Agreed. I'd say Commander Beacon is worth running in any deck that relies on its commander for winning with the exception of 4-5 color decks that necessitate greedy land bases.

I have a foil Talrand laying around, and some guys at my store were bugging me to build a commander deck. If I went budget, keeping in mind that I might have some of these cards, how much would it cost me to build this deck?

Depending on whether you want foil or non foil, and where you plan to aquire the Cards, I'd say 350-750 if you already own some

ninjaclevs13: Sorry for taking literally four whole days to get back to you (been on vacation). Um. This deck in particular, ignoring foils? Somewhere close to $350-$400. Talrand, as a deck? Can be done for 50, but can be done relatively well for 75. I've been meaning to update the description so I can do a primer proper for creatureless Talrand.

Major things to help with budget: Cut most of the nonbasics, the Wishboard, Bribery (but if you have this card, run the shit out of it), and the two expensive counterspells. Replace those things with mostly basic lands (as I get away with running so few because of Thawing Glaciers, which is expensive as hell). Some of the cantrips (Serum Visions, Ponder, and Preordain come to mind) too expensive? Run some more hard counters. Stuff like Counterspell, Cancel, Arcane Denial, and Dream Fracture.

Why do you run so few counterspells? Care to explain? I am planning to build a similar deck like this.

TachyonMTG: It was a feel thing. Enough so that I felt like I could move forward with the game plan, not so many as to become the counterspells deck. I could probably stand to run two or three more, to be perfectly honest. (also I have not updated in a while, and I do run at least one more counterspell these days: Void Shatter).

erabel What card did you take out for that? I am planning to add more counterspells to this deck as my playgroup plas a lot of spells. Like a lot.

ninjaclevs13 btw, I have made a copy of this deck and unfoiled it, it is currently at 221 ish.

WHERE'S COUNTERBALANCE????????????

keen_the_crazy: Three things.

One, yelling gets you nowhere. Be polite. Twelve exclamation points? Really?

Two, Counterbalance is fifteen dollars a pop, and that's nonfoil in a deck I'm working on fully foiling out. That's just ridiculous.

Three, this deck curves out at a CMC of five. You think that Counterbalance is gonna be useful past, like, turn 4? In EDH? Not to be dismissive, but you're making it sound like it's such a great card just because a deck built around it in Legacy exists.

Awesome deck, +1 from me straight away! I notice that you have been happy to look at other peoples Talrand decks, I wonder if you wouldn't mind doing the same for mine? Talrand and His Minions of Flying Doom It's a creatureless deck and I'm trying to keep it as budget as possible (currently sitting around $100) Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Also love the fact that you are running nothing over 5cmc, it's nice to see little quirks like that in decks which kick ass!

Untrue he's running Cyclonic Rift!

omg get Brain in a Jar

Brain in a jarr + Cyclonic Rift = 1 mana wipe

bankrupt_on_selling: If I were basing my CMC restriction on how much I was actually spending to cast the card, I'd be running Dig, Cruise, and Commandeer. (You were probably being funny (or trying to, at any rate), but in case anyone was wondering)

Guiltygear721: Two things. One, I don't care for Brain in a Jar, because my curve tops at 5 anyway and the whole "give sorceries flash!" thing doesn't help its case (if I really cared so much about flash, I'd be running Leyline). Two, that's not how Brain in a Jar interacts with Overload; Overload is an alternate cost, and so is "without paying its mana cost" (like BiaJ says to do with the card you choose), and you can only cast a spell for one alternate cost at a time.

OK sorry about that Alternatly i used Read the Runes, Familiar's Ruse Turnabout Plea for Power and Last Thoughts also Triton Tactics has worked wonders as a last minute defense so far...

also im not understanding why Brain in a Jar is not any better than your other manna reducers like Helm of Awakening or Sapphire Medallion to me it just does more work...

Guiltygear721: In order (and short answers, because I like short answers, don't take it as me being rude):

• Read the Runes only feels worth it to me if I'm ahead and I can afford to sacrifice drakes. If I'm behind, mass loot oftentimes isn't great.
• Familiar's Ruse literally only works if I have a drake, which isn't guaranteed. Also I feel like there are better counterspells that I'd run over this that I don't run now because I don't care for too many counterspells.
• ...I already run Turnabout. Did you not actually read my list?
• Plea for Power used to be in the deck. I took it out. It was a turn when I needed cards and cards when I needed the turn.
• Last Thoughts is too much mana for a draw-1. Yeah, sure, you can cipher onto a drake and draw more cards!... if that drake connects. And the drake can never be allowed to die, or else that card is exiled forever. Whoops.
• Triton Tactics is cute and does not replace itself. Not worth running.
• Brain in a Jar requires more setup than you give it credit for, only works on one spell at a time (as opposed to the Medallion or the Helm), and I rarely need the flash.

Speaking of Familiar's Ruse, did you ever have Abjure in here?

Have you considered Mystic Confluence (not sure if it's been recommended before)? Despite its casting cost, I have been really impressed with it on the whole. The modes are all relevant and unlike Cryptic Command, its not as saturated.

OK cool thanks for clearing that up it works a bit better now the Familiar's Ruse was a personal choice because my group likes to target Talrand of rip in multiplayer and having to bounce him as a cost sometimes is better than just counter/sac a drake and another spell comes to kill him. so I might keep it and Read the Runesit only seems slightly worse than Perilous Research just for left over mana before my turn. It's kinda hard running mono blue and not do counters so much. Is this more set up for 1v1? I dont mind short answers in fact i have more card's i'd like to run by you. (deep breath) So i know that Turnabout gives you more options but what about Sleep ? Also Train of Thought could be good opt. too for multiple drake card draw although i know storm ultimatly would be better. Also what do you think of these extra rmoval/ combat tricks Hour of Need Ovinize Turn to Frog Curse of the Swine also I noticed you have Runechanter's Pike to possible kill by commander damage? Whether or not that's the case why not Whispersilk Cloak Glaring Spotlight or Protective Bubble espescialy since you use less counters? finally How is Day's Undoing properly played because it seems to just refill everyone's hand instead of just yours

P.S. is Fabricate also too much trouble?

Guiltygear721: Train of Thought will only give you one drake, no matter how many times you replicate it. Replicate is an ability that puts the copies of the spell on the stack which doesn't cast them. Thus, Talrand will only ever see one spell be cast.

Guiltygear721: The biggest use i've seen of Day's Undoing is to end the turn BEFORE any spells/abilities on the stack can be resolved (With some instant trigger such as BiaJ) or to skip end phase triggers.

Rulings (From Gatherer)

Ending the turn this way means the following things happen in order: 1) All spells and abilities on the stack are exiled. This includes spells and abilities that cant be countered. 2) If there are any attacking and blocking creatures, theyre removed from combat. 3) State-based actions are checked. No player gets priority, and no triggered abilities are put onto the stack. 4) The current phase and/or step ends. The game skips straight to the cleanup step. 5) The cleanup step happens in its entirety.If any triggered abilities do trigger during this process, theyre put onto the stack during the cleanup step. If this happens, players will have a chance to cast spells and activate abilities, then there will be another cleanup step before the turn ends.Though other spells and abilities that are exiled wont get a chance to resolve, they dont count as being countered.Any at the beginning of the next end step triggered abilities wont get the chance to trigger that turn because the end step is skipped. Those abilities will trigger at the beginning of the end step of the next turn. The same is true of abilities that trigger at the beginning of other phases or steps.If both your hand and graveyard are empty as Days Undoing starts resolving, youll still shuffle your library before drawing seven cards.