I need to cut 4 cards. Open to suggestions of adds / cuts. As I said, I have not played in this format so I have no idea if this will be competitive. Does it look like it will hold its own? Or should I scrap it and build another cheap pauper deck.
Thanks again Darren for the quality feedback. I stepped away from the deck over the holiday and revisited it last night. I've actually cut to 99 and I am curious which card the community would suggest adding back in (or a new one I have not considered)
This List is 100, but I've been thinking about cutting Blind Obedience? I don't think I can go below 34 Lands correct? Even with 8-10 ramp pieces, that seems inconsistent to go to 31-33?
Cards that I want to try to add in that have been cut :
I cut a few big spenders and as I play the deck some I can easily add them and cut others. As I said at the beginning, I play in a fairly casual setting. In striving to optimize the list I lost track of the budget lol. The cuts included: Aura Shards and Wargate . Both are clearly great and have amazing synergy with the deck, but it reduced the cost of acquisition buy like 15%. I have a few tutors to get needed pieces and Words of Wind can fill aura shards spot (slightly).
I added Dueling Grounds and Silent Arbiter as a weak way to protect my PW. If you can only target 1 per turn it buys me time to set up for others?? That is the thought process anyway.
Because tokens are just an afterthought in the deck, should I run more Wrath of God cards? That seems like the best way to protect my PW. Just wrath every other turn? o.O
Thoughts? Thanks, I feel like I am getting close to buying the needed cards.
I understand how pillowfort doesnt protect PW. Is it better to cut the pillowfort pieces and just run more tokens? Or small creatures?
Squirrel nest was added because I thought with a tokened chain veil I could make squirrel nest go infinite? Play chain, -1 estrid on chain, use chain, use estrids +2 over and over, which would allow me to tap and untap the land enchanted with squirrel. Even if I could't use the mana, it would just empty? I might be misunderstanding the mechanics. I still am relearning the game.
Simic is is there more so to protect my PWs and estrid herself. Move token masks to her. Is that a bad idea? I guess it doesnt prevent her from dying due to damage? Just destroy effects?
So maybe I should of started with this at the beginning.
This is why I chose Bant/sel. I have most of the pillowfort pieces, some protection pieces and the most expensive enchantress so it made sense budget wise to build estrid. Clearly, planeswalkers don't really fit this. Maybe Tuvasa the Sunlit? Pillowfort / blue control until I have voltron Tuva swing? Any recommendations for an EDH deck that involves an enchantress pillowfort theme? Anyone please feel free to add your thoughts or advice.
I feel like I am going crazy. Everytime I sit down to research building this deck I find another direction. I really love the idea of estrid superfriends abusing Chain Veil. So here is my latest build.
I need to cut 10 cards. Are their glaring omissions? I wanted to run Walking Ballista but cut it because I feel like I have so many ways to win and I am trying to be on a budget. It just feels wrong to build a deck thats not fairly optimal...
Eidolon of Countless Battles More of a Voltron card. Doesn't interact with tokens. Elemental Resonance Should have enough mana with estrid's +2 and chain veil's abuse Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury almost all of my tokens will be white, her +1 won't make many green creatures making the ult less than stellar Ajani, Caller of the Pride have better and cheaper ways to create tokens Dovin Baan really like his ult but removed my lock pieces to be more player friendly for my playgroups so makes sense to remove him.
I am starting to get a better vision for the deck. I really want my win cons to be planeswalker ultimates that I can pull off in 1-2 turns with chain and oath.
Enchanted Evening - I removed aura thief and will rely on other win cons, it has negative interaction with sterling grove and privileged position. Heavenly Blademaster - not running many creature auras not enough value
- Dueling Grounds because it negatively interacts with token theme
- Mystical Tutor few cards to grab, other than maybe wargate or cyclonic rift(which I am cutting), wargate is better
- Cyclonic rift expensive to buy, might be a bit overpowered for my group and words of wind does similar thing
After talking to a friend who is sort of my magic mentor, he suggested maybe a token deck with some big spending cards with the copious amounts of mana I will be generating end game. I know this deck is clearly missing Doubling Season . It is just so expensive. I am running the other two doublers and with Copy Enchantment and Estrid's Invocation I can still make boat loads of tokens. With Enchanted Evening and Privileged Position , my tokens should be pretty hard to remove once that protection is in place.
I need to cut out 20 cards. I plan to cut at least a few planeswalkers. Which would you folks suggest that I cut? Am I still trying to do too much? Maybe I can cut the pillow section down significantly.
Hey Darren, I really appreciate the time you put into your response. It makes a ton of sense. I just need to determine the direction I want to go.
I love the draw engine of enchantress and I love the idea of abusing Estrid's +2. I feel like there are other commanders that run auras better, as you helped me to see. Well I am stuck, I will have to do some more research and try to figure out what to do.
I know I haven't said much in this post, I just wanted to thank you for the thoughtful reply.
Just seeing the list out like this has helped a bit.
First Cuts:
- Rayne, Academy Chancellor - only situational draw, should have enough other pieces to drive engine, the penalty of targeting my permenants isn't heavy enough to deter, especially if I have another draw piece on the board.
- Swords to Plowshares - Have alot of removal that has synergy with draw engine
- Seal of Cleansing - Deck has too much spot removal, other cards are better / more versatile
- Prison Term - See Above
- Stasis Snare - See Above
- Overwhelming Splendor - Have other ways to win, high CC
- Market Festival - Have too many land auras, high CC
- Shielded by Faith - I feel like auras are secondary to what I am trying to do, they are an alt win con but the deck has to many, I don't want it to be clunky. I added it to protect my draw enchantress(s) but with 8-9 draw enablers, losing one wont hurt so protecting 1 seems to be wasteful?
- Gift of Immortality - Harder to cut than shield, offers recursion, but need to trim numbers
Added:
- Supreme Verdict - one of the decks I will play against is a token Assemble the Legions and Aurelia, The Warleader So I felt like another creature based board wipe that can't be counter is good.
I stumbled upon this website a few days ago in my search for more information about EDH. I am hoping to build an Estrid deck but need some advice and help.
Context: I started playing Magic when 3rd edition packs were 2-3 bucks and UL packs were like 5-6 but because I was in 5th grade, I never ponied up the cash for UL. I quit Magic when I began college about 15 years ago and regrettably sold my collection to pay my deposit for student living. A week ago, I went to a buddy's house and he was playing magic which immediately stuck a nostalgia cord for me. As I watched them play, I became so curious about "planes walkers" and this new format -- Commander. Well, I am hooked and I have spent the last few days searching the internet for my first commander to build. I should also mention many of these ideas came from previous posts about Estrid. The Lands Matter build by Darren? seems awesome, but a few really pricey pieces price me out of it.
Constraints: I literally own about 8 cards. As I do not have a card base to build from and play test all of this is theory-craft I suppose. Also, I am not looking to build a finely tuned Estrid deck, my budget and potential play group wont allow or require me to build and ultra competitive deck.
Why Estrid: I have always played some form of Stasis control deck i.e. Turbo Black vise stasis decks. I enjoy the control aspect of Magic. As I have researched, I also seem drawn to Stax / Pillow / Tax decks. I know these decks don’t make friends but I love to pilot them. Estrid allows me to play all of these themes and from what I can tell, fairly successfully. I really have liked the draw engine idea that enchantress encourages so that is why I have settled on Estrid.
Preliminary plan for the deck:
Early game: ramp with 7-10 Land Auras to gain card and mana advantage while placing some pillow fort cards to protect early game from agro decks.
Midgame: abuse Estrid’s +2 and hope to combine her -1 / +2 through The Chain Veil or Oath of Teferi to protect permanents, get around lock pieces, make removing Estrid hard and enable board wipes. All while cranking through the enchantress draw engine to find combo pieces / win cons. I love the idea of using 1 Simic Guildmage to abuse her -1.
Alt Win cons: Sometimes I know we lose pieces of our combos, so I plan to have a few voltron(I think that’s what the idea is called) creatures with some built in evasion Auras / effects that overlap with other themes. Cards like Whitewater Naiads
Help: I feel like I am trying to do too much. There feels like so much synergistic opportunities I cant evaluate which cards to cut. Also, without owning the cards, I can’t play test. One of the guys playing the night I feel back in love with Magic mentioned this idea of 8x8 -- creating 8 themes to build commander around and to shoot to have 8 cards in each. Lands make up the rest. I don’t know if that is sound reasoning but here are my 8 categories and the rationale:
Ramp via land auras (allows for less lands, drives draw engine, abuses estrids +2)
Wincons
Removal (3-4 boards 3-4 targeted)
Pillow / Lock Pieces (interacts with draw engine, slows people down, estrid allows me to get around stasis, only run 4 artifacts so I can run some hate – it seems many edh decks are driven by mana rocks?)
Protection (protect my permanents and voltron creatures)
Tutors / Recursion
Synergy / Utility
Voltron Creatures / Auras (alt win cons)
[x, y] x = how many current cards there are, y = how many I want to get to vie cutting
Are there cards that should be auto add that I have missed? I know there are some infinite combos with The Chain Veil but I am not sure how to "break the loop." Everything I have read about talks about breaking the loop.
4 Augur of Skulls
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Chittering Rats
2 Crypt Rats
2 Liliana's Specter
3 Phyrexian Rager
2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
Spells
1 Duress
1 Raven's Crime
4 Supernatural Stamina
2 Tragic Slip
4 Unearth
2 Doom Blade
1 Echoing Decay
4 Geth's Verdict
3 Sign in Blood
4 Barren Moor
1 Bojuka Bog
16 Swamp
1 Duress
2 Altar's Reap
2 Wander in Death
1 Nihil Spellbomb
I need to cut 4 cards. Open to suggestions of adds / cuts. As I said, I have not played in this format so I have no idea if this will be competitive. Does it look like it will hold its own? Or should I scrap it and build another cheap pauper deck.
Thanks.
1 Estrid, The Masked
Draw (8)
1 Argothian Enchantress
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Satyr Enchanter
1 Tuvasa the Sunlit
1 Eidolon of Blossoms
1 Verduran Enchantress
1 Enchantress's Presence
1 Flickering Ward
Enchant Land / Ramp (10)
1 Sol Ring
1 Burgeoning
1 Abundant Growth
1 Unbridled Growth
1 Wild Growth
1 Fertile Ground
1 Urban Utopia
1 Gift of Paradise
1 New Horizons
1 Overgrowth
Planeswalkers (13)
1 Ajani Steadfast (planewalker protection alt)
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Narset Transcendent
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Ajani Unyielding
1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage (couldn't pass up the ult)
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1 Doubling Season (talked myself into it, so essential)
1 The Chain veil
1 Oath of Teferi
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Congregation at Dawn
1 Call the Gatewatch
1 Fabricate
Protection (6)
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Sterling Grove
1 Karmic Justice
1 Cloud Cover
1 Estrid's Invocation
1 Privileged Position
Recursion (1)
1 Sun Titan
Removal (10)
1 Fumigate
1 Day of Judgement (added more board wipes, see rebirth as well)
1 Phyrexian Rebirth
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Words of Wind
1 Quarantine Field
1 Aura of Silence
1 Detention Sphere
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Stasis Snare
Pillow / stax (8)
1 Blind Obedience
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Propaganda
1 Dueling Grounds
1 Silent Arbiter
1 War Tax
1 Stony Silence
1 Ajani's Chosen
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
Auras (1)
1 Bear Umbra
Lands (34)
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Blighted Woodland
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Boreal Shelf
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Exotic Orchard
3 Forest
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Irrigated Farmland
3 Island
1 Krosan Verge
1 Meandering River
4 Plains
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Sungrass Prairie
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Sungrass Prairie
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Treva's Ruins
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Tranquil Expanse
1 Woodland Stream
1 Yavimaya Coast
This List is 100, but I've been thinking about cutting Blind Obedience? I don't think I can go below 34 Lands correct? Even with 8-10 ramp pieces, that seems inconsistent to go to 31-33?
Cards that I want to try to add in that have been cut :
Energy Flux
Wargate
Thnoughts?
Thanks in advance
1 Estrid, The Masked
Draw (8)
1 Argothian Enchantress
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Satyr Enchanter
1 Tuvasa the Sunlit
1 Eidolon of Blossoms
1 Verduran Enchantress
1 Enchantress's Presence
1 Flickering Ward
Enchant Land / Ramp (10)
1 Sol Ring
1 Burgeoning
1 Abundant Growth
1 Unbridled Growth
1 Wild Growth
1 Fertile Ground
1 Urban Utopia
1 Gift of Paradise
1 New Horizons
1 Overgrowth
Planeswalkers (12)
1 Jace Beleren
1 Dovin Baan
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Kiora, Master of the Depths
1 Narset Transcendent
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1 Call the Gatewatch
1 The Chain veil
1 Oath of Teferi
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Congregation at Dawn
1 Call the Gatewatch
1 Fabricate
Protection (6)
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Sterling Grove
1 Karmic Justice
1 Cloud Cover
1 Estrid's Invocation
1 Privileged Position
Recursion (1)
1 Sun Titan
Removal (8)
1 Fumigate
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Words of Wind
1 Quarantine Field
1 Aura of Silence
1 Detention Sphere
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Stasis Snare
Pillow / stax (10)
1 Blind Obedience
1 Elephant Grass
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Propaganda
1 Dueling Grounds
1 Silent Arbiter
1 War Tax
1 Stony Silence
1 Energy Flux
1 Ajani's Chosen
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
1 Squirrel Nest
Auras (1)
1 Bear Umbra (cut?)
Lands (34)
1 Arctic Flats
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Blighted Woodland
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Boreal Shelf
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Exotic Orchard
4 Forest
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Irrigated Farmland
3 Island
1 Krosan Verge
1 Meandering River
1 Painted Bluffs
4 Plains
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Shimmering Grotto
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Tranquil Expanse
1 Woodland Stream
1 Yavimaya Coast
I cut a few big spenders and as I play the deck some I can easily add them and cut others. As I said at the beginning, I play in a fairly casual setting. In striving to optimize the list I lost track of the budget lol. The cuts included: Aura Shards and Wargate . Both are clearly great and have amazing synergy with the deck, but it reduced the cost of acquisition buy like 15%. I have a few tutors to get needed pieces and Words of Wind can fill aura shards spot (slightly).
I added Dueling Grounds and Silent Arbiter as a weak way to protect my PW. If you can only target 1 per turn it buys me time to set up for others?? That is the thought process anyway.
Because tokens are just an afterthought in the deck, should I run more Wrath of God cards? That seems like the best way to protect my PW. Just wrath every other turn? o.O
Thoughts? Thanks, I feel like I am getting close to buying the needed cards.
I will cut herald, that is great advice.
I understand how pillowfort doesnt protect PW. Is it better to cut the pillowfort pieces and just run more tokens? Or small creatures?
Squirrel nest was added because I thought with a tokened chain veil I could make squirrel nest go infinite? Play chain, -1 estrid on chain, use chain, use estrids +2 over and over, which would allow me to tap and untap the land enchanted with squirrel. Even if I could't use the mana, it would just empty? I might be misunderstanding the mechanics. I still am relearning the game.
Simic is is there more so to protect my PWs and estrid herself. Move token masks to her. Is that a bad idea? I guess it doesnt prevent her from dying due to damage? Just destroy effects?
So maybe I should of started with this at the beginning.
I already own the following cards:
1 Verduran Enchantress
1 Enchantress's Presence
1 Flickering Ward
1 Burgeoning
1 Sol Ring
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Sterling Grove
1 Karmic Justice
1 Blind Obedience
1 Elephant Grass
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Propaganda
This is why I chose Bant/sel. I have most of the pillowfort pieces, some protection pieces and the most expensive enchantress so it made sense budget wise to build estrid. Clearly, planeswalkers don't really fit this. Maybe Tuvasa the Sunlit? Pillowfort / blue control until I have voltron Tuva swing? Any recommendations for an EDH deck that involves an enchantress pillowfort theme? Anyone please feel free to add your thoughts or advice.
Thanks again!
1 Estrid, The Masked
Draw (8)
1 Argothian Enchantress
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Satyr Enchanter
1 Tuvasa the Sunlit
1 Eidolon of Blossoms
1 Verduran Enchantress
1 Enchantress's Presence
1 Flickering Ward
Enchant Land / Ramp (11)
1 Sol Ring
1 Herald of the Pantheon
1 Burgeoning
1 Abundant Growth
1 Unbridled Growth
1 Wild Growth
1 Fertile Ground
1 Urban Utopia
1 Gift of Paradise
1 New Horizons
1 Overgrowth
Planeswalkers (13)
1 Jace Beleren
1 Dovin Baan
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Kiora, Master of the Depths
1 Narset Transcendent
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1 Ajani Unyielding
1 Call the Gatewatch
1 The Chain veil
1 Oath of Teferi
Tutor (7)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Congregation at Dawn
1 Wargate
1 Call the Gatewatch
1 Fabricate
1 Umbra Mystic
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Sterling Grove
1 Karmic Justice
1 Cloud Cover
1 Privileged Position
1 Simic Guildmage
1 Estrid's Invocation
Recursion (2)
1 Sun Titan
1 Open The Vaults
Removal (9)
1 Fumigate
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Words of Wind
1 Quarantine Field
1 Aura of Silence
1 Detention Sphere
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Stasis Snare
1 Aura Shards
Pillow / stax (8)
1 Blind Obedience
1 Elephant Grass
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Propaganda
1 War Tax
1 Stony Silence
1 Energy Flux
Mana Spenders (2)
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Sphinx Revelation
1 Hurricane
Alt Wins (5)
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Starfield of Nyx
1 Estrid's Invocation
1 Ajani's Chosen
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
1 Squirrel Nest
1 Bear Umbra (cut?)
Lands (34)
1 Arctic Flats
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Blighted Woodland
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Boreal Shelf
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Exotic Orchard
4 Forest
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Irrigated Farmland
3 Island
1 Krosan Verge
1 Meandering River
1 Painted Bluffs
4 Plains
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Shimmering Grotto
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Tranquil Expanse
1 Woodland Stream
1 Yavimaya Coast
I need to cut 10 cards. Are their glaring omissions? I wanted to run Walking Ballista but cut it because I feel like I have so many ways to win and I am trying to be on a budget. It just feels wrong to build a deck thats not fairly optimal...
any thoughts? I could use some help for sure!
Eidolon of Countless Battles More of a Voltron card. Doesn't interact with tokens.
Elemental Resonance Should have enough mana with estrid's +2 and chain veil's abuse
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury almost all of my tokens will be white, her +1 won't make many green creatures making the ult less than stellar
Ajani, Caller of the Pride have better and cheaper ways to create tokens
Dovin Baan really like his ult but removed my lock pieces to be more player friendly for my playgroups so makes sense to remove him.
I am starting to get a better vision for the deck. I really want my win cons to be planeswalker ultimates that I can pull off in 1-2 turns with chain and oath.
Enchanted Evening - I removed aura thief and will rely on other win cons, it has negative interaction with sterling grove and privileged position.
Heavenly Blademaster - not running many creature auras not enough value
- Dueling Grounds because it negatively interacts with token theme
- Mystical Tutor few cards to grab, other than maybe wargate or cyclonic rift(which I am cutting), wargate is better
- Cyclonic rift expensive to buy, might be a bit overpowered for my group and words of wind does similar thing
I need to cut out 20 cards. I plan to cut at least a few planeswalkers. Which would you folks suggest that I cut? Am I still trying to do too much? Maybe I can cut the pillow section down significantly.
1 Estrid, The Masked
Draw (7)
1 Argothian Enchantress
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Satyr Enchanter
1 Tuvasa the Sunlit
1 Eidolon of Blossoms
1 Verduran Enchantress
1 Enchantress's Presence
Enchant Land / Ramp (11)
1 Sol Ring
1 Herald of the Pantheon
1 Burgeoning
1 Abundant Growth
1 Unbridled Growth
1 Wild Growth
1 Fertile Ground
1 Urban Utopia
1 Gift of Paradise
1 New Horizons
1 Overgrowth
Planeswalkers (9)
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Narset Transcendent
1 Ajani Steadfast
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1 Ajani Unyielding
1 Call the Gatewatch
1 The Chain veil
1 Oath of Teferi
Tutor (4)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Congregation at Dawn
1 Wargate
Token (8)
1 Estrid's Invocation
1 Anointed Procession
1 Parallel Lives
1 Sacred Mesa
1 Ajani's Chosen
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
1 Secure the wastes
1 Copy Enchantment
1 Umbra Mystic
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Sterling Grove
1 Karmic Justice
1 Cloud Cover
1 Privileged Position
1 Simic Guildmage
Creatures (1)
1 Celestial Ancient
Recursion (2)
1 Sun Titan
1 Open The Vaults
Removal (10)
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Fumigate
1 Austere Command
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Quarantine Field
1 Aura of Silence
1 Detention Sphere
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Aura Shards
1 Words of Wind
Pillow / stax (8)
1 Blind Obedience
1 Elephant Grass
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Propaganda
1 War Tax
1 Stony Silence
1 Angelic Arbiter (cut? large CC)
1 Crawlspace
Mana Spenders (2)
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Sphinx Revelation
Alt Wins (5)
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Omniscience
1 Starfield of Nyx
1 Triumph of the hordes
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
1 Bear Umbra (cut?)
Lands (35)
1 Arctic Flats
1 Ash Barrens
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Blighted Woodland
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Boreal Shelf
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Exotic Orchard
4 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Irrigated Farmland
3 Island
1 Meandering River
1 Painted Bluffs
4 Plains
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Shimmering Grotto
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Tranquil Expanse
1 Woodland Stream
1 Yavimaya Coast
Thoughts?
Thanks in Advanced
I love the draw engine of enchantress and I love the idea of abusing Estrid's +2. I feel like there are other commanders that run auras better, as you helped me to see. Well I am stuck, I will have to do some more research and try to figure out what to do.
I know I haven't said much in this post, I just wanted to thank you for the thoughtful reply.
First Cuts:
- Rayne, Academy Chancellor - only situational draw, should have enough other pieces to drive engine, the penalty of targeting my permenants isn't heavy enough to deter, especially if I have another draw piece on the board.
- Swords to Plowshares - Have alot of removal that has synergy with draw engine
- Seal of Cleansing - Deck has too much spot removal, other cards are better / more versatile
- Prison Term - See Above
- Stasis Snare - See Above
- Overwhelming Splendor - Have other ways to win, high CC
- Market Festival - Have too many land auras, high CC
- Shielded by Faith - I feel like auras are secondary to what I am trying to do, they are an alt win con but the deck has to many, I don't want it to be clunky. I added it to protect my draw enchantress(s) but with 8-9 draw enablers, losing one wont hurt so protecting 1 seems to be wasteful?
- Gift of Immortality - Harder to cut than shield, offers recursion, but need to trim numbers
Added:
- Supreme Verdict - one of the decks I will play against is a token Assemble the Legions and Aurelia, The Warleader So I felt like another creature based board wipe that can't be counter is good.
I stumbled upon this website a few days ago in my search for more information about EDH. I am hoping to build an Estrid deck but need some advice and help.
Context: I started playing Magic when 3rd edition packs were 2-3 bucks and UL packs were like 5-6 but because I was in 5th grade, I never ponied up the cash for UL. I quit Magic when I began college about 15 years ago and regrettably sold my collection to pay my deposit for student living. A week ago, I went to a buddy's house and he was playing magic which immediately stuck a nostalgia cord for me. As I watched them play, I became so curious about "planes walkers" and this new format -- Commander. Well, I am hooked and I have spent the last few days searching the internet for my first commander to build. I should also mention many of these ideas came from previous posts about Estrid. The Lands Matter build by Darren? seems awesome, but a few really pricey pieces price me out of it.
Constraints: I literally own about 8 cards. As I do not have a card base to build from and play test all of this is theory-craft I suppose. Also, I am not looking to build a finely tuned Estrid deck, my budget and potential play group wont allow or require me to build and ultra competitive deck.
Why Estrid: I have always played some form of Stasis control deck i.e. Turbo Black vise stasis decks. I enjoy the control aspect of Magic. As I have researched, I also seem drawn to Stax / Pillow / Tax decks. I know these decks don’t make friends but I love to pilot them. Estrid allows me to play all of these themes and from what I can tell, fairly successfully. I really have liked the draw engine idea that enchantress encourages so that is why I have settled on Estrid.
Preliminary plan for the deck:
Early game: ramp with 7-10 Land Auras to gain card and mana advantage while placing some pillow fort cards to protect early game from agro decks.
Midgame: abuse Estrid’s +2 and hope to combine her -1 / +2 through The Chain Veil or Oath of Teferi to protect permanents, get around lock pieces, make removing Estrid hard and enable board wipes. All while cranking through the enchantress draw engine to find combo pieces / win cons. I love the idea of using 1 Simic Guildmage to abuse her -1.
Planned win cons: Aura Thief and Enchanted Evening, Starfield of Nyx, Sigil of the Empty Throne, Omniscience and Laboratory Maniac
Alt Win cons: Sometimes I know we lose pieces of our combos, so I plan to have a few voltron(I think that’s what the idea is called) creatures with some built in evasion Auras / effects that overlap with other themes. Cards like Whitewater Naiads
Help: I feel like I am trying to do too much. There feels like so much synergistic opportunities I cant evaluate which cards to cut. Also, without owning the cards, I can’t play test. One of the guys playing the night I feel back in love with Magic mentioned this idea of 8x8 -- creating 8 themes to build commander around and to shoot to have 8 cards in each. Lands make up the rest. I don’t know if that is sound reasoning but here are my 8 categories and the rationale:
Ramp via land auras (allows for less lands, drives draw engine, abuses estrids +2)
Wincons
Removal (3-4 boards 3-4 targeted)
Pillow / Lock Pieces (interacts with draw engine, slows people down, estrid allows me to get around stasis, only run 4 artifacts so I can run some hate – it seems many edh decks are driven by mana rocks?)
Protection (protect my permanents and voltron creatures)
Tutors / Recursion
Synergy / Utility
Voltron Creatures / Auras (alt win cons)
[x, y] x = how many current cards there are, y = how many I want to get to vie cutting
1 Estrid, The Masked
Draw [10, 8]
1 Argothian Enchantress
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Satyr Enchanter
1 Tuvasa the Sunlit
1 Eidolon of Blossoms
1 Kor Spiritdancer
1 Words of Wind
1 Verduran Enchantress
1 Kestia, the Cultivator
1 Enchantress's Presence
Enchant Land Ramp [11, 10]
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Sol Ring
1 Burgeoning
1 Abundant Growth
1 Unbridled Growth
1 Wild Growth
1 Fertile Ground
1 Urban Utopia
1 Gift of Paradise
1 New Horizons
1 Overgrowth
Synergy/Utility [9]
1 Herald of the Pantheon
1 Simic Guildmage
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Whitewater Naiads
1 Estrid's Invocation
1 Oath of Teferi
1 The Chain Veil
1 Control Magic [Cut?]
1 Confiscate [Cut?]
Tutor/Recursion [6]
1 Sun Titan
1 Open The Vaults
1 Bruna, Light of Alabaster
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Congregation at Dawn
Protection [7]
1 Umbra Mystic
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Fountain Watch [Cut?]
1 Sterling Grove
1 Karmic Justice
1 Cloud Cover
1 Privileged Position
1 Aura Gnarlid [Cut?]
1 Cold-Eyed Selkie
1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
1 Yavimaya Enchantress
1 Heavenly Blademaster [Cut?]
1 Celestial Ancient [Cut?]
Removal [10, 8]
1 Winds of Rath
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Austere Command
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Quarantine Field
1 Aura of Silence
1 Detention Sphere
1 Imprisoned in the Moon
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Supreme Verdict
Pillow lock [13, 8]
1 Stormtide Leviathan [Cut?]
1 Blazing Archon [Cut?]
1 Blind Obedience
1 Elephant Grass
1 Winter Orb
1 Stasis
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Energy Flux
1 Dueling Grounds
1 Propaganda
1 War Tax
1 Collective Restraint [Cut?]
Win Cons [7]
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Omniscience
1 Aura Thief
1 Enchanted Evening
1 Starfield of Nyx
1 Ajani's Chosen
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
Auras [9,6]
1 Ethereal Armor
1 Ancestral Mask
1 Curator's Ward
1 Sage's Reverie
1 Corrupted Conscience
1 Infiltrator's Magemark
1 Bear Umbra
1 Elemental Resonance
1 Indestructibility
1 Arctic Flats
1 Ash Barrens
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Blighted Woodland
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Boreal Shelf
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Exotic Orchard
4 Forest
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Irrigated Farmland
3 Island
1 Mana Confluence
1 Meandering River
1 Painted Bluffs
3 Plains
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Shimmering Grotto
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Tranquil Expanse
1 Woodland Stream
1 Yavimaya Coast
Cards needed to cut: 24
Are there cards that should be auto add that I have missed? I know there are some infinite combos with The Chain Veil but I am not sure how to "break the loop." Everything I have read about talks about breaking the loop.
Thanks in advanced for your help!