I got lucky at KLD prerelease, ended up with a decent pool that I managed to flip for one of those FTV Umezawa's Jittes. I mean, Jitte is a good card, I'm bound to find a home for it eventually. And so, with time, I agglomerated some other support - ended up with a Stoneforge Mystic in return for some stuff for a friend, grabbed a bargain Sword of Light and Shadow when a guy was liquidating an EDH deck on MCM. One day I realised I now own a full set of the hotshot EDH equipment, plus the support for it, so it would make sense to actually play it somewhere.
A few failed experiments later, I ended up with Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder plus Tymna the Weaver. Tymna caught my eye, along with Kydele, when C16 was being spoiled, with the idea being some nondescript skies.dec that would then draw cards to not dry up and chase things out with the mana ramp. This build retains that skies.dec approach, but takes a quick detour to conventional voltron town to support Bruse Tarl instead. It seems like something that wouldn't mesh, would it - on one hand a number of evasive creatures clocking everyone at the table, on the other a solitary fat voltron trying to take a single target down quickly. However, what both Bruse Tarl and Tymna care about is evasion and dealing damage - you want your voltron to connect, and it would also be preferable is all the chickens clocking everybody actually did something. This magical overlap in the functionality leads to a surprisingly fun, if temperamental deck. It's not uncommon to have Bruse Tarl grant double strike to some utility chicken for added on-hit value, or to see Tymna and her friends run around with Swords of Protection and Value. Two seemingly distinct worlds come together and somehow work, and Tymna's draw keeps the hand nicely topped up. This makes the deck less prone to running out of gas, and lets it sling removal quite heartily, further messing with the opposition.
The deck's games end up quite varied. Sometimes you draw into good voltron pieces and start killing people with Bruse on turn four. Other times you start clocking people with tiny unblockable weenies, eventually snowballing into a full on Boros Smash assault. The deck's a riot to play, and can switch gears at a moment's notice.
Concerted Effort worth considering? I was thinking maybe new Odric, but this is harder to remove. Ugh, doesn't work well with either of your Commanders though I see.
Pretty much, Effort/Odric would typically just give wings to a handful of non-flying creatures and maybe spread Tymna's lifelink around. Bruse only triggers on attack, and all the weird evasion mechanics like shadow and horsemanship are not covered by the policy
Blade of Selves doesn't seem all that useful actually. It's very expensive and only comes online at a time when we should be doing okay already. Plus, I'm rather light on super juicy targets for it.
Some observations from playing the list some more - apparently people tend to have fliers. Also, apparently specter hits are kind of meaningless unless the specter becomes soulbond to a single person. As such, most of the specters go bye-bye. I'm still retaining the best ones - Stronghold Rats is a lovely global discard trigger on a shadow body (we can easily replenish off the enabling this gives Tymna), Wei Night Raiders because P3K, and Needle Specter because that sucker wins games. Also, I got to experiment a bit with my top-end haymakers, and Archfiend of Depravity doesn't make quite as much hay as hoped for. Everything else in the 5+cmc space varies from good to damn good, so being merely ok isn't quite cutting it. The next weakest high CMC piece is Bloodgift Demon, but drawing cards isn't a bad thing to have on a utility flyer. Drana, Liberator of Malakir isn't bad, but making 2/2 utility beatsticks into 3/3 utility beatsticks isn't that big a deal really. Notice I'm not ragging on Archangel of Thune though, as that synergises really well with the commanders and takes over games in no time (especially if Aurelia, the Warleader becomes involved). Also, O-Naginata is super nice for Bruse voltron kills, but useless in most other scenarios.
So, when does the deck tend to work? Funnily enough, Selfless Spirit and Stoneforge Mystic turned out to be real early game MVPs, coming down a turn before Tymna and usually finding the way to some free cards. Getting the draw going early is apparently super helpful, as it does what it can to smooth out the imperfections of the starting hand and offer a good base to rebuild from. As such, some cheeser early game pokesticks probably wouldn't hurt. Tormented Soul is one of two cards in Mardu colours that are straight unblockable, and comes down for a measly one mana, so in it goes. Later on the pokestick can carry some swords or something into battle, so he's never completely dead. On similar grounds, Nether Traitor's shadowy hasted two drop ways are going to net some free cardboard off the top, and he even comes with a mechanism to recur himself later on. On a completely different note, Sun Titan is probably going to do good work here. There's a lot of <4 CMC stuff for him to recur, including the freaking swords which are the reason why I'm slogging on with a thing so far out of my comfort zone. Also, I have a Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed in the mono black deck I'll be stripping for parts to build this. Horsemanship? Check. Useful ability? Check. In he goes. And as for equipment, there's tons of nice on hit stuff going around, so supporting it a bit with Fireshrieker makes sense. The O-Naginata slot in turn becomes a pair of Trailblazer's Boots for more widespread evasion. True, it won't help speed up the Bruse clock, but it's going to be more useful in most situations.
Still unsure where to take this. The list feels like it's in the early days, sometimes it explodes and does crazy things, sometimes it durdles around and accomplishes very little. Crucially, even in its low-functioning states, I still feel like I get to do things. As such, I need to keep an eye out for what leads to less bombastic stuff happening and try to spot better options to run instead. Feedback is still greatly appreciated, I'm so out of my league here it's not even funny. A potential future direction I'm considering is some extra combats via Aggravated Assault and Waves of Aggression, but for now I feel like I need to get the list running smoother.
I've been debating building these partners lately. Any thoughts on Hatred? Hatred for 8 on Bruse will one-shot someone and give you a boatload of life back. Maybe too cute, but Hatred is to Bruse what Might of Oaks is to Rafiq.
I'd imagine it could be quite useful in this shell. Even if Bruse is out of commission due to not being evasive, he can pass the double strike and lifelink onto something that will actually connect and then you Hatred that like mad. It could actually work, I should try it out.
Every smoothly functioning deck needs some sort of premise, a mission statement, a plan to adhere to if you will. This deck's initial plan was hateful evasive beats, creatures that did mean things to people on impact. Turns out, there aren't really that many creatures that do that well. You typically pay three to four mana for an evasive weenie that makes them drop a single card or fires off a bolt or something as it does things. Chasing them out and getting value out of them will typically be a pretty slow process, especially as you need to sequence a three drop commander somewhere along the way as well. And in the end, the benefit is minuscule. All those tiny little friends from last update (Nether Traitor, Tormented Soul) work just fine. They come in, Tymna comes in, they turn sideways, people get tickled for 1, you draw a bunch. People don't drop a card or whatever, but the ball gets rolling far quicker, often catching people unprepared. This is the sort of deck where perfectly curving out across the first four or so turns is vital, as it sets up an equipment and card base for later.
What works well early? The silly mana rocks. Things that you can play before Tymna comes down so you can get drawing immediately. Preferably in combination, things get really silly then. Tormented Soul and Nether Traitor have been MVPs, doing way better in terms of pushing the agenda forward than most of the 3/4 drops. As such, a number of the less effective 3/4 drops have now been terminated. 4 in particular has proven itself to be a problematic CMC, and the only survivors are Iroas, God of Victory (because extreme combat dumb) and Linvala, Keeper of Silence (because wonderful hatebear dumb). Notable 4-drop casualties include Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, who just didn't run smoothly in the list in spite of good theoretical promise, and Odric, Master Tactician - in the end, requiring 4 swingers was just a hair too much. If anything, the most likely to return from here would be Soltari Guerrillas, as they synergise well with equipment and double strike, but for the time being they're going to be out of the 99. Fresh blood is brought in the form of Tormented Soul lookalikes - Augur il-Vec, Soltari Foot Soldier and Wei Scout. They all come out before Tymna and easily draw cards once she hits the board, and happily carry all manner of equipment if required to. A higher CMC addition comes in the form of Bastion Protector, but that thing has good utility - twice the commanders, twice the value. Tactical Tymna blocks and daredevil Bruse swings even with no evasion. The card's been working wonderfully, good thing I still have the one that I stripped from my Daxos the Returned precon last year.
Another thing that needed some streamlining was equipment. Assuming no mana explosion, turn three's usually used up by playing Tymna. As such, equipment needs to play nice with the mana allotments offered up by turns two and four for maximum benefit. Sword of Light and Shadow doesn't play that well within those restrictions and isn't actually all that useful within the deck - few low drop creatures are critical to recur and the deck's light on high CMC stuff, the other half of the trigger is feeble most of the time, and the protections turn off double strike support. Speaking of double strike support, Fireshrieker was just a touch clunky in a similar fashion. Duelist's Heritage loses the need to equip a thing and gains political tomfoolery if need be. On the other hand, Empyrial Plate handily fits within those mana allotments, akin to Trailblazer's Boots. Sure, all it does is damage, but it's damage that keeps on happening as you can put it on any replaceable evasive body and go to town (let alone a lifelinking commander body!). Another great equipment absent from the list was Mask of Memory, a stellar draw option that can help refuel if Tymna is unavailable or I somehow manage to out-barf the constant draw stream. Also, Swiftfoot Boots become Lightning Greaves. The anti-synergy with Bruse is kind of there, but the turn Bruse comes in he can just double strike himself on ETB before the greaves slip on, and later on can choose to double strike things not wearing the greaves. However, greaves come out turn two, Tymna comes out turn three, slips them on, and goes to town immediately, making them feel like a weenie drop for the purposes of getting the deck's draw online. Not to mention Bruse coming down the following turn. Also, at this point I'm willing to openly admit that this is an equipment-heavy deck, so Puresteel Paladin comes in. Between all the rock clutter and the equipments, metalcraft is nearly a given, plus another source of subtle refuelling never hurt anyone and it's always another potential cheeser body early on.
There are also slight quality of life upgrades - Chaos Warp becomes Utter End as it's just better removal, and they're both just as Sunforgerable. A Swamp becomes a Bojuka Bog to have even the slightest trace of grave hate in the 99, while a Mountain becomes a Flamekin Village for haste potential. That frees up the colourless utility land slot that used to be haste to now be Strip Mine. Thran Dynamo is a little awkward at this point in time due to the manner in which the deck tends to curve out, and Bloodgift Demon is out as in the end merely good isn't going to be good enough. Enlightened Tutor is nice, with its most common use so far being getting Mana Crypts for explosive turn twos. This is one of those decks that really, really likes its early rocks. Fervor is no questions asked global haste, sitting at a slightly awkward CMC of 3, but still serviceable. And then Hatred. Oh boy, Hatred. Each deck has that card that's disproportionately good within the shell, and this may well be that card for this deck. Swing with Bruse and a disposable evasive chicken. Double strike lifelink the disposable evasive chicken. Then hurl a Hatred, boosting its power as close to one minus your target's life total as you can. Proceed to end up with way more life than you started out with and one less person to deal with. Given the fact that Tymna also lifelinks, plus the list tends to gain silly amounts of life somehow, you'll typically have some way to make this be a one-shot kill on someone. If anything, this very card would be the main argument for keeping Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed around in the 99, but he suffers from the 4cmc curse that weeded out so many others.
So yeah. The deck plays pretty well now, the clunkiness of the starts has been diametrically reduced. In the end, there's not that much hateful stuff you can do on hit. There is still some left in the 99 - Needle Specter has won me a few games by now, and a well placed Blinding Angel smack or two has neutered boards that would have made Balefire Dragon cry. I'm still flirting with the idea of adding extra combats to the list, but for now I focused on getting the deck running smoothly in its crucial early stages.
Yes, it's only been a few days since the last update... but the deck managed to undergo a few version changes since then, searching for a definite identity. What does the list like to do? The list likes to go fast. It likes to explode out of the gate and catch people with their guard down before they have time to react. So my first attempt was to add all the EDH-legal moxes (Chrome Mox etc) to try to capitalise on the speed. It led to weird, un-EDH'y games with clunky draws that would either end super fast or have me interacted out far too easily, as I was putting all my eggs in one very clearly visible basket. Shoot down Tymna before I get to refuel and I'm screwed pretty hard. As such, the mox idea got ignored, and other directions were considered.
When is the deck at its best? When Boros Smashing into people with Archangel of Thune and/or Aurelia, the Warleader, when doing evasive manoeuvres wish Bruse, when coming out of the gate cracking without forgoing late game relevance. When having plenty of cards to choose from, and loads of removal to hurl at things at its leisure. As such, time to streamline the list into that direction!
In terms of straight swaps, Chromatic Lantern becomes Mana Vault, Flamekin Village becomes Hall of the Bandit Lord, Loxodon Warhammer becomes Key to the City, Hellkite Tyrant becomes Vandalblast, and Hatred becomes Unspeakable Symbol. The first of those should be pretty obvious - the Lantern suffers from the 3-4 CMC curse, while the Vault typically chases out a turn two Bruse into a turn three Tymna while not being a disdainful draw later on like a mox would be. Hall's just superior to the Village as it allows for on-curve hasting, and with so much lifelink running around the 100 the life loss is pretty negligible (more on that in a bit). Warhammer's main purpose was granting evasion and a power boost, but it was expensive and clunky. Key bypasses the need for trample by just granting unblockability for the lowest cost in the whole deck - a random card from the constant draw overflow. Plus, it lands at two, which makes it awesome. The Hellkite is quite handy, but requires haste to really catch people off guard and is susceptible to removal. In all honesty, it's not like you need others' artifacts really badly, you mainly want them to not have them. As such, Vandalblast is a one off kerblooey that should handle that problem well. Hatred is a superbeast... once. You use it, you hedge your bets that the creature won't get removed in response, and then a single person is out and your life total is hopefully padded pretty nicely. And then you have the rest of the table still to kill. The Symbol gets around that problem by coming down and offering counter-based pump. You can put it on many different creatures, you can strategically force out blocks, crucially the bonuses are still there after you kill someone and you can re-use it if somebody pops your pump friend. True, the cost is steep as hell, but once again, lifegain is extremely bountiful in this deck. Time to make use of it!
How else can we make use of it? By drawing cards. Bob and Enchantment Bob get welcomed into the fray. It was actually a post somewhere on these boards that made me realise that Bob is actually playable in EDH due to a comparison with Sylvan Library, and the curve here is nonexistent and the life just keeps on coming, making these effects worth it. Plus, Bob himself is a two drop with legs, curving into Tymna handily. Enchantment Bob may be 3CMC, but this is the sort of card that will not be duking it out with the commanders for being played. This comes down like Arena, if/when the deck starts ripping through its card supplies so hard that it needs even more replenish than it's already getting. Or if Tymna's out of commission. Then mad Bruse life gain will effortlessly offset whatever life may get sucked up by this. I've already whammied Blasphemous Act and it wasn't that bad.
The deck likes settling into its game plan quickly, getting the card chewing engines going. Queen Marchesa is a natural fit, offering a nasty hasted body just above Tymna in the curve. Plus, when she comes down, you become the Monarch, drawing even more cards. Reclaiming the throne will be effortless, and you actually want it to make a trip around the table - that's a 1/1 deathtoucher for you in your upkeep. Good enough to become the deck's third four-drop creature. Serra Ascendant, one of the most overrated pieces of garbage in all of EDH, actually also has a home here. A 6/6 lifelinking flyer for 1 at most, if not all, stages of the game (remember, lifegain is super abundant). One of the feistiest ways to end the game involves a gigantic, countered-up army from Archangel of Thune. Necropolis Regent offers a similar game-taking-over service.
Also, given the thick trickle of cards each turn, removal is a good thing. Karlov of the Ghost Council is a mini-Archangel of Thune, gaining counters with each of the myriad of lifegain triggers and having the potential to use them to repeatedly pop opposing creatures if required. Rakdos Charm is tech as hell, sometimes disrupting graveyards, with its "fail clause" being eating an artifact. Not a bad fail clause to have, and not a bad set of tech choices to have on tap from a Sunforger.
Cuts were less 1v1 for all this other stuff. There are some more casualties of the 3cmc curse in Duelist's Heritage, Fervor and Needle Specter. The list is now officially specter-free, which is a bit of a shame but what can you do. Needle Specter will be remembered fondly for all his silliness with equipment, but the deck actively wants to curve out now and he just doesn't fit. Expedition Map and Wayfarer's Bauble get booted as rather sluggish early plays that don't provide enough benefit for the deck given they occupy both its turn 1 and 2. Blinding Angel is solid, but not quite amazing enough to merit sitting in here at 5cmc. Sire of Insanity is brutal, but is also a high risk high reward scenario. The deck likes to draw like mad, and being reduced to a single topdeck if the draw options here are decommissioned is a recipe for disaster.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how the list plays now. It lost some of its temperamental nature from the early days and has a clearly defined game plan - smash fast, draw loads, hurl around removal. There seems to be a pretty fine balance between early game explosiveness and long game sustain, not making the deck fall on its face after 5 turns. Bruse can lead to some hilarious cheeser wins both early and late, while Tymna chews through the deck like mad to make it run as smooth as possible. I'm gonna paper this. I'm optimistic about it, and now I get to have a good excuse to take out the Mana Crypt from Daxos where it's been doing more harm than good
Have you considered going deeper on extra combat steps? I see you've already got Aurelia in your list, and since Tymna triggers at the beginning of your postcombat main phase, multiple combats will give you multiple Tymna triggers. For an on-theme inclusion, Godo, Bandit Warlord tutors equipment onto the battlefield and grants multiple combats for extra Tymna triggers. Also, the random 1-2 cmc shadow/horesemanship dudes would be better off as cheap utility/value creatures like Weathered Wayfarer, Oreskos Explorer, Knight of the White Orchid, or Mother of Runes. Swap out Augur Il-Vec for Selfless Spirit. You can do better than french vanilla weenies.
Yeah, I've been flirting with the idea of extra combats, and I may try adding some at some point. I'm already running Selfless Spirit, and nearly all your suggestions come with the downside of not being evasive while this deck likes its creatures to be cheap and evasive, a faux-Edric of sorts. Yeah, I know, it seems crazy. Check my original list in the spoiler for creatures that actually do things instead of being unblockable 1/1s, but somehow the deck plays better with Augur il-Vec et al. Mother of Runes would make the most sense and could use a trial run, but I'm not optimistic.
An idea roughly resembling this deck was floating around in my head also. I wanted to do something around “Knight tribal”, with a bunch of 2cmc knights with protection, since they likely have evasion in at least one spot early game. There were unexpected anti-synergies with Bruse, lol. Same thing with all the Swords, excluding FaF. But Haakon Stromgald Scourge with Crib Swap is something that I continue to try to get right. The Knights that did work surprisingly well in my test runs though were Hero of Bladehold and Hero of Oxid Ridge. Bladehold was awesome in putting non-evasive pressure on the second and third opponent, the teamwide evasion on Oxid Ridge actually worked well, and battlecry on both were actually decent. Also ofc, Puresteel Paladin, Thalia’s Lancers, and a few others. Almost enough for a deck there, not sure if it will become one of mine.
Also another idea was to just try to get the most creatures per card as possible. Things like Spirit Bonds, Bitterblossom, Entreat the Angels, Lingering Souls, Spectral Procession, Emeria Angel. The idea was that one card would set you up potentially in multiple places, then just pace yourself through. The ones I listed were those I remember because they did well, but they were just grease for the rest of the deck which was highly control heavy. Bitterblossom though is one that I can’t imagine ever leaving out of any Tymna deck.
If you wouldn’t mind me suggesting some cuts, I would consider dropping Dark Tutelage and Pyrexian Arena. I have thought for a while now that Arena even is just too slow for EDH now, and only ever good on Turn 3. This deck seems to be wanting to do something else on Turn 3, definitely. Turn 3 and earlier, a creature is just better. And after Turn 3, these are terrible. Something like Ancient Craving, or alternatively Wretched Confluence or Bituminous Blast gives you a good amount impact along with extra fuel.
Also some ideas that have lingered around from those revisions was the use of manlands, keyrunes, and myrs. Blinkmoth Nexus and Inkmoth Nexus are cheap at 2 mana an activation to assist a Tymna recovery. Rakdos and Boros Keyrunes are some of the better ones also. And, whether to run Myr or Signets I think comes down to what kind of wipes you’re running. I wouldn’t suggest them for your deck with all of Vandalblast, Wrath of God, Damnation, Blasphemous Act, and Toxic Deluge, but they are there, and they tend to get in for at least a card before the board clogs up.
I think you will like Necropolis Regent a bunch. Take it from someone who tries the small weenies approach over and over every release, that one is a beast. It goes in every deck of mine with equipments. Insane, as expected, with Double Strike. I imagine that Archangel of Thune has been doing really well for you in here, though I haven’t tried it. Unlike Bruse, it doesn’t care about protections or shroud. Gotta love just beating in for value.
Yeah, I've been flirting with the idea of extra combats, and I may try adding some at some point. I'm already running Selfless Spirit, and nearly all your suggestions come with the downside of not being evasive while this deck likes its creatures to be cheap and evasive, a faux-Edric of sorts. Yeah, I know, it seems crazy. Check my original list in the spoiler for creatures that actually do things instead of being unblockable 1/1s, but somehow the deck plays better with Augur il-Vec et al. Mother of Runes would make the most sense and could use a trial run, but I'm not optimistic.
I feel a bit silly for having missed the Selfless Spirit in your list. I'm still wholly unconvinced that running a handful of slightly harder to block Suntail Hawks is good enough for commander.
Thanks for the feedback! I can see how your knight idea would have trouble with Bruse, the protection caught me off guard once with Sword of Light and Shadow in the very early days and helped me make the decision to take it out. Sword of Fire and Ice is too good to pass up though, even without double strike.
What you're suggesting is essentially taking this in a more conventional boros'y, token'y aggro direction, like the Aurelia deck in my playgroup that was a soft inspiration for this. However, you turn your Hero of Bladehold sideways, you send measly 2/1s at the other opponents... and then what? They walk on the ground, they're small, they die. Running things with crazy evasion abilities helps ensure they'll connect, letting you draw a bunch and carry in all sorts of stuff just fine. I've snuck around gigantic gummed up boards that the conventional token aggro things would get overwhelmed by, and damn does it feel good. I like your suggestions for what they are though, Bitterblossom in particular.
Funnily enough, Phyrexian Arena/Dark Tutelage play pretty well. They can sneak in around turn 4 or 5, if there's a bit of mana to spend, and help make the grip bigger. They're super nice for rebuilding after a prolonged Tymna absence, as the deck doesn't topdeck particularly amazingly due to expecting to draw 3+ cards a turn. I'll keep an eye out on whether they underperform, but so far no such vibes were picked up from the cards.
Yep, you're right - Necropolis Regent is a game winner, not a game clincher. It comes down on a medium board and demands an answer or the deck starts snowballing hard.
Yeah, I've been flirting with the idea of extra combats, and I may try adding some at some point. I'm already running Selfless Spirit, and nearly all your suggestions come with the downside of not being evasive while this deck likes its creatures to be cheap and evasive, a faux-Edric of sorts. Yeah, I know, it seems crazy. Check my original list in the spoiler for creatures that actually do things instead of being unblockable 1/1s, but somehow the deck plays better with Augur il-Vec et al. Mother of Runes would make the most sense and could use a trial run, but I'm not optimistic.
I feel a bit silly for having missed the Selfless Spirit in your list. I'm still wholly unconvinced that running a handful of slightly harder to block Suntail Hawks is good enough for commander.
I can see where you're coming from. However, those Suntail Hawks draw you cards, letting you get equipment, removal, evasion etc etc. It seems absolutely insane on paper, I know. But somehow, in spite of everything logical in the EDH universe, it plays very smoothly.
The deck has hit a point where it runs pretty smoothly and does what it wants. The do nothing durdle games tend to happen very rarely, if ever - the deck is drawing mad cards off Tymna, pressuring lightning voltron with Bruse, blazing in on the triumphant Boros Smash horse... or any combination of the above. I am closing in on a smoothly running aggro list that requires a lot of attention to get properly shut out, and can switch gears on a moment's notice. A few possible enhancements have been spotted, and subsequently added to the list.
The deck wants to be fast. Sword of the Animist isn't a natural fit here, as it's quite mana intensive by the deck's standards to set up and takes a while to properly return the investment. As such, it becomes Prowler's Helm, as the deck likes its evasion and can never have too much of it. Phyrexian Arena/Dark Tutelage are both nice, but both cost three mana, a well established tension spot within the list. It would be nicer if similar benefits could be reaped for a lesser investment. Cue Smuggler's Copter - comes down turn two, crew with Tymna turn three and go to town, looting along the way. The Arena/Tutelage aren't exactly bad in the list, so one of the copies of the effect gets to stay. Crazily enough, it's Phyrexian Arena that gets the axe. I know, right? Dark Tutelage only has a solitary in its cost, making it easier to play, sometimes even on turn one. And the deck can afford the life. High Priest of Penance may not be nominally evasive, but his Vindicate ability makes him a tough cookie to crack for your foes on both offence and defence. To block, triggering the Vindicate, or to let him connect and get a card off Tymna? Plus, he just gets silly with buffing equipment - special shoutouts to Empyrial Plate and Sword of Fire and Ice. In he goes over Augur il-Vec. Augur's the weakest of the pure evasion swingers, as the three toughness and potential to get a lifegain trigger aren't quite enough to make up for the fact that there's zero defence use whatsoever. At least the Wei Scout can block, and block pretty well if given a sword or something, and the other shadow friends are either onedrops, or recur themselves.
I've been pondering taking out Darksteel Mutation for Return to Dust, but the Mutation is so grotesquely effective in my meta it's got to stay.
Grafted Exoskeleton is a game-ender in this shell. Wei Scout becomes a four-turn clock, which speeds up very well if other equipment becomes involved. Bruse becomes a one-shot machine. It seems like a good card to keep the pressure going at any point in the game, akin to Archangel of Thune or Necropolis Regent. As such, in it goes. Smuggler's Copter takes the hit. Not like the Copter did anything wrong, it's nice that it loots and lives through wraths, but it's a bit of a nonbo with the Exoskeleton and hasn't been particularly dazzling or anything. Also, Maze of Ith variants make this deck's life hell, as even if not going full voltron then they can deny crucial Tymna swingers to keep refuelling. Volrath's Stronghold hasn't been doing that much, so out it goes in favour of another destruction land in Ghost Quarter.
The thread went a bit silent as I've burned out on magic a bit. It comes and goes, I'm sure you all know the feeling. The deck works more less okay, I'm sure I could squeeze some more performance out of it if I set myself to it, but I don't feel like setting myself to it really.
The deck is comfortable heading into a stereotypical EDH slog fest, as it refuels pretty easily and should be able to rebuild after wraths provided its rocks are left intact. For some reason, a lot of my games recently have been those stereotypical slog fests. This made me realise that Aurelia, the Warleader is a card that needs setup in this particular deck. She's not particularly lousy on her own, but the reason she's still in here is for glorious Boros Smashes that stem from a few turns of uninterrupted, fuel-rich development. As such, one could argue that the card is winmore in this shell.
Angel of Sanctions is more in line with the deck's hatebear'y/attrition'y side. That's the side that performs well in a standalone fashion, and embalm is a hell of a mechanic to get a leg-up in a prolonged game. As such, you can get an Oblivion Ring flyer to help draw off Tymna as you trip someone up a bit, and then you get to do it all again after somebody wipes the board, regardless of what you may have drawn. Good times.
Rumpy, as usual, you're very diligent. Almost every card I was going to suggest after reading the decklist is one you've already tried and cut! Here are the survivors:
Pilgrim's Eye. It's not sexy, but this card puts in work. I've played it in a couple of non-green evasive creature decks (Elbrus, the Binding Blade and Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury to be precise) and it almost always performs well. The main issue is that it's a poor late-game topdeck, but many cheap evasive creatures have that problem.
Myriad Landscape has a little more sex appeal than Pilgrim's Eye, but it's still nothing too exciting. Just some ramp for a wedge that doesn't get to have ramp.
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
Great to hear from you, as always! Thanks for the suggestions, however I don't think that most of these would work here.
The deck has Tymna at 3cmc and Bruse at 4cmc. As such, the early game choice depends on whether you pull fast rocks or not. If you can go from 1/2 mana to 4+, you get out Bruse before Tymna and start pressuring voltron as you refuel. That failing, you hopefully chase out a cheap evasive chicken and start your refuel off a turn three Tymna. Being a 3 or 4 drop is super hard in the deck, as you're competing against integral pieces of the strategy out of the command zone. As such, you have to be pretty freaking stupid to make it in. Unfortunately, Pilgrim's Eye is not quite stupid enough, even though I admit it's a nice cute land drop option for non-green builds and may try to run it somewhere some time.
Both of your other suggestions suffer from the same drawback, to some extent. Notice how most of the equipment has a combined play + equip cost of 4 or less. This way you can chase it out the turn after Tymna in a Tymna start and get things going. Whispersilk Cloak has the cost of a sword without the benefit of a sword. Sure, the evasion is decent, but there's two pieces that do this already, and shroud is actually actively detrimental in the shell - it turns off other equips and the Bruse trigger. As such, I never even seriously considered it for an inclusion.
Myriad Landscape's issue is partly different. The basics have to be of the same type. In the future, the list is likely to get basic-lighter (I'm gonna pick up the ZEN fetches reasonably soon, for example), plus as is there's only a handful of swamps and a solitary mountain. I expect it to play rather poorly, but I guess some goldfishing on Cockatrice never hurt anyone. Plus, it also suffers from the "the deck wants to curve out and has 3/4 cmc commanders" curse, as this only becomes "poppable" with three mana.
Your decklist/idea has inspired me to also build a similar list so thank you for that!
Some thoughts when seeing your list:
- Have you thought about Topplegeist . It's only one mana and has evasion while not being useless in the late game.
- How have you felt the unblockable effects are? You have some creatures with evasion already, for which you don't need the effects which would seem to decrease the usefulness of them. I could see cutting them and including more evasive threats, or cutting the evasive creatures for more hate bears / utility creatures. How have you found the middle ground to be?
- With regards to the mass removal effects you're playing, have you thought about options such as Fire Covenant or additional targeted remova as alternatives?
Thanks again for posting the list and your additional comments/responses!
Topplegeist seems like it would be just a hair too crappy to consider running. I don't think you'll get good mileage out of the tap effect, and a 1/1 for 1 needs to be crazy evasive to make it past the competition. Of course, feel free to give it a try and report back.
The unblockable effects are mighty fine. Notice how neither of the commanders are evasive in any form, and Bruse is one of the more reliable kill cons of the list. The commanders usually wear them while the evasion chickens tickle people for Tymna draw. Sometimes I put them on fliers to get past flying blockers, stuff like that. I'm very far from disappointed in them, and I've actively increased their amount over time.
Fire Covenant could actually be pretty good here, life keeps coming in left, right and center. I should test the sucker out. Thanks for reminding me this exists!
Fire Covenant could actually be pretty good here, life keeps coming in left, right and center. I should test the sucker out. Thanks for reminding me this exists!
I got lucky at KLD prerelease, ended up with a decent pool that I managed to flip for one of those FTV Umezawa's Jittes. I mean, Jitte is a good card, I'm bound to find a home for it eventually. And so, with time, I agglomerated some other support - ended up with a Stoneforge Mystic in return for some stuff for a friend, grabbed a bargain Sword of Light and Shadow when a guy was liquidating an EDH deck on MCM. One day I realised I now own a full set of the hotshot EDH equipment, plus the support for it, so it would make sense to actually play it somewhere.
A few failed experiments later, I ended up with Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder plus Tymna the Weaver. Tymna caught my eye, along with Kydele, when C16 was being spoiled, with the idea being some nondescript skies.dec that would then draw cards to not dry up and chase things out with the mana ramp. This build retains that skies.dec approach, but takes a quick detour to conventional voltron town to support Bruse Tarl instead. It seems like something that wouldn't mesh, would it - on one hand a number of evasive creatures clocking everyone at the table, on the other a solitary fat voltron trying to take a single target down quickly. However, what both Bruse Tarl and Tymna care about is evasion and dealing damage - you want your voltron to connect, and it would also be preferable is all the chickens clocking everybody actually did something. This magical overlap in the functionality leads to a surprisingly fun, if temperamental deck. It's not uncommon to have Bruse Tarl grant double strike to some utility chicken for added on-hit value, or to see Tymna and her friends run around with Swords of Protection and Value. Two seemingly distinct worlds come together and somehow work, and Tymna's draw keeps the hand nicely topped up. This makes the deck less prone to running out of gas, and lets it sling removal quite heartily, further messing with the opposition.
1 Tymna the Weaver
1 Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
Ramp
1 Boros Signet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Stone
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Thought Vessel
Equipment
1 Empyrial Plate
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mask of Memory
1 Prowler's Helm
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sunforger
1 Trailblazer's Boots
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Assorted Utility Beatsticks
1 Ankle Shanker
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Iroas, God of Victory
1 High Priest of Penance
1 Hushwing Gryff
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Necropolis Regent
1 Nether Traitor
1 Queen Marchesa
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Serra Ascendant
1 Soltari Foot Soldier
1 Spirit en-Dal
1 Tormented Soul
1 Wei Scout
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Stonehewer Giant
1 Vampiric Tutor
Removal
1 Angel of Sanctions
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Damnation
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Karlov of the Ghost Council
1 Path to Exile
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Utter End
1 Vandalblast
1 Wear // Tear
1 Wrath of God
Miscellaneous
1 Bastion Protector
1 Boros Charm
1 Dark Confidant
1 Dark Tutelage
1 Dauthi Embrace
1 Key to the City
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Puresteel Paladin
1 Sun Titan
1 Unspeakable Symbol
Lands.dec
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Caves of Koilos
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Mana Confluence
1 Mountain
1 Nomad Outpost
6 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Strip Mine
1 Sulfurous Springs
3 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
The deck's games end up quite varied. Sometimes you draw into good voltron pieces and start killing people with Bruse on turn four. Other times you start clocking people with tiny unblockable weenies, eventually snowballing into a full on Boros Smash assault. The deck's a riot to play, and can switch gears at a moment's notice.
1 Tymna the Weaver
1 Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
Ramp
1 Boros Signet
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mind Stone
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Thought Vessel
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
Equipment
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 O-Naginata
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Sunforger
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Assorted Utility Beatsticks
1 Ankle Shanker
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Archfiend of Depravity
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Blazing Specter
1 Blinding Angel
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
1 Firemane Avenger
1 Iroas, God of Victory
1 Hellkite Tyrant
1 Hushwing Gryff
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Needle Specter
1 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Shimian Specter
1 Soltari Visionary
1 Soltari Guerrillas
1 Spirit en-Dal
1 Stronghold Rats
1 Wei Night Raiders
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Stonehewer Giant
1 Vampiric Tutor
Removal
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Chaos Warp
1 Damnation
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Wear // Tear
1 Wrath of God
Miscellaneous
1 Boros Charm
1 Dauthi Embrace
1 Expedition Map
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Sire of Insanity
Lands.dec
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Caves of Koilos
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Mana Confluence
3 Mountain
1 Nomad Outpost
5 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sulfurous Springs
4 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
07.02.2017 Changes
1 Archfiend of Depravity
1 Blazing Specter
1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Mountain
1 O-Naginata
1 Shimian Specter
1 Fireshrieker
1 Nether Traitor
1 Plains
1 Sun Titan
1 Tormented Soul
1 Trailblazer's Boots
1 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
08.02.2017 Changes
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Chaos Warp
1 Firemane Avenger
1 Fireshrieker
1 Mountain
1 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Soltari Guerrillas
1 Soltari Visionary
1 Stronghold Rats
1 Swamp
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Wei Night Raiders
1 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
1 Augur il-Vec
1 Bastion Protector
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Duelist's Heritage
1 Empyrial Plate
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Fervor
1 Flamekin Village
1 Hatred
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mask of Memory
1 Puresteel Paladin
1 Soltari Foot Soldier
1 Strip Mine
1 Utter End
1 Wei Scout
13.02.2017 Changes
1 Blinding Angel
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Duelist's Heritage
1 Expedition Map
1 Fervor
1 Flamekin Village
1 Hatred
1 Hellkite Tyrant
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Needle Specter
1 Sire of Insanity
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Dark Confidant
1 Dark Tutelage
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Karlov of the Ghost Council
1 Key to the City
1 Mana Vault
1 Necropolis Regent
1 Queen Marchesa
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Serra Ascendant
1 Unspeakable Symbol
1 Vandalblast
20.02.2017 Changes
1 Augur il-Vec
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Sword of the Animist
1 High Priest of Penance
1 Prowler's Helm
1 Smuggler's Copter
02.03.2017 Changes
1 Smuggler's Copter
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
17.04.2017 Changes
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 Angel of Sanctions
Pretty much, Effort/Odric would typically just give wings to a handful of non-flying creatures and maybe spread Tymna's lifelink around. Bruse only triggers on attack, and all the weird evasion mechanics like shadow and horsemanship are not covered by the policy
Blade of Selves...?
In the end, the specters are not going to stay.
1 Archfiend of Depravity
1 Blazing Specter
1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Mountain
1 O-Naginata
1 Shimian Specter
1 Fireshrieker
1 Nether Traitor
1 Plains
1 Sun Titan
1 Tormented Soul
1 Trailblazer's Boots
1 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
Some observations from playing the list some more - apparently people tend to have fliers. Also, apparently specter hits are kind of meaningless unless the specter becomes soulbond to a single person. As such, most of the specters go bye-bye. I'm still retaining the best ones - Stronghold Rats is a lovely global discard trigger on a shadow body (we can easily replenish off the enabling this gives Tymna), Wei Night Raiders because P3K, and Needle Specter because that sucker wins games. Also, I got to experiment a bit with my top-end haymakers, and Archfiend of Depravity doesn't make quite as much hay as hoped for. Everything else in the 5+cmc space varies from good to damn good, so being merely ok isn't quite cutting it. The next weakest high CMC piece is Bloodgift Demon, but drawing cards isn't a bad thing to have on a utility flyer. Drana, Liberator of Malakir isn't bad, but making 2/2 utility beatsticks into 3/3 utility beatsticks isn't that big a deal really. Notice I'm not ragging on Archangel of Thune though, as that synergises really well with the commanders and takes over games in no time (especially if Aurelia, the Warleader becomes involved). Also, O-Naginata is super nice for Bruse voltron kills, but useless in most other scenarios.
So, when does the deck tend to work? Funnily enough, Selfless Spirit and Stoneforge Mystic turned out to be real early game MVPs, coming down a turn before Tymna and usually finding the way to some free cards. Getting the draw going early is apparently super helpful, as it does what it can to smooth out the imperfections of the starting hand and offer a good base to rebuild from. As such, some cheeser early game pokesticks probably wouldn't hurt. Tormented Soul is one of two cards in Mardu colours that are straight unblockable, and comes down for a measly one mana, so in it goes. Later on the pokestick can carry some swords or something into battle, so he's never completely dead. On similar grounds, Nether Traitor's shadowy hasted two drop ways are going to net some free cardboard off the top, and he even comes with a mechanism to recur himself later on. On a completely different note, Sun Titan is probably going to do good work here. There's a lot of <4 CMC stuff for him to recur, including the freaking swords which are the reason why I'm slogging on with a thing so far out of my comfort zone. Also, I have a Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed in the mono black deck I'll be stripping for parts to build this. Horsemanship? Check. Useful ability? Check. In he goes. And as for equipment, there's tons of nice on hit stuff going around, so supporting it a bit with Fireshrieker makes sense. The O-Naginata slot in turn becomes a pair of Trailblazer's Boots for more widespread evasion. True, it won't help speed up the Bruse clock, but it's going to be more useful in most situations.
Still unsure where to take this. The list feels like it's in the early days, sometimes it explodes and does crazy things, sometimes it durdles around and accomplishes very little. Crucially, even in its low-functioning states, I still feel like I get to do things. As such, I need to keep an eye out for what leads to less bombastic stuff happening and try to spot better options to run instead. Feedback is still greatly appreciated, I'm so out of my league here it's not even funny. A potential future direction I'm considering is some extra combats via Aggravated Assault and Waves of Aggression, but for now I feel like I need to get the list running smoother.
stuff
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Chaos Warp
1 Firemane Avenger
1 Fireshrieker
1 Mountain
1 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Soltari Guerrillas
1 Soltari Visionary
1 Stronghold Rats
1 Swamp
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Wei Night Raiders
1 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
1 Augur il-Vec
1 Bastion Protector
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Duelist's Heritage
1 Empyrial Plate
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Fervor
1 Flamekin Village
1 Hatred
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mask of Memory
1 Puresteel Paladin
1 Soltari Foot Soldier
1 Strip Mine
1 Utter End
1 Wei Scout
Every smoothly functioning deck needs some sort of premise, a mission statement, a plan to adhere to if you will. This deck's initial plan was hateful evasive beats, creatures that did mean things to people on impact. Turns out, there aren't really that many creatures that do that well. You typically pay three to four mana for an evasive weenie that makes them drop a single card or fires off a bolt or something as it does things. Chasing them out and getting value out of them will typically be a pretty slow process, especially as you need to sequence a three drop commander somewhere along the way as well. And in the end, the benefit is minuscule. All those tiny little friends from last update (Nether Traitor, Tormented Soul) work just fine. They come in, Tymna comes in, they turn sideways, people get tickled for 1, you draw a bunch. People don't drop a card or whatever, but the ball gets rolling far quicker, often catching people unprepared. This is the sort of deck where perfectly curving out across the first four or so turns is vital, as it sets up an equipment and card base for later.
What works well early? The silly mana rocks. Things that you can play before Tymna comes down so you can get drawing immediately. Preferably in combination, things get really silly then. Tormented Soul and Nether Traitor have been MVPs, doing way better in terms of pushing the agenda forward than most of the 3/4 drops. As such, a number of the less effective 3/4 drops have now been terminated. 4 in particular has proven itself to be a problematic CMC, and the only survivors are Iroas, God of Victory (because extreme combat dumb) and Linvala, Keeper of Silence (because wonderful hatebear dumb). Notable 4-drop casualties include Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, who just didn't run smoothly in the list in spite of good theoretical promise, and Odric, Master Tactician - in the end, requiring 4 swingers was just a hair too much. If anything, the most likely to return from here would be Soltari Guerrillas, as they synergise well with equipment and double strike, but for the time being they're going to be out of the 99. Fresh blood is brought in the form of Tormented Soul lookalikes - Augur il-Vec, Soltari Foot Soldier and Wei Scout. They all come out before Tymna and easily draw cards once she hits the board, and happily carry all manner of equipment if required to. A higher CMC addition comes in the form of Bastion Protector, but that thing has good utility - twice the commanders, twice the value. Tactical Tymna blocks and daredevil Bruse swings even with no evasion. The card's been working wonderfully, good thing I still have the one that I stripped from my Daxos the Returned precon last year.
Another thing that needed some streamlining was equipment. Assuming no mana explosion, turn three's usually used up by playing Tymna. As such, equipment needs to play nice with the mana allotments offered up by turns two and four for maximum benefit. Sword of Light and Shadow doesn't play that well within those restrictions and isn't actually all that useful within the deck - few low drop creatures are critical to recur and the deck's light on high CMC stuff, the other half of the trigger is feeble most of the time, and the protections turn off double strike support. Speaking of double strike support, Fireshrieker was just a touch clunky in a similar fashion. Duelist's Heritage loses the need to equip a thing and gains political tomfoolery if need be. On the other hand, Empyrial Plate handily fits within those mana allotments, akin to Trailblazer's Boots. Sure, all it does is damage, but it's damage that keeps on happening as you can put it on any replaceable evasive body and go to town (let alone a lifelinking commander body!). Another great equipment absent from the list was Mask of Memory, a stellar draw option that can help refuel if Tymna is unavailable or I somehow manage to out-barf the constant draw stream. Also, Swiftfoot Boots become Lightning Greaves. The anti-synergy with Bruse is kind of there, but the turn Bruse comes in he can just double strike himself on ETB before the greaves slip on, and later on can choose to double strike things not wearing the greaves. However, greaves come out turn two, Tymna comes out turn three, slips them on, and goes to town immediately, making them feel like a weenie drop for the purposes of getting the deck's draw online. Not to mention Bruse coming down the following turn. Also, at this point I'm willing to openly admit that this is an equipment-heavy deck, so Puresteel Paladin comes in. Between all the rock clutter and the equipments, metalcraft is nearly a given, plus another source of subtle refuelling never hurt anyone and it's always another potential cheeser body early on.
There are also slight quality of life upgrades - Chaos Warp becomes Utter End as it's just better removal, and they're both just as Sunforgerable. A Swamp becomes a Bojuka Bog to have even the slightest trace of grave hate in the 99, while a Mountain becomes a Flamekin Village for haste potential. That frees up the colourless utility land slot that used to be haste to now be Strip Mine. Thran Dynamo is a little awkward at this point in time due to the manner in which the deck tends to curve out, and Bloodgift Demon is out as in the end merely good isn't going to be good enough. Enlightened Tutor is nice, with its most common use so far being getting Mana Crypts for explosive turn twos. This is one of those decks that really, really likes its early rocks. Fervor is no questions asked global haste, sitting at a slightly awkward CMC of 3, but still serviceable. And then Hatred. Oh boy, Hatred. Each deck has that card that's disproportionately good within the shell, and this may well be that card for this deck. Swing with Bruse and a disposable evasive chicken. Double strike lifelink the disposable evasive chicken. Then hurl a Hatred, boosting its power as close to one minus your target's life total as you can. Proceed to end up with way more life than you started out with and one less person to deal with. Given the fact that Tymna also lifelinks, plus the list tends to gain silly amounts of life somehow, you'll typically have some way to make this be a one-shot kill on someone. If anything, this very card would be the main argument for keeping Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed around in the 99, but he suffers from the 4cmc curse that weeded out so many others.
So yeah. The deck plays pretty well now, the clunkiness of the starts has been diametrically reduced. In the end, there's not that much hateful stuff you can do on hit. There is still some left in the 99 - Needle Specter has won me a few games by now, and a well placed Blinding Angel smack or two has neutered boards that would have made Balefire Dragon cry. I'm still flirting with the idea of adding extra combats to the list, but for now I focused on getting the deck running smoothly in its crucial early stages.
When is the deck at its best? When Boros Smashing into people with Archangel of Thune and/or Aurelia, the Warleader, when doing evasive manoeuvres wish Bruse, when coming out of the gate cracking without forgoing late game relevance. When having plenty of cards to choose from, and loads of removal to hurl at things at its leisure. As such, time to streamline the list into that direction!
1 Blinding Angel
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Duelist's Heritage
1 Expedition Map
1 Fervor
1 Flamekin Village
1 Hatred
1 Hellkite Tyrant
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Needle Specter
1 Sire of Insanity
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Dark Confidant
1 Dark Tutelage
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Karlov of the Ghost Council
1 Key to the City
1 Mana Vault
1 Necropolis Regent
1 Queen Marchesa
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Serra Ascendant
1 Unspeakable Symbol
1 Vandalblast
In terms of straight swaps, Chromatic Lantern becomes Mana Vault, Flamekin Village becomes Hall of the Bandit Lord, Loxodon Warhammer becomes Key to the City, Hellkite Tyrant becomes Vandalblast, and Hatred becomes Unspeakable Symbol. The first of those should be pretty obvious - the Lantern suffers from the 3-4 CMC curse, while the Vault typically chases out a turn two Bruse into a turn three Tymna while not being a disdainful draw later on like a mox would be. Hall's just superior to the Village as it allows for on-curve hasting, and with so much lifelink running around the 100 the life loss is pretty negligible (more on that in a bit). Warhammer's main purpose was granting evasion and a power boost, but it was expensive and clunky. Key bypasses the need for trample by just granting unblockability for the lowest cost in the whole deck - a random card from the constant draw overflow. Plus, it lands at two, which makes it awesome. The Hellkite is quite handy, but requires haste to really catch people off guard and is susceptible to removal. In all honesty, it's not like you need others' artifacts really badly, you mainly want them to not have them. As such, Vandalblast is a one off kerblooey that should handle that problem well. Hatred is a superbeast... once. You use it, you hedge your bets that the creature won't get removed in response, and then a single person is out and your life total is hopefully padded pretty nicely. And then you have the rest of the table still to kill. The Symbol gets around that problem by coming down and offering counter-based pump. You can put it on many different creatures, you can strategically force out blocks, crucially the bonuses are still there after you kill someone and you can re-use it if somebody pops your pump friend. True, the cost is steep as hell, but once again, lifegain is extremely bountiful in this deck. Time to make use of it!
How else can we make use of it? By drawing cards. Bob and Enchantment Bob get welcomed into the fray. It was actually a post somewhere on these boards that made me realise that Bob is actually playable in EDH due to a comparison with Sylvan Library, and the curve here is nonexistent and the life just keeps on coming, making these effects worth it. Plus, Bob himself is a two drop with legs, curving into Tymna handily. Enchantment Bob may be 3CMC, but this is the sort of card that will not be duking it out with the commanders for being played. This comes down like Arena, if/when the deck starts ripping through its card supplies so hard that it needs even more replenish than it's already getting. Or if Tymna's out of commission. Then mad Bruse life gain will effortlessly offset whatever life may get sucked up by this. I've already whammied Blasphemous Act and it wasn't that bad.
The deck likes settling into its game plan quickly, getting the card chewing engines going. Queen Marchesa is a natural fit, offering a nasty hasted body just above Tymna in the curve. Plus, when she comes down, you become the Monarch, drawing even more cards. Reclaiming the throne will be effortless, and you actually want it to make a trip around the table - that's a 1/1 deathtoucher for you in your upkeep. Good enough to become the deck's third four-drop creature. Serra Ascendant, one of the most overrated pieces of garbage in all of EDH, actually also has a home here. A 6/6 lifelinking flyer for 1 at most, if not all, stages of the game (remember, lifegain is super abundant). One of the feistiest ways to end the game involves a gigantic, countered-up army from Archangel of Thune. Necropolis Regent offers a similar game-taking-over service.
Also, given the thick trickle of cards each turn, removal is a good thing. Karlov of the Ghost Council is a mini-Archangel of Thune, gaining counters with each of the myriad of lifegain triggers and having the potential to use them to repeatedly pop opposing creatures if required. Rakdos Charm is tech as hell, sometimes disrupting graveyards, with its "fail clause" being eating an artifact. Not a bad fail clause to have, and not a bad set of tech choices to have on tap from a Sunforger.
Cuts were less 1v1 for all this other stuff. There are some more casualties of the 3cmc curse in Duelist's Heritage, Fervor and Needle Specter. The list is now officially specter-free, which is a bit of a shame but what can you do. Needle Specter will be remembered fondly for all his silliness with equipment, but the deck actively wants to curve out now and he just doesn't fit. Expedition Map and Wayfarer's Bauble get booted as rather sluggish early plays that don't provide enough benefit for the deck given they occupy both its turn 1 and 2. Blinding Angel is solid, but not quite amazing enough to merit sitting in here at 5cmc. Sire of Insanity is brutal, but is also a high risk high reward scenario. The deck likes to draw like mad, and being reduced to a single topdeck if the draw options here are decommissioned is a recipe for disaster.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how the list plays now. It lost some of its temperamental nature from the early days and has a clearly defined game plan - smash fast, draw loads, hurl around removal. There seems to be a pretty fine balance between early game explosiveness and long game sustain, not making the deck fall on its face after 5 turns. Bruse can lead to some hilarious cheeser wins both early and late, while Tymna chews through the deck like mad to make it run as smooth as possible. I'm gonna paper this. I'm optimistic about it, and now I get to have a good excuse to take out the Mana Crypt from Daxos where it's been doing more harm than good
Also another idea was to just try to get the most creatures per card as possible. Things like Spirit Bonds, Bitterblossom, Entreat the Angels, Lingering Souls, Spectral Procession, Emeria Angel. The idea was that one card would set you up potentially in multiple places, then just pace yourself through. The ones I listed were those I remember because they did well, but they were just grease for the rest of the deck which was highly control heavy. Bitterblossom though is one that I can’t imagine ever leaving out of any Tymna deck.
If you wouldn’t mind me suggesting some cuts, I would consider dropping Dark Tutelage and Pyrexian Arena. I have thought for a while now that Arena even is just too slow for EDH now, and only ever good on Turn 3. This deck seems to be wanting to do something else on Turn 3, definitely. Turn 3 and earlier, a creature is just better. And after Turn 3, these are terrible. Something like Ancient Craving, or alternatively Wretched Confluence or Bituminous Blast gives you a good amount impact along with extra fuel.
Also some ideas that have lingered around from those revisions was the use of manlands, keyrunes, and myrs. Blinkmoth Nexus and Inkmoth Nexus are cheap at 2 mana an activation to assist a Tymna recovery. Rakdos and Boros Keyrunes are some of the better ones also. And, whether to run Myr or Signets I think comes down to what kind of wipes you’re running. I wouldn’t suggest them for your deck with all of Vandalblast, Wrath of God, Damnation, Blasphemous Act, and Toxic Deluge, but they are there, and they tend to get in for at least a card before the board clogs up.
I think you will like Necropolis Regent a bunch. Take it from someone who tries the small weenies approach over and over every release, that one is a beast. It goes in every deck of mine with equipments. Insane, as expected, with Double Strike. I imagine that Archangel of Thune has been doing really well for you in here, though I haven’t tried it. Unlike Bruse, it doesn’t care about protections or shroud. Gotta love just beating in for value.
I feel a bit silly for having missed the Selfless Spirit in your list. I'm still wholly unconvinced that running a handful of slightly harder to block Suntail Hawks is good enough for commander.
What you're suggesting is essentially taking this in a more conventional boros'y, token'y aggro direction, like the Aurelia deck in my playgroup that was a soft inspiration for this. However, you turn your Hero of Bladehold sideways, you send measly 2/1s at the other opponents... and then what? They walk on the ground, they're small, they die. Running things with crazy evasion abilities helps ensure they'll connect, letting you draw a bunch and carry in all sorts of stuff just fine. I've snuck around gigantic gummed up boards that the conventional token aggro things would get overwhelmed by, and damn does it feel good. I like your suggestions for what they are though, Bitterblossom in particular.
Funnily enough, Phyrexian Arena/Dark Tutelage play pretty well. They can sneak in around turn 4 or 5, if there's a bit of mana to spend, and help make the grip bigger. They're super nice for rebuilding after a prolonged Tymna absence, as the deck doesn't topdeck particularly amazingly due to expecting to draw 3+ cards a turn. I'll keep an eye out on whether they underperform, but so far no such vibes were picked up from the cards.
Yep, you're right - Necropolis Regent is a game winner, not a game clincher. It comes down on a medium board and demands an answer or the deck starts snowballing hard.
I can see where you're coming from. However, those Suntail Hawks draw you cards, letting you get equipment, removal, evasion etc etc. It seems absolutely insane on paper, I know. But somehow, in spite of everything logical in the EDH universe, it plays very smoothly.
1 Augur il-Vec
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Sword of the Animist
1 High Priest of Penance
1 Prowler's Helm
1 Smuggler's Copter
The deck wants to be fast. Sword of the Animist isn't a natural fit here, as it's quite mana intensive by the deck's standards to set up and takes a while to properly return the investment. As such, it becomes Prowler's Helm, as the deck likes its evasion and can never have too much of it. Phyrexian Arena/Dark Tutelage are both nice, but both cost three mana, a well established tension spot within the list. It would be nicer if similar benefits could be reaped for a lesser investment. Cue Smuggler's Copter - comes down turn two, crew with Tymna turn three and go to town, looting along the way. The Arena/Tutelage aren't exactly bad in the list, so one of the copies of the effect gets to stay. Crazily enough, it's Phyrexian Arena that gets the axe. I know, right? Dark Tutelage only has a solitary
I've been pondering taking out Darksteel Mutation for Return to Dust, but the Mutation is so grotesquely effective in my meta it's got to stay.
1 Smuggler's Copter
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
Grafted Exoskeleton is a game-ender in this shell. Wei Scout becomes a four-turn clock, which speeds up very well if other equipment becomes involved. Bruse becomes a one-shot machine. It seems like a good card to keep the pressure going at any point in the game, akin to Archangel of Thune or Necropolis Regent. As such, in it goes. Smuggler's Copter takes the hit. Not like the Copter did anything wrong, it's nice that it loots and lives through wraths, but it's a bit of a nonbo with the Exoskeleton and hasn't been particularly dazzling or anything. Also, Maze of Ith variants make this deck's life hell, as even if not going full voltron then they can deny crucial Tymna swingers to keep refuelling. Volrath's Stronghold hasn't been doing that much, so out it goes in favour of another destruction land in Ghost Quarter.
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 Angel of Sanctions
The deck is comfortable heading into a stereotypical EDH slog fest, as it refuels pretty easily and should be able to rebuild after wraths provided its rocks are left intact. For some reason, a lot of my games recently have been those stereotypical slog fests. This made me realise that Aurelia, the Warleader is a card that needs setup in this particular deck. She's not particularly lousy on her own, but the reason she's still in here is for glorious Boros Smashes that stem from a few turns of uninterrupted, fuel-rich development. As such, one could argue that the card is winmore in this shell.
Angel of Sanctions is more in line with the deck's hatebear'y/attrition'y side. That's the side that performs well in a standalone fashion, and embalm is a hell of a mechanic to get a leg-up in a prolonged game. As such, you can get an Oblivion Ring flyer to help draw off Tymna as you trip someone up a bit, and then you get to do it all again after somebody wipes the board, regardless of what you may have drawn. Good times.
The deck has Tymna at 3cmc and Bruse at 4cmc. As such, the early game choice depends on whether you pull fast rocks or not. If you can go from 1/2 mana to 4+, you get out Bruse before Tymna and start pressuring voltron as you refuel. That failing, you hopefully chase out a cheap evasive chicken and start your refuel off a turn three Tymna. Being a 3 or 4 drop is super hard in the deck, as you're competing against integral pieces of the strategy out of the command zone. As such, you have to be pretty freaking stupid to make it in. Unfortunately, Pilgrim's Eye is not quite stupid enough, even though I admit it's a nice cute land drop option for non-green builds and may try to run it somewhere some time.
Both of your other suggestions suffer from the same drawback, to some extent. Notice how most of the equipment has a combined play + equip cost of 4 or less. This way you can chase it out the turn after Tymna in a Tymna start and get things going. Whispersilk Cloak has the cost of a sword without the benefit of a sword. Sure, the evasion is decent, but there's two pieces that do this already, and shroud is actually actively detrimental in the shell - it turns off other equips and the Bruse trigger. As such, I never even seriously considered it for an inclusion.
Myriad Landscape's issue is partly different. The basics have to be of the same type. In the future, the list is likely to get basic-lighter (I'm gonna pick up the ZEN fetches reasonably soon, for example), plus as is there's only a handful of swamps and a solitary mountain. I expect it to play rather poorly, but I guess some goldfishing on Cockatrice never hurt anyone. Plus, it also suffers from the "the deck wants to curve out and has 3/4 cmc commanders" curse, as this only becomes "poppable" with three mana.
Some thoughts when seeing your list:
- Have you thought about Topplegeist . It's only one mana and has evasion while not being useless in the late game.
- How have you felt the unblockable effects are? You have some creatures with evasion already, for which you don't need the effects which would seem to decrease the usefulness of them. I could see cutting them and including more evasive threats, or cutting the evasive creatures for more hate bears / utility creatures. How have you found the middle ground to be?
- With regards to the mass removal effects you're playing, have you thought about options such as Fire Covenant or additional targeted remova as alternatives?
Thanks again for posting the list and your additional comments/responses!
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
Topplegeist seems like it would be just a hair too crappy to consider running. I don't think you'll get good mileage out of the tap effect, and a 1/1 for 1 needs to be crazy evasive to make it past the competition. Of course, feel free to give it a try and report back.
The unblockable effects are mighty fine. Notice how neither of the commanders are evasive in any form, and Bruse is one of the more reliable kill cons of the list. The commanders usually wear them while the evasion chickens tickle people for Tymna draw. Sometimes I put them on fliers to get past flying blockers, stuff like that. I'm very far from disappointed in them, and I've actively increased their amount over time.
Fire Covenant could actually be pretty good here, life keeps coming in left, right and center. I should test the sucker out. Thanks for reminding me this exists!