Messages

16

Commander Discussion / Re: EDH players- what's your best deck?

« on: March 27, 2019, 01:26:13 pm »

My best Deck is my Lazav, the Multifarious Voltron deck: https://deckstats.net/decks/113264/1165882-lazavicious-voltron/en

Average CMC is 2.5, it has 8 tutors, a crazy amount of looting to dig through my deck as fast as possible, and the commander is super hard to remove. It's fast, resilient, deadly. I just love it. It's not exactly competitive, I'd have to change it to a combo deck that can kill the whole table for that, but this deck can make me archenemy and people are scared to play against it.

My Favorite deck is my Teysa deck, which I've recently built: https://deckstats.net/decks/113264/1206082-whealth-debt-death-teysa-orzho/en

Average CMC is 2.8, and it was probably one of the most difficult deck to build; there's lots of good cards for Teysa, and lots of good high-CMC cards I was tempted to add, while I also had to keep an appropriate ratio of sac outlets, sac fodder and pay-offs.

The deck went through a LOT of changes and choices had to be made. Though I gotta say, after a fair amount of play-testing I'm really happy with how the deck is shaping up. It has a lot of early-game plays, generates tons of value, it has answers to threats and can go infinite fairly easily, though this can be avoided when playing more casual games. I also did my best to compensate for Orzhov's weaknesses (draw/ramp) and due to this the deck feels very smooth to play.

17

Deck Comments / Re: Whealth, Debt & Death (Teysa, Orzhov Scion Aristocrats) - Comments

« on: March 20, 2019, 04:54:44 pm »

Just adding some notes to detail some of the changes I recently made:

I removed Athreos and Regna, The redeemer, and added Mimic Vat and Idyllic Tutor instead.

Ahtreos ended up not performing the way I thought he would. Most of the non-tokens in this deck are so significant that Athreos wasn't acting as a recursion tool, since everyone really wanted my creatures to hit my graveyard. So he was mostly draining people, and while this is nice, this isn't exactly what this deck aims to do (which is creating value engines). Mimic Vat has the exact same mana cost as Athreos, and does what I wanted him to do: get more value out of my creatures. So far, this card has been crazy in this deck. Getting back your Elenda, or getting 4 tokens out of a Grave Titan token in one turn is pretty absurd. On top of that, it synergizes with Anointed procession for maximum shenanigans. This card performs well so far.

On top of that, most of the creatures in the deck are black, and since the token gets exiled at our end step anyway, we can simply sac it before it gets exiled to get a spirit out of our commander, which gives us more board presence and possibly more removal.

Regna was a hard card to cut. She really makes more sense in my Teysa Karlov version of the deck, since she gives lifelink to all tokens (and therefore Regna has an easier time triggering even if Krav gets removed). But with Ozhov Scion at the helm, the lifegain in the deck is minimal, and Krav is so good that he's essentially a removal magnet, so I had a few times where Regna chilled on the board doing pretty much nothing, and I want my 6 drops to have enough impact on their own to justify a place in the deck. So she got cut for Idyllic Tutor, a good way to go get our best enchantments (and there are many of those in this list).

Currently possibly looking for a spot for either Increasing Devotion (which was in my starting-budget-version of the deck, and this card performed really well so far) or Sengir Autocrat for potential black sac fodder.

18

Deck Comments / Re: Deatharmonicon: Teysa Karlov Aristocrats - Comments

« on: March 20, 2019, 04:47:31 pm »

Just adding some notes to detail some of the changes I recently made:

I removed Athreos, and Attrition, and added Mimic Vat and Idyllic Tutor instead.

Ahtreos ended up not performing the way I thought he would. Most of the non-tokens in this deck are so significant that Athreos wasn't acting as a recursion tool, since everyone really wanted my creatures to hit my graveyard. So he was mostly draining people, and while this is nice, this isn't exactly what this deck aims to do (which is creating value engines). Mimic Vat has the exact same manacost as Athreos, and does what I wanted him to do: get more value out of my creatures. So far, this card has been crazy in this deck. Getting back your Elenda, or getting 4 tokens out of a Grave Titan token in one turn is pretty absurd. On top of that, it synergizes with Anointed procession for maximum shenanigans. This card performs well so far.

Attrition was a bit too restrictive in its mana cost, and is a bit too restricted, so I added another tutor for more consistency.

19

Deck Comments / Re: Rathreos (Athreos' Rat Colony) - Comments

« on: March 06, 2019, 09:15:49 pm »

Right now this deck is in a "janky/casual" state, and combos that require 2 cards that are not in the command zone require something to be reliable: tutors.

Otherwise combo pieces that don't do much on their own aren't that good. If I decide to tune this deck further than what it currently is I'll consider it.

20

Deck Reviews / Re: [EDH / Commander] Teysa Karlov

« on: February 28, 2019, 04:25:54 pm »

In my opinion there are 2 issues with your deck:

1. Your deck lacks consistent token generators
2. your deck has stuff that benefits from non-tokens dying, and a lot of one-off effects, yet you run very little recursion.

One of things you have to understand when deck-building is that "Redundancy = consistency", therefore the more you want your deck to do X thing consistently, the more cards you need to run that do the desired effect.

This means if you want your deck to benefit from non-tokens dying, you need non-tokens, and they need to die, to avoid running out of non-tokens, you need recursion, and your deck runs very little recursion right now.

If you want to use mostly tokens, then you shouldn't run stuff that benefits from non-tokens dying, otherwise killing your tokens won't give you any value if for example you only have a Midnight Reaper on the board (instead of say, Dark Prophecy).

Right now you're running a mix of multiple themes that don't really fit together, so removing some of that stuff and focusing on either tokens, or death-triggers/recursion would probably make your deck more consistent.

If you want to go for tokens, I'd remove all the Afterlife creatures, and most cards that don't generate tokens consistently, except for those that can create a massive amount of tokens (like Elenda).

If you wanna go death-triggers, add waaaaay more recursion (Karmic Guide, Ahtreos, Phyrexian Reclamation, Whisper, Blood Liturgist, Hell's Caretaker, Lifeline, etc.), and self-reanimating creatures (Nether traitor, Bloodsoaked champion, Oathsworn vampire, Tenacious Dead, etc.) so you can abuse those death triggers and your non-tokens-dying stuff.

You also need more sac outlets for both strategies in my opinion.

Stuff I'd personally cut/replace:

Ethereal Absolution (super expensive to cast, and then expensive for tokens, just cut it and add a Bojuka Bog for graveyard hate).
Rite of Belzenlok (won't create tokens consistently, cut it)
Mausoleum Secrets (add Diabolic Intent instead, it's a much better tutor)
Fumigate (expensive, lifegain not really useful, add wrath of god or day of judgment)
Archon of Justice (so expensive for removal, don't run something just because it's a death trigger, your 5 drops should be more directly beneficial to your strategy)
Bloodthrone Vampire (Viscera seer is probably better option)
Butcher of Malakir (expensive, add Grave Pact instead)
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet (I'd cut this guy if you wanna go with a token strategy, since you can't reliably abuse it to consistently generate tokens, it's a bit too conditional / situational in my opinion).
Austere Command (sooooo expensive, keep your 6 drops for better stuff (see below))

If you want to go full tokens, this is what I'd add:

Diabolic Intent
wrath of god / day of judgment
Viscera seer
Grave Pact
Bitterblossom (if your budget allows it, it's a phenomenal card).
Elspeth, Sun's champion (can generate 3 tokens every turn, so she protects herself).
Grave Titan (2 tokens on ETB, 2 for every attack).
Twilight Drover (like spawning pit, benefits from tokens dying, and can be used to rebuild after you've sac'd a bunch of stuff)
Krav, the unredeemed and Regna, the redeemer (Krav is a sac outlet, a draw engine, lifegain source, and he synergizes with Regna to generate tokens on *every end step*, not just during your turn, they're a massive bomb in any Orzhov Aristocrat deck).
Pitiless Plunderer for ramp
More mana rocks (2 CMC mana rocks are usually the most efficient, so Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone would probably be great additions)
Dark Prophecy, Mentor of the Meek and Vampiric Rites for draw (on top of Krav, if you add him)
Teysa, Orzhov Scion (cheap, doubles as removal, and as a token generator, she's just amazing).

21

Deck Reviews / Re: [EDH / Commander] Sheoldered - Vampiress of Darkness

« on: February 21, 2019, 09:29:20 pm »

Yes I did see that when adding, of course t he opponent(s) would be losing 2 creatures! I did consider just using one of the menu legendary black vampire I have, but sheoldred is too much fun, with swamp walk and recursion but in!!

If I was to lead with a vampire, I think it would be anowon, or kalitas!

Not saying you should change commander, but keep in mind that Sheoldred comes with some major downsides.

1. She costs 7, which means when she's inevitably removed, you'll need 9 mana just to cast her. Due to how little mana rocks/ramp you have, she'll very rarely come out before turn 7, and by that time people were probably saving their removal for your commander.
2. She's a high-priority target, so expect her to be removed often.
3. She has to live a whole turn cycle before she benefits your board.

If you really want to make use of her, you may want to consider adding some cards that can protect her (like Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, for example).

22

Deck Reviews / Re: [EDH/Commander] HELP Gisa and Geralf Zombie Tribal transforming into Scarab God

« on: February 21, 2019, 04:42:36 pm »

Hey sorry I couldn't respond to your message yesterday, got busy.

Personally, I'd cut most reanimation from the deck since you told me you didn't want this to be a reanimation deck like your Meren list. Having a theme in a deck usually isn't worth it unless you commit to it (otherwise you're just using card slots that could support your strategy better).

Instead, I'd focus on tribal support cards; cards that interact specifically with your tribe so you can go with a swarm/aggro strategy.

Stuff you could consider cutting:

Altar of Dementia and Phyrexian Altar (combo piece, unnecessary in a non-sac, non-reanimation deck)

Corpse Harvester (expensive for a tutor, add Diabolic Intent or Demonic Tutor instead)

Cut mill/loot cards like Forbidden Alchemy, Frantic Search, Forgotten Creation (replace with straight draw, like night's whisper, Rhystic Study, etc. and PLEASE add Kindred Discovery, it's op as hell).

Cut graveyard stuff: Secrets of the Dead, Dread Summons

Skullclamp (no reanimate or 1/1 to use it, possibly add Grim Haruspex instead?)

Gray Merchant of Asphodel (not as useful if you can't repeat its ETB).

Dark Salvation (expensive as hell, if you intend to run it as removal, Hero's Downfall gets the job done)


Stuff you could add:

Adaptive Automaton
Metallic Mimic
Kindred Discovery
Grim Haruspex
Open the Graves
Rhystic Study
Night's Whisper
Diabolic Intent
Demonic Tutor
Preordain
Ponder

Essentially, your deck has a very decent number of zombies and lords already, so you're at that point in deck-building where you need to cut stuff that doesn't actively help you to win. The cards you should add at that point are cards that make your deck run better: draw, ramp, acceleration, counterspells, removal (which you run almost none of).

So other easy adds:

Counterspell
Negate
Arcane Denial
Curtains' Call
Go for the Throat
Hero's Downfall
Price of Fame
Reality Shift
Disallow
Mystic Confluence
Swan Song
Etc.

23

General Magic / Re: Wish list for C19?

« on: February 20, 2019, 08:02:24 pm »

It seems like reprinting lands is the way to go. The land bases of C18 were terrible (as was C17), and people want better reprints. Kill two Birds (of Paradise) with one stone.

Lands are so freaking expensive that I'd be 100% okay if some of the most expensive reprints in C19 are lands.

All I want is reprints with more value than Sol Ring.

24

Deck Comments / Re: Deatharmonicon: Teysa Karlov Aristocrats - Comments

« on: February 20, 2019, 05:12:18 pm »

Go watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us5nhRACGeU

Go at 20:33, and listen to what they say about Revel in Riches.

If a card synergizes with your whole deck, it's good, but if it only does something when you have specific cards in play, then it's too far removed from your strategy to be considered good (it's like a tertiary interaction, so to speak, as to make it work I need the Wurm, Dictate/pact, tokens, and a sac outlet, so it's very, very situational.)

Is massacre wurm good with Dictate/Pact? Absolutely. But what if I don't draw those cards? Then it's just a possible board wipe that does damage (and it only kills if my opponents have big boards, as some combo decks run very few creatures).

Cards like Black Market, Blood Artist, Grave pact, etc. benefit *directly* from my creatures dying, while Massacre Wurm only indirectly benefits from it, if I have some other very specific cards in play.

And this is why I don't run it.

25

Deck Comments / Re: Deatharmonicon: Teysa Karlov Aristocrats - Comments

« on: February 20, 2019, 03:38:25 pm »

@SirHerpaderp Massacre Wurm doesn't synergize with my strategy. It's a death trigger, and a good one at that, but like my description mentions, I avoid one-time effects as much as possible (this is also why I don't run Kokusho).

It's an easy trap to fall into: sometimes a card looks great on paper, and there are situation where it can be good. Massacre Wurm is amazing if an opponent has a board of 1/1s, for example..but what if they don't? I want every card in my deck to do 2 things: either make tokens, or give me value when tokens die. Massacre Wurm does none of those things, and neither does Elesh Norn since my deck doesn't focus on an aggro strategy (though it's possible to win this way, I've done it with Divine Visitation, but the main goal of this card in my deck is to be a combo piece. Elesh Norn and Massacre Wurm can't be used as combo pieces, or to fuel my engines).

(My deck wants to win through drain with Athreos, Blood Artist and friends etc. most of the time, or through some alt win-cons like Altar of Dementia, or infinite combos.)

26

Deck Reviews / Re: [EDH / Commander] Orzhov Aristocrats

« on: February 20, 2019, 02:19:44 pm »

Hey, me again

One of the things you have to keep in mind when building a deck is that Redundancy = Consistency.

Essentially, the more you want your deck to be consistent regarding a certain theme, the more cards of that theme you need to run. If you only have 1 card, in your whole deck, that does a certain thing, then your chances of seeing it during a game are pretty slim.

So the fewer themes you have in a deck, the more consistent it'll be, because you'll have slots open to support your existing themes.

A very common mistake that people make when building a deck is having too many themes; the problem that it causes is that it dilutes your strategy, and you end up with a lot of cards in your hand that don't interact with each other.

Right now your decks has 4 themes: Aristocrats (sacrifying stuff to get value), recursion, tokens, and lifegain.

Aristocrats and tokens go hand in hand, because you can have many tokens. Aristocrats and recursion go well together too, since you can kill stuff over and over again. However if you try to mix and max those themes, your strategy will probably a bit too diluted. My suggestion, just like I suggested with your Athreos deck, would be to cut one or 2 of those themes, and focus the strategy otherwise you won't have enough room to properly support each strategy.

Teysa gives lifelink to all tokens, so going full tokens + lifegain could work (in this case Sanguine Bond / Exquisite Blood becomes a viable win-con).

Going Aristocrats + tokens works wonders.

Going Aristocrats + recursion works too.

However you also have to consider your Commander: if you build a recursion deck, with a commander that doesn't provide any recursion, you're at risk of your deck not doing much until you draw one of your recursion piece. This is why people usually run Athreos as the recursion/aristocrats commander: he gives you recursion in the command zone.

Teysa gives support to tokens, and death triggers, which is why I personally decided to go with those 2 things as the main themes of the deck. Cutting some stuff from the themes you decide to disregard would allow more consistency, since you could add other cards that support your main strategy.

Let's take your Lifegain theme for example.

The cards that give lifegain in your deck (except for Blood Artist and friends) are:

Exquisite Blood (5)
Sanguine Bond (5)
Debt to the Deathless (X4)
Fumigate (5)
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath (5)
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim (2)

All your lifegain cards are expensive, and the only cheap one only gives you life by sacrificing creatures. This means most of the time, you won't get lifegain until turn 5, and Blood/Bond don't give you lifegain by themselves, only under certain conditions. They're also only a win-con if you have them together. Debt to the deathless can only win you the game if you have an absurdly high amount of mana, and fumigate is a one-time use. This means that right now, the lifegain from your deck is unsupported, and therefore unreliable.

"But Ylh, Teysa gives lifelink to tokens"

Ok, well let's talk about your token generators.

Wurmcoil Engine, Elenda, the Dusk Rose and Orzhov Enforcer are one time effects. Unless you have a way to abuse Elenda to really pump her, she'll be a one and done, and wurmcoil and Enforcer won't give value unless you can recur them.

Your other token generators rely on creatures dying to do anything.

So, right now for your deck to work, you require 1. Cards that make tokens, 2. creatures to sac, to make those tokens, 3. a way to make those creatures die (sac outlet) all so you can generate tokens, 4. your commander, to give tokens lifelink, 5. a recursion outlet, so you can bring back those creatures, and kill them again.

As you can see, your deck relies on a lot of things to get going, so it'll probably be easy to shut down by removing either your recursion outlet, or your sac outlet/commander.

My suggestions, either go:

Reanimation + death triggers: cut all token support, and this way your cards that rely on non-tokens dying will be more supported (like Grim Haruspex for draw, Pawn of Ulamog for mana, etc.). Add more self-reanimating creatures, right now you only have reassembling skeleton. you could add Nether Traitor, Bloodsoaked Champion, Oathsworn Vampire, etc. If you add cards that create tokens, the tokens must be a side-effect of them dying (like Orzhov Enforcer, Seraph of the scales), so the focus will be on death triggers, not tokens, the tokens will just be an added benefit (sac fodder, chump blockers, etc.). Hell's caretaker would also probably be a good card to add.

If you want to go aristocrats with this strategy, then you'll have to find ways to go infinite with recursion outlets. This can be done with self-reanimating creatures, or cards like Nim Deathmantle.

Lifegain + tokens: cut all reanimation and most death triggers (at least cut one-time effects like Orzhov Enforcer and Wurmcoil engine) and focus on cards that can generate tokens consistently, and get you life consistently (Ajani's Welcome, Grave Titan, Bitterblossom, Elspeth, Sun's champion, Ophiomancer are all wonderful cards that are very consistent, or you can mix those, and get lifelink tokens with Legion's landing or Leonin Warleader). With this strategy it might be best to focus on other win-cons that use lifegain (Aetherflux Reservoir maybe) instead of Aristocracy, and add more tutors like Enlightened Tutor so you can get your combo pieces easier.

Tokens + death triggers: this is the strategy I'm personally using. The very few reanimation that I run in my deck (Ahtreos, Karmic guide, etc), are mostly either used as combo pieces, or they benefit from Teysa. My deck includes almost no cards that generate tokens only once, unless they can generate a very high number of tokens (like Elenda), otherwise most token engines are consistent, and my death triggers don't come from creatures themselves (since I can't recur them), instead the deck focuses on triggering my permanents by sacrificing tokens (which I have a lot of).

This is, in my opinion, the most reliable strategy for aristocrats with Teysa, since it's relatively easy to go infinite with tokens, and therefore easier to win with an Aristocrats strategy. Teysa also acts as a combo piece in some of the infinite combos I run in my deck. The deck also uses both of Teysa's ability, the lifegain/vigilance allows you to be more aggressive with your tokens, and you don't care if they die since you can get value out of them due to your permanents' death triggers (or sac them in response to them being blocked for even more value).

27

Deck Reviews / Re: [EDH / Commander] Athreos Aristocrats V2

« on: February 19, 2019, 03:05:45 pm »

In that case I'd cut most of the token support if I were you.

Tokens are great for aristocrats, but Athreos doesn't benefit from them, so the main theme of the deck should be reanimation, with Lifegain as a subtheme, since Athreos doesn't provide lifegain.

If you go with this, the easiest cuts would be:

Oketra's Monument (no need for the tokens, accelerate your deck with mana rocks instead)
Spawning Pit (makes tokens)
Blind Obedience (stax piece, not needed)
Hidden Stockpile (makes tokens, not a free sac outlet)
Unmake (add Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares, they're cheaper mana-wise)
Elspeth, Sun's Champion (also makes tokens, and is expensive, gotta reduce this curve)
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Butcher of Malakir (expensive, and you already have Dictate/pact)
Elenda, the Dusk Rose (tokens)
Grave Titan (tokens)
Puppeteer Clique (doesn't provide reanimation or lifegain, so removing it will focus your strategy)
Regna, the Redeemer (she doesn't give lifegain, she benefits from it, so could be cut if you don't care about creating tokens. Krav by himself is already strong with your strategy).
Requiem Angel (tokens)
Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts (very questionable, she isn't really an aristocrat piece, more like a defensive card, and an expensive one.)
Teysa, Orzhov Scion (tokens/removal, which you already have enough of).
Wall of Omens (?)

Add:

Mana rocks (sol ring, signets, mind stone, fellwar stone, etc.)
Free sac outlets, too many of yours cost mana, maybe Yahenni, Carrion Feeder, Altar of Dementia, Ashnod's altar, etc. (the creature ones can be reanimated if destroyed, which could be great with your deck)
Whisper, blood liturgist (reanimation)
Hell's caretaker (reanimation)
Smothering Tithe / Pitiless Plunderer if you want more mana/ramp/acceleration
Debtors' Knell / Palace Siege for consistent recursion (expensive though, watch your curve before adding)
Necropotence (massive draw engine, life loss could be negated by your lifegain).

Hope this helps

28

Deck Reviews / Re: [EDH / Commander] Athreos Aristocrats V2

« on: February 19, 2019, 01:32:31 pm »

Is this supposed to be played in Multiplayer EDh, or Duel? Mostly asking due to the lack of Sol Ring, which is banned in Duel, however if this deck is meant to be played in Multiplayer, then you should add Sol Ring, as well as a whole bunch of other mana rocks.

Decks without any type of ramp/acceleration are usually very slow, so stuff like Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone, Orzhov Signet, etc., would be good additions to your deck.

I'm also a big fan of Smothering Tithe and Pitiless Plunderer. The 1st one is just super good by itself, especially in multiplayer, and gives some much needed ramp to Orzhov. Plunderer does the same but synergizes with aristocrat strategies.

Secondly, could you please clarify what kind of strategy you want for the deck? It seems you have a mix of reanimation, tokens and lifegain too. If I were you, I'd focus on one of those strategies (reanimation being the best one with Athreos, probably, since he doesn't give tokens or lifegain by himself, and you usually want your main strategy to have an enabler in the command zone).

Right now the deck seems more like a Orzhov Goodstuff deck, so clarifying your strategy will allow us to make some suggestions as far as cuts go.

You're definitely gonna have to cut some 5+ CMC cards though, that much is certain. 29 cards at 5+ CMC is waaaay too high, especially without any type of acceleration, your deck will be super slow.

29

General Magic / Re: Wish list for C19?

« on: February 18, 2019, 02:24:18 pm »

With the announcement of commander 2018, and the increase of the MSRP, we were told that the value of the cards would increase. Instead, commander 2018 had the lowest value, and many people cancelled their pre-orders.

This ended up being bullshit though. The designer of the set said in an interview that he didn't know the MSRP would increase until they were almost done designing the set. The "we increased MSRP to increase value" was told to LGS, and was never supposed to make it to the ears of the players, but it did.

Quote here: https://www.reddit.com/r/EDH/comments/ang9pk/gavin_verhey_hinted_in_an_article_he_wrote_today/

At least, he acknowledges that we were disappointed, and I'm hopeful (not getting my hopes up though, or getting hyped) we'll get better reprints this year.

My personal wishlist is

1. Reprint of Command Beacon, PLEASE AND THANK YOU FFS. This card was printed ONCE, is only useful in commander, and is worth 30$. It needs to be reprinted to death just like command tower so it'll finally drop.

(Unrealistic wish: Cards that are staples in their color should be reprinted as well. Path to Exile for white, Cyclonic Rift for blue, etc. I know this won't happen but one can dream.)

2. Finish a cycle of lands so we get more support for enemy colors. These would not only give us some new tools, but would make the new commander decks desirable for experienced players as well. Either finish the cycle of Battlebond lands (perfect for commander) or the Check Lands like WWolfe suggested, since they can be fetched.

30

General Magic / Re: Dealing With Toxic Players

« on: February 17, 2019, 03:02:12 pm »

I'm gonna agree with Morganator: avoiding these players is one of the best way to go. If everyone does the same, then they'll realize that their attitude is pushing everyone away, and hopefully they'll finally start to change.

These people keep doing things like that partly because we let them do it, either by turning a blind eye or allowing the behavior, so they have no reason to stop acting this way. So call them out on their attitude, refuse to play with them, don't let them play with your decks, call judges on them, anything. Either they'll change, or you at least won't have to deal with their shit.

It's win-win either way.