I've been playing commander now for about 2 years. My decks have evolved from casual to spikey lists for my local meta. That however is about to change as I'm heading up to university which holds local commander tournaments much much more competitive than my current ones. This is mostly to size and prizing up there. The tournaments I play in now are roughly 10 people while up at my university they're roughly 30 to 60 in 1v1 and 4 player free for all.
My current decks are stale to me as I'm stuck building mono blue decks. Blue has always been my favorite color by far, and because of that, I've acquired many blue staples from Invoke prejudice, to fow and snapcaster. I'm looking for a new deck, hopefully blue based to compete in a extremely diverse highly competitive meta. I only say blue based because I own so many good blue cards. It doesn't need to be blue, but I would prefer it.
I would also prefer a deck that isn't a super stale repetitive deck after 5 games as I want to be able to keep , enjoy and master a new deck. I would be willing to spend 600 to 700 bucks, keep in mind I already own all edh legal broken mana rocks except LED, and about 600 to 700 dollars of blue cards.
Any advice on a hopefully somewhat original, resilient, and fun, competitive deck in that price range would be much appreciated (: .
Hey there! I'm here to tell you about a blue deck... that's based on creatures.
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary. This deck combines the best elements of blue (counter suites, control elements) with the best elements of green (high-value creatures, reliable ramp) into a powerful, synergistic competitive deck (Deck primer link here).
The entire purpose of this deck is to use the support of blue (instant speed plays, counterspell backup, and infinite mana generation) to win you the game. The primary wincon is to generate infinite mana with Palinchron through a variety of ways (multiple ways included to ensure consistency) and then win the game by bouncing all of your opponents' permanents with Venser, Shaper Savant, and forcing a concession (or killing them with Shaman of Forgotten Ways - either way works.)
I'd recommend taking a look over the deck list primer I linked above. This was the first deck I ever built, and I too like you progresses from a casual, to spikey, to competitive build. I've spent hundreds of hours testing, cultivating, and playing with this deck, optimizing it and making sure that it works as efficiently as possible. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to post them on the deck thread, and I'll be more than happy to answer them.
Thanks a lot of the very in-depth reply . I've never thought about Mormir, but i'll definitely give him a look as he looks extremely powerful and value based simultaneously.
There are of course some 3 colored options as well. But in my opinion 2 colored decks are the 'strongest'.
If you don't own duals, shocks, fetches in those colors, your opponents will have an easy time taking your mana base apart (Strip Mine, Wasteland).
It's always good to invest in a decent mana base, but if you start buying duals, your budget will quickly be spend.
If you want more information about a certain general, let me know and I'll give a more in depth explanation ^^.
If you are wanting to actually compete at a high level, go over to the competitive edh subreddit. I suggest brostorm selvala.
Yeah. Brostorm was going to be one of my suggestions, alongside Edricflying men - the latter is one I own, and it's a very effective deck that can be put together pretty cheaply, especially if the OP has a Mox Diamond already, as Tropical Island and Mana Drain while nice, can be substituted pretty easily to get the cost down. While the core game plan is pretty straightforward, the deck runs plenty of interaction to keep things interesting.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard is another solid option for a competitive general at a reasonable cost.
Anything in Tier 2 and up will be decently competitive, especially with the staples that you already have. The budget to put together all the power pieces is generally what holds players back. Personally, none of my decks are over $1000 that I've assembled over years and that is a ton of money to most people. You will already have a bit of an advantage just by nature of the cards you have access to before having to spend a dime.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage is regarded as one of the most powerful decks in commander and is mono-blue to boot.
Personally, I play Narset combo and have a good time with that and she is VERY strong. My list is in my signature, though the primer for her in the list I gave you on tapped out is probably a bit more consistent. That author and I have some differing opinions over the inclusion of certain packages in our respective decks. His also costs about 6 grand, if I recall, so you could actually afford to build my list.
I think that she is a challenging deck to play as the difficulty is in interacting with the board and getting her to the point where you get to swing. Going off with your combo requires some adaptations based on what the board is, but most of the challenge is in getting her trigger, so don't mistake the deck as being brainless to pilot in a competitive meta, especially since the cancer that was Partial Paris no longer rules the land. At the true high-end, competitive tables, there is a lot of interaction in the first couple of turns (which you should love as a blue player). The Narset deck is mostly blue, though I'd understand if you want something more control based.
For 1v1, I recall there used to be some decently successful Narset control lists around, but I honestly have no idea what is good in 1v1 any more with WotC doing the bans now and all the rules being changed. I couldn't even tell you what the starting life total is for it any longer, so I probably wouldn't waste my time making a 1v1 deck unless you already have the pieces.
My initial comment was just for a fairly cheap straightforward combo list. But, having thought about what you say you have more, Chain Veil Teferi is definitely the way to go. You already have the expensive mana rocks and blue staples. Now you just need to get some of the planeswalkers and stuff.
Anything in Tier 2 and up will be decently competitive, especially with the staples that you already have. The budget to put together all the power pieces is generally what holds players back. Personally, none of my decks are over $1000 that I've assembled over years and that is a ton of money to most people. You will already have a bit of an advantage just by nature of the cards you have access to before having to spend a dime.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage is regarded as one of the most powerful decks in commander and is mono-blue to boot.
Personally, I play Narset combo and have a good time with that and she is VERY strong. My list is in my signature, though the primer for her in the list I gave you on tapped out is probably a bit more consistent. That author and I have some differing opinions over the inclusion of certain packages in our respective decks. His also costs about 6 grand, if I recall, so you could actually afford to build my list.
I think that she is a challenging deck to play as the difficulty is in interacting with the board and getting her to the point where you get to swing. Going off with your combo requires some adaptations based on what the board is, but most of the challenge is in getting her trigger, so don't mistake the deck as being brainless to pilot in a competitive meta, especially since the cancer that was Partial Paris no longer rules the land. At the true high-end, competitive tables, there is a lot of interaction in the first couple of turns (which you should love as a blue player). The Narset deck is mostly blue, though I'd understand if you want something more control based.
For 1v1, I recall there used to be some decently successful Narset control lists around, but I honestly have no idea what is good in 1v1 any more with WotC doing the bans now and all the rules being changed. I couldn't even tell you what the starting life total is for it any longer, so I probably wouldn't waste my time making a 1v1 deck unless you already have the pieces.
Curious, Jeleva, Teferi, and Tazri are tier 1? Is it the deck that's tier one or the generals themselves who're tier 1? I've seen some powerful decklists using them more for their colors and as an alternative route when the main goal (usually combo) fails.
As for deck suggestions, I suggest you try a Gruul deck. You said you like blue and play blue because you have many good cards already, perhaps a change of colors would be a refreshing experience. Wort, the Raidmother is a R/G deck that focuses on spellsling and also capable of establishing strong board presence, would be a good intro for a blue player.
Curious, Jeleva, Teferi, and Tazri are tier 1? Is it the deck that's tier one or the generals themselves who're tier 1? I've seen some powerful decklists using them more for their colors and as an alternative route when the main goal (usually combo) fails
Jeleva is, as far as I know, a backup plan for when things aren't working properly, and is mostly strong because Grixis storm is that good, though I've also seen some pretty solid Twin lists, but again, they mainly use her for colours (Zur is also a backup plan type general - ideally, you'll win off Doomsday or Ad Nauseam, but if neccesary, you've got a general that can tutor for Necropotence). Tazri and Teferi are key parts of their decks wincons though.
Tazri is used as an outlet for Food Chain/Eternal Scourge - once you've done that for infinite creature mana, cast Tazri to tutor for Hagra Diabolist or Kalastria Healer, play that, then exile Tazri to Food Chain, recast her for a trigger off your ally, rinse and repeat for the win. Before FlashHulk, the was probably the consisently fastest combo deck out there (Sidisi, Undead Vizier AdNaus was comparable but very fragile), though I'm not sure how things compare now. Using Tazri for a Food Chain build gives you access to all 5 colours, thus giving you plenty of tutors and protection for your combo.
Teferi uses The Chain Veil and mana rocks to get infinite activation of him, leading to infinte mana and drawing your deck (because of the way TCV works, if you tick Teferi down to zero counters with his -1, untappping TCV and 5-6 mana worth of permanents each time, then recast him, all the previous activation of TCV affect the new instance of Teferi). With the amount of good rocks available in EDH, it's a surprisingly fast combo. Teferi limits you to mono-blue, but that still gives you plenty of answers and artifact tutors, plus he plays a great resource denial game by breaking the symmetry of things like Stasis or Winter Orb if you're forced into a slower game or simply don't hit a way of getting TCV quickly.
Curious, Jeleva, Teferi, and Tazri are tier 1? Is it the deck that's tier one or the generals themselves who're tier 1? I've seen some powerful decklists using them more for their colors and as an alternative route when the main goal (usually combo) fails
Jeleva is, as far as I know, a backup plan for when things aren't working properly, and is mostly strong because Grixis storm is that good, though I've also seen some pretty solid Twin lists, but again, they mainly use her for colours (Zur is also a backup plan type general - ideally, you'll win off Doomsday or Ad Nauseam, but if neccesary, you've got a general that can tutor for Necropotence). Tazri and Teferi are key parts of their decks wincons though.
Tazri is used as an outlet for Food Chain/Eternal Scourge - once you've done that for infinite creature mana, cast Tazri to tutor for Hagra Diabolist or Kalastria Healer, play that, then exile Tazri to Food Chain, recast her for a trigger off your ally, rinse and repeat for the win. Before FlashHulk, the was probably the consisently fastest combo deck out there (Sidisi, Undead Vizier AdNaus was comparable but very fragile), though I'm not sure how things compare now. Using Tazri for a Food Chain build gives you access to all 5 colours, thus giving you plenty of tutors and protection for your combo.
Teferi uses The Chain Veil and mana rocks to get infinite activation of him, leading to infinte mana and drawing your deck (because of the way TCV works, if you tick Teferi down to zero counters with his -1, untappping TCV and 5-6 mana worth of permanents each time, then recast him, all the previous activation of TCV affect the new instance of Teferi). With the amount of good rocks available in EDH, it's a surprisingly fast combo. Teferi limits you to mono-blue, but that still gives you plenty of answers and artifact tutors, plus he plays a great resource denial game by breaking the symmetry of things like Stasis or Winter Orb if you're forced into a slower game or simply don't hit a way of getting TCV quickly.
Makes sense, Jeleva doesn't yield consistent result, which had me wondered. Food Chain is powerful on its own.
Teferi though, I did not think of that combo, thanks for the enlightenment.
My current decks are stale to me as I'm stuck building mono blue decks. Blue has always been my favorite color by far, and because of that, I've acquired many blue staples from Invoke prejudice, to fow and snapcaster. I'm looking for a new deck, hopefully blue based to compete in a extremely diverse highly competitive meta. I only say blue based because I own so many good blue cards. It doesn't need to be blue, but I would prefer it.
I would also prefer a deck that isn't a super stale repetitive deck after 5 games as I want to be able to keep , enjoy and master a new deck. I would be willing to spend 600 to 700 bucks, keep in mind I already own all edh legal broken mana rocks except LED, and about 600 to 700 dollars of blue cards.
Any advice on a hopefully somewhat original, resilient, and fun, competitive deck in that price range would be much appreciated (: .
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary. This deck combines the best elements of blue (counter suites, control elements) with the best elements of green (high-value creatures, reliable ramp) into a powerful, synergistic competitive deck (Deck primer link here).
The entire purpose of this deck is to use the support of blue (instant speed plays, counterspell backup, and infinite mana generation) to win you the game. The primary wincon is to generate infinite mana with Palinchron through a variety of ways (multiple ways included to ensure consistency) and then win the game by bouncing all of your opponents' permanents with Venser, Shaper Savant, and forcing a concession (or killing them with Shaman of Forgotten Ways - either way works.)
This deck runs all of the cards that make blue great. Mana Drain, Force of Will, Pact of Negation, Snapcaster Mage, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, and good 'ol Counterspell, plus many others. It's fast, reliable, and can execute combo kills out of nowhere.
Because it's a creature-based deck, it offers a brand new outlook on being able to use the best effects of blue. Use Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, and Azami, Lady of Scrolls, to protect your combo, and draw you incessant amounts of cards. Use Seedborn Muse to build your own Prophet of Kruphix. Kira, Great Glass Spinner and Glen Elendra Archmage protect the combo and let you win unhindered.
I'd recommend taking a look over the deck list primer I linked above. This was the first deck I ever built, and I too like you progresses from a casual, to spikey, to competitive build. I've spent hundreds of hours testing, cultivating, and playing with this deck, optimizing it and making sure that it works as efficiently as possible. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to post them on the deck thread, and I'll be more than happy to answer them.
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary Primer UG
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Marath, Will of the Wild Tokens!! / Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund Dragons! / Muzzio, Visionary Architect / Brago, King Eternal / Daretti, Scrap Savant / Narset, Enlightened Master / Alesha, Who Smiles at Death / Bruna, Light of Alabaster / Marchesa, the Black Rose / Iroas, God of Victory / Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury / Omnath, Locus of rage / Titania, Protector of Argoth / Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Modern
Elves / Titanshift / Merfolk
Either:
- Azorius: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Ephara, God of the Polis
- Dimir: Dralnu, Lich Lord, The Scarab God
- Izzet: Mizzix of the Izmagnus
- Simic: Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
There are of course some 3 colored options as well. But in my opinion 2 colored decks are the 'strongest'.
If you don't own duals, shocks, fetches in those colors, your opponents will have an easy time taking your mana base apart (Strip Mine, Wasteland).
It's always good to invest in a decent mana base, but if you start buying duals, your budget will quickly be spend.
If you want more information about a certain general, let me know and I'll give a more in depth explanation ^^.
Cheers
Neheb
Marath
Yidris
Sharuum
Yidris
Yeah. Brostorm was going to be one of my suggestions, alongside Edric flying men - the latter is one I own, and it's a very effective deck that can be put together pretty cheaply, especially if the OP has a Mox Diamond already, as Tropical Island and Mana Drain while nice, can be substituted pretty easily to get the cost down. While the core game plan is pretty straightforward, the deck runs plenty of interaction to keep things interesting.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard is another solid option for a competitive general at a reasonable cost.
Anything in Tier 2 and up will be decently competitive, especially with the staples that you already have. The budget to put together all the power pieces is generally what holds players back. Personally, none of my decks are over $1000 that I've assembled over years and that is a ton of money to most people. You will already have a bit of an advantage just by nature of the cards you have access to before having to spend a dime.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage is regarded as one of the most powerful decks in commander and is mono-blue to boot.
Personally, I play Narset combo and have a good time with that and she is VERY strong. My list is in my signature, though the primer for her in the list I gave you on tapped out is probably a bit more consistent. That author and I have some differing opinions over the inclusion of certain packages in our respective decks. His also costs about 6 grand, if I recall, so you could actually afford to build my list.
I think that she is a challenging deck to play as the difficulty is in interacting with the board and getting her to the point where you get to swing. Going off with your combo requires some adaptations based on what the board is, but most of the challenge is in getting her trigger, so don't mistake the deck as being brainless to pilot in a competitive meta, especially since the cancer that was Partial Paris no longer rules the land. At the true high-end, competitive tables, there is a lot of interaction in the first couple of turns (which you should love as a blue player). The Narset deck is mostly blue, though I'd understand if you want something more control based.
For 1v1, I recall there used to be some decently successful Narset control lists around, but I honestly have no idea what is good in 1v1 any more with WotC doing the bans now and all the rules being changed. I couldn't even tell you what the starting life total is for it any longer, so I probably wouldn't waste my time making a 1v1 deck unless you already have the pieces.
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU
Marath, Will of the Wild Tokens!! / Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund Dragons! / Muzzio, Visionary Architect / Brago, King Eternal / Daretti, Scrap Savant / Narset, Enlightened Master / Alesha, Who Smiles at Death / Bruna, Light of Alabaster / Marchesa, the Black Rose / Iroas, God of Victory / Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury / Omnath, Locus of rage / Titania, Protector of Argoth / Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Modern
Elves / Titanshift / Merfolk
Throw in some bounce and draw as well.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
Curious, Jeleva, Teferi, and Tazri are tier 1? Is it the deck that's tier one or the generals themselves who're tier 1? I've seen some powerful decklists using them more for their colors and as an alternative route when the main goal (usually combo) fails.
As for deck suggestions, I suggest you try a Gruul deck. You said you like blue and play blue because you have many good cards already, perhaps a change of colors would be a refreshing experience. Wort, the Raidmother is a R/G deck that focuses on spellsling and also capable of establishing strong board presence, would be a good intro for a blue player.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Jeleva is, as far as I know, a backup plan for when things aren't working properly, and is mostly strong because Grixis storm is that good, though I've also seen some pretty solid Twin lists, but again, they mainly use her for colours (Zur is also a backup plan type general - ideally, you'll win off Doomsday or Ad Nauseam, but if neccesary, you've got a general that can tutor for Necropotence). Tazri and Teferi are key parts of their decks wincons though.
Tazri is used as an outlet for Food Chain/Eternal Scourge - once you've done that for infinite creature mana, cast Tazri to tutor for Hagra Diabolist or Kalastria Healer, play that, then exile Tazri to Food Chain, recast her for a trigger off your ally, rinse and repeat for the win. Before FlashHulk, the was probably the consisently fastest combo deck out there (Sidisi, Undead Vizier AdNaus was comparable but very fragile), though I'm not sure how things compare now. Using Tazri for a Food Chain build gives you access to all 5 colours, thus giving you plenty of tutors and protection for your combo.
Teferi uses The Chain Veil and mana rocks to get infinite activation of him, leading to infinte mana and drawing your deck (because of the way TCV works, if you tick Teferi down to zero counters with his -1, untappping TCV and 5-6 mana worth of permanents each time, then recast him, all the previous activation of TCV affect the new instance of Teferi). With the amount of good rocks available in EDH, it's a surprisingly fast combo. Teferi limits you to mono-blue, but that still gives you plenty of answers and artifact tutors, plus he plays a great resource denial game by breaking the symmetry of things like Stasis or Winter Orb if you're forced into a slower game or simply don't hit a way of getting TCV quickly.
Makes sense, Jeleva doesn't yield consistent result, which had me wondered. Food Chain is powerful on its own.
Teferi though, I did not think of that combo, thanks for the enlightenment.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs