Strategy - To be updated soon
This deck is not super proactive in its strategy, but rather prefers to sit back and defend itself against the other threats at the table with a hand full of sweepers and spot removal. By showing the great versatility in this deck's suite of answers and by gaining exponential amounts of life, this deck often becomes the least tempting target at the table. Assuming that no one manages to combo out, this deck will regularly make it into the late game and will play a substantial role in deciding the outcome throughout, if not winning itself.
Playing with good politics is absolutely necessary in some games. Even in games with terrible hands and super-aggressive opponents, this deck has managed to make it to the last player before by simply playing up the strife between other players. Tainted Strike, Hatred, False Cure + Beacon of Immortality, Master Warcraft, and Backlash are all cards that assist in the political goals here, usually by offering assistance to one player for taking down another. For example,Tainted Strike-ing an unblocked 11/11 Primordial Hydra that's swinging at the problem Niv-Mizzet player with Omniscience (that actually happened) is a great way to get the message across that you should work with this deck rather than against it.
Actually winning is more difficult than forcing other players to knock each other out. Nine times out of ten, this deck will pull out a hard-fought victory through recurring its own solid beaters (Teysa 2.0, Divinity, Kokusho, Ashen Rider) or beaters out of the opposing 'yard via Tariel, Beacon of Unrest, Puppeteer Clique, etc, and grinding out the sole other surviving player with removal. Closing out the game usually is not a quick affair in this deck, but there are certain cards that, should they be pulled, can end it without much effort. By using the copious amount of life this deck aims for as a resource, Moltensteel Dragon and Hatred can lethalize a swing (bonus points for using Hatred for 17 on Tariel to win with Commander damage), and False Cure with Beacon of Immortality is an instant-speed kill combo that is very hard to avoid without counterspells.
In regards to the general, Tariel is the best of the three WBR legends for many sorts of strategies, especially "judo", or using your opponents against themselves, strategy (for more, Rachmiel's Tariel Primer is an excellent resource and example for judo-style decks). This deck does not necessarily aim to be a judo deck though, it goes for more of a controlling, rattlesnake-incarnate strategy. If a legendary creature in WBR is printed in the near future (come on, Conspiracy or C14) who is more beneficial to this deck's strategy (i.e. consistent source of life-gain or card advantage), I'll likely switch over to that one over Tariel.
Deck History
This deck started off as the Heavenly Inferno pre-con from C11, and ran Kaalia until I got bored with the super-linear strategy of it after a few months. After that, I made this deck into an all-board-wipes, all-the-time abomination that actually felt pretty terrible. After realizing the unfun-ness of that strategy, it became largely a deck of fun things. I did change it once more, totally cutting the red out of it an replacing Tariel with Obzedat to make it a BW strict life-gain deck, but it just didn't feel right and went back to being WBR with Tariel after just a couple games. It's only been within the last few months that this deck has sharpened its focus.
I really love playing this deck, both in Commander and ordinary casual multiplayer games, and am quite pleased with it right now. It does big, splashy some things, it gains a ton of life, it takes big things out of graveyards, and it gives that ever-satisfying "gotcha" moments. What else could a dirty casual like myself ever need?
Looking Forward
As of now, this deck is pretty well set with the cards specific to its strategy. However, should better or more-synergistic cards be printed in our colors, I'll likely find places for them. Right now, the deck just needs better support cards in the form of the mana base and gaining card advantage. For the mana, I'm working on obtaining Sacred Foundry and Godless Shrine (already have the BR shockland), and am seriously thinking about Lavaclaw Reaches for certain scenarios where it will be useful (at worst, chump-blocking, at best, dumping mana into a big swing). In terms of card advantage, I'm also looking into obtaining a Mind's Eye and more Necropotence-esque life-for-cards engines.
- Browbeat, Ashen Rider, Puppeteer Clique.
+ Wrecking Ogre, Greed, Necropotence.
Taking out Browbeat was a metagame decision: in the past, my meta's always been kind with Browbeats, but they're wising up, so a source of guaranteed card advantage will be more beneficial. Ashen Rider's fun and all, but sometimes it was just bloody hard to get out of my hand, either because I wasn't drawing into an eighth mana source, or I didn't have the colors needed to play it. Also, Ashen Rider was a magnet for counterspells. Puppeteer Clique felt overly redundant and under-performed, just not the right deck for it.
Adding Wrecking Ogre is a little experiment for me: I'm hoping it will work in the same way I use Tainted Strike, targeting a someone's else's fatty or general to cooperatively knock another player out of the game. Necropotence and Greed are here to provide more card advantage in the theme of using life as a resource.
Future Goals: I'd like to continue tightening up the mana base for this deck with better lands firstly. Also, I might lighten the card pool for life-gain cards (hopefully in the next couple years, we'll have a new WBR legend that can take care of that department). Lastly, I might pull the Beacon of Immortality + False Cure "Target player loses the game" combo for the infrequency of drawing it out, and Diabolic Revelation with them because it's primary purpose in the deck is to fetch that combo. I'm really hoping we get some more support in the WBR spending life for value design space in the near future, perhaps with C14, even with the off-chance that KTK will be the wedge block.
This looks like it can be considered an Akido deck of sorts, unless that is the direction you wanted to go anyway. Moving along that path, Urborg Justice is a pretty neat card that would fill up a chosen player's graveyard, however with only 17 creatures I don't know how useful it would be.
EDIT: I just missed the Judo comment in the OP, oops!
I like the inclusion of Inheritance here, allowing you to play answers and profit off of them (even opponents' answers). I've been browsing WBR decklists and so far, this and Rachmiel's primer the only ones that have caught my interest, I like how it plays with your life total and acts like a judge of some sorts, often dictating how the game ends. How has it played out for you?
Also I'd like to comment on Lavaclaw Reaches. My first EDH deck was a Wort, Boggart Auntie tribal build that included this land, and during the late game it would be a respectable threat when answers were spent on other things. It's a great mana dump, too, often getting in for large beats after a board wipe. I highly recommend it.
For your life-for-cards engines, what are your thoughts on Hoarder's Greed? I feel like you have enough big ticket cards to trigger the effect more than once. It's not really an engine of sorts, but it does have the potential to draw you a great amount of cards. There's also Ad Nauseam, which you have full control of, or just plain Greed. You're already running Erebos, God of the Dead, but having another copy of it's ability may prove useful.
This looks like it can be considered an Akido deck of sorts, unless that is the direction you wanted to go anyway. Moving along that path, Urborg Justice is a pretty neat card that would fill up a chosen player's graveyard, however with only 17 creatures I don't know how useful it would be.
EDIT: I just missed the Judo comment in the OP, oops!
I like the inclusion of Inheritance here, allowing you to play answers and profit off of them (even opponents' answers). I've been browsing WBR decklists and so far, this and Rachmiel's primer the only ones that have caught my interest, I like how it plays with your life total and acts like a judge of some sorts, often dictating how the game ends. How has it played out for you?
Also I'd like to comment on Lavaclaw Reaches. My first EDH deck was a Wort, Boggart Auntie tribal build that included this land, and during the late game it would be a respectable threat when answers were spent on other things. It's a great mana dump, too, often getting in for large beats after a board wipe. I highly recommend it.
For your life-for-cards engines, what are your thoughts on Hoarder's Greed? I feel like you have enough big ticket cards to trigger the effect more than once. It's not really an engine of sorts, but it does have the potential to draw you a great amount of cards. There's also Ad Nauseam, which you have full control of, or just plain Greed. You're already running Erebos, God of the Dead, but having another copy of it's ability may prove useful.
Hey, sorry for taking so long to get back to you! It's been a busy week (I'm a senior in college, thus class, papers, projects, tests, work, graduation things, applications, and finding time to breath).
Anyways, thanks, I'm honored by your inclusion of my deck in your search! Rachmiel's is rather excellent too, I've been following his for a while, and while my deck has elements that are similar to his, I try not to make it into a judo/akido deck. Also, if you read articles on Star City Games, David McDarby keeps up a biweekly Commander Versus series where a very different, token-based Tariel deck was ran. Of course, Tariel didn't actually do anything in the deck, but it's definitely something to think about. (Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0HobwRmPag)
For my life-for-cards engines, I try to keep them either as permanents, or that will give me a super significant return on their investment. I've ran Syphon Mind in the past (bad for politics), and Read the Bones is excellent for the Scry, but we're looking for something that you can consistently drop a lot of unspent resources into, so Hoarder's Greed and Ad Nauseam aren't things I'm too keen on, plus Ad Nauseam might be too much of a gamble for me. If Yawgmoth's Bargain and Griselbrand weren't banned, they'd be insta-includes. Greed is certainly something I've considered, and I may yet go for it. I think what keeps me back from that is a combination of it not doing enough for its cost. Phyrexian Arena costs one less, and is an extra card guaranteed every turn that it sticks, and Erebos hoses my opponents' life-gain while also becoming a nice beater more often than you'd expect. If I trade into a Greed, I'll definitely test it out. Also, Trading Post could be an option as this deck could use chump blockers and can easily recur creatures ditched for cards.
Also, I'm ordering a Lavaclaw Reaches in my next shipment of cards tomorrow, looking forward to swinging in with it.
For a reactionary build, Sunforger is notably absent, as are several powerhouse spells. There's no Wing Shards or Mirror Strike, both of which can destroy attacks, nor is there a Reflect Damage.
I don't mind lifegain as a stall tactic or for resource, but some of the options in here I feel are outclassed by other options. Venser's Journal in particular does not impress me much.
36 lands is a bit light, even with that artifact ramp in there. I'd also cut some of the ETB tapped for some more basics for the ramp search.
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Overall, this seems like an excellently solid base built on a bit of a budget with some great upgrade room. I see that the deck is still trying to get itself some shocks, so that explains some of the budgetary card choices in the deck, as well as some notable exclusions (White reanimation package, wheel of fortune).
My biggest immediate recommendation for the deck is Sunforger. At about a dollar currently on tcgplayer, it will open up a lot more combat tricks and reactionary options.
My next suggestion would be to try out a Salvaging Station package, I think you would be pleasantly surprised once you get comfortable with it. (Someone wraths and you have a Conjurer's Bauble out? Look at you drawing a card for each dead thing! How awesome!)
bobthefunny - Firstly, I want to say thank you for taking the time to evaluate my deck. Aside from occasional appearances on Command Tower, barely anyone outside my meta's really provided anything close to a detailed look at any of my decks.
Also, thank you for all of the recommendations. The Salvaging Station package is something I'll definitely mull over, it'd be great value. However, it might displace the resident themes of using life as a resource and remaining a rattle-snake political player since abusing a value engine draws ire from my meta game. If I wanted to make this deck objectively better, I'd implement that package for sure, buuuut I'm wary of it.
A Sunforger package is something I run in another deck that can really support it, but this deck can't For most of the game, my side of the board will not have any creatures on it, and the amount of board wipes I run make it difficult to rely on creatures at all. Since I need a creature to throw Sunforger on, it just becomes an inconvenience (and I barely play Tariel). I don't run Wing Shards because, in a vacuum, it sucks. If I'm being attacked by a horde of 5/5 tokens with no other spells having been played that turn, that's not going to save me. Granted, it's fantastic against voltron generals, but it's too situational for the deck and my meta game at the moment (maybe in the future). I don't run any Mirror Strike-esque cards because they're not proactive enough. To better explain this, this deck is known in my meta to be the one that will bite you in the ass if you attack it, so most people don't, and when no one attacks me, a Mirror Strike becomes a dead draw. I may put a Reflect Damage back in since it's more well-rounded, and I just realized that it doesn't actually target (sorry Uril, that's 21 to your own face).
I like a little reanimation to keep me on the ground, but, again, this isn't a creature-based deck, so the white reanimation is pretty much out of the window. Venser's Journal is a little weird, and it's one of those cards I STILL haven't drawn yet, so I can't evaluate it's performance in the deck quite yet. I'm thinking about cutting the signets soon too for lands. This deck has kept the 36 number for a very long time, and I favor 38 much more now.
Thanks again for your commentary! I actually just updated the decklist today if you'd like to take a peek at what I've changed.
I haven't updated the deck for a while, so I think it's time. I haven't made any radical changes like putting a Salvaging Station or overhauling the strategy, but there have been some nice changes made: there's less cuteness, more-reliable card draw, and more tools to end the game. When piloting the deck, there's still a pretty slow start to it, but that's made up for by very interactive mid- and late-game plays.
The new additions:
Lands - Godless Shrine, Nomad Outpost, Bloodfell Caves, Scoured Barrens, Wind-Scarred Crag. I put in the new Refuge lands from KTK because the deck's naturally slow, they're decent for fixing, and we like gaining life so we can spend it later. Also, I thought I was running all three Shocklands here, but I suppose I'm not. I'll fix that soon.
Answers - Deflecting Palm, Crackling Doom, Toxic Deluge, Perilous Vault, Coercive Portal, Reflect Damage, Austere Command. In my meta, there've been a lot of super-big fatties running around, so putting in Reflect cards really works for us, plus I really want to play Reflect Damage against a Blasphemous Act one day. Most of the time, Coercive Portal works as a second copy of Phyrexian Arena, and it's great.
Misc. - Skeletal Scrying, Debt of Loyalty, Vedalken Orrery, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. Scrying's here for more card advantage and gets to play around with our life. Orrery's here to help us end the game by casting our fatties at instants-speed, and Ulamog's here to be one of those fatties.
Piloting the deck works like this...
Early game - Get as many lands as humanly possible, play some politics which MAY include feigning mana-flood. When you're not a threat, other players tend to overlook you. Starting card-draw ridiculousness is good.
Mid game - Draw cards greedily, and don't care much for your life total. Hold relevant answer to threats. Using certain fun cards to assist other players is not a bad idea because we're playing politics here.
Late game - Answer threats with abandon, play game-ending threats. The game-enders we're thinking of here include Ulamog, Teysa, Divinity, fun things we can get with Tariel or Debt of Loyalty, and effects from Kokusho and Grey Merchant.
The idea here is to use a huge arsenal of answers to direct the development of the table as you wish. Without further ado, the decklist:
1 Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
Lands
3 Plains
4 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Blood Crypt
1 Godless Shrine
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Temple of Silence
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of the False God
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Bloodfell Caves
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Wind-Scarred Crag
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Tainted Field
1 Command Tower
1 Vesuva
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Kor Haven
1 Mana Confluence
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
Mana rocks/Fixing
1 Sol Ring
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Journeyer's Kite
1 Pristine Talisman
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Burnished Hart
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Inheritance
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Greed
1 Coercive Portal
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Skeletal Scrying
Answers
1 Tainted Strike
1 Vandalblast
1 Boros Charm
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Terminate
1 Dawn Charm
1 Batwing Brume
1 Hide // Seek
1 Reverberate
1 Wear // Tear
1 Duergar Hedge-Mage
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Backlash
1 Oblation
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Unmake
1 Crackling Doom
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Riot Control
1 Mortify
1 Angel of Finality
1 Perilous Vault
1 Wild Ricochet
1 Master Warcraft
1 Reflect Damage
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Terminus
1 Austere Command
1 Decree of Pain
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Unexpectedly Absent
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Divinity of Pride
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Exquisite Blood
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Beacon of Immortality
1 Exsanguinate
Spend Life
1 Righteous Aura
1 Hatred
1 Moltensteel Dragon
Recursion/Misc.
1 Debt of Loyalty
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Unburial Rites
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Strategy - To be updated soon
This deck is not super proactive in its strategy, but rather prefers to sit back and defend itself against the other threats at the table with a hand full of sweepers and spot removal. By showing the great versatility in this deck's suite of answers and by gaining exponential amounts of life, this deck often becomes the least tempting target at the table. Assuming that no one manages to combo out, this deck will regularly make it into the late game and will play a substantial role in deciding the outcome throughout, if not winning itself.
Playing with good politics is absolutely necessary in some games. Even in games with terrible hands and super-aggressive opponents, this deck has managed to make it to the last player before by simply playing up the strife between other players. Tainted Strike, Hatred, False Cure + Beacon of Immortality, Master Warcraft, and Backlash are all cards that assist in the political goals here, usually by offering assistance to one player for taking down another. For example,Tainted Strike-ing an unblocked 11/11 Primordial Hydra that's swinging at the problem Niv-Mizzet player with Omniscience (that actually happened) is a great way to get the message across that you should work with this deck rather than against it.
Actually winning is more difficult than forcing other players to knock each other out. Nine times out of ten, this deck will pull out a hard-fought victory through recurring its own solid beaters (Teysa 2.0, Divinity, Kokusho, Ashen Rider) or beaters out of the opposing 'yard via Tariel, Beacon of Unrest, Puppeteer Clique, etc, and grinding out the sole other surviving player with removal. Closing out the game usually is not a quick affair in this deck, but there are certain cards that, should they be pulled, can end it without much effort. By using the copious amount of life this deck aims for as a resource, Moltensteel Dragon and Hatred can lethalize a swing (bonus points for using Hatred for 17 on Tariel to win with Commander damage), and False Cure with Beacon of Immortality is an instant-speed kill combo that is very hard to avoid without counterspells.
In regards to the general, Tariel is the best of the three WBR legends for many sorts of strategies, especially "judo", or using your opponents against themselves, strategy (for more, Rachmiel's Tariel Primer is an excellent resource and example for judo-style decks). This deck does not necessarily aim to be a judo deck though, it goes for more of a controlling, rattlesnake-incarnate strategy. If a legendary creature in WBR is printed in the near future (come on, Conspiracy or C14) who is more beneficial to this deck's strategy (i.e. consistent source of life-gain or card advantage), I'll likely switch over to that one over Tariel.
Deck History
This deck started off as the Heavenly Inferno pre-con from C11, and ran Kaalia until I got bored with the super-linear strategy of it after a few months. After that, I made this deck into an all-board-wipes, all-the-time abomination that actually felt pretty terrible. After realizing the unfun-ness of that strategy, it became largely a deck of fun things. I did change it once more, totally cutting the red out of it an replacing Tariel with Obzedat to make it a BW strict life-gain deck, but it just didn't feel right and went back to being WBR with Tariel after just a couple games. It's only been within the last few months that this deck has sharpened its focus.
I really love playing this deck, both in Commander and ordinary casual multiplayer games, and am quite pleased with it right now. It does big, splashy some things, it gains a ton of life, it takes big things out of graveyards, and it gives that ever-satisfying "gotcha" moments. What else could a dirty casual like myself ever need?
Looking Forward
As of now, this deck is pretty well set with the cards specific to its strategy. However, should better or more-synergistic cards be printed in our colors, I'll likely find places for them. Right now, the deck just needs better support cards in the form of the mana base and gaining card advantage. For the mana, I'm working on obtaining Sacred Foundry and Godless Shrine (already have the BR shockland), and am seriously thinking about Lavaclaw Reaches for certain scenarios where it will be useful (at worst, chump-blocking, at best, dumping mana into a big swing). In terms of card advantage, I'm also looking into obtaining a Mind's Eye and more Necropotence-esque life-for-cards engines.
- 1 Swamp, 1 Mountain, Secluded Steppe, Forgotten Cave, Barren Moor.
+ Mana Confluence, Clifftop Retreat, Isolated Chapel, Lavaclaw Reaches, Kor Haven.
These changes are mainly to improve the mana base and versatility of lands. Lavaclaw and Kor Haven have special utility here.
- Browbeat, Ashen Rider, Puppeteer Clique.
+ Wrecking Ogre, Greed, Necropotence.
Taking out Browbeat was a metagame decision: in the past, my meta's always been kind with Browbeats, but they're wising up, so a source of guaranteed card advantage will be more beneficial. Ashen Rider's fun and all, but sometimes it was just bloody hard to get out of my hand, either because I wasn't drawing into an eighth mana source, or I didn't have the colors needed to play it. Also, Ashen Rider was a magnet for counterspells. Puppeteer Clique felt overly redundant and under-performed, just not the right deck for it.
Adding Wrecking Ogre is a little experiment for me: I'm hoping it will work in the same way I use Tainted Strike, targeting a someone's else's fatty or general to cooperatively knock another player out of the game. Necropotence and Greed are here to provide more card advantage in the theme of using life as a resource.
Future Goals: I'd like to continue tightening up the mana base for this deck with better lands firstly. Also, I might lighten the card pool for life-gain cards (hopefully in the next couple years, we'll have a new WBR legend that can take care of that department). Lastly, I might pull the Beacon of Immortality + False Cure "Target player loses the game" combo for the infrequency of drawing it out, and Diabolic Revelation with them because it's primary purpose in the deck is to fetch that combo. I'm really hoping we get some more support in the WBR spending life for value design space in the near future, perhaps with C14, even with the off-chance that KTK will be the wedge block.
EDIT: I just missed the Judo comment in the OP, oops!
I like the inclusion of Inheritance here, allowing you to play answers and profit off of them (even opponents' answers). I've been browsing WBR decklists and so far, this and Rachmiel's primer the only ones that have caught my interest, I like how it plays with your life total and acts like a judge of some sorts, often dictating how the game ends. How has it played out for you?
Also I'd like to comment on Lavaclaw Reaches. My first EDH deck was a Wort, Boggart Auntie tribal build that included this land, and during the late game it would be a respectable threat when answers were spent on other things. It's a great mana dump, too, often getting in for large beats after a board wipe. I highly recommend it.
For your life-for-cards engines, what are your thoughts on Hoarder's Greed? I feel like you have enough big ticket cards to trigger the effect more than once. It's not really an engine of sorts, but it does have the potential to draw you a great amount of cards. There's also Ad Nauseam, which you have full control of, or just plain Greed. You're already running Erebos, God of the Dead, but having another copy of it's ability may prove useful.
Hey, sorry for taking so long to get back to you! It's been a busy week (I'm a senior in college, thus class, papers, projects, tests, work, graduation things, applications, and finding time to breath).
Anyways, thanks, I'm honored by your inclusion of my deck in your search! Rachmiel's is rather excellent too, I've been following his for a while, and while my deck has elements that are similar to his, I try not to make it into a judo/akido deck. Also, if you read articles on Star City Games, David McDarby keeps up a biweekly Commander Versus series where a very different, token-based Tariel deck was ran. Of course, Tariel didn't actually do anything in the deck, but it's definitely something to think about. (Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0HobwRmPag)
For my life-for-cards engines, I try to keep them either as permanents, or that will give me a super significant return on their investment. I've ran Syphon Mind in the past (bad for politics), and Read the Bones is excellent for the Scry, but we're looking for something that you can consistently drop a lot of unspent resources into, so Hoarder's Greed and Ad Nauseam aren't things I'm too keen on, plus Ad Nauseam might be too much of a gamble for me. If Yawgmoth's Bargain and Griselbrand weren't banned, they'd be insta-includes. Greed is certainly something I've considered, and I may yet go for it. I think what keeps me back from that is a combination of it not doing enough for its cost. Phyrexian Arena costs one less, and is an extra card guaranteed every turn that it sticks, and Erebos hoses my opponents' life-gain while also becoming a nice beater more often than you'd expect. If I trade into a Greed, I'll definitely test it out. Also, Trading Post could be an option as this deck could use chump blockers and can easily recur creatures ditched for cards.
Also, I'm ordering a Lavaclaw Reaches in my next shipment of cards tomorrow, looking forward to swinging in with it.
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It seems to be built along the same lines as a few other reactionary Tariel lists I've seen.
I think there is a bit low card advantage in the list, and I don't like Browbeat, too easy to turn off, it's really more of a random Lava Axe than anything else. If the goal is to be reactionary to break stuff, I think a Salvaging Station package would help this deck a lot. The baubles give a lot of card advantage, and Executioner's capsule, Nihil Spellbomb and Dispeller's Capsule can wreck some real havoc. Use Auriok Salvagers and Trading post as backups. Glaring spotlight is also useful to keep the hexproof commanders in check. Other card draw options would be Underworld Connections, Graveborn Muse, Wheel of Fortune, Dark Prophecy(?). There's a number of good card draw equipment as well, from the ubiquitous skullclamp to Mask of memory, though the deck is creature light for non-skullclamp equipment.
For a reactionary build, Sunforger is notably absent, as are several powerhouse spells. There's no Wing Shards or Mirror Strike, both of which can destroy attacks, nor is there a Reflect Damage.
For a backup plan of reanimation, there are stronger options out there than the one shot effects that are in the deck. I like Nezumi Graverobber as both grave hate and reanimation, as well as Chainer, Dementia Master. While also has Sun Titan, Reveillark, and Karmic Guide. Nim Deathmantle is also a great card, especially with Solemn Simulacrum and Burnished Hart; both of which are also fantastic with Gift of Immortality (as is Karmic Guide!). Toshiro Umezawa would also be useful for recurring those reactionary instants, and would open up a lot of instant black card draw as well (Necrologia, Moonlight Bargain).
I don't mind lifegain as a stall tactic or for resource, but some of the options in here I feel are outclassed by other options. Venser's Journal in particular does not impress me much.
36 lands is a bit light, even with that artifact ramp in there. I'd also cut some of the ETB tapped for some more basics for the ramp search.
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Overall, this seems like an excellently solid base built on a bit of a budget with some great upgrade room. I see that the deck is still trying to get itself some shocks, so that explains some of the budgetary card choices in the deck, as well as some notable exclusions (White reanimation package, wheel of fortune).
My biggest immediate recommendation for the deck is Sunforger. At about a dollar currently on tcgplayer, it will open up a lot more combat tricks and reactionary options.
My next suggestion would be to try out a Salvaging Station package, I think you would be pleasantly surprised once you get comfortable with it. (Someone wraths and you have a Conjurer's Bauble out? Look at you drawing a card for each dead thing! How awesome!)
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
Also, thank you for all of the recommendations. The Salvaging Station package is something I'll definitely mull over, it'd be great value. However, it might displace the resident themes of using life as a resource and remaining a rattle-snake political player since abusing a value engine draws ire from my meta game. If I wanted to make this deck objectively better, I'd implement that package for sure, buuuut I'm wary of it.
A Sunforger package is something I run in another deck that can really support it, but this deck can't For most of the game, my side of the board will not have any creatures on it, and the amount of board wipes I run make it difficult to rely on creatures at all. Since I need a creature to throw Sunforger on, it just becomes an inconvenience (and I barely play Tariel). I don't run Wing Shards because, in a vacuum, it sucks. If I'm being attacked by a horde of 5/5 tokens with no other spells having been played that turn, that's not going to save me. Granted, it's fantastic against voltron generals, but it's too situational for the deck and my meta game at the moment (maybe in the future). I don't run any Mirror Strike-esque cards because they're not proactive enough. To better explain this, this deck is known in my meta to be the one that will bite you in the ass if you attack it, so most people don't, and when no one attacks me, a Mirror Strike becomes a dead draw. I may put a Reflect Damage back in since it's more well-rounded, and I just realized that it doesn't actually target (sorry Uril, that's 21 to your own face).
I like a little reanimation to keep me on the ground, but, again, this isn't a creature-based deck, so the white reanimation is pretty much out of the window. Venser's Journal is a little weird, and it's one of those cards I STILL haven't drawn yet, so I can't evaluate it's performance in the deck quite yet. I'm thinking about cutting the signets soon too for lands. This deck has kept the 36 number for a very long time, and I favor 38 much more now.
Thanks again for your commentary! I actually just updated the decklist today if you'd like to take a peek at what I've changed.
The cuts: 1 Plains, 2 Swamps, 1 Mountain, Vault of the Archangel, Orzhov Signet, Boros Signet, Necropotence, Diabolic Revelation, False Cure, Wrecking Ogre, Akroma's Vengeance, Venser's Journal, Shattered Angel, Firemane Angel, Rescue from the Underworld.
The new additions:
Lands - Godless Shrine, Nomad Outpost, Bloodfell Caves, Scoured Barrens, Wind-Scarred Crag. I put in the new Refuge lands from KTK because the deck's naturally slow, they're decent for fixing, and we like gaining life so we can spend it later. Also, I thought I was running all three Shocklands here, but I suppose I'm not. I'll fix that soon.
Answers - Deflecting Palm, Crackling Doom, Toxic Deluge, Perilous Vault, Coercive Portal, Reflect Damage, Austere Command. In my meta, there've been a lot of super-big fatties running around, so putting in Reflect cards really works for us, plus I really want to play Reflect Damage against a Blasphemous Act one day. Most of the time, Coercive Portal works as a second copy of Phyrexian Arena, and it's great.
Misc. - Skeletal Scrying, Debt of Loyalty, Vedalken Orrery, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. Scrying's here for more card advantage and gets to play around with our life. Orrery's here to help us end the game by casting our fatties at instants-speed, and Ulamog's here to be one of those fatties.
Piloting the deck works like this...
Early game - Get as many lands as humanly possible, play some politics which MAY include feigning mana-flood. When you're not a threat, other players tend to overlook you. Starting card-draw ridiculousness is good.
Mid game - Draw cards greedily, and don't care much for your life total. Hold relevant answer to threats. Using certain fun cards to assist other players is not a bad idea because we're playing politics here.
Late game - Answer threats with abandon, play game-ending threats. The game-enders we're thinking of here include Ulamog, Teysa, Divinity, fun things we can get with Tariel or Debt of Loyalty, and effects from Kokusho and Grey Merchant.
Another great finisher is Debt to the Deathless. Especially if you have a way to use Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers *cough*Weathered Wayfarer*cough*Expedition Map*cough* Black Market is another card that is very much on theme here.
Food for thought.