I got Obelisk Spider out, and it was everything I hoped it would be. Also, Power Conduit has proven to be an all star in this deck, especially when combined with Devoted Druid.
Have you actually casted it and used it? If you have how many times per game?
Have I cast it and used it? Yes. In Hapatra? Not sure.
You have to realize, I play around 50 decks and usually get in two to five games each Commander night. I swap decks each game, and I don't keep a log of when I use it.
However, I have found Elixir to be a very useful card. While it can save you against mill, it mostly saves my graveyard from exile effects (Bojuka Bog and friends). I consider my graveyard to be a resource or secondary hand. If someone exiles my graveyard, I permanently lose access to those cards. And you often don't even have to crack the Elixir - just having it out convinces people to not waste their removal on you, so they target another player.
How about you? I take it you don't like the card. Is it because it doesn't actively advance my win condition?
Crested Sunmare is a very potent wincon for Karlov, considering it can pump out up to four or five 5/5 tokens per round. I got it in play once last night and got a token, but then the next player topdecked Hallowed Burial. That was a tough game, as I was fighting through a Jace, Unraveler of Secrets emblem, but Karlov eventually won, attacking with a 16/16 Karlov and activating Vizkopa Guildmage's first ability once and its second ability three times.
4 - I like to run a couple tutors (I even run Sisay as a general), but I don't always tutor for the same thing. Usually, I'm trying to find an answer to something else - a permanent or a deck. Or I'm tutoring for utility. The problem I have for tutors is when people use them to search up the same combo pieces every time. I find that boring.
And I'm not even counting land fetch cards as tutoring. Those are just an important part of playing multi-color.
Why are you running elixir of immortality? Do you routinely play against hard core mill decks (like everybody else is playing mill)?
I run Elixir in most of my decks. We have mill decks in our meta, and while they aren't usually hardcore, I like the card as a safety. Our games tend to go long (1-3 hours), and Elixir can be helpful.
Boy, those planeswalker deck planeswalkers really suck on average. Just added them all to the original post - which has gotten significantly longer over the past 4 1/2 years thanks to all the printings. I hope they really do move away from the Gatewatch planeswalkers. I'd like to see new faces in my deck.
Any ability on a creature can only be used while that creature is on the battlefield unless the ability itself says otherwise.
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician says "Put Derevi onto the battlefield from the command zone." This ability doesn't need to say "use this ability only if Derevi is in the command zone" because its current wording is already clear. You cannot move Derevi "from the command zone" if it is in another zone.
Horde of Notions, on the other hand, has an ability that does not even reference itself. It does reference other cards in the graveyard, but Horde has to be on the battlefield to use this ability. "You may play target Elemental card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost." Because it does not reference a zone that Horde has to be in, it defaults to the game rules that say a creature must be on the battlefield to use an ability.
You should get the mana if you cast him in the precombat main phase. His trigger happens at the beginning of the postcombat main phase and has no conditions attached like "If Neheb has been in play since the beginning of your turn."
I absolutely disagree that the color identity rule is the biggest problem. I'd call toxic players, multiple extra turn solitaire, or lockout combos "the biggest problem" long before I even considered the color identity rule to be even a tiny problem.
Zada is "silly or cute" in exactly the same way that thousands of points of combat damage to the face is cute. Would she be better with other colors? Yes. Does she need other colors to win? Nope.
You made a point that multi-color decks have an advantage over mono-color. I completely agree. That's the nature of playing with access to more cards and abilities. Anyone who plays mono-colored should understand that, and yet they choose to anyway.
Providing every commander with every color would off-balance the game in the extreme. Combo decks would take over, being able to run every tutor and every potential combo card rather than being limited to their colors. Sure, aggro and control would get more cards, too, but combo would be the main winner here. Oh, and reanimator, which would no doubt use it to bring combo or lockout cards out of the graveyard.
Color identity is closely tied to the roots of the format. If you do away with that, what do you have left? Legacy Highlander?
The correct answer with any tempting offer card is to make the decision which nets the caster the least benefit, unless taking the offer will win you the game. This is why you decline to search with Tempt With Discovery, and you choose money with Expropriate.
Even that has exceptions. We had a game with Havoc Festival out and everyone getting dangerously low on life when someone played Expropriate. Everyone groaned about it, but I convinced them to choose time, figuring that if he didn't get an answer to Havoc Festival, the extra turns would kill him. Sure enough, he died after that many extra upkeeps.
Minor semi-related question. How do I make card tags that will not show an invocation on mouse over?
Annoying, isn't it?
Instead of [card]Through the Breach[/card], do [card]Through the Breach|Champions of Kamigawa[/card]. Through the Breach vs. Through the Breach
According to EDHREC, cat decks rank 24th of all popular tribes recorded by the site. Warrior, rat, treefolk all rank higher.
That is far from being popular. It could be because of lack of a quality/colorful general, but I doubt the ranking would go up much by the three selesnya legends included in this deck.
Lacking a decent commander is probably a huge part of that. We've had ten legendary cats, only four of which have an even remotely tribal-oriented ability. All have been mono-colored (in W,B, or G) except for the random over-costed vanilla legend that dipped into U, yet cats have been printed in every color. I would not be surprised at all if there is a sudden upsurge in cat tribal decks after the release of three new WG legends, at least one of which has a tribal-oriented ability.
Add to that the BRG legendary cat dragon spoiled in the dragon deck, and possibly more crossover legends in the other two decks, and there will suddenly be a lot more support. I guarantee that adding support will increase popularity. They could do it with any unsupported tribe, and we would see an immediate difference.
I'm still hoping for angels, though I doubt it will happen at this point. And I would love ninjas, but I understand it is unfeasible with only 10 ninjas in the game. Maybe they will sneak one or two new ninjas in, like they did years ago in the planechase decks. I can hope, right?
Mono-green really limits your options, but there still are some. In addition to the ones listed by tjornan, you've got Mirage Mirror coming out in Hour of Devastation. Use it to copy Gisela, and once you both have one, their powers negate each other. The best part is that it isn't a dead card in other situations. Cloning one of your own elves (like Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid) can be beneficial, or just copy anything else on the board that would be useful.
Angel of Despair may have recently been outclassed, but it will remain my favorite card - awesome art and a powerful ETB ability in colors than allow it to be recurred either by blinking or through reanimation, all stapled to a big flying body. What's not to love?
Have I cast it and used it? Yes. In Hapatra? Not sure.
You have to realize, I play around 50 decks and usually get in two to five games each Commander night. I swap decks each game, and I don't keep a log of when I use it.
However, I have found Elixir to be a very useful card. While it can save you against mill, it mostly saves my graveyard from exile effects (Bojuka Bog and friends). I consider my graveyard to be a resource or secondary hand. If someone exiles my graveyard, I permanently lose access to those cards. And you often don't even have to crack the Elixir - just having it out convinces people to not waste their removal on you, so they target another player.
How about you? I take it you don't like the card. Is it because it doesn't actively advance my win condition?
Bolas is like a loan shark - he says I'm going to break your knee-caps unless you pay me $1,000. If you offer him $0, he still breaks your knee-caps.
1 Crested Sunmare
1 Archon of Justice
Crested Sunmare is a very potent wincon for Karlov, considering it can pump out up to four or five 5/5 tokens per round. I got it in play once last night and got a token, but then the next player topdecked Hallowed Burial. That was a tough game, as I was fighting through a Jace, Unraveler of Secrets emblem, but Karlov eventually won, attacking with a 16/16 Karlov and activating Vizkopa Guildmage's first ability once and its second ability three times.
And I'm not even counting land fetch cards as tutoring. Those are just an important part of playing multi-color.
1 Vhati il-Dal
1 Grim Poppet
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Swamp
1 Obelisk Spider
1 Banewhip Punisher
1 Torment of Venom
1 Ifnir Deadlands
Also, added Ajani Unyielding and False Prophet. Garruk Relentless has never made me happy, so I figured I'd try something different.
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician says "Put Derevi onto the battlefield from the command zone." This ability doesn't need to say "use this ability only if Derevi is in the command zone" because its current wording is already clear. You cannot move Derevi "from the command zone" if it is in another zone.
Horde of Notions, on the other hand, has an ability that does not even reference itself. It does reference other cards in the graveyard, but Horde has to be on the battlefield to use this ability. "You may play target Elemental card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost." Because it does not reference a zone that Horde has to be in, it defaults to the game rules that say a creature must be on the battlefield to use an ability.
Zada is "silly or cute" in exactly the same way that thousands of points of combat damage to the face is cute. Would she be better with other colors? Yes. Does she need other colors to win? Nope.
You made a point that multi-color decks have an advantage over mono-color. I completely agree. That's the nature of playing with access to more cards and abilities. Anyone who plays mono-colored should understand that, and yet they choose to anyway.
Providing every commander with every color would off-balance the game in the extreme. Combo decks would take over, being able to run every tutor and every potential combo card rather than being limited to their colors. Sure, aggro and control would get more cards, too, but combo would be the main winner here. Oh, and reanimator, which would no doubt use it to bring combo or lockout cards out of the graveyard.
Color identity is closely tied to the roots of the format. If you do away with that, what do you have left? Legacy Highlander?
Instead of [card]Through the Breach[/card], do [card]Through the Breach|Champions of Kamigawa[/card].
Through the Breach vs. Through the Breach
Add to that the BRG legendary cat dragon spoiled in the dragon deck, and possibly more crossover legends in the other two decks, and there will suddenly be a lot more support. I guarantee that adding support will increase popularity. They could do it with any unsupported tribe, and we would see an immediate difference.
I'm still hoping for angels, though I doubt it will happen at this point. And I would love ninjas, but I understand it is unfeasible with only 10 ninjas in the game. Maybe they will sneak one or two new ninjas in, like they did years ago in the planechase decks. I can hope, right?
And there's Unstable Obelisk and Oblivion Stone.