a lot of people complain every game the is the same. my feeling is the opposite. its always am i going to stop it this time, how can i stop it, how are they going to pull it off, how difficult can i make it to pull off, how can i pull off my own while stopping theirs. that all, combined with having to find ways to protect your own or stop someone elses it forces you to think about your deck in a different light and modify it accordingly. it ends up being a MUCH more interactive game where you're not just goldfishing but instead actively trying to push your own boardstate while stopping someone elses. its just that the wins are more spectacular and seemingly out of nowhere than just turn dudes sideways
stax
slow and grindy? sure! but again, once someone pops up with a stax deck thats effective it forces you to deal with it or play the most miserable game imaginable, and even then you're trying to figure out how to beat it rather than just complaining that you can't do anything
- Control: That doesn't necessarily mean permission and counter.dec. To me, control is more accurate threat assessment than negating every possible spell that might enter the battlefield. It means having different ways to win, different ways to answer various board states, and more than anything else, I learn more about these sort of decks and the complexities of the game each time I pick up this sort of deck. My three most controlly decks are Nissa, Bruna and Dralnu. I love them all, they all play differently, and they all ask some degree of 'thinking outside the box' to pilot.
- Reanimator: I don't know why, I'm a necromancer at heart. There's a bit of bleedover (pardon the pun) with control and reanimator in a lot of my decks, these are just two of the elements I really get a kick from every time.
- Politics: I don't have any particular deck that plays specifically to this theme - my Zedruu build is chaos as much as anything - although several of my decks work better when played in the context of political intrigue rather than a race to the finish line. Again, there's a bit of blurring the lines where control, politics and threat assessment meet. This is the part of EDH I probably struggle most with, but it's where games can be won or lost. More importantly, it's where games get the most fun, if all goes well: the best example I can think of in this respect - Collective Voyage is steadily becoming my favourite card to play. Not because it allows me to combo off, but because every single time I've ever played it, the game has only got more epic, more hilarious, or more fun.
Toolbox/value engine decks that are versatile, run a variety of threats and answers and don't win with the same tired win conditions every time, which instead win through incremental value.
Combat-oriented decks, seeking to win in the red zone. I like turning creatures sideways. I like playing against decks that do the same. That's not all I like - I play most archetypes other than superfriends, chaos and group hug - but a lot of my decks are designed for combat.
Stax. Stax all the time is tedious and asocial, but an occasional game against a stax deck is an interesting challenge, especially if it's not a super-tuned monstrosity.
Big Dumb Battlecruiser. Why do you think Animar is my Flagship deck. Even when I don't win (and get my field blown to bits afterwards), just smacking someone for 20-30 damage at one go is always satisfying to me in the format.
i don't focus in archetipes when building decks, i prefer to go with a mechanic or a synergy that i find cool and build a deck around that.
So my answer is : i usually don't have an issue with any archetype, maybe all in combo decks, are kinda boring.
Toolbox and aggro. Aggro because, it's shaky enough that it's not something I get bored with working too well and toolbox because I like having the option to take different lines of play and answers depending on the situation.
Theme / Fun decks. Sure, I have my Teferi deck that I built to rek faces with, but what do i truly enjoy, and what decks do i never tire of? Mishra, Urza, and Thor. I am currently building a Hela deck to counter Thor, so i can say I have both the Brothers War, and Asgard and its enemies as the 4 decks i mostly play.
I'm always going through cycles. Sometimes I'll decide I absolutely never want to play X again, but then some commander comes along that offers a fresh take on it. Or sometimes it's just been a while and I forgot why I hated it. Benefit to rotating decks so often, I guess.
I generally avoid certain archetypes to avoid bad blood in my playgroup, but there's really nothing I'd NEVER play again.
Right now, I've been running my johira suspend deck and I just worked on getting my voltron deck to be better. I'll more than likely switch from my Jhoria deck to my precon dragons since Jhoria automatically puts a target on my head and I've managed to win some games with it.
But my voltron deck is now headed by Archangel Avacyn along with better equipment,so hopefully it will kill at least one person next time I play it.
That is to say, decks that slowly get more and more things that benefit from doing the same kind of stuff over and over again. When a thing dies and get ten different triggers from different cards, I'm in my zone. Or when I cast an instant or sorcery spell, it better be either copied seven times to Sunday (Jeleva) or benefit half my nonland permanents (Yidris). Or piling ALL the +1/+1 counters on an indestructible hexproof trample dragon and her friends (Dromoka).
I don't go half-measures when I reach for a theme, and yes, Planar Cleansing and its' ilk are the bane of my existence. I have decks that play counterspells almost solely because wraths exist.
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X Hope of Ghirapur Swordpile W Ghosty Blinky Anafenza U Nezahal- Big, Blue and HERE! B Gonti Can Afford It R Etali, Primal 'Whatjusthappened?' G Polukranos Wants More Mana WU The Exalted Vizier Temmet WB Home, Athreos WR Basandra, Recursive Aggression WG Karametra, Momma of Lands UB Wrexial Eats Your Brains UR Arjun, the Mad Flame UG The Fable of Prime Speaker BR Hellbent, Malfegor Style BG Jarad, Death is Served RG Running Thromok WUB Varina and ALL the Zombies WUBYennett, the Odd Pain-Train WUR Zedruu the Furyhearted WUG Arcades' Strategy, Shmategy, Sausage and Spam WBR A Case of Mathas' Persistent F*ckery WBRLicia's League of Legendary Lifegain Layabouts WBG The Karador Advantage PackageWRG Gahiji Rattlesnake Collection UBR Jeleva... does... things UBG Damia's Just Deserts URG Yasova's Has More Power Than Sense BRG Wasitora, Bad Kitty WUBRBreya, Eggs, Breya'd Eggs WUBG Tymna and Kydele, Extended Borrowing WURG Kynaios and Tiro, Landfall Impersonations WBRG Saskia Pet Card EnchantressUBRG Yidris of the Chi-Ting Corporation WUBRG Tazri's Amazing Allies
Tribal decks. More or less every tribal option plays TOTALLY differently from the other tribes so I get a kick out of them when I can make them work. My problem is really that you need a good legend to helm a tribal deck because the reasons to go tribal are mostly bad if you can't get a legend to tie the whole concept together. As time goes on the card pool for tribes keeps deepening which just makes them more viable but still I just love seeing new tribal commanders to open up more design space.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Rakdos reanimator. Zedruu is of course my most loved and longest standing deck, but my BR deck has been around for close to as long and never gets less entertaining to me without me putting any real thought or effort into tuning the deck. Just the combination of a big punchy threats, black recursion for my big punchy threats, and a few red haste enablers let me swing the sledgehammer at people every turn through a lot of resistance. Its like all the best parts of battlecruiser magic, but faster.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
I do not have extremely strong preferences for certain archetype over others. However, Ireally really enjoy seeing archetypes in colors they do not usually appear in. For instance, two of my favourite decks currently are Mathas, Fiend Seeker spellslinger and Jeskai Blink (lists in my sig). A friend of mine had a cool Temur land matters deck, Varina, Lich Queen Omnitribal and a Gisela, Blade of Goldnight deck that wins with Pariah and Boros Reckoner effects. Another friend has a monogreen spellslinger deck. I enjoy these decks as they are new and underplayed strategies in their colors.
Riku of Two Reflections - Copy, then copy again | Shattergang Brothers - Token Sac&Recur | Gahiji, Honored One - Multiple attack steps | Karametra, God of Harvests - Landfall, Creaturefall, Shroud | Ruhan of the Fomori - Stop hitting yourself | Zurgo Helmsmasher - Equipment&Wraths | Crosis, the Purger - Dragon Tribal Reanimator | Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - No stax, just tap and untap fun | Anafenza, the Foremost - Enduring Ideal Enchantress | Sharuum, the Hegemon - Sphinx Tribal Control | Noyan Dar - Spellslinger | The Mimeoplasm - Counterpalooza
Lists can be found here.
Still convinced the guy on Beseech the Queen is wearing a Mitra-type hat. Wake up sheeple!
To xcric - Every deck I own has some Stax/Tax element. Some are lighter and some are more oppressive, but I prefer disruption to heavy counter magic. It’s also harder to play than the “victim” think. Their are a lot of lines and you risk hurting yourself if your opponent skillfully handles your resistor components.
People complain a lot so I’m glad to see other admit Stax can be entertaining.
Mayael the Anima. It was my first deck. I've had it since 2011. And I still enjoy playing it. There's something pure about just ramping, playing big creatures, and turning them sideways. I also enjoy the randomness of spinning Mayael to see what big dumb creature I get
* Tribal, particularly the cool but impractical ones like dragons, angels, giants, and birds. I dunno, I just prefer to see most of a deck going for a focused theme with their creatures rather than "These are the best fatties in my colors". The tribes that aren't competitive at all but are still fun to mess around with are my particular favorites because you are inclined to be more creative in building them to make it work.
* Chaos/Stax/Group Hug. But only in moderation of course. The cool thing about EDH is that the game can go in really bizarre directions you wouldn't get with only 2 players and 20 life. Again, it has to be in moderation because we all want to play the game the way we plan to every so often :3c
Control - both the classic blue counter based control and the more removal/boardwipe centric versions. I just can't seem to get bored of being able to interact with my opponents gameplans. Particularly in a multiplayer format like EDH where threat assessment and conservation of resources become so much more important, the archetype is such a joy to play.
janky combos (i'm trying to pull off the teferi's protection - lethal vapors natural mill everyone else out of the game...eventually combo)
suicide RB. I'm guessing very few players are willing to do turn 1 dark ritual, cruel bargain just to dump some fatties to reanimate turn 2.
mono-u-Tempo is also a fun archetype to play in edh. it really makes you sharpen up your threat assessment skill when your answers are all tempo-based and not value-based, and it's always fun forcing all the durdly mid-range decks to play a pressure game.
I'm always on the lookout for archetypes that "don't work in EDH" just to see if it's possible to make work.
Mine:
1) Decks that actually involve combat, instead of ones that self-preserves till a combo shows up.
2) Decks that encourage people to take action, even universal effect like Helm of Awakening and one as blunt as Thantis, the Warweaver, rather than decks that keep saying NO at every turn (like Grand Arbiter Augustin IV).
3) Decks that play well with politics, like Pharika, God of Affliction and Phelddagrif.
4) Decks that blend and make use of blended card types, like Enchantment Creature or Land Creature.
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
a lot of people complain every game the is the same. my feeling is the opposite. its always am i going to stop it this time, how can i stop it, how are they going to pull it off, how difficult can i make it to pull off, how can i pull off my own while stopping theirs. that all, combined with having to find ways to protect your own or stop someone elses it forces you to think about your deck in a different light and modify it accordingly. it ends up being a MUCH more interactive game where you're not just goldfishing but instead actively trying to push your own boardstate while stopping someone elses. its just that the wins are more spectacular and seemingly out of nowhere than just turn dudes sideways
stax
slow and grindy? sure! but again, once someone pops up with a stax deck thats effective it forces you to deal with it or play the most miserable game imaginable, and even then you're trying to figure out how to beat it rather than just complaining that you can't do anything
GENERATION 12: The first time you see this, copy and paste it into your signature and add 1 to the generation number. It's a social experiment.
- Reanimator: I don't know why, I'm a necromancer at heart. There's a bit of bleedover (pardon the pun) with control and reanimator in a lot of my decks, these are just two of the elements I really get a kick from every time.
- Politics: I don't have any particular deck that plays specifically to this theme - my Zedruu build is chaos as much as anything - although several of my decks work better when played in the context of political intrigue rather than a race to the finish line. Again, there's a bit of blurring the lines where control, politics and threat assessment meet. This is the part of EDH I probably struggle most with, but it's where games can be won or lost. More importantly, it's where games get the most fun, if all goes well: the best example I can think of in this respect - Collective Voyage is steadily becoming my favourite card to play. Not because it allows me to combo off, but because every single time I've ever played it, the game has only got more epic, more hilarious, or more fun.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Combat-oriented decks, seeking to win in the red zone. I like turning creatures sideways. I like playing against decks that do the same. That's not all I like - I play most archetypes other than superfriends, chaos and group hug - but a lot of my decks are designed for combat.
Stax. Stax all the time is tedious and asocial, but an occasional game against a stax deck is an interesting challenge, especially if it's not a super-tuned monstrosity.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
So my answer is : i usually don't have an issue with any archetype, maybe all in combo decks, are kinda boring.
My Helpdesk
[Pr] Marath | [Pr] Lovisa | Jodah | Saskia | Najeela | Yisan | Lord Windgrace | Atraxa | Meren | Gisa and Geralf
its god damn beautiful
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
I generally avoid certain archetypes to avoid bad blood in my playgroup, but there's really nothing I'd NEVER play again.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Jace cards.
Theros things.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
But my voltron deck is now headed by Archangel Avacyn along with better equipment,so hopefully it will kill at least one person next time I play it.
That is to say, decks that slowly get more and more things that benefit from doing the same kind of stuff over and over again. When a thing dies and get ten different triggers from different cards, I'm in my zone. Or when I cast an instant or sorcery spell, it better be either copied seven times to Sunday (Jeleva) or benefit half my nonland permanents (Yidris). Or piling ALL the +1/+1 counters on an indestructible hexproof trample dragon and her friends (Dromoka).
I don't go half-measures when I reach for a theme, and yes, Planar Cleansing and its' ilk are the bane of my existence. I have decks that play counterspells almost solely because wraths exist.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Tamanoa - Welcome to the Jungle
Lists can be found here.
People complain a lot so I’m glad to see other admit Stax can be entertaining.
Bruse Tarl & Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
Mayael the Anima
* Chaos/Stax/Group Hug. But only in moderation of course. The cool thing about EDH is that the game can go in really bizarre directions you wouldn't get with only 2 players and 20 life. Again, it has to be in moderation because we all want to play the game the way we plan to every so often :3c
* Strange themes. I've seen a Phelddagrif deck that uses only the most bizarre creatures in magic like Horrible Hordes and Vizzerdrix. I've seen a lady use a Kaalia of the Vast deck that tries to force the game into a draw with damage all player effects and Divine Intervention + Vampire Hexmage. My favorite though was some guy's Bayonetta themed Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge deck with cards like Halo Hunter, Moonsilver Spear and Time Stop.
I've been wanting to do that ever since I found Divine Intervention, but now the price for it has spiked hard...
I still enjoy playing my Relentless Rats deck
suicide RB. I'm guessing very few players are willing to do turn 1 dark ritual, cruel bargain just to dump some fatties to reanimate turn 2.
mono-u-Tempo is also a fun archetype to play in edh. it really makes you sharpen up your threat assessment skill when your answers are all tempo-based and not value-based, and it's always fun forcing all the durdly mid-range decks to play a pressure game.
I'm always on the lookout for archetypes that "don't work in EDH" just to see if it's possible to make work.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom