MTG Salvation

I kept playing with the idea of how I would play Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker as a commander but I kept coming up with a little bit of an issue that it was a card that was good on its own and didnt really need to have synergy with the other partners. I considered a lot of different options and finally I thought, what if Ishai was just a goodstuff beater and then if and when I want to gain life I can drop Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper in. In this idea, Ishai is a goodstuff commander and my other commander just engages life gain to keep me going so I can be offensive with my commander and worry less about defense.

This approach is very much the idea of a traditional rock deck.

Quote from Rock defined from MTSS Wiki »

Rock (AKA "The Rock" and "Junk") is a deck archetype that appears in Legacy, but can theoretically appear anywhere. A midrange deck at heart, the traditional Rock deck would play a lot of disruption alongside solid removal. Other features include Regrowth effects, sweepers, and card draw. Once the game is under control, the deck would play a big fat finisher to close the game quickly. Due to the state of the Legacy metagame, though, the deck has adopted a much more creature-orientated approach.

So, I was going for a robust removal heavy deck that generates some card advantage and uses generally solid commanders to sustain me as well as to bring my opponents down. Most of my deck are tough card advantage based creatures so you will see lots of gods and a bit of indestructible as well as ETB based value mixed in with all sorts of ramp, draw, and removal. I was going for somewhat of a heavy hitter who had lifegain and just tough obstacles to push through.

You will also notice somewhat of a robust and deep bit of graveyard hate. I wanted to push my graveyard hate a little higher on this project in part because I found I wasn't using much graveyard reliance cards in this build as well as just to see how things go. Rest in Peace is a card I rarely justify so it could go but at the same time its so powerful and when it works it does wonders.

I ended up with only 6 basics after I got done with my landbase which is a little worrying offhand. I have Cultivate and Kodama's Reach as my only two land search cards that can only retrieve basic lands and the rest can reach into the 12 dual lands. I might have to keep an eye on this number though as I was hoping for it to be more around 8 but I also found a lot of utility lands I did want to make room for. I guess I will test as I go and if I feel like I am not using any bit of utility I can cut it. 12 Duals + 10 Fetchlands eats up a lot of room real fast though unfortunately.

So, I put this deck together and ran it last night. I will say it was a lot of fun. I will give a little bit of a recap of the game but it was a long and grindy game so I might kind of do it fast and skip some of the less interesting points.

It was a 4 player FFA game against Rasputin Dreamweaver, Damia, Sage of Stone, and Kumano, Master Yamabushi. I mulligan my first hand, my second hand has 2 lands, Orcale of Mul Daya, Mana Crypt, Vampiric Tutor, and some other stuff in it. I also win the dice roll and am going first. Damia was the primary opponent playing in the early game. I think my other opponents were doing some things too but they were less consistant and I cant remember them as well.

T1: Overgrown Tomb (pay 2 life), Vampiric Tutor for Sensei's Divining Top. Damia drops a turn 1 mana dork.
T2: land, mana crypt, Oracle of Mul Daya (top card is not a land). Damia plays a Lotus Cobra and another mana dork.
T3: top two cards are lands. I play them both and at this point I have everything but blue mana. I play my top out and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper since I lack blue. I start swinging into open boards with Oracle. Damia does a rite of replication (not kicked) on his Lotus Cobra.
T4: I peel 2 lands off the top and now I have blue. I play my Silumgar, the Drifting Death into play. Damia is tapped out and frowning at me. I do some attacking and gain some life. I dont remember Damia doing much this turn. I thought by now he would be able to play his commander but he didn't or couldn't.
T5: I play with my top and I get another 2 land drops. I attack out and kill Damia's mana dorks and gain 14+ life from my attacks. I play Zur the Enchanter.
T6: I attack with my creatures again gaining a bunch of life and Zur tutors for Thassa, God of the Sea

From here, I build up my board a little deeper but mostly dont have much for threats. I end up going a little too deep when I play my Phyrexian Arena into an already fairly established board and I eat an Akroma's Vengeance from Rasputin. I try to Mana Drain it but Kumano quickly steps up to Reiterate with buyback to counter my Mana Drain.

We start re-establishing things. Kumano gets a Mana Drain from Rasputin on his commander and opts to throw away his Reiterate to stop it from landing. I play Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker for the first time and follow him up with Atraxa, Praetors' Voice. Replay my top. Things slowed down here again for a bit. Kumano played out a Basilisk Collar and equips it. I just start swinging at the other two players to not draw his ire. I slow play for a few turns while playing with my top as I have more or less no hand right now. Rasputin ends up playing a Mimic Vat which he has a hard time putting anything on until he plays and sacrifices a Karmic Guide to it. We end up wrathing creatures but the mimic vat + Basilisk Collar are still in play. Kumano replays his commander after the creature wrath but either does not get the collar on or cannot use it yet.

I Chord of Calling at Kumano's end step for 6 and get Ulvenwald Hydra which gets me Yavimaya Hollow. On my turn I make an attack on Damia for something like 14 damage with the hydra. I put a regenerate on the hydra with my Yavimaya Hollow and Austere Command for artifacts and 4+ cmc creatures. Rasputin on his next turn drops Omniscience and vomits his hand, windfalls us to 5 (I had only 1-2 cards in hand at the time). In the end Rasputin ends up with a few threats including Medomai the Ageless and a Mistmeadow Witch. Mystic Barrier (pointing rasputin at me and me at Kumano) and a Rhystic Study.

I play World Breaker to eat the Omniscience because if he doesn't have to pay for cards it means all of his mana goes to Mismeadow Witch and I cant have that. I then play a Greater Good and pass turn to attempt to block Medomai if possible. Rasputin casts a Curse of the Swine for like all of the decent threats in play. I end up drawing 20ish cards to my Greater Good triggers. Rasputin hits me with Medomai and takes his extra turn.

Damia starts spinning up his commander and just turning his hands over around here. I get a little worried because he is drawing like 3+ cards a turn with his commander but most of what he seems to be doing is mostly ramp oriented. Damia does play an Evil Twin of Medomai though.

I Wargate for 7 and get Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite to finish off the Mistmeadow Witch and some tokens. I Gilded Drake to trade with the Evil Twin. At my endstep Rasputin uses Winding Canyons to try to flash in a Phantasmal Image as a Gilded Drake to trade for the Evil Twin. I am amused by his attempt. Then I regenerate his image with Yavimaya Hollow and watch the exchange fail.

Rasputin is running low on things to do. Damia plays out a Kozilek and I manage to take an extra turn with my evil twin before a Homeward Path forces me to sacrifice it to Greater Good. I am putting pressure on Kumano due to the Mystic Barrier pointing me at him. Kumano is forced to put a batterskull on his commander and attack with it + Godo twice to gain life and kill Damia who was at a low life.

I Sylvan Reclamation for the Mystic Barrier + Kumano's Batterskull. Kumano concedes to this which kind of invalidates the reason I targeted Mystic Barrier which annoys me a little. I get Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker out with a Darksteel Plate to keep his Medomai at bay. From here we both sort of slow roll for a few turns. Rasputin gets his own Elesh Norn out so we both have them. My Ishai slowly builds some steam and I Prime Speaker Zegana as an 8/8 at Rasputin's end step thanks to Alchemist's Refuge. I push for the final damage in one turn thanks to a mostly forgotten Thassa, God of the Sea in the corner and her unblockable ability I had not yet used that game.

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Obviously this was just one game so I need to test more. I did realize as I was putting this together that somehow I had omitted Cyclonic Rift so I may try to make room for that. The deck is a lot of fun and the random pickup lifegain really gives a lot of wiggle room so I was impressed with Ikra as I ended up with like 100 life at the end of this game and it made it really hard to justify small jabs at me because they really did not accomplish much.

Quote from ISBPathfinder »

I Sylvan Reclamation for the Mystic Barrier + Kumano's Batterskull. Kumano concedes to this which kind of invalidates the reason I targeted Mystic Barrier which annoys me a little.

To be fair, there were two Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite out. Killing Batterskull killed my commander, and I couldn't play into the board at all. My Commander was close to +8 to cast, and there was a constant -4/-4 on the board. I was pretty much just in the game as a buffer between you and the Rasputin deck (not in your favor), and potentially a person that king makes. I didn't want to be in that position, and the game was ending so I scooped.

A little OT, but I think the meta will adjust to lifegain over time. We have a player that does the Test of Endurance style Oloro list and the only way to win against that is by going hard in the paint. It falls really hard to tempo play and the only real way to prevent the deck abusing life total is by swinging in. I feel like those you play against will realize, in time, that not chipping away at your life total throughout the game is what allows you to get into the situation with 100 plus life. Of course, it is more difficult to swing through a deck with good bodied creatures than an Oloro prison setup without harming your own board, but I think it is something people will adapt to when playing you.

I'm curious, how have you liked Ishai? I feel like it should be a 3 mana flyer if it is coming in on 1/1 because of how many things can just wreck it (cough, Marath). Does it get removed often? Does it get in for good damage? Do people ignore it due to its inevitability of getting large? The 3rd cast being 8 mana really makes me hesitant if it can't protect itself.

Quote from RivenVII »

A little OT, but I think the meta will adjust to lifegain over time. We have a player that does the Test of Endurance style Oloro list and the only way to win against that is by going hard in the paint. It falls really hard to tempo play and the only real way to prevent the deck abusing life total is by swinging in. I feel like those you play against will realize, in time, that not chipping away at your life total throughout the game is what allows you to get into the situation with 100 plus life. Of course, it is more difficult to swing through a deck with good bodied creatures than an Oloro prison setup without harming your own board, but I think it is something people will adapt to when playing you.

I'm curious, how have you liked Ishai? I feel like it should be a 3 mana flyer if it is coming in on 1/1 because of how many things can just wreck it (cough, Marath). Does it get removed often? Does it get in for good damage? Do people ignore it due to its inevitability of getting large? The 3rd cast being 8 mana really makes me hesitant if it can't protect itself.

As for the lifegain, its hard to say as I havent tested it much yet. It is true that if I get repeatedly attacked it could be hard but the big bodied creatures help a lot. With oloro, he is not as impressively stated and I know a lot of Oloro lists I have seen are just using the quantity of life as their defense. I would say if anything it gives me a buffer that allows me to be more aggressive with my creatures and worry less about my defense because it offsets for me. In that way the life gives me like a tempo defense in that I can allow some return hits and they really dont go anywhere on me. My goal for this deck was to be able to be aggressive with it. The lifegain gives me defense in some ways. It also makes racing me a LOT harder so it forces people to defend rather than bother attacking was my concept.

Ishai - well in my game the other night I was blue starved in the first few turns so I didn't get it on curve. I need to test more but if people are not wrathing or spot removing me a lot its generally not a problem. Something like a Marath would be bad for me but nobody in my meta runs her (I did until recently). I only ended up casting him twice but I like that it scales up quickly. It is definitely more suited to a long drawn out game. Even if you are casting it for 8, given like two turns you probably have a 6/6 or bigger. It does have some start up time however other than like sword of fire and ice or umezawa's jitte its hard to catch it. Even then, its like the next player has to cast and use them immediately to catch them because if the next person does something other than that its already out of reach of those effects. I think the biggest thing with Ishai is that you can judge if there is an answer for a small bodied minion in play already. If there is not it literally takes the next person directly coming after Ishai with one of those effects or you probably out grow the small bodied minion removal within their turn.