MTG Salvation

I've been working on tuning my decks to meet the level of competitiveness of my new playgroup (I'm coming from a super-cutthroat group where Rofellos/Azami/Rafiq/Zur were fair and everyone kept everyone else in check). This thread is just as much for my record-keeping as it is for sharing

Got called monopoly-man for going T1 volcanic, ftv top, pitch foil snapcaster to force. Running with it. Printed picture to cover niv, using houses and hotels as tokens.

Also running Ghave

This is where I am at the moment:

Changes on deck:
-Transguild Promenade (foil)

+Blue Sun's Zenith (foil)
+Reflecting Pool (foil)
+Wayfarer's Bauble (foil)
+Wheel of Fortune (promo)

I feel like you should cut out some of the big bombs and use your general as your beater, then replace those slots with more tutors/counters/etc

Meh, I play in a meta where folks at least run a proper amount of removal (including tuck) so that wouldn't work out very well. Not as competitive as my old group, but not oblivious enough to let me keep my general on the table for the entire game.

I'm pretty sure fatties like utvara hellkite wouldn't fare any better. If those fatties that only function as beaters (like that hellkite) or don't draw cards as well as niv (like sphinx of magosi) were replaced with tutors, you would not only be able to get niv back out if he's tucked more often, but your deck becomes more streamlined and you would be able to find your other pieces more often.

Just ask yourself, "How does this deck win?" and "Which cards do I want to see more often than others?"

Quote from mdakw576

I'm pretty sure fatties like utvara hellkite wouldn't fare any better. If those fatties that only function as beaters (like that hellkite) or don't draw cards as well as niv (like sphinx of magosi) were replaced with tutors, you would not only be able to get niv back out if he's tucked more often, but your deck becomes more streamlined and you would be able to find your other pieces more often.

So its better, you are saying, to focus on attacking with one single card in my deck by countering spells that target it, tutoring for it when it gets tucked, and otherwise overcentralizing my entire deck on it? Instead of making the deck more flexible and resilient to spot removal by adding powerful, redundant threats? In multiplayer?

Any moderately experienced player would laugh at that suggestion. Just saying.

Quote from mdakw576

Just ask yourself, "How does this deck win?" and "Which cards do I want to see more often than others?"

The deck wins by playing large flying guys that provide extra value somehow, or by stealing/copying stuff. The deck doesn't necessarily want to see certain cards more than others, as it contains a fair amount of redundancy like any good EDH deck should.

Protip for anyone looking to build a good EDH deck: build with your general in mind, but never, ever, EVER build a deck that is helpless without it. If you play with halfway competent people, they WILL kill your dudes, and you won't always be able to stop them. Do not expect to win with -just- your general unless A) it is resilient to removal or B) it wins explosively.

Obviously things are different in 1v1, but we're not in that subforum are we?

Please point out where I explicitly stated to overcentralize your deck around niv.

I simply said I don't like cards that are ONLY beaters (like utvara hellkite, which also takes awhile to get online). Or they don't draw you cards as well as niv (like sphinx of magosi).

I'm just saying that, when using a big creature as your general, you need to imagine yourself having it in the command zone and X random fatty in your hand, and you need to ask yourself "When would I play my general and when would I play this fatty in my hand?" (assuming niv hasn't been cast yet) For example, if the fatty was Keiga, it's better at staving off attacks and will get targeted with removal much less often, while Niv can draw you cards/ping small creatures. There's enough reason to play Keiga because it fills a certain role different from what niv fills.

But in the case of something like sphinx of magosi, in which situations would you run out sphinx over niv (assuming niv hasn't been cast yet)? The sphinx is a little bigger and does grow, but it takes more mana to draw cards with it, and if you are just bashing face, niv would do general damage too. I can't think of a big situation where I would want to play sphinx over niv, other than maybe casting the sphinx becuase niv died once already, but that implies you already played niv over the sphinx the first time, and the fact that it died meant that the sphinx would have died at the same time anyway. Therefore I would just cut it.

To make this simpler, would you run sphinx of magosi over mystical tutor, or cryptic command, or suffocating blast, or maybe coalition relic, or maybe gamble? Your list currently doesn't have any of those, so that's what you're implying.