It's easy to fulfill the wincon. It's hard to actually get Mortal Combat to trigger. Obligatory theme song.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
The cabal patriarch is an underrated badass with a crappy card. If only he had Mortal Combat's ability on a creature body for his card. Then we'd have some room to brew.
Even though graveyard shenanigans are my middle name, I've never had this card on my acquire list. Win-out-of-nowhere cards like this just seem to be frowned upon in multiplayer. At best, you'd want this in Sidisi, Brood Tyrant with Alchemist's Refuge to flash it in end of turn. See how dirty that is?
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Even though graveyard shenanigans are my middle name, I've never had this card on my acquire list. Win-out-of-nowhere cards like this just seem to be frowned upon in multiplayer. At best, you'd want this in Sidisi, Brood Tyrant with Alchemist's Refuge to flash it in end of turn. See how dirty that is?
If you do that, you'd better have the music ready. Hit play on your phone, tap your mana, and windmill slam that ***** down on the first yell of Mortal Kombat. Then dance.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
The cabal patriarch is an underrated badass with a crappy card. If only he had Mortal Combat's ability on a creature body for his card. Then we'd have some room to brew.
the cabal is actually OK in Endrek Sahr. Only OK, however, even if he does get six bodies to sac, the ability+body is too expensvie. I switched him out for attrition enchantments/better saccers a while ago.
Obvious tech in Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo Defender Tribal decks. Or Doran Walls.dec. It's an unique effect but there really aren't all that many walls you want to attack with anyway, especially if you don't have Assault Formation or Doran, the Siege Tower at the ready to begin with.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Building a defender deck with the intention to attack for a win is a self-defeating premise. I think Stoic Ephemera is about as good as it gets for this strategy and it goes downhill from there. Things like Sunweb and Cinder Wall might seem like bargain attackers at first, but when you take into account the neccessity of activating this or playing Rolling Stones they are really inefficient. Defenders.dec is best run with either a combo kill or Vent Sentinel artillery
I generally like my "walls can attack" cards to be more like Assault Formation since I'm probably playing toughness matters in a wall deck.
The obvious exception is ROE limited, where Vent Sentinel and Overgrown Battlement are actually quite playable, but there, I'm probably going for a^2+ab damage each turn, where a is the number of Vent Sentinels and b is the number of other creatures with defender I control. Or a^2+ab mana, where a is the number of Battlements and blah blah blah, for a giant Eldrazi.
(As an aside, why does Assault Formation not have a Dromoka watermark?)
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I mean, yeah, Doran Walls is where its at for this, as if you build it you need the redundancy. It reminds me that there really should be a R/W defender commander, considering that defender matters is an occasional theme in those colors (or maybe Naya).
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
To put it bluntly, defender is a "double-edged" drawback, contrasting the toughness-attacker cards. Defenders with high attack (and those are few to begin with) literally can't do anything without their enablers while the toughness ones can still just block. On the other hand, Defenders with low attack don't really benefit from their enablers at all whereas those who don't really benefit much from the toughness-attackers generally are still putting in acceptable damage.
Ah, Liliana. Each of the Lilianas seem at least useable somewhere. Vess sees play as a repeatable (if vulnerable) tutor, of the Veil is a modern cornerstone, of the Dark Realms is often seen in Mono-Black builds keeping the swamps coming, and Last Hope...well I'm not too versed in Standard, and in here I occasionally see her in Zombie builds. But now, we're talking about Heretical Healer, the only one who can be a commander.
Heretical Healer is easily flipped through one of the many sacrifice options Black has. Once that condition is fulfilled, it's deceptively easy to build a hand control deck around her. Problem is; people don't like their hands getting meddled with and their attention will soon be aimed at you, even if you may not be the big threat on the table. Shame, really, but she's just not a lot of fun to play against and thus people will punish you for it.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Her ultimate is some pretty serious game if you can play out the long scenario with her. I play her in Meren where she pulls double duty, but I've seen her played as a solid mono black commander. She's certainly a rollplayer for a wide range of decks. Control deck? Discard. Graveyard deck? Reanimation. Token or sacrifice deck? She spits out a zombie and can alternate between discards and reanimating value token generators. Probably my favorite Liliana.
Today's card is one of those really good cards I never run because of the local metagame. Too many people I play with do too much with their graveyards for me to want to enable their shenanigans with discard unless I am going full-on as a discard deck prepared to fully shut down graveyard shenanigans, and full-on discard tends to draw a lot of hate. I'd rather enable my own graveyard shenanigans without enabling others or drawing the potential hate, but that's completely a meta call. If it ever gets to the point in the local metagame that 1/3 of the decks don't include strong graveyard aspects, I will probably run this card.
She makes her way into a number of my decks, just because she's trivially easy to flip and all her abilities are good. A must in black stax I find, she replaces the killed creature then forwards your plan with her discard, maybe getting back a key critter, and in stax it's reasonable to get her ultimate.
Also, nice flavor note, she creates a zombie when she flips, her brother. She can't recur legendaries with her minus, and she couldn't save her brother.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I could put this Liliana into Karador, she can be brought back unlike the others and its easy enough to flip her in that deck, but ultimately while I can still make use of the cards other people discard, I'm wary of opponents who can also do the same so my cautious side prefers targeted discard (not that I use that ability, it's mostly a overcosted Vampiric Tutor that provides a distraction for damage). The deck does has a Legendary subtheme, which is good for tutoring this Liliana as well, but she's selfish and her second ability doesn't contribute to the theme (I understand the flavor behind it), so I have no use for a selfish necromancer not helping with the game plan.
I have a 1-of each planeswalker sub-type among all my decks for flavor reasons, so take that into account before going "Why not both?".
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It's easy to fulfill the wincon. It's hard to actually get Mortal Combat to trigger.
Obligatory theme song.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
The harder part is about managing to protect this until your next turn...
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Marath, Will of the Wild
Friendly Kess Twin Combo
Tatyova - Sir Bounce A Lot
Gonti's Luxury Pie
Prime (Eldrazi) Speaker Zegana (Retired)
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
If you do that, you'd better have the music ready. Hit play on your phone, tap your mana, and windmill slam that ***** down on the first yell of Mortal Kombat. Then dance.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
the cabal is actually OK in Endrek Sahr. Only OK, however, even if he does get six bodies to sac, the ability+body is too expensvie. I switched him out for attrition enchantments/better saccers a while ago.
Obvious tech in Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo Defender Tribal decks. Or Doran Walls.dec. It's an unique effect but there really aren't all that many walls you want to attack with anyway, especially if you don't have Assault Formation or Doran, the Siege Tower at the ready to begin with.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Marath, Will of the Wild
Friendly Kess Twin Combo
Tatyova - Sir Bounce A Lot
Gonti's Luxury Pie
Prime (Eldrazi) Speaker Zegana (Retired)
The obvious exception is ROE limited, where Vent Sentinel and Overgrown Battlement are actually quite playable, but there, I'm probably going for a^2+ab damage each turn, where a is the number of Vent Sentinels and b is the number of other creatures with defender I control. Or a^2+ab mana, where a is the number of Battlements and blah blah blah, for a giant Eldrazi.
(As an aside, why does Assault Formation not have a Dromoka watermark?)
On phasing:
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Current Decks
GTitania midrange
RGThromok tokens/goodstuff | UB Grimgrin zombie tribal
GW Sigarda enchantress | R Godo voltron
U Braids aggro | WR Kalemne punisher
RU Mizzix storm | BUG Mimeoplasm competitive reanimator | UG Ezuri infect
Once I had a ramparts and gargoyles themed deck.
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
Ah, Liliana. Each of the Lilianas seem at least useable somewhere. Vess sees play as a repeatable (if vulnerable) tutor, of the Veil is a modern cornerstone, of the Dark Realms is often seen in Mono-Black builds keeping the swamps coming, and Last Hope...well I'm not too versed in Standard, and in here I occasionally see her in Zombie builds. But now, we're talking about Heretical Healer, the only one who can be a commander.
Heretical Healer is easily flipped through one of the many sacrifice options Black has. Once that condition is fulfilled, it's deceptively easy to build a hand control deck around her. Problem is; people don't like their hands getting meddled with and their attention will soon be aimed at you, even if you may not be the big threat on the table. Shame, really, but she's just not a lot of fun to play against and thus people will punish you for it.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Also, nice flavor note, she creates a zombie when she flips, her brother. She can't recur legendaries with her minus, and she couldn't save her brother.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I have a 1-of each planeswalker sub-type among all my decks for flavor reasons, so take that into account before going "Why not both?".