Commander/EDH Deck Talk

[Tinfish]

So I just discovered that there are ninety-eight different Sliver cards now. Excluding the apparently-designed-as-a-counter-sliver-weapon Plague Sliver, that's more than enough to make a Sliver commander deck!

Sadly, the necessity of all that mana fixing - and the probable price of one or more of all ninety-eight of those Slivers - means it will probably never happen. But I can dream!

[The E]

So I just discovered that there are ninety-eight different Sliver cards now. Excluding the apparently-designed-as-a-counter-sliver-weapon Plague Sliver, that's more than enough to make a Sliver commander deck!

Sadly, the necessity of all that mana fixing - and the probable price of one or more of all ninety-eight of those Slivers - means it will probably never happen. But I can dream!

Friend of mine runs an all Sliver deck. With all the cheap fixing that came out in the past few sets, it's definitely very playable if a bit slow; Said slowness however is easily counteracted once Sliver Overlord comes online.

[AdmiralMemo]

And that's not counting all of the Changelings that also count as Slivers... And then there's a handful of Changeling instants...

And then there's Hivestone, Door of Destinies, Obelisk of Urd..

[jkefka]

So Animar.

Actually let me back up.

I have an idea for a deck I call "The X-Factor." Basically, Animar as commander, and then load up on big ramp and x-cost spells. RUG is a good combo for that, with fireball and all its cousins in red, near-infinite card draw in blue, and hydras in green. The basic plan is to dump out Heartbeat of Spring, Dictate of Karametra, Zhurr-Ta Ancient, etc., to give myself obscene mana, paired with Kruphix himself to store up bonkers power for a big X. I discovered when I built a standard deck somewhat similar to this that heartbeat effects still work in your favor as long as you have more to do with arbitrarily large amounts of mana than your opponent.

Building on the Kruphix angle, are there any other good mana capacitors that could be dropped early and used to store up my unused power until I'm ready to fireball someone for three digits or drop a truly gigantic ivy elemental? Any other must-haves in this kind of deck design?

[RadioshackRaider]

Well It'd seem silly not to have Ommnath and Vorinclex, and you could add in Magus of the Candelabra and Galvanic Alchemist to go infite.

[jkefka]

Magus of the Candelabra and Galvanic Alchemist are great, I totally forgot about those kinds of effects. Vorinclex might be a little too "fun police" for my taste, and I thought long and hard about Omnath. He's pricey and I'm still not sure only getting the green is worth it.

[MowDownJoe]

I'd be more tempted to make that deck as a Rosheen Meanderer deck. I mean, she's your gal for adding mana for X-spells

[jkefka]

4 is a pretty piddlesome number for what I have in mind, and Animar straight buffs my hydras. It might as well say they get an extra +1/+1 counter for each of his +1/+1 counters. Rosheen is still worth including as a mana dork, but I don't think she does what I want as a commander.

Also Mind Spring and Blue Sun's Zenith.

[tamaness]

You may want to look into Upwelling as a mana capacitor, too, but keep in mind your opponents get to use it. Are you running Palinchron? Capsize? You should be able to generate arbitrarily large amounts of mana with the former, with a smaller arbitrary number of +1/+1s on Animar (so free fatties), in addition to being able to capsize-lock your opponents.

[jkefka]

I'm thinking yes probably to palinchron, not as inclined toward capsize due to the fun police issue. Upwelling is a good rec, I actually genuinely did not know that effect existed as an enchantment. Again, everyone having more mana is much less of an issue if I can get more value out of mine.

[Tinfish]

Eladamri's Vineyard, perhaps? Though two green for everyone may be too little for your tastes.

[Rose_Nightshade]

Does "get an extra combat phase" fall under "take another turn"? I should think that extra combat phases are far less dangerous than extra turns, and Aurelia's and Scourge's abilities are worded in ways that make it rather difficult to go infinite on them (It can be done, obviously; if you have a way to blink Aurelia repeatedly, everything will be horrible for your opponents)

Yeah it counts, we discussed cards together when figuring out what we wanted to put in our decks. I appreciate the encouragement on the mechanic though and I might share your arguments with the boyfriend on the topic.

But as I said I do plan to likely pick her up anyway as an alt commander because she's super sweet. So she could see play, and might just for the sake of variety. Annnnnd the dragon, well, I love dragons, so he could easily find a way into the deck at some point as well, but will almost certainly find a place in my collection of cards at the very least

[RadioshackRaider]

So after my 3 days of Magic weekend, I have 4 of 5 Khans, missing Anafenza. I'm thinking Sidisi self mill with zombie tribal?

[Tinfish]

So after my 3 days of Magic weekend, I have 4 of 5 Khans, missing Anafenza. I'm thinking Sidisi self mill with zombie tribal?

Well, you've certainly got your options open! Self mill could certainly be powerful with Sidisi - I personally think that Khans on its own doesn't have enough graveyard return to make it work well, but Commander doesn't have that problem.

[Antitonic]

This is my first attempt at building a deck, rather than just assembling one. Still hopeless with names though, so here's "Rise Of The Machines": http://deck.tk/86ZJ1rEU

Click to Expand

[deck="Rise Of The Machines"]
//Lands
1 Archaeological Dig
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Buried Ruin
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dread Statuary
1 Ghost Town
1 Mishra's Factory
39 Plains
1 Urza's Factory

//Spells
1 All Is Dust
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Darksteel Brute
1 Darksteel Forge
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Ensouled Scimitar
1 Grim Monolith
1 Guardian Idol
1 Haunted Plate Mail
1 Mishra's Groundbreaker
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Throne of Geth
1 Voltaic Key
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Xanthic Statue

//Creatures
1 Alloy Myr
1 Alpha Myr
1 Arachnoid
1 Arcbound Bruiser
1 Arcbound Crusher
1 Arcbound Fiend
1 Arcbound Hybrid
1 Arcbound Lancer
1 Arcbound Overseer
1 Arcbound Ravager
1 Arcbound Reclaimer
1 Arcbound Slith
1 Arcbound Stinger
1 Arcbound Worker
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Brass Squire
1 Copper-Leaf Angel
1 Duplicant
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Metalworker
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Myr Retriever
1 Ornithopter
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Platinum Angel
1 Precursor Golem
1 Primal Clay
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Steel Overseer
1 Workhorse

My main ideas with this were using the "Modular" keyword and manipulating the counters, with a sideplay Platinum Angel/Darksteel Forge combo. This is unfortunately where my lack of historical knowledge plays against me though; because I haven't kept up-to-date with all the cards, I'm not sure what's out there, so if there's anything more interesting in colourless than what I've got here, please feel free...

[Jonci]

This is my first attempt at building a deck, rather than just assembling one. Still hopeless with names though, so here's "Rise Of The Machines": http://deck.tk/5a493eeD

Click to Expand

//Lands
1 Archaeological Dig
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Buried Ruin
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dread Statuary
1 Ghost Town
1 Mishra's Factory
39 Plains
1 Urza's Factory

//Spells
1 All Is Dust
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Darksteel Brute
1 Darksteel Forge
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Ensouled Scimitar
1 Grim Monolith
1 Guardian Idol
1 Haunted Plate Mail
1 Mishra's Groundbreaker
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Throne of Geth
1 Voltaic Key
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Xanthic Statue

//Creatures
1 Alloy Myr
1 Alpha Myr
1 Arachnoid
1 Arcbound Bruiser
1 Arcbound Crusher
1 Arcbound Fiend
1 Arcbound Hybrid
1 Arcbound Lancer
1 Arcbound Overseer
1 Arcbound Ravager
1 Arcbound Reclaimer
1 Arcbound Slith
1 Arcbound Stinger
1 Arcbound Worker
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Brass Squire
1 Copper-Leaf Angel
1 Duplicant
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Metalworker
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Myr Retriever
1 Ornithopter
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Platinum Angel
1 Precursor Golem
1 Primal Clay
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Steel Overseer
1 Workhorse

My main ideas with this were using the "Modular" keyword and manipulating the counters, with a sideplay Platinum Angel/Darksteel Forge combo. This is unfortunately where my lack of historical knowledge plays against me though; because I haven't kept up-to-date with all the cards, I'm not sure what's out there, so if there's anything more interesting in colourless than what I've got here, please feel free...

Your deck is showing Sculpting Steel twice. Also, why run a Darksteel Ingot if you don't need fixing?
And considering everything is a colorless creature, you should look at the upcoming Khans card "Tomb of the Spirit Dragon". http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/ ... eid=386700
I know lifegain isn't always a tactic people go for, but something to look at.

[Antitonic]

This is my first attempt at building a deck, rather than just assembling one. Still hopeless with names though, so here's "Rise Of The Machines": http://deck.tk/5a493eeD

Click to Expand

//Lands
1 Archaeological Dig
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Buried Ruin
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dread Statuary
1 Ghost Town
1 Mishra's Factory
39 Plains
1 Urza's Factory

//Spells
1 All Is Dust
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Darksteel Brute
1 Darksteel Forge
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Ensouled Scimitar
1 Grim Monolith
1 Guardian Idol
1 Haunted Plate Mail
1 Mishra's Groundbreaker
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Throne of Geth
1 Voltaic Key
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Xanthic Statue

//Creatures
1 Alloy Myr
1 Alpha Myr
1 Arachnoid
1 Arcbound Bruiser
1 Arcbound Crusher
1 Arcbound Fiend
1 Arcbound Hybrid
1 Arcbound Lancer
1 Arcbound Overseer
1 Arcbound Ravager
1 Arcbound Reclaimer
1 Arcbound Slith
1 Arcbound Stinger
1 Arcbound Worker
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Brass Squire
1 Copper-Leaf Angel
1 Duplicant
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Metalworker
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Myr Retriever
1 Ornithopter
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Platinum Angel
1 Precursor Golem
1 Primal Clay
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Steel Overseer
1 Workhorse

My main ideas with this were using the "Modular" keyword and manipulating the counters, with a sideplay Platinum Angel/Darksteel Forge combo. This is unfortunately where my lack of historical knowledge plays against me though; because I haven't kept up-to-date with all the cards, I'm not sure what's out there, so if there's anything more interesting in colourless than what I've got here, please feel free...

Your deck is showing Sculpting Steel twice. Also, why run a Darksteel Ingot if you don't need fixing?
And considering everything is a colorless creature, you should look at the upcoming Khans card "Tomb of the Spirit Dragon". http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/ ... eid=386700
I know lifegain isn't always a tactic people go for, but something to look at.

Whoops, forgot to fix the text list. I subbed the second Sculpting Steel for a Steel Overseer. This should be fixed now. As for the Ingot, partially flavor ("It reflects the purity of Mirrodin-that-was."), but mostly because I was scrounging for options. From the looks of it, the Tomb would work, if not necessarily fit my theme, but I'm flexible.

[WickedBoy6]

So I just discovered that there are ninety-eight different Sliver cards now. Excluding the apparently-designed-as-a-counter-sliver-weapon Plague Sliver, that's more than enough to make a Sliver commander deck!

Sadly, the necessity of all that mana fixing - and the probable price of one or more of all ninety-eight of those Slivers - means it will probably never happen. But I can dream!

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sliver-singularity/

That's my build, which is frighteningly effective in 1v1, and can hold it's own in multi with a quick hand. I've updated it since this list, but only by a few cards, nothing major. Even in this incarnation, it didn't have that many mana issues. With a lot of rainbow lands and all of the shocks - along with good green searching and Chromatic Lantern - I hardly run into mana problems. If anything, I tend to run out of gas quite quickly, which I changed in the next edition. I'll try to post it up shortly.

A key of ANY 5-color deck is rainbow lands that don't have too major of drawbacks - no Glimmnervoid or Lotus Vale - and searching, like Crop Rotation or Tempt with Discovery. Also, Chromatic Lantern and/or Prismatic Omen are musts.

[Ceiran]

So I picked up one of the precons to loot for my cube see how they are, and wound up doing a half-assed upgrade with what I had lying around, as evidenced below. Having ran it for a bit in multiplayer, I'm enjoying the grindy token-sac aspects of it, and looking to de-crapify it. Any suggestions?

Click to Expand

Prossh, Skyraider of kher

Lands
5 swamp
4 mountain
4 forest
Temple of malady
temple of malice
dragonskull summit
stomping ground
gruul guildgate
golgari guildgate
akoum refuge
kazandu refuge
golgari rot farm
rakdos carnarium
savage lands
rupture spire
opal palace
command tower
vivid grove
khalni garden
leechridden swamp
terramorphic expanse
evolving wilds
jund panorama
ghost quarter
temple of the false god
grim backwoods
kher keep

Creatures
corpse traders
eater of hope
endrek sahr, master breeder
fell shepherd
ophiomancer
quagmire druid
scavenger drake
stronghold assassin
viscera seer
inferno titan
initiate of blood
goblin sharpshooter
hellrider
stalking vengeance
terra ravager
elvish skysweeper
hua tuo, honored physician
jade mage
lumberknot
sakura tribe elder
silklash spider
walker of the grove
broodmate dragon
deepfire elemental
deathbringer thoctar
golgari guildmage
nath of the gilt leaf
reaper of the wilds
sek'kuar, deathkeeper
shattergang brothers

Sorcery
Demonic tutor
diabolic tutor
mass mutiny
red sun's zenith
sudden demise
tempt with vengeance
overrun
restore
spoils of victory
gaze of granite

Enchantment
curse of shallow graves
honden of night's reach
phyrexian arena
blood rites
curse of chaos
goblin bombardment
honden of infinite rage
mana echoes
sulfuric vortex
tooth and claw
curse of predation
fecundity
honden of life's web
night soil
primal vigor

Artifact
carnage altar
firewild borderpost
jar of eyeballs
lightning greaves
obelisk of jund
sol ring
springleaf drum

[jkefka]

Prossh is fun, you can go a lot of different ways. I went straight-up devour/dragons and threw in Thromok and such. I also found a couple of the kobold lords (the cheap ones anyways) to make all my kobolds frikken' amazing.

I would go looking for Dragon Broodmother, Skullmulcher, and Preyseizer Dragon, along with Thromok. It looks like you have a lot of token fuel so going all-in devour would be pretty strong. Also, by way of token generators, Avenger of Zendikar can fuel you for days.

[cuddlyblade]

My Three suggestions for a Prossh deck would be:

Vicious Shadows with all the sacing you should be doing it really wracks up quickly.

Earthcraft use all your tokens to untap all your lands to do more things.

Food Chain lets you cast prossh infinite times.

[ZePancakes]

EDIT: I am the dumb, apologies cuddly.

[cuddlyblade]

That's why you use the kobolds that come with him to pay the extra cost. Allowing you to cast him infinite times, getting more and more kobolds each time.

[Atifexe]

Worth noting, to go infinite with Food Chain you have to be exiling Prossh himself to the enchantment's effect. That nets you mana equal to his converted mana cost, albeit all in one colour. Exile two kobolds to add the missing colours of mana, plus as many as are necessary to pay the increased cost. Because Prossh himself provides such a large chunk of the required mana, you do profit in your number of kobolds each cycle - not exponentially, unless you have a token doubler, but it's more than none. =)

Is anyone else looking forward to the Commander 2014 decks?

[WickedBoy6]

I'm actually building a brew based on Prossh called "Jundrazi". IT's all of the Eldrazi Spawn cards - which care Jund colors - and the Eldrazi themselves to take advantage. Plus, black for tutoring, and green for mana ramp and token generation. Even if the Eldrazu fail, I can always sac the Spawn to Prossh and slam for 21 Commander to the face.