MagicalHacker,

For starters, I have already looked at your's and ay.lobo's Purphoros lists at least 10 times. You don't have to keep posting them. I know you've submitted them, and they're on my mind.

Secondly, Purphoros was the first EDH deck I built when I first got into the format, and I've played and updated the deck ever since then, so I know the ins and outs of the deck very well. And believe me when I say you are still using some sub-par strategies in your list. For instance, I can say with certainty that Glitterfang and Lightning Berserker are too slow to be of any real use.

Third, goldfishing Turn 6 wins is no longer enough to get you higher than T3. Since the advent of Paradox Engine, Aetherflux Reservoir, Walking Ballista, new efficient combos like DramaticScepter, and the Protean Hulk unban, nearly everything in the top tiers have gotten a significant uptick in power level. Nearly everything in T2.5 and above is capable of goldfishing T4 wins. The top tiers have so many overpowered cards right now that they could unban Tinker without shaking up the format too much. Purphoros gets a little bit of leeway, since he screws over AdNaus decks so badly, but if I were to put your list up as the example for Purphoros right now, I would have no choice but to demote Purphoros to T3, since it's unrealistic to expect a deck that wins on turn 6 to compete with the upper tiers in this meta.

If you still think that your deck is between T2 and T1.5, then I challenge you to playtest the Arcum Dagsson and Azami decklists from T1.5 and T2 in the description. Both of those can go off on turns 2 to 4 easily, with occasional T1 wins. A Purphoros list would lose to those decks without a doubt 99 times out of 100.

That being said, I appreciate the contention with the current Purphoros list in the description. As ay.lobo has brought up, restricting the deck to just goblin tribal cuts out a lot of cards that synergize really beautifully with Purphoros. However, there are a lot of things that play well with Purphoros, and unfortunately, not all of them play well with each other. The reason we have a goblin tribal deck up right now is that the tribal synergy speeds up the clock of the deck by about 1 turn because of the extra rituals, tutors, and things like Warren Instigator or Goblin War Strike. It's that little bit of speed that's keeping Purphoros in T2.5 really.

I think what needs to happen going forward is to work out how to add the non-goblin cards that Purphoros shines with to a goblin shell that will continue to speed up the deck. Could be super tricky. I've been planning on taking a crack at it for a while now.

spudman3d, A while back I suggested a six tier system in the interest of separating the moderately (mostly) Janky commanders like Chisei, Heart of Oceans or He Who Hungers from the complete trash like Barktooth Warbeard or Myojin of Infinite Rage. (Also, to keep stuff like Chisei from clogging up T4, which clogged up T3, which actually bothered people.)

We tried it for a little while, but ultimately thegigibeast decided that T5 and T6 were so close that functionally no one cared to separate them. He combined them into the current T5, and I think that's fine the way it is.

Also fyi, there are actually some pretty functional Phage decks. Black has the best tutor power and the best graveyard recursion, so you can easily get one of the six ways to get Phage out of the command zone: Sundial of the Infinite, Command Beacon, Null Brooch, Thrull Wizard, Withering Boon, and Kozilek, the Great Distortion. It's stupid and over-complicated for what is essentially a mediocre Voltron deck, but it does function.

Thank you for your thoughts, sonnet666. I definitely went a different route from a goblin tribal deck with Purphoros, God of the Forge. As it stands now, it focuses more on control and less on attacking, especially with cards like Glacial Chasm and Ensnaring Bridge. So far, so good.

I believe Mikaeus, the Unhallowed deserves a bump from 2.5 to at least 2 maybe more. with relatively recent cards like Walking Ballista and Crystalline Crawler.

I have what I would like to think is a tier 1 to 1.5 tier list, but as you stated in your rules I am biased.

If you don't mind checking it out maybe it can help change your minds

The Deck

I would again like to contest the Tier 4 placement of Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist. His ability draws your opponents' cards for any player (other than you) losing life. This includes losing life to one's own Fetches, Necro, Crypt, etc. He's hilariously bad against Vamp Tutor and Imperial Seal.

He actively hurts any gameplan you could have by helping your opponents. I advocate for Tier 5 placement.

Also, new OFFICIALLY spoiled legend:
Neheb, the Eternal, a Zombie Minotaur Warrior that make the mana rain like blood! Make it rain, make it rain, make it rain on them foes! Tier 4. I can't think of a strategy that would justify Tier 3. Making mana is good and all, but mono-red can only do so much to convert non-infinite mana into a large advantage or win.

Ill agree that we should have gotten mono red before rakdos but neither here nor there

What i can say is i think she might have footholds in tier 3 due to the cheaper costed or alternately costed extra combat tricks. She may work as a storm deck in that case

but LOOK AT THAT ART ON NEHEB! Even if neheb isnt the best out there and may be tier 4, gotta appreciate the art

New OFFICIALLY Spoiled Cards:

The Locust God - Tier 3 MINIMUM. It can be an infinite mana outlet. Just stick an Eldrazi Titan in the deck and you get infinite hasty flyers. BOOM! Since it is blue, there are tons of ways to get infinite colored mana. I can easily see it in Tier 2.5!

Scavenger Grounds - Graavehate land. ,, Sac a Desert: Exile all graveyards. It's a grave speedbump for non-graveyard decks to drop. It fixes a lot of the problems with Bojuka Bog: it enters untapped, so no loss of tempo; and you can play it as you land without wasting its ability. The drawback is that it hits your own graveyard too.

Maybe run a storm deck including arjun/mindmoil with locus god as the commander?

Drowned rusalka and skullclamp seem good. Being a mana sink is decent. Guess ill draft up erebos neheb and locust later

Best use I've seen for Neheb so far is Aggravated Assault and swords.

A mana engine for Assault or similar effects is nice.

I think he's better in the 99 as another Sword of F&F option personally but still not the worst

SCREW NEHEB'S PLACEMENT...

This guy is a GODSEND for Purphoros.

Just by dropping him in a 4 player game the turn after Purph you recoup 6 mana for that turn. Then he just sits on the board doubling your resources.

Beautiful...

Also, I wish we had a separate tier off to the side for commanders who are wincons from the command zone with infinite mana rofl. There's so many

Oona, Locust, etc.

Sonnet, you beautiful, disgusting, wonderful, demon of a human being.

Ohthenoises, I could add a section in the FAQ covering that...

Some are complete jank or useless without infinite mana but have good colors and can win with infinite mana from the command zone.

Or were you talking about being a horrible person? :p

Solemnity: shuts down meren, mizzix, atraxa (non-superfriends), and much more

Edit to my previous comment: very good with something like your own mystic remora

It shuts down Animar and Yisan. Then there are like 7 in Tiers 2-2.5 that it screws with. Too bad I don't have any white decks for it. It's perfect for a competitive sideboard.

Reminder that it just says that counters can't be placed on players & permanents.

Counters that are already there will stay on.

In other words this has to come down early to have any real effect. I'm sure Meren and others can function with just 4-ish counters.

Also, does anyone else think Hour of Revelation is really nice? I feel like 10 permanents isn't that difficult amongst 4 people, and then it's a 3 mana Planar Cleansing.

There's also Mirage Mirror, which has a lot of weird potential. Off the top of my head:

• Copies Cabal Coffers or Deserted Temple.
• Copies an opponent's Gaea's Cradle, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Serra's Sanctum, Volrath's Stronghold, or Academy Ruins.
• Copies Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, or Basalt Monolith, and then is itself again by the time your untap rolls around.
• If you have enough mana you can stack its copy effect to have it turn first into one thing, then another.
• You could even keep switching forever if you had infinite colorless already.

Not sure what I'd use it in, but it sure is neat.

Yea I was just about to mention that It helps and hinders Yisan at the same time. If Yisan is on 3 he can just go reclamation Sage for what WOULD have been V4.

Similarly Caustic Caterpillar on V1.

Wait mirrage mirror can copy hd, necropotence or generate infinite through untap creatures... seems neat

Ohthenoises - Yisan is not able to activate at all because you are not able to put a counter on him as part of the cost.

Well that's unfortunate..... huh, missed that part.

Just made a first draft for our flying friend: Infinite Swarm | Competitive Locust God. Critique and feedback are appreciated.

OFFICIALLY Spoiled Card:

Crook of Condemnation - A new take on Relic of Progenitus. It costs 2 mana to cast and 1 mana to exile a single card, but you get to CHOOSE the card you exile. It does not cycle though.

first draft of neheb storm and so far, even though this is like a 50% build, storm will not work out consistently for new Neheb. Tomorrow i'll try to draft up a copy of aggravated neheb to see if that works out more.

Neheb storm for reference