Alright so I've been rockin Adun Oakenshield for quite some time now. I Originally started playing edh casually about 2 years ago with Sekuar, and as I became more competitive I switched to Adun Oakenshield. I feel that Adun Oakenshield, for a number of different reasons that I'll address in a second, is the best RBG general for 1v1 play so I'm not interested in switching to any other RBG generals but rather fine tuning an Adun decklist.
Alright so the only two things I'm trying to accomplish with my Adun edh deck is for it to be a fairly competitive 1v1 that plays similar to a traditional survival creature midrange/control deck. The strengths of my deck as I see it is that I have a plethora of tutors available to me and therefore I always have a widerange of answers available. The deck also plays a lot of ca and card quality engines that allow it to overcome some serious disruption. The strengths of Adun as General is that he alone one of those engines I was talking about. He can come out early for 3 and chump when your being overran or be casted multiple times later in the game until he sticks and you beat the opponent because you have better card selection. I think he's more versatile than more expensive generals that do more broken things but revolve around more fragile strategies.
That being said, the weaknesses of the deck as I see it is that it's very mana intensive and that it doesn't get the broken plays that mono colored decks or blue decks have available because it's strategy isn't as linear. I.e. casting necropotence doesn't necessarily end the game outright like it does in most other decks because the cards you draw while strong individually won't combine to form some ultimate win condition. Also the deck suffers from graveyard hate.
I play all 9 fetchlands to maximize shuffle effects and to fix colors efficiently rather than playing more subpar duals like other red/x duals. Also grabbing basics to fight nonbasic hate, recur with loam and crucible to generate ca, and tap for black with urborg is pretty kool too.
6 Duals
Color fixing, helps hit more land drops, and has some synergy with garruk. The problem is they're slow and you'll lose the game if they're destroyed early on.
3 Other Duals
I don't include other red/x duals because they hardly do more than a basic when I run barely 4 red cards. I.e. karplusan forest is almost always a forest that taps for -1 life. Twilight mire can't play a t1 elf without moxen but it makes the cut cause it's strong otherwise. Gilt-leaf Palace does have the ability to play a t1 elf so it gets the nod over other excluded black/green duals and with survival and other BBB cards and such the color fixing is pretty crucial.
10 Other nonbasics
More forests than swamp because of mana elves, survival, and I run bojuka bog and urborg. No mountains cause they suck.
So I only run 36 mana producing lands but I run so many other accelerates, loam, crucible, top.. Ehhh it's been pretty good so far but maybe I could fit in 1 more since the deck demands land drops. Not sure about my basic/non basic count. Wondering if I'm missing any useful nonbasics.. recently cut red/x duals like sulfurious spring and karplusan ect... recently cut high market.
I'm going to be a little more vague regarding the creatures since it's getting late. First off Street Wraith has to stay in cause 99 card edh deck why not haha, but mostly because it's an inside joke. Secondly the mana dorks, llanowar and friends, were a recent addition over signets because they can chump, have synergy with gilt leaf palace, survival, clamp, jitte. They have disynergy with creature removal namely wraths. I'm wondering how many I should run if any and whether I should run them instead of signets or in addition to.
I'm currently watching Myojin of Night's Reach (slow, but otherwise amazing. Extremely powerful affect and one of my only creatures that can win the game via its ability or power on its own. I need to speed the deck up though.), Vampire Hexmage (tutorable grave yard removal, first strike so makes a good chumper, eats clamps, otherwise narrow.), Anger (pretty worthless on its own and though haste is extremely powerful in edh it's been becoming weaker and weaker as my deck has become more defensive. perhaps i need to be more offensive though to compete in 1v1?), Deranged Hermit and Broodmate Dragon (my only other threatening creatures outside myojin and tarmogoyf. 10 power for 5 and 8 flying power for 6 is pretty much as good as it gets. They're both offensive and defensive though as broodmate is one of my only outs vs. flying and produces 2 blockers while hermit produces 5. They become weaker with the removal of sarkon vol and do little else for the deck besides attack and block so perhaps there are better options in that department. Also siege gang over hermit?).
Some recent exclusions are solemn simulacrum with the addition of mana dorks but maybe it's still strong enough to stay since the deck just devours mana. Spike Feeder since you hardly ever lose edh by 4 life and I hardly found myself tutoring for it. With recurring nightmare in the deck though it becomes stronger. I feel like I need a stronger life gain source than jitte but maybe I should just win faster haha.
Considering adding fire imp to deal with utility creatures, like dwarf non basic haters, that big game hunter can't handle. Crypt rats can but its a little slower. Maybe I should fit in other sources of removal like lightning bolt or less narrow spark spray instead.
Okay that wasn't so vague, but now I'm really tired. Cards I'm watching are Moxen, scroll rack, mindstone. Considering golgori signet in addition or instead of mindstone, considering discard effects duress, seize, mindtwist, ect, considering faster less situational ca harmonize, night's whisper, ect, considering sylvan library, considering more cheap point removal against faster generals. Recently cut sarkon vol, sorin markov, and zuran orb thoughts?
So ya the deck is strong but slow. Perhaps not too slow? Thoughts? Advice? Anything I omitted that should definitely be in? Any nonsense that should be removed to create a more streamlined and consistent deck? Oh ya and my list is only 99 cards (2 of which are banned and being tested).
EDIT: Any suggestions at all? Or is a survival based EDH deck doomed, from the get-go.
To spark some debate on this deck I think we have to address the issue of bounce lands. After looking at a few lists, it seems that most 1v1 deck lists lack bounce lands. It probably is due to the issue that everyone runs a strip mine effect of some sort. After gold-fishing your list it seemed that the only cars that were effected were garruk but in reality if you have 2 bounce lands you are already winning. Maybe add some more basics, in those spots. Also you may wish to include another land. If you miss a land drop your deck is in tough shape.
Should Fastbond even be ran? The more I look at it the more it screams that it's a dead card. It really only get's broken with loam or crucible, but shouldn't you be winning already? You already have a decent curve. Maybe this should be a signet or the 39th land? Really how Powerful is fastbond?
These might be a start in optimizling your decklist.
It focuses on cheating big creature into play using yard recursion and some other stuff. It's not as 1v1 focused as your list but perhaps can give you some ideas on card choses.
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Alright so the only two things I'm trying to accomplish with my Adun edh deck is for it to be a fairly competitive 1v1 that plays similar to a traditional survival creature midrange/control deck. The strengths of my deck as I see it is that I have a plethora of tutors available to me and therefore I always have a widerange of answers available. The deck also plays a lot of ca and card quality engines that allow it to overcome some serious disruption. The strengths of Adun as General is that he alone one of those engines I was talking about. He can come out early for 3 and chump when your being overran or be casted multiple times later in the game until he sticks and you beat the opponent because you have better card selection. I think he's more versatile than more expensive generals that do more broken things but revolve around more fragile strategies.
That being said, the weaknesses of the deck as I see it is that it's very mana intensive and that it doesn't get the broken plays that mono colored decks or blue decks have available because it's strategy isn't as linear. I.e. casting necropotence doesn't necessarily end the game outright like it does in most other decks because the cards you draw while strong individually won't combine to form some ultimate win condition. Also the deck suffers from graveyard hate.
1 General
Adun Oakenshield
38 Lands (36 mana producing)
9 Fetchlands
I play all 9 fetchlands to maximize shuffle effects and to fix colors efficiently rather than playing more subpar duals like other red/x duals. Also grabbing basics to fight nonbasic hate, recur with loam and crucible to generate ca, and tap for black with urborg is pretty kool too.
6 Duals
Obvious.
3 Bounce Lands
Color fixing, helps hit more land drops, and has some synergy with garruk. The problem is they're slow and you'll lose the game if they're destroyed early on.
3 Other Duals
I don't include other red/x duals because they hardly do more than a basic when I run barely 4 red cards. I.e. karplusan forest is almost always a forest that taps for -1 life. Twilight mire can't play a t1 elf without moxen but it makes the cut cause it's strong otherwise. Gilt-leaf Palace does have the ability to play a t1 elf so it gets the nod over other excluded black/green duals and with survival and other BBB cards and such the color fixing is pretty crucial.
10 Other nonbasics
Being able to destroy over powered nonbasics is mandatory so I run all 3. Deck is too mana intensive to take advantage of Dust Bowl and such.
Tutorable grave hate. Makes maze and bazaar and fetches better, color fixes, synergy with crypt rats, disynergy vs sundering titan lol.
Amazingness, but don't produce mana.
Recurring creature removal and taps for colorless. Taps for 2. Engine.
7 Basics
5
More forests than swamp because of mana elves, survival, and I run bojuka bog and urborg. No mountains cause they suck.
So I only run 36 mana producing lands but I run so many other accelerates, loam, crucible, top.. Ehhh it's been pretty good so far but maybe I could fit in 1 more since the deck demands land drops. Not sure about my basic/non basic count. Wondering if I'm missing any useful nonbasics.. recently cut red/x duals like sulfurious spring and karplusan ect... recently cut high market.
26 Creatures
I'm going to be a little more vague regarding the creatures since it's getting late. First off Street Wraith has to stay in cause 99 card edh deck why not haha, but mostly because it's an inside joke. Secondly the mana dorks, llanowar and friends, were a recent addition over signets because they can chump, have synergy with gilt leaf palace, survival, clamp, jitte. They have disynergy with creature removal namely wraths. I'm wondering how many I should run if any and whether I should run them instead of signets or in addition to.
I'm currently watching Myojin of Night's Reach (slow, but otherwise amazing. Extremely powerful affect and one of my only creatures that can win the game via its ability or power on its own. I need to speed the deck up though.), Vampire Hexmage (tutorable grave yard removal, first strike so makes a good chumper, eats clamps, otherwise narrow.), Anger (pretty worthless on its own and though haste is extremely powerful in edh it's been becoming weaker and weaker as my deck has become more defensive. perhaps i need to be more offensive though to compete in 1v1?), Deranged Hermit and Broodmate Dragon (my only other threatening creatures outside myojin and tarmogoyf. 10 power for 5 and 8 flying power for 6 is pretty much as good as it gets. They're both offensive and defensive though as broodmate is one of my only outs vs. flying and produces 2 blockers while hermit produces 5. They become weaker with the removal of sarkon vol and do little else for the deck besides attack and block so perhaps there are better options in that department. Also siege gang over hermit?).
Some recent exclusions are solemn simulacrum with the addition of mana dorks but maybe it's still strong enough to stay since the deck just devours mana. Spike Feeder since you hardly ever lose edh by 4 life and I hardly found myself tutoring for it. With recurring nightmare in the deck though it becomes stronger. I feel like I need a stronger life gain source than jitte but maybe I should just win faster haha.
Considering adding fire imp to deal with utility creatures, like dwarf non basic haters, that big game hunter can't handle. Crypt rats can but its a little slower. Maybe I should fit in other sources of removal like lightning bolt or less narrow spark spray instead.
Spells
Okay that wasn't so vague, but now I'm really tired. Cards I'm watching are Moxen, scroll rack, mindstone. Considering golgori signet in addition or instead of mindstone, considering discard effects duress, seize, mindtwist, ect, considering faster less situational ca harmonize, night's whisper, ect, considering sylvan library, considering more cheap point removal against faster generals. Recently cut sarkon vol, sorin markov, and zuran orb thoughts?
So ya the deck is strong but slow. Perhaps not too slow? Thoughts? Advice? Anything I omitted that should definitely be in? Any nonsense that should be removed to create a more streamlined and consistent deck? Oh ya and my list is only 99 cards (2 of which are banned and being tested).
EDIT: Any suggestions at all? Or is a survival based EDH deck doomed, from the get-go.
Should Fastbond even be ran? The more I look at it the more it screams that it's a dead card. It really only get's broken with loam or crucible, but shouldn't you be winning already? You already have a decent curve. Maybe this should be a signet or the 39th land? Really how Powerful is fastbond?
These might be a start in optimizling your decklist.
http://forum.dragonhighlander.net/EDH_Forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3798
It focuses on cheating big creature into play using yard recursion and some other stuff. It's not as 1v1 focused as your list but perhaps can give you some ideas on card choses.