So, I decided it would be interesting to bail on trying to play control in UW temporarily and try my hand at aggro. What I like about this setup right now is that Ephara actually does make a fairly good attacker. Ephara also adds a lot of draw to an aggro plan which is usually when an aggro deck falls apart. I am pushing primarily to red zone while drawing cards and taking extra turns here.
One weakness I am not sure how to get past is what I do about creature theft once I turn into a creature with my commander. I am really not running sac outlets as they dont fit what the rest of the deck is doing. I do have some redundancy in draw with things like Bident of Thassa and Coastal Piracy not to mention the potential to drop a Clever Impersonator as a second Epahra. Keeping answers to things like Humility is also on my list of things to do. As it is I focus the bit of removal I have made room for to being versatile spot removal rather than counters. Its possible to run some counters like Pact of Negation but overall I am trying to be aggressive and just remove things I have to so most of my focus is on answers that can be used if drawn beyond the problem hitting play.
So this is my take on aggro / draw / extra turns wrapped up in one deck. I look forward to seeing how this take on Ephara pans out. Please feel free to review and comment if you would like on it.
I like the look of the list. I'm tempted to build one myself now. I also had the similar idea of making a Jori En, Ruin Diver aggro merfolk deck, which would be similar in concept.
Edit: Sheldon uses Crusading Knight in some decks. Kinda french vanilla, but all sorts of doomy.
I got the deck to 100 cards. Some notes on what I did to get it there:
I paired down the walkers for now to just new Giddeon. I considered several other walkers but overall I like all of the modes on new giddeon for this deck where many other walkers I considered I liked like one option of.
I cut some of the recursion. I plan to draw enough cards and they are responsive so I didn't want a ton of responsive rez effects. I replaced Karmic Guide with Miraculous Recovery because I dont intend to get really any value from the 2/2 that the Karmic comes with nor do I intend to pay the echo cost. I like Karmic more in decks that abuse creatures with things like Birthing Pod, sac outlets, and stuff of that sort. Reveillark also went out with this change as I also see enough draw and little enough focus on any one creature to need it. Over half of my creatures are too big as I am focusing on being able to beat face with a lot of my creatures.
Added the landbase in.
Eldrazi Monument came in for Dictate of Heliod. The power buff and flash parts of Dictate are really cool but the evasion should add in quite a bit so it serves both offense and defense better not to mention adding some wrath proofing.
Rootborn Defenses got cut. I just dont see myself justifying keeping up three mana all the time for something situational like this. Its probably better to just pack a counter if I want a response to wraths. I cut it for now as I needed to make room.
Looks interesting. Definitely a lot to be said for having indestructible (almost) Soul of the Harvest as your general in a creature deck.
Veteran's armaments might be good enough too if you have as many soldiers as it looks like.
Stonehewer Giant - I had him in my list starting out. I eventually ended up pairing down my equipment though to be honest because equipment does not scale as well with swarm style of aggro and I decided that swinging with more bodies was better value with where I was trying to go than suped up single targets. Its hard for example to maze or chump block a swarm of guys coming at you. I wanted to be sort of psudo token but not strictly token based as an objective and that sort of strategy makes equipment less valuable. I think that this tactic of value attackers is valid but when I was thinking about this concept first my thoughts were Coastal Piracy / Bident of Thassa / Extra Turns to be honest.
Argentum Armor - I have always viewed it as a huge target that rarely gets to go off. Its an option that could be done if you want to focus more on equipment and it works well with the extra turns but my experience has been more towards this card not working than it working.
Ranger of Eos - it was actually in my list for some time. The issue was that I wasn't really crazy about most of the other one drop options. I considered trying to speed up even faster but I kept coming to the conclusion that trying to run faster seemed like a much more fragile plan for this commander. Unlike some commanders like Edric, Spymaster of Trest we cap what value our commander can give us per turn so just vomiting fast value doesn't quite work which is when I went away from ranger. Ranger itself is card advantage but selective and its body isn't that impressive as a whole.
Veteran's armaments - its not bad and it does go towards the mob mentality but it really buffs the same as a single anthem to only one creature so its easier to block or remove the buffed creature. I think there is some general design issues with this piece of equipment in that its functionally like an anthem for your attackers but the damage being consolidated is actually a bad thing if you ask me.
I like the look of the list. I'm tempted to build one myself now. I also had the similar idea of making a Jori En, Ruin Diver aggro merfolk deck, which would be similar in concept.
Edit: Sheldon uses Crusading Knight in some decks. Kinda french vanilla, but all sorts of doomy.
I also looked at Jori En in a few directions but even if you go tribal merfolk the issue is that it mostly gives you islandwalk and a small buff for the tribal aspects. I am actually under the thought that tribal merfolk is just something that mostly wont work in this format because most of the tribal effects just dont stack well with getting to 40 damage or 21 commander in this format.
Crusading Knight - yea it would be fun to run Urborg with this too lol. Its silly for sure. I will see if I cant get around to testing it assuming I go through with this one.
The deck was kind of designed around lots of bodies and draw. Its kind of an experiment to see how much people are trying to ramp and just set up because I am sick of decks playing for the super late game and not interacting well enough early on. The Bident and Piracy are potentially the strongest draw in the deck so I dont think I plan to cut them anytime soon. They ideally draw me to extra turns which chain my draw to more good things.
Crovax, Ascendant Hero - I dont get why people hate on him so much. He offers removal for a lot of utility and token based decks while giving me an anthem thats super hard to remove. Sure 6 mana is a little much but if you have a better play just keep him in hand. There are a lot of decks that this guy just answers outright. Its rare that you need the whole effect of Elesh Norn and he gives a second copy of her effect for the most part.
Daxos of Meletis - life gain, card advantage, evasion, and he only costs 3. It seems good to me. People really panic about this little guy too for some reason so it makes me happy to see them squirm as he comes after their deck.
Profaner of the Dead - possibly, he does hit only opponents creatures though so he is a blocking blow out not to mention he kills tokens. If you play against a bunch of ETB based decks he kind of sucks but I run Torpor Orb as a focus of about half of my decks so so few people actually try ETB stuff anymore here lol.
Soltari Champion is a favorite of mine for lists like these. Carries equipment efficiently and pumps your squad whenever it swings and Soltari Visionary another which doesn't make as many lists as his friend but is a nice effect to have on such an evasive body.
Soltari Champion is a favorite of mine for lists like these. Carries equipment efficiently and pumps your squad whenever it swings and Soltari Visionary another which doesn't make as many lists as his friend but is a nice effect to have on such an evasive body.
I had both in my list for a time. I ended up cutting back on small anthem effects though as I had more of them in my list such as Angel of Jubilation. My concern offhand on the anthem creatures is that I have to be swarming fairly hard for them to add up so I tried running effects that do more than just pump for one to try to make situations where I just have like 3 or 4 guys a little better. When you start getting to the what if I have like 6+ creatures it starts becoming a question as to why nobody has wrathed you yet. If I had a higher concentration on tokens I might consider running more anthems but I feel like generally anthems dont quite do enough in commander so I tried going with some that add up more than just a single +1/+1.
Soltari Visionary I had it in my list as well before I paired it out. I like it but its more of an attrition card than one that really gets in for numbers. There is nothing wrong with killing enchantments but they are also generally the card type that sees the least numbers in a game of EDH assuming someone isn't like playing enchantress. Often the enchantments are valuable and good but at the same time I feel like his extra value is questionable often and I have other evasive creatures that are 2/2 for 3 that I feel have a better chance of generating value like Thada Adel and Daxos. The difference is kind of that proactive value generation is a lot more reliable than reactive value generation. My objective for this deck is to get in for numbers so I would rather do some proactive rather than reactive value generation here because of that generally speaking.
Soltari Champion is a favorite of mine for lists like these. Carries equipment efficiently and pumps your squad whenever it swings and Soltari Visionary another which doesn't make as many lists as his friend but is a nice effect to have on such an evasive body.
I had both in my list for a time. I ended up cutting back on small anthem effects though as I had more of them in my list such as Angel of Jubilation. My concern offhand on the anthem creatures is that I have to be swarming fairly hard for them to add up so I tried running effects that do more than just pump for one to try to make situations where I just have like 3 or 4 guys a little better. When you start getting to the what if I have like 6+ creatures it starts becoming a question as to why nobody has wrathed you yet. If I had a higher concentration on tokens I might consider running more anthems but I feel like generally anthems dont quite do enough in commander so I tried going with some that add up more than just a single +1/+1.
Soltari Visionary I had it in my list as well before I paired it out. I like it but its more of an attrition card than one that really gets in for numbers. There is nothing wrong with killing enchantments but they are also generally the card type that sees the least numbers in a game of EDH assuming someone isn't like playing enchantress. Often the enchantments are valuable and good but at the same time I feel like his extra value is questionable often and I have other evasive creatures that are 2/2 for 3 that I feel have a better chance of generating value like Thada Adel and Daxos. The difference is kind of that proactive value generation is a lot more reliable than reactive value generation. My objective for this deck is to get in for numbers so I would rather do some proactive rather than reactive value generation here because of that generally speaking.
I like the analysis here on these, it helped me to smooth out a mono-white list I was brewing up, with regard to being more proactive. For me in general however, the Champion I decided to keep in my list for now, not only for the anthem effect, but because he comes down early and carries Sword of the Animist and other Equipment well like Captain's Claws.
I like the analysis here on these, it helped me to smooth out a mono-white list I was brewing up, with regard to being more proactive. For me in general however, the Champion I decided to keep in my list for now, not only for the anthem effect, but because he comes down early and carries Sword of the Animist and other Equipment well like Captain's Claws.
Sorry to loop back to this like a month later. I like Phantasmal Image as a card but something to keep in mind is that its far better at copying ETB based creatures than it is at value over time or as an attacking based creature. This deck has more of a focus of creatures that beat in for damage so there are concerns about the image against cards like mazes and or Tower of the Magistrate (both are very popular in my meta). It is a little bit of a question of how much low cost targeting you see in your meta as to how much value can be had from a Phantasmal Image as an attacking or value over time generator. Where it really shines is in a deck who focuses on ETB tactics where most of its value can be front loaded.
I ended up putting in an order to fill in some cards for this deck so I am back to looking at this list. I am going to make a few small adjustments because of that where I feel I have a few weaknesses I want to snip up while I can.
DECK CHANGES:
Wingmate Roc -> Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir the wingmate seems like fun but its not really that aggressive as a whole. Flashing in creatures and denying people instant speed responses pushes me through counter magic and responses. It also lets me stagger draw over multiple turns easier if I want.
Miraculous Recovery -> Aura of Silence ehhhh recovery is cool. Being able to play through Humility seems even better though. I like that the aura slows my opponents plays down + gives me devotion for Ephara while giving me Sun Titan targets and spot removal as needed.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar -> Leyline of Anticipation Gideon seems like he would be fun, I think having mass flash is better though. This one gives devotion and can be free so it seems good.
Skullclamp -> Return to Dust honestly, my creatures dont pick up skullclamp that well so its down to tokens or waiting for creatures to die which seems not as good. Having answers to opposing gods and or just more good removal seems good since I run so little actual removal in here.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Sleeving this up yesterday / today and I had a few cards I wanted to adjust.
DECK CHANGE:
Trinket Mage -> Thalia, Guardian of Thraben I realized I had little to no options for trinket mage to toolbox from. Its essentially go and get some ramp which I guess is ok but it just felt slow and without options so I decided to axe it. Thalia should hurt opponents a lot more than it does me considering I am so creature heavy and I like that she drops in early and runs through the toughness of most utility creatures with her first strike while being a very early drop.
Mirror Entity -> Sword of Light and ShadowMirror Entity has less stats from the get go so its actually more of like an 8 drop because as a 3 drop its seriously lacking. I still dont hate the idea of him in deck but I realized he was a much later drop. I dont know how much I really need any of the swords specifically but I have a few good double strikers in deck so adding another sword could help them connect for more meaningful numbers. I also dont have a lot of recursion in deck as it is but for some reason I am just not really as interested in Karmic Guide here because as a body I dont have a lot to abuse it as is right now. I figured this sword gave me a means of connecting some creatures who lack evasion as well as strengthening some of my double strike effects.
Secure the Wastes -> Enlightened Tutor I decided that a random token gen wasnt really what I needed. Instead this gives me access to removal, draw, evasion, haste / shroud, gods, and tap down defenses. I felt that it was versatile enough to be justifiable.
Cathars' Crusade -> Mystical Tutor while I think the crusade can work, I plan to be swarming fairly hard with my creatures as they are and most of the time I have found the crusade to be painfully slow to work. I have a bunch of extra turns which I expect to be a much better effect for bursting damage out. The tutor can be removal or extra turns but even fetching up a bribery for a key answer can work. I also think I might want to add something like Oblation or Swords to Plowshares to give a little more redundancy in my answers but for now I think a tutor does fine as it can give me either the gas to keep moving or get the answer to a problem in a pinch. More access to Cyclonic Rift tends to be a good thing.
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV was also on the list of possible additions in this change. I refrained from him though in part because 4 mana misses a lot of ramp that my opponents are probably going to be dropping and he also lands right when I want to be casting my commander with the problem that his effect makes him want to come in sooner rather than later. In the end, I felt that Thalia, Guardian of Thraben fit the deck better considering she hits sooner and does not slow down a large portion of this deck (the creatures). She does not get in the way as much being a two drop and her first strike gets her through a lot of chaff blockers.
I like the last set of changes, you should put up some game snapshots/highlights so we can get a feel of how it's playing out.
You should give Relic Seeker a try in here too. You don't have a huge set of equipment, but going relic seeker -> Sword of the Animist has been stellar in my group, for fast and slow decks alike.
I like the last set of changes, you should put up some game snapshots/highlights so we can get a feel of how it's playing out.
You should give Relic Seeker a try in here too. You don't have a huge set of equipment, but going relic seeker -> Sword of the Animist has been stellar in my group, for fast and slow decks alike.
I plan to play it tonight so I will see what I can do about doing some writeups on the results.
Relic Seeker - I will.... see what I can do about testing him. To be honest, I dont know how much importance I am putting on equipment in here yet. He has always seemed easy to block / deal with too so that has me a little worried.
I guess I will throw a few more changes in on the land side as its a few things I wanted:
DECK CHANGE:
Academy Ruins -> Mirrorpool I have very few artifacts in list and I would not really consider any of them key by any means. It might seem odd to cut the ruins but I only have 7 targets right now and I feel like I would not spend the time to recover most of them. Mirrorpool on the other hand gives me access to instant speed clones and turning a Time Warp into a Time Stretch which amuses me.
Plains -> Winding Canyons I have to watch my plains count so that my Emeria stays relevant but other than that I think that having flash as an option can duck some wraths as well as push key plays in. I dont use the canyons too often but I think with the combination of extra turns it has some potential to drop a value over time creature in and just run away with it.
Island -> Kor Haven a little protection never hurt I guess. I considered instead adding something like Dust Bowl but honestly I am going to be spread over multiple attackers most of the time so an opposing maze doesnt seem that frightening given I am planning somewhat on swarm tactics.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I have a few changes. I ended up playing 3 games last week with some mixed results but overall the deck performed well. Just to do kind of a quick overview of the games as I dont want to drill down into them all right now:
GAME 1: T1 Serra Ascendant. I was nice and I spread the damage out but by about turn 8 the ramp happy Kaseto, Orochi Archmage managed to one shot me when I had him down to 4 life. He then managed to assemble a Seedborn Muse + Capsize to just lock up everyone else who were mostly not doing well after having stuck a Consecrated Sphinx that nobody could answer. It easily would have been my game if I had gone after him sooner. I also assumed he had countermagic and so perhaps I played more cautiously than I should have. His Cyclonic Rift overloaded slowed me down significantly and allowed him to survive long enough to pull out a win.
Game 3: I cant remember the early game very well but it was a lot of me getting spot removed and stolen from. I got a Mirror-Sigil Sergeant out to have it stolen from a Helm of Possession. I got it back later after a Terastodon I hijacked with a Bribery. The Naya deck ended up Storm Hearding with a Double effect and then used earthcraft to generate an extra 60ish optional mana which he dropped an Avacyn + Eldrazi Monument with. The RG player had the option of killing me and the mono white player but I offered to answer the Naya deck if I was still alive on my turn so I ended up dropping a Profaner of the Dead on a Terastodon and taking out the token army. I ended up doing some decent damage and getting up to 4 Mirror-Sigil Sergeant copies. I passed to the Naya deck and he did an Insurrection and turned it all back on me killing me like exactly with essentially just my own creatures
So overall, I died to super ramp / super mana hitting all the draw / ramp effects and an Insurrection from nowhere so I guess thats acceptable for now. I will see what I can do to improve on that.
I have a few changes I wanted to try out. I want to keep things fairly creature heavy and keep trying with the aggro. That said, I am adding a few psudo answers in some ways.
DECK CHANGES:
Sword of Light and Shadow -> Umezawa's Jitte oh big surprise, I was again underwhelmed by Sword of Light and Shadow multiple times yet again. I kept getting it and really just not doing anything with it. My graveyard wasn't really getting filled and I am not really focusing on any one of my creatures I feel like. I figured Jitte gives me primarily removal options to just snipe out small blockers. It works well with the extra turn concept as well while harassing small utility creatures.
Archetype of Imagination -> Kalemne's Captain the archetype while really flavorful and interesting, seemed underwhelming for the mana. I had a few games in which people were just going way too crazy on artifacts and enchantments and I have always wanted to try out Kalemne's Captain as he just looks like a cool card. Its probable that I should just run Austere Command but that sounds way less fun. Yes, the captain does in fact exile my own Ephara if and when I pop his Monsterous but I plan to only do that if I need to and otherwise I have a 5/5 for 5 vigilant beater.
Archangel of Thune -> Grand Arbiter Augustin IV archangel just felt slow. I dont have a ton of lifegain so the idea of swinging with it and then pumping felt very very slow to me. I like Augustin in that he slows my opponents and allows me to cast multiple cards easier which helps with the draw heavy deck.
Mirran Crusader -> Dominating Licid I have been cutting more of my buffs and equipment so I feel like the crusader is also dropping in value in some ways at the same time. I like the Lichid because its just a harrassing effect that can really mess with people. I wanted more theft and it seems like the best way to tie it back in as it works well with flash or haste.
I had a large list of possible additions in this change but in the end I wanted to just move a few cards that perhaps seemed a little more questionable and try out some new things. People were quite fearful of my deck this last week so I want to keep playing and tune in on what might work. I like the concept so far but I might be going a little overboard with it and need to possibly run a little more counter magic for all these damn haymaker turns people are taking.
Kind of nitpicking here, but the title of the thread is "Epahra - Going Face"- when it should be "Ephara"..... Always bugged me, always figured someone would point it out.... Sorry for being that person haha
Kind of nitpicking here, but the title of the thread is "Epahra - Going Face"- when it should be "Ephara"..... Always bugged me, always figured someone would point it out.... Sorry for being that person haha
oooooops lol
Nobody saw that
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
He doesn't exactly beat face, but what about Jace, Vryn's Prodigy? Either he comes down early to smooth out your draws or he comes down later to trigger Ephara. You're obviously not running many instants or sorceries to flash back, but the ones you do run are extremely powerful. Jace along side such a low spell count reminds me of the Four Color Rally decks in Standard, although the ratios are admittedly different there.
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
He doesn't exactly beat face, but what about Jace, Vryn's Prodigy? Either he comes down early to smooth out your draws or he comes down later to trigger Ephara. You're obviously not running many instants or sorceries to flash back, but the ones you do run are extremely powerful. Jace along side such a low spell count reminds me of the Four Color Rally decks in Standard, although the ratios are admittedly different there.
I did consider him but man, his current going price for a standard card just feels.... not ok I guess. Is he seeing play outside of standard because if I would get him it would probably after he rotates and hope he goes down. I just dont know if I would really play him outside of this deck and $100.00 for a recently printed card just feels unrealistically high.
The rough thing is that my meta fell apart and the store closed shortly after Origins released so I actually came close to ordering a playset of Jace for my standard deck at that time when he was a $10.00 card. The only reason I did not order a playset of him then was that my meta was literally in the middle of falling apart. I had been playing a Temur Collected Company deck before that and he looked perfect for it.
I am trying to keep this as a face deck but wraths and big combo moves have given me enough trouble that I have to compensate for some of these. I like the level of aggression but some of the cards are not working out that well for me.
DECK CHANGE:
Daxos of Meletis -> Pact of Negation Daxos is value over time but his actual damage dealing capabilities isnt that great offhand. For now I think I will cycle him out for some very needed counterspell options.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner -> Venser, Shaper Savant Kira is cool but I find myself more at the mercy of wraths than I do spot removal. She is also not very aggressive but I like the multi function of Venser as there is a lot he can do for me.
Thistledown Liege -> Vedalken Orrery shrinking my anthem package, again wraths have been a pain and its been hard to add up enough to make a strict anthem creature matter. Playing with flash seems very important though as it gives me better responses and with the addition of a few more answers it opens up my options a bit later.
Stormsurge Kraken -> Counterspell the Kraken is ok but only ok. It hits decently but it doesnt ever hit especially strong. Its hexproof is cool but ultimately it falls into a bit of an odd space as 7 damage on a 5 mana non evasive creature is a bit odd. The draw is interesting but for now I think I can do without it. It also gives me the extra counterspell options.
Ætherling -> Mana Drain I like the Ætherling but its a little clunky to drop and keep mana up for. It doesnt hit that hard either. I have noticed kind of a heavy quantity of 6 mana effects and for the mana I have had a hard time justifying him right now.
Bident of Thassa -> Austere Command I seem to have enough draw right now but I did need the functionality of wrathing artifacts / enchantments a few times now which would be good. Sure I could play something like Purify but I want the diversity behind Austere Command.
Coastal Piracy -> Parallax Wave my card drawing seems fine right now, my ability to respond to wraths and big creatures seems a little questionable right now though. I like the wave because I can snipe out an eldrazi temporarily or some random big fat commander. I can also in a pinch stash some creatures through a wrath or to mess with theft. It seems like a great effect to keep handy as I plan to push for flash enabling effects.
I am still trying to keep things aggressive but it has been noticeable that I have lacked some counterspells and answers. I tried just kind of slicing out some of the stuff that has been under performing for me so far to try to mesh some of that stuff back in. We will see where it goes.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
One weakness I am not sure how to get past is what I do about creature theft once I turn into a creature with my commander. I am really not running sac outlets as they dont fit what the rest of the deck is doing. I do have some redundancy in draw with things like Bident of Thassa and Coastal Piracy not to mention the potential to drop a Clever Impersonator as a second Epahra. Keeping answers to things like Humility is also on my list of things to do. As it is I focus the bit of removal I have made room for to being versatile spot removal rather than counters. Its possible to run some counters like Pact of Negation but overall I am trying to be aggressive and just remove things I have to so most of my focus is on answers that can be used if drawn beyond the problem hitting play.
So this is my take on aggro / draw / extra turns wrapped up in one deck. I look forward to seeing how this take on Ephara pans out. Please feel free to review and comment if you would like on it.
1 Ephara, God of the Polis
CREATURES (35)
1 Serra Ascendant
1 Gilded Drake
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Dominating Licid
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
1 Thraben Doomsayer
1 Angelic Field Marshal
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Emeria Angel
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Profaner of the Dead
1 Saltskitter
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Body Double
1 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Kalemne's Captain
1 Sunscorch Regent
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
1 Medomai the Ageless
1 Mirror-Sigil Sergeant
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Eldrazi Monument
ENCHANTMENT (6)
1 Aura of Silence
1 Rhystic Study
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Opposition
1 Parallax Wave
1 True Conviction
INSTANT (8)
1 Pact of Negation
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Mana Drain
1 Unexpectedly Absent
1 Return to Dust
SORCERY (5)
1 Capture of Jingzhou
1 Bribery
1 Temporal Manipulation
1 Time Warp
1 Austere Command
LAND (37)
1 Arid Mesa
1 Command Tower
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Flooded Strand
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
7 Island
1 Kor Haven
1 Marsh Flats
1 Mirrorpool
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Mystic Gate
9 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Prairie Stream
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Tundra
1 Winding Canyons
1 Windswept Heath
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
This also feels like a deck where Ranger of Eos for Serra Ascendant and Hypnotic Siren might be good enough.
Looks interesting. Definitely a lot to be said for having indestructible (almost) Soul of the Harvest as your general in a creature deck.
Veteran's armaments might be good enough too if you have as many soldiers as it looks like.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Edit: Sheldon uses Crusading Knight in some decks. Kinda french vanilla, but all sorts of doomy.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
I paired down the walkers for now to just new Giddeon. I considered several other walkers but overall I like all of the modes on new giddeon for this deck where many other walkers I considered I liked like one option of.
I cut some of the recursion. I plan to draw enough cards and they are responsive so I didn't want a ton of responsive rez effects. I replaced Karmic Guide with Miraculous Recovery because I dont intend to get really any value from the 2/2 that the Karmic comes with nor do I intend to pay the echo cost. I like Karmic more in decks that abuse creatures with things like Birthing Pod, sac outlets, and stuff of that sort. Reveillark also went out with this change as I also see enough draw and little enough focus on any one creature to need it. Over half of my creatures are too big as I am focusing on being able to beat face with a lot of my creatures.
Added the landbase in.
Eldrazi Monument came in for Dictate of Heliod. The power buff and flash parts of Dictate are really cool but the evasion should add in quite a bit so it serves both offense and defense better not to mention adding some wrath proofing.
Rootborn Defenses got cut. I just dont see myself justifying keeping up three mana all the time for something situational like this. Its probably better to just pack a counter if I want a response to wraths. I cut it for now as I needed to make room.
Stonehewer Giant - I had him in my list starting out. I eventually ended up pairing down my equipment though to be honest because equipment does not scale as well with swarm style of aggro and I decided that swinging with more bodies was better value with where I was trying to go than suped up single targets. Its hard for example to maze or chump block a swarm of guys coming at you. I wanted to be sort of psudo token but not strictly token based as an objective and that sort of strategy makes equipment less valuable. I think that this tactic of value attackers is valid but when I was thinking about this concept first my thoughts were Coastal Piracy / Bident of Thassa / Extra Turns to be honest.
Argentum Armor - I have always viewed it as a huge target that rarely gets to go off. Its an option that could be done if you want to focus more on equipment and it works well with the extra turns but my experience has been more towards this card not working than it working.
Ranger of Eos - it was actually in my list for some time. The issue was that I wasn't really crazy about most of the other one drop options. I considered trying to speed up even faster but I kept coming to the conclusion that trying to run faster seemed like a much more fragile plan for this commander. Unlike some commanders like Edric, Spymaster of Trest we cap what value our commander can give us per turn so just vomiting fast value doesn't quite work which is when I went away from ranger. Ranger itself is card advantage but selective and its body isn't that impressive as a whole.
Veteran's armaments - its not bad and it does go towards the mob mentality but it really buffs the same as a single anthem to only one creature so its easier to block or remove the buffed creature. I think there is some general design issues with this piece of equipment in that its functionally like an anthem for your attackers but the damage being consolidated is actually a bad thing if you ask me.
I also looked at Jori En in a few directions but even if you go tribal merfolk the issue is that it mostly gives you islandwalk and a small buff for the tribal aspects. I am actually under the thought that tribal merfolk is just something that mostly wont work in this format because most of the tribal effects just dont stack well with getting to 40 damage or 21 commander in this format.
Crusading Knight - yea it would be fun to run Urborg with this too lol. Its silly for sure. I will see if I cant get around to testing it assuming I go through with this one.
The deck was kind of designed around lots of bodies and draw. Its kind of an experiment to see how much people are trying to ramp and just set up because I am sick of decks playing for the super late game and not interacting well enough early on. The Bident and Piracy are potentially the strongest draw in the deck so I dont think I plan to cut them anytime soon. They ideally draw me to extra turns which chain my draw to more good things.
Crovax, Ascendant Hero - I dont get why people hate on him so much. He offers removal for a lot of utility and token based decks while giving me an anthem thats super hard to remove. Sure 6 mana is a little much but if you have a better play just keep him in hand. There are a lot of decks that this guy just answers outright. Its rare that you need the whole effect of Elesh Norn and he gives a second copy of her effect for the most part.
Daxos of Meletis - life gain, card advantage, evasion, and he only costs 3. It seems good to me. People really panic about this little guy too for some reason so it makes me happy to see them squirm as he comes after their deck.
Profaner of the Dead - possibly, he does hit only opponents creatures though so he is a blocking blow out not to mention he kills tokens. If you play against a bunch of ETB based decks he kind of sucks but I run Torpor Orb as a focus of about half of my decks so so few people actually try ETB stuff anymore here lol.
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Avalon: The Legend Begins :: Pirate Set :: Babel: The Æther Wars
Favorite Magic Card: Fowl Play
[Primer] [Barrin's Tome]: A Master Wizard's Spellbook.
I had both in my list for a time. I ended up cutting back on small anthem effects though as I had more of them in my list such as Angel of Jubilation. My concern offhand on the anthem creatures is that I have to be swarming fairly hard for them to add up so I tried running effects that do more than just pump for one to try to make situations where I just have like 3 or 4 guys a little better. When you start getting to the what if I have like 6+ creatures it starts becoming a question as to why nobody has wrathed you yet. If I had a higher concentration on tokens I might consider running more anthems but I feel like generally anthems dont quite do enough in commander so I tried going with some that add up more than just a single +1/+1.
Soltari Visionary I had it in my list as well before I paired it out. I like it but its more of an attrition card than one that really gets in for numbers. There is nothing wrong with killing enchantments but they are also generally the card type that sees the least numbers in a game of EDH assuming someone isn't like playing enchantress. Often the enchantments are valuable and good but at the same time I feel like his extra value is questionable often and I have other evasive creatures that are 2/2 for 3 that I feel have a better chance of generating value like Thada Adel and Daxos. The difference is kind of that proactive value generation is a lot more reliable than reactive value generation. My objective for this deck is to get in for numbers so I would rather do some proactive rather than reactive value generation here because of that generally speaking.
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I like the analysis here on these, it helped me to smooth out a mono-white list I was brewing up, with regard to being more proactive. For me in general however, the Champion I decided to keep in my list for now, not only for the anthem effect, but because he comes down early and carries Sword of the Animist and other Equipment well like Captain's Claws.
Phantasmal Image also seems cheap and good for this list.
Avalon: The Legend Begins :: Pirate Set :: Babel: The Æther Wars
Favorite Magic Card: Fowl Play
[Primer] [Barrin's Tome]: A Master Wizard's Spellbook.
Sorry to loop back to this like a month later. I like Phantasmal Image as a card but something to keep in mind is that its far better at copying ETB based creatures than it is at value over time or as an attacking based creature. This deck has more of a focus of creatures that beat in for damage so there are concerns about the image against cards like mazes and or Tower of the Magistrate (both are very popular in my meta). It is a little bit of a question of how much low cost targeting you see in your meta as to how much value can be had from a Phantasmal Image as an attacking or value over time generator. Where it really shines is in a deck who focuses on ETB tactics where most of its value can be front loaded.
I ended up putting in an order to fill in some cards for this deck so I am back to looking at this list. I am going to make a few small adjustments because of that where I feel I have a few weaknesses I want to snip up while I can.
DECK CHANGES:
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DECK CHANGE:
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV was also on the list of possible additions in this change. I refrained from him though in part because 4 mana misses a lot of ramp that my opponents are probably going to be dropping and he also lands right when I want to be casting my commander with the problem that his effect makes him want to come in sooner rather than later. In the end, I felt that Thalia, Guardian of Thraben fit the deck better considering she hits sooner and does not slow down a large portion of this deck (the creatures). She does not get in the way as much being a two drop and her first strike gets her through a lot of chaff blockers.
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You should give Relic Seeker a try in here too. You don't have a huge set of equipment, but going relic seeker -> Sword of the Animist has been stellar in my group, for fast and slow decks alike.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
I plan to play it tonight so I will see what I can do about doing some writeups on the results.
Relic Seeker - I will.... see what I can do about testing him. To be honest, I dont know how much importance I am putting on equipment in here yet. He has always seemed easy to block / deal with too so that has me a little worried.
I guess I will throw a few more changes in on the land side as its a few things I wanted:
DECK CHANGE:
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GAME 1: T1 Serra Ascendant. I was nice and I spread the damage out but by about turn 8 the ramp happy Kaseto, Orochi Archmage managed to one shot me when I had him down to 4 life. He then managed to assemble a Seedborn Muse + Capsize to just lock up everyone else who were mostly not doing well after having stuck a Consecrated Sphinx that nobody could answer. It easily would have been my game if I had gone after him sooner. I also assumed he had countermagic and so perhaps I played more cautiously than I should have. His Cyclonic Rift overloaded slowed me down significantly and allowed him to survive long enough to pull out a win.
GAME 2: T1 Serra Ascendant again. I fumbled on lands but a Sword of the Animist got me out of that problem. I managed to win this one off the back of a Hero of Bladehold + Thistledown Liege just kind of doing work together.
Game 3: I cant remember the early game very well but it was a lot of me getting spot removed and stolen from. I got a Mirror-Sigil Sergeant out to have it stolen from a Helm of Possession. I got it back later after a Terastodon I hijacked with a Bribery. The Naya deck ended up Storm Hearding with a Double effect and then used earthcraft to generate an extra 60ish optional mana which he dropped an Avacyn + Eldrazi Monument with. The RG player had the option of killing me and the mono white player but I offered to answer the Naya deck if I was still alive on my turn so I ended up dropping a Profaner of the Dead on a Terastodon and taking out the token army. I ended up doing some decent damage and getting up to 4 Mirror-Sigil Sergeant copies. I passed to the Naya deck and he did an Insurrection and turned it all back on me killing me like exactly with essentially just my own creatures
So overall, I died to super ramp / super mana hitting all the draw / ramp effects and an Insurrection from nowhere so I guess thats acceptable for now. I will see what I can do to improve on that.
I have a few changes I wanted to try out. I want to keep things fairly creature heavy and keep trying with the aggro. That said, I am adding a few psudo answers in some ways.
DECK CHANGES:
I had a large list of possible additions in this change but in the end I wanted to just move a few cards that perhaps seemed a little more questionable and try out some new things. People were quite fearful of my deck this last week so I want to keep playing and tune in on what might work. I like the concept so far but I might be going a little overboard with it and need to possibly run a little more counter magic for all these damn haymaker turns people are taking.
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Here's the link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/autocardanywhere/eobkhgkgoejnjaiofdmphhkemmomfabg?hl=en
oooooops lol
Nobody saw that
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I did consider him but man, his current going price for a standard card just feels.... not ok I guess. Is he seeing play outside of standard because if I would get him it would probably after he rotates and hope he goes down. I just dont know if I would really play him outside of this deck and $100.00 for a recently printed card just feels unrealistically high.
The rough thing is that my meta fell apart and the store closed shortly after Origins released so I actually came close to ordering a playset of Jace for my standard deck at that time when he was a $10.00 card. The only reason I did not order a playset of him then was that my meta was literally in the middle of falling apart. I had been playing a Temur Collected Company deck before that and he looked perfect for it.
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DECK CHANGE:
I am still trying to keep things aggressive but it has been noticeable that I have lacked some counterspells and answers. I tried just kind of slicing out some of the stuff that has been under performing for me so far to try to mesh some of that stuff back in. We will see where it goes.
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