Tuesday night we sat through someone's stunningly boring 20 minute turn as he drew and cast practically every card in his deck (basically Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain Eggs using cost reducers and artifact bounce to keep it going) before finally drawing and casting Laboratory Maniac and drawing from an empty library. And that seems to be his only wincon, from the looks of the deck; he was running too many bad cards to fuel the combo.
It sucked. Worst game I've had in a long time.
I had already spent all three counterspells in hand stopping the Maelstrom Wanderer player from playing extra-turns-solitaire, so I had nothing when the slow combo death began.
Infinite combos have their place, but when used wrong (like the only gameplan of a deck), they often lead to very boring game endings - usually because they try to be uninteractive and ignore everything that has previously taken place in the game, which feels very anticlimactic and unsatisfying to many players.Of the four players in our game, two of us were bored out of our minds and not very happy. The third guy thought it was cool to see, but I doubt he would have if it happened a second time. And the combo-player, after wasting everyone's time, left. That was probably a good thing.
So, yeah. I agree with Sheldon.
- Kelzam
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Member for 19 years, 9 months, and 13 days
Last active Tue, Feb, 27 2024 20:02:49
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FunkyDragon posted a message on Sheldon's Thoughts on infinite combosPosted in: Commander (EDH) -
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Airithne posted a message on Where to go, after MtGSalvation?Posted in: Commander (EDH)
Cyrogen and I will quite literally give up the EDH forums over our dead bodies.Quote from cryogen »I promise two things: first that as long as I am a part of the new site I will strive to make it at a minimum what we had here, and secondly that based on what we have discussed so far I think it will be even better in the long run. -
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Feyd_Ruin posted a message on Where to go, after MtGSalvation?Posted in: Commander (EDH)Quote from Feyd_Ruin »For those of you who wish to continue on with our community here, the staff and I have begun building a new home. We'll announce and discuss the prospect when it is more concrete and closer to completion.
We hope that you follow us to the new home we are currently building.
It's only 40 days away, so it won't have everything we've planned, but we will never stop building and improving it. -
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Pokken posted a message on Urza, Lord High ArtificerI don't think he will be banned, he's weaker than Sharuum and Breya both.Posted in: Commander Rules Discussion Forum
I expect he will be annoying. But only in the literally exact same way as all the other mono blue artifact based decks. it's not like there is a shortage of people wanting to slam mana rocks, sometimes stax pieces, and combo out with them.
My guess is the people doing degenerate things with him would already be doing that stuff. -
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plushpenguin posted a message on Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots EDH AffinitySo, Scrapyard Recombiner is like a cross between a one-use-per-cycle Arcbound Ravager and a limited version of Sphinx Summoner.. which means that I need to find an immediate spot for this card. It gets Arcbound Worker, Hangarback Walker, Steel Overseer, Noxious Gearhulk, and most importantly Metalworker.Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists -
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plushpenguin posted a message on Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots EDH AffinityGot the testing in.Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
So, I got Bolas's Citadel out with Sensei's Divining Top in my hand one game with a Blind Obedience out, and it still did work even when you can't abuse the (pay 1 life and 1 mana, draw a card) mode.
Second time I got the citadel out, I hit the top and I declined to use that approach because well.. I had better things to do with my mana.
Like test out and tutor for Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge. Yeah, I like him a lot too. Both are keepers.
With Tezz out, all of my creatures except five cost 0-1 mana. You can play him on eight mana sources and basically get refunded for his cost, and then if you untap with him and a draw engine, you basically win the game. He also can randomly kill players with his + ability.
Honestly, thinking about the number of artifact focused planeswalkers makes me wonder how interesting artifact superfriends would be as a deck... -
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RxPhantom posted a message on Oathbreaker (60 card, Planeswalkers as Commanders)It just doesn't seem all that interesting.Posted in: Variant Commander
It seems like it only exists for the crowd that wants to use PWs as commanders. On top of that, I have a hard time believing that it provides a gaming experience that's better than Commander, or altogether different from it. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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I appreciate healthy debate and discussion over the format. BUT, it gets a bit ridiculous seeing months and months of discussion of the same handful of vocal people coming back and posting new anecdotal stories to try to crusade to make their case when the entire rest of the format has settled fine. Especially considering this card has been out in the wild for... *looks up the release date of Aether Revolt* ...almost 3 years, now. Because that's not enough, the argument is now "It's getting worse! New cards are being printed!" ...And? How many threads pop up here every set with a kneejerk reaction about the supposed power level of a card. Simic Ascendancy anyone? Narset, Parter of Veils? Razaketh, the Foulblooded? Please. Give the sensationalism a rest.
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This response is so ironic it could be in Napoleon Dynamite 2. Jivantuna is spot on and the response actually proves his point. I'm dying.
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And with strange aeons even death may die”
—H.P. Lovecraft, The Nameless City
01: Introduction
02: About Me!
03: So, Why Ayli?
04: You'll Like or Dislike Ayli If...
05: Other Commander Considerations
06: The Deck Itself
07: Playing The Deck
08: The Cards, Exclusions & Retirees
09: Music, Please!
10: Deck Change Log
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim is a former Kasma cleric who has given in to despair and madness, leading her pilgrimage and followers into the servitude of Ulamog and the other Eldrazi Titans by proxy. All the races of Zendikar once worshiped and idolized three Gods for millenia, each giving them different names. But when their gods reemerged from their dormancy, the truth was laid bare: These were not gods, but horrific eldritch beings of immense power not of this world. The only way to prolong survival as the world around them unravlleed was to continue to serve their horrific gods in luring innocents to sacrifice in their names. Whether in sound mind or through the lens of madness, all must face their inevitable fate; all live and die at the whim of their gods. All are pawns. All are tools.
What Kind of Ayli Deck Is This? What Does It Do?
To start off, you may want to know what kind of deck this is. It is not a fast deck, but a slow burn that requires finesse and a great feel for politics. Orzhov is great at reanimation and that is exactly what this deck relies on, but if you try to mana ramp and rush out a fatty on Turn 2, you will become Public Enemy #1. That is why even though this deck employs large creatures and can do things like drop Kokusho, the Evening Star or Ashen Rider on Turn 2, this is not a beat down deck; they are merely tools for their triggered abilities to be recycled over and over culminating in a dance of rebirth and death that leaves your opponents reeling in the mid to late game. This Ayli build also abuses the stack and arranging triggers to benefit from many card combinations and synergies within the deck, such as sacrificing Angel of Serenity, Fiend Hunter or Leonin Relic-Warder in response to their ETB triggered abilities going onto the stack. Your war is one of attrition, consistent in it's resilience and able to bounce back from out it's own death throes. Back-breaking "mini combos", powerful synergies and the triangle choke can be assembled with ease because the web of cards which interact with each other is enormous! Ultimately, this deck is a amalgamation of Reanimator, Combo and Control. Sound like fun? Read on below!
Blackjack86's Rules of EDH/Commander Deckbuilding
This deck (and thus, this guide) began based on Blackjack86's EDH Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova, and wouldn't exist without his input and thorough testing. As he has not been present for a number of years, in honor of his work, I have continued to evolve, update and test the deck he originally inspired me to build, and it stays true to his philosophy and deck building rules which are as follows:
Hey there! I'm Kelzam - formerly known as Xenphire - and I've been playing since roughly Urza's Saga, then eventually went on to create MTG Salvation back in 2005! My first real collection came to me when a friend in middle school became disinterested and handed me a pile of 300 or so various and cards he called his deck. It was a pile of random cards from Mercadian Masques and prior, and the visual aspects really pulled me in. I'll always remember Frozen Shade, Mind Swords, Death Spark, Avatar of Woe, Masticore and in general the artwork from Ice Age through Masques mixed with the aesthetic of the old card frames that really got me attached to the game.
As a matter of fact, my first actual product I bought myself was a Prophecy booster pack that came with a Top Deck magazine at Wal-Mart (sadly my rare was Shrouded Serpent). Apocalypse was really when I dove into the deep end, and if the artwork and story bits I had picked up from the cards I had weren't enough, an Apocalypse preview from InQuest magazine had me hooked forever. I'm a Vorthos and rotate between the three main demographics of Johnny, Timmy and Spike when playing. I have several other EDH/Commander decks including Animar, Soul of Elements, Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Selvala, Explorer Returned, Volrath the Fallen, Jhoira of the Ghitu and many others! I currently have close to 15 EDH/Commander decks and play Affinity in Modern.
My favorite expansion is still Apocalypse to this day, and my favorite color combination is . Philosophically I love the duality of the two color philosophies. I first found my way into the online Magic community through MTG News when the previews for Torment started and I was searching for it on MSN in school one day. I've been participating in discussion and active in the community since then, and a few years later I did my best to gather a small group of friends to usher everyone to the then much smaller MTG Salvation forum I had made on a friend's server when the 'News staff walked out on New Years in 2005. The rest is history!
In my personal life I'm an illustrator and graphic designer (some of my work from my old sig shop is still around despite a hiatus!). I love animals, tend to listen to atmospheric music with electronic influence and have been with my partner for nearly 5 years. I met one of my closest friends (IxidorVersionTwo) on MTG News when he was 13 and I was 17, and our friendship transcended the online community and we actually ended up roommates for a year. When I'm not at one of my two local game shops that I frequent, I enjoy writing, playing tabletop games, doing card alters and playing video games.
1. Ayli easily comes out on Turn 2 with a 2/3 body and Deathtouch and a very accessible sac outlet with a decent effect for using it. Ayli helps defend against decks that try to pump out massive Commander damage within the first few turns of the game and remains a deterrent even later in the game thanks to her Deathtouch! This leads to opponents focusing on one another rather than you!
2. She is easy to re-cast. Being able to play her for as opposed to Ghost Council's is especially meaningful in the late game. Later in the game you may want to tie your colored mana up in other abilities to try to close the game out. If you need her and have Commander tax to recast her, she will only require two colored mana and some amount of colorless mana which comes easily to this deck.
3. Ayli's first activated ability is great in a deck that uses a lot of life as a resource! In addition, with so many large creatures like Ashen Rider or other high mana targets, you're gaining valuable life while still triggering those death trigger abilities for profit. She also has great synergy with Vizkopa Guildmage.
4. Her second activated ability does not often become active, but when it does it is game changing. In the mid to late game her second ability makes your opponent's have to make a choice: Get rid of Ayli before you can start to make irreversible damage to their board states, or get rid of your other valuable utility creatures, which you can sacrifice in response to their spells and abilities. She creates a lose-lose situation for opponents.
You Won't Enjoy Ayli If:
Many decks have a very A-B-C plan, where it's clear cut what the next step should be. The truth is that this Ayli deck is not at all visiting linear points to arrive to your destination, but travelling between various possible points on a network. There are specific combo pieces or synergies, most of which are discussed later on, but it's easy to miss a line off play due to how easily things mesh together. You may have lost a combo piece, find yourself using a part of another combo piece to get the one you lost back, then very well finish the game on a hodgepodge of different synergistic interactions because so many effects play well off of one another.
Example: Say your Sun Titan is in your graveyard, and you've been trying to form a combo with Reveillark and Karmic Guide. Well, you can use Karmic Guide to reanimate your Sun Titan, targeting Necromancy also in your graveyard with the Sun Titan, reanimating Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed to sacrifice to get back Demonic Tutor to go find Angelic Renewal or that Reveillark and then finish the game next turn.
Strengths & Weaknesses
The deck's primary strengths are threefold, and all go hand-in-hand: Resilience, Inevitability and Politics. At it's core, the deck is about getting creatures into play with powerful ETB or death triggers. Many of these creatures are also big, Flying beaters or hard to block if you wish to attack. Opponents don't want to attack into you. They don't want to earn your ire, because chances are you'll block with an Archon of Justice or have False Prophet on the board and they're going to lose something important if they push your buttons. Early on you're deterring attackers by simply having a 2/3 Deathtouch Commander. In the mid game, most of your Creatures and effects are powerful enough to make opponents afraid to attack into you or try to target you. If they target your non-creature spells, you can smite them with ease, and you most likely have a way to get those things back through some sort of recursion. In the late game, it is extremely hard to stop your combos from going off. If they try to stop you or remove a combo piece, you simply sac in response and keep going. Once you have a loop like Ashnod's Altar, Karmic Guide and Reveillark, or a similar sac outlet with Sun Titan and Fiend Hunter, you can response to anything your opponent throws at you by just continuing as you were, sacrificing them to make them illegal targets for spot removal, or just repeatedly stacking triggers. Can't stop, won't stop.
The deck does have a few weaknesses, however. You are utterly dependent on your graveyard. If you get hit with Bojuka Bog a couple times, it's not necessarily the end of the game. Neither is Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void. However, the longer those stay on the board and the more resources such as tutors that you pour into finding removal, the less fuel you have for later in the game. If you expend a Demonic Tutor to find a Vindicate to get rid of one of those, then those have been exiled in the process and that means you can't use them again later via Yawgmoth's Will or Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed. Being able to use your graveyard as a resource is what the deck counts on. The other, which I will talk about constantly throughout the post, is the need for being politically savvy. The deck is full of apparently strong cards. Much of EDH/Commander is playing janky, low-key cards that suddenly come out of nowhere. The cards this deck employs does not have that luxury. If you can make it to the late or mid game without too much interference you'll be set for the rest of the game. But if you draw a lot of hate early on, you'll be limping for the rest of the game. You cannot be the archenemy from the start, as resilient as the deck is.
1x Angel of Serenity
1x Archon of Justice
1x Ashen Rider
1x False Prophet
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1x Karmic Guide
1x Knight-Captain of Eos
1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
1x Krav, the Unredeemed
1x Leonin Relic-Warder
1x Plaguecrafter
1x Puppeteer Clique
1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1x Reassembling Skeleton
1x Recruiter of the Guard
1x Reveillark
1x Rune-Scarred Demon
1x Sepulchral Primordial
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Sun Titan
1x Viscera Seer
1x Vizkopa Guildmage
1x Weathered Wayfarer
1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
1x Yosei, the Morning Star
1x Angelic Renewal
1x Gift of Immortality
1x Necromancy
1x Necropotence
1x Phyrexian Arena
Instants (8)
1x Anguished Unmaking
1x Argivian Find
1x Corpse Dance
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Entomb
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Utter End
1x Vampiric Tutor
Artifacts (12)
1x Ashnod's Altar
1x Blasting Station
1x Coalition Relic
1x Expedition Map
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Nim Deathmantle
1x Orzhov Signet
1x Scroll Rack
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Spawning Pit
1x Wayfarer's Bauble
Sorceries (9)
1x Austere Command
1x Beacon of Unrest
1x Damnation
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Exsanguinate
1x Merciless Eviction
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Vindicate
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Command Tower
1x Concealed Courtyard
1x Fetid Heath
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
1x Godless Shrine
1x High Market
1x Homeward Path
1x Isolated Chapel
1x Kor Haven
1x Marsh Flats
1x Maze of Ith
1x Mistveil Plains
1x Phyrexian Tower
7x Plains
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1x Strip Mine
7x Swamp
1x Temple of Silence
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Volrath's Stronghold
Deck By Card Role:
1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Mana Fixing Lands
1x Command Tower
1x Concealed Courtyard
1x Fetid Heath
1x Godless Shrine
1x Isolated Chapel
1x Marsh Flats
7x Plains
7x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Utility Lands
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Boseiju Who Shelters All
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium (draw+discard)
1x High Market (sac outlet)
1x Homeward Path
1x Kor Haven
1x Maze of Ith (aggro deterrent)
1x Mistveil Plains (recursion)
1x Phyrexian Tower (sac outlet)
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1x Strip Mine (nonbasic hate)
1x Temple of Silence
1x Volrath's Stronghold (recursion)
Mana Fixing & Ramp
1x Coalition Relic
1x Expedition Map
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Orzhov Signet
1x Sol Ring
1x Solemn Simulacrum (+draw)
1x Wayfarer's Bauble
1x Weathered Wayfarer
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Entomb
1x Recruiter of the Guard
1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1x Rune-Scarred Demon
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x Vampiric Tutor
Recursion
1x Angelic Renewal
1x Argivian Find
1x Beacon of Unrest
1x Corpse Dance
1x Gift of Immortality
1x Karmic Guide
1x Necromancy
1x Nim Deathmantle
1x Puppeteer Clique
1x Reveillark
1x Sepulchral Primordial
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One (+removal)
1x Sun Titan
1x Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
1x Yawgmoth's Will
Sac Outlets
1x Ashnod's Altar (+mana ramp)
1x Blasting Station
1x Krav, the Unredeemed (+draw, +life)
1x Spawning Pit
1x Viscera Seer (+library manip)
Additional Draw
1x Necropotence
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Scroll Rack
1x Skullclamp
1x Angel of Serenity
1x Anguished Unmaking
1x Archon of Justice
1x Ashen Rider
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Leonin Relic-Warder
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Utter End
1x Vindicate
Sweepers
1x Austere Command
1x Damnation
1x False Prophet
1x Merciless Eviction
1x Toxic Deluge
Utility Creatures
1x Knight-Captain of Eos (aggro deterrent)
1x Plaguecrafter
1x Resassembling Skeleton (sac fodder)
1x Vizkopa Guildmage (enabler)
1x Wurmcoil Engine (rattlesnake)
1x Yosei, the Morning Star (game lockdown)
Finishers/Other
1x Exsanguinate (table kill)
1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1x Kokusho, the Evening Star (table kill)
Average CMC: 3.53
The deck is about at the max of where you want the average CMC to be without going too high. Various cards in the deck are interchangeable and can help lower the CMC if you find you're going too high. While Sepulchral Primordial can be a decent finisher, if you're in very fast or creature-lite meta, Unburial Rites could be a better call. Same with Austere Command. If you don't feel the need for the utility, you can always go with one less sweeper and slot in another cheap reanimation spell, or exchange it for the very effective Black Sun's Zenith.
Average Cost: $758.00 (Updated 12/07/2017)
With how volatile the secondary market is, the deck can shift in price on a daily basis. Although Masters sets are making cards like Kokusho, the Evening Star, Sheoldred, Whispering One and Austere Command cheaper, buyouts and speculators are driving Reserved List cards such as Yawgmoth's Will, Phyrexian Tower and Volrath's Stronghold ever higher. Even Demonic Tutor is approaching $40 now, despite bring printed in the Duel Deck Anthology some years back. It should be telling of the abuse of the secondary market when I tell you that this deck was under $400 when I originally built it, and that relatively little about the deck has changed. It's now approaching $800, as of the end of 2017.
First, Some General Advice
The primary goal of this deck is to survive long enough to piece together any of the plethora of combos in order to finish off the table, and can even win via combat if necessary! You will spend the entire game using spot removal and sweeper effects - whether via spells or through reanimating creatures with ETB/dying triggers - to keep board states under control, effectively serving as an arbiter.
In order to be successful with this build, you must play the political game with careful consideration! Ayli serves as a rattlesnake all game long, deterring early game aggressors in addition to being a convenient sac outlet! This deck's early game is spent building infrastructure with a huge toolbox of options to fit your need, finding utility lands and holding your most important assets while your opponents beat each other. You don't want to telegraph your plays by playing combo pieces like Ashnod's Altar or Nim Deathmantle before you have something to do with them. Everyone knows you're up to something when you play cards such as those, and suddenly all eyes are on you! It's like playing Grave Pact when you have no creatures on the board - it's just asking to be removed without even getting to use it!
You also don't want to draw attention until you're ready and have all the pieces assembled to strike with a power play. With this deck, you wait until you can put all your pieces into action at once, rather than playing them one at a time and finding them removed before your other pieces are available. This Ayli build encourages thoughtfulness beyond some Cleric tribal or life gain deck. Learning the best time to play cards is important, such as not casting Entomb to find your last combo piece until the End Step of the opponent's turn before it becomes yours, so you don't become the target of an untimely Bojuka Bog or Rest in Peace. If you telegraph your plays, you'll be taken out before you make your plays! Even once your usual crowd gets an idea of what Ayli can do, this build will keep them forever on their toes unsure of what angle you'll be coming from.
As an example, Sun Titan is a good card to get out and you can get it back easy later if it's removed and it accrues value. But Angelic Renewal and Ashnod's Altar that combo with him aren't necessarily the best thing to have out before you have all of those combo pieces available.
In the late game when the chips are down, the politics are out the window and everyone is batting at each other, an Ayli player piloting this build should be in a position to neutralize any threats to themself while having access to enough combo pieces and synergies to close the game. So many cards in the deck work with each other that you'll often find you're one tutor away from putting the game away!
Because of the amount of tutors in the deck, it is almost never advised to keep high cost cards or mana intensive ones early on - anything beyond 4-5 mana is going to be just sitting in your hand. It's also okay to throw back most reanimation effects, because until the mid game you usually aren't reanimating anything. You want to aim for a hand that will let you set up your utility land infrastructure as soon as possible, because it will be key to survival and successfully casting spells later on in the game. You want at least want one mana source of each color to play Ayli on Turn 2, and also want to have something to do early on. Having Weathered Wayfarer and Expedition Map in your opening hand is the dream, as it allows you to almost immediately retrieve whatever important utiliy Lands you need depending on what your opponents are playing. Having a cheaper removal spell or tutor is great, as you can hopefully hold them until the mid game but have access to them just in case.
Make them look the other way. Our goal in the early game is to encourage opponents to not want to attack us while we see what our priority utility lands are and go find them. You almost always want to play Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim on Turn 2. With ample mana fixing lands, this is a very consistent play. As explained previously, this makes opponents look away because they don't want their early creatures killed. Despite being a sac outlet, life gain is considered harmless or uncommon enough by most players that they pay no attention to her abilities. What they do see is a 2/3 body with Deathtouch and go NOPE NOPE NOPE and won't attack you.
Get to mana fixing. Hopefully you have some mana rocks to play to help with color fixing as the game progresses. When you start trying to buyback Corpse Dance for multiple casts, or bring back Reassembling Skeleton via it's ability to keep Skullclamping it, you'll want to be able to filter mana into Black or combinations of Black/White. To this end, Weathered Wayfarer is an amazing early game play to look for. Basically all recursion in the deck is begging for Black mana, so when searching for basics or given the option, you want a dual land of some kind, or a 2:1 ratio of Black to White mana to prepare for the mid and late game.
What are your opponents playing? This is the other part of the equation when setting up in the early game. If they're playing aggressive Commander damage oriented decks or wanting to swing out at you with Blightsteel Colossus, you're going to want to find Maze of Ith first, and probably find a way to exile it ASAP so they can't cast Chandra's Ignition targeting it. Kor Haven is nice, but requires mana you don't want to have to be spending, yet. If you have to find Maze of Ith, then make finding Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth your next priority so you can tap it for mana when you don't need to stop an attacker. In general, Urborg is a priority early on because it helps immensely with recursion tactics for the rest of the game.
Bring out your less obvious sac outlets. With any luck, you may have opened the game with Viscera Seer or Spawning Pit in your opening hand. These are two of the best sac outlets to play early because their effects aren't splashy. Most people won't look twice at Spawning Pit when they see how much work goes into making a Spawn creature token with it. Viscera Seer won't raise many eyebrows with it's small body and effect. You may be thinking, "But I already have Ayli!", and while that's true, the importance of a sac outlet that costs no mana to activate cannot be stressed enough.
Don't reanimate big. Or at all, really. As I've said many times up until now, drawing attention to yourself is a bad thing. You may be unstoppable in the late game, but if you're hounded from the start then you're going to have a bad time. And if you reanimate a fatty, you're doing so for what? Ayli is not an aggressive deck, and most of the effects of the creatures are not great by themselves without other effects ormana you'll only be able to fully take advantage of in the late game. Casting Entomb on Turn 1 then Necromancy on Turn 3 to drop a Sheoldred, Whispering One or Ashen Rider on the table does very little other than demand unwanted attention.
Turn 1 Entomb guarantees they're going to look for graveyard hate to target you with at the worst possible time because it's now at the forefront of their threat assessement, and Sheoldred has nothing to reanimate herself and only insignificant prattlers to kill so early on. The only exception to this can be when you know you're playing against something like Narset, Enlightened Master, Purphoros, God of the Forge and other super aggressive early decks where exiling a key target or forcing a sacrifice is key.
Lastly, get your draw on. Turn 3-4 is an ideal time to have your Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence and Skullclamp out and you can even use Recruiter of the Guard to find a lot of utility creatures. While Skullclamp may draw some eyes, it can actually be further deterrent from attacking you when equipped to Ayli until you find a Reassembling Skeleton to repeatedly draw off of killing with it. Once you have some stuff to give you fuel, you're ready for the mid game.
You're getting there! There are a few signs that you're entering your mid game. You want to look to have a sac outlet on the board, some sort of card draw engine, and hopefully you're starting to see one or two your reanimation combos pieces either in your hand, on the battlefield or in the graveyard. Chances are, you also probably have a sweeper or removal spell in your hand, because having Ayli out in the early game makes another player look at attacking your opponents instead so that you can save them for important targets. Most of the time you're not pressured to spend removal spells early in the game. You'll very often play at least one sweeper in the mid game as opponents start to bring their own combo pieces and synergies online. But that's not allowed! It's easy to get Knight-Captain of Eos repeatedly onto the battlefield to refresh her Soldier sac fodder tokens and keep aggressors at bay, and even gain political points by helping your opponents. Wurmcoil Engine is a great deterrent and threat, and bringing back Plaguecrafter a few times can ruin your opponent's early game board states and put them far behind.
Rip and tear. Removal is plentiful and this is when pieces start to show up that don't seem bad at first, but help things get out of control as the game goes on; or, certain accrue massive value over the course of the game if left unchecked and can get to the point of no return. You almost never want to let a Planeswalker go unanswered. If you can't remove the Planeswalker itself, remove anything else in the way of attacking it with Ayli or another decent sized creature. Many of the 4-5 drops employed in the deck are reasonably sized, have Flying and will be able to take a Planeswalker out on their own when they can get through. Also make sure to pay attention to your opponents's strategy.
If you're an experienced player and are familiar with resources like EDHREC, you probably know many of the most common tricks and targets. Don't simply remove things on a whim. If you had a choice between removing Hammer of Purphoros or Cathar's Crusade, you go for the Hammer first. It enables huge swings out of nowhere, while you can find a board wipe to deal with creatures buffed up from the Crusade while they have summoning sickness. They're both dangerous in their own right, but learn to prioritize. Similarly, Survival of the Fittest is way worse than that Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Both have reputations, but one is going to end the game while the other is good card advantage with a reputation.
In this stage, you're about to start some reanimator shenanigans. The mid game is when you want to start casting Archon of Justice and other mid-sized creatures to get threats on the board as further deterrents, while also being ready to sacrifice them if needed for their effect. You can cast your Puppeteer Clique, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Sun Titan or Karmic Guide and have their effects available and swing or block here and there and feel safe as long as you have a sac outlet on the board to respond to any exile effects. Their effects are great or threatening by themselves, but they're also part of bigger combos. Nim Deathmantle begins to shine at this point as even just repeating many effects once can really impact the game. You know you can get it back later if it gets destroyed, but it makes that Archon of Justice or Fiend Hunter that much more potent.
However, you don't want to have an entire combo suite out quite yet. It's very typical that you either won't have enough creatures to reanimate from your opponent's graveyards, or enough mana to activate that Vizkopa Guildmage a couple times in addition to the mana for your recursion engine. You probably don't have that Exsanguinate or Reveillark yet. Don't be afraid to use combo pieces for their individual effects if they're valuable to you at the time! But do make sure not to telegraph what you're trying to set up to do in the end game. Sacrificing Archon of Justice to remove something, reanimating it with Necromancy, then sacrificing it again, later playing Sun Titan and targeting the Necromancy to bring the Archon back is just straight up value, can be repeated and an example of the silliness the deck can do. The same can be said for Sidisi, Undead Vizier for tutoring, etc. This is also the best time to find Volrath's Stronghold, Mistveil Plains and other utility to help create inevitability and make you very hard to stop in the late game.
Tutor and tutor well. Early game isn't the time to use your tutors unless you're in dire straits. More than likely your opponents aren't doing anything so crazy to need to tutor for a removal spell, and if you tutor early on, they're going to assume you're looking for a combo piece and be thinking about what you tutored for. The mid game is when you want to go find a combo set piece to go with another part of the set in your hand, graveyard or on the battlefield. Preferably, you're tutoring in a way that doesn't make you reveal what you searched for. If you're stuck using Enlightened Tutor or Vampiric Tutor, try to hold off until you're close to ready to combo off so that your opponents have less time to prepare and plan for obvious tells such as revealing Ashnod's Altar. Some scenarios might force your hand - it happens. But, keep these things in mind!
You've got one or more pieces to a combo in your hand, and the last piece already on the battlefield or in the graveyard. You may have tried to assemble a combo and been disrupted already, so at this point you're trying to use Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed to bring back tutors and removal and Nim Deathmantle or Corpse Dance to bring him back to keep getting fuel. It's pretty common to be using Rune-scarred Demon in a similar manner in the late game, or Sidisi, Undead Vizier. One reanimation spell turns into finding a way to get or cast something from your graveyard, which turns into another reanimnation spell and at this point if all has gone according to plan, you're very hard to kill. Blockers and removal are easy to keep bringing back, and you're more than likely the archenemy at the table, now.
At this point is when you want to play that Vizkopa Guildmage, because between lands and mana rocks, you can probably activate it twice with Kokusho, the Evening Star on the board and sacrifice him in one way or another and either win the game or get close. Sacrificing the various beefy Archons to Ayli to to remove key targets and keep opponents in check is another way that Vizkopa Guildmage can cause a massive amount of life loss. There's also probably enough creatures in your opponent's graveyards that you can consider comboing with Puppeteer Clique and Nim Deathmantle, or reanimating Sepulchral Primordial a few times to make an army. This is also when playing Ashnod's Altar, Blasting Station and Angelic Renewal are best, because they're very obviously combo pieces from the get-go that will have opponents gunning for them if you play them earlier on.
In the late game, between all the card draw and Tutors early on and in the mid game, you should be able to find all the pieces for one of the combos necessary to close the game and have them one card away from activating that KILL! button. You have enough resources that you can start chaining spells after a Yawgmoth's Will; be casting Corpse Dance and buying it back to reanimate and sacrifice Plaguecrafter, Angel of Serenity and so on to keep your opponents on lockdown; or follow up aboard wipe with a huge Torment of Hailfire that leaves your opponents little options other than just dying. Many combo pieces are great to use early on to help your defenses while not becoming an obvious threat so that they're less likely to be removed, but become something far more in concert with other effects at this point. While defending against aggressors in the mid game with board wipes, some opponents will recover and come out swinging drawing the attention back to them and easing the recently earned ire from your other opponents. While it depends on the deck and the player, right now it usually becomes a struggle for others to recover from your assault of control spells and continuous stream of reanimated creatures, because very few decks are equipped to win a game of attrition like this.
The following synergies are what you'll ride to victory while playing this Ayli build. Part of what makes the deck so effective is that each card stands on it's own as powerful and useful in it's own right, letting you combine each piece to great effect in some way. Over the years, the creatures selected have proven to be the best value and utility available, allowing a huge range of responses and possible solutions and lines of play to victory.
One thing to note is that your artifact engines need to be handled with greater care than your creatures. It's easy to have a sac outlet and protect a creature from being exiled by sending it to your graveyard. It's not so easy to do that with Artifacts, and they're certainly harder to reanimate or recover than creatures. Make sure before you play them that you have fuel for that engine - that is, a good creature set up or recursion engine to power them.
Exiling Machine Guns: ETB Removal Effects + Sac Engine + Reanimation
Combine the following with any sac outlet and a recursion engine such as Nim Deathmantle or Corpse Dance, and you can shoot down numerous permanents.
Removal Machine Guns:
Angel of Serenity
Archon of Justice
Ashen Rider
Leonin Relic-Warder
Fiend Hunter
On Angel of Serenity, Fiend Hunter and Magara of Corondor:
This combo takes advantage of the stack and permanently exiles a few creatures.
When Angel or Fiend Hunter enter the battlefield, their triggered abilities go onto the stack as you choose your targets. In response to their ETB triggered ability going onto the stack, you sacrifice them as part of the activation cost to anything that let's you sacrifice a creature. Because you sacrifice them as part of the cost, they are no longer in play when their first ability resolves. Their second ability never gets to check if they leave play, and their targets are permanently exiled. Similarly, you can activate Leonin Relic-Warder can take out early Enchantments and Artifacts that are sure to be problematic. Corpse Dance is especially useful here to give them Haste, and goes far when your sac outlet is Ashnod's Altar for extra mana.
Massive Life Drain: Kokusho, the Evening Star + Vizkopa Guildmage + Any Sac Engine
In a 4-player pod, this can be a game ending combo.
Vizkopa Guildmage's second activated ability stacks for each time you activate it, ie. activating it twice makes each opponent lose 2 life for every 1 life you gain that turn. By sacrificing Kokusho, each opponent will lose 5 life and you'll gain 5 * however many opponents you have. 15 life in a 4-player pod. If you activate Vizkopa Guildmage, each opponent will lose 15 life. If you activate the Guildmage twice, each opponent will lose 30 life, etc. If you sacrifice Kokusho to Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, it's a square 20, 40, 60 life loss etc for your opponents (because you gain 5 additional life from sacrificing him to Ayli).
Infinitely Large Reanimated Alpha Strike: Puppeteer Clique + Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle
Create a massive alpha strike with this combo using your opponent's creatures! With Puppeteer Clique on the battlefield, sacrifice it to Ashnod's Altar for :2mana:. Persist will trigger bringing Puppeteer Clique back to reanimate another of an opponent's creatures, then again sacrifice it to Ashnod's Altar for and spend the you've generated to use Nim Deathmantle's triggered ability to bring Puppeteer Clique back and start all over again. This is also an infinite death trigger loop if you choose to run Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat.
Absurd Card Draw Engine: Reassembling Skeleton + Skullclamp or other Sac Engines
One of the most abusive card draw combos in the deck is Reassembling Skeleton with Skullclamp. Together, they effectively read "2B: Draw two cards". The skeleton is also great with Viscera Seer for large amounts of Scrying, or Blasting Station for some light pinging.
Lark+Guide Loop: Reveillark + Karmic Guide + Sac Engine (+Finisher)
Reveillark and Karmic Guide create an infinite loop when combined with any sac engine. As long as you have one on the battlefield or in your graveyard and at least one sac outlet, you use Karmic Guide to bring Reveillark back, then sacrifice Karmic Guide, then sacrifice Reveillark to bring back Karmic Guide, targeting Reveillark and repeating. Pay careful attention to your order in case of rules-lawyery players who dislike your combo. It's advisable to practice the movement of your cards, especially when adding some of the combo engines below.
Ways to use this Combo:
Blasting Station - Clear or kill the board.
Ashnod's Altar - Generate infinite mana to kill the board with Exsanguinate, or one player with Profane Command (the second mode being whatever suits you at the time).
Bitter Ordeal - Exile your opponent's libraries.
Viscera Seer - Infinite Scry.
Ideally, you want to put the play together all at once without it being obvious so your sac engine doesn't get removed before you can start the combo. Don't put them in your graveyard if you intend to start the combo that way until you're ready to do it, such as with Entomb at the end of the opponent's turn before yours. Graveyard hate isn't uncommon!
Sun Titan Loops: Sun Titan + Angelic Renewal OR Fiend Hunter + Sac Engine Loop
Have a sac outlet out, Angelic Renewal in your graveyard or on the battlefield, then bring Sun Titan onto the battlefield by whatever means available. Sacrifice the Sun Titan to your outlet, triggering Angelic Renewal. Sacrifice Angelic Renewal, bringing back Sun Titan, using his ETB ability to target Angelic Renewal and repeat. For examples of what you can do with an infinite sac combo, see the Reveillark + Karmic Guide + Sac Engine section above.
Sun Titan also combos with Fiend Hunter and a sac engine for an loop, as well. Target Sun Titan with Fiend Hunter to exile Sun Titan. Then, sacrifice Fiend Hunter to your sac engine. When Sun Titan comes back into play, target the Fiend Hunter to bring it back. Repeat this process!
Infinitely Large Wurm Army: Wurmcoil Engine + Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle
Sacrifice Wurmcoil Engine to Ashnod's Altar for then use that mana and pay more to use Nim Deathmantle's triggered ability. You'll have your Wurmcoil Engine back, plus two 3/3 Wurms. Now you can sacrifice one of your tokens for and your Wurmcoil Engine for leaving one token on the battlefield, paying the entire cost of Nim Deathmantle's triggered ability and have a net gain of a 3/3 Wurm with each loop.
The Yosei Lock: Yosei, the Morning Star + Reanimation + Sac Engine
With a sac engine + Sheoldred, Whispering One you can lock out one opponent for the entire game. With Nim Deathmantle and a sac engine, you can lock down the entire table for the rest of the game for 12 mana per turn (6 mana if your sac Engine is Ashnod's Altar). With Corpse Dance and a sac Engine, you can pay a total of 4B to lock down an opponent for the rest of the game, or 9BBB to lock all opponents in a 4-player pod for the rest of the game. Again, if Ashnod's Altar is your sac engine, then the cost is significantly cheaper, as Ashnod's Altar effectively pays your Buyback cost on Corpse Dance every time you sacrifice Yosei.
Note: This is one of the most range-inducing ways to win, and it is ill-advised to use it frequently. It's a very good way to keep a player on a nonexistent leash who has gotten too far out of control, but no matter who you use this against, there's a good chance they'll be rather unhappy.
On How to Abuse Corpse Dance
One of the most powerful reanimation effects in the deck is Corpse Dance with it being Instant-speed, but it's also slightly tricky. It can only target the top creature in your graveyard, so it is especially important to keep that in mind while setting up to use it. Because of this, it is super important to make sure if your opponents look at your graveyard, that it is placed back in the order that it was when they picked it up. This goes for you as well, as you're looking through it for targets for other reanimation effects.
Reveillark or Karmic Guide = Super Recursion
Archon of Justice = Destroy any permanent every turn.
Yosei, the Morning Star = Lock down as many players as you can afford to.
Wurmcoil Engine = Big Hasty Deathtouching, Lifelinking suicide beater that leaves behind two (or more) tokens to keep.
Fleshbag Marauder = A sweep if you have the mana for multiples.
Fiend Hunter - Creature Exiling Machine Gun.
Kokusho, the Evening Star - Bleed everyone dry while boosting your own life.
One of the strategies of the deck is to set up an ongoing sac/recursion engine with one of it's etb/ltb baddies to win a war of attrition. This isn't a fast "insta-win" combo, but a slow-grinding down of your opponents turn after turn, and since the pieces are interchangeable with so many alternatives, it's hard to not have a triangle choke set up at least once or twice during a game. With only one opponent remaining (due to late game or a 1v1 match), a good triangle choke is pretty much game over.
The choke can be applied easily with one card in each of 3 categories (hence, "triangle"), they are all somewhat interchangeable, and become even stronger with Grave Pact, Martyr's Bond, Dictate of Erebos or Butcher of Malakir in play should you choose to play them. Of course, Skullclamp helps get some extra profit from this too.
The Sac Engine:
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Krav, the Unredeemed
Phyrexian Tower
High Market
Blasting Station
Ashnod's Altar
Viscera Seer
Spawning Pit
The Recursion Engine:
Sheoldred, Whispering One
Nim Deathmantle
Karmic Guide (on Nim Deathmantle)
Corpse Dance (with buyback)
The ETB/LTB Creature:
Yosei, the Morning Star
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Angel of Serenity
Archon of Justice
Fiend Hunter
Ashen Rider
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Leonin Relic-Warder
Most of the cards found in this build have been gone over in the sections preceding this point, but because it's impossible to detail every single possible interaction or point of interest in the confines of this thread, below I'll be going over each card in the deck, providing at least a small blurb. This section will be updated as the list continues to be refined and cards enter or fall out of favor.
Many players know that they could optimize their deck just a little bit more with the inclusion of some rare or expensive cards that are out of reach. The following cards are a list of cards I would like to fit into the deck in the future if I am able to acquire them at some point in time. It is worth noting that including most of them will not make the deck run in any spectacular or new fashion - they are just nice to have, if you have them.
As players visit and discuss their ideas and experiences in the thread, I am quite often asked what I think or feel about certain cards or why I don't run something. Some of them are cards I have tried in the past, which have exited the deck for various reasons including optimization and just not aligning with the deck's goals. Others are at times seemingly obvious includes for these colors, that in practice I actually feel are overrated or don't necessarily belong here for some reason or another.
Below are cards that were in the main list at one point but were cut due to obsolescence, or cards that have been tested at one time that had potential but weren't quite as good as other available options.
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim EDH Playlist
"Momma Sed", by Puscifer
"Forsaken", by David Draiman of Disturbed
"I Am Dust", by Gary Numan
"And The Sky Began To Scream", by How To Destroy Angels
"The Wretched", by Nine Inch Nails
"A Place In The Dirt", by Marilyn Manson
"Antistar", by Massive Attack
"Beware", by Deftones
June 16th 2016
-Imp's Mischief
+Sensei's Divining Top
Been wanting to put in SDT since I put Sorin, Grim Nemesis in. Imp's Mischief has only been used in very few corner cases, and they were generally not a big impact. SDT will allow more control of the draw and what Sorin draws with his +1, in addition to the synergy Sorin has with Volrath's Stronghold.
-Kozilek, the Great Distortion
+Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
It finally happened! I was finally able to get my hands on Xiahou Dun. Kozilek was in testing and on the chopping block after finding that he was far too situational for the deck. Xiahou will enable much more abusive plays being his own sac outlet and having the ability to return any Black card from the graveyard to your hand. Adjusted the lists above accordingly.
-Praetor's Grasp
+Anguished Unmaking
Praetor's Grasp was put into the deck during a time when I was playing in a meta wherein fast combo decks were out of control. Against anything else, the card becomes a pain as I spend so long searching through other player's decks. I've been looking for room to include Anguished Unmaking as an additional source of spot removal for permanents, and this was the obvious choice. Currently looking to make room for Tree of Perdition, and may be cutting a land to do so.
-Eldrazi Displacer
+Tree of Perdition
While searching for a permanent spot for Tree of Perdition, the most obvious choice based on testing had been Eldrazi Displacer. The reason for this is that while it's great for abusing ETB effects, seldom is it something I go out of my way to find or play over another creature or effect. Another issue is that many of the same lands that tap for are the same utility lands with abilities I prefer to keep open for when I need them. While a few games have resulted in being able to abuse Eldrazi Displacer to great effect, the majority of time I err on the side of caution and don't play him because the mana available is on lands such as Cavern of Souls, Volrath's Stronghold, Phyrexian Tower etc. For this reason, I've chosen to bench Eldrazi Placer to bring in Tree of Perdition full time.
Tree of Perdition has proven to be an amazingly fun political card, as well as offer plentiful combo opportunities. It is extremely effective as soon as it is able to use it's activated ability, and I will be adding a combo that includes Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim + Vizkopa Guildmage + Tree of Perdition to Part 04: Card Interactions and Combos. With Ayli on the board, if you do not get to activate the Tree before it is targeted with removal, you can sacrifice it for a significant life gain of 13. This puts Ayli above the threshold to activate her ability. It is hard to kill without direct creature removal, and because it must be responded to, it encourages opponents to use their targeted removal early in the game for fear of being the target of the Tree's activated ability. While some compare it to Sorin Markov, it is worth noting that it is easier to remove and cannot activate the turn it comes into play without Haste effects, which I currently do not employ in my list because Ayli is so easy to bring back and I just sacrifice everything for benefit if it's targeted by removal, anyway.
-Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
-Orzhov Guildgate
-Bitter Ordeal
-Magister of Worth
+Geier Reach Sanitarium
+Concealed Courtyard
+Panharmonicon
+Demon of Dark Schemes
Mikokoro/Geier Reach Sanitarium: One thing the list has lacked is ways to discard cards in your hand when there are often times you'd rather have them in your graveyard. Geier Reach Sanitarium is nearly functionally the same as Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, except that it loots instead of plainly draws a card. That is to say, you draw a card and then discard a card. The bonus is that while discarding benefits you, it also requires opponents who draw to discard a card as well. This means they could be discarding lands, or they could be discarding answers or valuable reanimation targets. This is a change I would recommend for any build, especially a Stax package that runs Waste Not for value.
Orzhov Guildgate/Concealed Courtyard: The Orzhov Guildgate fits thematically, but so does the Concealed Courtyard. More importantly, though, is that one is slightly better than the other. Concealed Courtyard has the potential to enter the battlefield untapped, even though the majority of the time it will enter tapped. This is opposed to the Orzhov Guildgate which will always enter tapped and lacks that potential. For the sake of inking out every bit of efficiency, I'll be replacing Orzhov Guildgate with Concealed Courtyard.
Bitter Ordeal/Panharmonicon: Making changes and updating the list is becoming increasingly difficult as new sets come out. One of the biggest things I look at is how often I have to wait to use a card or how useful it will be by itself while not being part of a combo. Bitter Ordeal made it into the deck because of Combo being huge in a shop I was playing at. It was a meta call. That meta has since shifted. It was also a win condition with any infinite recursion loop. Unlike Profane Command or Exanguinate, Bitter Ordeal has been very limited in what it can do and often sits in my hand. With that in mind, I've decided to try Panharmonicon in it's place. The deck operates off of ETB triggers, and doubling them should prove to be extremely powerful. Panharmonicon effects everyone and as such is somewhat of a group hug card, meaning that instead of political suicide, it may get passed over as others may want to try to abuse it and use it against you. This is an experimental change and I'll be posting an updates as I test the effectiveness of this card.
Magister of Worth/Demon of Dark Schemes: As with finding a spot for Panharmonicon, this too was a very painful decision to make. I love my release promo Magister of Worth, but I have never found myself wanting to tutor for it, and it is one of those creatures that sits in my hand waiting for an excuse to play it. It is a personal flex slot in the deck that I'm now filling with Demon of Dark Schemes. The Demon has an immediate effect as soon as he enters the battlefield, wiping out mana dorks, tokens, most Elves and a lot of other stuff, too. He rewards you with Energy for doing so, which you can then use to pull your opponent's creatures from their graveyard to play with under your own control. He serves four purposes: A mini-boardwipe; a big flying beatstick; easy Energy generation; and reanimation. While Magister of Worth can create fun moments, she more often than not sits in your hand waiting to be worth being played. Demon of Dark Schemes provides immediate value and fun, and can even create infinite Energy generation when present after setting off an infinite recursion loop.
Other Current Considerations for Inclusion:
Angel of Invention, Marionette Master, Thalia's Lancers
Both the Angel of Invention and Marionette Master can go infinite in the deck and provide a lot of triggers. The biggest consideration is that they don't do anything by themselves, which means they probably won't be granted a spot. Thalia's Lancers is a card that can search for several key utility cards including Creatures and Lands. The biggest issue with finding a spot is that without recursion, it simply sits on the battlefield. All three cards are excellent, but after the rest of the changes today, I do not feel there is anything to be cut from the deck. The only possible cuts are Sorin, Grim Nemesis and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, but their impact upon hitting the battlefield is so strong that it is impossible to consider removing them for any of these three creatures.
-Demon of Dark Schemes
-Swamp
+Magus of the Will
+Recruiter of the Guard
Discussion about these changes can be found here: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/715126-ayli-and-the-eternal-pilgrims-what-is-dead-may?comment=102
-Magus of the Will
+Exquisite Archangel
Discussion about these changes can be found here: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/715126-ayli-and-the-eternal-pilgrims-what-is-dead-may?comment=120
-Exquisite Archangel
+Kaya, Ghost Assassin
After a long time, I was finally able to get a Kaya. Every time I've played her I've loved her and I see her being another card advantage engine in the deck. I'm not sure exactly at what point I made this change, but I recall cutting Exquisite Archangel for something and the only thing I can think of that I would have replaced it with is her. So, that is that!
-Panharmonicon
-Verdant Catacombs
-Profane Command
-Fleshbag Marauder
+Scroll Rack
+Marsh Flats
+Knight-Captain of Eos
+Merciless Executioner
Discussion about these changes can be found here: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/715126-ayli-and-the-eternal-pilgrims-what-is-dead-may?comment=177
-Tree of Perdition
+Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Notes and discussion of changes here: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/715126-ayli-and-the-eternal-pilgrims-what-is-dead-may?comment=223
-Sorin, Grim Nemesis
-Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
-Approach of the Second Sun
-Sense's Divining Top
+Razaketh, the Foulblooded
+Austere Command
+Sepulchral Primordial
+Toxic Deluge
These changes overall were made to get the deck more back to it's roots to focus on having many options and being focused on a reanimator aspect. The hardest to cut here was Sorin because his effects are pretty great, but I knew I was taking Ugin out for Austere Command again to have another modal sweeper spell. That left Sorin at around the same mana cost bracket and in the same spirit of card advantage. Razaketh's tutoring ability is too good to pass up, as he can easily find every single combo piece the deck ever needs. With Sorin going out, Sensei's Divining Top made far less sense as it's synergy was mainly the best with him. Lastly, as fun and cute as Approach of the Second sun is, I ultimately decided it just doesn't fit into the grand scheme of how the deck wants to win. In it's place, I returned Toxic Deluge due to recent involvement in a local Commander League. My sweeper suite, as always, is adjusted for the needs of my meta or current activities with the deck. Ugin could very well find his way back at a later date
-Faith's Fetters
-Mangara of Corondor
-Nezumi Graverobber
-Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
+Leonin Relic-Warder
+Gift of Immortality
+Gray Merchant of Asphodel
+Krav, the Unredeemed
It's been quite a long time since I've committed any changed to my list, but after some lengthy testing I'm ready to announce a few cuts and additions!
1. Mangara of Corondor OUT; Leonin Relic-Warder IN
For quite a while, I haven't felt great about drawing Mangara. While they has been the occasion where I've been able to machine-gun down permanents by combining Mangara with combo pieces, the turn it takes to make him active has too often resulted in him being removed or no longer around to do his job. Enter Leonin Relic-Warder. The deck has plenty of ways to deal with Creatures, but only a small number of ways of dealing with Artifacts and Enchantments. He can use the Fiend Hunter trick to exile his targets permanently, but also comes down for WW allowing you to put a giant wrench in the gears of decks that use Mana Crypt and such to ramp ahead fast. He is also an infinite loop with Necromancy or Gift of Immortality and a sac outlet.
2. Nezumi Graverobber OUT; Gift of Immortality IN
The Graverobber has been a long time patron of the deck since it's inception. However, he has lost favor over time with his mana intensive ability and the difficulty of getting him to flip outside of Turn 1-3. His reanimation ability is fantastic, but ultimately the problem is that the format has sped up since the days he made it into the list. The format has become extremely popular since the early days of this deck, and so more and more content creators and players are pushing optimized decks. More "tier" decks and "competitive" lists means being unable to afford such a large mana investment that looks uncertain, now. Hell's Caretaker was up for consideration for it's place, but ultimately Gift of Immortality felt the best in testing. It combos with Sun Titan, Fiend Hunter and the newly added Leonin Relic-Warder, and is great for recovering from a board wipe, and costs little mana to do so.
3. Faith's Fetters OUT; Grey Merchant of Asphodel IN
"Gary" has long been a consideration for the deck, but it's always been a matter of what to take out for him. Over time with the addition of Anguished Unmaking and Utter End, I've increased the total single target removal that can hit any problem permanents. Occasionally Faith's Fetters would come in handy, particularly in niche cases where I didn't want whatever the permanent was to die. This scenario has become so few and far in between, however, that it finally made sense to take it out and bring in Gary, especially because life drain has become more important. As mentioned in the case of Nezumi Graverobber above, the speed of decks in Commander has been on the rise. Not only is Gary often times a win condition in himself with reanimation shenanigans, but the life drain can offset hits taken early in the game or the use of Necropotence and Toxic Deluge.
4. Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter OUT; Krav, the Unredeemed IN
Another part of the speed of the format rising is attempting to shed large expensive cards that don't do much by themselves, as well as finding more card draw. Vish Kal has been a staple sac outlet in the deck since very early on, but in truth has aged poorly. He is neat and flavorful, but Krav has come to replace him as not only a sac outlet, but life gain and card draw, for significantly cheaper mana investment. I have been very impressed with Krav. I have no plans to run his partner.
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War of the Spark Set Review!
As always, I'll only be mentioning ones that are particular interest, here, rather than looking at each card in the set. Not even everything listed here is an auto-include or worth heavy consideration, but can at least be a talking point.
White
God-Eternal Oketra - What an amazingly powerful card! For 5-mana, a Double Strike, 3/6 that keeps coming back is already crazy enough. Add in her 1st triggered ability and it's just insane. I'm actually testing God-Eternal Oketra right now, and the additional board pressure has been pretty fantastic. 4/4 bodies are hard to deal with outside of board wipes, and Ayli can recover well from those. If you're running cards like Phyrexian Reclamation or Athreos, God of Passage, every creature you return to your hand threatens to come with a 4/4 vigilance Zombie in addition to whatever card you got back to cast. Absolutely stunning card worth trying!
Black
Bolas's Citadel - I just wanted to mention it here because it's obviously one of the power house cards in the set. It unfortunately really doesn't work that well here. We're already paying a chunk of life to other effects, and many of the cards in the deck that we use for ETB/death triggers are on the higher end of converted mana costs. This card isn't exactly for us.
Command the Dreadhorde - Alternatively, there's Command the Dreadhorde which can target both Creatures AND Planeswalkers. At 6-mana it's rather expensive, but could easily piece together a winning board state from our own graveyards and others'. It's worth a look, especially when played alongside cards like Glacial Chasm or other ways to prevent taking damage for that turn.
Dreadhorde Invasion - Comparable to Bitterblossom this is not. For us, this is simply sac fodder. At the cost of 1 life each turn, it's not particularly appealing, especially because if you do want sac fodder you're better off going wide than tall.
Finalie of Eternity - This is one of my favorite cards in the set! Unfortunately it's not an Instant, but if you need to take care of an aggressive board state early in the game without spending a board wipe, this can be a really good way of doing so. The flexibility is great, even with the secondary effect of pumping 10 mana into it aside. The final part of the spell is icing on the cake, but mana that we can easily generate in the later part of the game thanks to synergies with Ashnod's Altar.
God-Eternal Bontu - The second God-Eternal we're looking at is also pretty decent. A 5/6 body with Menace is nothing to laugh at, but what I love about Bontu is she can turn mana rocks and excess lands into card advantage in the late game. She's not an autoinclude by any means because there is a decent amount of card advantage already available to us, but she certainly is worthy of consideration.
Kaya's Ghostform - One could look at this and compare it to Angelic Renewal or Gift of Immortality. The down side of this compared to Angelic Renewal is that you need a target to put it on, and can't simply cast it and have it out on the battlefield ready and waiting. There are very few Planeswalkers worth considering for Ayli, so the ability to target Planeswalkers isn't too relevant. Overall it'd be hard to justify taking anything else out of the deck to put in Kaya's Ghostform.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General - Speaking of the very few Planeswalkers that are worthy of putting in Ayli, this Liliana may well be one of them. Her static ability is very useful to us, and one of the only cards out there that doesn't specify "non-token Creature" to draw your card. Making a blocker or more sac fodder with her +1 is pretty average, but her -4 causing everyone to sacrifice two creatures is brutal for opponents while we hardly flinch. If you get her -9, it's a Cataclysm, though you should generally never assume you'll get a Planeswalker's ultimate. She is worth a try, though her 4BB mana cost has her competing with a lot of other things we want to be doing with the deck at that stage.
Liliana's Triumph - This is a pretty decent removal spell early on in the game that gets around Indestructible, Shroud and Hexproof. It's potentially worth considering at 1B and at Instant speed, but I find it really hard to see a card in the deck I'd pull for this, as targeted permanent removal is much more important.
Massacre Girl - I'll admit that this is a fun card with a really fun effect. The problem, though, is that you want to wait for her to get enough triggers to clear the board. Massacre Wurm she is not, as she provides no benefit from killing the creatures she kills. Really, if you want to kill the board, you either want to just kill it cleanly with an actual board wipe, but at least get some bonus for doing so. While a cute card, she unfortunately really doesn't do enough.
Multicolor
Cruel Celebrant - Here we have another version of Zulaport Cutthroat. I'm actually replacing Blood Artist in all of my decks with Cruel Celebrant for a couple reasons. Although Blood Artist triggers off of opponent's Creatures dying as well, the triggers from it and cards like it are mostly from my own sac engines running off. The second reason is that I prefer Zulaport and Celebrant due to them not targeting and hitting each opponent at the same time. No one can give themselves protection or hexproof and them be untargetable with these.
Despark - So, first, I'll give the short of my opinion on this removal card: I would never play over Utter End, Anguished Unmaking or Vindicate. Here's why: One reason is that I don't like the condition that the target must have a 4CMC or greater on Despark. It's easy to be tricked into thinking it's a better option than another spell card because it only costs WB and can hit a lot of targets in the mid/late game. But, that is still far too inconsistent for me. I'd rather have another spell that can remove Scavenging Ooze and stop my graveyard from being eaten, or exile Eternal Witness to stop recursion shenanigans. There are a lot of cases where I see myself sitting with a 2CMC card in my hand that can't hit a lot of the linchpins that lead to broken game states. I'll gladly pay 1 more for Vindicate. The largest threats aren't always 4CMC and above. Sometimes they're Cloudstone Curios, or Ashnod's Altars and other 2-3 mana sac outlets or engines that you need to kill ASAP. I want the most options I can muster, because depending on other people having good threat assessment is a liability, and the ability to surgically remove basically any target is an effect worth high redundancy. I'd still have Vindicate over this as a way to easily take out Maze of Ith, Volrath's Stronghold, Gavony Township, Gaea's Cradle, Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun etc. Recently decks in my meta have started loading up on Inkmoth Nexus + Karn's Bastion after I suggested the combination to a friend, because Evolution Sage/Flux Channeler can allow a scary amount of Proliferate. The Ixalan flip lands are huge, and Search for Azcanta flipped makes it really hard to slow spellslinger decks down. Costing 1-2 mana less than the existing options does not make it worth it, when it excludes so many important targets.
Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord - I don't have much to say about the newest Sorin, unfortunately. The truth is that he doesn't do enough. His static ability only applies during our own turn. If you're still playing Sorin, Grim Nemesis or trouble with life in the late game and can swing in with our big fliers, he could be worth having on the board for that. Sometimes. But his +2 is unfortunately very weak, and his -X is costly when we have so many amazing reanimation options, as it is.
Lands
Blast Zone - This card is up for debate. On one hand, Ayli is very hungry for colored mana. In almost any scenario, I'd rather have colored mana than colorless. I already run a ton of utility lands, so this would have to be put in at the cost of replacing something else. It's something to do every turn with extra mana before your turn wheels back around, though, and threatens opponents and makes them think twice about playing combo pieces or certain cards. It may well be worth trying in place of a redundant effect like Kor Haven.
Emergence Zone - Despite a certain podcast duo constantly harping about Vedalken Orrery, I have refused to run it in any of my decks. A 4-mana do-nothing card when it enters the battlefield is not my cup of tea, and when I did try to run it in my decks, I often found that it sat in my hand because I didn't want to tap out to play it, or there was something way more effective I could be doing, instead. This goes not just for Ayli, but any deck I've played it in. What I have done, however, is add Emergence Zone to every deck I play, because flashing spells out of no where in the late game can easily set up for a win on my upcoming turn. This is something I highly recommend trying, because it only takes a land slot, rather than a spell slot. What I said above about Blasting Zone and the amount of utility lands I run holds true, but the potential for blowing out opponents at flash speed from a Land slot is far too good to pass up!
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