A quick bit of background on why Im looking into this. My two current decks lean towards combo and control, so I wanted to build something more aggro orientated. So before considering a straight up beat face deck (like Boros) I wanted to try Voltron, since Commander damage is obviously something unique to the format. I also want to play white in the colors, since all the decks I have ever owned never had white so far. Long term use I guess will depend on how well this works out I suppose
From experience do you guys find equips or auras to be more effective? I suppose it depends on the general, but personally Im inclined to run a healthy mix of both if possible
After looking around a bit more the commanders Im considering are:
1. Rafiq: generic posterboy, I know, but he looks badass and thats what matters to me
2. Jenara: Angels! My problem with her is the art/appeal. But on the other hand she gives one more color over the next option
3. Sigarda: aweome card and commander I imagine. Only issue is I dont know what strengths to play for in this color pairing
4. Teysa 2.0: I imagine shes the better of her two variants for this style of play? She looks nice to say the least, my gripe is her casting cost though
5. Daxos: nice recommendation from above. I only saw him as an enchantress (enchanter? Since hes a dude, whatever) due to his ability. But now that you mention it, beating face with a dead dude with a sad face mask would be pretty funny
Im at MOST willing to spend $15 Per card. And to do so it has to be very very good. Obviously there will be cheaper options which is what Im looking for here
I set no max limit as this is something money will trickle slowly into over time, like all my decks. However I dont have money to spend all at once for top tier stuff (and if I did Id rather upgrade multiple decks). So thats why I start down at the bottom, so I can actually have a deck up and running, at a fraction of a cost. Safer this way too in case I find I end up not liking whatever it is
I need some help assembling budget options for putting a Voltron deck together (namely the cards to enable such a strategy, AKA the equipment/auras/etc.) as well as some advice/feedback
If you want to skip straight to recommendations: Budget is no more than $15 a card, name anything good that comes to mind under the price cap, with colors being Bant or Orzhov (undecided between the two, though if I go Orzhov it will be newer Teysa. Maybe you guys can sway me one way or another)
Im new to this strategy, so I have two concerns:
1. Whats my backup in case my General fails/is shut down?
2. How much is my performance hindered by going budget? I know its not quite gonna compare to a deck with access to all the Sword of X&X series and Stoneforges etc For tutoring
Thanks guys! Im definitely going Orzhov now. Im ditching the Yldris idea because I got dragged back into the faith of our lord and savior Nicol Bolas (on a serious note I was motivated to rebuild by Grixis deck with Amonkhet and the Bolas teasing from Kaladesh/Aether Revolt)
Hmmm out of those commanders, I think the ones Im most interested in are:
Teysa (both, probably my first choice, who doesn't like her? Both as a Commander option and character)
OG Ghost Dad (why is he called this???)
Daxos
Ayli
Athreos? Maybe
As another question to those that play Orzhov, if you go the token/counter route, how much do you make? I was put off from these because I played Prossh and it became a mess because there were so many to keep track of, but at the same time I had access to green, which obviously made those spin out of control fast. How is it here????
Right now Im leaning the most towards Yldris or a W/B deck
For those who pilot a W/B commander often, what other strategies are there besides stax, enchantments, and tokens? Im a bit interested in making a stax deck, though Im not sure what the best commander option for that would be (never made anything cutthroat like that before, and Im aware it overlaps a bit with the enchantment theme, Im also more inclined to make a stax type deck in these colors and imo you need black, for what it offers and flavorwise)
While I did ask about Boros (edited it out of first post), I have to say the more I look at it, I think its something I will get bored with pretty fast, Im gonna put this option on the backburner for now. That being said though, Im thinking Boros + another color might be something better I would like to try now, particularly Mardu, though the only commander I think in those colors that appeal to me is the new Marchesa, but I have zero idea how to build her.
Probably gonna be building a new Commander deck since I took most of mine, but I want some feedback on my current options before shelling out cash (money tight on holidays haha.....)
1. Yldris, one of the new guys on the block, 4 colors, awesome typing/art, etc. Planning on throwing in more Ogres for flavor, while throwing in more Cascade/Chaos/Wheel type effects for fun/flavor. Still doing some research on how to build him though. Since he's new along with the other C16 lot, Im not sure how much hate he could potentially draw (I suppose its all in the build), I don't doubt he will be fun though
2. Breya, Artifacts. What Im wondering about though is how to focus the artifact theme? She seems pretty versatile so I guess I could build her with artifacts however I want? My only hesitation on her is that the commander herself doesn't quite appeal to me (to clarify I like the colors and what she does, but not the character herself if u get what I mean)
3. Derevi, I like the commander itself, the colors, the untap/blink theme, but from what I understand this is an extremely powerful/predictable commander. Unntap, Blink/ETB effects. Can draw me lots of hate it seems. Does anyone have other interesting takes on this commander, or is abusing Derevi really the only way to go? (Edited)
4. A W/B enchantment deck with Daxos with Angels and Demons and control elements. Would this work? Or is it too unfocused? I dont want to go down the +1/+1 counter route as my brother pilots an Atraxa deck with just that, and I found through playing Prossh that I really dislike keeping track of tons of counters
What have been your experiences with these commanders?
5 color gains you access to all the cards, but 4 color gains you access to almost all abilities and mechanics. You run 5 color if you need to access cards in all five colors, or there is a mechanical reason tied to the commander (slivers, allies, Child of Alara blowing everything up, etc). You run 4 color if you can afford to not have access to the fifth colors cards. The only thing you lose in 4 color vs 5, really, is blue's ability to counter spells and takes extra turns, and that's only if you aren't running blue. Everything white can do is covered by another color (black has sweepers, red and green swarms creatures and pump, black kills, blue and black flies, green and black gain life, blue and red have positive interactions with your artifacts, red and green kill artifacts while green kills enchantments, etc.). You lose discard if you don't run black, and that's about it, as green and white have recursion (even recursion to the board), red has direct damage, white and red kill creatures. You lose nothing by losing red, literally. Green you sort of lose ramp, but artifacts do a better job of that anyway, and that's it. Blue you lose counter spells and extra turns, and that's it, though that's also the hardest to replace. 4 color also, surprisingly, has a more manageable mana base allowing for more basics, making it somewhat more resilient to nbl hate without handicapping itself (you can swap out 4 ABU duals and 4 shocks for 2 of each basic going from 5-4 colors, and it isn't that hard to add 4-8 more).
This is what I was looking for, and everyone made good points as well
I guess the biggest knock against 5 colors then, despite having everything at your disposal, is the selection of commanders. From what I have seen they tend to either be extremely generic, or extremely focused
Ill also briefly edit the main post to make it a little more clear
So, is this pretty much the same old debate of Options vs Consistency seem in previous discussions regarding 1v2, 2v3, and 3v5 color commanders?
Since we have 4 colored commanders (and partners now for additional combos), may we just as well run all 5 colors? How big/little is that gap between 4 vs 5 colors?
(Then again I guess this is sorta moot as ppl will play whatever cool Commander/Strategy appeals to them, regardless of colors and tradeoffs, which is why this format is oh-so-fun)
Ah thank u so much for this. Another part of the problem was that I was landscape mode, which on my device apparently doesnt show that drop down menu, I was able to find it after switching to vertical and looking where you pointed
You can get rid of this thread now, or keep it around for others like me who somehow miss these somewhat obvious things
Sorry for this stupid question, but I have to ask it, and Im not sure where to ask this specifically
I have a smartphone/tablet like most ppl do these days, one of the things I like doing while commuting or while relzing is coming on here to read and post stuff occasionally, speculation, deckbuilding, seeking advice, etc.
But as it currently is....I cant zoom in and out on my mobile devices, and with my impaired vision, it makes it about impossible for me to come on here aside when Im on a computer. I cant seem to find any options to enable such or to switch to a standard desktop version where I can zoom in/out with touchscreen gestures
Also, how doable is Riku with a more budget land base? Im not quite rich enough to have those crazily optimized landbases full of fetches, expensive duals, and whatnot (Im willing to shell out for cards like Riku and Animar, buts that because they're Commanders, the whole point of this format, but over a dozen $20+ lands? Noppppeee).........
I built my Riku deck on a $50 budget at the time (several cards have gone considerably up in value since then, so it no longer is), with an entirely basic landbase.
There's the occasional game where I don't get a forest to start, which puts a damper on things, but those were rare.
Also, how doable is Riku with a more budget land base? Im not quite rich enough to have those crazily optimized landbases full of fetches, expensive duals, and whatnot (Im willing to shell out for cards like Riku and Animar, buts that because they're Commanders, the whole point of this format, but over a dozen $20+ lands? Noppppeee).........
You could build a decent manabase using entirely basics, thanks to green and the fact that you have a mana hungry commander. If you weight it towards forests you'll see more of them early. Run a bunch of cheap ramp (Rampant Growth, Farseek, Sakura-Tribe Elder) and you'll have all of your colors pretty quickly. Ramp stays useful through the game in a Riku list thanks to how mana and color hungry he is.
I wouldn't actually recommend strictly basics with the number of cheap duals out there, but you don't need to spend a lot on lands.
Phew thats reassuring, thanks guys!!!
I was most concerned about a possible reliance on fetches, and you probably know the prices for the enemy color fetches in Riku's colors, I could make a pretty darn good EDH deck (1-2 colors) from just the price of both of those hahah........
Currently the manabases I have for my multicolor decks are about the same, with basics, ravnica basic duals (both original and return), vivids, the core set ones which you need to have one basic type out, painlands, various artifact mana rocks, and some RTR lands from back in standard around when I started (Im missing some of these lands here and there, but Im slowly filling them in)
And thanks for reminding me about the BFZ lands, I better pick them up before they shoot up in price in later rotations
Main part Im lacking in is some creature/spell ramp (missing some here and there) along with more expensive duals/fetches, and perhaps some utility lands which Im not aware of from older sets
EDIT: While typing this it occurred to me that I may have too many lands that etb tapped, should I maybe switch them out for basics? Or do the ability to be flexible in mana makes up for the loss of speed?
Are the Dragonshield deck boxes you guys are referring to the single deck ones? Or the multiple deck ones?
Reason Im asking is this:
I am currently sleeving up one of my decks (Prossh) in Gold Dragonshields (single) however it does not seem to want to fit into the clear Ultra Pro acrylic box (150 count last I checked) that I usually use for the Commander decks. It seems the problem were the Dragonshield sleeves being too wide for me to fit them in normally. And the only way I got it to work was to load the deck in sideways, which irritates me (for many reasons)
Do anyone know whether the Dragonshield single deckboxes fit their standard sleeves fine? I would assume so but I want to see some pics/hear feedback before I commit my money to getting these boxes (LGS do not stock them, nor have I ever seen them in person anywhere)
Ugh I wish UltraPro would release more of their 100+Pro deckboxes with different Commander/Legendary art
I always use Dragonsleeves + the Dragonshield deckbox.
I once bought a UltraPro box (they look almost identical) by mistake, and indeed the DragonShield sleeves don't fit in them.
You can see the difference at the bottom of the Deckbox, where the name is printed.
Thanks! Yeh I tried loading my Dragonshield sleeved deck into the Ultrapro box and had a scare when I realized they were not going in fully and saw the bottom, its good to know the Dragonshield boxes themselves fit them, I can buy them with no worries now I think
They fit in a fatpack box fine right? Thats how I cart around my Commander stuff
A quick bit of background on why Im looking into this. My two current decks lean towards combo and control, so I wanted to build something more aggro orientated. So before considering a straight up beat face deck (like Boros) I wanted to try Voltron, since Commander damage is obviously something unique to the format. I also want to play white in the colors, since all the decks I have ever owned never had white so far. Long term use I guess will depend on how well this works out I suppose
From experience do you guys find equips or auras to be more effective? I suppose it depends on the general, but personally Im inclined to run a healthy mix of both if possible
After looking around a bit more the commanders Im considering are:
1. Rafiq: generic posterboy, I know, but he looks badass and thats what matters to me
2. Jenara: Angels! My problem with her is the art/appeal. But on the other hand she gives one more color over the next option
3. Sigarda: aweome card and commander I imagine. Only issue is I dont know what strengths to play for in this color pairing
4. Teysa 2.0: I imagine shes the better of her two variants for this style of play? She looks nice to say the least, my gripe is her casting cost though
5. Daxos: nice recommendation from above. I only saw him as an enchantress (enchanter? Since hes a dude, whatever) due to his ability. But now that you mention it, beating face with a dead dude with a sad face mask would be pretty funny
Still open to ideas though, so keep em coming
Im at MOST willing to spend $15 Per card. And to do so it has to be very very good. Obviously there will be cheaper options which is what Im looking for here
I set no max limit as this is something money will trickle slowly into over time, like all my decks. However I dont have money to spend all at once for top tier stuff (and if I did Id rather upgrade multiple decks). So thats why I start down at the bottom, so I can actually have a deck up and running, at a fraction of a cost. Safer this way too in case I find I end up not liking whatever it is
If you want to skip straight to recommendations: Budget is no more than $15 a card, name anything good that comes to mind under the price cap, with colors being Bant or Orzhov (undecided between the two, though if I go Orzhov it will be newer Teysa. Maybe you guys can sway me one way or another)
Im new to this strategy, so I have two concerns:
1. Whats my backup in case my General fails/is shut down?
2. How much is my performance hindered by going budget? I know its not quite gonna compare to a deck with access to all the Sword of X&X series and Stoneforges etc For tutoring
Teysa (both, probably my first choice, who doesn't like her? Both as a Commander option and character)
OG Ghost Dad (why is he called this???)
Daxos
Ayli
Athreos? Maybe
As another question to those that play Orzhov, if you go the token/counter route, how much do you make? I was put off from these because I played Prossh and it became a mess because there were so many to keep track of, but at the same time I had access to green, which obviously made those spin out of control fast. How is it here????
Right now Im leaning the most towards Yldris or a W/B deck
For those who pilot a W/B commander often, what other strategies are there besides stax, enchantments, and tokens? Im a bit interested in making a stax deck, though Im not sure what the best commander option for that would be (never made anything cutthroat like that before, and Im aware it overlaps a bit with the enchantment theme, Im also more inclined to make a stax type deck in these colors and imo you need black, for what it offers and flavorwise)
While I did ask about Boros (edited it out of first post), I have to say the more I look at it, I think its something I will get bored with pretty fast, Im gonna put this option on the backburner for now. That being said though, Im thinking Boros + another color might be something better I would like to try now, particularly Mardu, though the only commander I think in those colors that appeal to me is the new Marchesa, but I have zero idea how to build her.
1. Yldris, one of the new guys on the block, 4 colors, awesome typing/art, etc. Planning on throwing in more Ogres for flavor, while throwing in more Cascade/Chaos/Wheel type effects for fun/flavor. Still doing some research on how to build him though. Since he's new along with the other C16 lot, Im not sure how much hate he could potentially draw (I suppose its all in the build), I don't doubt he will be fun though
2. Breya, Artifacts. What Im wondering about though is how to focus the artifact theme? She seems pretty versatile so I guess I could build her with artifacts however I want? My only hesitation on her is that the commander herself doesn't quite appeal to me (to clarify I like the colors and what she does, but not the character herself if u get what I mean)
3. Derevi, I like the commander itself, the colors, the untap/blink theme, but from what I understand this is an extremely powerful/predictable commander. Unntap, Blink/ETB effects. Can draw me lots of hate it seems. Does anyone have other interesting takes on this commander, or is abusing Derevi really the only way to go? (Edited)
4. A W/B enchantment deck with Daxos with Angels and Demons and control elements. Would this work? Or is it too unfocused? I dont want to go down the +1/+1 counter route as my brother pilots an Atraxa deck with just that, and I found through playing Prossh that I really dislike keeping track of tons of counters
What have been your experiences with these commanders?
This is what I was looking for, and everyone made good points as well
I guess the biggest knock against 5 colors then, despite having everything at your disposal, is the selection of commanders. From what I have seen they tend to either be extremely generic, or extremely focused
Ill also briefly edit the main post to make it a little more clear
So, is this pretty much the same old debate of Options vs Consistency seem in previous discussions regarding 1v2, 2v3, and 3v5 color commanders?
Since we have 4 colored commanders (and partners now for additional combos), may we just as well run all 5 colors? How big/little is that gap between 4 vs 5 colors?
(Then again I guess this is sorta moot as ppl will play whatever cool Commander/Strategy appeals to them, regardless of colors and tradeoffs, which is why this format is oh-so-fun)
You can get rid of this thread now, or keep it around for others like me who somehow miss these somewhat obvious things
I have a smartphone/tablet like most ppl do these days, one of the things I like doing while commuting or while relzing is coming on here to read and post stuff occasionally, speculation, deckbuilding, seeking advice, etc.
But as it currently is....I cant zoom in and out on my mobile devices, and with my impaired vision, it makes it about impossible for me to come on here aside when Im on a computer. I cant seem to find any options to enable such or to switch to a standard desktop version where I can zoom in/out with touchscreen gestures
Any help?
Anyone knows how it compares to Stompy abd CoCo Elves??? (Already own Stompy and have most of CoCo Elves minus the fetches, Chords, and CoCo)
And what are the overall matchups like in the Modern meta?
Im on the fence about whether I should pick this up or not (if money would be better spent upgradibg other stuff **** the two mentioned above)
Can they fit in straight on? Just wondering in case I decide to go double sleeved
Also how much freespace does it have when going doublesleeve in those boxes?
Phew thats reassuring, thanks guys!!!
I was most concerned about a possible reliance on fetches, and you probably know the prices for the enemy color fetches in Riku's colors, I could make a pretty darn good EDH deck (1-2 colors) from just the price of both of those hahah........
Currently the manabases I have for my multicolor decks are about the same, with basics, ravnica basic duals (both original and return), vivids, the core set ones which you need to have one basic type out, painlands, various artifact mana rocks, and some RTR lands from back in standard around when I started (Im missing some of these lands here and there, but Im slowly filling them in)
And thanks for reminding me about the BFZ lands, I better pick them up before they shoot up in price in later rotations
Main part Im lacking in is some creature/spell ramp (missing some here and there) along with more expensive duals/fetches, and perhaps some utility lands which Im not aware of from older sets
EDIT: While typing this it occurred to me that I may have too many lands that etb tapped, should I maybe switch them out for basics? Or do the ability to be flexible in mana makes up for the loss of speed?
Thanks! Yeh I tried loading my Dragonshield sleeved deck into the Ultrapro box and had a scare when I realized they were not going in fully and saw the bottom, its good to know the Dragonshield boxes themselves fit them, I can buy them with no worries now I think
They fit in a fatpack box fine right? Thats how I cart around my Commander stuff
Did you load the double sleeve cards sideways, or straight on??