Commander/EDH Deck Talk

[Tacos_yay]

Cabal Coffers added to wishlist. Took out The Chain Veil and Swans, added Palladium Myr and Commanders Sphere. Are there any cards I just shouldn't be running? Any that stand out to you as a just bad card, or something I should cut? Thanks again I really appreciate it.

[lazylantern]

Well, what card becomes bad depends on the direction you want to go into.
For example, if you want to go the Nekusar Darw/Mill route, then Akroma's memorial becomes a terrible card.
if you go a more aggressive road, then cards like Jace's archivist and niv-mizzet are very sub-obtimal.
I'd cut the Ivory tower, lifegain for lifegain's sake is not what you want to reserve a slot for.
I'd suggest Pearl Lake Ancient, because of the flash and Prowess, plus resilience. People usually will forget that it has flash.
Now that I suggest this card I noticed you have Lorthos and a a few other sea monsters. Maybe including Whelming Wave could turn into a very one-sided board wipe. If you'd like to go that route: Wrexial, the Risen Deep, Inkwell Leviathan, Stormsurge Kraken , Scourge of Fleets and Stormtide Leviathan (those last two make for a nasty pair) could be very nice. A deadeye Navigator plus scourge is basically GG
With a strat like this one, Thraximundar or Marchesa would be better... Marchesa very very potent as you'll be able to abuse EtB effects.

In my experience, cards like Vampire Hexmage are very over-rated unless you can easily recur them. I'd rather run a Hero's Downfall for the flexibility to kill a creature or planeswalker. Hexmage kills a Walker or removes counter and not all creatures are 0/0s with +1/+1 on them, especially not in the deck you are describing. If you are trying to hate out cards with Charge Counter, Vandalblast will once again be better as it can wipe the oponent's board of artifacts completely. Your Hellkite also does that.

Viceling provides so little actual value, even dedicated Nekusar decks don't usually run it. It is negligible over the 40 starting life. I'd cut it personally no matter where your deck is heading. Nekusar: run a reforge the soul or a draw7. Aggressive; any of the beaters described above.

Could you explain to me the value of Soul Counduit in your deck? I don't see a way to lynch your own life. You are not running Greed or Phyrexian mana spells (Phyrexian Metamorph, excellent to fight off eldrazis BTW) or even some of Black's signature Draw N, Lose N spells. I'd cut it because you obviously want to kill oponents with damage. The political implications of this card are so little that any card like "Humble Defector" would probably be better.

Whew, So many things to do with this deck in the end. I guess it would be better to know which side you'd rather orient it before you make any more major changes.

[Tacos_yay]

I actually had PLA in the deck but I took it out. I'll cut ivory tower and put it back in. Hexmage is in there only because I'm running Dark Depths. I've never heard of Marchesa. Will definitely pick one up. Wrexial is good, but useless against the Eldrazi Deck because the only instant or sorcery she runs is All is Dust. Shes not running Eldrazi Conscription or Not of this World because she doesn't know they exist, and I'm certainly not telling her. I might pick one up anyway because it will be good against that simic deck. I actually have a phyrexian metamorph, but its currently in a Esper Artifacts deck. And I know soul conduit doesn't really work, but its just funny to me. I was thinking about putting inkwell leviathan in a bant hexproof deck, but I don't currently own one. Also I used to run Crosis, but his ability is useless against a colorless deck.

[chetoos]

There's also a RB enchantment from Llorwyn block that acts as a howling mine, plus a constant nekusar for everyone, including you.

[Tacos_yay]

Spiteful Visions is in the deck, yes.

[chetoos]

Now just find some way to give Nekusar lifelink.

[lazylantern]

I disagree with lifelink on Nekusar. It does not help your game plan and in my opinion fails on each steps of the quadrant theory.
Developping, you usually would not run your Nekusar unprotected on a developping board. It'll draw removal or boardwipes early and only serve to slow you down. Running a card to give him Lifelink in this situation just seals the deal and now your commander will cost you 2 more AND you spent a card for this.
Parity: in my opinion, thats where it would most advantageous, but even then, the minimal gain of life will not be enough to really justify it. The deck is not a dedicated Nekusar deck that runs all the wheel of Fortune effects, you can't have the monstrous displays of lifegains that you think it would generate. Moreover, no Sanguine Bond in the deck to abuse this life gain as damage. Politically, this quickly makes you annoying to the other players. Nekusar is already viewed as an annoying musquito buzzing in everyone's ears, feared for the explosive potential of game swings; you donmt also want to be gaining incremental "advantage" to take you from Parity to Losing because of Archenemy principle.
Winning: if you are winning, you don't really care for life gain; a counterspell would do you better in that cardslot than trying hard to give him lifegain
Losing, just terrible; that life gain will absolutely not save you against Ulamog's Crusher smashing into you, forcing you to sacrifice permanents.
Allright, I'll get off my soapbox now. Don't force lifelink when it doesn't play an important part in the strategy is all I'm saying.

[Aviator Moonshine]

I feel that last sentence, since that's how I made some of the Theros gods decks that I have, most interestingly, the Ephara Aggro deck I made. It's mostly a voltron deck, but it's there with the aggro plan as well: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/epharas-asskicking/

I just playtested your deck. I now kinda wanna make it myself. Sitting in the corner of my playgroup with tons of tiny creatures that grow into monstrosities in no time at all.

Bouncing 'curiosity' with 'Riptide Chimera' every upkeep and then drawing a card for 1 blue when I cast it with the 'Kor Spiritdancer's' trigger, that's beautiful value. :]

And from the look of it, I own most of these cards.
I own a mono white aura deck and lot of the stuff in it can be found in your deck.

[chetoos]

I feel that last sentence, since that's how I made some of the Theros gods decks that I have, most interestingly, the Ephara Aggro deck I made. It's mostly a voltron deck, but it's there with the aggro plan as well: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/epharas-asskicking/

I just playtested your deck. I now kinda wanna make it myself. Sitting in the corner of my playgroup with tons of tiny creatures that grow into monstrosities in no time at all.

Bouncing 'curiosity' with 'Riptide Chimera' every upkeep and then drawing a card for 1 blue when I cast it with the 'Kor Spiritdancer's' trigger, that's beautiful value. :]

And from the look of it, I own most of these cards.
I own a mono white aura deck and lot of the stuff in it can be found in your deck.

And then bounce Sage's Reverie at some point to draw a huge hand. I should probably put some kind of infinite hand size card in the deck, though.

[Tacos_yay]

why is it saying your fate reforged cards are illegal?

I love the Battlefield Thaumaturge, I was going to see if it could work with dack fayden's ultimate on the field.

[chetoos]

Battlefield thaumaturge + willbreaker!

[Tacos_yay]

Wow, they just printed it as a separate card? that's awesome.

[SixFootTurkey]

Tapped out isn't official; I'm actually surprised they don't take their lists of legal formats straight from Gatherer.

[RadioshackRaider]

So I seem to have a thing for ETB effects. This is my third deck based around them and so far, it's the most fun deck I've gold-fished in a while. I know there are 2 major cards I need for this deck: Deadeye Navigator and Conjurer's Closet, which I don't have spare RN. Are there any other must have in a flicker deck?

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/all-hail ... ning-king/

[chetoos]

In those colors? I'd say Ephara, for the constant card draw. Also, Cathar's Crusade.

[Aviator Moonshine]

-snip-

I recommend starting with at least getting a Reliquary Tower.

For me it is a Must in a Commander deck. Even if it doesn't involve drawing huge hands, it is always good to have it in case of accidents(not drawing lands for example) and or shenanigans involving players forcing you to draw cards. Ect.

[chetoos]

Basically, my advice is always "Are you in white? Are you running more than 20 creatures? Add a cathar's crusade."

[lazylantern]

BTW, Episode 2 of Commanding Presence is out! Erza Scarlet takes to the field.

http://commanderspresence.tumblr.com/po ... za-scarlet

[Aviator Moonshine]

Just added 6 extra land into my mono-white tonight.
Mana base is fixed after me not giving a rats ass about it for so long.

Feels so Good to be able to play the deck properly again!

[lazylantern]

Did I forget to post an episode here? Looks like I did
Episode 4 of Commander's presence is now out. This week I explored Agent Smith

http://commanderspresence.tumblr.com/po ... gent-smith

[chetoos]

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kitsune-kun/
I just discovered an awesome combo in this deck: Alhammarret's Archive + Well of lost dreams. The archive doubles the lifegain, doubling the amount of cards you can draw, and then doubles it again when you pay to draw.

[chetoos]

Did I forget to post an episode here? Looks like I did
Episode 4 of Commander's presence is now out. This week I explored Agent Smith

http://commanderspresence.tumblr.com/po ... gent-smith

I feel like you could put Progenitor mimic in the deck somewhere, for the extra tokens you get at upkeep, but I don't know if it'd be too good with what you're trying to do.

[lazylantern]

The point is to stay on budget, not to be "not good"
at $3.30 I could include the mimic in the deck, that's a good suggestion. It also pushes for Parallel Lives to stay in the deck

[chetoos]

Also, I feel like if you copy a progenitor mimic with another clone, it'll also copy the copy ability

[steric hindrance]

Also, I feel like if you copy a progenitor mimic with another clone, it'll also copy the copy ability

It does. Whenever you copy an object, you copy all the copiable values as well as any modifications due to other copy effects. I remember a JudgeCast episode where they went over what happens if you have a Bear Cub copied by a Clone copied by a Vesuvan Doppelganger, going down a chain of Phyrexian Metamorph, Phantasmal Image, and Quicksilver Gargantuan -- you get a 7/7 blue artifact Bear Cub that is sacrificed when targeted and has the ability to copy something else on your upkeep.