Make a Stand
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Freeform Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Pre-release Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Standard Legal
Standard Brawl Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Make a Stand

Instant

Creatures you control get +1/+0 and become indestructible until end of turn. (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy them.)

NV_1980 on Krav partner token/lifegain

3 weeks ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the general idea of this deck is to generate tokens and benefit from that by gaining (or draining) life and by saccing some of them through Krav so you can draw cards. So anything that's not helping towards that, can prolly be axed. In my opinion, this would be cards like:

  • Abstruse Appropriation: stealing creatures is fun, but this spell really makes it rather expensive. First you pay 4 to remove something and then the removed creature's mana cost to steal it. If you keep it for removal purposes, it's much better to replace with something that's cheaper to cast, like Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares.
  • Command the Dreadhorde: I get why you'd include this, considering the deck's theme, but there are better ways to steal opposing creatures. If you're THAT horny for what's in opposing graveyards, use Grave Betrayal; at least it won't cost you any life and it's an enchantment so it can be used until someone manages to zap it.
  • Debt to the Deathless: you don't need this. The deck already contains plenty of ways to deprive the opposition of their lifepoints AND plenty of ways for you to gain life. This just seems expensive to me.
  • Elbrus, the Binding Blade  Flip: honestly, wtf is this doing in here? Not saying this isn't a fun card, but considering its costs and the fact that your deck doesn't do anything with making your creatures unblockable, this seems a waste of a slot to me.
  • Emeria's Call  Flip: have some doubts about this one. I get it, but are Angel tokens so important that you're willing to spend 7 mana on a spell that saves your tokens from destruction? There are cheaper ways to do this (but then you don't get Angels), like Make a Stand, Rootborn Defenses or Unbreakable Formation.
  • Glasswing Grace  Flip: it's a nice boost for a single creature, but it doesn't add to the deck's theme.
  • Increasing Devotion: not bad but it's also relatively expensive to cast for what you get in return. Matter of taste I suppose; personally I'd leave it out (the deck has plenty of (cheaper) token-generation already).
  • Polluted Bonds: strong drain, but not of a kind that's in-theme with the rest of the deck.
  • The Regalia: it's an ok ramping mechanism. I'd replace it with a cheaper-to-cast mana rock though, which saves you some time. Jet Medallion, Orzhov Signet, Pearl Medallion, Talisman of Hierarchy ... whichever works.

So aside from all the above, you can cut four lands (or replace them with cheap-to-cast mana rocks to increase resource availability). Good luck.

xram666 on Arcades EDH

1 month ago

Some upgrade suggestions:

You're playing way to less lands. Go up to at least 38 Lands.

Ramp:

Add more ramp (in sum you should end at around 9-11):

but cut Kodama's Reach wtih execption of Axebane Guardian the ramp should help you get out Arcades at round 3, if possible.

Protection:

Replace Intervene with a flicker spell for one mana. Same effect but better synergy with commander. For example:

Replace Miscalculation with Arcane Denial

Replace Remove Soul with Displace or even better a board protection spell like:

Replace Seedling Charm with one of the following:

Removal:

Replace Solemn Offering with Stroke of Midnight

Add an additonal one-sided massremoval like Slaughter the Strong

Backup for Commander:

Add

Joker4242 on Aldaan

1 year ago

Here are a few defender cards I thought of later on, in case you are interested. I would be interested to see you put the deck together. If you put it together on this website you can test it out!

List:
Overgrown Battlement
Axebane Guardian
Vent Sentinel
Blight Pile
Also, just some cards to help you from removal because that will be how your opponent's will try to get past your defenses.
Make a Stand
Blinding Fog
Dovin's Veto
Render Silent
Best removal for Defender cards
Slaughter the Strong

Niko9 on No Country for old Johnnys …

2 years ago

I have no idea on the meta really, but effects like Make a Stand could give a warrior deck some back up against Fury and also provide those splashy, "I can block everything" turns. It's kinda lame to go down mana against fury, but it is a 2-1 in cards at least.

thefiresoflurve on Naya Populate True

3 years ago

Welcome to big board state club! (I used to run G/W populate back in the day).

Disclaimer: not sure what your budget is for recommendations, so I'm going to go by what I see here (Dockside, Smothering Tithe, Parallel Lives level of cost for individual recommendations).

I think Ghired, Conclave Exile would make a better commander here than Palladia-Mors, unless you're tied to the latter for sentimentality/flavor/etc.

Next, land base. The single best thing I did for my Esper deck was upgrading my land base. You don't have to go super hard here to see results, but I would put together a list like: 1x Cabaretti Courtyard 1x Command Tower 1x Jungle Shrine 1x Sungrass Prairie 1x Rockfall Vale 1x Branchloft Pathway  Flip 1x Needleverge Pathway  Flip 1x Rogue's Passage 1x Kessig Wolf Run 1x Gavony Township. If you like this route, there are even more cheaper dual lands you can add in like the Temple of Triumph and friends.

There are a few cuts or substitutions that I think the main deck could make really easily:

Ultramarines Honour Guard -> Caller of the Pack. If Ghired attacks with a creature that has Myriad, he can populate the token that Myriad creates, but the Populated token forgets about the exile clause. Thus, you can end up with a theoretically infinite horde of creatures. It's fantastic. :D

Going off that last bit... Wayfaring Temple -> Treasure. Basically a great card in commander anyway, here it's a free win if you manage to clone it.

Growing Ranks is an easy cut. It's way too slow for EDH (compare it to Parallel Lives...) Could replace it with a Talisman of Conviction or friends to help you ramp faster.

I would replace Momentous Fall with Teferi's Protection or Akroma's Will or Grand Crescendo - some extra source of board wipe dodging. I don't think your creatures are really big enough to warrant a momentous fall.

I would also replace Druid's Deliverance with one of the aforementioned board wipe dodges. There are also some cheaper options like Your Temple is Under Attack, Unbreakable Formation, Make a Stand. Reasoning being: you should have enough board state to block things that want to hurt you, as long as you keep your board alive.

As far as making tokens sooner: well, if you want to do that, you're going to have to run some cheaper creatures.... or ramp faster. I'd probably opt for ramping faster, TBH, since your creatures are really cool. If you add the entire Gruul Signet and friends, along with the Talismans I mentioned earlier, that should get you to the minimum ramp package in tricolor EDH to make sure you can play quickly.

Naya Charm -> Artifact Mutation can help make some earlier tokens.

Brindle Shoat and Call of the Conclave are some decent options for turn 3 tokens you might consider, as well. But adding those would also require cutting other stuff.... horrible choice I don't envy you : P

Sorry for the wall of text...Hope that helps, and happy building!

Quartzrockz on

3 years ago

Thank you for the comment, yib (and sorry for the later reply!)

I've never been very good at balancing mono colour decks XD My only one is very artifact heavy. But I appreciate seeing yours Etali Deck RL.

I like your suggestion and incorporated Mirror Entity (I cant believe I missed this one), Moraug, Fury of Akoum, Relentless Assault, and Make a Stand (to go with the Rootborn Defenses in the deck currently). I think I like Secure the Wastes as well but I'm going to have to think what I want to give up for that.

yib on

3 years ago

This deck hit surprisingly hard for its budget! I usually play Etali, Primal Storm and found this to be a more fair, watered-down version of it.

Keeping in line with the budget theme, I think that this deck would do well with a few more ways to generate tokens en masse, through cards like Secure the Wastes and Mercy Killing. Mirror Entity and Strionic Resonator can help buff tokens up further. Moraug, Fury of Akoum and Relentless Assault can also help in getting multiple buffs and swinging multiple times. Something like Make a Stand can also be a budget option that helps keep creatures around.

Guerric on Dealing with politics as an …

3 years ago

Hi Dazard! What a great question! I avoided aggro strategies for awhile for this reason, but as my sneaky combo strategies are hard for some groups I play with to decode, I decided to make some good old honest aggro decks, and I think I've figured out a good balance.

To begin with, don't play like in a 60 card, 1v1 format. In those games you have little incentive not to go for broke all the time, and to commit all of your resources right away. In EDH there are several key principles of good aggro play.

One of them is controlled growth. Even if you can commit all of your resources to powerful plays early you shouldn't do so. You need to make sure that you set up card draw engines and other things to keep your tank full in the long run. You should be attacking, but keep in mind you don't need to attack with everything. Chip away at peoples' life totals rather than hitting one person hard. Once you slam one person you will be the archenemy of all, so don't do that till you are a turn or two from winning or they will destroy you. Knocking out an opponent early doesn't necessarily help as that person is a target for someone else and can help keep someone else under control.

A second principle is try to win all at once via pump effects. Its almost better to keep your tokens as 1/1s as long as possible and then suddenly in a single turn make them gamewinning with Coat of Arms, Shared Animosity, Jazal Goldmane, or Mirror Entity. Don't play these cards early either! Your opponents will just kill them, so play them the turn that you can win. Surprise is one of the most powerful things in EDH. If they know you can kill them you are a threat, if they don't see it coming you will win.

Thirdly is politics via threat assessment, not deals. Sometimes people just think of politics as bribery, but its better to simply point out what other opponents are doing. "Hmm..he just played Ashnod's Altar. That's a combo piece. What's he up to?" is far more powerful than promising not to attack someone. This is self-interested, but it is also helping your opponents play better by noticing more than obvious threats. When I play against aggro I might have a board wipe, and yet hold off if I'm not afraid of imminently dying to let the aggro player do some of my dirty work for me and keep attention away from the combo I am putting together. My one friend who has been quite good at aggro has become adept at pointing out what I am doing and keeping things honest. It's also a good idea with early attacks to take turns attacking different opponents for only a small amount of damage, or even rolling the dice to see who you'll attack first. If your opponents wonder why you're holding back you can just say somewhat honestly that you're trying to spread the love around and keep blockers and critical pieces in play.

A fourth principle is board state protection. Others mentioned Unbreakable Formation and Teferi's Protection as helpful cards. Don't forget also about Make a Stand, Flawless Maneuver, and Cosmic Intervention. The latter won't save your tokens, but it will save other pieces. The same is true with Eerie Interlude and Semester's End which can also dodge even a Cyclonic Rift. Lapse of Certainty can also delay a board wipe for a turn and waste your opponents' investment, and is good tech as well. Eldrazi Monument is also a good card, because you'll have endless tokens to fuel it, and all of your stuff will be flying and indestructible, keeping your opponents from easily stopping you. One final way in your deck is just by making board wipes painful, which you can do with aristocrats. Blood Artist and Syr Konrad, the Grim will make your opponent think twice about wiping the board. Again, don't commit too many resources at once, and hold up mana for protection. This helps with controlled growth and helps you rest easy during your opponents' turns.

A fifth principle that is great is to always have a backup plane for when things go wrong. One way to do this is to have a single infinite combo to win out of nowhere when things are down. When you're playing aggro opponents are always looking at your board state, but they can be taken by surprise when you combo the win. For Markov the best one is probably Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond. If your opponents can win with this stuff then its only fair that you can in a pinch too! This also fulfills the old idea talked about on MtgGoldfish that you should always have a way to win out of nowhere. The other and more honest way to do this is just to have a way to recover your board state. Patriarch's Bidding and Haunting Voyage can help you recover all of your creatures in a single turn. Having these backup plans will make life easier.

Don't get discouraged, aggro is better than ever in EDH today due to new board protection and recovery tech Wizards has printed and reprinted in the past couple of years. All you need to do is master the playstyle and you'll have a lot more fun and success!

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