Long time filthy casual who dabbles in some sweatier formats like Legacy and cEDH, I mostly brew Commander decks that range from Casual to High Power.

Of particular interest is my pod of Legends Beaters, decks built around some of those Legends creatures you look at and wonder how they ever got famous enough to be a Legendary Creature! Wonder no more how they achieved such lofty status in a world where Royal Assassin was kicking around, because achieve it they clearly did! These decks are meant to explore that space a bit, as well as dabble in an alternate Dominaria, so many of the Role Play elements of those decks don't necessarily fit the Magic canon, nor are they entirely serious (as should be apparent).

Pavel the Mighty, Hero We Deserve Rakdos Chaos Control (radical egalitarian, carnival strong man, and rock musician out to improve the world through chaos)
Tobias Andrion, Political Mastermind Azorius Political Weenies (think leader of the Dominarian equivalent of the CIA, only he's a long distance telepath that invents mechs)
Riven, Savior of the People Dimir Interactive Combo (often Archenemy, this cutthroat for Casual deck uses combos. Riven uses populism and unrest to recruit people into organized crime)
Falconer of the Forbidden Way Gruul Eldrazi (ridiculous average MV beaters deck, the old 'downtrodden trod up' story, only with WAY more tentacles)
The Legend of Green Eyes (Lord Magnus) Selesnya Tokens/Anthems (charismatic Druid fighting to protect nature, nouns follow him anywhere, the pod's 'good guy')
Ruby Don't Take Your Minor Demons To Town 5 Colour Legendary Value Pile (official Archenemy deck for the pod, designed to out-value a whole pod and recover quickly from wipes)

Each of these is designed to generate fun and memorable games, with all of them eschewing things that are overly fast or powerful. They are all designed to do things their colour pair excels at. Interestingly enough, the better decks are usually able to hold their own in general metas, but I think it's safe to say that piloting them requires more skill than an average deck if you want win regularly. Over time I'll probably add more storyline to them, and/or clean up what's there already.

Another couple recent decks I'm very fond of that could probably be played vs a wide range of decks:

Staxdrop! (Snowdrop Vorthos Deck) This is my Snowdrop deck, it's designed to be played vs relatively powerful decks, probably 6-8 power level, below that it's too oppressive potentially.

Blood for the Bloodbraid! This is my Kresh deck, Kresh is an old Commander that came out during my really long hiatus from Magic, so I never got to play with him when he was 'fresh'. As is it can get out of hand, and since I've added some more spice to the deck it is very able to pull off explosive wins, this deck no longer has to win via attacks. I feel like it's probably getting too spicy for 6s, and might be able to hang with 8s more effectively.

For the metas where you have no idea what to expect I built Madam Sisay's Illustrious House of Fine Shrining, a deck that's not quite fast enough for upper tier cEDH, but can play with 2nd or 3rd tier cEDH lists, and obviously is fine in High Power games, and since you can fetch out things like Shrines and Progenitus you can also play vs way weaker decks. This is a deck about discretion, as one would expect from a House of Fine Shrining!

My cEDH deck is Zur cEDH (Proxies), this is the proxy version, but I technically have the paper for Salt Miner (Rule of Law cEDH), my OG cEDH deck. The deck is complete homebrew, so keep that in mind if you take inspiration from it, but if you can keep other people from winning early it is a shockingly oppressive deck. Salt Miner is a fairly strong High Power deck as well fwiw, Rule of Law also does a lot of work in High Power, if not quite as much as cEDH.

I have tons of other decks, some of which have been kept up to date. If out of date most aren't wildly so, and I've found that it usually doesn't matter in practice if you don't run the 'best' of something and the 2nd best isn't 'way worse'.

Optimator says... #1

Thanks for the up-vote!

February 5, 2025 12:29 a.m.

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How pushed do you want your deck to be? If you don't mind leaning into the Commander a bit you could easily use Captain Sisay, the ceiling is tutoring up Thrumming Stone I guess, but finding other Legendary stuff is also very useful, offering you a tool box to solve problems or a win con once you've gotten set up.

I also think Jetmir would be pretty bonkers, and Red gives you stuff like Impact Tremorsfoil and Purphoros, God of the Forge, these are great back up win cons if you can't win via attacking for some reason.

February 17, 2025 9:56 a.m.

Said on Dread Naught...

#2

FWIW if you have Brainstorm and/or Ponder then the ability to shuffle your deck on command can be pretty impressive. The classic example is when you Brainstorm and find a bunch some better cards, put the two worst cards from your hand on top and then use a fetch land to shuffle your deck so you might draw more good cards instead of those situationally bad cards. If you're on Blue (and already use both Brainstorm and Ponder) then it's common to run as many fetch lands as possible, many decks will run 12 or more for a 2 or 3 colour list, with a smattering of duals and a Basic of each type they need (Blood Moon exists).

February 13, 2025 5:07 p.m.

If you're already on Cranial Plating I feel like you should use Vault Skirge, the two play together fairly well, even a single swing can give you enough time to take over. Not quite sure what you'd cut for them though!

February 9, 2025 5:30 p.m.

Said on Canadian Short-King...

#4

Who knows if it's entirely 'good' in here, but Raised by Giants isn't an aura and it gives Wolverine +8/+8, too bad it doesn't come with Trample! There is also Belt of Giant Strength that might synergize for a handy buff.

Maybe One with the Kami? It doesn't have to go on Wolverine, and if he's strong enough you a ton of bodies. The card can go infinite with many other cards fwiw, but I've rarely seen it used for that so it shouldn't attract attention.

While it might not look fantastic at first glance, Kessig Wolf Run is a pretty useful card in most Gruul lists that feature ramp, and in this list it's even better since your Commander can regenerate if the opponent kills him due to low toughness. Since it's a land it's a safer include IMHO. Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep is a much fancier land, but First Strike seems like it'd be a nice ability to have. Final one, the new Arena of Glory, Haste is a sweet ability.

Inquisitor's Flail is a card I always look at when I build a Voltron list, if it's at all possible to be sneaky with it it's a very cheap damage doubling equipment that stacks with almost everything. Just this and and your Commander hits for 8 without any counters, and you can just regenerate him if he dies, but it's even better with double strike, then you'd hit for 16 from just those 2 things, and having even +1 power would turn it into 24, which is lethal.

As for possible cuts:

I don't love Assault Strobe, I hate that it's a Sorcery, especially when even Temur Battle Rage exists, giving double strike without trample seems like a bad idea. BTW I'm not saying run Battle Rage necessarily, I don't know if you want a one and done like this, and you for sure don't want it to be a Sorcery IMHO.

Animist's Might makes me wonder if Monstrous Onslaught is better, it doesn't have to target your own creature so it's harder to disrupt, and the ability to spread the damage out can make things very ugly for people if have a big creature. Might to me looks like it'd be cheaper to cast, but you'll only ever kill one creature with it. Similarly I don't love Contest of Claws, Sorcery speed removal isn't very good and I'm not sure that's enough upside (though it is better than Might fwiw, I'd look at better cards). If you're dead set on a card like this why not use Stump Stomp  Flip instead? At least it's a land if you're desperate.

Grumgully the Generous seems bad? I could be missing something, but a single +1 counter doesn't sound like it's worth a slot, especially at 3 mana, and you can only get it on ETB, so it's VERY timing sensitive; do you REALLY want to delay Wolverine a turn for this guy? I love the flavor of the card so I could see it being a pet card, so if it's a favorite keep it! Similarly I don't know about Renata, Called to the Hunt, both of these are great if you've got synergies with the counters, but if you don't they are just a one time +1/+1, and if they come down late they might just do nothing at all.

Concord With the Kami looks like a bit of a trap to me, if you are getting wiped a lot the card will do nothing, right, and that's when you want it the most!

How often do you find yourself drawing more than 3 cards with Season of Growth? I think Harmonize is going to play more consistently fwiw, but if you find you're usually drawing 3 or more cards with Season it's probably fine.

Do you really need to size of the effect for Signature Slam? It seems worse than Kamahl's Will, which costs only one more for an (arguably) much bigger effect. These lands are Indestructible and have Vigilance, so they can all safely swing (and can benefit from buffs as creatures for that turn) if you need that, but they can also work as handy blockers, I feel like killing the opponent's best creature AND making a bunch of blockers is nice upside?

I don't think you want or need stuff like Arcane Signet or Gruul Signet in Gruul, you're already vulnerable to stuff like Bane of Progress, so why increase that vulnerability? There are still Green ramp spells out there fwiw, including Three Visits. I guess the rocks are cheaper (and can add Green when you're truly desperate), but it seems more like an allowance to run more Basics (in a deck that doesn't run anything like Primal Order or Blood Moon), do you have some good payoffs for running Basics over the odd dual? I get the price point, but I feel like when you go much over $100 you have to start spending more on lands, or really lean into some kind of synergy with Basics, such as the ability to dig out a TON of Basics somehow (there are cards like Traverse the Outlands I guess).

I hope some of these ideas help, apologies if I suggested you cut any pet cards!

February 5, 2025 10:22 a.m.

Said on CANCER in its …...

#5

I mean you could maybe do the idea using Sisay, Weatherlight Captain? Or I dunno, use Hare Apparent and Captain Sisay? Too many rabbits is pretty unpleasant too!

February 4, 2025 4:45 p.m.

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Finished Decks 69
Prototype Decks 41
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Playing since Revised Edition
Avg. deck rating 8.32
T/O Rank 33
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Favorite formats Legacy, Commander / EDH
Cards suggested / good suggestions 628 / 296
Joined 5 years