No, he doesn't stop being a lord to werewolves unless they are all transformed and he is not. All untransformed werewolves are human werewolf, only losing human when transformed.
Oh, that's right. So they don't have to transform in sync. Still, I think that the trigger for the transform mechanic on werewolves is odd, but maybe there's something in the set (Or further down the block) that addresses that in some way.
I would liken Essence of the Wild to Epic spells. It's a pretty awesome effect, you just gotta be comfortable with it being the only one you get for the rest of the game.
He's undercosted for what he does. The drawback is fairly easy to get around, from equipment that grants vigilance (Or even Umbral Mantle), to Icy Manipulator, to Endless Ranks of the Dead giving you a new zombie to sacrifice each turn. I would say solid; not the best possible commander for the given colour choices but there's really no such thing anyway.
He also turns any of the various 'tap your creatures to do stuff' spells into sac outlets, but there are few of these that are truly relevant. Paradise Mantle is the only one I can think of.
Skaab Ruinator looks a lot more relevant to "regular Magic" than to EDH, although some nonblack blue decks might want to run him purely because Blue doesn't get access to much creature recursion (Other than Time Reversal type effects) so exiling some creatures you can't recurse anyway for an otherwise undercosted beater with evasion is might be good. Then again, how often do you see fish decks in EDH?
Essence of the Wild, though... I can see this making tokens VERY popular. It's important to note though that each token that comes into play after Essence has the same ability, so even if you kill the original Essence, as long as one of them remains in play, every creature you play is going to be one. This means you can't cast utility creatures and you can't recast your commander (I'm not even remotely sure of what happens if your commander enters play as a copy of something else; does he revert to being your commander when he dies?). Decks running it might want a few sac outlets (And bounce or graveyard recursion) only to 'reset' things in case they need to, otherwise I'm sure someone cleverer than me will find some way to permanently hose a deck that has one of them into play.
Edit: Not every good rare is Mythic. Devil's Play is a strictly better Blaze - Probably totally irrelevant to Standard, but interesting to EDH in that it combines the EDH tropes of mana sinks and recursion. Stromkirk Noble may or may not be good in Standard depending on how the environment shapes up. Snapcaster Mage is an Invitational card and like most or all of them, it's pretty good. Bloodgift Demon is a Phyrexian Arena that can be pointed at an opponents head attached to a flying 5/4 body, for 5. I think the weakest link so far is werewolves - the "If no spells were played last turn" clause seems really random. Mayor of Avabruck, for example, is a human lord and a werewolf lord; if you have a bunch of werewolves in play, and you use a card or ability to transform the Mayor, he stops being a lord to all your other, untransformed werewolves. It's like the mechanic is meant to punish your opponent for not playing spells, which is contrary to what is usually done (Rewarding you for playing certain spells).
Well remember to be specific in your word choice. Interaction involves countering spells as well. So a deck with 45 counters is most definitely interactive. Non-interactive decks are combo decks which sit there and do their thing solo, go off on infinite turns, make infinite mana in one turn, kill everyone in one turn, etc. Counterspell decks that just beat you down slowly are technically still interactive
When people talk about uninteractive decks, I tend to think of decks that run a lot of passive, global control - things like Winter Orb and so on that gradually shut down everyone's play until the control player casts a duplicated Time Stretch.
So, recently I decided to get into MTGO EDH/Commander, and so I went and dusted off an old Extended deck, expanded it, threw in a brand new Niv-Mizzet and some choice rares, and built this budget monstrosity. It's by no means a table-destroying deck, but I think it's fun to play; it's neither an overly optimised combo deck, an uninteractive omnihoser type control deck, or a 'battleship Magic' deck which plays big men and turns then sideways. It sticks to the two overarching principles of every blue-red EDH deck: Play differently every time, and do something unexpected every turn.
Draw lots of cards! - Besides Niv-Mizzet himself, some 20 or so cards in the deck are cantrips, cycling cards, or draw cards, and that's not really enough. Arcanis the Omnipotent, Illuminated Folio and Quicksilver Dagger feed Niv-Mizzet's fire. Quicksilver Dagger can be attached to Niv-Mizzet himself, doubling his card-drawing and tripling his damage. Minamo, School at Water's Edge can untap Mizzet or Arcanis for double the pain and card draw. Time Reversal prevents self-milling and refills the hand, while Winds of Change cycles the hand. They both are also fantastic plays whenever Niv-Mizzet is in the table. Mindmoil turns Niv-Mizzet into an engine of incredible pain.
Play lots of spells! - This is the 'storm' part. Besides actual storm spells like Empty the Warrens, the deck runs nine creatures that either feed off spells, like Wee Dragonauts and Storm Entity, or help recurse spells and cast more spells in a turn, like Grinning Ignus and Nucklavee. Galvanoth gives you free spells, interacting very nicely with the various scrying spells. And, of course, there's Cast through Time, which lets your storm count carry over between turns, and Mind's Desire, which rewards your high Storm count with yet more free spells.
Shenanigans! - A light control theme, the deck runs Dissipation Field to discourage attack (With the added bonus of being able to bounce Niv-Mizzet any time for 1 life), some light burn, Clout of the Dominus for a hasted, shrouded Niv-Mizzet, and of course the obligatory mass destruction in the form of Molten Disaster.
Steal! - This is more of a sub-theme, but rather than absurd fatties like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, the deck runs theft effects like Blatant Thievery and the game-winning Insurrection. Clone and Body Double allow quasi-thievery and duplication of other people's creatures, whereas the Mizzium Transreliquat duplicates artifacts. And, of course, Telemin Performance can pull someone else's Kozilek by turn four. Or it can pull a Sakura-tribe Elder. It also instantly mills to death anybody running a creatureless deck, which is good riddance. And once you've stolen everyone's creatures, you can Soulblast everything at someone's face.
Amuse the Table! - A small sub-theme of cards that are played because they are fun or amusing more than anything. Death by Dragons has a nice interaction with Insurrection, but it's really too entertaining to hold in your hand for long. Pongify is run because nobody expects an untapped island to cast creature destruction. Cultural Exchange is run because of how entertaining it can be.
There are plenty of cards that should be in this deck and aren't because I haven't had the time to get them or for budget reasons, i.e. Consecrated Sphinx and Lightning Greaves. I'm asking for suggestions and critique as I tune this deck; I'm thinking of eventually building a paper Magic version of it.
Agree with the first pick, not the second. That deck would lose hard everyday. I assume when we talk about non-interactive we are also talking about decks that win fairly regularly.
In my mind the Dralnu deck can't really survive in EDH unless nobody in the table has any burn at all.
I want to make a deck that always has mana open and does everything at instant speed so I can live the dream of having hilariously situational instants ready when the perfect moment presents itself.
Deck could end up with any number of colors. Currently leaning to all but green, but could go anywhere.
Also, as long as you're here, feel free to name the best cards that happen to be instants or have flash.
Gather Specimens: Stealing creatures is a staple of EDH blue decks, what with all the fatties flying around. The disadvantage is that this can only be used in response to the creature, the advantage is that it's instant-speed (So the creature is never under control of its owner) and you can use it against cards that put multiple creatures into play.
Plagiarize: Cast that in response to a Minds Aglow when your group is in 'gang up' mode... Everybody gets free cards, other than whomever is the target of the moment, and you get double the free cards. Then you hit someone else with a Cerebral Vortex.
Radiate: Turns Lightning Bolt into a better Pyroclasm, Terror into a worse Damnation, and so on. The better part is, of course, turning someone else's spot removal against your big fat beater into a global apocalypse.
Any stupid situational cantrips are fun to run in Storm decks.
Seedtime should be run by everybody, if only to troll blue control decks.
I've adapted my old Gelectrode Extended deck (Quicksilver Dagger abuse) to this, and I'm enjoying it a great deal so far. My two comments though: This is a pretty good budget deck, except for the land in it... the four Scalding Tarns alone probably cost more than all the nonland cards in the deck put together. Is there an alternative to make the mana on this deck smoother that isn't quite so expensive?
Also, what about Psychotic Fury? It's a cantrip and grants double strike. The biggest problem is that it can't target the Kiln Fiend and at two mana it's a bit pricey, but I think a thing do to is try and max out the number of double strike cards in the deck. Another possibility is Ground Rift, which can clear the path for that huge Kiln Fiend attack. Oh, and Haze of Rage? Treasure Hunt, too, given how thick with cantrips this deck is.
Oh, that's right. So they don't have to transform in sync. Still, I think that the trigger for the transform mechanic on werewolves is odd, but maybe there's something in the set (Or further down the block) that addresses that in some way.
I would liken Essence of the Wild to Epic spells. It's a pretty awesome effect, you just gotta be comfortable with it being the only one you get for the rest of the game.
He also turns any of the various 'tap your creatures to do stuff' spells into sac outlets, but there are few of these that are truly relevant. Paradise Mantle is the only one I can think of.
Essence of the Wild, though... I can see this making tokens VERY popular. It's important to note though that each token that comes into play after Essence has the same ability, so even if you kill the original Essence, as long as one of them remains in play, every creature you play is going to be one. This means you can't cast utility creatures and you can't recast your commander (I'm not even remotely sure of what happens if your commander enters play as a copy of something else; does he revert to being your commander when he dies?). Decks running it might want a few sac outlets (And bounce or graveyard recursion) only to 'reset' things in case they need to, otherwise I'm sure someone cleverer than me will find some way to permanently hose a deck that has one of them into play.
Edit: Not every good rare is Mythic. Devil's Play is a strictly better Blaze - Probably totally irrelevant to Standard, but interesting to EDH in that it combines the EDH tropes of mana sinks and recursion. Stromkirk Noble may or may not be good in Standard depending on how the environment shapes up. Snapcaster Mage is an Invitational card and like most or all of them, it's pretty good. Bloodgift Demon is a Phyrexian Arena that can be pointed at an opponents head attached to a flying 5/4 body, for 5. I think the weakest link so far is werewolves - the "If no spells were played last turn" clause seems really random. Mayor of Avabruck, for example, is a human lord and a werewolf lord; if you have a bunch of werewolves in play, and you use a card or ability to transform the Mayor, he stops being a lord to all your other, untransformed werewolves. It's like the mechanic is meant to punish your opponent for not playing spells, which is contrary to what is usually done (Rewarding you for playing certain spells).
When people talk about uninteractive decks, I tend to think of decks that run a lot of passive, global control - things like Winter Orb and so on that gradually shut down everyone's play until the control player casts a duplicated Time Stretch.
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Caged Sun
1 Crystal Shard
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Expedition Map
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Illuminated Folio
1 Izzet Signet
1 Mizzium Transreliquat
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
1 Body Double
1 Clone
1 Dreamscape Artist
1 Galvanoth
1 Gelectrode
1 Grinning Ignus
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Kiln Fiend
1 Magus of the Future
1 Mulldrifter
1 Nucklavee
1 Sage of Epityr
1 Shrewd Hatchling
1 Spellbound Dragon
1 Storm Entity
1 Wee Dragonauts
1 Dissipation Field
1 Mindmoil
1 Mystic Remora
1 Clout of the Dominus
1 Curiosity
1 Ophidian Eye
1 Quicksilver Dagger
1 Spellweaver Volute
Instants
1 Banishing Knack
1 Careful Consideration
1 Cerebral Vortex
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Dead/Gone
1 Electrolyze
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Fling
1 Gather Specimens
1 Pongify
1 Soulblast
1 Spin into Myth
1 Telling Time
1 Think Twice
Sorceries
1 Blatant Thievery
1 Counsel of the Soratami
1 Cultural Exchange
1 Death by Dragons
1 Distant Memories
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Grapeshot
1 Haze of Rage
1 Heat Shimmer
1 Insurrection
1 Mind's Desire
1 Molten Disaster
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Rough/Tumble
1 Telemin Performance
1 Time Reversal
1 Winds of Change
1 Command Tower
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
12 Island
10 Mountain
Deck Themes
Draw lots of cards! - Besides Niv-Mizzet himself, some 20 or so cards in the deck are cantrips, cycling cards, or draw cards, and that's not really enough. Arcanis the Omnipotent, Illuminated Folio and Quicksilver Dagger feed Niv-Mizzet's fire. Quicksilver Dagger can be attached to Niv-Mizzet himself, doubling his card-drawing and tripling his damage. Minamo, School at Water's Edge can untap Mizzet or Arcanis for double the pain and card draw. Time Reversal prevents self-milling and refills the hand, while Winds of Change cycles the hand. They both are also fantastic plays whenever Niv-Mizzet is in the table. Mindmoil turns Niv-Mizzet into an engine of incredible pain.
Play lots of spells! - This is the 'storm' part. Besides actual storm spells like Empty the Warrens, the deck runs nine creatures that either feed off spells, like Wee Dragonauts and Storm Entity, or help recurse spells and cast more spells in a turn, like Grinning Ignus and Nucklavee. Galvanoth gives you free spells, interacting very nicely with the various scrying spells. And, of course, there's Cast through Time, which lets your storm count carry over between turns, and Mind's Desire, which rewards your high Storm count with yet more free spells.
Shenanigans! - A light control theme, the deck runs Dissipation Field to discourage attack (With the added bonus of being able to bounce Niv-Mizzet any time for 1 life), some light burn, Clout of the Dominus for a hasted, shrouded Niv-Mizzet, and of course the obligatory mass destruction in the form of Molten Disaster.
Steal! - This is more of a sub-theme, but rather than absurd fatties like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, the deck runs theft effects like Blatant Thievery and the game-winning Insurrection. Clone and Body Double allow quasi-thievery and duplication of other people's creatures, whereas the Mizzium Transreliquat duplicates artifacts. And, of course, Telemin Performance can pull someone else's Kozilek by turn four. Or it can pull a Sakura-tribe Elder. It also instantly mills to death anybody running a creatureless deck, which is good riddance. And once you've stolen everyone's creatures, you can Soulblast everything at someone's face.
Amuse the Table! - A small sub-theme of cards that are played because they are fun or amusing more than anything. Death by Dragons has a nice interaction with Insurrection, but it's really too entertaining to hold in your hand for long. Pongify is run because nobody expects an untapped island to cast creature destruction. Cultural Exchange is run because of how entertaining it can be.
There are plenty of cards that should be in this deck and aren't because I haven't had the time to get them or for budget reasons, i.e. Consecrated Sphinx and Lightning Greaves. I'm asking for suggestions and critique as I tune this deck; I'm thinking of eventually building a paper Magic version of it.
In my mind the Dralnu deck can't really survive in EDH unless nobody in the table has any burn at all.
Gather Specimens: Stealing creatures is a staple of EDH blue decks, what with all the fatties flying around. The disadvantage is that this can only be used in response to the creature, the advantage is that it's instant-speed (So the creature is never under control of its owner) and you can use it against cards that put multiple creatures into play.
Plagiarize: Cast that in response to a Minds Aglow when your group is in 'gang up' mode... Everybody gets free cards, other than whomever is the target of the moment, and you get double the free cards. Then you hit someone else with a Cerebral Vortex.
Radiate: Turns Lightning Bolt into a better Pyroclasm, Terror into a worse Damnation, and so on. The better part is, of course, turning someone else's spot removal against your big fat beater into a global apocalypse.
Any stupid situational cantrips are fun to run in Storm decks.
Seedtime should be run by everybody, if only to troll blue control decks.
Also, what about Psychotic Fury? It's a cantrip and grants double strike. The biggest problem is that it can't target the Kiln Fiend and at two mana it's a bit pricey, but I think a thing do to is try and max out the number of double strike cards in the deck. Another possibility is Ground Rift, which can clear the path for that huge Kiln Fiend attack. Oh, and Haze of Rage? Treasure Hunt, too, given how thick with cantrips this deck is.