SAC FO DAYZ. Looking for a commander that suits my Peculiar Needs
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Oct. 26, 2017, 9:12 p.m. by Konglicker
Hey, I've been playing MTG for a little over a year, and my favorite format of all time besides Modern has to be Commander. Problem is, my deck is constantly changing and I can't seem to settle on what commander suits me best. I know that the joy of EDH is having multiple decks, yes, but at the moment I'm a broke ass college student who can only afford sub-$100 decks. I can only afford one and I want to love it.My commander went from Meren, to Mazirek, to Endrek Sahr and then to Yahenni. I had issues with all of them.Meren, while I loved her recursion and relentless horde of monsters, was hopelessly slow at making board states. But boy, could she come back from a board wipe. Despite investment I just couldn't make a deck that could scratch my explosive itch.Mazirek scratched my explosive itch but he was a glass cannon. He couldn't recover from a wipeout like Meren could. Plus, he was too linear. I couldn't win without him on board and there was only one way to win: Pump everything to high heaven and swing.Endrek Sahr just... sucked. I love aristocrats and sacrificing stuff (hello username), but he was hopelessly slow and just couldn't win games. He couldn't ramp at all without the super expensive big black mana ramp package.Yahenni had the same problem. Loved sacrificing stuff to make him indestructible and playing the mini-voltron strategy, but without splurging on the Big Black Mana Engine (Coffers, Urborg, Mana Doublers), he can't go anywhere.Here's what I'm looking for. I want a commander deck that allows me to: 1. Ramp fast and hard. Mana out the wazoo. 2. Draw lots of cards. 3. Explosive plays that involve making everybody at the table sacrifice things (Dictate of Erebos and its functional clones are my favorite cards. I LOVE THEM.) 4. I want the ability to get cards back and use them again. I don't like using something just once. I want value.
Here are the things I hate doing/having done to me: 1. Losing my graveyard to a hose. 2. Topdecking/having no hand. 3. Counterspells. 4. Winning with infinite combos. 5. Taking an obnoxious number of extra turns. 6. Milling.Am I asking for too much? Can I not have it all? What I need are suggestions and I'm open to anything. Much appreciated.TL;DR: I want a commander that suits a strategy where I ramp fast and hard, draw a bunch of cards, make everybody sacrifice stuff, pull off explosive plays, and recur things when I want to because I hate single use. I like value and hate slow.
It would require a bit of finagling in terms of fitting the mana base to your budget but I think Shattergang Brothers may fit the bill
October 26, 2017 9:22 p.m.
joshuaizac says... #4
Although Grixis isn't the greatest color for ramp, using a few rocks with Thraximundar in a control deck can be pretty cool... Throw in a few cards like Killing Wave , Archfiend of Depravity , Torment of Hailfire or whatever and have fun...
October 26, 2017 11:49 p.m.
Steelspike says... #5
Buy one of the 2017 commander decks. I recommend the Edgar Markov one.
Very powerful out the box, and quite cheap to upgrade with Ixilan vamps.
October 26, 2017 11:53 p.m.
Meren can be built as a self mill n recursion deck (i know you said no mill). And she can build a board state quickly even on a budget.
She also works well with Fleshbag Marauder type cards with Grave Pact type cards, making each opponent sac two (or more).
Coffin Queen, Birthing Pod, Helm of Possession and Hell's Caretaker are good with her - especially in this type of deck.
October 27, 2017 12:39 a.m.
Sounds to me that you are pretty invested in as well as drawn to golgari, so my suggestion to speed up the game you are already trying to play would be to go with Skullbriar, the Walking Grave as your commander. Green and black give you plenty of cheap ramp, and running a counter theme will buff him that much faster. As your commander, no one can remove his counters unless they play something random like Vampire Hexmage or Thief of Blood, as it's easy to recur him from the command zone multiple times.
Beyond that, Meren still fits in great with the theme, and stuff like Inspiring Call, Armorcraft Judge, Heroic Intervention, Rush of Vitality, Verdurous Gearhulk and Kalonian Hydra are pretty budget friendly and super effective with him. Add some other cheap buffs and mana dorks and you'll be pounding opponents faces after just a couple turns.
Good luck with your build.
October 27, 2017 1:30 a.m.
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher seems like he would fit the bill. He is a very flexible deck and should give you access to the components you want. You should already have some black/green cards from Meren and red is good because it brings wheel effects, Feldon of the Third Path and direct damage.
And if you're not into infinite combo then you just don't have to include Food Chain which is out of your budget anyway. But it's an easy upgrade if you ever change your mind.
October 27, 2017 1:57 a.m.
GhostChieftain says... #9
Karador, Ghost Chieftain is bae. I play mine as a combo deck (it is not listed on tappedout), but it is real strong and resilient. I would even include the reviellark & friends combo cards without wanting to go infinite. You just choose things that don't make it go inf.
October 27, 2017 10:26 a.m.
Prossh can be fun with Conspiracy calling dragons. And running dragon tempest and the dragons that care about attacking dragons.
October 27, 2017 1:17 p.m.
rockleemyhero says... #11
Ghave, Guru of Spores. Youll have so much fun durdling around youll never look back! The deck has so many intricacies, mini packages, that youll never get bored (so long you dont go hard into fast infinite combo)
October 27, 2017 4:44 p.m.
Witchbane Orb has been helpful for me to negate grave exile.
October 27, 2017 6:54 p.m.
Konglicker says... #13
I'm having a hard time choosing between Shattergang Brothers, Anowon, the Ruin Sage and Prossh, Skyraider of Kher. Ghave, Guru of Spores seems sick too...
October 29, 2017 10:40 a.m.
landofMordor says... #14
Perhaps a tweak of Blood-Braided Beatdown (Primer) is along what you're looking for?
I think, of your short list, Ghave or Anowon are superior. Especially Anowon, because when MagicalHacker recommends a commander, take a second look -- Commander is the foremost of Hacker's expertise (; Shattergang durdles a bit and Prossh plays like a combo-y Kresh.
October 29, 2017 8:16 p.m.
landofMordor: a black/green/X deck supports the strategy much better than a mono black deck does as while black is ok for token production, green is that much better. It als provides much faster and more consistent ramp than mono black decks.
October 29, 2017 9:19 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #16
enpc, since OP is on a budget, a Golgari deck could keep costs low, but is there a Golgari commander that immune to graveyard hosing, able to draw cards or ramp or cause opponents to sacrifice creatures, and do it without being too slow to be viable?
Anowon fits that bill without other cards that make tokens.
October 29, 2017 10:09 p.m.
MagicalHacker: Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord fits the bill alright. But as mentioned, OP already had a golgari deck, So I am making the assumption that they should still have the cards available (please let me know if that's not the case). The addition of a few red/X lands (see Savage Lands, Gruul Guildgate and friends, Transguild Promenade, Rupture Spire) as well as staples like Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds would be more than sufficient for splashing red, givin gaccess to Prossh, Skyraider of Kher who is $2 from star city games.
Prossh will provide the deck with good token production which is much more resilient to graveyard hosing than a monoblack deck which relies on recursion eninges. The addition of green also gives access to ramp cards such as Rampant Growth, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Explosive Vegetation, etc which will drastically increase the speed of the deck compared to the heavy reliance on mana rocks that mono black will need (also helps with colour fixing).
Red will also give access to cheap wheel effects such as Reforge the Soul ($3 from SCG), Chandra, Flamecaller ($4 from SCG), Dragon Mage ($1 from SCG) which will drastically help increase the deck's output, not to mention cards like Fecundity and even just getting additional value off Skullclamp as the tokens produced have 1 toughness ompared to the typical 2 toughness that you'd see in a monoblack deck (since you're most likely going to be making zombies). Plus spells like Shamanic Revelation will draw you a crap load of cards (50c on SCG).
For low budget decks, having access to green makes them much better overall compared to any other colour. It has a good range of effects and havin access to land ramp is vital. And head to head, I would put my money on a Prossh deck compared to a Anowon deck of the same cost any day. It's more explosive and Prossh himself provides the deck with a self contained win condition.
October 29, 2017 11:06 p.m.
scatteredsun says... #18
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter Only(?) Commander that can sac itself. So many sac/recur shenanigans available in BW. Black can generate mana for days.
October 30, 2017 4:05 p.m.
Konglicker says... #19
MagicalHacker and enpc: Here's my take on Anowon after further review:
Here's the thing. From the list of steady draw spells MagicalHacker provided (the best for commander), almost all of the budget ones come in the form of a non-Vampire creature. With the exception of Grave Pact and its brethren, which I own, the same can be said for most of the budget permanents that gain value off of death (most, not all, just a lot). Anowon would make me sac those on my upkeep after getting only a few extra draws worth of value. Plus, the ramp in black is super expensive. Stuff like Cabal Coffers, Caged Sun, Doubling Cube. I've got Crypt Ghast, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, and Magus of the Coffers. That's it.
Decks with green in them definitely do win the ramp race, that's for sure.
October 31, 2017 4:52 p.m.
GhostChieftain says... #20
Once again, I ask that Karador, Ghost Chieftain be considered. His recursion is strong like meren, and the deck's recursion is stronger with the addition of white. Sun Titan, Karmic Guide, Reveillark, and Saffi Eriksdotter make it so your other sac outlets can be used so many more times than if you didn't have white. You also have access to more cheap wrath effects (Wrath of God Day of Judgment) that you easily recover from unlike your opponents. Karador is rarely cast for more than WBG due to how easy you can get stuff into your yard. Give it a try
October 31, 2017 7:26 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #21
Sapling of Colfenor would let you draw cards from the command zone if you have enough creatures in the deck. Plus with her cost, you can still cast her even if youre color screwed.
October 31, 2017 8:20 p.m.
Konglicker says... #22
Hey guys, I've looked at different decklists, did a bunch of reading and I've settled for the Jund color combination. It takes the resilience, ramp capability, efficiency and value from sacrificing abused by the Golgari hordes and provides ways to convert those variables into damage-based win-conditions by adding the color red.
Of the Jund generals, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher fits my style most. As I designed my ideal deck without the general to stay true to my playstyle, I noticed that I liked building engines with several components:
Something that generates tokens/a nontoken creature I can sac and easily get back.
A sacrifice outlet, preferably a free one.
A card that triggers whenever something dies, giving me extra value.
The goal is to abuse items 2 and 3. If it was nontoken creatures I'm sacrificing, I'd have some kind of recursion engine in play as well, like Meren of Clan Nel Toth or Phyrexian Reclamation or Champion of Stray Souls.
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher has TWO of those functions attached to him, (token generation and a free sac outlet, one that converts to extra commander damage), and I'll always have access to him. This means I won't have to devote space to as many token producers or sac outlets as I usually would, choosing instead to devote more space to value-adding cards and answers for my opponents' decks. Best of all, I can devote more space to ramp via mana-dorks, so I can ramp insanely fast for Prossh's first cast in the early game and sac those dorks later for value. I'll recur them if necessary.
Thank you all for your help and sound recommendations, and thank you to MagicalHacker for the suggestion of Prossh.
November 6, 2017 5:09 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #23
Actually, I think it was enpc who suggested him, as I actually was advocating against any deck more than two colors.
Can't take undeserving gratitiude! lol
November 6, 2017 7:56 p.m.
Konglicker says... #24
MagicalHacker: Oh crap, I saw your name at the top of enpc's post and got it screwed up, my bad. Thank you, enpc, for the suggestion. This should be fun.
MagicalHacker says... #2
Points 1, 2, and 4 can be done with just about any deck you want (see the lists on my profile for examples, and yes it can be done on a budget), so I would focus on getting a commander that satisfies the itch of your second point, of which I recommend Anowon, the Ruin Sage. If you are wanting to get value from Dictate of Erebos, Grave Pact, and Butcher of Malakir, then you should probably go vampire tribal. Play at least 10 cards from each of MagicalHacker - List of All Ramp Cards, MagicalHacker - List of All Draw Cards (Steady), and MagicalHacker - List of All Recursion Cards (choosing budget options, of course since you only have 70 dollars remaining from your 100 dollar budget), and you should be good.
That's the fastest, most consistent way to do what you want. If it's still not fast enough for your taste, I would say the problem is the budget, not the choice of commander or deck strategy.
October 26, 2017 9:21 p.m.