Hello! My playgroup is doing a FFA five-player Tiny Leader brawl where each Commander is a flip-walker. I was one of the last to pick and took Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh (no one grabbed Liliana, which I was surprised to see. I just didn't feel like making yet another mono-black deck).
Playing on the flip theme and wanting to have some fun, I decided to have a coin-flip theme! Aside from that, I'm basically running a ton of mass removal.
I tested a few games on Forge, and coin-flipping is actually really fun! Even without Krark's Thumb, flipping has huge and powerful upsides and miserable downsides but in general have been totally worth playing. Mogg Assassin has been particularly powerful. In multiplayer, even if you fail, you can choose an opponent who doesn't control the creature you want to kill and often get the same result anyways. Goblin Kaboomist is actually a really powerful card as well, easily capable of creating 3-4 mines before eventually succumbing to its own bombs. Ydwen Efreet makes a good attacker and a half-decent blocker ( ). Without the Thumb, I've been able to make upwards of 6 1/1 Elementals with Molten Birth.
The two most powerful flip cards are definitely Planar Chaos and Goblin Bomb. The former is flipping hilarious, while the latter is a very reliable win condition.
One more coin-related synergy I've found is Chandra's Spitfire and Goblin Festival. This is another combo that wins games. The trick is activating Goblin Festival multiple times by retaining priority to pump Chandra's Spitfire to ridiculous proportions. Even if you lose control of the festival eventually, you just give it to the opponent who's likely about to die to Spitfire and get it back anyways.
I'm embracing the chaos in general with cards like Gamble and wheels. The only coin-flipper that's been on the fence is Fiery Gambit, but the card has to stay because of my greed.
I crushed the first game. Turn 2 Krark's Thumb into flipped Chandra who went completely unmolested and dealt a ton of damage was a game-winning move. I won the game out of nowhere with Fiery Gambit, winning all three coin tosses. This allowed me to play 2 board-wipes in the same turn and kill both players. It certainly helped that I wasn't the target of Jace's mill. Nissa had 1 card left in library when she lost.
Game two I kept a hand full of coin-flip cards and a Thumb. I was the first target of the mill this game, but it didn't matter because Nissa ramped into several fat Hydras and completely ran us over. I was mostly responsible for this happening because I played Mana Clash with Jace and got him down to 17 life and myself to 14, which essentially killed us both. Woops.
Game three, I kept a shaky hand with 4 Mountains, Puppet's Verdict and a couple X spells. I drew a Wheel of Fate and happily played it on turn 2. Chandra came out the following turn, as did everyone else's TLs. I tried to kill Nissa with Fiery Gambit after attacking with Chandra (mostly to flip her) and failed on the first flip (no Thumb). I flipped Chandra and -2d to kill Nissa anyways. This slowed the ramp deck down quite enough, but the following turn I am enchanted with Fraying Sanity. On the following turn Jace dispels my Puppet's Verdict and then casts Brain Freeze for 9 cards (18 with Fraying). A Windfall on the following turn and my own Wheel of Fate manage to mill me many times over. Jace continues to mill out Nissa with very good Sphinx's Tutelage activations.
Tie-breaker round: No Thumb this game either, but I keep a very good hand with Goblin Bomb, Grim Lavamancer, HangarBack Walker, Planar Chaos and two Mountains. Goblin Bomb comes down turn 2 and starts ticking up in the background. Planar Chaos comes down on turn 3 and dies on my upkeep but did its damage; it countered both Nissa and Jace coming down as well as a mill spell. I follow it up with Chandra. I manage to flip her and clear the board, butDungrove Elder makes an appearance and starts smacking me and Jace in turn, without me being able to answer it and killing my Chandra. Jace got his beatdown draw: Howling Mine with Ensoul Artifact is a combo, and man-lands mean I can't sweep the board efficiently. Luckily, Jace's beaters distract Nissa from my measly board of a 3/3 Hangarback Walker. I'm holding Goblin Festival in hand with a plan, however. My Goblin Bomb worked its way to 4 counters, with both opponents at low life totals. Nissa plays a Reclamation Sage and crushes my dreams. At this point, I get Chandra's Phoenix and start beating down Nissa to low life totals, since jace is at 1 life and I can kill him anytime with Goblin Festival. I eventually kill Jace, keeping my festival and putting up some chump blockers for Nissa's Hydras. I almost die to a hasty Mistcutter Hydra that came out of nowhere, but survive and go with 3 1/1 flyers on the back-swing and take the final game.
What an awesome experience! I must say I'm very happy with the coinflip deck. The upsides are incredibly powerful and definitely worth playing. I also have enough "real" cards to keep the deck competitive. Board sweepers are not good against Jace and Nissa, But I can't wait to do a number on Kytheon, Hero of Akros. My main way of dealing with the Hydras is just by killing the player, ideally with Repercussion, but I haven't found a copy yet to add to my deck. I'm gonna try Tuktuk the Explorer as a rattlesnake card that also works well with my damage sweepers. I'm not too impressed with Wheel of Fate; it always seems to come down too late. I'm wondering if there's a better way to fill my hand. Maybe it's time to try Liar's Pendulum!
Edit: In the end, I decided to try Humble Defector instead of Wheel of Fate. It will be a good political tool and advantages less players at once. I've also added Homeward Path, which combos well with Defector. Should be fun!
Edit:
I played some 1V1 games against Jace yesterday. I really built my deck to fight in multiplayer, but the results were still very interesting. We played two games and went 1-1, both being very close.
The first game I drew a lot of dead cards, but Ashling the Pilgrim did a lot of work once it got by the barrage of countermagic. I got him down to 3 life with Ashling and Chandra and then got milled.
The second game I mulled a hand of sweepers and Krark's Thumb into a pretty mediocre 6 of mostly coinflip cards. I drop Goblin Bomb on turn two and it ticks up quickly. Unfortunately, my opponent went turn 3 Crystal Vein, cracking it and playing Isochron Scepter, exiling Cyclonic Rift. He bounces all my stuff turn after turn while I'm stuck at 4 mana. I have Subterranean Tremors in hand but never find my 5th land to destroy all artifacts. I'm slowly getting milled by Sphinx's Tutelage. I play my Chandra, and the following turn I attack for 2, then play a random spell to untap her, which prompts Jace to bounce it with the Scepter, and I respond with a Fault Line for 0, untapping in response and flipping Chandra, fizzling the bounce spell and dealing quite a bit of damage. The following turn, I drop Krark's Thumb; my Goblin Bomb is at 4 counters and my opponent is at exactly 20. My opponent is forced to bounce the Goblin Bomb. I untap and have 5 cards left in library. I decide to make a desperate move; I replay Goblin Bomb, hoping my opponent counters and he Remands! I have one card left in library from him drawing a card. He has one Island up, so I Mana Clash. I'm at 25 and he's at 14. I end the game with 9 life and the opponent dead at 0. Close one!
EDIT: Finally got my hands on Repercussion (very difficult card to find). It's amazing! It kills people out of nowhere with a sweeper. I've also added Flamekin Village, but haven't used the ability yet. It's basically been a worse Mountain.
Playing on the flip theme and wanting to have some fun, I decided to have a coin-flip theme! Aside from that, I'm basically running a ton of mass removal.
I tested a few games on Forge, and coin-flipping is actually really fun! Even without Krark's Thumb, flipping has huge and powerful upsides and miserable downsides but in general have been totally worth playing. Mogg Assassin has been particularly powerful. In multiplayer, even if you fail, you can choose an opponent who doesn't control the creature you want to kill and often get the same result anyways. Goblin Kaboomist is actually a really powerful card as well, easily capable of creating 3-4 mines before eventually succumbing to its own bombs. Ydwen Efreet makes a good attacker and a half-decent blocker ( ). Without the Thumb, I've been able to make upwards of 6 1/1 Elementals with Molten Birth.
The two most powerful flip cards are definitely Planar Chaos and Goblin Bomb. The former is flipping hilarious, while the latter is a very reliable win condition.
One more coin-related synergy I've found is Chandra's Spitfire and Goblin Festival. This is another combo that wins games. The trick is activating Goblin Festival multiple times by retaining priority to pump Chandra's Spitfire to ridiculous proportions. Even if you lose control of the festival eventually, you just give it to the opponent who's likely about to die to Spitfire and get it back anyways.
I'm embracing the chaos in general with cards like Gamble and wheels. The only coin-flipper that's been on the fence is Fiery Gambit, but the card has to stay because of my greed.
1 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
Creatures (11)
1 Goblin Archaeologist
1 Mogg Assassin
1 Ashling the Pilgrim
1 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Chandra's Spitfire
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Tuktuk the Explorer
1 Squee, the Immortal
1 Humble Defector
1 Goblin Bomb
1 Goblin Festival
1 Planar Chaos
1 Oath of Chandra
1 Repercussion
Artifacts (2)
1 Sun Droplet
1 Krark's Thumb
Instants (3)
1 Puppet's Verdict
1 Fault Line
1 Chaos Warp
Sorceries (9)
1 Fiery Gambit
1 Mana Clash
1 Molten Birth
1 Earthquake
1 Breath of Darigaaz
1 Jaya's Immolating Inferno
1 Subterranean Tremors
1 Gamble
1 Pyroclasm
14 Mountain
1 Homeward Path
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Flamekin Village
1 Ramunap Ruins
1 Scavenger Grounds
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
I played a match against Nissa, Vastwood Seer and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. I won 2-1-1.
I crushed the first game. Turn 2 Krark's Thumb into flipped Chandra who went completely unmolested and dealt a ton of damage was a game-winning move. I won the game out of nowhere with Fiery Gambit, winning all three coin tosses. This allowed me to play 2 board-wipes in the same turn and kill both players. It certainly helped that I wasn't the target of Jace's mill. Nissa had 1 card left in library when she lost.
Game two I kept a hand full of coin-flip cards and a Thumb. I was the first target of the mill this game, but it didn't matter because Nissa ramped into several fat Hydras and completely ran us over. I was mostly responsible for this happening because I played Mana Clash with Jace and got him down to 17 life and myself to 14, which essentially killed us both. Woops.
Game three, I kept a shaky hand with 4 Mountains, Puppet's Verdict and a couple X spells. I drew a Wheel of Fate and happily played it on turn 2. Chandra came out the following turn, as did everyone else's TLs. I tried to kill Nissa with Fiery Gambit after attacking with Chandra (mostly to flip her) and failed on the first flip (no Thumb). I flipped Chandra and -2d to kill Nissa anyways. This slowed the ramp deck down quite enough, but the following turn I am enchanted with Fraying Sanity. On the following turn Jace dispels my Puppet's Verdict and then casts Brain Freeze for 9 cards (18 with Fraying). A Windfall on the following turn and my own Wheel of Fate manage to mill me many times over. Jace continues to mill out Nissa with very good Sphinx's Tutelage activations.
Tie-breaker round: No Thumb this game either, but I keep a very good hand with Goblin Bomb, Grim Lavamancer, HangarBack Walker, Planar Chaos and two Mountains. Goblin Bomb comes down turn 2 and starts ticking up in the background. Planar Chaos comes down on turn 3 and dies on my upkeep but did its damage; it countered both Nissa and Jace coming down as well as a mill spell. I follow it up with Chandra. I manage to flip her and clear the board, butDungrove Elder makes an appearance and starts smacking me and Jace in turn, without me being able to answer it and killing my Chandra. Jace got his beatdown draw: Howling Mine with Ensoul Artifact is a combo, and man-lands mean I can't sweep the board efficiently. Luckily, Jace's beaters distract Nissa from my measly board of a 3/3 Hangarback Walker. I'm holding Goblin Festival in hand with a plan, however. My Goblin Bomb worked its way to 4 counters, with both opponents at low life totals. Nissa plays a Reclamation Sage and crushes my dreams. At this point, I get Chandra's Phoenix and start beating down Nissa to low life totals, since jace is at 1 life and I can kill him anytime with Goblin Festival. I eventually kill Jace, keeping my festival and putting up some chump blockers for Nissa's Hydras. I almost die to a hasty Mistcutter Hydra that came out of nowhere, but survive and go with 3 1/1 flyers on the back-swing and take the final game.
What an awesome experience! I must say I'm very happy with the coinflip deck. The upsides are incredibly powerful and definitely worth playing. I also have enough "real" cards to keep the deck competitive. Board sweepers are not good against Jace and Nissa, But I can't wait to do a number on Kytheon, Hero of Akros. My main way of dealing with the Hydras is just by killing the player, ideally with Repercussion, but I haven't found a copy yet to add to my deck. I'm gonna try Tuktuk the Explorer as a rattlesnake card that also works well with my damage sweepers. I'm not too impressed with Wheel of Fate; it always seems to come down too late. I'm wondering if there's a better way to fill my hand. Maybe it's time to try Liar's Pendulum!
Edit: In the end, I decided to try Humble Defector instead of Wheel of Fate. It will be a good political tool and advantages less players at once. I've also added Homeward Path, which combos well with Defector. Should be fun!
Edit:
I played some 1V1 games against Jace yesterday. I really built my deck to fight in multiplayer, but the results were still very interesting. We played two games and went 1-1, both being very close.
The first game I drew a lot of dead cards, but Ashling the Pilgrim did a lot of work once it got by the barrage of countermagic. I got him down to 3 life with Ashling and Chandra and then got milled.
The second game I mulled a hand of sweepers and Krark's Thumb into a pretty mediocre 6 of mostly coinflip cards. I drop Goblin Bomb on turn two and it ticks up quickly. Unfortunately, my opponent went turn 3 Crystal Vein, cracking it and playing Isochron Scepter, exiling Cyclonic Rift. He bounces all my stuff turn after turn while I'm stuck at 4 mana. I have Subterranean Tremors in hand but never find my 5th land to destroy all artifacts. I'm slowly getting milled by Sphinx's Tutelage. I play my Chandra, and the following turn I attack for 2, then play a random spell to untap her, which prompts Jace to bounce it with the Scepter, and I respond with a Fault Line for 0, untapping in response and flipping Chandra, fizzling the bounce spell and dealing quite a bit of damage. The following turn, I drop Krark's Thumb; my Goblin Bomb is at 4 counters and my opponent is at exactly 20. My opponent is forced to bounce the Goblin Bomb. I untap and have 5 cards left in library. I decide to make a desperate move; I replay Goblin Bomb, hoping my opponent counters and he Remands! I have one card left in library from him drawing a card. He has one Island up, so I Mana Clash. I'm at 25 and he's at 14. I end the game with 9 life and the opponent dead at 0. Close one!
EDIT: Finally got my hands on Repercussion (very difficult card to find). It's amazing! It kills people out of nowhere with a sweeper. I've also added Flamekin Village, but haven't used the ability yet. It's basically been a worse Mountain.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio