A sweet card for this type of deck is Zur's Weirding, which is an awesome card for 1v3 type games. And since you will typically have more life, you will inevitable come out on top. Your worst card looks like Sydri, Galvanic Genius.
One small recommendation, format your decklist not by alphabet, but by card type or function. Sorting by cmc inside also makes it much easier to give critiques for decks.
edhrec.com has a pretty good resource. For example, this page lists the cards from the most recent set in order from most to least popular. If you look at the past few sets, it should give you a good idea of the cards that are popular, or commonly used in commander.
Honestly, I just want sweet new commanders. The Gitrog Monster was one of the most mechanically interesting legendaries that I've seen in a long time, and would love to see more cards in the same vein. Basically any legendary that plays a different game than the rest of them. I want a card that screams for me to play a whole stack of different cards than any other deck. I'm kindof annoyed with the 'its a staple, so you should play it!' mentality (tutors, ramp, removal being largely similar/predictable in most decks).
I like playing decks with creatures and combat, so I would love a legend that allows me to do this.
A commander that allows for tons of spot removal would also be awesome.
Possibility Storm in Maelstrom Wanderer. If you build your deck in a way that makes this card work, it can make it extremely difficult for opponents to stop you, especially since most of your spells with be cast with cascade, and the ones you do use from your hand have a good chance of hitting something very impactful.
Humility in Ghave, Guru of Spores, because it turns your commander into a 6/6 while all of your opponents creatures are very, very small and useless.
@umtiger: I'm not sure if it was really necessary, but I wanted to try brewing a unique deck that I haven't really seen on CEDH forums. My group asks me the same question, and the answer is I really wanted to do something new. Also, I wanted to play CEDH with cards that aren't even common in normal EDH lol.
@Benjameenbear: I'll try out Grafdigger's Cage out over something. I've been leaning on cutting Sol Ring (blasphemous, I know) because it is mostly used just as a ritual to cast Time Warps. There isn't a whole lot of generic mana costs in the deck. Also, casting Tymna the Weaver a turn early is not really a priority, as having her out on an empty board isn't very helpful.
The other day I had a hand that would normally be very good in any other deck, but was just ok in this one. I went t1 land, mox diamond, mana crypt, Tymna. t1 tymna isn't even that good in here, but its ok. I would much rather t1 flying men, t2 hate bear, t3 tymna draw 2.
I put Delay in over Mana Drain, mostly because I wanted a hard counter that didn't cost UU. Also, the colorless mana was not very useful. Most of the time it would be used to help draw a card with Thrasios.
Not having enough creatures is definitely a concern. That is where having 2 cheap commanders really helps come into play, because you can typically use Thrasios to attack early and help you draw into action.
Whether or not this list is actually better than traditional Edric remains to be seen. I wanted to experiment, and I've had much success in my meta. I have the advantage of playing awesome white hate cards that don't really bother us, but affect most other CEDH decks. This list seems to play like an aggro-control legacy list, where I try to stick an early threat and control opponents until I get a critical mass and win. Its not as explosive or consistent as Edric, but one of the advantages is that new opponents will either think you are on some Doomsday or Laboratory Maniac plan, or think you are playing a bad deck going t1 Prickly Boggart. The other advantage is you get to play a much more reactive playstyle, considering the 22 instants in the deck. 1 for 1 removal typically isn't that good in EDH, but in this deck we get very cheap draw engines, so the cheap removal has a much lower opportunity cost. Also having cheap draw engines lets us play conditional hate cards without a huge drawback because if we draw Rest in Peace and no opponent is on the graveyard plan, we probably still have other cards to play, and having one dead card isn't that big of a deal.
Ok, I was rambling a good bit there. I'm updating the deck a bit and bringing it to my Thursday EDH league. I'll try to record some games and see what I learn.
I say it seems bad because it is taking up a 3cmc non-creatures slot for a conditional mana source that can't even be used until the next turn at the earliest. Wood Elves is probably a much better card in this deck, because it contributes to the main game plan, gives mana immediately (sometimes free with 2 Animar counters), and can do all the things a normal creature can do. If you want an additional Cradle, you are better off playing Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map, or Crop Rotation, as they cost less mana and use less conditions. Xenegos the Reveler gives a pseudo cradle that makes red mana immediately, and can even produce chump blockers. Even Ulvenwald Hydra gets a tapped cradle and is a creature, so it advances our own plan.
Also, in my experience with combo Animar, you don't really need loads of green mana. Most of the combo cards are red or blue mana.
I've been running with a 4c brew version of this list at my LGS and a few GPs with Tymna the Weaver and Thrasios, Triton Hero at the helm. You have a weaker draw engine from Tymna, but you gain access to much better tutors, removal, protection, and utility creatures, as well as more playable rogues for Notorious Throng. On top of that, you get access to white hate cards like Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, Suppression Field, and Aura Shards. Black gives you sweet cards like Beckon Apparition, Bitterblossom, Abzan Ascendancy. Granted, the curve is slightly higher with more 2 and 3 cmc creatures, but their average power-level makes up for drawing less cards overall. I found that drawing 5-10 cards with edric is only ok when 3-4 of them are just more 1/1s, but drawing powerful hate cards and removal makes much more of an immediate impact on the game. Also, you get some sweet bomb cards like Linvala Keeper of Silence and Notion Thief. Too bad they banned Leovold, Emissary of Trest.
Some down-sides to the 4c version:
1. Less consistent mana (Blood Moon/Back to Basics)
2. Less raw card advantage, more reliance on Bident of Thassa/Coastal Piracy/drawing Edric, Spymaster of Trest
3. Don't get to show off your sweet, sweet Alpha Shanodin Dryads
4. Less space for counterspells, because you run more removal and hate cards like Gaddock Teeg and Torpor Orb.
5. Slightly higher average cmc, because some sweet cards cost 2-3 mana.
6. Only room for 4 Time Warps, but there are more and better tutors to find them.
7. Slightly slower kill speed, as in you don't get to start really get your first extra turn until t5.
If someone here is interested I can post my list here. Maybe I should just create a new thread for this...
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One small recommendation, format your decklist not by alphabet, but by card type or function. Sorting by cmc inside also makes it much easier to give critiques for decks.
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I like playing decks with creatures and combat, so I would love a legend that allows me to do this.
A commander that allows for tons of spot removal would also be awesome.
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Humility in Ghave, Guru of Spores, because it turns your commander into a 6/6 while all of your opponents creatures are very, very small and useless.
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@Benjameenbear: I'll try out Grafdigger's Cage out over something. I've been leaning on cutting Sol Ring (blasphemous, I know) because it is mostly used just as a ritual to cast Time Warps. There isn't a whole lot of generic mana costs in the deck. Also, casting Tymna the Weaver a turn early is not really a priority, as having her out on an empty board isn't very helpful.
The other day I had a hand that would normally be very good in any other deck, but was just ok in this one. I went t1 land, mox diamond, mana crypt, Tymna. t1 tymna isn't even that good in here, but its ok. I would much rather t1 flying men, t2 hate bear, t3 tymna draw 2.
I put Delay in over Mana Drain, mostly because I wanted a hard counter that didn't cost UU. Also, the colorless mana was not very useful. Most of the time it would be used to help draw a card with Thrasios.
Not having enough creatures is definitely a concern. That is where having 2 cheap commanders really helps come into play, because you can typically use Thrasios to attack early and help you draw into action.
Whether or not this list is actually better than traditional Edric remains to be seen. I wanted to experiment, and I've had much success in my meta. I have the advantage of playing awesome white hate cards that don't really bother us, but affect most other CEDH decks. This list seems to play like an aggro-control legacy list, where I try to stick an early threat and control opponents until I get a critical mass and win. Its not as explosive or consistent as Edric, but one of the advantages is that new opponents will either think you are on some Doomsday or Laboratory Maniac plan, or think you are playing a bad deck going t1 Prickly Boggart. The other advantage is you get to play a much more reactive playstyle, considering the 22 instants in the deck. 1 for 1 removal typically isn't that good in EDH, but in this deck we get very cheap draw engines, so the cheap removal has a much lower opportunity cost. Also having cheap draw engines lets us play conditional hate cards without a huge drawback because if we draw Rest in Peace and no opponent is on the graveyard plan, we probably still have other cards to play, and having one dead card isn't that big of a deal.
Ok, I was rambling a good bit there. I'm updating the deck a bit and bringing it to my Thursday EDH league. I'll try to record some games and see what I learn.
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Also, in my experience with combo Animar, you don't really need loads of green mana. Most of the combo cards are red or blue mana.
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I think one of the huge advantages is that you don't have to rely on flying to ensure your creatures get to connect. Fear, shadow, or unblockable are much more reliable. You also get Deathrite Shaman, Judge's Familiar, Serra Ascendant, Topplegeist (lets tymna or other guys attack more freely), Beckon Apparition, and Vault Skirge as superior 1-drops to normal Flying Men guys. Having a late-game mana sink in Thrasios, Triton hero if you get wrathed a few too many times can come in handy.
Some down-sides to the 4c version:
1. Less consistent mana (Blood Moon/Back to Basics)
2. Less raw card advantage, more reliance on Bident of Thassa/Coastal Piracy/drawing Edric, Spymaster of Trest
3. Don't get to show off your sweet, sweet Alpha Shanodin Dryads
4. Less space for counterspells, because you run more removal and hate cards like Gaddock Teeg and Torpor Orb.
5. Slightly higher average cmc, because some sweet cards cost 2-3 mana.
6. Only room for 4 Time Warps, but there are more and better tutors to find them.
7. Slightly slower kill speed, as in you don't get to start really get your first extra turn until t5.
If someone here is interested I can post my list here. Maybe I should just create a new thread for this...
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