Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker

Legendary Creature — Bird Monk

Flying

Whenever an opponent casts a spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker.

Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)

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 (47)

Last_Laugh on Atraxa, Praetors' Voice +1/+1 *PRIMER*

4 months ago

Have you ever considered Reyhan, Last of the Abzan / Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker as your commanders? They draw a LOT less hate, are easier on early mana to cast, and most importantly, having an Ozolith effect in the Command zone makes the deck far more explosive and resilient than a single proliferate per turn cycle.

It also opens up some really interesting possibilities like Blade of Selves or a kicked Rite of Replication on Reyhan. Blade is 18x +1+1 counters (a commander damage kill as early as turn 3... t1 Sol Ring into Blade, t2 Reyhan, t3 equip and swing.) and Rite is 90x +1+1 counters (this isn't even counting extra +1+1 counters or counter doublers.)

Feel free to check out my list for ideas and the deck description for a better explanation and the math for Blade of Selves/Rite of Replication. Little Rey of Ishine (Reyhan/Ishai)

Coward_Token on Wilds of Eldraine

7 months ago

Throne of Eldraine: I appreciate the thought of giving mono-colored commanders some love, but four mana for five that you can't spend on activated abilities or artifacts feels a little excessive? The drawing ability is pretty nice, but mind you you're spending 5 + 3 mana for the first two cards, and you're probably casting the throne kinda late. I'd like it more if it cost {4} but gave three mana instead.

Courts: I like that they're doing more cards that reward you for holding onto the monarch. Wish they'd specifically make more mono-white cards like this. (Also, is it just me or is the art for the red court the only one that doesn't use negative space?)

Brenard: Basically bant Hofri Ghostforge. Golems get another tribal commander, although you could have just partnered Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer with Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker I guess

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on I am rubber, you are glue

11 months ago

Thanks for the comment Poly_raptor. I completely understand that life happens. Glad to have you back!

This version of the deck is pretty outdated at this point. I've moved into the Bant color shard so I can play Swans of Bryn Argoll and a number clones to increase the Phyrexian Vindicator and Swan amount in the deck. With that being said, more creature tutors is probably a good idea. The deck currently transitions well into commander beats (I run Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker as one of the commanders), but it's a lot more fun when I get Vindicator or Swans out and start cloning them.

Shaddaran on

1 year ago

This deck is not legal : Warping Wurm is of Simic Identity, Tsunami is of Green Identity, Spatial Binding is of Dimmir Identity and that deck is of Jeskai Identity.

That being said, the core mecanic of it seems to be a waiting game toying with phasing while stuff goes boom (Armageddon Clock, Time Bomb...), pushing opponents to forfeit by ruining their manabase or to voltron-ish out with Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker (Also, since phasing is neither a cast nor an ETB trigger, Commander's Insignia seems of poor value here).

There is a bunch of stuff that seems to have no interest whatsoever to further this deck agenda (such as Thran Lens, the Sphere of Duty and the other spheres, etc...) which could hold fairly more interesting cards instead. There is no particular synergy between the commander(s) and the deck in itself, questioning why those in specific.

It feels like the deck hopes to be annoying enough to get you to victory... I mean it's not illegal... (some even jackoff on that)... but then if that's the flavor of it, there is fairly better way to achieve that goal, so I'm wondering what's the core mecanic you intended ?

On a building note, I have a hard time believing a 3 colors deck working well with basic lands only, but I'm a heavy user of none basic, so... this deck feels like it never has been built, feels really theorical and not actually functional.

There is a bunch of stample of the phasing mecanic you missed, such as Teferi's Protection, Teferi's Isle, Out of Time... that could get great value... the combo from Hexi180 with Balancing Act if a clear finisher, since it doesn't exclude lands...

I don't comment often, I hope this will be taken in a way that helps you to possibly improve it, this has no intention to seems harsh but I know how written wordings can be. I've a good list of worked on deck and I wanted to help, I tend to try to give some "flavor" to them rather than just piling on powerful card... If you wanna chat about it and discuss more feel free to.

suarkdivad on Tale of Doggo and Birb [UPDATE v5]

1 year ago

Been wanting to do this exact thing and had many of the same thoughts you've had, including using Anara and Esior until I realized, despite their flavor, they don't do anything.

I'm working on a bant list because I want the tutors, and it gives me access to some cool 3 color cards that trigger Fable. And Falco Spara, Pactweaver. I'm using Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa as my commanders so I can go tall or wide, and Kamahl is a built-in win con for wolves and owls.

What do you think of Species Gorger as a way to reuse the little value guys that also trigger Fable?

Delphen7 on These two weirdos

1 year ago

Signal I could see in Omnath, Locus of All, as he cares about a multitude of colors. There's not a lot else that cares specifically about colors. Maybe Jared Carthalion?

Lux Artillery I would slot in Hamza, Guardian of Arashin or some sort of Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful/Slurrk, All-Ingesting/Reyhan, Last of the Abzan/Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker with Hardened Scales and The Ozolith

Shazica on

1 year ago

I have a very similar deck with Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker as commanders. I was looking into having Atraxa as a commander instead, but Atraxa is infamous for being a very strong creature that amasses tons of scary, unpredictable value - it is a poison deck? Is it a +1/+1 counters deck? Is it a superfriends deck? Most often, you will find that the other players have Rule 0-ed you as the archenemy before the game begins.

There are two things you can do about this. You can either rise up to the challenge, or you can change commander.

If you want to take on the challenge of constant Archenemy because you want to keep Atraxa, then you have multiple cards that are too weak. Some of which are Arcus Acolyte, the three Myojins, Pollenbright Druid, Murder, Magistrate's Scepter, Chromatic Lantern, Vivisurgeon's Insight, and Expand the Sphere for starters. There are probably 10-20 more I would consider cutting, since these are too casual for the level of play you're signaling with Atraxa. Instead, run low-mana spells like Nature's Lore, Night's Whisper, Fierce Guardianship, Heroic Intervention, Flawless Maneuver, Deadly Rollick, Mystic Remora, Cyclonic Rift, Negate, Swan Song, the WUBG shock lands with their fetches, the list goes on... This won't make your deck cEDH, this will make it more reliable, reactive, and consistent in answering most of your opponents stuff.

If you want to change commanders, you can go for Falco Spara, Pactweaver for value, Anafenza, the Foremost for aggressive, Ghave, Guru of Spores for combo, or the partner pairings of Cazur, Ruthless Stalker  ^Flip + Ukkima, Stalking Shadow, or Nikara, Lair Scavenger + Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel. All of these will force you to abandon a fourth color, but restriction breeds creativity...?

Side note 1: You can still run Atraxa in the 99, that is a more commonly accepted usage.

Side note 2: You have two Ivy Lane Denizen.

Crow_Umbra on A Match Made in Hell EDH

1 year ago

Your deck concept is really cool. I've seen Jeska put in plenty of work when paired with Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker, via a deck one of my friends plays. Jeska makes things scary pretty fast.

Idk if you've played this deck irl yet, but do you feel like you have enough Ball Lightning-like creatures? I'm counting about 9 of your 18 so far. I think getting in some more Copying and Reanimation effects could help you a bit. I get that Jeska makes 1 target creature scary, but I figured some copy effects could let you attack multiple opponents, or really laser one person down. A few things for you to consider:

• Animate Dead/ Necromancy - Animate Dead is your cheapest option of the 2, but Necromancy can be cast at instant speed if needed.

• Phyrexian Reclamation - Fairly cheap and low to the ground for hand recursion.

• Twinflame/ Heat Shimmer

• Kolaghan's Command - Modal options, including some recursion to hand.

• Athreos, God of Passage - More Ramos redundancy. Not super budget, but could be helpful in a deck like this.

• Flameshadow Conjuring

• Delina, Wild Mage - She's something I've played in my Isshin deck, and has a bit of a higher ceiling there, but the potential to make many Ball Lightning creatures off some lucky rolls is pretty silly.

• Ogre Battledriver - Another Haste anthem with additional upside to beef up creatures on ETB.

• Living Death - Redundancy with Ramos. Has finisher potential with a graveyard full of Ball Lightnings, also helpful since Jeska will dodge it.

I hope these suggestions are helpful.