So, what brand-new cards from the new Commander pre-con decks have you used in a deck and played so far, either as the general or as one of the 99?
And, for those who have played the pre-con decks, how have your experiences been?
I've not played any of the decks themselves yet, but I have started taking some bits and pieces out of some of them to incorporate into decks of my own, either new or existing ones. I'm building a deck with Gahiji, Honored One as a general, but that will probably not be put together for a bit yet. I've incorporated Angel of Finality into my just-completed Mageta the Lion deck, which I played a couple times yesterday, but so far I've never cast it.
So, what brand-new cards from the new Commander pre-con decks have you used in a deck and played so far, either as the general or as one of the 99?
And, for those who have played the pre-con decks, how have your experiences been?
I've not played any of the decks themselves yet, but I have started taking some bits and pieces out of some of them to incorporate into decks of my own, either new or existing ones. I'm building a deck with Gahiji, Honored One as a general, but that will probably not be put together for a bit yet. I've incorporated Angel of Finality into my just-completed Majeta the Lion deck, which I played a couple times yesterday, but so far I've never cast it.
mageta*
I built nekusar and won every game I played with him, so that was cool, also I'm working on a sydri list now that should be pretty fun
Sydri is incredibly versatile and a great "workhorse" general for an Esper list.
Oloro is a decent 1v1 general if only for the lifegain to win close races.
Jeleva is a lot like Kaalia in that she seems to have the potential to be completely busted but is pretty uninspiring in the precon.
Nekusar is awesome.
Derevi is more powerful than (I) anticipated.
The black and blue tempt cards are terrible. Order of Succession is pretty good in the right situation, and in 1v1 can often be a sorcery-flavored Control Magic.
EDIT: Oh, and not that I'm surprised but out of the box all five decks' "curves" are heinously heavy. Like, no plays for four turns bad.
I've played all five precons with my friend -- from a 1v1 perspective, the Jund deck is the most powerful out of the box, and the Grixis deck is by far the weakest because it has a lot of dead cards. I can't tell you how many times I exiled cards with "X" in their casting cost with Jeleva, which is pointless, because that X is going to be 0 with her ability.
Naya was surprisingly good 1v1. There's a lot of synergy with that deck, with the beast tribal and "5 power" mechanics.
The esper deck is decent out of the box, but it has like, NO removal. I think I counted four or five spells that could target and kill creatures, or kill creatures en-masse. Definitely not good enough, especially against the Bant deck, when they have Rubinia Soulsinger out...
I like the Esper deck, but other than the usual lands I cannot think how I want to change things around. I DID add a Master Transmuter. Other than that, I agree with the lack of removal.
EDIT: Oh, and not that I'm surprised but out of the box all five decks' "curves" are heinously heavy. Like, no plays for four turns bad.
Yeah. I was sleeving all five up because some friends are stopping by to play and I was kind of stunned by the sheer number of 6 and 7 drop cards. Curve is way outta wack, but easy to fix.
Haven't actually gotten any of them yet, but I and another guy around here have been running a Marath list for the last couple weeks. He's very good. There have been a few times where I felt like the only thing I needed was access to a bunch of mana and my general. He's just super flexible, definitely the Naya general I've been looking for for a while.
I haven't played with Roon yet, but I've played against him and he's nasty. Very reactive once you get a couple decent creatures down and can play an extraordinarily defensive game between vigilance, the ability to flicker out equipped/enchanted creatures, and the political game of blinking things like your opponents' Acidic Slimes. He was doing a fantastic job of suppressing my Marath list.
Prossh is in the same boat. Haven't played with him, but my buddy has been running a (non-combo) Prossh list and he's very fast. I've been blown out by Prossh into HOmura, Human Ascendant more than once when not holding removal, or when he had haste for Prossh's horde. Throwing down that many creatures at once is pretty beastly.
I'm planning on slapping Angel of Finality into just about every white deck I have, Bane of Progress into a deck or two, and probably Ophiomancer into one deck - possibly two, if it works as a good rattlesnake in the first one. I may put together a Roon or Derevi voltron list as well. I'll have a better sense of this stuff once I test them out, obviously.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
Yeah. I was sleeving all five up because some friends are stopping by to play and I was kind of stunned by the sheer number of 6 and 7 drop cards. Curve is way outta wack, but easy to fix.
Yup. I find myself wanting to put a lot of 2, 3, and 4 BLUE in the decks. All about blue combos and blue this and blue that. Too much blue going in.
From page 3 of the Future of Commander thread because it's worth repeating here:
This is EDH right now:
Blue: Hello, magic players, look at your deck, now back to me, now back at your deck, now back to me. Sadly, its not blue, but if you took out those forests and put in these islands, it could be blue. Look down, back up, what happened? I just drew my entire deck and flashed in that one combo that you hate so much. What’s in your hand? Back at me. You have it, it’s a response to that thing on my board. Look again, your spell is now diamonds! Anything is possible when you play blue! I’m on a merfolk.
Every other color: Why is this even a thing?
As if it wasn't already obvious, Toxic Deluge does some work. It's splashable, gets those hard-to-kill creatures, and it's cheap enough you can still do more stuff in the same turn. It's probably going to go into every B deck I have once it's cheap enough to get extra copies.
I will be building Derevi at some point. He/she is the first Bant general I didn't think was total trash. Just getting staring down a Thrax with a nearly empty board was nuts. Thrax says "attack phase." Thrax attacks, I flash in Derevi, sac her, and then flash her in to block. Thrax gets bigger and bigger and I just play tappity tappity. Being able to sac and block with the same creature is hilarious. If I wanted I could have just tapped him pre-combat but I wanted him to get huge so I could steal him myself.
Derevi is the perfect "does a bunch of stuff with a bunch of stuff" general. Not the normal Play and go Bant.
I threw a half-assed Derevi deck together before FNM last friday, though my deck sucked, Derevi herself (is he/she ? boobs? idunno), was absolute awesomeness!!!, I lost 3 games and had the most fun I have had in a long time. Just the looks on other peoples faces trying to figure out how to get rid of "that annoying Derevi" was priceless.
As if it wasn't already obvious, Toxic Deluge does some work. It's splashable, gets those hard-to-kill creatures, and it's cheap enough you can still do more stuff in the same turn. It's probably going to go into every B deck I have once it's cheap enough to get extra copies.
Toxic Deluge also sneaks underneath Gaddock Teeg.
Prossh has been a lot of fun to build and play, and Ophiomancer seems to pull an impressive amount of weight. Ophiomancer + Dragon Broodmother makes me smile, and Ophiomancer + Warstorm Surge is a freaking chain gun.
I've been playing with Oloro, and have been really impressed. With the rest of the lifegain suite in the deck (Plus some stuff I added to supplement), he really works very hard at making you very difficult to kill with damage. I really enjoy the ability to sit back and grind out incremental advantages.
I've worked on Prossh and Nekusar, Nekusar is quite pricey to make more competitive, so that's been put behind a bit, however Prossh has a lot a good natural synergy. The main issue for me is more less cutting 90% of original cards to up hasters, increase removal for graveyards and non-creature permanents and up the ramp. It's seriously a poor deck design when the green decks run signets over Rampant Growth and the like. Even when not done deck did well, although still lost to a deck that comboed out a turn before I could get a general kill (turn 7). Food Chain is also harder to get now at LGS.
I also play Weiss Schwarz, Chaos, Vanguard and Wixoss.
Weiss Schwarz Sets
Accel World, Angel Beats, Familiar of Zero, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, Guilty Crown, Kill La Kill, Robotics;Notes, Sword Art Online.
Chaos Partners
Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Iona, Kirishima, Kongou.
Dangan Ronpa: Asahina, Togami.
Freezing: Vibration: Chiffon, Satelizer.
Vanguard Clans Favoured
Angel Feather, Dark Irregulars, Genesis, Neonecter, Pale Moon, Shadow Paladins, Tachikaze.
Haven't got the decks yet, but ordered some cards. Mostly the more group huggy ones for Phelddagrif, but Price of Knowledge will be making its way into my Seizan deck.
And, for those who have played the pre-con decks, how have your experiences been?
I've not played any of the decks themselves yet, but I have started taking some bits and pieces out of some of them to incorporate into decks of my own, either new or existing ones. I'm building a deck with Gahiji, Honored One as a general, but that will probably not be put together for a bit yet. I've incorporated Angel of Finality into my just-completed Mageta the Lion deck, which I played a couple times yesterday, but so far I've never cast it.
mageta*
I built nekusar and won every game I played with him, so that was cool, also I'm working on a sydri list now that should be pretty fun
Sig and Avatar Credit: Heroes of the Plane Studios
Oloro is a decent 1v1 general if only for the lifegain to win close races.
Jeleva is a lot like Kaalia in that she seems to have the potential to be completely busted but is pretty uninspiring in the precon.
Nekusar is awesome.
Derevi is more powerful than (I) anticipated.
The black and blue tempt cards are terrible.
Order of Succession is pretty good in the right situation, and in 1v1 can often be a sorcery-flavored Control Magic.
EDIT: Oh, and not that I'm surprised but out of the box all five decks' "curves" are heinously heavy. Like, no plays for four turns bad.
GWB Junk Stax Ghave BWG
I'm currently debating whether or not to replace Awakening Zone in my Doran deck with Ophiomancer, or finding room for both.
GWUBRDraft my Old Border Nostalgia Cube! and/or The Little Pauper Cube That Could!RBUWG
Modern:WDeath & TaxesW | RUGRUG DelverRUG
Naya was surprisingly good 1v1. There's a lot of synergy with that deck, with the beast tribal and "5 power" mechanics.
The esper deck is decent out of the box, but it has like, NO removal. I think I counted four or five spells that could target and kill creatures, or kill creatures en-masse. Definitely not good enough, especially against the Bant deck, when they have Rubinia Soulsinger out...
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Yeah. I was sleeving all five up because some friends are stopping by to play and I was kind of stunned by the sheer number of 6 and 7 drop cards. Curve is way outta wack, but easy to fix.
I haven't played with Roon yet, but I've played against him and he's nasty. Very reactive once you get a couple decent creatures down and can play an extraordinarily defensive game between vigilance, the ability to flicker out equipped/enchanted creatures, and the political game of blinking things like your opponents' Acidic Slimes. He was doing a fantastic job of suppressing my Marath list.
Prossh is in the same boat. Haven't played with him, but my buddy has been running a (non-combo) Prossh list and he's very fast. I've been blown out by Prossh into HOmura, Human Ascendant more than once when not holding removal, or when he had haste for Prossh's horde. Throwing down that many creatures at once is pretty beastly.
I'm planning on slapping Angel of Finality into just about every white deck I have, Bane of Progress into a deck or two, and probably Ophiomancer into one deck - possibly two, if it works as a good rattlesnake in the first one. I may put together a Roon or Derevi voltron list as well. I'll have a better sense of this stuff once I test them out, obviously.
Yup. I find myself wanting to put a lot of 2, 3, and 4 BLUE in the decks. All about blue combos and blue this and blue that. Too much blue going in.
From page 3 of the Future of Commander thread because it's worth repeating here:
stuff
Derevi is the perfect "does a bunch of stuff with a bunch of stuff" general. Not the normal Play and go Bant.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
..
Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort
Prossh has been a lot of fun to build and play, and Ophiomancer seems to pull an impressive amount of weight. Ophiomancer + Dragon Broodmother makes me smile, and Ophiomancer + Warstorm Surge is a freaking chain gun.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Main Decks
Diaochan, Iroas, God of Victory, Kaalia, Marton, Ulasht, Volrath,
Kaervek, Prossh, Titania
Amusing or Themed
Progenitus
Pauper Guildmages
Azorius Boros Dimir Golgari Gruul Izzet Korozda
Orzhov Rakdos Rix Maadi Selesyna Simic Skarrg Zameck
I also play Weiss Schwarz, Chaos, Vanguard and Wixoss.
Accel World, Angel Beats, Familiar of Zero, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, Guilty Crown, Kill La Kill, Robotics;Notes, Sword Art Online.
Chaos Partners
Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Iona, Kirishima, Kongou.
Dangan Ronpa: Asahina, Togami.
Freezing: Vibration: Chiffon, Satelizer.
Vanguard Clans Favoured
Angel Feather, Dark Irregulars, Genesis, Neonecter, Pale Moon, Shadow Paladins, Tachikaze.
Wixoss - Just trial decks for now!
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Sig Credit: Pegasus Bishop