- Put Homeward Path into most of your decks. I see he has two blue based theft commanders so homeward will counter him fairly well. Obviously he can Strip Mine it / whatever but it should at least help.
- Graveyard hate will hurt Wrexial. Not running enough graveyard hate is a normal issue for a lot of casual metas.
- Consider effects to disable commanders like Pithing Needle, Arrest (type effects), Imprisoned in the Moon type effects.
Beyond those three tips, my biggest concerns with his lineups without knowing more is the combination of the two theft commanders and sisay's tutors. These three commanders though are all susceptible to Pithing Needle effects though. I really don't think there is any one commander that you "need" to run to counter these so much as a few type of effects I would consider running to counteract the strategies that this player enjoys. On the upside most of these effects are available to most every color. Just focus on some of these cards that slow him down or stop some of the tactics that he often uses and continue on playing whatever you like playing.
EDIT: if I were to pick a commander to specifically try to counter him I would probably pick a hexproof voltron commander given they bypass a lot of his theft control.
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My thoughts:
Burn might be too good now. 4 Magma Jet helps set up a solid 1-3 of Thunderous Wrath. Beyond that I can't imagine a world where 4x Magma Jet isn't just the default. Hell, that was what Modern and Legacy used to run before the printing of other options! Burns biggest downfall was always inconsistency (hate cards not withstanding). Magma Jet goes a long way to fixing that.
On the other hand, Thunderous Wrath makes a serious Counter-Burn deck look much more likely. We have access to Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm (which more and more makes Pauper look like budget Legacy). Before you needed to do whatever you could to make Galvanic Blast work which made the decklist really tight. Now you can rock Thunderous Wrath, maybe even as a 4-of, and Magma Jet with Lightning Bolt as your burn package. Then you could run Thermo-Alchemist + Tandem Lookout to turn all of your spells into cantrips. Tap Alchemist, draw 1, Cast Magma Jet, untap, Scry 2, put Wrath on top, on your opponent's turn tap Alchemsit, miracle draw Wrath and slam it for another 5. That's 9 damage and 2 cards for 3 mana with a little set up. You can do similar things with any scry ability.
Beetle and Noble make a sac deck look good. Mind you, Beetle triggers on ANY players sacrifice so Chainer's Edict....Gnawing Zombie helps add to that strategy. You could make it a G/B deck and run a few Eldrazi token makers like Nest Invader to get extra bodies but also easily saccable tokens.
BTE makes stompy way better but I could also see it enabling a serious Gruul deck using Jund Hackblade as others have mentioned. Heck, even Goblin Bushwacker is good. Turn 1 Foundry Street Denizen into BTE into Bushwacker? 9 dmg on turn 2.... Denizen -> BTE -> Hackblade is still 6 dmg. Hackblade is way worse without BTE unless you can find a way to play some other multi-colored creatures.
I think Spike Jester is a super interesting option because it could help enable a decent Rakdos Aggro deck as well since they already have Jund Hackblade and Rakdos Shred-Freak, which does make enough hybrid color creatures to make Hackblade reasonable. That's a lot of Hastey 2-drops. Could be something, could be nothing. The mana cost may just be too dang awkward for an aggro deck like this to really work fast enough to be worth it. Hackblade is a strictly worse Shred-Freak without another multi-color creature but their low toughness means any reasonable blocker decimates your board.
We have a few archetypes that win with this set. Namely G/X Aggro/Mid-Range wins big with this set. Conclave is a super efficient body and already has a lot of other interesting pieces like Centaur Healer. They could go Gruul for BTE or Scourge Devil. They could go Black with Angler, etc. Thunderous Wrath is a big win for Izzet IMO because blue offers so much in terms of Scry and Instant speed draw. This might push B/W Mimic into the next tier as well.
We might also see the start of some new archetypes such as a B/X Sacrifice. I really hope this takes off because its a very interactive strategy. I would also love to see Dinrova Horror take off but I have no idea where that would go. It seems like it could be decent value attached to a reasonable body. Izzet Counter-Burn might actually have what it takes to become an actual thing now too. I like Grixis Slavedriver too. I mean, its a lot of mana but it provides so many bodies for the cost that...I just feel like its got to be worth something.
Revive might be the sleeper hit of this set. G/B Delve is a pretty good deck and Revive is a super clutch addition because it puts the creature right back in hand. It might not be good enough though because using Reclaim to grab removal and similar things is a really big deal. Not to mention some of the most important creatures in the deck are black.
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Oh god, to that end, being the only player at the table that has answers. I've played online several times where we were facing some kind of token generation deck like Sek'Kuar or something like that and everyone at the table is like "Isn't someone going to do something about him?" I'm thinking, uh well, why can't you? I help a sweeper in my hand until I became the target just to increase the pain on my opponents. Serves you right for building your deck so poorly.
The problem is that one person can't run four peoples worth of answers and so we all eventually lost anyway because I was the only one to play any removal that game. I typically run 4 sweepers and 7 targeted removal. In that game I used 3 of my sweepers and 4 targeted removal all trying to keep the same player in check. I think I saw one other removal spell that game between the 3 of them.
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Honestly, taking faster turns in some cases has cost me games I think I should have won. That really sucks but I think overall its worth it.
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The way I usually play out Live/Die is I will use early copies of Die on x/1s to save up left over Energy. I will use Victim for creatures Die can't hit early. After a couple copies of Live I usually have enough energy for any left over copies of Die to start hitting bigger things as well. Its all about play sequencing.
I understand where you are coming from but I will say that in play it works out better than you are imagining. For scavenger, its the versatility that really sets it over the edge because it can be a beater but it can also recur other cards. Sure it can't get Gary but often if you have it then you don't always need Gary either. I replaced Angler with Scavenger and there have been more than a few occasions where Scavenger was able to win games Angler never would have. Oddly, Scavenger rewards you for having several pips on the board like Gary does. Because Scavenger has an anthem AND grants Menace to your team (once flipped) it also encourages you to have a lot of creatures on board. And it has an ability that helps make that happen. Gary also likes a lot of creatures on board for the pips. So they both want the same thing but for different reasons.
I'm not saying its strictly better than the prior builds of the deck but I think it warrants testing. For be its been very resilient and draws a TON of cards. Its rare to have fewer than 5 cards in hand with 12 draw spells in the deck, and 3 ways to get a few of those back PLUS the cycle lands as well. The deck digs extremely well and sees tons of cards and the synergy of each of them works pretty well.
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You've got some really interesting choices in here. I prefer the package of Rebirth + Purge + Wellspring for value. What advantage does the Puzzleknot provide other than just self-saccing?
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I hear ya. When I want to win through combat and attacking with creatures, I go Boros. I wouldn't even mind seeing something for more of a low to the ground aggro strategy like Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch. That said, I do think there is plenty of design space for other types of Boros commanders which are totally on theme.
I think there is some design space that no one has discussed yet. So Boros is about combat but its also about organized combat with a flair for zealotry. I think of a couple of potential ideas based on that alone that have nothing to do with YOUR combat step.
Based on Boros Battleshaper:
XXXXXX, Avatar of War 4RRWW
Legendary Creature - Avatar
Vigilance, First Strike
Other creatures you control have Vigiliance and First Strike.
Creatures must attack each combat if able.
During your opponent's combat step, you choose up to one target creature that player controls. You decide how that creature attacks this turn.
3/7
Based on Deflecting Palm, Divine Deflection, Boros Fury-Shield etc.
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
XRW: Prevent the next X damage that would be dealt to you this turn. If damage is prevented this way, you may have XXXXX, Shield Mage deals that much damage to target creature.
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Based on Leyline of Lightning, Blaze Commando, Balefire Liege, Chandra's Phoenix, Chandra's Spitfire
XXXXX, Standard Barer 2RW
Legendary Creature - Minotaur Soldier
Prowess
Whenever an opponent is dealt non-combat damage by a source you control, you may pay 1. If you do choose one-
0/3
I know I made them, so I'm a little bias, but I love all of them. I would want to build a deck with all of them and I feel like they pretty accurately capture Red and White, still maintain a kind of combat orientation, and yet still do something completely different.
I just wanted to do something that wasn't just the expected stuff. I feel like Equipment synergy is what Jor Kadeen and Akiri already do. I mean, yeah sure it says "Artifacts" but let's be real, on a combat based on commander what kind of artifacts do you think you're probably using? Equipment. The ones I created were an attempt to deviate as far from "Suit up and attack" as possible while still granting a distinct advantage in the combat step.
What do you guys think?
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This is such a narrow view of deck building. I guess if all you ever build is "hurr durr" good stuff, then sure I guess. Having more colors does add options that you wouldn't otherwise have access too even if you are just trying to do something thematic or synergistic but those options aren't always worth the trouble. If I'm building an artifact deck why would I splash green? What does green offer my game plan that makes the deck strictly better simply because I have another color? I mean ramp I guess but I already want a lot of artifacts, why not a few more mana rocks than normal?
That said, I do think the option to cast a second semi-synergistic commander at any time IS a reason to consider finding a way to work in a few extra colors into your mana base and I honestly don't think its that difficult to do, even on an extremely strict budget. Chances are you're going to want Command Tower, Commander's Sphere, and Darksteel Ingot. On a budget you are probably using a lot of CITP tapped Duals like the gain lands etc. Why not throw in the appropriate shard's tri-land? Its still another dual tapped land that also happens to provide extra value in casting the other Partner even it that's the only off color card in your deck. That's already 4 sources that you would probably put in a 2 color deck that now facilitate casting the other commander. If you happen to also be running cards like Rupture Spire, Transguild Promenade, Holdout Settlement, Manalith, etc. then its even easier. If you are running Cluestones, just swap for the Enemy shard's Banner or Allied Obelisk. In most cases, those changes are liteerally zero opportunity cost.
You could even throw in a single off color basic to fetch with Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse (which are staples in any multi-color budget manabase). That has a slightly higher opportunity cost because you could draw it in your opening hand and that would be bad.
tl;dr- Regardless of how much better splashing appears to be, having access to a second commander at all times is nearly always going to be okay. Worst case scenario you never cast it and nothing changes. Best case scenario you use cards you were already going to run and get extra value out of the command zone in a few games. The floor is so good in this situation, I don't see any logical reason to NOT run a partner, especially if there is already another one in the exact same color combo. If nothing else it avoids the Commander tax and gets you back on the board after a sweeper much faster.
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