The inverse of my other thread and what is says on the tin. What commanders out there have caught your interest but you haven't built them just yet due to any number of reasons? Why are you thinking about building them or are at least, interested in them?
In my case, I have three, two of which are not out just yet. My explanations might be a little long, so I'll divide 'em up so people can read what they want.
Mairsil, the Pretender: Mairsil has caught my interest due to his color identity and the nature of his abilities. The fact that he can gain the activated abilities of other creatures through his exiling of them and giving the cage counters sounds pretty sweet. Not to mention that he keeps those abilities, even if he were to return to the field after being taken off of it, basically allowing him to get more and more powerful as the game goes on while being able to pick up where he left off. Not many commanders can do that. Also, he's Grixis, one my favorite color combos in the game and one my favorite Shards from Alara. Despite my liking of the color, I've never been much for spellslinging. Or I should say, I've never found a Grixis commander that made we want to commit to the color to do such a thing. Mairsil is a breath of fresh air to me and I believe could be really fun to play and customize.
Problem: I'm busy working on Edgar Markov right now and just don't have the time to devote to Mairsil. Not to mention Ixalan is coming out with lots of good stuff including new potential commanders, stuff for Edgar and even stuff for Animar! So, I'm really on a budget for the next few weeks in terms of money for cards, due to spreading myself so thin with grabbing new stuff for my existing decks.
Conclusion: I like him, I really do but he's just asking for more than I feel I can give at the moment. Not to mention, I'm not completely sure what direction I want to take Mairsil and due to his level of potential, I feel like I'll really have to sit down and try a lot of different stuff with him before I'm satisfied. With all that time, research, play testing and money I'd have to devote to him, it's just not the Pretender's time right now, sadly.
Admiral Beckett Brass: Another Grixis commander! He's also a pirate, who happens to care about other pirates and the pirates we've been seeing in the spoilers are pretty awesome! Oh, and he steals stuff! Flavor win and nice mechanic that's a departure from my other decks. Honestly, I'm interested in him for many of the same reason a Mairsil: a unique commander with some good colors. Also, I can play this during commander games.
Problem: Right now, we're really waiting to see what comes out! Pirates don't really have that many cards, so, I don't know what I'll have access to and can use for the good admiral. Not too mention that I have a few misgivings about Beckett himself. He requires three Pirates to deal damage to a single player just so that I can steal one non-land permanent. So not only do I have to maintain a certain # of Pirates, I've got to make sure they connect and I'm dependent on what my opponent has played. If I can't make that work, all Beckett amounts to is a basic lord. This is on top of the fact that I've already got a tribal deck, so I kind of feel like I'm treading old ground. I'll be honest, I don't like buying the same cards over again. Many of them will be expensive, as well, like Demonic Tutor and Scalding Tarn. There's also not a lot of Pirates, period. So you see one Admiral Beckett deck, you'll practically have seen them all.
Conclusion: Beckett's caught my attention, definitely. It's just that, I'm getting a vibe that I got from Marchesa, the Black Rose when I played her. Simply put, I felt like I was putting in a lot of effort for relatively little payoff. The mechanics of the deck felt like hoops I had to jump through rather than being something I enjoyed executing. However, everything's up in the air right now with so little of Ixalan spoiled and Rivals of Ixalan being far away. The Pirates might just be of good enough quality to overcome Beckett's shortcomings and make me want to go for it. I'll just have to wait and see, as with so little info I can't see how things will go for commander nor can I see a lot of possibilities for the deck right now. At the very least, however, his ability would make for some chaotic games, what with stealing other people's stuff. Maybe not the most consistent ability but it be good from some laughs!
Gishath, Sun's Avatar: Gishath...impresses the heck out me! A 7/6 with Trample, Vigilance and Haste is not to be laughed at, even if he's 8 mana. Then there's the fact that he cheats out other dinos! He's a straight forward commander but he seems to be in the right colors for what he want to do. It's easy for him to ramp up, to connect to get his trigger, maximize he damage potential, etc. The list goes on. Overall, I can't fault Gishath as commander as much as I did with Beckett due his simple but powerful nature. Not to mention that the dinos revealed so far are highly impressive with major abilities that affect combat and their general.
Problems: We don't have all the dinos yet. And, again, I already have tribal deck. Also, Gishath may get a tad linear. Beckett, at least, has a few shenanigans he can get into just because of his colors with neat interactions Grixis brings. Naya is kind of straightforward in and of, itself, to begin with. Not too mention that there are not a lot of dinos out there, so one Gishath deck will represent most of them.
Conclusion: Gishath is a nice card who I can already see the potential in and what you could add to get the most out of him. You know, the classics: Gisela, Aurelia... He just seems to have a power level (Yep, we're going here!) with appropriate abilities to make him appealing to me. However, I'm worried about longevity of such a deck. Due to his colors, he seems good at what he wants to do: smack face and get out more dinos. I just don't know if that would keep my interest long enough to spring for such a deck, despite how much I like him. He's powerful but very focused, tailored to a new tribe without a lot of cards who are very combat oriented so far, which would narrow the focus of the deck further and I think you've gotten my point. It's just that once this deck is put together, it seems like it would play out the same way almost every time. That's my biggest worry. So while I can't fault Gishath's power when compared to Beckett's, I can wonder if it be even worth in the long run. But we'll see and I'll keep my eyes on it.
The decks that are bouncing around in my head right now are:
Silas Renn, Seeker Adept and Sidar Kondo of Jamurra TurboTrash. Largely inspired by this thread, a moderate control build featuring tons of 0 or 1 mana artifacts and cycling them into and out of the graveyard. I have a 60-card casual deck based on this same theme which is a blast to play, if not especially good. The commanders are probably 85% for their colors and 15% for Silas's aid in recursion/Kondo's ability to help him sneak in for combat damage. Plus, it'll be an excuse to include my favorite "combo" of Avarice Totem and Tel-Jilad Stylus.
Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer, feat. Forced Fruition. Again inspired by this thread and one of my 60-card decks. The idea would be to force the table to draw cards while limiting which of them they can play, and without the crutch of the black and red effects that punish drawing with life loss to hopefully draw less aggro. My plan for this deck is still in massive disarray and a pile of half-baked ideas.
Sapling of Colfenor blows up the world. Even less of an organized plan than the other one, the idea here would be to ramp into silly amounts of mana, drop one of the big green, black, or colorless creatures with indestructible, then use one of black's ever increasing number of board wipes, and keep blowing up all the creatures until I win. Probably not a great idea, but seems like it could be fun.
At some point, I'm going to get around to taking apart my Titania, Protector of Argoth and Nath of the Gilt-Leaf stax decks and using their cards to build a The Gitrog Monster value deck. I don't have a list formed in my head for that either, but I hope it'll be more fun for me than where I'm using the cards now.
Technically, I have three other decks I want to build and have begun doing so: Mirri Weather light Duelist, Tymaret the Murder King, and Jalira Master Polymorphist. Excluding Mirri herself, these decks I bought no cards for as a challenge. Mirri I couldn't find without buying.
To answer the question more accurately, Ruhan of the Fomori. Random commander rampage!
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60 Card Casual Multiplayer: B Dark Ides Life DrainR Rekindle Skies Phoenix TribalWB Veil Oath Tokens BR Brutal Scourge Eldrazi TribalRW Edge Worthy Mid-Range AggroGU Wisp Away Combo GWU Vigorous Flow Energy
Commander / EDH: RFeldon of the Third Path GURashmi, Eternities Crafter RWBMathas, Fiend Hunter GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice
Feldon of the Third Path: The reanimator commander I wanted from C14, except it was the wrong color. I'm still interested on it, but I don't have the cards to make mono red work in EDH. Athreos, God of Passage: One of the few cards that would make me play white in EDH.
Origins Nissa: Because playing Ashaya would piss off a few players in my playgroup.
Edgar knterests me but he is just too bleh.
I dislike vamlires so he is just interesting will .lst likely never see the light of day (whichbis probablybgood thing since he is, ya know, a vampire)
Ramos, Dragon Engine -- Someone pointed out this is the ideal commander for the five-colour charms deck (Grixis Charm et al). It's more the, er, charm of that deck idea than the commander in particular, but he seems fun.
Wasitora, Nekoru Queen -- I've been looking for a commander for a Jund deck I've been building and this might be the one. Random strong creature along the axes I like (evasion, killing stuff) that doesn't distract from the deck's core strategy.
Ashling the Pilgrim -- The one with all the Mountains. What an off-the-wall deck. Did you know you can play the basic (heh) version of the deck without any cards?
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge -- I have it sitting around 'cause I think it looks cool. Would use a lot of other cool cards I have sitting around too. Might lead to some fun choices.
Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury -- I loved that deck in Standard; it'd be interesting to see if it'd work in Commander.
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade -- Nice, simple commander in my favourite colour. Could replace Skithiryx if I ever needed to replace him due to power level.
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave -- Just a cool and clean design. I personally would enjoy the waiter's game of trying to balance all the tokens on the card as I moved it from zone to zone.
Grimgrin, Corpse-born - Zombie tribal. Collected the zombie lords a long time ago for a dimir zombie tribal, but never got around to building the deck.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest - Elf tribal. I wanted to build this, but everyone has an elf tribal. I dunno, it's lost its appeal over time.
Narset, Enlightened Master - Started collecting cards to build this deck back when Narset was released, still haven't finished it.
Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis - Probably the next deck that I'll finish. It's not a classical group hug, it's a political deck that accelerates the game by providing some limited group benefit, but then uses cards like Control Magic etc. to steal the most powerful permanents. I use a similar strategy with Braids, Conjurer Adept, and it works well.
Am currently missing superfriends, artifact and combat centric based decks.
Ramos, Dragon Engine - Superfriends? Wanted Atraxa, Praetors' Voice but planeswalkers with Atraxa has become so commonplace that it kind of puts me off making the deck. Ramos will do fine as a pw commander I think.
Akiri, Line-Slinger + Thrasios, Triton Hero - For my artifact deck. Totally don't know which direction to build so keep putting it off although I already got the commanders. Vehicles, station and module combos are pretty much wanted in the deck.
Saskia the Unyielding - In need of a combat centric deck that can replace my Aurelia as commander since she is so hard to cast. Key feature of deck is need multiple attack steps a turn and play combat tricks such as Cauldron Dance and Wake the Dead, so WBR colors is a must, and I don't want any common mardu combat commanders that most players use (eg. Kaalia and Zurgo). Saskia fits the bill with his double damage ability.
The inverse of my other thread and what is says on the tin. What commanders out there have caught your interest but you haven't built them just yet due to any number of reasons? Why are you thinking about building them or are at least, interested in them?
In my case, I have three, two of which are not out just yet. My explanations might be a little long, so I'll divide 'em up so people can read what they want.
Mairsil, the Pretender: Mairsil has caught my interest due to his color identity and the nature of his abilities. The fact that he can gain the activated abilities of other creatures through his exiling of them and giving the cage counters sounds pretty sweet. Not to mention that he keeps those abilities, even if he were to return to the field after being taken off of it, basically allowing him to get more and more powerful as the game goes on while being able to pick up where he left off. Not many commanders can do that. Also, he's Grixis, one my favorite color combos in the game and one my favorite Shards from Alara. Despite my liking of the color, I've never been much for spellslinging. Or I should say, I've never found a Grixis commander that made we want to commit to the color to do such a thing. Mairsil is a breath of fresh air to me and I believe could be really fun to play and customize.
Problem: I'm busy working on Edgar Markov right now and just don't have the time to devote to Mairsil. Not to mention Ixalan is coming out with lots of good stuff including new potential commanders, stuff for Edgar and even stuff for Animar! So, I'm really on a budget for the next few weeks in terms of money for cards, due to spreading myself so thin with grabbing new stuff for my existing decks.
Conclusion: I like him, I really do but he's just asking for more than I feel I can give at the moment. Not to mention, I'm not completely sure what direction I want to take Mairsil and due to his level of potential, I feel like I'll really have to sit down and try a lot of different stuff with him before I'm satisfied. With all that time, research, play testing and money I'd have to devote to him, it's just not the Pretender's time right now, sadly.
Admiral Beckett Brass: Another Grixis commander! He's also a pirate, who happens to care about other pirates and the pirates we've been seeing in the spoilers are pretty awesome! Oh, and he steals stuff! Flavor win and nice mechanic that's a departure from my other decks. Honestly, I'm interested in him for many of the same reason a Mairsil: a unique commander with some good colors. Also, I can play this during commander games.
Problem: Right now, we're really waiting to see what comes out! Pirates don't really have that many cards, so, I don't know what I'll have access to and can use for the good admiral. Not too mention that I have a few misgivings about Beckett himself. He requires three Pirates to deal damage to a single player just so that I can steal one non-land permanent. So not only do I have to maintain a certain # of Pirates, I've got to make sure they connect and I'm dependent on what my opponent has played. If I can't make that work, all Beckett amounts to is a basic lord. This is on top of the fact that I've already got a tribal deck, so I kind of feel like I'm treading old ground. I'll be honest, I don't like buying the same cards over again. Many of them will be expensive, as well, like Demonic Tutor and Scalding Tarn. There's also not a lot of Pirates, period. So you see one Admiral Beckett deck, you'll practically have seen them all.
Conclusion: Beckett's caught my attention, definitely. It's just that, I'm getting a vibe that I got from Marchesa, the Black Rose when I played her. Simply put, I felt like I was putting in a lot of effort for relatively little payoff. The mechanics of the deck felt like hoops I had to jump through rather than being something I enjoyed executing. However, everything's up in the air right now with so little of Ixalan spoiled and Rivals of Ixalan being far away. The Pirates might just be of good enough quality to overcome Beckett's shortcomings and make me want to go for it. I'll just have to wait and see, as with so little info I can't see how things will go for commander nor can I see a lot of possibilities for the deck right now. At the very least, however, his ability would make for some chaotic games, what with stealing other people's stuff. Maybe not the most consistent ability but it be good from some laughs!
Gishath, Sun's Avatar: Gishath...impresses the heck out me! A 7/6 with Trample, Vigilance and Haste is not to be laughed at, even if he's 8 mana. Then there's the fact that he cheats out other dinos! He's a straight forward commander but he seems to be in the right colors for what he want to do. It's easy for him to ramp up, to connect to get his trigger, maximize he damage potential, etc. The list goes on. Overall, I can't fault Gishath as commander as much as I did with Beckett due his simple but powerful nature. Not to mention that the dinos revealed so far are highly impressive with major abilities that affect combat and their general.
Problems: We don't have all the dinos yet. And, again, I already have tribal deck. Also, Gishath may get a tad linear. Beckett, at least, has a few shenanigans he can get into just because of his colors with neat interactions Grixis brings. Naya is kind of straightforward in and of, itself, to begin with. Not too mention that there are not a lot of dinos out there, so one Gishath deck will represent most of them.
Conclusion: Gishath is a nice card who I can already see the potential in and what you could add to get the most out of him. You know, the classics: Gisela, Aurelia... He just seems to have a power level (Yep, we're going here!) with appropriate abilities to make him appealing to me. However, I'm worried about longevity of such a deck. Due to his colors, he seems good at what he wants to do: smack face and get out more dinos. I just don't know if that would keep my interest long enough to spring for such a deck, despite how much I like him. He's powerful but very focused, tailored to a new tribe without a lot of cards who are very combat oriented so far, which would narrow the focus of the deck further and I think you've gotten my point. It's just that once this deck is put together, it seems like it would play out the same way almost every time. That's my biggest worry. So while I can't fault Gishath's power when compared to Beckett's, I can wonder if it be even worth in the long run. But we'll see and I'll keep my eyes on it.
To answer the thread, I've been trying to build a Grand Arbiter deck for months, but Azorius is just too.... weak at closing out a game in a way that isn't frustrating for people to play against.
The inverse of my other thread and what is says on the tin. What commanders out there have caught your interest but you haven't built them just yet due to any number of reasons? Why are you thinking about building them or are at least, interested in them?
In my case, I have three, two of which are not out just yet. My explanations might be a little long, so I'll divide 'em up so people can read what they want.
Mairsil, the Pretender: Mairsil has caught my interest due to his color identity and the nature of his abilities. The fact that he can gain the activated abilities of other creatures through his exiling of them and giving the cage counters sounds pretty sweet. Not to mention that he keeps those abilities, even if he were to return to the field after being taken off of it, basically allowing him to get more and more powerful as the game goes on while being able to pick up where he left off. Not many commanders can do that. Also, he's Grixis, one my favorite color combos in the game and one my favorite Shards from Alara. Despite my liking of the color, I've never been much for spellslinging. Or I should say, I've never found a Grixis commander that made we want to commit to the color to do such a thing. Mairsil is a breath of fresh air to me and I believe could be really fun to play and customize.
Problem: I'm busy working on Edgar Markov right now and just don't have the time to devote to Mairsil. Not to mention Ixalan is coming out with lots of good stuff including new potential commanders, stuff for Edgar and even stuff for Animar! So, I'm really on a budget for the next few weeks in terms of money for cards, due to spreading myself so thin with grabbing new stuff for my existing decks.
Conclusion: I like him, I really do but he's just asking for more than I feel I can give at the moment. Not to mention, I'm not completely sure what direction I want to take Mairsil and due to his level of potential, I feel like I'll really have to sit down and try a lot of different stuff with him before I'm satisfied. With all that time, research, play testing and money I'd have to devote to him, it's just not the Pretender's time right now, sadly.
Admiral Beckett Brass: Another Grixis commander! He's also a pirate, who happens to care about other pirates and the pirates we've been seeing in the spoilers are pretty awesome! Oh, and he steals stuff! Flavor win and nice mechanic that's a departure from my other decks. Honestly, I'm interested in him for many of the same reason a Mairsil: a unique commander with some good colors. Also, I can play this during commander games.
Problem: Right now, we're really waiting to see what comes out! Pirates don't really have that many cards, so, I don't know what I'll have access to and can use for the good admiral. Not too mention that I have a few misgivings about Beckett himself. He requires three Pirates to deal damage to a single player just so that I can steal one non-land permanent. So not only do I have to maintain a certain # of Pirates, I've got to make sure they connect and I'm dependent on what my opponent has played. If I can't make that work, all Beckett amounts to is a basic lord. This is on top of the fact that I've already got a tribal deck, so I kind of feel like I'm treading old ground. I'll be honest, I don't like buying the same cards over again. Many of them will be expensive, as well, like Demonic Tutor and Scalding Tarn. There's also not a lot of Pirates, period. So you see one Admiral Beckett deck, you'll practically have seen them all.
Conclusion: Beckett's caught my attention, definitely. It's just that, I'm getting a vibe that I got from Marchesa, the Black Rose when I played her. Simply put, I felt like I was putting in a lot of effort for relatively little payoff. The mechanics of the deck felt like hoops I had to jump through rather than being something I enjoyed executing. However, everything's up in the air right now with so little of Ixalan spoiled and Rivals of Ixalan being far away. The Pirates might just be of good enough quality to overcome Beckett's shortcomings and make me want to go for it. I'll just have to wait and see, as with so little info I can't see how things will go for commander nor can I see a lot of possibilities for the deck right now. At the very least, however, his ability would make for some chaotic games, what with stealing other people's stuff. Maybe not the most consistent ability but it be good from some laughs!
Gishath, Sun's Avatar: Gishath...impresses the heck out me! A 7/6 with Trample, Vigilance and Haste is not to be laughed at, even if he's 8 mana. Then there's the fact that he cheats out other dinos! He's a straight forward commander but he seems to be in the right colors for what he want to do. It's easy for him to ramp up, to connect to get his trigger, maximize he damage potential, etc. The list goes on. Overall, I can't fault Gishath as commander as much as I did with Beckett due his simple but powerful nature. Not to mention that the dinos revealed so far are highly impressive with major abilities that affect combat and their general.
Problems: We don't have all the dinos yet. And, again, I already have tribal deck. Also, Gishath may get a tad linear. Beckett, at least, has a few shenanigans he can get into just because of his colors with neat interactions Grixis brings. Naya is kind of straightforward in and of, itself, to begin with. Not too mention that there are not a lot of dinos out there, so one Gishath deck will represent most of them.
Conclusion: Gishath is a nice card who I can already see the potential in and what you could add to get the most out of him. You know, the classics: Gisela, Aurelia... He just seems to have a power level (Yep, we're going here!) with appropriate abilities to make him appealing to me. However, I'm worried about longevity of such a deck. Due to his colors, he seems good at what he wants to do: smack face and get out more dinos. I just don't know if that would keep my interest long enough to spring for such a deck, despite how much I like him. He's powerful but very focused, tailored to a new tribe without a lot of cards who are very combat oriented so far, which would narrow the focus of the deck further and I think you've gotten my point. It's just that once this deck is put together, it seems like it would play out the same way almost every time. That's my biggest worry. So while I can't fault Gishath's power when compared to Beckett's, I can wonder if it be even worth in the long run. But we'll see and I'll keep my eyes on it.
What is coming out for Animar?
Tishana, Voice of Thunder: She's like another Prime Speaker Zegana except she draws us a card for every creature we have in play, grants us no maximum hand size and her P/T is based on how big our hand size is. I won't say she replaces Zegana, but she does offer another way to draw a lot of cards and get big while doing it. In fact, they work well together. Play Tishana and draw some cards. Then play Zegana, draw more cards and get a big Zegana and an even bigger Tishana. There's also the fact that Tishana can be a little easier to cast due to having less mana symbols despite being 1 mana more. To me, this is a grand slam of a card.
Verdant Sun's Avatar: Get life for every creature we play plus the Avatar itself? Yes! Much, yes! This is just a great utility card with how many creatures Animar plays and bounces. It also gives us infinite life with the Deadeye Navigator+Palinchron/Peregrine Drake combo or with Ancestral Statue, making it another combo piece as well. Another very good card.
Herald of Secret Streams: One of things I like to do is make Animar unblockable. It serves as a backup plan if I can't combo off and can be easier to pull off sometimes. However, I only have a few cards that can do this and almost all of them cost mana to activate. This guy makes this a nonissue as Animar will almost always have +1/+1 counter on him. Plus, I run things like Master Biomancer and Ridgescale Tusker, making the Herald a benefit for almost my entire team.
These last two a little iffy, but I can see how they can get some value:
Ripjaw Raptor: The raptor is a nice body for 4 mana, less with Animar. It also is beautiful deterrent as we'll draw from any damage it would take. Not a must have card but still nice for what it does at it's cost.
Burning Sun's Avatar: A weaker Inferno Titan but a decent replacement when trying to go off with the Deadeye+Palinchron combo for infinite damage. My major sticking point however is that RRR in the mana cost. It just makes this a little more expensive then I'd like. The fact that it's still not as good as Inferno Titan, on top of that, means that I don't really know if I'd want to run it. I try to keep my mana symbols low, inless the creature does something power or has a lot of impact. Prime Speaker Zegana, Vigor and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir are examples of cards I consider worth those mana symbols.
I bought the wizards precon (All others were sold out) for an unaltered c17 2HG tourney, ended up being randomly paired with another wizards precon and took the prize home. Kind of fell in love with Kess, dissident mage will brew around her. Dark petition looks tasty, there should be enough looting, tutoring and extra turns and protection for her in her wedge.
In my case, I have three, two of which are not out just yet. My explanations might be a little long, so I'll divide 'em up so people can read what they want.
Problem: I'm busy working on Edgar Markov right now and just don't have the time to devote to Mairsil. Not to mention Ixalan is coming out with lots of good stuff including new potential commanders, stuff for Edgar and even stuff for Animar! So, I'm really on a budget for the next few weeks in terms of money for cards, due to spreading myself so thin with grabbing new stuff for my existing decks.
Conclusion: I like him, I really do but he's just asking for more than I feel I can give at the moment. Not to mention, I'm not completely sure what direction I want to take Mairsil and due to his level of potential, I feel like I'll really have to sit down and try a lot of different stuff with him before I'm satisfied. With all that time, research, play testing and money I'd have to devote to him, it's just not the Pretender's time right now, sadly.
Problem: Right now, we're really waiting to see what comes out! Pirates don't really have that many cards, so, I don't know what I'll have access to and can use for the good admiral. Not too mention that I have a few misgivings about Beckett himself. He requires three Pirates to deal damage to a single player just so that I can steal one non-land permanent. So not only do I have to maintain a certain # of Pirates, I've got to make sure they connect and I'm dependent on what my opponent has played. If I can't make that work, all Beckett amounts to is a basic lord. This is on top of the fact that I've already got a tribal deck, so I kind of feel like I'm treading old ground. I'll be honest, I don't like buying the same cards over again. Many of them will be expensive, as well, like Demonic Tutor and Scalding Tarn. There's also not a lot of Pirates, period. So you see one Admiral Beckett deck, you'll practically have seen them all.
Conclusion: Beckett's caught my attention, definitely. It's just that, I'm getting a vibe that I got from Marchesa, the Black Rose when I played her. Simply put, I felt like I was putting in a lot of effort for relatively little payoff. The mechanics of the deck felt like hoops I had to jump through rather than being something I enjoyed executing. However, everything's up in the air right now with so little of Ixalan spoiled and Rivals of Ixalan being far away. The Pirates might just be of good enough quality to overcome Beckett's shortcomings and make me want to go for it. I'll just have to wait and see, as with so little info I can't see how things will go for commander nor can I see a lot of possibilities for the deck right now. At the very least, however, his ability would make for some chaotic games, what with stealing other people's stuff. Maybe not the most consistent ability but it be good from some laughs!
Problems: We don't have all the dinos yet. And, again, I already have tribal deck. Also, Gishath may get a tad linear. Beckett, at least, has a few shenanigans he can get into just because of his colors with neat interactions Grixis brings. Naya is kind of straightforward in and of, itself, to begin with. Not too mention that there are not a lot of dinos out there, so one Gishath deck will represent most of them.
Conclusion: Gishath is a nice card who I can already see the potential in and what you could add to get the most out of him. You know, the classics: Gisela, Aurelia... He just seems to have a power level (Yep, we're going here!) with appropriate abilities to make him appealing to me. However, I'm worried about longevity of such a deck. Due to his colors, he seems good at what he wants to do: smack face and get out more dinos. I just don't know if that would keep my interest long enough to spring for such a deck, despite how much I like him. He's powerful but very focused, tailored to a new tribe without a lot of cards who are very combat oriented so far, which would narrow the focus of the deck further and I think you've gotten my point. It's just that once this deck is put together, it seems like it would play out the same way almost every time. That's my biggest worry. So while I can't fault Gishath's power when compared to Beckett's, I can wonder if it be even worth in the long run. But we'll see and I'll keep my eyes on it.
BK'rrik Goodstuff
GWSythis Enchantress
URYusri Coin Flip
BRGKorvold Tokens
BGUYarok Lands Matter
WUBRaffine Looter
Silas Renn, Seeker Adept and Sidar Kondo of Jamurra TurboTrash. Largely inspired by this thread, a moderate control build featuring tons of 0 or 1 mana artifacts and cycling them into and out of the graveyard. I have a 60-card casual deck based on this same theme which is a blast to play, if not especially good. The commanders are probably 85% for their colors and 15% for Silas's aid in recursion/Kondo's ability to help him sneak in for combat damage. Plus, it'll be an excuse to include my favorite "combo" of Avarice Totem and Tel-Jilad Stylus.
Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer, feat. Forced Fruition. Again inspired by this thread and one of my 60-card decks. The idea would be to force the table to draw cards while limiting which of them they can play, and without the crutch of the black and red effects that punish drawing with life loss to hopefully draw less aggro. My plan for this deck is still in massive disarray and a pile of half-baked ideas.
Sapling of Colfenor blows up the world. Even less of an organized plan than the other one, the idea here would be to ramp into silly amounts of mana, drop one of the big green, black, or colorless creatures with indestructible, then use one of black's ever increasing number of board wipes, and keep blowing up all the creatures until I win. Probably not a great idea, but seems like it could be fun.
At some point, I'm going to get around to taking apart my Titania, Protector of Argoth and Nath of the Gilt-Leaf stax decks and using their cards to build a The Gitrog Monster value deck. I don't have a list formed in my head for that either, but I hope it'll be more fun for me than where I'm using the cards now.
I'm also vaguely intrigued by The Scarab God, both Neheb, the Worthy and Neheb, the Eternal, Taigam, Ojutai Master, and Patron of the Moon, but not enough to act on any of them.
To answer the question more accurately, Ruhan of the Fomori. Random commander rampage!
B Dark Ides Life DrainR Rekindle Skies Phoenix TribalWB Veil Oath Tokens
BR Brutal Scourge Eldrazi TribalRW Edge Worthy Mid-Range AggroGU Wisp Away Combo
GWU Vigorous Flow Energy
Commander / EDH:
RFeldon of the Third Path
GURashmi, Eternities Crafter
RWBMathas, Fiend Hunter
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice
Athreos, God of Passage: One of the few cards that would make me play white in EDH.
Origins Nissa: Because playing Ashaya would piss off a few players in my playgroup.
I dislike vamlires so he is just interesting will .lst likely never see the light of day (whichbis probablybgood thing since he is, ya know, a vampire)
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
I'm considering an Oloro, Ageless Ascetic deck that plays control until I line up janky kill combos.
Wasitora, Nekoru Queen -- I've been looking for a commander for a Jund deck I've been building and this might be the one. Random strong creature along the axes I like (evasion, killing stuff) that doesn't distract from the deck's core strategy.
Ashling the Pilgrim -- The one with all the Mountains. What an off-the-wall deck. Did you know you can play the basic (heh) version of the deck without any cards?
Bruna, Light of Alabaster -- Between this and Celestial Mantle, the magpie instinct is kicking in.
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge -- I have it sitting around 'cause I think it looks cool. Would use a lot of other cool cards I have sitting around too. Might lead to some fun choices.
Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury -- I loved that deck in Standard; it'd be interesting to see if it'd work in Commander.
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade -- Nice, simple commander in my favourite colour. Could replace Skithiryx if I ever needed to replace him due to power level.
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave -- Just a cool and clean design. I personally would enjoy the waiter's game of trying to balance all the tokens on the card as I moved it from zone to zone.
Omnath, Locus of Mana - Big mana, big Omnath. Om nom nom!
Grimgrin, Corpse-born - Zombie tribal. Collected the zombie lords a long time ago for a dimir zombie tribal, but never got around to building the deck.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest - Elf tribal. I wanted to build this, but everyone has an elf tribal. I dunno, it's lost its appeal over time.
Doran, the Siege Tower - I've wanted to build this ever since Tree of Perdition was released. Never got around to it though.
Narset, Enlightened Master - Started collecting cards to build this deck back when Narset was released, still haven't finished it.
Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis - Probably the next deck that I'll finish. It's not a classical group hug, it's a political deck that accelerates the game by providing some limited group benefit, but then uses cards like Control Magic etc. to steal the most powerful permanents. I use a similar strategy with Braids, Conjurer Adept, and it works well.
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
Ramos, Dragon Engine - Superfriends? Wanted Atraxa, Praetors' Voice but planeswalkers with Atraxa has become so commonplace that it kind of puts me off making the deck. Ramos will do fine as a pw commander I think.
Akiri, Line-Slinger + Thrasios, Triton Hero - For my artifact deck. Totally don't know which direction to build so keep putting it off although I already got the commanders. Vehicles, station and module combos are pretty much wanted in the deck.
Saskia the Unyielding - In need of a combat centric deck that can replace my Aurelia as commander since she is so hard to cast. Key feature of deck is need multiple attack steps a turn and play combat tricks such as Cauldron Dance and Wake the Dead, so WBR colors is a must, and I don't want any common mardu combat commanders that most players use (eg. Kaalia and Zurgo). Saskia fits the bill with his double damage ability.
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
old thread
old thread
old thread
R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
What is coming out for Animar?
Padeem, Consul of Innovation - Artifact value/combo.
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant - Sultai zombie reanimator.
Padeem, Consul of Innovation - Artifact value/combo.
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant - Sultai zombie reanimator.
Tishana, Voice of Thunder: She's like another Prime Speaker Zegana except she draws us a card for every creature we have in play, grants us no maximum hand size and her P/T is based on how big our hand size is. I won't say she replaces Zegana, but she does offer another way to draw a lot of cards and get big while doing it. In fact, they work well together. Play Tishana and draw some cards. Then play Zegana, draw more cards and get a big Zegana and an even bigger Tishana. There's also the fact that Tishana can be a little easier to cast due to having less mana symbols despite being 1 mana more. To me, this is a grand slam of a card.
Verdant Sun's Avatar: Get life for every creature we play plus the Avatar itself? Yes! Much, yes! This is just a great utility card with how many creatures Animar plays and bounces. It also gives us infinite life with the Deadeye Navigator+Palinchron/Peregrine Drake combo or with Ancestral Statue, making it another combo piece as well. Another very good card.
Herald of Secret Streams: One of things I like to do is make Animar unblockable. It serves as a backup plan if I can't combo off and can be easier to pull off sometimes. However, I only have a few cards that can do this and almost all of them cost mana to activate. This guy makes this a nonissue as Animar will almost always have +1/+1 counter on him. Plus, I run things like Master Biomancer and Ridgescale Tusker, making the Herald a benefit for almost my entire team.
These last two a little iffy, but I can see how they can get some value:
Ripjaw Raptor: The raptor is a nice body for 4 mana, less with Animar. It also is beautiful deterrent as we'll draw from any damage it would take. Not a must have card but still nice for what it does at it's cost.
Burning Sun's Avatar: A weaker Inferno Titan but a decent replacement when trying to go off with the Deadeye+Palinchron combo for infinite damage. My major sticking point however is that RRR in the mana cost. It just makes this a little more expensive then I'd like. The fact that it's still not as good as Inferno Titan, on top of that, means that I don't really know if I'd want to run it. I try to keep my mana symbols low, inless the creature does something power or has a lot of impact. Prime Speaker Zegana, Vigor and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir are examples of cards I consider worth those mana symbols.
Well, those are the cards I've been considering.
BK'rrik Goodstuff
GWSythis Enchantress
URYusri Coin Flip
BRGKorvold Tokens
BGUYarok Lands Matter
WUBRaffine Looter