Acidic Slime or Reclamation Sage
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Aug. 3, 2021, 8:25 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
In my Chulane, Teller of Tales EDH deck, I have Acidic Slime , but I am wondering if I should replace it with Reclamation Sage , because, as nice as it is to be able to destroy lands and have a blocking creature with deathtouch, five mana is a high cost, so lowering the mana curve of that deck would be nice.
What does everyone else say about this? Should I replace Acidic Slime with Reclamation Sage ?
griffstick says... #3
I like Acidic Slime better. It hits lands and has deathtouch so at some point it can be a 2 for 1. Plus it can be combed with Deadeye Navigator to wipe all the lands. Or you can put Thornbite Staff on it and start killing off creatures 1 by 1 for 2 mana at a time.
August 3, 2021 9:31 p.m.
RNR_Gaming says... #4
Depends. Ooze has more flexibility at a higher cost and Sage has the lower cmc and the creature type can be very relevant :) especially when you're playing things like Priest of Titania
August 3, 2021 9:47 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #5
RNR_Gaming, this deck is not a tribal deck.
Omniscience_is_life, this deck actually has a fairly low mana curve, compared to some of the EDH decks that I have built.
August 3, 2021 10:52 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #6
DemonDragonJ yeah, you tend to run pretty high-costing cards. Most of my decks that I have taken time to make powerful sit around the 2.6 av. cmc mark--I would say that's what you'd want to aim for to take your deck to the next level.
August 3, 2021 10:58 p.m.
DrukenReaps says... #7
There are so many powerful lands running around in the format these days I'd keep the slime.
August 4, 2021 12:16 a.m.
Necrosis24 says... #8
Like everyone says it depends on your meta and the power level your are aiming for. As DrukenReaps said there are quite a few lands you need to look out for these days, but if utility lands aren’t prominent in your meta you may be better off with reclamation sage for the lower cmc.
August 4, 2021 4:22 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #9
The majority of users here have voted in favor of the slime, so I shall keep it in my deck, especially since I already have Knight of Autumn in that deck, as well.
August 4, 2021 9:35 a.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #10
DemonDragonJ I think you'd be best off--instead of just blindly following votes--if you took the underlying subtheme and evaluated where you want to take the deck
August 4, 2021 12:59 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #11
Omniscience_is_life, the theme of the deck is to exploit creatures with enter-the-battlefield abilities by continually flickering them or returning them to my hand and recasting them, so both creatures that I have mentioned here will work with that theme; the only difference is that one creature is less expensive than is the other.
August 4, 2021 4:06 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #12
DemonDragonJ believe it or not, there is a deep philosophical difference between the cards--one has a more efficient mana cost, leading to it (in general) being run in higher-power decks; the other has a bigger effect on a more expensive body--leading to it (in general) being played in lower-power decks. So deciding if you want to make the swap depends on which philosophy--efficiency or greatness of effect--you would like to follow
August 4, 2021 7:21 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #13
Omniscience_is_life, when I was newer to the game, I was fond of powerful and dramatic effects, but too often other players were able to defeat me with decks that operated much faster with less expensive cards, so I now much prefer mana efficiency.
August 4, 2021 8:14 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #14
DemonDragonJ so glad to hear that. I have a fun challenge for you--see if you can get the average mana cost of your Chulane deck down to 3. You don't have to change the deck in paper, ofc, but copy the deck on TO and see what you can do!
August 4, 2021 8:22 p.m.
DadHumanPraetor says... #15
If you have 5 mana and NEED to remove something you dont have a way to interact once you cast the acidic slime, but with Rec Sage you have 2 left up for counter magic.
Plus players typically cast multiple creatures per turn with Chulane, to get as much value as possible, since he is likely to be targetted for removal.
And if Chulane is not in play, you dont want clunky spells gumming up your hand. When you dont get those extra land drops it really hurts your tempo to take an entire turn off the remove something, so you probably wouldn't even cast the ooze.
August 5, 2021 1:12 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #16
DadHumanPraetor, that is a very good point, and I shall admit that it is very rare that I actually find an opponent's land to be so bothersome that I need to destroy it, so, perhaps, I can experiment and see if the sage is worth saving 2 mana over the slime.
Omniscience_is_life says... #2
The answer: it depends. Taking a look at your deck, you have a very high average cmc--that wouldn't slide in higher-power pods (which is ok!).
So if you're going for optimization, you have a lot to do--including the swap you've brought up--but you'd be totally fine to keep the deck where it is... a nice low-end-of-mid-power build!
August 3, 2021 8:45 p.m.