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Deck Reviews / [EDH / Commander] The Tribe That Sucks (Deckbuilding Help)

« on: September 09, 2017, 08:01:20 pm »

Hi everyone! I picked up the Commander 2017 Vampiric Bloodlust precon recently and, after playing a few games, have decided to plan where I want to take it in the longer term. I've selected a major and minor theme for the deck (+1/+1 counters and life drain), but I still have 9 cards to remove to make it a legal Commander deck.

If you can help, I'd be very grateful! At this point, I'm looking for answers to a few questions:

• Do you think this approach is going to be effective?
• Which cards do you think I should remove?
• Are there any cards I've not thought of (or sideboarded) that I need to add in to get this deck to its full potential?

Ignore the manabase for now. It's a 36 card placeholder, and I'll sort it once I have the final 99 for Eddy.

Make the best use of Edgar and his support staffs' vampire buff and evasion granting abilities to make many, large vampires that are hard to stop. As well as hitting opponents for combat damage, drain them out with life taxing effects while gaining life yourself. There are additional cards to increase the impact of Edgar's eminence ability, and make the most of your vampires.

The Tribe That Sucks

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Deck Comments / Re: Atraxa, Dungeon Master - Comments

« on: July 26, 2017, 10:34:28 pm »

Yeah, my playgroup (myself included) have made some horribly effective decks and I wanted to do something more fun. I haven't assembled this yet but when I have played it a bit I'll let you know how it goes. If you do build something similar and play it let me know what happens with it!

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Deck Comments / Re: Samut, Voice of Dissent - Comments

« on: June 27, 2017, 04:28:38 pm »

Hey, thanks!

I use Odric, Lunarch Marshal in my Atraxa deck. The +flying, +deathtouch, +lifelink and +vigilence from her keyword pot are amazing there. Here though I was thinking that True Conviction would be a bit more resilient than Odric and more valuable with the life gain - what do you think? Sigarda, Heron's Grace looks like a good include

Do you have any red spot removals you'd recommend? I looked into the legality on Gatherer and Swords to Plowshares seems to be okay in Commander.

I haven't got around to sorting the mana base out for this deck. I'm also still looking for ways to give my tokens deathtouch when defending. Bow of Nylea is a step in the right direction, but not quite what I'm after.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [EDH / Commander] Samut EDH

« on: June 27, 2017, 02:35:21 pm »

Purphoros, God of the Forge is surely an auto-include in any token deck in red.

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Deck Reviews / Re: [EDH / Commander] atraxa +1/+1 counter

« on: June 25, 2017, 02:27:51 pm »

I have been playing and refining my own version of Atraxa in my Commander playgroup for 3 months now.

It usually wins ~70% of the games we play. It consistently outpaces the precon Heavenly Inferno we have, deals more damage than the token-heavy Aurelia, the Warleader deck and usually deals with decks like the Nekusar the Mindrazer and Vial Smasher the Fierce (+ partner) we have before they put out enough damage to be a problem. It can struggle against control decks, like the heavily modified Evasive Maneuvers precon we have, as well as a Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Vial Smasher the Fierce mill deck in the group, but I recently added Simic Maniplulator and now will avoid tapping Crystalline Crawler for a +1/+1 until I'm responding the the previous end step, as well as maybe adding Homeward Path.

So then, some friendly advice from another Atraxa player!

1 - You have the wrong rocks
Why all those signets and mana rocks? Your deck will not get any benefit out of the proliferation mechanic if you play it like it doesn't have it. You've got Astral Cornucopia in there from the precon (which is a start) but you really need to think about swapping your ramp out for cards like these:

• As Foretold - Proliferate those time counters! I regularly get insanely high value out of this card
• Chromatic Lantern - Now you don't have to worry about what colour your lands are
• Crystalline Crawler - Move this to your ramp section
• Everflowing Chalice - Does tapping for 12 colourless mana seem absurd? I'm getting used to it
• Fertilid - Drop an extra land every turn for two mana? Yes please
• Gemstone Array - Expensive for mana fixing, but sometimes worth it. Great for dumping unspent mana at the previous end step. You can proliferate these too
• Mirari's Wake - This seems great in any deck that has the colours for it. Bring it in from your maybe board
• Pyramid of the Pantheon - A less expensive mana fix than Gemstone Array, and doesn't ramp as hard as the Cornucopia or the Chalice, but for 3 mana you're getting 3 mana back every turn in any colour you want!

Now imagine that you have other proliferation mechanics out, like Contagion Engine, Viral Drake, Inexorable Tide or Thrummingbird. You might even drop Tezzeret's Gambit in turn 3 or 4 and just pay the 2 life to get your rocks growing to guarantee getting Atraxa our in turn 4/5. If you have Winding Constrictor on the field at this point it gets even more ridiculous! You can even abuse these mechanics with cards like Deepglow Skate and Vorel of the Hull Clade (which you have).

2 - Get some more utility, storage and multicolour lands in there

Atraxa doesn't need 39 lands with all the artifact mana ramp that proliferate gives you - 36/37 is sufficient. I see you've got one of the storage lands in there. You should include the other two: Calciform Pools and Saltcrusted Steppe. You can use these lands for fixing and proliferate the storage counters for ramp!

You should also think about adding the Vivid lands: Vivid Marsh, Vivid Creek, Vivid Grove and Vivid Meadow. These lands can tap for any colour as long as they have a charge counter on, which - you guessed it - you can proliferate. Mirrodin's Core works at the same pace if you get the counter on it and proliferate it, and is nice for fixing to get Atraxa out early. Reflecting pool is expensive, but useful with so many two and three colour lands in the deck.

You also want to put Krosan Verge in there with some battle lands (Canopy Vista, Sunken Hollow, Prairie Stream) - it can fetch two of them, as well as other dual lands. Myriad landscape is a maybe, but I think it's a no for 4-colour decks.

You want to add lands like Novijen, Heart of Progress, Gavony Township, Llanowar Reborn and Oran-Rief, the Vastwood for the +1/+1 counter love. Llanowar Reborn you need to keep at least one counter on to proliferate, of course!

3 - Swap out your spot removal

Mortify and Putrefy are good, but not great. Swap them out for Anguished Unmaking (Atraxa can afford the 3 life) and Utter End for some more versatile exile spot removal. With them in you can drop Sylvan Reclamation for Krosan Grip - control players have no response to that. Lux Cannon is ridiculous in Atraxa. I regularly spot remove 2/3+ cards with it each time I draw it. Retribution of the Ancients is also silly cheap when you have so many counters, and deals with indestructible creatures nicely.

4 - You have too many board wipes

You need to keep other players down without wasting your own critters. Rely on the spot removal for that and get rid of In Garruk's Wake (unless your playgroup has loads of planeswalkers) and Languish (unreliable as a board wipe unless you're against token decks). Duneblast is okay, because you can keep Atraxa, but Sublime Exhalation is a real panic button and I rarely find I'm behind in board state - it's okay I guess.

5 - Other suggestions

Things to maybe take out

• Altered Ego - If you want to copy high impact non-legendaries you want Progenitor Mimic or Rite of Replication
• Eldrazi Monument - Not really a good fit for Atraxa. What are you going to reliably sac to keep this out before you start killing off your big hitters? Seems like this relies on 2 cards in your 100 to work
• Necroplasm - Sort of a creeping board wipe. Sort of vulnerable to board wipes itself and spot removal. Sort of meh
• Beastmaster Ascension - More of a token deck card. You don't need the +5/+5
• Prime Speaker Zegana - In a 4 colour deck the 2{G}2{B} mana can be hard to come by, and it relies on having just the right board state
• Vulturous Zombie - Doesn't grow fast enough, and has nothing on Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker or Managorger Hydra
• Triskelion - This is sort of a maybe, but feels like a worse Walking Ballista. You shouldn't include this unless you have that, and only if you really want to go down the bolt route. I might add it into my deck alongside Ballista and try it out in future
• Marionette Master - This is a poor disincentive for an artifact board wipe at a base player damage of 3, and without many ways of producing and sacking artifact token creatures you don't get much value out of this card. It can be okay with Animation Module and a sac outlet, but you don't have that
• Wall of Roots - Atraxa is about proliferating existing counters. Cancelling out -0/-1 counters is much harder for this deck
• Gave, Guru of Spores and Mycoloth - I never got much value out of these cards. Never thought they worked well with the deck
• Citadel Siege - I'd Rather have Sunbond on Atraxa or Duellist's Heritage out (which is also a handy political tool)
• Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest - You don't have a sac outlet except Birthing Pod. This seems like a poor fit unless your playgroup does a lot of sacrificing
• Birthing Pod - You probably want to ramp hard and draw into your bigger cards. Even the cheaper CMC creatures in this deck are big hitters you don't want to sac
• Manifold Insights - Relies on having many opponents, and they can really hurt you by tucking the best cards from your top 10

Things to maybe add in

• Myojin of Night's Reach - Play it, proliferate the divinity counter, after your end step remove the second one and force everyone else to discard. My favourite card against mill and control decks
• Woodfall Primus - This synergises so well with lands like Llanowar Reborn, Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, Novijen, Heart of Progress, Gavony Township and creatures like Bloodspore Thrinax, Master Biomancer  and Mikaeus the Lunarch. Play it, grow it, trample on your opponents and then bring it back forever when they kill it (with the added bonus of that single target removal)
• Novijen Sages - The card draw here is huge
• Rishkar's Expertise - Great all-round draw and the free 5 drop is great
• Contagion Engine - Mini board wipe for a single opponent with lots of small creatures, but the 4 mana proliferate twice is insane
• Viral Drake - Infect, good blocker for fliers and a proliferate on a stick
• Green Sun's Zenith - A great tutor in this deck, as you'll have lots of creatures with green. Cast for 4 mana and get Managorger Hydra out reliably early, for example
• Ring of Three Wishes - Expensive CMC but easily repeatable tutor that you can keep doing indefinitely with proliferate
• Lightning Greaves and Darksteel Plate - When people realise how much proliferate is exploding your mana base and creatures they'll want to kill Atraxa. Protect her with these
• Bane of Progress - Handy to have around when your haven't got your mana rocks out and a tutorable board wipe with Green Sun's Zenith and Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
• Strionic Resonator - Proliferate twice in your end step for two mana
• Fleecemane Lion - A 2 CMC 3/3 is good in the early game, and then you make it hexproof, indestructible and proliferate it until you can use Triumph of the Hordes, Tuskguard Captain or even fling it with Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. A great blocker for big scary creatures too
• Forgotten Ancient - The interaction between Forgotten Ancient, Hardened Scales, Winding Constrictor and Corpsejack Menace is stupid. This creature is so versatile even on its own
• Vizkopa Guildmage - Just gets stupid. For 8 mana it's a game ender, give a big hitter lifelink and life drain and then kill everyone in one turn
• Walking Ballista - Better than Triskelion. Played for 6 mana it has the same damage potential. Granted it doesn't have any base P/T but you'll invariably have so much mana you can cast this for a huge amount of counters and bolt something or someone into the dirt
• Winding Constrictor - A good early blocker which ramps your artifacts hard when you proliferate
• Mikaeus, the Lunarch - Cast for 2 mana minimum, proliferate and then next turn everyone gets counters - then again every turn after
• Cathars' Crusade - Speaks for itself. Put counters on everything. It bumps your token generators massively if you decide to keep them

That's about all I have. Hope it helps!