@Patryn
I've played them for a bit and they seem okay as more budget options for draw. This deck doesn't really have any ways of taking advantage of the cards that are tossed into the graveyard and I much prefer recurring draw effects like with outpost siege and the monarch mechanic.
Am back again. With the commander 2017 just a few days away, I'm wondering what people thought about the new cards and which may have a place in this deck. None of the tribal stuff really work, but the Cat deck does feature some neat equipment-themed cards that seem interesting.
Hammer of Nazahn: This looks like an auto-include if there ever was one for an equipment deck. It's essentially a Darksteel Plate that equips itself when it's played, providing additional protection and power for your creatures. In addition, it acts as a mini-Sigarda's aid which has already proven to me to be a pretty great card.
Bloodforged Battle-Axe: I'm personally not sure how to evaluate this one. It seems like it can certainly get out of hand with Aurelia's extra combat steps and if you have a sigarda's aid, hammer of nazahn, or puresteel paladin out, the equip cost is not a problem. At the same time though, it seems a bit slow to get going, susceptible to mass artifact removal like vandalblast, and doesn't provide much aside from power.
Balan, Wandering Knight: Seems like a fun card that I'll probably add to my own deck. Not super competitive since you generally want your equipments attached to aurelia, but perhaps it can be used as a backup win condition of sorts?
Teferi's Protection: A bit of a funny card, but it looks like it has its uses. It's tutorable with sunforger and protects you and your board from board wipes or mld if those are things prominent in your playgroup. In a more token centric build, it can also save your tokens which is something cards like Eerie Interlude can't do.
Some other cards I wanted to also quickly mention while I had the chance.
Monarch mechanic: This seems like such a great mechanic for the boros colours, giving you recurring card draw while being easy to achieve given RW's more aggressive nature. It does give your opponent's a chance to draw but I think its a worthwhile trade off since it makes games more fun and go faster. Personally, I've included throne of the high city, palace jailer, and palace sentinels into my deck for this effect.
Scavenger Grounds: I've noticed that a potential issue with this deck is that it doesn't really run any big hate cards against popular archetypes and just focuses on trying to win the game quickly before they can assemble their strategies. Scavenger grounds seems to be ideal though as a colourless bojuka bog that can simply take up a land slot in your deck and never be a totally dead card.
Any other suggestions for tech cards against certain deck types that could go into such a rw deck? I've found that grand abolisher is quite useful against more controlling decks that might try to counter your spells and whatnot. Rest in Peace hoses graveyard decks but cards like containment priest and hallowed moonlight play similar functions while also being a body and able to be tutored with sunforger respectively; they also have insane synergy with eldrazi displacer. Also, deflecting palm is a funny cards that can be tutored sunforger against voltron decks even through hexproof.
Sram, Senior Edificer: Ive been running sram in my own deck as a second puresteel paladin and really enjoy the bonus draw. In addition, I've swapped out Deal Broker from the list with smuggler's copter for that small chance to draw a bonus card from sram and for the extra damage it can do.
Onward // Victory: Like wrecking ogre, this is a 2-card combo to OTK someone with aurelia. Unfortunately, it does cost 1 more mana, is sorcery speed, and can't be tutored with sunforger anymore. I personally don't run either cards in my deck anymore as I've found from my games that they are quite mana-intensive to play and remain dead cards until aurelia comes down, unlike equipments which can be played before hand and equipped onto other creatures.
Seems like a great list and an interesting take on depala. Do let us know how it plays for you. I do have a few suggestions for you that I think would make for good inclusions.
Command tower: Probably just a simple oversight, but this is almost always an auto include in any edh deck. Command beacon: Given that you'll be wiping the board multiple times a game, the commander tax on depala will certainly begin to rack up. This land helps with that allowing you to skip the tax once. Boros signet: 36 lands and 2 rock seems like very little for a deck that is looking to use board wipes that can cost 6 mana. More mana rocks would certainly be good including a signet. Boros keyrune: speaking of mana rocks, why not one that can also become a creature to pilot vehicles? Solemn Simulacrum: a pseudo ramp card that can also crew a vehicle. You don't really mind losing this guy to your board wipes either as it'll net you back a card when it dies Academy rector: Like solemn simulacrum, this is a creature you don't mind dying as it can get you one of your powerful enchantments. Tajic, Blade of the legion: you may never get the battalion trigger, but a 4 mana creature that can survive the repeated board wipes to crew vehicle seems like a great inclusion. Helios, God of the sun: not 100% sure about this one tbh as it can be difficult to fill the devotion requirements with enchantments and planes walkers. But it is another indestructible creature that can also generate tokens for you. Start your engines; this card may work out pretty well in your deck since youre playing so many vehicles, providing massive burst damage without the need for creatures to crew them.
I'll also second both boros charm and artifact recursion cards mentioned before. Artifact hate is prominent in most decks so those cards will certainly help against those. I'm also not too sure about tragic arrogance in the deck. It's a great card but you'll almost certainly lose some of your own vehicles to it. Perhaps replace it for something like fumigate?
EDM has some great cards, but I personally don't feel that any work too well in a Mayael deck. I am curious though to know what your experiences are with Arlinn Kord in your new decklist. I've looked at a variety of planeswalkers before, but none really stuck in my mayael deck.
Also, I don't know if you're still looking for opinions or testing them out, but I do love Thunderfoot Baloth and Greenwarden of Murasa in my deck. They're very affordable and shouldn't be too overlooked because of that providing more targets for Mayael while also bringing powerful effects with them. Thunderfoot in particular looks like it could be useful for you providing much needed trample against small tokens and such that can easily chump fatties. Activating it can be problematic at times, but if mayael is well defended with hexproof or shroud then opponents have to deal with the 7/7 beast to get rid of the trampling.
A bit of a bump, and just wanted to see what you, and everyone else, thinks of some of the new cards from Eldritch Moon and whether they would fit into a similar aurelia deck such as this.
Right now, Sigarda's Blessing looks amazing. With it, you can flash in your equipment and equip them at instant speed whether it be as a combat trick, lethaling with grafted wargear, to tutor with sunforger, or to provide protection with the swords.
Brisela doesn't look like it does too well in this deck, but for a more casual deck like mine, I'm willing to put in both pieces of Hanweir, the Writhing Township for fun. The land half is useful as a second flamekin village providing haste for the many creatures that can benefit from it, and both the creature half as well as the melded creature seem decent enough pushing out more damage with the additional combat steps.
I'm really curious as to why you chose not to run a sunforger package in this deck. It's arguably one of the best parts of running RW and is incredibly versatile too.
Other than that though I do like the overall build and flavour of this deck. If you're looking for more draw options, mask of memory is a great budget option and magus of the wheel is also an okay choice since you have the precon (though the actual wheel of fortune or reforge the soul are better options). Mind stone and solemn simulacrum are also pretty solid pseudo-draw cards that also provide some much needed ramp for this deck.
I would also love to see an updated list with less focus on double strike creatures. My own list runs less of them because of the lack of swords and playing around Aurelia's extra combat phases can be really fun
Just wanted to say for such a great primer. A lot of really good card suggestions with a nice detailed explanation for each of them as well for just a really great deck overall.
I do have a few cards that I was wondering what your (or anyone else's) opinion were on them:
boros swiftblade: Could replacing Warren Instigator as a 2 CMC double strike minion. Having that extra 1 health is really useful against random pings.
boros keyrune: On the slightly more expensive side of mana rocks in this deck but it gives you an extra double strike minion should you need it.
Commander's Sphere: Also a tad expensive at 3 mana but it's ramp and can also provide you an extra card draw if you need it.
Wear // Tear: Might be more meta dependent, but could be a good, cheap card to add to the sunforger toolbox especially with the lack of artifact and enchantment removal in the deck.
Hero of Bladehold: With aurelia, you're getting 4 soldiers and giving all your creatures +2 attack each of your turns.
Legion's Initiative: Buffs your guys and protects them from board wipe which seems like it could be a huge problem against this deck.
Sword of the Animist: Unfortunately not abusable with the double strike minions, but its great ramp that can trigger multiple times with aurelia.
I've played them for a bit and they seem okay as more budget options for draw. This deck doesn't really have any ways of taking advantage of the cards that are tossed into the graveyard and I much prefer recurring draw effects like with outpost siege and the monarch mechanic.
Am back again. With the commander 2017 just a few days away, I'm wondering what people thought about the new cards and which may have a place in this deck. None of the tribal stuff really work, but the Cat deck does feature some neat equipment-themed cards that seem interesting.
Hammer of Nazahn: This looks like an auto-include if there ever was one for an equipment deck. It's essentially a Darksteel Plate that equips itself when it's played, providing additional protection and power for your creatures. In addition, it acts as a mini-Sigarda's aid which has already proven to me to be a pretty great card.
Bloodforged Battle-Axe: I'm personally not sure how to evaluate this one. It seems like it can certainly get out of hand with Aurelia's extra combat steps and if you have a sigarda's aid, hammer of nazahn, or puresteel paladin out, the equip cost is not a problem. At the same time though, it seems a bit slow to get going, susceptible to mass artifact removal like vandalblast, and doesn't provide much aside from power.
Balan, Wandering Knight: Seems like a fun card that I'll probably add to my own deck. Not super competitive since you generally want your equipments attached to aurelia, but perhaps it can be used as a backup win condition of sorts?
Teferi's Protection: A bit of a funny card, but it looks like it has its uses. It's tutorable with sunforger and protects you and your board from board wipes or mld if those are things prominent in your playgroup. In a more token centric build, it can also save your tokens which is something cards like Eerie Interlude can't do.
Some other cards I wanted to also quickly mention while I had the chance.
Monarch mechanic: This seems like such a great mechanic for the boros colours, giving you recurring card draw while being easy to achieve given RW's more aggressive nature. It does give your opponent's a chance to draw but I think its a worthwhile trade off since it makes games more fun and go faster. Personally, I've included throne of the high city, palace jailer, and palace sentinels into my deck for this effect.
Scavenger Grounds: I've noticed that a potential issue with this deck is that it doesn't really run any big hate cards against popular archetypes and just focuses on trying to win the game quickly before they can assemble their strategies. Scavenger grounds seems to be ideal though as a colourless bojuka bog that can simply take up a land slot in your deck and never be a totally dead card.
Any other suggestions for tech cards against certain deck types that could go into such a rw deck? I've found that grand abolisher is quite useful against more controlling decks that might try to counter your spells and whatnot. Rest in Peace hoses graveyard decks but cards like containment priest and hallowed moonlight play similar functions while also being a body and able to be tutored with sunforger respectively; they also have insane synergy with eldrazi displacer. Also, deflecting palm is a funny cards that can be tutored sunforger against voltron decks even through hexproof.
Sram, Senior Edificer: Ive been running sram in my own deck as a second puresteel paladin and really enjoy the bonus draw. In addition, I've swapped out Deal Broker from the list with smuggler's copter for that small chance to draw a bonus card from sram and for the extra damage it can do.
Onward // Victory: Like wrecking ogre, this is a 2-card combo to OTK someone with aurelia. Unfortunately, it does cost 1 more mana, is sorcery speed, and can't be tutored with sunforger anymore. I personally don't run either cards in my deck anymore as I've found from my games that they are quite mana-intensive to play and remain dead cards until aurelia comes down, unlike equipments which can be played before hand and equipped onto other creatures.
Command tower: Probably just a simple oversight, but this is almost always an auto include in any edh deck.
Command beacon: Given that you'll be wiping the board multiple times a game, the commander tax on depala will certainly begin to rack up. This land helps with that allowing you to skip the tax once.
Boros signet: 36 lands and 2 rock seems like very little for a deck that is looking to use board wipes that can cost 6 mana. More mana rocks would certainly be good including a signet.
Boros keyrune: speaking of mana rocks, why not one that can also become a creature to pilot vehicles?
Solemn Simulacrum: a pseudo ramp card that can also crew a vehicle. You don't really mind losing this guy to your board wipes either as it'll net you back a card when it dies
Academy rector: Like solemn simulacrum, this is a creature you don't mind dying as it can get you one of your powerful enchantments.
Tajic, Blade of the legion: you may never get the battalion trigger, but a 4 mana creature that can survive the repeated board wipes to crew vehicle seems like a great inclusion.
Helios, God of the sun: not 100% sure about this one tbh as it can be difficult to fill the devotion requirements with enchantments and planes walkers. But it is another indestructible creature that can also generate tokens for you.
Start your engines; this card may work out pretty well in your deck since youre playing so many vehicles, providing massive burst damage without the need for creatures to crew them.
I'll also second both boros charm and artifact recursion cards mentioned before. Artifact hate is prominent in most decks so those cards will certainly help against those. I'm also not too sure about tragic arrogance in the deck. It's a great card but you'll almost certainly lose some of your own vehicles to it. Perhaps replace it for something like fumigate?
Also, I don't know if you're still looking for opinions or testing them out, but I do love Thunderfoot Baloth and Greenwarden of Murasa in my deck. They're very affordable and shouldn't be too overlooked because of that providing more targets for Mayael while also bringing powerful effects with them. Thunderfoot in particular looks like it could be useful for you providing much needed trample against small tokens and such that can easily chump fatties. Activating it can be problematic at times, but if mayael is well defended with hexproof or shroud then opponents have to deal with the 7/7 beast to get rid of the trampling.
Right now, Sigarda's Blessing looks amazing. With it, you can flash in your equipment and equip them at instant speed whether it be as a combat trick, lethaling with grafted wargear, to tutor with sunforger, or to provide protection with the swords.
Brisela doesn't look like it does too well in this deck, but for a more casual deck like mine, I'm willing to put in both pieces of Hanweir, the Writhing Township for fun. The land half is useful as a second flamekin village providing haste for the many creatures that can benefit from it, and both the creature half as well as the melded creature seem decent enough pushing out more damage with the additional combat steps.
Other than that though I do like the overall build and flavour of this deck. If you're looking for more draw options, mask of memory is a great budget option and magus of the wheel is also an okay choice since you have the precon (though the actual wheel of fortune or reforge the soul are better options). Mind stone and solemn simulacrum are also pretty solid pseudo-draw cards that also provide some much needed ramp for this deck.
I do have a few cards that I was wondering what your (or anyone else's) opinion were on them:
boros swiftblade: Could replacing Warren Instigator as a 2 CMC double strike minion. Having that extra 1 health is really useful against random pings.
boros keyrune: On the slightly more expensive side of mana rocks in this deck but it gives you an extra double strike minion should you need it.
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion: Another boros card and another source of double strike.
Commander's Sphere: Also a tad expensive at 3 mana but it's ramp and can also provide you an extra card draw if you need it.
Wear // Tear: Might be more meta dependent, but could be a good, cheap card to add to the sunforger toolbox especially with the lack of artifact and enchantment removal in the deck.
Hero of Bladehold: With aurelia, you're getting 4 soldiers and giving all your creatures +2 attack each of your turns.
Legion's Initiative: Buffs your guys and protects them from board wipe which seems like it could be a huge problem against this deck.
Sword of the Animist: Unfortunately not abusable with the double strike minions, but its great ramp that can trigger multiple times with aurelia.
Also, any suggestion for budget equipment options? So far, I've come up with Sword of Vengeance, Loxodon Warhammer, Tenza, Godo's Maul, Godsend, Hero's Blade, and Champion's Helm.