For a colorless deck to be competitive-viable, there would need to a general whose advantages outweigh the disadvantages of not having access to colors. In an artifact deck, it would be hard to argue that Karn is a bigger threat than a general like Arcum Dagsson, where Arcum Dagsson not only has access to not only every card that can be played in a Karn deck, but also any blue spells including cards like power artifact, fabricate, and counterspells.
It's actually Killkeny's decklist (He's the author of that thread), and I'd advise against posting more than once in a row. Good luck building your deck up
If this deck is intended to be competitive in any way, the card choices are rather poor. You can look into http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=267205 for some better card choices.
For example, things like Elvish Aberration and Rhox (in my opinion) are too slow for the format for what they do. Things like nomadic elf and divergent growth are wastes of space besides mana fixing, which can be solved with cheap lands like painlands.
Does someone know the reason why there is a special rule regarding tuck effects? And the 30 life?
My theory: I believe there is a strong correlation between the types of commanders that are successful in French 1v1 and the fact that tucking is useless as an avenue of dealing with generals. In other words, decks that are heavily reliant on their generals (i.e., Edric + most of the "tier A generals") are in positions of unequal power in large part because of their easy access to key, low-cost commanders which simply cannot be interacted with in any meaningful way.
To a player who mainly plays with normal EDH rules, I see tuck effects as very necessary ways to interact with generals like Edric or Zur or Rafiq or any similar style of deck that over-relies on its access to a cheap commander. Usually these decks rely extremely heavily on their general and countermagic and do very little without their general, yet nevertheless attempt to prevent their opponents from, essentially, meaningfully playing the game. Removing the weakness of a particular deck style promotes homogeneity among the style of decks that players bring to the table and this is reflected in the displayed tournament results. Variety is highly valued in commander, as it is at its roots, a casual format wherein the deck-building/general picking process
is often just as interesting as the gameplay itself. In this way, I don't understand the appeal of artificially conforming a format's rules to favor a particular style of play.
The 30 starting life is also significant in that it further caters to these style of incremental advantage type of decks. Though it seems somewhat arbitrary, the reduction of the starting life total no doubt aids the cause of decks such as Edric.
Perhaps it is just my first response to this modification on the EDH format, but French 1v1 seems boringly unintuitive and uncreative. In a format that prides itself on its variety and high level of interactivity, modifying the rules to give special prowess to generals which are inherently un-interactive seems highly uninteresting and an unbalacing of an otherwise fairly balanced, fun format.
Maybe the French like seeing the same commanders all the time and their games homogenized, but everyone in my playgroup would rather have more interactive games. Just my 2 cents.
Having a commander be the theme or centerpiece of the deck adds a lot more variety to this format than the usual "pick some cards out of the top 50 cards of each color" that I usually see multiplayer edh decks quickly become.
Although you could argue that playing around a tuck effect on your general increases interactivity, it also effectively could basically end the game turn 2 - turn 3 if every person isn't playing only "good stuff from top 50 cards of each color" deck. From what I've seen, the french list emphasizes avoiding things that swing tempo advantage a ridiculous amount in the first 2 turns (Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Mana Drain, Strip Mine/Crucible).
Additionally, I find this french list to have many times the level of interactivity of multi-player lists. If you have actually observed the french deck lists and actual games being played you would see that every deck plays a variety of actual answers that actually affect the game state in meaningful ways toward an actual victory.
Rather than playing 50 Bomb, 13 mana accel, 36 land deck, the current french meta supports playing an actual game over waiting to draw/tutor for insurrection/exanguinate for infinite, genesis wave for infinite, overwhelming stampede, tooth and nail, etc.
Honestly, after playing countless multi-player games where everyone ends up doing absolutely nothing besides mana ramp and card draw until their game-winning bomb from their good-stuff-only general-only-for-colors decks, French EDH is a very refreshing format.
Burn is really not a meaningful strategy on its own above 20 life. Especially in multiplayer. Burn relies on multiple copies of the same spell like lightning bolt for a sturdy early advantage and cards like browbeat to keep the pressure up. While I would agree that red is highly under-rated in its ability to kill creatures regardless of type or color, its loses many of its main strengths, which are speed and efficient creatures. Instead, it is a pretty reliable removal color that has a lot of blow-out spells and the coveted ability to destroy problematic lands. Sure there are good burn spells, but most that are good in EDH are multipurpose, like comet storm or bogardan hellkite.
See: Zozu, Lyzolda, Olivia
You should maybe see the format in action before judging it.
If you're playing to win, I would ditch the token theme you have going. Your best choice would be to take advantage of Rafiq's exalted/doublestrike ability. Depending on your meta, Jenara would be a good bant general as well.
If you want to play tokens, you could probably just play GW with Rhys as your general.
However, Rafiq tokens (if you're trying to win over having "fun flavor") seems counterproductive.
Not to start a flame war, but BS! If he consistenlty won by turn three I would be hearing "Ban ANIMAR NAOZ!!!" threads. I see no such thing. The only thing animar does on turn three is enter the battlefield.
I playtested it and "consistently wins" is an exaggeration as it seems to require really lucky hands to actually get going quickly. It doesn't look like it usually "wins" by turn 3, but can usually get a handful of creatures out by turn 3, and hopefully with some sort of combo pieces/card draw, "go off" the next turn. However, it appears to be very weak vs a competitive environment because disruption seems to wreck the deck very easily, as it is a combo deck.
The most useful cards in the deck have been gaea's cradle, pestermite/exarch/kikijiki, wood elves, imperial recruiter, palinchron, fierce empath.
tldr: can be considered consistent in a casual multiplayer game, stumbles against competitive decks that carry answers.
Last few (solitaire) games (turns to gain a get an infinite combo going)
1. T5
2. Hand unable to get anything going fast
3. Hand unable to get anything going fast
4. T5 glimpse of nature palinchron
5. T8 Lotus cobra into granger into solemn, but lack of drawspell
6. Hand unable to get anything going fast
7. T5: Palinchron into kozilek into enough cards that dig to find combo
8. Hand unable to get anything going fast. Looked good until T4 then ran out of steam
9. T6: Phyrexian metamorphs for essentially free copying man o war to ramp into ulamog. Out of steam otherwise due to lack of draw.
Disruption on animar or any of the combo spells would slow it down a lot.
Not a fan of aluren. I realize it can get animar counters up infinitely, with bounce creatures, but generally it is too slow and not big enough of an impact for its cost especially when everything is already being played for 1cmc. Has been a dead draw every game.
I want to be able to walk in with a Argus Kos, Wojek Veteran or Lavisa Coldeyes or Glissa the Traitor and feel like I have a chance to play with some fun cards. Right now, when I see someone pulling out a Riku or Scion of the Ur-Dragon or Teferi I KNOW I have to switch over to playing some goodstuff general to have anything like a Fighting Chance.
I want to be able to walk in with a Jedit Ojanen, Kasimir the Lone Wolf, or Lady Orca and feel like I have a chance to play with some fun (subjective, fun for me = wood elemental) cards. Right now, when I see someone pulling out a Argus Kos, Wojek Veteran or Lavisa Coldeyes or Glissa the Traitor I KNOW I have to switch over to playing some goodstuff general to have anything like a Fighting Chance.
For example, things like Elvish Aberration and Rhox (in my opinion) are too slow for the format for what they do. Things like nomadic elf and divergent growth are wastes of space besides mana fixing, which can be solved with cheap lands like painlands.
French aka Duel Commander uses the banlist specified here: http://duelcommander.com/rules/
Duel Commander is more tuned for a balanced 1v1 metagame and allows for a better competitive scene.
Bloodshot Cyclops
Bloodshot Trainee
Brawl
Commando Raid
Cyclops Gladiator
Deadshot
Dong Zhou, the Tyrant
Karplusan Yeti
Relentless Assault
Aggravated Assault
Breath of Fury
Fury of the Horde
Hellkite Charger
Savage Beating
Seize the Day
World at War
This was last updated more than a year ago.
skullbriar
Having a commander be the theme or centerpiece of the deck adds a lot more variety to this format than the usual "pick some cards out of the top 50 cards of each color" that I usually see multiplayer edh decks quickly become.
Although you could argue that playing around a tuck effect on your general increases interactivity, it also effectively could basically end the game turn 2 - turn 3 if every person isn't playing only "good stuff from top 50 cards of each color" deck. From what I've seen, the french list emphasizes avoiding things that swing tempo advantage a ridiculous amount in the first 2 turns (Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Mana Drain, Strip Mine/Crucible).
Additionally, I find this french list to have many times the level of interactivity of multi-player lists. If you have actually observed the french deck lists and actual games being played you would see that every deck plays a variety of actual answers that actually affect the game state in meaningful ways toward an actual victory.
Rather than playing 50 Bomb, 13 mana accel, 36 land deck, the current french meta supports playing an actual game over waiting to draw/tutor for insurrection/exanguinate for infinite, genesis wave for infinite, overwhelming stampede, tooth and nail, etc.
Honestly, after playing countless multi-player games where everyone ends up doing absolutely nothing besides mana ramp and card draw until their game-winning bomb from their good-stuff-only general-only-for-colors decks, French EDH is a very refreshing format.
See: Zozu, Lyzolda, Olivia
You should maybe see the format in action before judging it.
If you want to play tokens, you could probably just play GW with Rhys as your general.
However, Rafiq tokens (if you're trying to win over having "fun flavor") seems counterproductive.
Phyrexia's Core is decent if you're running Mycosynth Wellspring
Swords would be good (Sword of Feast and Famine)
1x Buried Ruin
1x Skullclamp
1x Mother of Runes
1x Devoted Caretaker
1x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Duergar Hedge-Mage
1x Flametongue Kavu
1x Stonehewer Giant
1x Ancient Den
1x Coldsteel Heart
1x Coalition Relic
1x Worn Powerstone
1x Mana Vault
1x Grim Monolith
1x Mox Opal
1x Grafted Exoskeleton
1x Mask of Memory
1x Puresteel Paladin
1x Mirran Crusader
1x Godo, Bandit Warlord
1x Boros Swiftblade
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sunforger
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Master's Call
1x Doomed Traveler
1x Elite Vanguard
1x Spectral Rider
1x Thraben Sentry
1x Unruly Mob
1x Trepanation Blade
1x Echo Circlet
1x Accorder's shield
1x Grimoire of the Dead
1x Darksteel Relic
1x Kor Aeronaut
1x Mausoleum Guard
1x Crimson Mage
1x Darksteel Myr
1x Myrsmith
1x Stormblood Berserker
1x tuktuk the explorer
1x volt charge
1x Livewire lash (Nothing with much synergy with it)
1x myr turbine
1x sylvok lifestaff
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Puresteel Paladin
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Sword of War and Peace
1x Stonehewer Giant
1x Ancient Den
1x Coalition Relic
1x Dispatch
1x Sunforger
1x Command Tower
I playtested it and "consistently wins" is an exaggeration as it seems to require really lucky hands to actually get going quickly. It doesn't look like it usually "wins" by turn 3, but can usually get a handful of creatures out by turn 3, and hopefully with some sort of combo pieces/card draw, "go off" the next turn. However, it appears to be very weak vs a competitive environment because disruption seems to wreck the deck very easily, as it is a combo deck.
The most useful cards in the deck have been gaea's cradle, pestermite/exarch/kikijiki, wood elves, imperial recruiter, palinchron, fierce empath.
tldr: can be considered consistent in a casual multiplayer game, stumbles against competitive decks that carry answers.
Last few (solitaire) games (turns to gain a get an infinite combo going)
1. T5
2. Hand unable to get anything going fast
3. Hand unable to get anything going fast
4. T5 glimpse of nature palinchron
5. T8 Lotus cobra into granger into solemn, but lack of drawspell
6. Hand unable to get anything going fast
7. T5: Palinchron into kozilek into enough cards that dig to find combo
8. Hand unable to get anything going fast. Looked good until T4 then ran out of steam
9. T6: Phyrexian metamorphs for essentially free copying man o war to ramp into ulamog. Out of steam otherwise due to lack of draw.
Disruption on animar or any of the combo spells would slow it down a lot.
Not a fan of aluren. I realize it can get animar counters up infinitely, with bounce creatures, but generally it is too slow and not big enough of an impact for its cost especially when everything is already being played for 1cmc. Has been a dead draw every game.
I want to be able to walk in with a Jedit Ojanen, Kasimir the Lone Wolf, or Lady Orca and feel like I have a chance to play with some fun (subjective, fun for me = wood elemental) cards. Right now, when I see someone pulling out a Argus Kos, Wojek Veteran or Lavisa Coldeyes or Glissa the Traitor I KNOW I have to switch over to playing some goodstuff general to have anything like a Fighting Chance.
3 Hermit Druid
2 Hermit Druid
1 Hermit Druid