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| 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 |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Pauper Duel Commander | Legal |
| Pauper EDH | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Varchild's War-Riders
Creature — Human Warrior
Cumulative upkeep-Put a 1/1 red Survivor creature token into play under an opponent's control.
Trample, rampage 1 (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each creature blocking it beyond the first.)
king-saproling on
Arms Race (Boros Aikido)
2 weeks ago
Hey ShieldOfHolyShadows your reasoning makes a lot of sense to me. I admire that you don't want to compromise the nature of deck, and I think keeping it less aggressive and allowing your opponents to make their own choices is really cool.
In light of that, I believe the non-threatening facade of the deck paired with Noble Heritage's built-in protection means you don't need to run cards like Windborn Muse and Ghostly Prison. Also those propaganda effects are slightly antithetical to your ethos imo. Yes the opponent still has a choice, but is it much of a choice? Pay a bunch of mana to attack me (the non-threat), or attack the real threat for free. Also why would they attack you in the first place unless they absolutely had to, at which point you use your aikido cards right?
As for the angel subtheme, I am a big anti-lifegain person haha. I think lifegain is pointless without payoffs (e.g. cards like Light of Promise). In fact, it gives opponents an excuse to attack you because you have the most life. As for having flying blockers, this may be personal bias, but I rarely see someone snag a win because they had multiple connects with beefy fliers. Combat-based wins are already pretty uncommon and when they do happen, the horde/voltron is overhwelming. Having a couple angels on board would not save you.
I think spurring combat between opponents makes more sense than hiding. It allows opponents to take each other out with damage when otherwise they wouldn't be able to. It also makes your aikido cards hit harder. Hiding is slower and aids the combo and control players. Maybe you already considered these but here are a few more warmongery cards that come to mind: Assault Suit, Rite of the Raging Storm, Varchild's War-Riders, Dictate of the Twin Gods, Combat Calligrapher
SufferFromEDHD on
Pramikon, The Wall of Stall
1 year ago
Varchild's War-Riders and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor not walls but they are efficient token generators for your opponents that can't attack you.
Hunted Phantasm not a wall but built like one. Low mana cost and creates the most tokens out of the cycle. Unblockable is the cherry on top.
KBK7101 on
You Shall Block My Creatures!
1 year ago
Elsdragon is definitely an interesting commander. I love the designs of commanders with weird but still useful effects like this. It makes the game so interesting!
Scythe of the Wretched and Jangling Automaton are some really great finds!
I feel like I recommend this card all the time, but Genesis Chamber can help a lot with giving opponents creatures. Mogg Infestation and Varchild's War-Riders should totally be in the main deck, too!
smack80 on
If Zurgo Wasn't Boring - Kelsien EDH
1 year ago
Surprised to see no Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor and Varchild's War-Riders. They are obviously awesome with Kelsien and also "group hug" because you are giving stuff to your opponents. They can help with your weakness against creatureless combo decks.
freezerboy on
Don't Mind Me (Xantcha Pillowfort Chaos)
2 years ago
Nice interactions. Here's to hoping that you get Varchild's War-Riders and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor out at the same time.
ChaosJester on Would a "group hug" Marisi …
2 years ago
Imo yes and no. No because, Marisi's first ability can be very restrictive for others play style (depends on your meta). This in turn can force them to target you and your commander which is not in the sense of my definition of Group Hug. But also yes, because if you combine this with let's say Forcefeed cards like Varchild's War-Riders, it can be an effective political tool. So you should playtest this card.
In general, choose your cards so that you appear as harmless, defensive, and friendly as possible while making your enemies dependent on you by forcefeeding them slowly. To me, group hug always is controlling your opponents decisions and not their decks. So, personally, I would avoid stax-like cards that restrict others decks in a hard way and would focus more on the meta level, if you understand what I mean.
Sometimes it turns out, the winner of commander games is the guy who never really startet the game because he was very quiet and not really involved in the game due to bad cards or pillow fort strategy. This partly should be implemented into a group hug strategy.
Epicurus on
Attack me, I dare you (Boros Control)
2 years ago
Fun looking deck! I have a kind of long list of suggestions for you. Some of them are specifically suggested to deal with your draw problem, but not all of them. I will say that I wouldn't expect that you would try to fit all of these in here, and I'm also shyt at telling anyone what to cut from their own deck. So I'll drop this list here and let you make of it what you will.
enpc on "Quest" Decks
3 years ago
In a similar vein to the hunted cycle, there's also Varchild's War-Riders which can continually be used to give oppoenents tokens.
Witherscale Wurm is an interesting card here as well with the mechanic to give your oppoenents' creatures wither.
Marisi, Breaker of the Coil
and
Goblin Diplomats
are good if you did want to use goad.
Assault Suit might make for an interesting card here.
Yurlok of Scorch Thrash is also decent as they can ramp each oppoenent but at a cost. Selvala, Explorer Returned (and even Selvala, Heart of the Wilds ) are in a more group huggish vein but could be decent.
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