First off I want to make something clear...this is NOT as spider tribal deck!
Now that the above statement has been established; I would like to explain a few reasons for the deck not being spider tribal as well as the benefits.
1: Going spider tribal for Ishkanah, Grafwidow as the commander is terribly uncreative additionally is what people expect of the deck.
2: It is a waste of resources to jam every possible spider that looks "decent", as the deck can function off of what I call the "Big 3". The Big 3 are the "best" mass spider generators: Conspiracy,Spider Spawning, and Arachnogenesis. As these are only 3 cards it allows maximum flexibility to the deck, while also allowing opponents scratching their heads saying "where are all your spiders?".
3: It is immensely satisfying defeating opponents with Ishkanah, Grafwidow activated ability of "6B: Target opponent losses 1 life for each spider you control" while little to none Spiders in sight besides Ishkanah. So how the heck is this possible! Well see below to find out how
Important :The trick is to figure out how to aim "Spider Cannon" while still maximizing damage that is incrementally decreased as you sacrifice your lands. Optimally you tapped out your mana first to have mana to start doing damage the 1st few shots, after that 4 lands(3 to Ashnod's Altarfor 6 & 1 to Phyrexian Altarfor B) are sacrificed per additional firing of "Spider Cannon".
Though the combo can be enhanced using Splendid Reclamation to get all the lands back, please note lands "animated" by life // death will NOT be treated as creatures. Also you can skip the "spider"(conspiracy & ishkanah, grafwidow) and just sacrifice your lands and dump your mana into an extremely largeExsanguinate for the win.
8/14/16: Swapped grave pact for Butcher of Malakir, less mana intensive and allows for better recursion. Additionally Genesis dropped for Bow of Nylea which is cheaper, more versatile, while getting delirium trigger. Credit to Tanion for suggestions, they make an noticeable change for the better.
Looks like a fun list! I'm not sure how I'd like it here but I'll mention it anyway, but this deck already has all of the Nim Deathmantle combo pieces in it, Mantle aside. It can give you infinite tokens and then infinite mana to drain the table if you even decide you want another avenue to victory.
I can completely understand leaving it out if you found it boring and predictable though! When I started I used it in all the decks that could, but I'm not sure I run it in anything anymore...but as is your deck is better suited to it than mine were to start with.
Fixed Nyx Weaver, thanks for catching that by the way! Also I had no idea on the nim deathmantle combo, though you are dead on as to why I would not play it just like I refuse to go infinite squirrels. Playgroup dislikes and not much variation on Friday Nights
I think you are confused as to why I run the life // death combo, it is not to make them lands for beating face but for mass sac fodder and being treated as spiders. Sorry for confusing you about that, otherwise excellent recommendations.
Brillant deck! I'm glad to find Ishakanah deck that isn't "shove a bunch of bad spiders and call it a deck." Have you thought about Nature's Will or Sword of Feast and Famine? As long as one of your little suckers can go through, you can drain essentially twice. You also have Rude Awakening as another means to make your lands into creatures with the added benefit of untapping them.
Also if you are sacing your land guys, Titania, Protector of Argoth seems really good too. The only thing I am concerned is hitting that delirium effect. How do you feel about you hitting delirium? I assume you just wait till you got all your combos out on the field to do it?
Is Primal Vigor a budget choice to Doubling Season? Maybe you can dig deep for your conspiracy combo and get some enchantments while you at it with Kruphix's Insight AND get some delirium going on.
Brillant deck! I'm glad to find Ishakanah deck that isn't "shove a bunch of bad spiders and call it a deck." Have you thought about Nature's Will or Sword of Feast and Famine? As long as one of your little suckers can go through, you can drain essentially twice. You also have Rude Awakening as another means to make your lands into creatures with the added benefit of untapping them.
Also if you are sacing your land guys, Titania, Protector of Argoth seems really good too. The only thing I am concerned is hitting that delirium effect. How do you feel about you hitting delirium? I assume you just wait till you got all your combos out on the field to do it?
Is Primal Vigor a budget choice to Doubling Season? Maybe you can dig deep for your conspiracy combo and get some enchantments while you at it with Kruphix's Insight AND get some delirium going on.
Lots of great points, also glad you like the deck ^-^. As for delirium it can be a challenge and I am still working on getting that right cocktail of card types into the grave, I do admit that I feel that the 4th type is enchantments/instants is the hardest to get. Also yes primal vigor is my budget doubling season though I do admit I totally forgot about Kruphix's Insight and I think it will be an excellent addition.
Though I am trying to stay limited on the mass grave filling as if I get conspiracy in the grave it takes alot of effort to get it back, any suggestions on how to remedy this?
Brillant deck! I'm glad to find Ishakanah deck that isn't "shove a bunch of bad spiders and call it a deck." Have you thought about Nature's Will or Sword of Feast and Famine? As long as one of your little suckers can go through, you can drain essentially twice. You also have Rude Awakening as another means to make your lands into creatures with the added benefit of untapping them.
Also if you are sacing your land guys, Titania, Protector of Argoth seems really good too. The only thing I am concerned is hitting that delirium effect. How do you feel about you hitting delirium? I assume you just wait till you got all your combos out on the field to do it?
Is Primal Vigor a budget choice to Doubling Season? Maybe you can dig deep for your conspiracy combo and get some enchantments while you at it with Kruphix's Insight AND get some delirium going on.
Lots of great points, also glad you like the deck ^-^. As for delirium it can be a challenge and I am still working on getting that right cocktail of card types into the grave, I do admit that I feel that the 4th type is enchantments/instants is the hardest to get. Also yes primal vigor is my budget doubling season though I do admit I totally forgot about Kruphix's Insight and I think it will be an excellent addition.
Though I am trying to stay limited on the mass grave filling as if I get conspiracy in the grave it takes alot of effort to get it back, any suggestions on how to remedy this?
Well you got some recursion already. E. Witness, Green Warden, and Noxious Revival. You can try Den Protector, Skullwinder or Pharika's Mender. If someone is a douche and blows up all your enchantments you can use Crystal Chimes to get them back. This might sound like good stuff but I would put some creatures that brings a long of tokens. Myr Battlesphere, Grave titan, Hornet Queen so you can feed Perilous Forays and make everyone cry when you got active Gravepact or Dictate of Erebos. Although I would probably get rid of Gravepact and put Butcher of Malakir. You got Sheoldred (bonus points for the spider body! ), so she can help you return Butcher easier than enchantments.
Then depending on how hateful your meta is, you could add Riftsweeper to bring back Conspiracy from exile. Also Bow of Nylea can save you some grief if people plan to blow up your graveyard.
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To the people that say that a card needs to be a higher rarity because of Limited... I hate you guys so much. I present to you with this.
You could do a little bit more to enable delirium without much cost. Font of Fertility is close to an enchantment version of Wayfarer's Bauble, even if it is slightly worse. Diligent Farmhand is the creature version. Garruk Wildspeaker adds an otherwise unrepresented card type to the mix and functions similarly to Explosive Vegetation. Comes with a built-in Overrun, too. Swarmyard isn't as great here as it is in the tribal versions, but it does protect your commander.
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
Just so you're aware, the Life // Death combo doesn't work with Splendid Reclamation very well, as lands that enter the battlefield after Life resolves won't be creatures.
This deck looks sweet otherwise. Spider tribal is a good way to play an ineffective deck and I think renaimation-combo or similar is the best way to run Ishkanah. Conspiracy definitely earn bonus points in my book.
Just so you're aware, the Life // Death combo doesn't work with Splendid Reclamation very well, as lands that enter the battlefield after Life resolves won't be creatures.
This deck looks sweet otherwise. Spider tribal is a good way to play an ineffective deck and I think renaimation-combo or similar is the best way to run Ishkanah. Conspiracy definitely earn bonus points in my book.
Thanks for letting me know about the life // death combo not working with Splendid Reclamation,will be sure to edit OP to fix that. Am curious though is that specific to the wording of life//death or is it a general wording too land animation effects like natural affinity? Also glad you agree with my approach, though the game plan is all in theoretically it can take out 2 opposing players at 40 life totals. Still working on getting my spider cannon equation done, hopefully this weekend I will have it up.
You could do a little bit more to enable delirium without much cost. Font of Fertility is close to an enchantment version of Wayfarer's Bauble, even if it is slightly worse. Diligent Farmhand is the creature version. Garruk Wildspeaker adds an otherwise unrepresented card type to the mix and functions similarly to Explosive Vegetation. Comes with a built-in Overrun, too. Swarmyard isn't as great here as it is in the tribal versions, but it does protect your commander.
Thanks for the tip on the delirium enablers, I suspect that "font" and "vessel" cycles will really help things along in that matter. Though to be honest am starting to lean away from focusing on delirium early game; as I am finding that often when I race to have delirium live I have nothing to get value off the spider tokens compared to the devastation of developing my board with dictate of erebos then getting my triggers. Not sure if that makes sense, though am thankful for the input and look forward to any more you might have ^-^
Thanks for the tip on the delirium enablers, I suspect that "font" and "vessel" cycles will really help things along in that matter. Though to be honest am starting to lean away from focusing on delirium early game; as I am finding that often when I race to have delirium live I have nothing to get value off the spider tokens compared to the devastation of developing my board with dictate of erebos then getting my triggers. Not sure if that makes sense, though am thankful for the input and look forward to any more you might have ^-^
That does make sense. I think there are basically three categories of cards when it comes to delirium: 1) cards that help enable it and are good on their own (e.g.Wayfarer's Bauble), 2) cards that help enable it and are passable on their own (e.g.Font of Fertility), and 3) cards that you're only playing for delirium (e.g.Urza's Bauble). By including more cards of the second category, the intention is not so much to get delirium ASAP as to make sure that you're never stuck staring at "instant, creature, land" in the graveyard when you're ready to start making spiders. But I haven't played the deck and don't know if you even run into this problem at all. You are running a bunch of dredge stuff so that should help.
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
I just wanted to chime in and say this looks great it's the kind of Ishkanah, Grafwidow that I will likely make in due time. I just can't stand playing "bad tribal dot deck." That said I do think you're missing at least one good spider, Silklash Spider.
What is the budget for you build I notice you're not running Oracle of Mul Daya. Which seems good with you're general strategy of ramp lands into spider cannon.
I just wanted to chime in and say this looks great it's the kind of Ishkanah, Grafwidow that I will likely make in due time. I just can't stand playing "bad tribal dot deck." That said I do think you're missing at least one good spider, Silklash Spider.
What is the budget for you build I notice you're not running Oracle of Mul Daya. Which seems good with you're general strategy of ramp lands into spider cannon.
edit: spacing errors
Sadly as my near whole source of income is form a $20 allowance and using that to "invest" in new sets early and flip them just in time before it A) rockets down in the next few days (thank god for the ability of price tracking!) B) levels out to about $2-3 more than I payed for the playset typically netting me $8-$12. Long story short budget is really up in the air as it is really just a pet deck. I am working on knocking out the paper proxies I use though, luckily my play group is fairly chill about it as long as I tell them before hand. Also as for the Oracle of Mul Daya vs Courser of Kruphix the later has added benefit of triggering delirium on the off chance I still need it, otherwise yes it is budget call. Though I like your thinking on the extra lands...any other options I should know about that are reasonably priced?
I'm also on a really tight budget, and I appreciate this new take on a seemingly set in stone commander. I was thinking of actually trying to go spider tribal and make it competitive somehow, as I've always found ways to make seemingly limited commanders such as Baral into multiplayer monsters. This looks like a really good decklist though. Thanks to sharing!
Lovin' the jank! I'm also interested in seeing how tight your budget is. Are you building this solely on budget or are you adding the pieces because you have them?
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Loving the new activity on this list, sadly my deck is long gone in paper but I can certainly reboot this list online if that would be of help to you folks.
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Now that the above statement has been established; I would like to explain a few reasons for the deck not being spider tribal as well as the benefits.
1: Going spider tribal for Ishkanah, Grafwidow as the commander is terribly uncreative additionally is what people expect of the deck.
2: It is a waste of resources to jam every possible spider that looks "decent", as the deck can function off of what I call the "Big 3". The Big 3 are the "best" mass spider generators: Conspiracy,Spider Spawning, and Arachnogenesis. As these are only 3 cards it allows maximum flexibility to the deck, while also allowing opponents scratching their heads saying "where are all your spiders?".
3: It is immensely satisfying defeating opponents with Ishkanah, Grafwidow activated ability of "6B: Target opponent losses 1 life for each spider you control" while little to none Spiders in sight besides Ishkanah. So how the heck is this possible! Well see below to find out how
The combo in simplest form is conspiracy + ishkanah, grafwidow+ life // death(though Natural Affinitywill work as well) + sac outlet outlet that produces mana, preferably Ashnod's Altarand/or Phyrexian Altar + lots of lands. And that is it!
Important :The trick is to figure out how to aim "Spider Cannon" while still maximizing damage that is incrementally decreased as you sacrifice your lands. Optimally you tapped out your mana first to have mana to start doing damage the 1st few shots, after that 4 lands(3 to Ashnod's Altarfor 6 & 1 to Phyrexian Altarfor B) are sacrificed per additional firing of "Spider Cannon".
Though the combo can be enhanced using Splendid Reclamation to get all the lands back, please note lands "animated" by life // death will NOT be treated as creatures. Also you can skip the "spider"(conspiracy & ishkanah, grafwidow) and just sacrifice your lands and dump your mana into an extremely largeExsanguinate for the win.
Coming Soon
1 Barren Moor
1 Command Tower
1 Dakmor Salvage
1 Dryad Arbor -Creature #21
11 Forest
1 Foul Orchard
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Golgari Guildgate
1 Myriad Landscape
11 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple of Malady
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Tree of Tales
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Swarmyard
1 Woodland Cemetery
Creature 20
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Burnished Hart
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Eternal Witness
1 Golgari Thug
1 Greenwarden of Murasa
1 Hermit Druid
1 Noose Constrictor
1 Nyx Weaver
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 The Gitrog Monster
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Conjurer's Closet
1 Mind Stone
1 Mind's Eye
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Sol Ring
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Bow of Nylea
Enchantment 11
1 Animate Dead
1 Conspiracy
1 Crop Sigil
1 Cryptolith Rite
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Necromancy
1 Parallel Lives
1 Perilous Forays
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Primal Vigor
Instant 6
1 Arachnogenesis
1 Golgari Charm
1 Krosan Grip
1 Natural Affinity
1 Noxious Revival
1 Putrefy
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Cultivate
1 Dread Return
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Exsanguinate
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Kruphix's Insight
1 Life from the Loam
1 Life // Death
1 Night's Whisper
1 Rampant Growth
1 Read the Bones
1 Spider Spawning
1 Splendid Reclamation
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Verdant Confluence
1 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
Land
1 Barren Moor
1 Command Tower
1 Dryad Arbor
11 Forest
1 Foul Orchard
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Golgari Guildgate
1 Myriad Landscape
12 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple of Malady
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Tree of Tales
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Westvale Abbey
1 Woodland Cemetery
Creature
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Burnished Hart
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Eternal Witness
1 Genesis
1 Golgari Thug
1 Greenwarden of Murasa
1 Hermit Druid
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Ny Weaver
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Conjurer's Closet
1 Golgari Cluestone
1 Mind Stone
1 Mind's Eye
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Sol Ring
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
Enchantment
1 Animate Dead
1 Conspiracy
1 Crop Sigil
1 Cryptolith Rite
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Earthcraft
1 Grave Pact
1 Necromancy
1 Parallel Lives
1 Perilous Forays
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Primal Vigor
Instant
1 Arachnogenesis
1 Golgari Charm
1 Krosan Grip
1 Natural Affinity
1 Noxious Revival
1 Putrefy
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Cultivate
1 Dread Return
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Exsanguinate
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Life from the Loam
1 Life // Death
1 Night's Whisper
1 Rampant Growth
1 Read the Bones
1 Spider Spawning
1 Splendid Reclamation
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Verdant Confluence
To Do List
Link Deck to SigI think you are confused as to why I run the life // death combo, it is not to make them lands for beating face but for mass sac fodder and being treated as spiders. Sorry for confusing you about that, otherwise excellent recommendations.
Also if you are sacing your land guys, Titania, Protector of Argoth seems really good too. The only thing I am concerned is hitting that delirium effect. How do you feel about you hitting delirium? I assume you just wait till you got all your combos out on the field to do it?
Is Primal Vigor a budget choice to Doubling Season? Maybe you can dig deep for your conspiracy combo and get some enchantments while you at it with Kruphix's Insight AND get some delirium going on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY8h2vp5Xis
Lots of great points, also glad you like the deck ^-^. As for delirium it can be a challenge and I am still working on getting that right cocktail of card types into the grave, I do admit that I feel that the 4th type is enchantments/instants is the hardest to get. Also yes primal vigor is my budget doubling season
Though I am trying to stay limited on the mass grave filling as if I get conspiracy in the grave it takes alot of effort to get it back, any suggestions on how to remedy this?
Well you got some recursion already. E. Witness, Green Warden, and Noxious Revival. You can try Den Protector, Skullwinder or Pharika's Mender. If someone is a douche and blows up all your enchantments you can use Crystal Chimes to get them back. This might sound like good stuff but I would put some creatures that brings a long of tokens. Myr Battlesphere, Grave titan, Hornet Queen so you can feed Perilous Forays and make everyone cry when you got active Gravepact or Dictate of Erebos. Although I would probably get rid of Gravepact and put Butcher of Malakir. You got Sheoldred (bonus points for the spider body! ), so she can help you return Butcher easier than enchantments.
Then depending on how hateful your meta is, you could add Riftsweeper to bring back Conspiracy from exile. Also Bow of Nylea can save you some grief if people plan to blow up your graveyard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY8h2vp5Xis
This deck looks sweet otherwise. Spider tribal is a good way to play an ineffective deck and I think renaimation-combo or similar is the best way to run Ishkanah. Conspiracy definitely earn bonus points in my book.
| Omnath | Zada | Alesha | Scion |
| Mazirek | Animar |
Modern
UR Storm RU
UBRG Dredge GRBU
Standard
UR Thermo-Thing RU
Thanks for letting me know about the life // death combo not working with Splendid Reclamation,will be sure to edit OP to fix that. Am curious though is that specific to the wording of life//death or is it a general wording too land animation effects like natural affinity? Also glad you agree with my approach, though the game plan is all in theoretically it can take out 2 opposing players at 40 life totals. Still working on getting my spider cannon equation done, hopefully this weekend I will have it up.
Thanks for the tip on the delirium enablers, I suspect that "font" and "vessel" cycles will really help things along in that matter. Though to be honest am starting to lean away from focusing on delirium early game; as I am finding that often when I race to have delirium live I have nothing to get value off the spider tokens compared to the devastation of developing my board with dictate of erebos then getting my triggers. Not sure if that makes sense, though am thankful for the input and look forward to any more you might have ^-^
That does make sense. I think there are basically three categories of cards when it comes to delirium: 1) cards that help enable it and are good on their own (e.g.Wayfarer's Bauble), 2) cards that help enable it and are passable on their own (e.g.Font of Fertility), and 3) cards that you're only playing for delirium (e.g.Urza's Bauble). By including more cards of the second category, the intention is not so much to get delirium ASAP as to make sure that you're never stuck staring at "instant, creature, land" in the graveyard when you're ready to start making spiders. But I haven't played the deck and don't know if you even run into this problem at all. You are running a bunch of dredge stuff so that should help.
What is the budget for you build I notice you're not running Oracle of Mul Daya. Which seems good with you're general strategy of ramp lands into spider cannon.
edit: spacing errors
UBRNicol Bolas, the RavagerUBR
R Jaya Ballard, Task Mage R
2DH / Budget Commanders:
WMangara of Corondor 2DHW
BRXantcha, Sleeper Agent 2DHBR
Sadly as my near whole source of income is form a $20 allowance and using that to "invest" in new sets early and flip them just in time before it A) rockets down in the next few days (thank god for the ability of price tracking!) B) levels out to about $2-3 more than I payed for the playset typically netting me $8-$12. Long story short budget is really up in the air as it is really just a pet deck. I am working on knocking out the paper proxies I use though, luckily my play group is fairly chill about it as long as I tell them before hand. Also as for the Oracle of Mul Daya vs Courser of Kruphix the later has added benefit of triggering delirium on the off chance I still need it, otherwise yes it is budget call. Though I like your thinking on the extra lands...any other options I should know about that are reasonably priced?
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!