Given that Vryn is not necessarily a spy setting, I love that you appropriated it as such Conspiracy 2 came out with a new card called Spy Kit, giving equipped creature all names of non-legendary creatures. Perhaps, you could have a name matters set where it's something like:
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CARDNAME - 1R
Instant - Uncommon
Search your library for an instant or sorcery spell with "lightning" in the name. Reveal it and put into your hand. Shuffle the deck after wards.
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So now, you can also have Shapeshifters that take on all names, and I think that could be an interesting thing to play around
If you are going with 4-5 colors though, Tribal Flames might be worth having a look at, although I'm not sure how many land types you plan on hitting consistently.
That's actually not a bad idea. I already have a pretty nice list, actually. Here:
I actually have knowledge that this already might work because of this: http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=10644&f=MO. However, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Everybody knows that Modern Burn are in the Naya colors. However, there are burn decks that splash Black and, as I just learned, Blue. So, I would like to look at some of the choices and maybe you can give me a few yourselves.
White
Boros Charm - If you're putting a white card in a burn deck, this is the first one you think of because it burns more than bolt damage and it can either protect or strengthen your creatures.
Lightning Helix - Good to have main board because 1) you can easily stall to figure how to play against a new deck, and 2) you have an obvious choice to remove when sideboarding
Kor Firewalker - This is THE card to have in a mirror match because opponents burn will be slowed down while you're beating face with something that's basically has shroud and unblockable
Path to Exile - Creatures are getting more and more hard to remove with damage because of sheer power (I'm looking at you, Tarmogoyf and Siege Rhino), so If you can't turn to Searing Blaze and Searing Blood because the opponent's creatures are too big, look to efficient spot removal in Path. You're already using white anyway.
Atarka's Command - When this got printed, it was also an easy auto include because all the modes were useful. Having 8 copies of Skullcrack no give Burn a chance against Soul Sisters and the upcoming PerSisters deck when they do their infinite life combo. And then we can also trigger landfall in instant speed, helping out our Searing Blaze and pump out our creature we either need to block fliers, have a chance to swing for the win, or protect them from burn spells. And of course, the Command has bolt damage, too.
Black
Bump in the Night - This is basically Lava Spike except of a few things: life loss can't be prevented, it has a flashback so you have something to do late game (not that it should matter), and it's Black.
Blightning - At 3CMC and only 3 damage it is a hard choice, but some like to use it to even the playing field against those with big card advantage or to prune combo decks.
Kolaghan's Command - While this could give you a choice to be a weaker Blightning, it can also rip artifacts and recycle your [card[Goblin Guide[/card]. Some run a set of Destructive Revelry or 4 pieces total of Revelry and Smash to Smithereens. However, It could be a good idea to have this in instead of Smash.
Blue
Geist of Saint Traft - Let's discuss this card first since it did appear in a Top 1 list. Geist is basically a creature that throws a Flame Javelin everytime it attacks and is really hard to remove. You'd probably want it in certain control matchups or maybe the mirror, so you have something that can't be target by their removal.
Electrolyze - This card may be the best burn with Blue in it. It's good at removal when it needs to be and it's good card advantage. Easy.
Vapor Snag - I feel like this card deserves a mention because it ensure your opponent is slower than you and it pings them.
That's it
That's basically it, really. What do you guys think? After play testing, it seems like Fetches and Shocks are just right for lands, but if you feel like you need more fixing, City of Brass or Mana Confluence could help.
Looks awesome although, if you really wanna include the lockdown of the Durex, I think you shouldn't skip over Platinum Angel. She's a main reason for the strategy, but the deck looks good anyways
I have paused my testing since I'm abroad for a few weeks, but testing will resume afterwards
Ugin shouldn't be a problem with Gaddock Teeg out, so you'll just have to strategize on how to play with him cause he is a tad tricky, but the -1/-1 counters might be a problem. I'll have to go in the tank for that. Melira is good, and is tutorable, but maybe there's another thing we can use, one that produces +1/+1 counters, for redundancy. Anafenza, Kin Tree Spirit may be the card. There's also the problem of who to replace with Melira.
As for Birthing Pod, it seems that Fauna Shaman is better in it than Pod because there's no limit in what to fetch. Pod is a bit hard to use in the deck because of the fact that the card you're fetching has to be of a certain cmc and you can't even control that number.
So far though, I'm not getting any hiccups in my meta Thanks for testing this out! Tell your friends too!
Well, majority of the deck is simply locking them out, however, we got a ramp and lifegain package in there too, because it's likely that you won't be able to combo off anyway. Board stall is the game if lockdown doesn't work
Oh! Birthing Pod could be a nice addition, and I think I considered it once. If I'm using that, it's probably to replace Fauna Shaman. Elvish Piper and Fauna Shaman can basically put ANY dude from my deck to the battlefield, but Pod has a bit of a limit. But I should test it out
Lastly, it did at first A lot actually, especially since I'm an Izzet control player. Yup, it's a bit weird, but when I brewed this with my friend, I was just so excited on winning with Primal Surge that it didn't matter that I couldn't cast any sorceries or instants, because the only sorcery I could play could basically win me the game
Thanks again for the suggestion! I could replace either Fauna Shaman or Fleecemane with Birthing Pod, Fleecemane since it doesn't contribute much to the deck synergy wise, and this deck needs all the synergy. Although, I'm leaning towards replacing Fauna Shaman because I think we're already thin on the beaters, and since we still need more interaction on board.
[center]Imagine a state where you can never lose and your opponents can never win. That's why this deck came to be.[/center]
Origin
There are three parts to the origin of this deck. The first was over a year ago. I just started playing Magic and am already really addicted. Me and my brother bought "Born of the Gods" packs for drafting and I fell in love with the Theros block because I already loved Greek Mythology. One more thing, I am a designer, and so not only did I fall in love with card flavor in terms of story, but I also fell in love with color flavor and how beautiful color theory was translated into mechanics. Because of that, I loved cycles and the first cycle that caught my eye was in Born of the Gods, the Archetype cycle. Most importantly, I was drawn to the Archetype of Endurance cause it caused everything you control to be untouchable. Unfortunately, my friend, Kojab8890, who was helping me get my footing in Magic said he was too hard to cast to be played in Constructed, so I let him go.
A few months later, or maybe half a year later, I discovered Modern, and I was starting to like Modern as a format way more than Standard. I discovered another card, Platinum Angel and thought of it as OP. It really was. Being able to control the winning conditons of the game was powerful, but as my friend pointed out, it dies to removal, so once again, I let the card go.
Finally, we get to just a couple of months ago when Dragons of Tarkir was released. Dragonlord Dromoka has just been spoiled and her ability is yet another that I wanted for myself. Then it hit me. Wouldn't it be sweet if all these creatures with bulwark-like abilities would be in the battlefield all at one time? It would be the best pillow fort. I told my friend about my idea and he suggested we build a Commander deck. So we proceeded to build a commander deck to be the ultimate pillow fort. When were thinking of a commander, we thought of either Dromoka, Sigarda, or Teeg. Long story short, Kojab thought it would be awesome to have Captain Sisay as the commander since she can just fetch for a lot of the pieces of the pillow fort.
However, we needed this deck to be more consistent. We needed a win con. Kojab thought of Primal Surge and we instantly became excited. If we could empty our deck into the battlefield with one casting of Primal Surge, that would be hysterical, but that also meant we had to fill our deck with permanents. Thus, we began deck building.
The spoilers below are different parts of the deck. This deck is really long, so to help you guys, I segregated the cards into different categories.
The Durex
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First thing's first, explaining the strategy. These 7 key cards, as stated above, forms the Durex. BTW, the reason why it's called the Durex, is because it's impenetrable. Moving on.
Aegis of the Gods - I feel like this is the foundation of the deck. Having this already takes care of a lot of threats, and especially nullifies Red. Red already has a hard time making waves, having to rely on either Goblins, Artifacts, or their crazy big cards. It also restricts some board wipes, the ones that target a specific player.
Archetype of Endurance - Next card is one of the reasons I wanted to build this deck in the first place. Giving all your creatures hexproof is amazing, especially when more than half the deck is in fact creatures. Protecting yourself? Great. Protecting every single creature you have? Deadly, because now, they have to force you to block or attack in order to get rid of the creatures. The only way for them to die at this point is non targeting board wipes or combat damage. Until of course...
Avacyn, Angel of Hope - ...until you restrict you creatures from being destroyed or killed at all. Avacyn, while not being that great in most Constructed formats, is amazing in Commander, especially in this deck. Once you have the 3 cards down, there's not much to worry about.
Sigarda, Host of Herons - This one is one of the gems mentioned by Kojab. While Edict effects may not target you when Aegis is out, there is still the Annihilator on Eldrazi such as Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Also, this gal is still useful when the Aegis hasn't come yet, especially since Aegis can't be fetched by Sisay.
Gaddock Teeg - Over and over, I have said that boardwipes are a problem for the deck cause they don't target, expecially the ones that exile, but with Teeg out, we won't have to worry about cards like Merciless Eviction and Final Judgement.
Dragonlord Dromoka - In addition to restricting things that harm us, we want to restrict things that would help our opponents. This card is mostly for the control players, so that we force every single spell only on their turn.
Platinum Angel - Finally, The reason for the deck to exist. Without this card, the entire strategy with Primal Surge would fall. Platinum Angel stops us from losing through milling out and downright let's us have no choice but to win. If the Aegis of the Gods is the foundation, the Platinum Angel is the cornerstone.
Reinforce Prison and Pillow Fort
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These cards make the Durex even stronger, creating a stronger and wider Prison and Pillow Fort.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence - The restriction doesn't stop. This time, we stop any activated abilities from being activated. This means only triggered abilities can occur.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - Thankfully, we can have some sort of a boardwipe with Elesh Norn, but this not only wipes out creatures of the opponents, but also buffs ours, so I consider it a part of both the prison and the pillow fort.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - We can stop noncreature spells of high CMC from being casted, but Thalia restricts every single one of them.
Eidolon of Rhetoric - Now we’re getting deeper into hatebears territory. Eidolon of Rhetoric allows every player to cast only one spell each turn. This, along with Gaddock Teeg, can be a pain, but I’ll show you how to deal with the 2.
Spirit of the Labyrinth - While Eidolon might gives us a problem, this draw restriction will only affect our opponents. We don’t have any draw spells or cantrips because all card advantage related spells are fetches or pseudo-fetches.
Leonin Arbiter - Here’s another D&T staple that’s going in the deck, and with good reason. Decks in most formats use fetches to thin out their decks and Commander is no exception. Of course, in Commander, taxing is not very inconvenient late in the game, but that’s there in case you get to draw it early.
Iona, Shield of Emeria - Preliminary analysis of the deck brought us to 2 cards that will give us a hard time, Toxic Deluge and Cyclonic Rift. For that reason, we have Iona and Nevermore. Whichever is a bigger threat at the time you cast Iona, you get protection from either Black or Blue.
Nevermore - Whatever Iona doesn’t take care of Nevermore can name. Pretty straightforward. With Nevermore and Iona in the deck, having all permanents on the battlefield would immediately make an impenetrable bulwark.
Building the Durex
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Green and white doesn’t have a lot of draw, but thankfully we can have other ways to gain our own card advantage.
Primal Surge - This is the key card. Since every single card in our deck is a permanent, playing this will immediately dump our deck into the battlefield and we won’t lose thanks to Platinum Angel.
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes - Ajani’s 2nd ability allows us to gain card advantage by putting a card from our deck into our hand. We’ll always have cards tout into our hand because our deck more than 50% creatures and each creature is useful.
Elvish Piper - This gal is so useful, because a lot of our pieces are big in CMC. Having this guys and Sisay out allows you to put legendaries onto the battlefield with just one mana.
Survival of the Fittest - This Legacy card gives a wider range of fetch than Sisay. Unfortunately, you would have to discard another creature, but that’s fine a payment to fetch for, say, an Archetype of Endurance.
Fauna Shaman - Survival of the Fittest on a stick! Not only do you get to fetch, but you also get a blocker during those times when you need it.
Mastery of the Unseen - Easiest way to sneak in your creatures. Also pairs very well the “life matters” sub-theme in this deck.
Wilt-Leaf Liege - This would mostly be a creature to buff the others, but this in the deck just in case I get to discard it to automatically put it into the battlefield.
More Pillows
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Redundancy is always good, and if you can get cards that are the same effect or close to the same effect as the cards in the Durex, it will help build the deck up.
Iona, Shield of Emeria Mother of Runes - This is a nice early game play. If you can’t get Iona out yet, at least you can give a creature protection. Unlike Iona, protection is not permanent, but at least that means you can change the colour of protection every turn.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence Phyrexian Revoker - Once again, the effect on this is small than its bigger counterpart, in this case Linvala, but at least you get to target a specific card. Commanders with activated abilities, beware!
Dragonlord Dromoka Wardscale Dragon - Warren doesn’t do it as well as Dromoka, but at least you can assure yourself that no combat tricks will be taking place when Warren attacks. Leyline of Lifeforce - This leyline doesn’t really do the same thing as Dromoka, but it has the same purpose, which is to battle control players.
Archetype of Endurance Asceticism - Basically the same thing as the Archetype except it regenerates instead of rebuffs opponents creatures.
Aegis of the Gods Leyline of Sanctity - Does the same thing as Aegis of the Gods. The only reason the Aegis is more favourable is because the abilities of the Archetype and Avacyn reach Aegis and not the Leyline. True Believer - Protecting yourself from spells is very important, so we have this guy to give yourself shroud, in case the other 2 cards don’t come in time.
Artifacts Swiftfoot Boots - Works good in this deck when you’re trying to fetch with Sisay as soon as possible Lightning Greaves - Slightly weaker than the Boots because it gives shroud instead of hexproof, but still useful nonetheless.
Ramping so High We’re Airborne
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With all of our heavy-hitters, we need a plan to get there, and in true green fashion, we do it by out tempting the opponent through ramp.
Dryad Arbor - Land creature. Basically, a creature that can be fetched with fetch lands and a land that can be brought back with graveyard recursion.
Avacyn’s Pilgrim - Since we’re running Selesnya, it would be smart to put white ramp.
Sylvan Caryatid - Best 2-drop ramp. It has protection and it gives mana of any color.
Courser of Kruphix - The ramp this provides also gives pseudo card advantage by being able to have a card in the deck be part of the hand.
Satyr Wayfinder - another good 2-drop ramp because it basically give us any color.
Shaman of Forgotten Ways - Not very good in Standard or Modern, but it’s going to be amazing in Commander, because We’ll mostly be playing creatures anyway, and because Biorhythm would be a blast to activate. This can also be an alternate win condition.
Frontier Siege - At 4 CMC, this basically give you 4 mana each turn. Also, if you already have enough ramp, you can choose the Dragons mode since there are a lot of angels in this deck.
Nissa, Worldwaker - She ramps. She protects herself. She beats face. She fetches. She does it all.
Karametra, God of Harvests - Another card that is amazing in Commander. We’ll be casting so many spells and thinning out our deck that all our lands will be out in no time.
Along with ramp, life gain is a game we can play to delay until we get Primal Surge.
Soul Warden and Soul’s Attendant - All these creatures running around give us a tons of life. You’ll be surprised how much power this gives us.
Ajani’s Pridemate - Everytime we gain life, the kitties keep getting bigger. And when the soul sisters are out, this means every time a creature ETBs. Sweet!
Rhoz Faithmender - Lifelink, soul sisters, plus the faithmender, should give us the right delay.
Soul of Theros - It’s a face beater then gives all dudes lifelink. He could be a game winner.
Ajani Goldmane and Ajani, Mentor of Heroes - both Ajani have lifegain, but what’s interesting is Goldmane’s ult, where if we get to 50 life, which isn’t hard, we get a 50/50 Avatar. That’s awesome.
Courser of Kruphix - Lifegain galore especially with cards like Karametra, Prime time, and fetch lands.
Durex Again
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The following are basically cards so we can get back stuff from the graveyard. To recur creatures we need that may have ended up in the graveyard.
Sun Titan - Boss of recursion here, being able to keep bringing back every turn.
Reveillark - Flexible recursion. Can be an evasive body when you need one and can immediately bring back creature when you need to.
Eternal Witness - Simple ETB recursion. Effective and efficient.
Sometimes, you Just Gotta Do It Yourself
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Some slots in this deck are just dedicated to good beaters.
Gideon Jura - A 6/6 indestructible out on the field, and a possible alt win-con paired with Shaman of Forgotten Ways shown in Strategies and Plays.
Fleecemane Lion - Beater with protection, and Monstrosity is definitely not a problem to activate in Commander.
How to Play with Durex
Here are some tips in playing the deck.
Captain Sisay - because most of the Durex pieces are legendary, Sisay can fetch for most of them. If you’re playing casual, the most important card to fetch first is Karakas because of the many tricks you can do with it, one of which is ahead, under Mangara of Corondor.
Gideon Jura & Shaman of Forgotten Ways - When the Durex is up, you can have Gideon Jura lure all creature of all players one at a time, then blocking them with your own creatures, killing all of them and having yours survive. When all creatures but yours are gone, simply activate Shaman’s ability for the win.
Gaddock Teeg & Eidolon of Rhetoric - These cards can restrict you, but you can cast them and have a way to keep them at bay. All you have to do is cast enchantments Oblivion Ring and Journey to Knowhere. Then, you can flicker both. the creatures return from exile and you can exile other things with the enchantments.
Mangara of Corondor - Using Karakas or flicker, you can use the stack to your advantage, to exile permanents while still keeping Mangara.
Flicker - is exiling something only to bring them back. Restoration Angel does this with non-angel creatures and Flickerwisp does this with permanents.
When Cheating Isn’t Your Style
If you want to play in legal competitions, then you’ll have to make the deck legal too. It’s simple though, simply take out the illegal cards and replace them with the following:
Phyrexian Altar to replace Karakas - another way to get rid of problems to your eco like Gaddock Teeg before getting him back out with recursion like Eternal Witness or Sun Titan.
Concordent Crossroads - I actually like this card because you can probably win the turn you combo off with this, but you be the judge of what we could remove to give space for the crossroads.
Akroma’s Monument - Basically what we want in crossroads plus all the evasion you could ask for. Didn’t make the cut because evasion just isn’t the priority in the deck. We don’t want to hit, we want to be able to take hits.
AEther Vial - May be good in Modern, Legacy, or even Standard, but actually not so good in Commander because of the diversity in spells.
Leyline of Lifeforce - Basically makes things uncounterable, a card to hose control, but with Sisay fetching Dragonlord Dromoka, it seems like it isn’t needed.
Den Protector - Could have been good recursion, but we only have 3 slots for recursion, so we gave it to the faster cards.
Suspension Field & Silkwrap - Was cut in favour of the other 3 enchantment removal simply because these 2 are conditional.
So, what do you guys think? I really like this deck Remember, the whole point is the big play of Primal Surge to create a bulwark that’s impenetrable, but not to be competitive, but if there's a way to make this more competitive, please enlighten us
this looks pretty cool, whats the earliest turn you consistantly win on?
Against the mid or late game decks, I've been winning about turn 7, ranging from 6-9, but the lack of turn 3 plays really bite me against fast decks.
UPDATE added a plan for turn 3. Had to get rid of Tarmogoyf since everything else was needed for the deck to run. If people can test my list and a list with Goyfs, that would be sweet
This is too slow for competitive Modern.
I'd loose all the five drops. I'd substitute Sin Collector and the Zombie artifact creature for Inquisitor exarch. I'd look for creatures that impact the board when they enter play and I'd reduce your CC so that impact the board or people's hands when they enter play like Fiend Hunter.
You might also look for cards that let you sacrifice creatures, so that you can save your creatures from the exile effect of the rally.
That actually helps a lot. Geralf's Messenger seems to be the only card I can see right now that might help my deck, life loss wise. I agree with having Sin Collector and Tidehollow Sculler but don't you think I should keep Gary? Even if he's a 5 drop, If I put Geralf's Messenger in, it's gonna be big for devotion. Like:
this looks pretty cool, whats the earliest turn you consistantly win on?
Against the mid or late game decks, I've been winning about turn 7, ranging from 6-9, but the lack of turn 3 plays really bite me against fast decks.
UPDATE added a plan for turn 3. Had to get rid of Tarmogoyf since everything else was needed for the deck to run. If people can test my list and a list with Goyfs, that would be sweet
This gives me plenty of beats and tons of ways to grow Champion of the Parish. Eternal Witness lets me recycle either CC or a Chord of Calling post board if I need something for a particular match up. Having mainboard access to Spellskite is actually pretty relevant in my meta with lots of Burn and Infect floating around.
I would actually suggest that you keep the Spellskite in the sideboard and add one more Scooze to the mainboard. While Spellskite will be a good match against burn and infect and the like, you would assuredly run into other decks and Scavenging Ooze does well to keep tempo in your favor.
I've been reading up on Humans, and still finding out what to do. At first glance, you seem to have too many 3 drops, but I haven't tested the deck yet so I don't really know. Will let you know if I find something, cause your deck seems like a sweet deck.
You might want Riders of Gavony for your Sideboard to hose tribal.
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CARDNAME - 1R
Instant - Uncommon
Search your library for an instant or sorcery spell with "lightning" in the name. Reveal it and put into your hand. Shuffle the deck after wards.
----------
So now, you can also have Shapeshifters that take on all names, and I think that could be an interesting thing to play around
That's actually not a bad idea. I already have a pretty nice list, actually. Here:
4x Arid Mesa
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Sacred Foundry
2x Stomping Ground
1x Steam Vents
1x Blood Crypt
2x Mountain
Creature
4x Goblin Guide
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
2x Grim Lavamancer
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Skullcrack
4x Boros Charm
4x Atarka's Command
2x Searing Blaze
Sorcery
4x Bump in the Night
4x Rift Bolt
1x Relic of Progenitus
2x Path to Exile
2x Rending Volley
2x Kor Fiewalker
3x Destructive Revelry
2x Geist of Saint Traft
1x Kolaghan's Command
2x Molten Rain
I'll see if I could fit in Tribal Flames.
The Idea
I actually have knowledge that this already might work because of this: http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=10644&f=MO. However, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Everybody knows that Modern Burn are in the Naya colors. However, there are burn decks that splash Black and, as I just learned, Blue. So, I would like to look at some of the choices and maybe you can give me a few yourselves.
White
Boros Charm - If you're putting a white card in a burn deck, this is the first one you think of because it burns more than bolt damage and it can either protect or strengthen your creatures.
Lightning Helix - Good to have main board because 1) you can easily stall to figure how to play against a new deck, and 2) you have an obvious choice to remove when sideboarding
Kor Firewalker - This is THE card to have in a mirror match because opponents burn will be slowed down while you're beating face with something that's basically has shroud and unblockable
Path to Exile - Creatures are getting more and more hard to remove with damage because of sheer power (I'm looking at you, Tarmogoyf and Siege Rhino), so If you can't turn to Searing Blaze and Searing Blood because the opponent's creatures are too big, look to efficient spot removal in Path. You're already using white anyway.
Green
Destructive Revelry - Easy include. Before Revelry was printed, we had Smash to Smithereens for artifact remocal, but with the rise of Splinter Twin, we needed one that removed enchantments too.
Atarka's Command - When this got printed, it was also an easy auto include because all the modes were useful. Having 8 copies of Skullcrack no give Burn a chance against Soul Sisters and the upcoming PerSisters deck when they do their infinite life combo. And then we can also trigger landfall in instant speed, helping out our Searing Blaze and pump out our creature we either need to block fliers, have a chance to swing for the win, or protect them from burn spells. And of course, the Command has bolt damage, too.
Black
Bump in the Night - This is basically Lava Spike except of a few things: life loss can't be prevented, it has a flashback so you have something to do late game (not that it should matter), and it's Black.
Blightning - At 3CMC and only 3 damage it is a hard choice, but some like to use it to even the playing field against those with big card advantage or to prune combo decks.
Kolaghan's Command - While this could give you a choice to be a weaker Blightning, it can also rip artifacts and recycle your [card[Goblin Guide[/card]. Some run a set of Destructive Revelry or 4 pieces total of Revelry and Smash to Smithereens. However, It could be a good idea to have this in instead of Smash.
Blue
Geist of Saint Traft - Let's discuss this card first since it did appear in a Top 1 list. Geist is basically a creature that throws a Flame Javelin everytime it attacks and is really hard to remove. You'd probably want it in certain control matchups or maybe the mirror, so you have something that can't be target by their removal.
Electrolyze - This card may be the best burn with Blue in it. It's good at removal when it needs to be and it's good card advantage. Easy.
Vapor Snag - I feel like this card deserves a mention because it ensure your opponent is slower than you and it pings them.
That's it
That's basically it, really. What do you guys think? After play testing, it seems like Fetches and Shocks are just right for lands, but if you feel like you need more fixing, City of Brass or Mana Confluence could help.
I have paused my testing since I'm abroad for a few weeks, but testing will resume afterwards
As for Birthing Pod, it seems that Fauna Shaman is better in it than Pod because there's no limit in what to fetch. Pod is a bit hard to use in the deck because of the fact that the card you're fetching has to be of a certain cmc and you can't even control that number.
So far though, I'm not getting any hiccups in my meta Thanks for testing this out! Tell your friends too!
Oh! Birthing Pod could be a nice addition, and I think I considered it once. If I'm using that, it's probably to replace Fauna Shaman. Elvish Piper and Fauna Shaman can basically put ANY dude from my deck to the battlefield, but Pod has a bit of a limit. But I should test it out
Lastly, it did at first A lot actually, especially since I'm an Izzet control player. Yup, it's a bit weird, but when I brewed this with my friend, I was just so excited on winning with Primal Surge that it didn't matter that I couldn't cast any sorceries or instants, because the only sorcery I could play could basically win me the game
Thanks again for the suggestion! I could replace either Fauna Shaman or Fleecemane with Birthing Pod, Fleecemane since it doesn't contribute much to the deck synergy wise, and this deck needs all the synergy. Although, I'm leaning towards replacing Fauna Shaman because I think we're already thin on the beaters, and since we still need more interaction on board.
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[center]Imagine a state where you can never lose and your opponents can never win. That's why this deck came to be.[/center]
Origin
There are three parts to the origin of this deck. The first was over a year ago. I just started playing Magic and am already really addicted. Me and my brother bought "Born of the Gods" packs for drafting and I fell in love with the Theros block because I already loved Greek Mythology. One more thing, I am a designer, and so not only did I fall in love with card flavor in terms of story, but I also fell in love with color flavor and how beautiful color theory was translated into mechanics. Because of that, I loved cycles and the first cycle that caught my eye was in Born of the Gods, the Archetype cycle. Most importantly, I was drawn to the Archetype of Endurance cause it caused everything you control to be untouchable. Unfortunately, my friend, Kojab8890, who was helping me get my footing in Magic said he was too hard to cast to be played in Constructed, so I let him go.
A few months later, or maybe half a year later, I discovered Modern, and I was starting to like Modern as a format way more than Standard. I discovered another card, Platinum Angel and thought of it as OP. It really was. Being able to control the winning conditons of the game was powerful, but as my friend pointed out, it dies to removal, so once again, I let the card go.
Finally, we get to just a couple of months ago when Dragons of Tarkir was released. Dragonlord Dromoka has just been spoiled and her ability is yet another that I wanted for myself. Then it hit me. Wouldn't it be sweet if all these creatures with bulwark-like abilities would be in the battlefield all at one time? It would be the best pillow fort. I told my friend about my idea and he suggested we build a Commander deck. So we proceeded to build a commander deck to be the ultimate pillow fort. When were thinking of a commander, we thought of either Dromoka, Sigarda, or Teeg. Long story short, Kojab thought it would be awesome to have Captain Sisay as the commander since she can just fetch for a lot of the pieces of the pillow fort.
However, we needed this deck to be more consistent. We needed a win con. Kojab thought of Primal Surge and we instantly became excited. If we could empty our deck into the battlefield with one casting of Primal Surge, that would be hysterical, but that also meant we had to fill our deck with permanents. Thus, we began deck building.
The Decklist
1x Aegis of the Gods
1x Ajani's Pridemate
1x Angelic Overseers
1x Archetype of Endurance
1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Dragonlord Dromoka
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Elvish Mystic
1x Elvish Piper
1x Eternal Witness
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Fleecemane Lion
1x Flickerwisp
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Genesis Hydra
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Karametra, God of Harvests
1x Leonin Arbiter
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1x Mangara of Corondor
1x Mother of Runes
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Platinum Angel
1x Primeval Titan
1x Restoration Angel
1x Reveillark
1x Rhox Faithmender
1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Soul Warden
1x Soul of Theros
1x Soul's Attendant
1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
1x Sun Titan
1x Sylvan Caryatid
1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1x True Believer
1x Voyaging Satyr
1x Wardscale Dragon
1x Wilt-Leaf Liege
1x Ancient Ziggurat
1x Arid Mesa
1x Blossoming Sands
1x Brushland
1x Command Tower
1x Flooded Strand
5x Forest
1x Graypelt Refuge
1x Karakas
1x Marsh Flats
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
6x Plains
1x Razorverge Thicket
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Savanah
1x Stirring Wildwood
1x Sunpetal Grove
1x Temple Garden
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
Artifact
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Emerald
1x Ratchet Bomb
1x Swiftfoot Boots
Planeswalker
1x Ajani Goldmane
1x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
1x Gideon Jura
1x Nissa, Worldwaker
1x Asceticism
1x Banishing Light
1x Frontier Siege
1x Journey to Nowhere
1x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Leyline of Lifeforce
1x Mastery of the Unseen
1x Nevermore
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Survival of the Fittest
1x Song of the Dryads
Sorcery
1x Primal Surge
Commander
1x Captain Sisay
The spoilers below are different parts of the deck. This deck is really long, so to help you guys, I segregated the cards into different categories.
The Durex
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First thing's first, explaining the strategy. These 7 key cards, as stated above, forms the Durex. BTW, the reason why it's called the Durex, is because it's impenetrable. Moving on.
Aegis of the Gods - I feel like this is the foundation of the deck. Having this already takes care of a lot of threats, and especially nullifies Red. Red already has a hard time making waves, having to rely on either Goblins, Artifacts, or their crazy big cards. It also restricts some board wipes, the ones that target a specific player.
Archetype of Endurance - Next card is one of the reasons I wanted to build this deck in the first place. Giving all your creatures hexproof is amazing, especially when more than half the deck is in fact creatures. Protecting yourself? Great. Protecting every single creature you have? Deadly, because now, they have to force you to block or attack in order to get rid of the creatures. The only way for them to die at this point is non targeting board wipes or combat damage. Until of course...
Avacyn, Angel of Hope - ...until you restrict you creatures from being destroyed or killed at all. Avacyn, while not being that great in most Constructed formats, is amazing in Commander, especially in this deck. Once you have the 3 cards down, there's not much to worry about.
Sigarda, Host of Herons - This one is one of the gems mentioned by Kojab. While Edict effects may not target you when Aegis is out, there is still the Annihilator on Eldrazi such as Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Also, this gal is still useful when the Aegis hasn't come yet, especially since Aegis can't be fetched by Sisay.
Gaddock Teeg - Over and over, I have said that boardwipes are a problem for the deck cause they don't target, expecially the ones that exile, but with Teeg out, we won't have to worry about cards like Merciless Eviction and Final Judgement.
Dragonlord Dromoka - In addition to restricting things that harm us, we want to restrict things that would help our opponents. This card is mostly for the control players, so that we force every single spell only on their turn.
Platinum Angel - Finally, The reason for the deck to exist. Without this card, the entire strategy with Primal Surge would fall. Platinum Angel stops us from losing through milling out and downright let's us have no choice but to win. If the Aegis of the Gods is the foundation, the Platinum Angel is the cornerstone.
Reinforce Prison and Pillow Fort
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These cards make the Durex even stronger, creating a stronger and wider Prison and Pillow Fort.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence - The restriction doesn't stop. This time, we stop any activated abilities from being activated. This means only triggered abilities can occur.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - Thankfully, we can have some sort of a boardwipe with Elesh Norn, but this not only wipes out creatures of the opponents, but also buffs ours, so I consider it a part of both the prison and the pillow fort.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - We can stop noncreature spells of high CMC from being casted, but Thalia restricts every single one of them.
Eidolon of Rhetoric - Now we’re getting deeper into hatebears territory. Eidolon of Rhetoric allows every player to cast only one spell each turn. This, along with Gaddock Teeg, can be a pain, but I’ll show you how to deal with the 2.
Spirit of the Labyrinth - While Eidolon might gives us a problem, this draw restriction will only affect our opponents. We don’t have any draw spells or cantrips because all card advantage related spells are fetches or pseudo-fetches.
Leonin Arbiter - Here’s another D&T staple that’s going in the deck, and with good reason. Decks in most formats use fetches to thin out their decks and Commander is no exception. Of course, in Commander, taxing is not very inconvenient late in the game, but that’s there in case you get to draw it early.
Iona, Shield of Emeria - Preliminary analysis of the deck brought us to 2 cards that will give us a hard time, Toxic Deluge and Cyclonic Rift. For that reason, we have Iona and Nevermore. Whichever is a bigger threat at the time you cast Iona, you get protection from either Black or Blue.
Nevermore - Whatever Iona doesn’t take care of Nevermore can name. Pretty straightforward. With Nevermore and Iona in the deck, having all permanents on the battlefield would immediately make an impenetrable bulwark.
Building the Durex
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Green and white doesn’t have a lot of draw, but thankfully we can have other ways to gain our own card advantage.
Primal Surge - This is the key card. Since every single card in our deck is a permanent, playing this will immediately dump our deck into the battlefield and we won’t lose thanks to Platinum Angel.
Captain Sisay - Our commander fetches for a lot of the pieces as well as other useful cards like Livala, Iona, and the lands Karakas and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes - Ajani’s 2nd ability allows us to gain card advantage by putting a card from our deck into our hand. We’ll always have cards tout into our hand because our deck more than 50% creatures and each creature is useful.
Elvish Piper - This gal is so useful, because a lot of our pieces are big in CMC. Having this guys and Sisay out allows you to put legendaries onto the battlefield with just one mana.
Survival of the Fittest - This Legacy card gives a wider range of fetch than Sisay. Unfortunately, you would have to discard another creature, but that’s fine a payment to fetch for, say, an Archetype of Endurance.
Fauna Shaman - Survival of the Fittest on a stick! Not only do you get to fetch, but you also get a blocker during those times when you need it.
Mastery of the Unseen - Easiest way to sneak in your creatures. Also pairs very well the “life matters” sub-theme in this deck.
Wilt-Leaf Liege - This would mostly be a creature to buff the others, but this in the deck just in case I get to discard it to automatically put it into the battlefield.
More Pillows
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Redundancy is always good, and if you can get cards that are the same effect or close to the same effect as the cards in the Durex, it will help build the deck up.
Iona, Shield of Emeria
Mother of Runes - This is a nice early game play. If you can’t get Iona out yet, at least you can give a creature protection. Unlike Iona, protection is not permanent, but at least that means you can change the colour of protection every turn.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Phyrexian Revoker - Once again, the effect on this is small than its bigger counterpart, in this case Linvala, but at least you get to target a specific card. Commanders with activated abilities, beware!
Dragonlord Dromoka
Wardscale Dragon - Warren doesn’t do it as well as Dromoka, but at least you can assure yourself that no combat tricks will be taking place when Warren attacks.
Leyline of Lifeforce - This leyline doesn’t really do the same thing as Dromoka, but it has the same purpose, which is to battle control players.
Archetype of Endurance
Asceticism - Basically the same thing as the Archetype except it regenerates instead of rebuffs opponents creatures.
Aegis of the Gods
Leyline of Sanctity - Does the same thing as Aegis of the Gods. The only reason the Aegis is more favourable is because the abilities of the Archetype and Avacyn reach Aegis and not the Leyline.
True Believer - Protecting yourself from spells is very important, so we have this guy to give yourself shroud, in case the other 2 cards don’t come in time.
Artifacts
Swiftfoot Boots - Works good in this deck when you’re trying to fetch with Sisay as soon as possible
Lightning Greaves - Slightly weaker than the Boots because it gives shroud instead of hexproof, but still useful nonetheless.
Ramping so High We’re Airborne
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With all of our heavy-hitters, we need a plan to get there, and in true green fashion, we do it by out tempting the opponent through ramp.
Dryad Arbor - Land creature. Basically, a creature that can be fetched with fetch lands and a land that can be brought back with graveyard recursion.
Bird of Paradise - Along with Mother of Runes, this is he best turn 1 play in the deck if there was any.
Elvish Mystic - Or Llanowar Elves they’re basically the same card, but you only need 1.
Avacyn’s Pilgrim - Since we’re running Selesnya, it would be smart to put white ramp.
Sylvan Caryatid - Best 2-drop ramp. It has protection and it gives mana of any color.
Courser of Kruphix - The ramp this provides also gives pseudo card advantage by being able to have a card in the deck be part of the hand.
Satyr Wayfinder - another good 2-drop ramp because it basically give us any color.
Shaman of Forgotten Ways - Not very good in Standard or Modern, but it’s going to be amazing in Commander, because We’ll mostly be playing creatures anyway, and because Biorhythm would be a blast to activate. This can also be an alternate win condition.
Frontier Siege - At 4 CMC, this basically give you 4 mana each turn. Also, if you already have enough ramp, you can choose the Dragons mode since there are a lot of angels in this deck.
Nissa, Worldwaker - She ramps. She protects herself. She beats face. She fetches. She does it all.
Karametra, God of Harvests - Another card that is amazing in Commander. We’ll be casting so many spells and thinning out our deck that all our lands will be out in no time.
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Journey to Nowhere, Oblivion Ring, Banishing Light - White is classic for having enchantment removal. We put all 3 in for good measure.
Mangara of Corondor - This creature
Song of the Dryads
Hey, Soul Sister
[center]Ajani’s Pridemate
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Along with ramp, life gain is a game we can play to delay until we get Primal Surge.
Soul Warden and Soul’s Attendant - All these creatures running around give us a tons of life. You’ll be surprised how much power this gives us.
Ajani’s Pridemate - Everytime we gain life, the kitties keep getting bigger. And when the soul sisters are out, this means every time a creature ETBs. Sweet!
Rhoz Faithmender - Lifelink, soul sisters, plus the faithmender, should give us the right delay.
Soul of Theros - It’s a face beater then gives all dudes lifelink. He could be a game winner.
Ajani Goldmane and Ajani, Mentor of Heroes - both Ajani have lifegain, but what’s interesting is Goldmane’s ult, where if we get to 50 life, which isn’t hard, we get a 50/50 Avatar. That’s awesome.
Dragonlord Dromoka and Baneslayer Angel - Both these hitters have lifelink and contribute to all the lifegain.
Courser of Kruphix - Lifegain galore especially with cards like Karametra, Prime time, and fetch lands.
Durex Again
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The following are basically cards so we can get back stuff from the graveyard. To recur creatures we need that may have ended up in the graveyard.
Sun Titan - Boss of recursion here, being able to keep bringing back every turn.
Reveillark - Flexible recursion. Can be an evasive body when you need one and can immediately bring back creature when you need to.
Eternal Witness - Simple ETB recursion. Effective and efficient.
Sometimes, you Just Gotta Do It Yourself
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Some slots in this deck are just dedicated to good beaters.
Gideon Jura - A 6/6 indestructible out on the field, and a possible alt win-con paired with Shaman of Forgotten Ways shown in Strategies and Plays.
Fleecemane Lion - Beater with protection, and Monstrosity is definitely not a problem to activate in Commander.
How to Play with Durex
Here are some tips in playing the deck.
Captain Sisay - because most of the Durex pieces are legendary, Sisay can fetch for most of them. If you’re playing casual, the most important card to fetch first is Karakas because of the many tricks you can do with it, one of which is ahead, under Mangara of Corondor.
Gideon Jura & Shaman of Forgotten Ways - When the Durex is up, you can have Gideon Jura lure all creature of all players one at a time, then blocking them with your own creatures, killing all of them and having yours survive. When all creatures but yours are gone, simply activate Shaman’s ability for the win.
Gaddock Teeg & Eidolon of Rhetoric - These cards can restrict you, but you can cast them and have a way to keep them at bay. All you have to do is cast enchantments Oblivion Ring and Journey to Knowhere. Then, you can flicker both. the creatures return from exile and you can exile other things with the enchantments.
Mangara of Corondor - Using Karakas or flicker, you can use the stack to your advantage, to exile permanents while still keeping Mangara.
Flicker - is exiling something only to bring them back. Restoration Angel does this with non-angel creatures and Flickerwisp does this with permanents.
When Cheating Isn’t Your Style
If you want to play in legal competitions, then you’ll have to make the deck legal too. It’s simple though, simply take out the illegal cards and replace them with the following:
Planar Portal to replace Primeval Titan - basically to fetch more, to kind of be a 2nd Primal Surge.
Phyrexian Altar to replace Karakas - another way to get rid of problems to your eco like Gaddock Teeg before getting him back out with recursion like Eternal Witness or Sun Titan.
Plains to replace Mox Pearl
Forest to replace Mox Emerald
What Didn’t Make the Cut
Concordent Crossroads - I actually like this card because you can probably win the turn you combo off with this, but you be the judge of what we could remove to give space for the crossroads.
Akroma’s Monument - Basically what we want in crossroads plus all the evasion you could ask for. Didn’t make the cut because evasion just isn’t the priority in the deck. We don’t want to hit, we want to be able to take hits.
AEther Vial - May be good in Modern, Legacy, or even Standard, but actually not so good in Commander because of the diversity in spells.
Leyline of Lifeforce - Basically makes things uncounterable, a card to hose control, but with Sisay fetching Dragonlord Dromoka, it seems like it isn’t needed.
Den Protector - Could have been good recursion, but we only have 3 slots for recursion, so we gave it to the faster cards.
Suspension Field & Silkwrap - Was cut in favour of the other 3 enchantment removal simply because these 2 are conditional.
So, what do you guys think? I really like this deck Remember, the whole point is the big play of Primal Surge to create a bulwark that’s impenetrable, but not to be competitive, but if there's a way to make this more competitive, please enlighten us
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
4 Windswept Heath
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Godless Shrine
2 Temple Garden
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Forest
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Thoughtseize
3 Path To Exile
2-Drop
3 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Grisly Salvage
3 Abrupt Decay
3-Drop
2 Sin Collector
2 Eternal Witness
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Geralf's Messenger
4 Siege Rhino
5-Drop
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Win-Con
3 Rally the Ancestors
UPDATE added a plan for turn 3. Had to get rid of Tarmogoyf since everything else was needed for the deck to run. If people can test my list and a list with Goyfs, that would be sweet
You might want Riders of Gavony for your Sideboard to hose tribal.