For the manabase check out this website, it's great: https://managathering.com
For budget options check out "SLOW", "MDFC" and "PAIN". Also try to cut your tapped lands, with this deck you need to play fast.
Legion's landing is probably only played as 1 mana ramp spell that comes with a token. I doubt anyone is activating the ability for value. If you were on some kind of stax build then maybe glass-cast heart would be good. I've Never seen a stax build, but hey maybe you can be the guy who writes the primer on rule of law Edgar.
Paladin of the bloodstained is a card that exists. If you want more bodies, play Bloodline Keeper instead. Or Mavren Fein. Or Elenda? 4 mana for 3 bodies is just really slow. I'd rather play night's whisper and just cast two separate vampires.
Urge to feed would be cool if it didn't force you to give up a turn of combat to pump your board.
Nameless inversion is actually quite good if you have sac outlets or non-creature anthems. It hits a lot of relevant hate bears, and several strong commanders too. You can even use inversion on an attacker and block with the token to kill that creature. Neat.
Taurean mauler is a giant beat stick without trample or flying. Very few cards in Edgar can prevent it from getting chump blocked over and over so the giant size doesn't do much for you.
Greetings! I notice that I haven't posted in this thread in nearly two years. Well, I recently pulled Edgar Markov out over a three day weekend and wanted to see what I have missed while in that time.
Regarding my personal deck, I have been able to add cards here and there thanks in part to Time Spiral remastered and Battlebond coming to Peru and delivering quality reprints such as Minion's Murmurs and Diabolic Intent.
Something which I did a search for and saw we haven't talked about through 22 pages of this thread is Reforge the Soul. Yes, it is not as good as Wheel of Fortune. I am not advocating it be placed in the most optimal version of the deck. However, for those playing on a budget, it is a fantastic card which can be tutored up to the top of the deck to force Miracle. Moreover, and let us be honest here, a true Wheel is worth the 5 mana if/when you have to hard cast it. I would rather see RtS than the bidding war Wheel. Finally, just like with Wheel of Fortune, you can draw into free mana and keep casting spells that same turn with your new grip of 7.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Whatever style you wish to play, be it fast and frenzied or slow and tactical, the surest way to defeat your opponent consistently is by dominating him or her in the war of card advantage." - Brian Wiseman, April 1996
I m thinking about making this thread live again. This thread help me improve and understand my edgar deck like no other threads out there and while searching i found out that the same goes for a lot of us. I ll make an effort making some posts to help kickstart it again waiting all for ur help and opinions!
Greetings! I notice that I haven't posted in this thread in nearly two years. Well, I recently pulled Edgar Markov out over a three day weekend and wanted to see what I have missed while in that time.
Something which I did a search for and saw we haven't talked about through 22 pages of this thread is Reforge the Soul. Yes, it is not as good as Wheel of Fortune. I am not advocating it be placed in the most optimal version of the deck. However, for those playing on a budget, it is a fantastic card which can be tutored up to the top of the deck to force Miracle. Moreover, and let us be honest here, a true Wheel is worth the 5 mana if/when you have to hard cast it. I would rather see RtS than the bidding war Wheel. Finally, just like with Wheel of Fortune, you can draw into free mana and keep casting spells that same turn with your new grip of 7.
Greetings!!! Drain Life
Like you said you're running Reforge the Soul instead of Wheel of Fortune which being overpriced and hard to find.
The problems I see with reforge the soul (and other wheel effects) is reloading your opponents hands which as an aggro deck we don’t want to happen, and while we ll draw more low curve monsters other players will draw out answers, heavy blockers, combo pieces etc they are missing.
Also hardcasting Reforge the Soul can lose you the game easily because that will take up most of your mana (unless the game is late, at which point probably something went wrong) and your opponents get to untap with 8 cards in their hands.
And while the miracle cost is 1 less than wheel comes with a lot of randomness added cause we lack the blue’s ability to draw and stack the top consistently and also the situation may not be favorable to use instead of wheel which is generally 2 mana cheaper and we decide when to cast it at all times
BUT as an aggro deck what we don’t want at any given time and already mentioned a lot in this thread is running out of steam and unloading our hand is the board making us vulnerable to wipes or to come back. I come up with some suggestions we can use some alredy mentioned before (if not all) like:
Falkenrath Pit Fighter A 2/1 1-mana drop which comes with an additional body we can use for fodder drawing 2 also triggering sac outlet effect we have Champion of dusk A same CMC as reforged but comes with a huge body Ad Nauseam Same CMC again but we can use it on instant speed before our turn Deadly dispute Is an excellent card that I found out is overperforming. Draw 2 while we getting a treasure and possible sac triggers making effectively cost 1 mana Pact of the serpent A cheaper minions murmurs / Champion of dusk effect which can also manipulate other player life points if you really need to push a bit of damage to finish off
Greetings fam! I m doing an effort to catch up to the latest sets released after the two Innistrad sets which more or less already being discussed on the thread. My eyes are not as keen as ISBPathfinders in spoting the best cards for the deck (if any) so I apologize if I miss anything being decent enough to be mentioned. So if anyone have any thoughts on anything else please let us know. ((I felt obligated to included any vamps released even if they aren’t decent at all))
DOMINARIA UNITED
KAMIGAWA NEON DYNASTY
THE BROTHERS WAR
STREETS OF NEW CAPENNA
UNIFINITY
SET REVIEW
WHITE
• In the Trenches – A 3mana anthem with the anility to remove a nonland threat.
• Tocasia’s Welcome- Now this is a very nice draw permanent even if its once per turn is a phyrexian arena / dark confidant without the lifeloss and we can almost alwayw trigger its abilities.
• March of Otherwordly Light – An instant speed single target removal. Although we aren’t very rich on white cards to spare we can hit 0-1 mana threats with 2 mana max.
• afterwards. It kind of reminds me of Mizzium Mortars but maybe with a worse drawback.
RED
• Sticky Fingers – A 1 mana aura that gives menace and and a treasure per combat damageisnt bad especially if your deck is oriented with auras and enchantments plus a draw when it leaves the field.
• Professional Face-breaker – It may not be a Vamp but this gives all our creatures the ability to create treasure tokens when they press damage through and also we get a bolas citadel like ability to play the top by sacking a treasure I can see that having a playtest see how it goes .
• Rob the Archives – exile the top 2 and copy by sacrifice a creature with 1 or or more giving us access to 4 cards and a possible sac triggers cant say that isn’t at least a decent card to consider
BLACK
• Sengir Connoisseur – 5 CMC 3/3 flyer ruined by its once each turn ability.
• Sheoldred, the Apocalypse – Lately I’m looking to find some alternates to Yagmoth Thran phycisian which isn’t perfoming for me as good as I wanted to. Sheolderd seems like a worth to try huge body with Deathtouch with a Purphoros like ability we can use cause most of our non creature spells and some creatures of ours are there to give us card draw and also putting pressure at the opponents cause card draw is an essential part of EDH and also inevitable at least once per turn. Its giving me the vibes to test it out. Let me know what you think
• Cut of the Profits – At least 3 mana for 1 draw plus the lifeloss it’s a mediocre draw spell. Its alternate cost which requires a 3 or greater power creature sacrifice to copy isn’t impossible to achieve and though it enables our sac effects isn’t at level of minion murmurs or pact of the serpent
• Cutthroat Contender – A decent 1 mana vamp with not a very good ability its almost vanilla 1/1.
• Diabolic Intent – A much appreciated tutor reprint
• Reckoner’s Bargain – That’s a card I ll sure try to fit in the deck. Draw 2 and also a sac trigger at instant speed. Yes please!
• Sanguine Spy - A pumped Viscera seer. Need 4 maan on the drop to use and secondary eff is kinda supbar and not easy to achive
• Illicit Shipment - As far as tutor goes, this is a pretty expensive card at 5cmc with the ability to copy by sacrificing a creature with 3 power or greater. I believe it could find its way to decks that haven’t yet got their expensive black tutors.
• Midnight Assassin – A 3 mana 1/2 Vamp isn’t exactly what we been waiting for.
• Vampire Scrivener – Another 5 cmc Vamp with decent abilities but not with the impact we need for spending that much mana
• Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor - A group hug tymna draw effect with a secondary ability oriented to the mid/late game. It could see some play as tymna sub if its missing and also redirect the attacks to other targets than you
• Nocturno of Myra’s marvels – This needed a little research and most of our cards has the word vampire or creature we can use for draw cards everytime we cast a spell with that word in its text
LAND
• Caves of Koilos / Sulfurous Springs / Battlefield Forge – Repinted painland for changing basic or dual taplands while staying on the budget
• Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire – A nice exchange of a Plains that can also be used as combat trick or remove a nasty threat. And the only of the Kamigawa land cycle I found worthy enough
• Secluded Courtyard – Similar effect to path to Ancestry and cavern of souls for those seeking to update their manabase
I was finally able to log in to my account and comment about the deck. I've been lurking for quite awhile now since Twitch seems not to be trusting Chrome to log in to my account so I finally decided to use this Edge browser..anyways...
I've been running 33 lands + a DFC and even when my avg mana cost is around 2.3 sometimes I get chocked on mana so I'm going up to 34. I'm having issues making a cut from my list. The suspects are: Drana, Liberator of Malakir I actually like this card but might be too slow for some Yaheeni, Undying Partisan survives wraths, goes tall fast. But IDK if 3 mana is worth it. We wanna prioritize going wide after all...not a bad card tho.
Among the lands I am considering adding are the following: Reflecting Pool I'm not sold on depending on your other colours to produce mana, specially in such a colour intensive deck as this Exotic Orchard This might be the one I have higher on my priority list. My playgroup won't fail to play one of the colours I need AFAIK, the only thing that could wreck me is the timing when they play each colour vs my fixing needs... Graven Cairns (17% of my mana symbols are red) > Fetid Heath (13% of my mana symbols are white)
One card I'm no longer running is Legions Landing. Additional one drop with life link? Yes please...however, it doesn't trigger eminence, so it's out and an additional 1 drop came in.
I've also cut Mana Crypt from my list. Not sure if this is the right move but the deck is very colour intensive and having 2 colorless mana wasnt as useful as some may think. What usually happened is that only one colorless mana came in handy for me and IDK if thats worth a resource from our hand.
EDIT: been running one more land (so 34 lands + a 1 MDFC) and it's felt better. I'm considering more drain/aristocrat effects since sometimes the board doesn't allow me to attack and slows down my gameplan.
23/02 EDIT 2: added reflecting pool, orchard and cairns as lands, I cut the 4th basic swamp the Rakdos DFC and sth else for them. I also decided to keep Yahenni and I'm no longer including Bloodsucker: hes too slow.
18/04 EDIT 3: Can't believe how dead this board is.
I haven't been playing Markov much lately 'cause I've been having so much fun with my reanimator deck.
A while ago I added Vraan, Executioner Thane and Braids, Arisen Nightmare and they've been good. The more sac outlets I have to proc Vraan consistently the better. Remember it also procs when you declare blockers and your vamps die so that's nice.
At the same time I added Roar of Resistance and Bastion of Remembrance. I've drawn the first a couple of times and it'ts been ok. It's one of the first cards I'd replace tho so I'm still testing it. I've only drawn Bastion once and wasn't useful at that time. However, I'm going kinda heavy on this drain subtheme 'cause it feels like a must to have the extra reach needed to close out games.
I've JUST added Mercadia's Downfall to my list and will give it its first try this Friday. I had also added Serra Ascendant, reason being: it's an aggro deck and it's arguable the best 1 drop for this type of deck. IDC about not getting my free token, the upside of playing this t1 or t2 is SO HIGH it's worth it. I have played some games with this on the 99 but haven't drawn it yet.
I ve just checked the decklist and the mentions you ve done which some were intriguing i might say and i ll jump onto testing them too!
Roar of Resistance seems very intereating a nice addition or exchange of goblin war drums i ve never like it so much and also the buff effect might come in handy for fastewr finishers early on Creeping Bloodsuckerand Mishra, Claimed by Gix arent cutting for the purpose if the fast aggro deck they are both slow imo
About lands i m using 32+1 mdfc and never had any problems so far and Yaheeni, Undying Partisan its a sac outlet too and can pop off to high stats very dangerously and fast too sometimes
Adding lands I would suggest using what you have available cause the optimize manabase can be a little rough to assemble but my way to go is NO TAPLANDS prefer basics that losing a land that can get you 2 bodies at the least
Legions Landing. I cant say i aggree with cutting it cause except from the body it also becomes a land most of the times the same turn and 1 white untapped might give solutions or bluffs for your opponents removing Mana Crypt from your list I m not sure if this is the right move too and your explanation about the deck being very colour intensive is legit and that why we dont use the new lotus i believe
I study your list and i can see it clogging not by lands but with keeeping you proactive cause i see a lot thatg need to stay on field at least for a round or the full amount of protection cards and cards like vraan which is good but the one of per turn isnt exaclty what we re looking for with the number we can pexploit see purphoros for example. Seems to me that it took a turn from the low curve super fast aggro finisher and goes to another direction like lifegain/lifeloss effect and how to utilize them better. Which is cool and intersting but you cant have both atm the deck is a mix of 2 diffent approaches neither is bad but you have to decide and start removing/adding pieces to that purpose. I cant help you the lifegain/lifeloss direction but i can give you suggestion and explanations for the turbo aggro if you choose to go that way
March of the machine came with some very nice cards for us to test/add in the deck such as
Dusk legion Duelist A 2 mana 2/2 vigilance coming with an extra body and the ability to draw a card when it get a counter even if its once per turn its an extra plus
Corrupted Conviction for 1 mana we get a sac outlet at instant speed and 2 cards? YES PLEASE
Ichor Drinker 1 mana lifelinker is always welcome its ability isnt something amazingand kinda situational but it can provide an artifact or creature for using as sac outlet I ll just stay at the 1 maan lifelink
Thing is you cant rely 100% on killing via combat damage. Blockers and wipes can hold you back. Thats why you need extra reach and being aggro and pinging complement esch other.
This reach is provided by cars such as Zulaport, Vraan, Bastion, Purphoros, Tremors, Braids, etc.
so regarding the cards mentioned:
I am not running creeping or mishra (but one cant say mishra is "too slow" cause it does literally the same as sanctum seeker, a staple imo)
I am not running crypt for the reason already explained.
Im not running Landing either cause for 1 mana I prefer 2 vamps instead of one. I dont want ramp with extra steps and were basically never gonna use the "create a token mode".
I am running Yaheeni cause I convinced myself again how good it is.
on the other hand, cards such as corrupted conviction and village rites go according to my gameplan but havent included them yet cause I cant find room for them. They seem "meh"
Also Serras Ascendant is a staple imo, cant believe so many people are not running it.
I consider my version to be turbo aggro with an aristocrats subtheme, not a lifegain or pure aristocrats build.
now dusk legion duelist sounds VERY Bad Cause its so conditional
I aggree with your point about aggro and ping complement eachother but also imo makes the aggro slower casue we using resources to something to do dmg over time than dmg now but its always based on the preference of the pilot. Have you try Sheoldred, the Apocalypse I would prefer it over yagmoth(which i m not happy with its performance) and it fits the playstyle
About blocckers and wipes the deck really never had a problem we can re assemble our vamp armies fast enough faster actually than the other palyers would regroup their boards and they know it hitting a wipe (4mana most of the times) if you arent manascrew you can deploy 8 bodies with 4 mana. From, my expereince when I was using them protection spells was mostly dead draws were what i need was a bit of push for a bit more damage
about Dusk legion duelist has a same clause as vraan but instead of ping once it draws you a card which i think we prefer both seems kinda meh due to the once per turn clause.
I remove cards like minion murmurs and pact of the serpent to add the fewer mana cost and insant speed draw spells so far they excelling
Serras ascendant IS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME and terrifying especially early on we definitely include this on aggro strats with white
My problem so far is Draw I would prefer constant cheap draw but thats a lot to ask so the new instant spells do cut it for me. I m really a fan of scapegoat but never been able to test it yet how is it for you so far???
what i m trying is to beeing able to always have threats than keeping answers or building into threats with cards like throne of the god pharaoh but there are some cards I m not happy with like liliana/ yagmoth which i m trying to find changes
I know this is largely inactive but i still have a list heavily inspired by this thread and was wondering if there is somewhere better to discuss edgar tech and innovations. i know many cedh decks have discords for them, does edgar even though it is not cedh? he feels popular enough.
also my recent contribution to any discourse is that Bennie Bracks and Knight Errant of Eos are absolutely nuts in this deck and convoke tech should really be explored more
Order of Sacred Dusk: if you squint this is a really expensive lord, but it can be cast for free easily if things are going at all well. Yes exalted is a nonbo with going wide but unless most of the tokens are already bigger than 1/1 if is effectively similar amount of damage being dealt with the trade off of far better life and blocker stabilization with how it can instantly swing in for a double digit amount of lifelink haste the turn it is cast. Hoarding Broodlord proves this type of card is easily castable and this one is even easier since it is easier to fuels its colored pips with Cavern or Unclaimed Territory. The normal play pattern is to cast it turn 3-5 and swing with it to refuel your life total for more drawing with Black Market Connections and other such draw engines. Master of Dark Rites: admittedly this is maybe the most awkward addition. With how low the curve is 3 mana is almost too much to fully utilize, and the fact it can’t be use for abilities is further a bit awkward. Thankfully a few of the non vampires are clerics such as Selfless Spirit and Yawgmoth so it cast a large swath of the deck. This also enables casting Edgar early as an option for if opponents in the meta aren't likely to play effects like Imprisoned in the Moon. The deck def needs mana less than card draw but in such abundance this can find uses, and one drops have for a long time been the part of the curve with the most embarrassing includes and thus the lowest bar to clear to be worth including. Bartolomé del Presidio: The only main set card worth it, Bartolomé makes combat math tricky in a way similar to Bloodthrone Vampire with the added bonus of convoking for White pips which is increasingly relevant. Clavileño, First of the Blessed: for whatever reason, Clavileño’s ability doesn’t expire at end of turn, which means that he is slow yet potent board wipe insurance, and disincentivizes blocks which kill and upgrade smaller tokens. Dusk Legion Sergeant: this is basically a far worse version of a Selfless Spirit effect. Holding up the mana will be rough and often, probably not worth doing, but even just being a 2/2 menace black vampire is such a good starting point that the board wipe protection makes it a worthy include even if holding it up consistently is not always worthwhile. Charismatic Conqueror: this is a strong contender for the best card of this entire product release, even outside of Edgar. A vigilant white body that can attack and then convoke and makes further white lifelinkers for convoking makes this a massive life total stabilizer. The opponents having a choice is obviously a downside, but they either make themselves less able to block the army or they widen it with lifelinkers. This is also like the first really good way to realistically trigger Welcoming Vampire and Bennie Bracks more than once a turn cycle.
Not worth it:
Amalia Benavides Aguirre: this joins the long list of cards that would be better if life gain dovetailed more naturally with the deck rather than being a compromise. Echo of Dusk: this might actually make the cut in a list running all 10 playable fetches for some reason, but that is not really practical and thus it is too often a vanilla 2/2 for 2 which doesn’t cut it. Preacher of the Schism: Like Amalia, this card only really works well in a life gain version of Edgar, as only the card draw ability justifies itself, and unless the turn 1 play was Serra Ascendant, the pilot is rarely the player with the most life Bloodletter of Aclazotz: On the cusp of being playable but 4 mana is a bit much for how little this doesn’t if things aren’t already going very well, especially with how demanding that mana cost is. Sanguine Evangelist: Battlecry is amazing to the point Signal Pest sometimes seems appealing. Unlike signal pest, this doesn’t have evasion so it is unlikely to actually provide a buff more than the one time it is swung with into any chump blocker. Elenda's Hierophant: see Amalia Redemption Choir: even if it’s trigger didn’t require coven and just worked on ETB and attack, this still wouldn’t make the cut for how unimpressive it is as an attacker and the fact it needs things in the graveyard to operate Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz: there are not enough sac outlets to frequently get the third trigger and even if there were there aren’t many situations where doing that is worth more than having 3 bodies that could have each attacked.
All others are just nowhere near considering.
Bonus:
Everything Comes to Dust: Hoarding Broodlord has proven easier to convoke than anticipated, and while being triple white as opposed to black is more difficult to enable, on top of the extra 2 mana value, this effect is so game warping it is worth running. It can be a bit tricky to cast so that no random enemy soldiers, knights, warriors, clerics or even sometimes humans, accidentally survive but being able to solve basically every problem like Ghostly Prison or Ensnaring Bridge this deck runs into in a one sided exile board wipe is too much upside to ignore. The notable upsides over Olivia’s Wrath are that it exiles, hits most relevant non creature issues, there is no problem or enemy creatures potentially being too big, and although board state is kind of a precondition for both with Dust it is more negotiable. Beseech the Mirror: this feels like the card that Forerunner wanted to be. This finds whatever is most needed at the time and casts it for free which will trigger Edgar and unlike forerunner not set back a draw step. Also unlike Forerunner, it is black for Nocturnus, and while the casting cost is intimidating it is basically equivalent to Necropotence, with the bigger upside of being basically whatever card in the deck is most helpful, instead of merely a painful draw engine.
Any suggestion for a more budget mana base? Also, happy for any other suggestion to the deck
Here is the link to my current deck list (post Crimson Vow):
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4216288#paper
https://managathering.com
For budget options check out "SLOW", "MDFC" and "PAIN". Also try to cut your tapped lands, with this deck you need to play fast.
A few questions:
PS: Ive read the whole thread now, hope these cards havent been discussed before. If so im sorry.
Paladin of the bloodstained is a card that exists. If you want more bodies, play Bloodline Keeper instead. Or Mavren Fein. Or Elenda? 4 mana for 3 bodies is just really slow. I'd rather play night's whisper and just cast two separate vampires.
Urge to feed would be cool if it didn't force you to give up a turn of combat to pump your board.
Nameless inversion is actually quite good if you have sac outlets or non-creature anthems. It hits a lot of relevant hate bears, and several strong commanders too. You can even use inversion on an attacker and block with the token to kill that creature. Neat.
Taurean mauler is a giant beat stick without trample or flying. Very few cards in Edgar can prevent it from getting chump blocked over and over so the giant size doesn't do much for you.
Regarding my personal deck, I have been able to add cards here and there thanks in part to Time Spiral remastered and Battlebond coming to Peru and delivering quality reprints such as Minion's Murmurs and Diabolic Intent.
Something which I did a search for and saw we haven't talked about through 22 pages of this thread is Reforge the Soul. Yes, it is not as good as Wheel of Fortune. I am not advocating it be placed in the most optimal version of the deck. However, for those playing on a budget, it is a fantastic card which can be tutored up to the top of the deck to force Miracle. Moreover, and let us be honest here, a true Wheel is worth the 5 mana if/when you have to hard cast it. I would rather see RtS than the bidding war Wheel. Finally, just like with Wheel of Fortune, you can draw into free mana and keep casting spells that same turn with your new grip of 7.
I m thinking about making this thread live again. This thread help me improve and understand my edgar deck like no other threads out there and while searching i found out that the same goes for a lot of us. I ll make an effort making some posts to help kickstart it again waiting all for ur help and opinions!
Greetings!!! Drain Life
Like you said you're running Reforge the Soul instead of Wheel of Fortune which being overpriced and hard to find.
The problems I see with reforge the soul (and other wheel effects) is reloading your opponents hands which as an aggro deck we don’t want to happen, and while we ll draw more low curve monsters other players will draw out answers, heavy blockers, combo pieces etc they are missing.
Also hardcasting Reforge the Soul can lose you the game easily because that will take up most of your mana (unless the game is late, at which point probably something went wrong) and your opponents get to untap with 8 cards in their hands.
And while the miracle cost is 1 less than wheel comes with a lot of randomness added cause we lack the blue’s ability to draw and stack the top consistently and also the situation may not be favorable to use instead of wheel which is generally 2 mana cheaper and we decide when to cast it at all times
BUT as an aggro deck what we don’t want at any given time and already mentioned a lot in this thread is running out of steam and unloading our hand is the board making us vulnerable to wipes or to come back. I come up with some suggestions we can use some alredy mentioned before (if not all) like:
Falkenrath Pit Fighter A 2/1 1-mana drop which comes with an additional body we can use for fodder drawing 2 also triggering sac outlet effect we have
Champion of dusk A same CMC as reforged but comes with a huge body
Ad Nauseam Same CMC again but we can use it on instant speed before our turn
Deadly dispute Is an excellent card that I found out is overperforming. Draw 2 while we getting a treasure and possible sac triggers making effectively cost 1 mana
Pact of the serpent A cheaper minions murmurs / Champion of dusk effect which can also manipulate other player life points if you really need to push a bit of damage to finish off
DOMINARIA UNITED
KAMIGAWA NEON DYNASTY
THE BROTHERS WAR
STREETS OF NEW CAPENNA
UNIFINITY
SET REVIEW
WHITE
• In the Trenches – A 3mana anthem with the anility to remove a nonland threat.
• Tocasia’s Welcome- Now this is a very nice draw permanent even if its once per turn is a phyrexian arena / dark confidant without the lifeloss and we can almost alwayw trigger its abilities.
• March of Otherwordly Light – An instant speed single target removal. Although we aren’t very rich on white cards to spare we can hit 0-1 mana threats with 2 mana max.
• afterwards. It kind of reminds me of Mizzium Mortars but maybe with a worse drawback.
RED
• Sticky Fingers – A 1 mana aura that gives menace and and a treasure per combat damageisnt bad especially if your deck is oriented with auras and enchantments plus a draw when it leaves the field.
• Professional Face-breaker – It may not be a Vamp but this gives all our creatures the ability to create treasure tokens when they press damage through and also we get a bolas citadel like ability to play the top by sacking a treasure I can see that having a playtest see how it goes .
• Rob the Archives – exile the top 2 and copy by sacrifice a creature with 1 or or more giving us access to 4 cards and a possible sac triggers cant say that isn’t at least a decent card to consider
BLACK
• Sengir Connoisseur – 5 CMC 3/3 flyer ruined by its once each turn ability.
• Sheoldred, the Apocalypse – Lately I’m looking to find some alternates to Yagmoth Thran phycisian which isn’t perfoming for me as good as I wanted to. Sheolderd seems like a worth to try huge body with Deathtouch with a Purphoros like ability we can use cause most of our non creature spells and some creatures of ours are there to give us card draw and also putting pressure at the opponents cause card draw is an essential part of EDH and also inevitable at least once per turn. Its giving me the vibes to test it out. Let me know what you think
• Cut of the Profits – At least 3 mana for 1 draw plus the lifeloss it’s a mediocre draw spell. Its alternate cost which requires a 3 or greater power creature sacrifice to copy isn’t impossible to achieve and though it enables our sac effects isn’t at level of minion murmurs or pact of the serpent
• Cutthroat Contender – A decent 1 mana vamp with not a very good ability its almost vanilla 1/1.
• Diabolic Intent – A much appreciated tutor reprint
• Reckoner’s Bargain – That’s a card I ll sure try to fit in the deck. Draw 2 and also a sac trigger at instant speed. Yes please!
• Sanguine Spy - A pumped Viscera seer. Need 4 maan on the drop to use and secondary eff is kinda supbar and not easy to achive
• Illicit Shipment - As far as tutor goes, this is a pretty expensive card at 5cmc with the ability to copy by sacrificing a creature with 3 power or greater. I believe it could find its way to decks that haven’t yet got their expensive black tutors.
• Midnight Assassin – A 3 mana 1/2 Vamp isn’t exactly what we been waiting for.
• Vampire Scrivener – Another 5 cmc Vamp with decent abilities but not with the impact we need for spending that much mana
• Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor - A group hug tymna draw effect with a secondary ability oriented to the mid/late game. It could see some play as tymna sub if its missing and also redirect the attacks to other targets than you
• Nocturno of Myra’s marvels – This needed a little research and most of our cards has the word vampire or creature we can use for draw cards everytime we cast a spell with that word in its text
LAND
• Caves of Koilos / Sulfurous Springs / Battlefield Forge – Repinted painland for changing basic or dual taplands while staying on the budget
• Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire – A nice exchange of a Plains that can also be used as combat trick or remove a nasty threat. And the only of the Kamigawa land cycle I found worthy enough
• Secluded Courtyard – Similar effect to path to Ancestry and cavern of souls for those seeking to update their manabase
Roar of Resistance caughts my attention from the upcoming Phyrexia set
Creeping Bloodsucker seems worth trying from Jumpstart 2022
Mishra, Claimed by Gix from The Brothers' War. Its a second Sanctum Seeker
I've been running 33 lands + a DFC and even when my avg mana cost is around 2.3 sometimes I get chocked on mana so I'm going up to 34. I'm having issues making a cut from my list. The suspects are:
Drana, Liberator of Malakir I actually like this card but might be too slow for some
Yaheeni, Undying Partisan survives wraths, goes tall fast. But IDK if 3 mana is worth it. We wanna prioritize going wide after all...not a bad card tho.
Among the lands I am considering adding are the following:
Reflecting Pool I'm not sold on depending on your other colours to produce mana, specially in such a colour intensive deck as this
Exotic Orchard This might be the one I have higher on my priority list. My playgroup won't fail to play one of the colours I need AFAIK, the only thing that could wreck me is the timing when they play each colour vs my fixing needs...
Graven Cairns (17% of my mana symbols are red) > Fetid Heath (13% of my mana symbols are white)
One card I'm no longer running is Legions Landing. Additional one drop with life link? Yes please...however, it doesn't trigger eminence, so it's out and an additional 1 drop came in.
I've also cut Mana Crypt from my list. Not sure if this is the right move but the deck is very colour intensive and having 2 colorless mana wasnt as useful as some may think. What usually happened is that only one colorless mana came in handy for me and IDK if thats worth a resource from our hand.
My list for reference: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/wt7U6GDaS0iW6XtpMYLQQQ
Any opinions about it regarding cards we've gotten during the latest sets are welcome.
EDIT: been running one more land (so 34 lands + a 1 MDFC) and it's felt better. I'm considering more drain/aristocrat effects since sometimes the board doesn't allow me to attack and slows down my gameplan.
23/02 EDIT 2: added reflecting pool, orchard and cairns as lands, I cut the 4th basic swamp the Rakdos DFC and sth else for them. I also decided to keep Yahenni and I'm no longer including Bloodsucker: hes too slow.
18/04 EDIT 3: Can't believe how dead this board is.
I haven't been playing Markov much lately 'cause I've been having so much fun with my reanimator deck.
A while ago I added Vraan, Executioner Thane and Braids, Arisen Nightmare and they've been good. The more sac outlets I have to proc Vraan consistently the better. Remember it also procs when you declare blockers and your vamps die so that's nice.
At the same time I added Roar of Resistance and Bastion of Remembrance. I've drawn the first a couple of times and it'ts been ok. It's one of the first cards I'd replace tho so I'm still testing it. I've only drawn Bastion once and wasn't useful at that time. However, I'm going kinda heavy on this drain subtheme 'cause it feels like a must to have the extra reach needed to close out games.
I've JUST added Mercadia's Downfall to my list and will give it its first try this Friday. I had also added Serra Ascendant, reason being: it's an aggro deck and it's arguable the best 1 drop for this type of deck. IDC about not getting my free token, the upside of playing this t1 or t2 is SO HIGH it's worth it. I have played some games with this on the 99 but haven't drawn it yet.
Cards I'm considering adding after I finish testing the previous ones mentioned are Elesh Norn and some type of recursion like Athreos, God of Passage or Phyrexian Reclamation
I ve just checked the decklist and the mentions you ve done which some were intriguing i might say and i ll jump onto testing them too!
Roar of Resistance seems very intereating a nice addition or exchange of goblin war drums i ve never like it so much and also the buff effect might come in handy for fastewr finishers early on
Creeping Bloodsuckerand Mishra, Claimed by Gix arent cutting for the purpose if the fast aggro deck they are both slow imo
About lands i m using 32+1 mdfc and never had any problems so far and Yaheeni, Undying Partisan its a sac outlet too and can pop off to high stats very dangerously and fast too sometimes
Adding lands I would suggest using what you have available cause the optimize manabase can be a little rough to assemble but my way to go is NO TAPLANDS prefer basics that losing a land that can get you 2 bodies at the least
Legions Landing. I cant say i aggree with cutting it cause except from the body it also becomes a land most of the times the same turn and 1 white untapped might give solutions or bluffs for your opponents removing Mana Crypt from your list I m not sure if this is the right move too and your explanation about the deck being very colour intensive is legit and that why we dont use the new lotus i believe
I study your list and i can see it clogging not by lands but with keeeping you proactive cause i see a lot thatg need to stay on field at least for a round or the full amount of protection cards and cards like vraan which is good but the one of per turn isnt exaclty what we re looking for with the number we can pexploit see purphoros for example. Seems to me that it took a turn from the low curve super fast aggro finisher and goes to another direction like lifegain/lifeloss effect and how to utilize them better. Which is cool and intersting but you cant have both atm the deck is a mix of 2 diffent approaches neither is bad but you have to decide and start removing/adding pieces to that purpose. I cant help you the lifegain/lifeloss direction but i can give you suggestion and explanations for the turbo aggro if you choose to go that way
March of the machine came with some very nice cards for us to test/add in the deck such as
Dusk legion Duelist A 2 mana 2/2 vigilance coming with an extra body and the ability to draw a card when it get a counter even if its once per turn its an extra plus
Corrupted Conviction for 1 mana we get a sac outlet at instant speed and 2 cards? YES PLEASE
Ichor Drinker 1 mana lifelinker is always welcome its ability isnt something amazingand kinda situational but it can provide an artifact or creature for using as sac outlet I ll just stay at the 1 maan lifelink
This reach is provided by cars such as Zulaport, Vraan, Bastion, Purphoros, Tremors, Braids, etc.
so regarding the cards mentioned:
I am not running creeping or mishra (but one cant say mishra is "too slow" cause it does literally the same as sanctum seeker, a staple imo)
I am not running crypt for the reason already explained.
Im not running Landing either cause for 1 mana I prefer 2 vamps instead of one. I dont want ramp with extra steps and were basically never gonna use the "create a token mode".
I am running Yaheeni cause I convinced myself again how good it is.
on the other hand, cards such as corrupted conviction and village rites go according to my gameplan but havent included them yet cause I cant find room for them. They seem "meh"
Also Serras Ascendant is a staple imo, cant believe so many people are not running it.
I consider my version to be turbo aggro with an aristocrats subtheme, not a lifegain or pure aristocrats build.
now dusk legion duelist sounds VERY Bad Cause its so conditional
About blocckers and wipes the deck really never had a problem we can re assemble our vamp armies fast enough faster actually than the other palyers would regroup their boards and they know it hitting a wipe (4mana most of the times) if you arent manascrew you can deploy 8 bodies with 4 mana. From, my expereince when I was using them protection spells was mostly dead draws were what i need was a bit of push for a bit more damage
about Dusk legion duelist has a same clause as vraan but instead of ping once it draws you a card which i think we prefer both seems kinda meh due to the once per turn clause.
I remove cards like minion murmurs and pact of the serpent to add the fewer mana cost and insant speed draw spells so far they excelling
Serras ascendant IS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME and terrifying especially early on we definitely include this on aggro strats with white
Thats my list so far https://www.moxfield.com/decks/WIuKQtpV2ESTCI1ae739_w
what i m trying is to beeing able to always have threats than keeping answers or building into threats with cards like throne of the god pharaoh but there are some cards I m not happy with like liliana/ yagmoth which i m trying to find changes
also my recent contribution to any discourse is that Bennie Bracks and Knight Errant of Eos are absolutely nuts in this deck and convoke tech should really be explored more
Making the cut:
Order of Sacred Dusk: if you squint this is a really expensive lord, but it can be cast for free easily if things are going at all well. Yes exalted is a nonbo with going wide but unless most of the tokens are already bigger than 1/1 if is effectively similar amount of damage being dealt with the trade off of far better life and blocker stabilization with how it can instantly swing in for a double digit amount of lifelink haste the turn it is cast. Hoarding Broodlord proves this type of card is easily castable and this one is even easier since it is easier to fuels its colored pips with Cavern or Unclaimed Territory. The normal play pattern is to cast it turn 3-5 and swing with it to refuel your life total for more drawing with Black Market Connections and other such draw engines.
Master of Dark Rites: admittedly this is maybe the most awkward addition. With how low the curve is 3 mana is almost too much to fully utilize, and the fact it can’t be use for abilities is further a bit awkward. Thankfully a few of the non vampires are clerics such as Selfless Spirit and Yawgmoth so it cast a large swath of the deck. This also enables casting Edgar early as an option for if opponents in the meta aren't likely to play effects like Imprisoned in the Moon. The deck def needs mana less than card draw but in such abundance this can find uses, and one drops have for a long time been the part of the curve with the most embarrassing includes and thus the lowest bar to clear to be worth including.
Bartolomé del Presidio: The only main set card worth it, Bartolomé makes combat math tricky in a way similar to Bloodthrone Vampire with the added bonus of convoking for White pips which is increasingly relevant.
Clavileño, First of the Blessed: for whatever reason, Clavileño’s ability doesn’t expire at end of turn, which means that he is slow yet potent board wipe insurance, and disincentivizes blocks which kill and upgrade smaller tokens.
Dusk Legion Sergeant: this is basically a far worse version of a Selfless Spirit effect. Holding up the mana will be rough and often, probably not worth doing, but even just being a 2/2 menace black vampire is such a good starting point that the board wipe protection makes it a worthy include even if holding it up consistently is not always worthwhile.
Charismatic Conqueror: this is a strong contender for the best card of this entire product release, even outside of Edgar. A vigilant white body that can attack and then convoke and makes further white lifelinkers for convoking makes this a massive life total stabilizer. The opponents having a choice is obviously a downside, but they either make themselves less able to block the army or they widen it with lifelinkers. This is also like the first really good way to realistically trigger Welcoming Vampire and Bennie Bracks more than once a turn cycle.
Not worth it:
Amalia Benavides Aguirre: this joins the long list of cards that would be better if life gain dovetailed more naturally with the deck rather than being a compromise.
Echo of Dusk: this might actually make the cut in a list running all 10 playable fetches for some reason, but that is not really practical and thus it is too often a vanilla 2/2 for 2 which doesn’t cut it.
Preacher of the Schism: Like Amalia, this card only really works well in a life gain version of Edgar, as only the card draw ability justifies itself, and unless the turn 1 play was Serra Ascendant, the pilot is rarely the player with the most life
Bloodletter of Aclazotz: On the cusp of being playable but 4 mana is a bit much for how little this doesn’t if things aren’t already going very well, especially with how demanding that mana cost is.
Sanguine Evangelist: Battlecry is amazing to the point Signal Pest sometimes seems appealing. Unlike signal pest, this doesn’t have evasion so it is unlikely to actually provide a buff more than the one time it is swung with into any chump blocker.
Elenda's Hierophant: see Amalia
Redemption Choir: even if it’s trigger didn’t require coven and just worked on ETB and attack, this still wouldn’t make the cut for how unimpressive it is as an attacker and the fact it needs things in the graveyard to operate
Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz: there are not enough sac outlets to frequently get the third trigger and even if there were there aren’t many situations where doing that is worth more than having 3 bodies that could have each attacked.
All others are just nowhere near considering.
Bonus:
Everything Comes to Dust: Hoarding Broodlord has proven easier to convoke than anticipated, and while being triple white as opposed to black is more difficult to enable, on top of the extra 2 mana value, this effect is so game warping it is worth running. It can be a bit tricky to cast so that no random enemy soldiers, knights, warriors, clerics or even sometimes humans, accidentally survive but being able to solve basically every problem like Ghostly Prison or Ensnaring Bridge this deck runs into in a one sided exile board wipe is too much upside to ignore. The notable upsides over Olivia’s Wrath are that it exiles, hits most relevant non creature issues, there is no problem or enemy creatures potentially being too big, and although board state is kind of a precondition for both with Dust it is more negotiable.
Beseech the Mirror: this feels like the card that Forerunner wanted to be. This finds whatever is most needed at the time and casts it for free which will trigger Edgar and unlike forerunner not set back a draw step. Also unlike Forerunner, it is black for Nocturnus, and while the casting cost is intimidating it is basically equivalent to Necropotence, with the bigger upside of being basically whatever card in the deck is most helpful, instead of merely a painful draw engine.