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Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Reduce, Reuse, Reanimate

« on: May 04, 2021, 01:31:50 am »

Forgot to mention

Temple of the False God (It only really makes sense in decks with 40+ lands and a ton of 2-mana ramp, there are statistics on this: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/is-temple-of-the-false-god-a-bad-card-the-answer-using-math).

Using the criteria given, I've got 41 lands including Rampant Growth effects which should put me right around the 80-82% mark for activating it on turn 5. While having an 18-20% miss ratio isn't the best, I'm ok with those odds as my tables play with a "Mulligan until it's keepable, no hand hunting" rule, so I am much less likely to run into it as a dead card in hand. Use the same justification for Cabal coffers, as it's only really useful if there is an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth on the field.

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Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Reduce, Reuse, Reanimate

« on: May 04, 2021, 01:08:31 am »

So I worked on the deck and took some of y'alls suggestions. Haven't had a chance to test it out yet, but hopefully soon!
I'm also going to be working on reorganizing it and some of my other decks by card use instead of type
https://deckstats.net/decks/78341/809959-reduce-reuse-reanimate

Since you really seem to like the Elk, I'll ask; What's your opinion on Burnished Hart for Meren? Not sure if the higher ramp rate and lack of need for green mana, on the off chance you get screwed in that regard, offsets the higher overall cost.

Never tried it, but I think it's not very good. The relevant difference is not really the mana cost, but the cost of the ramp ability: 3 is just too much, whereas it's quite easy to leave up a single mana to ramp.

I agree. Used to run Burnished Hart in a few decks that lacked green, but with the creation of better mana rocks/ramp at the 2 slot, the only deck I think I currently run it in is Osgir the Reconstructor, and it's probably going to be one of the first cards cut once I find something better.

As a sidenote, I maybe see a contradiction: no Gary but yes Nyktos...? 

Gary relies on black pips, which tend to come en-masse on problem cards. Green though? Green gets pips out the wazoo easily on non-threatening pieces. Which sounds better, spending a removal on a Dictate of Erebos/Gravepact, or spending two removal spells on a BoP and a Steve? The deck also used to be about a 60/40 split in favor of green, so I had fewer pips to get out. Now the stats have skewed the other way, favoring black.
That, the Growing Rites and the Urborg/Cabal coffers combo were meant to allow me to cast spells both on and off turn without fear of running out of mana, as well as fuel a Torment of Hailfire for big mana wins. And to be fair, it did the latter very well, although with Torment gone I might take out the Nykthos.

Grim backwoods was in there originally as emergency sac, and I'm just now realizing how long it's been since I've taken an actual look at the mana base instead of just going "New conditional untapped dual land? shoves in deck"
Prolly going to take out the Svogthos as well, as that was more meant to work with Pathbreaker Ibex or Craterhoof Behemoth, neither of which are in this brew.

I'd cut Reliquary Tower. It's a nonbo with Meren

Wish I could but there is a Jin-Gitaxias Core Augur player in my primary playgroup. When he's playing, I need to tutor this up or I don't get to play.  Is pain.

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Commander Deck Reviews / Re: Reduce, Reuse, Reanimate

« on: May 03, 2021, 02:12:32 am »

Thank you all for the advise! I wanted to share the reason behind some of my decisions, and respond you some of y'alls suggestions. Starting with the first few things

For deck reviews, it is useful to create custom sections like Ramp, Removal, Card Draw etc...

I will absolutely keep that in mind for next time!

Too few lands. You want at least 36-37, and in addition some MDFCs. For Meren, I'd suggest Agadeem's Awakening,  Bala Ged Recovery and I see you already play Malakir Rebirth.

Yeah, I've been meaning to address that. The only "problem" (and I use that term loosely) is that Bala Ged Recovery and Eternal Witness occupy the same slot, although now that I've thought it out, I think that could be a replacement for the Woe-eater, as getting a card from the grave is effectively drawing it?

You want also most of your removal to be creature based, cut Tragic Slip and add Ravenous Chupacabra.

Ravenous Chupacabra is a card I forgot about, thank you for reminding me. I run Tragic Slip specifically to deal with one Eldrazi player in my meta, although there are also a decent amount of the Theros gods mixed in as well. 

Where is Gary (Gray Merchant of Asphodel)? He's arguably better than Kokusho.

             
I don't run Gary from Accounting because my meta is rife with removal and I found I was almost never getting enough high-pip permanents to stay on the board to really take advantage of him. The most I'd ever hit for him was 8 pips, including himself, and often I was at or under 5 once he resolved, as players will readily remove parts of my field to lessen his blow. I swapped him for Kokusho, the Evening Star as I think I will get more value out of the static life loss, and also be able to keep more of my board hopefully, lol. It's for that same reason that I really like Protein (Protean) Hulk, as he lets me get a solid creature base without risking too much and he's a good reanimation target.

Life from the Loam: This is a card is better suited lands deck, not for Meren.

Life from the Loam is there for the dredge, and because players will take out my cabal coffers/Urborg/Nykthos with no hesitation. It's also nice for when I self-mill multiple land from cards like Satyr Wayfinder or Grisly Salvage.

As for the suggestion of cutting cards to protect Meren, I wouldn't suggest it myself. Especially not on the grounds of "doesn't need combat to win". Someone exiling her to slow down or shutdown all of your reanimation efforts is pretty good incentive to include a few cards to make sure they can't.

I absolutely agree with you, because of the aforementioned heavy-targeted-removal meta. I'm also looking to put in Imp's Mischief for targeted protection as well.

and I have a couple underplayed favorites: Blood Pet isn't long term ramp

Now that is a card I haven't seen before, and I'm going to give it a shot

I'd make sure to include Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker to handle recurring utility creatures

Ultimately for me, Shirei would need 10+ targets to consider a slot going to her, just to make sure I'd be able to get consistent value from her. I'll be working on the deck, and we'll see what happens.

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Commander Deck Reviews / Reduce, Reuse, Reanimate

« on: May 01, 2021, 08:26:25 pm »

https://deckstats.net/decks/78341/809959-reduce-reuse-reanimate

Basically what it says on the tin. Get creatures in grave, and recurse them out for value. Some cards (Reanimate) were originally left out due to pricing, and just never got added in over the years. Might re-add it later, as I regularly update this decklist when new sets come out. Looking for any card or effect I might have over looked. The actual description on Deckstats has an explanation of certain cards.

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About Deckstats / Re: New: Deckbuilder Improvements

« on: September 09, 2019, 06:53:30 pm »

What resolution are you using? It sounds like you have a lot of empty space in the deckbuilder UI that you don't actually need. Would it help if I simply limited the width of the deckbuilder so that it doesn't take up the full width if you monitor is very wide?

I'll have a think about the sections but this would require some relatively complicated technical changes.

I do have a lot of empty space. My monitor resolutions are 2560x1440 (2k) on the 27" and 1920x1200 (1080p) on the 24". The limiting of width does sound like it would solve my issue, yes! Tyvm for the quick reply as well!

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About Deckstats / Re: New: Deckbuilder Improvements

« on: September 08, 2019, 02:55:35 am »

So just a couple of suggestions on the new deck builder:

1) Would you be able to add cell outlines to the card database? I have larger monitors (27" and 24") and it can be hard to track line information across that distance. I think giving the database a more spreadsheet-like appearance would help with that.

2) Would it be possible to make the columns in the card database have an adjustable width? Again, I have larger monitors and it can be hard to track one line instance across half the monitor.

3) This one is more of a personal nitpick, but would you be able to add in the ability to create new sections in the actual deck builder? Not the subsections, which are fine, I just don't like having my custom headers under the control of the "Main" section.

And the last one 4) Would you be able to replicate the subsection creation under the maybeboard? I think it would greatly help in organizing the cards people are thinking about putting into their decks.