This is my take of Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle. I think the commander is very interesting in that they give an incentive to build around small cmc creatures and artifacts / legends. I pushed hard to try to draw and cantrip where I could especially in my cheap artifacts. There is some semblance of artifact recovery as well in my build considering how many artifacts are in here.
So.... I am not really sure if and or how this deck will win. I was more interested to get started to have a list that felt like it works rather than being able to finish people. I kind of have a bunch of dudes, rez, and draw and then from there I have a few that can turn into decent threats on their own and a few anthem options.
My overall goal though was to build a deck focused on rezing and being sticky. I went light on my land count given that so much of my list costs 4 or less mana. I played with how much disruption I was going to run but ultimately I felt it was better to focus a little more on the proactive value game for this deck than running as much disruption. The problem with a lot of spot removal and wraths is that the commander here requires a lot of positive interaction based cards to keep it going. If you don't have things to rez off of he does nothing. If you don't have targets to rez, he does nothing. If you run into grave hate, he does nothing. So some of my goal to run a little higher proactive gameplan rather than reactive is given how much of what the commander does requires several elements to be working correctly.
I like your take on it. If you're looking for a finisher, how about Aetherflux Reservoir? With so much cheap cantrips and spells you could very easily snipe somebody. I also see the potential for some sacrifice / stax hijinxes. Have you considered Smokestack? It won't hurt you nearly as much as your opponents. Besides that, I see a lot of potential for synergy. However, I imagine that you don't want this to turn into another Sram deck, which is honestly more efficient at drawing off of cheap artifact spells. So I feel that you're probably more along the lines of abusing sacrifice and reanimation? If that's the case, maybe adding more altar effects like Phyrexian Altar and Krark-Clan Ironworks.
If you're seeking for more abuse, maybe add Cloudstone Curio? Not only does it trigger Teshar but you can also use it to bounce artifact. Okay, not what I meant when you read that, but in the following way: reanimating a cheap nonartifact creature means that you could bounce artifact creatures to your hand (because they share a card type).
I think the potential for this is much larger than even your white mage expertise is observing (ironic, I know); I'm looking at this guy through the eyes of a black mage: how can I take the most advantage out of the reanimation? Can I abuse sacrifice triggers? Death triggers? Can I abuse etb triggers? Would I want to run as many hate bears as possible? Cheap to free mana rocks? I'm really looking forward to what you come up with.
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I like your take on it. If you're looking for a finisher, how about Aetherflux Reservoir? With so much cheap cantrips and spells you could very easily snipe somebody. I also see the potential for some sacrifice / stax hijinxes. Have you considered Smokestack? It won't hurt you nearly as much as your opponents. Besides that, I see a lot of potential for synergy. However, I imagine that you don't want this to turn into another Sram deck, which is honestly more efficient at drawing off of cheap artifact spells. So I feel that you're probably more along the lines of abusing sacrifice and reanimation? If that's the case, maybe adding more altar effects like Phyrexian Altar and Krark-Clan Ironworks.
If you're seeking for more abuse, maybe add Cloudstone Curio? Not only does it trigger Teshar but you can also use it to bounce artifact. Okay, not what I meant when you read that, but in the following way: reanimating a cheap nonartifact creature means that you could bounce artifact creatures to your hand (because they share a card type).
I think the potential for this is much larger than even your white mage expertise is observing (ironic, I know); I'm looking at this guy through the eyes of a black mage: how can I take the most advantage out of the reanimation? Can I abuse sacrifice triggers? Death triggers? Can I abuse etb triggers? Would I want to run as many hate bears as possible? Cheap to free mana rocks? I'm really looking forward to what you come up with.
Tempted by yet another mono white deck??? MEEEEEEEE Noooooooooo
Really I am a sucker for niche decks that play very differently from most every other deck out there and so when I saw this commander I really liked the fact that it plays so differently from every thing else that it was really its own thing. So many of the cards are so niche and specific for this build that they are more or less not played anywhere else in this format or really at all. The overall use of staple cards is low and the cards that are not staples are mostly cheap cards.
Aetherflux Reservoir - honestly its a card that leaves a bad taste in my mouth to use. I also don't know how well I will be chaining cards together. I did push hard for draw but this is still mono white so I don't really think my expectation is that I am overflowing with things to do even with pushing draw a bit harder than usual. I like to consider it more when I have a little more of a natural lifegain in my gameplan where as here I have a few pickups that happened to fit on cards that seem to work decently with my commander.
Smokestack - that's a good idea. I had not really thought this one through but yea I totally see it now after thinking about it.
Phyrexian Altar / Krark-Clan Ironworks - I am not convinced either way how important sac outlets are going to be here. If I had more ETB / Dies value maybe but I found that a lot of my creatures were value over time as well. Some of this is just because there are not that many options to pick from for ETB / dies creatures. If I did push harder on sac outlets I may also shift some of my focus as I did end up cutting some things like Leonin Relic-Warder and Fiend Hunter but ultimately I cut those two because I felt that they were not very good without access to sac outlets. Like I said.... I don't know how much value I place on the sac outlets here given the numbers in a lot of cases.
Cloudstone Curio it comes back to a question of how much ETB / Leaves play effects I have. I had it in the list very early on before I began trimming but I still feel like I just don't have enough ETB effects for it. I also put some consideration into some others like Conjurer's Closet and Eldrazi Displacer but in each case I kind of drew the same conclusion.
Cheap Mana - I just don't really see as much of a proactive gameplan that would spin up in such a way that would advance me to winning faster with this deck as it stands right now. I don't mind something like Sol Ring but card disadvantage ramp seems bad in that its so reliant on drawing it in the opening hand. This deck does not intend to win quickly which tends to be where I like tempo ramp more.
Overall this was a tough one to come up with a starting list for me. I probably had 150 cards in my starting card pool before I began trimming and that is almost entirely just creatures and artifacts. I probably could do a bit more research and looking into Enchantments Instant and Sorceries here but I felt like it was a good starting point.
I did consider cheap / free mana stones but ultimately I don't see this deck as a fast spin up kind of a deck so much as a midrange value deck so I actually valued value over speed because I just did not see emphasizing speed paying off as well given that the commander does not really lead to a proactive wincon on its own so much as relying on the rest of the deck to figure something out. I did want to push a bit harder than I am on ETB / Death creatures but honestly I seemed to just sort of run out of options that seemed worth running soon enough that I had to rely some on hatebears too.
I am still not entirely certain as to how relevant the cantrip artifacts are but I really thought there was a lot of value in cheap draw especially when you tag a rez a creature effect on top of that not to mention all of the numerous ways in which you can rez those small cantrip artifacts back to hand.
I will try to figure out the changes when I get a chance.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Yeah, I get all your points. I'm also interested in building around it but from a black magic point of view with abusing etb and dying. I'm gonna try and make a draft list and show it to you to see your opinions on it. I like the fact that the general is unassuming and lots of the cards are pretty worthless outside this niche, making them extremely cheap and the deck then being also extremely budget (similar to Zada, Hedron Grinder).
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I decided I wanted to shift the list some and have more sac outlets and bump my ETB / Death trigger creatures a bit too. I put this off for a while because I needed to dig and find some specific cards as I knew I was going to have a number of changes. I ended up ordering a decent bit of this deck already and I will try to put in another order to catch up with these changes as well as what I am still missing assuming I can devote some time to the list tonight. I sprung for a foil copy of the commander but apparently there is some standard infinite with him or something as his price has been going up a little.
DECK CHANGES:
Terrarion -> Mishra's Bauble both cards require me to wait to draw but I can do the bauble's draw faster and it costs me no mana.
Bomat Bazaar Barge -> Smokestack I wanted to try to make space for smokestack. I don't know how well it will work as it still seems kind of like a slow card to me but if nobody destroys it, it has the potential to do some real work. My fear comes back to the fact that I am not really running a stax deck here and its my only effect like that. I want to try it out though but I suspect I am going to draw and play it and it will get smashed. Still it redirects some hate away from my commander potentially.
Sandstone Oracle -> Phyrexian Altar the oracle looks..... ok. Its an artifact so it had some synergy with the list but otherwise it looked slow as balls. I wanted to make room for more sac outlets to get some better mileage from my ETB / Death value creatures.
Duplicant -> Fiend Hunter with adding more sac outlets this feels like a change that adds synergy to the deck. I think the function of both of these is similar but Duplicant costs a lot more and would trigger a rez where as I can rez Fiend Hunter. This lowers my curve and I like getting this functionality within what I can rez.
Soltari Visionary -> Leonin Relic-Warder the visionary looks interesting but slow. With more sac outlets the relic warder ideally gives me some exile answers for gods and just lets me function faster. The added versatility to hit artifacts is also nice where I felt it was something I was lacking before.
Haazda Shield Mate -> Hallowed Spiritkeeper I really like shield mate and its a fun card but I wanted to take something a little more proactive. Its possible to get a good swarm of spirits from the keeper especially with the added sac outlets. My concern with this card is mostly now the question of how often I am going to have a graveyard full of creatures for me to get more than 1-2 tokens when it dies but even just some post wrath recovery might be nice.
Hammer of Nazahn -> Reliquary Monk I started looking at my equipment and I realized I was NEVER going to tutor for the hammer. I have actually somewhat of a lot of protection for my commander in here and it just seemed like potentially the one I liked the least in the list. Adding the monk gives me more reach for noncreature removal while staying on synergy for the deck.
Wurmcoil Engine -> Steelshaper's Gift for the same mana I could get and play Batterskull but I think there is just a lot more versatility to this swap as well given how much value Skullclamp and Mask of Memory seem like they would have here. I think this just gives me a lot more options and while I think Wurmcoil is decent I don't think its what I need right now.
Sword of the Animist -> Spawning Pit I realized that while I overall just love this sword, it didnt seem like it fit in this deck in that the deck has a low curve and not a lot of big mana dump effects. I might consider bringing it back later but it just felt like... it was a little out of place. I actually have a TON of things to do in the early game so I didn't see myself really wanting to curve sword much for this deck. It lets me recast my commander more which is nice but there are other equip targets I would tutor for over it and its an equipment that does have some fall off later in the game. I don't have a lot to say about Spawning Pit other than it is an artifact which triggers my commander and it lets me freely sac. I considered potentially instead including Fanatical Devotion which could protect my commander but for the time being I am trying to push the synergy harder. I might come back later for that but for the time being I saw reason to stick on synergy and see how the deck functions first.
Staff of Nin -> Weatherlight the staff has always been a little slow and clunky. I like the value draw of Weatherlight in that it seems higher value than just "draw a card" and it costs less to play. Both cards don't generate me value until the next turn so they seem about on par speed wise but I think getting a historic from the top 5 cards is probably stronger than drawing the top card. It also is a new card which I like to test
Sorry the changes got so long. I knew I wanted to swap some things and boost the sac outlets and the ETB / Dies package up.
The last of the cards (including commander) should arrive today so I should be able to get the list together a little better after today. I was just trying to fine tune things a little better and I noticed an obvious exclusion that will have to be remedied.
DECK CHANGE:
Weatherlight -> Enlightened Tutor I do still want to get around to testing weatherlight in here but for right now I need to make room for Enlightened Tutor as its versatility to get any artifact is better than drawing the vehicle right now. I really did kind of omit instants in this list when I started building mostly because I want to see how things perform before I shift for more answers. I still see some potential issue in that I don't have much for instant speed interaction but I wanted to push for as much synergy in the deck as I could first and foremost. That said, I think the ability to tutor for any artifact is important. I just literally didn't think to include it before now lol.
I had a few other cards as well that I am still kind of not sure if I want to make room for or not. Mesmeric Orb is probably currently the card that I am considering but unsure of. The potential resource gain is nice but it also gives the same option to opponents which is kind of my pause especially considering it gives me the mill last.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Also, Sword of the Meek looks like it could cause some serious shenanigans here.
Overall, there are some awesome artifact creatures with CMC <= 3. I feel like these will help your deck consistency.
Gold Myr - I considered it but beyond casting my commander I don't actually need that much mana for most of the things I play in here. I do still have a few big drops but overall the average cmc of the deck is 2.65 (ignoring land draws) or 1.74 (factoring in lands). Ultimately most of my action is arround or less than three and so while the myr could work.... I just don't know how much I need a mana dork. I justified Mind Stone from the standpoint that it cantrips if its unnecessary but a 1/1 for 2 sounds rather underwhelming to me. I don't see it contributing much in a lot of cases which is why I don't care for it. Its slow and beyond the opening hand it feels really bad.
Kami of False Hope - it could be fun but it depends a lot on how much you die to combat damage and not to someone playing a better attrition plan, combo, non combat damage, or just keeping Teshar off the board. Some of my concern is that its just.... so responsive and it requires you to be in sort of a specific setup to be necessary. It's possible that I change my mind later but right now I would rather worry more about someone out valuing me out of the game than worry if someone comes at me with combat damage. I think its the sort of effect that depends a little on what the meta runs and the playstyles of the meta as I can see it being huge in the right situation and the question is just how often that comes up.
Metalworker - its possible. I didn't include it because I felt like I didn't actually have anything to dump the mana to. From that standpoint it seemed likely that I draw it not early on but don't have the hand and or things to dump the mana to.
Martyred Rusalka - its effect totally blows but it is a sac outlet. Maybe.... I don't love it but it has potential in that Ranger of Eos can tutor it. It costs mana to sac and its effect seems very narrow. That said.... maybe. I wan't to see how much of an issue I have with my sac outlets right now. Its nice that its a creature who can sac outlet for me and be rezed. I want to see how it plays first but I think this is perhaps worth considering. Originally I was not putting as much emphasis on sac outlets as I am now so I didn't really come back to consider this one much after I shifted back.
Hope of Ghirapur - I think it would be a huge pain in the ass to keep its effect up every turn and outside of trying to do that to someone I don't think its good enough. If you lock someone every turn it seems alright but the act of keeping it looping every turn seems too hard.
Thermal Navigator - currently I don't have as much value in moving my artifacts. I considered possibly Metalwork Colossus in here which seems kind of fun but I question how much I value sacing artifacts. I do have several artifact creatures but outside of them I don't really know.
Meekstone - I think it can be good but I think it depends a lot on what the meta is that you are in and what is popular. As an example you might have this vs a voltron vigilant commander, non combat based deck, or a token deck and it does nothing. Really this card seems most effective against non vigilant voltron decks which is just something I don't see enough of to justify trying to hate on them. The fact that this card does not stop the first attack of the big creatures can also be what makes this card not good enough. I think Ensnaring Bridge is probably something that may fit better with this deck but even it has some issues.
Retribution of the Meek - I considered it but I was not sure how deep I wanted to go on these effects yet. I felt like it was worse than Dawn // Dusk, Austere Command, and Elspeth and so that is why I backburnered it.
Peacekeeper - it depends on the meta. Its purely responsive and responsive to a specific type of deck. If you have a bunch of defensive anti combat stuff like this and then face down the UG value removal deck there is just no way you are going to be able to fight that game. Taking mono white out against a lot of other decks can be rough so in general I want to try to play cards that are most universally useful to me is I guess what I am saying.
Sword of the Meek - it does not trigger to rez things when it comes back and its buff is kind of bad. I don't see what it does outside of trying to infinite combo which I am not doing. The buff is not great so really it only really helps towards infinite combos.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Some small changes I want to make moving forward. I finished putting the list together last night and am hoping to play this list as well as [card=
Squee, the Immortal]Squee[/card] tonight. While I was putting the list together there were a few adjustments I wanted to make and looking forward I think these changes will help me.
DECK CHANGES:
Homeward Path -> Inventors' Fair given that I shifted to include more sac outlets I feel that the need to protect my commander from theft might be a little lessened. Inventors' Fair seems like a good fit here given the high artifact count. With adding this card in it makes me wonder if I should consider Crucible of Worlds too but I feel that would push me to run fetchlands too so... I don't know.
1 Plains -> Sequestered Stash I don't know how often I will want to use this new utility land but the fact that it gives a good milling effect as well in a pinch may make it worthwhile for post grave hate recovery. Again, this land makes me question if I want Crucible of Worlds here.
Stonecloaker -> Workshop Assistant I just feel like stonecloaker might not be as needed. I do have 3 other grave hate effects in the list so I will see if I can go without. Workshop Assistant seems handy in that it gives me a rez and then it can recover another artifact to my hand. It really does give a good bit of card advantage and with the increase in sac outlets I suppose I do want to make room for it.
Sword of Fire and Ice -> Scourglass I kept feeling like the sword just does not fit here. Sure my commander flies and I probably could connect this to someone's face.... I just felt like it was so slow for a card advantage engine when the whole deck feels like a card advantage engine. The sword also feels a little reliant on my commander potentially which my whole deck already feels a little bit reliant on. Scourglass does feel a little slow but I considered other artifact sweepers and for the most part not blowing up my artifacts feels somewhat like a priority. The fact that Scourglass is an artifact means I can recover it and tutor for it a bit easier than my sorcery speed wraths. I want to give it a shot as it has some potential to be a good clear for me.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Ok, I have only gotten one game in since the last changes which honestly I had hoped for more but I got the feeling that the people I was playing against this last week didn't really have decks that would hold up to this kind of deck. I have also been struggling to nail down some changes which I hope to do now. I did briefly look into trying to push for a heavier equipment build given that I could potentially keep things like Kemba, Kha Regent and Sram, Senior Edificer alive but ultimately I didn't see enough support cards that I wanted to run to feel like it justified. I am still adding a little bit of it but its going to be a little more contained.
DECK CHANGES:
Salvage Scout -> Legion's Landing - with adding more ETB / Dies triggers to the deck I have found the scout kind of weak given that I have to pay to sac him to his ability as well. Legion's Landing might function as a potential early game ramp card but the fact that later on it still functions as a rez effect gives it a little more reach than I originally gave it credit for. So I guess its sort of.... potentially ramp and potentially a cheap rez with another land drop.
Thraben Inspector -> Knight of the White Orchid - I never found myself having the time and mana to pop the investigate token from this guy. I am going to keep running Bygone Bishop but I just found myself not as keen on the Inspector. I like that the Knight can keep me hitting lands and it seems more relevant to rez and keep around.
Intrepid Hero -> Mangara of Corondor - I feel like both of these draw about the same level of hate but the upsides for Magara seemed much higher. She is legendary so she procs my commander to rez and given I run sac outlets I can activate and sac her which lets me use her more than once. I am also bringing in Lightning Greaves which potentially helps her out too. Depending on how things work out on that front I could go further and add Swiftfoot Boots too.
Transcendent Master -> Puresteel Paladin - The master is just way too much mana to work with. I was not really sure how my draw and chaining of things was going to work out but it seems to be better than I originally though making him kind of a bad mana investment most of the time. Puresteel Paladin can potentially draw me some cards but really I think the tempo equip of zero cost equips sounds appealing too. The combination of draw and giving me access to cheap equips convinced me to run him over Sram even though I don't get the legendary trigger. Depending on how the equipment play out I may consider adding Sram yet too given the rez effect.
Ranger of Eos -> Academy Rector - I am dropping my 1 drop count down and I felt that I wanted to try out something different instead. I like rector as I am also adding Martyr's Bond which is a sick tutor for at instant speed while paying less for it.
Sensei's Divining Top -> Umezawa's Jitte - I thought I might need to juggle the top as a means to get Historic triggers but so far the deck is chaining in a way I don't really see that as neccessary right now. I don't really have the suffle effects to feel like I am getting very good value out of top here either so I am going to remove it for now. Jitte gives me some reach when it comes to removal and it makes my trash attackers more frightening.
Ichor Wellspring -> Lightning Greaves - I have had some issues where people are realizing that they want to target and remove my commander. Greaves are a little awkward as protection but I want them to not use spot removal on my commander especially given how small he is there are additional things that can kill him easily. It is equipment tutorable and it can help out some of the other attack based creatures or tap based guys like Mangara of Corondor too. I am not sure I am convinced on this front yet as I normally don't care for this card as a means of protection but it fits a few parts of the theme I am doing.
The Immortal Sun -> Martyr's Bond Immortal Sun I thought well.... draw and anthem. Ultimately it ended up feeling like it costs too much and missed the mark. I had been meaning to try to make room for the bond but if that does not work out I could also see moving to Eldrazi Monument. I didn't want to work in too many high cost artifacts though so I figured cutting a 6 drop for another was ok.
Tragic Arrogance -> Gift of Immortality I needed to make a cut and Arrogance felt a little odd for me last time I got it. I wanted to get another enchantment for the list to give me some options for Academy Rector and it felt like a response to someone using spot removal on my commander or wrathing sacing Academy Rector to get Gift of Immortality for my commander sounded spicy.
That was.... a ton of changes. I need to get them in the list and see how things pan out.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I do think that you want some stuff that can be recurred without a sacrifice outlet, as you will get times when you don't get value when you cast an artifact, #feelsbadman
Benevolent Bodyguard - Teshar protection, best card in the deck in my opinion Sacred Guide - renewable source of value Lieutenant Kirtar - can hold off attacks, as much as you actually having to use the ability. But it's always super nice to have creatures that do go to graveyard
So.... I am not really sure if and or how this deck will win. I was more interested to get started to have a list that felt like it works rather than being able to finish people. I kind of have a bunch of dudes, rez, and draw and then from there I have a few that can turn into decent threats on their own and a few anthem options.
My overall goal though was to build a deck focused on rezing and being sticky. I went light on my land count given that so much of my list costs 4 or less mana. I played with how much disruption I was going to run but ultimately I felt it was better to focus a little more on the proactive value game for this deck than running as much disruption. The problem with a lot of spot removal and wraths is that the commander here requires a lot of positive interaction based cards to keep it going. If you don't have things to rez off of he does nothing. If you don't have targets to rez, he does nothing. If you run into grave hate, he does nothing. So some of my goal to run a little higher proactive gameplan rather than reactive is given how much of what the commander does requires several elements to be working correctly.
1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
CREATURES (29)
1 Heap Doll
1 Serra Ascendant
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Myr Retriever
1 Puresteel Paladin
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Wall of Omens
1 Bastion Protector
1 Bygone Bishop
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Filigree Familiar
1 Hallowed Spiritkeeper
1 Junk Diver
1 Mangara of Corondor
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Mirror Entity
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Reliquary Monk
1 Scarecrone
1 Scrap Trawler
1 Shimmer Myr
1 Workshop Assistant
1 Academy Rector
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Mishra's Bauble
1 Brittle Effigy
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Expedition Map
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mask of Memory
1 Mind Stone
1 Smuggler's Copter
1 Spawning Pit
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Smokestack
1 Trading Post
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Batterskull
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Memory Jar
1 Mind's Eye
1 Scourglass
1 Legion's Landing
1 Gift of Immortality
1 Martyr's Bond
INSTANT (1)
1 Enlightened Tutor
SORCERY (3)
1 Steelshaper's Gift
1 Dusk // Dawn
1 Austere Command
PLANESWALKER (1)
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
LAND (34)
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 High Market
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Kor Haven
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Opal Palace
19 Plains
1 Sequestered Stash
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Windbrisk Heights
1 Winding Canyons
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
I like your take on it. If you're looking for a finisher, how about Aetherflux Reservoir? With so much cheap cantrips and spells you could very easily snipe somebody. I also see the potential for some sacrifice / stax hijinxes. Have you considered Smokestack? It won't hurt you nearly as much as your opponents. Besides that, I see a lot of potential for synergy. However, I imagine that you don't want this to turn into another Sram deck, which is honestly more efficient at drawing off of cheap artifact spells. So I feel that you're probably more along the lines of abusing sacrifice and reanimation? If that's the case, maybe adding more altar effects like Phyrexian Altar and Krark-Clan Ironworks.
If you're seeking for more abuse, maybe add Cloudstone Curio? Not only does it trigger Teshar but you can also use it to bounce artifact. Okay, not what I meant when you read that, but in the following way: reanimating a cheap nonartifact creature means that you could bounce artifact creatures to your hand (because they share a card type).
I think the potential for this is much larger than even your white mage expertise is observing (ironic, I know); I'm looking at this guy through the eyes of a black mage: how can I take the most advantage out of the reanimation? Can I abuse sacrifice triggers? Death triggers? Can I abuse etb triggers? Would I want to run as many hate bears as possible? Cheap to free mana rocks? I'm really looking forward to what you come up with.
As for your deck list, there's just a maelstrom of so many cards you can add. But at the top of my mind, any reason why you're not running Mishra's Bauble, Lion's Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Mox Opal, Mox Diamond, Mox Amber, Mana Crypt, and/or Mana Vault? (Unless money is an issue.)
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Tempted by yet another mono white deck??? MEEEEEEEE Noooooooooo
Really I am a sucker for niche decks that play very differently from most every other deck out there and so when I saw this commander I really liked the fact that it plays so differently from every thing else that it was really its own thing. So many of the cards are so niche and specific for this build that they are more or less not played anywhere else in this format or really at all. The overall use of staple cards is low and the cards that are not staples are mostly cheap cards.
Aetherflux Reservoir - honestly its a card that leaves a bad taste in my mouth to use. I also don't know how well I will be chaining cards together. I did push hard for draw but this is still mono white so I don't really think my expectation is that I am overflowing with things to do even with pushing draw a bit harder than usual. I like to consider it more when I have a little more of a natural lifegain in my gameplan where as here I have a few pickups that happened to fit on cards that seem to work decently with my commander.
Smokestack - that's a good idea. I had not really thought this one through but yea I totally see it now after thinking about it.
Phyrexian Altar / Krark-Clan Ironworks - I am not convinced either way how important sac outlets are going to be here. If I had more ETB / Dies value maybe but I found that a lot of my creatures were value over time as well. Some of this is just because there are not that many options to pick from for ETB / dies creatures. If I did push harder on sac outlets I may also shift some of my focus as I did end up cutting some things like Leonin Relic-Warder and Fiend Hunter but ultimately I cut those two because I felt that they were not very good without access to sac outlets. Like I said.... I don't know how much value I place on the sac outlets here given the numbers in a lot of cases.
Cloudstone Curio it comes back to a question of how much ETB / Leaves play effects I have. I had it in the list very early on before I began trimming but I still feel like I just don't have enough ETB effects for it. I also put some consideration into some others like Conjurer's Closet and Eldrazi Displacer but in each case I kind of drew the same conclusion.
Cheap Mana - I just don't really see as much of a proactive gameplan that would spin up in such a way that would advance me to winning faster with this deck as it stands right now. I don't mind something like Sol Ring but card disadvantage ramp seems bad in that its so reliant on drawing it in the opening hand. This deck does not intend to win quickly which tends to be where I like tempo ramp more.
Overall this was a tough one to come up with a starting list for me. I probably had 150 cards in my starting card pool before I began trimming and that is almost entirely just creatures and artifacts. I probably could do a bit more research and looking into Enchantments Instant and Sorceries here but I felt like it was a good starting point.
I did consider cheap / free mana stones but ultimately I don't see this deck as a fast spin up kind of a deck so much as a midrange value deck so I actually valued value over speed because I just did not see emphasizing speed paying off as well given that the commander does not really lead to a proactive wincon on its own so much as relying on the rest of the deck to figure something out. I did want to push a bit harder than I am on ETB / Death creatures but honestly I seemed to just sort of run out of options that seemed worth running soon enough that I had to rely some on hatebears too.
I am still not entirely certain as to how relevant the cantrip artifacts are but I really thought there was a lot of value in cheap draw especially when you tag a rez a creature effect on top of that not to mention all of the numerous ways in which you can rez those small cantrip artifacts back to hand.
I will try to figure out the changes when I get a chance.
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[Modern] Allies
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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DECK CHANGES:
Sorry the changes got so long. I knew I wanted to swap some things and boost the sac outlets and the ETB / Dies package up.
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[Modern] Allies
DECK CHANGE:
I had a few other cards as well that I am still kind of not sure if I want to make room for or not. Mesmeric Orb is probably currently the card that I am considering but unsure of. The potential resource gain is nice but it also gives the same option to opponents which is kind of my pause especially considering it gives me the mill last.
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[Modern] Allies
Kami of False Hope - I hear Spore Frog is a good card in graveyard decks, and your deck seems to have trouble staying alive.
Metalworker is legal. You want it.
Martyred Rusalka - recurrable sac outlet.
Scrap Trawler - value for days.
Hope of Ghirapur - seems funny but potentially also helpful.
Thermal Navigator - recurrable artifact sac outlet.
Meekstone - cute card that can help protect you.
Retribution of the Meek - keep your guys alive and kill everyone else.
Peacekeeper - helps keep you alive.
Also, Sword of the Meek looks like it could cause some serious shenanigans here.
Overall, there are some awesome artifact creatures with CMC <= 3. I feel like these will help your deck consistency.
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[Modern] Allies
Squee, the Immortal]Squee[/card] tonight. While I was putting the list together there were a few adjustments I wanted to make and looking forward I think these changes will help me.
DECK CHANGES:
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[Modern] Allies
DECK CHANGES:
That was.... a ton of changes. I need to get them in the list and see how things pan out.
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[Modern] Allies
Benevolent Bodyguard - Teshar protection, best card in the deck in my opinion
Sacred Guide - renewable source of value
Lieutenant Kirtar - can hold off attacks, as much as you actually having to use the ability. But it's always super nice to have creatures that do go to graveyard
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
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