By telling us this you've created a lot of work for yourself - not only do you have to finish your primer, but you have to get pictures.
I'll flush this primer out pretty good and do exactly as you mentioned at some point! It IS a lot of work though haha. I think I'll have to use my work scanner to get the pictures out (they don't deserve some crappy iphone picture treatment), which may be tricky timing wise.
Oh and a quick correction to my own post. I definitely did not get my Mana Drain, Ravages of War or Grim Tutor altered. Too scared to let someone touch those cards. I figure those three look cool enough to not need the alter treatment.
Prologue: Well then, I've seen a few Zur decks on here, a popular commander to say the least. Dr. Zoidberg has another deck similar to mine below which is a great version to look up. Usually the name is associated with "unfun" "lockdown" or as popular fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson once said to me a "cheatyface." It makes for one of the most competitive EDH decks, and creates groans at tables everywhere.
So here's my version. It loses so rarely I decided to foil the deck out, and this is an expensive deck to do so. Unfoilable cards have been altered to full art, and my duals are all FBB. For basic lands I went with Urza's Saga Arena promos, and used the misprint Islands. It's a pretty deck, and in this form more expensive than most vintage decks. So buyer beware! Took me a couple of years of trading and purchasing to assemble this.
The commander has three colors, allowing access to a lot of the best cards in magic. You have a nice blue counterspell suite, nice board wipes, buffs and kill spells in white, and tutors, card draw and more kill in black. The combo makes for a toolbox that is hard to rival with any other wedge.
The gameplay for this commander is a simple one. Get Zur out as early and often as possible, attack with your flyer into no defense, and pull out free enchantments that wreck the board state for the rest of the players.
Chapter 2: The Strategy
It's easy to play, as I mentioned above, but you do have to pay attention to what other people are playing. The weakness of this deck is that it's pretty single focused. Though you do have enough of a toolbox that you can survive if something goes wrong, really you want to make people scoop early. Zur getting tucked will cause problems due to a lack of creatures. But you do have counterspells along with other cards to prevent that from happening. If all else fails, you can tutor Zur back out. Bottom line is, if you can swing once and get Necropotence out, you'll probably be okay.
The main strategy is well known: Attack with zur repeatedly and get this combo out to lock down the game:
1. Necropotence
2. Solitary Confinement
3. Steel of the Godhead or Empyrial Armor
4. The other one of the two above that you didn't grab the turn before.
5. Usually when I have Zur out and Necro, somewhere in there, since I'm not using mana for anything but counterspell I MLD with some Armaggedon or the like, to give me a few free turns with Zur out to end the game.
Now once someone figures this out, they'll be trying to take out your enchantments, and more importantly take out Zur so you can't get these, so you'll need protection. Cards like Vanishing or Diplomatic Immunity protect Zur, along with the standard Lightning Greaves.
You may need to pull out the protective enchantments first if you think you're going to get targeted. I usually get necro first anyway and protection second, because if they let me swing once, I figure I'm pretty safe. After necro, you have card advantage anyway, and access to that many cards is killer even if they deal with Zur at that point.
Otherwise there's a nice toolbox of enchantments you could pull if you need to deal with other people's threats. Primarily though, stick to the plan. If you play too conservatively, I find that people can deal with Zur a lot easier once the game's stabilized than early on. The key is to make sure the game never stabilizes.
My version of the deck runs a ridiculous amount of mana rocks. The goal is to have a couple counterspells in hand to protect, and to use those rocks to get zur out on T2 or T3 so it's harder to deal with. Like I mentioned, it's REALLY hard to defeat. Nearly impossible in 1v1. It handles 1v2 pretty well also (I find that usually it IS 1v2 when you have 2 other players who know what you're playing). It gets tricky when it's 1v3, but that's the fun of playing it. Everyone knows what you're going to do, and you have to get it past them anyway.
Chapter 3: The Deck
Here's my deck. I'm pretty committed to it as-is and haven't seen another version on here that I believe will attain close to this deck's win percentage, aside from Dr. Zoidberg's (I'll try to link that at a later date when I find it again). You'll see our decks are fairly close.
Chapter 4: A Defense of Unusual Card Choices / Weak Cards:
I'll start with cards I'm not super fond of in the deck but they come in useful enough that I can't bring myself to take them out:
- Hall of the Bandit Lord : I don't like this because it comes into play tapped. Yes it gets Zur out hasty on the other end, but early game I need that mana to ramp into something that gets Zur out faster. I usually pitch this card unless I have a way to get Zur out T3 otherwise.
- Ivory Tower: This is protection from the damage one takes from Necropotence: It's a dead card a lot of the time but I always find myself putting it back in for the life gain anyway.
- Ancestral Vision: I like getting this card if I have a reason to get it out T1 or 2, but it's too slow otherwise, and dead once I have necropotence in play. When I do get it out early, that card's been a big win though. Again, hard to cut.
I'm guessing this is budget Zur since I don't see things like Force of Will, Mana Drain, Grim Tutor, Wasteland, Crucible of Worlds, Pact of Negation, Snapcaster?
I'd cut to 33 lands, add about 6-10 more rocks if you really want to go for the faster win. Getting Zur out and playing lockdown enchantments for free is everything.
All you really need out is Necropotence + Solitary Confinement + means to protect Zur and you win.
I'd cut Jitte, as you mentioned it's "win more".
Hymn To Tourach isn't good in this format because it only hits one player and you can't recurr it.
Cut Day of Judgment for Catastrophe and Wrath for Terminus. Humlity hurts Zur.
Demonic Tutor? Vindicate?
I'll post up my list at some point and link it. I rarely lose with the Zur deck in an extremely competitive meta.
Rhys was my first EDH deck and it didn't work great against my overly-combotastic, hate-ish, crazy meta, so I'm excited to see a different take here. I'm gonna construct it with some of my leftover cards, though it looks like I'll need to get 2nd copies of a bunch of the good green stuff that I'm using in Azusa. Probably will make some tweaks (more ramp, less land for one) and I'll get back to you in a couple weeks!
For the promos, is it confirmed it's the Hasbro table that's going to have these and not some separate magic display? Cuz it's a pain to get the Hasbro stuff at SDCC!
I'm kinda glad to have silly-out there mythic cards that are flavorful more than OP every deck needs them mythics. I'm against mythic to begin with, but at least this way, as a collector, prices don't get too inflated on the card.
That is a very interesting card. My only issue is to really get maximum use out of it you're spending 7 mana, and this deck struggles for mana to play its big creatures. Usually I'm getting Gisela out, which drops all my mana and then the next turn trying to get some sort of equipment on her before she swings. And I'd want that to get maximum utility out of this so I could take two people out of the game at once. I guess even without this though the card does allow you to one shot a single player. I'll have to think about it. I guess with Mistveil Plains and Sunforger it'd be recurrable too. Hmm... I'll test it.
By the way, as mentioned more detail coming in the next few days (probably in the middle of the week but perhaps sooner) but cards under consideration currently include standstill, trickbind and tamiyo, the moon sage. My friend just splurged on dual lands which is almost making me feel it would be okay to splurge on mana drain and Jace, the mind sculptor. Those cards would make this deck superhappy and JMS could be used as a wincon
Standstill is awesome. Trickbind looks great, I may replace Stifle with that since I've found Stifle is pretty limited. Tamiyo I took out, found she was too slow and didn't do enough in multiplayer. JTMS and Mana Drain make the deck happy.
For some reason I never even considered Gisela in the command zone; that's 1 point off lethal general damage w/ double strike. Any kind of anthem, and that's a one shot. I'm sure you've pissed off more than one person that way!
Yeah and there's lots of ways to give her that extra boost. There's a land for the double strike, there's a land for +2/+0. I like non-counterable abilities, naturally, because the biggest weakness of RW is you can't deal with counters. Beating with Aven Mindcensor and swords for victory is always my favorite though
I really like the potential of both of the decks to control the table and also the ability to abuse of Karn and Hanna is amazing, but what worries me about Hanna is what would i do if i got Opalescence removed, what would i do next? Depending on copy other people stuff to win isnt enought i think. What about a matchup in a table where someone is running Grand Arbiter Augustin IV? It is bad for us? Im sure waiting for your Hanna primer it will for sure help me in my final decision!
the answer is have more than one win con. Lock stuff down with enchantments/artifacts/creatures with state based effects and then play something that wins you the game with a lot of mana out like Luminarch Ascension or like Mobilization + Humility + Dovescape. Relying on one combo is a sure fire way to lose in EDH because once your playgroup knows its out, they know you're going for that and will hold their counterspells/removal to deal with it.
One thing I didn't see was any graveyard hate. I have a Relic of Progenitus on its way for my deck, it may be a decent add for your's also. Anger just seems too good not to add in nearly every deck with red. Most of the time you will probably have Boots out so it won't matter, though.
How well is your Boros Charm doing in there? I have been debating testing it out in mine. I can Forger for it for my deck, though.
End notes: Your deck is much faster than mine and the wheel effects are nice. After messing with this deck I may make some nice changes to mine. Thanks!
I don't have graveyard hate. There's only one annoying gy recursion deck in my meta so it hasn't been much of an issue. I also like getting stuff back from my yard with Sun Titan, Mistveil Plains. Relic I suppose is nice because it does give that card draw if you don't need it. I just hate drawing dead cards, even if it's pay 1 to filter.
Haven't tried boros charm yet, just put it in at someone's recommendation. I think Gisela swing for 20 when someone isn't looking for it is hilarious enough to keep it, even with its other uses.
Anger is a definite thought. I'm looking at swapping out some creatures potentially, so that'd be a decent one for the list.
Holy moly, yes! I think I need to, however, explain the direction of the deck that I "want". I want a deck that does utilize these R/W spells, namely the global ones. I realize this may not be the most efficient or effective play style for a Gisela deck, but it surely is more fun to me. There is a Gisela beat face deck in our playgroup already. I wanted something a little different and unique. Ok, time to break your post down! This may turn into a huge wall of text...
Cool, I'll keep that in mind. I look at things from a more competitive angle because my playgroup is pretty obnoxious lol.
Card draw is certainly a weak point in my deck in its current state. I need to throw in some sort of Wheel cards as you mentioned. As for Mind Stone... That is really just a crappy filler right now. I lack a Sol Ring and I decided to put that in there over some other mana rocks just because I can draw. It is terrible and I should feel ashamed. Yeah, Mind's Eye is probably my best card draw that I have in there currently. Unfortunately I seem not to get it out too often. When I do, however, it is amazing! As for Memory Jar, I originally had it on my list of cards to look for when I was putting this together. I for some reason decided to leave it out. I have never played it so maybe that is why I don't understand its awesomeness. I always see it pop up in deck lists. I need to get one and try her out, obviously.
I run a mind stone! Don't feel ashamed, RW has horrible card draw, and this deck needs mana. Then again, I run a ridiculous amount of rocks so I always have enough mana to play all the other ridiculous stuff: Gisela, Avacyn, Iona.
Yeah, why couldn't they just let Gisela be cheaper! Haha! A few of these cards are ones that I debated. It kills me dumping one of my spells for a mana artifact. Sol Ring is supposed to be in this deck, really, I just can't seem to get my dirty hands on one... Not fair. I will have to experiment with adding a pile of artifacts and see how it plays with a ton of ramp. Maybe I can find a middle ground and balance the amount. A few you named I am not familiar with so I will have to do a bit of research in that department.
You'll find a sol ring, they show up, but they get sold right away because everyone in EDH runs it in every deck lol.
Out of all the cards you named, Bonfire will probably be the most likely cut. I always thought it would do so well in my deck. It just putters out most of the time. Another one, that you didn't mention, that doesn't seem to be carrying weight is Aurelia's Fury. Luckily, most of my playgroup aren't running many counterspells, if any. Counterspells and LD are pretty frowned upon at my shop, which I like! (1v1 is a total different story). About Blasphemous Act: This card seems to be one of my best red cards, to be honest. It is amazing. The only downside, obviously, are indestructibles and pro-reds. I won a game two weeks ago by using Replenish to slap my Repercussion back on the board and playing B.A. for 2 mana. It killed off two players and left the last one down to 10 who I bombed next turn. I would highly, HIGHLY recommend you playing with it to test it out if you have not.
Man if I had a playgroup without counterspells I'd get away with murder. You're very very lucky! Explains some of the card choices right there. I'll consider blasphemous act, but yeah Aurelia's Fury I thought about before it was released and decided against it. I lumped it in the same category as bonfire.
My pets: Reckoner, Stuffy Doll, and Spitemare. These are the most hilarious, fun creatures in my deck! No one cared about them the first time I played with them. I dropped a B.A. (again, awesome) bombing someone for 26, nearly killing them. After that these poor guys receive a lot more removal aggro. If I have one of my doubling enchants out it is silly. Gimmicky all around but they make the deck quite enjoyable!
I do play some cards for gimmicks too, so I can't fault you that.
As for your wrath effects and all that good stuffs: I do my best to avoid anything that destroys lands. I hate them with a burning passion. I just want to headbutt people who drop Decrees, Razia's Purifications, and such. I can understand that they are powerful and amazingsauce... just not my play style. I apologize for being stubborn. The creature wipes and Austere command, yes. Reason I run Austere Command is because of how awesomely awesome it is. Terminus has saved my life too many times to count. I do need to pick up a Wrath still, however.
Look at the land destruction in my deck muahahha. Not to mention blood moon.
Steelshapers: I have a playset sitting in my binder. I have debated about putting them in. I should just go ahead and try it out!
It's one of those MVP cards. I try to get greaves or swiftfoots out almost every game, and I have enough tutoring cards where I can do so pretty consistently. Protect Gisela at all costs!
Avacyn: I have so many other high costing stuffs I decided to leave her out. Do you think she will be an impact considering how little creatures I run? She is quite nice, though. Expand a bit on this if you have the time, please.
Gisela, turn, Avacyn. That hurts pretty bad. Then all they can do is play exile or tuck effects, and exile they'd have to waste one on avacyn first. It's extra protection. If Gisela's not out, you still have indestructable creatures and an 8/8 flyer to beat with. If you run enough rocks, there's not mana problems.
Aggravated Assault: (No offence) Meh. I can see it being silly if I had more creatures but I tend to keep a low board profile.
Yeah now that I'm thinking about it I might cut it.
I couldn't agree with you more about the Darksteel Plate. I thought it was going to be silly good. "Each player sacs a creature"... oh... Ok.
Again, I would run swords but that would make me want to beat more face (IF I owned any...). I should just make a 2nd deck for her that beats down. How is that play style, btw? Is it enjoyable for you?
Well I mean swords do more than beats. Feast and Famine is usually my go to because it offsets a lot of the card draw my opponents have, forcing them to discard and then it untaps all my lands, so it's like a time walk. Lots of mana!
It was amazing! I love the feedback! I hope I didn't seem to stubborn or anything of that sort about your suggestions that I don't feel like would fit my playstyle or deck approach. ALL your suggestions were amazing, regardless. Thanks for your time of putting all this together. Also, if you do happen to read all this (which I wouldn't if I were you...) sorry for the half a life that you just wasted on reading all of it.
Well now you've got my decklist to critique. I don't see decks I play too often so I get excited to brainstorm.
The General: This is a very straight forward deck. Gisela is great in multiplayer because not only does she impact your board state with a crazy damage static effect, as well as protect you from damage, she makes all of your other opponents swing hard at each other while she's out. If you like one or two shot general damage-ing your opponents, this deck is for you.
The Strategy: Playing enchantments and creatures that have global board state effects that allow you to go maximum aggro. It runs a lot of mana rocks to pump out Gisela T2-4, which is scary in any game.
The Strengths: As aforementioned, the deck does massive damage relatively quickly if uninterrupted. If Gisela gets on the board, your opponents are on a ridiculously fast clock.
The Weaknesses: Card draw, and it's very single-purpose driven game. Red and white don't have much. The wheels are helpful, and disrupt opponents but still aren't the best. Opponents with blue or black will often out-draw you if the game goes on too long, and as we like to say in my EDH group: "Whoever has the most mana and the most cards wins." It's typically the case. On its fragility: if Gisela gets tucked or if they can keep Gisela off the board for a number of turns, it gets hard to come back, and Gisela can get prohibitively expensive to replay.
Yes. The wrath kills both creatures at the same time, so you choose in which order to put the triggers on the stack (Aura Thief, then Academy Rector). Academy Rector trigger resolves, fetching Enchanted Evening. Aura Thief trigger resolves, gaining control of all enchantments (which is all permanents remaining after the wrath, unless someone kills the Enchanted Evening before the second trigger resolves).
I'll flush this primer out pretty good and do exactly as you mentioned at some point! It IS a lot of work though haha. I think I'll have to use my work scanner to get the pictures out (they don't deserve some crappy iphone picture treatment), which may be tricky timing wise.
Oh and a quick correction to my own post. I definitely did not get my Mana Drain, Ravages of War or Grim Tutor altered. Too scared to let someone touch those cards. I figure those three look cool enough to not need the alter treatment.
So here's my version. It loses so rarely I decided to foil the deck out, and this is an expensive deck to do so. Unfoilable cards have been altered to full art, and my duals are all FBB. For basic lands I went with Urza's Saga Arena promos, and used the misprint Islands. It's a pretty deck, and in this form more expensive than most vintage decks. So buyer beware! Took me a couple of years of trading and purchasing to assemble this.
Chapter 1: The Commander
Zur, the Enchanter
The commander has three colors, allowing access to a lot of the best cards in magic. You have a nice blue counterspell suite, nice board wipes, buffs and kill spells in white, and tutors, card draw and more kill in black. The combo makes for a toolbox that is hard to rival with any other wedge.
The gameplay for this commander is a simple one. Get Zur out as early and often as possible, attack with your flyer into no defense, and pull out free enchantments that wreck the board state for the rest of the players.
Chapter 2: The Strategy
It's easy to play, as I mentioned above, but you do have to pay attention to what other people are playing. The weakness of this deck is that it's pretty single focused. Though you do have enough of a toolbox that you can survive if something goes wrong, really you want to make people scoop early. Zur getting tucked will cause problems due to a lack of creatures. But you do have counterspells along with other cards to prevent that from happening. If all else fails, you can tutor Zur back out. Bottom line is, if you can swing once and get Necropotence out, you'll probably be okay.
The main strategy is well known: Attack with zur repeatedly and get this combo out to lock down the game:
1. Necropotence
2. Solitary Confinement
3. Steel of the Godhead or Empyrial Armor
4. The other one of the two above that you didn't grab the turn before.
5. Usually when I have Zur out and Necro, somewhere in there, since I'm not using mana for anything but counterspell I MLD with some Armaggedon or the like, to give me a few free turns with Zur out to end the game.
Now once someone figures this out, they'll be trying to take out your enchantments, and more importantly take out Zur so you can't get these, so you'll need protection. Cards like Vanishing or Diplomatic Immunity protect Zur, along with the standard Lightning Greaves.
You may need to pull out the protective enchantments first if you think you're going to get targeted. I usually get necro first anyway and protection second, because if they let me swing once, I figure I'm pretty safe. After necro, you have card advantage anyway, and access to that many cards is killer even if they deal with Zur at that point.
Otherwise there's a nice toolbox of enchantments you could pull if you need to deal with other people's threats. Primarily though, stick to the plan. If you play too conservatively, I find that people can deal with Zur a lot easier once the game's stabilized than early on. The key is to make sure the game never stabilizes.
My version of the deck runs a ridiculous amount of mana rocks. The goal is to have a couple counterspells in hand to protect, and to use those rocks to get zur out on T2 or T3 so it's harder to deal with. Like I mentioned, it's REALLY hard to defeat. Nearly impossible in 1v1. It handles 1v2 pretty well also (I find that usually it IS 1v2 when you have 2 other players who know what you're playing). It gets tricky when it's 1v3, but that's the fun of playing it. Everyone knows what you're going to do, and you have to get it past them anyway.
Chapter 3: The Deck
Here's my deck. I'm pretty committed to it as-is and haven't seen another version on here that I believe will attain close to this deck's win percentage, aside from Dr. Zoidberg's (I'll try to link that at a later date when I find it again). You'll see our decks are fairly close.
Lands
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Fetid Heath
1 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 High Market
1 Homeward Path
3 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Minamo, School at the Water's Edge
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mystic Gate
2 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Scrubland
1 Strip Mine
1 Sunken Ruins
2 Swamp
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Wasteland
1 Watery Grave
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sun Titan
1 Trinket Mage
Artifacts
1 Azorius Signet
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Chrome Mox
1 Coalition Relic
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Dimir Signet
1 Ivory Tower
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Opal
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Progress
Enchantments
1 Aura of Silence
1 Detention Sphere
1 Diplomatic Immunity
1 Empyrial Armor
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Greater Auramancy
1 Necropotence
1 Nevermore
1 Rhystic Study
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Solitary Confinement
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Stony Silence
1 Vanishing
1 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Dissipate
1 Force of Will
1 Hinder
1 Mana Drain
1 Mental Misstep
1 Misdirection
1 Mortify
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Oblation
1 Pact of Negation
1 Path to Exile
1 Render Silent
1 Spell Crumple
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Vampiric Tutor
Sorceries
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Armageddon
1 Austere Command
1 Cataclysm
1 Catastrophe
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Grim Tutor
1 Ravages of War
1 Replenish
1 Winds of Rather
1 Vindicate
Chapter 4: A Defense of Unusual Card Choices / Weak Cards:
I'll start with cards I'm not super fond of in the deck but they come in useful enough that I can't bring myself to take them out:
- Hall of the Bandit Lord : I don't like this because it comes into play tapped. Yes it gets Zur out hasty on the other end, but early game I need that mana to ramp into something that gets Zur out faster. I usually pitch this card unless I have a way to get Zur out T3 otherwise.
- Ivory Tower: This is protection from the damage one takes from Necropotence: It's a dead card a lot of the time but I always find myself putting it back in for the life gain anyway.
- Ancestral Vision: I like getting this card if I have a reason to get it out T1 or 2, but it's too slow otherwise, and dead once I have necropotence in play. When I do get it out early, that card's been a big win though. Again, hard to cut.
Weird card choices:
<Forthcoming>
Notable Exclusions:
<Forthcoming>
I'd cut to 33 lands, add about 6-10 more rocks if you really want to go for the faster win. Getting Zur out and playing lockdown enchantments for free is everything.
All you really need out is Necropotence + Solitary Confinement + means to protect Zur and you win.
I'd cut Jitte, as you mentioned it's "win more".
Hymn To Tourach isn't good in this format because it only hits one player and you can't recurr it.
Cut Day of Judgment for Catastrophe and Wrath for Terminus. Humlity hurts Zur.
Demonic Tutor? Vindicate?
I'll post up my list at some point and link it. I rarely lose with the Zur deck in an extremely competitive meta.
That is a very interesting card. My only issue is to really get maximum use out of it you're spending 7 mana, and this deck struggles for mana to play its big creatures. Usually I'm getting Gisela out, which drops all my mana and then the next turn trying to get some sort of equipment on her before she swings. And I'd want that to get maximum utility out of this so I could take two people out of the game at once. I guess even without this though the card does allow you to one shot a single player. I'll have to think about it. I guess with Mistveil Plains and Sunforger it'd be recurrable too. Hmm... I'll test it.
Standstill is awesome. Trickbind looks great, I may replace Stifle with that since I've found Stifle is pretty limited. Tamiyo I took out, found she was too slow and didn't do enough in multiplayer. JTMS and Mana Drain make the deck happy.
Yeah and there's lots of ways to give her that extra boost. There's a land for the double strike, there's a land for +2/+0. I like non-counterable abilities, naturally, because the biggest weakness of RW is you can't deal with counters. Beating with Aven Mindcensor and swords for victory is always my favorite though
the answer is have more than one win con. Lock stuff down with enchantments/artifacts/creatures with state based effects and then play something that wins you the game with a lot of mana out like Luminarch Ascension or like Mobilization + Humility + Dovescape. Relying on one combo is a sure fire way to lose in EDH because once your playgroup knows its out, they know you're going for that and will hold their counterspells/removal to deal with it.
I don't have graveyard hate. There's only one annoying gy recursion deck in my meta so it hasn't been much of an issue. I also like getting stuff back from my yard with Sun Titan, Mistveil Plains. Relic I suppose is nice because it does give that card draw if you don't need it. I just hate drawing dead cards, even if it's pay 1 to filter.
Haven't tried boros charm yet, just put it in at someone's recommendation. I think Gisela swing for 20 when someone isn't looking for it is hilarious enough to keep it, even with its other uses.
Anger is a definite thought. I'm looking at swapping out some creatures potentially, so that'd be a decent one for the list.
Cool, I'll keep that in mind. I look at things from a more competitive angle because my playgroup is pretty obnoxious lol.
I run a mind stone! Don't feel ashamed, RW has horrible card draw, and this deck needs mana. Then again, I run a ridiculous amount of rocks so I always have enough mana to play all the other ridiculous stuff: Gisela, Avacyn, Iona.
You'll find a sol ring, they show up, but they get sold right away because everyone in EDH runs it in every deck lol.
Man if I had a playgroup without counterspells I'd get away with murder. You're very very lucky! Explains some of the card choices right there. I'll consider blasphemous act, but yeah Aurelia's Fury I thought about before it was released and decided against it. I lumped it in the same category as bonfire.
I do play some cards for gimmicks too, so I can't fault you that.
Look at the land destruction in my deck muahahha. Not to mention blood moon.
It's one of those MVP cards. I try to get greaves or swiftfoots out almost every game, and I have enough tutoring cards where I can do so pretty consistently. Protect Gisela at all costs!
Gisela, turn, Avacyn. That hurts pretty bad. Then all they can do is play exile or tuck effects, and exile they'd have to waste one on avacyn first. It's extra protection. If Gisela's not out, you still have indestructable creatures and an 8/8 flyer to beat with. If you run enough rocks, there's not mana problems.
Yeah now that I'm thinking about it I might cut it.
Well I mean swords do more than beats. Feast and Famine is usually my go to because it offsets a lot of the card draw my opponents have, forcing them to discard and then it untaps all my lands, so it's like a time walk. Lots of mana!
Well now you've got my decklist to critique. I don't see decks I play too often so I get excited to brainstorm.
The General: This is a very straight forward deck. Gisela is great in multiplayer because not only does she impact your board state with a crazy damage static effect, as well as protect you from damage, she makes all of your other opponents swing hard at each other while she's out. If you like one or two shot general damage-ing your opponents, this deck is for you.
The Strategy: Playing enchantments and creatures that have global board state effects that allow you to go maximum aggro. It runs a lot of mana rocks to pump out Gisela T2-4, which is scary in any game.
The Strengths: As aforementioned, the deck does massive damage relatively quickly if uninterrupted. If Gisela gets on the board, your opponents are on a ridiculously fast clock.
The Weaknesses: Card draw, and it's very single-purpose driven game. Red and white don't have much. The wheels are helpful, and disrupt opponents but still aren't the best. Opponents with blue or black will often out-draw you if the game goes on too long, and as we like to say in my EDH group: "Whoever has the most mana and the most cards wins." It's typically the case. On its fragility: if Gisela gets tucked or if they can keep Gisela off the board for a number of turns, it gets hard to come back, and Gisela can get prohibitively expensive to replay.
1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Creature (12)
1x Sun Titan
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Inferno Titan
1x Knight of the White Orchid
1x Godo, Bandit Warlord
1x Serra Ascendant
1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1x Aurelia, the Warleader
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Aven Mindcensor
1x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Duplicant
Plainswalker (1)
1x Koth of the Hammer
Enchantment (5)
1x Aura of Silence
1x Pyrohemia
1x Blood Moon
1x Land Tax
1x Stranglehold
Artifact (29)
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Mind Stone
1x Sol Ring
1x Heart of Ramos
1x Tooth of Ramos
1x Chrome Mox
1x Mox Opal
1x Coalition Relic
1x Mana Vault
1x Mana Crypt
1x Marble Diamond
1x Fire Diamond
1x Coldsteel Heart
1x Star Compass
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Mox Diamond
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Boros Signet
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Sensei’s Divining Top
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Mind’s Eye
1x Scroll Rack
1x Memory Jar
1x Terminus
1x Wrath of God
1x Austere Command
1x Cataclysm
1x Hallowed Burial
1x Catastrophe
1x Armageddon
1x Ravages of War
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Reforge the Soul
1x Steelshaper’s Gift
Instant (9)
1x Path to Exile
1x Boros Charm
1x Oblation
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Return to Dust
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Orim’s Thunder
1x Chaos Warp
1x Fork
Land (33)
7x Mountain
5x Plains
1x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Arid Mesa
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Slayers’ Stronghold
1x Command Tower
1x Plateau
1x Clifftop Retreat
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Rugged Prairie
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Kor Haven
1x Flagstones of Trokair
1x Buried Ruin
1x High Market
1x Homeward Path
1x Battlefield Forge
1x Boros Garrison
1x Mistveil Plains
1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
Change Log:
3/24/13: -Balefire Dragon, + Inferno Titan. Considering: Linvala
Thanks, that is happiness right there.