Hello! I am building my first Commander Deck. I'm going to use Kambal, Consul of Allocation as my commander. The whole theme of my deck is to ping my opponents for doing stuff. I have smothering tithe and blood artist, but I'm coming up a little short on cards that punish my opponents for doing stuff.
Any suggestions?
UPDATE:
So as of right now, my deck is Death and Taxes
I'm EXTREMELY torn about whether or not I should add Rest In Peace to my deck or not. I like it because it eliminates graveyard shenanigans.... but I also don't like it because it eliminates graveyard shenanigans. I Should honestly just get Leyline of the Void.
I have ordered quite a few cards to add to my deck:
I believe quite a few of these add the "Death" to my deck and some add the "Tax"
So when I lay these cards out in front of myself I see the win con. being "I ping you to death" and if I can't ping them to death I've got Revel in Riches as an alternate win condition. I guess if I wanted to be cheap I could throw Felidar Sovereign with its good friend Heroes Remembered, just to disappoint myself. (It's a valid win condition, it's just not satisfying.)
Thank you so much for these great recommendations! I didn't even think of grand abolisher, and I'm definitely going to pick up an isolation cell!
Ghostly prison is another great idea! And I think I own that one.
I really appreciate the help!
Lethal Vapors, if you want to tax their resources in a completely different way.
Kambal punishes opponents for playing noncreature spells, so i would focus on stuff that forces them to commit to casting those said spells. The above card does that in a very unique way. I think so far i had one player ever skip their turn to get it off the battlefield.
Naturally, you'd want Kambal down before casting Lethal Vapors.
On a more general note, how do you plan on winning? Kambal will get you part of the way, but is a reactive card. Most of the stuff so far seems to be reactive. While not generally unusable, this will put you into a position where you are dependent on your opponents to let you win the game by performing their actions instead of being able to control the game flow yourself.
Some ideas i had, off the top of my head:
- Deeper into control, with some hard-to-interact wincons to eventually finish them off
--> Could be reanimating their stuff. Grave Betrayal and Debtors' Knell plus some mill & kill
--> Direct life manipulation? Sorin Markov, Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Blood, Kokusho, the Evening Star. Veers into Combo
- Aristocrats: Usually better done with something like Teysa Karlov as your commander, but i mention it since you have some of the pieces (Blood Artist and their friends) already included
Clearly this is quite incomplete, just wanted to get you on the way of not just thinking about 'how do i play' but 'how do i win'
@buemmschaf
That's probably my biggest flaw as a deck builder, sure all my cards go together, but I think I come up Short when it comes to my win conditions. It's definitely something I need to work on. I would very much appreciate any insight/advice you have!
So as of right now, my deck is Death and Taxes
I'm EXTREMELY torn about whether or not I should add Rest In Peace to my deck or not. I like it because it eliminates graveyard shenanigans.... but I also don't like it because it eliminates graveyard shenanigans. I Should honestly just get Leyline of the Void
I have ordered quite a few cards to add to my deck:
I believe quite a few of these add the "Death" to my deck and some add the "Tax"
So when I lay these cards out in front of myself I see the win con. being "I ping you to death" and if I can't ping them to death I've got Revel in Riches as an alternate win condition. I guess if I wanted to be cheap I could throw Felidar Sovereign with its good friend Heroes Remembered, just to disappoint myself. (It's a valid win condition, it's just not satisfying.)
Again I really do appreciate your advice and your insight, Im curious to know what you think of my build!
Any suggestions?
UPDATE:
So as of right now, my deck is Death and Taxes
I'm EXTREMELY torn about whether or not I should add Rest In Peace to my deck or not. I like it because it eliminates graveyard shenanigans.... but I also don't like it because it eliminates graveyard shenanigans. I Should honestly just get Leyline of the Void.
I have ordered quite a few cards to add to my deck:
- Blood Seeker
- Falkenrath Noble
- Isolation Cell
- Raiders' Wake
- Sangromancer
- Spelltithe Enforcer
- Underworld Dreams
- Shattered Angel
- Luminarch Ascension
- Dark Suspicions
- Pitiless Plunderer
- Fate Unraveler
- Revel in Riches
- Seraph of the Scales
- Shalai, Voice of plenty
- Thran Dynamo
- Sephara, Sky's Blade
- Suture Priest
I believe quite a few of these add the "Death" to my deck and some add the "Tax"So when I lay these cards out in front of myself I see the win con. being "I ping you to death" and if I can't ping them to death I've got Revel in Riches as an alternate win condition. I guess if I wanted to be cheap I could throw Felidar Sovereign with its good friend Heroes Remembered, just to disappoint myself. (It's a valid win condition, it's just not satisfying.)
Me: "Okay Great, but like... do you pay for Smothering Tithe? No? WONDERFUL, THE CHURCH APPRECIATES YOUR DONATION! Also, you lose a life because Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted"
-the opponent casts Brainstorm-
Me: "Cool, do you pay for Rhystic Study? No? AWESOME! Also... you take two from Kambal, Consul of Allocation, and then three more from Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted... I also gain two life and ping you for two with Sanguine Bond...Uh, one more thing, did you pay the extra from Grand Arbiter Augustin IV?"
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Oh and Authority of the Consuls and Blind Obedience. More will probably pop to mind later. lol
See I knew it. Tainted Aether
Ghostly prison is another great idea! And I think I own that one.
I really appreciate the help!
Surely I will now frustrate my friends.
Me: "Okay Great, but like... do you pay for Smothering Tithe? No? WONDERFUL, THE CHURCH APPRECIATES YOUR DONATION! Also, you lose a life because Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted"
-the opponent casts Brainstorm-
Me: "Cool, do you pay for Rhystic Study? No? AWESOME! Also... you take two from Kambal, Consul of Allocation, and then three more from Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted... I also gain two life and ping you for two with Sanguine Bond...Uh, one more thing, did you pay the extra from Grand Arbiter Augustin IV?"
Kambal punishes opponents for playing noncreature spells, so i would focus on stuff that forces them to commit to casting those said spells. The above card does that in a very unique way. I think so far i had one player ever skip their turn to get it off the battlefield.
Naturally, you'd want Kambal down before casting Lethal Vapors.
On a more general note, how do you plan on winning? Kambal will get you part of the way, but is a reactive card. Most of the stuff so far seems to be reactive. While not generally unusable, this will put you into a position where you are dependent on your opponents to let you win the game by performing their actions instead of being able to control the game flow yourself.
Some ideas i had, off the top of my head:
- Deeper into control, with some hard-to-interact wincons to eventually finish them off
--> Could be reanimating their stuff. Grave Betrayal and Debtors' Knell plus some mill & kill
--> Direct life manipulation? Sorin Markov, Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Blood, Kokusho, the Evening Star. Veers into Combo
- Aristocrats: Usually better done with something like Teysa Karlov as your commander, but i mention it since you have some of the pieces (Blood Artist and their friends) already included
Clearly this is quite incomplete, just wanted to get you on the way of not just thinking about 'how do i play' but 'how do i win'
That's probably my biggest flaw as a deck builder, sure all my cards go together, but I think I come up Short when it comes to my win conditions. It's definitely something I need to work on. I would very much appreciate any insight/advice you have!
So as of right now, my deck is Death and Taxes
I'm EXTREMELY torn about whether or not I should add Rest In Peace to my deck or not. I like it because it eliminates graveyard shenanigans.... but I also don't like it because it eliminates graveyard shenanigans. I Should honestly just get Leyline of the Void
I have ordered quite a few cards to add to my deck:
- Blood Seeker
- Falkenrath Noble
- Isolation Cell
- Raiders' Wake
- Sangromancer
- Spelltithe Enforcer
- Underworld Dreams
- Shattered Angel
- Luminarch Ascension
- Dark Suspicions
- Pitiless Plunderer
- Fate Unraveler
- Sunbond
- Revel in Riches
- Seraph of the Scales
- Shalai, Voice of plenty
- Thran Dynamo
- Sephara, Sky's Blade
- Suture Priest
I believe quite a few of these add the "Death" to my deck and some add the "Tax"So when I lay these cards out in front of myself I see the win con. being "I ping you to death" and if I can't ping them to death I've got Revel in Riches as an alternate win condition. I guess if I wanted to be cheap I could throw Felidar Sovereign with its good friend Heroes Remembered, just to disappoint myself. (It's a valid win condition, it's just not satisfying.)
Again I really do appreciate your advice and your insight, Im curious to know what you think of my build!
Me: "Okay Great, but like... do you pay for Smothering Tithe? No? WONDERFUL, THE CHURCH APPRECIATES YOUR DONATION! Also, you lose a life because Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted"
-the opponent casts Brainstorm-
Me: "Cool, do you pay for Rhystic Study? No? AWESOME! Also... you take two from Kambal, Consul of Allocation, and then three more from Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted... I also gain two life and ping you for two with Sanguine Bond...Uh, one more thing, did you pay the extra from Grand Arbiter Augustin IV?"