I am finalizing this deck so any suggestions on how to improve it would be greatly appreciated. Please do not only include cards you would add but cards you would cut as well. Thanks
Atheros is a commander I think people will underestimate until they play against him. His indestructability and his cheap mana cost gets him out early and pretty much insures that he will be out most of the game. At first I thought I would build on the fact he will keep my hand full with creatures but reality sunk in before I ever played the deck that with the 40 life of commander players will choose to take the three life loss instead of keeping you in stream of creatures. Realizing this I reformulated the deck to include some graveyard recursion. Having my opponent take three damage makes extort a viable strategy for Atheros. Not only is he in Orzov’s colors. Extort is another sneaky good mechanic in commander if you commit to playing it. It gets better the more players you have. Many extort cards are cheap which allow you to play the extra mana to activate extort even multiple times for one spell as you fill your board. One life lost does not seem like much but if you extort ten times over the course of a game and factor in your opponents taking additional damage with your commander it all adds up to apply pressure on your opponents. This is before the beats. A lot of the extort creatures are weenies in the commander format. But in this format board wipes are common and it is then Atheros takes over and gives some "burn" damage. It also helps a lot that commander is multiplayer and you will be gaining multiple life each turn which puts you in a good position to take advantage of the many lose one life activation of abilities that black has to offer. This deck allows you to be passive early reset the field often to give you an advantage and then get agressive as needed. The rest of the deck is filled with board wipes, card draw/card quality, just a little bit of mana acceleration, heavy hitting creatures and a small toolbox to deal with situations as they arrive.
Extort and extort like abilities: 13
Opponent Loses Life: 4
Removal: 20
Card Draw/Card Quality: 13
Mana Ramp/Land drop consistency: 8
Recursion from Graveyard: 5
Heavy hitting thumpers: 13
Evaision: 11
Lifelink: 3
Creature stat boost: 4
First Strike/Double Strike: 3
Misc. Abilities:7
Miscellaneous Thoughts
Darksteel Mutation is pure commander hate. Condemn may be a little stronger as an instant speed spell but DM doesn’t need an aggressive commander to make it work.
One of my first choices to search for a creature is the Obzedat Ghost Council. It had four devotion to fuel Athreos a built in (passive) extort type mechanic and a 5/5 body to boot. It is an excellent card to pick on an opponent with to get his life total low so that you can keep some of the creatures you wish to recycle late game.
The first card I am tutoring for more often than not will be Land Tax. Ideally I am hoping to play 2nd or 3rd so that I will naturally be activating the Tax without missing a land drop. Life is easier when you have mana.
Pharika’s Chosen and Typhoid Rats are efficient cards. With deathtouch they act as spot removal at 1 mana you can extort multiple times easily if you have the (extort) board presence. More often than not people will pay the three life to keep them from going back to your hand.
My favorite removal is Nev’s Disk the downside is you need to wait a turn before you can pop it and it is vulnerable but more often than not once the disk hits the table people don’t play cards and they do not target it because they would rather have you use your board reset and save theirs. It gives you time to stabilize your position or just wipe it all clean. You can pop the disk at instant speed so once it is untapped you can wait for your opponent to attack you or even play some artifact destruction before you do your dirty work. If you have Avacyn Angel of Hope on the battlefield it (the disk) doesn’t go away and you have a board wipe for 1 every turn... sick. A battalion activated Frontline Medic is almost as good.
I chose Chariot of Victory as my haste card over the Lightening Greaves Because it grants first strike and more importantly trample. Anytime you can give Serra Avatar trample and haste it is a good thing. Lord of the Void is devastating as well. Giving first strike (via the chariot) to the Vampire Nighthawk has it’s benefits too.
Shriekmaw is too good versus all but mono black decks. You either have a recurring doomblade or a doomblade with an additional opponent loses 3 life. Now add in Volrath’s Stronghold...
With the tutors there are times you will need to go searching for an answer to a particular threat. But if you do not have too if I have six or less lands out I often want to grab some mana fixing. IF I have six to ten lands out and I have around 40 life then I will normally want to grab Greed or Planar Portal.
There re probably several lands I can add to make this deck far better. I just haven't gotten around to them yet.
There are a couple of flavor cards that can be substituted in to fit your play style if you would like.
1) Quietus Spike: This is a wonderful piece of equipment. The deathtouch is nice and the threat of your opponent losing half his life often will force a blocker. If it is placed on Athreos
2) Grafted Exoskeleton: on Avacyn can end the game for a player but poison doesn't really fit the decks identity still it is a very strong combo. It also takes down Avacyn on the other side too!
3) Eternal Dragon: Plains cycling that you can get from your graveyard. It is hard to say no to.
4) It that Betrays: stealing opponents permanents is always fun.
6) Miracles: Scroll Rack sets up the miracle for Entreat the Angels (Token swarm is nice but it doesn't synergize with Atheros ) or Terminus (can cause a lethal swing for the win)But will you have a scroll rack late? Maybe you need...
7) Sun Titan: can bring back extort creatures and artifacts.
8) Worldslayer: It is brutal with Avacyn. I think there is enough removal to not include this combo although if you pull it off you win the game.
9) Village Bell Ringer: go ahead tap out and attack and when they retaliate flash him in and block
10) Stoneforge Mystic: Lets you search for goodies but am thinking tutors are better. Uncounterable EQ is nice though
11) Ajani, Caller of the Pride: Counters don’t excite me much but flying and double strike for 3 mana I will take.
1 Athreos, God of Passage
Creatures (31)
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Basilica Guards
1 Basilica Screecher
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Deathpact Angel
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Insatiable Harpy
1 Frontline Medic
1 King Macar, the Gold Cursed
1 Kingpin’s Pet
1 Knight of Obligation
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Lord of the Void
1 Mikaeus, The Unhallowed
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
1 Pharika’s Chosen
1 Pontiff of Blight
1 Serra Avatar
1 Shriekmaw
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Soulcage Fiend
1 Squelching Leeches
1 Syndic of Tithes
1 Syndicate Enforcer
1 Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
1 Thrull Parasite
1 Tithe Drinker
1 Treasury Thrull
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Sorin Markov
Artifacts (11)
1 Chariot of Victory
1 Fireshrieker
1 Godsend
1 Journeyer’s Kite
1 Nevinyrral’s Disk
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Planar Portal
1 Scroll Rack
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Whispersilk Cloak
Enchantments (4)
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Debtor’s Knell
1 Greed
1 Land Tax
Sorceries (12)
1 Consume Spirit
1 Damnation
1 Day of Judgement
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Divine Reckoning
1 Harrowing Journey
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Obzedat’s Aid
1 Planar Cleansing
1 Sign in Blood
1 Wrath of God
1 Hero’s Downfall
1 Vampiric Tutor
Land (36)
1 Command Tower
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
19 Swamp
14 Plains
I am finalizing this deck so any suggestions on how to improve it would be greatly appreciated. Please do not only include cards you would add but cards you would cut as well. Thanks
Atheros is a commander I think people will underestimate until they play against him. His indestructability and his cheap mana cost gets him out early and pretty much insures that he will be out most of the game. At first I thought I would build on the fact he will keep my hand full with creatures but reality sunk in before I ever played the deck that with the 40 life of commander players will choose to take the three life loss instead of keeping you in stream of creatures. Realizing this I reformulated the deck to include some graveyard recursion. Having my opponent take three damage makes extort a viable strategy for Atheros. Not only is he in Orzov’s colors. Extort is another sneaky good mechanic in commander if you commit to playing it. It gets better the more players you have. Many extort cards are cheap which allow you to play the extra mana to activate extort even multiple times for one spell as you fill your board. One life lost does not seem like much but if you extort ten times over the course of a game and factor in your opponents taking additional damage with your commander it all adds up to apply pressure on your opponents. This is before the beats. A lot of the extort creatures are weenies in the commander format. But in this format board wipes are common and it is then Atheros takes over and gives some "burn" damage. It also helps a lot that commander is multiplayer and you will be gaining multiple life each turn which puts you in a good position to take advantage of the many lose one life activation of abilities that black has to offer. This deck allows you to be passive early reset the field often to give you an advantage and then get agressive as needed. The rest of the deck is filled with board wipes, card draw/card quality, just a little bit of mana acceleration, heavy hitting creatures and a small toolbox to deal with situations as they arrive.
Opponent Loses Life: 4
Removal: 20
Card Draw/Card Quality: 13
Mana Ramp/Land drop consistency: 8
Recursion from Graveyard: 5
Heavy hitting thumpers: 13
Evaision: 11
Lifelink: 3
Creature stat boost: 4
First Strike/Double Strike: 3
Misc. Abilities:7
Miscellaneous Thoughts
Darksteel Mutation is pure commander hate. Condemn may be a little stronger as an instant speed spell but DM doesn’t need an aggressive commander to make it work.
One of my first choices to search for a creature is the Obzedat Ghost Council. It had four devotion to fuel Athreos a built in (passive) extort type mechanic and a 5/5 body to boot. It is an excellent card to pick on an opponent with to get his life total low so that you can keep some of the creatures you wish to recycle late game.
The first card I am tutoring for more often than not will be Land Tax. Ideally I am hoping to play 2nd or 3rd so that I will naturally be activating the Tax without missing a land drop. Life is easier when you have mana.
Pharika’s Chosen and Typhoid Rats are efficient cards. With deathtouch they act as spot removal at 1 mana you can extort multiple times easily if you have the (extort) board presence. More often than not people will pay the three life to keep them from going back to your hand.
My favorite removal is Nev’s Disk the downside is you need to wait a turn before you can pop it and it is vulnerable but more often than not once the disk hits the table people don’t play cards and they do not target it because they would rather have you use your board reset and save theirs. It gives you time to stabilize your position or just wipe it all clean. You can pop the disk at instant speed so once it is untapped you can wait for your opponent to attack you or even play some artifact destruction before you do your dirty work. If you have Avacyn Angel of Hope on the battlefield it (the disk) doesn’t go away and you have a board wipe for 1 every turn... sick. A battalion activated Frontline Medic is almost as good.
Thrull Parasite has an extra use keeping Mikaeus, the Unhallowed around by removing his +1/+1 counter. Otherwise it is a purely defensive ability.
I chose Chariot of Victory as my haste card over the Lightening Greaves Because it grants first strike and more importantly trample. Anytime you can give Serra Avatar trample and haste it is a good thing. Lord of the Void is devastating as well. Giving first strike (via the chariot) to the Vampire Nighthawk has it’s benefits too.
Shriekmaw is too good versus all but mono black decks. You either have a recurring doomblade or a doomblade with an additional opponent loses 3 life. Now add in Volrath’s Stronghold...
With the tutors there are times you will need to go searching for an answer to a particular threat. But if you do not have too if I have six or less lands out I often want to grab some mana fixing. IF I have six to ten lands out and I have around 40 life then I will normally want to grab Greed or Planar Portal.
There re probably several lands I can add to make this deck far better. I just haven't gotten around to them yet.
There are a couple of flavor cards that can be substituted in to fit your play style if you would like.
2) Grafted Exoskeleton: on Avacyn can end the game for a player but poison doesn't really fit the decks identity still it is a very strong combo. It also takes down Avacyn on the other side too!
3) Eternal Dragon: Plains cycling that you can get from your graveyard. It is hard to say no to.
4) It that Betrays: stealing opponents permanents is always fun.
5) Lightning Greaves: Haste for 0 is always good
6) Miracles: Scroll Rack sets up the miracle for Entreat the Angels (Token swarm is nice but it doesn't synergize with Atheros ) or Terminus (can cause a lethal swing for the win)But will you have a scroll rack late? Maybe you need...
7) Sun Titan: can bring back extort creatures and artifacts.
8) Worldslayer: It is brutal with Avacyn. I think there is enough removal to not include this combo although if you pull it off you win the game.
9) Village Bell Ringer: go ahead tap out and attack and when they retaliate flash him in and block
10) Stoneforge Mystic: Lets you search for goodies but am thinking tutors are better. Uncounterable EQ is nice though
11) Ajani, Caller of the Pride: Counters don’t excite me much but flying and double strike for 3 mana I will take.
out Insatiable Harpy in Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath Reason: Instead of Just lifelink this card brings extort abilities or a 5/5 flier.
out Soulcage Fiend in Sheoldred, Whispering One Reason: Creature removal and limited recursion is far stronger than lose three life.
out Squelching Leeches in Wight of Precinct Six Reason: Flavor choices over the leeches.
out Swamp in Vault of the Archangel Reason: deathtouch is reason enough for this land.
out Swamp in Thespian's Stage Reason: Mimic land is cool.