DreadKhan
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Said on
Muldrotha Eldrazi...
#2
Any reason you're not running land ramp effects? This is the most resilient form of ramp in Commander, very few decks target lands. There are permanents you can recast, like Wayfarer's Bauble, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Dawntreader Elk, Diligent Farmhand, Wight of the Reliquary, maybe Path of Annihilation? There is always Wood Elves and it's ilk. I feel like you could shave a few lands for land ramp effects, it's a good way to test them out and see if you enjoy the acceleration vs drawing so many lands.
You should also look at cards that help 'grease the wheels' of the deck, things like Llanowar Visionary and Elvish Visionary offer a body while drawing a card, and fwiw later on if you have nothing better to do you can just draw a card via Muldrotha. On that note, you might like small permanents that draw, there is trusty old Urza's Bauble, as well as Mishra's Bauble, if you don't run many artifacts then you should use these as good recast targets. Technically the info can be useful, but you mostly want them for free card draw.
I don't know if they're strong enough for your meta, but I used to love the old Seal of Removal family cards when I wanted small Enchantments. The others that might apply are Seal of Primordium and Seal of Doom, Doom is a lot of mana, but repeatable Artifact/Enchantment hate can be pretty helpful.
If you want to mill yourself you might like Altar of Dementia. This Altar can also be a wincon with a big enough creature, like Lord of Extinction or Consuming Aberration, or if you have a big enough board of smaller stuff. It's especially useful if people are going to hit you with a Farewell, this can let your creatures go to the graveyard for recursion while also milling someone (maybe you, maybe an opponent).
November 9, 2024 10:40 a.m.
Said on
Is my deck …...
#3
To me it looks like it combines a general lack of acceleration with lots of 'just wait a few turns! Mwuahaha!' type effects that attract a lot of negative attention by telegraphing what you're on while not strengthening your position very much. The thing about not using ramp is that many games it won't seem to matter (provided you keep hitting drops), but many of your better Sagas require a fair bit to cast, and then they need to stick around to really cause an impact. If you don't cast a 6 drop Saga until turn 6 you've given your opponents more opportunities to have draw into interaction, with ramp you can potentially get a 6 drop out turn 4. Increasing how much quality land ramp your deck includes will make your good cards better. Also, if you're already on Enchantress you should at least take a look at stuff like Wild Growth/Utopia Sprawl, the only good reason to not use these is if people run a lot of targeted land hate.
Do you find that having multiple Enchantress cards in play results in you getting targeted, or is it just the token generation that gets people's ire up?
November 3, 2024 2:01 p.m.
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Xavier Sal, Infested …...
#4
Just some general points, I like that you have a decent land count (37 and plenty of non-Basics is nice to see), I like that the list seems to have a fair bit of card draw, and I like that the token theme gives the deck some resilience. I like that it doesn't seem too pushed for a pod of 7s, but I feel like if you play vs 8s you will be too behind the curve without more ramp. I have a list of some favorite ramp effects in Green, I hope you can get some mileage out of them!
Have you come across Nesting Grounds before? It probably makes sense in here. It can remove a counter each turn as saga counters can be dumped elsewhere to do nothing.
Unless you have some REALLY good synergies for them I wouldn't use non-Indestructible Artifact lands (like Seat of the Synod), these can easily be swept up in a Vandalblast or Bane of Progress, or be a juicy target of opportunity if someone has extra mana and cards.
This is somewhat personal preference, but if you're in Green you probably should look into stuff like Nature's Lore, Three Visits, and Farseek, these can find dual lands (or even your Triome), meaning they are good at ramping you AND fixing your mana. There is also Wood Elves, Crop Rotation, and Open the Way that are all very high value ways to ramp non-Basic lands. Is your play group against land ramp? if so I can suggest other forms of ramp, but these are usually the best for a 7 or 8.
My final point is that Enchantress is good draw, but small scale draw effects are pretty sweet too, I'm thinking stuff like Night's Whisper or Elvish Visionary, these don't require setup and can help in almost any situation (they also attract a LOT less negative attention than having 2 or more Enchantress sources out). Painful Truths and Costly Plunder are interesting, but both require more setup and can leave you in the lurch in the key early turns.
November 3, 2024 9:49 a.m.
Said on
How Good is …...
#5
If you want repeatable (and kinda clunky) recursion in White you can try Dawnbreak Reclaimer, this can be politically powerful, as it's not just reanimating something, you can also help an ally out. There is also Pulsemage Advocate, which actually synergizes with Dawnbreak (so does my boy, Spurnmage Advocate).
If you just want weenies back use Sun Titan/Sevinne's Reclamation?
November 3, 2024 7:15 a.m.
Said on
What makes a …...
#6
I like to build some fairly toxic Commander decks, though I try to warn people if a deck dips too deeply into any of the elements I've noticed that cause toxicity. In Commander most people consider decks that take away player agency to be toxic, so that includes; -excessive permanent removal (clearing each opponent's board repeatedly, or Obliterate/Jokulhaups) -things that limit what you can do (like Rule of Law or Collector Ouphe) -excessively pushed Commanders in Casual (stuff where they throw Ward on for no reason, most of these are also the payoff and enabler in one card) -Chaos effects that turn the game on it's head (Thieves' Auction and Grip of Chaos for example) -stuff that prevents untapping (Static Orb and Winter Orb) -stealing everything strategies (flickering Agent of Treachery infinitely, Insurrection late game) -excessive discard (multiple Necrogen Mists and Bottomless Pit effects) -'win on the spot' effects that don't have an upkeep trigger (there is a few of these on the banlist, like Biorhythm and Coalition Victory) -counter everything strategies (Dovescape) -overly efficient tutoring (Zur the Enchanter *f-etch* fetching out Necropotence, and people are weirdly salty about Vampiric Tutor) -faster elimination strategies that encourage you to target a specific opponent (think anything Infect, and lower to the ground Voltron decks) -I think the last one I can think of is optional tax effects that encourage people to screw their pod and play into the Rhystic Study, if the tax is just a tax, like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben people tend not to mind as much, it's the ability to king make if you're dumb.
In 1v1 I don't think it really matters, unless you only have 1 deck to play kitchen table with just changing decks should generate enough novelty to avoid the build up of bad feelings, and if you're playing competitively it's your call if you want to play nightmarish stuff like Nadu, or something traditionally 'fun' like Aggro... only if everyone plays decks that aren't fun, more people will quit, so it's a 'tragedy of the commons' scenario too if you have a fairly small meta each player needs 'fun to play against' decks, even for 1v1.
November 1, 2024 3:10 p.m.
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Maga, Draining the …...
#7
I think the general 'rule' around here is to never bring up politics in an existing discussion (or use it to harass people in their own spaces) because it's super off topic and poisons the well so to speak. I've got political decks (generally lefty stuff) and haven't had too much trouble, and I've seen people with some pretty right wing stuff that is acceptable on here.
In light of the present election I took another look at Maga, Traitor to Mortals and I was a bit surprised to realize (as you did) that it's a fairly playable card to build around. The card's name is objectively hilarious now, so I do wonder if it'll be a fun card to build, seeing this list illustrates the potential, but I have a few ideas that might be worth a look!
This might sound weird, but are you sure you want stuff like Exsanguinate and Torment of Hailfire? Ditto for Sanguine Bond stuff, I think you should leave in Exquisite Blood (it's amazing with your Commander), but I feel like making this a combo deck will make it much less fun to play (obviously ymmv, just my thoughts!). Anyways, your Commander already gives you an outlet for big mana, and with all your ramp it should be fairly easy to eliminate an opponent; have you thought about some Flash sources, maybe Emergence Zone and/or Vedalken Orrery? If Maga has Flash you can potentially hold up enough mana to eliminate an opponent that is about to win (or simply eliminate you!). I'd rather play against that than Torment of Hailfire!
I rarely regret including stuff like Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood, these can do a lot of work. I don't think I'd bother with the Fallen Empires one, but Subterranean Hangar is a fairly good card if you want to store mana, I look at it as a ramp card instead of a land. I'm not sure if it's too much of a hassle, but Diabolic Revelation is a pretty crazy tutor if you dig out more than 2 cards. Maybe War Room? Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief is a great sponge for extra mana, she can remove creatures (including blockers) and then hit the opponent like a truck. Morbid Opportunist can draw a decent number of cards. Once Maga is out either Scavenged Brawler or Mask of Griselbrand can offer a lot of value for mana, maybe Shadowspear? I don't know if you have enough Demons to make Liliana's Contract a viable win con (though TBH I think it's a reasonable one because it's so telegraphed, and more decks can interact with it) but it's also a good card draw effect. I can't decide if Mandate of Abaddon is worth it, if Maga is big he just wipes out EVERYTHING except himself, so he can probably kill a player the turn you play Mandate and swing.
Hope these ideas help!
October 30, 2024 1:23 p.m.
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Why is WotC …...
#8
While I think tutoring can be fine in Commander, but I'm pretty sure most groups would prefer limited tutoring in decks if they could vote on it (and I say this as a person who has multiple tutor based decks, including 2 'tutor in the CZ' decks). VERY few groups outside cEDH are fine with consistently ending games turn 4, most people would openly say that people who play that way (without being open about it!) are the biggest problem the format has, ymmv.
Tutors have a BIG effect on competitive play, arguably one of the biggest, tons of cEDH decks used to run one way to win the game, and they'd run tutors to find it (then we got Breach among other things). Tutors let decks be way more 'all in' on something like Ad Naus (or Flash back in the day) because they could count on finding it early consistently. For more casual games, every tutor you include is a card that 'does nothing', meaning you're only running 98 cards in the 99 if you run a Demonic Tutor, thus a higher percentage of your deck will have to be staples, because 'you always run the staples'. The less tutors you use the more likely you are to have a unique deck, in part because you are less likely to be combo dependent.
I hope this doesn't seem too disagreeable, but I don't know how you can argue Commander doesn't have some fairly strict rules about decks... I have multiple Stax decks, I understand I have to mention that before I play with those decks (outside cEDH), same with my Chaos/Wipes deck, this is why my Meren deck shaved a BUNCH of Merciless Executioner family cards (and avoided Grave Pact stuff), it was too consistently 'doing the thing', at which point nobody was having fun anymore, now I can just sit down and play with the deck.
I agree that part of improving most Commander decks is increasing their consistency (many popular decks are shockingly inconsistent, even with tutors Commander is a nuts format to play), but I think most people who give into their inner Chaos Goblin end up having a lot more fun playing Commander (but they're also more likely to be up until 3AM because their pod is terrible at winning games).
TLDR Tutoring has it's place in competitive play, but I think most people prefer to play Commander in a less competitive manner. Most pods would be happier if people only ran bad tutors, or just skipped them.
October 28, 2024 8:05 a.m.
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Said on I'm semi-giving up …...
#1I'd suggest Kresh the Bloodbraided if you're limited to one deck, it can be dirt cheap and Kresh often gets hilariously big. You don't have Blue control, but Jund is awfully good at removing problems, arguably more efficiently than Blue control. More people are fine playing against Jund control than Blue permission, so you might avoid 'do you have something else?' coming up right away.
Another option might be Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, this can be incredibly 'samey' between games, but if you have several lines of wildly different power included it's possible to make a Sisay list that is fun vs a huge range of decks. I have a Progenitus in my Sisay list, so it technically has a huge terrifying monster I can fetch out if I want. If you want a more control heavy option you can lean into Hatebears with Sisay, she's a cEDH level Commander that often uses Rule of Law to great effect.
I have a deck built around each if you want some ideas.
November 14, 2024 6:43 a.m.