Most Commanders on my wishlist are either existing creatures (Overbeing of Myth, Dominus of Fealty, Tamanoa) or an existing Legend with a color added (Sram Boros, Dosan Gruul, Toshiro Dimir or Rakdos, Ixidor Simic). I had a couple cards hidden in my old files (I'm talking 2010 old.) that I always wondered if it would see the light of day:
Knight General1WB Legendary Creature - Spirit Knight
You may cast ~ from your graveyard.
As long as you control a Knight creature with first strike, creatures you control gain first strike. Same is true for protection, trample, flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink, hexproof, indestructible, menace, and double strike. WB: You may cast target Knight card in your graveyard without paying its mana cost. 3/1
A combination of Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, and Horde of Notions. I always loved Knights when I was younger, and it's a shame that Haakon is not a viable Commander. Yes, Command Beacon exists, but I'm not jumping through hoops to accomplish that.
Eggs Commander9 Legendary Artifact Creature - Golem
Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs 1 less to cast for each artifact you control.)
Mana produced by artifacts you control add U or R to your mana pool in addition to its other types.
Whenever you cast an artifact spell, draw a card. 2/4
Back then, I had the idea of making artifacts cantrip. I loved Cloud Key and I wanted to make a storm deck off of it. Seeing the state of the card pool now, this would probably be broken--especially with Paradox Engine being a thing.
Funny thing is: I'm using Arjun for this very idea and enjoy it quite a bit. I think I prefer him over this design.
Boros Spellslinger Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Whenever you cast a red or white instant or sorcery spell, you may pay . If you do, draw a card.
Non-blue, non-black, and non-green instant or sorcery spells you control with a converted mana cost of 4 or less have buyback . 1/2
The intention was to make a Boros deck that played the control game. Heavily inspired by Sunforger. The second ability has very weird wording, but the intention was to make it so it would work in its colors rather than be splashed in every deck that could play it.
I'm going to second Ayli for a number of reasons:
1) The fact that you have a Disciple of Griselbrand in the Command Zone is a very big deal. People love DoG for the survivability, cheap sac cost, and prevention of exile effects. Ayli is that but with a durable body for the cost, Deathtouch, and a powerful (though conditional) secondary effect.
2) You are in the best reanimator colors. You can easily sac creatures and cast a low costed Reanimate with little to no repercussion. Three of the five cards you listed all have great EtB effects, one of them is a reanimate spell with two uses, and then you have Avacyn which, again, you can make her invulnerable to Exile/Theft effects thanks to just paying a single mana.
If Ayli is not of your taste, the next best thing would be Tymna + Ravos. My experience with Tymna is that with enough early game dudes, you generate some pretty good card advantage over time.
For some reason, Ishai + Thrasios seems like a decent pairing for a classic BantEnchantress deck. Fun thing about them is that you can win through Commander Damage. If that doesn't work, you can pillowfort and use combos that BantEnchantress is known for. It's also the first time Bant has a mana sink. (Jenara doesn't really count imo since the effect is just enhancing her own P/T, not giving CA.)
Plus, a Bird and a Fish sounds pretty poetic in a sense.
The group hug decks that specifically play the "fun police"(counterspells, loads of spot removal) irk me because they tend to drag the game to a halt, especially worse when you have to sit left of the player.
"Safe decks" like Narset and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir because you either have to interact with them at specific stages to stop them or you won't be able too at all. And there will always be times that a deck with plenty of ways to deal with it will simply not have the answer out of dumb luck.
Is black/blue your only option. Because vendilion clique not only reveals but allows to get rod of a card they may have.
Sadly, they only let you "look" at the hand. Whether or not one could describe one's hand you are looking at is up for debate.
Anyway, I want to chime in on this because I built a Sen Triplets deck with the exact theme the OP wanted to build. I built it with the intention of playing a political-control game with the win-cons being your standard Sphinx's flying overhead and/or Debt to the Deathless, all while pillowforting.
I have never cast Sen Triplets except if it was down to 1v1. Sen Triplets are fragile. Very fragile. Unless you run necessary protection cards like Leonin Abunas, Padeem, Mother of Runes, etc, chances are you won't be able to have them stick around. Sen Triplets does reveal hands, yes, but I found that they thrive on a more aggressive control suite. I'm honestly thinking about replacing them with what another poster suggested: Circu.
Alternatively, I would use Vile Smasher the Fierce + Ludevic because at least those two combined gives cards and speed up the game. Red has a fair amount of Hand Reveals as well: Mindclaw Shaman and Reversal of Fortune are situational but if nothing else, can reveal a hand.
At this point, you'd have to build 5-color to make the most out of them and make it like a 5c Superfriends deck: make use of Proliferate and the like.
Reaper King can work with an Energy Sub-theme since most Energy producers have EtB abilities. Rite of Replication with the King is still usable if need be, and you can have Clones in your deck. You can even use some Scarecrows/Changelings to join in on the EtB action.
Sliver Hivelord is an option too since, while you would have nothing to do with Slivers, you have a 5/5 Indestructible for 5. That's already a pretty sweet deal right there. Hivestone/Conspiracy/Xenograft can give your creatures an edge, and if anything, you can run the just the mana-producing slivers to act as walls later on.
Cryptolith Rite/Earthcraft is secret tech in my build since all of my tokens have haste for the former, leading me to get a Storm-Combo going as a backup plan in case I can't swing with my guys.
Well, Meta #1 has the following:
Omnath v.1
Omnath v.2
Gitrog
Teferi (Creature) (With all Eldrazi in it)
Maelstrom Wanderer
Sigarda Voltron/Angels
Xenagos
And Meta #2, while way more lighter on bigger dudes, has:
Mayael
Rosheen (Hydra Tribal)
Omnath v.1
Omnath v.2
One thing I did consider was Mazirek+Cataclysm, but I'm always wary of the Path to Exile stopping me from winning.
Edit: The two lists do not represent the entirety of each meta, just the ones with "big guys". The list for Meta 1 makes up for 50% of the group, while the list for 2 makes up for roughly 20%
I've been eyeing this deck for a while and I want to build it. The only issue is that both metas I play in are basically Battlecruiser magic with Eldrazi and the like. What hatebears do I use to combat against this?
I've been pondering on three specific archetypes I've been wanting to make at a semi-competitive level...all of them belonging in a combination of White, Blue, or Green. I narrowed down a list, but haven't decided what is truly the most optimal experience for each archetype.
My very only restriction is no overlap in color combinations. For instance: I would like to avoid having two Azorius or two Bant decks etc.
The problems I have ran into with these is that each of them have their pros and cons. I want to explain my thought process behind all of them:
Blink: Roon versus Brago. Roon I found to be incredibly powerful by virtue of being in three really strong colors, and holding a very powerful dual type (Simic). With that, he had so many tools to produce incredible value. However, the problem I found with him is that he feels like a Blue/White deck with a splash of green. Brago I have personally seen do work. Note that this is not going to utilize Stax cards or planeswalkers that much, which makes me feel like Brago may not be the best choice for a deck like this. At the same time: He offers the best type of support for a blink.dec. Other generals I took to consideration: Rasputin Dreamweaver - I actually own a copy. I ran him for a while as well. But my issue with him is that he's too slow and relies on a decent early game to pick up the steam. But by then it will be too late.
Hatebear: Selvala versus Ephara Selvala I have seen do some major damage. It follows a stage-pattern of game play where it starts off incredibly strong early game, disrupts the mid game, and finds itself the only person on the table with a late game. I do not mind one bit about running stuff like Winter Orb and the like, but my only concern with her is that it would feel one trick. I will admit: I have yet to play a single test game of her. Ephara is a different story. Inspired by pokken and ISBPathfinder's lists, I built a proto-type deck that rewarded me for playing a controlly deck that kept having a fresh grip all of the time. It felt satisfying to play with, but the problem was closing the game out. I never felt like I could do something that says "Here's what happening. If no one responds, I'm sealing the deal." Other generals I took to consideration: Gaddock Teeg - While I am running him in the 99, I don't feel comfortable running him as a general seeing that it may or not not work to my advantage as much as I'd hope for. It feels like a 50% chance he will make an impact. Alesha, Who Smiles at Death - I seen some interesting lists using Alesha, but not only is she hard to recast, she's especially hard to connect in the first place.
Enchantress: Sigarda versus Jenara Sigarda as I understand is the marquis choice for Enchantress based builds, Uril falling behind second with Bruna being more of a combo version of Sigarda. She's very hard to answer, and I know this because a fellow friend has a Sigarda Enchantress deck that will help him win games. One thing I am wary of is that she's too "good" and how she is vulnerable to countermagic unless the stars align with me landing a City of Solitude or something. Jenara offers a very interesting choice for me. It sucks that she only has flying, but the main appeal to me is that she costs 3. She comes out quick early game, and she enables me to use cards like Privileged Position and Asceticism, all while playing a side of control to protect her. Other generals I took to consideration: Bruna, Light of Alabaster - I fell in love with her ever since she was released in Avacyn Restored. Sadly she has fallen out of grace for me as she felt incredibly one-trick. I fear the same face for Sigarda, ironically. Uril, the Miststalker - Once again, this was the case that two colors took the show and I barely used the third color (red) to its fullest aside from a few auras.
My real question is: What combination of generals of this list should I go with...for each Archetype and color combination? What general will give me the best play experience for each archetype listed?
One of each color combo
One of each archetype
No overlap
Knight General 1WB
Legendary Creature - Spirit Knight
You may cast ~ from your graveyard.
As long as you control a Knight creature with first strike, creatures you control gain first strike. Same is true for protection, trample, flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink, hexproof, indestructible, menace, and double strike.
WB: You may cast target Knight card in your graveyard without paying its mana cost.
3/1
A combination of Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, and Horde of Notions. I always loved Knights when I was younger, and it's a shame that Haakon is not a viable Commander. Yes, Command Beacon exists, but I'm not jumping through hoops to accomplish that.
Eggs Commander 9
Legendary Artifact Creature - Golem
Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs 1 less to cast for each artifact you control.)
Mana produced by artifacts you control add U or R to your mana pool in addition to its other types.
Whenever you cast an artifact spell, draw a card.
2/4
Back then, I had the idea of making artifacts cantrip. I loved Cloud Key and I wanted to make a storm deck off of it. Seeing the state of the card pool now, this would probably be broken--especially with Paradox Engine being a thing.
Funny thing is: I'm using Arjun for this very idea and enjoy it quite a bit. I think I prefer him over this design.
Boros Spellslinger
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Whenever you cast a red or white instant or sorcery spell, you may pay
Non-blue, non-black, and non-green instant or sorcery spells you control with a converted mana cost of 4 or less have buyback
1/2
The intention was to make a Boros deck that played the control game. Heavily inspired by Sunforger. The second ability has very weird wording, but the intention was to make it so it would work in its colors rather than be splashed in every deck that could play it.
1) The fact that you have a Disciple of Griselbrand in the Command Zone is a very big deal. People love DoG for the survivability, cheap sac cost, and prevention of exile effects. Ayli is that but with a durable body for the cost, Deathtouch, and a powerful (though conditional) secondary effect.
2) You are in the best reanimator colors. You can easily sac creatures and cast a low costed Reanimate with little to no repercussion. Three of the five cards you listed all have great EtB effects, one of them is a reanimate spell with two uses, and then you have Avacyn which, again, you can make her invulnerable to Exile/Theft effects thanks to just paying a single mana.
If Ayli is not of your taste, the next best thing would be Tymna + Ravos. My experience with Tymna is that with enough early game dudes, you generate some pretty good card advantage over time.
Plus, a Bird and a Fish sounds pretty poetic in a sense.
"Safe decks" like Narset and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir because you either have to interact with them at specific stages to stop them or you won't be able too at all. And there will always be times that a deck with plenty of ways to deal with it will simply not have the answer out of dumb luck.
Child of Alara in general.
Sadly, they only let you "look" at the hand. Whether or not one could describe one's hand you are looking at is up for debate.
Anyway, I want to chime in on this because I built a Sen Triplets deck with the exact theme the OP wanted to build. I built it with the intention of playing a political-control game with the win-cons being your standard Sphinx's flying overhead and/or Debt to the Deathless, all while pillowforting.
I have never cast Sen Triplets except if it was down to 1v1. Sen Triplets are fragile. Very fragile. Unless you run necessary protection cards like Leonin Abunas, Padeem, Mother of Runes, etc, chances are you won't be able to have them stick around. Sen Triplets does reveal hands, yes, but I found that they thrive on a more aggressive control suite. I'm honestly thinking about replacing them with what another poster suggested: Circu.
Alternatively, I would use Vile Smasher the Fierce + Ludevic because at least those two combined gives cards and speed up the game. Red has a fair amount of Hand Reveals as well: Mindclaw Shaman and Reversal of Fortune are situational but if nothing else, can reveal a hand.
Reaper King can work with an Energy Sub-theme since most Energy producers have EtB abilities. Rite of Replication with the King is still usable if need be, and you can have Clones in your deck. You can even use some Scarecrows/Changelings to join in on the EtB action.
Sliver Hivelord is an option too since, while you would have nothing to do with Slivers, you have a 5/5 Indestructible for 5. That's already a pretty sweet deal right there. Hivestone/Conspiracy/Xenograft can give your creatures an edge, and if anything, you can run the just the mana-producing slivers to act as walls later on.
My MW deck is honestly a Wort, the Raidmother deck in disguise: a heavy focus on tokens and ramp spells, and wins by going wide with cards like Shared Animosity, Beastmaster Ascension, and Overrun effects. Blue is mainly a utility color for my build and mostly card draw, Time Warp, and clone effects since cloning Avenger of Zendikar or Chancelor of the Forge is kind of insane.
I even like to run janky cards like Spitting Image and Call of the Skybreaker to use up the excess lands I would draw.
Cryptolith Rite/Earthcraft is secret tech in my build since all of my tokens have haste for the former, leading me to get a Storm-Combo going as a backup plan in case I can't swing with my guys.
Omnath v.1
Omnath v.2
Gitrog
Teferi (Creature) (With all Eldrazi in it)
Maelstrom Wanderer
Sigarda Voltron/Angels
Xenagos
And Meta #2, while way more lighter on bigger dudes, has:
Mayael
Rosheen (Hydra Tribal)
Omnath v.1
Omnath v.2
One thing I did consider was Mazirek+Cataclysm, but I'm always wary of the Path to Exile stopping me from winning.
Edit: The two lists do not represent the entirety of each meta, just the ones with "big guys". The list for Meta 1 makes up for 50% of the group, while the list for 2 makes up for roughly 20%
Nice BUG Commander.
It still needs some updates since the deck has like 5 cards changed out, but the basic gist is the same: Pillowfort/Kingmaker with Punisher cards to seal the deal. It runs 0 Counterspells (If you don't count Misdirection). It also has a "Reveal Hands" theme with the added in cards being Seer's Vision, Tidehollow Sculler, Isperia the Inscrutable and Thoughtcutter Agent
Mostly inspired by this http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/490546-tariel-youll-thank-me-for-this
Watch as you have Sigarda out, with her fused-sisters right next to her, and no Avacyn on board.
My very only restriction is no overlap in color combinations. For instance: I would like to avoid having two Azorius or two Bant decks etc.
Here's what I've been thinking of:
Bant GWU
Roon of the Hidden Realm (Blink) OR Jenara, Asura of War (Enchantress)
Selesnya GW
Selvala, Explorer Returned (Hatebear) OR Sigarda, Host of Herons (Enchantress)
Azorius WU
Ephara, God of the Polis (Hatebear) OR Brago, King Eternal (Blink)
The problems I have ran into with these is that each of them have their pros and cons. I want to explain my thought process behind all of them:
Blink: Roon versus Brago.
Roon I found to be incredibly powerful by virtue of being in three really strong colors, and holding a very powerful dual type (Simic). With that, he had so many tools to produce incredible value. However, the problem I found with him is that he feels like a Blue/White deck with a splash of green.
Brago I have personally seen do work. Note that this is not going to utilize Stax cards or planeswalkers that much, which makes me feel like Brago may not be the best choice for a deck like this. At the same time: He offers the best type of support for a blink.dec.
Other generals I took to consideration:
Rasputin Dreamweaver - I actually own a copy. I ran him for a while as well. But my issue with him is that he's too slow and relies on a decent early game to pick up the steam. But by then it will be too late.
Hatebear: Selvala versus Ephara
Selvala I have seen do some major damage. It follows a stage-pattern of game play where it starts off incredibly strong early game, disrupts the mid game, and finds itself the only person on the table with a late game. I do not mind one bit about running stuff like Winter Orb and the like, but my only concern with her is that it would feel one trick. I will admit: I have yet to play a single test game of her.
Ephara is a different story. Inspired by pokken and ISBPathfinder's lists, I built a proto-type deck that rewarded me for playing a controlly deck that kept having a fresh grip all of the time. It felt satisfying to play with, but the problem was closing the game out. I never felt like I could do something that says "Here's what happening. If no one responds, I'm sealing the deal."
Other generals I took to consideration:
Gaddock Teeg - While I am running him in the 99, I don't feel comfortable running him as a general seeing that it may or not not work to my advantage as much as I'd hope for. It feels like a 50% chance he will make an impact.
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death - I seen some interesting lists using Alesha, but not only is she hard to recast, she's especially hard to connect in the first place.
Enchantress: Sigarda versus Jenara
Sigarda as I understand is the marquis choice for Enchantress based builds, Uril falling behind second with Bruna being more of a combo version of Sigarda. She's very hard to answer, and I know this because a fellow friend has a Sigarda Enchantress deck that will help him win games. One thing I am wary of is that she's too "good" and how she is vulnerable to countermagic unless the stars align with me landing a City of Solitude or something.
Jenara offers a very interesting choice for me. It sucks that she only has flying, but the main appeal to me is that she costs 3. She comes out quick early game, and she enables me to use cards like Privileged Position and Asceticism, all while playing a side of control to protect her.
Other generals I took to consideration:
Bruna, Light of Alabaster - I fell in love with her ever since she was released in Avacyn Restored. Sadly she has fallen out of grace for me as she felt incredibly one-trick. I fear the same face for Sigarda, ironically.
Uril, the Miststalker - Once again, this was the case that two colors took the show and I barely used the third color (red) to its fullest aside from a few auras.
My real question is: What combination of generals of this list should I go with...for each Archetype and color combination? What general will give me the best play experience for each archetype listed?
One of each color combo
One of each archetype
No overlap