I first put together Glissa, the Traitor in late 2011 after becoming enraptured with the modern deck Sunrise Combo, otherwise known as Eggs. The deck gained its name from cantripping, mana-producing artifacts like Sungrass Egg, Skycloud Egg, and Darkwater Egg. It used modern iterations of these cards (Chromatic Sphere, Chromatic Star, etc.) and the card Second Sunrise alongside Lotus Bloom to generate massive amounts of mana and card advantage. For the record, a good primer of this deck and more of its history and development can be found here. My goal in building Glissa was to convert that deck, in any way possible, into EDH.
The end result was very different from a Modern combo deck. With the possible exception of Slaver-lock, Glissa was not made to be combo. Rather, I chose to focus on the incremental card advantage provided by low-cost, cantripping artifacts when recurred with Glissa. The rest of the deck evolved into a rattlesnaking control shell, focused on enabling Glissa with cheap, efficient spot removal and deterring attacks with the threat of instant-speed responses. The color combination of BG provides the deck with answers to any type of permanent, enabling a grinding, punishing strategy that seeks to drag a match into the late-game, and overwhelm the opponent with sheer card advantage.
This is the approach I took when building Glissa. However, I ought to mention that Glissa is a very versatile general, capable of enabling a host of different strategies:
Dredge:
One of the weaknesses of Dredge in EDH is the fact that the format is so dependent on powerful artifacts and enchantments. When playing Dredge, you always run the risk of milling powerful cards in types that are difficult to recur. Glissa circumvents this weakness by providing an easy outlet to get back Dredged artifacts, establishing her as a powerful general for the archetype. With her, dredging a creature often turns into CA, as it is likely you will dump an artifact into your graveyard. A French 1v1 decklist that focuses on a Mindslaver lock enabled with Dredge can be found here.
Ramp/Goodstuff: Woohah's Glissa Primer is a multiplayer-oriented decklist that uses dredge and a toolbox of powerful artifacts alongside more traditional BG big-mana strategies. The deck is less focused on Glissa herself, and aims to win the game with Exsanguinate, Genesis Wave, or big beaters like Wurmcoil Engine.
ALL the colors are strong in stax in their own way. The main reason being artifacts are the core of stax, not color. Artifice is overpowered in EDH (and magic in general).
I could not have said it better myself. Glissa makes a powerful Stax general because of her synergy with sacrifice effects like Grave Pact and Braids, Cabal Minion. She makes board-wide effects asymmetrical. It also gives the Stax player the ability to recur many important pieces once they have been used/destroyed. BG is a powerful color combination for Stax, giving access to aforementioned staples and Life From the Loam. Discussion on building the stax archetype can be found all over the forum, but particularly here.
Voltron:
Glissa's focus as an artifact deck makes her a logical choice to pick for a Voltron commander. Merely destroying her equipment is not going to be enough to deal with Glissa Voltron. Furthermore, she has a low (if specific) mana cost, in colors that are very capable of playing her turn 2. Her power is one of the "magic numbers" for commander damage, and the combination of first strike and deathtouch makes her difficult to block even before equipment come down. She is especially powerful with equipment that grant trample, as they essentially say "unblockable" at the cost of one damage.
Glissa sets herself apart from other BG legends as the obvious figurehead to an artifact deck. If you want to play a strong artifact deck, but don't want to be confined to zero- or one-color (i.e. Karn or Bosh) and don't want to be hated off the board as a combo deck (i.e. Arcum or Sharuum) then Glissa is the commander for you. Glissa is a commander that is useful at any stage of the game, but is by no means necessary for the deck to win. Her mere presence on the table, however, is enough to make almost every single card in your deck stronger. In my opinion, that's exactly what a commander should be.
Let's take an in-depth look at Glissa herself.
The first thing you notice about Glissa is her mana cost. A CMC of 3 is quite low for a commander, and especially for a creature with a P/T of 3/3 and three relevant abilities. However, none of her color requirements are colorless. Just like Alara block, Wizards thought they could get away with printing overpowered cards by complicating their mana cost, and again we'll prove them wrong. GG is an easy cost requirement to meet, allowing many turn-1 mana dorks (Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, Birds of Paradise) to power out a turn-2 Glissa. This does, however, mean that we should be mindful of using too many colorless utility lands.
Glissa has two keyword abilities: First Strike and Deathtouch. First Strike is not a particularly exciting ability in itself, however, it becomes extremely powerful when combined with Deathtouch. Any creature without First Strike or Double Strike that meets Glissa in combat will die due to Deathtouch damage before its combat damage can be assigned, protecting Glissa from dying in combat against creatures that are much larger than herself. This means that Glissa can attack with impunity, even into multiple creatures, because the rule for damage assignment states that only one point of Deathtouch damage needs to be assigned to a creature before assigning damage to another. It also makes Glissa a wonderful deterrent as a defensive creature, as any single creature that swings into you with Glissa untapped will die.
Glissa's triggered ability is her most powerful. Every time a creature is put into a graveyard, you get to return any artifact you like from your graveyard to hand. This gives resilience to any powerful artifacts you want to play, but also allows you to re-use any artifacts with sacrifice effects. Glissa, in the first place, is a good enabler of her own ability. If you block with Glissa, or she gets blocked, you're almost guaranteed to be able to get something back. Glissa's ability also triggers off of your opponents sacrificing creatures or killing each other's, meaning that you will have to do very little to get to use it. This ability will work through board-wipes, even if Glissa dies, making everyone's mass destruction spells play out in our favor. Keep in mind that this triggered ability says "may," so don't miss it!
Finally, Glissa's P/T is 3/3, which is very respectable for her mana cost. Though her power in combat often doesn't matter due to Deathtouch, it is high enough that your opponent has to start blocking Glissa eventually, should you choose to swing with her. Many opponents will have to think for a second about whether they want to take 3 commander damage, or lose a chump and let you have your unassuming Chromatic Star back. Take advantage of that!
Finally, Glissa’s color identity is BG. These are, in my opinion, two of the strongest colors in EDH. Black gives access to multiple cheap, powerful tutors, and a wide selection of both spot removal and board wipes to take full advantage of Glissa’s ability. Green shores up black’s weaknesses by providing answers to problem permanent types, like artifacts and enchantments. Green also gives the deck access to ramp and noncreature recursion.
In sum...
You Should Consider Playing Glissa If...
You enjoy holding a full grip of cards.
You like longer games.
You like playing politics.
You enjoy decks that utilize the commander to the fullest.
You like being the player with answers.
You find it fun to put bad cards to good use.
You Should Not Consider Playing Glissa If...
You prefer shorter games.
You like playing Archenemy against your whole table.
You are wary of a deck that relies on the commander.
How To Play the Deck
This is going to closely echo the deck philosophy, but I want to take the space to go over how an ideal game with Glissa would go. Remember, Glissa is in it for the long haul, and you need to adapt your playstyle based on what phase of the game we're getting into. Glissa is also not a very aggressive deck - even if you win, you likely won't have dealt the most damage over the course of the game. This doesn't mean you shouldn't attack when you see the opportunity. Whittling people down is how we're eventually going to score the win. But simply turning Glissa sideways isn't going to be enough to do it. Remember - the threat of removal and our great blocker should hopefully convince opponents to direct their attacks elsewhere, especially when the most threatening cards we're slinging are Chromatic Stars.
Early Game: Ramp and Cycle
As with most EDH decks, our goal in the early turns of the game are to curve out and ramp up some mana. Now, I don't play this deck with many traditional ramp spells. But there is a little bit of artifact mana here, and plenty of artifacts that can tutor up lands. In fact, having a Traveler's Amulet in the opener is a fantastic start for Glissa. We can fix our colors to make sure she comes down early and we'll have a way to make sure we keep playing lands through the mid- and late- stages of the game.
Speaking of, don't be afraid to drop Glissa as soon as possible, even if you don't have any artifacts to recur. In fact, playing her as "something to do" instead of waiting until you have a fully stocked graveyard might save her from getting countered or destroyed. Attacking with Glissa in the early game can also be a good line of play - 3 commander damage may not seem like much, but it adds up over time. Getting in early damage may force a block later on, which will typically allow you to recur something. Just be careful of making enemies - drawing attention is not what we're about. Evaluate your opponents. If someone is particularly threatening, drop their life total by a few points.
Mid Game: Rattlesnake and Control
Now you should begin to get a little more value out of your cantrips. Just keep playing and replaying them, drawing cards and pulling the basics out of your deck. Use your removal sparingly. If someone points a creature at you, make a point of killing it. Otherwise, unless something is actually game-ending-ly threatening, let the other players sweat it out. If it doesn't hurt you too badly, don't worry about it. If you're not target #1, letting another player use removal on a threat is straight-up card advantage for you. But keep your late-game in mind. This is an especially good time to build up a big-mana engine, in our case, Urborg and Coffers.
Late Game: Bomb Out
If all goes according to plan, people should be a good bit below their maximum life totals. Perhaps someone's been taken out. Maybe we're staring at the wreckage of an Oblivion Stone. And you're still sitting on a hand full of cards (maybe a lot of baubles and lands, but still) and a load of mana. Now's the time to drop some of our deck's few bombs. Steel Hellkite, for example, is a big, recurrable finisher that gets bigger with all the extra mana you have lying around. Geth, Lord of the Vault can re-animate some of those threats you removed before. I usually end up closing out games with Extort from Crypt Ghast or a chain of Mindslavers. The sky's the limit with your 20+ Coffers mana.
Acidic Slime - One of the best cards G has to offer in terms of artifact and enchantment destruction. For five mana we get to kill something troublesome and are left with a blocker that trades up to hopefully get us an artifact back. There's no part of that I don't like. Big Game Hunter - Creature kill on a body. Even with the restriction it's quite easy to find a good target. Burnished Hart - This guy is a ramp machine. It does use up a lot of mana, but we have plenty of that lying around. And ramp on a recurrable creature is just sweet. Crypt Ghast - A particularly good card with Urborg, this guy makes your big mana bigger. With all of the recurring one-drop artifacts we play, Extort is a legitimate way to close out a game. The lifegain, too, is nice padding, especially in multiplayer. Fleshbag Marauder - Three mana usually enables you to recur an artifact for each opponent. On a lucky day he can even destroy multiple commanders in one go. Graveborn Muse - Card draw on legs, which conveniently gets bigger if your commander is in play. Pilgrim’s Eye - This unobtrusive little guy helps you keep up on land drops, as well as providing a flying body to block. Plus, he's an artifact. Psychosis Crawler - With the amount of cantripping this deck does, the Crawler can dole out quite a bit of damage. Insane with Necro, Recycle, or Null Profusion. Rune-Scarred Demon - Given a bit of time and some removal backup, he can function as a finisher, but his prime use is of course a tutor. A good card to put under your Mimic Vat. Slum Reaper - Fleshbag 2.0. Solemn Simulacrum - When he comes in, he ramps, when he leaves, he draws. Recurrable. Value-town. Steel Hellkite - Finisher and targeted board-wipe, as well as being an artifact. Sylvok Replica - Destroys artifact and enchantments, and can be recurred. Many decks will groan at repeatable removal like him. Terastodon - Sylvan can bite it. This guy is extremely versatile; put the hurt on one player or remove up to three threatening cards with surgical precision. His "downside" is an upside for us - when those puny 3/3 bodies die, we get artifacts back! Wurmcoil Engine - There are few dumb beaters that are good enough to run in EDH, this guy is one of them. He pads your life total, trades up like a champ, leaves behind bodies, and keeps on coming back.
Artifacts
Chromatic Sphere - Bauble #1. If you need it to fix your mana to play Glissa, you can. Otherwise it just cycles for a card. Chromatic Star - Redundancy is a good thing. Or so I hear. Codex Shredder - One of the best cards in the deck, no joke. Can get back anything from a destroyed Coffers to Necropotence to a board-wipe. And keeps coming back off Glissa. Ruins topdeck tutors, and in a pinch can try and dig an artifact into your grave. Conjurer’s Bauble - Cantrips, as well as putting something more difficult to bring back into your deck again. With the amount of shuffling and drawing we do, we're bound to see it again. Darksteel Plate - With the amount of board wipes we play (recurrable ones, no less) Glissa's cost can skyrocket. We make a lot of mana, but why spend it when we don't have to? Executioner’s Capsule - A mediocre kill-card turns into a machine gun with Glissa round. How many things die? Well, how much mana do you have? Expedition Map - The all-star that makes Coffers happen on a consistent basis. Also tutors up land-based answers, like Bog. Golgari Signet - Mana ramp and color fix. Horizon Spellbomb - Nabs a basic out of the deck and draws a card. 2-for-1 is CA already, and with Glissa it gets even better. Jester’s Cap - One of the better answers to combo that we have. Strip it straight out of their deck. After a few shots of this, even the most redundant and versatile combo decks will cry. Memory Jar - Repeatable draw-sevens? Sign me up. Be extra sure to use this when your opponents are tapped out. Mimic Vat - One of the more powerful artifacts in the format, the Vat lets you re-use what you kill. It can make opponents seriously question what they put onto the battlefield if they suspect you have removal (spoiler alert: you do). Mindslaver - The king of the castle. As long as your opponents have creatures to swing into Glissa, you own them. When politics just won't work, play Archenemy and make them destroy each other. Nevinyrral's Disk - Let's be honest - we don't care about all non-land permanents hitting the bin. We lose practically nothing. Sure, it's much less political than O-Stone, but sometimes everything just has to die. Nihil Spellbomb - One of my choice pieces of graveyard hate. In the long run, a player that can use their graveyard will probably grind you out, but not when you've got this bad boy. Also cantrips. Oblivion Stone - A good reset button that Glissa keeps bringing back. Opponents will question swinging into you or even putting cards into play when you have this artifact out and mana up. But for every turn they let you sit on it, you make the inevitable devastation even more one-sided. Salvaging Station - I would sneak this into the command zone if I could. The added benefit of putting an artifact directly into play means that you can use the same Chromatic Star to cantrip on each opponent's turn - provided someone fuels it with death. Someone. Hint hint. Sensei’s Divining Top - While I don't believe this is an auto-include in every deck, with the amount of drawing and shuffling we do it certainly fits in here. Smooths out draws and sets you up to shuffle away chaff, as well as digging in a blind panic when you really, really need an answer. Sol Ring - I was against having this card in the deck for a long time because it doesn't help us play Glissa (the first time) and many of our cards have heavy B requirements. But enough of our deck is colorless that my justification was just no good. It's Sol Ring. What more is there to say? Thornbite Staff - Sometimes I feel like it's too cute, but its potential is too great to ignore. With a deathtouch creature like Glissa, that one damage is enough to kill any creature, untapping her and allowing you to do it again, recurring your artifacts in the process. Trading Post - A durdly artifact deck's dream come true. It turns any old artifact into a cantrip for us, and in Glissa's absence it provides a way to get needed artifacts back. With Necro in the deck, being able to ditch an unnecessary artifact for some life can come in handy as well. Traveler’s Amulet - One of the baubles that fetches basics. This is how you garuntee you hit all your land drops. Believe me when I say it's worth it. The answer to "How the hell do you have so much mana?" is a penny artifact. That's style. Wanderer’s Twig - See above. Wayfarer’s Bauble - A bit less appealing than Amulet and Twig because some people actually play it. But hispterisms aside, putting a land into play (over and over again) is just good. Our repeatable Rampant Growth.
Enchantments
Necropotence - The god-king of B-based card draw. Turn life directly into cards. Keep in mind that if you choose to overload your hand you may be forced to exile some of your artifacts. Avoid that. Null Profusion - While the drawbacks of the low hand size and potential lockout make this card unappealing to some, I find it absolutely phenomenal. Commander as a format has a natural out to being locked by the card, and Glissa herself gives you fuel if someone forces you to discard. With the plethora of cheap artifacts in the deck, you can burn through your library in a couple turns, enabling a win much more quickly. If you cast Praetor's Counsel after this, the hand-size downside is completely overwritten. Phyrexian Arena - Life is a resource. Pay it to draw. Not much needs to be said. Recycle - The original Null Profusion. I choose to play both, since I can. Underworld Connections - IMO, a slightly worse Arena, but still worth the inclusion.
Instants
Beast Within - The best removal we have. Hits any permanent, and leaves behind a body for us to kill. Win-win! Go For The Throat - Probably one of the best mono-B instant-speed two-cost removal spells. For what that's worth. Krosan Grip - Another way to answer a good amount of combos, or just your average everyday uncounterable instant removal. Good card is good. Hero's Downfall - Sometimes you just need to be able to kill anything. Putrefy - Sometimes you just need to be able to kill anything, or another thing. Vampiric Tutor - One mana tutor. With the amount of cantrips we run, it's not even a bad topdeck when we're in panic mode. Victim of Night - While it was pretty terrible for when it was printed in Standard, you don't exactly see a lot of Werewolves in EDH. As close to unconditional as we're going to get, at this point.
Sorceries
Beseech the Queen - By the stage in the game that you'll be playing it, basically an unconditional tutor. You do have to reveal the card, though, so better to just use it the turn you get it. Black Sun's Zenith - A solid sweeper that makes use of big mana and gets around indestructibility, as well as being reusable to some extent. Creeping Renaissance - I've had fantastic luck with this card. Usually we name artifacts, but it can also be used to get back Urborg/Coffers or our creature finishers. Flashback makes the card even more versatile. Damnation - B's premiere sweeper. The cheapest possible way to just reset the board. Decree of Pain - Blows up everything, and nets you a solid amount of cards. Usually this sets up a pretty epic hand. The cycle option is never terrible versus token strategies, either. Demonic Tutor - One of the cheapest unconditional tutors. Sometimes you've just gotta grab what you've gotta grab. Gaze of Granite - The spell version of O-Stone and Disk. We only get one shot with it, but the effect is usually such a winner for us that we want all we can get. Usually we'll just be destroying everything, but the option to pick and choose is always nice. Maelstrom Pulse - While it isn't instant-speed, our Vindicate is just as valuable. Comes with the upside of hosing tokens. Plague Wind - Destroys everything that's not yours. The high mana cost isn't usually a problem for G/. Praetor’s Counsel - Another card that is a bit overlooked in my opinion. In addition to giving you an infinite maximum hand size (which is a great follow-up to Recycle), it immediately brings back not only your artifacts, but your removal and board wipes as well. Can you say options? Scapeshift - The other main way we set up Urborg/Coffers, this can also grab Thespian's Stage for even more mana shenanigans, or Bog for some utility. Bonus points if you sacrifice artifact lands to fuel it.
Planeswalkers
Liliana Vess - The only 'walker I choose to run. She's a repeatable tutor, and that's pretty awesome. The number of cantrips we use lets us get what she grabs immediately more often than not. And if she's allowed to go off twice, you've wont he game.
Lands
Bojuka Bog - One of our graveyard removal options. Tutorable via Map or Scapeshift. Cabal Coffers - Part of the Big Mana combo along with Urborg. Producing a lot of one color doesn't bother us, as we play a lot of artifacts and can convert it into G. Forbidden Orchard - If you have Glissa and Mindslaver in play, you can lock your opponent out for the rest of the game by giving them a spirit, forcing them to swing with it, and killing it with Glissa to get 'slaver back. Rinse, repeat. Gilt-Leaf Palace - A dual land that comes into play untapped if you have a mana elf to follow it up with, enabling a turn-2 Glissa with any other basic. Besides that, just a CIPT dual. Golgari Rot Farm - I don't usually like bouncelands, but this has a bit of tech with Scapeshift. If you tutor in Urborg/Coffers alongside Rot Farm, you can bounce Coffers and play it as your land for the turn to make use of it immediately. Strip Mine - Some lands just need killing. Add Tectonic Edge if you need more ways to handle lands. Thespian’s Stage - Pretty much Urborg #2, another Scapeshift target. Tree of Tales and Vault of Whispers - Lands that you can recur if they get destroyed. Good things to sac to Scapeshift. Urborg, Tomb of Yawmoth - The other half of our big mana combo, also works extremely well with Crypt Ghast. Usually the first nonbasic I tutor for, given the chance. Vesuva - Personally, I prefer Thespian's Stage, but redundancy is nice.
Glaze Fiend - In my original iteration of this deck, he was one of the primary finishers. It was certainly funny to see him get close to twenty power. Ultimately he got cut, but if you're playing in a casual environment or want to go all-out on the bauble theme, he's a really fun inclusion. Golem Foundry - Same as above. Wasn't quite good enough to make the cut, but it was really fun with the amount of artifacts we cycle though. If you're building on a budget, I might consider this as a win-con. Bottle Gnomes - A card that got cut from the original version that I'm always on the cusp of putting back in. Now that I've gotten my hands on a Necropotence, lifegain is a bit more relevant. More guys with extort may be better than him, though he does block like a champ. Crucible of Worlds - Another EDH staple that I probably ought to be playing. If you run more fetchlands or face a lot of LD in your meta, this card is an obvious inclusion. If you use it, I recommend playing Buried Ruin as they protect each other, and they act as a gimped Glissa if you need it. Life From the Loam - I'm not playing this deck as Dredge, although it's certainly possible. And with all the cantrips we run, it's almost impossible to ignore a good dredge engine. Again, something to run if you're afraid of people blowing up your Coffers engine, and with some Cycle lands, it can create a good bit of card advantage as well. Isochron Scepter - I toyed around with the idea of using Scepter with some 2-mana instant kill spells for a while. I eventually took it out because I found a lot of the spells I was including to be sub-optimal, but a Scepter that can recur is a really big threat. Some more 2-mana removal spells I'd include if you chose to use Scepter would be Smother, Ultimate Price, and Terror. Exsanguinate - A card that takes advantage of the large amounts of mana we have open to us to win. I just hate being stuck with it in the early game, and it doesn't change your board state. I like my finishers better (especially extorters) but this card is worth mentioning for its blowout potential. Tragic Slip - While I recently cut this particular piece of removal, if your meta includes big, indestructible threats that aren't covered by Deglamer (i.e., Ulamog or Avacyn), you might want to consider this silver bullet.
Matchups and Meta-Choices
Of course, the way you play and build the deck will depend largely on what kind of decks you are responding to and the metagame in which you play, whether it be online, with your friends, or at a local card shop. There are a few choices you can make to improve certain matchups, such as...
Combo
As a slow pseudo-control deck that likes to fly under the radar, we have a bit of a problem with combo decks that end the game immediately. We have a few tools to combat them generally, and spot removal (if well-timed) actually takes care of a few prominent creature based combos. Cards that you can use to improve your combo matchup (depending on what you expect to face) include:
Sudden Death and Sudden Spoiling - Split Second is a good way to interfere with creature-based combos, and these cards act as removal and a fog respectively even if you have nothing better to shut down with them. I'd consider them valuable considerations for any Glissa build. Sadistic Sacrament - While Jester's Cap is good, this card adds redundancy to that effect, stripping necessary combo pieces from an opponent's deck before they get a chance to use them. It is to some extent playable otherwise. When you get enough many to kick it, you can remove most relevant threats from an opponent's deck, leaving you to grind out an eventual victory. Scrabbling Claws and other graveyard removal - A good number of combos operate out of the graveyard, and Claws is the next best piece of graveyard hate I'd include. Other good options are Scavenging Ooze and Withered Wretch. Other artifacts tend to remove your graveyard as well, making them less than ideal for Glissa.
(I'm looking for more meta-calls in the community's Glissa lists to deal with certain decks/generals. Please leave your suggestions as a comment!)
Closing Remarks
Thanks for taking the time to read through my write-up on my Glissa list. I talk about it enough on the forums that I figured I should probably put it up here at some point. I have the deck built in paper, but it's a little different from the list I use on here because of budget constraints. So if anyone plays a similar version online, I'd love to see what cards you choose. My style is obviously influenced by my meta and the guys I play with IRL, so other perspectives on the politics or other elements of the deck would be much appreciated.
I'd like to give credit to Woohah and his Primer, which was one of the main threads I drew influence from when I made this deck way back when.
I have a similar deck... I have been told I have too many eggs and I don't have anywhere as many as you. I have a lot more creatures and a lot less instants and sourceries. It is much harder for me to recur non- artifact non creature spells so I have focused on them.
Trading post ? it makes any artfact an Egg I think it really should be in there also great with Mindslaver, wurmcoil and solemn.
llanowar and findhorn and birds are way too low impact in my opinon I did have some orginally.. and I still have Jorga treespeaker but all my ramp elves aren't really what you want they just die too easy. If you are going to ramp get lands or use artifacts.
finally you have to be super careful you can still win the game if someone lands Stoney silence I am a jerk and built a deck that deliberately counters this one.
I have a similar deck... I have been told I have too many eggs and I don't have anywhere as many as you. I have a lot more creatures and a lot less instants and sourceries. It is much harder for me to recur non- artifact non creature spells so I have focused on them.
You can call those stylistic choices, and in terms of gameplay they've worked out pretty well for me. I mean, if I didn't run Eggs, then my deck wouldn't be Eggs. And I think instant-speed spot removal is really underrated in the format and serves as a powerful political tool. There are a lot of benefits to running a creature heavy list, though, such as probably being able to close out a game more quickly.
Of the cycle-able artifacts I play, the one that is on the chopping block for me is Barbed Sextant.
Trading post ? it makes any artfact an Egg I think it really should be in there also great with Mindslaver, wurmcoil and solemn.
You're probably right that this should be in there. It's slightly less good since I'm playing fewer creatures, but that's largely irrelevant since given another turn it makes its own creatures anyways.
I don't really feel like Nev's disc is necessary. To me, it's best in a deck that can really abuse it as more than a recurrable sweeper (Arcum, for example). The fact that it comes down tapped makes it a bit slow. Depending on what I was staring down, I think I'd always wish it was something else.
Plague Boiler was in the deck when I first built it but has since come out. It's expensive to blow up immediately if you need it, and also expensive to keep around if you don't want it to go off. O-Stone is much better because it's (relatively) cheap and only gets more threatening the longer it's out. I always resented paying the [3] every turn for Boiler because I usually wasn't in a situation where I needed to destroy everything.
There's enough good removal in G/B that I'm comfortable with O-stone as my only super-wipe.
Assembling one artifact + your general is easy. Assembling one artifact + plus a random creature in your deck is less so. Glissa can keep being played, and she can keep bringing Staff back. If Avatar gets killed, that side of the combo is over. Since I'm running Staff anyway, it's a consideration, but I just don't feel it's necessary.
llanowar and findhorn and birds are way too low impact in my opinon I did have some orginally.. and I still have Jorga treespeaker but all my ramp elves aren't really what you want they just die too easy. If you are going to ramp get lands or use artifacts.
It's all about the 1-CMC. There's very little other ramp that comes down turn 1. Sure, they're certainly bad topdecks later on, but so is any other ramp spell, really, and at least these guys are bodies.
If I'm being serious with myself, though, I could probably substitute them for Mox Opal or Chrome Mox or something.
Of these, I'd consider Sheoldred, but as you pointed out your deck runs more creatures than mine so she's probablybetter in yours. Grave Titan is too much of a big dumb beater for my liking, as all he does is bring more bodies. Evasionless, as well. Battlesphere is great because it's recurrable, but I've never seen it on the same power level as Steel Hellkite or Wurmcoil engine. I haven't tried it though, maybe people have had better results. It seems better in a deck like Jor Kadeen or something that needs bodies to sacrifice.
finally you have to be super careful you can still win the game if someone lands Stoney silence I am a jerk and built a deck that deliberately counters this one.
If I ran into that situation often I would make it a point to jack up the amount of artifact and enchantment removal. This deck has draw and responses outside of artifacts so I feel comfortable that it could survive long enough to fish out a way to destroy it. Less so in 1v1, though.
i'm not sure you can play white symbol cards like Crypt Ghast.
Because the only pace the white mana symbol appears is in the reminder text, it doesn't count as part of the card's color identity. It's the same thing as Trinisphere which can be played in non-B decks.
i like your idea to exploit the recursion of glissa with artifact tool such as the chomatic sphere but what do u think about Urza's Bauble and Mishra's Bauble? they are free to play, u gain some information with them and u can exploit cards such as cabal therapy .
The only issue I have with those is that they don't draw until the next upkeep. I should probably play those before Barbed Sextant, but that will probably come out for Trading Post anyway.
also i think Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is better than geth in glissa : protection against wrath effect and combo with mindslaver.
That's a very good suggestion! I'll definitely consider him as a finisher. Having played him mostly in Azusa thus far, I've focused way too much on his overrun effect.
to increase card advantage with your free artifact , a free casting card like massacre is good and u don't kill your general with it.
I'm not sure a flat -2/-2 is good enough here, even if it's free. I like Black Sun's Zenith, Plague Wind and Degree of Pain because they can all be cast without killing your commander but can also be unconditional board-wipes.
you can use the 1 mana cost green mana ramp enchantment instead of your bird and llanowar.
Utopia Sprawl? It's less fragile than the creature, but I think it's a worse card to draw late-game. At least the mana dork can be sacrificed to Trading Post (soon to go in) or serve as a blocker.
also ramp creature like sakura and wood elves are ok.
I agree. Maybe I shouldn't be as focused on making Glissa hit turn 2. Though I certainly like being capable to do so. I think I'd add in Wood Elves alongside its partner Farhaven Elf if I decided to use Skullclamp in the deck. Which also works well with Trading Post, so...
My glissa deck is quite a bit different, but I've found that Tortured Existence can do a lot of work if youre getting back artifact creatures from glissa triggers.
It would also be incredibly synergistic with big game hunter.
My glissa deck is quite a bit different, but I've found that Tortured Existence can do a lot of work if youre getting back artifact creatures from glissa triggers.
It would also be incredibly synergistic with big game hunter.
Great looking decklist though.
Good call! I don't know if I'm running enough creatures to really justify it (or if I'd want to discard my artifact creatures to get back others... Wurmcoil and Hellkite are my finishers, after all) but it's definitely a card to consider, and I love something that turns Glissa's recursion into another type of recursion. I'll put a little discussion about it up there.
Blasting works with exotic orchard for slaver lock.
It is infinite damage with salavagin station.
I might cut birds for krosan restorer and throw in a maze of ith to get infinite mana on the attack step for hellkite or untapping orchard to give your opponent multiple kill targets.
I've been constantly messing with this deck IRL. Been a while since I got back to this post, so I figured it was time to log my changes.
OUT: Birds of Paradise, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves - I had to be honest with myself, a turn-2 Glissa just isn't all that important. I'd rather be dropping baubles. Geth, Lord of the Vault - Not my favorite finisher, after all. Creatures are fragile, and while grabbing certain cards (Palinchron, Yosei) out of other graveyards often meant GG, Just as often his mill would just pour more fuel on the fire. Barbed Sextant - The worst bauble in the deck. I hated the delay on the draw. Dropped this for Trading Post. Abrupt Decay - I decided to take some of the spot removal out of the deck in favor of more board wipes. Considering Isochron Scepter hadn't been in the deck in ages, I figured this could go. It usually had a target, sure, but not always a good one. Doom Blade - Same as above, cutting some removal and ended up being too narrow. Hero’s Demise - Too narrow, and most of the time wasn't actually capable of triggering a recur.
IN: Burnished Hart - I don't love this card in every deck, but I love it in this one. Swamps matter, folks. Really brutal when re-used. Sol Ring - With so much of the deck being colorless, I couldn't justify being a hipster any more. Memory Jar - I honestly don't know why this wasn't in the spot-removal heavy version. Whatever, it's in now. Trading Post - See how long it's been since I've updated this? Post is an auto-include, no doubt about it. Nevinyrral's Disk - I love that O-Stone can be a panic topdeck or a political tool, and I'll swear up and down that it's better than Disk. However, the effect is just too good for us not to run more of it. Underworld Connections - Tiny addition to the draw package. Arena #2.
Found your deck the other day searching around on here, working on putting it together to try out, the only questions I hav are about land choices. Does the deck need that many basics? Is there a reason for not playing lands like Command Tower, Woodland Cemetery, Tainted Wood, Llanowar Wastes and/or Twilight Mire? Volrath's Stronghold is another commander staple that's just begging to be in here imo as well.
Found your deck the other day searching around on here, working on putting it together to try out, the only questions I hav are about land choices. Does the deck need that many basics? Is there a reason for not playing lands like Command Tower, Woodland Cemetery, Tainted Wood, Llanowar Wastes and/or Twilight Mire? Volrath's Stronghold is another commander staple that's just begging to be in here imo as well.
I play a lot of basics because a lot of the "baubles" in the deck fetch basics. I don't play a lot of ramp cards, because hitting land drops every turn eventually turns out to be ramp, IMO, and cards like Wanderer's Twig support that.
If you wanted to take out the cards that fetch basics (and that's reasonable, they're objectively bad cards) then making some swaps for nonbasics would make a lot of sense.
Personally, I find that the deck rarely runs into problems fixing its colors with the artifact land-fetchers. If I was to make any changes to the land base, I'd probably run some more utility lands alongside Crucible, rather than painlands.
I'd probably play Woodland Cemetery and Tower at least, though. I don't think I have enough creatures for Stronghold to really shine...
After playing as close to your build as I could, just thought I would leave some comments on how the deck performed for me personally.
I cut it down to 16 basics, 8 of each, and never really reached a point where I wished i had more basics.
I swapped Gaze of Granite for Pernicious Deed just because I already had the deed. I defiantly see the upside of Gaze, because I found throughout the day was I felt like I lacked answers to Planeswalkers most of all. I am going to keep my eye out for a Hero's downfall to replace Murder just as a solid upgrade.
I ended up playing Tempt with Discovery lacking a Scapeshift to play. It never happened, but I had a hard time casting that card without thinking all of my opponents were going to get Strip Mine.
Out of nothing more than pure laziness I played Maelstrom Pulse over Victim of Night. Not sure I ever saw a scenario arise that I was upset about that choice.
Some closing thoughts:
No time through day was I happy to draw Tragic Slip or Grisly Salvage. Thinking back on it, I'm not 100% on what I wish they had been at the time but before the next event I go to I'm gonna look at swapping them for Primal Command (I'm just in love with this card in EDH, lets you tuck any non-creature permanent, some desperation gain life, or a creature tutor worst case) and I'm not sure about the other one. I'd love to find a spot for Darksteel Plate or maybe Garruk Wildspeaker.
After playing as close to your build as I could, just thought I would leave some comments on how the deck performed for me personally.
Thanks! I'd love to keep hearing how it performs in metas other than my own.
I cut it down to 16 basics, 8 of each, and never really reached a point where I wished i had more basics.
Duly noted. Out of curiosity, what nonbasics did you use besides the more obvious duals? Any utility lands stick out as real winners?
I swapped Gaze of Granite for Pernicious Deed just because I already had the deed. I defiantly see the upside of Gaze, because I found throughout the day was I felt like I lacked answers to Planeswalkers most of all. I am going to keep my eye out for a Hero's downfall to replace Murder just as a solid upgrade.
Yeah, Deed seems like it would perform just as well as Gaze. They each have upsides and downsides. Being instant speed, Deed is probably better. Also good point on Downfall, I just can't justify spending 10$ on just another kill spell at the moment when I could put that into other cards.
I ended up playing Tempt with Discovery lacking a Scapeshift to play. It never happened, but I had a hard time casting that card without thinking all of my opponents were going to get Strip Mine.
How often did people accept the offer? I feel that if at least one opponent was silly enough to do it, you probably could have gone nuts with the extra mana, especially since the lands come in untapped. That alone is reason to consider it as a Scapeshift replacement.
There are definitely some cards that could go in to combat potential land destruction problems.
Out of nothing more than pure laziness I played Maelstrom Pulse over Victim of Night. Not sure I ever saw a scenario arise that I was upset about that choice.
You call it laziness, but it's probably a strict upgrade.
Some closing thoughts:
No time through day was I happy to draw Tragic Slip or Grisly Salvage. Thinking back on it, I'm not 100% on what I wish they had been at the time but before the next event I go to I'm gonna look at swapping them for Primal Command (I'm just in love with this card in EDH, lets you tuck any non-creature permanent, some desperation gain life, or a creature tutor worst case) and I'm not sure about the other one. I'd love to find a spot for Darksteel Plate or maybe Garruk Wildspeaker.
Interesting. On Grisly Salvage, I definitely understand... while it's nice to dump artifacts into the yard, it's not often that there's a land or creature that we really feel like taking... we'd be more in favor of removal, I suppose. I'm surprised to hear that Slip wasn't working out, I typically find a lot of use for it.
Did you find yourself playing more creatures? It's hard for me to justify running a tutor for them, although I suppose there are a few solid artifact creatures that would be good picks.
Are you seeking to protect Glissa with Plate? Another good card for that purpose is Voyager Staff, which helps her dodge removal and board-wipes, and is easily recurrable through her or Salvaging Station, and has plenty of other uses.
You've given me a bit to think about. Primarily, a few upgrades for the cards I'm running. The deck list is very very close to what I play on paper, which compared to most decks qualifies as budget. I should take the time to make some swaps for the online version, especially since I could easily include the cards I play in paper as budget options.
Thanks! I'd love to keep hearing how it performs in metas other than my own.
It was a more fun than competitive 27 man event, made up of 4-5 player pods. Deck performed great in the meta, leading to some really long but close games over all.
Duly noted. Out of curiosity, what nonbasics did you use besides the more obvious duals? Any utility lands stick out as real winners?
I dropped the Palace, 3 Forests and 2 swamps for the 6 lands I suggested in my post. I could see me going back to 10 forest and 10 swamps and trim the worst of the duals. There is so much fixing built into Urborg alone that most of it is just overkill. I'm on the fence about Volrath's Stronghold, it helped me a lot in one game where I recurred Fleshbag Marauder a few times. I see it as a pretty safe way to get Ghast back later on.
Yeah, Deed seems like it would perform just as well as Gaze. They each have upsides and downsides. Being instant speed, Deed is probably better. Also good point on Downfall, I just can't justify spending 10$ on just another kill spell at the moment when I could put that into other cards.
Yea, I'm kinda the same, if I come across one, I will def pick one up to replace murder. Yea I think the downside of Deed just really stuck out because I encountered soooo many planeswalkers.
How often did people accept the offer? I feel that if at least one opponent was silly enough to do it, you probably could have gone nuts with the extra mana, especially since the lands come in untapped. That alone is reason to consider it as a Scapeshift replacement.
1 pod everyone else went and got Reliquary Tower which we all got a good laugh out of. I of course got Urborg/Coffers/Vesuva/Stage and preceded to hear a lot of groaning.
There are definitely some cards that could go in to combat potential land destruction problems.
If people get hip to what I'm planning to do with it, Crucible of Worlds will have to find a home somewhere.
You call it laziness, but it's probably a strict upgrade.
And I agree that it is, but my intent was to play it as close to your list as possible.
Interesting. On Grisly Salvage, I definitely understand... while it's nice to dump artifacts into the yard, it's not often that there's a land or creature that we really feel like taking... we'd be more in favor of removal, I suppose. I'm surprised to hear that Slip wasn't working out, I typically find a lot of use for it.
I spent a lot of my turns recycling my gy and o-stoning turn after turn so the slip just never hit the mark, I can see in a 1v1 game that it may shine a lot better. I never really found a turn I wanted to cast Salvage, not to say its a dead/bad card in the list, just it seemed like I always had eggs to crack.
Did you find yourself playing more creatures? It's hard for me to justify running a tutor for them, although I suppose there are a few solid artifact creatures that would be good picks.
I played really close to your creature suite, Maelstrom Wanderer is big in my meta, and I would love nothing more than to Primal Command their Purphoros, God of the Forge back into their library. I'm almost never upset to Terastodon or Wurmcoil Engine, so something to dig them out + another useful effect just seems good.
Are you seeking to protect Glissa with Plate? Another good card for that purpose is Voyager Staff, which helps her dodge removal and board-wipes, and is easily recurrable through her or Salvaging Station, and has plenty of other uses.
As I said before, I found myself recycling o-stone alot, just thought how sweet would it be if I could just o-stone and Glissa stay on the board.
You've given me a bit to think about. Primarily, a few upgrades for the cards I'm running. The deck list is very very close to what I play on paper, which compared to most decks qualifies as budget. I should take the time to make some swaps for the online version, especially since I could easily include the cards I play in paper as budget options.
G/B are my favorite colors in Commander (and magic in general) so I had almost all "good" cards in the deck. Spent more time finding the eggs than any of the rares. There are some other cards I didn't play but that was only because I didn't have them but plan to play them once I get them. I played Dark Realms Lily because I had it handy, and sadly played Moriok Replica rather than Necro which I knew going in was a bad idea.
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Replica ended up being the only creature I added and yes Mindslaver is quite frowned upon at my LGS. They are working on a points system and taking someone else's turn costs you 3 points per turn.
I spent a lot of my turns recycling my gy and o-stoning turn after turn so the slip just never hit the mark, I can see in a 1v1 game that it may shine a lot better. I never really found a turn I wanted to cast Salvage, not to say its a dead/bad card in the list, just it seemed like I always had eggs to crack.
I've often felt the same way. I'll probably look for something to replace it.
I played really close to your creature suite, Maelstrom Wanderer is big in my meta, and I would love nothing more than to Primal Command their Purphoros, God of the Forge back into their library. I'm almost never upset to Terastodon or Wurmcoil Engine, so something to dig them out + another useful effect just seems good.
I can see how Wanderer could be a tough match. Another answer to Purph shenanigans would be Torpor Orb. Shuts down a couple dudes in our deck, sure, but it's much more harmful to our opponents.
As I said before, I found myself recycling o-stone alot, just thought how sweet would it be if I could just o-stone and Glissa stay on the board.
I've had some weird prejudice against Darksteel Plate since the guys in my meta seem to throw it into absolutely everything they play and it often ends up not doing that much work. I may have to reconsider it here. With more board wipes, Glissa dies a whole lot more than she used to.
With taking Mindslaver out, I may need to look for a replacement Win-Con.
Exsanguinate is the first thing that comes to mind.
You could also add more Extort creatures. Ghast is far and away the best one, of course, but I've won through extort before... Thrull Parasite is unfortunately the next best one IMO, because he drops early. He can also knock counters off 'walkers, coincidentally.
You could also just throw in a couple pieces of equipment. Loxodon Warhammer (or anything that gives trample) lets Glissa push through Commander damage really, really fast.
How has Rise of the Dark Realms been for you? In my experience, its been very susceptible to blow out, either by graveyard destruction or by being forked.
I've had some weird prejudice against Darksteel Plate since the guys in my meta seem to throw it into absolutely everything they play and it often ends up not doing that much work. I may have to reconsider it here. With more board wipes, Glissa dies a whole lot more than she used to.
Yea I can totally agree, but I think with all the board wipes we have it could do some heavy lifting over the course of a game.
Exsanguinate is the first thing that comes to mind.
Yea seems like another lazy out, I'll prob end up playing it just because there is no better 1 card finisher for a 4 man game.
You could also add more Extort creatures. Ghast is far and away the best one, of course, but I've won through extort before... Thrull Parasite is unfortunately the next best one IMO, because he drops early. He can also knock counters off 'walkers, coincidentally.
Pontiff of Blight seems like it might be easier to keep on the table but I'm not sure if it or Thrull is really worth a spot in the deck.
You could also just throw in a couple pieces of equipment. Loxodon Warhammer (or anything that gives trample) lets Glissa push through Commander damage really, really fast.
Not owning any Swords at the moment would really push me away from a voltron style approach.
How has Rise of the Dark Realms been for you? In my experience, its been very susceptible to blow out, either by graveyard destruction or by being forked.
It was a very recent inclusion, so I haven't had a chance to test it out yet. It's worked wonders for me before in MBC. But Glissa runs a fair amount of grave hate, so maybe it's going to come out soon. I just need to play a few games with it.
In your OP you mention that you end up with a lot of lands and such in your hand very quickly. This may be digging pretty deep into the card pool, but have you given any thought to Credit Voucher? Use your trinkets to fetch out a grip of lands, then shuffle them back in for chances at drawing spells. Rinse-repeat.
Sorry, Im currently working on a semi-similar deck, so your deck makes for an interesting model in many ways. =)
In your OP you mention that you end up with a lot of lands and such in your hand very quickly. This may be digging pretty deep into the card pool, but have you given any thought to Credit Voucher? Use your trinkets to fetch out a grip of lands, then shuffle them back in for chances at drawing spells. Rinse-repeat.
Sorry, Im currently working on a semi-similar deck, so your deck makes for an interesting model in many ways. =)
Huh. Funny thing, I'm sure I have one of those lying around. I'll have to give that a spin. Maybe I'll play that instead of Salvage for a few games and see how it works out.
I'm always happy to have more comments on the deck. Let me know how it works for you!
In your OP you mention that you end up with a lot of lands and such in your hand very quickly. This may be digging pretty deep into the card pool, but have you given any thought to Credit Voucher? Use your trinkets to fetch out a grip of lands, then shuffle them back in for chances at drawing spells. Rinse-repeat.
Sorry, Im currently working on a semi-similar deck, so your deck makes for an interesting model in many ways. =)
Alright Darcykun, I finally have my decklist. Well, close to it anyways. I haven't gotten to test it yet, but we'll see how it pans out tomorrow, once I figure out what to put in the last slot in case I don't get to grab a Mimic Vat. I was thinking running birthing pod, but I would need a lot more artifact creatures to justify it. Suggestions?
EDIT: And that was actually quite rude. Sorry. Been up for too long. I like the changes you've made to the deck. There's a few cards I don't have and don't want to throw down money on, so they're not in the list. I do like the idea of swinging with Glissa if you have to, as was suggested earlier. But I only own two swords (FaF and BaM) and only have the warhammer. Once I test tomorrow, I'll be able to say more.
Alright Darcykun, I finally have my decklist. Well, close to it anyways. I haven't gotten to test it yet, but we'll see how it pans out tomorrow, once I figure out what to put in the last slot in case I don't get to grab a Mimic Vat.
Nice looking list. You're running a good number of cards that I'm not, and I'm very interested in how many of them perform. I'm just going to jot down my thoughts about most of them...
Shimmer Myr - Very interesting. I feel that between holding spot removal and this guy, the deck could start feeling like a U control deck. I think if you're running him your spot removal package could be larger, but let me know if you get a chance to play with him.
Psychosis Crawler - Bravo for this one! You're right, there's a LOT of cards in this deck that would turn this guy into a real monster of a win-con, especially the Null Profusion/Recycle duo. This might be exactly what Sivartus was looking for as an alternative to 'slaver...
Harvester of Souls - I really don't like creatures that aren't artifacts, but he looks like he would give a lot of draw and he's a decent beater besides.
Massacre Wurm - I'm guessing this is a meta call against perhaps Krenko or Animar or something that runs a plethora of small creatures. I think I'm more comfortable with a sorcery than him, but then again, he can knock someone out of the game out of nowhere.
Urza's Babule and Mishra's Bauble - I neglected to play these (I really dislike the delayed draw) but honestly haven't tested them very much at all.
Glaring Spotlight - Seems like another meta-choice, but a good one against Sigarda or other Commanders we might otherwise have trouble with. I love 1 CMC silver bullets.
Smokestack - We'll probably always have fodder for it, but as a one-of stax effect, I'm not sure how much impact it will have. I'm very interested in how it performs outside of a stax-heavy list, whether or not you ever let it tick up to 2 or higher, etc....
Viridian Longbow - I like the machine-gun combo of the Staff, but this is by no means bad. I should at least mention it in the OP...
Darksteel Plate - I'm probably going to have to pick one up now, with everyone but me looking at it.
Exsanguinate - I'm thinking about re-replacing Rise with this, and I've suggested it to others, so I just want to see how it works for you.
Grave Pact - I can see how this would be good with Moriok Replica and others like him (Fleshbag and co. as well), but I just don't think we have enough dudes to make it worthwhile. Again, I'm open to being proven wrong.
I'd be very interested in how these choices work out for you in actual gameplay, because there are a number of them I've been considering as well (and a few very good calls I never thought of myself). Once you've had a chance to play the deck, please tell us all about it!
I do like the idea of swinging with Glissa if you have to, as was suggested earlier. But I only own two swords (FaF and BaM) and only have the warhammer. Once I test tomorrow, I'll be able to say more.
I don't think you have to have very many equipment to make it worthwhile. Even if we did invest in the voltron plan, it wouldn't be Rafiq or Uril style. We'd still want long games, just a little help closing them out. Warhammer and Sword of FaF are the two standout equpiment to me that would have value (Warhammer gives trample and offsets Necro, and FaF gives mana).
I've been thinking about all the comments I've been getting about creatures, and I'm thinking of brewing an alternate version of Glissa that takes advantage of them. I think we'd have to drop the bauble plan... we just don't have enough room at the moment to try and use both. But I think a creature-based strategy with Birthing Pod, artifact sac outlets and Grave Pact, and the interaction with Tortured Existence and non-artifact ETB creatures would be very strong.
I'll probably keep playing Baubles myself, but it would be nice to have an alternate list as well.
Also, has anyone tried Genesis Wave? The more removal we run, the worse it gets (which is why I took it out of an early version of the deck), but it might be good enough to run, especially in a creature-heavy version of if anyone's playing Kamahl, Fist of Krosa (who makes for a good combo with 'slaver).
Psychosis Crawler - Bravo for this one! You're right, there's a LOT of cards in this deck that would turn this guy into a real monster of a win-con, especially the Null Profusion/Recycle duo. This might be exactly what Sivartus was looking for as an alternative to 'slaver...
Yea, that could cause for some crazy Rube Goldberg machine with it, Crypt Ghast and Recycle
Darksteel Plate - I'm probably going to have to pick one up now, with everyone but me looking at it.
Yea, its just too important for our commander to stay on the board, it does feel week as a late game top deck but I still think it could be worth it's weight in gold during some games.
Exsanguinate - I'm thinking about re-replacing Rise with this, and I've suggested it to others, so I just want to see how it works for you.
I was thinking the same thing, Exsanguinate is almost never a bad draw where Rise can cause a blow-out but can be a super dead draw after gy hate or the likewise.
I've been thinking about all the comments I've been getting about creatures, and I'm thinking of brewing an alternate version of Glissa that takes advantage of them. I think we'd have to drop the bauble plan... we just don't have enough room at the moment to try and use both. But I think a creature-based strategy with Birthing Pod, artifact sac outlets and Grave Pact, and the interaction with Tortured Existence and non-artifact ETB creatures would be very strong.
I was thinking about a creature version that maybe played a suite of Modular artifact creatures (Arcbound Ravager)
Thoughts on Triangle of War? Seems like a funny idea with Glissa/Darksteel Plate.
Shimmer Myr - Unfortunately, didn't get to play him but once. But, flash in a Niv's Disk EOT and emergency boardwipe could be nice. But I did start out as a blue player so... eh.
Psychosis Crawler - I wish I had him when I had Recycle online. I immediately drew into a Reliquary Tower, a last minute sub in and windmill slammed it down. I had the most cards in hand. He hasn't gotten online yet, but he can potentially do some damage.
Harvester of Souls - Thrown in for lack of a slot actually. Haven't seen him yet.
Massacre Wurm - Yeah he's a meta call. A few people I know run tokens and the like. I was disappointed when I saw him in a game where people only cared about big value.
Urza's Babule and Mishra's Bauble - These are very nice with Recycle online. Free draw? Sure why not. Free draw on next turn? That's even better. Bonus points for not having to discard since it's already past your end step. Not bad, but there might be something better.
Glaring Spotlight - Meta Choice. Judged it more on past meta, but the alpha strike might be nice.
Smokestack - Eh. I never cracked it past 1. And then I usually sacked it because I wasn't getting what i needed. Not the best, but it gets rid of resources. I'll probably replace it once I can.
Darksteel Plate - This was an all star last game. Seriously. It and O-Stone are the only thing that kept us alive. Repeatable boardwipe? That goes back into your hand as long as one creature is on the field? Added bonus of making your general not cast ridiculous amounts to replay when things just need to die is always nice.
Actual report:
The deck did alright. A friend had my Wurmcoil Engine and hadn't returned it so I was at a disadvantage, but it did okay. Jester's Cap will be staying in the deck due to combo players everywhere. Seriously, gah.
The baubles linked up nicely when I drew them, and I kept the board pretty safe with glissa and executioner's capsule. The big threat never wanted to swing at me, and everyone else wanted me alive to deal with him. Eventually, the table got whittled down to me and two others, we killed one of the guys and drew because it was a tournament and top 2 advanced. Plus it took about 2 hours...
Game two? Oh god game two. Shelodrid and a Kalia player. Kalia board wiped three times before turn 6 and then started reanimating and dropping fatties. Thank god for O-Stone and Darksteel Plate or that'd been a quick game. I probably wiped the board 8 times myself just so myself and the other player wouldn't die. Shelodrid ended up winning once he got his engine online and hit me for lethal (which was 6. Turn 7 I got hit with Sorin's minus ability and had to go on the defensive like crazy)
All in all it was fun, but I had a few lack of finishers. Didn't draw what I needed, but the last game was too quick to really establish anything.
Looking forward, I do like the baubles, but a few might be able to be cut, as well as some of my creatures, to try and go into a more equipment or birthing pod suite. It would be interesting, and quite frankly, a hard engine to disrupt once it gets going. Could be something to look forward. I think I'm running a bit too many baubles, but I need more testing to work out the kinks.
Introduction and Deck Philosophy
I first put together Glissa, the Traitor in late 2011 after becoming enraptured with the modern deck Sunrise Combo, otherwise known as Eggs. The deck gained its name from cantripping, mana-producing artifacts like Sungrass Egg, Skycloud Egg, and Darkwater Egg. It used modern iterations of these cards (Chromatic Sphere, Chromatic Star, etc.) and the card Second Sunrise alongside Lotus Bloom to generate massive amounts of mana and card advantage. For the record, a good primer of this deck and more of its history and development can be found here. My goal in building Glissa was to convert that deck, in any way possible, into EDH.
The end result was very different from a Modern combo deck. With the possible exception of Slaver-lock, Glissa was not made to be combo. Rather, I chose to focus on the incremental card advantage provided by low-cost, cantripping artifacts when recurred with Glissa. The rest of the deck evolved into a rattlesnaking control shell, focused on enabling Glissa with cheap, efficient spot removal and deterring attacks with the threat of instant-speed responses. The color combination of BG provides the deck with answers to any type of permanent, enabling a grinding, punishing strategy that seeks to drag a match into the late-game, and overwhelm the opponent with sheer card advantage.
This is the approach I took when building Glissa. However, I ought to mention that Glissa is a very versatile general, capable of enabling a host of different strategies:
One of the weaknesses of Dredge in EDH is the fact that the format is so dependent on powerful artifacts and enchantments. When playing Dredge, you always run the risk of milling powerful cards in types that are difficult to recur. Glissa circumvents this weakness by providing an easy outlet to get back Dredged artifacts, establishing her as a powerful general for the archetype. With her, dredging a creature often turns into CA, as it is likely you will dump an artifact into your graveyard. A French 1v1 decklist that focuses on a Mindslaver lock enabled with Dredge can be found here.
Ramp/Goodstuff:
Woohah's Glissa Primer is a multiplayer-oriented decklist that uses dredge and a toolbox of powerful artifacts alongside more traditional BG big-mana strategies. The deck is less focused on Glissa herself, and aims to win the game with Exsanguinate, Genesis Wave, or big beaters like Wurmcoil Engine.
Stax:
I could not have said it better myself. Glissa makes a powerful Stax general because of her synergy with sacrifice effects like Grave Pact and Braids, Cabal Minion. She makes board-wide effects asymmetrical. It also gives the Stax player the ability to recur many important pieces once they have been used/destroyed. BG is a powerful color combination for Stax, giving access to aforementioned staples and Life From the Loam. Discussion on building the stax archetype can be found all over the forum, but particularly here.
Voltron:
Glissa's focus as an artifact deck makes her a logical choice to pick for a Voltron commander. Merely destroying her equipment is not going to be enough to deal with Glissa Voltron. Furthermore, she has a low (if specific) mana cost, in colors that are very capable of playing her turn 2. Her power is one of the "magic numbers" for commander damage, and the combination of first strike and deathtouch makes her difficult to block even before equipment come down. She is especially powerful with equipment that grant trample, as they essentially say "unblockable" at the cost of one damage.
Why Play Glissa?
Glissa sets herself apart from other BG legends as the obvious figurehead to an artifact deck. If you want to play a strong artifact deck, but don't want to be confined to zero- or one-color (i.e. Karn or Bosh) and don't want to be hated off the board as a combo deck (i.e. Arcum or Sharuum) then Glissa is the commander for you. Glissa is a commander that is useful at any stage of the game, but is by no means necessary for the deck to win. Her mere presence on the table, however, is enough to make almost every single card in your deck stronger. In my opinion, that's exactly what a commander should be.
Let's take an in-depth look at Glissa herself.
The first thing you notice about Glissa is her mana cost. A CMC of 3 is quite low for a commander, and especially for a creature with a P/T of 3/3 and three relevant abilities. However, none of her color requirements are colorless. Just like Alara block, Wizards thought they could get away with printing overpowered cards by complicating their mana cost, and again we'll prove them wrong. GG is an easy cost requirement to meet, allowing many turn-1 mana dorks (Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, Birds of Paradise) to power out a turn-2 Glissa. This does, however, mean that we should be mindful of using too many colorless utility lands.
Glissa has two keyword abilities: First Strike and Deathtouch. First Strike is not a particularly exciting ability in itself, however, it becomes extremely powerful when combined with Deathtouch. Any creature without First Strike or Double Strike that meets Glissa in combat will die due to Deathtouch damage before its combat damage can be assigned, protecting Glissa from dying in combat against creatures that are much larger than herself. This means that Glissa can attack with impunity, even into multiple creatures, because the rule for damage assignment states that only one point of Deathtouch damage needs to be assigned to a creature before assigning damage to another. It also makes Glissa a wonderful deterrent as a defensive creature, as any single creature that swings into you with Glissa untapped will die.
Glissa's triggered ability is her most powerful. Every time a creature is put into a graveyard, you get to return any artifact you like from your graveyard to hand. This gives resilience to any powerful artifacts you want to play, but also allows you to re-use any artifacts with sacrifice effects. Glissa, in the first place, is a good enabler of her own ability. If you block with Glissa, or she gets blocked, you're almost guaranteed to be able to get something back. Glissa's ability also triggers off of your opponents sacrificing creatures or killing each other's, meaning that you will have to do very little to get to use it. This ability will work through board-wipes, even if Glissa dies, making everyone's mass destruction spells play out in our favor. Keep in mind that this triggered ability says "may," so don't miss it!
Finally, Glissa's P/T is 3/3, which is very respectable for her mana cost. Though her power in combat often doesn't matter due to Deathtouch, it is high enough that your opponent has to start blocking Glissa eventually, should you choose to swing with her. Many opponents will have to think for a second about whether they want to take 3 commander damage, or lose a chump and let you have your unassuming Chromatic Star back. Take advantage of that!
Finally, Glissa’s color identity is BG. These are, in my opinion, two of the strongest colors in EDH. Black gives access to multiple cheap, powerful tutors, and a wide selection of both spot removal and board wipes to take full advantage of Glissa’s ability. Green shores up black’s weaknesses by providing answers to problem permanent types, like artifacts and enchantments. Green also gives the deck access to ramp and noncreature recursion.
In sum...
You Should Consider Playing Glissa If...
You Should Not Consider Playing Glissa If...
The Deck
1 Glissa the Traitor
Creatures (15)
1 Acidic Slime
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Burnished Hart
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Pilgrim’s Eye
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Slum Reaper
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Terastodon
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Artifacts (24)
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Codex Shredder
1 Conjurer’s Bauble
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Executioner’s Capsule
1 Expedition Map
1 Golgari Signet
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Jester’s Cap
1 Memory Jar
1 Mimic Vat
1 Mindslaver
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Salvaging Station
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Trading Post
1 Traveler’s Amulet
1 Wanderer’s Twig
1 Wayfarer’s Bauble
1 Necropotence
1 Null Profusion
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Recycle
1 Underworld Connections
Instants (7)
1 Beast Within
1 Go For The Throat
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Krosan Grip
1 Putrefy
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Victim of Night
Sorceries (11)
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Creeping Renaissance
1 Damnation
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gaze of Granite
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Plague Wind
1 Praetor’s Counsel
1 Scapeshift
Planeswalkers (1)
1 Liliana Vess
Lands (36)
1 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Forbidden Orchard
11 Forest
1 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Strip Mine
10 Swamp
1 Temple of the False God
1 Thespian’s Stage
1 Tree of Tales
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawmoth
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Vesuva
How To Play the Deck
This is going to closely echo the deck philosophy, but I want to take the space to go over how an ideal game with Glissa would go. Remember, Glissa is in it for the long haul, and you need to adapt your playstyle based on what phase of the game we're getting into. Glissa is also not a very aggressive deck - even if you win, you likely won't have dealt the most damage over the course of the game. This doesn't mean you shouldn't attack when you see the opportunity. Whittling people down is how we're eventually going to score the win. But simply turning Glissa sideways isn't going to be enough to do it. Remember - the threat of removal and our great blocker should hopefully convince opponents to direct their attacks elsewhere, especially when the most threatening cards we're slinging are Chromatic Stars.
Early Game: Ramp and Cycle
As with most EDH decks, our goal in the early turns of the game are to curve out and ramp up some mana. Now, I don't play this deck with many traditional ramp spells. But there is a little bit of artifact mana here, and plenty of artifacts that can tutor up lands. In fact, having a Traveler's Amulet in the opener is a fantastic start for Glissa. We can fix our colors to make sure she comes down early and we'll have a way to make sure we keep playing lands through the mid- and late- stages of the game.
Speaking of, don't be afraid to drop Glissa as soon as possible, even if you don't have any artifacts to recur. In fact, playing her as "something to do" instead of waiting until you have a fully stocked graveyard might save her from getting countered or destroyed. Attacking with Glissa in the early game can also be a good line of play - 3 commander damage may not seem like much, but it adds up over time. Getting in early damage may force a block later on, which will typically allow you to recur something. Just be careful of making enemies - drawing attention is not what we're about. Evaluate your opponents. If someone is particularly threatening, drop their life total by a few points.
Mid Game: Rattlesnake and Control
Now you should begin to get a little more value out of your cantrips. Just keep playing and replaying them, drawing cards and pulling the basics out of your deck. Use your removal sparingly. If someone points a creature at you, make a point of killing it. Otherwise, unless something is actually game-ending-ly threatening, let the other players sweat it out. If it doesn't hurt you too badly, don't worry about it. If you're not target #1, letting another player use removal on a threat is straight-up card advantage for you. But keep your late-game in mind. This is an especially good time to build up a big-mana engine, in our case, Urborg and Coffers.
Late Game: Bomb Out
If all goes according to plan, people should be a good bit below their maximum life totals. Perhaps someone's been taken out. Maybe we're staring at the wreckage of an Oblivion Stone. And you're still sitting on a hand full of cards (maybe a lot of baubles and lands, but still) and a load of mana. Now's the time to drop some of our deck's few bombs. Steel Hellkite, for example, is a big, recurrable finisher that gets bigger with all the extra mana you have lying around. Geth, Lord of the Vault can re-animate some of those threats you removed before. I usually end up closing out games with Extort from Crypt Ghast or a chain of Mindslavers. The sky's the limit with your 20+ Coffers mana.
Individual Card Choices
Creatures
Acidic Slime - One of the best cards G has to offer in terms of artifact and enchantment destruction. For five mana we get to kill something troublesome and are left with a blocker that trades up to hopefully get us an artifact back. There's no part of that I don't like.
Big Game Hunter - Creature kill on a body. Even with the restriction it's quite easy to find a good target.
Burnished Hart - This guy is a ramp machine. It does use up a lot of mana, but we have plenty of that lying around. And ramp on a recurrable creature is just sweet.
Crypt Ghast - A particularly good card with Urborg, this guy makes your big mana bigger. With all of the recurring one-drop artifacts we play, Extort is a legitimate way to close out a game. The lifegain, too, is nice padding, especially in multiplayer.
Fleshbag Marauder - Three mana usually enables you to recur an artifact for each opponent. On a lucky day he can even destroy multiple commanders in one go.
Graveborn Muse - Card draw on legs, which conveniently gets bigger if your commander is in play.
Pilgrim’s Eye - This unobtrusive little guy helps you keep up on land drops, as well as providing a flying body to block. Plus, he's an artifact.
Psychosis Crawler - With the amount of cantripping this deck does, the Crawler can dole out quite a bit of damage. Insane with Necro, Recycle, or Null Profusion.
Rune-Scarred Demon - Given a bit of time and some removal backup, he can function as a finisher, but his prime use is of course a tutor. A good card to put under your Mimic Vat.
Slum Reaper - Fleshbag 2.0.
Solemn Simulacrum - When he comes in, he ramps, when he leaves, he draws. Recurrable. Value-town.
Steel Hellkite - Finisher and targeted board-wipe, as well as being an artifact.
Sylvok Replica - Destroys artifact and enchantments, and can be recurred. Many decks will groan at repeatable removal like him.
Terastodon - Sylvan can bite it. This guy is extremely versatile; put the hurt on one player or remove up to three threatening cards with surgical precision. His "downside" is an upside for us - when those puny 3/3 bodies die, we get artifacts back!
Wurmcoil Engine - There are few dumb beaters that are good enough to run in EDH, this guy is one of them. He pads your life total, trades up like a champ, leaves behind bodies, and keeps on coming back.
Artifacts
Chromatic Sphere - Bauble #1. If you need it to fix your mana to play Glissa, you can. Otherwise it just cycles for a card.
Chromatic Star - Redundancy is a good thing. Or so I hear.
Codex Shredder - One of the best cards in the deck, no joke. Can get back anything from a destroyed Coffers to Necropotence to a board-wipe. And keeps coming back off Glissa. Ruins topdeck tutors, and in a pinch can try and dig an artifact into your grave.
Conjurer’s Bauble - Cantrips, as well as putting something more difficult to bring back into your deck again. With the amount of shuffling and drawing we do, we're bound to see it again.
Darksteel Plate - With the amount of board wipes we play (recurrable ones, no less) Glissa's cost can skyrocket. We make a lot of mana, but why spend it when we don't have to?
Executioner’s Capsule - A mediocre kill-card turns into a machine gun with Glissa round. How many things die? Well, how much mana do you have?
Expedition Map - The all-star that makes Coffers happen on a consistent basis. Also tutors up land-based answers, like Bog.
Golgari Signet - Mana ramp and color fix.
Horizon Spellbomb - Nabs a basic out of the deck and draws a card. 2-for-1 is CA already, and with Glissa it gets even better.
Jester’s Cap - One of the better answers to combo that we have. Strip it straight out of their deck. After a few shots of this, even the most redundant and versatile combo decks will cry.
Memory Jar - Repeatable draw-sevens? Sign me up. Be extra sure to use this when your opponents are tapped out.
Mimic Vat - One of the more powerful artifacts in the format, the Vat lets you re-use what you kill. It can make opponents seriously question what they put onto the battlefield if they suspect you have removal (spoiler alert: you do).
Mindslaver - The king of the castle. As long as your opponents have creatures to swing into Glissa, you own them. When politics just won't work, play Archenemy and make them destroy each other.
Nevinyrral's Disk - Let's be honest - we don't care about all non-land permanents hitting the bin. We lose practically nothing. Sure, it's much less political than O-Stone, but sometimes everything just has to die.
Nihil Spellbomb - One of my choice pieces of graveyard hate. In the long run, a player that can use their graveyard will probably grind you out, but not when you've got this bad boy. Also cantrips.
Oblivion Stone - A good reset button that Glissa keeps bringing back. Opponents will question swinging into you or even putting cards into play when you have this artifact out and mana up. But for every turn they let you sit on it, you make the inevitable devastation even more one-sided.
Salvaging Station - I would sneak this into the command zone if I could. The added benefit of putting an artifact directly into play means that you can use the same Chromatic Star to cantrip on each opponent's turn - provided someone fuels it with death. Someone. Hint hint.
Sensei’s Divining Top - While I don't believe this is an auto-include in every deck, with the amount of drawing and shuffling we do it certainly fits in here. Smooths out draws and sets you up to shuffle away chaff, as well as digging in a blind panic when you really, really need an answer.
Sol Ring - I was against having this card in the deck for a long time because it doesn't help us play Glissa (the first time) and many of our cards have heavy B requirements. But enough of our deck is colorless that my justification was just no good. It's Sol Ring. What more is there to say?
Thornbite Staff - Sometimes I feel like it's too cute, but its potential is too great to ignore. With a deathtouch creature like Glissa, that one damage is enough to kill any creature, untapping her and allowing you to do it again, recurring your artifacts in the process.
Trading Post - A durdly artifact deck's dream come true. It turns any old artifact into a cantrip for us, and in Glissa's absence it provides a way to get needed artifacts back. With Necro in the deck, being able to ditch an unnecessary artifact for some life can come in handy as well.
Traveler’s Amulet - One of the baubles that fetches basics. This is how you garuntee you hit all your land drops. Believe me when I say it's worth it. The answer to "How the hell do you have so much mana?" is a penny artifact. That's style.
Wanderer’s Twig - See above.
Wayfarer’s Bauble - A bit less appealing than Amulet and Twig because some people actually play it. But hispterisms aside, putting a land into play (over and over again) is just good. Our repeatable Rampant Growth.
Enchantments
Necropotence - The god-king of B-based card draw. Turn life directly into cards. Keep in mind that if you choose to overload your hand you may be forced to exile some of your artifacts. Avoid that.
Null Profusion - While the drawbacks of the low hand size and potential lockout make this card unappealing to some, I find it absolutely phenomenal. Commander as a format has a natural out to being locked by the card, and Glissa herself gives you fuel if someone forces you to discard. With the plethora of cheap artifacts in the deck, you can burn through your library in a couple turns, enabling a win much more quickly. If you cast Praetor's Counsel after this, the hand-size downside is completely overwritten.
Phyrexian Arena - Life is a resource. Pay it to draw. Not much needs to be said.
Recycle - The original Null Profusion. I choose to play both, since I can.
Underworld Connections - IMO, a slightly worse Arena, but still worth the inclusion.
Instants
Beast Within - The best removal we have. Hits any permanent, and leaves behind a body for us to kill. Win-win!
Go For The Throat - Probably one of the best mono-B instant-speed two-cost removal spells. For what that's worth.
Krosan Grip - Another way to answer a good amount of combos, or just your average everyday uncounterable instant removal. Good card is good.
Hero's Downfall - Sometimes you just need to be able to kill anything.
Putrefy - Sometimes you just need to be able to kill anything, or another thing.
Vampiric Tutor - One mana tutor. With the amount of cantrips we run, it's not even a bad topdeck when we're in panic mode.
Victim of Night - While it was pretty terrible for when it was printed in Standard, you don't exactly see a lot of Werewolves in EDH. As close to unconditional as we're going to get, at this point.
Sorceries
Beseech the Queen - By the stage in the game that you'll be playing it, basically an unconditional tutor. You do have to reveal the card, though, so better to just use it the turn you get it.
Black Sun's Zenith - A solid sweeper that makes use of big mana and gets around indestructibility, as well as being reusable to some extent.
Creeping Renaissance - I've had fantastic luck with this card. Usually we name artifacts, but it can also be used to get back Urborg/Coffers or our creature finishers. Flashback makes the card even more versatile.
Damnation - B's premiere sweeper. The cheapest possible way to just reset the board.
Decree of Pain - Blows up everything, and nets you a solid amount of cards. Usually this sets up a pretty epic hand. The cycle option is never terrible versus token strategies, either.
Demonic Tutor - One of the cheapest unconditional tutors. Sometimes you've just gotta grab what you've gotta grab.
Gaze of Granite - The spell version of O-Stone and Disk. We only get one shot with it, but the effect is usually such a winner for us that we want all we can get. Usually we'll just be destroying everything, but the option to pick and choose is always nice.
Maelstrom Pulse - While it isn't instant-speed, our Vindicate is just as valuable. Comes with the upside of hosing tokens.
Plague Wind - Destroys everything that's not yours. The high mana cost isn't usually a problem for G/.
Praetor’s Counsel - Another card that is a bit overlooked in my opinion. In addition to giving you an infinite maximum hand size (which is a great follow-up to Recycle), it immediately brings back not only your artifacts, but your removal and board wipes as well. Can you say options?
Scapeshift - The other main way we set up Urborg/Coffers, this can also grab Thespian's Stage for even more mana shenanigans, or Bog for some utility. Bonus points if you sacrifice artifact lands to fuel it.
Planeswalkers
Liliana Vess - The only 'walker I choose to run. She's a repeatable tutor, and that's pretty awesome. The number of cantrips we use lets us get what she grabs immediately more often than not. And if she's allowed to go off twice, you've wont he game.
Lands
Bojuka Bog - One of our graveyard removal options. Tutorable via Map or Scapeshift.
Cabal Coffers - Part of the Big Mana combo along with Urborg. Producing a lot of one color doesn't bother us, as we play a lot of artifacts and can convert it into G.
Forbidden Orchard - If you have Glissa and Mindslaver in play, you can lock your opponent out for the rest of the game by giving them a spirit, forcing them to swing with it, and killing it with Glissa to get 'slaver back. Rinse, repeat.
Gilt-Leaf Palace - A dual land that comes into play untapped if you have a mana elf to follow it up with, enabling a turn-2 Glissa with any other basic. Besides that, just a CIPT dual.
Golgari Rot Farm - I don't usually like bouncelands, but this has a bit of tech with Scapeshift. If you tutor in Urborg/Coffers alongside Rot Farm, you can bounce Coffers and play it as your land for the turn to make use of it immediately.
Strip Mine - Some lands just need killing. Add Tectonic Edge if you need more ways to handle lands.
Thespian’s Stage - Pretty much Urborg #2, another Scapeshift target.
Tree of Tales and Vault of Whispers - Lands that you can recur if they get destroyed. Good things to sac to Scapeshift.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawmoth - The other half of our big mana combo, also works extremely well with Crypt Ghast. Usually the first nonbasic I tutor for, given the chance.
Vesuva - Personally, I prefer Thespian's Stage, but redundancy is nice.
Cards To Consider:
Glaze Fiend - In my original iteration of this deck, he was one of the primary finishers. It was certainly funny to see him get close to twenty power. Ultimately he got cut, but if you're playing in a casual environment or want to go all-out on the bauble theme, he's a really fun inclusion.
Golem Foundry - Same as above. Wasn't quite good enough to make the cut, but it was really fun with the amount of artifacts we cycle though. If you're building on a budget, I might consider this as a win-con.
Bottle Gnomes - A card that got cut from the original version that I'm always on the cusp of putting back in. Now that I've gotten my hands on a Necropotence, lifegain is a bit more relevant. More guys with extort may be better than him, though he does block like a champ.
Crucible of Worlds - Another EDH staple that I probably ought to be playing. If you run more fetchlands or face a lot of LD in your meta, this card is an obvious inclusion. If you use it, I recommend playing Buried Ruin as they protect each other, and they act as a gimped Glissa if you need it.
Life From the Loam - I'm not playing this deck as Dredge, although it's certainly possible. And with all the cantrips we run, it's almost impossible to ignore a good dredge engine. Again, something to run if you're afraid of people blowing up your Coffers engine, and with some Cycle lands, it can create a good bit of card advantage as well.
Isochron Scepter - I toyed around with the idea of using Scepter with some 2-mana instant kill spells for a while. I eventually took it out because I found a lot of the spells I was including to be sub-optimal, but a Scepter that can recur is a really big threat. Some more 2-mana removal spells I'd include if you chose to use Scepter would be Smother, Ultimate Price, and Terror.
Exsanguinate - A card that takes advantage of the large amounts of mana we have open to us to win. I just hate being stuck with it in the early game, and it doesn't change your board state. I like my finishers better (especially extorters) but this card is worth mentioning for its blowout potential.
Tragic Slip - While I recently cut this particular piece of removal, if your meta includes big, indestructible threats that aren't covered by Deglamer (i.e., Ulamog or Avacyn), you might want to consider this silver bullet.
Matchups and Meta-Choices
Of course, the way you play and build the deck will depend largely on what kind of decks you are responding to and the metagame in which you play, whether it be online, with your friends, or at a local card shop. There are a few choices you can make to improve certain matchups, such as...
Combo
Sudden Death and Sudden Spoiling - Split Second is a good way to interfere with creature-based combos, and these cards act as removal and a fog respectively even if you have nothing better to shut down with them. I'd consider them valuable considerations for any Glissa build.
Sadistic Sacrament - While Jester's Cap is good, this card adds redundancy to that effect, stripping necessary combo pieces from an opponent's deck before they get a chance to use them. It is to some extent playable otherwise. When you get enough many to kick it, you can remove most relevant threats from an opponent's deck, leaving you to grind out an eventual victory.
Scrabbling Claws and other graveyard removal - A good number of combos operate out of the graveyard, and Claws is the next best piece of graveyard hate I'd include. Other good options are Scavenging Ooze and Withered Wretch. Other artifacts tend to remove your graveyard as well, making them less than ideal for Glissa.
(I'm looking for more meta-calls in the community's Glissa lists to deal with certain decks/generals. Please leave your suggestions as a comment!)
Closing Remarks
Thanks for taking the time to read through my write-up on my Glissa list. I talk about it enough on the forums that I figured I should probably put it up here at some point. I have the deck built in paper, but it's a little different from the list I use on here because of budget constraints. So if anyone plays a similar version online, I'd love to see what cards you choose. My style is obviously influenced by my meta and the guys I play with IRL, so other perspectives on the politics or other elements of the deck would be much appreciated.
I'd like to give credit to Woohah and his Primer, which was one of the main threads I drew influence from when I made this deck way back when.
Changelog
1/22/2014 -
1 Murder
1 Tragic Slip
1 Rise of the Dark Realms
IN:
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Psychosis Crawler
12/16/2013 -
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Barbed Sextant
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Doom Blade
1 Hero’s Demise
IN:
1 Sol Ring
1 Memory Jar
1 Trading Post
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Underworld Connections
1 Gaze of Granite
1 Rise of the Dark Realms
Draft my Peasant Cube.
I have a similar deck... I have been told I have too many eggs and I don't have anywhere as many as you. I have a lot more creatures and a lot less instants and sourceries. It is much harder for me to recur non- artifact non creature spells so I have focused on them.
Trading post ? it makes any artfact an Egg I think it really should be in there also great with Mindslaver, wurmcoil and solemn.
Nevinyarrl's disc, plauge boiler?
You have thornbite staff but you don't have Avatar of Woe that creates "kill all targetable creatures semi combo"
llanowar and findhorn and birds are way too low impact in my opinon I did have some orginally.. and I still have Jorga treespeaker but all my ramp elves aren't really what you want they just die too easy. If you are going to ramp get lands or use artifacts.
Sheoldred, Grave titan and even Myr battlesphere are my good stuff elements that can take the game on thier own.
Speaking of winning the game as I have some token production Craterhoof behemoth is a great knock out punch.
Ah found my deck
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=491228
I have made some changes
added Solemn simucrum (- wood elves), Sever the bloodline (- Perilious myr), life's finale (- brutaliser exarch) and krosan grip (- viridian corrupter)
finally you have to be super careful you can still win the game if someone lands Stoney silence I am a jerk and built a deck that deliberately counters this one.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
You can call those stylistic choices, and in terms of gameplay they've worked out pretty well for me. I mean, if I didn't run Eggs, then my deck wouldn't be Eggs. And I think instant-speed spot removal is really underrated in the format and serves as a powerful political tool. There are a lot of benefits to running a creature heavy list, though, such as probably being able to close out a game more quickly.
Of the cycle-able artifacts I play, the one that is on the chopping block for me is Barbed Sextant.
You're probably right that this should be in there. It's slightly less good since I'm playing fewer creatures, but that's largely irrelevant since given another turn it makes its own creatures anyways.
I don't really feel like Nev's disc is necessary. To me, it's best in a deck that can really abuse it as more than a recurrable sweeper (Arcum, for example). The fact that it comes down tapped makes it a bit slow. Depending on what I was staring down, I think I'd always wish it was something else.
Plague Boiler was in the deck when I first built it but has since come out. It's expensive to blow up immediately if you need it, and also expensive to keep around if you don't want it to go off. O-Stone is much better because it's (relatively) cheap and only gets more threatening the longer it's out. I always resented paying the [3] every turn for Boiler because I usually wasn't in a situation where I needed to destroy everything.
There's enough good removal in G/B that I'm comfortable with O-stone as my only super-wipe.
Assembling one artifact + your general is easy. Assembling one artifact + plus a random creature in your deck is less so. Glissa can keep being played, and she can keep bringing Staff back. If Avatar gets killed, that side of the combo is over. Since I'm running Staff anyway, it's a consideration, but I just don't feel it's necessary.
It's all about the 1-CMC. There's very little other ramp that comes down turn 1. Sure, they're certainly bad topdecks later on, but so is any other ramp spell, really, and at least these guys are bodies.
If I'm being serious with myself, though, I could probably substitute them for Mox Opal or Chrome Mox or something.
Of these, I'd consider Sheoldred, but as you pointed out your deck runs more creatures than mine so she's probablybetter in yours. Grave Titan is too much of a big dumb beater for my liking, as all he does is bring more bodies. Evasionless, as well. Battlesphere is great because it's recurrable, but I've never seen it on the same power level as Steel Hellkite or Wurmcoil engine. I haven't tried it though, maybe people have had better results. It seems better in a deck like Jor Kadeen or something that needs bodies to sacrifice.
If I ran into that situation often I would make it a point to jack up the amount of artifact and enchantment removal. This deck has draw and responses outside of artifacts so I feel comfortable that it could survive long enough to fish out a way to destroy it. Less so in 1v1, though.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
Because the only pace the white mana symbol appears is in the reminder text, it doesn't count as part of the card's color identity. It's the same thing as Trinisphere which can be played in non-B decks.
The only issue I have with those is that they don't draw until the next upkeep. I should probably play those before Barbed Sextant, but that will probably come out for Trading Post anyway.
That's a very good suggestion! I'll definitely consider him as a finisher. Having played him mostly in Azusa thus far, I've focused way too much on his overrun effect.
I'm not sure a flat -2/-2 is good enough here, even if it's free. I like Black Sun's Zenith, Plague Wind and Degree of Pain because they can all be cast without killing your commander but can also be unconditional board-wipes.
Utopia Sprawl? It's less fragile than the creature, but I think it's a worse card to draw late-game. At least the mana dork can be sacrificed to Trading Post (soon to go in) or serve as a blocker.
I agree. Maybe I shouldn't be as focused on making Glissa hit turn 2. Though I certainly like being capable to do so. I think I'd add in Wood Elves alongside its partner Farhaven Elf if I decided to use Skullclamp in the deck. Which also works well with Trading Post, so...
I love them both. If I added one more sweeper to the deck, it would be Overwhelming Forces, pretty much hands down.
Thanks for the comments! I'm certainly going to test out Kamahl next time I play the deck!
Draft my Peasant Cube.
It would also be incredibly synergistic with big game hunter.
Great looking decklist though.
Mimeoplasm Midrange, CHAINER CHAINER HIGH VOLTAGE
Rafiq of the Astral Slide, 67land.dec Child of Alara, Gisela <3 Sunforger
TRADE!?WUBRGMy Pauper Cube
Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper, Phage the Uncastable, Azusa Lost but Stompy, Crosis Combo Breaker, All-In-Skullbriar, Rafiq/Jenara ETB army, Hazezon Swarm, Glissa Voltron!, Jarad Zombie Tribal, Zedruu Pillowfort, Reaper King Artifact Shenanagains
Good call! I don't know if I'm running enough creatures to really justify it (or if I'd want to discard my artifact creatures to get back others... Wurmcoil and Hellkite are my finishers, after all) but it's definitely a card to consider, and I love something that turns Glissa's recursion into another type of recursion. I'll put a little discussion about it up there.
Thanks for the compliment.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
Blasting works with exotic orchard for slaver lock.
It is infinite damage with salavagin station.
I might cut birds for krosan restorer and throw in a maze of ith to get infinite mana on the attack step for hellkite or untapping orchard to give your opponent multiple kill targets.
OUT:
Birds of Paradise, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves - I had to be honest with myself, a turn-2 Glissa just isn't all that important. I'd rather be dropping baubles.
Geth, Lord of the Vault - Not my favorite finisher, after all. Creatures are fragile, and while grabbing certain cards (Palinchron, Yosei) out of other graveyards often meant GG, Just as often his mill would just pour more fuel on the fire.
Barbed Sextant - The worst bauble in the deck. I hated the delay on the draw. Dropped this for Trading Post.
Abrupt Decay - I decided to take some of the spot removal out of the deck in favor of more board wipes. Considering Isochron Scepter hadn't been in the deck in ages, I figured this could go. It usually had a target, sure, but not always a good one.
Doom Blade - Same as above, cutting some removal and ended up being too narrow.
Hero’s Demise - Too narrow, and most of the time wasn't actually capable of triggering a recur.
IN:
Burnished Hart - I don't love this card in every deck, but I love it in this one. Swamps matter, folks. Really brutal when re-used.
Sol Ring - With so much of the deck being colorless, I couldn't justify being a hipster any more.
Memory Jar - I honestly don't know why this wasn't in the spot-removal heavy version. Whatever, it's in now.
Trading Post - See how long it's been since I've updated this? Post is an auto-include, no doubt about it.
Nevinyrral's Disk - I love that O-Stone can be a panic topdeck or a political tool, and I'll swear up and down that it's better than Disk. However, the effect is just too good for us not to run more of it.
Underworld Connections - Tiny addition to the draw package. Arena #2.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
I play a lot of basics because a lot of the "baubles" in the deck fetch basics. I don't play a lot of ramp cards, because hitting land drops every turn eventually turns out to be ramp, IMO, and cards like Wanderer's Twig support that.
If you wanted to take out the cards that fetch basics (and that's reasonable, they're objectively bad cards) then making some swaps for nonbasics would make a lot of sense.
Personally, I find that the deck rarely runs into problems fixing its colors with the artifact land-fetchers. If I was to make any changes to the land base, I'd probably run some more utility lands alongside Crucible, rather than painlands.
I'd probably play Woodland Cemetery and Tower at least, though. I don't think I have enough creatures for Stronghold to really shine...
Draft my Peasant Cube.
I cut it down to 16 basics, 8 of each, and never really reached a point where I wished i had more basics.
I swapped Gaze of Granite for Pernicious Deed just because I already had the deed. I defiantly see the upside of Gaze, because I found throughout the day was I felt like I lacked answers to Planeswalkers most of all. I am going to keep my eye out for a Hero's downfall to replace Murder just as a solid upgrade.
I ended up playing Tempt with Discovery lacking a Scapeshift to play. It never happened, but I had a hard time casting that card without thinking all of my opponents were going to get Strip Mine.
Out of nothing more than pure laziness I played Maelstrom Pulse over Victim of Night. Not sure I ever saw a scenario arise that I was upset about that choice.
Some closing thoughts:
No time through day was I happy to draw Tragic Slip or Grisly Salvage. Thinking back on it, I'm not 100% on what I wish they had been at the time but before the next event I go to I'm gonna look at swapping them for Primal Command (I'm just in love with this card in EDH, lets you tuck any non-creature permanent, some desperation gain life, or a creature tutor worst case) and I'm not sure about the other one. I'd love to find a spot for Darksteel Plate or maybe Garruk Wildspeaker.
Thanks! I'd love to keep hearing how it performs in metas other than my own.
Duly noted. Out of curiosity, what nonbasics did you use besides the more obvious duals? Any utility lands stick out as real winners?
Yeah, Deed seems like it would perform just as well as Gaze. They each have upsides and downsides. Being instant speed, Deed is probably better. Also good point on Downfall, I just can't justify spending 10$ on just another kill spell at the moment when I could put that into other cards.
How often did people accept the offer? I feel that if at least one opponent was silly enough to do it, you probably could have gone nuts with the extra mana, especially since the lands come in untapped. That alone is reason to consider it as a Scapeshift replacement.
There are definitely some cards that could go in to combat potential land destruction problems.
You call it laziness, but it's probably a strict upgrade.
Interesting. On Grisly Salvage, I definitely understand... while it's nice to dump artifacts into the yard, it's not often that there's a land or creature that we really feel like taking... we'd be more in favor of removal, I suppose. I'm surprised to hear that Slip wasn't working out, I typically find a lot of use for it.
Did you find yourself playing more creatures? It's hard for me to justify running a tutor for them, although I suppose there are a few solid artifact creatures that would be good picks.
Are you seeking to protect Glissa with Plate? Another good card for that purpose is Voyager Staff, which helps her dodge removal and board-wipes, and is easily recurrable through her or Salvaging Station, and has plenty of other uses.
You've given me a bit to think about. Primarily, a few upgrades for the cards I'm running. The deck list is very very close to what I play on paper, which compared to most decks qualifies as budget. I should take the time to make some swaps for the online version, especially since I could easily include the cards I play in paper as budget options.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
It was a more fun than competitive 27 man event, made up of 4-5 player pods. Deck performed great in the meta, leading to some really long but close games over all.
I dropped the Palace, 3 Forests and 2 swamps for the 6 lands I suggested in my post. I could see me going back to 10 forest and 10 swamps and trim the worst of the duals. There is so much fixing built into Urborg alone that most of it is just overkill. I'm on the fence about Volrath's Stronghold, it helped me a lot in one game where I recurred Fleshbag Marauder a few times. I see it as a pretty safe way to get Ghast back later on.
Yea, I'm kinda the same, if I come across one, I will def pick one up to replace murder. Yea I think the downside of Deed just really stuck out because I encountered soooo many planeswalkers.
1 pod everyone else went and got Reliquary Tower which we all got a good laugh out of. I of course got Urborg/Coffers/Vesuva/Stage and preceded to hear a lot of groaning.
If people get hip to what I'm planning to do with it, Crucible of Worlds will have to find a home somewhere.
And I agree that it is, but my intent was to play it as close to your list as possible.
I spent a lot of my turns recycling my gy and o-stoning turn after turn so the slip just never hit the mark, I can see in a 1v1 game that it may shine a lot better. I never really found a turn I wanted to cast Salvage, not to say its a dead/bad card in the list, just it seemed like I always had eggs to crack.
I played really close to your creature suite, Maelstrom Wanderer is big in my meta, and I would love nothing more than to Primal Command their Purphoros, God of the Forge back into their library. I'm almost never upset to Terastodon or Wurmcoil Engine, so something to dig them out + another useful effect just seems good.
As I said before, I found myself recycling o-stone alot, just thought how sweet would it be if I could just o-stone and Glissa stay on the board.
G/B are my favorite colors in Commander (and magic in general) so I had almost all "good" cards in the deck. Spent more time finding the eggs than any of the rares. There are some other cards I didn't play but that was only because I didn't have them but plan to play them once I get them. I played Dark Realms Lily because I had it handy, and sadly played Moriok Replica rather than Necro which I knew going in was a bad idea.
(PM Reply)
Replica ended up being the only creature I added and yes Mindslaver is quite frowned upon at my LGS. They are working on a points system and taking someone else's turn costs you 3 points per turn.
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Burnished Hart
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Moriok Replica
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Slum Reaper
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Acidic Slime
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Terastodon
Spells:48
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Codex Shredder
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Expedition Map
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Tragic Slip
1 Traveler's Amulet
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Wanderer's Twig
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Go for the Throat
1 Golgari Signet
1 Grisly Salvage
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Beast Within
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Krosan Grip
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Mimic Vat
1 Murder
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Putrefy
1 Underworld Connections
1 Damnation
1 Jester's Cap
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Tempt with Discovery
1 Trading Post
1 Creeping Renaissance
1 Memory Jar
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Null Profusion
1 Recycle
1 Salvaging Station
1 Decree of Pain
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Plague Wind
1 Rise of the Dark Realms
1 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Command Tower
1 Forbidden Orchard
8 Forest
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Strip Mine
8 Swamp
1 Tainted Wood
1 Temple of the False God
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Tree of Tales
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Vesuva
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Glissa, the Traitor
With taking Mindslaver out, I may need to look for a replacement Win-Con.
I've often felt the same way. I'll probably look for something to replace it.
I can see how Wanderer could be a tough match. Another answer to Purph shenanigans would be Torpor Orb. Shuts down a couple dudes in our deck, sure, but it's much more harmful to our opponents.
I've had some weird prejudice against Darksteel Plate since the guys in my meta seem to throw it into absolutely everything they play and it often ends up not doing that much work. I may have to reconsider it here. With more board wipes, Glissa dies a whole lot more than she used to.
Exsanguinate is the first thing that comes to mind.
You could also add more Extort creatures. Ghast is far and away the best one, of course, but I've won through extort before... Thrull Parasite is unfortunately the next best one IMO, because he drops early. He can also knock counters off 'walkers, coincidentally.
You could also just throw in a couple pieces of equipment. Loxodon Warhammer (or anything that gives trample) lets Glissa push through Commander damage really, really fast.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
Yea I can totally agree, but I think with all the board wipes we have it could do some heavy lifting over the course of a game.
Yea seems like another lazy out, I'll prob end up playing it just because there is no better 1 card finisher for a 4 man game.
Pontiff of Blight seems like it might be easier to keep on the table but I'm not sure if it or Thrull is really worth a spot in the deck.
Not owning any Swords at the moment would really push me away from a voltron style approach.
It was a very recent inclusion, so I haven't had a chance to test it out yet. It's worked wonders for me before in MBC. But Glissa runs a fair amount of grave hate, so maybe it's going to come out soon. I just need to play a few games with it.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
Sorry, Im currently working on a semi-similar deck, so your deck makes for an interesting model in many ways. =)
Huh. Funny thing, I'm sure I have one of those lying around. I'll have to give that a spin. Maybe I'll play that instead of Salvage for a few games and see how it works out.
I'm always happy to have more comments on the deck. Let me know how it works for you!
Draft my Peasant Cube.
Lol I don't hate this idea, now just to find one.
artifactcreatures to justify it. Suggestions?3 Glissa, the Traitor
[b]Artifact creatures: 8[/b]
3 Sylvok Replica
3 Moriok Replica
3 Burnished Hart
3 Shimmer Myr
4 Solemn Simulacrum
5 Pyschosis Crawler
6 Steel Hellkit
6 Wurmcoil Engine
[c]Creatures: 7[/b]
3 Fleshbag Marauder
4 Cyrpt Ghast
4 Slum Reaper
5 Acidic Slime
6 Harvester of Souls
6 Massacre Wurm
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
[b]Artifacts: 23[/b]
0 Urza's Bauble
0 Mishra's Bauble
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Codex Shredder
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Expedition Map
1 Glaring Spotlight
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sol Ring
1 Traveler's Amulet
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
2 Golgari Signet
3 Mimic Vat
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Pilgrim's Eye
4 Jester's Cap
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
4 Smokestack
4 Trading Post
5 Memory Jar
6 Mindslaver
6 Salvaging Station
1 Viridian Longbow
2 Thornbite Staff
3 Darksteel Plate
[b]Instants: 6[/b]
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Go for the Throat
3 Beast Within
3 Krosan Grip
3 Murder
3 Putrefy
[b]Sorceries: 9[/b]
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Exsanguinate
3 Beseech the Queen
3 Malestrom Pulse
4 Damnation
5 Creeping Renaissance
8 Decree of Pain
8 Preator's Counsel
9 Plague Wind
[b]Enchantments: 5[/b]
3 Necropotence
3 Phyrexian Arena
4 Grave Pact
6 Null Profusion
6 Recycle
[b]Lands: 37[/b]
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Golgari Guildgate
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Strip Mine
1 Temple of the False God
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Tree of Tales
1 Urborg
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of Whispers
12 Forest
11 Swamp
EDIT: And that was actually quite rude. Sorry. Been up for too long. I like the changes you've made to the deck. There's a few cards I don't have and don't want to throw down money on, so they're not in the list. I do like the idea of swinging with Glissa if you have to, as was suggested earlier. But I only own two swords (FaF and BaM) and only have the warhammer. Once I test tomorrow, I'll be able to say more.
EDH
Braids, Conjurer Adept
Tibor and Lumia
Glissa, the Traitor
Modern
Affinity
Nice looking list. You're running a good number of cards that I'm not, and I'm very interested in how many of them perform. I'm just going to jot down my thoughts about most of them...
Shimmer Myr - Very interesting. I feel that between holding spot removal and this guy, the deck could start feeling like a U control deck. I think if you're running him your spot removal package could be larger, but let me know if you get a chance to play with him.
Psychosis Crawler - Bravo for this one! You're right, there's a LOT of cards in this deck that would turn this guy into a real monster of a win-con, especially the Null Profusion/Recycle duo. This might be exactly what Sivartus was looking for as an alternative to 'slaver...
Harvester of Souls - I really don't like creatures that aren't artifacts, but he looks like he would give a lot of draw and he's a decent beater besides.
Massacre Wurm - I'm guessing this is a meta call against perhaps Krenko or Animar or something that runs a plethora of small creatures. I think I'm more comfortable with a sorcery than him, but then again, he can knock someone out of the game out of nowhere.
Urza's Babule and Mishra's Bauble - I neglected to play these (I really dislike the delayed draw) but honestly haven't tested them very much at all.
Glaring Spotlight - Seems like another meta-choice, but a good one against Sigarda or other Commanders we might otherwise have trouble with. I love 1 CMC silver bullets.
Smokestack - We'll probably always have fodder for it, but as a one-of stax effect, I'm not sure how much impact it will have. I'm very interested in how it performs outside of a stax-heavy list, whether or not you ever let it tick up to 2 or higher, etc....
Viridian Longbow - I like the machine-gun combo of the Staff, but this is by no means bad. I should at least mention it in the OP...
Darksteel Plate - I'm probably going to have to pick one up now, with everyone but me looking at it.
Exsanguinate - I'm thinking about re-replacing Rise with this, and I've suggested it to others, so I just want to see how it works for you.
Grave Pact - I can see how this would be good with Moriok Replica and others like him (Fleshbag and co. as well), but I just don't think we have enough dudes to make it worthwhile. Again, I'm open to being proven wrong.
I'd be very interested in how these choices work out for you in actual gameplay, because there are a number of them I've been considering as well (and a few very good calls I never thought of myself). Once you've had a chance to play the deck, please tell us all about it!
I don't think you have to have very many equipment to make it worthwhile. Even if we did invest in the voltron plan, it wouldn't be Rafiq or Uril style. We'd still want long games, just a little help closing them out. Warhammer and Sword of FaF are the two standout equpiment to me that would have value (Warhammer gives trample and offsets Necro, and FaF gives mana).
I've been thinking about all the comments I've been getting about creatures, and I'm thinking of brewing an alternate version of Glissa that takes advantage of them. I think we'd have to drop the bauble plan... we just don't have enough room at the moment to try and use both. But I think a creature-based strategy with Birthing Pod, artifact sac outlets and Grave Pact, and the interaction with Tortured Existence and non-artifact ETB creatures would be very strong.
I'll probably keep playing Baubles myself, but it would be nice to have an alternate list as well.
Also, has anyone tried Genesis Wave? The more removal we run, the worse it gets (which is why I took it out of an early version of the deck), but it might be good enough to run, especially in a creature-heavy version of if anyone's playing Kamahl, Fist of Krosa (who makes for a good combo with 'slaver).
Draft my Peasant Cube.
Yea, that could cause for some crazy Rube Goldberg machine with it, Crypt Ghast and Recycle
Yea, its just too important for our commander to stay on the board, it does feel week as a late game top deck but I still think it could be worth it's weight in gold during some games.
I was thinking the same thing, Exsanguinate is almost never a bad draw where Rise can cause a blow-out but can be a super dead draw after gy hate or the likewise.
I was thinking about a creature version that maybe played a suite of Modular artifact creatures (Arcbound Ravager)
Thoughts on Triangle of War? Seems like a funny idea with Glissa/Darksteel Plate.
Psychosis Crawler - I wish I had him when I had Recycle online. I immediately drew into a Reliquary Tower, a last minute sub in and windmill slammed it down. I had the most cards in hand. He hasn't gotten online yet, but he can potentially do some damage.
Harvester of Souls - Thrown in for lack of a slot actually. Haven't seen him yet.
Massacre Wurm - Yeah he's a meta call. A few people I know run tokens and the like. I was disappointed when I saw him in a game where people only cared about big value.
Urza's Babule and Mishra's Bauble - These are very nice with Recycle online. Free draw? Sure why not. Free draw on next turn? That's even better. Bonus points for not having to discard since it's already past your end step. Not bad, but there might be something better.
Glaring Spotlight - Meta Choice. Judged it more on past meta, but the alpha strike might be nice.
Smokestack - Eh. I never cracked it past 1. And then I usually sacked it because I wasn't getting what i needed. Not the best, but it gets rid of resources. I'll probably replace it once I can.
Viridian Longbow - When you need something dead....
Darksteel Plate - This was an all star last game. Seriously. It and O-Stone are the only thing that kept us alive. Repeatable boardwipe? That goes back into your hand as long as one creature is on the field? Added bonus of making your general not cast ridiculous amounts to replay when things just need to die is always nice.
Exsanguinate - Never drew
Grave Pact - Never drew.
Actual report:
The deck did alright. A friend had my Wurmcoil Engine and hadn't returned it so I was at a disadvantage, but it did okay. Jester's Cap will be staying in the deck due to combo players everywhere. Seriously, gah.
The baubles linked up nicely when I drew them, and I kept the board pretty safe with glissa and executioner's capsule. The big threat never wanted to swing at me, and everyone else wanted me alive to deal with him. Eventually, the table got whittled down to me and two others, we killed one of the guys and drew because it was a tournament and top 2 advanced. Plus it took about 2 hours...
Game two? Oh god game two. Shelodrid and a Kalia player. Kalia board wiped three times before turn 6 and then started reanimating and dropping fatties. Thank god for O-Stone and Darksteel Plate or that'd been a quick game. I probably wiped the board 8 times myself just so myself and the other player wouldn't die. Shelodrid ended up winning once he got his engine online and hit me for lethal (which was 6. Turn 7 I got hit with Sorin's minus ability and had to go on the defensive like crazy)
All in all it was fun, but I had a few lack of finishers. Didn't draw what I needed, but the last game was too quick to really establish anything.
Looking forward, I do like the baubles, but a few might be able to be cut, as well as some of my creatures, to try and go into a more equipment or birthing pod suite. It would be interesting, and quite frankly, a hard engine to disrupt once it gets going. Could be something to look forward. I think I'm running a bit too many baubles, but I need more testing to work out the kinks.
EDH
Braids, Conjurer Adept
Tibor and Lumia
Glissa, the Traitor
Modern
Affinity