Mtgotraders.com or MarlonMtgo.com for the two most reliable bot retailers online I have found. I have no fear of getting ripped off from these two buying OR selling online. plus they have pretty good giveaways. and they have Every card as they have 7 or 8 bots going at once and are updated regularly. if one doesn't have it, another bot will.
keep in mind, you only have to buy 1 card for as many decks as you want, you just load the list. so your staples like sol and such are pretty cheap to get. most rares are .05 exept cards that see play in any other format. not that bad. you can build several decks for less than 10 tix
my version of this deck uses dawn of the dead to great effect. as many sac outlets as I run, the creature I pull is never exiled, not to mention the synergy with captain eye-patch himself. also use this with nim deathmantle to make it more permanent. as anti g.y. hate I run the eldrazi titans with entomb. removing my gy? ok, enomb titan shuffle up and go.
don't forget the synergy with avenger of zendikar. plus, sacking all your creatures to put out land in response to a wrath, or decree of pain is too good to ignore. sacking a token or a creature after the declare blockers step is playing smart and using the phases to your advantage.
you might try purpheros, one of his best friends is norin, and kikki is his goblin cousin. kikki's great for copying all the army in a box shenanigans for a boatload of damage, and norin makes people hurt for doing anything at all. having norin and purpheros out and casting jokulhops seems like giggles for a dave. solid mountains for a mana base lets you ruination/blood moon at will.
in my experience, running him does draw some hate, but it can make little difference as cards like norin, krenko, siege gang, goblin warrens (innocuous kill card there right?) end the game quickly.
and that's just tribal. personally hoping for a mono red dragon, and a mono red elemental. something like- 2RR elemental legend. 4/4. red elementals you control have +1/+1, haste, and protection from red.
honestly, I have been hoping that the next commander decks were mono-color, as a lot of my favorite commanders are one color. maybe next year.
I would expect that the new decks will have towers, rings, and greaves. the new inclusions for utility will more than likely be in the vein of journeyer's kite. maybe one that costs 3 and you don't have to pay to activate, like a howling mine for basics.....
I would expect the shard lands to make their appearance in each deck, along with one of the existing shard generals like karthus or rafique and two new ones. one with the new mechanic that lets you get more the more times you have cast it, and one that does something else, as yet undefined.
the ban on primeval titan should have been expected by everyone. what I think most of the players complaining about the ban fail to realize is, PT puts permanents from your library into play. permanents. plural. as in more than one. and when this is a re-usable resource like non-basic land, its going to wreck the game. if you have a greaves on the board, it turns into pay 6 for a 6/6 trampler and search for any 4 land in your deck and drop them on the board. thats just silly people. its so good that other players not using green drifted to blue to steal, and copy their way to victory. this is what is meant by format warping. the game devolved into ways to take,copy,or tutor up one card. for every deck, not just the ones running titan. as for the RC, theese Judges and players spend an awful lot of time devoted to commander as a whole, take Sheldon for example. he plays at armada every week, goes to all the major events all over the world and plays, plays with other members of the RC, plays online, writes for starcity..... how does he have time for family, work, or anything else? these guys dont get paid for this.....they do it because of their love of the format. I for one will always be grateful for their efforts, even if I dont get everything I want.
I think some of you might have missed my point. I wasnt knocking red, I just think there are gaps that could be shored up to make it more compedetive as a color. I understand that a lot of issues red has can be taken care of with some colorless spells like artifacts. I was more addressing the problems of the color itself.
I mentioned into the core because it was the only flat out exile target anything i could think of for red. but again, it only targets artifacts. and its only one spell. I do think they are addressing the weaknesses of the color by printing more red friendly artifacts, and more utility red cards like chaos warp. also, feel free to look at my Urabrask deck in my sig. I think you might like it.
I have long been a proponent of playing mono colored decks. Red is also my favorite color. Having played magic for 15+ years I have a lot of experience with mono red decks. The biggest things wrong with the color as of now, is that
1. red still has no enchantment removal. (barring chaos warp which is really recent, and pyroblast, which effects only blue.)mono red simply folds to a nasty enchantment. i.e. contamination
2. red has no exile effects that dont require you to deal damage first. and all of those are creature related. (into the core being the only exile thats not creature related.)
3. red cant deal with indestructable anything. no swords for that blightsteel in red. avacyn? please. cant kill that either.
4. any type of protection from red hoses you. and pro red and black are the most common protection abilities.
5. lack of tutors. imperial is too expensive outside of modo, goblins require tribal, and gamble is awful. while there is godo, and hoarding dragon, theese both only target artifacts, which is too narrow. if they dont want red to tutor, more cards like stranglehold are in order.
6. while land destruction is a great strength for red, it alienates players. most mass land destruction is frowned upon because it promotes non interactive games. nobody likes not being able to do anything. which goes against the "spirit" of commander. so, you either leave it out, or people will stop playing with you.
7. lack of any recursion. this again seems to be under slow address from wizards. charmbreaker devils, and the plethora of new phoenix are a great step in the right direction.
8. reds lack of card draw MAY be an issue of the past with two new wheel effects in the last couple of sets. so with winds, wheel, wheel, perceptions, and reforge, that should solve the problem
9. this one still boggles my mind. lack of any land ramp. red is right next to green on the wheel, and red has some of the most expensive spells in the game. I mean, come on. mountains come clumped together in ranges, its not the rocky mountain for god's sake, so its not a stretch to understand how red could fit in some land ramp. it doesnt have to be a lot, but when black is now tutoring for swamps with lilianna and her shade, white has land tax, tithe and a plethora of creatures, blue has straight draw, and forget about green, red is the stepchild of the group that has to go without.
I'm not discounting the power of red, like I said, red is my favorite color, but it has a lot of holes.
in my experience, running him does draw some hate, but it can make little difference as cards like norin, krenko, siege gang, goblin warrens (innocuous kill card there right?) end the game quickly.
RED: dragons, elementals, minotaurs, hounds, vishano, etc.
WHITE: knights, clerics, archons, etc
BLACK: thrulls, horrors, etc
GREEN: frogs, lizzards, beasts, etc
BLUE: illusions, serpants, drakes, etc.
and that's just tribal. personally hoping for a mono red dragon, and a mono red elemental. something like- 2RR elemental legend. 4/4. red elementals you control have +1/+1, haste, and protection from red.
I would expect that the new decks will have towers, rings, and greaves. the new inclusions for utility will more than likely be in the vein of journeyer's kite. maybe one that costs 3 and you don't have to pay to activate, like a howling mine for basics.....
I would expect the shard lands to make their appearance in each deck, along with one of the existing shard generals like karthus or rafique and two new ones. one with the new mechanic that lets you get more the more times you have cast it, and one that does something else, as yet undefined.
anxiously awaiting future spoilers for these.....
.....and there was much rejoicing
my tribal spirits/karador deck has such a raging clue right now......
I mentioned into the core because it was the only flat out exile target anything i could think of for red. but again, it only targets artifacts. and its only one spell. I do think they are addressing the weaknesses of the color by printing more red friendly artifacts, and more utility red cards like chaos warp. also, feel free to look at my Urabrask deck in my sig. I think you might like it.
1. red still has no enchantment removal. (barring chaos warp which is really recent, and pyroblast, which effects only blue.)mono red simply folds to a nasty enchantment. i.e. contamination
2. red has no exile effects that dont require you to deal damage first. and all of those are creature related. (into the core being the only exile thats not creature related.)
3. red cant deal with indestructable anything. no swords for that blightsteel in red. avacyn? please. cant kill that either.
4. any type of protection from red hoses you. and pro red and black are the most common protection abilities.
5. lack of tutors. imperial is too expensive outside of modo, goblins require tribal, and gamble is awful. while there is godo, and hoarding dragon, theese both only target artifacts, which is too narrow. if they dont want red to tutor, more cards like stranglehold are in order.
6. while land destruction is a great strength for red, it alienates players. most mass land destruction is frowned upon because it promotes non interactive games. nobody likes not being able to do anything. which goes against the "spirit" of commander. so, you either leave it out, or people will stop playing with you.
7. lack of any recursion. this again seems to be under slow address from wizards. charmbreaker devils, and the plethora of new phoenix are a great step in the right direction.
8. reds lack of card draw MAY be an issue of the past with two new wheel effects in the last couple of sets. so with winds, wheel, wheel, perceptions, and reforge, that should solve the problem
9. this one still boggles my mind. lack of any land ramp. red is right next to green on the wheel, and red has some of the most expensive spells in the game. I mean, come on. mountains come clumped together in ranges, its not the rocky mountain for god's sake, so its not a stretch to understand how red could fit in some land ramp. it doesnt have to be a lot, but when black is now tutoring for swamps with lilianna and her shade, white has land tax, tithe and a plethora of creatures, blue has straight draw, and forget about green, red is the stepchild of the group that has to go without.
I'm not discounting the power of red, like I said, red is my favorite color, but it has a lot of holes.