Messages

1

General Magic / Re: Opinion on Murders at Karlov Manor setting

« on: April 23, 2024, 08:17:04 pm »

Although New Capenna may have aligned better with the theme and design, the murders on Ravnica hold greater impact because they involve named characters that the community cares about, rather than individuals created solely to fulfill a narrative purpose.

I'm not really sure they succeeded there. Teysa's fine, Kylox was new, Tolsimir and Zegana, while established characters, never did anything to actually put themselves in memory, and Agrus just got stuffed in a jar to maybe show up again sometime later. There was little to no impact here, so they could've killed off a handful of New Capenna characters to the same effect.
The only major impact from this is that they went ahead and tacked on a reveal at the end that Niv-Mizzet was ignoring it all to set up turning Ravnica into the center of the multiverse.

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Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Superfriends Carth

« on: March 31, 2024, 10:32:39 am »

I only got one question, probably I´m missing something but what is the advantage of indestructible lands? 😅

Protection from land destroying lands, which are becoming more common generally speaking, and land destruction in general. If that's not a problem in your groups, don't worry so much about it.

As for general advice Golgari happens to have one of the best options for blockers; Glissa. Glissa, the Traitor, Glissa Sunslayer, and Glissa, Herald of Predation. Short of Indestructible or Flying these are almost impossible to safely swing into, which helps considerably in getting people to just not swing at all.

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Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Looking for Spice...

« on: March 31, 2024, 08:58:53 am »

Defense of the Heart would allow you to tutor up both Ruric Thar and the Spark Double.
Magebane Lizard, once the next set comes out, can serve as a weaker backup to Ruric Thar, and is a viable mass copy option if for some reason, like Drannith Magistrate, you can't get Sakashima out.
Mirror Image is another clone option. And if you want to meme it up, you could always go with the Jumpstart 2022 version of it so Ruric Thar can be a pretty anime girl.
Eternal Witness and Timeless Witness allow you to get stuff back out of your graveyard without hurting you like Regrowth and Road of Return would.

4

Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Undead Unleashed Editing

« on: March 29, 2024, 08:03:50 pm »

Revision 69

Added/removed cards:
-1 Illicit Shipment
-1 Vampiric Rites
+1 Geralf, the Fleshwright
+1 Gisa, the Hellraiser
+1 Undercity Sewers
+1 Watery Grave

Changed amounts:
-2 Snow-Covered Swamp

It has been a long time coming that Wilhelt gets some new toys, but the new cards for Gisa and Geralf just demand to be added in. And now we play the waiting game, both for the release so I can get these cards, and for Duskmourn in hopes of more.

5

Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods

« on: March 26, 2024, 02:36:46 am »

Revision 7
Yedora's not pulling much weight, and having to explain that yes I can flip morph type creatures it turns into a land if I pay their costs has gotten frustrating, so I'm trying out The Skullspore Nexus in its place.

Added/removed cards:
-1 Yedora, Grave Gardener
+1 The Skullspore Nexus

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Commander Deck Reviews / Re: i always come back

« on: March 24, 2024, 04:25:03 am »

29 lands, 6 ramp, one of which costs 4 mana, when your average mana cost is 4.06.
2 cards that draw, one that tutors, and both of the non mana rock options here are 7 mana. (I missed one the first time around, there's also Faramir in there but he's also a really bad choice given how little ways you have to make use of the rest of him)

This deck seems designed specifically to lose to absolutely any deck, and badly.


34-38 lands, 8-10 ramp, ~10 draw. This is a general baseline for any given Commander deck to reliably function.
Barren Moor, Secluded Steppe, Polluted Mire, Drifting Meadow, Desert of the Glorified, Desert of the True, Castle Locthwain
Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Blood Pet, Vesper Ghoul, Soldevi Adnate, Marble Diamond, Charcoal Diamond
Greed, Dark Tutelage, Dark Confidant, Bushmeat Poacher, Dockside Chef, Ayara, First of Locthwain, Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar, Silversmote Ghoul, Skullport Merchant

Those lists of suggestions could go on for days, but that's still a start.

I'd suggest trimming from the top, the more expensive the card the more impact it needs. Debtors' Knell, Ethereal Absolution, Price of Knowledge, Virtue of Persistence, and Kaya, Intangible Slayer are all cards that are not going to be winning you the game, Invasion of Tolvada's too expensive and does nothing of value without putting in even more work. Invoke Justice's 4 white is a big demand, especially with you not running any duals. Angelic Edict, Oblivion Strike, and Obzedat's Aid are absurdly expensive for how little they do, and at sorcery speed none the less. You have almost nothing other than random tokens that work with Wispdrinker Vampire, and a single one of your anthem effects pushes almost all of the few that do out of range anyway.

Try to make sure you're sorting your cards into custom subsections, rather than using the default. Deck Goals, Draw, Interaction, Ramp, Utility, and Land is a pretty good way to go about it. This lets you, and others, see how your deck is constructed more clearly.

7

Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods

« on: March 22, 2024, 10:36:53 am »

Revision 6

Trying to make hitting 4 mana early a little more reliable and improve on interaction.

Added/removed cards:
-1 Expose the Culprit
-1 Formless Nurturing
-1 Memorial to War
-1 Seedborn Muse
-1 Tin Street Gossip
-1 Tribute to the World Tree
-1 Wild Cantor
+1 Beast Whisperer
+1 Chain Reaction
+1 Dream Chisel
+1 Ghost Quarter
+1 High Market
+1 Llanowar Elves
+1 Tibalt's Trickery
+1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
+1 Wildcall

Changed amounts:
-1 Forest
-1 Mountain

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Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Pride, The Original Sin

« on: March 15, 2024, 10:45:09 am »

I originally wanted to load the deck up with creature cards that have 'Haunt' but I don't know whether or not those cards in exile are technically under my control or if I own them. If I own them that would mean the trigger effect for the haunted creature dying would happen twice because of Teysa Karlov. That would be awesome but I would be more embarassed if that didn't work.

Haunt does not work with Teysa, unfortunately since it is a mechanic related directly to her guild. A "permanent" is defined as a token or card on the battlefield, while "permanent card" refers to ones that can be once they're moved there. If the card is in exile it is not a permanent, even if it is a permanent card.

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Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Pride, The Original Sin

« on: March 14, 2024, 04:41:54 am »

Teysa says 2 things, you are running 35 creatures currently, and here is my breakdown with how they play with your commander

1.  "if a creature dying causes a triggered ability you control to trigger, do it again"
~
So of your 35 creatures, exactly 5 have text that Teysa cares about, and one of those 5 is pointless

Note that you're only counting the creature triggers, not other permanents.
Haunted Library will allow them to pay up to 2 for more spirits.
Bastion of Remembrance will drain twice.
Grave Pact will force double sacs on each death.
Malakir Rebirth puts the recursion effect on the creature, which provides an extremely niche situation where someone will have to counter two triggers to keep them from getting things back. This applies to Kaya's Ghostform as well.
This is not a significant improvement over what you've already pointed out, but it is more on goal than what you were giving credit for.

Jaycekun, please note that Cry of Contrition's trigger is not coming from a permanent and will not benefit from Teysa's doubling.

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Commander Deck Reviews / Re: LANDS!!!

« on: March 13, 2024, 12:52:21 am »

Including your deck that you're looking for pointers on would be a fantastic start.

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Commander Deck Reviews / Re: The Pickpocket

« on: March 10, 2024, 11:02:10 pm »

The most important question is this.  Is this deck going to be way too annoying to play against and be another one that just creates slow games that are no fun?

It could prove to be pretty annoying. You did make a good call not including Tergrid, God of Fright if your goal is to avoid being a deck that becomes the archenemy right away, though Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is still going to piss a lot of people off since you're not only punishing their draws but taking the cards away anyway.
Chain of Smog can go over decently enough since it gives them something to do, either retaliating directly or going after someone else that they feel like maybe you've been ignoring.
Cards that give them something in exchange for their losses would also help to mitigate their irritation with you. Anvil of Bogardan, Geier Reach Sanitarium, or Rankle, Master of Pranks for example. Creeping Dread hits you as well, to potentially punish them further if they match you, which also helps make things feel more fair.

You may also want backups for your commander to be able to really commit to taking people's stuff after they've lost it, taking only one card a turn while trying to deny everyone as much of their own cards can lead to things taking forever. Whispersteel Dagger, Predators' Hour, and Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni come to mind.

12

General Magic / Re: "Reworked" vs "Original" vs "Recycled" mechanics

« on: March 10, 2024, 08:17:48 pm »

Honestly the only ones that really bug me are Disguise/Cloak and Day/Night.

Day/Night just adds obnoxious tracking that never goes away, even when relevant cards do, so I absolutely loathe it to be completely honest.

Disguise/Cloak, however, is really just a minor annoyance. On one hand, the terms are more generic so we could theoretically see them more often, and I hope they do since Kadena, Kaust, and Yarus could really use the support. On the other hand, cards like Expose the Culprit slip through the cracks and ignore older related mechanics so they only work on a smaller subset of cards than you'd think.

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Commander Discussion / Re: What do you think of "Baldur’s Gate Wilderness"?

« on: March 07, 2024, 07:48:19 pm »

Honestly all I could ever see myself doing is going straight down the left every single time, only moving over for Gauntlet of Shar and Ansur's Sanctum.

14

Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Liesa, F. A. (EDH) - My one and only deck

« on: March 07, 2024, 04:54:54 am »

turning my plains into forests.

How? The only things I can think of that do that only do so temporarily, and you could float your white mana in response, unless it's Thelonite Monk, which just does it one by one and should be pretty easy to deal with by way of a kill spell and it'd be pretty weird for them to only go after plains.

15

Commander Discussion / Re: Removing Enchantments

« on: March 06, 2024, 10:03:40 pm »

You're right: I forgot Chaos Warp.
Other black removals you're citing are pretty narrow (I didn't know about them, but I honestly don't think they're relevant anyway).
Wild Magic Surge looks like a second Chaos Warp, but I'd say it's too dangerous (you'd swap enchantment for enchantment, not enchantment for random land or even nothing).
It's true that Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast could hit blue enchantments, but I'd say that's behind the point.

The only thing narrow about them is "What if they have more than one enchantment?", which is a lot less narrow than "What if they have more than one creature?" Outside of being up against an Enchantress type deck, you should be able to pretty reliably hit what you're wanting with them.
I also wouldn't say being able to just hit blue enchantments is all that bad of a deal when you can't go for enchantments much in the first place. Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora, Propaganda, Omniscience, Training Grounds. Some of the most obnoxious and dangerous enchantments are blue.