In case you are interested I wrote an article about layered combo and Razaketh

I would like to nominate Xira Arien for tier 2.5 or tier 2 as a jund storm deck. I have faced this deck a few times in the past couple days and it is continuing to impress meyself and others on the cEDH discord. Here is the list: Paradox Xira Arien

Just watched the gameplay vid. Definitely something worth considering. It had a smooth turn 3 kill with Duress backup, though admittedly there was some luck and two of the opponents were Padeem (not usually competitive) and Ramos (not solved yet). How strong is the cockatrice/untap.in (whichever it was) competitive crowd?

200+ on the cedh reddit discord. I played a game with that deck a couple nights back and saw it fight through 2 other combo decks and stax to win. I have also watched it do similar.

Definitely worth a slot in a higher tier than 4. I have reviewed the deck and videos, and it definitely has better lines than tier 4 decks. Moving to tier 3 for now is a conservative move, but I could see it being bumped to tier 2.5 with more testing. I am going to add it to tier 3 with the deck by buildingadeck cause it seems to have a lot of potential.

So Xira Arien is certainly a playable storm deck. However, it has some pretty obvious weaknesses (i.e., not in blue, needing haste to win with Xira, etc) when you could play Yidris or Thrasios/Smasher instead and add blue with no real setbacks. That said, she has been more powerful than I expected, and my current record after two days with her is 4-3 in competitive pods. If I were to nominate her, I would start her at Tier 3. With more testing, I'll have more info for you all.

I'm submitting this here. I think that Dralnu has shown its competitive viability over the course of my testing as well as others who have taken up the deck. I recommend that the deck be placed in Tier 2. The video content linked in the deck gives some idea of its viability.

I also think my list has notable improvements over the one listed in the conglomerate in that it doesn't run cute cards like Entomb that are only conditionally good, and that it packs interaction that allows it to vie in the current metagame more proficiently.

n0bunga, the problem with Xiahou vs Sidisi is that Sidisi finds Ad Nauseam for you. Xiahou just kinda sits there, which is fine with Kess because Kess has interaction to get her to the late game, being in blue. Sidisi ANT is a fairly uninteractive deck that seeks to win quickly. I don't see Xiahou in that capacity.

Yeah, I don't know too much about the mid-tiers. My guess is that if you played any form of ANT in a non-comp pod, you would win unless you were targeted to hell. So probably could use a bump up if you make a list.

n0bunga I would rather play Xiahou Dun as a control deck, not storm. There's no reason to prefer him over other mono b combo commanders but he's interesting in a grinding, stax-like way because of his ability

I will third for Dralnu being moved up to tier 2.

And I will fourth, and actually move Dralnu up to tier 2 with my editing powers ;)

still working on trying to optimize them but here is my submission for Gisa and Geralf. Help appreciated! curve is still too high and theres some cards i already know im cutting but not sure what to replace them with

again, would like to hold a discussion to see if we think Prossh is still fullly tier 1, or if he should be bumped down to tier 1.5

I think Prossh is tier 1.5. I haven't seen Prossh in months, like really at all since the cEDH tourney ended, tbh.

I agree. I don't think he's the best food chain deck, in fact I don't think he's the second best food chain deck anymore. It's easier to find food chain in tazri or sidisi, which I think is more important than prossh cutting out the misthollow griffon/eldrazi.

On top of that, Sidisi isn't all in like Prossh which adds extra strength to the deck. Not sure if Tazri had a second win option without food chain or not.

I think Prossh is still quite good, probably underplayed. But I do not think he's tier 1.

Well being third best doesn't mean he's bad, far from it. But yes, I agree. Tier 1.5

buildingadeck If you argue that you haven't seen a certain deck recently, does that imply the tiers are about popularity too, or is this list meant to be only about the assumed strength of a deck?

Winterblast: Other tier lists in other formats are based on meta share and power. Prossh is relatively powerful, but has a pretty small meta share, which probably alludes to a loss of power in comparison to other decks (this is based on the fact that decks stop being played when something better takes their place, like deck natural selection).

So I guess what I'm saying is this: Prossh was good 4 months ago. However, as the meta shifted, so did his viability. This forced him more or less out of the top tables, though he's still a decently positioned commander.

So how do people feel about moving Azami up to tier 1.5?

Since paradox engine came out the deck has become even more powerful.there are also a ton more combos thanks to dramatic reversal.

Its always had a strong and consistent control shell until it combos and paradox engine along with dramatic reversal combos have made it insane to play, and dismal to play against.

plus the fact that mind over matter with Azami is literally like a 1 card combo.

now I understand that it is mono coloured but that colour is blue and if the pilot is an experienced control player then it has no problem defeating the other tier 1.5 lists? even alot of the tier 1 lists fall to decks like Azami because they just counter the play you make that actually matters and then go back to there turn.

"I cast Zur the enchanter"

"I counter it for 1 or 2 blue? are you done?"

Im positive that this has happened a million times.

now I understand the deck is normally played re-actively instead of proactively but guys cmon, If the player who is playing Azami is a good control player (which you should be if you wanna play this style of deck) and they have actually got an optimized list. Then the deck is very hard to beat.

What do people think? Azami back in tier 1.5?

Is Arahbo, Roar of the World really only tier 4?? Tbh, I get that the new decks, while eminence is strong, are really only good in tribal. So, I feel like Inalla, The Ur-Dragon, and Edgar are in the correct spots, but I think Arahbo, Roar of the World easily has the highest power level out those four on account of how aggro it plays. I'd vote it should be tier 2.5, even though i feel its a step above Inalla, Arahbo definitely doesn't have the combo potential of the other tier 2 decks. At least put it in tier 3 if nothing else, geez.

No, Azami is where she belongs. She's no more powerful than any of the other decks that got stronger with Paradox Engine imo. Most people who want to play mono blue still play JVP over her, so I don't think she's that great to get bumped up to tier 1.5.

Arahbo is nowhere near 2.5, assuming that 2.5 is the experimental competitive tier. She might be Tier 3 at best. Also, until decks exist, I think we can just wait on placing commanders.

Mm, I could see her possibly being tier 2.5, depending on how much you can take advantage of her agressiveness. But I see your point, I still think she definitely deserves a spot in tier 3. She can easily hang with/beat many of those decks I'm sure. But true, this is mostly speculation so we'll see.

Temur_Frontier I'm biased on that matter because I already built the deck online and will do in paper as well, but I had argued for that placement as well. I am still experimenting with the number of cats and non-cat hatebears to make it have a better chance against more than 2 opponents.

The argument for Arahbo is that it can take out a player very early, if not disrupted...and which of the high tier decks actually wants to focus on an aggro deck? Also, no one else will help the attacked player in removing the threat, because it kills one by one. It plays like a combo deck as it needs certain cards in combination with others to manage an early game kill, but the consistency is lacking because there's only tutors for creatures and you need to draw into the other spells. Lack of consistency although the deck can potentially kill fast is part if the criteria for tiers 2 and 3 though, isn't it?

I would definitely rank it higher than commanders that don't even have the potential for killing so quickly from the command zone.

buildingadeck is it really correct that popularity reflects the power level of a deck? People could simply want to play something different to surprise the opponents (even though the old deck was top) or keep playing the same deck even though it isn't as powerful as it had been a year ago, maybe because they like the play style or know their deck too well to get into something else and give up the experience bonus. I would say there are too many reasons for popularity that do not relate to the power of a deck