I've always been interested in Pia Nalaar as a commander. She combines a lot of aspects from mono red decks i've wanted to build, with artifact centric abilities, while at the same time encouraging you to play big creatures and smash face. The thing that really got me into building her now, is the fact that red is gaining access to gold tokens through various means. Curse of Opulence was just printed in c17, plus the upcoming set Ixalan promises more support for gold tokens in mono red. The main goal of the deck is to make artifact tokens through various means, (Myr Turbine, Thopter Assembly stuff like that) then use Pia's ability to sacrifice them and make our big stuff (Inferno Titan) get through for damage. Obviously it needs some cuts so any help would be great, am I missing any mono red or artifact edh staples? Let me know. I don't know for sure I'm going to build this deck but the concept seems fun and I want to see how far I can take it.
The problem I've always had with mono-red is drawing and protection which makes it hard to recover from wrath's and hard to get your big hitters on the field.
I have a pretty good Jaya Ballard, Task Mage Control deck, so I like to think I kinda know how to deal with mono red's limitations
For sure that's my Biggest concern, Finding the balance between big creatures to play and, artifacts to sacrifice to Pia is difficult. I might pull Ulamog but I have not decided yet.
With a list like that, I am tempted to say that you should switch feldon of the third path for pia nalaar as your commander. Pia nalaar really wants a lot of tokens and something enormous to push through and you're not playing the cards that generate the tokens you need. Myr battlesphere would be a prime example of the sort of card you need here. It even gets more obnoxious when you start welding it back in and out. Basically, with such a general, just playing mono red "good stuff" won't get you very far. You need to think a little more in the line of synergy, in my opinion. A card that wouldn't see a lot of play in other decks but would probably do well here is goblin kaboomist. The ability isn't that great, but it damned sure produces an artifact token every turn, which you need and might be more reliable than curse of opulence. Pia and Kiran nalaar is probably another good addition.
If there are a lot of enters the battlefield effects, a good addition would be panharmonicon. I would also look into investigate, myr tokens, and fabricate. These all produce artifact tokens, and many are artifacts you can run in your deck. Precursor golem, perhaps?
With a list like that, I am tempted to say that you should switch feldon of the third path for pia nalaar as your commander. Pia nalaar really wants a lot of tokens and something enormous to push through and you're not playing the cards that generate the tokens you need. Myr battlesphere would be a prime example of the sort of card you need here.
Wait but I'm running Myr Battlesphere? As well as basically every other artifact token producing card I can think of. I understand that in mono red there are better generals than Pia, however the point of this list/post was not to come up with the most competitive mono red list. It was to create a fun Pia list...
I did miss the myr battlesphere but what about pentavus, triskelavus etc.? There are four or five of them and they make a surprising number of evasive attackers. I wasn't trying to create a competitive red list, I just believe that you need more strongly synergistic cards, which is why I made the suggestions I did. In addition to running these, maybe mana echoes to go with them for that explosive push?
I did miss the myr battlesphere but what about pentavus, triskelavus etc.? There are four or five of them and they make a surprising number of evasive attackers. I wasn't trying to create a competitive red list, I just believe that you need more strongly synergistic cards, which is why I made the suggestions I did. In addition to running these, maybe mana echoes to go with them for that explosive push?
Ooh, I did miss the "vuses" thank you. Mana Echoes too is some spicy tech, though I may skip it because it goes infinite with Myr matrix which I generally try to avoid. Now the cuts are gonna be even harder haha
Myr matrix seems far too expensive for what it does. It is a card I would cut. To go infinite with myr matrix and mana echoes takes a huge upfront investment of mana before you have enough to do it. I think it would probably be fine. If you can generate 5+5-1+5-2+5-4+5-5=breaking even (at 13 mana in one turn to break even and then go infinite), then I think you should not be in trouble. However the first time people see that mana echoes go boom, it's going to draw the hate!
I still think this is probably a good deck for panharmonicon. Many of the cards you would like to see have enters the battlefield effects that are even better twice.
I would likewise remove godo, bandit warlord and the equipment package. They just don't seem to be worth what you are trying for. You could maybe keep the usual haste/hexproof/shroud pair but that is all I would keep. The reason I say this is because I see this playing out as a deck where you attack with a bunch of tokens with/without evasion, and then using the general to sacrifice the blocked ones to pump the others, similar to nemata, grove guardian. Equipment packages don't really help this strategy one bit.
Given that your general is trying to produce the evasion, maybe arcane lighthouse is a good addition?
So I made basically all of the changes recommended to me by you. Thank you. In the original deck idea the artifact tokens produced were mainly sacrifice foder for various effects and it didn't even cross my mind that using them as a win con, or in other ways might be viable. While Godo and the equipment package will be missed I think you are correct to want to remove them and it frees up a lot of space. I left in Darksteel Plate and Sword of the Animist along with the Hexproof/Shroud pair. Plate might get cut but sword of the animist works well with Valakut and it's cheap enough to toss on a random myr or thopter even just for one attack. I also added in Skullclamp because I had missed it in my first list and why would I not have it in a token theme deck lol. I also realized I had no artifact removal so I tossed in Vandalblast but I may need more than that, the next on the list would be Viashino Heretic or Shattering Spree. The list is coming along, I still have a few cuts to make, but again thank you.
Vandalblast is a pretty rocking artifact removal spell. However, this deck loves to produce a lot of mana. Maybe by force is the next best option? Or perhaps shattering pulse? Repeatable instant speed removal certainly has its appeal. Viashino heretic I love, but this is a more meta driven call. If you see a ton of high cc artifacts then by all means, please do. However, in this deck, you yourself are the one playing those artifacts. If your meta has the sort of creature theft mine does, it won't end well!
3 Pia Nalaar
Lands (38):
0 Buried Ruin
0 Inventors' Fair
0 Kher Keep
27x Mountain
0 Myriad Landscape
0 Petrified Field
0 Strip Mine
0 Temple of the False God
0 Thespian's Stage
0 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
0 Rouges Passage
0 Arcane Lighthouse
Creatures (26):
0 Hangarback Walker
1 Goblin Welder
2 Myr Retriever
2 Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
3 Junk Diver
3 Burnished Hart
3 Captain Lannery Storm
3 Combat Celebrant
3 Feldon of the Third Path
3 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
3 Magus of the Wheel
3 Scrap Trawler
3 Workshop Assistant
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Purphoros, God of the Forge
4 Anger
5 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
5 Neheb, the Eternal
5 Kuldotha Forgemaster
6 Combustible Gearhulk
6 Inferno Titan
6 Steel Hellkite
6 Thopter Assembly
6 Wurmcoil Engine
6 Runehorn Hellkite
7 Myr Battlesphere
4 Daretti, Scrap Savant
7 Karn Liberated
Artifact (23):
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
2 Swiftfoot Boots
2 Sword of the Animist
2 Mind Stone
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Liquimetal Coating
2 Ichor Wellspring
3 Mimic Vat
3 Hammer of Purphoros
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Darksteel Plate
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Panharmonicon
4 Hedron Archive
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Trading Post
5 Gauntlet of Power
5 Myr Turbine
6 Caged Sun
7 Spine of Ish Sah
Instant (2):
2 Reverberate
3 Chaos Warp
3 Trash for Treasure
3 Wheel of Fortune
4 Disrupt Decorum
5 Reforge the Soul
5 Scrap Mastery
5 Vandalblast
9 Blasphemous Act
Enchantments (6):
1 Curse of Opulence
2 Impact Tremors
3 Blood Moon
4 Sneak Attack
4 Trove of Temptation
4 Mana Echoes
For sure that's my Biggest concern, Finding the balance between big creatures to play and, artifacts to sacrifice to Pia is difficult. I might pull Ulamog but I have not decided yet.
yeah Idk how good she is going to be at the helm but I wanted to try her out.
If there are a lot of enters the battlefield effects, a good addition would be panharmonicon. I would also look into investigate, myr tokens, and fabricate. These all produce artifact tokens, and many are artifacts you can run in your deck. Precursor golem, perhaps?
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
I still think this is probably a good deck for panharmonicon. Many of the cards you would like to see have enters the battlefield effects that are even better twice.
I would likewise remove godo, bandit warlord and the equipment package. They just don't seem to be worth what you are trying for. You could maybe keep the usual haste/hexproof/shroud pair but that is all I would keep. The reason I say this is because I see this playing out as a deck where you attack with a bunch of tokens with/without evasion, and then using the general to sacrifice the blocked ones to pump the others, similar to nemata, grove guardian. Equipment packages don't really help this strategy one bit.
Given that your general is trying to produce the evasion, maybe arcane lighthouse is a good addition?
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Edit: Also what would you think of Manic Vandal as my other form of artifact hate? It interacts really well with Feldon, Mimic Vat, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and Panharmonicon