WHO IS DEREVI, EMPYRIAL TACTICIAN? WHY PLAY THIS COMMANDER?
Commander 2013 brought along some powerful, if not TOO powerful, generals to the EDH scene. In general, Wizards thought that the five faces for the Commander 2013 set, each representing a shard from Alara, should involve some kind of interesting interaction with the command zone. Prossh, Jeleva, and Marath had effects where their potency would increase as you used more mana to cast them, generally through the commander tax. Oloro had an effect when he was in the command zone which meant you never had to cast him. They are all high tier generals, with some of them being top tier, because Wizards went too far with their power levels.
At least I'm not as bad at photoshop as the folks at Officialquiz.com.
So what did Derevi do? She was arguably the biggest mistake of the five. But we'll break her down slowly.
3-mana is a nice cost, because it can come down early and gives you access to three colors. You can combine her with plenty of 1-mana dorks to get her out on turn 2 if needed, though 99% of the time you're not even hardcasting her.
Flying is always a powerful ability, and is especially relevant when combined with her next ability.
She has the marquee parameters of a powerful card. She has a relevant ability (basically Twiddle) when she enters the battlefield, meaning she has an immediate impact on the board even if she gets killed quickly. Don't underestimate the effect of twiddle. Have you ever untapped Arcanis the Omnipotent or tapped down an opponent's Grim Monolith? Or the more common example is tapping down a key creature before it attacks (e.g. Zur the Enchanter) to timewalk that player and buy you a free turn, or tapping down a blocker to get creatures in for damage, and the list goes on. Next, she also has a long, lasting effect on the game; as long as she's in play, all of your creatures will give free Twiddles whenever they deal combat damage to an opponent. Coupled with her flying also makes this synergistic as it makes it easier for Derevi herself to get in and land a trigger.
This tends to lend her towards playing a type of stax build, since you can play, say, Winter Orb and tap down opponents' lands and permanents and keep everything locked up while you peck away at your helpless foes. However, you can do "fairer" things like untap your lands, untap your Arcanis, tap down that Mana Vault, or untap your own Mana Vault, etc.
This is what I was talking about from earlier. You can flash her in, at instant speed, for 4-mana, regardless of how many times she has died. Commander tax is one of the most important aspects of commander. As most decks rely on their commander to do anything, removing the commander from play and increasing the commander tax to make them harder - if not impossible - to get back on the battlefield is one of the most important dynamics of EDH. Circumventing the tax entirely is kind of a problem. You basically don't care at all if she dies on you, as she is a permanent 4-mana instant speed creature with relevant stats and abilities. If you have a sac outlet on hand it becomes even better, as you will have a twiddle effect on hand at nearly all times. As said earlier, being able to flash her in and tap down a key attacker is already powerful on its own, let alone all of the other powerful plays she is capable of.
Derevi is so powerful she had to be banned in 1v1 commander. In multiplayer she is easily one of the most dominant generals in the scene. She is nearly impossible to deal with (especially with the removal of tuck), continuously and easily generates value, and at any time can play a card that can lock you out of the game like Winter Orb.
So why exactly should you play Derevi? Well, if you like winning, she's a good place to start. She's a top tier general.
However, me personally, I don't like winning in conventional ways, at least not in the cutthroat/spike kind of way. If I win, I'm going to do something stupid to make it harder on myself. Stasis? Pfft, plenty of people build Derevi stax, that's no fun. My home is ramping to get a ton of mana out, draw an excessive number of cards, and play value creatures. In fact, the two biggest reasons why I actually decided to make this deck were because of two cards that were recently spoiled that further enabled by durdling tendencies.
Ironically enough the tutors don't typically fetch out Panharmonicon first (usually you want Birthing Pod first), but your craziest plays usually occur when you have a Panharmonicon out. And Faerie Artisan technically has ETB effects with the tokens it makes, but it can take over a game if an opponent or two relies on a lot of creatures.
I also decided to build the deck with a budget restraint. With Derevi's innately high power level, it would be too easy to get an obscenely powerful deck if you could stuff in all the staples like Sylvan Library and such. Budget builds fuel my desire to slap together decks while also being easy on my wallet. And as with all budget builds, I hope I can inspire other players to create decks on a budget.
With that said, Derevi was chosen mostly for the colors as well as the fact that she is innately powerful, but there are other neat interactions. Let's examine the other bant generals and see why Derevi was chosen.
Angus Mackenzie - Fogging is cool, but Derevi is just more powerful. Angus is too mana intensive.
Arcades Sabboth - Despite being one of the progenitors of the EDH format, he simply isn't playable.
Ragnar - Funny for shigs and tiggles, but he's far too weak.
Roon of the Hidden Realm - The only real contender to helm a bant ETB deck. He obviously has more synergy with ETB creatures than Derevi. However, I chose Derevi because of power level reasons; Roon doesn't have haste nor an immediate impact on the board, making him fragile and a problem if he dies on us. In a deck where most of the creatures are disposable, I did not really want to spend some card slots on protecting him, such as Lightning Greaves. If you play other cards that could also benefit from them (for example, play Brago, King Eternal in the 99) then Roon becomes more appealing. If he can survive a turn, he certainly has the capability to take over a game more than Derevi, but the trick is keeping him alive.
Rubinia Soulsinger - Not a bad option for a control deck, but similar to Roon, she is fragile.
Treva, the Renewer - Easily the worst of the 3-color legendary dragons from invasion + Planar Chaos. Lifegain is so miniscule.
You should play this deck if you...
+ Like playing mostly small-medium sized creatures with ETB effects
+ Like playing on a budget
+ Want to win by looping an infinite combo or gaining massive value out of nowhere
You should not play this deck if you...
- Hate playing creatures
- Want to win by being aggressive and attacking with huge creatures
PERSONAL HISTORY
I've been playing magic on and off since Mirrodin, although I didn't start even considering some semblance of competitive play (and by that I mean lofty FNMs and currently nothing higher, so yes, I am not the most skilled player out there) until Zendikar, where after that block finished I again took a break until Return to Ravnica, and have been playing steadily since. I was drawn back to the game at Zendikar largely because I found a new playgroup, and this playgroup quickly introduced me to the EDH format. While I was skeptical about it at first, once I made my first deck I was hooked.
The allure of EDH to me is the accessibility and the atmosphere of the format. You have an extremely large array of cards to choose from, which can result in many decks with wildly varying themes and power levels, so players are better able to construct the decks they desire. Because of the huge emphasis on politics in a typical EDH game, players who have weaker decks can still compete with players with fine-tuned decks as long as they play their politics correctly. This also reduces the monetary barrier to the format compared to something like legacy or even standard.
I consider myself to be a Timmy and a Johnny with some elements of Spike. The Spike part of me, however, barely shows up if there are no tangible prizes to play for. When there are tangible prizes to play for, I do enjoy getting those prizes. However, during EDH with friends where we play for fun and for pride, the frequency that I win at in EDH doesn't matter as much as how I win.
My EDH decks therefore are not for highly competitive play or for entering actual EDH tournaments; they are constructed based on my personal whims. As the playgroup I hang out with don't have hyper-strong decks (they are good decks but they purposely avoid the extremely powerful cards/interactions), I purposely drop the power level of my decks to around theirs. They are my friends, and as such having everyone in the group split games fairly evenly personally makes me happy too. No one likes losing every single game, and the best way to have your playgroup get annoyed with you is to win an overwhelming amount of games, and I don't want to be the guy to force players to get better or to start playing a certain way.
This doesn't mean my EDH decks cannot be fine-tuned for more aggressive playgroups or have a shot in tournaments. Often it just takes a couple of changes in card choices, or a quick change in the theme/game plan (which then relates to making a bunch of easy card changes). You can also often make power level reductions or cost reductions to the deck as well.
DECK HISTORY
If you've read any of my other primers, you know I love durdling. Basically just doing a lot of dumb stuff before finally realizing that it's turn 15 and I should actually find a way to win the game. Secondly, I love budget builds. I like throwing decks together and trying things out, sometimes doing some kind of strategy that requires different playstyles and lines of thinking, although in this particular case I'm just going to my roots and doing something I'm comfortable with. Much like with my Prossh build, the idea is that the general is so powerful that you can put a huge restriction on yourself - in this case a $100 budget - and still be highly competitive.
A lot of my decks have dumb ETB value creatures, but none of them focused on that aspect. With the printing of Panharmonicon and Faerie Artisans, I knew that I needed to make a deck that focused on creature ETBs. Combine that with my habit of making budget decks and I decided to take a general with an innately high power level that also helped lend itself towards ETB creatures, and landed on Derevi.
Everytime I resolve a Mulldrifter I'm a happy guy.
Current budget - ~$103.62 (using the market price on tcgplayer.com), checked on 03/30/2018
Link:
CARD OPTIONS
The card options will be broken up by card type. I will put * for each card, indicating my personal rating of the card, ranging from 1 to 5.
* - I mostly run this card for personal preference.
** - Has a nice niche, but can be cut for a different card.
*** - A good value card. You can cut for a different card but I don't recommend it.
**** - A staple. I do not recommend cutting this card.
***** - One of the cornerstones of the deck.
Any cards that are also over 1 dollar will be italicized. Anything that is over 5 dollars will instead be bolded. Anything that is over 10 dollars will be highlighted in color. For cards that are relatively pricy I will list a monetary value where I would likely not play this card if it exceeded that price as it would constrain the deck too much.
CREATURES
The creatures listed here will be in converted mana cost order, as there is a Birthing Pod curve.
1
***Avacyn's Pilgrim - Birds of Paradise is a little pricy, so Pilgrim is playable here. It only makes white, but usually you want your green mana dork to produce something that isn't green to help color fix.
****Caustic Caterpillar - For 3-mana into two separate investments you get a naturalize effect, which is solid on a 1-drop.
2
***Coiling Oracle - Decent, budget ETB value. Sometimes the GU is hard to cast on turn 2, but it's generally better than playing a card that only ramps (e.g. Rampant Growth) or a card that only draws (e.g. Elvish Visionary).
***Mistmeadow Witch - Low-cmc creature that can help reuse ETB effects, albeit at a fairly high mana cost. Flickering out opposing creatures has its uses too, particularly against voltrons. It's a 2-drop that you want to draw late in the game but can throw out early if you have nothing else to do.
***Satyr Wayfinder - Gives you a head start on filling the graveyard for Sun Titan/Karmic Guide/Reveillark while letting you hit your next land drop (usually).
3
*****Eternal Witness - Staple. Has great base value, and is a cog in one of the infinite combos in the deck. Max Budget: $6
***Fiend Hunter - A little earlygame disruption. Target an opposing commander and they will likely send it back to the command zone unless they can kill the hunter immediately.
***Loaming Shaman - Uninspiring but mandatory graveyard hate.
****Manglehorn - Similar to Reclamation Sage. It only hits artifacts instead of artifacts+enchantments, but making opposing artifacts ETB tapped is hugely annoying in quite a few cases. Mana rocks, Birthing Pod, Oblivion Stone, etc.
****Reclamation Sage - Essentially Fiend Hunter's brother in hacking at early problematic things.
***Reflector Mage - Essentially another copy of Fiend Hunter. It is actually not that bad against the ramp-heavy decks that rely on a key creature to stay in play (e.g. their general), as this will make them unable to recast that creature for a turn regardless of how much mana they have available.
***Skullwinder - Very bad Eternal Witness, but we'll take some redundancy. Occasionally an opponent won't have a graveyard (or a relevant graveyard) and then it's just eternal witness with deathtouch, but sometimes this card can hurt you as much as it helps you.
****Stonecloaker - Fills several niches. One, it lets you bounce back a creature to reuse its ETB, and given that it's flash it can also save a creature from a removal spell. Two, it gives some graveyard hate at instant speed, albeit at a fairly high price.
****Trophy Mage - Finds you a mana boost piece/sac outlet/part of infinite combo (Ashnod's Altar) or a solid card advantage engine (Crystal Shard). That's enough to make it worthwhile, but adding 1-2 more good targets will only increase this card's value too.
***Wood Elves - Budget ramp. Notably weaker than in normal builds as it's nearly impossible to afford the Ravnica shocklands.
***Yisan, the Wanderer Bard - A bit slow and mana intensive, but a good card to untap with Derevi, and tutor effects - even those with restrictions - are always strong.
4
**Archaeomancer - Passable recursion creature. Goes infinite with ghostly flicker + peregrine drake just like in pauper (before drake got banned anyway).
*****Clever Impersonator - Double up on a big engine, or copy another player's big stuff. Great flexibility. Max Budget: $4
*****Faerie Artisans - It sucks if it gets killed early, but if it lives and there's at least one opponent with a creature-heavy deck, it will singlehandedly win you the game. Even decks that don't have a lot of creatures can give you value out of nowhere (ever had a control deck play a Snapcaster Mage into this and you have something random like Swords to Plowshares in your graveyard?). Max Budget: $5
****Llawan, Cephalid Empress - Blue is one of the best colors in EDH. So how about a little hate on these blue decks? Max Budget: $3
****Mystic Snake - 4-mana for a counterspell is a bit heavy, but it's the best one for a creature-heavy build.
5
**Acidic Slime - Slime has lost a lot of its luster ever since Reclamation Sage was printed, but being able to nuke a land is not irrelevant.
****Cloudblazer - Generally inferior to Mulldrifter, but few things beat that fish elemental in durdling.
*****Karmic Guide - See Reveillark. Max Budget: $8
*****Mulldrifter - If you're a blue-based creature deck, you play this. If I could I would probably just play 40 lands and 60 mulldrifters.
*****Peregrine Drake - Basically only here because it goes infinite with Deadeye Navigator (Palinchron is too expensive to just be a dumb combo piece). However you can "generate" a little mana by untapping lands that add more than 1 mana (e.g. Temple of the False God) and many of the clones/flicker effects in this deck cost less than 5 so you can net a little extra mana if needed. But mostly because loldeadeyenavigator.
*****Reveillark - See Karmic Guide. Max Budget: $8
6 *****Deadeye Navigator - Goes infinite with Peregrine Drake, but honestly anything useful with Deadeye Navigator will end the game quickly. Max Budget: $10
*****Sun Titan - Can't get back Birthing Pod, Panharmonicon, or Faerie Artisans, but it still can get plenty of other nifty things. Max Budget: $6
****Woodland Bellower - Fetches out plenty of toolbox creatures, mostly Eternal witness, but reclamation sage is a good one, etc. It gets hilarious when you have Panharmonicon out (you get two tutors, and each of the tutored creatures get two triggers).
7
****Angel of Serenity - Helps buy time, and also it is not irrelevant that you can target some of your own creatures. Remember that this can also get creature cards in any graveyard as well. It's a very flexible and intricate card with plenty of depth.
***Sphinx of Uthuun - Dumb value creature, but filling the graveyard to help fuel Karmic Guide/Reveillark/Sun Titan/etc. helped this card earn its slot.
8
****Terastodon - One of the heaviest hitters of all time. Most people can survive one Terastodon ETB, but more than that usually locks up the game. Unless there are multiple problematic noncreature permanents, normally your first 3 targets are on the same guy to lock him out, and then you find a way to clone or flicker this to hammer on the others. The 3/3s they get are relevant though if they all attack you, so be careful.
RAMP
If you play EDH, you play ramp. If you play green, you especially play ramp.
*****Sol Ring - Staple. Many of the temporary alliances forged in a standard EDH game are created based on who gets the turn 1 sol rings.
**Selesnya Signet, Simic Signet - Some artifact ramp is necessary so an Armageddon or Contamination doesn't immediately beat you. Azorius Signet isn't in here because it's randomly more expensive than the other two. Is it played in Modern Thopter Sword combo or something?
**Fertile Ground - Not bad to untap with Derevi enchanting this land.
*****Ashnod's Altar - Sac outlet so karmic Guide + Reveillark can go infinite. Can get back with Sun Titan. Can fetch out with the artifact tutors. Great card on its own.
***Harrow - Sacrificing a land can be brutal if the spell gets countered, but most people won't counter it if you play it right. Ramp that can be played at instant speed isn't too bad.
**Overgrowth - Not bad to untap with Derevi enchanting this land.
**Market Festival - Not bad to untap with Derevi enchanting this land.
DRAW/ENGINES
If you are trying to play "fair" magic, you will need sufficient card draw to power through multiple players.
****Brainstorm - High floor, low ceiling. Not as busted in high-budget decks that can play a lot of fetchlands, but we still will take it.
*****Mystic Remora - So efficient and so easy to fly under the radar as it's only 1-mana. It is actually a very relevant card to get back with Sun Titan.
***Momentary Blink - Retriggering an ETB effect and/or dodging a removal spell gives it nice value. The fact that you can flash it back is even better. Another high floor, low ceiling card.
***Evolutionary Leap - Sac outlet and gets you a card. Decent floor card. With Derevi to sac at hand you never run out of fuel.
***Compulsive Research - 3-mana for draw 3 is a solid rate. Pitch an excess land, or maybe pitch a fatty to reanimate with Karmic Guide, etc.
****Ghostly Flicker - Much like in pauper, casting this on Peregrine Drake + another creature that can recur a card from your graveyard (e.g. Eternal Witness) generates infinite mana. However it's still a strong, flexible mid-lategame card. The fact that it can target artifacts is also not irrelevant as it can save a key artifact from getting destroyed, and sometimes flicker a birthing pod.
***Crystal Shard - Bouncing and recasting creatures can slowly generate value. It's usually not as effective as flickering as you need to spend the mana to recast the creature, but being able to target opponents' creatures has its uses. Max Budget: $2
*****Birthing Pod - I have an unhealthy love for this card. It goes into every green deck I make even if I shouldn't. It absolutely takes a game over after a few activations, while giving you immediate value when cast as long as you activate it immediately. Max Budget: $10
****Fact or Fiction - EoT FoF you lose. Digging 5 cards deep while filling up your graveyard are important things to do. Doing it at instant speed is even better.
*****Panharmonicon - As said earlier, this card is one of the major reasons why I built this dumb ETB deck. The only reason why it's not THE best card in the deck is because Birthing Pod is just dumb as hell. The craziest loops outside of the obvious Karmic Guide + Reveillark or Deadeye + Drake, they start with a panharmonicon in play. Max Budget: $10
GRAVEYARD
Graveyard hate is important as many decks use their graveyard as another resource. Currently no noncreatures can graveyard hate, but it's still something you need to consider.
REMOVAL/SWEEPERS/COUNTERS
Durdling is fun and all, but opponents do dangerous things that threaten your ability to sit around and durdle all day. You need answers.
****Nature's Claim - 1-mana is so cheap to sneak in without telegraphing anything. The 4 life they gain is irrelevant.
****Swan Song - Hard counters three of the six spell types (enchantment, instant, sorcery, creature, artifact, planeswalker), good for 1 mana. It's a great card to help protect one of your key engines while you try to get it online. The 2/2 flier they get is almost irrelevant, especially since Derevi is a 2/3.
****Arcane Denial - Underrated counterspell if you have trouble reaching the UU for your straightup Counterspell. Unconditional 2-mana counters are nice to have, and the 2-cards the opponent draws is almost always worth less than the spell you just countered, and as an added bonus this replaces itself.
*****Beast Within - If you're playing green, you play this card.
****Tragic Arrogance - A sweeper that IMO is underplayed. It's not good in some cases, but in many cases it is a blowout, since you choose what everyone keeps.
TUTORS
The best tutors are fairly pricy, which makes them hard to fit in the budget. Any tutors played therefore must be powerful enough to justify the cost.
****Whir of Invention - Essentially another fabricate that can be cast at instant speed, albeit your cost has to be done in one chunk. You normally won't improvise for very much as most of the artifacts in the deck are mana rocks anyway, but still, tutors are powerful, and you're usually only finding a 4-drop anyway (Pod and Panharmonicon are 4, and Altar is 3).
LANDS
In budget builds where you can't afford the fetchlands + shocklands, you need to dig deep to build your mana base. This means playing suboptimal lands that enter the battlefield tapped, which slows you down notably, and also makes you open to getting color screwed. We play a little extra lands than normal because of that, as well as a bunch of low-CMC ramp options to stay afloat on mana production.
****Canopy Vista, Prairie Stream - Played mostly because of their interaction with Krosan Verge, but they are not bad on their own. Canopy Vista in particular is fetchable off Wood Elves. Max Budget: $3
****Azorius Chancery, Selesnya Sanctuary, Simic Growth Chamber - These are actually legit. They're card advantage on lands. They're vulnerable to strip mine and the like, but there will always be better targets on the table, usually controlled by other players. They're a bit slow for cutthroat, but in budget and in casual these are very playable. Also good to untap with Peregrine Drake or Derevi.
****Yavimaya Coast - Of the bant painlands, this is the only one budget enough to play here (thanks Modern Eldrazi for making Brushland out of budget for this, and... I don't know why Adarkar Waste is so expensive). We will happily play it.
***Exotic Orchard - Usually will tap for at least 2 of the bant colors, so that's okay.
***Temple of the False God - Not bad to untap with Derevi, and is general mana ramp. The deck has a good number of lands so the restriction isn't that bad.
****Krosan Verge- Ramp and color fixing on lands is very strong.
****High Market - Sac outlets are very important. Being on a land makes it difficult to interact with. Max Budget: $4
***Buried Ruin - Many of the key engines of the decks are artifacts, so a way to recur them on a land is nice.
5 Plains
5 Island
5 Forest
OTHER OPTIONS
ROON COMMANDER
As said earlier, you can have Roon helm the deck instead of Derevi. However, because Roon is slower and more fragile, you would need to make a few changes.
- You would need more mana ramp, as Roon is more mana intensive.
- You would need protection, such as Lightning Greaves.
- You don't need as many engine cards, because Roon acts as a powerful engine.
If you want to adapt this type of style, you can add in cards that benefit from these things, such as Brago. Lightning greaves is nice on both Roon and Brago, meaning Greaves has more value even if Roon can't actually stay in play (e.g. he keeps getting countered). And if you want to play Brago, play things like Thran Dynamo and Mana Vault that care about being blinked. Since protecting Roon is important, it's worth playing a cheap tutor like Open the Armory to find your greaves.
Remove some of the weaker draw/engine cards to accomodate the changes, as now Roon gives you permanent access to a slow but powerful card advantage engine (try not to remove lands/ramp as again, Roon is slower and more mana intensive). Since Roon only can flicker one creature a turn, you don't need millions of creatures so you don't have to play something like Wood Elves, but you do want at least 1-2 good targets out so your Roon is actually flickering something useful. Also, Roon being able to flicker an opponent's creature is not irrelevant either, and can add a little bit of disruption.
FLASH FOCUS
One other direction I didn't mention was making the deck rely even more on flash. Derevi can be flashed in, and other nice cards like Fact or Fiction are instants. You play more like a control deck and have less of a focus on ETB creatures which is why I never seriously considered this, but this is certainly a strong way to go.
If you don't play budget, Seedborn Muse makes this disgusting. Remove the weaker engine cards. You can cut 1-2 ramp cards and the weaker ETB creatures like Elvish Visionary.
STAX FOCUS
Of course, when most people think Derevi, they think of hardcore, hyper-annoying stax. Play Winter Orb, attack with your dorks, untap your lands and cast your spells, while other people's lands slowly untap. Give people fewer mana resources while Derevi lets you untap lands, tap down opponents' lands, etc. This obviously is a significantly different build than the current iteration and if you are interested in one you are better off looking at a different Derevi topic for ideas and advice, but you can likely build a budget version with stax elements.
- You would need more mana dorks and low CMC creatures, since getting Derevi out quickly is actually important to your strategy. More small dudes also means more triggers when they land their hits if Derevi is out.
- You would need to cut many of the high CMC cards as you won't have the mana out to cast them.
Your curve usually stops at ~6, so things like Terastodon and Sphinx of Uthuun will have to get axed. Anything more than 6+ mana basically has to end the game on the spot.
DIDN'T PAN OUT
These are cards that have been tested but either underperformed, there was no room for them, or exceeded budget.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk - Sweepers are nice, but since the deck wins with infinite combos, usually you don't care that much about a cluttered board, rather you care about certain problematic cards that hinder you from going infinite (e.g. Torpor orb).
Whitemane Lion - 2-cmc bounce effect is nice to let you reuse a creature's ETB, but since you still have to cast them again, it's not as strong as other engines.
Cultivate, Kodama's Reach - These are surprisingly expensive for commons (like $1.50), which is too much for just basic ramp, even if they are good ramp. They'll need another reprint to drop their price.
Rhystic Study - Another expensive card, around $4. Strong, but didn't support any of the synergies of the deck, so I decided to allocate the budget elsewhere. May find its way back in the deck, but it really needs a reprint.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Sweet to get back with Reveillark, but the deck doesn't actually have that many creatures with high power. Most of the time it's only drawing ~3 cards which is not that exciting. For comparison, Mulldrifter draws two, but is 1 mana less and is easier to cast, and can be evoked in a pinch.
Solemn Simulacrum - One of the toughest cuts I've made prior to writing this primer, Solemn is too expensive for its effects. It doesn't ramp hard for its cost, and the card draw upon death is certainly nice, but not something worth >$3.
GENERAL STRATEGY
GENERAL
Generally, the deck wins in one of several ways, all of them being infinite combos...
1) Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake = infinite mana, then slide the Navigator over to something that has a relevant ETB effect.
2) Ashnod's Altar + Karmic Guide + Reveillark = infinite colorless mana. Usually you want something relevant in the graveyard to get back so you can loop that card's ETB effect.
3) Ghostly Flicker targeting Peregrine Drake + Eternal Witness/Skullwinder = Infinite mana, then ghostly flicker Ewit/Skullwinder + another creature with a relevant ETB effect.
Of course, the deck has plenty of engines and can win without going infinite. Blink/reanimate Terastodon 2-3 times and that usually cleans up the game. If a Panharmonicon sticks you will pretty easily out-value the entire table without going infinite. However these combos clean up the game the fastest and often will cause your opponents to scoop if they don't immediately have an answer.
MULLIGANS
Like with many midrange/slow green decks, you want that earlygame ramp. Don't pitch a hand that has 3-4 lands and 3-4 good early spells, but you generally should mulligan for ramp. It's not that bad to go down to six as the ravnica karoos (Azorius Chancery) give card advantage.
EARLYGAME
The name of the earlygame is ramp, ramp, ramp. You have a handful of cheap removal spells if the need arises as well as flashing in Derevi (don't forget, if necessary you can just hardcast Derevi for 3 mana the first time), but otherwise focus on ramping. Once you are sitting at around 6-7 mana, that's when you start to feel comfortable.
MIDGAME
At this point you'll need to stick an engine to keep your flow of cards coming. Play your disruption on things that will generally kill you or your engines. The deck is built to grind out the game, so you're okay if opponents play out their own value cards, as your engines will generally have a bigger punch. For example letting an opponent stick a Sylvan Library is OK, but Survival of the Fittest needs to be killed ASAP unless you know the opponent isn't running infinite combos that would win instantly. Derevi is usually there to buy you a turn to tap down a key attacker, but you can get aggressive and use her as a mini-ritual effect to cast something precombat, attack and untap some lands, and cast something else.
Your best engines are by far Birthing Pod, Panharmonicon, Ashnod's Altar, and Aura Shards. Landing any one of these powers you ahead quickly. Pod/Panharmonicon generate insane value, Altar gives you insane mana production and tons of Derevi tricks, and Shards slows everyone else down significantly as many players rely on artifacts and/or enchantments to do big plays. Normally you don't play Pod/Panharmonicon/Shards unless you can generate immediate value (like immediately playing a creature, or immediately sacrificing something to the pod) or if you can protect it with cheap countermagic, but sometimes you'll have to throw them out and hope for the best; you can't sandbag your cards all game. This is especially true if you fall behind on the board, as you have to take chances, plus if you're behind your things are less likely to get targeted. If you're ahead, don't overextend unless you have some backup plan/protection.
LATEGAME
The deck doesn't normally win before turn 7ish. On a low budget it can't win that quickly very reliably. Generally when you have a good flow of cards coming, or if you see an opening, you go and assemble one of the two infinite combos listed above. If certain pieces are unavailable (e.g. they get exiled) then you'll just have to play the game fairly.
USEFUL INTERACTIONS/COMMON LINES OF PLAY
If you have Birthing Pod, or a card to tutor up Pod, Derevi essentially gives you access to two pods thanks to Clever Impersonator. Since we basically don't care how many times Derevi dies, you can have Derevi out, play Pod, pod away your Derevi to fetch out the clone to copy Pod, then go to town. You can also obviously untap pod with Derevi, which is scary as well.
Because of this interaction with pod and Derevi as basically free fodder as a 3-drop, the 4-drop slot in general has some key cards. Notably, Faerie Artisan is an extremely powerful engine (if you can get Pod + Impersonator copying pod + Faerie Artisans, you set yourself up incredibly well) while Llawan helps slow down blue decks that rely on their general.
As said earlier, Peregrine Drake untapping lands that produce more than 1 mana is not irrelevant. And as said earlier, most of the clone/flicker effects cost less than 5 mana, meaning copying drake or flickering/copying the ETB trigger produces mana too. Sometimes you can do a backbreaking play 1-2 turns earlier than normal because of that. For example, at just 5 normal lands, play Drake -> play Momentary blink targeting drake, tap your three untapped lands before untapping all 5, you now have 8 mana -> Terastodon.
COUNTERS TO DEREVI/THIS BUILD
Since it's so obviously a creature-based deck that relies on ETB/reanimation, things that hinder that are problematic. Containment Priest won't stop your hardcasted creatures, but it stops all blink/reanimation, and you can't flash Derevi into play anymore. Torpor Orb and Humility are obviously huge problems as well.
The deck can be slow, so you can have trouble fending off a very fast deck, or if multiple people gang up on you.
Archaeomancer
Fabricate
Aethersnipe
Imprisoned in the Moon
Chord of Calling
Aura Shards
Cyclonic Rift
Fabricate and Chord of Calling were budget cuts, Chord in particular. Trophy mage was a simple swap with Fabricate; typically Fabricate got you pod or panharmonicon, but mage can get you ashnod's altar and crystal shard which is fine. Chord however was an extremely tough cut. The instant speed let you do so many tricks, but ultimately it was just too expensive. Yisan helps fill that tutor role, albeit it is obviously much slower and more limited, but it is repeatable at least.
Aethersnipe and Imprisoned were mostly ineffective, aethersnipe in particular. Bouncing nonland permanents is fine, but lack of instant speed really hurt the card. As for imprisoned, stranding generals in play was always cool, but being unable to hit artifacts or enchantments hurt this card's floor, particularly when this deck has a glaring weakness to things like Humility and Torpor Orb.
Aura Shards could easily take over a game on its own, but it's exceeded $12 and it's too difficult to fit in the budget anymore. Manglehorn is a super budget replacement.
Cyclonic Rift also could singlehandedly win you a game, but exceeded $10 at some point. Tragic Arrogance will replace it as a sweeper.
Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
**Consulate Crackdown - It's similar to Vandalblast in that it hits all artifacts except yours. Comparable to many other artifact sweepers in general as well, such as Creeping Corrosion. Of course this has its ups and downs; exiling is useful as many artifact decks have graveyard recursion, but the artifacts all come back once this is removed.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Exquisite Archangel - Similar to Resolute Archangel, where they're 7-mana angels that alter your life total in a noticeable way. Personally this doesn't impress me, as most of the time you lose because of an infinite combo which doesn't care about something that lets you restart your life total.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Felidar Guardian - Similar to Restoration Angel, but blinking any permanent you control (other than itself) instead of non-angel creature can lead to some hilarious things (e.g. he goes infinite with Saheeli Rai so we get splinter twin combo T4 kills in standard lulz). The lack of flash and the lower stats (lower power, no flying) are notable drawbacks, but there are nice interactions with being able to blink the things that restoration angel can't get (e.g. blink a mana rock), and being a little easier on the wallet is nice too.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Derevi
****Restoration Specialist - For essentially 1WW you recur an artifact plus enchantment, which actually is quite strong. Most creatures only do one or the other. As an extra bonus you get to decide when to pull the "trigger".
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Various white decks, preferably with creature recursion
***Sram, Senior Edificer - Vehicles are still not that playable in EDH, so it's just drawing cards off your aura and equipment spells, which is still not bad for voltron decks. It's a similar card to Kor Spiritdancer and Puresteel Paladin - 2-mana dudes that help draw cards in your voltron decks. It should slot in decently in said voltron decks or possibly be a monowhite voltron general.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Sram's Expertise - Making a bunch of 1/1s is whatever at 4-mana, so you really want to be cheating in something cool, and you still have to care about the tokens.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
BLUE
*Aethertide Whale - Generates a lot of energy upon ETB but does nothing much besides that.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Baral, Chief of Compliance - Goblin Electromancer with upside and only one color will be quite sick. Obviously for spellslinger decks, but it will be an automatic include in them. The second ability might make it also playable in a control/counterspell control deck as the loot ability is nice too.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Baral's Expertise - One of the best in the cycle, as it affects the board in a meaningful and flexible way while also giving a free spell, which helps make this slot into a lot of different blue decks as a decent value/tempo card. Being able to bounce artifacts is also very relevant. Bounce three threats and cheat in a Rhystic Study or Jace isn't too bad.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Disallow - Voidslime for 1UU instead of GUU will see good amounts of play. Having flexible counterspells is always nice to have. It won't be a broken card but it will be solid.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: most blue decks
*Efficient Construction - It's unfortunate this isn't an artifact itself, but regardless it's a slow but fair way to slowly pump out artifacts. Most artifact combos are just looping from the graveyard over and over again though and not hardcasting much of anything so this likely won't see much play.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Illusionist's Stratagem - +1 mana over Displace for a cantrip. The cantrip probably isn't worth it at this point, as 4-mana starts to get quite pricy.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Mechanized Production - Way too slow and vulnerable for EDH. I wouldn't play this even if Phyrexian Metamorph or Sculpting Steel didn't exist, but the fact that those two cards do exist means this card is straight unplayable. It will be funny if you ever win the game with this (note that your 8+ copies of the artifact do not have to be whatever you enchanted, all the card cares about is if you have 8+ copies of any artifact) but shigs and tiggles don't make you more playable.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Metallic Rebuke - Mana Leak is not bad if you're in a tight meta where mana curves are lower and people often won't have 3 open to pay for their spell. However, you need to improvise for at least 1 before it becomes mana leak and only for 2 does it actually become better, meaning this is not a great early play, and being a great early play is the exact reason why mana leak was so good.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Quicksmith Spy - Maybe it has an infinite combo with something?
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Reverse Engineer - If you improvise for 1 it becomes Concentrate, though you really want to improvise for 3 before you really want to consider playing this. Improvising for only two means it's still generally worse than Thirst for Knowledge, the standard 3-mana draw-three spell for artifact decks.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Skyship Bandit - Literally Thrummingbird except it's a 2/1 instead of a 1/1. The extra point of power has some uses, mostly in being able to trade with 2 toughness creatures, but if your deck doesn't want Thrummingbird, it very likely doesn't want this either.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*****Trophy Mage - Obvious brother (or sister in this case) to Trinket Mage and Treasure Mage, two cards that see massive amounts of play. There are tons of 3-mana artifacts to get, such as Ashnod's Altar, Mimic Vat, Sword of X and Y, many mana rocks, Cloudstone Curio, and the list goes on. 3-mana is always the fair spot for tutors, especially when it comes with a body. Pick up your foils fast because this will be a staple. Like many of these 3-mana dudes that tutor for something, Trophy mage won't be broken, but it will become a staple.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Any blue deck with 2+ critical 3-mana artifacts
*****Whir of Invention - It's obviously a Chord of Calling for artifacts. Chord is a 5-star card and this will easily be another 5-star card as well. With Chord, you don't even need to convoke, just tutoring up a creature at instant speed is strong, and the convoke just made it ridiculous. This will be the same thing; you don't need to abuse the improvise part of the card, it's still going to be very good. The only difference is that Chord's convoke cost allowed you to tap green creatures to pay for the triple green, whereas there aren't many blue artifacts you can improvise, meaning you'll often have to pay at least the triple blue. Still, it's going to be strong.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Any blue deck with critical artifacts
GREEN
**Aetherwind Basker - If you want to make an energy deck, you can play a token deck and have this in here to create a bunch of energy quickly. outside of that this card doesn't really do anything.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Aid from the Cowl - This triggers at your end step so you are more likely to get at least one trigger when it resolves (as opposed to triggering at your upkeep), which helps the playability of the card. 5-mana is pretty hefty so you want to be almost all permanents or have some library manipulation.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Maelstrom Wanderer
****Heroic Intervention - Basically it's a super Boros Charm/Simic Charm. If you're blue, you should just play a counterspell instead of this so you can counter whatever would be troubling you, but if you're not blue and you're in green this might be your next best option. It stops most traditional removal spells and sweepers.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Hidden Herbalists - Most creatures that produced mana upon ETB were red or black or made eldrazi tokens, so I guess it's interesting that monogreen finally gets one that does it, albeit with the revolt restriction. Regardless, the types of decks that cared about Priest of Urabrask and similar cards would care about this, and everything else probably won't.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Maulfist Revolutionary - It proliferates only one target, and since it does target it can't get around shroud/protection/etc. for whatever that's worth.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Monstrous Onslaught - If you have a large creature (e.g. Terastodon) this can pick off multiple creatures. Since it checks the value of X as you cast it, you don't get blown out by a removal spell either. Sorcery speed and 5-mana sucks, but if you can kill 2-3 creatures it could be fine.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Peema Aether-Seer - It can generate a lot of energy on its own if you have recursion/blink.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Ridgescale Tusker - Anthems the rest of your team for 5-mana. Sounds fine but you really want to have a +1/+1 counter theme.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Rishkar, Peema Renegade - He's subtle but I see a lot of utility. Basically he makes two of your creatures slightly bigger and into Llanowar Elves, meaning he's fine early on in a creature-heavy deck to help you mana ramp (especially if the two creatures getting the counters can immediately tap), and he's fine later in the game when you want extra power/toughness on the board. In addition, anything with +1/+1 counter synergies like Doubling Season will be good. On top of that, your creatures can produce mana if they have ANY counters on them, including -1/-1 counters, and any counters that were on them before Rishkar ETB'd. You do want to build around him, and play cards that can put +1/+1 counters on a lot of things quickly (e.g. Oath of Ajani, Cathars' Crusade, etc.) but when built around properly he provides a lot of utility for just 3-mana.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Prossh with some changes
***Rishkar's Expertise - One of the most interesting cards in the cycle because it lets you cast a larger variety of spells for free. Consider that Garruk, Primal Hunter was a 5-mana planeswalker who let you draw cards (and would kill himself immediately). 6-mana is a lot, but you get what you pay for, and since you draw a bunch of cards before you cast your free spell, you can certainly end up casting something very sweet.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
MULTICOLOR
**Ajani Unyielding - His abilities are nice, but at 6-mana it's hard to justify. His + ability is similar to Garruk, Caller of Beasts except you pick up all nonland permanent types instead of just creatures, but you only dig 3 cards instead of 5. The -2 is obviously Swords to Plowshares which is an EDH staple but the reason why swords is so good is that it's a 1-mana instant speed card, not a clunky 6-mana walker card. He also doesn't pass the doubling season test. He just seems very ho-hum.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Ajani, Valiant Protector - Intro-level planeswalker is at an intro-level power level.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
???Oath of Ajani - This is a weird card. It wants a lot of creatures in play, but you benefit from having more planeswalkers in the deck for you to cast and get the cost reduction on. I can't think of a deck that wants both. I guess playing the card for just one side of the effect isn't too bad as it's only 2 mana, but if a deck can take advantage of both sides greatly that will help the ceiling of the card. If you play the card primarily for only one side of its effects in a given deck, I'd say it's a 3-4/5ish card, whereas if you can find a deck that wants both effects it's a 4-5/5ish card.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Renegade Rallier - Mini-Sun Titan, even with a restriction, is still solid at just 3-mana. The color restriction is a bit annoying but whatever. Just getting a fetchland back makes it like a Wood Elves type of card, and of course getting back Saffi Eriksdotter or something equally dumb makes this strong value for just 3 mana.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Rogue Refiner - Beefy Elvish Visionary for 1 mana and making it blue-green is okay, but it's not something that I would play over a regular Elvish Visionary. If you're an energy deck then go ahead and play it, but outside of that I probably wouldn't bother.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Spire Patrol - Mini-Frost Titan looks underwhelming. Despite being 2 less mana and with flying, it is 2 colors, and it only taps when it ETBs, and it only affects creatures, and it doesn't have any sort of protection (albeit you probably don't care if a 4-drop with an ETB effect has protection, but still).
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
ARTIFACT
***Cogwork Assembler - 7-mana for its activation is very hefty, so I imagine it'll be used for infinite combos or something as the ability doesn't require tapping. For example, Krark-Clan ironworks + Myr Battlesphere + this card = infinite colorless mana. Of course artifact decks generally don't have problems generating mana (unless they get hit with a sweeper) and so maybe this being a mana dump will make it good, I don't know.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Crackdown Construct - With any ability that requires no cost to activate and isn't a mana ability, you can get an infinite power and toughness artifact creature, and I'm sure there's a lot of things you can do with that. In standard we get Wandering Fumarole for lulz which is funny as hell, and I know there are other things you can do.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Gonti's Aether Heart - Seems not bad if you're focused on generating energy. If you want to play this card with the idea of taking an extra turn, you'll probably be disappointed, as you would be better off just playing Time Warp effects or something.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Heart of Kiran - Simple beatsticks in EDH don't cut it.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Hope of Ghirapur - Legendary version of Xantid Swarm. You need to have this actually connect while Xantid Swarm just needs to attack, and while this does have flying and is only a 1-drop, it's going to be hard for a 1/1 to force through damage, and you need to sacrifice this for the effect, and it only stops noncreature spells. Granted, this does last for a full turn cycle while Xantid Swarm was more like a Grand Abolisher placed on one player for just the rest of the turn. I guess being legendary maybe you can make colorless voltron or something, but I don't know. Xantid Swarm is better when you attack a player with counterspells to help resolve a combo, whereas this is more like a stax piece on the control/storm player, but this is fairly clunky unless you can play it really early and continuously recur it. It is a relatively unique effect so it isn't unplayable, but I wouldn't be excited to test this out.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Inspiring Statuary - Most artifact decks don't have a problem generating mana, especially if this card only helps power out nonartifact spells which an artifact deck won't have a ton of (especially those that cost a lot of mana). Still, it is something to keep your eye on.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Lifecrafter's Bestiary - Essentially it's a bad Glimpse of Nature, but Glimpse of Nature was more like a deck that enabled storm decks/combo and that kind of thing, whereas this is more of a card that just gives all your creature spells "Kicker G, draw a card". Still should be playable in any case. You obviously want a high number of creatures, maybe 30-40 or more, before you should even consider this.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Merchant's Dockhand - It's a hefty mana cost per turn and tapping some artifacts can be annoying, but it is only 1-mana. Doesn't sound exciting but I imagine there are worse things you can play.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Metallic Mimic - If you have a tribal theme this should be fine for just 2-mana, though it's more for weenie decks as I don't think something like Dragon tribal really needs +1/+1 counters on them.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
BANNEDParadox Engine - I'm not even going to spend much time talking about this card. It's going to get banned really fast. I would be shocked if the RC doesn't ban it. Prophet of Kruphix got hammered and it isn't nearly as insane as this. It combos with way too many things, namely a bunch of mana rocks and/or mana dorks + some dumb enabler. Buyback cards like Capsize becomes bounce everything you want. Put something stupid like Think twice under an Isochron Scepter and it draws your deck. There are tons of combos, and none of them are good for the game. Play the crap out of this card and have fun with it until it gets banned.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Probably everything pending budget
*Peacekeeper Colossus - Most vehicles are still not particularly playable as many of them don't do much except beat face. I guess it might be nice in Depala in case you can't use her to crew vehicles for whatever reason.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Planar Bridge - Obvious parallel to Planar Portal right down to the name. Both are artifacts that cost 6 to hardcast, and this one is 8 mana instead of 6 to find your card and only for permanents but you do put it into play immediately (e.g. sneak in Blightsteel Colossus end of turn). These types of cards are fine in big mana decks that need mana sinks.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Scrap Trawler - Artifact recursion for no additional costs at just 3 mana upfront is not bad. There are some restrictions but it is repeatable, and it should do some nice work.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Servo Schematic - Similar to Ichor Wellspring and Mycosynth Wellspring in that they're 2-mana artifacts that do the same thing upon ETB or hitting the graveyard. Here though I think making a 1/1 flier is worse than drawing a card or fetching a basic land to ensure your next land drop.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Treasure Keeper - Similar to Matter Reshaper except you add one mana, remove the colorless requirement, and there are fewer restrictions on the free card you get when it dies (any nonland card that is CMC 3 or less can be cast for free). Seems decent.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Universal Solvent - Decks get another way to deal with problematic permanents that their colors won't allow them to (e.g. black/red vs enchantments), and it's another tool for Trinket Mage, and is another object that can be recurred with Salvaging Station. Unassuming card that most decks won't play because it is overcosted, but if your deck/colors are desperate it should be good, and artifact decks don't really have problems generating the necessary mana.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Walking Ballista - Functions similarly to Triskelion. Interestingly enough if you pay 6 it ETBs with three +1/+1 counters which is the same as Triskelion. The difference is obviously that Triskelion is better for infinite combos as it always ETBs with the counters while cheating this into play doesn't do anything. It's kind of more like Hangarback walker as they are playable artifact creatures with XX costs.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
LAND
***Spire of Industry - Glimmervoid that requires you to pay 1 life to get the colored mana, but it doesn't disappear if you have zero artifacts in play. It's usually worse than Glimmervoid; 1 life isn't much, but they can add up, and it's not that hard to have at least 1 artifact in play if you are the kind of deck that actually wants to play Glimmervoid. Still, artifact decks likely want to play this anyway, and this could be passable in non-artifact decks although there are usually going to be better options.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
Gonna try something a little different for my set review.
Instead of just copying and pasting my review of the cards that match the deck's colors, I'm just going to link to my Progenitus review (which covers all cards I think will be relevant for EDH) and then put the summary in my respective topics.
Why do you list hope tender "MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK"? There are cards magus of the candelabra which is far better. Even a simple Voyaging Satyr is btter. I'd be tapping dat ass in no time but I ain't spendin' my hard earned mana on some draft jank ho.
Hope tender's exert ability gives a decent rate, although it requires that you have Derevi to untap it to get around the exert.
Magus comes down earlier but requires +1 mana to untap two lands (although you can pay more to untap more lands if needed) and satyr only untaps one land (albeit at no mana investment).
I only rated hope tender a 3/5 so it's certainly not an amazing card, but there's enough interest in the card where you could play it.
I put it under "most relevant cards" because it really is among the most relevant from that set that you could play in this shell. The vast majority of cards in any given set will simply not work in this shell, so the fact that this has some semblance of potential is worth mentioning.
I can open it fine too.
Love this deck! Just built it and plays very well, it's my first commander deck after skipping magic for 10 years or so. I wanted something different yet fun and lots of synergy and interaction. It does all that and is still fairly competitive
Couple questions though
Ashnod's Altar - can't seem to work out how best to use it. Any chance of a couple examples besides luckily drawing it with karmic guide and rev?
How do I get birthing pod out quicker (other than whir) or back from the graveyard? It really is a cornerstone
And any chance of doing a next level for it - say a $100 upgrade?
Ashnod's altar - Trophy mage and Whir of Invention can find it. A couple of cards will mill yourself (such as Satyr Wayfinder) and then you have a couple of recursion options.
On a $100 budget, you don't have too many options in straight up tutors. Even Fabricate is $3-4.
If you want more graveyard recursion for artifacts though, there are a good number of options, white is really good at recurring artifacts (and some can also recur enchantments if needed), and there are plenty of green cards that just straight up get any card back to your hand. Argivian Find is the most efficient. Trusty Packbeast is an ETB and can be recurred with Sun Titan and Reveillark. Restoration Specialist can get both an artifact + enchantment, and again passes Sun Titan and Reveillark.
Regrowth is excellent, and actually I'm not sure why I don't have it in my deck... Most of green's creatures that do graveyard recursion usually only get lands or creatures though (ewitness is an exception which is partially why it's so expensive), so you'd have to go to instant/sorcery cards to get artifacts back. Those are also high CMC and high impact cards (e.g. Wildest Dreams, Seasons Past, etc.), but they will do the job.
As for a budget increase to $200, I don't have enough time to really explore that, but once you hit $200 you can start adding some more $3-10 staples. For example Gilded Lotus is a nice thing to untap. Green Sun's Zenith. Or you can throw out the weakest lands and start replacing them with more decent duals. Basically if it improves your mana base, or is an efficient ETB creature, or tutors, or good synergy with untapping, it's in consideration.
WHO IS DEREVI, EMPYRIAL TACTICIAN? WHY PLAY THIS COMMANDER?
At least I'm not as bad at photoshop as the folks at Officialquiz.com.
So what did Derevi do? She was arguably the biggest mistake of the five. But we'll break her down slowly.
3-mana is a nice cost, because it can come down early and gives you access to three colors. You can combine her with plenty of 1-mana dorks to get her out on turn 2 if needed, though 99% of the time you're not even hardcasting her.
Flying is always a powerful ability, and is especially relevant when combined with her next ability.
She has the marquee parameters of a powerful card. She has a relevant ability (basically Twiddle) when she enters the battlefield, meaning she has an immediate impact on the board even if she gets killed quickly. Don't underestimate the effect of twiddle. Have you ever untapped Arcanis the Omnipotent or tapped down an opponent's Grim Monolith? Or the more common example is tapping down a key creature before it attacks (e.g. Zur the Enchanter) to timewalk that player and buy you a free turn, or tapping down a blocker to get creatures in for damage, and the list goes on. Next, she also has a long, lasting effect on the game; as long as she's in play, all of your creatures will give free Twiddles whenever they deal combat damage to an opponent. Coupled with her flying also makes this synergistic as it makes it easier for Derevi herself to get in and land a trigger.
This tends to lend her towards playing a type of stax build, since you can play, say, Winter Orb and tap down opponents' lands and permanents and keep everything locked up while you peck away at your helpless foes. However, you can do "fairer" things like untap your lands, untap your Arcanis, tap down that Mana Vault, or untap your own Mana Vault, etc.
This is what I was talking about from earlier. You can flash her in, at instant speed, for 4-mana, regardless of how many times she has died. Commander tax is one of the most important aspects of commander. As most decks rely on their commander to do anything, removing the commander from play and increasing the commander tax to make them harder - if not impossible - to get back on the battlefield is one of the most important dynamics of EDH. Circumventing the tax entirely is kind of a problem. You basically don't care at all if she dies on you, as she is a permanent 4-mana instant speed creature with relevant stats and abilities. If you have a sac outlet on hand it becomes even better, as you will have a twiddle effect on hand at nearly all times. As said earlier, being able to flash her in and tap down a key attacker is already powerful on its own, let alone all of the other powerful plays she is capable of.
Derevi is so powerful she had to be banned in 1v1 commander. In multiplayer she is easily one of the most dominant generals in the scene. She is nearly impossible to deal with (especially with the removal of tuck), continuously and easily generates value, and at any time can play a card that can lock you out of the game like Winter Orb.
So why exactly should you play Derevi? Well, if you like winning, she's a good place to start. She's a top tier general.
However, me personally, I don't like winning in conventional ways, at least not in the cutthroat/spike kind of way. If I win, I'm going to do something stupid to make it harder on myself. Stasis? Pfft, plenty of people build Derevi stax, that's no fun. My home is ramping to get a ton of mana out, draw an excessive number of cards, and play value creatures. In fact, the two biggest reasons why I actually decided to make this deck were because of two cards that were recently spoiled that further enabled by durdling tendencies.
Cloudblazer had something to do with it too.
Ironically enough the tutors don't typically fetch out Panharmonicon first (usually you want Birthing Pod first), but your craziest plays usually occur when you have a Panharmonicon out. And Faerie Artisan technically has ETB effects with the tokens it makes, but it can take over a game if an opponent or two relies on a lot of creatures.
I also decided to build the deck with a budget restraint. With Derevi's innately high power level, it would be too easy to get an obscenely powerful deck if you could stuff in all the staples like Sylvan Library and such. Budget builds fuel my desire to slap together decks while also being easy on my wallet. And as with all budget builds, I hope I can inspire other players to create decks on a budget.
With that said, Derevi was chosen mostly for the colors as well as the fact that she is innately powerful, but there are other neat interactions. Let's examine the other bant generals and see why Derevi was chosen.
Angus Mackenzie - Fogging is cool, but Derevi is just more powerful. Angus is too mana intensive.
Arcades Sabboth - Despite being one of the progenitors of the EDH format, he simply isn't playable.
Jenara, Asura of War - Plays out more like a Voltron/control deck.
Phelddagrif - Group hug general.
Rafiq of the Many - Plays out more like a Voltron/aggro deck.
Ragnar - Funny for shigs and tiggles, but he's far too weak.
Roon of the Hidden Realm - The only real contender to helm a bant ETB deck. He obviously has more synergy with ETB creatures than Derevi. However, I chose Derevi because of power level reasons; Roon doesn't have haste nor an immediate impact on the board, making him fragile and a problem if he dies on us. In a deck where most of the creatures are disposable, I did not really want to spend some card slots on protecting him, such as Lightning Greaves. If you play other cards that could also benefit from them (for example, play Brago, King Eternal in the 99) then Roon becomes more appealing. If he can survive a turn, he certainly has the capability to take over a game more than Derevi, but the trick is keeping him alive.
Rubinia Soulsinger - Not a bad option for a control deck, but similar to Roon, she is fragile.
Treva, the Renewer - Easily the worst of the 3-color legendary dragons from invasion + Planar Chaos. Lifegain is so miniscule.
You should play this deck if you...
+ Like playing mostly small-medium sized creatures with ETB effects
+ Like playing on a budget
+ Want to win by looping an infinite combo or gaining massive value out of nowhere
You should not play this deck if you...
- Hate playing creatures
- Want to win by being aggressive and attacking with huge creatures
PERSONAL HISTORY
The allure of EDH to me is the accessibility and the atmosphere of the format. You have an extremely large array of cards to choose from, which can result in many decks with wildly varying themes and power levels, so players are better able to construct the decks they desire. Because of the huge emphasis on politics in a typical EDH game, players who have weaker decks can still compete with players with fine-tuned decks as long as they play their politics correctly. This also reduces the monetary barrier to the format compared to something like legacy or even standard.
I consider myself to be a Timmy and a Johnny with some elements of Spike. The Spike part of me, however, barely shows up if there are no tangible prizes to play for. When there are tangible prizes to play for, I do enjoy getting those prizes. However, during EDH with friends where we play for fun and for pride, the frequency that I win at in EDH doesn't matter as much as how I win.
My EDH decks therefore are not for highly competitive play or for entering actual EDH tournaments; they are constructed based on my personal whims. As the playgroup I hang out with don't have hyper-strong decks (they are good decks but they purposely avoid the extremely powerful cards/interactions), I purposely drop the power level of my decks to around theirs. They are my friends, and as such having everyone in the group split games fairly evenly personally makes me happy too. No one likes losing every single game, and the best way to have your playgroup get annoyed with you is to win an overwhelming amount of games, and I don't want to be the guy to force players to get better or to start playing a certain way.
This doesn't mean my EDH decks cannot be fine-tuned for more aggressive playgroups or have a shot in tournaments. Often it just takes a couple of changes in card choices, or a quick change in the theme/game plan (which then relates to making a bunch of easy card changes). You can also often make power level reductions or cost reductions to the deck as well.
DECK HISTORY
A lot of my decks have dumb ETB value creatures, but none of them focused on that aspect. With the printing of Panharmonicon and Faerie Artisans, I knew that I needed to make a deck that focused on creature ETBs. Combine that with my habit of making budget decks and I decided to take a general with an innately high power level that also helped lend itself towards ETB creatures, and landed on Derevi.
Everytime I resolve a Mulldrifter I'm a happy guy.
DECK LIST
BY CARD TYPE
1 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Creature 35
1 Acidic Slime
1 Angel of Serenity
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Caustic Caterpillar
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Cloudblazer
1 Coiling Oracle
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Eternal Witness
1 Faerie Artisans
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Karmic Guide
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Manglehorn
1 Mistmeadow Witch
1 Mulldrifter
1 Mystic Snake
1 Peregrine Drake
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Reflector Mage
1 Reveillark
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Skullwinder
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Stonecloaker
1 Sun Titan
1 Terastodon
1 Trophy Mage
1 Wood Elves
1 Woodland Bellower
1 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
1 Arcane Denial
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Beast Within
1 Birthing Pod
1 Brainstorm
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Compulsive Research
1 Crystal Shard
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Explore
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Fertile Ground
1 Ghostly Flicker
1 Harrow
1 Market Festival
1 Momentary Blink
1 Mystic Remora
1 Nature's Claim
1 Overgrowth
1 Panharmonicon
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Simic Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Swan Song
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Tragic Arrogance
1 Whir of Invention
Land 37
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Bant Panorama
1 Buried Ruin
1 Canopy Vista
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Exotic Orchard
5 Forest
1 Glacial Fortress
1 High Market
5 Island
1 Krosan Verge
5 Plains
1 Prairie Stream
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Yavimaya Coast
BY CMC
1 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
1 CMC (8)
1 avacyn's pilgrim
1 brainstorm
1 caustic caterpillar
1 mystic remora
1 nature's claim
1 sol ring
1 swan song
1 swords to plowshares
2 CMC (11)
1 arcane denial
1 coiling oracle
1 evolutionary leap
1 explore
1 fertile ground
1 mistmeadow witch
1 momentary blink
1 sakura-tribe elder
1 satyr wayfinder
1 selesnya signet
1 simic signet
3 CMC (21)
1 ashnod's altar
1 beast within
1 commander's sphere
1 compulsive research
1 crystal shard
1 eternal witness
1 farhaven elf
1 fiend hunter
1 ghostly flicker
1 harrow
1 loaming shaman
1 manglehorn
1 overgrowth
1 reclamation sage
1 reflector mage
1 skullwinder
1 stonecloaker
1 trophy mage
1 wood elves
1 whir of invention
1 yisan, the wanderer bard
1 archaeomancer
1 birthing pod
1 clever impersonator
1 fact or fiction
1 faerie artisans
1 llawan, cephalid empress
1 market festival
1 mystic snake
1 panharmonicon
5 CMC (7)
1 acidic slime
1 cloudblazer
1 karmic guide
1 mulldrifter
1 peregrine drake
1 reveillark
1 tragic arrogance
6 CMC (3)
1 deadeye navigator
1 sun titan
1 woodland bellower
7 CMC (2)
1 angel of serenity
1 sphinx of uthuun
8 CMC (1)
1 terastodon
LANDS (37)
5 forest
5 plains
5 island
1 azorius chancery
1 selesnya sanctuary
1 simic growth chamber
1 vivid creek
1 vivid grove
1 vivid meadow
1 command tower
1 seaside citadel
1 yavimaya coast
1 glacial fortress
1 sunpetal grove
1 prairie stream
1 canopy vista
1 thornwood falls
1 temple of the false god
1 krosan verge
1 buried ruin
1 high market
1 evolving wilds
1 terramorphic expanse
1 bant panorama
1 exotic orchard
Current budget - ~$103.62 (using the market price on tcgplayer.com), checked on 03/30/2018
Link:
CARD OPTIONS
* - I mostly run this card for personal preference.
** - Has a nice niche, but can be cut for a different card.
*** - A good value card. You can cut for a different card but I don't recommend it.
**** - A staple. I do not recommend cutting this card.
***** - One of the cornerstones of the deck.
Any cards that are also over 1 dollar will be italicized. Anything that is over 5 dollars will instead be bolded. Anything that is over 10 dollars will be highlighted in color. For cards that are relatively pricy I will list a monetary value where I would likely not play this card if it exceeded that price as it would constrain the deck too much.
CREATURES
1
***Avacyn's Pilgrim - Birds of Paradise is a little pricy, so Pilgrim is playable here. It only makes white, but usually you want your green mana dork to produce something that isn't green to help color fix.
****Caustic Caterpillar - For 3-mana into two separate investments you get a naturalize effect, which is solid on a 1-drop.
2
***Coiling Oracle - Decent, budget ETB value. Sometimes the GU is hard to cast on turn 2, but it's generally better than playing a card that only ramps (e.g. Rampant Growth) or a card that only draws (e.g. Elvish Visionary).
***Mistmeadow Witch - Low-cmc creature that can help reuse ETB effects, albeit at a fairly high mana cost. Flickering out opposing creatures has its uses too, particularly against voltrons. It's a 2-drop that you want to draw late in the game but can throw out early if you have nothing else to do.
****Sakura-Tribe Elder - Staple.
***Satyr Wayfinder - Gives you a head start on filling the graveyard for Sun Titan/Karmic Guide/Reveillark while letting you hit your next land drop (usually).
3
*****Eternal Witness - Staple. Has great base value, and is a cog in one of the infinite combos in the deck. Max Budget: $6
***Farhaven Elf - Budget ramp.
***Fiend Hunter - A little earlygame disruption. Target an opposing commander and they will likely send it back to the command zone unless they can kill the hunter immediately.
***Loaming Shaman - Uninspiring but mandatory graveyard hate.
****Manglehorn - Similar to Reclamation Sage. It only hits artifacts instead of artifacts+enchantments, but making opposing artifacts ETB tapped is hugely annoying in quite a few cases. Mana rocks, Birthing Pod, Oblivion Stone, etc.
****Reclamation Sage - Essentially Fiend Hunter's brother in hacking at early problematic things.
***Reflector Mage - Essentially another copy of Fiend Hunter. It is actually not that bad against the ramp-heavy decks that rely on a key creature to stay in play (e.g. their general), as this will make them unable to recast that creature for a turn regardless of how much mana they have available.
***Skullwinder - Very bad Eternal Witness, but we'll take some redundancy. Occasionally an opponent won't have a graveyard (or a relevant graveyard) and then it's just eternal witness with deathtouch, but sometimes this card can hurt you as much as it helps you.
****Stonecloaker - Fills several niches. One, it lets you bounce back a creature to reuse its ETB, and given that it's flash it can also save a creature from a removal spell. Two, it gives some graveyard hate at instant speed, albeit at a fairly high price.
****Trophy Mage - Finds you a mana boost piece/sac outlet/part of infinite combo (Ashnod's Altar) or a solid card advantage engine (Crystal Shard). That's enough to make it worthwhile, but adding 1-2 more good targets will only increase this card's value too.
***Wood Elves - Budget ramp. Notably weaker than in normal builds as it's nearly impossible to afford the Ravnica shocklands.
***Yisan, the Wanderer Bard - A bit slow and mana intensive, but a good card to untap with Derevi, and tutor effects - even those with restrictions - are always strong.
4
**Archaeomancer - Passable recursion creature. Goes infinite with ghostly flicker + peregrine drake just like in pauper (before drake got banned anyway).
*****Clever Impersonator - Double up on a big engine, or copy another player's big stuff. Great flexibility. Max Budget: $4
*****Faerie Artisans - It sucks if it gets killed early, but if it lives and there's at least one opponent with a creature-heavy deck, it will singlehandedly win you the game. Even decks that don't have a lot of creatures can give you value out of nowhere (ever had a control deck play a Snapcaster Mage into this and you have something random like Swords to Plowshares in your graveyard?). Max Budget: $5
****Llawan, Cephalid Empress - Blue is one of the best colors in EDH. So how about a little hate on these blue decks? Max Budget: $3
****Mystic Snake - 4-mana for a counterspell is a bit heavy, but it's the best one for a creature-heavy build.
5
**Acidic Slime - Slime has lost a lot of its luster ever since Reclamation Sage was printed, but being able to nuke a land is not irrelevant.
****Cloudblazer - Generally inferior to Mulldrifter, but few things beat that fish elemental in durdling.
*****Karmic Guide - See Reveillark. Max Budget: $8
*****Mulldrifter - If you're a blue-based creature deck, you play this. If I could I would probably just play 40 lands and 60 mulldrifters.
*****Peregrine Drake - Basically only here because it goes infinite with Deadeye Navigator (Palinchron is too expensive to just be a dumb combo piece). However you can "generate" a little mana by untapping lands that add more than 1 mana (e.g. Temple of the False God) and many of the clones/flicker effects in this deck cost less than 5 so you can net a little extra mana if needed. But mostly because loldeadeyenavigator.
*****Reveillark - See Karmic Guide. Max Budget: $8
6
*****Deadeye Navigator - Goes infinite with Peregrine Drake, but honestly anything useful with Deadeye Navigator will end the game quickly. Max Budget: $10
*****Sun Titan - Can't get back Birthing Pod, Panharmonicon, or Faerie Artisans, but it still can get plenty of other nifty things. Max Budget: $6
****Woodland Bellower - Fetches out plenty of toolbox creatures, mostly Eternal witness, but reclamation sage is a good one, etc. It gets hilarious when you have Panharmonicon out (you get two tutors, and each of the tutored creatures get two triggers).
7
****Angel of Serenity - Helps buy time, and also it is not irrelevant that you can target some of your own creatures. Remember that this can also get creature cards in any graveyard as well. It's a very flexible and intricate card with plenty of depth.
***Sphinx of Uthuun - Dumb value creature, but filling the graveyard to help fuel Karmic Guide/Reveillark/Sun Titan/etc. helped this card earn its slot.
8
****Terastodon - One of the heaviest hitters of all time. Most people can survive one Terastodon ETB, but more than that usually locks up the game. Unless there are multiple problematic noncreature permanents, normally your first 3 targets are on the same guy to lock him out, and then you find a way to clone or flicker this to hammer on the others. The 3/3s they get are relevant though if they all attack you, so be careful.
RAMP
*****Sol Ring - Staple. Many of the temporary alliances forged in a standard EDH game are created based on who gets the turn 1 sol rings.
***Explore - Decent ramp card that also cantrips.
**Selesnya Signet, Simic Signet - Some artifact ramp is necessary so an Armageddon or Contamination doesn't immediately beat you. Azorius Signet isn't in here because it's randomly more expensive than the other two. Is it played in Modern Thopter Sword combo or something?
***Thought Vessel - It ramps plus gives you that Spellbook effect.
**Fertile Ground - Not bad to untap with Derevi enchanting this land.
*****Ashnod's Altar - Sac outlet so karmic Guide + Reveillark can go infinite. Can get back with Sun Titan. Can fetch out with the artifact tutors. Great card on its own.
***Commander's Sphere - Flexible, high floor/low ceiling ramp option.
***Harrow - Sacrificing a land can be brutal if the spell gets countered, but most people won't counter it if you play it right. Ramp that can be played at instant speed isn't too bad.
**Overgrowth - Not bad to untap with Derevi enchanting this land.
**Market Festival - Not bad to untap with Derevi enchanting this land.
DRAW/ENGINES
****Brainstorm - High floor, low ceiling. Not as busted in high-budget decks that can play a lot of fetchlands, but we still will take it.
*****Mystic Remora - So efficient and so easy to fly under the radar as it's only 1-mana. It is actually a very relevant card to get back with Sun Titan.
***Momentary Blink - Retriggering an ETB effect and/or dodging a removal spell gives it nice value. The fact that you can flash it back is even better. Another high floor, low ceiling card.
***Evolutionary Leap - Sac outlet and gets you a card. Decent floor card. With Derevi to sac at hand you never run out of fuel.
***Compulsive Research - 3-mana for draw 3 is a solid rate. Pitch an excess land, or maybe pitch a fatty to reanimate with Karmic Guide, etc.
****Ghostly Flicker - Much like in pauper, casting this on Peregrine Drake + another creature that can recur a card from your graveyard (e.g. Eternal Witness) generates infinite mana. However it's still a strong, flexible mid-lategame card. The fact that it can target artifacts is also not irrelevant as it can save a key artifact from getting destroyed, and sometimes flicker a birthing pod.
***Crystal Shard - Bouncing and recasting creatures can slowly generate value. It's usually not as effective as flickering as you need to spend the mana to recast the creature, but being able to target opponents' creatures has its uses. Max Budget: $2
*****Birthing Pod - I have an unhealthy love for this card. It goes into every green deck I make even if I shouldn't. It absolutely takes a game over after a few activations, while giving you immediate value when cast as long as you activate it immediately. Max Budget: $10
****Fact or Fiction - EoT FoF you lose. Digging 5 cards deep while filling up your graveyard are important things to do. Doing it at instant speed is even better.
*****Panharmonicon - As said earlier, this card is one of the major reasons why I built this dumb ETB deck. The only reason why it's not THE best card in the deck is because Birthing Pod is just dumb as hell. The craziest loops outside of the obvious Karmic Guide + Reveillark or Deadeye + Drake, they start with a panharmonicon in play. Max Budget: $10
GRAVEYARD
REMOVAL/SWEEPERS/COUNTERS
****Nature's Claim - 1-mana is so cheap to sneak in without telegraphing anything. The 4 life they gain is irrelevant.
****Swan Song - Hard counters three of the six spell types (enchantment, instant, sorcery, creature, artifact, planeswalker), good for 1 mana. It's a great card to help protect one of your key engines while you try to get it online. The 2/2 flier they get is almost irrelevant, especially since Derevi is a 2/3.
*****Swords to Plowshares - If you're playing white, you play this card.
****Arcane Denial - Underrated counterspell if you have trouble reaching the UU for your straightup Counterspell. Unconditional 2-mana counters are nice to have, and the 2-cards the opponent draws is almost always worth less than the spell you just countered, and as an added bonus this replaces itself.
*****Beast Within - If you're playing green, you play this card.
****Tragic Arrogance - A sweeper that IMO is underplayed. It's not good in some cases, but in many cases it is a blowout, since you choose what everyone keeps.
TUTORS
****Whir of Invention - Essentially another fabricate that can be cast at instant speed, albeit your cost has to be done in one chunk. You normally won't improvise for very much as most of the artifacts in the deck are mana rocks anyway, but still, tutors are powerful, and you're usually only finding a 4-drop anyway (Pod and Panharmonicon are 4, and Altar is 3).
LANDS
*****Command Tower - Ayy lmao.
****Canopy Vista, Prairie Stream - Played mostly because of their interaction with Krosan Verge, but they are not bad on their own. Canopy Vista in particular is fetchable off Wood Elves. Max Budget: $3
****Azorius Chancery, Selesnya Sanctuary, Simic Growth Chamber - These are actually legit. They're card advantage on lands. They're vulnerable to strip mine and the like, but there will always be better targets on the table, usually controlled by other players. They're a bit slow for cutthroat, but in budget and in casual these are very playable. Also good to untap with Peregrine Drake or Derevi.
****Seaside Citadel - Worth playing, budget or not.
****Yavimaya Coast - Of the bant painlands, this is the only one budget enough to play here (thanks Modern Eldrazi for making Brushland out of budget for this, and... I don't know why Adarkar Waste is so expensive). We will happily play it.
***Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, Bant Panorama - Budget fetches. The Panorama is a little better because it can tap for colorless without cracking it.
***Vivid Meadow, Vivid Creek, vivid Grove - Decent for budget.
***Glacial Fortress, Sunpetal Grove - Decent. Hinterland Harbor isn't here because there's been less printings and so it's a few bucks more right now.
*Thornwood Falls - Going deep on color fixing.
***Exotic Orchard - Usually will tap for at least 2 of the bant colors, so that's okay.
***Temple of the False God - Not bad to untap with Derevi, and is general mana ramp. The deck has a good number of lands so the restriction isn't that bad.
****Krosan Verge- Ramp and color fixing on lands is very strong.
****High Market - Sac outlets are very important. Being on a land makes it difficult to interact with. Max Budget: $4
***Buried Ruin - Many of the key engines of the decks are artifacts, so a way to recur them on a land is nice.
5 Plains
5 Island
5 Forest
OTHER OPTIONS
ROON COMMANDER
- You would need more mana ramp, as Roon is more mana intensive.
- You would need protection, such as Lightning Greaves.
- You don't need as many engine cards, because Roon acts as a powerful engine.
If you want to adapt this type of style, you can add in cards that benefit from these things, such as Brago. Lightning greaves is nice on both Roon and Brago, meaning Greaves has more value even if Roon can't actually stay in play (e.g. he keeps getting countered). And if you want to play Brago, play things like Thran Dynamo and Mana Vault that care about being blinked. Since protecting Roon is important, it's worth playing a cheap tutor like Open the Armory to find your greaves.
Example changes for a Roon build
+ Lightning Greaves
+ Swiftfoot Boots
+ Brago, King Eternal
+ Thran Dynamo
+ Mana Vault
+ Open the Armory
Remove some of the weaker draw/engine cards to accomodate the changes, as now Roon gives you permanent access to a slow but powerful card advantage engine (try not to remove lands/ramp as again, Roon is slower and more mana intensive). Since Roon only can flicker one creature a turn, you don't need millions of creatures so you don't have to play something like Wood Elves, but you do want at least 1-2 good targets out so your Roon is actually flickering something useful. Also, Roon being able to flicker an opponent's creature is not irrelevant either, and can add a little bit of disruption.
FLASH FOCUS
- You would need cards that give you flash, such as Leyline of Anticipation.
- You would need more counterspells and other cards that are naturally instants/flash in case Leyline of Anticipation/friends can't stick.
Example changes for a flash build
+ Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
+ Ephara, God of the Polis
+ Yeva, Nature's Herald
+ Commandeer
+ Misdirection
+ Foil
If you don't play budget, Seedborn Muse makes this disgusting. Remove the weaker engine cards. You can cut 1-2 ramp cards and the weaker ETB creatures like Elvish Visionary.
STAX FOCUS
- You would need more mana dorks and low CMC creatures, since getting Derevi out quickly is actually important to your strategy. More small dudes also means more triggers when they land their hits if Derevi is out.
- You would need to cut many of the high CMC cards as you won't have the mana out to cast them.
Example changes
+ A few more mana dorks with at least 1 power
+ Winter Orb/Static Orb
+ Various hatebears/hateogres like Aven Mindcensor, Kataki, War's Wage, and Hokori, Dust Drinker
Your curve usually stops at ~6, so things like Terastodon and Sphinx of Uthuun will have to get axed. Anything more than 6+ mana basically has to end the game on the spot.
DIDN'T PAN OUT
Cataclysmic Gearhulk - Sweepers are nice, but since the deck wins with infinite combos, usually you don't care that much about a cluttered board, rather you care about certain problematic cards that hinder you from going infinite (e.g. Torpor orb).
Chord of Calling - Too expensive.
Cyclonic Rift - Too expensive.
Aura Shards - Too expensive.
Whitemane Lion - 2-cmc bounce effect is nice to let you reuse a creature's ETB, but since you still have to cast them again, it's not as strong as other engines.
Cultivate, Kodama's Reach - These are surprisingly expensive for commons (like $1.50), which is too much for just basic ramp, even if they are good ramp. They'll need another reprint to drop their price.
Rhystic Study - Another expensive card, around $4. Strong, but didn't support any of the synergies of the deck, so I decided to allocate the budget elsewhere. May find its way back in the deck, but it really needs a reprint.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Sweet to get back with Reveillark, but the deck doesn't actually have that many creatures with high power. Most of the time it's only drawing ~3 cards which is not that exciting. For comparison, Mulldrifter draws two, but is 1 mana less and is easier to cast, and can be evoked in a pinch.
Solemn Simulacrum - One of the toughest cuts I've made prior to writing this primer, Solemn is too expensive for its effects. It doesn't ramp hard for its cost, and the card draw upon death is certainly nice, but not something worth >$3.
GENERAL STRATEGY
GENERAL
1) Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake = infinite mana, then slide the Navigator over to something that has a relevant ETB effect.
2) Ashnod's Altar + Karmic Guide + Reveillark = infinite colorless mana. Usually you want something relevant in the graveyard to get back so you can loop that card's ETB effect.
3) Ghostly Flicker targeting Peregrine Drake + Eternal Witness/Skullwinder = Infinite mana, then ghostly flicker Ewit/Skullwinder + another creature with a relevant ETB effect.
Of course, the deck has plenty of engines and can win without going infinite. Blink/reanimate Terastodon 2-3 times and that usually cleans up the game. If a Panharmonicon sticks you will pretty easily out-value the entire table without going infinite. However these combos clean up the game the fastest and often will cause your opponents to scoop if they don't immediately have an answer.
MULLIGANS
EARLYGAME
MIDGAME
Your best engines are by far Birthing Pod, Panharmonicon, Ashnod's Altar, and Aura Shards. Landing any one of these powers you ahead quickly. Pod/Panharmonicon generate insane value, Altar gives you insane mana production and tons of Derevi tricks, and Shards slows everyone else down significantly as many players rely on artifacts and/or enchantments to do big plays. Normally you don't play Pod/Panharmonicon/Shards unless you can generate immediate value (like immediately playing a creature, or immediately sacrificing something to the pod) or if you can protect it with cheap countermagic, but sometimes you'll have to throw them out and hope for the best; you can't sandbag your cards all game. This is especially true if you fall behind on the board, as you have to take chances, plus if you're behind your things are less likely to get targeted. If you're ahead, don't overextend unless you have some backup plan/protection.
LATEGAME
USEFUL INTERACTIONS/COMMON LINES OF PLAY
Because of this interaction with pod and Derevi as basically free fodder as a 3-drop, the 4-drop slot in general has some key cards. Notably, Faerie Artisan is an extremely powerful engine (if you can get Pod + Impersonator copying pod + Faerie Artisans, you set yourself up incredibly well) while Llawan helps slow down blue decks that rely on their general.
As said earlier, Peregrine Drake untapping lands that produce more than 1 mana is not irrelevant. And as said earlier, most of the clone/flicker effects cost less than 5 mana, meaning copying drake or flickering/copying the ETB trigger produces mana too. Sometimes you can do a backbreaking play 1-2 turns earlier than normal because of that. For example, at just 5 normal lands, play Drake -> play Momentary blink targeting drake, tap your three untapped lands before untapping all 5, you now have 8 mana -> Terastodon.
COUNTERS TO DEREVI/THIS BUILD
The deck can be slow, so you can have trouble fending off a very fast deck, or if multiple people gang up on you.
CHANGELOGS
3/30/18
Felidar Guardian
Caustic Caterpillar
Trophy Mage
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Evolutionary Leap
Manglehorn
Tragic Arrogance
Archaeomancer
Fabricate
Aethersnipe
Imprisoned in the Moon
Chord of Calling
Aura Shards
Cyclonic Rift
Fabricate and Chord of Calling were budget cuts, Chord in particular. Trophy mage was a simple swap with Fabricate; typically Fabricate got you pod or panharmonicon, but mage can get you ashnod's altar and crystal shard which is fine. Chord however was an extremely tough cut. The instant speed let you do so many tricks, but ultimately it was just too expensive. Yisan helps fill that tutor role, albeit it is obviously much slower and more limited, but it is repeatable at least.
Aethersnipe and Imprisoned were mostly ineffective, aethersnipe in particular. Bouncing nonland permanents is fine, but lack of instant speed really hurt the card. As for imprisoned, stranding generals in play was always cool, but being unable to hit artifacts or enchantments hurt this card's floor, particularly when this deck has a glaring weakness to things like Humility and Torpor Orb.
Aura Shards could easily take over a game on its own, but it's exceeded $12 and it's too difficult to fit in the budget anymore. Manglehorn is a super budget replacement.
Cyclonic Rift also could singlehandedly win you a game, but exceeded $10 at some point. Tragic Arrogance will replace it as a sweeper.
01/20/17
V 1.0
SET REVIEWS
Aether Revolt
Amonkhet
Hour of Devastation
Commander 2017
Ixalan
Rivals of Ixalan
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Restoration Specialist
Baral, Chief of Compliance
Baral's Expertise
Disallow
Trophy Mage
Whir of Invention
Heroic Intervention
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
Paradox Engine (will likely get banned)
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
Restoration Specialist
Baral's Expertise
Disallow
Trophy Mage
Whir of Invention
Paradox Engine
Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
WHITE
*Call for Unity - Play Cathars' Crusade instead.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Consulate Crackdown - It's similar to Vandalblast in that it hits all artifacts except yours. Comparable to many other artifact sweepers in general as well, such as Creeping Corrosion. Of course this has its ups and downs; exiling is useful as many artifact decks have graveyard recursion, but the artifacts all come back once this is removed.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Exquisite Archangel - Similar to Resolute Archangel, where they're 7-mana angels that alter your life total in a noticeable way. Personally this doesn't impress me, as most of the time you lose because of an infinite combo which doesn't care about something that lets you restart your life total.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Felidar Guardian - Similar to Restoration Angel, but blinking any permanent you control (other than itself) instead of non-angel creature can lead to some hilarious things (e.g. he goes infinite with Saheeli Rai so we get splinter twin combo T4 kills in standard lulz). The lack of flash and the lower stats (lower power, no flying) are notable drawbacks, but there are nice interactions with being able to blink the things that restoration angel can't get (e.g. blink a mana rock), and being a little easier on the wallet is nice too.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Derevi
****Restoration Specialist - For essentially 1WW you recur an artifact plus enchantment, which actually is quite strong. Most creatures only do one or the other. As an extra bonus you get to decide when to pull the "trigger".
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Various white decks, preferably with creature recursion
***Sram, Senior Edificer - Vehicles are still not that playable in EDH, so it's just drawing cards off your aura and equipment spells, which is still not bad for voltron decks. It's a similar card to Kor Spiritdancer and Puresteel Paladin - 2-mana dudes that help draw cards in your voltron decks. It should slot in decently in said voltron decks or possibly be a monowhite voltron general.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Sram's Expertise - Making a bunch of 1/1s is whatever at 4-mana, so you really want to be cheating in something cool, and you still have to care about the tokens.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
BLUE
*Aethertide Whale - Generates a lot of energy upon ETB but does nothing much besides that.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Baral, Chief of Compliance - Goblin Electromancer with upside and only one color will be quite sick. Obviously for spellslinger decks, but it will be an automatic include in them. The second ability might make it also playable in a control/counterspell control deck as the loot ability is nice too.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Baral's Expertise - One of the best in the cycle, as it affects the board in a meaningful and flexible way while also giving a free spell, which helps make this slot into a lot of different blue decks as a decent value/tempo card. Being able to bounce artifacts is also very relevant. Bounce three threats and cheat in a Rhystic Study or Jace isn't too bad.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Disallow - Voidslime for 1UU instead of GUU will see good amounts of play. Having flexible counterspells is always nice to have. It won't be a broken card but it will be solid.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: most blue decks
*Efficient Construction - It's unfortunate this isn't an artifact itself, but regardless it's a slow but fair way to slowly pump out artifacts. Most artifact combos are just looping from the graveyard over and over again though and not hardcasting much of anything so this likely won't see much play.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Illusionist's Stratagem - +1 mana over Displace for a cantrip. The cantrip probably isn't worth it at this point, as 4-mana starts to get quite pricy.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Mechanized Production - Way too slow and vulnerable for EDH. I wouldn't play this even if Phyrexian Metamorph or Sculpting Steel didn't exist, but the fact that those two cards do exist means this card is straight unplayable. It will be funny if you ever win the game with this (note that your 8+ copies of the artifact do not have to be whatever you enchanted, all the card cares about is if you have 8+ copies of any artifact) but shigs and tiggles don't make you more playable.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Metallic Rebuke - Mana Leak is not bad if you're in a tight meta where mana curves are lower and people often won't have 3 open to pay for their spell. However, you need to improvise for at least 1 before it becomes mana leak and only for 2 does it actually become better, meaning this is not a great early play, and being a great early play is the exact reason why mana leak was so good.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Quicksmith Spy - Maybe it has an infinite combo with something?
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Reverse Engineer - If you improvise for 1 it becomes Concentrate, though you really want to improvise for 3 before you really want to consider playing this. Improvising for only two means it's still generally worse than Thirst for Knowledge, the standard 3-mana draw-three spell for artifact decks.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Skyship Bandit - Literally Thrummingbird except it's a 2/1 instead of a 1/1. The extra point of power has some uses, mostly in being able to trade with 2 toughness creatures, but if your deck doesn't want Thrummingbird, it very likely doesn't want this either.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*****Trophy Mage - Obvious brother (or sister in this case) to Trinket Mage and Treasure Mage, two cards that see massive amounts of play. There are tons of 3-mana artifacts to get, such as Ashnod's Altar, Mimic Vat, Sword of X and Y, many mana rocks, Cloudstone Curio, and the list goes on. 3-mana is always the fair spot for tutors, especially when it comes with a body. Pick up your foils fast because this will be a staple. Like many of these 3-mana dudes that tutor for something, Trophy mage won't be broken, but it will become a staple.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Any blue deck with 2+ critical 3-mana artifacts
*****Whir of Invention - It's obviously a Chord of Calling for artifacts. Chord is a 5-star card and this will easily be another 5-star card as well. With Chord, you don't even need to convoke, just tutoring up a creature at instant speed is strong, and the convoke just made it ridiculous. This will be the same thing; you don't need to abuse the improvise part of the card, it's still going to be very good. The only difference is that Chord's convoke cost allowed you to tap green creatures to pay for the triple green, whereas there aren't many blue artifacts you can improvise, meaning you'll often have to pay at least the triple blue. Still, it's going to be strong.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Any blue deck with critical artifacts
GREEN
**Aetherwind Basker - If you want to make an energy deck, you can play a token deck and have this in here to create a bunch of energy quickly. outside of that this card doesn't really do anything.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Aid from the Cowl - This triggers at your end step so you are more likely to get at least one trigger when it resolves (as opposed to triggering at your upkeep), which helps the playability of the card. 5-mana is pretty hefty so you want to be almost all permanents or have some library manipulation.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Maelstrom Wanderer
****Heroic Intervention - Basically it's a super Boros Charm/Simic Charm. If you're blue, you should just play a counterspell instead of this so you can counter whatever would be troubling you, but if you're not blue and you're in green this might be your next best option. It stops most traditional removal spells and sweepers.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Hidden Herbalists - Most creatures that produced mana upon ETB were red or black or made eldrazi tokens, so I guess it's interesting that monogreen finally gets one that does it, albeit with the revolt restriction. Regardless, the types of decks that cared about Priest of Urabrask and similar cards would care about this, and everything else probably won't.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Maulfist Revolutionary - It proliferates only one target, and since it does target it can't get around shroud/protection/etc. for whatever that's worth.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Monstrous Onslaught - If you have a large creature (e.g. Terastodon) this can pick off multiple creatures. Since it checks the value of X as you cast it, you don't get blown out by a removal spell either. Sorcery speed and 5-mana sucks, but if you can kill 2-3 creatures it could be fine.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Peema Aether-Seer - It can generate a lot of energy on its own if you have recursion/blink.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Ridgescale Tusker - Anthems the rest of your team for 5-mana. Sounds fine but you really want to have a +1/+1 counter theme.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Rishkar, Peema Renegade - He's subtle but I see a lot of utility. Basically he makes two of your creatures slightly bigger and into Llanowar Elves, meaning he's fine early on in a creature-heavy deck to help you mana ramp (especially if the two creatures getting the counters can immediately tap), and he's fine later in the game when you want extra power/toughness on the board. In addition, anything with +1/+1 counter synergies like Doubling Season will be good. On top of that, your creatures can produce mana if they have ANY counters on them, including -1/-1 counters, and any counters that were on them before Rishkar ETB'd. You do want to build around him, and play cards that can put +1/+1 counters on a lot of things quickly (e.g. Oath of Ajani, Cathars' Crusade, etc.) but when built around properly he provides a lot of utility for just 3-mana.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Prossh with some changes
***Rishkar's Expertise - One of the most interesting cards in the cycle because it lets you cast a larger variety of spells for free. Consider that Garruk, Primal Hunter was a 5-mana planeswalker who let you draw cards (and would kill himself immediately). 6-mana is a lot, but you get what you pay for, and since you draw a bunch of cards before you cast your free spell, you can certainly end up casting something very sweet.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
MULTICOLOR
**Ajani Unyielding - His abilities are nice, but at 6-mana it's hard to justify. His + ability is similar to Garruk, Caller of Beasts except you pick up all nonland permanent types instead of just creatures, but you only dig 3 cards instead of 5. The -2 is obviously Swords to Plowshares which is an EDH staple but the reason why swords is so good is that it's a 1-mana instant speed card, not a clunky 6-mana walker card. He also doesn't pass the doubling season test. He just seems very ho-hum.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Ajani, Valiant Protector - Intro-level planeswalker is at an intro-level power level.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
???Oath of Ajani - This is a weird card. It wants a lot of creatures in play, but you benefit from having more planeswalkers in the deck for you to cast and get the cost reduction on. I can't think of a deck that wants both. I guess playing the card for just one side of the effect isn't too bad as it's only 2 mana, but if a deck can take advantage of both sides greatly that will help the ceiling of the card. If you play the card primarily for only one side of its effects in a given deck, I'd say it's a 3-4/5ish card, whereas if you can find a deck that wants both effects it's a 4-5/5ish card.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Renegade Rallier - Mini-Sun Titan, even with a restriction, is still solid at just 3-mana. The color restriction is a bit annoying but whatever. Just getting a fetchland back makes it like a Wood Elves type of card, and of course getting back Saffi Eriksdotter or something equally dumb makes this strong value for just 3 mana.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Rogue Refiner - Beefy Elvish Visionary for 1 mana and making it blue-green is okay, but it's not something that I would play over a regular Elvish Visionary. If you're an energy deck then go ahead and play it, but outside of that I probably wouldn't bother.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Spire Patrol - Mini-Frost Titan looks underwhelming. Despite being 2 less mana and with flying, it is 2 colors, and it only taps when it ETBs, and it only affects creatures, and it doesn't have any sort of protection (albeit you probably don't care if a 4-drop with an ETB effect has protection, but still).
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
ARTIFACT
***Cogwork Assembler - 7-mana for its activation is very hefty, so I imagine it'll be used for infinite combos or something as the ability doesn't require tapping. For example, Krark-Clan ironworks + Myr Battlesphere + this card = infinite colorless mana. Of course artifact decks generally don't have problems generating mana (unless they get hit with a sweeper) and so maybe this being a mana dump will make it good, I don't know.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Crackdown Construct - With any ability that requires no cost to activate and isn't a mana ability, you can get an infinite power and toughness artifact creature, and I'm sure there's a lot of things you can do with that. In standard we get Wandering Fumarole for lulz which is funny as hell, and I know there are other things you can do.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Gonti's Aether Heart - Seems not bad if you're focused on generating energy. If you want to play this card with the idea of taking an extra turn, you'll probably be disappointed, as you would be better off just playing Time Warp effects or something.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Heart of Kiran - Simple beatsticks in EDH don't cut it.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Hope of Ghirapur - Legendary version of Xantid Swarm. You need to have this actually connect while Xantid Swarm just needs to attack, and while this does have flying and is only a 1-drop, it's going to be hard for a 1/1 to force through damage, and you need to sacrifice this for the effect, and it only stops noncreature spells. Granted, this does last for a full turn cycle while Xantid Swarm was more like a Grand Abolisher placed on one player for just the rest of the turn. I guess being legendary maybe you can make colorless voltron or something, but I don't know. Xantid Swarm is better when you attack a player with counterspells to help resolve a combo, whereas this is more like a stax piece on the control/storm player, but this is fairly clunky unless you can play it really early and continuously recur it. It is a relatively unique effect so it isn't unplayable, but I wouldn't be excited to test this out.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Inspiring Statuary - Most artifact decks don't have a problem generating mana, especially if this card only helps power out nonartifact spells which an artifact deck won't have a ton of (especially those that cost a lot of mana). Still, it is something to keep your eye on.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Lifecrafter's Bestiary - Essentially it's a bad Glimpse of Nature, but Glimpse of Nature was more like a deck that enabled storm decks/combo and that kind of thing, whereas this is more of a card that just gives all your creature spells "Kicker G, draw a card". Still should be playable in any case. You obviously want a high number of creatures, maybe 30-40 or more, before you should even consider this.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Merchant's Dockhand - It's a hefty mana cost per turn and tapping some artifacts can be annoying, but it is only 1-mana. Doesn't sound exciting but I imagine there are worse things you can play.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Metallic Mimic - If you have a tribal theme this should be fine for just 2-mana, though it's more for weenie decks as I don't think something like Dragon tribal really needs +1/+1 counters on them.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
BANNEDParadox Engine - I'm not even going to spend much time talking about this card. It's going to get banned really fast. I would be shocked if the RC doesn't ban it. Prophet of Kruphix got hammered and it isn't nearly as insane as this. It combos with way too many things, namely a bunch of mana rocks and/or mana dorks + some dumb enabler. Buyback cards like Capsize becomes bounce everything you want. Put something stupid like Think twice under an Isochron Scepter and it draws your deck. There are tons of combos, and none of them are good for the game. Play the crap out of this card and have fun with it until it gets banned.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Probably everything pending budget
*Peacekeeper Colossus - Most vehicles are still not particularly playable as many of them don't do much except beat face. I guess it might be nice in Depala in case you can't use her to crew vehicles for whatever reason.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Planar Bridge - Obvious parallel to Planar Portal right down to the name. Both are artifacts that cost 6 to hardcast, and this one is 8 mana instead of 6 to find your card and only for permanents but you do put it into play immediately (e.g. sneak in Blightsteel Colossus end of turn). These types of cards are fine in big mana decks that need mana sinks.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Renegade Map - I'd rather play Wanderer's Twig or Mycosynth Wellspring if I wanted these cheap artifacts that got me basic lands.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Scrap Trawler - Artifact recursion for no additional costs at just 3 mana upfront is not bad. There are some restrictions but it is repeatable, and it should do some nice work.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Servo Schematic - Similar to Ichor Wellspring and Mycosynth Wellspring in that they're 2-mana artifacts that do the same thing upon ETB or hitting the graveyard. Here though I think making a 1/1 flier is worse than drawing a card or fetching a basic land to ensure your next land drop.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Treasure Keeper - Similar to Matter Reshaper except you add one mana, remove the colorless requirement, and there are fewer restrictions on the free card you get when it dies (any nonland card that is CMC 3 or less can be cast for free). Seems decent.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Universal Solvent - Decks get another way to deal with problematic permanents that their colors won't allow them to (e.g. black/red vs enchantments), and it's another tool for Trinket Mage, and is another object that can be recurred with Salvaging Station. Unassuming card that most decks won't play because it is overcosted, but if your deck/colors are desperate it should be good, and artifact decks don't really have problems generating the necessary mana.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Walking Ballista - Functions similarly to Triskelion. Interestingly enough if you pay 6 it ETBs with three +1/+1 counters which is the same as Triskelion. The difference is obviously that Triskelion is better for infinite combos as it always ETBs with the counters while cheating this into play doesn't do anything. It's kind of more like Hangarback walker as they are playable artifact creatures with XX costs.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
LAND
***Spire of Industry - Glimmervoid that requires you to pay 1 life to get the colored mana, but it doesn't disappear if you have zero artifacts in play. It's usually worse than Glimmervoid; 1 life isn't much, but they can add up, and it's not that hard to have at least 1 artifact in play if you are the kind of deck that actually wants to play Glimmervoid. Still, artifact decks likely want to play this anyway, and this could be passable in non-artifact decks although there are usually going to be better options.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Gonna try something a little different for my set review.
Instead of just copying and pasting my review of the cards that match the deck's colors, I'm just going to link to my Progenitus review (which covers all cards I think will be relevant for EDH) and then put the summary in my respective topics.
Amonkhet
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Anointed Procession
As Foretold
Pull from Tomorrow
Shadow of the Grave
Harsh Mentor
Harvest Season
Manglehorn
Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
Pull from Tomorrow
Manglehorn
Vizier of the Menagerie
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Hour of Revelation
Solemnity
Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign
Razaketh, the Foulblooded
Ramunap Excavator
The Locust God
The Scarab God
The Scorpion god
Mirage Mirror
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign
Hope Tender
Uncage the Menagerie
Mirage Mirror
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Magus comes down earlier but requires +1 mana to untap two lands (although you can pay more to untap more lands if needed) and satyr only untaps one land (albeit at no mana investment).
I only rated hope tender a 3/5 so it's certainly not an amazing card, but there's enough interest in the card where you could play it.
I put it under "most relevant cards" because it really is among the most relevant from that set that you could play in this shell. The vast majority of cards in any given set will simply not work in this shell, so the fact that this has some semblance of potential is worth mentioning.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Kindred Discovery
Kheru Mind-Eater
Patron of the Vein
Izzet Chemister
Kindred Summons
Arahbo, Roar of the World
Edgar Markov
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist
Kess, Dissident mage
Mairsil, the Pretender
Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist
Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
The Ur-Dragon
Hammer of Nazahn
Ramos, Dragon Engine
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
N/A
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Tocatli honor Guard
Arcane Adaptation
Revel in Riches
Captivating Crew
Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun
Hostage Taker
Tishana, Voice of Thunder
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
Prosperous Pirates
Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun
Tishana, Voice of Thunder
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Ravenous Chupacabra
Vona's Hunger
Blood Sun
Tendershoot Dryad
World Shaper
Journey to eternity
Storm the Vault /// Vault of Catlacan
Immortal Sun
Silent Gravestone
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
Riverwise Augur
World Shaper
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
+ Felidar Guardian
+ Caustic Caterpillar
+ Trophy Mage
+ Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
+ Evolutionary Leap
+ Manglehorn
+ Tragic Arrogance
- Archaeomancer
- Fabricate
- Aethersnipe
- Imprisoned in the Moon
- Chord of Calling
- Aura Shards
- Cyclonic Rift
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Love this deck! Just built it and plays very well, it's my first commander deck after skipping magic for 10 years or so. I wanted something different yet fun and lots of synergy and interaction. It does all that and is still fairly competitive
Couple questions though
Ashnod's Altar - can't seem to work out how best to use it. Any chance of a couple examples besides luckily drawing it with karmic guide and rev?
How do I get birthing pod out quicker (other than whir) or back from the graveyard? It really is a cornerstone
And any chance of doing a next level for it - say a $100 upgrade?
Thanks for the great deck!!
On a $100 budget, you don't have too many options in straight up tutors. Even Fabricate is $3-4.
If you want more graveyard recursion for artifacts though, there are a good number of options, white is really good at recurring artifacts (and some can also recur enchantments if needed), and there are plenty of green cards that just straight up get any card back to your hand. Argivian Find is the most efficient. Trusty Packbeast is an ETB and can be recurred with Sun Titan and Reveillark. Restoration Specialist can get both an artifact + enchantment, and again passes Sun Titan and Reveillark.
Regrowth is excellent, and actually I'm not sure why I don't have it in my deck... Most of green's creatures that do graveyard recursion usually only get lands or creatures though (ewitness is an exception which is partially why it's so expensive), so you'd have to go to instant/sorcery cards to get artifacts back. Those are also high CMC and high impact cards (e.g. Wildest Dreams, Seasons Past, etc.), but they will do the job.
As for a budget increase to $200, I don't have enough time to really explore that, but once you hit $200 you can start adding some more $3-10 staples. For example Gilded Lotus is a nice thing to untap. Green Sun's Zenith. Or you can throw out the weakest lands and start replacing them with more decent duals. Basically if it improves your mana base, or is an efficient ETB creature, or tutors, or good synergy with untapping, it's in consideration.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)