Have you considered Restoration Angel over possibly Flickerwisp? I think the flash + extra kiki-jiki combo piece makes it edge it out. Or even just both, cutting something else.
To answer DrTim0n, Venser is working really great for me. He's pretty much my one answer to the Obliterate, and can stop an uncounterable combo card like Tooth and Nail off a Boseiju. He can also work as a flash blocker for a planeswalker, if you're really desperate. I want to add Treasure Cruise to the deck for sure. I like the BSZ effect, but more as a 1-of, and already have Sphinx's Rev. I've found Wrath of God to be a more consistent answer to the elfball decks that run regenerate cards like Ezuri or Yavimaya Hollow. Though, I am considering replacing Austere Command with Supreme Verdict just to get the average CMC of this deck down (its a little too high atm, even with considering Dig Through Time as a 2 drop).
After a couple of months people have started not making the wrong choice with the Sphere of safety. Its still very good against overrun decks that win with Craterhoof, as it makes them wait an extra turn or two before they can kill me, which is usually enough. So I'm gonna try playing without it for a while and see how it goes.
Personally I'm not a huge fan of this idea, for a number of reasons, but I'd like to share the most important one. Flavor is a very subjective idea, and the playgroups who take that aspect super highly into account are already building decks that adhere to this. This really only affects the players who either don't believe its a flavor fail, simply don't care, or might care but not enough to not run them (since they do in fact offer benefits, such as shuffling, crucible of worlds, very strong mana fixing, etc.). All it really ends up doing is saying "This is how we define flavor, and you're going to have to accept it" rather than letting individual people and their playgroups to decide what it means to them. It limits deckbuilding and gameplay, with what seems to be only a subjective gain, which I don't think is ever the right idea (its for this reason I didn't like the removal of banned as commander: I agree that combining the two is simpler, but I disagree that that simplicity was worth limiting deckbuilding by banning 3 cards fully instead of allowing them in the 99).
I cant get the quote to work properly because I'm bad at this, so @Slarg232
That's why I said its not as big a deal in casual tables (though I do believe it can be a big deal, it just isn't as often). A competitive deck, such as Brago (or Zur) stax, or Prossh food chain combo, or Grixis/Esper storm, are going to have a significantly easier time winning when they get that early sol ring / mana crypt.
Its 81.4% for a sol ring OR mana crypt, not just sol ring.
And it doesn't corrupt every average player games, it does when there are highly tuned decks playing. I'd actually argue it does to an extent corrupt casual games as well, just to a far lesser extent (probably not enough enough to need to worry about it), but it will absolutely give a ridiculous advantage to the person who started with sol ring or mana crypt. I have very rarely lost a game when I turned 1 a sol ring or mana crypt in my GAAIV deck, and the few times it has, the other guy also turn one'd a sol ring or mana crypt. Though, this evidence is completely anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt.
I'd definitely like some research from like a bunch of MTGO games and see what the results are with players turn one'ing either sol ring or mana crypt, and seeing how the games end up playing out, taking into a few considerations: how many players sol ring'd turn one, which commanders were they playing, and was the sol ring killed within a turn or two. I mean theoretically, I'd love to see this kind of research done on more than just sol ring...but not sure it would actually be possible.
I don't think Ensoul Artifact does enough to be honest, a 5/5 just isn't that big in EDH AND it makes the artifact susceptible to creature removal. March of the Machines though is quite good. With Mycosynth lattice, this kills all the lands, but with the amount of mana rocks Muzzio plays you'll be perfectly fine. I cut mine in favor of using mana doublers though, using Karn, Silver Golem to accomplish the whole land destruction thing instead.
Rite works really well. I used to run it in my deck, but cut it for Metalworker when that became legal. Rite can win the game, but Metalworker turn 3 into Blightsteel Colossus or an eldrazi turn 4 wins the game as well.
I also forgot two awesome artifacts in my earlier post: Phyrexian Metamorph and Sculpting Steel. Why have different artifacts when you can have more of the best ones?
This is my GAAIV EDH deck. I've been playing this for about a year now, and its changed up quite a bit. It wins nearly every game that its not playing 1 v 3, and it wins a fair amount of those as well. The goal is to land a very early Grand Arbiter (turn 2-3 hopefully) and then use it to ramp into big threats such as Drogskol Reaver or Medomai, the Ageless while keeping counter magic and protection ready. Currently, the deck is missing three very notable cards: Jace, the Mind Sculptor (Architect is currently sitting for it), Mana Drain (not sure what will be replaced for that), and Mindbreak Trap (Counterflux, Cavern of Souls, and Boseiju, Who Shelters All have become popular cards in my meta nowadays, so I need to pick one up), which will probably replace Hinder now that tucking generals is no longer an option. I'm also not particularly keen on Worn Powerstone in the deck anymore, as it does not help ramp out an earlier Arbiter. I'm considering Commander's Sphere in its place, as it can cycle as well as add colored mana. I'd also love to pick up a Force of Will, but I feel as if 2 for 1'ing yourself in multiplayer can be very weak. Still, being able to protect key cards tapped out might be good enough, so someday I'll have to try it out.
Some meta choices or otherwise odd card choices: Frozen Æther: While a popular card in Stax version of the deck, my particular list runs almost no other stax cards. I choose to include this one because it hoses the Kiki-Jiki in my meta (and being an enchantment, its nearly impossible for the mono-red list to remove), and combined with an early GAAIV drop it is incredibly hard to fight. The other tax cards generally require setup or hose both ways. This one is a great one-way only effect.
Aura of Silence: The other stax-like card, I play against way too many Darettis and other artifact decks ever since the precon was released.
Dismiss over Cryptic Command: I found that 90% of the time, Cryptic was being used as a dismiss. The deck often wanted to spend one less blue mana than have the extra options, so I swapped the two out.
Sphere of Safety: Despite only running 8 enchantments total, this card is incredibly useful. It protects the 7 planeswalkers in this deck, and combined with GAAIV often means players either choose to play something or choose to attack me. In a lot of cases, they make the wrong choice. As soon as this card stops protecting PWs and myself, I'll cut it, but so far its doing a surprisingly good job.
The first combo for the deck would be simply adding in a Mycosynth Lattice as soon as you can. This combos with Darksteel Forge and Nevinyrral's Disk to destroy all permanents you don't control repeatedly. This wins the game.
A card that I found often wins the game upon resolution is Possessed Portal. When you are activating Muzzio and no one else is able to generate cards, you'll eventually just win. I eventually cut it from my deck though as people really hated the card.
Memnarch is an amazing finisher for Muzzio, especially with all the ramp the deck has. Speaking of ramp, since your in mono color, Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun work wonderfully as ramp.
Now the absolute most important card I think you should get is Master Transmuter. This lets you cheat in the stuff that got into your hand instead of on top of the library, but can also protect your artifacts from removal! You can bounce an artifact to your hand and then return it to the battlefield to blank a removal spell like return to dust!
I would cut 1 island for Seat of the Synod. One more card to not wiff with Muzzio.
For cuts to the deck, I would argue that card draw and bombs are the last things you want to cut. Muzzio (and Master Transmuter) will let you cheat bombs in for free, so you absolutely want a high density of them in your deck. I would personally however drop one of your non-artifact bombs for Soul of New Phyrexia. The first thing you want to do is make sure every non-artifact card in the deck has an extremely good reason to be in the deck. This means, do you really think Stifle and sigiled starfish fit the deck? I definitely don't think stifle and would cut it for one of the cards above. I would switch out Turn to frog with Duplicant, since the second can be grabbed with Muzzio, and sigiled starfish with a Crystal Ball. You also always want card draw. Its never a bad thing to have.
- Harvester of Souls
- Jester's Cap
- Decree of Pain
+ Grim Haruspex
+ Batterskull
+ Damnation
I found that Jester's Cap was too high a mana investment for its use. It wasn't fast enough to stop a hard combo deck if the
combo deck was having a good game, which is what it was meant to do. It could completely neuter combo decks in the late game,
but honestly by then I should be able to kill them entirely.
I felt really heavy on six drops, so I am trying out Grim Haruspex > Harvester of Souls. Hopefully the Haruspex will be able to draw a bit of cards and not draw nearly the amount of hate the harvester draws. Was deciding between cutting the Harvester or Nirkana Revenant. If I end up not liking this change, I'll try swapping the two out and see how that feels.
Batterskull makes Glissa a 3 turn clock and lets you play both offensively and defensively with her, as well as filling a
5 drop spot (where currently I only had 3 5 drops, but a bunch of 6s). Also provides a source of lifegain to continue going
hard with necropotence.
Ended up liking damnation over Decree of pain. However, now I want to see if I like Overwhelming Forces, as that is a 1 sided board wipe with card draw for 8. Seems quite strong.
For Dragons of Tarkir, nothing in particular screamed "use me!". Den protector might be worth running, being a 5 mana instant speed witness, but unlike codex shredder its not recurrable. Currently not running, however, I do have plans to test it out.
Also planning on testing Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury. I'm a little late on this one, but I realized how it could do a better job than Vraska. I like all 3 of Freyalise's abilities, while I only use Vraska for her -3.
To be honest, negative feedback when posted constructively is very helpful, so thank you for the insight!
To the difference with woohah's list, currently I suppose there is very little. It does switch out some cards but for the most part it is playing the same game plan. When deciding to post my deck I knew I wanted to write a lot, discuss the game plan and write something about every single card, barring a few lands. The purpose of this was mostly for me, as when I talked about each card I realized which ones I was pretty on the fence on and which I wasn't sure were effective to the game plan, or if there was enough support to try something new. It was definitely very helpful for me in considering changes to my deck, while at the same time leaving it open to outside suggestion. The main reason I posted as a new thread as opposed to a comment was because of the size, and I didn't want to distract from his list. Basically, the purpose of the post definitely felt more fitting in a new thread, if that makes any sense.
I definitely have no moral objections to any card or any strategy. Mindslaver was in the original version of the deck, but back then it was very budget and clunky. I removed it as it just didn't work back then but now that the rest of the deck is more streamlined I definitely see a spot for it. Probably replace exsanguinate.
In response to cutting sorceries, I don't agree with cutting tutors as those add more consistency to the deck. However, I will admit that after a few years the hyper ramp into GSZ and exsanguinate has lost some of its touch. The reason I consider mindslaver as a replacement for the second is due to the fact it's useful earlier in the game but once at 30 mana it can close the game out if you find ways to keep killing creatures, which is really not that hard to do. With the tutors, unless everyone else is also trying to combo, I find myself far more often getting necropotence or Phyrexian arena, or just a big bomb, of a board wipe, whatever I need in the situation. Furthermore, I feel like the only ramp creatures are BoP, courser, and oracle. I mentioned I was considering cutting the hart as it was just not really worth it, and solemn is just a good artifact to recur since it draws a card, and is primarily in the deck for that purpose and not ramp. BoP allows for turn 2 glissa and the other two get lands off top so I don't waste draws on them, which is very useful.
In response to fewer artifacts, my meta saw a huge rise of graveyard hate when the karador decks moved in. The karador decks have since moved out but the graveyard hate has not. So being completely reliant on always recurring artifacts stopped working very well, and by switching to more low key artifacts or only keeping those makes opponents less likely to pull the trigger while you still accumulate value.
I tried the longbow and the staff quite a few times, but every time I just didn't like them. It's probably just the shell I am running, they don't work that well in them. As I make other changes to the deck I'll definitely re-evaluate.
One of the things I'm very interested in trying is adding a few efficient voltron equipment. Glissa is rarely blocked due to the threat of artifact recursion and the fact that she always wins in combat, and with 0 equipment I've routinely hit 21 damage. Granted, opponents might be more inclined to block if I do add some more. The 4 id consider adding would be: umezawa's jitte, sword of Fire and ice, sword of feast and famine, and batterskull. I specifically wanted equipment as glissa can recover these fairly easily.
On a side note, I am hoping for more sacrificial artifacts that are cheap and don't draw too much attention to increase glissa's effectiveness. I tried Mishras and Urzas bauble but I wasnt a huge fan on the wait a turn restriction. I don't think you need to hit a critical mass of artifacts with a glissa deck though. As long as you draw 1 you always have something to get value of, and its a very rare game you only get 1.
Glissa was a Viridian Elf living in the Tangle on Mirrodin. One night, she was abducted by the Trolls who controlled Tel-Jilad. A mysterious troll named Chunth claimed it was to protect her, but in her distrust she grabbed a weapon and fled. Returning home, she discovered Levelers attacking. She fought them and the levelers eventually retreated, but they managed to wound and capture her. She awoke the next morning in a cavern, and with the help of the goblin artificer Slobad, she freed herself and began searching for a way to heal her wound, which had become badly infected. Slobad brought Glissa to the leonin of Taj-Nar, where her wound was treated. In Taj-Nar, Glissa befriended the leonin Kha Raksha, who revealed they two had been attacked. The trio set out to find the source of the attacks, which led them to Mephidross, where Slobad fixed the golem Bosh. With Bosh's help, the trio were able to penetrate the heart of the dross, a structure called Ish Sah, ruled by the necromancer Geth. After defeating him, Glissa struck a deal to spare his life for information. Geth's data led the group on the next leg of their journey: the vedalken city of Lumengrid. Along the coast of the Quicksilver Sea, Glissa allied with a neurok wizard named Bruenna, who wished to attack the vedalken overlords who enslaved her people. After Slobad, Glissa, and Bosh crossed the Quicksilver sea and entered Lumengrid, Glissa confronted Pontifex, the mysterious individual seemingly responsible for the attacks. Glissa killed Pontifex, only to find out he was not the mastermind; rather, Memnarch was behind the attacks.
Glissa journeyed to acquire the Kaldra artifacts to confront Memnarch, but was betrayed by the Avatar when Memnarch gained control of the artifacts. Glissa managed to escape from Memnarch when the Green Sun burst from the core. It was later revealed that Memnarch's end goal was Glissa's latent planeswalker spark. Glissa returns to the Tangle after her escape, only to be immediately arrested for the murder of her parents. She was acquitted when another group of levelers attacked her home. Glissa put together an alliance of friends and family, intent on toppling Memnarch's reign. She returned to Ish Sah, only to find Geth was no longer the head of the Dross. Here, she was trapped in a time bubble for five years. When she was released, the world had completely changed. Tar-Naj had fallen and Slobad had gone missing. The mission to overthrow Memnarch had failed. Glissa decided to dive back into the heart of Mirrodin in a final attempt to defeat Memnarch. When she arrived in the core, Glissa discovered Memnarch had transformed it into a giant spark-transfer machine, which was to use the souls above it to fuel it. Attached to the machine was the horribly mutated body of Slobad, who had been forced to engineer it. Glissa flung herself at Memnarch, causing the two of them to crash into the core. To Slobad's surprise, Glissa's spark was transferred to him. When he met Karn and learned what had transpired, Slobad relinquished the spark to save Glissa and all the other life that had been stolen. In the end, Karn left Glissa, Slobad, and Geth as the new guardians of Mirrodin and the Mirari. When Glissa and Slobad returned to the surface, they were attacked by hordes of panicked goblins. Glissa was separated from Slobad (who was killed in the onslaught), and retreated back into the interior of Mirrodin, where the tiny memnite constructs kept her safe and sleeping.
Glissa was a savior of Mirrodin, responsible for saving the lives of the inhabitants of Mirrodin from Memnarch. However, while trapped in the Core, the elves above accused her of all the damage that had been done to their community: the destruction of the Radix, the death of many elves, and the extinction of the trolls. With the Vanishing the only remaining beings who knew what good she had actually done were pulled from the plane. The natives of the Tangle took to calling her Glissa, the Traitor as more and more woes were heaped upon her shoulders. With the corruptive powers of Phyrexia working their way to the mana core, she too, was eventually corrupted just by her proximity to the glistening oil. Compleated by Vorinclex she became the champion of the praetor, and an extremely powerful warrior for Phyrexia's goal.
Quotes
"Wipe Sheoldred's spies from the sky. She'll see the result of our vision soon enough."
"Even a nuisance such as the pistus fly has a purpose in our new world."
"So, the survivors from Oxid Ridge are on the move. Let them come and witness predation in its purest form."
"If it were fit to survive, it wouldn't have been so easily put down."
Why Play Glissa?
- You like being able to control the board
- You like a commander who almost always wins in combat
- You like decks that generates a lot of mana
- You like reusable effects
- You like being able to use the graveyard, but not be reliant on it
You should not play this version of Glissa or a similar version:
- if you like fast combo
- if you like counterspells
- if you like hard control (as opposed to attrition)
- if you don't like tutors (it is possible to play without, but much weaker)
That is not to say the above things on the dislike list are impossible. If you want it more controlling, it is possible to play a hard stax version of the deck, running token generators and cards such as Smokestack and Death Cloud. It is also possible to run fast combo. Necrotic Ooze + Triskelion + Phyrexian Devourer allows for a massive amount of damage to opponents (though not infinite). This version of the deck will want a lot of ways to dump cards into your graveyard, such as Fauna Shaman, Survival of the Fittest, and Buried Alive. It will also want a lot more reanimation spells, such as exhume and reanimate. Furthermore, the land base will be far less important, so cutting land tutors would be the first step to replacing cards. Good reanimation targets for this kind of deck include Rune-Scarred Demon and Woodfall Primus. More tutors as well are useful, such as Worldly tutor and Liliana Vess.
The deck a few very different lines of play that all work quite well with each other. The first one, and probably the most common line of play, is assemble the Cabal Coffers land base to generate ridiculous amounts of mana very quickly and then follow with any number of bombs, such as Geth, Exsanguinate, Vorinclex, Sheoldred, Genesis Wave, etc. With the amount of general tutors, land tutors, and card draw, this is usually very quickly accomplished. When faced with a lot of disruption, it is very easy to switch from fast ramp into threats and switch into a more midrange strategy. Use board wipes, single target removal, and Glissa to rattlesnake until you just passively come into your win cons. With the amount of destruction this deck packs, and the tutors to fetch key cards to completely refill your hand, very rarely will you run out of fuel to prevent an opponent from combo'ing out or swinging at you for lethal.
Sometimes however, when facing a very tightly tuned combo deck such as Azami or Animar combo, if you're unable to land early extraction to remove key pieces from the game, the only option is to try to outrace them. For this purpose there is the Mikaeus and Triskelion combo (as opposed to the Necrotic Ooze combo). Both of these cards are good in their own right in the deck, whereas the Necrotic ooze combo (with Phyrexian Devourer + Triskelion) feels like it requires a far more dedicated combo/reanimation deck, which I personally did not want to build (already have a dedicated combo deck). This infinite combo is included for the sole purpose of having an out to race other combo decks should that be the table you are fighting.
The last style of play that abuses mass mana generation and once again uses a lot of the destruction this deck is capable of is constantly recurring Oblivion Stone or Nevinyrral's Disk with Glissa to constantly wipe the board and prevent others from advancing, while you use your artifacts which keep coming back to your hand. Eventually, while you create incremental advantage and constantly set you're opponents back, you'll run away with the game. It is for this purpose I hope another artifact board wipe is printed.
The last style of play, which rarely happens but can occur, is simply playing a lot of beefy creatures and attack fast (scavenging ooze, Wurmcoil Engine). This style of play works best in 2 headed-giant, where you place down a lot of threats which force you're opponents to focus you so that you're partner (who is hopefully playing a slow deck that gets out of control or control/combo) can gain control of the game while you bleed them of their resources. Furthermore, if you are playing with a partner with a glass-cannon deck, with the amount of disruption the deck can muster, you can prevent your opponents from getting control of the game while your partner sets up and wins. Essentially, by playing hard and fast with your creatures and removal, you can play a very strong support role for a control or combo partner.
Card Choices
Lands
Bojuka Bog: One of the few taplands in the deck, it's very useful to kill a graveyard in a lot of situations. One of the reasons I chose to use this card as part of my graveyard hate package was because I could crop rotation into it at instant speed, and it didn't take up a card slot.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All: I consistently fight a mono-U combo deck as well as a Grand Arbiter deck. Making Praetor's Counsel or Exsanguinate or even simply beast within uncounterable is often very necessary to fight against these decks.
Cabal Coffers: Produces ridiculous amounts of mana in combination with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in the late game, and can accelerate a 6 drop on turn 4 if you are lucky enough. Gets even better with Vesuva or Thespian's Stage copying this.
Cavern of Souls: Similar to Boseiju, giving a select few cards uncounterable can swing the game. If I have this in the early turns I'll almost always call elf or zombie (depending on if I want Mikaeus or Oracle to be uncounterable along with Glissa). In the late game its entirely dependent on what creature I need to resolve at that moment.
Dryad Arbor: A clamp-able creature that can be tutored up with a fetchland, as well as a turn 1 target for Green Sun's Zenith.
Forbidden Orchard: Fixes mana colors as well as giving enemies creature fodder to trigger Glissa's artifact recursion. There are extremely few occasions where a 1/1 is a problem, especially since you pick which opponent gets the 1/1.
Reliquary Tower: Due to how color hungry this deck can be at times, I am always considering cutting this land. Of course, then I get this land with necropotence out and I fall right back in love with it.
Temple of Malady: One of the few taplands in the deck, I am considering replacing it with a Marsh Flats. I am still testing how much I like getting a scry 1 on a land.
Thespian's Stage: When you are going against a Karn deck, copying a lotus vale after it has already entered the battlefield is great. Otherwise, it can fix your mana for a cost or copy a Cabal Coffers in the late game.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Makes Sheoldred unblockable, but the real two benefits is completely fixing all your black mana needs as well as enabling Cabal Coffers.
Volrath's Stronghold: In a lot of cases you will want to recur a non-artifact creature, and this land lets you sacrifice a draw step in order to get them.
Creatures
Acidic Slime: Artifact / Enchantment (and in some cases even lands!) that doubles as a blocker that will trade with any attacker to trigger Glissa's ability.
Birds of Paradise: A ramp spell that enables a turn two Glissa (the only other one being Green Sun's Zenith into Dryad Arbor). Late game, it is an easy skullclamp target or trading post target. At worst it can chump block a flyer.
Courser of Kruphix: Lets you somewhat fix your draws, and gains back some much needed life (A lot of life gets payed when playing this deck). Playing with the top card revealed also helps with Necropotence, as you can exile until you get an answer or make sure not to exile lands.
Crypt Ghast: Doubles the amount of mana swamps generate. Since you will almost always fetch up Bayou/Overgrown Tomb early, as well as basics, this is easily 3-4 extra mana a turn. Furthermore, since this deck tutors up Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth very often, it can be a 4CC mana doubler.
Eternal Witness: Unrestricted recursion as well as dies to clamp. Extremely good card, I consider it to be one of green's best.
Geth, Lord of the Vault: Late game finisher. With Cabal Coffers active, resolving a Geth generates a lot of value, generally winning the game in a few turns.
Grim Haruspex: Much needed card advantage for a decent cost. Trying this over Harvester of Souls, may revert back to Harvester.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: Protects your creatures from that first boardwipe, as well as letting moriok replica / sylvok replica get extra value before staying in the graveyard. Also combos with Triskelion for infinite damage. Also, the destroy humans part goes unnoticed a lot.
Nirkana Revenant: Very similar to Crypt Ghast, except this card can also knock someone out of the game.
Oracle of Mul Daya: Lets you fix your draws to an extent as well as providing ramp. Furthermore, it also has the same favorable reaction with Necropotence as Courser of Kruphix.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: Ramps, Chump-blocks, dies to clamp if necessary. Overall one of the best green commons.
Scavenging Ooze: Lets you dump green mana into graveyard hate whenever you have extra and can stop a reanimator deck dead in its tracks. If there is little to no graveyard play in your meta this could be cut, but even then he can grow really big given the right circumstances.
Sheoldred, Whispering One: Another late-game bomb, hurts all your opponents pretty badly (usually), as well as allowing you to recur creatures that have been stuck in your graveyard.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: Similar to Crypt Ghast, except this really hoses your opponents as well. Generally creates so much advantage your opponents can't keep up if not immediately answered.
Artifact Creatures
Burnished Hart: Recurrable ramper. As this deck has evolved this card has been getting a bit worse due to huge investment, and I am considering cutting it for Nature's Lore / Cultivate, another card advantage card, or another sacrificial artifact.
Duplicant: Almost non-restricted creature exile, which is extremely important as most of my removals specifically say destroy. This card is your ticket to defeating Avacyn and the like.
Moriok Replica: Originally Memory Jar, I found memory jar just was not working out well in the deck. This, despite costing the same 5 mana, can be broken in installments, chump block, and lets you keep the cards you draw.
Solemn Simulacrum: Glissa can recur it, it ramps, blocks, and it replaces itself. Exactly the card Glissa wants to see.
Sylvok Replica: Recurrable artifact and enchantment hate. Can be clamped to draw cards as well as block before blowing up something.
Triskelion: A recurrable lightning bolt that can be split three ways that combos with Mikaeus for infinite damage. Keeps utility creatures and planeswalkers in check.
Wurmcoil Engine: One of the few straight up beaters in the deck, this card is so efficient at what it does as well as provide lifelink AND an effect upon death, it fits perfectly with Glissa.
Artifacts
Batterskull: Turns Glissa into a 3 turn clock while providing both vigilance and lifelink, which is very very strong with our commander. Its also very hard to permanently remove, with its bounce clause and the ability for our commander to recur it.
Codex Shredder: While the mill effect can sometimes mess with that one player's vampiric / worldly / enlightened / mystical tutor, very often this card is used as a worse Eternal Witness. The upside is Glissa can get this card back, where she can't get back the Witness.
Commander's Sphere: Mana ramp as well as card draw which Glissa can reuse. Essentially Mind Stone #2.
Expedition Map: Cheap non-basic land tutor. Can get one of the uncouterable lands, complete the Cabal Coffers package, or fix colors.
Executioner's Capsulse: Repeatable doom blade! With cabal coffers online this card is essentially destroy all non-black creatures you don't control (and up to 1 commander, as commanders don't die when sent back to the command zone and thus break the chain).
Golgari Signet: Mana ramp and fixes colors. I often think about cutting this card, as it has no side benefit such as card draw that the other mana rocks include. Not sure what to swap in for it though. It also does not power out an earlier Glissa unless combined with Sol Ring.
Lightning Greaves: Protects against spot removal. I've gone back and forth on this card and every time I cut it I always want it back. Also grants haste which helps on occasions (such as any turn you play Wurmcoil Engine!).
Mind Stone: Ramps and can replace itself in the late game, as well as generate more CA when more creatures die. Always wanted a second and then Commander's Sphere was gifted in the 2014 precons.
Nevinyrral's Disk: Repeatable board wipe. Unfortunately does not hit ALL non-land permanents and enters tapped, but simply being able to recur it makes up for the downsides.
Nihil Spellbomb: Graveyard hate that replaces itself. Even if there aren't any graveyards to hate, it basically reads 1B: draw a card.
Oblivion Stone: The better Nevinyrral's Disk, as long as you can get the mana generation going. Also can rattlesnake very very hard.
Skullclamp: This is one of the best cards in the deck. Turns any creature death into card advantage and is amazing with so many cards, including but not limited to the replicas and trading post.
Sol Ring: Ramps for more than it costs. If I owned more than one mana crypt (the first being in another deck), I'd run that here too. (I don't run mana crypt in this deck as opposed to my Grand Arbiter EDH simply because this deck is far more color hungry, as well as a turn 2 Grand Arbiter in a lot of cases reads: "win the game").
Trading Post: The epitome of utility artifact. This thing does literally anything you could want.
Wayfarer's Bauble: Reusable ramp. If played turn 1 its basically a rampant growth that Glissa can get back.
Enchantments
Necropotence: Card draw doesn't get any more powerful than this.
Pernicious Deed: Yet another boardwipe. While this one is not an artifact it also hits artifacts and enchantments, which makes it worth it over some of the other black and black/green boardwipes.
Phyrexian Arena: Necropotence's little brother. Doesn't have all the drawbacks but lacks the raw strength. Still, worth the inclusion. Can never have too much card draw.
Sylvan Library: Brainstorm every draw step with an additional upside? For just 2 mana? Count me in.
Sorceries
Black Sun's Zenith: A creature boardwipe that gets around indestructible. Unfortunately it doesn't get around Melira but that is a very rare corner case card.
Damnation: The black creature boardwipe. Very effective at what it does.
Demonic Tutor: This is the best tutor in the game, hands down. Need a boardwipe, a way to draw cards, a win condition, if absolutely necessary even a land.
Diabolic Intent: The additional cost makes this worse than Demonic Tutor quite often, but there are situations where the sacrifice can be beneficial. Either way, 2 mana tutor even with a drawback is still worth it.
Exsanguinate: When you're generating 30+ mana off of triple cabal coffers in a long game, this card wins the game right off the bat. If it doesn't win it can put opponents in a tight spot while giving you a large buffer.
Genesis Wave: Very similar to Exsanguinate. Late game it reads: cast and win. However, even at lower levels casting X for 8 hits every permanent in the deck.
Green Sun's Zenith: This can turn one a Dryad Arbor, get a courser or oracle out of your deck, get acidic slime to remove a problematic permanent. It can get other utility creatures such as Eternal Witness or Scavenging ooze, or Vorinclex as a bomb. Basically a lot of options on one card.
Life from the Loam: Recur some fetchlands to hit land drops or recover from land destruction. Can also dig three cards a turn for the lands you need if you kept an iffy hand and didn't get lucky.
Maelstrom Pulse: Destroy any nonland permanent or clear the field of a type of tokens. Great removal, the one downside is its not instant.
Praetor's Counsel: Another sorcery bomb, this time by refueling you're hand with an entire game's worth of destroyed / used cards.
Sadistic Sacrament: A second pet card. Similar to jester's cap, this thing is cheaper for the one time use. However, when kicked, this card will almost assuredly remove an opponent from the game. Generally, decks don't pack more than 15 wincons...
Sylvan Scrying: A one time use Expedition Map that costs 1 less total to activate.
Instants
Abrupt Decay: The uncounterable is extremely relevant against the decks I often play against. The restriction in many cases isn't even that bad, as it still hits powerhouses such as Necropotence, Aura of Silence, most utility creatures, etc.
Beast Within: Unrestricted permanent removal at instant speed. Doesn't get any better than this. The "downside" of a 3/3 generally isn't a downside, as it is another creature to trigger Glissa.
Crop Rotation: Tutors up a nonbasic right into play at instant speed. A fun play is to tutor bojuka bog to mess with the reanimator deck at a completely unexpected time. Usually urborg is the right choice, however.
Entomb: Instant speed artifact tutor in response to a creature kill spell or board wipe. With Praetor's Counsel its a 1 mana tutor with no downside, and it can fetch a creature if Sheoldred is on the field.
Krosan Grip: Uncounterable, can't be responded to at all (except with Willbender) artifact / enchantment hate. Hates on Arcanis and his Mind over Matter combo pretty hard. One of the better green removal cards.
Putrefy: Another single target removal spell. Unfortunately does not hit enchantments. Very borderline on strength, still hoping someday a stronger G/B instant speed removal comes around (specifically, my dream would be one that also hits enchantments).
Vampiric Tutor: Another one of the stronger tutors in EDH. This rounds out the tutor package.
Planeswalkers
Garruk, Primal Hunter: Draws cards and his ult can win. Granted, I've never ulted him. At the worst, he takes two turns to set up a harmonize, but often draws 6+ cards. The 3 green makes it harder to cast than other cards, so switching to the cheaper Harmonize could be good, as that is always a guaranteed 3 cards on the turn it is played.
Liliana of the Dark Realms: Fixes some mana (can find Overgrown Tomb / Bayou), can kill a creature, and the ult is so synergistic with our strategy it is worth trying to get to. The only planeswalker I play with the hope of ulting it.
Vraska the Unseen: Mostly use her for her -3. Destroys permanents, and if you wish to try to get to her ult you're guaranteed to trade barring an indestructible attacker.
Considered Cards
Viridian Longbow/Thornbite Staff: I often see either one or both of these cards in Glissa lists. Personally, I feel like the mana invested is too much and requires Glissa to remain alive (which, is much harder to do when you equip them with either of these). Of the two, I feel like the Longbow is the better of the two as it does not come with an activation cost and is cheaper in both casting cost and equip cost. There are plenty of other ways for creatures to die.
Garruk Relentless: Often, I found this card took far too much setup and investment for not that high a reward. Usually it was just quickly killed. I personally replaced this with Vraska for the nonland permanent removal.
Primordial Sage/Soul of the Harvest: I personally found that these 6 drops did not have enough support with the creature count. However, I added a few more creatures since then, but I feel like once again they cost too much and I really like the bombs I currently have.
Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre/Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: These are very strong bombs. Personally, I felt as if the ones I had were more synergistic with my strategy, and with the prevalence of Bribery in my meta I did not want these pulled out of my deck on turn 4 or 5. If I had to pick one, it'd be Kozilek, as that draws cards and is easier to kill should it be stolen. Would probably replace Vorinclex (though this weakens Green Sun's Zenith by removing its main bomb target).
Soul of New Phyrexia: While this deck generates a ton of mana, it still is incredibly difficult to wipe the board as well as activate this guy's ability without a lot of setup. If we're going attrition based, it won't matter if you're things are temporarily in the graveyard as well. This card protects well against enemy boardwipes, but I rarely can spare 6 mana open to pass around the table.
Chord of Calling: A good tutor, unfortunately triple green can be very restrictive. Already have one triple green card and I don't want to push it with 2.
Ancient Tomb: An amazing card that goes into all my other EDH decks. This one however, is far more color starved, and I believe the utility on my other colorless lands is slightly stronger.
There are other bombs as well that could be included, such as Baleful Force or Woodfall Primus, but there is only so much room in the deck for them. Many of these are perfectly fine options, just have to select the ones that fit you best.
There are a few others, but at the time of writing I'm getting quite tired and will update sometime in the future.
Cards to Test
Gaea's Cradle: Unfortunately, since I'm not willing to spend that kind of money on a card I only want to test and not sure if I really want to use it, as well as being personally against using proxies (I don't mind when other players use them though), this one will have to wait. Eventually, I'm certain I'll build a deck that will definitely want the cradle, and at that time I will also make sure to test it in this deck.
Sensei's Divining Top: Honestly, when building the deck and editing it, I just completely forgot about the card. I keep coming back around to wanting to test it, and it just hasn't happened. At this point though, I'm kind of proud of not using this edh "staple".
Scroll Rack: originally when building the deck I did not own fetchlands and fewer tutors. Thus, I did not have enough shuffle effects that I felt warranted this card a spot. Now that the deck has been upgraded over time, I believe now it would be a good fit and do need to test this card.
Damnation: This card would most likely swap with Decree of Pain, but I personally really like the card draw that comes attached to the Decree. Damnation costs half of the Decree however, and could still be more useful. Definitely need to test which I like more more thoroughly. UPDATE: Liked Damnation more, but now testing if Overwhelming Forces is better (selective boardwipe and card draw for 8).
Crucible of Worlds: Always considered playing this card alongside Life from the Loam or replacing it. I do not yet own this card so I've yet to test the difference. If I were to play this, I would probably add in a Strip Mine, but unfortunately I also do not want to put in more colorless lands.
Mindslaver: At Narvuntien's suggestion, definitely going to test this card. Was in an earlier iteration of the deck but I removed it and then completely forgot about it. I think the deck in its current state could support it quite well.
Den Protector: 5 mana eternal witness, can be used at instant speed. However, if used for the morph ability it can't be clamped easily. Also, it is not reusable such as the codex shredder which has a similar mana investment (though it can't be split like the protector). It could be good, definitely will try it, but will probably not make the cut.
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury: Creates mana dorks (that can be clamped), kills artifacts and enchantments, and has an ultimate that draws cards. While not as good as Garruk (since he can draw cards immedietely), her removal ability might warrant her a spot (probably replacing Vraska if she makes it in).
Updates
6/24/15:
- Harvester of Souls
- Jester's Cap
- Decree of Pain
+ Grim Haruspex
+ Batterskull
+ Damnation
Credit to Woohah for the layout, taken from his Glissa, the Traitor Primer.
This looks pretty strong for multiplayer. Never played Marchesa myself but I've played against and it can be pretty powerful, since the creatures are so damn hard to kill. I would highly recommend Cyclonic Rift, as well as some sacrifice outlets such as phyrexian altar to go with the ETB effects when you have +1/+1 counters on the creature.
I once built a Xenagos deck on a decent budget. Unfortunately, the style of play got old for me very quickly. I've always been more inclined towards control and attrition however. Since all these decks look somewhat aggro-y, I'm guessing he likes that style of play and it wont get old for him.
for Xenagos, definitely get Purphoros, God of the Forge and Rapacious One.
I feel as if Swiftfoot Boots, Batterskull, and Sword of Feast and Famine would be excellent additions. Late game you can still trigger the double strike off their cast as well as equip. One of the weaknesses I think of this commander is the lack of hexproof, since Geist can do very similar things while protecting himself. Swiftfoot definitely helps with this. Overall I really like the draft.
Currently making quite a few changes to the deck. Considering adding the following cards:
Dragonlord Ojutai
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Treasure Cruise
Supreme Verdict
Cryptic Command
Thought Vessel
Cards probably to cut:
Worn Powerstone
Jace, Memory Adept
Sphere of Safety
Desertion
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
After a couple of months people have started not making the wrong choice with the Sphere of safety. Its still very good against overrun decks that win with Craterhoof, as it makes them wait an extra turn or two before they can kill me, which is usually enough. So I'm gonna try playing without it for a while and see how it goes.
That's why I said its not as big a deal in casual tables (though I do believe it can be a big deal, it just isn't as often). A competitive deck, such as Brago (or Zur) stax, or Prossh food chain combo, or Grixis/Esper storm, are going to have a significantly easier time winning when they get that early sol ring / mana crypt.
And it doesn't corrupt every average player games, it does when there are highly tuned decks playing. I'd actually argue it does to an extent corrupt casual games as well, just to a far lesser extent (probably not enough enough to need to worry about it), but it will absolutely give a ridiculous advantage to the person who started with sol ring or mana crypt. I have very rarely lost a game when I turned 1 a sol ring or mana crypt in my GAAIV deck, and the few times it has, the other guy also turn one'd a sol ring or mana crypt. Though, this evidence is completely anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt.
I'd definitely like some research from like a bunch of MTGO games and see what the results are with players turn one'ing either sol ring or mana crypt, and seeing how the games end up playing out, taking into a few considerations: how many players sol ring'd turn one, which commanders were they playing, and was the sol ring killed within a turn or two. I mean theoretically, I'd love to see this kind of research done on more than just sol ring...but not sure it would actually be possible.
Rite works really well. I used to run it in my deck, but cut it for Metalworker when that became legal. Rite can win the game, but Metalworker turn 3 into Blightsteel Colossus or an eldrazi turn 4 wins the game as well.
I also forgot two awesome artifacts in my earlier post: Phyrexian Metamorph and Sculpting Steel. Why have different artifacts when you can have more of the best ones?
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Lands - 37
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Arid Mesa
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
7 Island
1 Mana Confluence
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mystic Gate
1 Nimbus Maze
7 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Tundra
1 Windswept Heath
Artifacts - 10
1 Azorius Signet
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Coalition Relic
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mind Stone
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Aura of Silence
1 Detention Sphere
1 Frozen Æther
1 Future Sight
1 Omniscience
1 Rhystic Study
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Treachery
Creatures - 15
1 Academy Rector
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Drogskol Reaver
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Medomai the Ageless
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Sakashima the Impostor
1 Serra Ascendant
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sun Titan
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
Sorceries - 7
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Austere Command
1 Bribery
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Terminus
1 Wrath of God
1 Condemn
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Desertion
1 Dig Through Time
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Dismiss
1 Dissipate
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Hinder
1 Mana Leak
1 Path to Exile
1 Return to Dust
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Swords to Plowshares
Planeswalkers - 7
1 Gideon Jura
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Jace Beleren
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Karn Liberated
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Venser, the Sojourner
Some meta choices or otherwise odd card choices:
Frozen Æther: While a popular card in Stax version of the deck, my particular list runs almost no other stax cards. I choose to include this one because it hoses the Kiki-Jiki in my meta (and being an enchantment, its nearly impossible for the mono-red list to remove), and combined with an early GAAIV drop it is incredibly hard to fight. The other tax cards generally require setup or hose both ways. This one is a great one-way only effect.
Aura of Silence: The other stax-like card, I play against way too many Darettis and other artifact decks ever since the precon was released.
Dismiss over Cryptic Command: I found that 90% of the time, Cryptic was being used as a dismiss. The deck often wanted to spend one less blue mana than have the extra options, so I swapped the two out.
Sphere of Safety: Despite only running 8 enchantments total, this card is incredibly useful. It protects the 7 planeswalkers in this deck, and combined with GAAIV often means players either choose to play something or choose to attack me. In a lot of cases, they make the wrong choice. As soon as this card stops protecting PWs and myself, I'll cut it, but so far its doing a surprisingly good job.
To Acquire:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Mana Drain
Mindbreak Trap
Force of Will
To Cut:
Worn Powerstone
A card that I found often wins the game upon resolution is Possessed Portal. When you are activating Muzzio and no one else is able to generate cards, you'll eventually just win. I eventually cut it from my deck though as people really hated the card.
You will absolutely want Rings of Brighthearth. Pay 2 for more Muzzio activations!
Memnarch is an amazing finisher for Muzzio, especially with all the ramp the deck has. Speaking of ramp, since your in mono color, Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun work wonderfully as ramp.
Now the absolute most important card I think you should get is Master Transmuter. This lets you cheat in the stuff that got into your hand instead of on top of the library, but can also protect your artifacts from removal! You can bounce an artifact to your hand and then return it to the battlefield to blank a removal spell like return to dust!
I would cut 1 island for Seat of the Synod. One more card to not wiff with Muzzio.
Training Grounds lets you use Muzzio for 2 instead of 4.
For cuts to the deck, I would argue that card draw and bombs are the last things you want to cut. Muzzio (and Master Transmuter) will let you cheat bombs in for free, so you absolutely want a high density of them in your deck. I would personally however drop one of your non-artifact bombs for Soul of New Phyrexia. The first thing you want to do is make sure every non-artifact card in the deck has an extremely good reason to be in the deck. This means, do you really think Stifle and sigiled starfish fit the deck? I definitely don't think stifle and would cut it for one of the cards above. I would switch out Turn to frog with Duplicant, since the second can be grabbed with Muzzio, and sigiled starfish with a Crystal Ball. You also always want card draw. Its never a bad thing to have.
I also recommend Tezzeret the Seeker.
- Harvester of Souls
- Jester's Cap
- Decree of Pain
+ Grim Haruspex
+ Batterskull
+ Damnation
I found that Jester's Cap was too high a mana investment for its use. It wasn't fast enough to stop a hard combo deck if the
combo deck was having a good game, which is what it was meant to do. It could completely neuter combo decks in the late game,
but honestly by then I should be able to kill them entirely.
I felt really heavy on six drops, so I am trying out Grim Haruspex > Harvester of Souls. Hopefully the Haruspex will be able to draw a bit of cards and not draw nearly the amount of hate the harvester draws. Was deciding between cutting the Harvester or Nirkana Revenant. If I end up not liking this change, I'll try swapping the two out and see how that feels.
Batterskull makes Glissa a 3 turn clock and lets you play both offensively and defensively with her, as well as filling a
5 drop spot (where currently I only had 3 5 drops, but a bunch of 6s). Also provides a source of lifegain to continue going
hard with necropotence.
Ended up liking damnation over Decree of pain. However, now I want to see if I like Overwhelming Forces, as that is a 1 sided board wipe with card draw for 8. Seems quite strong.
For Dragons of Tarkir, nothing in particular screamed "use me!". Den protector might be worth running, being a 5 mana instant speed witness, but unlike codex shredder its not recurrable. Currently not running, however, I do have plans to test it out.
Also planning on testing Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury. I'm a little late on this one, but I realized how it could do a better job than Vraska. I like all 3 of Freyalise's abilities, while I only use Vraska for her -3.
W: Heliod, God of the Sun
U: Arcanis the Omnipotent
B: Toshiro Umezawa
R: Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer (Runner-up Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker)
G: Azusa, Lost but Seeking
UW: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
BW: Teysa, Orzhov Scion
RW: Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
GW: Captain Sisay
UB: Dralnu, Lich Lord
RU: Melek, Izzet Paragon
GU: Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
RB: Olivia Voldaren
GB: Glissa, the Traitor
RG: Xenagos, God of Revels
WUB: Zur the Enchanter
GUB: Jenara, Asura of War
GRW: Marath, Will of the Wild
RBU: Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
GBR: Kresh the Bloodbraided
UWR: Narset, Enlightened Master
BRW: Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
GWB: Doran, the Siege Tower
BUG: Sidisi, Blood Tyrant
RUG: I don't like any of them. Probably Animar if I had to choose.
WUBRG: Karona, False God
To the difference with woohah's list, currently I suppose there is very little. It does switch out some cards but for the most part it is playing the same game plan. When deciding to post my deck I knew I wanted to write a lot, discuss the game plan and write something about every single card, barring a few lands. The purpose of this was mostly for me, as when I talked about each card I realized which ones I was pretty on the fence on and which I wasn't sure were effective to the game plan, or if there was enough support to try something new. It was definitely very helpful for me in considering changes to my deck, while at the same time leaving it open to outside suggestion. The main reason I posted as a new thread as opposed to a comment was because of the size, and I didn't want to distract from his list. Basically, the purpose of the post definitely felt more fitting in a new thread, if that makes any sense.
I definitely have no moral objections to any card or any strategy. Mindslaver was in the original version of the deck, but back then it was very budget and clunky. I removed it as it just didn't work back then but now that the rest of the deck is more streamlined I definitely see a spot for it. Probably replace exsanguinate.
In response to cutting sorceries, I don't agree with cutting tutors as those add more consistency to the deck. However, I will admit that after a few years the hyper ramp into GSZ and exsanguinate has lost some of its touch. The reason I consider mindslaver as a replacement for the second is due to the fact it's useful earlier in the game but once at 30 mana it can close the game out if you find ways to keep killing creatures, which is really not that hard to do. With the tutors, unless everyone else is also trying to combo, I find myself far more often getting necropotence or Phyrexian arena, or just a big bomb, of a board wipe, whatever I need in the situation. Furthermore, I feel like the only ramp creatures are BoP, courser, and oracle. I mentioned I was considering cutting the hart as it was just not really worth it, and solemn is just a good artifact to recur since it draws a card, and is primarily in the deck for that purpose and not ramp. BoP allows for turn 2 glissa and the other two get lands off top so I don't waste draws on them, which is very useful.
In response to fewer artifacts, my meta saw a huge rise of graveyard hate when the karador decks moved in. The karador decks have since moved out but the graveyard hate has not. So being completely reliant on always recurring artifacts stopped working very well, and by switching to more low key artifacts or only keeping those makes opponents less likely to pull the trigger while you still accumulate value.
I tried the longbow and the staff quite a few times, but every time I just didn't like them. It's probably just the shell I am running, they don't work that well in them. As I make other changes to the deck I'll definitely re-evaluate.
One of the things I'm very interested in trying is adding a few efficient voltron equipment. Glissa is rarely blocked due to the threat of artifact recursion and the fact that she always wins in combat, and with 0 equipment I've routinely hit 21 damage. Granted, opponents might be more inclined to block if I do add some more. The 4 id consider adding would be: umezawa's jitte, sword of Fire and ice, sword of feast and famine, and batterskull. I specifically wanted equipment as glissa can recover these fairly easily.
On a side note, I am hoping for more sacrificial artifacts that are cheap and don't draw too much attention to increase glissa's effectiveness. I tried Mishras and Urzas bauble but I wasnt a huge fan on the wait a turn restriction. I don't think you need to hit a critical mass of artifacts with a glissa deck though. As long as you draw 1 you always have something to get value of, and its a very rare game you only get 1.
edit: spelling.
Glissa journeyed to acquire the Kaldra artifacts to confront Memnarch, but was betrayed by the Avatar when Memnarch gained control of the artifacts. Glissa managed to escape from Memnarch when the Green Sun burst from the core. It was later revealed that Memnarch's end goal was Glissa's latent planeswalker spark. Glissa returns to the Tangle after her escape, only to be immediately arrested for the murder of her parents. She was acquitted when another group of levelers attacked her home. Glissa put together an alliance of friends and family, intent on toppling Memnarch's reign. She returned to Ish Sah, only to find Geth was no longer the head of the Dross. Here, she was trapped in a time bubble for five years. When she was released, the world had completely changed. Tar-Naj had fallen and Slobad had gone missing. The mission to overthrow Memnarch had failed. Glissa decided to dive back into the heart of Mirrodin in a final attempt to defeat Memnarch. When she arrived in the core, Glissa discovered Memnarch had transformed it into a giant spark-transfer machine, which was to use the souls above it to fuel it. Attached to the machine was the horribly mutated body of Slobad, who had been forced to engineer it. Glissa flung herself at Memnarch, causing the two of them to crash into the core. To Slobad's surprise, Glissa's spark was transferred to him. When he met Karn and learned what had transpired, Slobad relinquished the spark to save Glissa and all the other life that had been stolen. In the end, Karn left Glissa, Slobad, and Geth as the new guardians of Mirrodin and the Mirari. When Glissa and Slobad returned to the surface, they were attacked by hordes of panicked goblins. Glissa was separated from Slobad (who was killed in the onslaught), and retreated back into the interior of Mirrodin, where the tiny memnite constructs kept her safe and sleeping.
Glissa was a savior of Mirrodin, responsible for saving the lives of the inhabitants of Mirrodin from Memnarch. However, while trapped in the Core, the elves above accused her of all the damage that had been done to their community: the destruction of the Radix, the death of many elves, and the extinction of the trolls. With the Vanishing the only remaining beings who knew what good she had actually done were pulled from the plane. The natives of the Tangle took to calling her Glissa, the Traitor as more and more woes were heaped upon her shoulders. With the corruptive powers of Phyrexia working their way to the mana core, she too, was eventually corrupted just by her proximity to the glistening oil. Compleated by Vorinclex she became the champion of the praetor, and an extremely powerful warrior for Phyrexia's goal.
Quotes
"Wipe Sheoldred's spies from the sky. She'll see the result of our vision soon enough."
"Even a nuisance such as the pistus fly has a purpose in our new world."
"So, the survivors from Oxid Ridge are on the move. Let them come and witness predation in its purest form."
"If it were fit to survive, it wouldn't have been so easily put down."
- You like a commander who almost always wins in combat
- You like decks that generates a lot of mana
- You like reusable effects
- You like being able to use the graveyard, but not be reliant on it
You should not play this version of Glissa or a similar version:
- if you like fast combo
- if you like counterspells
- if you like hard control (as opposed to attrition)
- if you don't like tutors (it is possible to play without, but much weaker)
That is not to say the above things on the dislike list are impossible. If you want it more controlling, it is possible to play a hard stax version of the deck, running token generators and cards such as Smokestack and Death Cloud. It is also possible to run fast combo. Necrotic Ooze + Triskelion + Phyrexian Devourer allows for a massive amount of damage to opponents (though not infinite). This version of the deck will want a lot of ways to dump cards into your graveyard, such as Fauna Shaman, Survival of the Fittest, and Buried Alive. It will also want a lot more reanimation spells, such as exhume and reanimate. Furthermore, the land base will be far less important, so cutting land tutors would be the first step to replacing cards. Good reanimation targets for this kind of deck include Rune-Scarred Demon and Woodfall Primus. More tutors as well are useful, such as Worldly tutor and Liliana Vess.
1 Glissa, the Traitor
Lands - 37
1 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forbidden Orchard
6 Forest
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
6 Swamp
1 Tainted Wood
1 Temple of Malady
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Vesuva
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Woodland Cemetery
Creatures - 14
1 Acidic Slime
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Eternal Witness
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Nirkana Revenant
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Burnished Hart
1 Duplicant
1 Moriok Replica
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Triskelion
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Artifacts - 15
1 Batterskull
1 Codex Shredder
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Expedition Map
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Golgari Signet
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mind Stone
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Trading Post
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
Enchantments - 4
1 Necropotence
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Sylvan Library
Sorceries - 12
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Damnation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Exsanguinate
1 Genesis Wave
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Life from the Loam
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Beast Within
1 Crop Rotation
1 Entomb
1 Krosan Grip
1 Putrefy
1 Vampiric Tutor
Planeswalkers - 3
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Vraska the Unseen
Sometimes however, when facing a very tightly tuned combo deck such as Azami or Animar combo, if you're unable to land early extraction to remove key pieces from the game, the only option is to try to outrace them. For this purpose there is the Mikaeus and Triskelion combo (as opposed to the Necrotic Ooze combo). Both of these cards are good in their own right in the deck, whereas the Necrotic ooze combo (with Phyrexian Devourer + Triskelion) feels like it requires a far more dedicated combo/reanimation deck, which I personally did not want to build (already have a dedicated combo deck). This infinite combo is included for the sole purpose of having an out to race other combo decks should that be the table you are fighting.
The last style of play that abuses mass mana generation and once again uses a lot of the destruction this deck is capable of is constantly recurring Oblivion Stone or Nevinyrral's Disk with Glissa to constantly wipe the board and prevent others from advancing, while you use your artifacts which keep coming back to your hand. Eventually, while you create incremental advantage and constantly set you're opponents back, you'll run away with the game. It is for this purpose I hope another artifact board wipe is printed.
The last style of play, which rarely happens but can occur, is simply playing a lot of beefy creatures and attack fast (scavenging ooze, Wurmcoil Engine). This style of play works best in 2 headed-giant, where you place down a lot of threats which force you're opponents to focus you so that you're partner (who is hopefully playing a slow deck that gets out of control or control/combo) can gain control of the game while you bleed them of their resources. Furthermore, if you are playing with a partner with a glass-cannon deck, with the amount of disruption the deck can muster, you can prevent your opponents from getting control of the game while your partner sets up and wins. Essentially, by playing hard and fast with your creatures and removal, you can play a very strong support role for a control or combo partner.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All: I consistently fight a mono-U combo deck as well as a Grand Arbiter deck. Making Praetor's Counsel or Exsanguinate or even simply beast within uncounterable is often very necessary to fight against these decks.
Cabal Coffers: Produces ridiculous amounts of mana in combination with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in the late game, and can accelerate a 6 drop on turn 4 if you are lucky enough. Gets even better with Vesuva or Thespian's Stage copying this.
Cavern of Souls: Similar to Boseiju, giving a select few cards uncounterable can swing the game. If I have this in the early turns I'll almost always call elf or zombie (depending on if I want Mikaeus or Oracle to be uncounterable along with Glissa). In the late game its entirely dependent on what creature I need to resolve at that moment.
Dryad Arbor: A clamp-able creature that can be tutored up with a fetchland, as well as a turn 1 target for Green Sun's Zenith.
Forbidden Orchard: Fixes mana colors as well as giving enemies creature fodder to trigger Glissa's artifact recursion. There are extremely few occasions where a 1/1 is a problem, especially since you pick which opponent gets the 1/1.
Reliquary Tower: Due to how color hungry this deck can be at times, I am always considering cutting this land. Of course, then I get this land with necropotence out and I fall right back in love with it.
Temple of Malady: One of the few taplands in the deck, I am considering replacing it with a Marsh Flats. I am still testing how much I like getting a scry 1 on a land.
Thespian's Stage: When you are going against a Karn deck, copying a lotus vale after it has already entered the battlefield is great. Otherwise, it can fix your mana for a cost or copy a Cabal Coffers in the late game.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Makes Sheoldred unblockable, but the real two benefits is completely fixing all your black mana needs as well as enabling Cabal Coffers.
Vesuva: Another copy of Cabal Coffers!
Volrath's Stronghold: In a lot of cases you will want to recur a non-artifact creature, and this land lets you sacrifice a draw step in order to get them.
Creatures
Birds of Paradise: A ramp spell that enables a turn two Glissa (the only other one being Green Sun's Zenith into Dryad Arbor). Late game, it is an easy skullclamp target or trading post target. At worst it can chump block a flyer.
Courser of Kruphix: Lets you somewhat fix your draws, and gains back some much needed life (A lot of life gets payed when playing this deck). Playing with the top card revealed also helps with Necropotence, as you can exile until you get an answer or make sure not to exile lands.
Crypt Ghast: Doubles the amount of mana swamps generate. Since you will almost always fetch up Bayou/Overgrown Tomb early, as well as basics, this is easily 3-4 extra mana a turn. Furthermore, since this deck tutors up Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth very often, it can be a 4CC mana doubler.
Eternal Witness: Unrestricted recursion as well as dies to clamp. Extremely good card, I consider it to be one of green's best.
Geth, Lord of the Vault: Late game finisher. With Cabal Coffers active, resolving a Geth generates a lot of value, generally winning the game in a few turns.
Grim Haruspex: Much needed card advantage for a decent cost. Trying this over Harvester of Souls, may revert back to Harvester.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: Protects your creatures from that first boardwipe, as well as letting moriok replica / sylvok replica get extra value before staying in the graveyard. Also combos with Triskelion for infinite damage. Also, the destroy humans part goes unnoticed a lot.
Nirkana Revenant: Very similar to Crypt Ghast, except this card can also knock someone out of the game.
Oracle of Mul Daya: Lets you fix your draws to an extent as well as providing ramp. Furthermore, it also has the same favorable reaction with Necropotence as Courser of Kruphix.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: Ramps, Chump-blocks, dies to clamp if necessary. Overall one of the best green commons.
Scavenging Ooze: Lets you dump green mana into graveyard hate whenever you have extra and can stop a reanimator deck dead in its tracks. If there is little to no graveyard play in your meta this could be cut, but even then he can grow really big given the right circumstances.
Sheoldred, Whispering One: Another late-game bomb, hurts all your opponents pretty badly (usually), as well as allowing you to recur creatures that have been stuck in your graveyard.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: Similar to Crypt Ghast, except this really hoses your opponents as well. Generally creates so much advantage your opponents can't keep up if not immediately answered.
Artifact Creatures
Duplicant: Almost non-restricted creature exile, which is extremely important as most of my removals specifically say destroy. This card is your ticket to defeating Avacyn and the like.
Moriok Replica: Originally Memory Jar, I found memory jar just was not working out well in the deck. This, despite costing the same 5 mana, can be broken in installments, chump block, and lets you keep the cards you draw.
Solemn Simulacrum: Glissa can recur it, it ramps, blocks, and it replaces itself. Exactly the card Glissa wants to see.
Sylvok Replica: Recurrable artifact and enchantment hate. Can be clamped to draw cards as well as block before blowing up something.
Triskelion: A recurrable lightning bolt that can be split three ways that combos with Mikaeus for infinite damage. Keeps utility creatures and planeswalkers in check.
Wurmcoil Engine: One of the few straight up beaters in the deck, this card is so efficient at what it does as well as provide lifelink AND an effect upon death, it fits perfectly with Glissa.
Artifacts
Codex Shredder: While the mill effect can sometimes mess with that one player's vampiric / worldly / enlightened / mystical tutor, very often this card is used as a worse Eternal Witness. The upside is Glissa can get this card back, where she can't get back the Witness.
Commander's Sphere: Mana ramp as well as card draw which Glissa can reuse. Essentially Mind Stone #2.
Expedition Map: Cheap non-basic land tutor. Can get one of the uncouterable lands, complete the Cabal Coffers package, or fix colors.
Executioner's Capsulse: Repeatable doom blade! With cabal coffers online this card is essentially destroy all non-black creatures you don't control (and up to 1 commander, as commanders don't die when sent back to the command zone and thus break the chain).
Golgari Signet: Mana ramp and fixes colors. I often think about cutting this card, as it has no side benefit such as card draw that the other mana rocks include. Not sure what to swap in for it though. It also does not power out an earlier Glissa unless combined with Sol Ring.
Lightning Greaves: Protects against spot removal. I've gone back and forth on this card and every time I cut it I always want it back. Also grants haste which helps on occasions (such as any turn you play Wurmcoil Engine!).
Mind Stone: Ramps and can replace itself in the late game, as well as generate more CA when more creatures die. Always wanted a second and then Commander's Sphere was gifted in the 2014 precons.
Nevinyrral's Disk: Repeatable board wipe. Unfortunately does not hit ALL non-land permanents and enters tapped, but simply being able to recur it makes up for the downsides.
Nihil Spellbomb: Graveyard hate that replaces itself. Even if there aren't any graveyards to hate, it basically reads 1B: draw a card.
Oblivion Stone: The better Nevinyrral's Disk, as long as you can get the mana generation going. Also can rattlesnake very very hard.
Skullclamp: This is one of the best cards in the deck. Turns any creature death into card advantage and is amazing with so many cards, including but not limited to the replicas and trading post.
Sol Ring: Ramps for more than it costs. If I owned more than one mana crypt (the first being in another deck), I'd run that here too. (I don't run mana crypt in this deck as opposed to my Grand Arbiter EDH simply because this deck is far more color hungry, as well as a turn 2 Grand Arbiter in a lot of cases reads: "win the game").
Trading Post: The epitome of utility artifact. This thing does literally anything you could want.
Wayfarer's Bauble: Reusable ramp. If played turn 1 its basically a rampant growth that Glissa can get back.
Enchantments
Pernicious Deed: Yet another boardwipe. While this one is not an artifact it also hits artifacts and enchantments, which makes it worth it over some of the other black and black/green boardwipes.
Phyrexian Arena: Necropotence's little brother. Doesn't have all the drawbacks but lacks the raw strength. Still, worth the inclusion. Can never have too much card draw.
Sylvan Library: Brainstorm every draw step with an additional upside? For just 2 mana? Count me in.
Sorceries
Damnation: The black creature boardwipe. Very effective at what it does.
Demonic Tutor: This is the best tutor in the game, hands down. Need a boardwipe, a way to draw cards, a win condition, if absolutely necessary even a land.
Diabolic Intent: The additional cost makes this worse than Demonic Tutor quite often, but there are situations where the sacrifice can be beneficial. Either way, 2 mana tutor even with a drawback is still worth it.
Exsanguinate: When you're generating 30+ mana off of triple cabal coffers in a long game, this card wins the game right off the bat. If it doesn't win it can put opponents in a tight spot while giving you a large buffer.
Genesis Wave: Very similar to Exsanguinate. Late game it reads: cast and win. However, even at lower levels casting X for 8 hits every permanent in the deck.
Green Sun's Zenith: This can turn one a Dryad Arbor, get a courser or oracle out of your deck, get acidic slime to remove a problematic permanent. It can get other utility creatures such as Eternal Witness or Scavenging ooze, or Vorinclex as a bomb. Basically a lot of options on one card.
Life from the Loam: Recur some fetchlands to hit land drops or recover from land destruction. Can also dig three cards a turn for the lands you need if you kept an iffy hand and didn't get lucky.
Maelstrom Pulse: Destroy any nonland permanent or clear the field of a type of tokens. Great removal, the one downside is its not instant.
Praetor's Counsel: Another sorcery bomb, this time by refueling you're hand with an entire game's worth of destroyed / used cards.
Sadistic Sacrament: A second pet card. Similar to jester's cap, this thing is cheaper for the one time use. However, when kicked, this card will almost assuredly remove an opponent from the game. Generally, decks don't pack more than 15 wincons...
Sylvan Scrying: A one time use Expedition Map that costs 1 less total to activate.
Instants
Abrupt Decay: The uncounterable is extremely relevant against the decks I often play against. The restriction in many cases isn't even that bad, as it still hits powerhouses such as Necropotence, Aura of Silence, most utility creatures, etc.
Beast Within: Unrestricted permanent removal at instant speed. Doesn't get any better than this. The "downside" of a 3/3 generally isn't a downside, as it is another creature to trigger Glissa.
Crop Rotation: Tutors up a nonbasic right into play at instant speed. A fun play is to tutor bojuka bog to mess with the reanimator deck at a completely unexpected time. Usually urborg is the right choice, however.
Entomb: Instant speed artifact tutor in response to a creature kill spell or board wipe. With Praetor's Counsel its a 1 mana tutor with no downside, and it can fetch a creature if Sheoldred is on the field.
Krosan Grip: Uncounterable, can't be responded to at all (except with Willbender) artifact / enchantment hate. Hates on Arcanis and his Mind over Matter combo pretty hard. One of the better green removal cards.
Putrefy: Another single target removal spell. Unfortunately does not hit enchantments. Very borderline on strength, still hoping someday a stronger G/B instant speed removal comes around (specifically, my dream would be one that also hits enchantments).
Vampiric Tutor: Another one of the stronger tutors in EDH. This rounds out the tutor package.
Planeswalkers
Liliana of the Dark Realms: Fixes some mana (can find Overgrown Tomb / Bayou), can kill a creature, and the ult is so synergistic with our strategy it is worth trying to get to. The only planeswalker I play with the hope of ulting it.
Vraska the Unseen: Mostly use her for her -3. Destroys permanents, and if you wish to try to get to her ult you're guaranteed to trade barring an indestructible attacker.
Garruk Relentless: Often, I found this card took far too much setup and investment for not that high a reward. Usually it was just quickly killed. I personally replaced this with Vraska for the nonland permanent removal.
Primordial Sage/Soul of the Harvest: I personally found that these 6 drops did not have enough support with the creature count. However, I added a few more creatures since then, but I feel like once again they cost too much and I really like the bombs I currently have.
Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre/Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: These are very strong bombs. Personally, I felt as if the ones I had were more synergistic with my strategy, and with the prevalence of Bribery in my meta I did not want these pulled out of my deck on turn 4 or 5. If I had to pick one, it'd be Kozilek, as that draws cards and is easier to kill should it be stolen. Would probably replace Vorinclex (though this weakens Green Sun's Zenith by removing its main bomb target).
Soul of New Phyrexia: While this deck generates a ton of mana, it still is incredibly difficult to wipe the board as well as activate this guy's ability without a lot of setup. If we're going attrition based, it won't matter if you're things are temporarily in the graveyard as well. This card protects well against enemy boardwipes, but I rarely can spare 6 mana open to pass around the table.
Chord of Calling: A good tutor, unfortunately triple green can be very restrictive. Already have one triple green card and I don't want to push it with 2.
Ancient Tomb: An amazing card that goes into all my other EDH decks. This one however, is far more color starved, and I believe the utility on my other colorless lands is slightly stronger.
There are other bombs as well that could be included, such as Baleful Force or Woodfall Primus, but there is only so much room in the deck for them. Many of these are perfectly fine options, just have to select the ones that fit you best.
There are a few others, but at the time of writing I'm getting quite tired and will update sometime in the future.
Sensei's Divining Top: Honestly, when building the deck and editing it, I just completely forgot about the card. I keep coming back around to wanting to test it, and it just hasn't happened. At this point though, I'm kind of proud of not using this edh "staple".
Scroll Rack: originally when building the deck I did not own fetchlands and fewer tutors. Thus, I did not have enough shuffle effects that I felt warranted this card a spot. Now that the deck has been upgraded over time, I believe now it would be a good fit and do need to test this card.
Damnation: This card would most likely swap with Decree of Pain, but I personally really like the card draw that comes attached to the Decree. Damnation costs half of the Decree however, and could still be more useful. Definitely need to test which I like more more thoroughly. UPDATE: Liked Damnation more, but now testing if Overwhelming Forces is better (selective boardwipe and card draw for 8).
Crucible of Worlds: Always considered playing this card alongside Life from the Loam or replacing it. I do not yet own this card so I've yet to test the difference. If I were to play this, I would probably add in a Strip Mine, but unfortunately I also do not want to put in more colorless lands.
Mindslaver: At Narvuntien's suggestion, definitely going to test this card. Was in an earlier iteration of the deck but I removed it and then completely forgot about it. I think the deck in its current state could support it quite well.
Den Protector: 5 mana eternal witness, can be used at instant speed. However, if used for the morph ability it can't be clamped easily. Also, it is not reusable such as the codex shredder which has a similar mana investment (though it can't be split like the protector). It could be good, definitely will try it, but will probably not make the cut.
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury: Creates mana dorks (that can be clamped), kills artifacts and enchantments, and has an ultimate that draws cards. While not as good as Garruk (since he can draw cards immedietely), her removal ability might warrant her a spot (probably replacing Vraska if she makes it in).
- Harvester of Souls
- Jester's Cap
- Decree of Pain
+ Grim Haruspex
+ Batterskull
+ Damnation
Credit to Woohah for the layout, taken from his Glissa, the Traitor Primer.
for Xenagos, definitely get Purphoros, God of the Forge and Rapacious One.