m.

As far as the Outpost goes, I don't actually want to sink mana into making more tokens. The Virtue, however, is out because it has been in the deck before. It was briefly in when I first made the deck, but was removed for more equipment.

February 1, 2014 1:32 a.m.

Godlyme says... #15

Sweet deck! Anarchy Flashfires . Im sure annoying

February 19, 2014 1:13 a.m.

@ Godlyme

Thankfully, no one runs any mass land destruction in my playgroup (except a single deck that has it entirely as a wincon card), so Flashfires and cards like it are out. Anarchy may be a problem, but I don't think anyone around here owns one. It actually looks fun for a Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs deck I've been making. Thanks for that, actually.

February 19, 2014 1:24 a.m.

yerabitch says... #17

Mortarpod + Puresteel Paladin +Leonin Shikari You know.. in case attacking wasn't enough."I shoot a bazillion kitties at you lol"

April 8, 2014 3:31 a.m.

:D I LOVE Nahiri! may I suggest Auriok Steelshaper as a pseudo puresteel?

July 16, 2015 9:10 p.m. Edited.

Used to have one. Was too slow, unfortunately. Thanks, though.

July 16, 2015 9:16 p.m.

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