Hello all its been a long time since I've come to these forums as my friends and I haven't touched an mtg card since my playgroup last had an EDH game 6 months ago, which happened to end in a brawl irl, but i digress. My friendship circle is starting to get back into EDH and as such, so am I. I have all my old decks still and I remember I was building a serious Derevi deck just before my playgroup and I stopped playing. Nevertheless, with everyone building there decks again in full swing I thought I'd rebuild the idea I had just before I stopped playing; A derevi, empyrial tactician deck. I know, I know, "not another one of these threads" you're saying, but honestly you guys have always been helpful over the years and I thought I'd ask for help here. Here's my thought process so far...
The point of this thread was for me to ask this question; what are the key combo pieces / wincons in the above mentioned decks (when built as competitive as possible) that I need to build against? Once I have figured out how each of the aforementioned commanders win primarily then I can build a sort of "anti-meta" deck, designed to let people know they should probably change from that oppressive deck. I know most derevi decks are anti-meta anyway if built as an oppressive version, but I wanted a stronger focus on the whole anti-meta thing. Thanks in advance to anyone who can supply answers as to how each of those commanders win mostly. Bonus points to anyone who can suggest cards that shut down those commanders and their stereotypical ways in which they win.
Looking at that list of opponents, Humility and Torpor Orb will hose a massive cross-section of the meta right off the bat. Hushwing Gryff makes decent third entry into hosing ETBs.
I would recommend some variety of hatebear/haterock fueled control grind to wrench the biggest segment of the meta. A lot of these decks want to kick into their gameplan ASAP and grinding the game down to crawl in the first few turns drastically increases your chances of keeping them off of key pieces.
Exile based spot removal, counterspells, and graveyard hate nails a whole lot of obnoxious combo plays.
Humility will crush your dreams of turning sideways but definitely seconding Torpor Orb.
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EDH RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
Decks that rely heavily on their commander as a combo piece are especially vulnerable to decks that can repeatedly sweep the board clean, especially at instant speed. Think Grave Pact effects or Pestilence effects, with a commander who can synergize with those. If your opponents need to get their commander to stick to the board for a full turn cycle, make them gun-shy.
Also consider commanders that can make your opponents fearful of playing their own commander: Empress Galina in a Merfolk shell backed by abundant counterspells and bounce, and ways to make Islandwalk relevant; Starke of Rath in an artifact-heavy build with ways to reuse him and plenty of Threaten effects; a Mangara of Corondor blink/flash deck; or whatever else can reliably dissuade your opponents from going all-in on their creature-based strategies while you accrue incremental advantage each turn.
Exile based spot removal, counterspells, and graveyard hate nails a whole lot of obnoxious combo plays.
Humility will crush your dreams of turning sideways but definitely seconding Torpor Orb.
im no rules expert, but i think you could definitely engineer situations with timestamps and layers to make your guys bigger than your opponent's.. eg glorious anthem, gideon jura, man-lands and totems..
but just so you know, make sure you brush up on your layers rules interactions and timestamps if you go this route (e.g. what happens if you have an opalescence, a copy enchantment copying said opalescence, and a humility in play)
I'm after an anti-meta commander, who doesn't combo with infinite mana, but simply stops tier 1 decks from doing their thing as much as possible while turning creatures sideways. I have no problem locking the board down though, so winter orb et al. are all in. I did some looking around at tier lists (I know, I know, tiers don't exist) just to get a rough idea of what to build against and prepare for. From what I've gathered, I need to be able to stop the following commanders most of all as these seem to be the most cutthoat at the moment:
Animar, Soul of Elements
Brago, King Eternal
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
General Tazri
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Leovold, Emissary of Trest
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
The Mimeoplasm
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Zur the Enchanter
The point of this thread was for me to ask this question; what are the key combo pieces / wincons in the above mentioned decks (when built as competitive as possible) that I need to build against? Once I have figured out how each of the aforementioned commanders win primarily then I can build a sort of "anti-meta" deck, designed to let people know they should probably change from that oppressive deck. I know most derevi decks are anti-meta anyway if built as an oppressive version, but I wanted a stronger focus on the whole anti-meta thing. Thanks in advance to anyone who can supply answers as to how each of those commanders win mostly. Bonus points to anyone who can suggest cards that shut down those commanders and their stereotypical ways in which they win.
I would recommend some variety of hatebear/haterock fueled control grind to wrench the biggest segment of the meta. A lot of these decks want to kick into their gameplan ASAP and grinding the game down to crawl in the first few turns drastically increases your chances of keeping them off of key pieces.
Most Used (of many dozens) EDH Decks:
Brago, King Eternal - Stax
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - Aggro Combo
Wort, the Raidmother - Spellslinger Swarm Control
Animar, Soul of Elements - Tempo Combo
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - Spellslinger
Exodia the Forbidden One:
Oona, Queen of the Fae - Combowins.dec
Humility will crush your dreams of turning sideways but definitely seconding Torpor Orb.
RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck
RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
Arena Standard
UUUU Tempo, since before it was cool
Various Wx decks running Fountain of Renewal and Day of Glory
Anything I can cram Chaos Wand in to
Also consider commanders that can make your opponents fearful of playing their own commander: Empress Galina in a Merfolk shell backed by abundant counterspells and bounce, and ways to make Islandwalk relevant; Starke of Rath in an artifact-heavy build with ways to reuse him and plenty of Threaten effects; a Mangara of Corondor blink/flash deck; or whatever else can reliably dissuade your opponents from going all-in on their creature-based strategies while you accrue incremental advantage each turn.
im no rules expert, but i think you could definitely engineer situations with timestamps and layers to make your guys bigger than your opponent's.. eg glorious anthem, gideon jura, man-lands and totems..
but just so you know, make sure you brush up on your layers rules interactions and timestamps if you go this route (e.g. what happens if you have an opalescence, a copy enchantment copying said opalescence, and a humility in play)
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom