I'm new to commander - the first deck I made was trying to be efficient, but then I realized that the point of EDH is to be as inefficient as possible.
So I had an idea for a WG deck using Trostani, Selesnya's Voice and emphasizing continually bouncing and resummoning creatures for ridiculous amounts of life gain, with a subtheme of token generation. But I don't really know the legacy cards well enough to know what to include.
[Note: I've edited this post to include the current version of the deck]
For a goofy deck like this one I'm not 100% sure I'll be spending five bucks on singletons other than the commander, but chances are I'll weaken and buy 'em all eventually.
Aluren + Cloudstone Curio + Trostani = infinte life. You don't even need special creatures. Just a pair of elves bouncing each other back and forth gets you an arbitrary life total.
One card I accidentally discovered when building my Trostani wurm tribal
deck is saltskitter. You can never rely on it to block anything
but with your general out it gains a ton of life. You also don't need a card to
start it bouncing.
I run a lady sun bounce deck and I will say that 10ish bounce effects are more than enough. You never want too much bounce because it's better to have a bouncee and no bounce rather than too much bounce and nothing to target. (boy does that sentence sound ridiculous!) Keep in mind that if something is returning to your hand or getting bounced, it needs to create a lot of value to be worth it. Every time you bounce something, you're spending mana and actually losing tempo and not really advancing your board position. Your ETB effects need to be quite powerful to overcome this. Just for instance, it's turn 9 and there's been a board wipe and you're running low on gas. You spend your turn playing Kor Skyfisher and with no other target you have to return a land to your hand. This type of play actually hurts you quite a bit because you've just got a piddly creature and actually are behind on mana. Meanwhile, the non-bounce player plays a relevant 6/6 flier, drops a land, and advances their board.
Cards like cloudshift don't really add much by themselves. That same mana could have been a V8, er a swords to plowshares, land tax, or condemn. So to not fall behind too far, you need to get a lot of value every time you bounce something and not have too much bounce. They're a bit goodstuff-ish, but Thragtusk and Aramada wurm are two creatures worthy of a bounce.
Be especially wary about cards that make you return other creatures to your hand. Why? Because they end up slowing you down, costing you a lot of mana, and actually hurt your board presence and remove one of your blockers. You might want to include some flash so that you can use your bouncers to put stuff back into your hand to save them from removal or sweepers. Just look at the creatures in your bounce list so far. Excepting the dust elemental, nothing is spectacular (as a creature itself) and has a power over 3.
Anyway, I don't want to discourage you from the bounce theme, just steer you in the right direction. Initially, my Lady Sun deck had all kinds of cute stuff to bounce and get bounced. Then I realized that if I was only piddling around bouncing a bunch of mediocre creatures using a bunch of mana to recast them, that I wasn't advancing my board and that I'd just die with a bunch of cards in my hand So I cut down the bounce to the most valuable bounce targets.
And a few suggestions for your deck. You might benefit from some tokens to serve as both chump blockers and worst case scenario bounce targets. Khalni Garden, Cathars' Crusade, Rhox Faithmender. Hokori, Dust Drinker could be a bit mean but you could drop him just to slow other players down then return him to your hand after a few turns while you build up your board. Getting a value creature, conjurer's closet, and Hokori down would be pretty awesome. I have my Trostani deck in my signature, you might be able to get a few ideas from it but it's wurm tribal so it's pretty different from what you're up to. Sadly, I haven't had time to post my Lady Sun list yet. Anyway, hope this helps.
So far I've only played it 1v1 against my roommate's Mikaeus the Unhallowed zombie tribal deck. Now, mine is not supposed to be a super-competitive deck, and it's also supposed to be multiplayer, not 1v1, but it was sort of depressing how thoroughly Mikaeus mopped the floor with me.
I was worried about dropping below 40 land, but that wasn't a problem in my games - what was a problem was getting pounded in the face before I had a chance to do anything. I'm hoping this will be less of an issue in multiplayer, but I'd like the deck to be a bit less fragile.
So I had an idea for a WG deck using Trostani, Selesnya's Voice and emphasizing continually bouncing and resummoning creatures for ridiculous amounts of life gain, with a subtheme of token generation. But I don't really know the legacy cards well enough to know what to include.
[Note: I've edited this post to include the current version of the deck]
4 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
Creatures to bounce (mostly treefolk) - 27
8 Ghoultree
7 Avenger of Zendikar
7 Guardian of Cloverdell
7 Serra Avatar
6 Deadwood Treefolk
6 Nemata, Grove Guardian
6 Orchard Warden
5 Acidic Slime
5 Everbark Shaman
5 Old Ghastbark
5 Seedguide Ash
5 Weatherseed Treefolk
5 Yavimaya Ancients
5 Yew Spirit
4 Cloudcrown Oak
4 Dauntless Dourbark
4 Indomitable Ancients
4 Leaf-Crowned Elder
4 Meadowboon
4 Treefolk Mystic
4 Unstoppable Ash
4 Wickerbough Elder
3 Battlewand Oak
3 Treefolk Seedlings
2 Bosk Banneret
2 Sheltering Ancient
1 Treefolk Harbinger
5 Stormfront Riders
4 Dust Elemental
4 Galepowder Mage
3 Fleetfoot Panther
3 Flickerwisp
3 Stonecloaker
2 Kor Skyfisher
2 Whitemane Lion
Creatures that don't bounce - 3
5 Mycoloth
4 Lumberknot
3 Champion of Lambholt
Spells that Bounce things - 2
5 Conjurer's Closet
4 Erratic Portal
Token generation spells - 8
5 Minion Reflector
5 Primal Vigor
5 Reach of Branches
5 Sprout Swarm
4 Angelic Accord
4 Phyrexian Processor
4 Saproling Symbiosis
3 Mimic Vat
7 Hour of Reckoning
5 Angelic Edict
5 Iona's Judgment
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Rootborn Defenses
2 Journey to Nowhere
2 Selesnya Charm
2 Lignify
Other Spells - 3
5 Cathars' Crusade
4 Cradle of Vitality
4 Door of Destinies
Mana Fixers - 2
2 Selesnya Signet
1 Sol Ring
Rafiq of the Many
Kruphix, God of Horizons ~ Geist of Saint Traft ~ Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
planned: Kodama of the South Tree ~ Patron of the Moon ~ Mangara of Corondor
G ~ ~ U ~ ~ W ~ ~ G
For a goofy deck like this one I'm not 100% sure I'll be spending five bucks on singletons other than the commander, but chances are I'll weaken and buy 'em all eventually.
Rafiq of the Many
Kruphix, God of Horizons ~ Geist of Saint Traft ~ Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
planned: Kodama of the South Tree ~ Patron of the Moon ~ Mangara of Corondor
G ~ ~ U ~ ~ W ~ ~ G
deck is saltskitter. You can never rely on it to block anything
but with your general out it gains a ton of life. You also don't need a card to
start it bouncing.
I run a lady sun bounce deck and I will say that 10ish bounce effects are more than enough. You never want too much bounce because it's better to have a bouncee and no bounce rather than too much bounce and nothing to target. (boy does that sentence sound ridiculous!) Keep in mind that if something is returning to your hand or getting bounced, it needs to create a lot of value to be worth it. Every time you bounce something, you're spending mana and actually losing tempo and not really advancing your board position. Your ETB effects need to be quite powerful to overcome this. Just for instance, it's turn 9 and there's been a board wipe and you're running low on gas. You spend your turn playing Kor Skyfisher and with no other target you have to return a land to your hand. This type of play actually hurts you quite a bit because you've just got a piddly creature and actually are behind on mana. Meanwhile, the non-bounce player plays a relevant 6/6 flier, drops a land, and advances their board.
Cards like cloudshift don't really add much by themselves. That same mana could have been a V8, er a swords to plowshares, land tax, or condemn. So to not fall behind too far, you need to get a lot of value every time you bounce something and not have too much bounce. They're a bit goodstuff-ish, but Thragtusk and Aramada wurm are two creatures worthy of a bounce.
Be especially wary about cards that make you return other creatures to your hand. Why? Because they end up slowing you down, costing you a lot of mana, and actually hurt your board presence and remove one of your blockers. You might want to include some flash so that you can use your bouncers to put stuff back into your hand to save them from removal or sweepers. Just look at the creatures in your bounce list so far. Excepting the dust elemental, nothing is spectacular (as a creature itself) and has a power over 3.
Anyway, I don't want to discourage you from the bounce theme, just steer you in the right direction. Initially, my Lady Sun deck had all kinds of cute stuff to bounce and get bounced. Then I realized that if I was only piddling around bouncing a bunch of mediocre creatures using a bunch of mana to recast them, that I wasn't advancing my board and that I'd just die with a bunch of cards in my hand So I cut down the bounce to the most valuable bounce targets.
And a few suggestions for your deck. You might benefit from some tokens to serve as both chump blockers and worst case scenario bounce targets. Khalni Garden, Cathars' Crusade, Rhox Faithmender. Hokori, Dust Drinker could be a bit mean but you could drop him just to slow other players down then return him to your hand after a few turns while you build up your board. Getting a value creature, conjurer's closet, and Hokori down would be pretty awesome. I have my Trostani deck in my signature, you might be able to get a few ideas from it but it's wurm tribal so it's pretty different from what you're up to. Sadly, I haven't had time to post my Lady Sun list yet. Anyway, hope this helps.
EDH Decks
RGMarhault Elsdragon (A Touch of Rampage)RG
GWTrostani, Early Bird (Wurm Tribal)GW
RWAgrus Kos, Bumbat Drinkin' BadassRW
RDiaochan, Hateful BeautyR
Land getting creatures will be your best ramp, with creatures like wood elves and ondu giant.
stormfront riders is a great token producer to go along with your bounce. dust elemental will be one of your best bounce cards.
Token producers like both selesnya guildmages, as well as sacred mesa will never go wrong.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
So far I've only played it 1v1 against my roommate's Mikaeus the Unhallowed zombie tribal deck. Now, mine is not supposed to be a super-competitive deck, and it's also supposed to be multiplayer, not 1v1, but it was sort of depressing how thoroughly Mikaeus mopped the floor with me.
Any suggestions for improvement?
4 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
Creatures to bounce (mostly treefolk) - 27
8 Ghoultree
7 Avenger of Zendikar
7 Guardian of Cloverdell
7 Serra Avatar
6 Deadwood Treefolk
6 Nemata, Grove Guardian
6 Orchard Warden
5 Acidic Slime
5 Everbark Shaman
5 Old Ghastbark
5 Seedguide Ash
5 Weatherseed Treefolk
5 Yavimaya Ancients
5 Yew Spirit
4 Cloudcrown Oak
4 Dauntless Dourbark
4 Indomitable Ancients
4 Leaf-Crowned Elder
4 Meadowboon
4 Treefolk Mystic
4 Unstoppable Ash
4 Wickerbough Elder
3 Battlewand Oak
3 Treefolk Seedlings
2 Bosk Banneret
2 Sheltering Ancient
1 Treefolk Harbinger
5 Stormfront Riders
4 Dust Elemental
4 Galepowder Mage
3 Fleetfoot Panther
3 Flickerwisp
3 Stonecloaker
2 Kor Skyfisher
2 Whitemane Lion
Creatures that don't bounce - 3
5 Mycoloth
4 Lumberknot
3 Champion of Lambholt
Spells that Bounce things - 2
5 Conjurer's Closet
4 Erratic Portal
Token generation spells - 8
5 Minion Reflector
5 Primal Vigor
5 Reach of Branches
5 Sprout Swarm
4 Angelic Accord
4 Phyrexian Processor
4 Saproling Symbiosis
3 Mimic Vat
7 Hour of Reckoning
5 Angelic Edict
5 Iona's Judgment
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Rootborn Defenses
2 Journey to Nowhere
2 Selesnya Charm
2 Lignify
Other Spells - 3
5 Cathars' Crusade
4 Cradle of Vitality
4 Door of Destinies
Mana Fixers - 2
2 Selesnya Signet
1 Sol Ring
I was worried about dropping below 40 land, but that wasn't a problem in my games - what was a problem was getting pounded in the face before I had a chance to do anything. I'm hoping this will be less of an issue in multiplayer, but I'd like the deck to be a bit less fragile.
I bought but then didn't include Myojin of Cleansing Fire and Myojin of Life's Web. Should they go back in?
Rafiq of the Many
Kruphix, God of Horizons ~ Geist of Saint Traft ~ Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
planned: Kodama of the South Tree ~ Patron of the Moon ~ Mangara of Corondor
G ~ ~ U ~ ~ W ~ ~ G
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
Give Captain of the Watch, Geist-Honored Monk, Thragtusk, Wolfbriar Elemental, Regal Force, Trostani's Summoner, and the ever-essential Craterhoof Behemoth a chance!