I'd be looking for a deck which a budget version can be built of for around $300 or less. I do have a good number of old Melira-pod staples, if that's relevant (but I doubt that podless pod is playable).
My local metagame contains a scapeshift deck, a merfolk deck, an affinity deckl, and multiple twin and burn decks. Do you have any ideas of what deck I should be looking to build? I don't want to spend too much at once, so something which can built on a budget, then upgraded over time is preferred. The first deck I looked at was shamanism, but it didn't feel like it could beat most tempo or combo decks.
The "both pick the same colors to make one bonkers deck" strategy is fundamentally weak for one reason: luck. Since 2HG rounds are out of 1 game instead of out of 3, if your bonkers deck stumbles (mana screw, flood, etc.), then unless your support deck pulls a god hand, that's almost certainly a round loss.
From what we have seen so far of Fate Reforged, it seems very obvious to me that the clans in Dragons of Tarkir will become allied color pairs, dropping the enemy color from their shard and changing their name and symbol.
Evidence:
Each of the rare dragons is an ally color pair, and has a watermark slightly different from that of the shard normally associated with it. Look carefully at Dromoka, the Eternal, for example.
So far, every mechanic in FRF besides manifest has been contained to 2 colors: Bolster and Dash are only in GW and RB respectively, and Prowess has been absent from red, delve from green, and ferocious from blue.
Based on there being an estimated 10 multicolor cards, five of which are the ally-color dragons, I'd say that there will be an enemy-color cycle, which Ethereal Ambush is part of. Probably will be at common, but it could span multiple rarities.
This year's red one and last year's grixis one have the best value of their respective years. Beyond that, you should go for the one that looks interesting: Oloro, Ageless Ascetic is almost guaranteed to piss off your playgroup (if you like to play control/lifegain), and Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury is great if you like elves.
What would you make the green one so it is good but not 'format-breaking' or whatnot? And what kind of bounce for the blue one, would it be unsummon, disperse, or something else?
Unsummon for sure as that'll be a very powerful tempo play already (but not game-ending).
I'm not exactly sure how i'd make a helix in green. A giant growth effect would probably be underwhelming, but a prey upon effect could be interesting.
I see this as basically a non-suicidal Hall of the Bandit Lord. Sure it doesn't have the same amount of speed, but unless you're playing an extremely fast & unfair deck (like Kaalia), you'll usually want this since you don't have to pay a pound of flesh to tap it for mana.
so much for "we do not want LD to be a thing anymore" = P
Unless you're running ALL nonbasics, then you don't lose tempo when someone else casts this. You get to tutor up a basic for each nonbasic destroyed, similar to Ghost Quarter, which isn't really LD: it's an answer card that replaces a land with a different one. If you're running all nonbasics, with all the nonbasic hate out there already, then you're taking a very serious risk and this is only one of the cards that will completely ruin your day.
While it may technically not be land destruction so much as replacement, turning someone's Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth into a pair of swamps or Reliquary Tower into an island feels pretty destructive. Then again, I suppose it accomplishes their goal of punishing nonbasics without totally denying people mana.
Since when is hard-casting the only option for a creature? Why not, by the same rules that permit me to run the Teysa, run Debtors' Knell?
Debtor's Knell is something which i think black decks should be able to play. Nobody's going to be scared of them reanimating a Teysa, Orzhov Scion, especially not if a bounce spell is as good as a kill spell against it. Is there something you're actually scared of mono-B getting to play under these rules?
I do not understand the correlation between hybrid cards and phyrexian mana. Can someone please elaborate how allowing hybrid would automatically allow phyrexian mana? I just don't see it. That said, I do dislike how hybrid cards are not allowed in out-of-color generals, BUT, I love the restrictions on deck building. Extort, however, is BW. I do not see how Extort isn't a keyword that says "Extort: Whenever you play a spell, you may pay W or B. If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain life equal to life lossed this way." Either way, I am happy with the color restrictions EDH currently has, but I love to watch MaRo make things to try to change EDH. We got crypt ghast and a sick mechanic out of it! Can't wait for more. Thanks MaRo! Even if he succeeds, I still love hybrid cards and wouldn't cry to play them in mono colored decks.
The idea is this: if we eliminated the rule which says "cards in your deck may not have color identities which contain colors outside your commander's color identity," then there's nothing to stop decks from playing phyrexian mana cards from outside their deck's colors by paying 2 life (i.e. Omnath, Locus of Mana could play Phyrexian Metamorph).
Extort as an ability does not affect a card's color identity since it only says "... you may pay B or W..." in reminder text, which is not counted in color identity
Evidence:
Unsummon for sure as that'll be a very powerful tempo play already (but not game-ending).
I'm not exactly sure how i'd make a helix in green. A giant growth effect would probably be underwhelming, but a prey upon effect could be interesting.
In order: format-breaking, good, useless. The UR one should probably bounce and bolt, definitely not cantrip bolt.
While it may technically not be land destruction so much as replacement, turning someone's Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth into a pair of swamps or Reliquary Tower into an island feels pretty destructive. Then again, I suppose it accomplishes their goal of punishing nonbasics without totally denying people mana.
Debtor's Knell is something which i think black decks should be able to play. Nobody's going to be scared of them reanimating a Teysa, Orzhov Scion, especially not if a bounce spell is as good as a kill spell against it. Is there something you're actually scared of mono-B getting to play under these rules?
And? You still can't cast her...
The idea is this: if we eliminated the rule which says "cards in your deck may not have color identities which contain colors outside your commander's color identity," then there's nothing to stop decks from playing phyrexian mana cards from outside their deck's colors by paying 2 life (i.e. Omnath, Locus of Mana could play Phyrexian Metamorph).
Extort as an ability does not affect a card's color identity since it only says "... you may pay B or W..." in reminder text, which is not counted in color identity
Each card in your deck must have a color identity that is either colorless or shares at least one color with your commander's color identity.
This would let a Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir deck run Godhead of Awe and Murkfiend Liege but not Beseech the Queen or Birthing Pod.