MTG Salvation

So my deck style is most typically "repeatedly answer the board until I combo," even with Ephara where I'm playing a good number of permanents they are usually there to stall until I can win with a combo or Elesh Norn type stuff or a rift, etc.

My new shop is quite a bit more, well, proactive, than I am used to. People over-commit a lot and there's a lot of voltron and just giant fatties crashing around.

The only thing I really know is that I'm pretty sure I want to play Gaea's Cradle and Consecrated Sphinx.

Some things I'm trying to work out:

* what kinda ramp package to run
* what commander
* How to balance bombs/card draw/enablers?


This is just naturally really against how I build decks which tend to be super focused on a theme, and usually don't want to commit to the board very much. But I feel really compelled to build something that's just out there to bash face like Jund or something instead of playing intricate interactions or whatever.

Hope some of this makes sense I'm not opposed to synergy or anything but I think I'd like something that really topdecks well.

I built an almost all literally draw, and all mana Simic deck, that is super hard to beat if people are playing in their own little world.
I think this is the best "casual" deck you can have, as you don't touch opponents permanents, so weirdly people leave you alone.
It just draw more than opponents, and it just gets more mana than opponents, which is hard to stop if nobody is dealing with you.

This list is at least a year old now, so there will be new stuff you can add, but it'll give you an idea.

Hey dude, thanks for replying. I have read a lot of your posts so sincerely appreciate it.

What I see there is something I kinda didn't talk about which us my gitrog deck. Which is probably my only good proactive deck.

And it kinda overlaps conceptually here. I kinda am thinking of something more midrange I guess that plays more to the board and maybe doesn't go so nuts with the draw and ramp.

I'm not sure how to describe it exactly. You do hit a ton of the high points of stuff I am imagining. Straight up just awesome stuff like sylvan library and rhystic study, exploration, gsz, top, time spiral.

But when it gets to the low synergy busted mana rocks...is that maybe just necessary now to play this kind of deck? My buddy who plays more this style tends to do it so maybe it's just the way to go.

It always feels wrong to me to slap a grim monolith in something without an untap package like key tezz clock etc.

Sorry for rambling, it's just really outside my comfort zone deck building wise and I'm trying to do something different that adds a new playstyle to my stable. Most everything I build new these days has a very brief lifespan.

Feel free to check out any of the decks in my sig, as that sounds like a playgroup I'd be right at home in.

I can't really help with the mentality disconnect as I hit it from the other end to you - I just wouldn't run that Grim Monolith package unless there were a lot of artifacts in the deck anyway, and even then possibly not (at least deliberately). Feels like something where I'd throw the cards in the 15 games later the stars would align and I'd be like "Huh, that goes infinite".

Dragonlover

So are you more wanting to play creatures that you can turn sideways for beatdowns?

Yeah the key really is I don't want to combo out. People started looking at me sideways when I combo'd out a couple times - even though that is my inclination of how best to play in commander is either aggro-combo or combo-control, I think I need an option that just puts out giant creatures and stomps face.

I'm kinda expanding my search a little considering tokens decks as well - I have all the crap for making basically anything except another bazaar deck at this point. Earthcraft, survival, cradle, that kinda stuff.

I'm kinda thinking I might like Prime Speaker, as the idea of not having to jam like 10 card draw effects in there feels nice, but also considering Damia.

The issue there is getting the balance right so that I have enough interactive stuff but also draw enough fatties? Bleh

I did slap together a kinda draft of a Damia shell I thought was somewhat appealing, but it doesn't feel quite right and has lots of just random dudes.

https://deckbox.org/sets/2381872

Not really sure I should leave deadeye/palinchron in there or not but it might be an OK safety valve - I just have a palinchron I kinda wouldn't mind playing

I had a look at the Damia list and the thing is that you're still playing control role with massive value, and really the only one you have in there for beats is the Wurmcoil Engine. Sure Avenger of Zendikar will produce attackers as well, but it's more like a combo creature.

The problem with putting in Palinchron with Deadeye Navigator is that 7/10 times you'll be winning with that, with the other probably being Deadeye Navigator with Avenger of Zendikar. 1/10 of the time you'll probably get a legit turn value creatures sideways for normal beatdowns.

I guess what I'm saying is that I can see it's super hard for you to get away from classic commander wins, which is fine, but if you want to have opponents stop looking at you sideways, then you've got to not be tempted by the better commander interactions.

I think a token strategy sounds good. Still can do powerful things, but readily accepted in more causal play groups.

Yeah, I couldn't really think of any other fatties I wanted to play, lol For now I chucked those guys and added Sphinx and Kamahl, but I think it feels like fundamentally this kind of deck is going to be having to control more than I am looking for.

Got any thoughts on token commanders that're fun?

Surprised nobody's brought up Maelstrom Wanderer yet. That thing weaponises goodstuff like a champ.

Wanderer is an interesting thought. Weirdly I have not seen a single one of these around the shop, seems like it's kinda aged out a lot.

It'd kinda do some of both of what I want which is to put my stupid mana rock collection to use and do fair-ish stuff to win.

Good thought No real need to combo since wanderer plus fatties = gg most of the time with him giving the team haste.

Maybe funny anecdote:

First time my buddy played his wanderer deck, my other friend who was playing with us stopped him during the attack step and was like,

B1 "Wait, what's giving them all haste?"
B2 "uh, maelstrom wanderer?"
B1 "What? Where's that, in his effing flavor text?"

THanks for all the input folks, think I've decided to go with Maelstrom Wanderer. Just does too many of the things I'm after and I can always crank it up with a food chain or something if it's not good enough.

MW fixing both the card draw aspect, haste enabler, and providing some explosive mana without going infinite--pretty much checks all the boxes and opens up deckbuilding a bit.

I only had to buy about 40 bucks in cards to finish the draft so that was nice.

Maelstrom Wanderer without Food Chain is good fun. I really liked it. My biggest problem was card draw when MW got answered in a way that was not easily dealt with (like Song of the Dryads), but, that wasn't so hard to shore up.

Definitely not a deck for Reliquary Tower.

Yeah, I've liked it so far. Got pretty much the reactions I expected which is "Well, yeah, we didn't stop you from cloning avenger and playing 7 lands so we get what we get."

Here's what I built in case anyone who helpfully posted was interested in the outcome

https://deckbox.org/sets/2383669

And unfortunately I need to get another copy of Intuition. Bleh.

I'll probably make a post in the decklist forum I guess after I get done testing. Really appreciate everyone's input.