Akki Battle Squad

Creature — Goblin Samurai

Whenever one or more modified creatures you control attack, untap all modified creatures you control. After this combat phase, there is an additional combat phase. This ability triggers only once each turn. (A creature is modified if it has equipment or aura attached to it, or has counters on it.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (5)

slasherturtle on Equip Me Daddy

1 year ago

This will be long, probably.

The first thing I notice is your land base. It's pretty important for this deck to reliably get Jor out on turn 2 consistently, and you may be a bit short on lands for that. To that point, you also want to limit lands that tap for colorless or enter tapped to only the ones you absolutely need. While the lands that tap for both and enter tapped (like Alpine Meadow or Sacred Peaks) are nice for fixing, they are slow and ultimately it's up to you whether to run those or not. The biggest one that pokes out to me is Reliquary Tower. Not only does it only tap for colorless, I'm also not sure you're going to be drawing enough cards for it to be any better than a basic Plains or Mountain. I'd keep an eye out for Slayers' Stronghold and Sandstone Bridge in playtesting, depending on how often they go off they might also be worse than a basic. All in all though, land base is pretty good, you just need more. Maybe 2-3 more of each basic to get started and tweak from there.

I really like the amount of nonland cards that grab you lands you have (like Wayfarer's Bauble and Navigation Orb). They're better than Evolving Wilds and cheaper than fetch lands, but if you ever do get the chance to pack some fetches in here, I think you could take one or two of those out and replace them with some more equipment or creatures that like them. You can also never go wrong with adding a Solemn Simulacrum.

I really like almost all of your nonland cards and can think of very few cards I'd want to swap for better alternatives, but I think some are pretty safe cuts if you're trying to trim down to 100 cards.

• Some of your Living Weapon cards are really expensive and don't do much other than make an equipped creature, but their cost is so high that you should already have enough to trigger Jor by the time you can even cast them. Others just feel like they won't impact the board enough to warrant a spot in the 99. The ones that stick out to me are:

• Mortarpod, which takes up a 2 drop spot and conflicts with casting Jor

• Sickleslicer, which just feels a bit underwhelming
• Skinwing, which feels exceptionally steeply priced, even for an equipment that grants flying

• Strandwalker, which is also very steep

• There are also some cards which I think either hurt more than they help or don't do you much at all:

• Prophetic Prism doesn't offer you any ramp and takes up a 2-drop spot. As someone with a 2-drop commander, you want to minimize the amount of other 2CMC cards in the deck because they get really awkward, especially in the first four turns. Turn two you're forced to choose between playing your 2-drop and your commander, and then turn 3 you have to decide between whichever you didn't choose and whatever good 3-drops you may have access to. It fucks up your whole curve.

• Shuko equips for free but basically does nothing else after that. The same is true for Leather Armor. It may or may not be worth it, up to you.
• Invulnerability may be slightly overcosted with buyback and you may be better running retroactive protection like Norn's Annex or Ghostly Prison.
• Keen-Eared Sentry may not do as much as it seems. Having Hexproof is nice and makes you feel safe, but I ran Aegis of the Gods in Azor for years and it almost never saved me from anything, not only because having hexproof isn't as strong as it seems but also because people will want to kill it very quickly if they do need to target you.
• I love the amount of repeatable combat effects in this deck, but they are worse than nothing if you don't have a board state that can take advantage of it. Some of those slots may be better used on other equipment or cards that care about them. If I were to cut any, it'd probably be Relentless Assault because it's not repeatable like Akki Battle Squad, Aurelia, and Waves of Aggression. This may also apply to Response / Resurgence since you can't fetch it with Sunforger and it's other half isn't super great.
• As wonderful as Lightning Greaves is for commander protection, it also prevents you from being able to attach any more auras or equipment to whichever creature it's attached to due to Shroud and I tend to not recommend it in Voltron decks. It's also a 2-drop. That one is just personal choice though.
• You may have one or two too many cards that reduce the cost of your artifacts. Yours are all so cheap and you may find yourself better off having something that draws you cards or cares about equipment than a card that only helps if you're trying to cast expensive artifacts. Since it's easy to kill and doesn't do much else, Starnheim Courser may at least be worth a cut, if not also Jhoira's Familiar due to mana cost alone.
• Quietus Spike and Scytheclaw have the same effect, which also isn't good enough to win the game on it's own since the damage cut happens after you deal damage, meaning you can literally never kill someone off of that trigger alone unless you leave them with exactly one life. Since Scytheclaw at least has Living Weapon, you may want to consider cutting Quietus Spike.
• Sword of Feast and Famine is good, but it isn't insane. If you don't already have one it's probably not worth spending 50 bucks on.
• The Ward you get from Amulet of Safekeeping in your Maybeboard might not be worth making all of your living weapon and Assemble the Legion tokens weaker.
• I love Assemble the Legion so much. It is one of my favorite cards in Magic. It may be my favorite enchantment period. It is also balls ass slow, expensive to cast, and doesn't synergize with your strategy. That one is up to you. I'd run it just because I like it, but it'd be the first card I cut if I needed to trim some fat.
• Mask of Immolation gives you an equipped creature, but it doesn't do much else for 2 mana. If it equipped for free it'd be different, but it's equip cost isn't cheap given how weak it's effect is. It's also a 2 drop.
• Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith is much better when you can throw his rocks, which you don't want to do in this deck because you want to keep them attached to things for Jor - meaning you're spending three mana for a guy who gives you one equipment that does nothing a turn.
• Leonin Shikari isn't something I'd say you should take out immediately, but you should keep an eye on it during playtesting. If you find you aren't taking advantage of her ability enough, cut her and replace her with something that isn't a 2-drop.
• Wrath of God may be better than Vanquish the Horde. That's just my opinion though.

All in all, what you keep and what you cut is up to you, this is just what sticks out to me personally. The closer you get to 100, the better. If you're able to cut it down to at least 104 or 105, try just playing without 4 or 5 of the cards you aren't sure about and playtest from there, then use those 4 or 5 as your maybeboard. Also this deck is really cool and I like it a lot.

Gilver on Tetsuo Rageblade

1 year ago

haydensmith423 Looks nice!

I would cut Bloodthirster. It doesn't untap Tetsuo and is a wasted slot for 6 mana imo. You already have enough extra combat cards. Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant is also too expensive, yes the payoff is great but you would be better off to run something like Propaganda for more protection from go-wide decks, after all, you are not running lots of creatures and are going to be open for attackers. I am also not sure about Kaldra Compleat, sounds good on paper but has an high equipment cost and 7 CMC. You could slot in Blackblade Reforged, which can make him real strong.

Chandra's Ignition is a must-have card, can finish off opponnents when tetsuo has infect or you can end up gaining lots of life if he has lifelink.

Also have a look at Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar. Why not hurt the whole table if you are at it?

Another crucial card you are missing in this deck is Hammer of Nazahn. Not only does tetsuo gain indestructibe, but you ignore equipment costs. It is a huuuge advantage.

You can also go infinite with Sword of Hearth and Home if you have Akki Battle Squad out, it is a great equipment and one of the cheaper "Sword of X and Y" cards.

Inevitable Betrayal is also one of those suspend casts which you can cast for "free". It is a fun card so definitely include it if you find the space. Imagine stealing a Blightsteel Colossus from someone or an Eldrazi.

I am also not sure if Sword of Truth and Justice is a good idea to run in this deck. The card gives you protection from red, which makes it unable to be equiped with cards like Embercleave. The payoff is decent, can make tetsuo pretty beefy in the long run.

Finally, Jhoira, Ageless Innovator and Pact Weapon are nice to haves in this deck. Cheat out equipment and cheat death. Also maybe cut Solemn Simulacrum and slot in Sword of the Animist. You are playing an equipment deck so why not go for an equipment for ramp instead.

You can check out my list if you feel like it, would appreciate your opinion! I went for cheap equipments and try to win through commander damage and/or infect. Not really that much different from your list. If you have questions, feel free to hit me up :D.

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/tatami-gaeshi/

legendofa on Painting Your Demise

1 year ago

Welcome to the club, Amazonian_Girl!

My first thought on seeing this deck is that you have too many lands. With half your deck as lands, and no particular land-centric mechanics, this deck is going to mana flood pretty often. I would cut and replace 10-12 lands and see how that feels.

Parnesse, the Subtle Brush's second ability is going almost entirely unused. Cards like Meletis Charlatan and Double Vision can help you distribute spell copies, if you want to got that direction. Parnesse's biggest strength is her ability to direct opponents' attention away from you and towards each other, while giving them the means to fight each other. If you're mostly using your commander for protection, maybe consider a different commander, like Crosis, the Purger.

Akki Battle Squad is also pretty soft, with fewer than ten equipments, auras, and ways to grant counters.

Because of the {W} symbol in the text box, Coastline Chimera can't be used with this commander. Color identity for Commander looks at all mana symbols in the casting cost and text box.

I see a couple of subthemes of Vampires/Blood tokens and sacrifice effects. If you enjoy those, try leaning harder into them.

Expanding on that, my biggest suggestion for this deck is to pick a theme and focus hard on it. Do you want to create and direct conflict between your opponents while keeping yourself safe? Do you want to sacrifice your own creatures and resources for bigger and better things? Do you want to go in with a crafty, manipulative Vampire army? All of these are viable strategies. If you want to, it's even possible to make a usable art/painting theme deck. Pick a central concept and look for cards that support, supplement, or reinforce that concept.

Building from a smaller collection can be tough. The trick is to find card synergies and effects that work well together, and get as much mileage as you can out of those. The Commander preconstructed decks, while fairly weak, usually have a good number of general-use "staple" cards like Sol Ring that can help any deck in the right colors.

Above all, have fun!

Rolska on Isshin Twin Triggers

2 years ago

Thanks for checking out my deck!

In my multitude of solo playtesting, Akki Battle Squad seems to be more dead in my hand than not. In my earliest draft of the deck I had Shadrix Silverquill slotted in. I removed Shadrix and kept the Battle Squad in there in mostly because the card is new and has a powerful effect. However, it really doesn't fit with the rest of the deck as is. I'm thinking I swap Akki Battle Squad for Shadrix Silverquill as it's not only a native double striker with flying, but also has +1/+1 boardwide counters or 1 life for 1 card. It doesn't get doubled, but the card is versatile and powerful in combat in its own right.

Brave the Sands feels like an all-star card with it's ability to remove the largest draw back of attacking all out. It also allows 1/1 tokens to chump block two creatures without trample.

Crow_Umbra on Isshin Twin Triggers

2 years ago

How are you feeling about Akki Battle Squad? I'm counting about 8 different cards that can modify creatures in your deck. Seems a bit low in my opinion to keep the Battle Squad. I think you could stand to maybe include a little more draw, and/or removal.

Brave the Sands is a cool keyword anthem, I almost forgot about that one.