Hey, I've been playing around with Eternal Command in Legacy and came upon the interaction of Thing in the Ice+AEther Vial+ETB triggers. Has anyone tried making a modern TITI Command list? Looking through this topic yields no results. The list might be more synergistic in the older format because of format-specific spells like Divert, Brainstorm, Force of Will, etc, but, the interaction might still work well in modern. I could maybe see TITI being a replacement for Tarmogoyf, which may also ease up the mana requirements.
Cards that work well with TITI's bounce effect that this deck plays or has played in the past:
Eternal Witness
Kitchen Finks
Vendilion Clique
Snapcaster Mage
Restoration Angel
Renegade Rallier
Reclamation Sage
Cards that work worse are basically Huntmaster, Scavenging Ooze, 'goyf, and Pia and Kiran. Additionally, Ethersworn Canonist is incredible in combo matchups (in modern) and, incidentally, a literal hard lock with the Eternal Command engine online.
Here's what a hypothetical Bant TITI Command list might look like after some goldfishing & number tweaking:
While I haven't tested any of this since I don't play modern (but just thought of a brew), I think that As Foretold is probably not fit for a simple UW shell. As Foretold lets you really cheat on mana, so why not take that to its absolute maximum extent? UWR seems like a perfect fit.
R gives you access to Blood Moon to really batten down the hatches and super cheat on mana with As Foretold
W gives you access to Path to Exile, the best removal spell in the format (which isn't fantastic with blood moon, admittedly, but surviving until you win has a charm of its own)
U gives you access to As Foretold, Cryptic to protect it, Mana Leak to survive the crucial early turns, Tolaria West to tutor for 0 drops (like Ancestral Visions) and, through As Foretold, Living End, which acts as a functional boardwipe in nearly all situations. Couple with cycling creatures from Amonkhet for a finisher.
B seems like a poor color because of the lack of exile effects that function poorly with Living End.
My friends and I have decided to do a $20 deck competition. $20 is measured by taking the mid price of a card on http://magiccards.info for each card in a deck excluding basic lands (those are free). You are free to pick a card from a specific set, so, for example, Garruk Wildspeaker is $4.50 per card by this benchmark if he's from Lorwyn but $4.72 per if he's from a commander set, so I put him down in my book as $4.50 a card. Sideboard doesn't count towards the initial $20: as long as your deck totals $20 or less each game, then you're fine.
I've thought of doing some more serious stuff, like an 8 post deck or a delver/kiln fiend/nivix cyclops deck, but I've ultimately decided to do with a bad combo deck because they're fun. The deck I have now sits at a paltry $10.37 so I'm looking to up my power level by running better creatures that may be more expensive.
There are two major combos: Illusionary Bracers+Civilized Brute/Mirror-Mad Phantasm and Illusionary Bracers+Krosan Restorer+Galvanic Alchemist. The first allows me to mill either a huge number of cards or my entire deck. Combined with Laboratory Maniac, I win. The second gives me infinite mana, with which I can either plop down Ghoultree or use Zameck Guildmage's ability an arbitrary number of times. Ghoultree also works well with ability #1.
What I'd like is a Breeding Pool to use with Arbor Elf, but it's over $10 and it's not worth running just one. As such, I have Krosan Restorer in for a cheaper mana dork, like Llanowar Elves.
Basically, the deck is slow and I'm unsure how it could get substantially faster. It's weak early and if someone plays affinity or infect, this thing will die fast. I could drop Ghoultree for Boneyard Wurm, maybe, or possibly Splinterfright. Splinterfright sits on a very busy part of the curve(3CMC), though, so I don't want to do that.
For all the draw that 5 colors have, you're running some rather questionable cards in that department. Rhystic Study sticks out as an awesome one, as does Phyrexian Arena. That was just a glaring problem to me.
Well, apart from the obvious issues of your mana base (search lands, shock lands, old duals, etc, are all way better than the bounce lands).
The other issue is some of your stuff. There exist "strictly better thans" that you could be running. The cheapest I can think of is Demonic Tutor. That's better in every way than Diabolic Tutor. Also, Mystic Tutor and Enlightened Tutor are definitely nice. You might as well slot in an Academy Rector, too. Saccing that with your commander will net you an enchantment or artifact you need no problem. For the realm of grossly expensive "better thans," look no further than Mana Drain over Scattering Stroke. If your playgroup/card shop allows proxies, go nuts.
Another super easy "go infinite" type deal is Parallax Wave and Opalescence. That's a nice, "free" combo to exploit. Best part is: it's not all that expensive! Exile any number of cards less than or equal to 4 and Parallax Wave and they pop right back with their ETB abilities triggering again.
Well, you're missing Phyrexian Arena: just too damn good of a card to lack. Also, I'd add in Mana Drain if at all possible. Probably in place of Pact of Negation.
Also, a standard Strip Mine/Vesuva/Wasteland/(maybe) Dust Bowl package would do wonders. Things like Gaea's Cradle just have to be responded to.
As for tutors, you're missing some really nice ones: Demonic Tutors aren't as expensive anymore and 2x as good as Diabolic Tutors. Vampiric Tutor is a nice cheap card, too. Liliana Vess and Sarkhan the Mad are awesome, as well. Sorin Markov would be nice with all that direct damage you've got going on. A well placed 10 lifer and a few pangs of flying or burn can drop a player quickly.
You can add in Ulamog for infinite card draw/permanent destruction with Kozilek. Ulamog is definitely a star player in Animar and a card I wouldn't miss out on. Also, tooth and nail can never hurt because you seem to be very dependent on cloudstone curio and/or survival of the fittest to get combos off. With TnN you at least have another way to get into Kiki-Jiki.
Finally, consider Acidic Slime for those Jittes. They can really ruin your day with all the tiny creatures you have. Hell, they're great for anything, you know?
Eye of Ugin seems utterly useless without any 1) Eldrazi, and 2) colorless creature cards costing 7 or more. Also, with top and rack I like to run more search lands. Better tutoring.
When you play commander, how do you separate between casual and competitive commander decks? What's casual to you, and where do you draw the line into "competative?"
I play with 3-6 people on OCTGN in FFA or 2-3HG, so we've got access to every card with decks being limited only by imagination, or by knowledge of obscure cards and sets (what's happening, Portal: The Three Kingdoms). I'm personally fine with infinite combos so long as they're not general related, i.e. Vish Khal the Blood Arbiter+lark/guide combo is generally not fine with me for casual play, having that in the deck is ok because it's harder to recur, more susceptible to graveyard hate, etc. A bunch of hosers and bombs are fine too. EDH is and always has been a fairly glacial format despite the possibility of massive bombs, that's fine, and part of its uniqueness.
Another thing that not just me but my entire playgroup feels differentiates between casual and competative decks are the generals. Anything too good, like a Riku, will always draw the ire of the entire table so there's a lot of Hazezon Tamars, Zedruu the Greathearteds, and Teysa, Orzhov Scions running amok but rarely a Riku or something. When there is, everyone gangs up to kill that one player and then continue playing a relaxing game.
So, again, what constitutes casual to you or to your playgroup? Where do you draw the line?
Cards that work well with TITI's bounce effect that this deck plays or has played in the past:
Here's what a hypothetical Bant TITI Command list might look like after some goldfishing & number tweaking:
4 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Hinterland Harbor
3 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
3 Eternal Witness
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Restoration Angel
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Thing in the Ice
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Bant Charm
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Censor
4 Cryptic Command
1 Familiar's Ruse
1 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
1 Remand
4 Serum Visions
1 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
I've thought of doing some more serious stuff, like an 8 post deck or a delver/kiln fiend/nivix cyclops deck, but I've ultimately decided to do with a bad combo deck because they're fun. The deck I have now sits at a paltry $10.37 so I'm looking to up my power level by running better creatures that may be more expensive.
Here's what I have so far:
6 Island
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Creeping Renaissance
3 Tracker's Instincts
4 Arbor Elf
4 Civilized Scholar
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Galvanic Alchemist
3 Ghoultree
4 Krosan Restorer
2 Laboratory Maniac
1 Mirror-Mad Phantasm
4 Zameck Guildmage
3 Compost
3 Apostle's Blessing
3 Great Sable Stag
3 Trygon Predator
There are two major combos: Illusionary Bracers+Civilized Brute/Mirror-Mad Phantasm and Illusionary Bracers+Krosan Restorer+Galvanic Alchemist. The first allows me to mill either a huge number of cards or my entire deck. Combined with Laboratory Maniac, I win. The second gives me infinite mana, with which I can either plop down Ghoultree or use Zameck Guildmage's ability an arbitrary number of times. Ghoultree also works well with ability #1.
What I'd like is a Breeding Pool to use with Arbor Elf, but it's over $10 and it's not worth running just one. As such, I have Krosan Restorer in for a cheaper mana dork, like Llanowar Elves.
Basically, the deck is slow and I'm unsure how it could get substantially faster. It's weak early and if someone plays affinity or infect, this thing will die fast. I could drop Ghoultree for Boneyard Wurm, maybe, or possibly Splinterfright. Splinterfright sits on a very busy part of the curve(3CMC), though, so I don't want to do that.
Here is the price spreadsheet.
The other issue is some of your stuff. There exist "strictly better thans" that you could be running. The cheapest I can think of is Demonic Tutor. That's better in every way than Diabolic Tutor. Also, Mystic Tutor and Enlightened Tutor are definitely nice. You might as well slot in an Academy Rector, too. Saccing that with your commander will net you an enchantment or artifact you need no problem. For the realm of grossly expensive "better thans," look no further than Mana Drain over Scattering Stroke. If your playgroup/card shop allows proxies, go nuts.
Another super easy "go infinite" type deal is Parallax Wave and Opalescence. That's a nice, "free" combo to exploit. Best part is: it's not all that expensive! Exile any number of cards less than or equal to 4 and Parallax Wave and they pop right back with their ETB abilities triggering again.
Also, a standard Strip Mine/Vesuva/Wasteland/(maybe) Dust Bowl package would do wonders. Things like Gaea's Cradle just have to be responded to.
Open the Vaults
Replenish
Forced Fruition
Walking Archive
That Kamigawa UU legend with a draw effect.
Just some ideas.
I'd also run 2 or 3 of the off-color fetch lands for deck thinning: Scalding Tarn, Arid Mesa, Marsh Flats, and Verdant Catabombs.
As for tutors, you're missing some really nice ones: Demonic Tutors aren't as expensive anymore and 2x as good as Diabolic Tutors. Vampiric Tutor is a nice cheap card, too. Liliana Vess and Sarkhan the Mad are awesome, as well. Sorin Markov would be nice with all that direct damage you've got going on. A well placed 10 lifer and a few pangs of flying or burn can drop a player quickly.
With all the discard you've got going on, you may want to consider an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or a Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. It might hurt the graveyard subtheme you've got going on here, though.
For discard, you lack Hymn to Tourach, one of the most efficient discard spells ever printed.
Finally, consider Acidic Slime for those Jittes. They can really ruin your day with all the tiny creatures you have. Hell, they're great for anything, you know?
Unrelated, but I am pumped for Innistrad. Hopefully there will be some spectacular ETB cards out there.
I play with 3-6 people on OCTGN in FFA or 2-3HG, so we've got access to every card with decks being limited only by imagination, or by knowledge of obscure cards and sets (what's happening, Portal: The Three Kingdoms). I'm personally fine with infinite combos so long as they're not general related, i.e. Vish Khal the Blood Arbiter+lark/guide combo is generally not fine with me for casual play, having that in the deck is ok because it's harder to recur, more susceptible to graveyard hate, etc. A bunch of hosers and bombs are fine too. EDH is and always has been a fairly glacial format despite the possibility of massive bombs, that's fine, and part of its uniqueness.
Another thing that not just me but my entire playgroup feels differentiates between casual and competative decks are the generals. Anything too good, like a Riku, will always draw the ire of the entire table so there's a lot of Hazezon Tamars, Zedruu the Greathearteds, and Teysa, Orzhov Scions running amok but rarely a Riku or something. When there is, everyone gangs up to kill that one player and then continue playing a relaxing game.
So, again, what constitutes casual to you or to your playgroup? Where do you draw the line?