Interesting that you bring it up. Two nights ago I played two triple-threat games with Mazirek. I won both games. I was going to use the weekend to write up what happened during the matches (the first one I won on the 5th turn). The other was against a 5C Enduring Ideal enchantment heavy deck that ran both Humility and Overwhelming Splendor. It also ran cards like Arcane Laboratory and Moat. However, my creatures had +1/+1 counters on them by the time Humility entered the battlefield. However, when Moat entered, that's an entirely different story. I Golgari Charm'ed the Moat and then kept attacking the player without enchantments. Once that player was gone, I cast Wave of Vitriol and the enchantment player basically scooped. On not casting Wave of Vitriol when a Humility is play - it doesn't really matter. Losing the opportunity for all those counters doesn't trump leaving that opponent preventing you from playing.
I don't really need so many tutors because you're not going to have every single response possible in a deck. It all basically depends on your meta. That's why I do 90% of my testing on Cockatrice since I'm playing against decks from all walks of life. I'm fine with leaving those threats to other players because they're global. Chances are that cards like Arcane Laboratory, Moat, and Humility hurt most players. Hopefully some more than you that have answers. In that game I mentioned, Humility hurt the 3rd player more than me. So I left it there because the +1/+1 counters already present gave me the advantage. Then, I dealt with the enchantment player. So it was advantageous for me in that situation. You shouldn't waste all your own resources in multiplayer commander because you're helping others more than yourself. You're technically hurting your target and hurting yourself slightly less because your helping everyone else while they don't have to spend their own resources.
As for the two games I mentioned, hopefully I'll have some time during the weekend to sit and review the game replays and discuss them here.
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And if I may add, you have a typo in the card choice explanation section, with Marionette Master "they life equal to Marionette Masters power"
Not only that but this line
"However, if the temptation is too much, I will give some great substitutes so as to not hurt (too much) the integrity of the deck." should be changed to "as to not hurt the integrity of the deck (too much)."
Black Market is a great way to get mana. However, even though I have some high-costed spells, I don't really have any worthwhile mana sinks. So it's not as impacting for me.
Bone Splinters may be cheap, but it only gets one sacrifice trigger - my own. I'd rather run Innocent Blood, which has the same mana cost, and can give me multiple sacrifice triggers. I also run Eliminate the Competition, which is pretty much the same effect but with a variable number.
Bramblewood Paragon would undoubtedly give all my creatures trample. However, with all the sacrificing, my opponents aren't left with many creatures anyway. So I'd rather clear their board instead. That guarantees getting through with combat damage.
I tried Catacomb Sifter but I'd rather use Viscera Seer. It's cheaper to cast and it's ability is linked with a free sacrifice outlet.
Disciple of Bolas is great but I honestly have no room for it in the deck. With all the creature recursion it would be easy to use its ability multiple times, but that would require more workaround than something like Harvester of Souls for card advantage.
Dryad Arbor is a card I'd like to try and find some space for. It's tutorable with the fetchlands and can trigger The Gitrog Monster when killed.
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I think you should cut Dark Prophecy as it has its ups and downs, and with all the sacrifices, it can easily become deadly for you. Though that card draw is relevant, the life loss ends up bringing you down quite substantially. I personally think that Dark Prophecy isn't as relevant as one would think, as the only way to gain life is Liliana, and she doesn't stay a creature long enough to make Prophecy worth playing. I've cast it 10 times, and each time it proved far less effective when compared to something like Inspiring Call and in some cases it proved fatal.
I think you could add Dryad Arbor in its place but before you decide to put the Arbor in, please take a look at these cards:
Demon of Death's Gate - 3 Sacrifice Triggers, the immediate life loss is almost irrelevant due to how small it is, and a very big threat.
Kuon, Ogre Ascendant - Not hard to kill 3 creatures in 1 turn, and once flipped, provides a constant "sac outlet"
But I personally think you have a great mana base currently and don't need to add Arbor or Tower.
P.S Dryad is a land creature, you can only play the Arbor or a land on the same turn, you can't play a land followed by a Dryad Arbor(Unless you use something like Green Sun's Zenith) just FYI.
I think you should cut Dark Prophecy as it has its ups and downs, and with all the sacrifices, it can easily become deadly for you. Though that card draw is relevant, the life loss ends up bringing you down quite substantially. I personally think that Dark Prophecy isn't as relevant as one would think, as the only way to gain life is Liliana, and she doesn't stay a creature long enough to make Prophecy worth playing. I've cast it 10 times, and each time it proved far less effective when compared to something like Inspiring Call and in some cases it proved fatal.
I think you could add Dryad Arbor in its place but before you decide to put the Arbor in, please take a look at these cards:
Demon of Death's Gate - 3 Sacrifice Triggers, the immediate life loss is almost irrelevant due to how small it is, and a very big threat.
Kuon, Ogre Ascendant - Not hard to kill 3 creatures in 1 turn, and once flipped, provides a constant "sac outlet"
But I personally think you have a great mana base currently and don't need to add Arbor or Tower.
P.S Dryad is a land creature, you can only play the Arbor or a land on the same turn, you can't play a land followed by a Dryad Arbor(Unless you use something like Green Sun's Zenith) just FYI.
Hm, you do have a point on Dark Prophecy. So far I haven't had issues with it but you're right on how it could potentially kill me off. As for Dryad Arbor, I know I can't play additional lands with it (unless I have The Gitrog Monster out); I merely stated that I can tutor for it with a fetchland - which I can.
Demon of Death's Gate isn't a bad creature to add since it can be quite troublesome early on. However, all it's good for is attacking/blocking; it doesn't really do anything else. There are literally thousands of cards that are great in this deck, so I want to try and keep cards that either do more than one thing, are very synergistic, or have a great/lasting impact.
Kuon, Ogre Ascendant I really like, though. It costs exactly the same, is a creature, and can flip relatively easily - as you said. It becomes an enchantment, which is harder to get rid of and forces a sacrifice trigger each upkeep. It's definitely something to consider.
In the end, if I were to swap out Dark Prophecy, I would rather it be for a card that does something similar, albeit with a "you may" clause. While I run it I will have to be weary of killing myself off due to the life loss, though. Thanks for pointing that out!
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Turn 3:
I draw a Llanowar Elves. I play the Forest and cast Ramunap Excavator which triggers the evolve on Gyre Sage, which I then tap to cast Llanowar Elves.
Tana + Kondo drop a Mountain and cast Whispersilk Cloak.
Haakon drops a Snow-Covered Swamp and casts Arrogant Bloodlord.
At this point, I'd feel that the deck was running a bit slow since I'm usually able to cast Mazirek by turn 3. However, since my opponents haven't been doing anything significant these turns, I'm not too worried about my speed.
Turn 4:
I draw Bitter Ordeal. I tap all lands, Llanowar Elves, and Gyre Sage to cast Mazirek. I then drop Verdant Catacombs. Then I pass the turn.
Tana + Kondo plays Command Tower then casts Tana, the Bloodsower.
Haakon plays a Snow-Covered Swamp then passes. And the end of that turn I crack the fetchland and search for a basic Swamp. That triggers Mazirek and my creatures each get a +1/+1 counter. At that point I comment to the other players that WotC have been lopsided for not printing enemy "dual lands" with the same frequency as allied lands.
Turn 6:
I draw Tireless Tracker. Again, I use Ramunap Excavator to play Verdant Catacombs from the graveyard. I then declare attack to Tana + Kondo, which loses to combat damage. Then Haakon simply conceded after that.
Without getting an early commander casting, I'd say the deck ran very smoothly. Was lucky enough to get a turn 3 Ramunap Excavator with a Verdant Catacombs in hand. It was also helpful that my opponents had a slow start. Granted, I used a watered-down version of my Creatures Matter Build, but none of the very oppressive cards made an appearance.
As for the budget substitutes I mentioned earlier, this is what I'm playing in real life. The version in the primer is what I play in Cockatrice. I own a gold-bordered Gaea's Cradle but I use that in my Edric, Spymaster of Trest deck. I own a Doubling Season but I use that in my Atraxa, Praetors' Voice deck. Commander is a curious format; there's no doubt that thanks to opaque sleeves, people can use (in a casual environment) square-cornered or gold-bordered cards. I reach this conclusion because the collector's edition version of cards like Timetwister are ridiculously expensive. The gold-bordered Gaea's Cradle is now at $50.
Curiously, I'm considering making the Living Plane into Nature's Revolt swap permanent. I remember once playing in Cockatrice someone dropping another world enchantment which sent my Living Plane to the graveyard; that wouldn't've happened with Nature's Revolt.
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You should make the swap with Revolt permanent. In all the games I've played where I ended up casting Living Plane I had far more than 4 mana so I could "combo" off with it, so its cost isn't an issue, and neither is that extra p/t boost, as Stax will rid them of everything.
You should make the swap with Revolt permanent. In all the games I've played where I ended up casting Living Plane I had far more than 4 mana so I could "combo" off with it, so its cost isn't an issue, and neither is that extra p/t boost, as Stax will rid them of everything.
While true, I'd still rather include Living Plane in consideration of a limitless budget or when playing on Cockatrice. But in real life then most definitely I have no plans of acquiring Living Plane when Nature's Revolt does just fine.
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Yes, I know, have done that after putting a counter on all my lands, to make it a one sided Armageddon. Also, I found some replacements to Dark Prophecy Grim Haruspex - Similar to Prophecy, but sadly won't trigger for tokens Abzan Beastmaster - Without a doubt will be triggered, but only one trigger a turn. Triumph of Ferocity - Same as Beastmaster, but harder to destroy Necropotence - No explanation needed
Yes, I know, have done that after putting a counter on all my lands, to make it a one sided Armageddon. Also, I found some replacements to Dark Prophecy Grim Haruspex - Similar to Prophecy, but sadly won't trigger for tokens Abzan Beastmaster - Without a doubt will be triggered, but only one trigger a turn. Triumph of Ferocity - Same as Beastmaster, but harder to destroy Necropotence - No explanation needed
Another downside to Grim Haruspex over Dark Prophecy is that it only triggers when my own nontoken creatures die, instead of any creature. I'll still consider it, though. Since I can sacrifice a nontoken creature if I really need to dig into the deck for answers. Either way, cards like Necropotence aren't good for digging for answers; just to fill your hand. I'm not dissing Necropotence in any way; there's a reason it's a legend in its own right, it's just that it's not what I'm looking for as far as filling my hand goes.
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After play testing the deck (With Dark Prophecy replaced by Kuon, Ogre Ascendant) it seems that it provides far more usefulness when compared to the card it replaced. You have quite a bit of card draw already that has minimal or no downside (Smothering Abomination,Inspiring Call) so the loss of the card draw engine that is Prophecy has shown to not really affect the speed of the deck, so the speak, while the addition of Kuon has proved to be quite useful, thinning other peoples boards as early as turn 3. I really think you should replace the two, yes you lose a card draw engine, but you also lose the immense life loss, and the loss of that engine doesn't really end up affecting the deck. Also, I tried to find a similar card in the right colors that had a "may" clause, but such a card does not exist, and any replacements have downsides that make the slot they take up relatively "useless".
After play testing the deck (With Dark Prophecy replaced by Kuon, Ogre Ascendant) it seems that it provides far more usefulness when compared to the card it replaced. You have quite a bit of card draw already that has minimal or no downside (Smothering Abomination,Inspiring Call) so the loss of the card draw engine that is Prophecy has shown to not really affect the speed of the deck, so the speak, while the addition of Kuon has proved to be quite useful, thinning other peoples boards as early as turn 3. I really think you should replace the two, yes you lose a card draw engine, but you also lose the immense life loss, and the loss of that engine doesn't really end up affecting the deck. Also, I tried to find a similar card in the right colors that had a "may" clause, but such a card does not exist, and any replacements have downsides that make the slot they take up relatively "useless".
Yeah, I had problems with finding the correct colors. You're right in that I have enough draw for the deck and Dark Prophecy is liable to kill me off. Since that's the case, I can pretty much fill in that slot with any other card I've had in mind. Kuon is a great suggestion, but I think I could probably find something else that's even more dubious than that one.
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Ruthless Knave! This is definitely worth considering. Although the ability requires mana, it doesn't require untapping. I get a net mana gain of -1 mana, which may seem like a loss, but it's a sacrifice outlet that provides treasure tokens which also have their built-in sacrifice outlet. Meaning that for 2B I get 3 sacrifice triggers for a net cost of 1 mana. 3 sacrifice triggers for 2B is honestly not that bad. With Mazirek in play, it basically translates as "2B, Sacrifice a creature: Put 3 +1/+1 counters on each creature you control." That's an amazing price for such an ability. Gavony Township gives one +1/+1 counter and it costs 4 mana to do so (and tapping), for a ratio of 4:1 mana to counter whereas Ruthless Knave has a ratio of 1:1 (and doesn't tap (but requires a sacrifice)). Similar cards are Inspiring Roar, Titania's Boon, Meadowboon, Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, Oath of Ajani; while some have a ratio of 4:1 while Nissa is 3:1 and Ajani's oath is 2:1, neither of these are as repeatable as Ruthless Knave and their ratios are inferior. (All of this is ignoring the fact that out of all of those mentioned, Titania's Boon and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar are the only ones that can be played due to commander identity; the point was to mathematically show how viable Ruthless Knave is.)
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Costly Plunder - Another Altar's Reap with the option of sacrificing an artifact as well. I don't run Altar's Reap but for those Mazirek players running similar cards (Dredge, Merciless Resolve, etc.) this would be a decent addition. It's a cheap instant speed card draw that triggers Mazirek.
Revel in Riches - This card seems too amazing (in theory, at least). The amount of opponents' creatures dying with this deck is no joke. So getting Lotus Petals each time one of them dies seems ridiculously broken. Not only do these treasure tokens trigger Mazirek but they can be duplicated with Doubling Season. Oh, if that ability weren't enough to warrant excitement, the card itself provides a wincon on its own. Double brutal!
Ruthless Knave - As mentioned in the previous post, this creature is amazing. It doesn't require tapping to use its ability. At the price of 2B and a creature you get 2 treasure tokens which can then be sacrificed. This gives you a net investment of one mana and you get 3 Mazirek triggers for your trouble. Definitely gonna find a home in the deck. Hopefully I can use it in all three builds.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc / Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun - With Gaea's Cradle being in the deck, this legendary enchantment definitely wants a home here. It's cheap and it's useful the moment it enters play. With so many tokens and cheap creatures, it's highly likely to very quickly transform into the reason it's considered in the first place, Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun.
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I am looking at building the budget deck, but have cards such as: Eternal witness, Reyhan, Primal vigor, Meren, Dictate of Erebos, Parallel Lives, Gyre Sage, Mycoloth, Altar of Dementia, and Cryptolith Rite. I don't know what to replace for these cards or if I shouldn't put some of them in at all. I'm not opposed to adding other, more expensive cards that are not in the budget deck. I would possibly build the non-budget deck, but I don't think it would fair well without the fancy land and artifacts.
EDIT: Sorry about the nonsense above. Can you help me on my Deck list, I can get mana fine, drawing is a little slow, but it just doesn't seem to pack much of a punch when I play something like Archfiend of Depravity
hey all, sorry for my sudden absence. i dunno if you can tell by the location under my username but i live in puerto rico. the situation here has been catastrophic - especially my hometown, one of the municipalities where the eye of hurricane maria passed. i've been without water, electricity, internet, and cellphone service. it's also been impossible to efficiently obtain gasoline and food. it's been altogether completely impossible to get bottled water. i'm on a friend's phone right now who managed to get some service working at the capitol. not to mention the fact that i've been without electricity and internet since hurricane irma. oh well... anyways, it'll probably be a lot longer since i have any kind of normality. hopefully my threads still remain active because they're not simply here for my own opinions and ideas but the community's as well. so you can all still use them to help each other out. you can still ask me stuff, as well; i simply won't be able to reply anytime soon.
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I am looking at building the budget deck, but have cards such as: Eternal witness, Reyhan, Primal vigor, Meren, Dictate of Erebos, Parallel Lives, Gyre Sage, Mycoloth, Altar of Dementia, and Cryptolith Rite. I don't know what to replace for these cards or if I shouldn't put some of them in at all. I'm not opposed to adding other, more expensive cards that are not in the budget deck. I would possibly build the non-budget deck, but I don't think it would fair well without the fancy land and artifacts.
EDIT: Sorry about the nonsense above. Can you help me on my Deck list, I can get mana fine, drawing is a little slow, but it just doesn't seem to pack much of a punch when I play something like Archfiend of Depravity
Hopefully I'll be able to get stable internet access by next weekend. It'll be a long time by then since last you asked, but I'll check out your list by then. For the moment, Reddflip's are good. If you need a cheaper, non-mana dependent way to make your opponents' lands be creatures as well in order to make Archfiend of Depravity even more depraved, you could run Nature's Revolt. Although it only costs 1 more and makes the lands 2/2 instead of 1/1, it only costs ~$0.50 whereas Living Plane costs ~$145.00, lol.
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Accursed Centaur simply doesn't have enough of an impact when compared to other amazing spells that aren't even in the decks. For the same amount of mana I could just cast Innocent Blood and get a much better result when Mazirek is in play than simply getting one sacrifice trigger, and having a swap of the sacrificed creature for a vanilla 2/2 from Accursed Centaur.
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I am looking at building the budget deck, but have cards such as: Eternal witness, Reyhan, Primal vigor, Meren, Dictate of Erebos, Parallel Lives, Gyre Sage, Mycoloth, Altar of Dementia, and Cryptolith Rite. I don't know what to replace for these cards or if I shouldn't put some of them in at all. I'm not opposed to adding other, more expensive cards that are not in the budget deck. I would possibly build the non-budget deck, but I don't think it would fair well without the fancy land and artifacts.
EDIT: Sorry about the nonsense above. Can you help me on my Deck list, I can get mana fine, drawing is a little slow, but it just doesn't seem to pack much of a punch when I play something like Archfiend of Depravity
Finally able to take a glance at your deck. I'm assuming that you're wanting to stay in budget? (Except for some choice cards.) My only qualm is some cards that may underperform in a deck like this. There're definitely some better budget choices you can add in their place. For example, I would swap out Shriekmaw; there are way better removal spells/effects than this one while still staying in budget. Also, I don't see enough discard effects to warrant having Nath of the Gilt-Leaf in there. The same could be said for Black Market; you don't really run a lot of big mana spells to take full advantage of the B produced by it. That opens 3 slots for better performing cards. If you do in fact want to stay in some kind of budget, I recommend you read up on that section of my primer. I went into great lengths to optimize the deck while staying in a ludicrous budget constriction.
Hope that helps! And once again, welcome to the forums!
Haven't been able to do a lot of testing with the deck since Commander 2017. Hopefully I'll be able to see what swaps can be tested for some of the latest cards that have caught my eye since then. I definitely need to test out Revel in Riches, Ruthless Knave, and Growing Rites of Itlimoc. At least I was able to edit the OP with my review for Ixalan.
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With Unstable being fully spoiled and my expectations of the Oracle being updated to finally include the Un-sets, Unglued, Unhinged, and Unstable, (and hopefully the Happy Holidays promos), if an Un-format version of Commander is developed and it's not too out-of-the-box wacky (in other words, only cards that are as close as black-border in design as possible), I will evaluate any and all silver-bordered cards that could be used with Mazirek. For one thing, one broken silver-bordered card that comes to mind is Organ Harvest. That card behaves very black-bordered and in a two-headed giant game would be incredibly broken with Mazirek at the helm.
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It seems that the RC chose to appeal to those in favor of including silver-bordered cards than those against it. From December 1st, 2017 to January 15th, 2018 silver-bordered cards (with a few exceptions) will be legal in commander. This has caused quite the stir in the community and I won't touch upon that topic since I already discuss it quite a bit in the pertinent threads. I will however provide an analysis of a conservative list of cards that would be good for Mazirek. The cards are conservative in the sense that they could pass for black-bordered cards but should also be good for the deck. They shouldn't be included for the sake of being included. If I were to include any of those cards, it would probably be Organ Harvest and possibly Earl of Squirrel. Then again I'd have to test them. Considering my situation hasn't improved much in the past months (I've been 87 straight days without electricity; I have to go to certain places on the island to use electricity and internet because I haven't had any power in my apt for almost a quarter of a year) I haven't even been able to analyze any possible changes thanks to the release of Ixalan and some cards that I'd really like to test for the deck. In any case, that gives me a bigger selection than usual of cards to test. Hopefully I can get some of that done in the weekend in Cockatrice. Hopefully the environment hasn't become too toxic or apocalyptic due to the RC. In any case, it's the kind of drama I'd prefer over the whole Cristine vs. Jeremy one that has been going on recently. Maybe that's the real reason the RC dropped this bombshell today? If it is, kudos. Anyways, on to the un-sets analysis:
Earl of Squirrel - Although a bit costly at 6 mana and the main theme of the deck isn't tokens, it's still a great card to consider. It basically pumps all tokens because it also makes them have the squirrel type. Not only that, but when it deals combat damage, I get that many squirrel tokens in return. With so many +1/+1 counters being distributed, Earl of Squirrel can get really big really fast. Just one hit and you can get quite a lot of 2/2 tokens for your effort. So even if it's chumpblocked, you still get the tokens. Amazing!
Everythingamajig - The deck doesn't really run or pay much attention to cards with proliferate. However, as the name of this artifact suggests, it pretty much does everything with counters. What I like most about this card (and Giant Fan, as well) is that I could essential steal a counter from any permanent and move to another one - sometimes changing it in the process. Say I take a loyalty counter from an opponent's planeswalker and change it into a +1/+1 counter for one of my creatures, or a loyalty counter for one of my own planeswalkers. I could take away divinity counters from myojins, level counters from creatures with level up, etc. It's a very disruptive card that can still benefit me at the same time. Oh, and I can also just give a +1/+1 counter to a creature or proliferate as well. It really does everything! It may be slow since all its abilities are tapping abilities, it's still useful.
Organ Harvest - This card is just bonkers in this deck. For just one mana I have a sacrifice outlet and mana generator all in one spell. Sure, you can just as easily sacrifice all those creature to Phyrexian Altar and get any color for your troubles. But, this also cares about teammates. So if you're playing two-headed giant (or even if you're not), you can still use this card to generate mana as well as getting a sacrifice outlet.
Over My Dead Bodies - Similar in spirit to Raging River, you're basically attacking with two teams of creatures: one on your battlefield and the other in your graveyard. Similarly, your opponent is blocking with two teams of creatures: one on their battlefield and the other in their graveyard. However, any creature dealt damage this way by those creatures will get exiled after combat. That being said, you could essentially sacrifice as many creatures as you can, attack with one team and then attack with those recently dead creatures in another team. It makes your sacrificed/killed creatures still be useful for entering the red zone.
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I don't really need so many tutors because you're not going to have every single response possible in a deck. It all basically depends on your meta. That's why I do 90% of my testing on Cockatrice since I'm playing against decks from all walks of life. I'm fine with leaving those threats to other players because they're global. Chances are that cards like Arcane Laboratory, Moat, and Humility hurt most players. Hopefully some more than you that have answers. In that game I mentioned, Humility hurt the 3rd player more than me. So I left it there because the +1/+1 counters already present gave me the advantage. Then, I dealt with the enchantment player. So it was advantageous for me in that situation. You shouldn't waste all your own resources in multiplayer commander because you're helping others more than yourself. You're technically hurting your target and hurting yourself slightly less because your helping everyone else while they don't have to spend their own resources.
As for the two games I mentioned, hopefully I'll have some time during the weekend to sit and review the game replays and discuss them here.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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Not only that but this line
"However, if the temptation is too much, I will give some great substitutes so as to not hurt (too much) the integrity of the deck." should be changed to "as to not hurt the integrity of the deck (too much)."
Black Market
Blood Pet
Bone Splinters
Bower Passage
Bramblewood Paragon
Breeding Pit
Call to the Grave
Catacomb Sifter
Champion of Lambholt
Consuming Vapors
Custodi Lich
Demon of Death's Gate
Demon of Wailing Agonies
Desecration Demon
Disciple of Bolas
Dryad Arbor
Foundry Hornet
Of those I considered Black Market, Bone Splinters, Bramblewood Paragon, Catacomb Sifter, Disciple of Bolas, and Dryad Arbor.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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I think you could add Dryad Arbor in its place but before you decide to put the Arbor in, please take a look at these cards:
P.S Dryad is a land creature, you can only play the Arbor or a land on the same turn, you can't play a land followed by a Dryad Arbor(Unless you use something like Green Sun's Zenith) just FYI.
Hm, you do have a point on Dark Prophecy. So far I haven't had issues with it but you're right on how it could potentially kill me off. As for Dryad Arbor, I know I can't play additional lands with it (unless I have The Gitrog Monster out); I merely stated that I can tutor for it with a fetchland - which I can.
Demon of Death's Gate isn't a bad creature to add since it can be quite troublesome early on. However, all it's good for is attacking/blocking; it doesn't really do anything else. There are literally thousands of cards that are great in this deck, so I want to try and keep cards that either do more than one thing, are very synergistic, or have a great/lasting impact.
Kuon, Ogre Ascendant I really like, though. It costs exactly the same, is a creature, and can flip relatively easily - as you said. It becomes an enchantment, which is harder to get rid of and forces a sacrifice trigger each upkeep. It's definitely something to consider.
In the end, if I were to swap out Dark Prophecy, I would rather it be for a card that does something similar, albeit with a "you may" clause. While I run it I will have to be weary of killing myself off due to the life loss, though. Thanks for pointing that out!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I won the die roll and went first. My opening hand was:
- Forest
- Innocent Blood
- Razaketh, the Foulblooded
- Verdant Catacombs
- Swamp
- Gyre Sage
- Overgrown Tomb
Turn 1:Naturally, I kept. I drew a Ramunap Excavator and played a tapped Overgrown Tomb.
Tana + Kondo played a Jungle Shrine.
Haakon played a Myriad Landscape.
Turn 2:
I draw a Merciless Executioner. I play the Swamp and cast Gyre Sage.
Tana + Kondo play a Forest and cast Cryptolith Rite.
Haakon played a Swamp and casts Distorting Lens.
Turn 3:
I draw a Llanowar Elves. I play the Forest and cast Ramunap Excavator which triggers the evolve on Gyre Sage, which I then tap to cast Llanowar Elves.
Tana + Kondo drop a Mountain and cast Whispersilk Cloak.
Haakon drops a Snow-Covered Swamp and casts Arrogant Bloodlord.
At this point, I'd feel that the deck was running a bit slow since I'm usually able to cast Mazirek by turn 3. However, since my opponents haven't been doing anything significant these turns, I'm not too worried about my speed.
Turn 4:
I draw Bitter Ordeal. I tap all lands, Llanowar Elves, and Gyre Sage to cast Mazirek. I then drop Verdant Catacombs. Then I pass the turn.
Tana + Kondo plays Command Tower then casts Tana, the Bloodsower.
Haakon plays a Snow-Covered Swamp then passes. And the end of that turn I crack the fetchland and search for a basic Swamp. That triggers Mazirek and my creatures each get a +1/+1 counter. At that point I comment to the other players that WotC have been lopsided for not printing enemy "dual lands" with the same frequency as allied lands.
Turn 5:
I draw Nature's Revolt. I tap Overgrown Tomb, Swamp, and Forest to cast Merciless Executioner. Everyone sacs their only creature and I sac Merciless Executioner, thrice triggering Mazirek. I use Ramunap Excavator to play Verdant Catacombs from the graveyard. I crack it to fetch another basic Swamp, triggering Mazirek. I declare combat and attack Tana + Sidar with all my creatures. In response, Haakon activates Myriad Landscape, triggering Mazirek. Although my creatures just gave 31 in combat damage, Haakon made me uneasy. If that was to almost kill off the other player, was he gonna boardwipe on his next turn?
Tana + Kondo play Rootbound Crag then cast Decimate, targetting Cryptolith Rite, Overgrown Tomb, Distortion Lens, and Gyre Sage.
Haakon plays Cabal Coffers then casts Cairn Wanderer.
Turn 6:
I draw Tireless Tracker. Again, I use Ramunap Excavator to play Verdant Catacombs from the graveyard. I then declare attack to Tana + Kondo, which loses to combat damage. Then Haakon simply conceded after that.
Without getting an early commander casting, I'd say the deck ran very smoothly. Was lucky enough to get a turn 3 Ramunap Excavator with a Verdant Catacombs in hand. It was also helpful that my opponents had a slow start. Granted, I used a watered-down version of my Creatures Matter Build, but none of the very oppressive cards made an appearance.
As for the budget substitutes I mentioned earlier, this is what I'm playing in real life. The version in the primer is what I play in Cockatrice. I own a gold-bordered Gaea's Cradle but I use that in my Edric, Spymaster of Trest deck. I own a Doubling Season but I use that in my Atraxa, Praetors' Voice deck. Commander is a curious format; there's no doubt that thanks to opaque sleeves, people can use (in a casual environment) square-cornered or gold-bordered cards. I reach this conclusion because the collector's edition version of cards like Timetwister are ridiculously expensive. The gold-bordered Gaea's Cradle is now at $50.
1 Mana Crypt
1 Living Plane
1 Doubling Season
1 Scapeshift
1 Bayou
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Dark Ritual
1 Nature's Revolt
1 Primal Vigor
1 Reprocess
1 Swamp
1 Forest
Curiously, I'm considering making the Living Plane into Nature's Revolt swap permanent. I remember once playing in Cockatrice someone dropping another world enchantment which sent my Living Plane to the graveyard; that wouldn't've happened with Nature's Revolt.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I do run Smokestack; it's in the artifact-heavy version of the deck.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
While true, I'd still rather include Living Plane in consideration of a limitless budget or when playing on Cockatrice. But in real life then most definitely I have no plans of acquiring Living Plane when Nature's Revolt does just fine.
Know that if land creatures are 1/1 then Golgari Charm essentially becomes Armageddon. That only happens with Living Plane and not Nature's Revolt.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Grim Haruspex - Similar to Prophecy, but sadly won't trigger for tokens
Abzan Beastmaster - Without a doubt will be triggered, but only one trigger a turn.
Triumph of Ferocity - Same as Beastmaster, but harder to destroy
Necropotence - No explanation needed
Another downside to Grim Haruspex over Dark Prophecy is that it only triggers when my own nontoken creatures die, instead of any creature. I'll still consider it, though. Since I can sacrifice a nontoken creature if I really need to dig into the deck for answers. Either way, cards like Necropotence aren't good for digging for answers; just to fill your hand. I'm not dissing Necropotence in any way; there's a reason it's a legend in its own right, it's just that it's not what I'm looking for as far as filling my hand goes.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Yeah, I had problems with finding the correct colors. You're right in that I have enough draw for the deck and Dark Prophecy is liable to kill me off. Since that's the case, I can pretty much fill in that slot with any other card I've had in mind. Kuon is a great suggestion, but I think I could probably find something else that's even more dubious than that one.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I am looking at building the budget deck, but have cards such as: Eternal witness, Reyhan, Primal vigor, Meren, Dictate of Erebos, Parallel Lives, Gyre Sage, Mycoloth, Altar of Dementia, and Cryptolith Rite. I don't know what to replace for these cards or if I shouldn't put some of them in at all. I'm not opposed to adding other, more expensive cards that are not in the budget deck. I would possibly build the non-budget deck, but I don't think it would fair well without the fancy land and artifacts.EDIT: Sorry about the nonsense above. Can you help me on my Deck list, I can get mana fine, drawing is a little slow, but it just doesn't seem to pack much of a punch when I play something like Archfiend of Depravity
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Hopefully I'll be able to get stable internet access by next weekend. It'll be a long time by then since last you asked, but I'll check out your list by then. For the moment, Reddflip's are good. If you need a cheaper, non-mana dependent way to make your opponents' lands be creatures as well in order to make Archfiend of Depravity even more depraved, you could run Nature's Revolt. Although it only costs 1 more and makes the lands 2/2 instead of 1/1, it only costs ~$0.50 whereas Living Plane costs ~$145.00, lol.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
Finally able to take a glance at your deck. I'm assuming that you're wanting to stay in budget? (Except for some choice cards.) My only qualm is some cards that may underperform in a deck like this. There're definitely some better budget choices you can add in their place. For example, I would swap out Shriekmaw; there are way better removal spells/effects than this one while still staying in budget. Also, I don't see enough discard effects to warrant having Nath of the Gilt-Leaf in there. The same could be said for Black Market; you don't really run a lot of big mana spells to take full advantage of the B produced by it. That opens 3 slots for better performing cards. If you do in fact want to stay in some kind of budget, I recommend you read up on that section of my primer. I went into great lengths to optimize the deck while staying in a ludicrous budget constriction.
Hope that helps! And once again, welcome to the forums!
Haven't been able to do a lot of testing with the deck since Commander 2017. Hopefully I'll be able to see what swaps can be tested for some of the latest cards that have caught my eye since then. I definitely need to test out Revel in Riches, Ruthless Knave, and Growing Rites of Itlimoc. At least I was able to edit the OP with my review for Ixalan.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
I feel that if this format develops it's breathe a wind of fresh air into the format (so long as it's more fun than annoying). I will try and do this with my other decks, as well. For example, Urza's Contact Lenses would be broken in Sidisi, Brood Tyrant if you already have Mesmeric Orb in play. Urza's Contact Lenses basically goes infinite with Mesmeric Orb. Once I get that combo in play I'm gonna be clapping my hands like I'm in the Gipsy Kings. I run Song of the Dryads, Darksteel Mutation, and Imprisoned in the Moon in my Atraxa, Praetors' Voice deck. So I'll definitely add Fowl Play there. Burning Cinder Fury of Crimson Chaos Fire could definitely see play in a Zedruu the Greathearted deck. There are just so many others. So, if this does become a thing, I'll definitely evaluate the silver-bordered cards that are basically pseudo black-bordered.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!