Nexus of Fate is poor card design in my book.
Yet it takes quite some effort and mana to break it. Eternal Witness/Archaeomancer loops are easier to achieve and cost less mana.
Would i mind extra turns being banned? Heck no, they turn multiplayer games into solitaire f*ckfests. Are they broken outside of loops? I wouldn't say so.
EDH is not a natural fit for combo decks if you were to ask me.
For one, you're sitting down with 3 to 4 players, so whenever you're trying to combo off with something that might wiff - e.g. The Gitrog Monster + Underrealm Lich - chances are you're wasting a lot of time "just" to win or fall short and have everyone just as annoyed, including yourself propably. On the other hand fail-safe combos can be painfully anti climatic. Since there's more or less no healthy middle ground between the two i try to avoid infinite combos as much as i can.
In my experience "games will have to end eventually" is a poor excuse to run more combos. E.g. In our meta an overabundance of board wipes was the prime concern years back when our decks looked vastly different and games actually could take 2-3 hours each. As a rough estimate every player ran at least 5 of them back then. By going down to 2-3 each match lengths shortened considerably. Usually rounds take ~45 mins now, 1,5 hours max in rare cases. Plus, since people get to use their stuff the games "tell" stories more consistently.
And that's another point against combos. Combos don't tell a story - at all. Say we're sitting down and 3/4 players play their decks, develop a board, showcase their deck tech and card selection with the 4th player going "generic combo, lolz" that'd bug me. Especially since those combo pieces take up deck slots that could've been used for fitting synergies.
The only possible exception for me would be that most of the games i play would be with randoms at an LGS with a high chance of several poorly built decks that don't come with means to finish the game eventually. I'd come prepared with a few game winning synergies to win when the table's about to stall.
Long story short:
EDH is about the journey, not the destination. And combo wins are no desirable destinations for myself.
For allied pairs and/or with access to G i'd avoid them. But, to be honest, i don't even run them in my enemy paired ones without G and never felt like i'm missing something.
Generally speaking here's a evaluation i came up with when BBD duals were printed:
1. ABUR duals (Taiga and others) - duh.
2. BBD lands (Luxury Suite) - no land types, other than that they're amazing.
3. Shock lands (Blood Crypt) - strong. Considerably stronger than the rest when combined with fetches.
4. Check lands (Rootbound Crag) - up to 3C more or less failproof outside of turn 1 (just play another land, duh).
5. Pain lands (Adarkar Wastes) - might hurt in the early game, irrelevant later on.
6. Cycle lands (Fetid Pools) - etbt, but they come with land types and utility. Questionable if one should play a full cycle 3C and up.
7. Scry lands (Temple of Malady) - etbt but unless you overload on etbt lands they're fine.
8. Battle lands (Cinder Glade) - requires rather conservative mana bases 3C and up, unproblematic in 2C.
9. Filter lands (Mystic Gate) - no big influence in 2C, can be problematic in the early game 3C and up.
10. Reveal lands (Port Town) - i don't like giving away info about my hand too much. They are propably fine in 2C.
11. Fast lands (Copperline Gorge) - no need for them in casual EDH and even in cEDH i wouldn't see them as auto includes.
12. Manlands (Raging Ravine) - clearly depends on the manland.
13. Bounce lands (Gruul Turf) - just don't, unless you can exploit them.
Of the ranked cycles i usually try to include cycle 2 through 8, as few as possible but as many as needed utility lands (especially C ones and taplands) and then fill up with basics.
I think the advantages of an ABUR dual and full fetches (including off color ones) are far outweighed by the aweful investment. For non-"c"EDH those are only the cherry on top if you have them or desperately feel like including them.
For trying out Oathbreaker i went with a different approach. I chose to convert one of my EDH decks (Ezuri, Renegade Leader) into an Oathbreaker deck (Vivien, Champion of the Wilds + Genesis Wave) with one of the PWs in the 99 as the new commander and only cards in the 58 that are part of the 99. That way all i had to do is cut down the list and swap cards in and out the command zone.
So far the deck has been working great and i got an easy glimpse into the format. I've linked both decks above, if you want to get an idea.
On the chance of repeating myself, but i loveGonti, Lord of Luxury for the fact, that it scales amazingly well.
Stealing and reanimating your opponents' stuff is very entertaining and can make for some surprising moves. Can be 5C in a MBC shell.
Maybe Thom Yolk?
Tyrannosaurus Pecks?
Eggory Peck?
Hen Solo?
2Peck?
Ya Henni?
Shenanig Hen?
A(s) Hen Rider?
Danita or Gerrard Capash Hen?
Lim-Dul the Egg-Romancer?
(p)Henax, God of Depecktion?
Or simply Larry Bird?
War of the Spark and Modern Horizon blessed us with some awesome sauce for Zada, Hedron Grinder. Fists of Flame is absolutely bonkers! Dreadhorde Arcanist can do absurd things too. Goblin War Party is just another solid token creator that can grant game winning haste if need be. Being as hyped for the changes i couldn't keep myself from buying Chandra, Torch of Defiance because, let's face it, she's f**king awesome and i wanted to include her in a deck for the longest time anyways.
The reason why i cut Beetleback Chief despite its obvious synergy with Twinflame and Heat Shimmer was that it always felt win more. Goblin War Party has the same ratio of tokens/CMC but comes with extra entwine utility or can enable comeback wins off an empty board with Mizzix's Mastery.
Unfortunately Strionic Resonator consumes too much mana initially to be as useful as i hoped.
I'm still uncertain if Tectonic Reformation would be win more, but in certain situations the deck draws a ton of cards, then generates a gazzilion mana via Brightstone Ritual or Battle Hymn just to fall short of winning due to too many lands in hand. With said mana i could turn them into useful stuff.
For the last few weeks i've been tinkering with protection and filling my graveyard faster. Brain Freeze has been phenomenal, especially when facing stormy decks. Occasionally i got to mill others to death with it as well.
While Ashiok, Dream Render might hose a few of my win cons it destroys graveyard based and tutoring decks. So far the pros outweighed the cons convincingly.
So, i've been playtesting a few Modern Horizon cards over the last few days and some of them are breathtaking. Fists of Flame was destined to break Zada, Hedron Grinder and it does, indeed. In a few rounds i came very close to decking myself when i played it.
The most pleasant surprise so far was Bazaar Trademage for Brago, King Eternal! It filters hard, can rake up damage and the times i was able to combine it with Sun Titan/Body Double/Karmic Guide were utterly disgusting. I am yet to revive it with Sun Titan, but being just another target for it is great.
On another note, i'm about to move in with a friend. The both of us have been living on our own for close to a decade each and feel like we need to change that. As we speak we're waiting for the final okay of our future landlord. For each of us coming from ~30 dull square meters, the upcoming 75 square meters total including a balcony with a view over the city will feel like heaven. Wish us luck, MTGSies!
If the whole situation taught me anything, it's that i would not be happy if MTGS would be sold/closed/complicated out of a sudden again.
With this warning shot in mind i'll happily focus my attention on the new project to come!
Best case we'll get an independent home that'll feel just like MTGS or better.
Keep up the spirit, i'm exicted for anything to come!
I think both fans and doubters of Reliquary Tower are wrong if they think it's a good or bad card at all times/in all decks.
When playing Edric, Spymaster of Trest, i start exceeding maximum hand size on turn 4 regularly. Say i want to hold at least a counter, a removal spell, a creature and a land until my next turn, that's half of a "normal" hand occupied. Being able to hold 8+ cards allows me to be as active and reactive as possible.
Several tiers below my Zada, Hedron Grinder example kicks in. That deck is utterly wrecked when hit by a board wipe! Holding up as many cards as possible is crucial if i feel like participating in the game beyond the first sweeper. Often times you're trying to establish a solid board with her and pray for your creatures to stick around until next turn. But if that doesn't happen you don't want to sit on a few buff spells (that would've won you the game otherwise), just because you had to ditch cards that would've come in handy rebuilding later on.
On the other hand slotting it into decks just because you might outdraw yourself naturally somehow is an aweful idea.
The remaining question isn't how good it can or cannot be, it's whether the majority of decks could profit from it. Given the amount of decks that play from their graveyard or aren't able to draw as many cards to make it valid, that's arguably not the case. 75k/34% of all decks on EDHREC include it and im certain a vast majority of them wouldn't need it or be outright better without it.
Reliquary Tower is overrated. Holding a full grip of the best cards is plenty of things to do for close to all decks.
I've had to look it up, but apparently 5/16 decks of my decks still run a copy - most of them for no apparent reason.
Talrand, Sky Summoner - Can be useful here to hold a variety of active and proactive cards. The deck wouldn't be noticeably weaker with an Island instead of it. Gonti, Lord of Luxury - Only comes in handy with Necropotence/Necrologia. I should propably run a Swamp over it. Zada, Hedron Grinder - Maybe the best deck for it i have. Due to the fragility to board wipes and the absurd number of cards the deck draws i'm always happy to have more than enough in hand to rebuild eventually. Brago, King Eternal - Can draw a ton of cards as well but i don't think that's reason enough to keep it around. Edric, Spymaster of Trest - Only being able to generate C can hurt a lot in this deck. Yet, the deck can draw "too many" cards before i have access to the mana to offload them. When in question i'd should run City of Brass variants over it propably.
Bottom line, it takes several pretty specific reasons for me to even think of including it. On top of that every color added makes it more likely for me to cut/not include it.
If you don't want to miss out on G for animating reasons, maybe Derevi, Empyrial Tactician and Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper as a secret/second commander?
Golos, Tireless Pilgrim can fetch the land(s) you want but win without them as well. Though a lot faster with the big mana lands, duh.
Yet it takes quite some effort and mana to break it. Eternal Witness/Archaeomancer loops are easier to achieve and cost less mana.
Would i mind extra turns being banned? Heck no, they turn multiplayer games into solitaire f*ckfests. Are they broken outside of loops? I wouldn't say so.This shouldn't be a reason to play any card, period.
For one, you're sitting down with 3 to 4 players, so whenever you're trying to combo off with something that might wiff - e.g. The Gitrog Monster + Underrealm Lich - chances are you're wasting a lot of time "just" to win or fall short and have everyone just as annoyed, including yourself propably. On the other hand fail-safe combos can be painfully anti climatic. Since there's more or less no healthy middle ground between the two i try to avoid infinite combos as much as i can.
In my experience "games will have to end eventually" is a poor excuse to run more combos. E.g. In our meta an overabundance of board wipes was the prime concern years back when our decks looked vastly different and games actually could take 2-3 hours each. As a rough estimate every player ran at least 5 of them back then. By going down to 2-3 each match lengths shortened considerably. Usually rounds take ~45 mins now, 1,5 hours max in rare cases. Plus, since people get to use their stuff the games "tell" stories more consistently.
And that's another point against combos. Combos don't tell a story - at all. Say we're sitting down and 3/4 players play their decks, develop a board, showcase their deck tech and card selection with the 4th player going "generic combo, lolz" that'd bug me. Especially since those combo pieces take up deck slots that could've been used for fitting synergies.
The only possible exception for me would be that most of the games i play would be with randoms at an LGS with a high chance of several poorly built decks that don't come with means to finish the game eventually. I'd come prepared with a few game winning synergies to win when the table's about to stall.
Long story short:
EDH is about the journey, not the destination. And combo wins are no desirable destinations for myself.
For allied pairs and/or with access to G i'd avoid them. But, to be honest, i don't even run them in my enemy paired ones without G and never felt like i'm missing something.
Generally speaking here's a evaluation i came up with when BBD duals were printed:Of the ranked cycles i usually try to include cycle 2 through 8, as few as possible but as many as needed utility lands (especially C ones and taplands) and then fill up with basics.
I think the advantages of an ABUR dual and full fetches (including off color ones) are far outweighed by the aweful investment. For non-"c"EDH those are only the cherry on top if you have them or desperately feel like including them.
So far the deck has been working great and i got an easy glimpse into the format. I've linked both decks above, if you want to get an idea.
I'll convert Edric, Spymaster of Trest into Nissa, Steward of Elements + Noxious Revival, Harvest Season or Notorious Throng propably.Actually, Saheeli, the Gifted is banned: https://weirdcards.org/oathbreaker-ban-list.
Stealing and reanimating your opponents' stuff is very entertaining and can make for some surprising moves. Can be 5C in a MBC shell.
Tyrannosaurus Pecks?
Eggory Peck?
Hen Solo?
2Peck?
Ya Henni?
Shenanig Hen?
A(s) Hen Rider?
Danita or Gerrard Capash Hen?
Lim-Dul the Egg-Romancer?
(p)Henax, God of Depecktion?
Or simply Larry Bird?
Btw, am i the only one who's annoyed by the amount of 5C and standalone working commander options we're getting right now?
Fists of Flame is absolutely bonkers! Dreadhorde Arcanist can do absurd things too. Goblin War Party is just another solid token creator that can grant game winning haste if need be. Being as hyped for the changes i couldn't keep myself from buying Chandra, Torch of Defiance because, let's face it, she's f**king awesome and i wanted to include her in a deck for the longest time anyways.
In:
+ Fists of Flame
+ Goblin War Party
+ Dreadhorde Arcanist
+ Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Out:
- Beetleback Chief
- Goblin Trashmaster
- Goblin Warchief
- Strionic Resonator
The reason why i cut Beetleback Chief despite its obvious synergy with Twinflame and Heat Shimmer was that it always felt win more. Goblin War Party has the same ratio of tokens/CMC but comes with extra entwine utility or can enable comeback wins off an empty board with Mizzix's Mastery.
Unfortunately Strionic Resonator consumes too much mana initially to be as useful as i hoped.
I'm still uncertain if Tectonic Reformation would be win more, but in certain situations the deck draws a ton of cards, then generates a gazzilion mana via Brightstone Ritual or Battle Hymn just to fall short of winning due to too many lands in hand. With said mana i could turn them into useful stuff.
While Ashiok, Dream Render might hose a few of my win cons it destroys graveyard based and tutoring decks. So far the pros outweighed the cons convincingly.
In:
+ Putrid Goblin
+ Treacherous Pit-Dweller
+ Brain Freeze
+ Ashiok, Dream Render
Out:
- Crypt Rats
- Darksteel Myr
- Muddle the Mixture
- Ravenous Trap
I'd like to add Lesser Masticore to the deck soon as well, but didn't pull it yet. Mischievous Poltergeist is most likely to get cut for it once i do.
Fists of Flame was destined to break Zada, Hedron Grinder and it does, indeed. In a few rounds i came very close to decking myself when i played it.
The most pleasant surprise so far was Bazaar Trademage for Brago, King Eternal! It filters hard, can rake up damage and the times i was able to combine it with Sun Titan/Body Double/Karmic Guide were utterly disgusting. I am yet to revive it with Sun Titan, but being just another target for it is great.
On another note, i'm about to move in with a friend. The both of us have been living on our own for close to a decade each and feel like we need to change that. As we speak we're waiting for the final okay of our future landlord. For each of us coming from ~30 dull square meters, the upcoming 75 square meters total including a balcony with a view over the city will feel like heaven. Wish us luck, MTGSies!
With this warning shot in mind i'll happily focus my attention on the new project to come!
Best case we'll get an independent home that'll feel just like MTGS or better.
Keep up the spirit, i'm exicted for anything to come!
When playing Edric, Spymaster of Trest, i start exceeding maximum hand size on turn 4 regularly. Say i want to hold at least a counter, a removal spell, a creature and a land until my next turn, that's half of a "normal" hand occupied. Being able to hold 8+ cards allows me to be as active and reactive as possible.
Several tiers below my Zada, Hedron Grinder example kicks in. That deck is utterly wrecked when hit by a board wipe! Holding up as many cards as possible is crucial if i feel like participating in the game beyond the first sweeper. Often times you're trying to establish a solid board with her and pray for your creatures to stick around until next turn. But if that doesn't happen you don't want to sit on a few buff spells (that would've won you the game otherwise), just because you had to ditch cards that would've come in handy rebuilding later on.
On the other hand slotting it into decks just because you might outdraw yourself naturally somehow is an aweful idea.
The remaining question isn't how good it can or cannot be, it's whether the majority of decks could profit from it. Given the amount of decks that play from their graveyard or aren't able to draw as many cards to make it valid, that's arguably not the case. 75k/34% of all decks on EDHREC include it and im certain a vast majority of them wouldn't need it or be outright better without it.
I've had to look it up, but apparently 5/16 decks of my decks still run a copy - most of them for no apparent reason.
Talrand, Sky Summoner - Can be useful here to hold a variety of active and proactive cards. The deck wouldn't be noticeably weaker with an Island instead of it.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury - Only comes in handy with Necropotence/Necrologia. I should propably run a Swamp over it.
Zada, Hedron Grinder - Maybe the best deck for it i have. Due to the fragility to board wipes and the absurd number of cards the deck draws i'm always happy to have more than enough in hand to rebuild eventually.
Brago, King Eternal - Can draw a ton of cards as well but i don't think that's reason enough to keep it around.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest - Only being able to generate C can hurt a lot in this deck. Yet, the deck can draw "too many" cards before i have access to the mana to offload them. When in question i'd should run City of Brass variants over it propably.
Bottom line, it takes several pretty specific reasons for me to even think of including it. On top of that every color added makes it more likely for me to cut/not include it.