I am teaching my girlfriend how to play maguc and commander by using a few different preconstructed decks. I bought Stalwart Unity deck because it looks interesting and has many cards I wanted for my collection. I was even thinking about turning it into a Theros themed "Defenders of Meletis" deck.
Anyway, after having played several games with and against this deck, it has easly proven to be the worst of the bunch.
Yes, I understand that it is designed to be a group hug multiplayer deck, which means it will not work nearly as well in a duel, but the problem isn't the group hug effects. The problem is that they deck doesn't really do anything.
It tries to encourage other players to attack each other rather than it. It tries to discourage players from attacking it with tax effects. However, it doesn't have much of anything to offer in terms of REAL defense.
+I like the idea of having a deck which gets better against myltiple opponents, but I want it to be good in its own right.
+I like the prison/tax effects which can make attacking nearly impossible. I want to keep all of them.
-I have never been a fan of hroup hug cards which say, "here is free stuff just because I am nice."
*I enjoy non-symetrical group hug, like the Commander of this deck and how it gives you a card and a land drop but only one thing for your opponent. I like Tempt with Discovery. I don't like Collective Voyage. I don't understand why you would want to play Howling mine, Font of Mythos, or Rites of Flourishing. This isn't a turbo fog or owling mine deck.
I want to try and keep the power levels of the decks similar an only improve them slowly over time. I just feel that this deck needs a MAJOR overhaul.
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"Whatever style you wish to play, be it fast and frenzied or slow and tactical, the surest way to defeat your opponent consistently is by dominating him or her in the war of card advantage." - Brian Wiseman, April 1996
I am teaching my girlfriend how to play maguc and commander by using a few different preconstructed decks. I bought Stalwart Unity deck because it looks interesting and has many cards I wanted for my collection. I was even thinking about turning it into a Theros themed "Defenders of Meletis" deck.
Anyway, after having played several games with and against this deck, it has easly proven to be the worst of the bunch.
Yes, I understand that it is designed to be a group hug multiplayer deck, which means it will not work nearly as well in a duel, but the problem isn't the group hug effects. The problem is that they deck doesn't really do anything.
It tries to encourage other players to attack each other rather than it. It tries to discourage players from attacking it with tax effects. However, it doesn't have much of anything to offer in terms of REAL defense.
+I like the idea of having a deck which gets better against myltiple opponents, but I want it to be good in its own right.
+I like the prison/tax effects which can make attacking nearly impossible. I want to keep all of them.
-I have never been a fan of hroup hug cards which say, "here is free stuff just because I am nice."
*I enjoy non-symetrical group hug, like the Commander of this deck and how it gives you a card and a land drop but only one thing for your opponent. I like Tempt with Discovery. I don't like Collective Voyage. I don't understand why you would want to play Howling mine, Font of Mythos, or Rites of Flourishing. This isn't a turbo fog or owling mine deck.
I want to try and keep the power levels of the decks similar an only improve them slowly over time. I just feel that this deck needs a MAJOR overhaul.
While there are a number of ways you could break the symmetry of those cards, what you need is a way to make those prison effects most effective. In essence, slightly more taxing effects or maybe a way to break the effect of the howling mine effects. A well timed cyclonic rift or evacuation could go a long way towards watching them discard the majority of those effects. Solitary confinement is a most entertaining prison card, but it doesn't work well with a lot of these cards as those things trigger during the draw step, which you would no longer have.
I don't know if you want any of those cards. Frankly, I kind of enjoy the group huggy aspect of the deck, though this deck itself cannot easily break the symmetry. The political creature strategy, relying on cards like entrapment maneuver and a way or two to make them good, such as sidar kondo of jumuraa can be an interesting way to go about it. I would then run cards like flurry of wings, rite of replication, borrowing 100000 arrows, benevolent offering, ezuri's predation, theft of dreams, or keep watch to add to this strategy. However, while these cards can, depending on the situation, be powerful and win you the game outright if you get to cast a game swinging effect (flurry of wings seems the most obvious of these, but any of them can be flat out busted and cards like keep watch reward a careful player immensely), they are not powerful in their own right and you should only run a few of them at most.
All players drawing cards or getting additional lands? Arcane lab or winter orb would make those less potent or add an omnath locus of rage and see if they'll mind you getting a few additional lands. Even then you don't mind them getting the lands as then you do too and they will benefit you more. At this point, a small landfall theme would be helpful, rampaging baloths, admonition angel, emeria angel, etc. would all be interesting ways to capitalize on these effects.
Lots of enchantments in the base deck, so maybe the usual suspects in Enchantress draw are worth considering: Mesa Enchantress, Verduran Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence, and at least one other (it has shroud and a name I cannot recall).
I have been teaching my girlfriend how to play with these decks, and they all seem to be fun and well balanced with one another... except the one which inspired me to make this thread; Stalwart Unity.
It really is a pile of garbage in a duel. Here are the cards which I eventually cut just to try and bring it in line with the other decks:
Veteran Explorer - Doesn't have a sacrifice outlet, which means he has to chump block at some later stage in the game where his ramp is far less useful.
Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer - Doesn't have haste, gives a card, and his bribery tokens are meaningless when he is killed.
Akroan Horse - Is total junk. It can be sacrifice fodder, chump block, and it produces tokens very slowly. It might be good in multiplayer but it has done nothing in duels.
Zedruu the Greathearted - Needs a deck built around it to do anything useful. It has been cast multiple times and done NOTHING each game. You cast it, and next turn get nothing. You only want to give away things like Howling Mine and Rites of Flourishing if you have them. If you don't, you won't really be drawing any cards or gaining any life in this deck out of the box.
Minds Aglow - I pay mana, you draw cards and then kill me with the cards I gave you. Total garbage.
Collective Voyage - I pay mana, you get lands and use the mana to cast spells and crush me. Total garbage.
Swan Song - This isn't a control deck. A surprise count can be nice, but we want to play stuff.
Reins of Power - This card has to potential to sometimes do something, but has done nothing in the 8+ games we have played, and not once have i thought "Wow, Reins of Power would be really good here." Again, without a sacrifice outlet to create a blowout, if the theft and attack doesn't win the game, then it does nothing meaningful to change the game because the rest of the deck is garbage.
Oath of Druids - Cool eternal reprint which does nothing in this deck. There are very few juicy target to try and cheat into play.
Lurking Predators - More of the same here. Six mana for a card which might hit sometimes, and doesn't have many juicy targets to hit. I would rather play a six drop that will give me something for sure here and now.
Howling Mine and Rites of Flourishing - here are free cards and maybe lands to kill me with. How did I die so fast? Oh... right.
Cards which I am unimpressed with but have kept so far:
Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Sphere of Safety, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs - You don't even always get one of these in play each game, let alone two or more to increase the tax effects. We have had multiple games where none of the were ever drawn. When they were, the opponent just said "Yeah, i pay 6 and attack you with these three creatures." And doesn't care at all... because this deck doesn't have any REAL tangible defenses, and it hands out cards and land drops like candy anyway. It is hard to tax someone when you give them a bunch of lands.
Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist - Nothing screams boring like a 1/4 which can't attack or block very well and only sometimes draws a card maybe.
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa - A lot of creatures seem to have flying in the other decks, and this deck isn't exactly churning out an army of tokens.
Entrapment Maneuver - That's right! sacrifice that... 2/2 token and I get two 1/1 tokens... sad face. I wish this were Path to Exile or anything better.
Benefactor's Draught - Another cards which looks like it could cause a blowout in theory but hasn't done anything in practice.
Evolutionary Escalation - your big stuff gets even bigger. My little stuff can't ever catch up! I lose again!
====================================
I am just very frustrated with this deck because it doesn't do anything. It sits there and give resources to the opponent, can't do anything against fliers, and doesn't really have any opposing threats or finishers of its own.
A game typically looks like this:
T1 - Land into play tapped - go
T2 - Another land into play tapped, probably Rupture Spire or a Ravnica Karoo, or maybe a basic land cycling.
T3 - Some 2 or 3 drop card
T4 - The Commander, draw and play another land to ramp
T5 - ?
T6 or 7 - Dead
It doesn't interact with the table. It begs to not be attacked, which falls of def ears in a duel, and isn't building up to anything.
On the other hand, Evasive Maneuvers is building an army; Sworn to Darkness is summoning 5 power demons for free with the planeswalker commander leaving man free to pay any tax costs and flying over the head of the Guardians of Meletis for a quick beat down; Seize Control is a spell slinger deck which is happy to draw card or play additional lands for free so it can afford to cast more spells unchecked; Invent Superiority just cheats artifacts into play unchecked and overwhelms the opposition.
================================
The other thing I was thinking was to just give up and ask how to make the best multiplayer only group hug deck and promise to NEVER EVER play it in a duel. Even then, I still don't see the point of a group hug deck. Are we just begging people to leave us alone so we can cast a two card combo? I don't get it...
I bought the deck in hopes of eventually turning it into a flavorful "Guardians of Meletis" four color super friends good stuff Theros flavored kind of deck.
"Whatever style you wish to play, be it fast and frenzied or slow and tactical, the surest way to defeat your opponent consistently is by dominating him or her in the war of card advantage." - Brian Wiseman, April 1996
Go the token route. Mentor of the Meek, Twilight Drover, Knight Captain of Eos, Gahiji, Alliance of Arms, Sylvan Offering, Martial Coup, Collective Effort, Benevolent Offering, Shamanic Revelation (if you go for more lifegain route you can pickup Felidar Sovereign with Rootborn Defenses or Aetherflux Reservoir for a surprise win), Chasm Skulker
Use the cheap tools available in these colors to slow the game down or "punish" enemies who try to get too big too fast or set up a combo. Artifact Mutation, Aura Mutation,
add ramp. birds of paradise, sakura-tribe elder, rampant growth, farseek,
Sprinkle in some political cards like Questing Pheldagriff, Intellectual Offering, Volcanic Offering, Edric, Spymaster of Trest , Rite of the Raging Storm, Seed the Land and the advocates ( Forcemage Advocate, Nullmage Advocate, Pulsemage Advocate, Shieldmage Advocate, and Spurnmage Advocate )
edit: Bident of Thassa is really good, Heroic Intervention can protect Felidar Sovereign if you go lifegain, Mirari's Wake
I think, as you've stated, you will have a harder time in a duel. In my opinion the best way to utilize the deck is to use all those resources you are providing to your opponent against them. You helped them ramp into a big creature, control magic. You made them draw a bunch of cards, sword of war and peace makes them take damage equal to the number of cards in heir hand. I have been tweaking this deck myself and using this strategy to great effect in multiplayer games. I am also running a landfall package to take advantage of the extra land K & T let's me play each turn.
I mean, it is group hug, it's not going to be good in a duel. I'd say the big issue I noticed is a lack of finishers, just seems hard to end the match except with slow incremental stuff. I'd look into ways to add that element to the deck. Things that take advantage of the resources you've been giving the opponent (the RG deals damage to opponents equal to their land is one in the deck) also seem like a good start. But I think that the core concept isn't good for duels in general, it's going to wind up radically overhauled.
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Anyway, after having played several games with and against this deck, it has easly proven to be the worst of the bunch.
Yes, I understand that it is designed to be a group hug multiplayer deck, which means it will not work nearly as well in a duel, but the problem isn't the group hug effects. The problem is that they deck doesn't really do anything.
It tries to encourage other players to attack each other rather than it. It tries to discourage players from attacking it with tax effects. However, it doesn't have much of anything to offer in terms of REAL defense.
+I like the idea of having a deck which gets better against myltiple opponents, but I want it to be good in its own right.
+I like the prison/tax effects which can make attacking nearly impossible. I want to keep all of them.
-I have never been a fan of hroup hug cards which say, "here is free stuff just because I am nice."
*I enjoy non-symetrical group hug, like the Commander of this deck and how it gives you a card and a land drop but only one thing for your opponent. I like Tempt with Discovery. I don't like Collective Voyage. I don't understand why you would want to play Howling mine, Font of Mythos, or Rites of Flourishing. This isn't a turbo fog or owling mine deck.
I want to try and keep the power levels of the decks similar an only improve them slowly over time. I just feel that this deck needs a MAJOR overhaul.
While there are a number of ways you could break the symmetry of those cards, what you need is a way to make those prison effects most effective. In essence, slightly more taxing effects or maybe a way to break the effect of the howling mine effects. A well timed cyclonic rift or evacuation could go a long way towards watching them discard the majority of those effects. Solitary confinement is a most entertaining prison card, but it doesn't work well with a lot of these cards as those things trigger during the draw step, which you would no longer have.
Another option would be to upgrade a few of those cards or make what you have harder to kill. Greater auramancy, asceticism, privileged position, and sterling grove would help some and are all in color. A bit more spot removal, like chaos warp or path to exile, would be very helpful.
I don't know if you want any of those cards. Frankly, I kind of enjoy the group huggy aspect of the deck, though this deck itself cannot easily break the symmetry. The political creature strategy, relying on cards like entrapment maneuver and a way or two to make them good, such as sidar kondo of jumuraa can be an interesting way to go about it. I would then run cards like flurry of wings, rite of replication, borrowing 100000 arrows, benevolent offering, ezuri's predation, theft of dreams, or keep watch to add to this strategy. However, while these cards can, depending on the situation, be powerful and win you the game outright if you get to cast a game swinging effect (flurry of wings seems the most obvious of these, but any of them can be flat out busted and cards like keep watch reward a careful player immensely), they are not powerful in their own right and you should only run a few of them at most.
All players drawing cards or getting additional lands? Arcane lab or winter orb would make those less potent or add an omnath locus of rage and see if they'll mind you getting a few additional lands. Even then you don't mind them getting the lands as then you do too and they will benefit you more. At this point, a small landfall theme would be helpful, rampaging baloths, admonition angel, emeria angel, etc. would all be interesting ways to capitalize on these effects.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Unifying Theory and Horn of Plenty eat up opposing mana, too. If you end up with lots of mana, Helix Pinnacle doesn't mind.
Lots of sweepers and point removal.
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
Commander 2013 Evasive Maneuvers
Commander 2014 Sworn to Darkness
Commander 2015 Seize Control
Commander 2016 Invent Superiority
Commander 2016 Stalwart Unity
I have been teaching my girlfriend how to play with these decks, and they all seem to be fun and well balanced with one another... except the one which inspired me to make this thread; Stalwart Unity.
It really is a pile of garbage in a duel. Here are the cards which I eventually cut just to try and bring it in line with the other decks:
Veteran Explorer - Doesn't have a sacrifice outlet, which means he has to chump block at some later stage in the game where his ramp is far less useful.
Humble Defector - Doesn't have way to untap and abuse him.
Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer - Doesn't have haste, gives a card, and his bribery tokens are meaningless when he is killed.
Akroan Horse - Is total junk. It can be sacrifice fodder, chump block, and it produces tokens very slowly. It might be good in multiplayer but it has done nothing in duels.
Zedruu the Greathearted - Needs a deck built around it to do anything useful. It has been cast multiple times and done NOTHING each game. You cast it, and next turn get nothing. You only want to give away things like Howling Mine and Rites of Flourishing if you have them. If you don't, you won't really be drawing any cards or gaining any life in this deck out of the box.
Minds Aglow - I pay mana, you draw cards and then kill me with the cards I gave you. Total garbage.
Collective Voyage - I pay mana, you get lands and use the mana to cast spells and crush me. Total garbage.
Swan Song - This isn't a control deck. A surprise count can be nice, but we want to play stuff.
Arcane Denial - Same as above.
Reins of Power - This card has to potential to sometimes do something, but has done nothing in the 8+ games we have played, and not once have i thought "Wow, Reins of Power would be really good here." Again, without a sacrifice outlet to create a blowout, if the theft and attack doesn't win the game, then it does nothing meaningful to change the game because the rest of the deck is garbage.
Assault Suit - Inefficient equipment in a duel.
Keening Stone - Worthless mill effect.
Oath of Druids - Cool eternal reprint which does nothing in this deck. There are very few juicy target to try and cheat into play.
Lurking Predators - More of the same here. Six mana for a card which might hit sometimes, and doesn't have many juicy targets to hit. I would rather play a six drop that will give me something for sure here and now.
Howling Mine and Rites of Flourishing - here are free cards and maybe lands to kill me with. How did I die so fast? Oh... right.
Orzhov Advokist - They always choose what is best for them.
============================
Cards which I am unimpressed with but have kept so far:
Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Sphere of Safety, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs - You don't even always get one of these in play each game, let alone two or more to increase the tax effects. We have had multiple games where none of the were ever drawn. When they were, the opponent just said "Yeah, i pay 6 and attack you with these three creatures." And doesn't care at all... because this deck doesn't have any REAL tangible defenses, and it hands out cards and land drops like candy anyway. It is hard to tax someone when you give them a bunch of lands.
Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist - Nothing screams boring like a 1/4 which can't attack or block very well and only sometimes draws a card maybe.
Kraum, Ludevic's Opus - Maybe I will draw a card sometimes?
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa - A lot of creatures seem to have flying in the other decks, and this deck isn't exactly churning out an army of tokens.
Entrapment Maneuver - That's right! sacrifice that... 2/2 token and I get two 1/1 tokens... sad face. I wish this were Path to Exile or anything better.
Benefactor's Draught - Another cards which looks like it could cause a blowout in theory but hasn't done anything in practice.
Evolutionary Escalation - your big stuff gets even bigger. My little stuff can't ever catch up! I lose again!
====================================
I am just very frustrated with this deck because it doesn't do anything. It sits there and give resources to the opponent, can't do anything against fliers, and doesn't really have any opposing threats or finishers of its own.
A game typically looks like this:
T1 - Land into play tapped - go
T2 - Another land into play tapped, probably Rupture Spire or a Ravnica Karoo, or maybe a basic land cycling.
T3 - Some 2 or 3 drop card
T4 - The Commander, draw and play another land to ramp
T5 - ?
T6 or 7 - Dead
It doesn't interact with the table. It begs to not be attacked, which falls of def ears in a duel, and isn't building up to anything.
On the other hand, Evasive Maneuvers is building an army; Sworn to Darkness is summoning 5 power demons for free with the planeswalker commander leaving man free to pay any tax costs and flying over the head of the Guardians of Meletis for a quick beat down; Seize Control is a spell slinger deck which is happy to draw card or play additional lands for free so it can afford to cast more spells unchecked; Invent Superiority just cheats artifacts into play unchecked and overwhelms the opposition.
================================
The other thing I was thinking was to just give up and ask how to make the best multiplayer only group hug deck and promise to NEVER EVER play it in a duel. Even then, I still don't see the point of a group hug deck. Are we just begging people to leave us alone so we can cast a two card combo? I don't get it...
I bought the deck in hopes of eventually turning it into a flavorful "Guardians of Meletis" four color super friends good stuff Theros flavored kind of deck.
The changes I did make in the afternoon included adding Colossus of Akros, Soul of Theros, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Darien, King of Kjeldor, and so forth.
Use the cheap tools available in these colors to slow the game down or "punish" enemies who try to get too big too fast or set up a combo. Artifact Mutation, Aura Mutation,
add ramp. birds of paradise, sakura-tribe elder, rampant growth, farseek,
Sprinkle in some political cards like Questing Pheldagriff, Intellectual Offering, Volcanic Offering, Edric, Spymaster of Trest , Rite of the Raging Storm, Seed the Land and the advocates ( Forcemage Advocate, Nullmage Advocate, Pulsemage Advocate, Shieldmage Advocate, and Spurnmage Advocate )
edit: Bident of Thassa is really good, Heroic Intervention can protect Felidar Sovereign if you go lifegain, Mirari's Wake
Archangel of Tithes, Hornet Queen