Anyone's thoughts on Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker I haven't play him yet but having just experienced Koth's emblem I'm curious as to what's realistic, I just keep fearing he's going to end up being too low of an impact. Though acting as a 4/4 beater that dodges the inferno seems synergistic...
Seems like Koth is the better choice between the two, unless you really need Sarkhan's -2 ability for some reason. The +1 abilities on the two are pretty much the same, and Koth's emblem is way more high-impact if you can land it.
I have both in currently, the question is would it be better to run another mana rock or magebane armor. I'll get around to posting my deck soon and people can give me options. Right now it's very similar to Weebo's build, a little more budget though...
is the stuff of nightmares for me. I have a sliver deck with full revised duals, and people even having drinks at the table gives me the heebie-jeebies. I also have a lot of classic cards like The Abyss and Mana Drain in my decks, and sometimes I wonder if I should just liquidate everything before they get liquid-ruined.
I had it happen once before with another CCG; and I had to cut the sleeves to get the cards out...
Again this in not like making love, double bagging it is the best thing you can do. My decks are only worth like $400 but I still double bag every card.
Anyone's thoughts on Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker I haven't play him yet but having just experienced Koth's emblem I'm curious as to what's realistic, I just keep fearing he's going to end up being too low of an impact. Though acting as a 4/4 beater that dodges the inferno seems synergistic...
I think I put him below Phoenix in general. They fill a similar role, but the Phoenix come back when they get killed off by anything, can be discarded before being played the first time, and can't be attacked by other players. Sarkhan is at his best when you're facing down a mostly empty board but can't finish off a game quickly, which is an awkward spot. His ultimate is decent card draw but almost guarantees you're not going to be able to use Jaya on other players' turns. I agree wit hWyvern that Koth is the better choice if you're looking for a walker.
With that in mind he will be getting the axe in favor of something else...
Now that it's been out for a little while, have many people had much experience with Kozilek, the Great Distortion? I felt like he was the perfect mix of dire threat, control-options and card draw for Jaya, but I haven't actually been able to table my copy.
Old post but nobody had a good answer.
As with any card, I think the best policy is to try it yourself in your own deck and see if it performs the way you want it to. Keep it in your deck and see how it goes.
I found Kozi to be pretty poorly positioned in my own deck. Just too much had to go right for him to be a good card.
I needed to be low on cards in hand, which is something I'm already building my deck to avoid happening. I needed CC in my manabase, which is something that is not guanteed and actually very possible to not have. I also needed him to be relevant once in play, I felt he was too often able to be chumped easily or would just eat a removal spell when I didn't have a card of the same cost in hand. I just couldn't get him to work for me, but you should still try him out.
I just got an Emrakul, the Promised End that I am trying out in my deck atm. Haven't been able to cast it yet, but it's worth noting that the card has some fun synergy with Stranglehold.
Now that it's been out for a little while, have many people had much experience with Kozilek, the Great Distortion? I felt like he was the perfect mix of dire threat, control-options and card draw for Jaya, but I haven't actually been able to table my copy.
Old post but nobody had a good answer.
As with any card, I think the best policy is to try it yourself in your own deck and see if it performs the way you want it to. Keep it in your deck and see how it goes.
I found Kozi to be pretty poorly positioned in my own deck. Just too much had to go right for him to be a good card.
I needed to be low on cards in hand, which is something I'm already building my deck to avoid happening. I needed CC in my manabase, which is something that is not guanteed and actually very possible to not have. I also needed him to be relevant once in play, I felt he was too often able to be chumped easily or would just eat a removal spell when I didn't have a card of the same cost in hand. I just couldn't get him to work for me, but you should still try him out.
I just got an Emrakul, the Promised End that I am trying out in my deck atm. Haven't been able to cast it yet, but it's worth noting that the card has some fun synergy with Stranglehold.
Certainly; I just haven't drawn him. I play commander maybe once a week to every two weeks, and I have a lot of decks, so actually seeing Kozilek show up is not common. It's not like I plan on discounting my own experience in favour of the tales of others.
I just added Kozi + 1 Wastes to my list, but haven't seen him yet. I was keeping an eye on my colorless sources the last couple games and wouldn't have had any trouble casting him, outside of Blood Moon.
Speaking of, I had a build your own Mana Flare situation the other day with Moon + Gauntlet of Might that was pretty entertaining. That game was going places before the aforementioned coffee spill. The game before that Commune with Lava got me killed by forecasting a table-killing Comet Storm. That said, it also dug to the table-killing Comet Storm. Also notable was Gauntlet of Power dodging targeted artifact removal twice because of Basilisk Collar and Repercussion. I appreciate that my playgroup is more worried about those than the mana doubler.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
It's been my experience that, if you have a lot of lands in play (let's say, 12 or more), people just sort of treat that as "infinite mana," and that you'd be able to cast everything you wanted whether you have the mana doubler in play or not. Therefore, stuff like Gauntlets and Caged Sun move down on the "must kill" list.
Repercussion... you know, now that you bring it up, it's been like ten games since I've gotten to cast one. Most of the time I don't even see it. And that's terrible.
The first one was actually pretty early, around 6-7 lands. I was surprised when he went after Collar instead of Gauntlet, but I'm not going to complain too much. I think everyone at that table has seen Collar take me to a comfortable triple digit life total and he didn't really want that to happen. The second one was after the Commune flipped Comet Storm, so he was dead either way if I got another turn. Killing Repercussion just gave him slightly better odds of surviving, though it didn't actually matter in the end.
Repercussion is one of my favorite cards in this list. It basically threatens lethal against anyone playing a creature strategy. I hope you see it again soon.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
It definitely have what it takes. It's almost like having Wild Guess on a land. Plays well with a lot of cards, especially Squee, Goblin Nabob (I play him as my commander).
I think Geier Reach Sanitarium is going to be sneaking into my list anyone else feel like this land might have what it takes?
I have a Geier Reach Sanitarium set aside for Ms. Ballard, but I'm trying to get a good feel for which one of my existing nonbasics is disappointing enough to swap out for it. Right now I think it's going to be High Market, since the corner cases where it's good have not been turning up for me recently (i.e., someone trying to steal Jaya, mitigating the damage from my own Repercussion, etc.)
I think Geier Reach Sanitarium is going to be sneaking into my list anyone else feel like this land might have what it takes?
I think Sanitarium is excellent. You already want to be playing the support cards it takes to break the symmetry on it so it's not unreasonable to expect you're going to get more use out of the looting than most opponents. Just use it responsibly (e.g. don't loot early for no reason against a reanimator deck).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
I think Geier Reach Sanitarium is going to be sneaking into my list anyone else feel like this land might have what it takes?
I think Sanitarium is excellent. You already want to be playing the support cards it takes to break the symmetry on it so it's not unreasonable to expect you're going to get more use out of the looting than most opponents. Just use it responsibly (e.g. don't loot early for no reason against a reanimator deck).
And don't copy it with Vesuva - it's easy to forget, but it's legendary!
Saw Kozilek, the Great Distortion last night. Had him in my opening seven (with a reasonable other six including Crucible/fetch, so it wasn't too terrible a fate). Made land drops for ten turns, dropped Kozilek, drew three cards, countered two or three spells, and swung for a total of 36. There was obviously some other stuff going on there, like the lethal turn with Chandra, Flamecaller's +1 into Chandra Ablaze's +1 to kill someone at 22 in conjunction with Kozi, but he had an enormous impact on the game. If he continues to perform like that I'll be very happy with him.
Inventor's Fair out of Kaladesh is a great, great card and a snap include somewhere. Mouth of Ronom may have seen its final days once that drops, though ditching Hoarding Dragon is also a possibility. The benefits of the snow manabase are shrinking, though I think Skred alone is still a good enough reason.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
I think Chandra just got the Mindsculpter / Chainvail treatment, Chandra, Torch of Defiance is going right in as a strictly better version of pyromaster.
Not strictly better, because she can't play lands off the top. She's still amazing though.
Um her first +1 ability still allows you to play the card off the top (land or otherwise) you just don't get the 2 damage component. It is strictly better as it also bumps her loyalty up making her harder to kill while also inching her closer to her ultimate. The only thing she is worse off at it killing creatures with 1 toughness as you have to reduce her loyalty by a heaver amount but I don't find Jaya has an issue dealing with other peoples small utility creatures.
Edit: I'm guessing you didn't read the post and thought I was talking about the other big Chandra and not the new spoiled one from Kaladesh....
Not strictly better, because she can't play lands off the top. She's still amazing though.
Um her first +1 ability still allows you to play the card off the top (land or otherwise) you just don't get the 2 damage component. It is strictly better as it also bumps her loyalty up making her harder to kill while also inching her closer to her ultimate. The only thing she is worse off at it killing creatures with 1 toughness as you have to reduce her loyalty by a heaver amount but I don't find Jaya has an issue dealing with other peoples small utility creatures.
Edit: I'm guessing you didn't read the post and thought I was talking about the other big Chandra and not the new spoiled one from Kaladesh....
The thing is, you can't "cast" a land if I'm correct. So if the top card is a land, it will stay exiled, but you will still Shock your opponents.
I'm pretty hyped for this planeswalker myself. She does so many things, "draw" cards, hits opponents and creatures and "ramp". And if you manage to get that emblem, it should be a done deal
No interest in new Chandra for this deck. She's too high profile for too little benefit. Her card advantage +1 is less flexible than the other Chandra options (can't play lands, must cast during resolution of ability, can't discard) and the damage is unlikely to be very relevant aside from drawing attention to her. The mana +1 is fine. The -3 is too high a cost for too little effect, especially in Jaya. The ultimate is powerful, but I doubt it's powerful enough to end the game before you get dogpiled. It's also never going to happen outside of scenarios where you were already winning. Three full turn cycles is a lot, especially when the first +1 and ultimate draw so much attention to her.
If it turns out I'm misevaluating her, I'll revisit. Right now it seems like she's being overhyped in large part because of the similarities to JtMS. She's a decent card for 60-card formats and I think she could have a place in some EDH decks. I don't think this is one of them.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
The thing is, you can't "cast" a land if I'm correct. So if the top card is a land, it will stay exiled, but you will still Shock your opponents.
I'm pretty hyped for this planeswalker myself. She does so many things, "draw" cards, hits opponents and creatures and "ramp". And if you manage to get that emblem, it should be a done deal
My mistake after a rules check was unaware of the difference specific to lands. But makes sense.
- - -
I don't know how I'll evaluate her knowing now that you can't play lands but at least in my playground a planeswalker doming people for two isn't going to really draw much attention and many people are now picking up walkers in there decks. It's going to be interesting because a lot of the people in my group are relatively knew with 1-2 other vet players.
It is nice that you can play Jaya for 3, pass and then slap Chandra down +1 for RR and Incinerate something.
I suppose any planeswalker with four abilities is worth a look, but I can see her competing with Koth of the Hammer and Chandra, Pyromaster for a slot.
yea, i think she's good, playable even. Just like, how many chandras is too many? lmao. I have pyromaster(best in edh imo) and then ablaze. Like you can only have 1 Chandra out. I think she's good enough to see play if you pull one and are missing either chandras or koth. I wouldnt buy her though, shes gonna see play in standard and modern forever.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I have both in currently, the question is would it be better to run another mana rock or magebane armor. I'll get around to posting my deck soon and people can give me options. Right now it's very similar to Weebo's build, a little more budget though...
Again this in not like making love, double bagging it is the best thing you can do. My decks are only worth like $400 but I still double bag every card.
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
Creatures
1 Goblin Welder
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Deal Broker
1 Anger
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Stuffy Doll
1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
1 Hoarding Dragon
1 Magma Phoenix
1 Skarrgan Firebird
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
Enchantments
1 Braid of Fire
1 Repercussion
1 Blood Moon
1 Outpost Siege
1 Gratuitous Violence
Planeswalkers
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Daretti, Scrao Savant
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Sarkhan, the Dragon Speaker
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
1 Chandra Ablaze
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Wayfare's Bauble
1 Mind Stone
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Torpor Ord
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Distorting Lens
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Journeyer's Kite
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Tower of Fortunes
1 Batterskull
1 Gaunlet of Power
1 Mind's Eye
1 Caged Sun
1 Staff of Nin
1 Akroma's Memorial
Instant
1 Skred
1 Commune with Lava
1 Comet Storm
1 Chaos Wrap
1 Shattering Spree
1 Faithless Looting
1 Vandalblast
1 Gamble
1 Wild Guess
1 Ruination
1 Past in Flames
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Wake of Destruction
1 All is Dust
1 Blasphemous Act
Lands
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Haunted Fengraf
1 Mouth of Ronom
1 Flamekin Village
1 Buried Ruin
1 Hanweir Battlements
1 Terrain Generator
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Kher Keep
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Strip Mine
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Tower of the Magistrate
21 Snow-Covered Mountain
With that in mind he will be getting the axe in favor of something else...
UBRNicol Bolas, the RavagerUBR
R Jaya Ballard, Task Mage R
2DH / Budget Commanders:
WMangara of Corondor 2DHW
BRXantcha, Sleeper Agent 2DHBR
Old post but nobody had a good answer.
As with any card, I think the best policy is to try it yourself in your own deck and see if it performs the way you want it to. Keep it in your deck and see how it goes.
I found Kozi to be pretty poorly positioned in my own deck. Just too much had to go right for him to be a good card.
I needed to be low on cards in hand, which is something I'm already building my deck to avoid happening. I needed CC in my manabase, which is something that is not guanteed and actually very possible to not have. I also needed him to be relevant once in play, I felt he was too often able to be chumped easily or would just eat a removal spell when I didn't have a card of the same cost in hand. I just couldn't get him to work for me, but you should still try him out.
I just got an Emrakul, the Promised End that I am trying out in my deck atm. Haven't been able to cast it yet, but it's worth noting that the card has some fun synergy with Stranglehold.
http://www.commandercast.com/category/articles/generally-speaking
Follow me on Twitter: @generalspeak
Speaking of, I had a build your own Mana Flare situation the other day with Moon + Gauntlet of Might that was pretty entertaining. That game was going places before the aforementioned coffee spill. The game before that Commune with Lava got me killed by forecasting a table-killing Comet Storm. That said, it also dug to the table-killing Comet Storm. Also notable was Gauntlet of Power dodging targeted artifact removal twice because of Basilisk Collar and Repercussion. I appreciate that my playgroup is more worried about those than the mana doubler.
Repercussion... you know, now that you bring it up, it's been like ten games since I've gotten to cast one. Most of the time I don't even see it. And that's terrible.
Repercussion is one of my favorite cards in this list. It basically threatens lethal against anyone playing a creature strategy. I hope you see it again soon.
UBRNicol Bolas, the RavagerUBR
R Jaya Ballard, Task Mage R
2DH / Budget Commanders:
WMangara of Corondor 2DHW
BRXantcha, Sleeper Agent 2DHBR
I have a Geier Reach Sanitarium set aside for Ms. Ballard, but I'm trying to get a good feel for which one of my existing nonbasics is disappointing enough to swap out for it. Right now I think it's going to be High Market, since the corner cases where it's good have not been turning up for me recently (i.e., someone trying to steal Jaya, mitigating the damage from my own Repercussion, etc.)
And don't copy it with Vesuva - it's easy to forget, but it's legendary!
Inventor's Fair out of Kaladesh is a great, great card and a snap include somewhere. Mouth of Ronom may have seen its final days once that drops, though ditching Hoarding Dragon is also a possibility. The benefits of the snow manabase are shrinking, though I think Skred alone is still a good enough reason.
Even if I removed Skred, I would keep my manabase as snow purely for flavour reasons.
You're the kind of person I want in my Commander pods.
UBRNicol Bolas, the RavagerUBR
R Jaya Ballard, Task Mage R
2DH / Budget Commanders:
WMangara of Corondor 2DHW
BRXantcha, Sleeper Agent 2DHBR
Edit: I'm guessing you didn't read the post and thought I was talking about the other big Chandra and not the new spoiled one from Kaladesh....
UBRNicol Bolas, the RavagerUBR
R Jaya Ballard, Task Mage R
2DH / Budget Commanders:
WMangara of Corondor 2DHW
BRXantcha, Sleeper Agent 2DHBR
The thing is, you can't "cast" a land if I'm correct. So if the top card is a land, it will stay exiled, but you will still Shock your opponents.
I'm pretty hyped for this planeswalker myself. She does so many things, "draw" cards, hits opponents and creatures and "ramp". And if you manage to get that emblem, it should be a done deal
If it turns out I'm misevaluating her, I'll revisit. Right now it seems like she's being overhyped in large part because of the similarities to JtMS. She's a decent card for 60-card formats and I think she could have a place in some EDH decks. I don't think this is one of them.
My mistake after a rules check was unaware of the difference specific to lands. But makes sense.
- - -
I don't know how I'll evaluate her knowing now that you can't play lands but at least in my playground a planeswalker doming people for two isn't going to really draw much attention and many people are now picking up walkers in there decks. It's going to be interesting because a lot of the people in my group are relatively knew with 1-2 other vet players.
It is nice that you can play Jaya for 3, pass and then slap Chandra down +1 for RR and Incinerate something.
UBRNicol Bolas, the RavagerUBR
R Jaya Ballard, Task Mage R
2DH / Budget Commanders:
WMangara of Corondor 2DHW
BRXantcha, Sleeper Agent 2DHBR