This is my take on Raff Capashen. Basically, it’s a mix of historic and artifact themes. Almost every spell will have flash when he’s on the table. More details to come later.
The following cards are on the verge of entering the deck or were the last few that didn't quite make it in the initial list:
- Medomai the Ageless: An Azorius legend that doesn't see much play, but if this comes in right before I untap, it could have a very immediate payoff.
- Kozilek, the Great Distortion: I usually shy away from the big Eldrazi, but lately this one has started to grow on me.
- Baird, Steward of Argive: Deters the Overrun alpha-strikes, and just generally makes it more trouble than it's worth to be attacked.
- Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker: A fun "surprise" whenever someone attacks you with a few bodies. If you can absorb the damage, the backlash could be worthwhile.
- God-Eternal Oketra: Solid on her own, a nice surprise when flashed in, and gets out of control if you untap with it. Only question is how many actual creature spells I want to cast and whether or not I can make use of the extra bodies. Feels like a thicker Darien.
- Spellskite: If you need to save Raff or someone else, or you just want to mess with something important.
- Neurok Stealthsuit: from the cycle that brought us Cranial Plating, this card can be cast AND equipped at instant speed. Doesn't help against wraths or edicts.
- Insidious Will: this card is always on my radar in any blue deck because it's just so flexible, and I love that. Same goes for Cryptic Command.
- Miraculous Recovery: a very obscure card in a world full of Karmic Guides, but this might be the corner case for it because of the instant speed.
- various cheap Counterspells like Swan Song, Negate, Absorb, etc.
- various draw-X spells like Pull from Tomorrow, Stroke of Genius, Jace's Ingenuity, Opportunity, etc.
- Maze of Ith: Another card that perfectly fits the theme of “hold up everything”. Doesn’t make any mana, though.
- Flagstones of Trokair: Fetches non-basic Plains
The following non-historic cards are on the verge of of entering the deck:
- Thalia's Lancers: Searches up nearly every spell, and a few specific lands to boot.
- Sun Titan: one of my all-time favorites. Lots of targets to get back.
- Blind Obedience: slows a lot of things down, making your flash-speed all the faster.
- Karmic Justice: the ultimate rattlesnake.
I'll drop another vote for Raff. Being able to play almost entirely at instant speed is just so much fun.
This I can definitely appreciate. My longest running deck is Yeva, and it is the most fun keyword ever.
Quick aside on Raff: as much fun as it is to flash things in, I've always found that the artifact theme was either too combo-y for my group's collective stomach, or it lacked the muscle to stand up to a table full of demons, dragons, and other large things that commander decks often have. I'm aware of a few big guys, but I'm concerned that there might not be enough of them overall to make up a deck, and they all have the added weakness of being vulnerable to Shatters on top of the creature removals.
One thing I found randomly interesting about Yuriko and a lot of the other ninja cards is that they all appear to be striking the same kind of pose in their artwork. Moving on...
This deck looks really solid. Insidious Dreams is an inspirational card that I need to try out myself.
If you had to dedicate one slot in your deck to a creature with an ETB "wrath" effect, which one would you choose?
- Massacre Wurm: doesn't touch your own guys, gives extra reach when creatures die.
- Demon of Dark Schemes: hits your own things, but brings them back after they go away.
- Massacre Girl: has the potential to kill bigger things, but requires more setup.
- Other (please specify)
Managed to get one game in with SG last weekend, and although it didn't work out too well (due to an assault on my Sol Ring and the one I stole with Hostage Taker to replace it), I was able to see a few of the newer cards in action. Long story short, they did not perform very well. But, silver lining: there's now more room for new cards.
- Jace, Vryn's Prodigy: summoning sickness prevented this from being a thing, and the flip side offers very little value since I don't run very many instants/sorceries.
- Lazav, the Multifarious: somehow it never occurred to me how many of my creatures are just ETB bodies.
So now there are two free spots in the list before War of the Spark comes in and blows everything up. The top five choices to replace them are as follows:
- Massacre Wurm or Demon of Dark Schemes: at least one of these is the front-runner, but which one? The Wurm provides some nice reach, while the Demon provides another way to resurrect creatures. This choice probably deserves its own thread/poll somewhere.
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Speaking of reach, Gary does that better than most.
- Kira, Great Glass-Spinner: I used to be a lot higher on this card, but it basically just gives my team hexproof, and as I learned in the Ojutai experiment, that doesn't really count for much in my local meta.
- Dimir House Guard: does a little bit of everything. Only question is whether or not there are enough 4s in the deck.
- Lazav, Dimir Mastermind: A different kind of clone, that I finally got around to picking up.
That being said, Ojutai itself (herself?) was largely unimpressive. The hexproof keyword was mostly useless in a field full of wraths and Grave Pacts. She lasted an average of about one untap step, got a total of two hits in against a table of three opponents, and was otherwise stuck in the command zone. Unfortunately, this is mostly a normal set of circumstances for my group.
On the other hand, Theros gods are usually either left alone or just harder to deal with. So, I think I'm going to try out Ephara next time, whenever that is.
Before you ask, I think Sunforger is hot garbage. I know that a lot of people think its literally the bees knees, I am telling you its not worth the mana and it NEVER lives. Sure if you can make it to magic Christmas land and land, equip, use, and keep it then its cool and all but its so mana intensive upfront and the reward isn't even that good if you ask me.
+10 for this.
Also, more +++ for a great take on this commander. Reminds me of the old RW Boat Brew decks from a standard format long ago with Reveillark and Siege-Gang Commander.
If your commander is being targeted a lot, maybe you run a few more cheap counters. The easiest one not already on your list is Stubborn Denial. Once it rotates out of Standard, I'll be investing in some Siren Stormtamers. You might not get SG onto the table quite as fast, but it'll stay there a little longer.
Anyway, I tried putting together a list, which you can see here. How does it look?
Not a bad start, but there are a couple things I would look to shore up:
- Only 35 lands is probably not enough. Rakdos "can" make your creatures dirt cheap, but there will also be many times when he doesn't do that, either because he's not on the table or because you don't have an enabler. I'd look to add 2-4 more lands.
- Make sure your enablers can be used more than once. Vicious Rumors might be good for a turn, but then the rest of the table will respond, and you'll need to go through the motion again. Think of Vicious Rumors as Dark Ritual, and Lobber Crew as Rakdos Signet.
- Just because you can play something at a discount doesn't mean it's good enough to make the cut. Abundant Maw might be cheap/free, but it's still a vanilla body with a weak ETB trigger. Rix Maadi Reveler is a small body with a drawback...and something like Bloodgift Demon or Demonlord Belzenlok would be much stronger.
This might be my least and most favorite part of this format...
- Jeweled Amulet: Really...?
- Esper Charm: I'm all for versatility, but there are more effective ways to do all three of these things in your colors.
- Thoughtcast: You aren't a dedicated artifact deck, so this is probably going to average out to Divination, which is not playable in this format. Frankly, I would question this card even if you could guarantee that it only cost 1 mana. You only get two cards for the price of one, and that's not a big enough advantage when you could have something more continuous like Rhystic Study or a larger payout like Jace's Ingenuity.
- Mulldrifter: I love this card 99% of the time, but in this case you don't really have many ways to take advantage of the body, so it becomes another Thoughtcast. I'd rather reanimate a Consecrated Sphinx or a Nezahal, Primal Tide.
Two things that always help a new thread:
1. Post a few comments about what your deck is trying to accomplish. By this, I don't mean your budget limits, but rather your minor themes and goals. Obviously, Lord Windgrace is mostly about lands and landfall triggers, but if there's something else you want to do, it would help narrow down the suggestions.
2. It's always easier to suggest cuts rather than additions. There are thousands of eligible cards that could easily fit into the 60-some available slots in any commander deck, so I'll go the latter route.
- Gruul Signet, Golgari Signet: Signets are for people who don't have access to more stable green ramp. You got Farseek, which is great, but I'd go a step further with Nature's Lore to hit your duals. Speaking of which...
- Temple of Malady, Temple of Abandon: these should probably be more duals. Both the Amonkhet cycle duals and the BFZ duals are reasonably priced and worth the money.
- Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: It's a fine card in a vacuum, but how does it fit with the rest of this deck?
- Earthquake: This seems like something that could be easily upgraded without spending much. For one more mana, Starstorm works at instant speed and hits flyers. Blasphemous Act usually only costs one mana. Even Savage Twister hits flyers.
- Journey to Eternity: A lot of stuff has to go right for this to pay off. You need three mana to cast it, you need the target creature to survive the casting, you need a way to make sure the target dies (not exiles or bounces), and you need five more mana to use it after it flips. I'd rather have another Eternal Witness or some other reanimation effect.
On paper, it looks like your commander will be able to supply all the draw power you could possibly need, so all you have to do is get enough mana to cast him (and the cards he draws) and make sure he resolves. So, I'd look to run as much ramp and fixing as possible to ensure that happens early and often. You might try Mina and Denn, Wildborn to get extra land drops. More will assuredly be revealed through a few Gatherer searches...
Flash...like it oughta be
This is my take on Raff Capashen. Basically, it’s a mix of historic and artifact themes. Almost every spell will have flash when he’s on the table. More details to come later.
1 Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
Creatures (17):
1 Walking Ballista
1 Hanna, Ship's Navigator
1 Stonecloaker
1 Jhoira’s Familiar
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Sakashima the Impostor
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Empress Galina
1 Arcanis, the Omnipotent
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Planeswalkers (6):
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 Ugin, the Ineffable
1 Karn Liberated
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Artifacts (20):
1 Expedition Map
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Azorius Signet
1 Blackblade Reforged
1 Marble Diamond
1 Mind Stone
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sky Diamond
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Azorius Locket
1 Crystal Shard
1 Mirage Mirror
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Hedron Archive
1 Nevinyrral’s Disk
1 Weatherlight
1 Gilded Lotus
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Cloud Cover
1 Smothering Tithe
1 In Bolas’s Clutches
Instants (14):
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Arcane Denial
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Dovin's Veto
1 Capsize
1 Reality Shift
1 Forsake the Worldly
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Crush Contraband
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystic Confluence
Sorceries (1):
1 Urza's Ruinous Blast
Lands (38):
1 Academy Ruins
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Arch of Orazca
1 Calciform Pools
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
1 Kor Haven
1 Memorial to Genius
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Mystic Gate
1 Opal Palace
1 Prairie Stream
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Sea of Clouds
1 Tundra
1 Snow-Covered Island
7 Plains
7 Island
The following cards are on the verge of entering the deck or were the last few that didn't quite make it in the initial list:
- Medomai the Ageless: An Azorius legend that doesn't see much play, but if this comes in right before I untap, it could have a very immediate payoff.
- Kozilek, the Great Distortion: I usually shy away from the big Eldrazi, but lately this one has started to grow on me.
- Baird, Steward of Argive: Deters the Overrun alpha-strikes, and just generally makes it more trouble than it's worth to be attacked.
- Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker: A fun "surprise" whenever someone attacks you with a few bodies. If you can absorb the damage, the backlash could be worthwhile.
- God-Eternal Oketra: Solid on her own, a nice surprise when flashed in, and gets out of control if you untap with it. Only question is how many actual creature spells I want to cast and whether or not I can make use of the extra bodies. Feels like a thicker Darien.
- Spellskite: If you need to save Raff or someone else, or you just want to mess with something important.
- Neurok Stealthsuit: from the cycle that brought us Cranial Plating, this card can be cast AND equipped at instant speed. Doesn't help against wraths or edicts.
- Insidious Will: this card is always on my radar in any blue deck because it's just so flexible, and I love that. Same goes for Cryptic Command.
- Miraculous Recovery: a very obscure card in a world full of Karmic Guides, but this might be the corner case for it because of the instant speed.
- various cheap Counterspells like Swan Song, Negate, Absorb, etc.
- various draw-X spells like Pull from Tomorrow, Stroke of Genius, Jace's Ingenuity, Opportunity, etc.
- Maze of Ith: Another card that perfectly fits the theme of “hold up everything”. Doesn’t make any mana, though.
- Flagstones of Trokair: Fetches non-basic Plains
The following non-historic cards are on the verge of of entering the deck:
- Thalia's Lancers: Searches up nearly every spell, and a few specific lands to boot.
- Sun Titan: one of my all-time favorites. Lots of targets to get back.
- Blind Obedience: slows a lot of things down, making your flash-speed all the faster.
- Karmic Justice: the ultimate rattlesnake.
The following cards are not in the list simply because I don't (yet) own them:
- Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
- Narset, Parter of Veils
- Urza, Lord High Artificer
- Lyra Dawnbringer
- Karn, Scion of Urza
2019-04-23:
- Ephara, God of the Polis -> Blackblade Reforged
- Heliod, God of the Sun -> Mirage Mirror
- Too many four-drops..
2019-04-25:
- Blighted Cataract -> Arch of Orazca
- Lack of recursion and Memorial is functionally the same plus colored mana.
2019-05-09:
- Return to Dust -> Forsake the Worldly
- Soooo many four-drops that this mostly-similar card will do just fine.
2019-05-24:
- Unwind -> Dovin's Veto
- Easy upgrade here once I acquired a Veto.
2019-06-05:
- Lavinia of the Tenth -> Hanna, Ship's Navigator
- Darien, King of Kjeldor -> Scroll Rack
- Duplicant -> Weatherlight
- Keiga, the Tide Star -> Capsize
- Dreamstone Hedron -> Expedition Map
- Meteor Golem -> Stonecloaker
- Scourglass -> Tezzeret the Seeker
- Azorius Chancery -> Smothering Tithe
- Vesuva -> Thespian's Stage
- Nimbus Maze -> Academy Ruins
- Skycloud Expanse -> Evolving Wilds
- Temple of Enlightenment -> Ghost Quarter
- Cut a lot of the bulky, expensive cards that didn't really work well with anything else.
- Added a few more artifact-based cards, shuffle effects, and utility lands.
2019-07-02:
- Thespian's Stage -> Hall of Heliod's Generosity
- Memnarch -> Empress Galina
- Platinum Emperion -> Ugin, the Ineffable
- Cut more costs for more utility. Galina is easier to activate than Memnarch, Ugin offers more utility than Plats.
This I can definitely appreciate. My longest running deck is Yeva, and it is the most fun keyword ever.
Quick aside on Raff: as much fun as it is to flash things in, I've always found that the artifact theme was either too combo-y for my group's collective stomach, or it lacked the muscle to stand up to a table full of demons, dragons, and other large things that commander decks often have. I'm aware of a few big guys, but I'm concerned that there might not be enough of them overall to make up a deck, and they all have the added weakness of being vulnerable to Shatters on top of the creature removals.
This deck looks really solid. Insidious Dreams is an inspirational card that I need to try out myself.
If you had to dedicate one slot in your deck to a creature with an ETB "wrath" effect, which one would you choose?
- Massacre Wurm: doesn't touch your own guys, gives extra reach when creatures die.
- Demon of Dark Schemes: hits your own things, but brings them back after they go away.
- Massacre Girl: has the potential to kill bigger things, but requires more setup.
- Other (please specify)
- Jace, Vryn's Prodigy: summoning sickness prevented this from being a thing, and the flip side offers very little value since I don't run very many instants/sorceries.
- Lazav, the Multifarious: somehow it never occurred to me how many of my creatures are just ETB bodies.
So now there are two free spots in the list before War of the Spark comes in and blows everything up. The top five choices to replace them are as follows:
- Massacre Wurm or Demon of Dark Schemes: at least one of these is the front-runner, but which one? The Wurm provides some nice reach, while the Demon provides another way to resurrect creatures. This choice probably deserves its own thread/poll somewhere.
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Speaking of reach, Gary does that better than most.
- Kira, Great Glass-Spinner: I used to be a lot higher on this card, but it basically just gives my team hexproof, and as I learned in the Ojutai experiment, that doesn't really count for much in my local meta.
- Dimir House Guard: does a little bit of everything. Only question is whether or not there are enough 4s in the deck.
- Lazav, Dimir Mastermind: A different kind of clone, that I finally got around to picking up.
The last turn was nuts:
- my opponent (Kess) was at 2 life.
- I casting a Gilded Drake to eat the opponent's Counterspell/, the cast a Sun Titan to get it back, targeting his Niv-Mizzet.
- Finally, I cracked a Blighted Cataract to draw two cards for the win.
That being said, Ojutai itself (herself?) was largely unimpressive. The hexproof keyword was mostly useless in a field full of wraths and Grave Pacts. She lasted an average of about one untap step, got a total of two hits in against a table of three opponents, and was otherwise stuck in the command zone. Unfortunately, this is mostly a normal set of circumstances for my group.
On the other hand, Theros gods are usually either left alone or just harder to deal with. So, I think I'm going to try out Ephara next time, whenever that is.
+10 for this.
Also, more +++ for a great take on this commander. Reminds me of the old RW Boat Brew decks from a standard format long ago with Reveillark and Siege-Gang Commander.
EDIT: I'll throw in a suggestion: Emeria, the Sky Ruin, possibly with either Knight of the White Orchid or Kor Cartographer to get moar plainzes
You could also go for other ways to protect the God, like Dive Down, Undying Evil, Crystal Shard, etc.
Not a bad start, but there are a couple things I would look to shore up:
- Only 35 lands is probably not enough. Rakdos "can" make your creatures dirt cheap, but there will also be many times when he doesn't do that, either because he's not on the table or because you don't have an enabler. I'd look to add 2-4 more lands.
- Make sure your enablers can be used more than once. Vicious Rumors might be good for a turn, but then the rest of the table will respond, and you'll need to go through the motion again. Think of Vicious Rumors as Dark Ritual, and Lobber Crew as Rakdos Signet.
- Just because you can play something at a discount doesn't mean it's good enough to make the cut. Abundant Maw might be cheap/free, but it's still a vanilla body with a weak ETB trigger. Rix Maadi Reveler is a small body with a drawback...and something like Bloodgift Demon or Demonlord Belzenlok would be much stronger.
I'd play both of them and be very happy about it.
This card is going to be incredible in so many ways.
- Jeweled Amulet: Really...?
- Esper Charm: I'm all for versatility, but there are more effective ways to do all three of these things in your colors.
- Thoughtcast: You aren't a dedicated artifact deck, so this is probably going to average out to Divination, which is not playable in this format. Frankly, I would question this card even if you could guarantee that it only cost 1 mana. You only get two cards for the price of one, and that's not a big enough advantage when you could have something more continuous like Rhystic Study or a larger payout like Jace's Ingenuity.
- Mulldrifter: I love this card 99% of the time, but in this case you don't really have many ways to take advantage of the body, so it becomes another Thoughtcast. I'd rather reanimate a Consecrated Sphinx or a Nezahal, Primal Tide.
Hope this helps...
1. Post a few comments about what your deck is trying to accomplish. By this, I don't mean your budget limits, but rather your minor themes and goals. Obviously, Lord Windgrace is mostly about lands and landfall triggers, but if there's something else you want to do, it would help narrow down the suggestions.
2. It's always easier to suggest cuts rather than additions. There are thousands of eligible cards that could easily fit into the 60-some available slots in any commander deck, so I'll go the latter route.
- Gruul Signet, Golgari Signet: Signets are for people who don't have access to more stable green ramp. You got Farseek, which is great, but I'd go a step further with Nature's Lore to hit your duals. Speaking of which...
- Temple of Malady, Temple of Abandon: these should probably be more duals. Both the Amonkhet cycle duals and the BFZ duals are reasonably priced and worth the money.
- Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: It's a fine card in a vacuum, but how does it fit with the rest of this deck?
- Earthquake: This seems like something that could be easily upgraded without spending much. For one more mana, Starstorm works at instant speed and hits flyers. Blasphemous Act usually only costs one mana. Even Savage Twister hits flyers.
- Journey to Eternity: A lot of stuff has to go right for this to pay off. You need three mana to cast it, you need the target creature to survive the casting, you need a way to make sure the target dies (not exiles or bounces), and you need five more mana to use it after it flips. I'd rather have another Eternal Witness or some other reanimation effect.
Hope that helps you out!
One more good one for you would be Rhythm of the Wild.