Tana, the Bloodsower and Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix is likely not the first pairing when you think of putting two Partner legends together. Indeed, I doubt they're a pairing most would think of matching up at all. There's no obvious synergy, there's no readily apparent unifying theme between the two, and there's an obvious gap in the playstyles these two imply. Tana sets an expectation of voltron, tokens, and anthems; she lends herself to an aggressive play-style. As a counterpoint, Kydele wants to be in a slower deck that ramps, draws cards, controls, and even combos off. This disparity, however, is exactly what lends the two compliment each other. This deck does, in fact, play to the aggressive nature of Tana, but it's also wary of the danger of going all-in. You take the momentum of Tana, and pivot it into card advantage to play the longer game with Kydele. There's a duality of function that runs through the deck so that much of what is played feeds into both the aggressive and conservative tacks this deck takes.
Leveraging Aggression
The idea of blending offensive momentum and card advantage is a little strange in magic, because often tempo and resources are placed opposite one another; to gain one you have to expend the other. There are tools, however, that the game gives us to translate gains in one into similar gains in the other. Tana, as the backbone of this deck, is archetypical of this; she takes investments in doing more damage and swings them into developing a board state. The deck as a whole is built around these pivots which turn aggression, in the form of damage and power, into resources, like cards and mana. Kydele provides a close to this loop, finally turning that card advantage into mana that will help build up a still more robust board-state.
The interplay between Tana and Kydele, while obfuscated, rests plainly in the cycle of tempo and card advantage. Cards like Cold-Eyed Selkie and Edric, Spymaster of Trest bridge the gap between these two and create a surprisingly cohesive deck once the dust settles.
Our Generals, and Why I Chose Them
But Why These Two?
Tana and Kydele being an odd couple raises the question of if there's a more obvious or intuitive way to accomplish this goal. There isn't. Not so elegantly as they manage to accomplish it together, in any case.
One of the biggest reasons to choose Tana and Kydele for this deck is that little bit of text at the bottom of their cards; I'm talking about Partner. While most see partner as a matter of tying together synergies, I see something with much more potential; Partner allows us to combine tools in ways that we hadn't before. Partners with very different effects are an opportunity to bridge a gap we never otherwise would; we make what ties them together when we build their decks. Having Tana and Kydele both as options offers us two separate tools which we haven't seen together, and this variety gives them a unique strength.
Separately, Tana gives us an outlet to create an imposing board state in just one swing. Any anthem-like effect allows Tana to create both numerous and powerful tokens to fuel the machine of war. It's not uncommon to have an army of 4/4 tokens or larger after just one swing. She also gives us a basic game-plan: Make creatures big, and swing with them. It's a succinct, aggressive mantra which makes her very appealing to me. She feeds into herself in that what is good for her tokens is also good for her; she's tied up with a neat bow that elegantly loops back into itself. Tana is momentum incarnate.
Kydele on her own offers two things of note. The first is the color blue, and while that seems cheap it's something the deck absolutely needs. Blue gives us card advantage and the tools to turn that board state we've invested in into a grip of cards that makes us less vulnerable to any old wrath effect. Blue keeps us from folding when our house of cards comes down. It also gives us access to the simic guild, which offers numerous ways to pump up our board from Master Biomancer to Ezuri, Claw of Progress.
The second thing Kydele offers this deck, is the potential for explosive turns. Without Kydele, this deck very often draws up a massive grip of cards just to discard most at end of turn because it isn't designed for big-mana plays. Kydele nearly-singlehandedly addresses this issue, allowing us to dump numerous of our top-end creatures in a single turn and mitigating the need for other ramping effects in a deck that doesn't play many cards that cost more than 5 mana. (And thus wouldn't get much mileage out of that ramp)
The Bad
I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this pair has shortcomings. Most damaging is that, unlike many effective partner pairs, Tana and Kydele don't curve into each other nicely at all. They both cost four, so one of them is getting played off curve. (Which is always Kydele) Tana also wants to be followed up the turn after she's cast with some sort of pump effect, which further delays playing Kydele. The deck is built to compensate for this, not requiring Kydele until much further into the game, but it's a very real downside to be aware of.
Related, it's also somewhat difficult to find an opening to play Kydele with Tana's aggressive game-plan, especially if you start drawing extra cards early. It's important to not fixate too much on finding an opening to play Kydele; she's not urgent until you're trying to close out the game, so it's often right to just continue playing other threats or enablers. It's unfortunate that she's difficult to squeeze in, but it's not crippling.
Finally, Kydele (I imagine you're starting to see a pattern) producing colorless mana doesn't always mesh the best with the lower-curve plays Tana wants to make. This is ultimately fine, since Kydele ideally won't be around until the later game when we should have enough colored mana to pay for non-generic costs. (And let Kydele make up the rest)
There is Another (and where the deck came from)
There's actually another general that plays off of this theme that's worth consideration, though I found her to have a less cohesive game plan and easier bogged down in other details and gimmicks. This deck was built out of a shell I made for Yasova Dragonclaw, since she uses the same colors and also is an aggressive general who cares about power and pumping effects. I liked the idea of a deck built around creature-power mattering because it allowed for a lot of moving parts using something the game already overwhelmingly supports. Ultimately though, the deck never played like I wanted it to. I wasn't able to commit to the board, pump creatures, and steal things with Yasova. The deck was spread too thin, and Yasova didn't reward pumping her up enough anyway, since she already had a quite reasonable body. It was just clunky.
Fast forward a couple years and with the reveals of the Commander 2016 products I've become very excited for the Partner mechanic. With Tana, I saw the opportunity to use the list I had made to craft a more effective deck for her. Initially Kydele wasn't anywhere near my short list for her partner since, as I've established, they don't have obvious synergy. I wanted to add blue and black so I could play Glint-Eye Nephilim, as it's the poster-child for the ideas behind the deck, but that forced me to pair with Silas Renn, who didn't care for my deck. Silas has some very interesting potential with Tana as an intersection between tokens and artifacts, but that wasn't the Yasova deck I had wanted to built. I eventually tossed it, not wanting to have a deadbeat half-commander; the deck needed to leverage Partner for all it was worth. So I needed to find a new partner, and obviously it needed to be blue. (But that was basically all I had to go on)
Looking over the deck I realized that the deck drew a lot of cards in large lumps, it had big explosions of advantage, as opposed to gradual gains. My gaze quickly pivoted to Kydele, and I realized she answered the problem that led me to mercy kill Yasova: There was never enough mana. Kydele gives me the mana to do the things I want to, and gets big gains from the already existing infrastructure of the deck. She fit in perfectly, and ultimately encouraged some interesting decisions in deckbuilding that made the deck what it was.
Who Else?
Animar, Soul of Elements - Animar is an interesting case. He turns board presence into mana-advantage, which is something this deck likes a lot, but he ultimately doesn't lend himself to swinging out or being aggressive; once you have a board built with Animar, you're comboing. While this deck can have explosive turns, it isn't trying to combo; we want to swing our opponents out. Animar is a thematically similar idea that plays very different when applied.
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - Yidris is another curious general. He encompasses our colors and also encourages you to do creative things with combat. (Double strike, multiple combat steps) But Yidris demands to be built around, and obviously this deck isn't built around him. Yidris doesn't care about other creatures, or work notably well with them any more than he does with just big-splashy spells. For a creature-centric deck, he's pretty quick to write off. (And we don't miss black too desperately)
Edric, Spymaster of Trest - Edric is an omnipresent and very straightforward general. There's a simplicity to him: Make lots of creatures, draw lots of cards, which in turn makes more creatures. The problem with Edric is that he's very one-note. Building a deck with him is a fairly streamlined process, and he doesn't have all the moving parts that Tana and Kydele offer together. He's effective, (and very valuable to the deck) but not what we want to build around.
Ezuri, Claw of Progress - Ezuri wants something similar to Tana, though he's an enabler rather than the one being enabled. Red isn't a desperately important loss, though it is missed. Ezuri takes small guys that care about power and makes them huge to be abused. He's a big threat, but he also doesn't represent turning momentum into anything but more momentum. Ezuri goes deep, while this deck wants to go long too. As such, he's relegated to being a tool in the deck and not its general.
Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker (and Tana) - I played around with Ishai a lot when paired with Tana. Gaining white turns out to be huge, and Ishai has much more direct synergy with Tana than Kydele, but ultimately the deck played out in a way that emphasized why Kydele was important. Ishai x Tana ended up being a deck that gets wrathed, sputters, and dies a lot despite all the infrastructure being that same. Kydele is important for swinging momentum back after you get wiped out, while Ishai drops and sits there just kinda hoping to untap and do some damage.
Love 'em or Hate 'em
Why You Might Like Them
- You like swinging at your opponents early and often, rather than spending the early game not interacting.
- You like expansive board states with lots of large creatures.
- You like drawing up large grips of cards five at a time.
- You like creature-centric decks.
- You get a rush out of making huge tokens. (And don't mind doing the associated math)
- You want an aggressive deck that doesn't fold to wraths.
Why You Might not Like Them
- You like being carefully political and not upsetting people by swinging at them.
- You dislike managing lots of tokens and counters. (Especially tokens with counters)
- You like ending games by comboing out.
- You like having plenty of answers and wraths at your disposal.
- You don't like messy combat (and mana) math.
The backbone of this deck is taking resources and using them to produce more of themselves or some of another sort of resource so that any time we gain an advantage we have an engine turning that into a bigger gain. Once it starts feeding into itself, the smallest boost yields obscene payouts. +2/+2 to a single creature can yield two more cards, pump the entire board +2/+2, or make two extra creatures, but certain cards can double even those huge payouts over and over. It's what I love most about this deck and what lets it spiral most out of control.
There are four types of resources this deck is tuned to leverage. Those are Power, Tokens, Cards, and Mana. The vast majority of the deck can be broken down into turning one into another, or turning one into more of the same, so I find it useful to establish this context first and then break down the deck through that lens. I'll address everything that doesn't follow that schema at the end. Let's start out then.
Power into Power
Starting out we have what's probably the deck's most common operation, turning power and damage into more power and damage. This is our big magnifying glass that makes all our other advantages scale up and lets us turn pumps into Overruns that end the game. Also, since there's multiple of these in the deck it can get somewhat recursive.
Wild Beastmaster, Cultivator of Blades, and Pathbreaker Ibex: When Wild Beastmaster was first printed I fell in love, but it felt like to me that no one else used it. Clearly I was wrong, because wizards repeated this effect two more times during the years since. Whenever you have more than one of these, you're about to win the game because +3/+3 to one creature just became +9/+9 to the whole board and it's really hard for that not to close it out. These guys are the Big Three of the deck.
Rabble-Rouser: This guy is very similar to the other three, and only really a rung down from them. He'd be perfect if he could also benefit from attack triggers and get in damage himself but unfortunately he's forced to hold back. His bloodthirst has created a lot of difficult decisions in play which makes him a blast to use. You're almost as excited to see him as you are to see the big three.
Master Biomancer: This dude gets out of control fast. Timing is perfect on him, because he can soak up boosts from attack triggers and pass them along to all the tokens to created and on board kill next turn. The biggest advantage he has is that he doesn't have to have haste to gain advantage the turn he drops, so he tends to be out-of-nowhere explosive. The one difficulty is you almost always play him after Tana, so Tana rarely gets his boost and you have to choose between pumping her or him for optimal tokens. As I've made clear though, I love difficult gameplay decisions and mechanical tension.
Xenagos, God of Revels: A really good dude. Double the power of one of the Big Three or Rabble-Rouser every turn usually ends the game the turn after he's played. Like Biomancer, he gets advantage the turn he drops without haste. Unlike Biomancer he's actually a late game source of haste which is amazing and lets Tana get right back in as a huge attacked after getting swept up. Add in a nice body and being immune to sweepers... It's pretty insane.
Berserk: Works great with all of the above, and while it comes at a cost it's well beyond worth it. The thing that makes Berserk an amazing and easy include is that it only costs one mana and can be played after blockers at instant speed to steal games and makes it harder to stop it from going off. A nice and simple but totally broken card.
Dragon Throne of Tarkir: A weird include, but it adds up and Kydele's colorless mana lets it do crazy work. It combos with itself as every usage of it makes the next even bigger. Just untapping with seven mana and this equipped to something with end games.
Overwhelming Stampede: A one shot version of the Big Three. The thing that hurts this is that it costs five mana and wants to be played on a game-ending turn when mana's tight, but it's important enough that it makes it work.
Resilient Khenra (not in deck): A really cool and solid card, but it has a hard to getting the pump it needs and making it do something amazing the turn it drops. I didn't include it, but I could easily see a case for doing so.
Power into Tokens
This category is the most fundamental operation that the deck is built around, and yet there's very little of it because we have it sitting in the command zone. This relies heavily on Tana, but she does it so well and is so accessible that we kinda take it for granted a bit. I'll skip Tana because I've talked enough about her, but I'll list the one other card that does this in the deck. There's also one other consideration I cut but you might want to use. (As well there's options in other colors such as Pollenbright Wings or Korozda Guildmage)
Fungal Sprouting: Just a nice one-shot version of Tana's ability, and being able to use it before combat is the big reason why this makes the cut despite being a repetition of a general's effect. Getting the tokens before combat lets us turn them into power faster and get more benefit faster. It's good. Not much else to say.
Rapacious One (not in deck): A pet card of mine for the same reason that I love Tana. I found it to be too expensive and slow to get away with since the deck has this effect in the command zone, but it's a card I love. The colorless mana would also be cool if Kydele wasn't already doing that job fine as well.
Power into Cards
Oh baby is the deck good at this one. We already have a ton of big creatures, so even throwing one away for a full grip is worth it. This is usually how Kydele blows up best.
Life's Legacy and Momentous Fall: Tossing away a creature isn't a big deal if it gets us six cards and six colorless mana back. Often it's even more than that. They're high impact, but a little bittersweet, I'll admit. They work just fine before of after combat, too which is good because it lets you pick up all the pumps you need first. Unlike a few other options in this category, these are nice because they're not vulnerable to removal in response.
Hunter's Insight: Nothing flashy, but an affordable spell that will draw a bunch of cards. Vulnerable to removal, but you learn to live with that risk.
Cold-Eyed Selkie: A cool body that passively does this every turn using the power-boosting effects you already play. It's also really evasive without help. You can focus on pumping it, but usually you won't need to.
Greater Good: This is one of the cards that heralds a game near-immediately ending. It goes so crazy with Kydele and a little board presence that's hard to say no to. Even if it weren't explosive it'd still be in the deck for how powerful of an engine it is, but as is that's just a side note, really.
Hunter's Prowess: A beefed up Hunters Insight, that manages to function as fuel to start the deck started. We need pump effects to start going off, so having this double as a (quite large) one really gets it there. Also, due to the pump it just draws a stupid amount of cards without any real help.
Garruk, Primal Hunter: Makes tokens, which is alright, but most of the time this is just dropping an immediately dumping cards into your hand to trigger Kydele. His big mark is that he's one of the only effects that makes Kydele go off without demanding colored mana be used that same turn making it harder to take advantage of Kydele.
Rishkar's Expertise: Stupidly good card is stupidly good. This card basically turns any 4 or 5 cost card into a version that just has "draw a bunch of cards too" written at the end. Usually I don't wait for a big value play with this, I just use it whenever I want to cast a 4 or 5 drop in my hand since just drawing three or four cards makes it already worth it.
Prime Speaker Zegana: Teetering on the edge of getting cut because it's a 6 drops that "just" draws 7 or so cards. (which speaks to how good this deck is at what it does) It also adds itself in as another big body which can do real work with other cards in the deck. I just wonder if it's a bit too slow.
Champion of Wits: A cheap dork that draws a bunch of cards on entering if you have anything to boost its power. A little bit hard to leverage, but cheap enough to be worth it and the recursion is great.
Power into Mana
Not much actually accomplishes this in the deck, and that probably bears further examination. That said, there's not many amazing cards that actually accomplish this goal.
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds: There's a reason this is the only one included. It's a huge deal that it generates mana of any color and meets all the colored mana needs that Kydele creates. Theoretically it could also draw cards, but that's not actually very likely. It also doesn't care about its own power, which makes it a little more passive in generating advantage.
Viridian Joiner (not in deck): This is a strong consideration and I'm always considering adding it back it. It taps for a ton of colored mana incidentally but it's all green. I really need to find an opening to slip this back into.
Gyre Sage (not in deck): This looks a lot better than it is. Since temporary pumps and anthems are the source of power gains more often than counters, this suffers. It actually hard a really hard time evolving since most of the time all my other creatures entering are only not 1/1s because of pumps that Gyre sage will already be getting.
Rapacious One (not in deck)): See the entry on this under Power into Tokens. It's too expensive and colorless mana just doesn't cut it.
(I'm gonna take a break and finish the rest of this later}
IN Purphoros. God of the Forge
It's an include that should've been obvious; there are very few cards as amazing of a fit for this deck. Triggers a ton off of Tana, and pumps up the board to make more tokens and milk more damage out of the ones you already have. This card has nearly on it's own been the reason I won many games in testing. Cryptolith Rite
Haven't actually drew it in testing, but it seems like an easy include. I'll keep an eye out to see if it under-performs, but it's fine in concept. Turns dorks into mana if they can't swing. That said, it's not very often I can't swing with my dork hordes. We'll see. Artifact Mutation
Easy include. Solid removal, makes bodies to be pumped up by the rest of the deck. Not much to say about it. Garruk, Primal Hunter
I was apprehensive at first about triple green, but green is the deck's highest color commitment by far so it's not as big of an issue. The card is yet another great big draw spell and makes tokens when that can be afforded. It's tested well so far, but I'm not surprised. My favorite thing is that it enables Kydele without having to use mana on that turn. Hunter's Insight
A simple card, but it's an obvious include I skimmed over because my brain told me it wasn't flashy enough. I'm dumb. What else is new.
Everflowing Challice Dynacharge Cephalid Constable Viridian Joiner Island
A whole bunch of underperformers slipped out. Everflowing isn't amazingly useful in a deck with generally fairly color-intensive costs; especially not competing with Kydele. Dynacharge is fine but it doesn't quite do enough. There are better options, and there's only one card in the deck now that all it does is pump, and that's because it's insane at it. (Become Immense) Constable is kinda awkward, because it's unlikely to connect if they have creatures, and it's really not exciting if they don't. (Unless you want to bounce lands, but I don't like just ruining someone's day.) Viridian Joiner is the only one I'm not sure about. It can make a good bit of mana, and often requires no specific commitment, but I'm not sure if that's enough for a slow mana dork in a deck that doesn't want mana dorks. (Kydele and Selvala excepted because they make SO MUCH mana with relatively little commitment.)
I caught a lot of cool cards that I realized I missed on my first pass, slowly over time. Some new cards came out, but it's mostly just been cards I've overlooked that really made the difference.
- Berserk: How this wasn't in the deck from day one is surprising, but it absolutely belonged there. A cheap and massive pump spell that ends the game on the spot with things like Overwhelming Stampede, Wild Beastmaster, etc. I'm also not above sacrificing Tana for an explosive turn, because usually that's followed by winning on the next turn.
- Champion of Wits: I've yet to draw it, actually, but it was a new card that just seemed sick and perfect. Draws cards based on power, efficient dude, with the added benefit of recurring late in the game. I need to see it in action.
- Dragonrage: My lord to I love this card. It's so easy to miss, but it's so perfect. It's like a Might of the Masses that I get to spread around, and adding mana means I can use it to cast big pump spells and activate abilities as well. It does exactly everything I want.
- Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: Pumps the team and makes tokens. Really should've been an obvious include. It's one of my all-time favorite planeswalkers.
- Temur Ascendancy: Oh hell yes. Three-drops that grant haste as something this deck badly wants to the point where I've been tempted by Fervor and Hammer of Purphoros, and this is so much better. With any combination of board-pumping effects, tokens trigger this for mass draws giving it two angles of synergy with the deck. I love this card a lot. I mean it grants haste, rewards making lots of big creatures, and draws cards... Another should've-been-obvious.
- Soulblade Djinn: Playing with Jeskai Ascendancy made me realize this deck is overwhelmingly high-impact noncreatures and that adding an anthem to those goes pretty far. The important part of Ascendancy (well the other two parts are insane with Kydele... It's a shame using it means she's not a general) on an evasive body.
- Rishkar's Expertise: A card since printed that's practically designed for this deck. I wish it were reversed so I could freely cast a pump spell to get more value, but for most other decks I suppose this way is better. Card draw based on power and then a free pump spell. (That could come out of the cards you topdeck) I'm trying to trim down top end, but this card is way too insane not to go in on.
- Hall of the Bandit Lord: This card was so hard to muster the nerve to include, but swinging with Tana T4 and tapping with Kydele the turn she drops are too important not to go for it. It's a recent add that needs more testing, but it's probably worth how incredibly painful it is.
Cards going out... Cuts are really hard with this deck, but a few were obvious from testing:
- Ghor-Clan Rampager: I love this card, but you're never going to cast it. It's just a pump spell, and you can do better for the mana. (Also I don't like including things that are just pump spells unless they're massive and efficient like Rubblehulk or Become Immense.)
- Diviner Spirit: Five drops are a hard sell in a deck that wants to be killing players on turns 6 and 7. This dude has no evasion, draws opponents cards too, and has no immediate impact. It was an easy cut.
- Moonveil Dragon: The deck can support triple red, but this just doesn't have the impact that it needs. It eats colored mana and usually needs to untap to get work done. I like it, but five and six drops that don't immediately threaten ending the game or draw a full grip on their own just can't stay in this deck.
- Rapacious One: Very much a pet card, but I have Tana in the command zone for this effect. The colorless mana also really isn't important when Kydele generally makes all the colorless I need. At six it just doesn't pull weight.
- Savage Ventmaw: This was so hard to cut and I'm still not sure if it was right. Six drops kinda need to end the game on the spot, but with haste (and the deck is good at granting that) this dude is free and gives you tons of colored mana to cast pumps and end the game. Might find its way back in at some point.
- Bident of Thassa: Another cut I'm not totally certain of. Bident is good, but we have enough draw effects in the deck and ones based on number of creatures don't work as well as one's based on power. One's based on number of creatures connect have an even harder time pulling weight. Edric is a really efficient dude that comes as another body to trigger it's effect (and incentivizes not attacking you) but Bident just doesn't do quite enough work I think.
- Chain Reaction: and Blasphemous Act: I'm tempted to leave one of these in, but this deck doesn't want to be wrathing the board, it wants to deal with convoluted boardstates by tramping over them with 10/10s. Resetting your board to deal with the opponents' just doesn't get there.
- Arlinn Kord: One of my favorite walkers, but it's just slightly too awkward. I've gotten good work out of it, but it's effects just barely line up wrong. You wanna be using a haste enabler to let you swing with Tana right away, but she costs four so she delays Tana a turn. Against an empty board you want to be able to enable haste next turn if you're casting her, but the only mode that does something right away flips her away from that. She does everything the deck wants, but with timing that's just barely off from how you need the early game to develop, and tempo is way too important in this deck to eat that loss.
Kydele is one of my favourite partner commanders, so I've been looking for different decks to play her in. I'd never have thought of pairing her with Tana. Obviously she's not the main commander here, but under the right circumstances, she could be pretty helpful. However, as you already said, it looks like it could be difficult to find a window where you can play her without slowing yourself down. I think I'll build a similar deck on cockatrice and test a bit. I guess if you'd want to stay in Temur colors, another option for a co-commander would be Kraum, Ludevic's Opus? He provides a solid body for all the cards that care about your creature's strength and is pretty agressive.
Hunter's Insight looks like it should be an auto-include in your list. It's instant speed, so its more difficult for your opponents to play around than Life's Legacy or Hunter's Prowess. Those cards seem a bit risky. With Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots you already have some protection from spot removal, but if you still want more, you could try Asceticism (it's kind of a pet card of mine, could potentially be too slow). Garruk, Primal Hunter would fit as well - he costs three G, but I think by turn 5 or 6 that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Nature's Way is another "fight" spot removal. Artifact Mutation gets rid of stuff and builds your army. Elemental Mastery could be a fun inclusion, although it has the downside of being an aura.
Interestingly your reference to Yasova Dragonclaw reminds me of the fact that the reason is she not one of my favorites and actually one of the least competitive decks I have, is that its just so mana intensive. Basically you can never have enough mana to try and do what you want in turns. Plus the fact that she can potentially steal peoples creatures puts people on edge. So I can see I nice angle here where pump/draw related cards can be justified with payoffs later in the turn where you might get a chance to then cast more stuff.
I agree with soramaro: Garruk, Primal Hunter and Hunter's Insight are a must for this deck.
One thing that I'm not sure people are quite adjusting their partner decks for is that when faced with having to cast 2 separate commanders, it actually costs you 4 more to get the engine going again. In single commander strategies, the extra 2 is easier to focus what your turn sequences are like. But with Partners, suddenly when faced with board wipes, means that resetting might have to be done over the course of two turns. Its worth considering how well a deck does with just one of the commanders in play? But at least with Kydele you have chances at sequences that you can play her out, then next turn do some card draw tricks then be able to play out Tana.
Keeping in mind the this is still a color intensive deck and Kydele can only provide colorless, I'd try and include Earthcraft (budget allowing) and/or Cyrptolith Rite. You might have to adjust your mana base for a few more basics for Earthcraft, but its just such an amazing card in creature token strategies. Soul's Majesty is a worth a look at, these type of cards can become almost "free" with Kydele.
Hunter's Insight looks like it should be an auto-include in your list. It's instant speed, so its more difficult for your opponents to play around than Life's Legacy or Hunter's Prowess. Those cards seem a bit risky. With Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots you already have some protection from spot removal, but if you still want more, you could try Asceticism (it's kind of a pet card of mine, could potentially be too slow). Garruk, Primal Hunter would fit as well - he costs three G, but I think by turn 5 or 6 that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Nature's Way is another "fight" spot removal. Artifact Mutation gets rid of stuff and builds your army. Elemental Mastery could be a fun inclusion, although it has the downside of being an aura.
Hunter's Insight is a good card, and I should be running, but I don't think it's any more reliable than Hunter's Prowess in that they get blow out by mostly the same thing. (Having the creature removed before connecting.) Life's legacy will never get blown out because you sacrifice the creature as a cost. (Though that does make countermagic sting more)
Asceticism is a card that's similarly a pet card for me, but I've become much better at restraining myself from randomly slapping it in places since it's pretty clunky and slow. Garruk should really be in. Triple green is a pain and what stopped me initially, but this deck is actually overwhelmingly heavier committed to green so he should be easier than I gave him credit for to slot in. Nature's way I'm less keen on; I only run Bear Punch because it pulls double-duty. I like fight removal, but most of the removal spots in this deck are taken up by more universal or efficient removal spells like Pongify and Beast Within. Artifact Mutation is a fun one and just generally a really good card I should remember to slot in. Elemental Mastery I'm not sure of as an Aura. (That also stops us from connecting with our higher power creatures) I'll give it a think.
One thing that I'm not sure people are quite adjusting their partner decks for is that when faced with having to cast 2 separate commanders, it actually costs you 4 more to get the engine going again. In single commander strategies, the extra 2 is easier to focus what your turn sequences are like. But with Partners, suddenly when faced with board wipes, means that resetting might have to be done over the course of two turns. Its worth considering how well a deck does with just one of the commanders in play? But at least with Kydele you have chances at sequences that you can play her out, then next turn do some card draw tricks then be able to play out Tana.
This deck generally expects to only be operating with one commander at a time really, since you're not in a rush to play Kydele. (And Tana is very nice, but not incredibly pressing to have out once you have other bodies doing work) So the doubled Tax isn't horrific. (You were never really gonna replay both on the same turn anyway)
Keeping in mind the this is still a color intensive deck and Kydele can only provide colorless, I'd try and include Earthcraft (budget allowing) and/or Cyrptolith Rite. You might have to adjust your mana base for a few more basics for Earthcraft, but its just such an amazing card in creature token strategies. Soul's Majesty is a worth a look at, these type of cards can become almost "free" with Kydele.
Earthcraft and Cryptolith Rite are definitely worth considering as includes and maybe slimming the land count down just a little for them. Soul's Majesty is a card that was in my original list but proved somewhat counter-intuitive. It's colorless cost makes it seem like it works well with Kydele, but Kydele doesn't want to be tapping to cast the big draw spell. It's not a good way to use Kydele, even if it's a reasonable card. The main thing with it is that it has the same massive blowout potential as Hunter's Prowess, without pulling double duty of both drawing cards and feeding into other combat effects. It's ultimately too slow and counter intuitive for what it does I found.
You're probably right about Purphoros. He's actually quite reasonable to feed Kydele's mana into, and he really hurts with Tana.
____
With that I have a lot to think about for testing an includes in this deck. I'll have to get to work on that in couple days when I'm not working.
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Check out the thread for my cube if you have the time, and tell me how terrible it is.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
Updated the list based on suggestions. This deck has proven to be surprisingly fast. It only take one big turn and you can swing out the table over the course of the next two turns. I look forward to refining and testing it, because it's been a blast to play thus far.
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Check out the thread for my cube if you have the time, and tell me how terrible it is.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
What do you think of cycling lands (or cycling cards) in general? Lonely Sandbar and its ilk let you draw a card for one colored mana, but you can tend tap Kydele for two colorless, not bad for filtering out extra mana when you need it.
What do you think of cycling lands (or cycling cards) in general? Lonely Sandbar and its ilk let you draw a card for one colored mana, but you can tend tap Kydele for two colorless, not bad for filtering out extra mana when you need it.
That's actually a really good point. I'm much more inclined to lean towards to colorless cycle, because they can be dumped off of Kydele's mana as well. I'm gonna have to slam a few of those in there. Thanks for reminding me about those.
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Check out the thread for my cube if you have the time, and tell me how terrible it is.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
Bump, a year later and I've fiddled around with the deck for a while. For months I actually switched to Tana x Ishai and moving away from big draws because Ishai has the color I want as well as much more direct synergy. (And the ability to outright win games) It's a great combo, and white adds a bit (Jeskai Ascendancy and Cathar's Crusade are absolute star players.) but I felt like adding a color stretched the deck thinner than I'd like, and losing Kydele actually ended up meaning losing a lot more of those explosive turns than I expected. In the end though, I switched back because even if the deck was comparable it just didn't feel as fun.
So now on to what's changed over the year: I caught a lot of cool cards that I realized I missed on my first pass, slowly over time. Some new cards came out, but it's mostly just been cards I've overlooked that really made the difference.
- Berserk: How this wasn't in the deck from day one is surprising, but it absolutely belonged there. A cheap and massive pump spell that ends the game on the spot with things like Overwhelming Stampede, Wild Beastmaster, etc. I'm also not above sacrificing Tana for an explosive turn, because usually that's followed by winning on the next turn.
- Champion of Wits: I've yet to draw it, actually, but it was a new card that just seemed sick and perfect. Draws cards based on power, efficient dude, with the added benefit of recurring late in the game. I need to see it in action.
- Dragonrage: My lord to I love this card. It's so easy to miss, but it's so perfect. It's like a Might of the Masses that I get to spread around, and adding mana means I can use it to cast big pump spells and activate abilities as well. It does exactly everything I want.
- Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: Pumps the team and makes tokens. Really should've been an obvious include. It's one of my all-time favorite planeswalkers.
- Temur Ascendancy: Oh hell yes. Three-drops that grant haste as something this deck badly wants to the point where I've been tempted by Fervor and Hammer of Purphoros, and this is so much better. With any combination of board-pumping effects, tokens trigger this for mass draws giving it two angles of synergy with the deck. I love this card a lot. I mean it grants haste, rewards making lots of big creatures, and draws cards... Another should've-been-obvious.
- Soulblade Djinn: Playing with Jeskai Ascendancy made me realize this deck is overwhelmingly high-impact noncreatures and that adding an anthem to those goes pretty far. The important part of Ascendancy (well the other two parts are insane with Kydele... It's a shame using it means she's not a general) on an evasive body.
- Rishkar's Expertise: A card since printed that's practically designed for this deck. I wish it were reversed so I could freely cast a pump spell to get more value, but for most other decks I suppose this way is better. Card draw based on power and then a free pump spell. (That could come out of the cards you topdeck) I'm trying to trim down top end, but this card is way too insane not to go in on.
- Hall of the Bandit Lord: This card was so hard to muster the nerve to include, but swinging with Tana T4 and tapping with Kydele the turn she drops are too important not to go for it. It's a recent add that needs more testing, but it's probably worth how incredibly painful it is.
Cards going out... Cuts are really hard with this deck, but a few were obvious from testing:
- Ghor-Clan Rampager: I love this card, but you're never going to cast it. It's just a pump spell, and you can do better for the mana. (Also I don't like including things that are just pump spells unless they're massive and efficient like Rubblehulk or Become Immense.)
- Diviner Spirit: Five drops are a hard sell in a deck that wants to be killing players on turns 6 and 7. This dude has no evasion, draws opponents cards too, and has no immediate impact. It was an easy cut.
- Moonveil Dragon: The deck can support triple red, but this just doesn't have the impact that it needs. It eats colored mana and usually needs to untap to get work done. I like it, but five and six drops that don't immediately threaten ending the game or draw a full grip on their own just can't stay in this deck.
- Rapacious One: Very much a pet card, but I have Tana in the command zone for this effect. The colorless mana also really isn't important when Kydele generally makes all the colorless I need. At six it just doesn't pull weight.
- Savage Ventmaw: This was so hard to cut and I'm still not sure if it was right. Six drops kinda need to end the game on the spot, but with haste (and the deck is good at granting that) this dude is free and gives you tons of colored mana to cast pumps and end the game. Might find its way back in at some point.
- Bident of Thassa: Another cut I'm not totally certain of. Bident is good, but we have enough draw effects in the deck and ones based on number of creatures don't work as well as one's based on power. One's based on number of creatures connect have an even harder time pulling weight. Edric is a really efficient dude that comes as another body to trigger it's effect (and incentivizes not attacking you) but Bident just doesn't do quite enough work I think.
- Chain Reaction: and Blasphemous Act: I'm tempted to leave one of these in, but this deck doesn't want to be wrathing the board, it wants to deal with convoluted boardstates by tramping over them with 10/10s. Resetting your board to deal with the opponents' just doesn't get there.
- Arlinn Kord: One of my favorite walkers, but it's just slightly too awkward. I've gotten good work out of it, but it's effects just barely line up wrong. You wanna be using a haste enabler to let you swing with Tana right away, but she costs four so she delays Tana a turn. Against an empty board you want to be able to enable haste next turn if you're casting her, but the only mode that does something right away flips her away from that. She does everything the deck wants, but with timing that's just barely off from how you need the early game to develop, and tempo is way too important in this deck to eat that loss.
I'll update the list in a little bit.
I'm really tempted to turn this into a primer for Tana x Everyone because I have built so many Tana decks and love pairing her with different generals so much. There probably aren't many people out there who have played her as much as I have.
Purphoros. God of the Forge
It's an include that should've been obvious; there are very few cards as amazing of a fit for this deck. Triggers a ton off of Tana, and pumps up the board to make more tokens and milk more damage out of the ones you already have. This card has nearly on it's own been the reason I won many games in testing.
Cryptolith Rite
Haven't actually drew it in testing, but it seems like an easy include. I'll keep an eye out to see if it under-performs, but it's fine in concept. Turns dorks into mana if they can't swing. That said, it's not very often I can't swing with my dork hordes. We'll see.
Artifact Mutation
Easy include. Solid removal, makes bodies to be pumped up by the rest of the deck. Not much to say about it.
Garruk, Primal Hunter
I was apprehensive at first about triple green, but green is the deck's highest color commitment by far so it's not as big of an issue. The card is yet another great big draw spell and makes tokens when that can be afforded. It's tested well so far, but I'm not surprised. My favorite thing is that it enables Kydele without having to use mana on that turn.
Hunter's Insight
A simple card, but it's an obvious include I skimmed over because my brain told me it wasn't flashy enough. I'm dumb. What else is new.
Everflowing Challice
Dynacharge
Cephalid Constable
Viridian Joiner
Island
A whole bunch of underperformers slipped out. Everflowing isn't amazingly useful in a deck with generally fairly color-intensive costs; especially not competing with Kydele. Dynacharge is fine but it doesn't quite do enough. There are better options, and there's only one card in the deck now that all it does is pump, and that's because it's insane at it. (Become Immense) Constable is kinda awkward, because it's unlikely to connect if they have creatures, and it's really not exciting if they don't. (Unless you want to bounce lands, but I don't like just ruining someone's day.) Viridian Joiner is the only one I'm not sure about. It can make a good bit of mana, and often requires no specific commitment, but I'm not sure if that's enough for a slow mana dork in a deck that doesn't want mana dorks. (Kydele and Selvala excepted because they make SO MUCH mana with relatively little commitment.)
- Berserk: How this wasn't in the deck from day one is surprising, but it absolutely belonged there. A cheap and massive pump spell that ends the game on the spot with things like Overwhelming Stampede, Wild Beastmaster, etc. I'm also not above sacrificing Tana for an explosive turn, because usually that's followed by winning on the next turn.
- Champion of Wits: I've yet to draw it, actually, but it was a new card that just seemed sick and perfect. Draws cards based on power, efficient dude, with the added benefit of recurring late in the game. I need to see it in action.
- Dragonrage: My lord to I love this card. It's so easy to miss, but it's so perfect. It's like a Might of the Masses that I get to spread around, and adding mana means I can use it to cast big pump spells and activate abilities as well. It does exactly everything I want.
- Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: Pumps the team and makes tokens. Really should've been an obvious include. It's one of my all-time favorite planeswalkers.
- Temur Ascendancy: Oh hell yes. Three-drops that grant haste as something this deck badly wants to the point where I've been tempted by Fervor and Hammer of Purphoros, and this is so much better. With any combination of board-pumping effects, tokens trigger this for mass draws giving it two angles of synergy with the deck. I love this card a lot. I mean it grants haste, rewards making lots of big creatures, and draws cards... Another should've-been-obvious.
- Soulblade Djinn: Playing with Jeskai Ascendancy made me realize this deck is overwhelmingly high-impact noncreatures and that adding an anthem to those goes pretty far. The important part of Ascendancy (well the other two parts are insane with Kydele... It's a shame using it means she's not a general) on an evasive body.
- Rishkar's Expertise: A card since printed that's practically designed for this deck. I wish it were reversed so I could freely cast a pump spell to get more value, but for most other decks I suppose this way is better. Card draw based on power and then a free pump spell. (That could come out of the cards you topdeck) I'm trying to trim down top end, but this card is way too insane not to go in on.
- Hall of the Bandit Lord: This card was so hard to muster the nerve to include, but swinging with Tana T4 and tapping with Kydele the turn she drops are too important not to go for it. It's a recent add that needs more testing, but it's probably worth how incredibly painful it is.
Cards going out... Cuts are really hard with this deck, but a few were obvious from testing:
- Ghor-Clan Rampager: I love this card, but you're never going to cast it. It's just a pump spell, and you can do better for the mana. (Also I don't like including things that are just pump spells unless they're massive and efficient like Rubblehulk or Become Immense.)
- Diviner Spirit: Five drops are a hard sell in a deck that wants to be killing players on turns 6 and 7. This dude has no evasion, draws opponents cards too, and has no immediate impact. It was an easy cut.
- Moonveil Dragon: The deck can support triple red, but this just doesn't have the impact that it needs. It eats colored mana and usually needs to untap to get work done. I like it, but five and six drops that don't immediately threaten ending the game or draw a full grip on their own just can't stay in this deck.
- Rapacious One: Very much a pet card, but I have Tana in the command zone for this effect. The colorless mana also really isn't important when Kydele generally makes all the colorless I need. At six it just doesn't pull weight.
- Savage Ventmaw: This was so hard to cut and I'm still not sure if it was right. Six drops kinda need to end the game on the spot, but with haste (and the deck is good at granting that) this dude is free and gives you tons of colored mana to cast pumps and end the game. Might find its way back in at some point.
- Bident of Thassa: Another cut I'm not totally certain of. Bident is good, but we have enough draw effects in the deck and ones based on number of creatures don't work as well as one's based on power. One's based on number of creatures connect have an even harder time pulling weight. Edric is a really efficient dude that comes as another body to trigger it's effect (and incentivizes not attacking you) but Bident just doesn't do quite enough work I think.
- Chain Reaction: and Blasphemous Act: I'm tempted to leave one of these in, but this deck doesn't want to be wrathing the board, it wants to deal with convoluted boardstates by tramping over them with 10/10s. Resetting your board to deal with the opponents' just doesn't get there.
- Arlinn Kord: One of my favorite walkers, but it's just slightly too awkward. I've gotten good work out of it, but it's effects just barely line up wrong. You wanna be using a haste enabler to let you swing with Tana right away, but she costs four so she delays Tana a turn. Against an empty board you want to be able to enable haste next turn if you're casting her, but the only mode that does something right away flips her away from that. She does everything the deck wants, but with timing that's just barely off from how you need the early game to develop, and tempo is way too important in this deck to eat that loss.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
Kydele is one of my favourite partner commanders, so I've been looking for different decks to play her in. I'd never have thought of pairing her with Tana. Obviously she's not the main commander here, but under the right circumstances, she could be pretty helpful. However, as you already said, it looks like it could be difficult to find a window where you can play her without slowing yourself down. I think I'll build a similar deck on cockatrice and test a bit. I guess if you'd want to stay in Temur colors, another option for a co-commander would be Kraum, Ludevic's Opus? He provides a solid body for all the cards that care about your creature's strength and is pretty agressive.
Hunter's Insight looks like it should be an auto-include in your list. It's instant speed, so its more difficult for your opponents to play around than Life's Legacy or Hunter's Prowess. Those cards seem a bit risky. With Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots you already have some protection from spot removal, but if you still want more, you could try Asceticism (it's kind of a pet card of mine, could potentially be too slow). Garruk, Primal Hunter would fit as well - he costs three G, but I think by turn 5 or 6 that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Nature's Way is another "fight" spot removal. Artifact Mutation gets rid of stuff and builds your army. Elemental Mastery could be a fun inclusion, although it has the downside of being an aura.
I agree with soramaro: Garruk, Primal Hunter and Hunter's Insight are a must for this deck.
One thing that I'm not sure people are quite adjusting their partner decks for is that when faced with having to cast 2 separate commanders, it actually costs you 4 more to get the engine going again. In single commander strategies, the extra 2 is easier to focus what your turn sequences are like. But with Partners, suddenly when faced with board wipes, means that resetting might have to be done over the course of two turns. Its worth considering how well a deck does with just one of the commanders in play? But at least with Kydele you have chances at sequences that you can play her out, then next turn do some card draw tricks then be able to play out Tana.
Keeping in mind the this is still a color intensive deck and Kydele can only provide colorless, I'd try and include Earthcraft (budget allowing) and/or Cyrptolith Rite. You might have to adjust your mana base for a few more basics for Earthcraft, but its just such an amazing card in creature token strategies. Soul's Majesty is a worth a look at, these type of cards can become almost "free" with Kydele.
I hate to say it but Purphoros, God of War.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Hunter's Insight is a good card, and I should be running, but I don't think it's any more reliable than Hunter's Prowess in that they get blow out by mostly the same thing. (Having the creature removed before connecting.) Life's legacy will never get blown out because you sacrifice the creature as a cost. (Though that does make countermagic sting more)
Asceticism is a card that's similarly a pet card for me, but I've become much better at restraining myself from randomly slapping it in places since it's pretty clunky and slow. Garruk should really be in. Triple green is a pain and what stopped me initially, but this deck is actually overwhelmingly heavier committed to green so he should be easier than I gave him credit for to slot in. Nature's way I'm less keen on; I only run Bear Punch because it pulls double-duty. I like fight removal, but most of the removal spots in this deck are taken up by more universal or efficient removal spells like Pongify and Beast Within. Artifact Mutation is a fun one and just generally a really good card I should remember to slot in. Elemental Mastery I'm not sure of as an Aura. (That also stops us from connecting with our higher power creatures) I'll give it a think.
This deck generally expects to only be operating with one commander at a time really, since you're not in a rush to play Kydele. (And Tana is very nice, but not incredibly pressing to have out once you have other bodies doing work) So the doubled Tax isn't horrific. (You were never really gonna replay both on the same turn anyway)
Earthcraft and Cryptolith Rite are definitely worth considering as includes and maybe slimming the land count down just a little for them. Soul's Majesty is a card that was in my original list but proved somewhat counter-intuitive. It's colorless cost makes it seem like it works well with Kydele, but Kydele doesn't want to be tapping to cast the big draw spell. It's not a good way to use Kydele, even if it's a reasonable card. The main thing with it is that it has the same massive blowout potential as Hunter's Prowess, without pulling double duty of both drawing cards and feeding into other combat effects. It's ultimately too slow and counter intuitive for what it does I found.
You're probably right about Purphoros. He's actually quite reasonable to feed Kydele's mana into, and he really hurts with Tana.
____
With that I have a lot to think about for testing an includes in this deck. I'll have to get to work on that in couple days when I'm not working.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
That's actually a really good point. I'm much more inclined to lean towards to colorless cycle, because they can be dumped off of Kydele's mana as well. I'm gonna have to slam a few of those in there. Thanks for reminding me about those.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
- Berserk: How this wasn't in the deck from day one is surprising, but it absolutely belonged there. A cheap and massive pump spell that ends the game on the spot with things like Overwhelming Stampede, Wild Beastmaster, etc. I'm also not above sacrificing Tana for an explosive turn, because usually that's followed by winning on the next turn.
- Champion of Wits: I've yet to draw it, actually, but it was a new card that just seemed sick and perfect. Draws cards based on power, efficient dude, with the added benefit of recurring late in the game. I need to see it in action.
- Dragonrage: My lord to I love this card. It's so easy to miss, but it's so perfect. It's like a Might of the Masses that I get to spread around, and adding mana means I can use it to cast big pump spells and activate abilities as well. It does exactly everything I want.
- Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: Pumps the team and makes tokens. Really should've been an obvious include. It's one of my all-time favorite planeswalkers.
- Temur Ascendancy: Oh hell yes. Three-drops that grant haste as something this deck badly wants to the point where I've been tempted by Fervor and Hammer of Purphoros, and this is so much better. With any combination of board-pumping effects, tokens trigger this for mass draws giving it two angles of synergy with the deck. I love this card a lot. I mean it grants haste, rewards making lots of big creatures, and draws cards... Another should've-been-obvious.
- Soulblade Djinn: Playing with Jeskai Ascendancy made me realize this deck is overwhelmingly high-impact noncreatures and that adding an anthem to those goes pretty far. The important part of Ascendancy (well the other two parts are insane with Kydele... It's a shame using it means she's not a general) on an evasive body.
- Rishkar's Expertise: A card since printed that's practically designed for this deck. I wish it were reversed so I could freely cast a pump spell to get more value, but for most other decks I suppose this way is better. Card draw based on power and then a free pump spell. (That could come out of the cards you topdeck) I'm trying to trim down top end, but this card is way too insane not to go in on.
- Hall of the Bandit Lord: This card was so hard to muster the nerve to include, but swinging with Tana T4 and tapping with Kydele the turn she drops are too important not to go for it. It's a recent add that needs more testing, but it's probably worth how incredibly painful it is.
Cards going out... Cuts are really hard with this deck, but a few were obvious from testing:
- Ghor-Clan Rampager: I love this card, but you're never going to cast it. It's just a pump spell, and you can do better for the mana. (Also I don't like including things that are just pump spells unless they're massive and efficient like Rubblehulk or Become Immense.)
- Diviner Spirit: Five drops are a hard sell in a deck that wants to be killing players on turns 6 and 7. This dude has no evasion, draws opponents cards too, and has no immediate impact. It was an easy cut.
- Moonveil Dragon: The deck can support triple red, but this just doesn't have the impact that it needs. It eats colored mana and usually needs to untap to get work done. I like it, but five and six drops that don't immediately threaten ending the game or draw a full grip on their own just can't stay in this deck.
- Rapacious One: Very much a pet card, but I have Tana in the command zone for this effect. The colorless mana also really isn't important when Kydele generally makes all the colorless I need. At six it just doesn't pull weight.
- Savage Ventmaw: This was so hard to cut and I'm still not sure if it was right. Six drops kinda need to end the game on the spot, but with haste (and the deck is good at granting that) this dude is free and gives you tons of colored mana to cast pumps and end the game. Might find its way back in at some point.
- Bident of Thassa: Another cut I'm not totally certain of. Bident is good, but we have enough draw effects in the deck and ones based on number of creatures don't work as well as one's based on power. One's based on number of creatures connect have an even harder time pulling weight. Edric is a really efficient dude that comes as another body to trigger it's effect (and incentivizes not attacking you) but Bident just doesn't do quite enough work I think.
- Chain Reaction: and Blasphemous Act: I'm tempted to leave one of these in, but this deck doesn't want to be wrathing the board, it wants to deal with convoluted boardstates by tramping over them with 10/10s. Resetting your board to deal with the opponents' just doesn't get there.
- Arlinn Kord: One of my favorite walkers, but it's just slightly too awkward. I've gotten good work out of it, but it's effects just barely line up wrong. You wanna be using a haste enabler to let you swing with Tana right away, but she costs four so she delays Tana a turn. Against an empty board you want to be able to enable haste next turn if you're casting her, but the only mode that does something right away flips her away from that. She does everything the deck wants, but with timing that's just barely off from how you need the early game to develop, and tempo is way too important in this deck to eat that loss.
I'll update the list in a little bit.
I'm really tempted to turn this into a primer for Tana x Everyone because I have built so many Tana decks and love pairing her with different generals so much. There probably aren't many people out there who have played her as much as I have.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)