Licia, the Sanguine Storm
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 108 | 54 COMMENTS | 14060 VIEWS | IN 38 FOLDERS
Battlebond Edits! And Game Report! —June 7, 2018
Hello All!
A few updates in the works from Battlebond arrival! But first, A quick game report.
I recently started playing at a new LGS, and had quite an efficient game with my first time pulling out Licia in that group. It was end of the night, final game, and our pod had dwindled from 4 to 3. One of my opponents said she was pulling out her Zacama, Primal Calamity storm deck. Obviously, I had to reciprocate! Our third opponent was playing a Kresh the Bloodbraided land destruction deck simply because we both pulled out such hateful decks.
Game started off well - I establish early, Sol Ring into Tymna the Weaver and Sensei's Divining Top T2, and proceeded to draw cards by swinging into the Kresh player. Zacama ramped T2, Solemn Simulacrum turn 3, and generally began setting up for an early Zacama. Kresh did not hit any ramp and was color screwed on Black I believe.
T3 I spent setting up my hand, Night's Whisper to dig, utilizing Top to sculpt. I draw my Sunbeam Spellbomb and play it out.
T4 I pop Spellbomb for life and drop Licia
T5 I swing in with 10 power Licia at Zacama, getting a chump from Solemn and gaining 10. I Helm of Awakening, Burnt Offering my Licia for half red half black, Demonic Tutor for Dark Petition, Petition for Yawgmoth's Will, cast out several other rituals I had accrued, and proceed to go off handily from there, dropping Kresh with 22 Tendrils of Agony triggers and tutoring for an Aetherflux Reservoir for Zacama.
Now to the edits!
In: Sentinel Tower, an obvious inclusion as an Aetherflux Reservoir with a board wipe mode.
Bonus Round, a Fork on crack! Doubling down on tutors and rituals makes it trivially easy to go off
Grapeshot, I have wanted to find room for quite some time.
Cloud Key, Helm of Awakening is the best card in the deck, the Key does a decent approximation, typically naming sorcery or instant (or occasionally artifact) a turn before we go off. I would add Stone Calendar or The Immortal Sun but 5 or 6 mana is too much for this effect in my experience with the Calendar.
Cuts: Vizkopa Guildmage, great in theory as an alternate win condition but it is really too expensive and is often just a bear.
Fumigate, with all my tutors it is very easy to grab a board wipe if we need one, and this is the weakest of the 3.
Dragon Mantle, My most awkward cantrip, and with creature count dwindling unlikely to ever get the random firebreathing kill.
Tymna the Weaver, I love the card but honestly without a higher creature count she just doesn't get in there like I want her to.
Philoctetes says... #2
Hey, thanks for the comment! While I certainly agree that Well of Lost Dreams is a powerful engine, I have a few concerns with it. It is essentially a two-card combo as opposed to a standalone engine, which can be a challenge with the wrong draw. It also takes a lot of mana before it really gets going - requiring 1 mana per card after a 4 mana investment plus finding a way to gain life seems a bit challenging for this build. Thank you for the interest and the suggestion!
January 31, 2018 4:15 p.m.
GhostChieftain says... #3
Have you considered Hatred + licia as another win con? With all that lifegain, you can easily pay 17 life to make an unblocked licia either eat their removal spell or kill them and gain you back that life. I say it is worth the gamble in a lifegain deck.
February 27, 2018 11:17 a.m.
MagicBlues says... #4
Oh boy, this list has developed significantly since I last looked at it. It looks way more cutthroat now :)
I've been wondering if Reiterate warrants inclusion over one of the other copy spells. With Helm of Awakening in play it is a straight upgrade but only if you ever rebound it.
You mentioned in the update section that you might need to include Not Forgotten at some point. Maybe Shreds of Sanity is a better fit for that slot since it is red and returns the card to your hand instead.
February 28, 2018 10:11 a.m.
Philoctetes says... #5
Great comments guys thanks for the interest and following my journey!
luther - while I do love Hatred as a fantastic win condition in a lot of decks, I feel in this build the Attack with Licia commander damage plan is very Plan B. I like having the option, but the main reason I like it is that it sort of exists by itself without slots dedicated to it, you know? But thank you for the suggestion!
MagicBlues - thanks for following along! The deck has definitely evolved over time, haha. My goal is actually at this point to continue to upgrade as I make certain acquisitions and really trick it out. My latest thought is potentially including a Burning Wish Mastermind's Acquisition sideboard package and offloading some board wipes and other situational cards to it.
Good comment regarding Not Forgotten my reasoning specifically for Not Forgotten over a card like Shreds of Sanity or Recoup is that it can bring back whatever I need, and especially Helm of Awakening which is just such a crucial piece. It can also circumstantially grab a Glacial Chasm or something similar!
Keep the comments coming guys I am enjoying the discussion!
February 28, 2018 4:04 p.m.
MagicBlues says... #6
That totally makes sense. Then I've got another option for you to try out ;)
Perpetual Timepiece is a little more expensive but might be able to fill in more roles than Not Forgotten since they can be used the same. Perpetual Timepiece however can act as pseudo card draw and save your graveyard at instant speed.
If your playgroup is fine with that kind of sideboard I'd definetely go for it. I think I would at first keep one copy of redundant situational cards in the main such that your normal tutors don't have to grab another one to get your board wipes, etc. That do over could make Ad Nauseam better if you can relegate some expensive cards to the sideboard.
It is a pleasure to follow the evolution of a deck of someone who puts that much effort into presenting and improving it :)
March 1, 2018 5:08 a.m.
Philoctetes says... #7
Perpetual Timepiece is an interesting one, although just shuffling the cards in doesnt quite do what I want. A similar card that could be a consideration is Codex Shredder, although the recursion is quite pricy. But being able to stock our graveyard every turn is super nice, and it plays amazingly with Sensei's Divining Top. Ill have to think on it!
Ad Nauseam if I can get rid of some expensive wipes is a fantastic idea. Im still on the fence about the sideboard idea but I will almost certainly make this change if I move forward with that idea in mind!
Thanks for the comments! I appreciate the chance to discuss the deck, which I put a lot of time into!
March 1, 2018 10:28 a.m.
Jarebear97 says... #8
Hey Philoctetes! I just wanted to say that I have been looking at all of your decks and I F*CKING love them! They are all awesome ideas and I hope I can learn something from them! I have made too many concepts on my account but I only own a couple of them. The only problem about your decks that is see is that they are damn expensive but I love them nonetheless. I'm very glad I got to see them because they are so damn cool! Thanks!!!
March 22, 2018 1:10 p.m.
Philoctetes says... #9
Hey Jarebear97!
Thank you for the kind words! I am so glad that you have found some inspiration from my lists. I put a lot of time and mental energy into them and for you to have gotten something out of that is really awesome =).
In regards to budget - my decks have certainly gotten quite expensive, haha, no doubt about that. At least the ones that I continually update and have uploaded to TappedOut - I have 12 total, the rest are more budget brews for the most part. Would it be helpful for you if I were to address budget options in individual card sections? There are plenty of options along that front that are currently in my "Notable Exclusions" section, but I never really speak to it.
Ultimately all of these decks started as reasonably budget decks and evolved over time based on me being greedy for power >.<
March 23, 2018 12:15 p.m.
Jarebear97 says... #10
I understand that cards get progressively more expensive over the years. That makes sense. Don't worry about the budget options as I'm not planning on COMPLETELY buying your decks. I just might look at them when I get a commander idea and maybe steal a couple of cards. Thank you for the options though!!!
March 23, 2018 12:23 p.m.
chrishuffman95 says... #11
This deck is sweet. I'm throwing it together in paper currently, and when I get it done I'm definitely going to be doing some playtesting on this.
Small thought: If Young Pyromancer were to come in, would battle hymn be worth it?
March 29, 2018 5:36 a.m.
Philoctetes says... #12
Thanks so much! I am ecstatic that I may have someone to bounce some actual play-tested ideas off of! Definitely keep me up to date on any experiences you have with the deck.
I definitely think a Young Pyromancer type package can work, but it will take quite a few slots to make it effective, since there is no additional synergy out of the command zone. I had such a package included for awhile, but I never went in deep enough to make Battle Hymn feel particularly powerful.
Some cards to consider for such a package that would make Battle Hymn powerful - Monastery Mentor, Goblinslide, Empty the Warrens, Haze of Rage. And in general, just going a bit more creature heavy, cantrip creatures like Wall of Omens and Dusk Legion Zealot could theoretically work.
Happy brewing!
March 29, 2018 11:03 a.m.
Philoctetes says... #13
@Everyone
Thank you all for the continued interest in this wonky Mardu storm build! I am far from optimized, so stay tuned and I will continue to acquire some power to insert and keep tuning this project.
Today we hit 50 Upvotes, which I don't put a ton of stock in other than as a benchmark for whether people feel that they are getting something out of the brew.
Happy brewing, thanks again for the interest!
April 16, 2018 1:52 p.m.
king-saproling says... #14
What do you think of Reaping the Rewards? Early game it can get Licia out slightly faster, late game it can be a bomb with Guttersnipe.
May 31, 2018 2:46 p.m.
Philoctetes says... #15
Hey! Thanks for looking through the deck!
Reaping the Rewards I have never considered the card before, but I really like the idea! I am adding it to the maybeboard and will be thinking on it for awhile, because I do think it has some potential.
If only it was black or red mana it would be a shoo-in I feel. White mana is often the chokepoint, but I can see this offering a way to bleed off some excess white mana while upping our spell count by 3 or 4 on it's own which is nothing to sneeze at, while also offering us a way to enable casting Licia multiple times during a Burnt Offering sequence. Very cool suggestion!
May 31, 2018 3:17 p.m.
king-saproling says... #16
Glad I could offer something to consider! Not sure if this card is worth including just for the filtering effect, but I've seen Blood Celebrant work well in decks that use rituals to explode in one turn. Anyway this deck is very cool, great job.
May 31, 2018 3:50 p.m.
Dunno if you've been looking at battlebond stuff, but theres some stuff notable for this deck, apart from the new duals (come in untapped if you have multiple opponents :O )
Off the top of my head the big one i can think of is Sentinel Tower, which might be able to replace guttersnipe or act as a second copy if you'd like (while initially not putting out as much damage, the turret starts to ramp up quickly into a very high amount of damage, and if people start casting spells to interact with you they're only speeding it up, and on top of that its an artifact making it harder to interact it)
May 31, 2018 6:32 p.m.
oh, something id like to add to my previous statement, if you're not ready to go off tower can be a removal and stall tool till you are.
May 31, 2018 6:33 p.m.
Philoctetes says... #19
Blood Celebrant is another interesting one! With how tight any cuts are I don’t think I’ll be able to fit in pure filtering, but an interesting card for sure!
I have looked through the spoilers, I am actually putting together wha my additions will be now. Sentinel Tower is an absolute house, I love the card and it will be making its way in for all the reasons you’ve mentioned, essentially acting as Aetherflux Reservoir #2.
Another card I’m strongly considering is Bonus Round. Being able to double ritual followed by double tutor essentially guarantees we can go off.
jj4622 says... #1
Hey, was looking through the list of cards you had considered and didn't see any mention of Well of Lost Dreams. Even in my Edgar list, which only really has incidental lifegain due to a few lifelink creatures/Blood Artist effects, the card has felt pretty ridiculous as an engine. Other than that love the deck!
January 31, 2018 10:49 a.m.