Hello! First off, I know decklists don't go here, but since I'm asking for help making a deck not presenting a list I figured it should go here. Sorry if that is incorrect.
I'm a longtime follower of MTG but never really got into actually buying much. I recently got to play commander with some friends and I really want to actually have some kind of deck. I've decided on Alesha as a commander both because she's really cool (not a huge creature combat fan, but being able to use creatures as tools is definitely something that appeals to me) and she's different from what my friends play. I've seen a couple deck techs for her, but they're all from a couple years ago so I don't know if anything has come out recently that would be good for her.
My main issue is that I'm playing against people who don't really like creatures (one has a crazy Child of Alara enchantment combo deck that can just sit there and go infinite if you don't keep her contained. The other is newer to magic and pretty much made "Joihra Izzet good stuff") so whatever deck I end up with needs to have lots of options for enchantment removal and answers to bounce spells.
As far as budget I just found out the credit card I've been using has a cash back feature, so I've come into $500 I didn't know I would be getting (turns out a couple percent really adds up when you forget it exists for a few years!). I'd prefer the deck not cost too much more than that, but I'm willing to go the full $500.
So, what do you all fine people suggest?
P.S. Maybe the most important question in this entire post: Since I'm literally starting from scratch, what basic lands should I buy? I actually think the Kamigawa lands are super good looking and an underrated choice, but the foil mirrodin lands are so awesome too...
Alesha being in White means you have a lot of good options for Enchantments and protecting your creatures.
Something I would suggest is Sunforger. You can pay WR at any time to Unequip it from a creature (probably Alesha) and go find a protection spell like Teferi's Protection, Eerie Interlude, Ghostway or Boros Charm. You can avoid mass bounce effects like Cyclonic Rift and mass Exile effects with the first three, or use them or Boros Charm and any of those to help protect them from mass damage or destruction effects. You'll want to run all the usual tutors like Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Enlightened Tutor. Since Alesha wants to bring stuff back from the graveyard, good sac outlets - particularly Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar and Viscera Seer - are a must have. It also makes Diabolic Intent pretty great.
1. My main issue is that I'm playing against people who don't really like creatures so whatever deck I end up with needs to have lots of options for enchantment removal and answers to bounce spells.
2. I'd prefer the deck not cost too much more than that, but I'm willing to go the full $500.
3. What do you all fine people suggest?
4. What basic lands should I buy?
First of, welcome to the forum wombat! About your questions.
1. Most decent Alesha, Who Smiles at Death decks do have a ton of etb creatures, so bounce spells might not be too much of a concern or even help you. What's more important is being safe from exile effects. Sac outlets are a major deck tech for her, so you should run them anyway. If you're still scared about them Eerie Interlude, Ghostway, Grand Abolisher and Conqueror's Flail can keep you safe from Cyclonic Rift, Evacuation and the likes.
She does have excellent removal options for basically anything. For enchantments Duergar Hedge-Mage, Wispmare and War Priest of Thune are great options (see, etb!).
2. Unless you want to foil out the deck or go all out on fancy lands you'll easily be able to build a top notch deck including Phyrexian Tower, Phyrexian Altar and others and still have money left.
3. I'd suggest a high creature count (30+), loot effects and evasion to keep your commander safe from being chump blocked.
4. A friend of mine builds his mana bases with lands from the sets the commander was printed in originally, which i find very flavor- and tasteful. The Fate Reforged lands do have a grim tone to them, which totally fits the theme.
Other than that i'm a big fan of full art lands - other than the Un-Lands as their frames don't fit in too well with "normal" MTG-cards.
Thanks for the suggestions. Good to know that $500 isn't needed for a good deck. A few of the lists I saw cost over $1000, so knowing that isn't required is a big relief.
One card I saw that looked fun was master of cruelties. Being able to cheat him in with Alesha would get around the "must attack alone" clause and could potentially set up an instant kill if everything lines up right (and I immediately see that was listed in the big list of good creatures right after I posted this...).
I also thought about adding in a couple ninjutsu cards to maximize the value. Alesha attacks, cheats a creature in with a good ETB effect, then I ninjutsu it out to get another effect and the card I cheated in goes back to my hand! Throat Slitter and Okiba-Gang Shinobi seem like they fit in the theme of the deck. The first can even work with Alesha's ability.
Another thing I'd like to do is double up on "tapped and attacking" stuff. There's a few cards that put tokens into play tapped and attacking whenever they attack. Unfortunately that means that they wouldn't trigger off Alesha's ability if I read it right (since they get put into play attacking, their "when this creature attacks" trigger wouldn't fire). It's probably not worth a creature slot just to get something that doesn't work with my commander's ability, no matter how hilarious Kari Zev, Skyship Raider is.
3. Another thing I'd like to do is double up on "tapped and attacking" stuff. There's a few cards that put tokens into play tapped and attacking whenever they attack.
1. Let's be real here for a second. It's a very strong effect, but fun? That's a definite meta call. Better talk to your friends upfront, if they feel it is too oppressive. Keep in mind, with an Entomb and Alesha, Who Smiles at Death you could kill your first enemy on turn 4. Since it's a social format and you're aiming to play with friends, make sure they'd be in for the ride.
2. I'd love to play Ninjutsu stuff, but it comes with 2 problems. For one, all strong Ninjas can't be reanimated by your commander - which is very unfortunate! And two, there's just better options for some of the others. Ravenous Chupacabra, Duplicant and Blind Zealot have less target restrictions and either don't need to connect or come with both the evasion and clear synergy. For discard you have Liliana's Specter, Miasmic Mummy, Rotting Rats, Sibsig Icebreakers, Earsplitting Rats and Cackling Fiend that won't need to connect and help keeping the whole table in check instead of one player. For a connect trigger i'd need a better effect like Shimian Specter. And there's still sac outlets like Hypnotic Hyponotist in the mix.
Something i've learned is, that if a creature can't be reanimated by Alesha, Who Smiles at Death it has to come with amazing utility - therefor i limited myself to Iroas, God of Victory and Reveillark on that end. Other than that i will have to feel comfortable hard casting the creature, if i don't have any ways to smuggle it into my graveyard at the time. Hard casting a Duplicant or similiar and getting another creature back through my commander is strong, but takes 8 mana. So either you keep a lean curve or you try to loot a lot.
If you have a temporary decklist, it'd be cool to see it.
1. Let's be real here for a second. It's a very strong effect, but fun? That's a definite meta call.
If you have a temporary decklist, it'd be cool to see it.
Well...fun for me. I tend to think about if something can be done without thinking if it should in this game. I was almost going to bring up Pardic Miner until I realized that would probably result in nobody ever playing against me again. I'll see how it goes and maybe just make an agreement not to tutor master of cruelties into my graveyard if it ends up being too strong for everyone.
As for the decklist, I'm working on it. My job has some long hours and I don't have internet access there, so I don't have a ton of time to brew. I'm thinking of just taking yours, -Fellwar Stone +Sol Ring (my group is fine with the ring and it's almost universally a better choice than the stone) and -Alter of Dementia +Elspeth. I do like the utility of having another sac outlet, but I feel like alter of dementia isn't doing much other than that. Mill is at best a secondary attack vector in this deck and since your creature's power is capped at 2 it's not even really doing that much.
I'll think about it and get back to you all later.
I would like to give any advice I have for Alesha as ive been playing with her for a little over a year but im still trying to figure out what it wants to do myself.
My first build was a cut and paste of the budget deck from MTG goldfish because i wanted to something new to play and i couldnt think of what i wanted to brew.. Then i wanted to change stuff up a bit and i made it a stax tax theme and I played stuff like Aven Mindcensor and Eidolon of Rhetoric just to mess with people. Now i made it into some weird combination of tokens and the tax theme. I use the cards that makes everyone's stuff get tapped down loxodon gatekeeper and Kinjalli's Sunwing and a bunch of the 2 power token makers. In each iteration of the deck I kept an unlimited combo way to win. Sun Titan/Fiend Hunter plus sac outlet plus blood artist or purphoros or have the outlet be goblin bombardment or alter of dementia
My main issue with Alesha are the numbers. I can never figure out how many of a particular thing is correct. Should I run 4 sac outlets or 6? How many of the creatures should make tokens? What is the correct number of cards that mess with the board should i use?
My other issue with Alesha is the commander itself. In all my other decks (Gahiji, Mimeoplasm, Kess, and Mogis) I dont mind if they die cuz i can play them again and the commander tax is usually no big deal. With Alesha if im paying 5 for it, it just feels terrible.
If any of my experience could somehow be of help to you then that would be awesome. I'm gonna stick around to see if you find out anything cool that can help me as well.
1. Let's be real here for a second. It's a very strong effect, but fun? That's a definite meta call. Better talk to your friends upfront, if they feel it is too oppressive. Keep in mind, with an Entomb and Alesha, Who Smiles at Death you could kill your first enemy on turn 4. Since it's a social format and you're aiming to play with friends, make sure they'd be in for the ride.
1. Let's be real here for a second. It's a very strong effect, but fun? That's a definite meta call.
Well...fun for me. I tend to think about if something can be done without thinking if it should in this game.
Yeah, this reminds me of the quote from Jurassic Park: " Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
I'm not saying you shouldn't run it, but if you do, be wise about when to play it. If you knock one player out in the first five minutes, and then they have to sit there twiddling their thumbs for the next hour while you get ganged up on for being The Threat, it's probably going to ruin the game for everyone.
It would be wiser to hold onto it until late game or at least until there is a clear threat that no one will blame you for one-shotting.
Also, Reconnaissance is sort of a must-include in Alesha. It protects Alesha while still giving you the trigger, it can protect the reanimated creature, and it even gives your creatures pseudo-vigilance (just activate it at end of combat, after the damage steps).
1. I was almost going to bring up Pardic Miner until I realized that would probably result in nobody ever playing against me again.
2. I'll see how it goes and maybe just make an agreement not to tutor master of cruelties into my graveyard if it ends up being too strong for everyone.
3. As for the decklist, I'm working on it. I'm thinking of just taking yours.
3. -Alter of Dementia +Elspeth. I do like the utility of having another sac outlet, but I feel like alter of dementia isn't doing much other than that. Mill is at best a secondary attack vector in this deck and since your creature's power is capped at 2 it's not even really doing that much.
1. ... or the'd just chump block your 1/1 guy every time. At least in my meta you'd propably only be able to activate it once after hard casting it.
2. Why bring a gun, when you're not willing to pull the trigger? Instead of shying away from situations where it might feel oppressive, rather decide if you feel like running it at all.
3. I'd feel flattered. If you got another day or two to spare, i'm looking into updating my list after Super Bowl. Rivals came with a few decent cards and i stumbled upon a few gems as well.
4. Altar of Dementia isn't a win con, by all means - at least in my meta with virtually no infinites. Even with that, it is great for two things. A) Filling up my own 'yard while i sac my creatures for re-use. B) Disrupting top-deck manipulation.
1. ... or the'd just chump block your 1/1 guy every time. At least in my meta you'd propably only be able to activate it once after hard casting it.
ohhh... it does specify "this turn". Not nearly as useful as I thought it was unless I had some way to remove it from combat reliably. And at that point I'm putting way too much support behind something designed purely to be a jerk.
Something I'm noticing about Alesha is that I like to play strange janky interactions (I'm that particular kind of Johnny who loves to build Rube Goldberg machines), and that's just strictly not as good as putting another creature in with a "destroy x" ETB trigger. I guess I've got Ravenous Baboons if I want land destruction in my toolbox.
Something I'm noticing about Alesha is that I like to play strange janky interactions (I'm that particular kind of Johnny who loves to build Rube Goldberg machines), and that's just strictly not as good as putting another creature in with a "destroy x" ETB trigger. I guess I've got Ravenous Baboons if I want land destruction in my toolbox.
You can use creatures that make tokens or ETB with counters to exploit a rule regarding her ability. Basically, Primal Clay and friends are 0/0 in other zones. I'm not sure how this works for Shapeshifter, since it has you define *, and its base P/T is */7-*.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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'm not sure how this works for Shapeshifter, since it has you define *, and its base P/T is */7-*.
To quote the oracle text:
"As Shapeshifter enters the battlefield, choose a number between 0 and 7.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may choose a number between 0 and 7.
Shapeshifter's power is equal to the last chosen number and its toughness is equal to 7 minus that number."
As long as Shapeshifter is in your graveyard said number is undefined, therefor its strength is virtually 0. Same goes for a lot of 0/0 creatures and */* that have their power and toughness defined etb. Be sure to check though, e.g. Geist-Honored Monk has a certain strength in all zones.
I'm not sure how this works for Shapeshifter, since it has you define *, and its base P/T is */7-*.
To quote the oracle text:
"As Shapeshifter enters the battlefield, choose a number between 0 and 7.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may choose a number between 0 and 7.
Shapeshifter's power is equal to the last chosen number and its toughness is equal to 7 minus that number."
As long as Shapeshifter is in your graveyard said number is undefined, therefor its strength is virtually 0. Same goes for a lot of 0/0 creatures and */* that have their power and toughness defined etb. Be sure to check though, e.g. Geist-Honored Monk has a certain strength in all zones.
Yeah, when it's an defined variable, it doesn't work that way. However, you can also exploit if there's a constant base power less than 2 (not a */*) and it gets +X/+X for some variable. Or it gets +1/+1 counters on ETB for something.
Shapeshifter's just weird because I didn't know if it was 0/0 or 0/7.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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'm a longtime follower of MTG but never really got into actually buying much. I recently got to play commander with some friends and I really want to actually have some kind of deck. I've decided on Alesha as a commander both because she's really cool (not a huge creature combat fan, but being able to use creatures as tools is definitely something that appeals to me) and she's different from what my friends play. I've seen a couple deck techs for her, but they're all from a couple years ago so I don't know if anything has come out recently that would be good for her.
My main issue is that I'm playing against people who don't really like creatures (one has a crazy Child of Alara enchantment combo deck that can just sit there and go infinite if you don't keep her contained. The other is newer to magic and pretty much made "Joihra Izzet good stuff") so whatever deck I end up with needs to have lots of options for enchantment removal and answers to bounce spells.
As far as budget I just found out the credit card I've been using has a cash back feature, so I've come into $500 I didn't know I would be getting (turns out a couple percent really adds up when you forget it exists for a few years!). I'd prefer the deck not cost too much more than that, but I'm willing to go the full $500.
So, what do you all fine people suggest?
P.S. Maybe the most important question in this entire post: Since I'm literally starting from scratch, what basic lands should I buy? I actually think the Kamigawa lands are super good looking and an underrated choice, but the foil mirrodin lands are so awesome too...
Something I would suggest is Sunforger. You can pay WR at any time to Unequip it from a creature (probably Alesha) and go find a protection spell like Teferi's Protection, Eerie Interlude, Ghostway or Boros Charm. You can avoid mass bounce effects like Cyclonic Rift and mass Exile effects with the first three, or use them or Boros Charm and any of those to help protect them from mass damage or destruction effects. You'll want to run all the usual tutors like Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Enlightened Tutor. Since Alesha wants to bring stuff back from the graveyard, good sac outlets - particularly Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar and Viscera Seer - are a must have. It also makes Diabolic Intent pretty great.
For Enchantment removal, Alesha can keep bringing back War Priest of Thune, but you also have access to Vindicate, Anguished Unmaking, Utter End, Merciless Eviction, Austere Command and Nahiri, the Harbinger.
There's a lot of creatures from recent sets that would be great for Alesha! Here's a few that could do work depending on your build: Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Yahenni, Undying Partisan, Angel of Invention, Grenzo, Dungeon Warden, Selfless Spirit, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Panharmonicon, Doomed Dissenter, Dusk Legion Zealot, Elenda, the Dusk Rose, Hope of Ghirapur, Liliana, Heretical Healer, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Restoration Specialist,
(Also known as Xenphire)
1. Most decent Alesha, Who Smiles at Death decks do have a ton of etb creatures, so bounce spells might not be too much of a concern or even help you. What's more important is being safe from exile effects. Sac outlets are a major deck tech for her, so you should run them anyway. If you're still scared about them Eerie Interlude, Ghostway, Grand Abolisher and Conqueror's Flail can keep you safe from Cyclonic Rift, Evacuation and the likes.
She does have excellent removal options for basically anything. For enchantments Duergar Hedge-Mage, Wispmare and War Priest of Thune are great options (see, etb!).
2. Unless you want to foil out the deck or go all out on fancy lands you'll easily be able to build a top notch deck including Phyrexian Tower, Phyrexian Altar and others and still have money left.
3. I'd suggest a high creature count (30+), loot effects and evasion to keep your commander safe from being chump blocked.
Other than that i'm a big fan of full art lands - other than the Un-Lands as their frames don't fit in too well with "normal" MTG-cards.
Battle for Zendikar:
Hour of Devastation:
Zendikar:
One card I saw that looked fun was master of cruelties. Being able to cheat him in with Alesha would get around the "must attack alone" clause and could potentially set up an instant kill if everything lines up right (and I immediately see that was listed in the big list of good creatures right after I posted this...).
I also thought about adding in a couple ninjutsu cards to maximize the value. Alesha attacks, cheats a creature in with a good ETB effect, then I ninjutsu it out to get another effect and the card I cheated in goes back to my hand! Throat Slitter and Okiba-Gang Shinobi seem like they fit in the theme of the deck. The first can even work with Alesha's ability.
Another thing I'd like to do is double up on "tapped and attacking" stuff. There's a few cards that put tokens into play tapped and attacking whenever they attack. Unfortunately that means that they wouldn't trigger off Alesha's ability if I read it right (since they get put into play attacking, their "when this creature attacks" trigger wouldn't fire). It's probably not worth a creature slot just to get something that doesn't work with my commander's ability, no matter how hilarious Kari Zev, Skyship Raider is.
2. I'd love to play Ninjutsu stuff, but it comes with 2 problems. For one, all strong Ninjas can't be reanimated by your commander - which is very unfortunate! And two, there's just better options for some of the others. Ravenous Chupacabra, Duplicant and Blind Zealot have less target restrictions and either don't need to connect or come with both the evasion and clear synergy. For discard you have Liliana's Specter, Miasmic Mummy, Rotting Rats, Sibsig Icebreakers, Earsplitting Rats and Cackling Fiend that won't need to connect and help keeping the whole table in check instead of one player. For a connect trigger i'd need a better effect like Shimian Specter. And there's still sac outlets like Hypnotic Hyponotist in the mix.
3. As above, etb effects are usually more reliable and in this case not a turn delayed. Angel of Invention and Siege-Gang Commander are real champs, the later can even ping and sac itself. Beetleback Chief, Knight-Captain of Eos, Marionette Master, Marsh Flitter Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Visionary Augmenter, Weaponcraft Enthusiast heck, even Ponyback Brigade and Evangel of Heliod could enable a swarm theme, if you feel like going for it. Don't forget to bring your Cathars' Crusade though.
Something i've learned is, that if a creature can't be reanimated by Alesha, Who Smiles at Death it has to come with amazing utility - therefor i limited myself to Iroas, God of Victory and Reveillark on that end. Other than that i will have to feel comfortable hard casting the creature, if i don't have any ways to smuggle it into my graveyard at the time. Hard casting a Duplicant or similiar and getting another creature back through my commander is strong, but takes 8 mana. So either you keep a lean curve or you try to loot a lot.
If you have a temporary decklist, it'd be cool to see it.
Well...fun for me. I tend to think about if something can be done without thinking if it should in this game. I was almost going to bring up Pardic Miner until I realized that would probably result in nobody ever playing against me again. I'll see how it goes and maybe just make an agreement not to tutor master of cruelties into my graveyard if it ends up being too strong for everyone.
As for the decklist, I'm working on it. My job has some long hours and I don't have internet access there, so I don't have a ton of time to brew. I'm thinking of just taking yours, -Fellwar Stone +Sol Ring (my group is fine with the ring and it's almost universally a better choice than the stone) and -Alter of Dementia +Elspeth. I do like the utility of having another sac outlet, but I feel like alter of dementia isn't doing much other than that. Mill is at best a secondary attack vector in this deck and since your creature's power is capped at 2 it's not even really doing that much.
I'll think about it and get back to you all later.
My first build was a cut and paste of the budget deck from MTG goldfish because i wanted to something new to play and i couldnt think of what i wanted to brew.. Then i wanted to change stuff up a bit and i made it a stax tax theme and I played stuff like Aven Mindcensor and Eidolon of Rhetoric just to mess with people. Now i made it into some weird combination of tokens and the tax theme. I use the cards that makes everyone's stuff get tapped down loxodon gatekeeper and Kinjalli's Sunwing and a bunch of the 2 power token makers. In each iteration of the deck I kept an unlimited combo way to win. Sun Titan/Fiend Hunter plus sac outlet plus blood artist or purphoros or have the outlet be goblin bombardment or alter of dementia
My main issue with Alesha are the numbers. I can never figure out how many of a particular thing is correct. Should I run 4 sac outlets or 6? How many of the creatures should make tokens? What is the correct number of cards that mess with the board should i use?
My other issue with Alesha is the commander itself. In all my other decks (Gahiji, Mimeoplasm, Kess, and Mogis) I dont mind if they die cuz i can play them again and the commander tax is usually no big deal. With Alesha if im paying 5 for it, it just feels terrible.
If any of my experience could somehow be of help to you then that would be awesome. I'm gonna stick around to see if you find out anything cool that can help me as well.
I'm not saying you shouldn't run it, but if you do, be wise about when to play it. If you knock one player out in the first five minutes, and then they have to sit there twiddling their thumbs for the next hour while you get ganged up on for being The Threat, it's probably going to ruin the game for everyone.
It would be wiser to hold onto it until late game or at least until there is a clear threat that no one will blame you for one-shotting.
Also, Reconnaissance is sort of a must-include in Alesha. It protects Alesha while still giving you the trigger, it can protect the reanimated creature, and it even gives your creatures pseudo-vigilance (just activate it at end of combat, after the damage steps).
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
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2. Why bring a gun, when you're not willing to pull the trigger? Instead of shying away from situations where it might feel oppressive, rather decide if you feel like running it at all.
3. I'd feel flattered. If you got another day or two to spare, i'm looking into updating my list after Super Bowl. Rivals came with a few decent cards and i stumbled upon a few gems as well.
4. Altar of Dementia isn't a win con, by all means - at least in my meta with virtually no infinites. Even with that, it is great for two things. A) Filling up my own 'yard while i sac my creatures for re-use. B) Disrupting top-deck manipulation.I totally agree. It's certainly a fine line between too few and too many creatures and what utility they should bring to the table.
This can really cause problems. Over time i tried to include cards, that will help with protecting her in synergistic ways, or get her back onto the field in such ways. Grand Abolisher is great to protect her during your turns, Karmic Guide, Tortured Existence and Phyrexian Reclamation help cheating on commander tax and can do a lot of work in the deck anyway. Other than that haste (Anger, duh) and evasion that applies to all your creatures help. Filth, Iroas, God of Victory, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Key to the City, Skeleton Key, Behind the Scenes, Break Through the Line, Dauthi Embrace and Reconnaissance have all proven to be great, which one you pick up is up to you.
One of the gems i'm looking forward to trying out is Fanatical Devotion. A sac outlet that can protect my commander if needed seems pretty great.
ohhh... it does specify "this turn". Not nearly as useful as I thought it was unless I had some way to remove it from combat reliably. And at that point I'm putting way too much support behind something designed purely to be a jerk.
Something I'm noticing about Alesha is that I like to play strange janky interactions (I'm that particular kind of Johnny who loves to build Rube Goldberg machines), and that's just strictly not as good as putting another creature in with a "destroy x" ETB trigger. I guess I've got Ravenous Baboons if I want land destruction in my toolbox.
If you really enjoy somewhat random interactions, don't drop that theme - embrace it! There are plenty of creatures to build around:
- Bone Dancer
- Ebonblade Reaper
- Emissary of Despair
- Goblin Assassin
- Gonti, Lord of Luxury
- Graveblade Marauder
- Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
- Guiltfeeder
- Hope of Ghirapur
- Kheru Mind-Eater
- Lim-Dûl's Paladin
- Master of Cruelties
- Minion of the Wastes
- Prophetic Flamespeaker
- Raving Dead
- Wall of Blood
- ...
I don't know if you'd find enough similar creatures for a full theme, but you could easily fill up with the usual suspects.I was able to update my list, feel free to check it.
On phasing:
"As Shapeshifter enters the battlefield, choose a number between 0 and 7.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may choose a number between 0 and 7.
Shapeshifter's power is equal to the last chosen number and its toughness is equal to 7 minus that number."
As long as Shapeshifter is in your graveyard said number is undefined, therefor its strength is virtually 0. Same goes for a lot of 0/0 creatures and */* that have their power and toughness defined etb. Be sure to check though, e.g. Geist-Honored Monk has a certain strength in all zones.
Yeah, when it's an defined variable, it doesn't work that way. However, you can also exploit if there's a constant base power less than 2 (not a */*) and it gets +X/+X for some variable. Or it gets +1/+1 counters on ETB for something.
Shapeshifter's just weird because I didn't know if it was 0/0 or 0/7.
On phasing:
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.