Squallmonger

Creature — Monger

(2): Squallmonger deals 1 damage to each creature with flying and each player. Any player may play this ability.

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
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (30)

DreadKhan on Aquaman, Lord of the Fishies

9 months ago

In Simic there are options like Koma, Cosmos Serpent which can just overwhelm tables by itself, especially if you can protect it. Not the cheapest card though, some cheaper options are Overwhelming Stampede, which can help close games by making your creatures a lot bigger, even if you don't have a huge number of them, as long as you have a creature with decent power out you'll be good. There is also Blossoming Bogbeast, this wants ways to gain life, but Green has some out there, Primal Command is a great budget card IMHO, solves problems and has pretty impressive synergy with the Bogbeast. You might like using Spawning Kraken, any time an appropriate creature gets in you get another big token. Finally, not sure if you have enough Islandwalk, but Stormtide Leviathan is a big unblockable attacker that makes you fairly hard to attack. Resolving any of those cards tends to end games pretty quickly in my experience, and most reward you for simply having a big board, a thing you always want to be doing.

I also like some of Blue's fairly nasty interaction, one alternative to making your guys big is to make someone else's guys way smaller, Mass Diminish is frankly an absurd amount of value in more Casual pods, such as lower budget games. Note it has Flashback and the effect lasts an entire turn cycle, meaning it can also eliminate an archenemy that's gotten ahead. Since you're running higher MV stuff, you might try out Curse of the Swine, this can make your opponent's defenses quite paltry, and it also can deal with problem creatures (like the aforementioned Koma) since it's an Exile effect. Another way to chip away at your opponent (and empower yourself) is to use something like Mass Diminish, I don't know how long your games go, but if you expect to end up with +10 mana available, this card starts looking interesting. I'd skip it if people run a lot of counterspells though, it's a 'go big or go home' kinda card but by all means hold up your own Negate.

Green has some interaction of it's own, if people run flyers in your meta and you're losing to them there are many ways in Green to wipe them, I like Squallmonger and Silklash Spider, but there are a ton more including Hurricane. If you don't have many flyers, this does nothing to you. Green also has Ezuri's Predation if people like to make lots of tokens that are usually smaller than 4/4 (if you run anthem effects that affect the beasts the card is much better obviously).

Just a general point, in Simic it's nice to avoid artifact ramp because you have so many amazing options to ramp with, artifacts tend to die more easily than lands, so effects that get extra lands into play are better than Command Sphere, especially in a 2 colour deck I'd argue. Myriad Landscape and Blighted Woodland are both fairly interesting ramp cards, you can always leave them as lands until you need them. Another feature of land ramp is that you can run cards like Rampaging Baloths and Scute Swarm, either gets a lot better if you're getting more landfall trigger, artifacts rarely have synergy with Simic game plans.

DreadKhan on Gnoll Patrol

10 months ago

I also think Gnolls are cool and approve of this premise! Here are my thoughts about the deck, hope they're helpful.

If you ever want to raise your budget a bit, Pathbreaker Ibex has huge synergy with your deck.

When I was testing out your deck I found that you seemed to be short of creatures for a deck that runs lots of creature payoffs and generally can't win without them. In a deck that's very creature centric I like to run closer to 40, if not more, Gruul has really, really good creatures to choose from. For example, you can run Wood Elves, Farhaven Elf over artifact ramp, these give you a creature body while also permanently ramping you (land ramp is much more stable than artifact ramp anyways). Creature buffs can be stapled to a creature, there are options like Thunderfoot Baloth, Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma or maybe Blossoming Bogbeast or Kamahl, Heart of Krosa. You can use creatures as a great source of removal with options like Thorn Mammoth, Ulvenwald Tracker, Kogla, the Titan Ape, Gruul Ragebeast, Steelbane Hydra, Viashino Heretic, and Outland Liberator  ^Flip are all pretty decent at getting things off the table for you while also offering a physical presence. Not sure if they quite fit, but depending on your meta Silklash Spider and Squallmonger are pretty nasty surprises for decks that use Flying a lot, Squallmonger can even kill huge flyers with another player's help, or allow several players to quickly eliminate an archenemy that is lower in life.

There are a few good ways to double your power in Gruul, the new Two-Handed Axe is very interesting, the surprise Double Strike ability works well with your Commander, and the power doubling effect definitely does. Inquisitor's Flail is an incredible equipment if your Commander is either very big or has First Strike, yours can easily get big enough to justify the risk. Berserkers' Onslaught is really strong, even if it's 5 mana, Enchantments tend to stick around for awhile.

I think you should run more sources of Trample in here (there are some listed above as well), but with a budget restriction that does make it more of a challenge. Your Commander is really strong if he has Trample, but can be chumped by a 0/1 goat token without it (funny image, maybe he got hungry?). Garruk's Uprising is a really good card if you have enough creatures with power 4 and up, but the Trample is the real perk here arguably. Kessig Wolf Run might do the trick, and it's on a land. Brawn is pretty budget, but it can be hard to get it killed. War Cadence isn't exactly Trample, but it can easily let you swing with unblockable creatures if someone is tapped out, but remember this can also be used to create chaos on other people's attacks if you've got nothing better to do. It's also not Trample technically, but Siege Behemoth can bypass blockers for your attackers.

With a relatively low budget in Red, I feel like Rite of the Raging Storm is a very underrated card. Those 5/1s are never coming your way, but they will swarm anyone who can't deal with it on their opponent's turns, and yours gets the buff from your Commander fwiw. Breaker of Armies is a good way to clear out potentially a whole board worth of stuff of a vulnerable player, it can deter attacks vs you if their defenders are all going to be stomped by an Eldrazi.

If you can get your creature count high enough, you could sneak stuff like Lurking Predators in, which is pretty impressive card advantage over time in many metas. There is also Heartwood Storyteller, which is very good if you don't run many non-creatures.

DreadKhan on Fun commanders

1 year ago

I think I'd look for a Commander that comes with some card draw stapled to it in some way if you are starting out and want to limit budget, but one that also avoids undue attention. Good card draw tends to be very $$$, but stuff like Sygg, River Cutthroat can draw lots of cards even if people are just swinging regularly, the Commander rewards you for people losing life, a thing that happens as a matter of course. Dimir is really good at drawing cards, creature removal, and Blue is full of spells that can save your butt very easily, it's not just about casting a Counterspell, sometimes you want Aetherspouts. Blue can solve almost any problem (in theory), and do it at instant speed, I know when I was a new Commander player it bothered me quite a bit if I lost to a deck because I couldn't deal with some vulnerable lynchpin in their strategy, much more so if I don't run anything that solves it (and thus will always lose in that situation). Blue avoids that feeling better than any colour I'd argue, but it's also the hardest colour to play 'optimally'. The biggest weakness of Dimir is that your creatures tend to be smaller weenies or utility dorks, so you can't just go taller than a Gruul or Naya deck, especially on a budget, if you have an inner Timmy (a player who likes big, splashy cards to excess) Green is probably more your speed. Green also has lots of card draw, and has stupid cards like Squallmonger that are pretty budget, give that Deathtouch or Lifelink and you're in incredibly good shape, but what if you throw a Keen Sense or Snake Umbra on it? 2 mana and 1 life for 3 cards isn't bad for a budget deck, having something that'll clear out flying weenies can be priceless in Green.

DreadKhan on Counter Intuitive

1 year ago

Pestilence or Squallmonger would be hilarious with a Lifelink counter, Pestilence might require an Indestructible counter on a body. Any reason you don't run Tyrite Sanctum?

Very interesting idea to make Caltrops do work!

carpecanum on Potassium!!! (Kibo, Uktabi Prince)

1 year ago

I was thinking a few old cards would be fun for a political Kibo. Squallmonger, Mana-Charged Dragon, Chain Lightning, the "Flailing" creatures etc. But thats for a different deck.

For this deck have you thought about Molder Slug or Titania's Song? Titania's Song would cause all bananas to go straight to the GY right? Then poof, leaving behind counters

DreadKhan on green machine

2 years ago

Elves of Deep Shadow are a bit more money than Elvish Mystic, but give you access to Black mana instead, if you're concerned your ramp is mostly in Green.

Vs flying heavy metas, I do like Spidersilk Armor, but I also like Silklash Spider and Squallmonger as repeated answers to as many flyers as they have. I also run Sandwurm Convergence, and am back and forth on Katabatic Winds, which is much less mana but is a Reserved List card, the makers of Magic have 'promised' way back they wouldn't reprint any Reserved List cards (they stopped putting cards on the Reserved List in 1999 IIRC). I haven't fit Winds in anywhere yet, but it's a strong enough effect to look at. If you like the effect, I'd buy it sooner rather than later, it's price could 'spike' hard at any time, because there are so few copies of it that were printed compared to any Modern playable cards. Most Reserved List cards aren't super-good, but the odd effect was underpriced enough to be playable.

Still, Dreadlord is pretty neat, and if you can hit 7 mana it's a pretty good wipe to have around. I think that's a stronger card than Findbroker, which feels really bad when you have no synergy pieces out.

DreadKhan on Saryth, natural partner of Fynn

2 years ago

Not sure if I'm missing something, but why do you have 45 lands? That is as many as I run in my Tatyova Lands deck, which wins the game via lands mostly, specifically my Commander offers a payoff for landfall. I see you have a few payoffs for landfall, but it still seems like a lot. Anyways, a few thoughts!

First thought, Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar would probably work well in here, maybe even as a Commander. He often end up quite big, and he comes with Trample and a recursion effect. You can still run Ohran Frostfang and Bow of Nylea for Deathtouch, and you could run Saryth in the 99 still. Just an out there thought to start off with, not trying to be negative.

I think Isochron Scepter probably wants more potential 'hits' (you have 2 afaik, I find having quite a few more, and some tutors for Instants and Artifacts still doesn't set it up very often).

Crucible of Worlds seems odd in here too, for one Ramunap Excavator does similar work and is a more useful type (and your Commander can get the creature Hexproof), and on the other hand your deck runs enough lands that you'll hit drops to turn 6 usually. I'm going to list a few utility lands that might help by giving mana sinks or card draw to help when you get flooded: Bonders' Enclave and War Room might work out, offering a mana sink and card draw to help smooth out bad draws. You could consider Geier Reach Sanitarium and/or Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, but these help everyone. Tyrite Sanctum is a good utility land in more casual play, offering +1 counters or Indestructible. Temple of the False God can blow up in your face a bit with a terrible hand, but it's usually a ramp land if you run this many lands. Inkmoth Nexus might work well with +1 counters, and it dodges wipes usually. Tower of the Magistrate is useful vs Voltron, you can give an opponent's creature protection, dropping all it's equipment IIRC, which can be pretty funny the first time. Homeward Path can be nice in Green, if people steal your better creatures it feels pretty bad. Any of the G lands with Cycling like Slippery Karst or Tranquil Thicket can be nice with a higher land count. Blighted Woodland or Myriad Landscape offer ramp, but are slow or use a lot of mana to do it. I actually like Opal Palace in a deck that can benefit from it in 1v1, and you should have lots of mana on hand to make the tax pretty insignificant. If you can recast your Commander a few times, they end up reasonably beefy.

Time of Need can find Fynn or Toski. Have you thought about more removal, mostly for artifacts and enchantments, but Green has access to some creature removal, so-so stuff like Kamahl’s Will exist at this point, or the reasonably useful Transmogrifying Wand for repeated Destroy. Silklash Spider or even Squallmonger can help deal with Flying decks, which are frustrating. I also run Sandwurm Convergence in my mono G deck, otherwise I consistently lose to faster flying decks like Talrand (a very nasty 1v1 Commander), ymmv though.

YourNeighborhoodGhost on Belbe, Pingers 'n' Pillowforts

2 years ago

hey nice deck, like it. but im not a great fan of Squallmonger , it just gives your opponents 4 mana for free and they dont have to attack. just some thoughts