I use a similar method as to not lose my commander when I reshuffle plus it gives them extra protection and presence on and off the battlefield. They are mini snap card holders. They are obviously thicker than normal, but almost the same dimensions height and width as sleeves. The only issue that these present is they don't really allow your commander to be tucked in any fashion due to the unshuffleability of the case and the obvious indicator of where it is in your library if that is even a thing in your games.
Those are neat, I've never seen those before. Those would be nice for expensively altered commanders.
I'm using an Ultra-Pro Satin Tower and was wondering if theirs any good card protectors that would fit inside like a top loader (which don't fit)?
Use KMC Character Guards or the Ultra Pro Sleeve Covers. They fit over your sleeve, fit inside most deck boxes, and make your Commander stick out. It'll be slightly larger than your other sleeves so you can't lose it if you accidentally shuffle it in. I use them for all of my commanders.
I've attached what my commander looks like in one.
I used to own the legion one so I can vouch for it. Holds a single sleeved edh deck in each compartment. The token slot can hold several sleeved tokens. The others are pretty much the same thing. Although the ultimate guard one holds double sleeved decks, so that might be a bit too bulky for your needs. If you were interested in any of these, I'd scour the web to find them cheaper.
So I just got a new bag. I'm pretty impressed. It's exactly what I've been looking for in a Magic bag. This company apparently just started. They are called Pirate Lab. I just happened to randomly see an ad and instantly bought it. I didn't take a picture of the bag all closed up though. The main compartment has a large pocket, it has really nice cut outs in the foam, and the back compartment holds a playmat and trade binder. The sides of the bag are reinforced and it feels really durable. It's like they took an ultra pro bag, made it big enough to hold a binder, and then made it with high quality materials like a dragon's egg. Can't wait to test it out at FNM tomorrow.
Are there any German-made sleeves? I am just wondering as usually German made products are usually of the highest quality and specifications, and so I am curious... Have the Germans begun producing sleeves yet?
I'm considering obtaining new sleeves as my double sleeved foils look extremely blurry in UltraPro Pro Matte sleeves. Very much considering KMC Hyper Matte, but am hoping that the front is clear and glossy compared to the UltraPro Pro Mattes.
The fronts of Hyper Mattes are clear and glossy. The back is just textured like the back of ultra pros.. only a little more so.
I've always found that Avenger has been one of my least impressive creatures. Maybe I'm just playing it wrong, but it seems that every time it hits the table, I either don't have enough lands to make a significant number of dudes, or I already have so many lands that I don't get enough counters on them. Either way, the tokens rarely last more than a turn before it provokes a board wipe... or someone just kills Avenger before I get any counters. The only reason that I haven't cut it before now is because everyone else considers it to be a must-have, and I assume that a scenario will come up that will prove me wrong.
For now I think I'm going to cut Avenger and test Atarka and Dromoka.
For my favorite decks I usually like the box to match the theme or style as best as possible.
My Karrthus deck is my second favorite and rests in the box pictures below. It has a scaly texture which is very cool for my dragons to rest in. Comes in all 5 magic colors.
I bought one of these in white and was immediately disappointed. I could only squeeze 95 doubled sleeved cards in it. I bought it for my most valuable deck and ended up having to use it for a single sleeved precon.
I agree with Rowan. If you want to beat your opponents with a powerful creature deck, that's totally possible. That's what I do with Mayael, but I also have answers. I have my big fat creatures that also have utility, I have my ramp and engines that put them out, and I have mass removal to get rid of opposing threats and a couple of wraths just in case. You can totally play Stranglehold and Vandalblast like cards, but you can't force people to play like you want to play. I love creatures, but not everyone does. Their decks may not be built around creatures and "forcing them to play creatures" is forcing them to not have fun. The whole fun-unfun debate doesn't really have an answer. The only thing I can suggest is to build a deck with the same power level as your play group, only play the archetype you want. If you don't want to play with tutors, that is 100% ok and you don't have to by any means. But from my personal experience, if you play stranglehold and I can't use my farseek, I'm going to kill you first. That's why cards like Ruric Thar are great. You're not stopping your opponents from playing non-creature spells, you're just punishing them for it. Rhystic Study also lets you tax your opponents. It doesn't stop them from doing anything they want to do, but you get to draw cards for it.
If you want to do something pretty fun in RUG, you can have a Surrak Dragonclaw, Maelstrom Wanderer, or Animar, Soul of Elements deck where you run Primal Surge and no other non-permanents. If you hit Surge you can flip over your whole deck and alpha strike if you have something like Maelstrom Wanderer to give your dudes haste.
This is a deck I built for a friend a while back. She wanted it to be a combo-creature deck. So note that it does have a few degenerate combos and unfair cards. But this is just an example of what you can do with creatures. You can make it a little more "fair" by Not using the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts combo, or the Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron
I concur with Captain Sisay. While Gaddock Teeg is powerful, he may draw a lot of hate because he restricts what your opponents can do. I'm totally ok with someone having removal or an answer to my threat, but not being able to cast them at all burns my bagel. When you have Gaddock Teeg in your deck, it's fine because it can be removed, but when it's your general, people might target you early on. So I'd run Sisay and have Teeg as one of the tutorable options available. When you have a toolbox deck, you can find these cards as specific answers to your opponents instead of locking them out of the game right out of the gate.
That being said, you'll have the most fun in a color combination that you like. If you like RUG.. er.. Temur.. then Surrak could be a cool option for a fair deck. Most people will agree that Prophet of Kruphix is degenerate. I'm not one to talk though, I play Seedborn Muse in Mayael the Anima. It's an unfair fair deck. I kill you through combat, I just cheat the best fatties in Naya into play earlier than they should be and cheat them in through ways that can't be countered. Everyone has their own definition of fair. I consider something like Stranglehold to be a griefer card and some people think that Bribery is fair because you're only being as powerful as your opponent.
In my playgroup, we have a rule that if you can kill the entire table with an infinite combo, you "win" and pick up your cards and let everyone else keep playing.
Domri Rade doesn't impress me too much in Mayael specifically because I don't want to add creatures to my hand unless it's a specific answer I want to tutor for. I figure Domri would die horribly before getting to ultimate. The fight ability is definitely the best part, but I'm not sold.
Just noticed that Domri's +1 is a MAY ability. Well, that changes things a little.
I run Congregation at Dawn, not sure why it isn't on the list. Anywho, I appreciate the in depth explanations. A lot of this is stuff that I've encountered but it seems to make more sense when when someone else brings it up too. Definitely going to to be testing out an overhaul!
I browse these threads inbetween work, so please pardon the brief and sporadic nature in portions of this post
I post in a lot of Mayael lists, as she is one of my more played lists and I have refined her a lot. I've probably played about 200 games with her to give you a gauge, and no... I play enough other decks to where she isn't boring, because like you stated- sometimes I like to just win by turning sideways :).
Your list at a glance is pretty close to the 'standard', but I'll toss up some opinions for you to play with.
I'll post a quick list of cards I'd cut and why here:
Acidic Slime- Not really good enough at 5cc in this deck, you already run Terastadon and Sylvan Primordal, there is better and cheaper removal you could be running here. Slime is a great card in general, but is too slow and clunky in this deck imo. We'll touch on additions later.
Hellkite Charger- Doesn't do enough on his own, only really works with Bear Umbra well, do you really ever encounter situations where you often have 7 mana open ontop of whatever fatties/mayael activations you plan for that turn? I usually don't unless I'm REALLY ahead, and that make him just a winmore.
Iona, Sheild of Emeria- This is really a preference thing, but on top of her just being boring and generally a 'target player doesn't get to play magic' effect, she will auto-paint a giant target on your forehead in a 4-5 player game, as the coalition of the willing (aka whole table) now will hate you off said table. If you group is really cutthroat and doesn't mind lobsided lock out cards or play TONS of control/lockdown/combo decks, then it's up to you to play her. Nothing abandons political posturing quicker than laying this b**** down, at least in my experience. (I'd recommend her in 1v1 lists or highly competative groups only). Also as the primer states, she's like the #1 bribery target in all of magic, have fun not playing green mayael!
Meglonoth- Just not good enough for most games any more. I need more out of my cheat targets than mediocre attacks and an okay blocker. You generally want every fatty you drop to either be a huge coverall or have an immediate effect on the board state. He does none of this.
Paleoloth- He's a fringe card for this deck. Believe it or not, Mayael kinda has a tempo, and this guy gets cut for the same reason Genesis does- crappy body, slow utility that is never enough to keep up with others. If you win cons are in the yard, you've gotta be doing more than getting 1 back out every other turn or so.
Mycoid Shepherd- Definately not enough to affect the game in any way, the lifegain from this is marginal and never enough to keep you afloat. Super crappy body... Plus, why are your heavty hitters going to the 'yard while this durdle is sitting around? If that happens you've got got more problems than Mycoid can ever hope to fix.
Rakeclaw Gargantuan- Super underwhelming, never enough to change anything. Your fatties should always be bigger, badder and meaner than everything else in play... not worrying about first strike, especially since 0 of them have deathtouch.
Spellbreaker Behemoth- Do you find yourself playing in a blue heavy meta where everything is being countered? That is the only time i'd ever consider this guy. Most times I am not casting guys, I am cheating them in one way or another. He's really not great, and the situations where he would make a difference are so few and far between, it's hardly worth giving up a precious slot in the 99 to.
Sun Titan- He generally doesn't do enough for Mayael. If you are playing in a meta where all your lands, enchants and mana rocks are constantly blown up every game, maybe he is a consideration. But to make my point, I am not usually concerned about getting my sol ring out of the yard at the stage I am casting/cheating him into play anyways; I am worried about stacking a battlefield of fatties, in which he doesn't help enough of the time on (he CAN get witness and empath IF they are in the yard etc.) but unless you play in a super anti-ramp/anti-enchant enviroment, I'd leave him out.
Dryad Arbor- I don't really know why you included this card and then listed it as 'ramp', but it's not really a great addition to this deck and a horrendous EDH topdeck outside of your opening hand.
Fires of Yavimaya- certainly not a bad card at 3cc, but not special enough to steal away slots from other cards. Often times I again, am cheating fatties in, often on opponents turns, so haste is really not super relevant. But this of course would be a judgement call.
The rest of your stuff is probably catered to your preferences and playgroup. You run a little too much spot removal for this deck imo, since Mayael is more worried about getting 2+ for 1 effects off dropping fatties, like Warstorm Surge and creatures that kill things when they hit.
Notible cards for this archtype, that I'd put in your deck:
Vorniclex, Voice of Hunger- No seriously, why is he missing? I shouldn't have to explain him in this deck.It's more like you should explain why he isn't in this. I mean I know he's predictable and boring, but you already play the other cards like Iona and Avacyn, so he needs to be there with them
Worldspine Wurm- Giant dude who leaves 3 more dudes to carry on the good fight, also pitches wonderfully to Surivival, sacs to Natural and is just plain excellent in most situations. Not to mention 15 to the dome with Warstorm and another 15 to the dome if you play Stalking Vengeance.... which brings up....
Stalking Vengeance- Mr. anti-wrath, if you have a board presence with this guy out, someone will be afraid of sweeping with him around.
Scourge of Kher Ridges- He in this deck at least, strikes me as a better version of Bogardan Hellkite, he can really control a field mid and late game, forces the opponent to answer him, freeing up your more dangerous fatties from removal worry.
Gisela, Blade of Goldknight- A giant flying furnace of rath that also mitigates damage in a slugfest. Leagues better than Mycoid, Spellbreaker, Rakeclaw and their ilk.
Other cards worthy of adding (but i ran out of break time for): Utrava Hellkite, Mirari's Wake, Domri Rade, Kozilek Butcher of Truth, Lotus Cobra(do not underestimate this guys ramp ability in EDH- in ALL phases of the game where you are tutoring up lands, fetching lands and bouncing lands.)
So yea, let me know what your thoughts are, and I can expand more when I come back later. Any elaborations on why things are/are not included would help me help you whittle the list down.
cheers!
Thanks for the extensive breakdown! (I have Gisela in the list, btw. She's an all-star)
All of the cards you have suggested removing and adding are cards I have considered myself. I find myself making justifications for the inclusions and non-inclusions, but it's great to hear other people's opinions on them because it makes me revaluate mine.
My reasoning for things like mycoid shepherd, rakeclaw gargantuan, and spellbreaker behemoth is mostly their mana cost. They allow me to still have a 5 power guy that I can hit off of, but they are also cheap to cast in case I something horrible happens with my mana. How strong a case that is, I'm not sure.
Dryad arbor is a recent consideration because I keep having Green Sun's zenith in my opening hand and wishing I had a dryad arbor to tutor up. Of course, I suppose it's possible that it would be better in the long run to save that for a bloom tender.
The rest, I can't really present an argument for against your reasonings.
As for the suggested cards, these are all things I've considered adding. Vorinclex isn't on the list because I generally tend to try to win by going over my opponents without cutting their legs out from under them. For example, when I play Iona I have a policy that I never call a color that will shut a mono-colored player out of the game. However, my metagame has become increasingly competitive since my LGS had a 2HG tournament where the winners took home a Commander's Arsenal. Since then I've been trying to make Mayael more powerful and playing in a more cutthroat manner while keeping a less powerful deck around for more casual playgroups. So Vorinclex is probably an option now.
Domri Rade doesn't impress me too much in Mayael specifically because I don't want to add creatures to my hand unless it's a specific answer I want to tutor for. I figure Domri would die horribly before getting to ultimate. The fight ability is definitely the best part, but I'm not sold.
I had mirrari's wake, but replaced it with mana reflection. It costs more but it can double mana from all sources whereas the wake can only add an additional 1 to lands. The buff the wake gives seems unnecessary when all of the creatures are huge anyways.
Those are neat, I've never seen those before. Those would be nice for expensively altered commanders.
Use KMC Character Guards or the Ultra Pro Sleeve Covers. They fit over your sleeve, fit inside most deck boxes, and make your Commander stick out. It'll be slightly larger than your other sleeves so you can't lose it if you accidentally shuffle it in. I use them for all of my commanders.
I've attached what my commander looks like in one.
http://www.ultimateguard.com/en/boxes-cases/twin-flip-n-tray/twin-flip-n-tray-deck-case-200.html
http://www.dexprotection.com/product/creation-line-large/
http://legionsupplies.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_7&products_id=100
I used to own the legion one so I can vouch for it. Holds a single sleeved edh deck in each compartment. The token slot can hold several sleeved tokens. The others are pretty much the same thing. Although the ultimate guard one holds double sleeved decks, so that might be a bit too bulky for your needs. If you were interested in any of these, I'd scour the web to find them cheaper.
Sorry for the poorly lit photos.
Ultimate Guard is a German company.
The fronts of Hyper Mattes are clear and glossy. The back is just textured like the back of ultra pros.. only a little more so.
For now I think I'm going to cut Avenger and test Atarka and Dromoka.
I bought one of these in white and was immediately disappointed. I could only squeeze 95 doubled sleeved cards in it. I bought it for my most valuable deck and ended up having to use it for a single sleeved precon.
If you want to do something pretty fun in RUG, you can have a Surrak Dragonclaw, Maelstrom Wanderer, or Animar, Soul of Elements deck where you run Primal Surge and no other non-permanents. If you hit Surge you can flip over your whole deck and alpha strike if you have something like Maelstrom Wanderer to give your dudes haste.
This is a deck I built for a friend a while back. She wanted it to be a combo-creature deck. So note that it does have a few degenerate combos and unfair cards. But this is just an example of what you can do with creatures. You can make it a little more "fair" by Not using the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts combo, or the Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron
1 Animar, Soul of Elements
Creatures:
1 Acidic Slime
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Bane of Progress
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Bogardan Hellkite
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Clone
1 Coiling Oracle
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Diluvian Primordial
1 Dungeon Geists
1 Duplicant
1 Elvish Piper
1 Eternal Witness
1 Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Inferno Titan
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Mindclaw Shaman
1 Mulldrifter
1 Mystic Snake
1 Ogre Battledriver
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Palinchron
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Somberwald Sage
1 Soul of the Harvest
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Terastodon
1 Trygon Predator
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Wood Elves
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Yavimaya Dryad
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Yavimaya Granger
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Birthing Pod
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Conjurer's Closet
1 Crystal Shard
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mimic Vat
1 Sol Ring
1 Thran Dynamo
Enchantments
1 Asceticism
1 Warstorm Surge
Planeswalkers:
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
Sorceries:
1 Primal Surge
Land:
1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Breeding Pool
1 Command Tower
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Evolving Wilds
8 Forest
1 Gruul Guildgate
1 Gruul Turf
1 Halimar Depths
1 Hinterland Harbor
5 Island
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Mountain
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Simic Guildgate
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
That being said, you'll have the most fun in a color combination that you like. If you like RUG.. er.. Temur.. then Surrak could be a cool option for a fair deck. Most people will agree that Prophet of Kruphix is degenerate. I'm not one to talk though, I play Seedborn Muse in Mayael the Anima. It's an unfair fair deck. I kill you through combat, I just cheat the best fatties in Naya into play earlier than they should be and cheat them in through ways that can't be countered. Everyone has their own definition of fair. I consider something like Stranglehold to be a griefer card and some people think that Bribery is fair because you're only being as powerful as your opponent.
In my playgroup, we have a rule that if you can kill the entire table with an infinite combo, you "win" and pick up your cards and let everyone else keep playing.
Just noticed that Domri's +1 is a MAY ability. Well, that changes things a little.
I run Congregation at Dawn, not sure why it isn't on the list. Anywho, I appreciate the in depth explanations. A lot of this is stuff that I've encountered but it seems to make more sense when when someone else brings it up too. Definitely going to to be testing out an overhaul!
Thanks for the extensive breakdown! (I have Gisela in the list, btw. She's an all-star)
All of the cards you have suggested removing and adding are cards I have considered myself. I find myself making justifications for the inclusions and non-inclusions, but it's great to hear other people's opinions on them because it makes me revaluate mine.
My reasoning for things like mycoid shepherd, rakeclaw gargantuan, and spellbreaker behemoth is mostly their mana cost. They allow me to still have a 5 power guy that I can hit off of, but they are also cheap to cast in case I something horrible happens with my mana. How strong a case that is, I'm not sure.
Dryad arbor is a recent consideration because I keep having Green Sun's zenith in my opening hand and wishing I had a dryad arbor to tutor up. Of course, I suppose it's possible that it would be better in the long run to save that for a bloom tender.
The rest, I can't really present an argument for against your reasonings.
As for the suggested cards, these are all things I've considered adding. Vorinclex isn't on the list because I generally tend to try to win by going over my opponents without cutting their legs out from under them. For example, when I play Iona I have a policy that I never call a color that will shut a mono-colored player out of the game. However, my metagame has become increasingly competitive since my LGS had a 2HG tournament where the winners took home a Commander's Arsenal. Since then I've been trying to make Mayael more powerful and playing in a more cutthroat manner while keeping a less powerful deck around for more casual playgroups. So Vorinclex is probably an option now.
Domri Rade doesn't impress me too much in Mayael specifically because I don't want to add creatures to my hand unless it's a specific answer I want to tutor for. I figure Domri would die horribly before getting to ultimate. The fight ability is definitely the best part, but I'm not sold.
I had mirrari's wake, but replaced it with mana reflection. It costs more but it can double mana from all sources whereas the wake can only add an additional 1 to lands. The buff the wake gives seems unnecessary when all of the creatures are huge anyways.