MTG Salvation

Ambition's Cost and Ancient Craving become black versions of Harmonize when you don't have to worry about the life loss. Greed and Erebos, God of the Dead also function well with a good lifegain source. Can't forget about Necropotence.

Path of Bravery can give a small buff to your team and scales well with tokens.

Kuro, Pitlord can wipe creatures away but it is quite costly.

Quote from neo23

I really like that idea, specially because I thought the heroic ability might be useless in standard. Although I like Mutavault, I'm not quite sure if it fits here. You wanna cast Phalanx Leader on turn 2 and that's gonna be tough with only 11 white sources. So I'd replace it with 2 Mountains and Plains each and start from there to see how it works.

That's a fair point. I could knock back two Mutavaults for a Mountain and a Plains. I'd like to keep it at 2 for now while I test it just to have that extra bit of reach post-wipe.

In terms of focusing more on red, I feel it takes away from the synergy of the deck. As it stands now, every creature benefits from every spell. Akroan Crusader and Young Pyromancer pump out tokens, Anax and Cymede and Phalanx Leader buff the swarm, all the while Fabled Hero and Purphoros, God of the Forge efficiently end games. Shifting more into red causes a loss of synergy as you're losing two great heroic cards that can grow to fit in Madcap Skills (which doesn't cause Young Pyromancer to trigger) and Arena Athlete (which is more of a tempo play as opposed to a swarm strategy).

Pretty simple and straightforward. Stick a cheap heroic creature or a pyromancer onto the field and start casting spells behind it. This deck has some reach with Boros Charm and Mutavault being able to carry a lot of the instant buff damage. But clearly, this deck wants things over with by turn 5 or at least in striking distance.

EDIT: -2 Mutavault, +1 Mountain, +1 Plains

Quote from GuildCaster

Ahh, forgot Verdict was uncounterable. Well, board wipes happen. That's why we have Planeswalker that can pump out hasty satyrs and lands that can turn into 2/2's.

It looks like the only way to deal with Supreme Verdict is to play around the threat of it or stick walkers as fast as you can. Experiment One does have the regenerate ability which should be online fast enough. If you can afford a splash into white, Boros Charm and Ready // Willing effectively counter it.

Quote from ChallengeFate

As i said in the spoiler thread, the deck name for Xen and Dom should be "Party Animals". "Two Wild and Crazy Guys" should be the runner up

I like it. DR. X could be an alternative referencing Domri Rade and Xenagos.

Quote from Valarin

It's a dude that you can cast off BTE so Xenagos ramps more. The fact he's a mana dork is a bonus.

You guys have certainly had an interesting take on the deck idea. I personally like Zhur-Taa Druid as another t3 Xenagos enabler for a bit of increased consistency. One thing I noticed is that a couple of cards don't come up in the other decklists in this thread.

What are your evaluations of these cards for the deck idea (emphasizing early presence, sticking planeswalkers to increase pressure/CA):

• Experiment One
  
• Reverent Hunter
  
• Ogre Battledriver
  
• Nylea, God of the Hunt
  
• Ghor-Clan Rampager

The idea is to establish the board early with 7 1 drops and 11 2 drops (14 if you count Ghor-Clan bloodrush when aggression is needed). It can start off getting 3 creatures out in the first 2 turns to drop Xenagos, +1, and drop Domri Rade to draw/fight on turn 3. More often it will just curve into beaters/ramp, try to play more efficient creatures that get buffed, and protect the planeswalkers generating card advantage/tempo.

Of the cards with "draw" and "discard" in their text, these are the best that I saw which haven't been mentioned yet:



Geth's Grimoire works well with a lot of the "everybody discards/draws" cards.

These all seem to fit your criteria of a sac outlet that nets you something positive beyond end of turn increases:
Altar of Dementia
Dark Privilege
Dimir House Guard (useful as a tutor as well)
Greater Gargadon
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
Hecatomb (etb trigger rather than : though, nice upside if it sticks)
Sadistic Hyponotist
Tooth and Claw

Phyrexian Tower is another sac land that hasn't been mentioned yet.

Since you're going Phoenix tribal, I'll assume you will want R in your general's cost.

Homura, Human Ascendant has a rebirth angle to him.
Sedris, the Traitor King gives every one of your creatures the ability to come back to life, albeit temporarily.
Squee, Goblin Nabob has self recursion.
Brion Stoutarm gives you a nice sacrifice outlet for your Phoenix.
Jaya Ballard, Task Mage as a discard outlet to abuse the Phoenix recursiveness.
Kresh, the Bloodbraided also takes advantage of the constant death/rebirth.
Malfegor would be interesting pitching your hand, wiping your opponent's board, and then rebirthing your Phoenix army next to their Demon Dragon overlord.
Ryusei, the Falling Star for a flying/dying heavy theme.
Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper makes your Phoenix deaths more profitable.
Thraximundar plays well with a heavy sacrifice build.
Thromok the Insatiable can get real big real quick when it eats them.
Tibor and Lumia for more flying based decks.

There is a lot of different routes you can go with your deck's flavor. It really comes down to what colors you want to play and what sort of theme you want to push with Phoenix tribal.

My point is that I would rather have something that dovetails with the overall strategy if at all possible. Something like Voidmage Husher that I get back with all of my small cantrip spells. Unfortunately, I don't believe such a card exists that would be able to take care of an Oblivion Ring. Therefore, I will likely find a couple of slots to plug in the cheapest non-instant/sorcery artifact/enchantment removal.

Right now the best choices appear to be: Seal of Primordium, Sylvok Replica, Viridian Zealot, Æthersnipe, Drake Familiar, Stern Proctor, and Venser, Shaper Savant. They all cost 4 or less and affect the board immediately. Right now I am probably leaning towards Seal of Primordium, Sylvok Replica, and Stern Proctor but Venser, Shaper Savant might make it in too as he has a lot of versatility.

What to cut is a wholly different question though. Talrand, Sky Summoner and Foresee are likely gone but what other 1-2 cards should get axed?

I think my best course of action is to use Memory Plunder, Chancellor of the Spires, Diluvian Primordial, Wrexial, the Risen Deep, Knowledge Exploitation, Spellweaver Volute, and Spelltwine to steal one of my opponent's artifact/enchantment removal. Creature based removal could work too, but I don't really have a good way of abusing them given the current combo nature of the deck.

Also, if Show and Tell wasn't so costly, I would definitely fit it in with Omniscience in place of Talrand, Sky Summoner and Foresee. It is fairly easy to tutor/dig up enough pieces to seal a win. Playtesting allowed me to do it on turn 4 with only a decent starting hand.

Must be a shy bunch this Friday. Well, I've added Notion Thief to the current list as another way to shut down others using Eye of the Storm card advantage without destroying Eye. That is a large reason why I don't run Time Warp or artifact/enchantment removal. I don't want to give any outs to ruining my combo by playing any old instant to destroy Eye or interrupt my chain casting.

I've also added this landbase without going too crazy with costs:



Any suggestions, comments, criticisms for the card choices in an Eye of the Storm EDH deck? Am I missing something obvious or a key interaction that I'm not aware of? Let me know!

I've always wanted to try and build an Eye of the Storm deck for Commander. I'm currently trying to finalize a list and need some suggestions to fill out the deck. I will not be playing any Time Warp cards in my 100, but I am not against using them if someone else runs them in their deck.

Current gameplan of the deck: Lots of cheap cantrips/tutors to find Eye of the Storm and one of the untap all lands effects. Play Eye of the Storm, stick an untap lands card under it, start cantripping/ramping to play out the rest of the deck. A fair amount of recursion to get combo pieces back. Practically every spell must cantrip in some fashion. The general is not a significant part of the combo, but she seemed the best choice for a noncreature combo-centered deck in BUG.

Here's the list so far:


Any suggestions or questions about current selections? I will likely be running a lower number of lands than usual with the number of cantrips, probably around 34-36 and fairly basic heavy. Any good yet cheap removal that nets a card underneath Eye of the Storm?

Thanks for the help.

With the release of Possibility Storm, the Pillow Fort archetype now has a strong board lock when paired with Curse of Exhaustion. With those two cards on the field, your opponent cannot cast any cards from their hand.

I've grouped some card selections based on their utility, but they don't have numbers yet as I am still working out how I want to build the deck. That's where the discussion and your feedback comes in so feel free to share any ideas.



Those seem to be the basic choices for the Pillow Fort shell. Possibility Storm seems like a fun card being able to turn your Abundant Growth, Mana Bloom, and Ground Seal into potential Sphere of Safety/Assemble the Legion allowing you to dig for your win condition.

The main problem I see with this deck is that it is brutally slow. Your lock condition requires a 4 and 5 drop that we don't have tutors with which to find them. But, we do have access to powerful spot removal in Oblivion Ring and Detention Sphere with two of the best sweeps in Terminus and Supreme Verdict. It may be necessary to play some interactive instants such as Azorius Charm, Feeling of Dread, and Aetherize in order to slow the opponent enough to setup the deck's combos.

Does this seem like a viable strategy to pursue? How would you flesh out this shell against the current metagame? What other inclusions would you consider in terms of non-enchantments?

Thanks for your input.