Your post is confusing to me. It seems like you want to switch to Thraximundar so your UB zombie tribal can now be UBR zombie tribal. And then say you don’t want to go full tribal. But you end your post saying you want to use a zombie token swarm strategy with zombie lords to win - or use Purphoros.
If you’re looking for a token zombie army with a flashy finish you have a few options. However I will say that I think Gisa is weak and that Gravecrawler is entirely unneeded.
Some suggestion for token swarm combos. All zombie based since that’s what you want.
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant Engine:
Consider using Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. She’s capable of making an entire zombie army by herself. You want to assemble Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, Mesmeric Orb, and Basalt Monolith on the field with Vigor in you library. Keep untapping Basalt Monolith to mill your entire library. Vigor will keep reshuffling itself back into your library every time it’s milled allow for an infinite number of zombies. Flashback the Dread Return in your graveyard to reanimate Gravespawn Sovereign. Use Gravespawn Sovereign’s ability to return Diregraf Captain, Blood Artist, or a similar effect and Carrion Feeder, Viscera Seer, or any other creature that sacrifice other creatures at instant speed and without a cost to activate. Sacrifice all of your zombie tokens to finish off the table.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet Engine:
A combination of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Tombstone Stairwell, and Gravespawn Sovereign also makes for a neat engine. Tombstone Stairwell makes ZOMBIE tokens on EVERY upkeep for EVERY player. You Gravespawn Sovereign can use the zombie tokens to reanimate stuff from people’s graveyards. Use the Sovereign’s effect to bring back Blood Artist, or Kokusho, the Evening Star and a Viscera Seer or something similar. At the end of the turn all of the tombspawn are sacrificed and Kalitas will give you a bunch more zombies that you get to keep. The next upkeep resets the process.
Ghoulcaller Gisa Engine:
If you wish to use Ghoulcaller Gisa as an engine then it’s generally best to use with Nightmare Lash, Lashwrithe, or Strata Scythe. Equip one of those cards to any creature and sacrifice it to Gisa for a lot of zombies. Next turn attach of the the equipment to a zombie and sacrifice that to Gisa for even more zombies. This particular strategy is really only reliable in mono black and likely as Gisa as a commander. In a multicolor deck Stoneforge Masterwork can be a replacement. Both situations are slow and Thornbite Staff equipped to Gisa is a better means of getting zombies. Ghoulcaller Gisa, Thornbite Staff, Phyrexian Altar, and Blood Artist or similar are all you need to go off. You also need a creature with power two or greater but Gisa provides that for you.
I know you want to use Thraximundar as a general so you can use Purphoros, God of the Forge to burn people out but that isn’t necessary. Black can provide similar effects. I recommend Sidisi, Brood Tyrant as a commander since she creates a zombie swarm by herself. Although if you’re trying to cut expenses stick with Grimgrin and try to incorporate the Kalitas and/or Gisa engine.
Two players agree to a deal because they benefit from the result. Once the benefit has been acquired or nor further benefits can be received then there is no point in cooperating. In my opinion anyway.
In the situation you describe everything seemed fair to me. You both benefitted from the action and when you could offer the other player a reason to continue to uphold the deal he didn't. I wouldn't be upset.
Turn one play a mana dork, turn two play a three drop, turn three play Rafiq and attack is a reasonable sequence of events.
If your still worried about spot removal you colors give you access to Spellskite, Sylvan Safekeeper, and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner. All of which can which can act as a bridge between a mana dork and Rafiq. There's also Swiftfoot Boots in addition to the Lightning Greaves you run.
Neither green nor white are required for an enchantress deck. Enchantress decks only require you use enchantments too win.
And enchantments have trouble winning by themselves. I would with a Rxx deck. Assemble a bunch of enchantments and slam a mass land, creature, and artifact destruction spell like Jokulhaups to leave your board mostly unaffected while your opponents are decimated.
I would go with maya from your choices but there are no good naya enchantress commanders.
Personally I would use a Jeskai commander. Zedruu specifically. Donating Oblivion Rings and Stony Silence for cards is nice.
Win with Skyscribing. No. Win with Laboratory Maniac off of a Skyscribing by decking two other opponents and leaving one opponent with exactly zero cards.
I talked to my friend. He said he wanted to play something aggressive. He wants to attack a lot. Doesn't care about colors. Wants a commander that does what he thinks it will do and does it consistently.
After talking with my friend the commanders he is most interested in are Zurgo Helmsmasher, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, and Xenagos, God of Revels. Zurgo is hands down the one he's most interested in. Prosh is somewhat close second. He's used him before and feels comfortable playing it. He likes the idea of Xenagos but was skeptical of how reliable it was.
He's really excited to use Zurgo. He likes it mostly for the art and creature typing which is good enough of a reason. I told him that a popular way to use Zurgo is to use sorcery mass removal spells like Damnation or Jokulhaups. He thought that sounded fun. Halfway through telling him that though I realized I was describing a control deck rather then an aggro deck. He is smitten with a nuke the world strategy though. To be honest, I think he'll be happy as long as he can beat face with his commander.
Does anyone have any advice for a nuke the world, voltron, or aggro Zurgo Helmsmasher deck? Or know a good list that describe some ideas?
I'm disappointed. Earthcraft has five more votes then it should have. Why is Skyshroud Claim still on here? It's the worst ramp on the list. Just switch it with Deglamer/Unravel the Aether. No one will notice.
Pretty boring couple of weeks, so I'm going to throw out a question for you all. Which do you think is better, Regrowth or Noxious Revival? Is the downside of losing your next card draw worth it to be able to cast Revival for free at instant speed? Or does losing the combo potential kill the card from a Top 50 perspective?
Regrowth. Demonic Tutor is better than Vampiric Tutor. If either Regrowth or Revival are good in a deck then the comparison is accurate.
All of the good UG decks win via combo. Palichron + Dead-Eye being the most popular.
Theoretically UG Ezuri can make a good elf deck. The mana dorks ramp Ezuri out fast and generate experience afterwards. Ezuri oddly adds redundancy to Staff of Domination combos. You'll have five creatures which infinite with it: Wirewood Channeler, Elvish Archdruid, Viridian Joiner, Priest of Titania, and Gyre Sage. Four of which are tutorable by Woodland Bellower. The redundancy combined with blue artifact and green creature tutors makes it reliable. There's also a popular Sage of Hours combo. While I'm not certain, I think there are some Alluren and/or Cloudstone Curio or similar combos.
What sort of budget is your friend working with? That also influences the types of commandes that can be suggested.
I think part of the issue is that your friend has lofty expectations of how he wants his games to go. From your posts, it sounds like he expects his commander to hit, create a dominating board position, and then not have his permanents destroyed. This isnt meant to be mean or condescending, but its unrealistic to expect that to happen. Playing the strong spells and permanents will get your stuff destroyed until you are subdued enough that you arent the most immediate threat. I agree with the other posters that Xenagos is a deck that fits your criteria, but other players will work very hard to prevent a Xenagos player from doing anything to make sure they arent taking 12+ damage to the face. I dont think your friend is going to have much fun watching his creatures get blown up most turns.
What is the source of your friend's aversion to black? You said bad experience, but were these while playing with or against a black deck?
He's been playing commander for about a year. Most of his games comes from the mono-black, mono-green, and UG commander precons. Most games were out of the box but he's modified the mono green deck. He's had the most success with the modified monk green deck.
About half of his EDH games are 1v1 with me. The other half are multiplayer. Usually games of three.
His dislike of black comes from playing the mono black precon. The high mana curve of the mono black resulted in games were he had nothing to early and often got run over. Especially on 1v1 even when I too played a precon. In multiplayer he got frustrated because Gisa, his preferred commander, never did much - if anything.
My friend had two major problems. While playing the mono black deck he often got hands with a lot of expensive cards but not the mana to cast them while the UG precon leaf to situations were he'd have excessive mana and cheap spells with low impact. He's abandoned Ezuri for Prime Speaker but the UG precon creatures aren't that great with Zegana.
I think my friend wants two things: the ability to interact with players and a commander the something reliably.
Having hands that don't do anything is frustrating and makes you feel like you lost before you started. This is easilly alleviated.
I think the bigger issue is finding a commander that does something reliably. He was never able to get Ghoulcaller Gisa or Ezuri, Claw of Progress to do anything. He's co tent with Prime Speaker Zegana but not impressed. He really like Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury and Nissa, Vastwood Seer.
I think my friend wants a deck that interacts with his opponents and has a commander that is a relevant play when he has nothing g else to do.
I did ask what he thought of Rafiq of the Many, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Xenagos, the God of Revels, and Zurgo Helmsmasher and he said he like Zurgo the most.
I'll talk with him after work to get a better idea of what he's looking for. I could be wrong.
Edit: I missed someone's post. My friend hates Animar. There are several people at my LGS that play him and he had several really unfun Ghoulcaller Gisa vs. Animar games.
I understand that Flying Men are really good with Edric. My friend is still relatively new to Magic though. I'm just worried he won't be able to get past the terrible creatures and feel likes he's playing an underpowered deck.
I will recommend it to him but I think he might want something a little more interesting.
He really like the GW Renown Intro dec from Origins. He likes green in general. The mono green commander precon has been his favorite. He's not a big fan of black mainly because of bad experiences with Gisa. He hasn't played a lot of red.
I think he would like something aggressive. He gets overwhelmed if he has too many plays.
Edit:
Xenagos is a good suggestion. I think he would like him.
He played Meren's precon but didn't like it. He's not fond of black.
I mentioned Edric. He seemed mildly interested. He likes using Bident of Thassa so I assume he would like it as a commander. My problem with Edric is that I can't seriously suggest playing Flying Man to my friend. I can't think of many blue or green creatures that make tokens and I'm not sure how good Edric is with elves.
I'm looking for a commander for a friend. He's played Ghoulcaller Gisa, Ezuri, Claw of Progress, and Prime Speaker Zegana. He did to like Gisa or Ezuri. I think he feels that they were too slow. He always seemed upset when he would cast them and they didn't accomplish anything. He likes Prime Speaker since it draws cards but he's using the 2015 UG precon and it's not well suited to make good use of her. He's also upset that a lot of his stuff dies to repeating removal. For example, he really hates Shriekmaw getting recurred by Meren.
I'm looking for suggestions for a commander with a cmc of 4 or less. My friend gets discouraged when he doesn't have something to do early. Something with an immediate impact so he won't feel so bad when it dies. Self protection is desirable but not required.
I'm currently thinking of Rafiq of the Many since he comes into play relatively early, sort of had haste with exalted, and encourages him to attack which my friend doesn't seem to do often.
I suppose Sigarda, Host of Herons might be good, too. She may be too slow for my friend's liking but she is resilient and slightly aggressive.
I would play Nest Invader or Devoted Druid over Sylvan Ranger. Both of those generate mana rather than simply finding a land and can gain experience by themselves. Nest Invader has the benefit of producing two bodies for sac effects.
On a similar note I like the inclusion of Yavimaya Granger. Once Wood Elves and Farhaven Elf enter the battlefield they merely sit there. Granger will gain experience right away. I'm glad to know it exists.
If you’re looking for a token zombie army with a flashy finish you have a few options. However I will say that I think Gisa is weak and that Gravecrawler is entirely unneeded.
Some suggestion for token swarm combos. All zombie based since that’s what you want.
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant Engine:
Consider using Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. She’s capable of making an entire zombie army by herself. You want to assemble Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, Mesmeric Orb, and Basalt Monolith on the field with Vigor in you library. Keep untapping Basalt Monolith to mill your entire library. Vigor will keep reshuffling itself back into your library every time it’s milled allow for an infinite number of zombies. Flashback the Dread Return in your graveyard to reanimate Gravespawn Sovereign. Use Gravespawn Sovereign’s ability to return Diregraf Captain, Blood Artist, or a similar effect and Carrion Feeder, Viscera Seer, or any other creature that sacrifice other creatures at instant speed and without a cost to activate. Sacrifice all of your zombie tokens to finish off the table.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet Engine:
A combination of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Tombstone Stairwell, and Gravespawn Sovereign also makes for a neat engine. Tombstone Stairwell makes ZOMBIE tokens on EVERY upkeep for EVERY player. You Gravespawn Sovereign can use the zombie tokens to reanimate stuff from people’s graveyards. Use the Sovereign’s effect to bring back Blood Artist, or Kokusho, the Evening Star and a Viscera Seer or something similar. At the end of the turn all of the tombspawn are sacrificed and Kalitas will give you a bunch more zombies that you get to keep. The next upkeep resets the process.
Ghoulcaller Gisa Engine:
If you wish to use Ghoulcaller Gisa as an engine then it’s generally best to use with Nightmare Lash, Lashwrithe, or Strata Scythe. Equip one of those cards to any creature and sacrifice it to Gisa for a lot of zombies. Next turn attach of the the equipment to a zombie and sacrifice that to Gisa for even more zombies. This particular strategy is really only reliable in mono black and likely as Gisa as a commander. In a multicolor deck Stoneforge Masterwork can be a replacement. Both situations are slow and Thornbite Staff equipped to Gisa is a better means of getting zombies. Ghoulcaller Gisa, Thornbite Staff, Phyrexian Altar, and Blood Artist or similar are all you need to go off. You also need a creature with power two or greater but Gisa provides that for you.
I know you want to use Thraximundar as a general so you can use Purphoros, God of the Forge to burn people out but that isn’t necessary. Black can provide similar effects. I recommend Sidisi, Brood Tyrant as a commander since she creates a zombie swarm by herself. Although if you’re trying to cut expenses stick with Grimgrin and try to incorporate the Kalitas and/or Gisa engine.
In the situation you describe everything seemed fair to me. You both benefitted from the action and when you could offer the other player a reason to continue to uphold the deal he didn't. I wouldn't be upset.
As MrCoupon was saying, ramping out an early Rafiq isn't a bad idea if you're using one mana creatures to do it. Your colors give you access to Arbor Elf, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Boreal Druid, Birds of Paradise, Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, and Noble Hierarch.
Turn one play a mana dork, turn two play a three drop, turn three play Rafiq and attack is a reasonable sequence of events.
If your still worried about spot removal you colors give you access to Spellskite, Sylvan Safekeeper, and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner. All of which can which can act as a bridge between a mana dork and Rafiq. There's also Swiftfoot Boots in addition to the Lightning Greaves you run.
And enchantments have trouble winning by themselves. I would with a Rxx deck. Assemble a bunch of enchantments and slam a mass land, creature, and artifact destruction spell like Jokulhaups to leave your board mostly unaffected while your opponents are decimated.
I would go with maya from your choices but there are no good naya enchantress commanders.
Personally I would use a Jeskai commander. Zedruu specifically. Donating Oblivion Rings and Stony Silence for cards is nice.
Life's Legacy also acts as a 2 mana draw 11 with Prossh helps a bit to.
Win with Skyscribing. No. Win with Laboratory Maniac off of a Skyscribing by decking two other opponents and leaving one opponent with exactly zero cards.
Fixed that for you
Peregrine Drake is also neat. Triggers Ezuri and generates mana with Dead eye
After talking with my friend the commanders he is most interested in are Zurgo Helmsmasher, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, and Xenagos, God of Revels. Zurgo is hands down the one he's most interested in. Prosh is somewhat close second. He's used him before and feels comfortable playing it. He likes the idea of Xenagos but was skeptical of how reliable it was.
He's really excited to use Zurgo. He likes it mostly for the art and creature typing which is good enough of a reason. I told him that a popular way to use Zurgo is to use sorcery mass removal spells like Damnation or Jokulhaups. He thought that sounded fun. Halfway through telling him that though I realized I was describing a control deck rather then an aggro deck. He is smitten with a nuke the world strategy though. To be honest, I think he'll be happy as long as he can beat face with his commander.
Does anyone have any advice for a nuke the world, voltron, or aggro Zurgo Helmsmasher deck? Or know a good list that describe some ideas?
Regrowth. Demonic Tutor is better than Vampiric Tutor. If either Regrowth or Revival are good in a deck then the comparison is accurate.
Theoretically UG Ezuri can make a good elf deck. The mana dorks ramp Ezuri out fast and generate experience afterwards. Ezuri oddly adds redundancy to Staff of Domination combos. You'll have five creatures which infinite with it: Wirewood Channeler, Elvish Archdruid, Viridian Joiner, Priest of Titania, and Gyre Sage. Four of which are tutorable by Woodland Bellower. The redundancy combined with blue artifact and green creature tutors makes it reliable. There's also a popular Sage of Hours combo. While I'm not certain, I think there are some Alluren and/or Cloudstone Curio or similar combos.
Ezuri has a good draw engine with Fathom Mage, Sage of Fables, Zameck Guildmage, Prime Speaker Zegana, and Mindless Automaton.
Ezuri also has some synergies with Champion of Lambholt, Den Protector, Master Biomancer, Glen Elendra Archmage, and Triskelion.
Alternatively, gain style points and build a UG snake tribal with Kaseto, Orochi Archmage. Or voltron. Use Kaseto. She's cool.
He's been playing commander for about a year. Most of his games comes from the mono-black, mono-green, and UG commander precons. Most games were out of the box but he's modified the mono green deck. He's had the most success with the modified monk green deck.
About half of his EDH games are 1v1 with me. The other half are multiplayer. Usually games of three.
His dislike of black comes from playing the mono black precon. The high mana curve of the mono black resulted in games were he had nothing to early and often got run over. Especially on 1v1 even when I too played a precon. In multiplayer he got frustrated because Gisa, his preferred commander, never did much - if anything.
My friend had two major problems. While playing the mono black deck he often got hands with a lot of expensive cards but not the mana to cast them while the UG precon leaf to situations were he'd have excessive mana and cheap spells with low impact. He's abandoned Ezuri for Prime Speaker but the UG precon creatures aren't that great with Zegana.
I think my friend wants two things: the ability to interact with players and a commander the something reliably.
Having hands that don't do anything is frustrating and makes you feel like you lost before you started. This is easilly alleviated.
I think the bigger issue is finding a commander that does something reliably. He was never able to get Ghoulcaller Gisa or Ezuri, Claw of Progress to do anything. He's co tent with Prime Speaker Zegana but not impressed. He really like Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury and Nissa, Vastwood Seer.
I think my friend wants a deck that interacts with his opponents and has a commander that is a relevant play when he has nothing g else to do.
I did ask what he thought of Rafiq of the Many, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Xenagos, the God of Revels, and Zurgo Helmsmasher and he said he like Zurgo the most.
I'll talk with him after work to get a better idea of what he's looking for. I could be wrong.
Edit: I missed someone's post. My friend hates Animar. There are several people at my LGS that play him and he had several really unfun Ghoulcaller Gisa vs. Animar games.
I will recommend it to him but I think he might want something a little more interesting.
I think he would like something aggressive. He gets overwhelmed if he has too many plays.
Edit:
Xenagos is a good suggestion. I think he would like him.
He played Meren's precon but didn't like it. He's not fond of black.
I mentioned Edric. He seemed mildly interested. He likes using Bident of Thassa so I assume he would like it as a commander. My problem with Edric is that I can't seriously suggest playing Flying Man to my friend. I can't think of many blue or green creatures that make tokens and I'm not sure how good Edric is with elves.
I do think my friend would like Edric.
I'm looking for suggestions for a commander with a cmc of 4 or less. My friend gets discouraged when he doesn't have something to do early. Something with an immediate impact so he won't feel so bad when it dies. Self protection is desirable but not required.
I'm currently thinking of Rafiq of the Many since he comes into play relatively early, sort of had haste with exalted, and encourages him to attack which my friend doesn't seem to do often.
I suppose Sigarda, Host of Herons might be good, too. She may be too slow for my friend's liking but she is resilient and slightly aggressive.
Does anyone else have a suggestion?
On a similar note I like the inclusion of Yavimaya Granger. Once Wood Elves and Farhaven Elf enter the battlefield they merely sit there. Granger will gain experience right away. I'm glad to know it exists.