my friend plays niv-mizzet whenever one of my friends pull out animar. he always has more mana rocks and than the animar and is able to get the niv out faster. the moment that animar touches the field, he draws and card and animar goes bye bye. its the same with all utility and morph creatures too.
Oh man for the last core set Wizards pulled all the stops for Origins. It makes me sad that this set felt more Theros than the entire theros block. Otherwise it is a great set with many powerful cards and interesting mechanics (Renown and Spell Mastery).
Legendaries in the set:
Alhammarret, High Arbiter - Nevermore on a stick ... it has its uses but I personally dont really like it that much.
Hixus, Prison Warden - An interesting ability on paper, but when you remember that most attacks in this game are lethal and the ones that aren't generally arent even worth removing, Hixus becomes alot less effective.
Kothophed, Soul Hoarder - A great flavorful ability. Destroying others to gain knowledge at the price of your soul. Just be wary when you boardwipe that the enemy doesnt randomly spawn an army out of nowhere with cards like Ant Queen.
Pia and Kiran Nalaar - Siege-gang commander for artifacts. Blink shinanegans will be hilarious with them.
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh/Chandra, Roaring Flame - one of the weaker walkers in a format of 40 life, however do not underestimate the 2 damage as it is great for removing utility creatures. Easy to flip by attack then cast a spell and then tap.
Kytheon, Hero of Akros/Gideon, Battle-Forged - Great for mono white aggro as the commander or as part of the 99. No large mana investment needed and both his creature and walker abilities are beautiful.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound - looting on the creature side and utility on the walker side. The only gripe I have with this card is the -2/0 for one creature only. Its not much to gripe about but its still something
Liliana, Heretical Healer/Liliana, Defiant Necromancer - The strongest walker of the 5 in this format. All abilities are relevant and useful throughout the game. She is playable as part of the 99 or as the commander (personally prefer her as commander in order to load her up fast)
Nissa, Vastwood Seer/Nissa, Sage Animist - Great card advantage and ramp. The 4/4 Legendary is iffy since it doesnt have any tagged on abilities. Her third ability is great for setting up boardwipes.
Other interesting cards:
Archangel of Tithes - Ghostly prison which works on the offensive side as well. Useful against swarm strategies and against people who like to tap out.
Relic Seeker - Nicknamed "stone-forge lite", this card will be interesting to see in both commander as well as modern as a budget replacement of SfM
Starfield of Nyx - OH BABY ENCHANTMENT RECURSION!!! ... oh wait it makes all my non auras weak to removal ... well dam ... (its a great card but I feel that the opalescence portion of the card is just too overbearing)
Tragic Arrogance - A great replacement for Cataclysm if your playgroup doesnt like the LD portion. It is in someways better than cataclysm as you get to choose what they keep.
Day's Undoing - Interesting card ... give it flash and do some hilarious things to stop your opponents from doing EOT Shinanigans
Disciple of the Ring - great for decks which don't have a way of recycling graveyard otherwise its really iffy as the graveyard is basically a second hand.
Jace's Sanctum - great for control decks and a special favorite for my Talrand deck to smooth out my draws.
Soul Blade Djinn - Spell heavy decks may be able to use this as a win condition. Otherwise just it might just show up in Talrand decks.
Talent of the Telepath - Whats better than using your oppenent's Tooth and Nail? How about using 2 Tooth and Nails? (unfortunately the spells arent entwined so it basically is 4 mana for an TaN Entwined)
Thopter Spy Network - A 4 mana Bitterblossom with tagged on abilities and no downsides ... I know that its 4 cmc but in a game which can drag on for many turns this card is hilariously strong at clogging up the board. (fun fact: the longest game i have ever played was 3 hours long and only ended because the janitor needed to clean the room)
Dark Dabbling - Great for cards like Day of Judgement or cards which you can regen through (also nets you a card as well).
Dark Petition - pseudo demonic tutor isnt that bad in a format which 5 mana in black is easily achievable.
Demonic pact - hilarious card to Donate to your enemy once you are done using it.
Erebos's Titan - If only it said an opponent instead of your opponents this card would be so much crazier. But as it stands, the titan can be used as a discard outlet/fodder.
Graveblade Marauder - Self mill has another wincon? This card is great ... now if only it had some somber or witty flavour text.
Infinite Obliteration - great if you know what your opponent has, otherwise its a crap shoot and a way to look at what they are running in their deck.
Tainted Remedy - oh look at all the life that you are gaining, it would be a shame if someone were to make you lose that much instead (also the card art is beautiful and very story driven)
Chandra's Ignition - note that the card doesn't kill the creature it targets ... works great with deathtouch or lifelink
Flameshadow Conjouring - great for those Riku decks if they didnt have enough copy abilities
Shivan Dragon - 10/10 hands down the best card ever, I even traded my bayou, and volcanic island for it ... T.T I still regret making that decision to this very day ...
Animist's Awakening - HI HO LANDFALL!!! great if you have spare mana to dump.
Evolutionary Leap - Great for creature light decks which run token generators and have impactful big creatures (use in a 5cc deck with one copy of progenitus)
Herald of the Pantheon - I feel like this set was more Theros than the entire Theros block combined ... makes me sad that this creature isn't an enchantment as well
Managorger Hydra - gets real big, real quick. Fortunately it lacks protection.
Nissa's Revelation - Great for decks like Mayael or the Green good stuff.
the thing with sigarda is how easy it is to get her onto the field within turns 3-4 narset doest give you that luxury as there isnt much ramp in those colours. Once sigarda hits the field, she gets really hard to remove. although her abilities are more defensive based, it is different from uril decks which need its enchantments to be defensive while the general powers itself up. each aura is a threat that needs to be dealt with where as with uril you can remove certain enchantments and he isnt as resiliant anymore. in dealing with other aggro match ups you should have a higher edge as you have built in evasion and higher power. sure you get sigarda down 1-2 turns later, but when you hit several times harder than they do who cares what they have. also in the case of equip voltron generals, artifact hate is your best response to sword of x and y or other annoying equipments. making a voltron general stare at their artifacts sit and collect dust is a thing that i enjoy doing.
are you trying to go voltron or leaning more towards the swarm aspect? it looks like you took the best cards of both types and tried to make a deck out of it.
shield of the oversoul doens't play nicely with swords of x and y cause of how protection works. consider using either the complete kaldra set or just the shield of kaldra
genesis seems a little out of place when you have SoLoS
The set has many cards which will be interesting to see in commander. Formidable, megamorph, bolster are interesting mechanics with formidable probably being the only mechanic which may impact EDH the most in the form of Shaman of Forgotten Ways
Legendaries in the set:
Humans: Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit - really interesting card i would love to see a deck which is able to properly use her ability but the fact that it is bolster 1 rather than 1 counter on target creature makes me a little sad (bolster 2 would have made it so much stronger). Sidisi, Undead Vizier - a great commander and has the potential to become very strong due to the fact that black can generate lots of bodies for sidisi to explot and ways to kill her off and bring her back. aven mindcensor, torpor orb, hushwing gryph, and leonin arbiter are your friends in this match up. Surrak the Hunt Caller - compared to the other version, this surrak seems underwhelming as xenegod can do his job better. Zurgo Bellstriker - oh how low you have fallen zurgo the card fits the character but thats about it not really viable for much.
Dragons: Dragonlord Atarka - great way for clearing the way for your commander 7 mana for 8/8 trample flying with the ability to shoot things on attack is a formidable creature. since hes green, conventional prison cards like vows and such are almost pointless to play since they are quickly removed. your hope is to out race him. Dragonlord Dromoka - Dromoka lends himself/herself to a more control oriented build similar to what gadock teeg would do. replacing cards like armadillo cloak and its counter parts for more silver bullets and possibly more ramp. Overall I feel like dromoka would be better as part of the 99 with someone like teeg at the helm. Dragonlord Kolaghan - a half decent RB commander 6 for a 6/5 haste is nothing to sneeze at and granting your other creatures haste is great as well. the second ability shuts down relentless rats decks and shadowborn apostle decks. Dragonlord Ojutai - great card advantage although the hexproof clause is a little upsetting. fortunately blue and white has many ways to keep it untapped Dragonlord Silumgar - lowest power of the dragonlords but a very strong
sigarda is by no means the best voltron but the reason that she is played is because of the amount of staying power she has. by playing her you force opponents to use boardwipes suboptimally. gw is the colour of hatebears so using the bear cards you can restrict your opponents from playing things which are detrimental to your board (teeg against sweepers, stony silence vs artifacts, so on and so forth.)
another reason cards like uril, sigarda, and thrun are better is because its easier to find cards which pump a creature than it is to get multiple cards which protect it. Drawing multiple buff spells is perfectly fine, however if you need cards like alexis's cloak, vanishing, fool's demise drawing these cards multiple times in a row makes them dead draws.
the point of voltron is to either come out of the gate beating everyone to a pulp (most green voltrons which ramp super hard then drop down their commander) or you go mid/late game with lots of control and then kill people out of no where (zur, bruna, and most other blue voltron commanders)
if you want big fulfilling things, i would suggest using jenara instead as rafiq has the stigma of being short and quick
also use deck tags and sort the cards so its easier to read
also erayo is banned and you dont really have enought small spells to fire off to trigger her flip
checked your decklist on deck stats and your cards are heavier on the W symbols you might want to find some ramp which can cover for it as your mana base is basically 33.33% divided. also you need more ramp. ramp creatures arent that useful due to the number of board wipes in the game. consider using cards like cultivate, kodama's reach, and explosive vegetation.
Sheltered aerie isnt bad per se. It can get you the turn 4 sigarda but compared to the other ramp spells like kodama's reach and cultivate it isnt as efficient.
With that out of the way. I'm somewhat intrigued by the new card Dragonlord Dromoka. I could see using this card as an alternative commander for this deck. If you were given the challenge to re engineer this deck with the new Dromoka as the commander, what changes would you make? I understand that Sigarda is probably a better commander, but I think using Dragonlord Dromoka could be fun. I'm assuming adding a bit more ramp and protection based Auras would be a good idea.
How would you all change things up with Dragonlord Dromoka at the helm?
Dromoka lends himself/herself (never bothered to look at the genders) to a more control oriented build similar to what gadock teeg would do. replacing cards like armadillo cloak and its counter parts for more silver bullets and possibly more ramp.
Overall i feel like dromoka would be better as part of the 99 with someone like teeg at the helm.
if you want raw power rafiq is probably the best one
the fact that you can power out a turn two rafiq and game people on turn 3 is a scary thing in deed
bruna, uril, and sigarda are close second because of the speed that they can end once they start their attack and their resiliency due to how their decks are built.
Bruna builds closer to the mid-late game where she can kill people out of nowhere
uril has hexproof and red ld to make removing him a pain
sigarda is one of the hardest things to get rid of once she has shield of the oversoul and flickerform on her
how does that help with bruna voltron?
is there a place for lock down in this deck to ensure that its combo isnt interrupted?
These 4 cards are win more
cards to consider:
More mana rocks
Oh man for the last core set Wizards pulled all the stops for Origins. It makes me sad that this set felt more Theros than the entire theros block. Otherwise it is a great set with many powerful cards and interesting mechanics (Renown and Spell Mastery).
Legendaries in the set:
Alhammarret, High Arbiter - Nevermore on a stick ... it has its uses but I personally dont really like it that much.
Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen - Legendary elf lord with a weaker verson of Rhys the Exiled ability. Good as part of the 99
Hixus, Prison Warden - An interesting ability on paper, but when you remember that most attacks in this game are lethal and the ones that aren't generally arent even worth removing, Hixus becomes alot less effective.
Kothophed, Soul Hoarder - A great flavorful ability. Destroying others to gain knowledge at the price of your soul. Just be wary when you boardwipe that the enemy doesnt randomly spawn an army out of nowhere with cards like Ant Queen.
Pia and Kiran Nalaar - Siege-gang commander for artifacts. Blink shinanegans will be hilarious with them.
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh/Chandra, Roaring Flame - one of the weaker walkers in a format of 40 life, however do not underestimate the 2 damage as it is great for removing utility creatures. Easy to flip by attack then cast a spell and then tap.
Kytheon, Hero of Akros/Gideon, Battle-Forged - Great for mono white aggro as the commander or as part of the 99. No large mana investment needed and both his creature and walker abilities are beautiful.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound - looting on the creature side and utility on the walker side. The only gripe I have with this card is the -2/0 for one creature only. Its not much to gripe about but its still something
Liliana, Heretical Healer/Liliana, Defiant Necromancer - The strongest walker of the 5 in this format. All abilities are relevant and useful throughout the game. She is playable as part of the 99 or as the commander (personally prefer her as commander in order to load her up fast)
Nissa, Vastwood Seer/Nissa, Sage Animist - Great card advantage and ramp. The 4/4 Legendary is iffy since it doesnt have any tagged on abilities. Her third ability is great for setting up boardwipes.
Other interesting cards:
Archangel of Tithes - Ghostly prison which works on the offensive side as well. Useful against swarm strategies and against people who like to tap out.
Relic Seeker - Nicknamed "stone-forge lite", this card will be interesting to see in both commander as well as modern as a budget replacement of SfM
Starfield of Nyx - OH BABY ENCHANTMENT RECURSION!!! ... oh wait it makes all my non auras weak to removal ... well dam ... (its a great card but I feel that the opalescence portion of the card is just too overbearing)
Tragic Arrogance - A great replacement for Cataclysm if your playgroup doesnt like the LD portion. It is in someways better than cataclysm as you get to choose what they keep.
Day's Undoing - Interesting card ... give it flash and do some hilarious things to stop your opponents from doing EOT Shinanigans
Disciple of the Ring - great for decks which don't have a way of recycling graveyard otherwise its really iffy as the graveyard is basically a second hand.
Jace's Sanctum - great for control decks and a special favorite for my Talrand deck to smooth out my draws.
Soul Blade Djinn - Spell heavy decks may be able to use this as a win condition. Otherwise just it might just show up in Talrand decks.
Talent of the Telepath - Whats better than using your oppenent's Tooth and Nail? How about using 2 Tooth and Nails? (unfortunately the spells arent entwined so it basically is 4 mana for an TaN Entwined)
Thopter Spy Network - A 4 mana Bitterblossom with tagged on abilities and no downsides ... I know that its 4 cmc but in a game which can drag on for many turns this card is hilariously strong at clogging up the board. (fun fact: the longest game i have ever played was 3 hours long and only ended because the janitor needed to clean the room)
Whirler Rogue - grixis artifacts with a random Master of Cruelties to make your enemies cry
Willbreaker - use with Prodigal Sorcerer for hilarious times
Dark Dabbling - Great for cards like Day of Judgement or cards which you can regen through (also nets you a card as well).
Dark Petition - pseudo demonic tutor isnt that bad in a format which 5 mana in black is easily achievable.
Demonic pact - hilarious card to Donate to your enemy once you are done using it.
Erebos's Titan - If only it said an opponent instead of your opponents this card would be so much crazier. But as it stands, the titan can be used as a discard outlet/fodder.
Graveblade Marauder - Self mill has another wincon? This card is great ... now if only it had some somber or witty flavour text.
Infinite Obliteration - great if you know what your opponent has, otherwise its a crap shoot and a way to look at what they are running in their deck.
Languish - Anti-indestructible pseudo-wrath
Tainted Remedy - oh look at all the life that you are gaining, it would be a shame if someone were to make you lose that much instead (also the card art is beautiful and very story driven)
Abbot of Keral Keep - oh look more CA for red
Chandra's Ignition - note that the card doesn't kill the creature it targets ... works great with deathtouch or lifelink
Flameshadow Conjouring - great for those Riku decks if they didnt have enough copy abilities
Shivan Dragon - 10/10 hands down the best card ever, I even traded my bayou, and volcanic island for it ... T.T I still regret making that decision to this very day ...
Animist's Awakening - HI HO LANDFALL!!! great if you have spare mana to dump.
Evolutionary Leap - Great for creature light decks which run token generators and have impactful big creatures (use in a 5cc deck with one copy of progenitus)
Herald of the Pantheon - I feel like this set was more Theros than the entire Theros block combined ... makes me sad that this creature isn't an enchantment as well
Managorger Hydra - gets real big, real quick. Fortunately it lacks protection.
Nissa's Revelation - Great for decks like Mayael or the Green good stuff.
The Greater Aurora - A watered down and more forgiving version of Warp World ... crazy fun in token decks.
Woodland bellower - tutor for utility creatures you say ... searches for and is searched by Fierce Empath you say ...
Shaman of the Pack - G/B elves have another wincon
Alhammarret's Archive - oh boy I can't wait to abuse it with Sensei's Divining Top
Hangarback Walker - suprisingly fun and effective in non cutthroat environments
Helm of the Gods - great ... wizards is taunting my anti artifact stance ...
Orbs of Warding - Use with Ajani Steadfast or Forcefield
Pyromancer's Goggles - If you thought that one Warp World was annoying, wait till you have to resolve two.
Sword of the Animist - Mana ramp, pretty simple and straight forward
alternatively if hes combo based consider going for a hate deck like teeg with a bunch of hatebears.
shield of the oversoul doens't play nicely with swords of x and y cause of how protection works. consider using either the complete kaldra set or just the shield of kaldra
genesis seems a little out of place when you have SoLoS
The set has many cards which will be interesting to see in commander. Formidable, megamorph, bolster are interesting mechanics with formidable probably being the only mechanic which may impact EDH the most in the form of Shaman of Forgotten Ways
Legendaries in the set:
Humans:
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit - really interesting card i would love to see a deck which is able to properly use her ability but the fact that it is bolster 1 rather than 1 counter on target creature makes me a little sad (bolster 2 would have made it so much stronger).
Sidisi, Undead Vizier - a great commander and has the potential to become very strong due to the fact that black can generate lots of bodies for sidisi to explot and ways to kill her off and bring her back. aven mindcensor, torpor orb, hushwing gryph, and leonin arbiter are your friends in this match up.
Surrak the Hunt Caller - compared to the other version, this surrak seems underwhelming as xenegod can do his job better.
Zurgo Bellstriker - oh how low you have fallen zurgo the card fits the character but thats about it not really viable for much.
Dragons:
Dragonlord Atarka - great way for clearing the way for your commander 7 mana for 8/8 trample flying with the ability to shoot things on attack is a formidable creature. since hes green, conventional prison cards like vows and such are almost pointless to play since they are quickly removed. your hope is to out race him.
Dragonlord Dromoka - Dromoka lends himself/herself to a more control oriented build similar to what gadock teeg would do. replacing cards like armadillo cloak and its counter parts for more silver bullets and possibly more ramp. Overall I feel like dromoka would be better as part of the 99 with someone like teeg at the helm.
Dragonlord Kolaghan - a half decent RB commander 6 for a 6/5 haste is nothing to sneeze at and granting your other creatures haste is great as well. the second ability shuts down relentless rats decks and shadowborn apostle decks.
Dragonlord Ojutai - great card advantage although the hexproof clause is a little upsetting. fortunately blue and white has many ways to keep it untapped
Dragonlord Silumgar - lowest power of the dragonlords but a very strong
will cover other cards later
another reason cards like uril, sigarda, and thrun are better is because its easier to find cards which pump a creature than it is to get multiple cards which protect it. Drawing multiple buff spells is perfectly fine, however if you need cards like alexis's cloak, vanishing, fool's demise drawing these cards multiple times in a row makes them dead draws.
the point of voltron is to either come out of the gate beating everyone to a pulp (most green voltrons which ramp super hard then drop down their commander) or you go mid/late game with lots of control and then kill people out of no where (zur, bruna, and most other blue voltron commanders)
also use deck tags and sort the cards so its easier to read
also erayo is banned and you dont really have enought small spells to fire off to trigger her flip
checked your decklist on deck stats and your cards are heavier on the W symbols you might want to find some ramp which can cover for it as your mana base is basically 33.33% divided. also you need more ramp. ramp creatures arent that useful due to the number of board wipes in the game. consider using cards like cultivate, kodama's reach, and explosive vegetation.
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Angel of Jubilation
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Erayo, soratami ascendant
1 Sun Titan
1 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Karametra, God of Harvests
1 Kruphix, God of Horizons
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
1 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Soul of New Phyrexia
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Sublime Archangel
1 Mother of Runes
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Bloom Tender
1 Somberwald Sage
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 Bane of Progress
1 Terastodon
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Dauntless Escort
1 Trygon Predator
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Nevermore
1 Greater Good
1 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Rest in Peace
1 Aura of Silence
1 Land Tax
1 Sylvan Library
1 Finest Hour
1 Rancor
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Shield of the Oversoul
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Obelisk of Bant
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Sol Ring
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Azorius Signet
1 Simic Signet
1 Wargate
1 Chord of Calling
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Time Stop
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Capsize
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Krosan Grip
1 Trickbind
1 Brainstorm
1 Remand
1 Hallowed Burial
1 Council's Judgment
1 Counterspell
1 Pact of Negation
1 Azorius Charm
1 Simic Charm
1 Selesnya Charm
1 Bant Charm
1 Planar Cleansing
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Beast Within
1 Hinder
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mystic Gate
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Temple of Plenty
1 Command Tower
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Flooded Grove
1 Mana Confluence
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Simic Guildgate
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Simic Growth Chamber
4 Forest
4 Plains
4 Island
Dromoka lends himself/herself (never bothered to look at the genders) to a more control oriented build similar to what gadock teeg would do. replacing cards like armadillo cloak and its counter parts for more silver bullets and possibly more ramp.
Overall i feel like dromoka would be better as part of the 99 with someone like teeg at the helm.
the fact that you can power out a turn two rafiq and game people on turn 3 is a scary thing in deed
bruna, uril, and sigarda are close second because of the speed that they can end once they start their attack and their resiliency due to how their decks are built.
Bruna builds closer to the mid-late game where she can kill people out of nowhere
uril has hexproof and red ld to make removing him a pain
sigarda is one of the hardest things to get rid of once she has shield of the oversoul and flickerform on her