Hello. I'm looking for some advice on how to take my new deck up a notch. I am not looking to get it to competitive level, but my play groups decks are generally pretty tuned up.
I'm running a Karona, the false godbuild. Object is to use Karona as a weapon for my opponents to beat each other up with. I run just a few other creatures who take some of the heat off of Karona or offer her support, they can also be serious threats themselves if Karona can't get rolling.
I'm looking to just take this to the next level without going over ten bucks a card.
Any advice from much more seasoned players would be greatly appreciated.
Hmm... not sure what else to say other than that you only run 32 lands.. seems a bit light for me.
I used to have an extremely janky karona deck. the strategy was to buff karona up, and then use cards like lethal vapors, teferi's protection to skip all of my turn and hope that karona ends up killing the table (or end the game with a natural mill). It's never really worked the way I wanted it to, but that was to be expected when the chief strategy is to not take turns.
I think a better question to ask yourself is "typically in a game, what problems arise that i can't deal with" or "are there situations where i typically get myself into where i know i won't be able to do my strategy" and so on. It's hard for me at least to have a good idea how your deck runs without actual experience with it.
1) generally you're supposed to put decklists in the decklist area. Maybe ping a mod and see if they'll do that for you.
2) having cards separated by type rather than function makes it hard to see what the deck is doing, and what the purpose of a lot of the cards is.
So with #2 in mind, it's possible there's some overarching strategy that I'm not seeing, but just a glance it seems pretty haphazard.
There's a plan to use karona and to pillowfort so she doesn't smash you...unfortunately, this is by-and-large a very weak plan. If it's doing well enough in your meta then don't let that dissuade you, but in the grand scheme of power level, I wouldn't call that the plan of a 6-7 deck, I'd call that a 3-4 at best. She doesn't have natural evasion, or protection, and without riot gear she dies to a sac outlet. You have a ton of slots dedicated just to trying to prevent you from getting killed by your own commander. I don't even see anything in the deck that forces an attack. Your opponents could just ignore her (and would be well advised to do so, if you're in the lead).
The rest of the deck seems pretty random. There are powerful cards, but they aren't really contributing to any larger plan so far as I can see. I imagine this has mostly come about because the karona plan is rather weak so you're trying to make up for that by having a lot of fairly standalone backup plans, but it has the result that your deck mostly looks like a goodstuff deck without a cohesive strategy. I'm really confused why you've got coffers + urborg in a 5c deck - they're both awful cards (especially coffers) without the other, and I don't see many big payoffs for generating a ton of mana, nor many tutors for either of them. Some moderately expensive stuff, sure, but I can't see why replacing coffers with, say, thran dynamo or something wouldn't have a similar utility.
Unfortunately, if you want to get to an ACTUAL 7-8 level deck...Sorry, but you can't really get there with Karona. I mean, you can, but it won't be a karona deck, it'll be a 5-color combo/control deck with karona in the command zone (where she'll remain).
I'm guessing, however, that your meta is actually lower powered than you realize, since it sounds like you're not doing terribly(?) with this deck. In which case, you don't actually want to get to a 7-8, you just want to get to a 6 or so. And THAT might actually be doable without making any massive changes.
For starters, the manabase needs a lot of work. That's where I'd invest first and foremost. There are lots of solid duals in a $1-$2 range, so pick up whatever you can. Ditch stuff like unknown shores and shimmering grotto at the earliest opportunity. If you're committed to keeping the manabase super-budget-friendly, then I'd focus most heavily on green (so have lots of forests and as many G/X duals as you can) and run more green ramp spells that can fix your mana for you. That's about the only way the "mostly-basics-five-color" manabase is going to (mostly) work, imo. Hopefully then you can also ditch do-nothings like joiner adept.
If you want to commit to the enchantment theme, I'd commit harder. Run some enchantresses, put in some backup plans like uril the miststalker and tuvasa the sunlit that synergize with your plan, rather than doing something totally unrelated like king macar or wrexial.
If you want to commit to the voltron theme, invest in some of the good equipment, like the swords of X and Y, umezawa's jitte, fireshrieker, that sort of thing. Put in some manlands who can wield the weapons too (especially the dual manlands), and some efficient double strikers as backups. Maybe consider some strategies to force karona to attack as well.
I'm running a Karona, the false godbuild. Object is to use Karona as a weapon for my opponents to beat each other up with. I run just a few other creatures who take some of the heat off of Karona or offer her support, they can also be serious threats themselves if Karona can't get rolling.
I'm looking to just take this to the next level without going over ten bucks a card.
Any advice from much more seasoned players would be greatly appreciated.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/karona-the-omega/?cb=1555457438
I used to have an extremely janky karona deck. the strategy was to buff karona up, and then use cards like lethal vapors, teferi's protection to skip all of my turn and hope that karona ends up killing the table (or end the game with a natural mill). It's never really worked the way I wanted it to, but that was to be expected when the chief strategy is to not take turns.
I think a better question to ask yourself is "typically in a game, what problems arise that i can't deal with" or "are there situations where i typically get myself into where i know i won't be able to do my strategy" and so on. It's hard for me at least to have a good idea how your deck runs without actual experience with it.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
1) generally you're supposed to put decklists in the decklist area. Maybe ping a mod and see if they'll do that for you.
2) having cards separated by type rather than function makes it hard to see what the deck is doing, and what the purpose of a lot of the cards is.
So with #2 in mind, it's possible there's some overarching strategy that I'm not seeing, but just a glance it seems pretty haphazard.
There's a plan to use karona and to pillowfort so she doesn't smash you...unfortunately, this is by-and-large a very weak plan. If it's doing well enough in your meta then don't let that dissuade you, but in the grand scheme of power level, I wouldn't call that the plan of a 6-7 deck, I'd call that a 3-4 at best. She doesn't have natural evasion, or protection, and without riot gear she dies to a sac outlet. You have a ton of slots dedicated just to trying to prevent you from getting killed by your own commander. I don't even see anything in the deck that forces an attack. Your opponents could just ignore her (and would be well advised to do so, if you're in the lead).
The rest of the deck seems pretty random. There are powerful cards, but they aren't really contributing to any larger plan so far as I can see. I imagine this has mostly come about because the karona plan is rather weak so you're trying to make up for that by having a lot of fairly standalone backup plans, but it has the result that your deck mostly looks like a goodstuff deck without a cohesive strategy. I'm really confused why you've got coffers + urborg in a 5c deck - they're both awful cards (especially coffers) without the other, and I don't see many big payoffs for generating a ton of mana, nor many tutors for either of them. Some moderately expensive stuff, sure, but I can't see why replacing coffers with, say, thran dynamo or something wouldn't have a similar utility.
Unfortunately, if you want to get to an ACTUAL 7-8 level deck...Sorry, but you can't really get there with Karona. I mean, you can, but it won't be a karona deck, it'll be a 5-color combo/control deck with karona in the command zone (where she'll remain).
I'm guessing, however, that your meta is actually lower powered than you realize, since it sounds like you're not doing terribly(?) with this deck. In which case, you don't actually want to get to a 7-8, you just want to get to a 6 or so. And THAT might actually be doable without making any massive changes.
For starters, the manabase needs a lot of work. That's where I'd invest first and foremost. There are lots of solid duals in a $1-$2 range, so pick up whatever you can. Ditch stuff like unknown shores and shimmering grotto at the earliest opportunity. If you're committed to keeping the manabase super-budget-friendly, then I'd focus most heavily on green (so have lots of forests and as many G/X duals as you can) and run more green ramp spells that can fix your mana for you. That's about the only way the "mostly-basics-five-color" manabase is going to (mostly) work, imo. Hopefully then you can also ditch do-nothings like joiner adept.
If you want to commit to the enchantment theme, I'd commit harder. Run some enchantresses, put in some backup plans like uril the miststalker and tuvasa the sunlit that synergize with your plan, rather than doing something totally unrelated like king macar or wrexial.
If you want to commit to the voltron theme, invest in some of the good equipment, like the swords of X and Y, umezawa's jitte, fireshrieker, that sort of thing. Put in some manlands who can wield the weapons too (especially the dual manlands), and some efficient double strikers as backups. Maybe consider some strategies to force karona to attack as well.
If you want to commit to the ramp theme, then I'd include a lot more ramp spells, more good payoffs, and more mana sinks. Something like capsize, torment of hailfire, genesis wave, villainous wealth, etc.
Probably pick one of those directions and commit to it.
Besides that, I'd include a few more answers. If you're going enchantress then oblivion ring, imprisoned in the moon, song of the dryads etc. If you're going ramp, then you can include some bigger, splashier answers like blatant thievery. Generally-useful stuff like swords to plowshares can go in any version.
With one of those builds, you should be able to get to around a 6, I think.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6