Slayers' Stronghold

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander 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
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Slayers' Stronghold

Land

: Add .

, : Target creature gets +2/+0 and gains vigilance and haste until end of turn.

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.

nbarry223 on Viga-BOOM!

1 year ago

I decided to go for more of a consistency route than an explosive glass cannon route with the new The Mycosynth Gardens card. It already puts us behind on lands and is a colorless source for all intents and purposes, so it opens us up a lot to counter-play if relied on too heavily, while not doing much without already having an Amulet of Vigor.

I initially thought it was a much more powerful card than it turned out to be through playtesting. However, the real sleeper was Tyrranax Rex which I initially thought was just a replacement for something like Carnage Tyrant if deciding to use it in the sideboard. After making space for the extra copies of The Mycosynth Gardens and finding them underwhelming, I tried it out in the mainboard, and was pleasantly surprised at how powerful this new creature was. The haste and ward 4 just make it such a powerful option when dealing with interactive decks. It's also not terrible in comparison to Primeval Titan, which is often the thing that holds back other big mana options.

It is almost the same as Primeval Titan finding Slayers' Stronghold, except you don't get the extra lands after swinging. Against non-interactive decks, that's slightly subpar. However, without an Amulet of Vigor, it can be seen as an upgrade if able to get to 7 instead of 6. Against any type of interaction, blue or not, it is a huge upgrade, since it is a threat that sticks around. Just running a single copy effectively gives us access to 5 copies, and allows us to cut Tolaria West down to 1 copy and not fear losing our redundancy as much. It also makes Summoner's Pact a must answer threat if we have 7 mana, since they can't interact with this new creature profitably.

nbarry223 on Viga-BOOM!

1 year ago

I decided to go for more of a consistency route than an explosive glass cannon route with the new The Mycosynth Gardens card. It already puts us behind on lands and is a colorless source for all intents and purposes, so it opens us up a lot to counter-play if relied on too heavily, while not doing much without already having an Amulet of Vigor.

I initially thought it was a much more powerful card than it turned out to be through playtesting. However, the real sleeper was Tyrranax Rex which I initially thought was just a replacement for Carnage Tyrant in the sideboard. After making space for the extra copies of The Mycosynth Gardens and finding them underwhelming, I tried it out in the mainboard, and was pleasantly surprised at how powerful this new creature was. The haste and ward 4 just make it such a powerful option when dealing with interactive decks. It's also not terrible in comparison to Primeval Titan, which is often the thing that holds back other options.

It is almost the same as Primeval Titan finding Slayers' Stronghold, except you don't get the extra lands after. Against non-interactive decks, that's only slightly subpar. However, without an Amulet of Vigor, it can be seen as an upgrade if able to get to 7 instead of 6. Against any type of interaction, blue or not, it is a huge upgrade, since it is a threat that sticks around. Just running a single copy effectively gives us 5 copies, and allows us to cut Tolaria West down to 2 copies and not fear losing our redundancy as much.

It just does so much more for the deck than I thought it would.

The_Warleader on Optimus Prime Rolls Out!

1 year ago

Cool deck! =)

Lightning greaves is typically going to be much better unless you need to target your own creatures (which you don't have too much need of, aside from modular triggers). I would personally cut the Saheeli - you might not know this as a returning player but planeswalkers without any dedicated support aren't typically worth running in commander unless they have an immediate impact on the game (something like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon for example ). They're just too easy to remove in multiplayer games and are especially difficult to ultimate.

To go back to the discussion of lands - I totally agree with multimedia. If you can afford it, you should definitely include fetch lands to show off those awesome dual lands you have! Here are some auto-includes for my 3-color commander decks that I don't believe were mentioned:

Battlebond lands - Spectator Seating , Training Center , and Sea of Clouds basically regular dual lands in commander

Reflecting Pool is very potent in 3-4 color decks and isn't too expensive

Triomes - so Raugrin Triome is all three of your land types to help your buddy lands come in untapped. Is searchable with fetch lands and can cycle in a pinch.

And don't forget your lands can offer utility! Buried Ruin , Inventors' Fair , Slayers' Stronghold / Hanweir Battlements  Meld , Spinerock Knoll / Windbrisk Heights , Academy Ruins (though that one is pretty expensive).

Anyway, I hope this helps and hope you are enjoying playing Magic with your friends again!

to_regatha_and_beyond on Cash is King

1 year ago

Nice deck. I like the way you're combining multiple approaches here.

If we're looking at wincons, the traditional Amulet Titan approach seems like the best you have here, so I would probably add in a Boros Garrison as a way to activate the Slayers' Stronghold. Without the Garrison, the stronghold sort of sits there unless you can find a way to make it work with the Lotus Field, which can be annoying. While you don't need to play a competitive deck, it's important to learn from competitive builds.

nbarry223 on Cash is King

1 year ago

Decent concept, I think the card counts/options are a bit off though.

First of all, how do you activate Slayers' Stronghold? You should run a Boros Garrison. Cut Thragtusk add Sun Titan. Elvish Reclaimer, Springbloom Druid, and Roiling Regrowth are good ramp options in addition to going harder on Harrow to feed Brought Back. You should also go harder on Flagstones of Trokair.

Urza's Saga also gets you to Amulet of Vigor and makes a decent Brought Back target. I'd also go a lot lighter on Oblivion Stone. Maybe run something like Porphyry Nodes if you are that scared of aggro, since all of your creatures you want to stick around will be large.

wallisface on

1 year ago

Bulldawg1310 i’ve done some googling on the “Etron versus PrimeTitan” matchup, and it does look like this is possibly one of the hardest matchups for Etron to win. These are the takeaways i’ve found:

  • Keepable hands need to be aggressive by completing Tron T3, or with multiple Temples.

  • Chalice on 0 is good for eliminating Summoners pact. Apparently Chalice on 1 is a lot less useful because we need to reduce the means for victory our opponent has, so removing threats is the key to winning.

  • Avoid leaving Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove on the field, spend removal asap on them.

  • Pithing Needle is good for naming either Tolaria West or Slayers' Stronghold (to either stop them grabbing & casting Summoner's Pact, or to stop a hasty Titan)

It does sound like a really rough matchup in that if your opponent has a natural way to just pop off and win, there’s not a lot that can be done about it. It sounds like the overall best counterplay is just to keep hands that can win as quickly and aggressively as possible, to limit their turns.

mr5cientific on Musashi's Mosh Pit [Primer]

1 year ago

Hi Crow-Umbra! This deck is super badass. I have a couple ideas on the manabase and am curious on your thoughts

First of all, Slayers' Stronghold can give a creature some bonuses (most importantly haste) for a red and a white. Could be great with your four drops like Hero of Bladehold, Leonin Warleader, or outright deadly paired with Elder Brain or Grave Titan. Saw you already had Hanweir Battlements  Meld so figured I'd suggest this one as well but I understand if you have it for the Meld dream.

Have you considered running the Kamigawa Neon Dynasty Legendary lands? Might be a little slow/expensive but the flavor is excellent for Musashi and I think Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance could be a great add if you just need a couple more tokens with haste. 3 cmc (with Isshin out) isn't great for 2 haste tokens maybe but you can always play it as a land.

Thanks for all your help again - looking forward to reading your next edits here and hearing how the deck refines

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