Hey there Smaug thanks for commenting. I really like your deck it has a lot of good synergy in it.
If you want to protect your board I have a few suggestions. I think Glen Elendra Archmage is a good option. If you combine it with any card that adds counters to it, you can remove the -1-1 counters and keep persisting it.
While not as on theme as Archmage, Atraxa has access to both Teferi's Protection and Heroic Intervention. In a similar vein, counterspells fit here as well. I just want to say I love the inclusion of Stubborn Denial, excellent choice.
You could also go a different way and run things like Greater Good or Evolutionary Leap. Both of these cards make it way less profitable for your opponents to remove your creatures.
A little off topic but I like Rishkar, Peema Renegade as he could provide so much mana in a deck like this.
Cuts is about the hardest thing to do. It is my least favorite thing about playing Atraxa so I feel your pain. Here is a list of cards I dont like all that much. None are terrible or anything but these are the cards I would start with if I was looking for room. They are in no particular order.
I play Atraxa Superfriends and I run 36 lands plus about 15 ramp spells. This is quite a bit of ramp and is maybe a little excessive. I also run lots of good non-basic lands to help with fixing so all of my ramp is focused on synergy.
I like the 2 drop ramp spells as they can facilitate a turn 3 Atraxa. Having the option to start explosively is nice when the game allows for it. You will have to judge how your meta handles this.
If you have time check out my Atraxa primer. There is a link in my signature and its on the list of primers. There is a ton of info in there about all sorts of Atraxa strategies.
Hey Darren, thanks for the suggestions. I checked out your list and it looks really nice. You were right, I am going for something a little less competitive with this build. I did find some sweet cards to add in it though. As per your suggestions and looking at your list I'm going to make these changes:
Hey thanks for the reply. I run Homeward Path because there are quite a few Nicol Bolas decks that like to steal things. I would only use it if one my Eldrazi Titans was stolen.
I like all of these suggestions.. I don't own some of these cards but I will try this change:
Out: Insurrection Scourge of the Throne
This my build of Etali. I don't think its particularly special but it fills a role in my collection of decks. This is the 'big spells' deck. Thanks for looking!
This is my Roon of the Hidden Realm Deck. When Roon was printed in 2013, 5 years ago, I was disappointed with him. I wanted a legend to flicker, not one that flickers. At the time I was playing Rasputin Dreamweaver and while that was fun, I had always considered Bant to be the ultimate shard for ETB decks. Sadly, Roon was never built. I played Derevi Staxx that year. I played Jenara before and after Roon was printed. It wasn't until this year I started playing Roon. You're probably thinking, 'Oh xeroxed, isn't it nice that you and Roon learned to love each other? What a nice ending to an otherwise stupid story.' Well you are wrong, I was right about Roon all along. Something can't be the best option if it is the only option. Sometimes I play him and sometimes I untap with him. He is still the only creature in the deck removal is particularly good against. The deck is quite fun and I do enjoy playing it. I'm posting it here mostly to record it and put a link to it in my signature, I think that looks pretty.
Thesis:
This deck wants to ramp, draw cards, and combo off. It wants to do all of those things using creatures to do so, whenever possible. There is a beatdown plan available with Roon + Swords. His keyword abilities are nice and people often forget they are there. This deck does not want to play the control role in the game and generally doesn't care what the other players are doing. I'm not running board wipes or counters because I don't wanna. My philosophy is that all my creatures do their business when they ETB. I don't care if they get wrathed away or not. Counters are pretty prevalent in my local meta so I go under then with crappy dudes like Wood Elves and Mulldrifter. Its hard to gain tempo against a deck with some many cheap creatures and card advantage engines.
This deck contains many infinite combos and I will try to explain them all here. Certain cards are the cores for many combos so I will use those as focal points to the decks win conditions.
Palinchron
Palinchron can be used to create infinite mana in many different ways. This doesn't win the game on its own, but it can create situations where it becomes very easy to set up other game winning combos.
If you have one or both of these lands and you can produce 12 mana by tapping 7 lands, you can make infinite mana with Palinchron.
Panharmonicon makes it so that Palinchron produces 7 mana. This means that you can produce 3 mana per activation and recast of the Illusion, going infinite.
Mirari's Wake functions the same was as situation 1 but it is even easier as you only need the Wake and the Illusion.
Phantasmal Image cloning Palinchron is another easy two card combo. Casting it for 2 and returning it for 4 allow for +1 mana each casting.
Hey its getting late and Ill post more later if yall care.
I like Vivien as well. She looks like she could be powerful in your deck. I checked out the link in your signature.
Are you going to cut Sylvan Reclamation for Judgement? Windgrace's Judgement is more powerful but a little less versatile as you dont get the cycling ability. If it was me I would want both cards as they actually play nice together.
I think Ever-Watching Threshold will be a very valuable card one day. You only draw one card per combat. But it still lets you either draw extra cards or have planeswalkers in play for longer. I wish more cards like this existed or more cards said 'or a planeswalker.'
Commander 2018 Review:
This set has quite a lot of nice cards for the format. There are 4 new planeswalkers and plenty of stuff to talk about. Here are my thoughts on the cards that are relevant for this deck.
Ever-Watching Threshold is fairly nice as people are always interested in attacking you. Playing Atraxa and having a planeswalker in play is always something that seems to draw attackers.
Bloodtracker is an option for +1/+1 counter decks. The nice thing about this card is that you can flicker it and draw cards as well. It doesn't need to die.
Loyal Guardian is another option for counters decks. It curves nicely with Atraxa as you can play it the turn after her and then get counters.
Ravenous Slime is a powerful magic card and could potentially see play in eternal formats. It removes creatures from the graveyard and prevents all dies triggers just by being in play. It has counters which is always nice for proliferate decks.
Aminatou, the Fateshifter Aminatou is a cool card for lots of reasons. The art is very creepy and the abilities are all fairly powerful. My current build doesn't have much use for putting a card back on top of its library, but that can be nice in combination with fetchlands. The 2nd ability can be fairly useful for resetting planeswalkers. Flickering a PW this way resets its loyalty and all its activations. This goes nicely with The Chain Veil and Oath of Teferi. The ultimate can be achieved immediately with Doubling Season which is nice. While I always consider that a plus, this is an ultimate I almost never want to activate.
Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle I want to mention this card only because it has counters. It is not good in our deck, but if someone else is playing it you can proliferate it and make it harder to turn into a creature.
Estrid, the Masked Estrid is a very interesting card but I don't like it for our build. I think she will make a nice commander but she isn't good for Atraxa.
Windgrace's Judgement This Judgement is a powerful card. It is slightly expensive but it can remove lots of threats.
Forge of Heroes Forge is a card that I don't really like in this deck. It only targets commanders which I think makes it worse than Opal Palace. One can run it they really want it, but I think the colorless mana makes it worse in a deck with so many requirements.
If you want to protect your board I have a few suggestions. I think Glen Elendra Archmage is a good option. If you combine it with any card that adds counters to it, you can remove the -1-1 counters and keep persisting it.
While not as on theme as Archmage, Atraxa has access to both Teferi's Protection and Heroic Intervention. In a similar vein, counterspells fit here as well. I just want to say I love the inclusion of Stubborn Denial, excellent choice.
You could also go a different way and run things like Greater Good or Evolutionary Leap. Both of these cards make it way less profitable for your opponents to remove your creatures.
A little off topic but I like Rishkar, Peema Renegade as he could provide so much mana in a deck like this.
Cuts is about the hardest thing to do. It is my least favorite thing about playing Atraxa so I feel your pain. Here is a list of cards I dont like all that much. None are terrible or anything but these are the cards I would start with if I was looking for room. They are in no particular order.
Hadana's Climb
Path of Discovery
Dusk // Dawn
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Altered Ego
Inexorable Tide
I like the 2 drop ramp spells as they can facilitate a turn 3 Atraxa. Having the option to start explosively is nice when the game allows for it. You will have to judge how your meta handles this.
Here are some good ramp spells for Atraxa.
If you have time check out my Atraxa primer. There is a link in my signature and its on the list of primers. There is a ton of info in there about all sorts of Atraxa strategies.
Lotus Bloom
Cathartic Reunion
Added
Inspiring Statuary
Nevinyrral's Disk
I would like to get Blightsteel Colossus in here.
Remove:
Saheeli Rai
Deep Analysis
Prototype Portal
Precursor Golem
Add:
Oblivion Stone
Bident of Thassa
One with the Machine
Utvara Hellkite
Thanks for your help!
I like all of these suggestions.. I don't own some of these cards but I will try this change:
Out:
Insurrection
Scourge of the Throne
In:
Oblivion Stone
Sunbird's Invocation
I would love to add those lands, but I don't own them at the moment. I will add them in the future. Thanks for your suggestions
1 Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer
Artifacts:
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Skullclamp
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Izzet Signet
1 Mind Stone
1 Sky Diamond
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Inspiring Statuary
1 Mimic Vat
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Clock of Omens
1 Hedron Archive
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Unwinding Clock
1 Blinkmoth Urn
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Mirrorworks
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Darksteel Forge
Enchantments:
1 Bident of Thassa
1 Efficient Construction
1 Storm the Vault
1 Thopter Spy Network
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Whir of Invention
Sorceries:
1 Faithless Looting
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Compulsive Research
1 Fabricate
1 One With the Machine
1 Scrap Mastery
Planeswalkers:
1 Dack Fayden
1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
Creatures:
1 Chief Engineer
1 Etherium Sculptor
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Myr Retriever
1 Feldon of the Third Path
1 Foundry Inspector
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Sai, Master Thopterist
1 Scrap Trawler
1 Trinket Mage
1 Jhoira's Familiar
1 Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Vedalken Archmage
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Utvara Hellkite
10 Island
8 Mountain
1 Volcanic Island
1 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Command Tower
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Command Tower
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Polluted Delta
1 Arid Mesa
1 Flooded Strand
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Great Furnace
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Seat of the Synod
Missing Goblin Welder
1 Etali, Primal Storm
Artifacts:
0 Everflowing Chalice
0 Mana Crypt
0 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Vault
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Voltaic Key
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Doubling Cube
1 Fire Diamond
1 Grim Monolith
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mind Stone
1 Scroll Rack
1 Star Compass
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Thought Vessel
1 Treasure Map
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Hedron Archive
1 Sisay's Ring
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Ur-Golem's Eye
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Memory Jar
1 Paradox Engine
1 Caged Sun
1 Aggravated Assault
1 Fervor
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Outpost Siege
1 Sunbird's Invocation
Sorceries:
1 Faithless Looting
1 Shattering Spree
1 Vandalblast
1 Cathartic Reunion
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Relentless Assault
1 Seize the Day
1 Reforge the Soul
1 World at War
Instants:
1 Fork
1 Reverberate
1 Savage Beating
Planeswalkers:
1 Karn Liberated
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Creatures:
1 Goblin Welder
1 Generator Servant
1 Metalworker
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Hellkite Tyrant
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Deserted Temple
1 Great Furnace
1 High Market
1 Homeward Path
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
26 Snow-Covered Mountain
This is my Roon of the Hidden Realm Deck. When Roon was printed in 2013, 5 years ago, I was disappointed with him. I wanted a legend to flicker, not one that flickers. At the time I was playing Rasputin Dreamweaver and while that was fun, I had always considered Bant to be the ultimate shard for ETB decks. Sadly, Roon was never built. I played Derevi Staxx that year. I played Jenara before and after Roon was printed. It wasn't until this year I started playing Roon. You're probably thinking, 'Oh xeroxed, isn't it nice that you and Roon learned to love each other? What a nice ending to an otherwise stupid story.' Well you are wrong, I was right about Roon all along. Something can't be the best option if it is the only option. Sometimes I play him and sometimes I untap with him. He is still the only creature in the deck removal is particularly good against. The deck is quite fun and I do enjoy playing it. I'm posting it here mostly to record it and put a link to it in my signature, I think that looks pretty.
Thesis:
This deck wants to ramp, draw cards, and combo off. It wants to do all of those things using creatures to do so, whenever possible. There is a beatdown plan available with Roon + Swords. His keyword abilities are nice and people often forget they are there. This deck does not want to play the control role in the game and generally doesn't care what the other players are doing. I'm not running board wipes or counters because I don't wanna. My philosophy is that all my creatures do their business when they ETB. I don't care if they get wrathed away or not. Counters are pretty prevalent in my local meta so I go under then with crappy dudes like Wood Elves and Mulldrifter. Its hard to gain tempo against a deck with some many cheap creatures and card advantage engines.
1 Roon of the Hidden Realm
Creatures:
1 Coiling Oracle
1 Gilded Drake
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Wall of Omens
1 Eternal Witness
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Fierce Empath
1 Flickerwisp
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Mirror Entity
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Spellseeker
1 Trinket Mage
1 Wood Elves
1 Ephara, God of the Polis
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Mystic Snake
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Acidic Slime
1 Couldblazer
1 Karmic Guide
1 Mulldrifter
1 Peregrine Drake
1 Reveillark
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 Sun Titan
1 Palinchron
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Azorius Signet
1 Simic Signet
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Talisman of Unity
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Birthing Pod
1 Panharmonicon
Enchantments:
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Sylvan Library
1 Aura Shards
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 Mirari's Wake
Instants and Sorcery:
1 Brainstorm
1 Path to Exile
1 Preordain
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Ghostway
Planeswalkers:
1 Venser, the Sojourner
Lands:
1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Command Tower
1 Gaea's Cradle
4 Forest
4 Island
4 Plains
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Tundra
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortess
1 Prairie Stream
1 Irrigated Farmland
1 Savannah
1 Temple Garden
1 Windswept Heath
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Canopy Vista
1 Scattered Groves
1 Tropical Island
1 Breeding Pool
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Hinterland Harbor
Combos:
This deck contains many infinite combos and I will try to explain them all here. Certain cards are the cores for many combos so I will use those as focal points to the decks win conditions.
Palinchron
Palinchron can be used to create infinite mana in many different ways. This doesn't win the game on its own, but it can create situations where it becomes very easy to set up other game winning combos.
Hey its getting late and Ill post more later if yall care.
Cards I dont like in the 2nd list posted:
Sylvan Advocate
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent
Flameblast Dragon
Soul of Innistrad
Charnelhoard Wurm
Thantis, the Warweaver
Whiptongue Hydra (I like this if your meta has a lot of flying)
Are you going to cut Sylvan Reclamation for Judgement? Windgrace's Judgement is more powerful but a little less versatile as you dont get the cycling ability. If it was me I would want both cards as they actually play nice together.
I think Ever-Watching Threshold will be a very valuable card one day. You only draw one card per combat. But it still lets you either draw extra cards or have planeswalkers in play for longer. I wish more cards like this existed or more cards said 'or a planeswalker.'
This set has quite a lot of nice cards for the format. There are 4 new planeswalkers and plenty of stuff to talk about. Here are my thoughts on the cards that are relevant for this deck.
Ever-Watching Threshold is fairly nice as people are always interested in attacking you. Playing Atraxa and having a planeswalker in play is always something that seems to draw attackers.
Bloodtracker is an option for +1/+1 counter decks. The nice thing about this card is that you can flicker it and draw cards as well. It doesn't need to die.
Loyal Guardian is another option for counters decks. It curves nicely with Atraxa as you can play it the turn after her and then get counters.
Ravenous Slime is a powerful magic card and could potentially see play in eternal formats. It removes creatures from the graveyard and prevents all dies triggers just by being in play. It has counters which is always nice for proliferate decks.
Aminatou, the Fateshifter Aminatou is a cool card for lots of reasons. The art is very creepy and the abilities are all fairly powerful. My current build doesn't have much use for putting a card back on top of its library, but that can be nice in combination with fetchlands. The 2nd ability can be fairly useful for resetting planeswalkers. Flickering a PW this way resets its loyalty and all its activations. This goes nicely with The Chain Veil and Oath of Teferi. The ultimate can be achieved immediately with Doubling Season which is nice. While I always consider that a plus, this is an ultimate I almost never want to activate.
Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle I want to mention this card only because it has counters. It is not good in our deck, but if someone else is playing it you can proliferate it and make it harder to turn into a creature.
Estrid, the Masked Estrid is a very interesting card but I don't like it for our build. I think she will make a nice commander but she isn't good for Atraxa.
Windgrace's Judgement This Judgement is a powerful card. It is slightly expensive but it can remove lots of threats.
Forge of Heroes Forge is a card that I don't really like in this deck. It only targets commanders which I think makes it worse than Opal Palace. One can run it they really want it, but I think the colorless mana makes it worse in a deck with so many requirements.