A nice zombie recursion spell that hasn't been mentioned yet is Zombie Apocalypse. Be wary, though, since the "Destroy all Humans" part of this will kill Gisa and Geralf if they're on the battlefield. Might work better with The Scarab God as the commander.
Also, would strongly recommend you include a Rooftop Storm in the 99. Works well with Gisa and Geralf or something like an Infernal Caretaker to just dump zombies onto the battlefield.
I think Solemnity is going to be the best EDH card out of HoD by far. There are just way too many ways to completely break that card. I'll be interested to see what the RC thinks of it and whether or not it'll get a swift banhammer...
I'm most looking forward to Torment of Hailfire; that'll go great in my "big mana" Drana deck. Most people tend to dislike choice effects like that, since opponents will just choose the least destructive for them, but I think it makes a game more interesting. Plus, if X=30, there's only so many "least destructive" choices they can make...
Lastly, to address the obvious, I get the feeling that Nissa and Chandra aren't quite the thing some think. Is there some deep emotional support between the two, borderline flirting? Yes, for sure. But I think the key scene was the beginning of the story with Chandra, Nissa and Gideon on the patio or roof or building part thing. The tension and thoughts between Gideon and Chandra about each other are palpable before Nissa interrupts. Nissa even seems to be noticing the thing, and tries to leave to give them space. Chandra wants desperately to connect with and not upset Nissa, but I don't think it's ever been purely romantic in intentions, whereas with Gideon that's heavily implied between both of their thoughts.
I'm not so sure that's the case, atleast regarding Chandra's feelings. Mostly because of this important line:
"It's been a long time since anyone held me like this. If Gids had done this four years ago, it would have made me feel tingly in all the places I like. Now it just feels...
...Safe."
That to me seems like a more brotherly / protectorly sort of relationship. It is plainly obvious that Gideon has feelings for Chandra, but I don't think Chandra reciprocates them. Meanwhile, Nissa and Chandra both seem to stammer and not know what to say when talking to each other like you would see a 13 year old do around their first crush. That and the fact that Nissa went with Chandra to fight Baral and was the only thing that stopped Chandra from, what I can only imagine is, going supernova and destroying everything. So I think there is atleast some level of romance between Chandra and Nissa (even if neither really "know" it yet), and now Gideon has been thrown into it as well.
Regardless, this was a really great article to characterize Chandra. That being said, for my personally, I think Liliana really stole the show, even though she was only mentioned like 3 times. The curtsy and crowd-admiring was just awesome. Plus the codenames she came up with (Beefslab and Cloak Boy? Really on point) were hilarious. And finally, acknowledging that, once again, Gideon ends up with his shirt off just took the cake for me. Really great, and on point, humor, in my opinion.
As others have mentioned, Cabal Coffers is really the best mono-black ramp card there is. It's only a few bucks over $10, but is well worth it. Another card that hasn't been mentioned yet, but Nirkana Revenant would be a good one. Again, this is currently about the same price as a Cabal Coffers (~ $14 - $15), but an excellent ramp card nonetheless.
Never understood all the hate for MLD spells. Like others have said, resource denial is part of the game. That's the whole purpose of some decks (I'm looking at you Stax). If your deck gets utterly destroyed by MLD spells, then I would say it's more of an issue with your deck than it is with the spell.
How so exactly, am I the only one who sees her as very weak? You have to build around her, but in order to use her abilities most of your board state will be lacking. Without green you are not getting a lot of your cards back. lack may have recursion but that is mainly for creatures, not artifacts. White has one artifact recursion but it is mass and may benefit opponenst more than you, Red can recur but it is at the price of another arifact so really it is just trading.
Atraxa gives esper as well along with green, Atraxa is also just a powerful creature on her own with the 4/4 body and the 4 keywords the proliferate is just a bonus and I already own her along with a good portion of my Stax deck i have already begun building.
The power of Breya is that she is a combo piece in her own right, much like Sharuum is.
So the power of Breya is in her combo possibility. In other circumstances, I would agree that she is mediocre at best.
I would argue that Atraxa's power is her proliferate ability, since it could lead to some cool counter shenanigans. But the rest of her is pretty mediocre. She has a lot of flashy evergreen abilities, but they don't really add up to much in a format as powerful as EDH, especially since it doesn't have any protection abilities like indestructible or hexproof. Deathtouch is nice, since it could prevent you from being attacked, but that's really about it. EDIT: Forgot to mention, she may make a good Voltron commander.
I also wouldn't say that red artifact recursion should be considered "trading." Yes, the big cards (Scrap Mastery, Goblin Welder, Trash for Treasure, etc) do require sacrificing an artifact, but they should only be played when the "trade" is in your favor. As in, sacrifice a thopter token to get back a Wurmcoil Engine or Sharuum the Hegemon.
Atraxa may not be the best Commander if you want an oppressive deck, to be honest. If you truly want an oppressive deck, I would recommend some of the already proven staples like: Sharuum the Hegemon, Arcum Dagsson, Zur the Enchanter, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Narset, Enlightened Master, etc. Just be prepared to dole out some cash, as any oppressive deck is going to require some rather expensive cards (unless your play group allows proxies, of course).
If you have your head set on using one of the new 4-color Commander 2016 commanders, I would recommend taking a look at Breya, Etherium Shaper. Of all the new commanders, I think she's going to be the one with the most capability to be oppressive, at least from her ability to combo opponents out.
If the lockdown guy locked us all down because he outplayed us and just had better drops, hands up, fair enough. GG. G2? But if the lockdown guy wins because nobody else at the table understands what the phrase "threat assessment" means, well, **** all of you.
100% this. Even the best/fastest Commander decks have a hard time when there are 3+ people throwing everything they've got at it. If the competitive deck gets a nut draw, could they win regardless of how many people are targeting them? Of course, but the chances of that are few and far between. Threat assessment is the name of the game when it comes to Commander, and if people want to ignore that, then it's on them when they lose consistently.
I think people need to get away from this "Commander is casual" mentality. The creators of the format may have had that in mind when they created it, but Commander has exploded in popularity (I believe MaRo held a Twitter poll not too long about about favorite format, and, iirc, Commander came in close second to booster draft) over its lifetime. Magic is by definition a competitive game, so any format that is as popular as Commander is of course going to attract those with a competitive mindset. This doesn't mean that everyone needs to build the best deck they possibly can, it just means that SOME people will want to do that.
In the end, it's about having fun. Some people have fun by playing competitive or non-interactive / difficult-to-pilot decks; that doesn't make them wrong just like it doesn't make those who enjoy durdly decks wrong. People just need to be prepared to face opponents who may have a different mindset or play style than they do, and if they don't like that, then don't play with that person.
Honestly at this point it just sounds like EDH isn't the format for you. Greaves itself is just about standard in almost every EDH deck there is, and you naturally want to play things to protect your stuff. It's a game. People play to win.
No, people also play to have fun. Especially in a multiplayer environment. If one player is making things extremely un-fun for all the others, I think that's rude. And that person probably knew how his actions would be taken, but didn't care. To me, that's rude.
But seems we'll have to agree to disagree here.
Some people also have fun by playing competitively and trying to win. I, personally, love playing my GAAIV Stax deck, as it can be difficult to pilot correctly, especially with 3 opponents barreling down on me, trying to kill me as fast as possible. I enjoy the challenge of that and find it fun, as I'm sure others do.
Your argument is that people play to have fun, but who are you to judge what someone finds fun?
Looks like a decent finisher/beater for hyper-aggressive decks. Those sorts of decks will probably have the majority of their hand empty by the time this guy drops anyways, so the downside is very small. Any other type of deck, however, will probably want to steer clear of this card. Would be nice if it had haste or something, however.
Also, would strongly recommend you include a Rooftop Storm in the 99. Works well with Gisa and Geralf or something like an Infernal Caretaker to just dump zombies onto the battlefield.
I'm most looking forward to Torment of Hailfire; that'll go great in my "big mana" Drana deck. Most people tend to dislike choice effects like that, since opponents will just choose the least destructive for them, but I think it makes a game more interesting. Plus, if X=30, there's only so many "least destructive" choices they can make...
And then, presumably, flipped him off. So damn great.
I'm not so sure that's the case, atleast regarding Chandra's feelings. Mostly because of this important line:
"It's been a long time since anyone held me like this. If Gids had done this four years ago, it would have made me feel tingly in all the places I like. Now it just feels...
...Safe."
That to me seems like a more brotherly / protectorly sort of relationship. It is plainly obvious that Gideon has feelings for Chandra, but I don't think Chandra reciprocates them. Meanwhile, Nissa and Chandra both seem to stammer and not know what to say when talking to each other like you would see a 13 year old do around their first crush. That and the fact that Nissa went with Chandra to fight Baral and was the only thing that stopped Chandra from, what I can only imagine is, going supernova and destroying everything. So I think there is atleast some level of romance between Chandra and Nissa (even if neither really "know" it yet), and now Gideon has been thrown into it as well.
Regardless, this was a really great article to characterize Chandra. That being said, for my personally, I think Liliana really stole the show, even though she was only mentioned like 3 times. The curtsy and crowd-admiring was just awesome. Plus the codenames she came up with (Beefslab and Cloak Boy? Really on point) were hilarious. And finally, acknowledging that, once again, Gideon ends up with his shirt off just took the cake for me. Really great, and on point, humor, in my opinion.
The power of Breya is that she is a combo piece in her own right, much like Sharuum is.
Eldrazi Displacer + Ashnod's Altar/Krark-Clan Ironworks + Breya, Etherium Shaper provides infinite mana/thopters/damage/life (The last two are gained by activating Breya's ability).
Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar/Krark-Clan Ironworks + Breya, Etherium Shaper provides infinite thopters, which in turn can provide infinite mana/damage/life.
So the power of Breya is in her combo possibility. In other circumstances, I would agree that she is mediocre at best.
I would argue that Atraxa's power is her proliferate ability, since it could lead to some cool counter shenanigans. But the rest of her is pretty mediocre. She has a lot of flashy evergreen abilities, but they don't really add up to much in a format as powerful as EDH, especially since it doesn't have any protection abilities like indestructible or hexproof. Deathtouch is nice, since it could prevent you from being attacked, but that's really about it. EDIT: Forgot to mention, she may make a good Voltron commander.
I also wouldn't say that red artifact recursion should be considered "trading." Yes, the big cards (Scrap Mastery, Goblin Welder, Trash for Treasure, etc) do require sacrificing an artifact, but they should only be played when the "trade" is in your favor. As in, sacrifice a thopter token to get back a Wurmcoil Engine or Sharuum the Hegemon.
If you have your head set on using one of the new 4-color Commander 2016 commanders, I would recommend taking a look at Breya, Etherium Shaper. Of all the new commanders, I think she's going to be the one with the most capability to be oppressive, at least from her ability to combo opponents out.
100% this. Even the best/fastest Commander decks have a hard time when there are 3+ people throwing everything they've got at it. If the competitive deck gets a nut draw, could they win regardless of how many people are targeting them? Of course, but the chances of that are few and far between. Threat assessment is the name of the game when it comes to Commander, and if people want to ignore that, then it's on them when they lose consistently.
I think people need to get away from this "Commander is casual" mentality. The creators of the format may have had that in mind when they created it, but Commander has exploded in popularity (I believe MaRo held a Twitter poll not too long about about favorite format, and, iirc, Commander came in close second to booster draft) over its lifetime. Magic is by definition a competitive game, so any format that is as popular as Commander is of course going to attract those with a competitive mindset. This doesn't mean that everyone needs to build the best deck they possibly can, it just means that SOME people will want to do that.
In the end, it's about having fun. Some people have fun by playing competitive or non-interactive / difficult-to-pilot decks; that doesn't make them wrong just like it doesn't make those who enjoy durdly decks wrong. People just need to be prepared to face opponents who may have a different mindset or play style than they do, and if they don't like that, then don't play with that person.
Some people also have fun by playing competitively and trying to win. I, personally, love playing my GAAIV Stax deck, as it can be difficult to pilot correctly, especially with 3 opponents barreling down on me, trying to kill me as fast as possible. I enjoy the challenge of that and find it fun, as I'm sure others do.
Your argument is that people play to have fun, but who are you to judge what someone finds fun?
That looks awesome! Exactly what I was looking for (and the white seems to pop more than a red color would).
Much appreciated!!