Hello everyone, and welcome to the Reckoner-Zone (trademark in progress). This pseudo-primer will attempt to convince you why this highly-underrated commander deserves to be played.
Some background on this deck:
This deck is one with a fairly unique background, at least for me. The central idea of this deck started off as a dare. While playing at my LGS, one of the regulars challenged a friend and me to build decks with no creatures in it (commanders not included). Being the cool kids we are, we immediately accepted the challenge and got to work.
My friend had always been a blue mage from the first time he picked up cards, while I bounced between colors like no other. He chose Talrand, Sky Summoner as his commander, a fairly obvious and—in my honest opinion—boring choice. I on the other hand, wanted something more unique (insert hipster joke here). My decks were generally agro beatdown decks or ramp decks that really liked their big stompy creatures and being the center of attention, so with this one I decided to go in the complete opposite direction.
I had always been a big fan of black, but hadn’t really gotten a chance to try my hand at red and white, but knew they were the place to go for board-wipes/burn spells, which was what I wanted. So I knew I either was going to go for Kaalia, Oros, or Tariel. Kaalia obviously is very creature heavy so that wasn’t an option and Oros just didn’t do it for me, so I decided to go for Tariel. After I chose my commander I had a rough idea of what I wanted this deck to do. Most multiplayer games I played in quickly became smash-everyone-before-they-kill-me, so I wanted this one to be much more control based. I wanted to chill out for the early/mid game, avoiding attention and making sure the game state was where I wanted it, and then explode in late game after everyone had started killing each other off.
So that’s what I did, and this deck is what became of it.
Tearing apart Tariel
Let's take a closer look at this sweet-looking Angel shall we?
Colors B: Gives you access to loads of great tutors, removal, and nasty nasty enchantments. W: The greatest color for board wipes there is, plus a large amount of artifact and enchantment hate, something black is severely lacking. R: Best at direct damage and artifact hate, plus some nice utility spells for instants and sorceries.
CMC 4WBR: By far the worst part of Tariel is her mana cost, which is absurdly high for what she does. That said, there are some positives to this mana cost. Having to pay 7 mana for her means that you're not going to be bringing her out until mid game at the earliest, and by then you'll have plenty of creatures in graveyards to use her on.
Power and Toughness
4/7: Tariel is actually quite a beater in her own right, and at 7 toughness she's able to take some hits too. The low power makes killing with commander damage not very likely, the 7 toughness means she's not as susceptible to getting blown up by non-kill spells.
Static Ability
Flying, Vigilance: The standard legendary angel suite of static abilities, nothing too special. However, that doesn't mean it isn't good. Vigiliance means you can swing without worrying about losing a blocker, and flying means you can simply soar over the heads of other creatures.
Activated Ability
This is where the money is, the ability that makes this deck. The red mana in her casting cost makes this ability target a random creature card, which gives this deck 90% of its randomness, which is what makes it fun to play. With this ability you have the chance to use their own creatures against them in ways people would never expect, and it is an absolute blast.
Why you should (and shouldn’t) play this deck:
Play this deck if you like:
Sweeping the board
Not playing creatures
Relying on your general
Being very political
Being in control of the game (and not playing that blue mage who counters everything. We know who you are, and we don’t like you.)
Enchantments
Staying in the background until late game
Randomness
Don’t play this deck if you like:
Playing creatures
Having a board presence early game
Combos
Self-Reliance
Ending games quickly
Decks that play the same each time
The name of the game for this deck is control. You want to be the guy people get permission from before playing creatures, you want to be the guy who can clear the board at literally any time if one person so much as breaths at you in the wrong way. Don’t worry about bringing Tariel out anytime in early game, you want to wait until everyone is on their last legs and fatties riddle the graveyards before dropping your commander into play.
There are downsides to this deck as well though. Tariel’s ability is to bring a random creature in a graveyard into play under your control, which means your entire game plan relies on other people. Yes I know that can be a scary thought, it certainly was for me when I first started using this deck, but I quickly grew to love it. Relying on people makes others see you as less of a threat, after all why should you worry about the person who can’t hurt you? That is the primary weakness of this deck, one I am well-aware of and put in as a challenge to myself. This is not a 1v1 deck, this is a control-based multiplayer deck focusing on politics. Without the creatures of opponents, you will not win. Period. End of story.
Now that sounds really depressing and frankly, just a little bit stupid. But hear me out. You’re not entirely at the mercy of other people. This deck pretty much guarantees that you will have at least one answer to any problem that appears on the board in your hand at all times, so if anyone starts getting cocky and eyeing your creature-less board, let them know who’s really in charge with a damnation to the face.
The deck
For this part of the guide I will have two decklists. One will be categorized by type, the other by how the card is used.
Now comes the best part of the deck and the biggest pain to write of them all. I’ll be explaining why each and every card is in the deck, and why some have intentionally been left out. So let’s get down to business, to discuss the cards. (that part was to be sung to the rhythm of Make a Man Out of You for those who didn’t get it the first time. Go ahead and read it again, I’ll wait. You do it yet? Pretty clever huh? Where were we now…Oh yeah MtG stuff, right.)
Artifacts:
Darksteel Plate: Amazing protection for Tariel that allows you to use board wipes even when she is in play and prevents her from being blown up by any other spells.
Illusionist's Bracers: Allows for you to replicate Tariel's ability each time you use it without having to pay anything like Rings makes you do, this is definitely a tutor-worthy card and is guaranteed to ruin someone's day.
Lightning Greaves: A great way to start her engine the second she hits the board and ensure she doesn't get tucked or exiled, combined with Darksteel Plate this will make her almost unkillable.
Magewright's Stone: With MC T-Diggity Gravemaster (Tariel) on the field, this is essentially saying pay 1 mana for another potentially game-winning creature. Yeah, that’s a nice effect.
Nevinyrral's Disk: A board wipe that can be used politically, which is very nice. (I’ll just put this into play and sit pretty for a few turns, why aren’t you guys playing anything? Oh right, the big shiny board wipe sitting in play.)
Oblivion Stone: Kind of like the Disk, except you can spare your most important cards (cough) Tariel (cough). Plus, it’s art is absolute awesome. By the time you cast Tariel, you are assured you have enough mana to cast this, spare your pimpin’ angel, and wipe next turn.
Rings of Brighthearth: Just like the stone and elixir, except instead of untapping your doubling the effect, which means you can not only untap, but double, and then untap and double again for a maximum of 6 taps a turn with all 3 artifacts out, which is ridiculous.
Sensei's Divining Top: An auto-include in most decks, especially when you really need that one board wipe or kill spell and it isn’t quite in your hand.
Sol Ring: 2 mana for 1, yeah have this card in every EDH deck you build.
Thousand-Year Elixir: Just like the stone except it also allows Tariel to tap the turn you bring him in, and then do it again.
Vedalken Orrery: For when the board can’t wait till your next turn to be wiped, this one really puts the pressure on your opponents because they know that now you can blow up pretty much anything at any time as long as you have the mana.
Ward of Bones: The main reason this card is in here is because you aren't going to have a creature on the field until at least turn 7, so why should they? It does take until turn 6 to bring out, but it will definitely delay your opponents. Play this card, wipe the board, laugh your way to the bank.
Creature:
Tariel, Reckoner of Souls: She’s your general and pretty much the only way you can win in this deck. How you want to play her will be discussed later on, but for now let’s just say her ability is very underrated and at times can be hilarious.
Enchantments:
Aurification: This is a great one because not only does it dissuade people from attacking you, but the counters stay on even after the enchantment is destroyed, leaving them with nothing but an army of blockers.
Black Market: Creatures will be dying when you play this deck, lots and lots of creatures. If you like free black mana, and who doesn’t? Then this card will be one you absolutely love.
Bloodchief Ascension: This deck does a surprisingly good job at pinging people or spontaneously smacking them in the face for a bit of damage, and once this card gets fully activated it can be devastating, especially with the heaping amounts of board wipes at your disposal.
Death Pits of Rath: This meanest way to tell players, ‘stop fighting and love each other guys’ ever printed. Just one little poke is enough to blow away even the scariest creatures and fill your opponents graveyards choke full of good targets for Tariel.
Debtors' Knell: A mini Tariel without a body that brings a creature over to your side each upkeep. It’s a nice backup if Tariel gets killed.
Exquisite Blood: This is a great card, especially for the way you want to be playing, sitting back and letting your opponents beat each other. If you start drawing too much hate for it, there’s always ways to get rid of it, but it generally gives you a nice lump sum of life before drawing hate.
Ghostly Prison: A good way to get people to attack each other, especially players who like tapping out. Putting this enchantment out early game is a pretty good way to guarantee your safety for a few turns at least.
Grave Betrayal: Hnnnnnnnnngh. This card is absolutely awesome and extremely underplayed. Not only does it send every creature you destroy over to your side, it gives them +1/+1. Somehow making it even better than your commander in some regards.
Honden of Cleansing Fire: An oddly effective way of gaining a little bit of life each turn that adds up quickly, especially with its brother out as well. This card is easily overlooked until you suddenly have 60 life and everyone else is down at 20.
Honden of Infinite Rage: Not anywhere near as good as its white brother, but mediocre enough to be included, especially since it doubles the amount of life you gain each of your upkeeps.
Land Tax: An awesome way to make sure you don’t get mana-screwed in early game and can reliably get land in your hand. Plus the art looks like an angry leprechaun, and that’s just adorable.
Necropotence: Undoubtedly one of the best black cards ever printed, this is a fantastic way to make sure you always have max hand size and a good way to use up some of that extra life you’ll be getting from Bloodchief Ascension and Honden of Cleansing Fire.
No Mercy: Another great way to dissuade people from attacking you, it also fills up graveyards so you can get creatures, which is always nice.
Phyrexian Arena: Lose a life; gain a card, sounds like an awesome deal to me. The card advantage you gain from this is stellar and this is a must have in any deck with black.
Warstorm Surge: At maximum output, you’ll be putting 6 random creatures from graveyards onto your battlefield, and that’s an awful lot of damage coming towards your enemies, this essentially ensures you deal at least one attack worth of damage to an opponent or creature before it dies.
Instants:
Allay: It might have a weird name, but targeted enchantment hate you can theoretically re-use infinitely is fantastic.
Aurelia's Fury: A Fireball that not only taps creatures it doesn’t kill, but also makes sure players you hit can’t cast any troublesome instants or sorceries. This is a great way to clear the way for any massive creatures you get from graveyards.
Diabolic Edict: Forcing sacrifices is the main way this deck gets around indestructibility, this one is especially good right after a board wipe.
Disenchant: Artifact removal is good. Enchantment removal is good. Artifact or enchantment removal is even better. This is one of the best cards to get rid of pesky artifacts/enchantments without running green, which we can’t.
Enlightened Tutor: This is a fantastic way to set yourself up for victory, I would suggest using it to grab Land Tax and secure your mana base, but it can also get any of the artifacts that protect/enable Tariel.
Geth's Verdict: This one is pretty much identical to Diabolic Edict, except it pings the player for 1 which is a nice little slap in the face after forcing them to sacrifice their indestructible creature.
Lightning Bolt: A red classic that just had to be in here, 3 damage for 1 red mana? Yes please.
Mortify: The added option to blow away an enchantment instead of a creature makes this card great, especially for a 3 cast.
Murder: The stereotypical kill spell, because you can never have enough kill spells.
Reprisal: The removal you want when playing with people who like their creatures big it can also target black creatures, something a few other removals can’t.
Return to Dust: If you can wait till your main phase to cast it, you can exile an additional artifact/enchantment, which is just awesome, but it can also function as a quick answer if need be.
Safe Passage: The Fog of white, this card will also keep you alive for that one more game-winning turn.
Shattering Pulse: Potentially infinite targeted artifact removal, this card is drop-dead gorgeous.
Smother: Great for blowing away the turn 1, 2, and 3 creature drops who like to stick around.
Terminate: Ah terminate, such a nice little card. Faster than Dreadbore and just as deadly, this is a great way to remove any large threats on a moment’s notice.
Wing Shards: It forces sacrifices and has that incredibly irritating storm keyword, so you can potentially force someone to sacrifice their entire army of creatures.
Lands:
Akoum Refuge: Tap for either of two colors and gain a life when it comes into play, I like this cycle of lands a lot.
Blood Crypt, Sacred Foundry, Godless Shrine: S-s-s-shocklands! These lands are great, especially if you don’t want to fork out ridiculous amounts of money for the original dual lands.
Boros Garrison, Rakdos Carnarium, Orzhov Basilica: I like these lands a lot more than I should, partially because they’re called karoo lands and it’s fun to say. (Karoooooooooooooooooo) These lands are great mid game, but if you get all 3 in your starting hand you’re in trouble.
Clifftop Retreat, Dragonskull Summit, Isolated Chapel: These lands are the reason you run the fetch lands, I’m partial to these because they were the first cycle of lands I collected and they’re pretty great.
Fetid Heath, Graven Cairns, Rugged Prairie: These lands have saved my butt more times than I can count because they are fantastic for fixing mana colors.
Maze of Ith: A great card that can stop some attacks straight up, especially when people like only swinging at you with one huge creature.
Mountain, Plains, Swamp: (Insert best cards in the deck joke here)(insert strained laughter/minor chuckle here)
Akroma's Vengeance: A complete board wipe that blows up anything that’s not a land, plus you can cycle it if you’re getting mana-screwed.
Austere Command: This is a board wipe that gives you all the options in the world, or as I like to call it ‘build-a-board-wipe’.
Beseech the Queen: It’s a tutor for when you really need a certain removal card, obviously it’s good.
Black Sun's Zenith: Proving that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is a lie since whenever it was first printed. If it doesn’t kill off the creatures, it leaves them crippled for later removal.
Blasphemous Act: Very few creatures have enough toughness to survive this card, and it works wonders against token decks.
Bonfire of the Damned: Who doesn’t love Bonfire? That feeling when you draw it as a miracle and hitting everyone and their mother for 10 damage is just great.
Brightflame: Very underrated when playing against numerous multi-colored decks, especially since it gives you a metric crapton of life after it hits.
Consuming Vapors: One of my personal favorite sacrifice cards, the life gain is great and the rebound is even better.
Damnation: Gotta love damnation. Great art, great effect, one of the only pure black board wipes out there.
Day of Judgment: Wrath of God clone, because there’s no such thing as too many board wipes.
Decree of Pain: A board wipe that also gives you mondo card draw, it can also be cycled to give every creature -2/-2, which is still pretty good.
Demonic Tutor: Another tutor for getting the right card for the job.
Dreadbore: For those pesky Plainswalkers who just won’t die.
Life's Finale: Great for Tariel because you can chose the best cards in the person’s deck to possible recast as your own.
Past in Flames: Because using board wipes just once is overrated, you can also recast your tutors which is always nice.
Phyrexian Rebirth: Not only does it wipe the board, it also gives you a potentially massive creature to smash face with.
Purity: Great for getting rid of troublesome enchantments and artifacts if there are more than spot removal can take care of.
Replenish: This one is fantastic because it allows you to bring back any of the nasty enchantments your opponents have gotten rid of, or restore your board presence after something like an O-Stone.
Vindicate: The possibilities with this card are limitless. Anything is targetable, which is absolutely great.
Wrath of God: The board wipe that started them all, I had to have this one for nostalgia’s sake.
Taking It For A Spin: A Quick Strategy Guide
Let’s start with your hand. A good opening hand for this deck would be 3 lands, two spot removals, a board wipe, and an enchantment of some sorts. Now keep in mind that’s pretty much the perfect hand to start with, some difference in the numbers is acceptable. Obviously keeping a one land hand with 6 enchantments is dumb, but generally anything with at least one removal spell and at least two lands is worth keeping as long as the other cards in hand don’t have obscenely high CMC’s. Generally when you start, the cheaper the spell the better until you get to mid/late game.
Speaking of starting, let’s go through the plan for this deck in early game. For this part building your mana base is the most important thing to you, if you miss a ton of land drops and have to play catch-up the rest of the game you’re not going to be in a good position to start controlling people. Besides that, focus on policing the board; avoid putting down any of your more agro enchantments like Death Pits of Rath and stick to calmer stuff like Ghostly Prison, Land Tax, and Phyrexian Arena so you don’t get any unwanted attention. Besides building a mana base, you also want to insure you have a steady stream of cards to answer things with, so things like Necropotence, Phyrexian Arena, and Sensei’s Divining Top should be coming down first and foremost.
Along with insuring you stay in the game, you also want to keep a careful eye on your opponents. Starting at turn 3 (sometimes turn 2) people will start trying to push their commanders out, and that’s when you want to remind them who’s in charge. I generally save my spot removal for the commanders when they come out unless something comes down that is either a must-answer or something fancy I will want to have on my side once Tariel comes out, but commanders are still a priority. Remember that this deck is extremely political, so don’t be afraid to talk to other people about what they want you to do. You want to establish yourself as the man in charge, but not as the biggest threat. Spread the love/hate around and try not to focus on anyone too hard unless they’re really trying to do crazy stuff.
Starting at around turn 5 or 6 enough creatures will be on the board to justify the first board wipe, so feel free to use it if you feel threatened and want to make some targets for Tariel. It’s around here that you can start laying down some of the nastier enchantments and prepare to cast your own commander, which means artifacts should be coming down as well. Generally I like to wait until I have at least some form of protection and an untapping/replicating artifact in play before casting her so I can immediately start making my army. When turn 7 finally hits you’ll have enough to cast Tariel, but I would advise against it. I actually like to wait until turn 9 or even turn 10 before bringing her out because she’s so expensive people like to save removal for her, so letting a few bombs you can easily wipe enter play to draw the heat off you is a good move.
Once Tariel is in play your main goal is to A.) keep her alive, you’ll have enough mana to easily re-cast her but it still messes with your flow B.) Steal, Steal, Steal, Steal. Get as many good creatures as you possibly can, and always know who has what in their graveyards. Honestly, you still shouldn’t really be attacking all that much even at this point, I find that if I keep to myself I can normally let my opponents beat each other down to around 20 life while I sit pretty at 30+. Another really important thing to remember is that you need other people alive, because if you kill off an opponent when they have something like Avenger of Zendikar in their graveyard you’ll be kicking yourself for losing the chance to cast him. Bring people down low, really low, but wait until you can definitely win before killing anyone.
When Tariel comes out and starts stealing creatures you’re also going to start casting a bit more defensively, laying off the board wipes and focusing on either defensive instants like Safe Passage and Wing Shards or spot removal. A thing you have to remember when playing with this deck is that it is meant for having fun, so don’t expect to win 100% of the time, however just from how this deck is built there’s a pretty solid chance you’ll be coming in second if you don’t win just because of how Tariel seems to come out of nowhere and explode with tons of bombs coming back out onto the field.
Match-Ups
Here’s a breakdown of match-ups between this deck and other decktypes. I’ll be showing what you should expect when playing against them and a few strategies for coming out victorious. Keep in mind that this deck, while it is decent at 1v1, was created with multiplayer in mind and thus there will be numerous different decktypes all at once. Hopefully this list will show you which ones to really focus on.
Agro/Beatdown: This really depends on exactly what the other deck is. Normally going up against straight beatdown or agro is pretty good for you, as they tend to rely on lots of creatures so you can just keep removing till the cows come home. However, there are some agro decks that also function as reanimator decks, and these might give you a bit of a problem as they can simply bring their own creatures back, leaving you with no creatures to steal and another army of threats. Your best bet against beatdown and agro decks is to slap down some pillow fort enchantments like Aurification and Ghostly Prison so you can delay until you have enough mana to cast you bigger removal spells.
Control: Ugh control, everyone hates control. Even control decks (like this one) hate control. This is the type of deck you can’t really do anything about, and have to hope your other opponents hate control as much as you. While you can pretty easily handle any threats control decks put onto the board, many of them have ways of keeping a relatively clean board state and suddenly doing something crazy like infinite turns or infinite mill, which is bothersome. In an ironic way, these decks are the least worrisome of them all, while being the scariest as well, all depending on how they’re played. The way I feel about it is, if the control deck is going to end up losing, they’ll be dead first, and if they’re going to end up winning, not much anyone else can do about it unless they’re also running blue.
Combo: You will kick these deck’s asses to hell and back pretty much anytime you face them. The only thing you need to do in order to win is keep a watchful eye on exactly what they are trying to do, and the second they cast a nonland permanent blast it to oblivion. Most combo decks rely on a few permanents to guarantee a win, which is perfect for a deck whose sole purpose is to blow things up. Generally you’ll want to save spot removal for the combo player, while keeping things like board wipes for in case the rest of your opponents try and do something funny.
Voltron: Just like combo decks, there is a fairly good chance of you winning when you go up against these decks. Knocking a voltron deck out of commission is fairly easy; simply blow up their commander each time they bring them onto the field. You’ll be wanting a bunch of artifact and enchantment removal for these because that’s generally how they secure the win, as well as 1 or 2 kill spells in your hand pretty much at all times. Vedalken Orrery works wonders against these decks, protect it with your life.
Token: These decks are actually a bit bothersome if you don’t get the right cards, but with a few board wipes in hand they’re a dream to play against. You’ll find that spot removal isn’t nearly as effective as your mass removal in games against token decks, so make sure you hold on to those wipes until you absolutely need them.
Stax: If someone is playing one of these punch them. This is definitely one of your hardest match-ups because it generally locks down your board so much you run out of lands to cast removal with, and if that happens it’s pretty much game for you. Of course if you manage to blow up all their stax effects then you’re golden, but doing so can be a pretty big challenge at some times. Always target the stax player first when casting anything, and save your enchantment/artifact hate because that’s pretty much all stax is.
Sac and Recur/Reanimator: This deck is definitely your toughest match-up, and there are very fews ways to really put a stop to these kinds of decks once they get their engines going. The problem here is that Tariel needs creatures in the graveyards to win, but these decks can simply bring it back onto the field again, leaving you with nothing. They also care little about board wipes because they can just bring their creatures out again. Playing against these will definitely test your skill as a player, a win is still possible but it will be a struggle from the start.
And that is my unique take on Tariel. I'll be testing the everliving crap out of this deck at my LGS this weekend and afterwards I'll be putting in a detailed strategy section but for now I'll release this onto the interwebs. If any one has critiques, comments, or simply want to express your love for the deck, please let me know in the comments. There's a 99% chance I missed some amazing, spit-take worthy card while building this deck, so any suggestions would be fantastic.
I definitely love the concept and I might put my own spin on things somewhere down the line. R/W/B is one of my favorite color combinations, and there are only three generals in those colors. Kaalia is a very specific deck and Oros is laughably terrible. I've thought about using Tariel for the colors and this is a good way to do it.
My deck might have more stupid cards in it, though. Like Smoke
Thanks for the input, and wow that card is deliciously evil! You could very easily make this deck with a more punisher or stax theme rather than control, but I wanted to shy away from those two because it draws more hate from other players, and I wanted this deck to be much more political than my other ones. I really like that enchantment though, I'll see if i can slot it in somewhere.
Just wanted to point out that ray of revelation cannot be in the deck because the flashback cost counts towards its color identity. So that is an easily freed up slot, may I suggest as a replacementReturn to Dust.
Illusionist's Bracers seems like it could find a spot in your list. Doubling up reanimation or useful abilities from stolen creatures could prove beneficial.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
For Lists, Click Here EDH: GW: Selvala, Let us help YOU. UB: Mirko Vosk, when outmatched cheat BW: Vish Kal, The Arbiter of Reanimation UG: Prime Speaker Zegana, the science of sorcery RB: Malfegor, Traitor's Haven UW: Daxos, Control-Fort-Tron BG: Pharika, Goddess of Stax RW: Gisela, Boros Control RG: Ruric Thar, a Primal Surge deck RU: Niv-Mizzet the Firemind, Spellslinger?!?! B:(Pauper) Mikaeus the Unhallowed R: Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient: The Power of Engineering
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Reckoner-Zone (trademark in progress). This pseudo-primer will attempt to convince you why this highly-underrated commander deserves to be played.
Some background on this deck:
This deck is one with a fairly unique background, at least for me. The central idea of this deck started off as a dare. While playing at my LGS, one of the regulars challenged a friend and me to build decks with no creatures in it (commanders not included). Being the cool kids we are, we immediately accepted the challenge and got to work.
My friend had always been a blue mage from the first time he picked up cards, while I bounced between colors like no other. He chose Talrand, Sky Summoner as his commander, a fairly obvious and—in my honest opinion—boring choice. I on the other hand, wanted something more unique (insert hipster joke here). My decks were generally agro beatdown decks or ramp decks that really liked their big stompy creatures and being the center of attention, so with this one I decided to go in the complete opposite direction.
I had always been a big fan of black, but hadn’t really gotten a chance to try my hand at red and white, but knew they were the place to go for board-wipes/burn spells, which was what I wanted. So I knew I either was going to go for Kaalia, Oros, or Tariel. Kaalia obviously is very creature heavy so that wasn’t an option and Oros just didn’t do it for me, so I decided to go for Tariel. After I chose my commander I had a rough idea of what I wanted this deck to do. Most multiplayer games I played in quickly became smash-everyone-before-they-kill-me, so I wanted this one to be much more control based. I wanted to chill out for the early/mid game, avoiding attention and making sure the game state was where I wanted it, and then explode in late game after everyone had started killing each other off.
So that’s what I did, and this deck is what became of it.
Tearing apart Tariel
Let's take a closer look at this sweet-looking Angel shall we?
Colors
B: Gives you access to loads of great tutors, removal, and nasty nasty enchantments.
W: The greatest color for board wipes there is, plus a large amount of artifact and enchantment hate, something black is severely lacking.
R: Best at direct damage and artifact hate, plus some nice utility spells for instants and sorceries.
CMC
4WBR: By far the worst part of Tariel is her mana cost, which is absurdly high for what she does. That said, there are some positives to this mana cost. Having to pay 7 mana for her means that you're not going to be bringing her out until mid game at the earliest, and by then you'll have plenty of creatures in graveyards to use her on.
Power and Toughness
4/7: Tariel is actually quite a beater in her own right, and at 7 toughness she's able to take some hits too. The low power makes killing with commander damage not very likely, the 7 toughness means she's not as susceptible to getting blown up by non-kill spells.
Static Ability
Flying, Vigilance: The standard legendary angel suite of static abilities, nothing too special. However, that doesn't mean it isn't good. Vigiliance means you can swing without worrying about losing a blocker, and flying means you can simply soar over the heads of other creatures.
Activated Ability
This is where the money is, the ability that makes this deck. The red mana in her casting cost makes this ability target a random creature card, which gives this deck 90% of its randomness, which is what makes it fun to play. With this ability you have the chance to use their own creatures against them in ways people would never expect, and it is an absolute blast.
Why you should (and shouldn’t) play this deck:
Play this deck if you like:
The name of the game for this deck is control. You want to be the guy people get permission from before playing creatures, you want to be the guy who can clear the board at literally any time if one person so much as breaths at you in the wrong way. Don’t worry about bringing Tariel out anytime in early game, you want to wait until everyone is on their last legs and fatties riddle the graveyards before dropping your commander into play.
There are downsides to this deck as well though. Tariel’s ability is to bring a random creature in a graveyard into play under your control, which means your entire game plan relies on other people. Yes I know that can be a scary thought, it certainly was for me when I first started using this deck, but I quickly grew to love it. Relying on people makes others see you as less of a threat, after all why should you worry about the person who can’t hurt you? That is the primary weakness of this deck, one I am well-aware of and put in as a challenge to myself. This is not a 1v1 deck, this is a control-based multiplayer deck focusing on politics. Without the creatures of opponents, you will not win. Period. End of story.
Now that sounds really depressing and frankly, just a little bit stupid. But hear me out. You’re not entirely at the mercy of other people. This deck pretty much guarantees that you will have at least one answer to any problem that appears on the board in your hand at all times, so if anyone starts getting cocky and eyeing your creature-less board, let them know who’s really in charge with a damnation to the face.
The deck
For this part of the guide I will have two decklists. One will be categorized by type, the other by how the card is used.
1 Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
Enchantment:
1 Aurification
1 Black Market
1 Bloodchief Ascension
1 Death Pits of Rath
1 Debtors' Knell
1 Exquisite Blood
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Grave Betrayal
1 Honden of Cleansing Fire
1 Honden of Infinite Rage
1 Land Tax
1 Necropotence
1 No Mercy
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Warstorm Surge
Instants:
1 Allay
1 Aurelia's Fury
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Disenchant
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Geth's Verdict
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Mortify
1 Murder
1 Reprisal
1 Return to Dust
1 Safe Passage
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Smother
1 Terminate
1 Wing Shards
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Arid Mesa
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Boros Garrison
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Fetid Heath
1 Godless Shrine
1 Graven Cairns
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
5 Mountain
1 Orzhov Basilica
5 Plains
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Sacred Foundry
6 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
Artifact:
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Magewright's Stone
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Ward of Bones
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Austere Command
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Brightflame
1 Consuming Vapors
1 Damnation
1 Day of Judgment
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Dreadbore
1 Life’s Finale
1 Past in Flames
1 Phyrexian Rebirth
1 Purify
1 Replenish
1 Vindicate
1 Wrath of God
And now the same deck, except this time by function:
1 Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
1 Grave Betrayal
1 Debtors' Knell
Breaking Tariel:
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Magewright's Stone
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Illusionist's Bracers
Wipe ALL the boards:
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Austere Command
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Brightflame
1 Damnation
1 Decree of Pain
1 Life's Finale
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Purify
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Phyrexian Rebirth
1 Wrath of God
1 Aurelia's Fury
Targeted Removal:
1 Vindicate
1 Mortify
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Disenchant
1 Geth's Verdict
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Murder
1 Return to Dust
1 Reprisal
1 Smother
1 Terminate
1 Allay
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Wing Shards
1 No Mercy
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Safe Passage
1 Aurification
How to gain life, deal damage, and scare
the everliving crap out of your enemies (without big stompy creatures):
1 Death Pits of Rath
1 Exquisite Blood
1 Bloodchief Ascension
1 Warstorm Surge
1 Honden of Cleansing Fire
1 Honden of Infinite Rage
1 Ward of Bones
Card draw and other utility:
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Black Market
1 Land Tax
1 Necropotence
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Past in Flames
1 Enlightened Tutor
Lands:
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Arid Mesa
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Boros Garrison
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Fetid Heath
1 Godless Shrine
1 Graven Cairns
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
5 Mountain
1 Orzhov Basilica
5 Plains
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Sacred Foundry
6 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
Why these cards made the cut
Now comes the best part of the deck and the biggest pain to write of them all. I’ll be explaining why each and every card is in the deck, and why some have intentionally been left out. So let’s get down to business, to discuss the cards. (that part was to be sung to the rhythm of Make a Man Out of You for those who didn’t get it the first time. Go ahead and read it again, I’ll wait. You do it yet? Pretty clever huh? Where were we now…Oh yeah MtG stuff, right.)
Artifacts:
Darksteel Plate: Amazing protection for Tariel that allows you to use board wipes even when she is in play and prevents her from being blown up by any other spells.
Illusionist's Bracers: Allows for you to replicate Tariel's ability each time you use it without having to pay anything like Rings makes you do, this is definitely a tutor-worthy card and is guaranteed to ruin someone's day.
Lightning Greaves: A great way to start her engine the second she hits the board and ensure she doesn't get tucked or exiled, combined with Darksteel Plate this will make her almost unkillable.
Magewright's Stone: With MC T-Diggity Gravemaster (Tariel) on the field, this is essentially saying pay 1 mana for another potentially game-winning creature. Yeah, that’s a nice effect.
Nevinyrral's Disk: A board wipe that can be used politically, which is very nice. (I’ll just put this into play and sit pretty for a few turns, why aren’t you guys playing anything? Oh right, the big shiny board wipe sitting in play.)
Oblivion Stone: Kind of like the Disk, except you can spare your most important cards (cough) Tariel (cough). Plus, it’s art is absolute awesome. By the time you cast Tariel, you are assured you have enough mana to cast this, spare your pimpin’ angel, and wipe next turn.
Rings of Brighthearth: Just like the stone and elixir, except instead of untapping your doubling the effect, which means you can not only untap, but double, and then untap and double again for a maximum of 6 taps a turn with all 3 artifacts out, which is ridiculous.
Sensei's Divining Top: An auto-include in most decks, especially when you really need that one board wipe or kill spell and it isn’t quite in your hand.
Sol Ring: 2 mana for 1, yeah have this card in every EDH deck you build.
Thousand-Year Elixir: Just like the stone except it also allows Tariel to tap the turn you bring him in, and then do it again.
Vedalken Orrery: For when the board can’t wait till your next turn to be wiped, this one really puts the pressure on your opponents because they know that now you can blow up pretty much anything at any time as long as you have the mana.
Ward of Bones: The main reason this card is in here is because you aren't going to have a creature on the field until at least turn 7, so why should they? It does take until turn 6 to bring out, but it will definitely delay your opponents. Play this card, wipe the board, laugh your way to the bank.
Creature:
Tariel, Reckoner of Souls: She’s your general and pretty much the only way you can win in this deck. How you want to play her will be discussed later on, but for now let’s just say her ability is very underrated and at times can be hilarious.
Enchantments:
Aurification: This is a great one because not only does it dissuade people from attacking you, but the counters stay on even after the enchantment is destroyed, leaving them with nothing but an army of blockers.
Black Market: Creatures will be dying when you play this deck, lots and lots of creatures. If you like free black mana, and who doesn’t? Then this card will be one you absolutely love.
Bloodchief Ascension: This deck does a surprisingly good job at pinging people or spontaneously smacking them in the face for a bit of damage, and once this card gets fully activated it can be devastating, especially with the heaping amounts of board wipes at your disposal.
Death Pits of Rath: This meanest way to tell players, ‘stop fighting and love each other guys’ ever printed. Just one little poke is enough to blow away even the scariest creatures and fill your opponents graveyards choke full of good targets for Tariel.
Debtors' Knell: A mini Tariel without a body that brings a creature over to your side each upkeep. It’s a nice backup if Tariel gets killed.
Exquisite Blood: This is a great card, especially for the way you want to be playing, sitting back and letting your opponents beat each other. If you start drawing too much hate for it, there’s always ways to get rid of it, but it generally gives you a nice lump sum of life before drawing hate.
Ghostly Prison: A good way to get people to attack each other, especially players who like tapping out. Putting this enchantment out early game is a pretty good way to guarantee your safety for a few turns at least.
Grave Betrayal: Hnnnnnnnnngh. This card is absolutely awesome and extremely underplayed. Not only does it send every creature you destroy over to your side, it gives them +1/+1. Somehow making it even better than your commander in some regards.
Honden of Cleansing Fire: An oddly effective way of gaining a little bit of life each turn that adds up quickly, especially with its brother out as well. This card is easily overlooked until you suddenly have 60 life and everyone else is down at 20.
Honden of Infinite Rage: Not anywhere near as good as its white brother, but mediocre enough to be included, especially since it doubles the amount of life you gain each of your upkeeps.
Land Tax: An awesome way to make sure you don’t get mana-screwed in early game and can reliably get land in your hand. Plus the art looks like an angry leprechaun, and that’s just adorable.
Necropotence: Undoubtedly one of the best black cards ever printed, this is a fantastic way to make sure you always have max hand size and a good way to use up some of that extra life you’ll be getting from Bloodchief Ascension and Honden of Cleansing Fire.
No Mercy: Another great way to dissuade people from attacking you, it also fills up graveyards so you can get creatures, which is always nice.
Phyrexian Arena: Lose a life; gain a card, sounds like an awesome deal to me. The card advantage you gain from this is stellar and this is a must have in any deck with black.
Warstorm Surge: At maximum output, you’ll be putting 6 random creatures from graveyards onto your battlefield, and that’s an awful lot of damage coming towards your enemies, this essentially ensures you deal at least one attack worth of damage to an opponent or creature before it dies.
Instants:
Allay: It might have a weird name, but targeted enchantment hate you can theoretically re-use infinitely is fantastic.
Aurelia's Fury: A Fireball that not only taps creatures it doesn’t kill, but also makes sure players you hit can’t cast any troublesome instants or sorceries. This is a great way to clear the way for any massive creatures you get from graveyards.
Diabolic Edict: Forcing sacrifices is the main way this deck gets around indestructibility, this one is especially good right after a board wipe.
Disenchant: Artifact removal is good. Enchantment removal is good. Artifact or enchantment removal is even better. This is one of the best cards to get rid of pesky artifacts/enchantments without running green, which we can’t.
Enlightened Tutor: This is a fantastic way to set yourself up for victory, I would suggest using it to grab Land Tax and secure your mana base, but it can also get any of the artifacts that protect/enable Tariel.
Geth's Verdict: This one is pretty much identical to Diabolic Edict, except it pings the player for 1 which is a nice little slap in the face after forcing them to sacrifice their indestructible creature.
Lightning Bolt: A red classic that just had to be in here, 3 damage for 1 red mana? Yes please.
Mortify: The added option to blow away an enchantment instead of a creature makes this card great, especially for a 3 cast.
Murder: The stereotypical kill spell, because you can never have enough kill spells.
Reprisal: The removal you want when playing with people who like their creatures big it can also target black creatures, something a few other removals can’t.
Return to Dust: If you can wait till your main phase to cast it, you can exile an additional artifact/enchantment, which is just awesome, but it can also function as a quick answer if need be.
Safe Passage: The Fog of white, this card will also keep you alive for that one more game-winning turn.
Shattering Pulse: Potentially infinite targeted artifact removal, this card is drop-dead gorgeous.
Smother: Great for blowing away the turn 1, 2, and 3 creature drops who like to stick around.
Terminate: Ah terminate, such a nice little card. Faster than Dreadbore and just as deadly, this is a great way to remove any large threats on a moment’s notice.
Wing Shards: It forces sacrifices and has that incredibly irritating storm keyword, so you can potentially force someone to sacrifice their entire army of creatures.
Lands:
Akoum Refuge: Tap for either of two colors and gain a life when it comes into play, I like this cycle of lands a lot.
Arid Mesa, Bloodstained Mire, Marsh Flats: These allow you to search for the mana type you need and get basics out for the lands that need them.
Blood Crypt, Sacred Foundry, Godless Shrine: S-s-s-shocklands! These lands are great, especially if you don’t want to fork out ridiculous amounts of money for the original dual lands.
Boros Garrison, Rakdos Carnarium, Orzhov Basilica: I like these lands a lot more than I should, partially because they’re called karoo lands and it’s fun to say. (Karoooooooooooooooooo) These lands are great mid game, but if you get all 3 in your starting hand you’re in trouble.
Clifftop Retreat, Dragonskull Summit, Isolated Chapel: These lands are the reason you run the fetch lands, I’m partial to these because they were the first cycle of lands I collected and they’re pretty great.
Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse: Fetch lands are never a bad idea, I like to have these two in every deck.
Fetid Heath, Graven Cairns, Rugged Prairie: These lands have saved my butt more times than I can count because they are fantastic for fixing mana colors.
Maze of Ith: A great card that can stop some attacks straight up, especially when people like only swinging at you with one huge creature.
Mountain, Plains, Swamp: (Insert best cards in the deck joke here)(insert strained laughter/minor chuckle here)
Reliquary Tower: Because max hand sizes are overrated.
Sorceries:
Akroma's Vengeance: A complete board wipe that blows up anything that’s not a land, plus you can cycle it if you’re getting mana-screwed.
Austere Command: This is a board wipe that gives you all the options in the world, or as I like to call it ‘build-a-board-wipe’.
Beseech the Queen: It’s a tutor for when you really need a certain removal card, obviously it’s good.
Black Sun's Zenith: Proving that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is a lie since whenever it was first printed. If it doesn’t kill off the creatures, it leaves them crippled for later removal.
Blasphemous Act: Very few creatures have enough toughness to survive this card, and it works wonders against token decks.
Bonfire of the Damned: Who doesn’t love Bonfire? That feeling when you draw it as a miracle and hitting everyone and their mother for 10 damage is just great.
Brightflame: Very underrated when playing against numerous multi-colored decks, especially since it gives you a metric crapton of life after it hits.
Consuming Vapors: One of my personal favorite sacrifice cards, the life gain is great and the rebound is even better.
Damnation: Gotta love damnation. Great art, great effect, one of the only pure black board wipes out there.
Day of Judgment: Wrath of God clone, because there’s no such thing as too many board wipes.
Decree of Pain: A board wipe that also gives you mondo card draw, it can also be cycled to give every creature -2/-2, which is still pretty good.
Demonic Tutor: Another tutor for getting the right card for the job.
Dreadbore: For those pesky Plainswalkers who just won’t die.
Life's Finale: Great for Tariel because you can chose the best cards in the person’s deck to possible recast as your own.
Past in Flames: Because using board wipes just once is overrated, you can also recast your tutors which is always nice.
Phyrexian Rebirth: Not only does it wipe the board, it also gives you a potentially massive creature to smash face with.
Purity: Great for getting rid of troublesome enchantments and artifacts if there are more than spot removal can take care of.
Replenish: This one is fantastic because it allows you to bring back any of the nasty enchantments your opponents have gotten rid of, or restore your board presence after something like an O-Stone.
Vindicate: The possibilities with this card are limitless. Anything is targetable, which is absolutely great.
Wrath of God: The board wipe that started them all, I had to have this one for nostalgia’s sake.
Taking It For A Spin: A Quick Strategy Guide
Let’s start with your hand. A good opening hand for this deck would be 3 lands, two spot removals, a board wipe, and an enchantment of some sorts. Now keep in mind that’s pretty much the perfect hand to start with, some difference in the numbers is acceptable. Obviously keeping a one land hand with 6 enchantments is dumb, but generally anything with at least one removal spell and at least two lands is worth keeping as long as the other cards in hand don’t have obscenely high CMC’s. Generally when you start, the cheaper the spell the better until you get to mid/late game.
Speaking of starting, let’s go through the plan for this deck in early game. For this part building your mana base is the most important thing to you, if you miss a ton of land drops and have to play catch-up the rest of the game you’re not going to be in a good position to start controlling people. Besides that, focus on policing the board; avoid putting down any of your more agro enchantments like Death Pits of Rath and stick to calmer stuff like Ghostly Prison, Land Tax, and Phyrexian Arena so you don’t get any unwanted attention. Besides building a mana base, you also want to insure you have a steady stream of cards to answer things with, so things like Necropotence, Phyrexian Arena, and Sensei’s Divining Top should be coming down first and foremost.
Along with insuring you stay in the game, you also want to keep a careful eye on your opponents. Starting at turn 3 (sometimes turn 2) people will start trying to push their commanders out, and that’s when you want to remind them who’s in charge. I generally save my spot removal for the commanders when they come out unless something comes down that is either a must-answer or something fancy I will want to have on my side once Tariel comes out, but commanders are still a priority. Remember that this deck is extremely political, so don’t be afraid to talk to other people about what they want you to do. You want to establish yourself as the man in charge, but not as the biggest threat. Spread the love/hate around and try not to focus on anyone too hard unless they’re really trying to do crazy stuff.
Starting at around turn 5 or 6 enough creatures will be on the board to justify the first board wipe, so feel free to use it if you feel threatened and want to make some targets for Tariel. It’s around here that you can start laying down some of the nastier enchantments and prepare to cast your own commander, which means artifacts should be coming down as well. Generally I like to wait until I have at least some form of protection and an untapping/replicating artifact in play before casting her so I can immediately start making my army. When turn 7 finally hits you’ll have enough to cast Tariel, but I would advise against it. I actually like to wait until turn 9 or even turn 10 before bringing her out because she’s so expensive people like to save removal for her, so letting a few bombs you can easily wipe enter play to draw the heat off you is a good move.
Once Tariel is in play your main goal is to A.) keep her alive, you’ll have enough mana to easily re-cast her but it still messes with your flow B.) Steal, Steal, Steal, Steal. Get as many good creatures as you possibly can, and always know who has what in their graveyards. Honestly, you still shouldn’t really be attacking all that much even at this point, I find that if I keep to myself I can normally let my opponents beat each other down to around 20 life while I sit pretty at 30+. Another really important thing to remember is that you need other people alive, because if you kill off an opponent when they have something like Avenger of Zendikar in their graveyard you’ll be kicking yourself for losing the chance to cast him. Bring people down low, really low, but wait until you can definitely win before killing anyone.
When Tariel comes out and starts stealing creatures you’re also going to start casting a bit more defensively, laying off the board wipes and focusing on either defensive instants like Safe Passage and Wing Shards or spot removal. A thing you have to remember when playing with this deck is that it is meant for having fun, so don’t expect to win 100% of the time, however just from how this deck is built there’s a pretty solid chance you’ll be coming in second if you don’t win just because of how Tariel seems to come out of nowhere and explode with tons of bombs coming back out onto the field.
Match-Ups
Here’s a breakdown of match-ups between this deck and other decktypes. I’ll be showing what you should expect when playing against them and a few strategies for coming out victorious. Keep in mind that this deck, while it is decent at 1v1, was created with multiplayer in mind and thus there will be numerous different decktypes all at once. Hopefully this list will show you which ones to really focus on.
Agro/Beatdown: This really depends on exactly what the other deck is. Normally going up against straight beatdown or agro is pretty good for you, as they tend to rely on lots of creatures so you can just keep removing till the cows come home. However, there are some agro decks that also function as reanimator decks, and these might give you a bit of a problem as they can simply bring their own creatures back, leaving you with no creatures to steal and another army of threats. Your best bet against beatdown and agro decks is to slap down some pillow fort enchantments like Aurification and Ghostly Prison so you can delay until you have enough mana to cast you bigger removal spells.
Control: Ugh control, everyone hates control. Even control decks (like this one) hate control. This is the type of deck you can’t really do anything about, and have to hope your other opponents hate control as much as you. While you can pretty easily handle any threats control decks put onto the board, many of them have ways of keeping a relatively clean board state and suddenly doing something crazy like infinite turns or infinite mill, which is bothersome. In an ironic way, these decks are the least worrisome of them all, while being the scariest as well, all depending on how they’re played. The way I feel about it is, if the control deck is going to end up losing, they’ll be dead first, and if they’re going to end up winning, not much anyone else can do about it unless they’re also running blue.
Combo: You will kick these deck’s asses to hell and back pretty much anytime you face them. The only thing you need to do in order to win is keep a watchful eye on exactly what they are trying to do, and the second they cast a nonland permanent blast it to oblivion. Most combo decks rely on a few permanents to guarantee a win, which is perfect for a deck whose sole purpose is to blow things up. Generally you’ll want to save spot removal for the combo player, while keeping things like board wipes for in case the rest of your opponents try and do something funny.
Voltron: Just like combo decks, there is a fairly good chance of you winning when you go up against these decks. Knocking a voltron deck out of commission is fairly easy; simply blow up their commander each time they bring them onto the field. You’ll be wanting a bunch of artifact and enchantment removal for these because that’s generally how they secure the win, as well as 1 or 2 kill spells in your hand pretty much at all times. Vedalken Orrery works wonders against these decks, protect it with your life.
Token: These decks are actually a bit bothersome if you don’t get the right cards, but with a few board wipes in hand they’re a dream to play against. You’ll find that spot removal isn’t nearly as effective as your mass removal in games against token decks, so make sure you hold on to those wipes until you absolutely need them.
Stax: If someone is playing one of these punch them. This is definitely one of your hardest match-ups because it generally locks down your board so much you run out of lands to cast removal with, and if that happens it’s pretty much game for you. Of course if you manage to blow up all their stax effects then you’re golden, but doing so can be a pretty big challenge at some times. Always target the stax player first when casting anything, and save your enchantment/artifact hate because that’s pretty much all stax is.
Sac and Recur/Reanimator: This deck is definitely your toughest match-up, and there are very fews ways to really put a stop to these kinds of decks once they get their engines going. The problem here is that Tariel needs creatures in the graveyards to win, but these decks can simply bring it back onto the field again, leaving you with nothing. They also care little about board wipes because they can just bring their creatures out again. Playing against these will definitely test your skill as a player, a win is still possible but it will be a struggle from the start.
And that is my unique take on Tariel. I'll be testing the everliving crap out of this deck at my LGS this weekend and afterwards I'll be putting in a detailed strategy section but for now I'll release this onto the interwebs. If any one has critiques, comments, or simply want to express your love for the deck, please let me know in the comments. There's a 99% chance I missed some amazing, spit-take worthy card while building this deck, so any suggestions would be fantastic.
My deck might have more stupid cards in it, though. Like Smoke
RRRAshling, the PilgrimRRR
UUUThadda Adel, AcquisitorUUU
In:
Darksteel Plate
Lightning Greaves
Out:
Agonizing Demise
Incinerate
Reusable targeted removal is always good
For Lists, Click Here
EDH:
GW: Selvala, Let us help YOU.
UB: Mirko Vosk, when outmatched cheat
BW: Vish Kal, The Arbiter of Reanimation
UG: Prime Speaker Zegana, the science of sorcery
RB: Malfegor, Traitor's Haven
UW: Daxos, Control-Fort-Tron
BG: Pharika, Goddess of Stax
RW: Gisela, Boros Control
RG: Ruric Thar, a Primal Surge deck
RU: Niv-Mizzet the Firemind, Spellslinger?!?!
B:(Pauper) Mikaeus the Unhallowed
R: Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient: The Power of Engineering
EDIT:
In:
Allay
Shattering Pulse
Illusionist's Bracers
Enlightened Tutor
Out:
Catastrophe
Vault of the Archangel
Orim's Chant
Terror
In
Ward of Bones
Replenish
Out
Incendiary Command
Terrain Generator