1. Had a bigger body.
2. Caused much more disruption.
3. Didn't make your opponent go "well ok I guess I'll get this card instead"
you would play it but, honestly, you should already be winning by the time you go "no you can't tutor for that card this late in the game" because are you really playing him turn 3 when he matters? Probably not.
Oh, that's a good point! I pulled it out once against Zur awhile back during his first attack phase, and the Zur player just went "Oh look! I've got Oblivion Ring in the top 4" and I went "lol what" and then I was like "Well maybe Mindcensor will be good some other time!!" but it NEVER is.
Well okay, it once hosed my friend's janky Maralen of the Mornsong combo build, but that's obviously not meta and I shouldn't even mention it. -_-
Thanks for the added perspective. Haha, you guys are my editors!
Riley, have you tried out Jotun Grunt? He can be used as pseudo-graveyard hate that can also put legendary cards back into your library. Just a thought.
I'm gonna have to say no to Jotun Grunt, namely because I'm pretty sure I'll come to the same conclusion that Gaka did while trying it in Geist.
The only top deck I really have to worry about graveyard shenanigans in is Evergreen's Iname, and when he resolves Iname it's 90% of the time ftw, and either a few minions or all of his army will hit the playing field next turn. In this context, Jotun Grunt is far too slow. He's also not likely to stick around until the next attack step in the early game, just for lack of things being in the graveyard. In the late game? I'd rather be running Serra Avenger for her evasion at the same cost. Also, if you can tutor for the same Legendary creature twice... well, that just doesn't make sense. If Sisay resolved and isn't killed, there's very little reason why everything after that won't resolve and survive, given the way this deck plays. =P
I've re-added Land Tax, and it's been super good to me. Haven't really tested any of the new things yet, but I'm feeling really content with the deck at the moment. Enough so that I can update the OPs soon and start talking about how to play and win.
Found myself missing Phyrexian Revoker against things like equipment (just too ubiquitous) and Planeswalkers (hoses me every time), so he's back in. Also found Beast Within lacking in that most decks want to beat my face in and this usually helps them. Playing Path to Exile yet again. If nothing else, it's a backup for those out-of-nowhere times where one of my bombs is stolen.
Hmm, what else?
I'm trying out AEther Vial. Giving Idyllic Tutor a shot in place of Sterling Grove. Trying out Arbor Elf again (not getting nearly enough mana dorks out consistently). Settled on 36 lands (seems to be fine with Tithe, dorks, and Land Tax, or without any of them most of time). Giving Mox Diamond another shot, too. I'm finding myself one mana (dork, land drop, whatever) short far too often. Like, one turn away from ending the game for my opponent. Need the speed, man.
I'm finding Brigid less and less necessary, so I'm trying the deck without her again. I run enough threatening creatures, blockers, and removal of my own to go toe-to-toe with aggro decks.
I think I like Thousand Year-Elixir, but I'm still not sure. The best I've seen it do so far is haste my Mother of Runes. I used it to block a black creature, whose mono-black controller had TWO removal spells. He also managed to rid of my Great Sable Stag in the same game. This too didn't involve mass removal or even Liliana of the Veil. FML. (I know that this doesn't count as actual strikes against Elixir, I'm just sharing an amusing anecdote!)
Can't remember what else I dropped? Maybe I covered everything. No, wait, forgot that I cut Mikaeus. Never seemed like an optimal tutor target, never was in position to use him or want him unless I was already winning. Felt the same way about Gavony Township.
Oh, apparently I forgot to actually add Havenwood Battleground and Ruins of Trokair to my list. Derp. They're in, now. Crystal Vein has been good to me, so I don't see these disappointing.
I have to veto this outright. I don't run any persist cards or a persistent sac outlet, and multi-piece combos like this aren't quite playable in what is effectively 100 card Legacy Highlander. Also, the best Persist creature, Woodfall Primus, is a bit too overcosted and narrow to fit into this environment.
Also also, poison isn't really a thing in the French meta, so I can't see Melira being good to me in any way.
EDIT: Giving Stirring Wildwood a shot in the French meta. I didn't like it when I was playing with the official rules because drawing a CITP land could be the difference between winning or losing against, say, Sharuum or Arcum with their broken manafacts doing their thing, but it might be a different story in French where you're not facing turn 3-4 "I win" combos. More than anything, I think I just need something else that can interact with Planeswalkers that isn't always easily removed. I might even add Treetop Village, too, if Wildwood proves effective.
I have to agree with Riley here on Melira. I feel the tightest section of our deck is our Legendary Creatures, even more so in Rileys case. Each Legendary Creature still run is there because it's proven it's worth over and over again and finding space in that kind of concrete card choices is damn near impossible. So something narrow and gimmicky is not even worth considering.
You need Yavimaya Hallow and Eigajno castle in your mana base. Even though I wrecked you with blood moon its only because you fetched for dual lands instead of basics. These lands are too good not to run. Thinking about these effects have you considered the following to protect sissay?
Avoid Fate
Autumns Veil
Emerge Unscathed... ect.
These are probably too conditional to play but you must play the 2 lands.
Also how's Gideon treating ya? Are you running Thrun over stag yet?
You need Yavimaya Hallow and Eigajno castle in your mana base. Even though I wrecked you with blood moon its only because you fetched for dual lands instead of basics. These lands are too good not to run. Thinking about these effects have you considered the following to protect sissay?
Eiganjo, maybe. Only because it gives me a colored mana.
I suppose I don't HAVE to search out duals with every fetch, but then I don't HAVE to be able to get two white sources or two green sources to cast anything.
But seriously, I could have played that more carefully, but then I wouldn't have been able to cast much of anything. It just kind of sucked for me that game that I didn't manage any mana dorks in three turns, and I didn't draw any basics, and you hit a turn three Blood Moon. In the future, I'll probably be more aware of that, but in that game? I made the correct plays. My hand needed colors (and so do my bombs and win conditions), and I need the versatility to not stall and lose. Just a risk I have to take. Pays off the majority of the times. My deck can't be infallible, as much as I'd love for it to be. =P
Speaking of...
Avoid Fate
Autumns Veil
Emerge Unscathed... ect.
I've played the majority of these effects in some capacity or another (my fave was Rebuff the Wicked). The reason I've gone more towards the creature options for protection effects is because of their interactivity with Cradle and being end-game beaters, while the instant effects may just be dead draws and one-shots (Emerge Unscathed notwithstanding), which haven't been good enough in my testing. Even the shift in playing one less removal and adding (back) in a creature-removal has changed the balance of the deck for the better.
That's not to say I won't come back to these cards, though. With more testing (and sussing out the least valuable cards), I can determine what are the absolute all-stars and keep them in while adding in more ways to get them into play consistently while simultaneously protecting them.
Also how's Gideon treating ya? Are you running Thrun over stag yet?
Haven't stuck in Gideon yet. I'm so darn biased against Planeswalkers, but I do want to give him a shot. Somewhere, somehow.
Thrun's in. Seeing it be the difference maker in a game I watched vs. Evergreen finally put me in the "OKAY FINE GEEZ" camp. Gotta test it. Again. Time'll tell.
What are you trying out?
Nothin'. Taking a break for a while to apply for Grad School and switch banks and other long overdue drastic things like finishing my next book by the end of the year.
Musings:
Why can't Summoner's Pact be any creature and not just green?
Why can't there be a Steelshaper's Gift (or for that matter, a Stoneforge Mystic) for enchantments, something that puts a card into my hand and not on top of my library?
Why has all my time spent at the gym not yet earned me a sweet six pack?!?
Finally updated the "How to Play" section. I didn't go too far in depth, but the deck isn't really that mysterious. The only sort of complicated thing is the Survival -> Loyal Retainers -> Iona trick and realizing that Living Plane is GG with Linvala or Norn. The rest is just beating face with midrange beaters and hate bears and being careful...
Updated with a brief line or two about how to play against top tier decks, with updated matchup prospects.
And although I haven't played the deck in a while, I can say that there are a few cards that really bug me: Knight of the White Orchid and Weathered Wayfarer. They're both ALWAYS awesome when I'm going second, but I certainly don't opt to go second if I win the roll. That means they're awesome 50% of the time, which leaves me with two basically vanilla creatures forcing me to tap out my white mana early on and making me a sad Riley.
I don't know what I'll replace them with, but they need to come out. Situational cards like these that aren't always amazing have no place in this deck. Maybe I'll try Noxious Revival and put Idyllic Tutor back in. /shrug
At a glance, the only other cards I'd consider taking out are Thousand-Year Elixir and Skullclamp, though they've both tested well enough. They're just not superbly amazing all of the time, like the above-mentioned cards.
Still have a lot of "real world" stuff occupying my time, so I have no idea when I can test the deck again. I'll try to make time for the next Salvation tourney, anyway.
/agree on Knight of the White Orchid, the 2/2 first striker body is only situationally relevant, so your not truly getting a 2-for-1 here in most cases. That just makes it a mana intensive (WW) rampant growth at best, or a vannilla 2/2 at worst. The best case or upside is small, the downside is big.
/disagree on Weather Wayfarer. He has some of the same downsides, namely he can be only a 1/1 for 1. However he is:
A) not colour or mana intensive
B) better late game than Knight
C) his downside is reduced because you can cheat with it
D) his best case or upside is FAR more meaningful
He can fetch Gaea's Cradle which can win games on his own. He can be activated in response to fetch lands to cheat on his ability. If your opponent is at 4 lands, and its going to your t4, you can EOT fetch Tectonic Edge, play and activate Tectonic Edge targeting an opponents land, in response to Tectonic Edges ability activate Weathered Wayfarer searching for Wasteland.
Cheating with Weathered Wayfarer using lands that sacrifice themselves reduces his draw back. The ability to tutor for more powerful lands greatly increases his upside.
In conclusion:
Knight of the White Orchid:
Worst Case - bad
Best Case - 2 for 1
Weathered Wayfarer
Worst Case - bad, but not as bad
Best Case - "Wins the game"
@Riley: I also keep going back and forth in Thousand-Year Elixir. It's a card I really wanna like because on paper it sounds so good but in my experiences it fails in practice. It just plays to awkward for me being a three drop I want to play before Sisay. Ideally I wanna go; first turn shroud dude, second turn rampant growth effect or greaves, third turn Sisay. The three mana spot in my list is very awkward because I tend to skip it in my curve and drop them after Sisay and with Elixir being best before Sisay it just doesn't cut it.
I've replaced it with Skullclamp, a card you're also not sure about but I've yet to test.
Also lastly, I cut Mentor of the Meek and added in Tajuru Preserver as a metagame move. Grave Pact is becoming so much more popular in ny group and without a well timed disenchant I find myself powerless against it.
@Narg: I do believe you are correct, sir. Wayfarer will remain in. For now, I've replaced the Knight with Devoted Caretaker. Why DC specifically? DM225 reminded me of the importance of landing a turn 1 (through 3) protection card. That and the ramp redundancy will almost always result in a win, barring wrath effects.
Also, I was at a pot luck the other night and the hosts were listening to Spotify with electro-chill music playing. I was several beers in, but I swear I saw your avatar on one of the albums that popped up on screen! What's the album? Whatever it was, I liked it.
@Dm225: Preserver looks like a good meta decision. I've been wrecked by a few intensive sacrifice themes myself in Animar combo (into Eldrazi) and a mono-black Toshiro Umezawa deck running every damn edict, so I understand the need to deal with that obnoxiousness.
@Riley: I also keep going back and forth in Thousand-Year Elixir. It's a card I really wanna like because on paper it sounds so good but in my experiences it fails in practice. It just plays to awkward for me being a three drop I want to play before Sisay. Ideally I wanna go; first turn shroud dude, second turn rampant growth effect or greaves, third turn Sisay. The three mana spot in my list is very awkward because I tend to skip it in my curve and drop them after Sisay and with Elixir being best before Sisay it just doesn't cut it.
I've replaced it with Skullclamp, a card you're also not sure about but I've yet to test.
Also lastly, I cut Mentor of the Meek and added in Tajuru Preserver as a metagame move. Grave Pact is becoming so much more popular in ny group and without a well timed disenchant I find myself powerless against it.
What's wrong with turn 2 accelerant, turn 3 Elixir, turn 4 double Sisay activation? You end up getting more activations, and you get 2 even if someone has spot removal.
Regarding Akroma, I had her in at one point and cut her. At that mana cost I'd much rather be playing Iona or Elesh Norn, or even Primeval Titan.
Private Mod Note
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Limited enthusiast, Legacy miser, and begrudging Commander.
Elixir has made another round of cuts, but I'm still not super enamored with it. I'll need to test it further still.
That said, I'm trialing the following changes:
- Skullclamp: I can't seem to find any good opportunities to play this card, and it's never my best tutor target. Doesn't seem to fit the deck.
- Academy Rector: Too darn conditional, too much mana. I'd rather luck my way into Living Plane, or... play Kamahl again.
- High Market: This is the wrong kind of colorless land for French 1v1, especially if I'm taking out Academy Rector.
- Aura Shards: No immediate impact, pretty bad top-deck, not versatile enough. I suppose. I might miss this one.
- Nevermore: I love this card, but I want to see if I can't win without it. Relying on a single card to give me the edge in some trouble matchups isn't a sound way to go into a match.
+ Condemn: More cheap removal never hurts. Tuck rule or no, there are some creatures I need to get rid of stat and 3 mana for an Oblivion Ring isn't always going to cut it.
+ Kamahl, Fist of Krosa: I might regret putting him back in, but maybe not. His interaction with Norn is a win condition, and he alternately is a win condition in and of himself. More reliable to get out than Living Plane, anyway, even if more mana intensive. We'll see.
+ Tectonic Edge: Why not? Seems to screw me over enough, so I'm sure it'll annoy other decks.
+ Life from the Loam: I love the sac-lands that I put in, but this deck can easily crap out on mana and NEED to draw mana while also needing to draw answers and threats. It's a very fine line. I think this will help take my focus off of manipulating my tutors and Library for mana and more on interacting with the board state.
+ Leonin Relic-Warder: Seems to fit the deck, given all the shroud and the emphasis on massive beat finishes.
On another note, sometimes I miss all my mana elves. This deck still wants to get to a high CMC to really shine, and it's tough to get there consistently. However, the majority of the cards I'm playing at this point have specific roles in the meta, and I don't think this color combination can play gold-fish against the other top decks (without being the all-in aggro version). In other words, all of my answer-y cards are probably staying in for good. Not sure where I could slot elves back in. Maybe Life from the Loam will give me that extra boost that I need.
Regarding Akroma: The high cmc slots in 1v1 French have to be reserved for cards that will either win immediately or create a hopeless board state for your opponent (or can swing the game) on their own*. If Akroma had Lifelink instead of one of her other many attributes, I might consider her. But as she is now, she's no Iona or Norn, who can both single-handedly win me games. And if I'm going to be cheating out something with Loyal Retainers, it's going to be either Norn or Iona.
*Although it's worth noting that, with the exception of the Sisay player who made it into the top 8 at a recent major French tourney, you won't find a single top 8 deck that plays anything over CMC 5 (maybe exaggerating a bit, but that's generally true). Even a deck that's all about Legendary abuse can't justify playing more than a couple of the absolute best.
Unfortunately I no longer am a member of Team Sisay. My group got tired of the combo so I dropped the white and am playing Azusa now. I wish you all good luck! It's been a pleasure.
Just popping in to say that I've found this thread incredibly helpful when it comes to tweaking my own Sisay build. I play in a comparatively casual playgroup, so optimization and efficiency aren't as large of concerns by comparison, but it's made my own deck much sleeker. Just voicing my support and hoping ya'll keep Sisay standing tall.
Or you could just play Light of Day, but somehow I think he'd realize you were being unfair...
Sorry I haven't been posting much, I've taken a bit of a break from EDH to play sanctioned Magic formats, but now that Standard has gotten a bit stale I'm back and trying to tweak my deck a bit more. I decided to strip my deck down to the bare essentials that I've come to love from months of playing it and added a bit more removal and I've been left with this, which is 5 cards short of the full 99. Thoughts on what to add to fill in the gaps would be great. Right now, the deck lacks a consistent win condition. I tend to win by locking out their mana with hokori and then bashing them with SoFaF until they concede, which, while fun, doesn't always work depending on the matchup/how much removal they have (usually you can protect hokori from a couple pieces at most, and it's pretty hard to protect the Sword if they have the artifact destruction). When this doesnt work, I tend to struggle for incremental advantage and whatnot, which is a little depressing. Any suggestions on finishers would be sweet.
1. Had a bigger body.
2. Caused much more disruption.
3. Didn't make your opponent go "well ok I guess I'll get this card instead"
you would play it but, honestly, you should already be winning by the time you go "no you can't tutor for that card this late in the game" because are you really playing him turn 3 when he matters? Probably not.
Well okay, it once hosed my friend's janky Maralen of the Mornsong combo build, but that's obviously not meta and I shouldn't even mention it. -_-
Thanks for the added perspective. Haha, you guys are my editors!
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
Experimental Kraj
The only top deck I really have to worry about graveyard shenanigans in is Evergreen's Iname, and when he resolves Iname it's 90% of the time ftw, and either a few minions or all of his army will hit the playing field next turn. In this context, Jotun Grunt is far too slow. He's also not likely to stick around until the next attack step in the early game, just for lack of things being in the graveyard. In the late game? I'd rather be running Serra Avenger for her evasion at the same cost. Also, if you can tutor for the same Legendary creature twice... well, that just doesn't make sense. If Sisay resolved and isn't killed, there's very little reason why everything after that won't resolve and survive, given the way this deck plays. =P
I've re-added Land Tax, and it's been super good to me. Haven't really tested any of the new things yet, but I'm feeling really content with the deck at the moment. Enough so that I can update the OPs soon and start talking about how to play and win.
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
Experimental Kraj
Hmm, what else?
I'm trying out AEther Vial. Giving Idyllic Tutor a shot in place of Sterling Grove. Trying out Arbor Elf again (not getting nearly enough mana dorks out consistently). Settled on 36 lands (seems to be fine with Tithe, dorks, and Land Tax, or without any of them most of time). Giving Mox Diamond another shot, too. I'm finding myself one mana (dork, land drop, whatever) short far too often. Like, one turn away from ending the game for my opponent. Need the speed, man.
I'm finding Brigid less and less necessary, so I'm trying the deck without her again. I run enough threatening creatures, blockers, and removal of my own to go toe-to-toe with aggro decks.
I think I like Thousand Year-Elixir, but I'm still not sure. The best I've seen it do so far is haste my Mother of Runes. I used it to block a black creature, whose mono-black controller had TWO removal spells. He also managed to rid of my Great Sable Stag in the same game. This too didn't involve mass removal or even Liliana of the Veil. FML. (I know that this doesn't count as actual strikes against Elixir, I'm just sharing an amusing anecdote!)
Can't remember what else I dropped? Maybe I covered everything. No, wait, forgot that I cut Mikaeus. Never seemed like an optimal tutor target, never was in position to use him or want him unless I was already winning. Felt the same way about Gavony Township.
Oh, apparently I forgot to actually add Havenwood Battleground and Ruins of Trokair to my list. Derp. They're in, now. Crystal Vein has been good to me, so I don't see these disappointing.
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
Hoping for a cure, or at least an outbreak.
Level 1 Judge (yay)
I have to veto this outright. I don't run any persist cards or a persistent sac outlet, and multi-piece combos like this aren't quite playable in what is effectively 100 card Legacy Highlander. Also, the best Persist creature, Woodfall Primus, is a bit too overcosted and narrow to fit into this environment.
Also also, poison isn't really a thing in the French meta, so I can't see Melira being good to me in any way.
EDIT: Giving Stirring Wildwood a shot in the French meta. I didn't like it when I was playing with the official rules because drawing a CITP land could be the difference between winning or losing against, say, Sharuum or Arcum with their broken manafacts doing their thing, but it might be a different story in French where you're not facing turn 3-4 "I win" combos. More than anything, I think I just need something else that can interact with Planeswalkers that isn't always easily removed. I might even add Treetop Village, too, if Wildwood proves effective.
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
Experimental Kraj
Avoid Fate
Autumns Veil
Emerge Unscathed... ect.
These are probably too conditional to play but you must play the 2 lands.
Also how's Gideon treating ya? Are you running Thrun over stag yet?
What are you trying out?
Eiganjo, maybe. Only because it gives me a colored mana.
I suppose I don't HAVE to search out duals with every fetch, but then I don't HAVE to be able to get two white sources or two green sources to cast anything.
But seriously, I could have played that more carefully, but then I wouldn't have been able to cast much of anything. It just kind of sucked for me that game that I didn't manage any mana dorks in three turns, and I didn't draw any basics, and you hit a turn three Blood Moon. In the future, I'll probably be more aware of that, but in that game? I made the correct plays. My hand needed colors (and so do my bombs and win conditions), and I need the versatility to not stall and lose. Just a risk I have to take. Pays off the majority of the times. My deck can't be infallible, as much as I'd love for it to be. =P
Speaking of...
I've played the majority of these effects in some capacity or another (my fave was Rebuff the Wicked). The reason I've gone more towards the creature options for protection effects is because of their interactivity with Cradle and being end-game beaters, while the instant effects may just be dead draws and one-shots (Emerge Unscathed notwithstanding), which haven't been good enough in my testing. Even the shift in playing one less removal and adding (back) in a creature-removal has changed the balance of the deck for the better.
That's not to say I won't come back to these cards, though. With more testing (and sussing out the least valuable cards), I can determine what are the absolute all-stars and keep them in while adding in more ways to get them into play consistently while simultaneously protecting them.
Haven't stuck in Gideon yet. I'm so darn biased against Planeswalkers, but I do want to give him a shot. Somewhere, somehow.
Thrun's in. Seeing it be the difference maker in a game I watched vs. Evergreen finally put me in the "OKAY FINE GEEZ" camp. Gotta test it. Again. Time'll tell.
Nothin'. Taking a break for a while to apply for Grad School and switch banks and other long overdue drastic things like finishing my next book by the end of the year.
Musings:
Why can't Summoner's Pact be any creature and not just green?
Why can't there be a Steelshaper's Gift (or for that matter, a Stoneforge Mystic) for enchantments, something that puts a card into my hand and not on top of my library?
Why has all my time spent at the gym not yet earned me a sweet six pack?!?
Err...
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
And although I haven't played the deck in a while, I can say that there are a few cards that really bug me: Knight of the White Orchid and Weathered Wayfarer. They're both ALWAYS awesome when I'm going second, but I certainly don't opt to go second if I win the roll. That means they're awesome 50% of the time, which leaves me with two basically vanilla creatures forcing me to tap out my white mana early on and making me a sad Riley.
I don't know what I'll replace them with, but they need to come out. Situational cards like these that aren't always amazing have no place in this deck. Maybe I'll try Noxious Revival and put Idyllic Tutor back in. /shrug
At a glance, the only other cards I'd consider taking out are Thousand-Year Elixir and Skullclamp, though they've both tested well enough. They're just not superbly amazing all of the time, like the above-mentioned cards.
Still have a lot of "real world" stuff occupying my time, so I have no idea when I can test the deck again. I'll try to make time for the next Salvation tourney, anyway.
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
/disagree on Weather Wayfarer. He has some of the same downsides, namely he can be only a 1/1 for 1. However he is:
A) not colour or mana intensive
B) better late game than Knight
C) his downside is reduced because you can cheat with it
D) his best case or upside is FAR more meaningful
He can fetch Gaea's Cradle which can win games on his own. He can be activated in response to fetch lands to cheat on his ability. If your opponent is at 4 lands, and its going to your t4, you can EOT fetch Tectonic Edge, play and activate Tectonic Edge targeting an opponents land, in response to Tectonic Edges ability activate Weathered Wayfarer searching for Wasteland.
Cheating with Weathered Wayfarer using lands that sacrifice themselves reduces his draw back. The ability to tutor for more powerful lands greatly increases his upside.
In conclusion:
Knight of the White Orchid:
Worst Case - bad
Best Case - 2 for 1
Weathered Wayfarer
Worst Case - bad, but not as bad
Best Case - "Wins the game"
I've replaced it with Skullclamp, a card you're also not sure about but I've yet to test.
Also lastly, I cut Mentor of the Meek and added in Tajuru Preserver as a metagame move. Grave Pact is becoming so much more popular in ny group and without a well timed disenchant I find myself powerless against it.
Experimental Kraj
Also, I was at a pot luck the other night and the hosts were listening to Spotify with electro-chill music playing. I was several beers in, but I swear I saw your avatar on one of the albums that popped up on screen! What's the album? Whatever it was, I liked it.
@Dm225: Preserver looks like a good meta decision. I've been wrecked by a few intensive sacrifice themes myself in Animar combo (into Eldrazi) and a mono-black Toshiro Umezawa deck running every damn edict, so I understand the need to deal with that obnoxiousness.
Anyway, I still haven't played in a while...
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
Experimental Kraj
What's wrong with turn 2 accelerant, turn 3 Elixir, turn 4 double Sisay activation? You end up getting more activations, and you get 2 even if someone has spot removal.
Regarding Akroma, I had her in at one point and cut her. At that mana cost I'd much rather be playing Iona or Elesh Norn, or even Primeval Titan.
That said, I'm trialing the following changes:
- Skullclamp: I can't seem to find any good opportunities to play this card, and it's never my best tutor target. Doesn't seem to fit the deck.
- Academy Rector: Too darn conditional, too much mana. I'd rather luck my way into Living Plane, or... play Kamahl again.
- High Market: This is the wrong kind of colorless land for French 1v1, especially if I'm taking out Academy Rector.
- Aura Shards: No immediate impact, pretty bad top-deck, not versatile enough. I suppose. I might miss this one.
- Nevermore: I love this card, but I want to see if I can't win without it. Relying on a single card to give me the edge in some trouble matchups isn't a sound way to go into a match.
+ Condemn: More cheap removal never hurts. Tuck rule or no, there are some creatures I need to get rid of stat and 3 mana for an Oblivion Ring isn't always going to cut it.
+ Kamahl, Fist of Krosa: I might regret putting him back in, but maybe not. His interaction with Norn is a win condition, and he alternately is a win condition in and of himself. More reliable to get out than Living Plane, anyway, even if more mana intensive. We'll see.
+ Tectonic Edge: Why not? Seems to screw me over enough, so I'm sure it'll annoy other decks.
+ Life from the Loam: I love the sac-lands that I put in, but this deck can easily crap out on mana and NEED to draw mana while also needing to draw answers and threats. It's a very fine line. I think this will help take my focus off of manipulating my tutors and Library for mana and more on interacting with the board state.
+ Leonin Relic-Warder: Seems to fit the deck, given all the shroud and the emphasis on massive beat finishes.
On another note, sometimes I miss all my mana elves. This deck still wants to get to a high CMC to really shine, and it's tough to get there consistently. However, the majority of the cards I'm playing at this point have specific roles in the meta, and I don't think this color combination can play gold-fish against the other top decks (without being the all-in aggro version). In other words, all of my answer-y cards are probably staying in for good. Not sure where I could slot elves back in. Maybe Life from the Loam will give me that extra boost that I need.
Regarding Akroma: The high cmc slots in 1v1 French have to be reserved for cards that will either win immediately or create a hopeless board state for your opponent (or can swing the game) on their own*. If Akroma had Lifelink instead of one of her other many attributes, I might consider her. But as she is now, she's no Iona or Norn, who can both single-handedly win me games. And if I'm going to be cheating out something with Loyal Retainers, it's going to be either Norn or Iona.
*Although it's worth noting that, with the exception of the Sisay player who made it into the top 8 at a recent major French tourney, you won't find a single top 8 deck that plays anything over CMC 5 (maybe exaggerating a bit, but that's generally true). Even a deck that's all about Legendary abuse can't justify playing more than a couple of the absolute best.
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
Experimental Kraj
Yes. Here are some you may want to consider:
Path to Exile
Swords to Plowshares
Lignify
Oust
Condemn
Oblation
Pinpoint removal tends to be very important- especially in 1v1 matches.
Sorry I haven't been posting much, I've taken a bit of a break from EDH to play sanctioned Magic formats, but now that Standard has gotten a bit stale I'm back and trying to tweak my deck a bit more. I decided to strip my deck down to the bare essentials that I've come to love from months of playing it and added a bit more removal and I've been left with this, which is 5 cards short of the full 99. Thoughts on what to add to fill in the gaps would be great. Right now, the deck lacks a consistent win condition. I tend to win by locking out their mana with hokori and then bashing them with SoFaF until they concede, which, while fun, doesn't always work depending on the matchup/how much removal they have (usually you can protect hokori from a couple pieces at most, and it's pretty hard to protect the Sword if they have the artifact destruction). When this doesnt work, I tend to struggle for incremental advantage and whatnot, which is a little depressing. Any suggestions on finishers would be sweet.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sisay-edh-3/