I could probably whip up a voltron version of that, do you want a replenish package?

iamJesus1234, here’s the budget build. SynergyBuild, what do you think? I’ll mod the both of you and you can make adjustments, how you see fit.

Protean Chromium, Elder Dragon (Budget Edition)

Commander / EDH* Starsky2814

0 VIEWS

It is a bit out of iamJesus1234's price range, but I am building something similar to it.

In the budget build, the combo of Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond , was changed to Bloodchief Ascension + Mindcrank . But that should be changed for a cheaper combo if possible.

If Replenish, were to be removed. It should take it down to the allotted budget.

Exactly <$150!

Chromium Voltron Budget (<$150)

Commander / EDH* SynergyBuild

1 VIEW

Voltron is a very interesting strategy to employ with Chromium. I have wanted to see what people do with him the moment I saw the leak. May I suggest you take Reito Lantern into consideration? Have a closer look at Tunnel Vision and then read Reito Lantern again. It's cloak and dagger but sometimes needs must. Telepathy will ensure you know exactly what your opponents will be up to. Esper Charm is basic Esper goodstuff. How exactly do you deal with boardwipes? Out of curiosity.

Would you be so kind as to give me some advice on one or two of my own decks? I specifically have my newest deck, Morai, and my dragon deck in mind.

Nice! You hit it at $147. I’ll revisit mine and get it to a lower cost.

Thanks, Soothsaying is a card I found, that I had forgot about, do you think it could find a spot?

So with how I understand layers, auras will always give chromium the stat buffs since they're applied in layer 7c, while his "become a 1/1" happens beforehand in layer 7b. But ability adding/removal all happens in the same layer. Thus the effects are done in timestamp order.

What does that mean? You need to apply auras after using chromium's ability for them to give him any card text like vigilance, lifelink, etc. And if you use it a second time, currently applied auras will be wiped since they have an older timestamp.

This might not matter too much as a hexproof unblockable 21/21 will still get the job done, but it's a detail I think it could be easy to miss.

Soothsaying, almost makes me want to add Sensei's Divining Top or maybe Scroll Rack.

Ravenrose, sure I’ll take a look at the decks. Also, thank you for the suggestions! I’ll take them in careful consideration. As for protection from board wipes. I have Felidar Umbra, Flickerform, Indestructibility, Gift of Immortality and Shielded by Faith to help with that.

Emagstar, you are correct. If you do decide to discard a card to make him the hexproof 1/1 unblockable human and already have auras attached beforehand. He would lose those abilities such as lifelink and etc granted by the Aura, but will keep the +X/+X buffs. So if you do want the abilities from the Auras, they would need to be applied after the discard ability resolved.The thing is we are not trying to use the discard ability on our turn, unless it is necessary i.e. target removal or need the evasiveness from being unblockable. If we want to discard, that should be done on our opponent’s end step. Hope that all made since :P

Well it definitely doesn’t make since. Hopefully, sense instead... I need a nap lol

Awesome +1

Starsky2814 one thing I noticed is that you're going to have an issue with Toxic Deluge and non-targetting removals due to lack of counters. I see some in your sideboard but they're a bit out of the way, unless you run a wish like Mastermind's Acquisition to grab from sideboard. Might be worth using just in case you need to grab it, use it, then snapcaster it back from the grave at some point. Though honestly it'd just be easier to run a few counters mainboard because it allows you to actually interact with your opponents' spells and to make the main strategy more consistent/harder to shut down.

The variety of equips and auras is cool, but it might be worth cutting down a tad bit and throwing in some of those countless great white/black removal spells just in case an opponent is attempting to assemble a combo. Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Vindicate, Utter End, Merciless Eviction, Anguished Unmaking Namely mentioning this because I saw you've got a few higher tier matchups in your primer there and that love assembling combos. Though I have no idea how spikey your playgroup gets so idk what you may end up needing for sure.

And yeah the artifact combos go with the artifact heavy commander, I already knew that SynergyBuild. Vandalblast has never really threatened the combo for me seeing as how I actually run counters when I play Esper or combo heavy decks though. But either way it was just a suggestion for the fun of the combo.

I specifically meant Sen Triplets, not Sharuum the Hegemon (the real artifact esper commander of choice other than Sydri, Galvanic Genius), in fact now that I think about it, Sen Triplets sucks as an esper artifact commander, and also Celestial Dawn isn't exactly an artifact combo.

Onto the combos themselves, and the reason Exquisite Blood/Sanguine Bond is not only better than them, yet they should never be in the decklist at all.

Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond are enchantments, so they can be Replenished/Open the Vaultsed back with ease after a Tunnel Vision/Traumatize, and the fact they need lifeloss is easy with an unblockable hexproof commander. Neither of your "combos" win the game, let alone can be Replenished.

Celestial Dawn + Caged Sun = Double you land mana, and give it perfect fixing, minus Ancient Tomb, which now only receives fixing, and Boseiju, Who Shelters All doesn't protect you stuff, ad your artifact mana is kind of sucky now.

See what happened, a 9 mana two card combo did worse than a Mirari's Wake, which is another way of saying it sucks, together. On their own, Caged Sun does very little ramping, and it outclassed by Thran Dynamo/Gilded Lotus most of the time, which I could make an argument that they were bad, and Celestial Dawn is even worse, with this deck already having an incredibly powerful landbase, it un-ramps you with Ancient Tomb and Boseiju, Who Shelters All sucks now.

Onto the next "combo:" This one you were kind enough to even put a reason for:

"Also Mycosynth Lattice + Unwinding Clock would be a similarly effective combo that would create tons of value that would support your Voltron strat/board state as well"

Okay, Mycosynth Lattice + Unwinding Clock untaps all of your permanents (lands, artifacts and creatures mostly), along with fixing each players mana perfectly, and leaving you open to a blowout with Hellkite Tyrant, By Force, Vandalblast or Shattering Spree.

Okay, so tons of value? I mean it has a major couple of downsides, this deck is fine on its own fixing, and it fixes for all of your opponents? it is 10 mana, and can't be cheated out by Replenish, so it comes late in the game, and your opponents can probably tutor a Vandalblast up be now, so tons of value? Lets, see, if we untap every one of our permanents, every turn, what ways do we have to abuse the excess of mana? 8 things, of which 5 are instants (Cyclonic Rift, Dark Ritual, Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor), we can also move around Felidar Umbra a lot, activate Nomad Mythmaker, or Flickerform a little bit.

Underwhelming isn't it, we can use 8 cards, of which Cyclonic Rift and Flickerform are the only two good uses of it. 2 cards are benefited in a way that could have been done with out the combo.

Well, yeah, and the cards are bad on their own, so it is a trash combo in this deck, despite what you said.

+1 from me for the beautifully written deck description and bring voltron back into mtg.

Thanks for the +1, hamiam and griffstick!

iiTzSeb, once I can get some live games going with the deck and some proper results, I’ll make adjustments accordingly. Unfortunately, I am out of town thru the 20th and I probably won’t meet up with the guys until the 22nd. So bare with us on updates. The side board for this build, is intended to be an extension of the deck. So for those who would like to use this as a blueprint for building Chromium, the Mutable. They can see what counter package I would use and flex cards around, to better suite their meta. Nonetheless, thank you for your suggestions!

SynergyBuild, I know we just added Cloud Key, but what are your thoughts on replacing it for Grand Arbiter Augustin IV? Maybe we can also add Heartless Summoning to potentially get the summoning cost down on Chromium. Do you think it’s foolish to consider Hall of the Bandit Lord for Zur and Chromium? Also, I think it would be worth while to add, Sensei's Divining Top. It could help get us that draw we need after using Tunnel Vision, in order to cast Open the Vaults in the same turn.

I actually like all 3 of those options what would you drop though?

Let me know what you think.

Angelic Destiny out for Heartless Summoning

Consecrated Sphinx out for Sensei's Divining Top

Indestructibility our for Umbra Mystic

Island out for Hall of the Bandit Lord

Cloud Key out for Grand Arbiter Augustin IV

Hmm... I am sold on nearly all of it, but maybe Hyena Umbra or Curator's Ward over Umbra Mystic, they are less able to be removed.

I think I’ll just keep Indestructibility in the list then. I’ll make the other changes and do some play testing.

That seems good for now, I like how it hits any permanent, yet so does Curator's Ward, so whatever. Indestructible vs Hexproof has always been an arguement.

You have me convinced with Curator's Ward. We already have Shielded by Faith for indestructible. Might as well add a way to have hexproof outside from Chromium’s discard ability.

That is fair, plus, you can target another enchantment like Rhystic Study if it would be put under fire otherwise.