I know I personally have always wanted to build a MBC Toshiro Umezawa deck just because he looks amazing and is underutilized but I have my worries about if it will be any good.
Maybe I should build it just to have a sweet MBC deck though
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Emmara is like the worst parts of Legends and Homelands got pregnant, aborted the fetus, tossed it in the trashcan, set it on fire and wrapped the corpse in a Dragon's Maze pack wrapper.
I had some extra time today so I put up a section about why I'm playing some of the less obvious card choices and a section about some of the weaknesses this deck has. Are there any other cards that seem strange that I should add to the first section? Basically I'd just like a little constructive criticism on how I can improve this primer.
Why should you run Kiku, Night's Flower over another commander??? Strengths and weakness of her and how this particular build improves her as a selection. Take the time here to really give the reader the reason you chose her as your commander and why they should too!
A deckstats link. They can be fun to mull over at the least and it is minimal effort.
Cool presentation picture at the top. It sort of puts her up in the highlight and it makes it look nice. Plus anyone who is unfamiliar with her is immediately staring down her card. There is no who is this then rummage for a few moments to find something to link to to see who your commander is.
BIO of who you are and where you have been in magic and how you arrived at running her. This can help sort of relate to. I am a big agro player who recently found some control player in myself. I sort of try to put down who I am and those who relate to me might find that they might like my deckbuilding style. Plus this just makes a primer so much more personal when you can sort of get a feel for who wrote it.
Strategy or mindset behind the deck. List out your primary concerns and wincons. How your games normally go and how to use tutors / key pieces that might be important. Some decks like this sort of require you to use your commander in a specific way so maybe break off and discuss how to properly use her, when to use her, and how to get maximum advantage out of her. Then go about how to execute the deck and how you should properly run it. These are all good things to point out to newer players who need an idea as to what mindset to be in using this brand new decklist.
Those are all excellent suggestions...I should have just gone over your Jenara primer instead of posting :P. I've got the deckstats link but it's not very clear, I'll put it somewhere where it draws more attention.
Ya I noticed your deckstats link after looking through a second time. It is a bit hidden but it might be ok... your call.
Sonik's primer has come a long way as well. I actually stole some ideas off of his for how to improve my own.
EDIT: I also notice a bit of history and what not hanging loose on your page... generally speaking when I do a primer I try to put everything that looks all paragraphy into its own section. It makes things cleaner and just label it history. That way if it is what they are looking for they can click and it bam that is what they are reading. Primers tend to be chalked full of info so text that is just sitting out in the open outside of spoilers should be very short. Otherwise they have to read into it just to figure out what this section of text is talking about.
Nice list. I particularly like the explanations. Now I want to try ill-gotten gains. Whereas before I thought the benefit to my opponents would make it a bad card.
Donald have you made any updates since Innistrad and Dark Ascension came out?
Sorry I didn't see this get bumped. Not much but I did fit in Increasing Ambition though I'm questioning my cut. I narrowed it down to Wound Reflection, Steel Hellkite and Diabolic Tutor. The easy swap looks like the tutor but unconditional tutors are great and Diabolic is still decent enough. Wound Reflection is nice because it can deter people from attacking me and reduces the cost of Exsanguinate. Lastly Steel Hellkite provides enchantment removal and a possible win condition through his firebreathing. I ended up going with Steel Hellkite because he can be anti-synergystic with the deck and the additional tutor should make artifact/enchantment removal more accessible. I'd be open to people's thoughts on this however.
I like increasing ambition, even got a foil one for Maga. Looking at your list I may be more apt to removing Bane of the Living first though. First because you have more ways to remove creatures than you do artifacts/enchantments, Second you don't have many ways to recur it so it essentially becomes a really bad Black Sun's Zenith ,third as you mentioned hellkite can be a decent finisher and last but not least Bane costs 3BB before it does anything whatsoever. At that rate why not just cast increasing ambition for mutilate or damnation?
I like increasing ambition, even got a foil one for Maga. Looking at your list I may be more apt to removing Bane of the Living first though. First because you have more ways to remove creatures than you do artifacts/enchantments, Second you don't have many ways to recur it so it essentially becomes a really bad Black Sun's Zenith ,third as you mentioned hellkite can be a decent finisher and last but not least Bane costs 3BB before it does anything whatsoever. At that rate why not just cast increasing ambition for mutilate or damnation?
That's a valid argument, he's definitely my weakest sweeper and with the added tutor I have better access to my superior sweepers. I really like the rattlesnake ability of Bane of the Living which is something the other sweepers can't replicate but I think you're right he's the better cut. Thanks for the feedback.
What do you think about Killing Wave and Griselbrand for this deck? Anything else in Avacyn look exciting?
I'm probably just going to run Griselbrand (over Pestilence Demon I think). Killing Wave reminds me too much of Browbeat, it just won't do what I want it to do a lot of the time. The only other card I thought looked interesting was Exquisite Blood but I don't think I need a pure life gain card in this deck.
I'll probably find room for Consume Spirit again, people are starting to run more Jester's Cap type cards and I don't want to run out of win conditions.
My guess is that they'll end up banning him, he doesn't have enough of the drawbacks that make Necropotence acceptable. However it will likely be a little while before that happens so I'll play him as long as they'll let me like I did with Emrakul.
Looks like I need to do an update. Funny I played the deck recently after Sundering Titan got banned and forgot to cut him for something. Playgroup made fun of me.
I'm really backed up with work after being on vacation for a week which has caused me to be really backed up on primer committee stuff so I'll do my best to get this list updated but I wouldn't expect anything this week. I'm really torn on what to add for Sundering Titan but I don't think his loss will hurt too much. Didn't pick up Griselbrand because I highly suspected he'd be banned. Murder is an easy add and I'll think about Liliana some more. She's great on an open board and worse case is a bad removal spell. I don't tend to like Planeswalkers in Commander much but maybe this one will win me over.
Any updates Donald? I didn't see anything too exciting in RTR. I run a similar deck but use Drana for more late game control and possible alpha strikes. I've been having fun with Tainted Aether and if Diabolic Revelation resolves I usually win that turn or next.
Any updates Donald? I didn't see anything too exciting in RTR. I run a similar deck but use Drana for more late game control and possible alpha strikes. I've been having fun with Tainted Aether and if Diabolic Revelation resolves I usually win that turn or next.
I've updated my paper list but the OP is still out of date. I'm planning on doing some Magic related stuff after work today, I'll try and work in a Kiku update. I think my list is only off by 4-5 cards though. I do have Diabolic Revelation in there, I like Insidious Dreams more but it's a good card for sure.
Haven't updated the OP, will do that soon but going through my deck these are my changes:
-Sundering Titan: banned
+Trading Post: A strange replacement but a very versatile card. The artifact recursion ability is very nice.
-Rend Flesh
+Murder
Easy upgrade
-Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Removing him removes my last good Bribery target and he can be a pain to deal with. Is not a very good win condition so if I am short on enchantment/artifact removal I'll probably just use Spine of Ish Shah.
+Diabolic Reveletion: This has a much better chance of winning me the game if I pump 11 mana into it.
Codex Shredder is an interesting card but at this point I'd rather just pick up a Xiahou-Dun, the One Eyed instead since he's somewhat reasonable in price now. The only card I wanted to try but have not is Liliana of the Dark Realms. Planeswalkers have been nothing but a disapointment for me in the past barring a few exceptions but she has a lot of potential.
This hasn't been updated in awhile. I'm curious what your deck looks like today.
I've been following your Maga deck since I built my Drana a few years ago.
I've obviously added Crypt Ghast and Thespian's Stage from Gatecrash.
Grave Betrayal from RtR and Staff of Nin from M13 were my previous changes.
I did an update with what my deck looks like currently. Xiahou Dun becoming affordable made a nice addition. Suffer the Past got swapped out for Shred Memory mainly because the amount of graveyard hate has increased in my group and as a result decks have become less reliant on graveyards so I wanted something a little more flexible. As far as testing goes I've been doing very little with this deck lately. Too many decks and not enough time to play.:/
-Sundering Titan
-Rend Flesh
-Ulamog
-Swamp
-Syphon Mind
-Suffer the Past
+Murder
+Diabolic Revelation
+Crypt Ghast
+Thespian's Stage
+Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
+Shred Memory
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
She's certainly not amazing but she's done good work for me so far.
I figured since I switched to a general that nobody uses I would be able to pick up a japanese foil one pretty cheap but she's still around $20.:-/
Maybe I should build it just to have a sweet MBC deck though
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Why should you run Kiku, Night's Flower over another commander??? Strengths and weakness of her and how this particular build improves her as a selection. Take the time here to really give the reader the reason you chose her as your commander and why they should too!
A deckstats link. They can be fun to mull over at the least and it is minimal effort.
Cool presentation picture at the top. It sort of puts her up in the highlight and it makes it look nice. Plus anyone who is unfamiliar with her is immediately staring down her card. There is no who is this then rummage for a few moments to find something to link to to see who your commander is.
BIO of who you are and where you have been in magic and how you arrived at running her. This can help sort of relate to. I am a big agro player who recently found some control player in myself. I sort of try to put down who I am and those who relate to me might find that they might like my deckbuilding style. Plus this just makes a primer so much more personal when you can sort of get a feel for who wrote it.
Strategy or mindset behind the deck. List out your primary concerns and wincons. How your games normally go and how to use tutors / key pieces that might be important. Some decks like this sort of require you to use your commander in a specific way so maybe break off and discuss how to properly use her, when to use her, and how to get maximum advantage out of her. Then go about how to execute the deck and how you should properly run it. These are all good things to point out to newer players who need an idea as to what mindset to be in using this brand new decklist.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Sonik's primer has come a long way as well. I actually stole some ideas off of his for how to improve my own.
EDIT: I also notice a bit of history and what not hanging loose on your page... generally speaking when I do a primer I try to put everything that looks all paragraphy into its own section. It makes things cleaner and just label it history. That way if it is what they are looking for they can click and it bam that is what they are reading. Primers tend to be chalked full of info so text that is just sitting out in the open outside of spoilers should be very short. Otherwise they have to read into it just to figure out what this section of text is talking about.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Thank You Rivenor/Miraculous Recovery Studios!
GGGSKamahl's Band of Monstosities SGGG
RRRSFreaki-Kiki, The Goblin DoucheSRRR
BBGGNath, Raper of Hands and Spewer of Tokens!GGBB
BUGDamia, Sage of AnswersBUG
WIPs
BBBXiahou Dun, the Bitter Stax Enabling BastardBBB
On Break
BBBSKagemaro, First to RetireSBBB
BBBThe Walking DeadBBB
UUUSTeferi Combo PrimerSUUU
@nutterbutter - Thanks! Anything else you'd like me to add to alternate choices or explanations for other cards I run?
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Sorry I didn't see this get bumped. Not much but I did fit in Increasing Ambition though I'm questioning my cut. I narrowed it down to Wound Reflection, Steel Hellkite and Diabolic Tutor. The easy swap looks like the tutor but unconditional tutors are great and Diabolic is still decent enough. Wound Reflection is nice because it can deter people from attacking me and reduces the cost of Exsanguinate. Lastly Steel Hellkite provides enchantment removal and a possible win condition through his firebreathing. I ended up going with Steel Hellkite because he can be anti-synergystic with the deck and the additional tutor should make artifact/enchantment removal more accessible. I'd be open to people's thoughts on this however.
Thank You Rivenor/Miraculous Recovery Studios!
GGGSKamahl's Band of Monstosities SGGG
RRRSFreaki-Kiki, The Goblin DoucheSRRR
BBGGNath, Raper of Hands and Spewer of Tokens!GGBB
BUGDamia, Sage of AnswersBUG
WIPs
BBBXiahou Dun, the Bitter Stax Enabling BastardBBB
On Break
BBBSKagemaro, First to RetireSBBB
BBBThe Walking DeadBBB
UUUSTeferi Combo PrimerSUUU
That's a valid argument, he's definitely my weakest sweeper and with the added tutor I have better access to my superior sweepers. I really like the rattlesnake ability of Bane of the Living which is something the other sweepers can't replicate but I think you're right he's the better cut. Thanks for the feedback.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
I'm probably just going to run Griselbrand (over Pestilence Demon I think). Killing Wave reminds me too much of Browbeat, it just won't do what I want it to do a lot of the time. The only other card I thought looked interesting was Exquisite Blood but I don't think I need a pure life gain card in this deck.
I'll probably find room for Consume Spirit again, people are starting to run more Jester's Cap type cards and I don't want to run out of win conditions.
People are starting to exile exsanguinate and coffers in my playgroup. I might need to put the other life drains back in as well.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
Griselbrand for No Mercy
Sundering Titan for Plague Wind
Rend Flesh for Murder
Armillary Sphere for Liliana of the Dark Realms
Have you made any changes Donald?
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
I'm really backed up with work after being on vacation for a week which has caused me to be really backed up on primer committee stuff so I'll do my best to get this list updated but I wouldn't expect anything this week. I'm really torn on what to add for Sundering Titan but I don't think his loss will hurt too much. Didn't pick up Griselbrand because I highly suspected he'd be banned. Murder is an easy add and I'll think about Liliana some more. She's great on an open board and worse case is a bad removal spell. I don't tend to like Planeswalkers in Commander much but maybe this one will win me over.
Retired Lists: Ghave - Hanna - Thrun - Zur
Pauper: Crypt Rats
I've updated my paper list but the OP is still out of date. I'm planning on doing some Magic related stuff after work today, I'll try and work in a Kiku update. I think my list is only off by 4-5 cards though. I do have Diabolic Revelation in there, I like Insidious Dreams more but it's a good card for sure.
-Sundering Titan: banned
+Trading Post: A strange replacement but a very versatile card. The artifact recursion ability is very nice.
-Rend Flesh
+Murder
Easy upgrade
-Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Removing him removes my last good Bribery target and he can be a pain to deal with. Is not a very good win condition so if I am short on enchantment/artifact removal I'll probably just use Spine of Ish Shah.
+Diabolic Reveletion: This has a much better chance of winning me the game if I pump 11 mana into it.
Codex Shredder is an interesting card but at this point I'd rather just pick up a Xiahou-Dun, the One Eyed instead since he's somewhat reasonable in price now. The only card I wanted to try but have not is Liliana of the Dark Realms. Planeswalkers have been nothing but a disapointment for me in the past barring a few exceptions but she has a lot of potential.
I've been following your Maga deck since I built my Drana a few years ago.
I've obviously added Crypt Ghast and Thespian's Stage from Gatecrash.
Grave Betrayal from RtR and Staff of Nin from M13 were my previous changes.
Any experience with these new cards?
B Lover Since '09 ~
Standard:
meh.
Modern:
Urzatron GR
Vintage:
Contol-Slaver UBR
EDH:
Drana B
Jhoira UR
Savra BG
Turned into:
Adun Oakenshield BGR
Sharuum BUW
Turned into:
Memnarch U
KiKi-Jiki R
Turned into:
Godo R
Turned into:
Aurelia RW
The Mimeoplasm UBG
Rasputin Dreamweaver UW
Turned into:
Geist of Saint Traft -French 1v1 UW
Nekusar UBR
-Sundering Titan
-Rend Flesh
-Ulamog
-Swamp
-Syphon Mind
-Suffer the Past
+Murder
+Diabolic Revelation
+Crypt Ghast
+Thespian's Stage
+Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
+Shred Memory