Is Colorless worth it?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on March 1, 2017, 2:59 p.m. by Phaetion
I've got a lot running through my mind right now. Between finishing off my Dragonlord Ojutai deck, wanting to build Izzet, and colorless, it's driving me nuts.
Colorless has my attention for one reason: I have everything. Everything gathered in one, massive pile of 200-300 cards. I'm staring at it as I type this post, and I wonder: is it worth it? The potential is there but it's just...limited. I'm narrowed down to three decks with it: Eldrazi tribal, artifacts, or a budget variant of the latter. Yet, there's lots of cards I want to use. Cards like Aetherworks Marvel, Gonti's Aether Heart, and Planar Bridge are all screaming for my attention. I'm not sure what to do here. Any advice or ideas?
Wait, are you saying there's more than the three? I know stax is not my preferred strategy as I want others to play as well.
March 1, 2017 3:23 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #4
So things that you can do in colorless:
Eldrazi tribal utilizing the Oath of the Gatewatch dudes; Eldrazi titan tribal ramp using a bunch of mana rocks - Sol Ring, Darksteel Ingot - to get them out quickly, also plays things like Blightsteel Colossus and other giant fatties; you could play stax; you could play affinity style artefacts using stuff like Arcbound Ravager, Mycosynth Golem, and Walking Ballista; you could do myr tribal which basically just aims at tutoring up Myr Battlesphere with a bunch of myr tokens out and gits em ded; or you could play giant artifacts which is very similar to the eldrazi titan tribal except there's no eldrazi in the deck and you have better utilization of Kuldotha Forgemaster, Metalworker and the like, basically legacy MUD but in commander. I prefer the old Karn the Pacifist route to use things like Trading Post and Staff of Domination for value, then just locking everyone out with Ensnaring Bridge Bottled Cloister or other stax pieces.
Or you could brew your own thing outside of these strategies, this is just what I came up with off the top of my head.
March 1, 2017 3:31 p.m. Edited.
DevoidMage: I won't lie, but every time I look at colorless, I always see synergies I've never seen before. I begin to wonder whether it's the true color of creativity.
It's nice to see so many avenues too. I bet there's probably a few more out there. Even some kind of energy deck, provided that there's enough support for it.
March 1, 2017 3:38 p.m.
think of all the cool utility lands you can play with pure upsides!
Strip Mine, Tectonic Edge, Inventors' Fair, Griffin Canyon!!!
March 1, 2017 4:46 p.m.
Colorless is prob one of the last deck builds I will do, as like you, I'm not sure how I would go with it.
I also struggle with deciding to start working on making my current decks better, further the leovold infect deck, the roon deck, the Yidris chaos deck, or the non green deck with partnered pairs I am currently building/trading towards. I have a lot I am currently trying to build/revamp and sometimes deciding which should get priority can get overwhelming.
But more on topic, colorless can be fun and be built in various fashions. So go for it.
March 1, 2017 6:28 p.m.
Steelspike says... #8
Karn, Silver Golem, Mycosynth Lattice, Darksteel Forge Unwinding Clock, Nevinyrral's Disk.
Turn their lands into 0/0 creatures with Lattice and Karn, or blow up everything but your stuff with Disk and Forge.
All Is Dust is a must include in any colorless deck (obviously).
March 1, 2017 7:08 p.m.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #9
Just play Colorless Ramp Good Stuff. Pick the best threats, ramp with all the things, and beat down.
March 1, 2017 7:15 p.m.
landofMordor says... #10
In my opinion, if you're going to build artifact, there's almost no reason to not run a U(X) commander, since there are just gobs of artifact support in U. For that reason, I would recommend an Eldrazi tribal if you want a truly colorless deck -- you can support some fun synergies (Aetherworks Marvel or Planar Bridge), and it's the synergies and interactions in your deck that would be much more fun to pilot in the long run than simply colorless good-stuff. Best of luck!
March 1, 2017 8:42 p.m.
landofMordor: I did try to build Izzet, thought there was so much to add. I don't really like the added consistency that colors bring, blue and black especially.
pskinn01: My problem wasn't so much what to do in colorless, but rather the fairly narrow options available.
With all that said, I've decided to take up colorless again. What I'll build, I have no idea. But I'll have something sooner or later.
March 1, 2017 10 p.m.
Hmmm... if you aren't a huge fan of consistency tutors, colorless decks do have the option to just go goodstuff. Cards like Duplicant, Wurmcoil Engine, Steel Hellkite, Oblivion Stone, and the like can make for interactive board presence. Combine those with artifacts that have strong effects like Gonti's Aether Heart, Planar Bridge, and Aetherworks Marvel, and you can make a very rampy, interactive midrange deck not unlike playing a (less consistent) Jund deck.
March 2, 2017 1:22 a.m.
DrukenReaps says... #13
Colorless is able to do most anything that any color can do. It just tends to do it slower or a little less consistently depending on what exactly you are doing. I use to run a Karn deck that was really fun, well fun for me. It locked down the table (including me) making getting anything out nearly impossible. then turned all my stuff to creatures for a beat down or go off with a 7ish piece combo because it was funny. not at all a competitive deck but the amount of artifacts that have come out in the last 7 years you should be able to make something a lot better. I would stay away from wastes as any utility land will simply be a better option.
March 2, 2017 12:01 p.m.
DrukenReaps says... #14
decided to start throwing something together lead by Karn, Silver Golem calling it Karn Artifact Master. This is just a rough start some of what I currently threw in won't even be worthwhile. Panharmonicon only interacts with Myr Battlesphere so far which makes me sad. You can start to get some idea of what artifacts can do though from the list. If you like combo definitely pay attention to Aetherflux Reservoir. Null Brooch is really nice to have too. artifacts I find have two major things going for them cost reduction and graveyard retrieval. For some reason I didn't think to mention that.
March 2, 2017 12:57 p.m.
Vaultdweller111 says... #15
It's good when you have that one player that always uses Iona shield of emeria at least you can take comfort in the fact that it can't fuck you over
March 12, 2017 3:26 a.m.
GenericNPC says... #16
I plan on doing this some day just to do it. I'm slowly working on a mono-color commander deck in every color, including colorless. The good thing is Wastes make the mana base a lot less complex. If you have the cards to do it and nothing else to do with them ... there's really no harm in it.
The closest thing I currently have to a colorless deck is my Daretti, Scrap Savant deck which is basically mono-artifacts with red support (new people I play with always look at me weird when I describe it as "mono-red control" lol); leaning more on the stax-style artifact cards. So something like that is always an option for you if you don't want to go pure colorless as well. A colored commander that interacts well with the "colorless" strategy you want to run. Then find all the artifact support cards in those colors and go ham.
Servo_Token says... #2
I feel like you're setting your own limitations on the archetype. Like, colorless has access to everything, It just costs a bunch of mana to do it. Therefore ramp strategies are viable, as are stax strats.
I am a huge fan of the stax archetype and am looking to build it in the near future.
Of course, my favorite color in the game is colorless, so i'm a bit biased toward the selection, but in my opinion it's absolutely worth playing.
March 1, 2017 3:20 p.m.