While worth mentioning, I think the tomb should be disregarded. A three mana card that must be played from hand when your deck is already working is no good game one. In games two and three, the wording leads me to believe you only get one bat if they exile your entire graveyard, and thus the traditional counter hate would seem to be more useful.
I find Shriekhorn lets you keep more hands, but neonate is slightly better in like 50 tiny ways. As Sodek has said elsewhere, it counts for Gnaw to the Bone, blocks creatures, and does not grow Tarmo. It also is better if you have imp or thug in hand, can be used with driven to despair, does not get abrupt decayed for value (an otherwise dead card), can be used with devil/ rally the peasants, does not let burn decks side in smash to smithereens, digs for counter hate, discards payoff creatures, digs for the second land or green source, etc.
I agreed that Hollow One is not a bad match up, and would go so far as to say it is favorable though they certainly have draws we cannot contend with.
KCI, and any fast combos, seem to be quite difficult matchups though, as you demonstrate, Leylines are helpful.
How have you found driven to dispair? I adopted it quite early, but My experience is that if I delpoy it quickly enough, the other side can just keep the one card that matters and win anyway. I find this deck really generates a board on turns 3-4 and the turn 4-5 driven to despair is strictly worse than a rally the peasants or Loam plus conflagerate. Frankly, there may be a retooled version of this deck that better utilized driven to despair.
congratulations on the finish, piloting dredge all day is no easy task.
I have had quite a lot of trouble against the fast combo decks, including kci, and figured the leylines may be able to help. How do you sideboard against kci and hollowed one with your configuration?
Would someone please explain how to sideboard with Leyline of the Void in this deck (running it in the sideboard NOT sideboarding when the opponent is playing it). Generally, it has been my experience that you add in 2-4 cards to address the opponent's hate (e.g. Abrupt Decay, Nature's Claim, etc.) and perhaps add in a few cards than benefit the match up e.g. Lightning Ax, Gnaw to the Bone, Vengeful Pharaoh, etc.) while making trims across each aspect (e.g. remove a dredger, payoff creature, and discard outlet). If you have a four pack of Leyline of the Void to target e.g. Storm, KCI, Hollow one, etc., what do you cut for the seven to eight cards you will be bringing in (four leylines plus nature's claims/ Abrupt Decay/ etc.)? Do you still just trim each aspect? I would love to see a sideboard recommendation for the matchups you would bring the Leylines in.
In addition, I would be curious if someone would explain how they design their sideboard with Leyline, my initial thought is to remove the Thoughseize effects because you are using the Leylines to address the combo matchups in lieu of the discard effects.
Soulfire grand Master might be even more broken i.e. buying back take another turn cards. Feldon plus pretty much any other color might be fun, red seems to have the least appealing targets among the colors.
I might have to give him a try. I get to play dathui creatures in EDH, I think I am pretty much in.
I like the rwb animar idea too, it might end up a more tame deck. I like how you have to build an old idea with new cards.
What do you guys think of Sword of Feast and Famine and Temur Ascendancy. Would Temur Ascendancy be more acceptable if I wrote "3/3" on the bottom right hand corner?
I might give Elbrus a try but does it play out pretty similar each time. Ramp, equip it to an evasion creature, then start one shoting people by giving Withengar Unbound double strike?
How did prince of thralls play out? How does ink-treader play? Those the unique kinds of abilities that most good commander decks have. I thought about Maelstrom and it seems like it would draw a lot of hate. The off color Animar is an interesting idea, I like how it works with pretty much any colors (e.g. do not need aura which are usually only good in some colors).
What do you guys think of some of these ideas? Are there enough good auras in black white to make an evershrike deck and would it be fun to play against?
The only thing I do not like about Havengul Lich is that you would only be able to play your own creatures and those that are blue and black. My group does not like manabarb sort of cards but that would make for an interesting group slug deck (with you gaining a lot of life). I thought about Kheru Lich Lord but it seems like a bad Sedris, the Traitor King.
I would like to try Elbrus but that is literally a seven drop or maybe even an eight drop that results in only a big creature. I guess that also brings up the problem if the demon deal commander damage.
That does sound like fun. Manipulate the top of your library with top, library, scroll rack etc. It would also be a swarm deck that is resilient to wraths.
I am looking to spice up our usual commander gameplay by playing decks not normally available. Our group is a fairly high powered but very casual group. No infinite combos, nasty hate cards, or land destruction. Our group also allows the nephilims and I wanted to expand on this by playing other commanders that are not strictly allowed via the traditional rules. Some of my ideas:
Other cool non-legendary creatures as commanders: e.g. Blood Speaker, Knight of the Reliquary, Living Lore, etc.
I also have been toying around with just playing different colors in existing commanders e.g. a blue and black Mayael the Anima or a blue and black Higure, the Still Wind.
What are some other cool ideas you guys have used or wish you could do? The idea is not to make a broken powerful deck, but instead make a fun deck that no one has ever seen because is it in violation of the black letter rule but not the spirit of the rules.
Tl;dr: I agree with Sodek.
KCI, and any fast combos, seem to be quite difficult matchups though, as you demonstrate, Leylines are helpful.
How have you found driven to dispair? I adopted it quite early, but My experience is that if I delpoy it quickly enough, the other side can just keep the one card that matters and win anyway. I find this deck really generates a board on turns 3-4 and the turn 4-5 driven to despair is strictly worse than a rally the peasants or Loam plus conflagerate. Frankly, there may be a retooled version of this deck that better utilized driven to despair.
I have had quite a lot of trouble against the fast combo decks, including kci, and figured the leylines may be able to help. How do you sideboard against kci and hollowed one with your configuration?
In addition, I would be curious if someone would explain how they design their sideboard with Leyline, my initial thought is to remove the Thoughseize effects because you are using the Leylines to address the combo matchups in lieu of the discard effects.
I like the rwb animar idea too, it might end up a more tame deck. I like how you have to build an old idea with new cards.
What do you guys think of Sword of Feast and Famine and Temur Ascendancy. Would Temur Ascendancy be more acceptable if I wrote "3/3" on the bottom right hand corner?
What do you guys think of some of these ideas? Are there enough good auras in black white to make an evershrike deck and would it be fun to play against?
Other cool non-legendary creatures as commanders: e.g. Blood Speaker, Knight of the Reliquary, Living Lore, etc.
I also have been toying around with just playing different colors in existing commanders e.g. a blue and black Mayael the Anima or a blue and black Higure, the Still Wind.
What are some other cool ideas you guys have used or wish you could do? The idea is not to make a broken powerful deck, but instead make a fun deck that no one has ever seen because is it in violation of the black letter rule but not the spirit of the rules.