Here is an honest question. Do you need to draw more cards? or do you need your opponents to have less cards? Sire of Insanity. Force people to use Xantcha's card draw ability. For extra fun, use him with Painful Quandary!
I have made a few changes. Master Biomancer was swapped for Forgotten Ancient. The later is simply more efficient at making utility creatures larger. I also made room for Commit // Memory because I wanted more removal and I needed a plan B in case of deck death. I had a couple games where my Laboratory Maniac found himself in exile and my library was dangerously small.
Pir & Toothy, Imagine a better friend!
Do you like to draw cards? Do you you like to punch your opponents with really big creatures? Do you like having a plan B just in case? Then this is the duo for you! Let me introduce you to Pir, Imaginative Rascal and Toothy, Imaginary Friend!
Getting Started
The goal of this deck is very straight forward. You want to stick Pir & Toothy on the board as soon as possible, then you want to draw a lot of cards. From there you use a massive Toothy to inflict commander damage on your opponents, or you can use your draw triggers to setup one of 3 alternate win conditions. Those alternate win conditions are:
Psychosis Crawler - Make each opponent loose life for each card you draw.
Laboratory Maniac - Draw your entire library for the win! It is so easy to do that you must be watchful not to so prematurely.
Simic Ascendancy - New with Ravnica Allegiance. If you have both Pir & Toothy on the board, you get 3 counters on ascendancy with each draw trigger. You will only need 7 of those triggers.
To make sure Toothy can make a meaningful connection with your opponent, the deck includes a pretty standard collection of evasion spells. Rancor, Herald of Secret Streams, Rogue's Passage and Overwhelming Stampede really do not need an explanation. One card I do want to single out is: Mu Yanling. Initially she was only included as a pet card with pretty artwork, but I feel that the utility of this card has earned it a place in this deck as I push the power level to 75% and beyond. I can't recommend it enough.
Deck Death, your Achilles Heel.
The finesse of this deck comes from micro-managing Toothy. He is your best bud, but as touched on above, he will kill you if you are not paying attention to how many cards are left in your library. More than once an opponent has eliminated me without even planning to do so. All it takes is one board wipe to resolve at the wrong time. There are a few strategies for avoiding this:
Plan A - Remove the counters from Toothy with Bioshift or Galloping Lizrog. This is your best option. Many of the support spells depend on a big creature. The deck has also used Ooze Flux in the past, but I found it to be mana intensive.
Plan B - Keep your library as full as possible. The deck cares about drawing cards, so why not re-draw a card? In an ideal world, you don't want to be doing that too often, so I only put in two options: Memory, and Day's Undoing.
Plan C - Counter Toothy's triggered ability when he leaves the battlefield. This deck includes Stifle and it's clones just for this reason. They also come in handy against an opponent hard casting an Eldrazi titan, or a planeswalker ultimate.
Plan E - When all else fails, you can enchant Toothy with Song of the Dryads or Imprisoned in the Moon. It will not feel good to use these cards this way. They are first and foremost a removal option meant for your opponents, but at least you will survive.
My last tip is that you want an additional pair of 10 sided dice to track your library count as if it is a life total. It will avoid holding up the game since you won't need to count your hand, graveyard pile, exile pile, and non-token permanents all the time.
Not a Simic Tribal Deck. Master Biomancer, Fathom Mage, Doubling Season & etc. are all fun and fantastic cards, but they do not belong in this deck. I have tested them, and many other Simic +1/+1 staples. This deck needs to focus on drawing cards, evasion and avoiding deck death. Cutting cards from either of those categories or from your pool of protection spells will cause the deck to loose focus. I have made a few exceptions:
Hardened scales is almost a back up to Pir. Using them together is a win-more strategy if there ever was one, but at CMC 1, the indulgence is safe. Doubling Season or Primal Vigor are just a waste of mana for the same gain.
Kalonian Hydra is simply a good beater, and will close a game if it goes unanswered.
Deepglow Skate spends a lot of time in my hand, but when combined with a smaller draw spell, it has helped me reclaim my board state after a wipe.
The main reason I am trying to focus on artifacts is that I want to run both Academy Ruins and Volrath's Stronghold to control the top of deck. With that I can run Skill Borrower or control what my Mindshrieker mills. I have also thought of Deceiver of Form, because turning a handful of weenies into an army of Eater of Days is the kind of thing that amuses me. Unfortunately it clashes with my stax plan.
Another card I like is Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive because our support cards are all 1 power or toughness. Speaking of support, Dreamscape Artist is at home in this deck.
I have been playing with Grimgrin as commander since he was released. I have built every major variation including combo / tribal, good stuff and aristocrat. While looking over my last aristocrat build I wondered if could put more iron in his diet. Using artifact creature tokens to feed Grimgrin would let me run Marionette Master in addition to usual package of Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat.
As I started to put the deck on paper, I found myself moving away from a pure aristocrat build. I had already planed to incorporate a Salvaging Station package. Grimgrin makes it easy to trigger. Since Salvaging Station usually accompanies a stax package, I began to look at some of those staples. Through that research, I began to see a pattern. Many of the best stax artifacts involving keeping your opponents tapped down. In effect I could share Grimgrins weaknesses with my opponents and turn his untap cost into a boon.
This is my first pass. Are there any obvious combo's I may be missing? Sub optimal choices? I am very open to suggestions.
EDIT** So I did some shopping around online. The main deck is $66.25 CDN. Close to my budget there. The mana base is $228.82 CDN. More than double my plan. I like the deck allot, but I may have to return to the drawing board.
and has 14 sources of each color for warriors and 10 sources of each color for cowards.
I guess I know what time line is your favorite. ;P
You have given me allot to digest. Thank you. Your number work in particular is appreciated. I can tell you took some time to write that up.
Based on your feedback it sounds like my biggest problem is having the mana to cast my turn 1 creatures. My second problem is hitting double white.
My original draft of this list was Golgari. I only went with Abzan because a friend pointed out Mardu Woe-Reaper which was a perfect fit. He replaced a planed 4x Vampire Lacerator that I was unsure of. Adding white also won me over because I could replace metallic mimic with Chief of the Edge. The Arashin Foremost was chosen only because I though that if I went without it, the deck would be lacking one of the more powerful warriors. If it is in fact a liability, and a barrier to affording the deck, I will cut it in a heart beat.
I must admit I never stopped to consider how one the $0.50 cards could alter the cost of the mana base, making it more expensive overall.
Fleet Swallower is good for milling your opponent or yourself. It is a Traumatize on a beat stick. I only took it out of my build because I went with a +1/+1 counter direction.
The second card I can emphatically recommend is Mindless Automaton. He is very utilitarian. Casting him normally, he is a way to get a desirable reanimation target from your hand into the grave. As a target for the Mimeoplasm he is card draw in a pinch. In my own build that contains plenty of counter doubling, he is basically discard a card, then draw a card.
Hello folks! I am mostly a commander player, but I want to branch out into modern a little bit so that I can attend my local FNM. I came up with deck idea after noticing a few synergies while working on a commander tribal deck. I am hoping there is a person here who would be kind enough to help me with the mana base. I have a $100 budget for the mana base. Most of the main deck I have, or I will treat as an additional expense.
Solemnity I really hate this card right now. Most of my decks use counters of some kind, and I am not alone in my meta. As a result every deck that can shoe horn this in is doing so, and I am getting really sick of seeing it. I have started working on a couple of new decks, but until they are playable I have no purpose at the table. I simply can't run enough removal to deal with the number of copies of this card plus the constant recursion. I am really hoping this card is a fad that will die out in a few months after we play a few new decks for a while.
I have been considering replacing Grimgrin, Corpse-Born with Taigam, Sidisi's Hand. My grimgrin build is non-tribal, and it is already leaning towards re-animator stax. solemnity has become very common in my meta and I have grown tired of playing around it.
Mist of stagnation, has some strong synergy. I use it with grimgrin to slow down ramp decks and as an alternate way of untapping him. Taigam feeds the card well, and his activated ability lets me control how many cards are in my graveyard. One downside to mist of stagnation is that if you have 10 cards in your graveyard, and you only control 7 permanents, then you have to target 3 things you opponents control to untap.
1 Forgotten Ancient
1 Rites of Flourishing
1 Commit // Memory
1 Trygon Predator
1 Master Biomancer
1 Temple Bell
1 overwhelming stampede
1 Acidic Slime
Pir & Toothy, Imagine a better friend!
Do you like to draw cards? Do you you like to punch your opponents with really big creatures? Do you like having a plan B just in case? Then this is the duo for you! Let me introduce you to Pir, Imaginative Rascal and Toothy, Imaginary Friend!
Getting Started
The goal of this deck is very straight forward. You want to stick Pir & Toothy on the board as soon as possible, then you want to draw a lot of cards. From there you use a massive Toothy to inflict commander damage on your opponents, or you can use your draw triggers to setup one of 3 alternate win conditions. Those alternate win conditions are:
Psychosis Crawler - Make each opponent loose life for each card you draw.
Laboratory Maniac - Draw your entire library for the win! It is so easy to do that you must be watchful not to so prematurely.
Simic Ascendancy - New with Ravnica Allegiance. If you have both Pir & Toothy on the board, you get 3 counters on ascendancy with each draw trigger. You will only need 7 of those triggers.
To make sure Toothy can make a meaningful connection with your opponent, the deck includes a pretty standard collection of evasion spells. Rancor, Herald of Secret Streams, Rogue's Passage and Overwhelming Stampede really do not need an explanation. One card I do want to single out is: Mu Yanling. Initially she was only included as a pet card with pretty artwork, but I feel that the utility of this card has earned it a place in this deck as I push the power level to 75% and beyond. I can't recommend it enough.
Deck Death, your Achilles Heel.
The finesse of this deck comes from micro-managing Toothy. He is your best bud, but as touched on above, he will kill you if you are not paying attention to how many cards are left in your library. More than once an opponent has eliminated me without even planning to do so. All it takes is one board wipe to resolve at the wrong time. There are a few strategies for avoiding this:
Plan A - Remove the counters from Toothy with Bioshift or Galloping Lizrog. This is your best option. Many of the support spells depend on a big creature. The deck has also used Ooze Flux in the past, but I found it to be mana intensive.
Plan B - Keep your library as full as possible. The deck cares about drawing cards, so why not re-draw a card? In an ideal world, you don't want to be doing that too often, so I only put in two options: Memory, and Day's Undoing.
Plan C - Counter Toothy's triggered ability when he leaves the battlefield. This deck includes Stifle and it's clones just for this reason. They also come in handy against an opponent hard casting an Eldrazi titan, or a planeswalker ultimate.
Plan D - Remove Toothy from the battlefield before he outgrows your library. The deck has lots of positive sacrifice effects, like Miren, the Moaning Well or Eldritch Evolution, so don't hesitate to kill him if you need too. Lorescale Coatl and Chasm Skulker may thank you.
Plan E - When all else fails, you can enchant Toothy with Song of the Dryads or Imprisoned in the Moon. It will not feel good to use these cards this way. They are first and foremost a removal option meant for your opponents, but at least you will survive.
My last tip is that you want an additional pair of 10 sided dice to track your library count as if it is a life total. It will avoid holding up the game since you won't need to count your hand, graveyard pile, exile pile, and non-token permanents all the time.
Not a Simic Tribal Deck.
Master Biomancer, Fathom Mage, Doubling Season & etc. are all fun and fantastic cards, but they do not belong in this deck. I have tested them, and many other Simic +1/+1 staples. This deck needs to focus on drawing cards, evasion and avoiding deck death. Cutting cards from either of those categories or from your pool of protection spells will cause the deck to loose focus. I have made a few exceptions:
Hardened scales is almost a back up to Pir. Using them together is a win-more strategy if there ever was one, but at CMC 1, the indulgence is safe. Doubling Season or Primal Vigor are just a waste of mana for the same gain.
Kalonian Hydra is simply a good beater, and will close a game if it goes unanswered.
Deepglow Skate spends a lot of time in my hand, but when combined with a smaller draw spell, it has helped me reclaim my board state after a wipe.
The Decklist
1 Toothy, Imaginary Friend
1 Pir, Imaginative Rascal
Creature
1 Kalonian Hydra
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Chasm Skulker
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 Eternal Witness
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Jace's Archivist
1 Herald of Secret Streams
1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
1 Lorescale Coatl
1 Deepglow Skate
1 Galloping Lizrog
Artifact Creature
1 Crystalline Crawler
1 Silent Arbiter
1 Psychosis Crawler
Planeswalker
1 Mu Yanling
Enchantment
1 Rancor
1 Asceticism
1 Propaganda
1 Ordeal of Nylea
1 Ordeal of Thassa
1 Imprisoned in the Moon
1 As Foretold
1 Hardened Scales
1 Song of the Dryads
1 Simic Ascendancy
1 Anvil of Bogardan
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Simic Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Thought Vessel
1 Coalition Relic
Instant
1 Forbid
1 Tolarian Winds
1 Echoing Truth
1 Voidslime
1 Momentous Fall
1 Bioshift
1 Stifle
1 Stubborn Denial
1 Brainstorm
1 Beast Within
1 Disallow
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Commit // Memory
1 Berserk
1 Krosan Grip
1 Flash
1 Pact of Negation
1 Mystic Confluence
1 Growth Spiral
Sorcery
1 Explore
1 Overwhelming Stampede
1 Give // Take
1 Day's Undoing
1 Eldritch Evolution
1 Rishkar's Expertise
1 Traverse the Outlands
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Windfall
1 Soul's Majesty
1 Regrowth
1 Repudiate // Replicate
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Breeding Pool
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Rogue's Passage
1 High Market
1 Botanical Sanctum
1 Command Tower
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Flooded Grove
9 Island
9 Forest
The main reason I am trying to focus on artifacts is that I want to run both Academy Ruins and Volrath's Stronghold to control the top of deck. With that I can run Skill Borrower or control what my Mindshrieker mills. I have also thought of Deceiver of Form, because turning a handful of weenies into an army of Eater of Days is the kind of thing that amuses me. Unfortunately it clashes with my stax plan.
Another card I like is Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive because our support cards are all 1 power or toughness. Speaking of support, Dreamscape Artist is at home in this deck.
As I started to put the deck on paper, I found myself moving away from a pure aristocrat build. I had already planed to incorporate a Salvaging Station package. Grimgrin makes it easy to trigger. Since Salvaging Station usually accompanies a stax package, I began to look at some of those staples. Through that research, I began to see a pattern. Many of the best stax artifacts involving keeping your opponents tapped down. In effect I could share Grimgrins weaknesses with my opponents and turn his untap cost into a boon.
This is my first pass. Are there any obvious combo's I may be missing? Sub optimal choices? I am very open to suggestions.
1 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
Creature
1 Cemetery Puca
1 Marionette Master
1 Pitiless Plunderer
1 Sai, Master Thopterist
1 Trinket Mage
1 Whirler Rogue
1 Vedalken Humiliator
1 Grand Architect
Enchantment
1 Thopter Spy Network
1 Revel in Riches
1 Phyrexian Scriptures
Land
1 Bad River
1 Rootwater Depths
1 Waterveil Cavern
1 Underground River
1 Academy Ruins
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Grixis Panorama
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Esper Panorama
1 Polluted Delta
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Buried Ruin
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Mirrorpool
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Fetid Pools
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Field of Ruin
1 Darkwater Catacombs
1 Morphic Pool
1 Watery Grave
8 Island
6 Swamp
1 Meekstone
1 Static Orb
1 Darkwater Egg
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Salvaging Station
1 Orb of Dreams
1 Voyager Staff
1 Chromatic Star
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Ward of Bones
1 Expedition Map
1 Amulet of Vigor
1 Mimic Vat
1 Codex Shredder
1 Glaring Spotlight
1 Strionic Resonator
1 Skullclamp
1 Winter Orb
1 Terrarion
1 Animation Module
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Argentum Armor
1 Smokestack
1 Damping Sphere
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Retrofitter Foundry
1 Silent Arbiter
1 Etherium Sculptor
1 Puppet Conjurer
1 Leaden Myr
1 Silver Myr
1 Plague Myr
1 Myr Retriever
1 Baleful Strix
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Palladium Myr
1 Jhoira's Familiar
1 Scrap Trawler
1 Meteor Golem
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Stifle
1 Echoing Truth
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Whir of Invention
1 Thrilling Encore
Sorcery
1 Fabricate
1 Hidden Strings
1 Saheeli's Artistry
1 Fortuitous Find
Planeswalker
1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master
4x Wild Nacatl
4x Narnam Renegade
3x Mardu Woe-Reaper
1x Zurgo Bellstriker
Two Drop Lords
4x Bramblewood Paragon
3x Brighthearth Banneret
2x Herald of Dromoka
'Three' Drop Finishers
3x Renegade Rallier
2x Reckless Bushwhacker
2x Greenwheel Liberator
2x Path to exile
2x Dromoka's Command
3x Lightning Bolt
Card Advantage
3x Grapple with the Past
2x Faithless Looting
Other
2x Atarka's Command
Land
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Windswept Heath
1x Temple Garden
1x Stomping ground
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Forest
1x Mountain
1x Plains
2x Inspiring Vantage
2x Unclaimed Territory
I choose Reckless Bushwhacker over Goblin Bushwhacker. No matter what they are a turn 3+ play. Eliminating RR helps my curve and the alternate caster cost ability can be reduced by Brighthearth Banneret. Same goes for Zurgo Bellstriker's dash cost.
Lastly, I exchanged Talara's Battalion for Greenwheel Liberator, because the latter would be easier to acquire.
EDIT** So I did some shopping around online. The main deck is $66.25 CDN. Close to my budget there. The mana base is $228.82 CDN. More than double my plan. I like the deck allot, but I may have to return to the drawing board.
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Narnam Renegade
3 Mardu Woe-Reaper
Two Drop Lords (9)
4 Bramblewood Paragon
3 Brighthearth Banneret
2 Herald of Dromoka
'Three' Drop Finishers (8)
3 Renegade Rallier
3 Countryside Crusher
2 Talara's Battalion
2 Path to Exile
2 Dromoka's Command
3 Lightning Bolt
Card Advantage (6)
4 Grapple with the Past
2 Gather the Pack
Land (19)
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Windswept Heath
1x Temple Garden
1x Stomping ground
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Forest
1x Mountain
1x Plains
2x Inspiring Vantage
3x Unclaimed Territory
Boggart Ram Gang is also a possibility but I am stuck on playing with my GY.
I guess I know what time line is your favorite. ;P
You have given me allot to digest. Thank you. Your number work in particular is appreciated. I can tell you took some time to write that up.
Based on your feedback it sounds like my biggest problem is having the mana to cast my turn 1 creatures. My second problem is hitting double white.
My original draft of this list was Golgari. I only went with Abzan because a friend pointed out Mardu Woe-Reaper which was a perfect fit. He replaced a planed 4x Vampire Lacerator that I was unsure of. Adding white also won me over because I could replace metallic mimic with Chief of the Edge. The Arashin Foremost was chosen only because I though that if I went without it, the deck would be lacking one of the more powerful warriors. If it is in fact a liability, and a barrier to affording the deck, I will cut it in a heart beat.
I must admit I never stopped to consider how one the $0.50 cards could alter the cost of the mana base, making it more expensive overall.
This was the original plan:
4x Vampire Lacerator
4x Nettle Sentinel
4x Bramblewood Paragon
4x metallic mimic
4x graveblade marauder
2x Varolz, the Scar-Striped
2x Grim Flayer
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Sudden Reclamation
3x Gather the Pack
I'll keep it Abzan colours, but using your feed back I'll do this:
4 Mardu Shadowspear
2 Graveblade Marauder
4 Bramblewood Paragon
1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Mardu Woe-Reaper
2 Blood-Chin Rager
2 Grim Flayer
4 Chief of the Edge
2 Renegade Rallier
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
4 Windswept Heath
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Concealed Courtyard
1 Sunpetal Grove
4 Unclaimed Territory
2 Path to Exile
2 Dromoka's Command
4 Grapple with the Past
1 Abrupt Decay
Sorcery
3 Gather the Pack
Vampire Lacerator would be better with Varolz, the Scar-Striped, but the draw back scares me. I decided on Mardu Shadowspear because I can get more ETB's in the late game.
**EDIT** Declist updated with mana base as suggested for previous build.
Fleet Swallower is good for milling your opponent or yourself. It is a Traumatize on a beat stick. I only took it out of my build because I went with a +1/+1 counter direction.
The second card I can emphatically recommend is Mindless Automaton. He is very utilitarian. Casting him normally, he is a way to get a desirable reanimation target from your hand into the grave. As a target for the Mimeoplasm he is card draw in a pinch. In my own build that contains plenty of counter doubling, he is basically discard a card, then draw a card.
I would also recommend some mass reanimation like Rise of the Dark Realms.
4 Bramblewood Paragon
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Mardu Woe-Reaper
4 Arashin Foremost
2 Grim Flayer
4 Chief of the Edge
3 Devoted Crop-Mate
2 Sudden Reclamation
4 Grapple with the Past
4 Abrupt Decay
Sorcery
3 Gather the Pack
Deck suggestions are also welcome. My goal is a traditional aggro setup with some graveyard shenanigans to improve my card advantage.
Mist of stagnation, has some strong synergy. I use it with grimgrin to slow down ramp decks and as an alternate way of untapping him. Taigam feeds the card well, and his activated ability lets me control how many cards are in my graveyard. One downside to mist of stagnation is that if you have 10 cards in your graveyard, and you only control 7 permanents, then you have to target 3 things you opponents control to untap.