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Xira Arien, Insect Queen EDH

Commander / EDH Aggro BRG (Jund) Theme/Gimmick Tokens Tribal

nobu_the_bard

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Land (37)

Artifact (10)

Commander (1)

Commander: Xira Arien

Sorcery (14)

Enchantment (6)

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Land (6)

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Creature (4)

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Insect tribal theme deck! It's one of my older decks; it shows in many ways, such as the wide variety of nonbasic land it has slowly picked up. It's a bit silly and not meant to be "competitive" at all.

The goal here is simply to try to overwhelm opposing players with a glut of insects; either a couple big ones or a lot of little ones. It's not particularly effective in general, but it contains a lot of "answers" in the form of a Jund removal suite that tends to cause it to be responsible for slaying a lot of dangerous things in multiplayer games. It doesn't generally actually win though unless underestimated however.

I think the deck has strayed from its intended design somewhat. I'll see if I can get it back on track a bit with its next changes.

One particular request. If you make comments, please don't suggest anything with the Infect mechanic. I don't care for it particularly and it has a bad reputation with my metagame particularly. I'm aware this creates a problem as a number of good insects use infect, however.

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Reliable Bug — May 16, 2015
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Further small adjustments. The sort of opposition the deck faces these days has changed considerably since the days it was created, and I've become a better player in general

The deck's primary weakness is inconsistency, still, even after prior changes. Let's see here...


-Garruk Wildspeaker: This was the first planeswalker I ever used. He was useful originally because there weren't many ways to deal with him directly, and he wasn't dangerous enough to be a priority for most opponents. Nowadays, decks with 3-9 planeswalkers aren't unheard of, and people run answers like Dreadbore and Hero's Downfall. As my only planeswalker, in a deck that doesn't put up a strong defense, he's just begging to have these tools used against him, so he rarely accomplishes anything anymore by himself anymore.
-Quicksilver Amulet: I keep taking this out and putting it back in. It should speed the deck up in theory, but it's just too slow to use. It takes 8 mana for the first use, and the first use is often the only one I get.


-Endless Cockroaches: I brought this guy back. He's too great.
-Increasing Ambition: I had trouble finding an affordable copy of Beseech the Queen, but I got a couple of these, which I can use even if I accidentally mill them. The deck needs the consistency some tutors can bring. I may still need another tutor though.


-Gleancrawler -> Swarm of Bloodflies
-Nantuko Blightcutter -> Brood of Cockroaches


-Beacon of Unrest
-Chain Reaction
-Nantuko Shade


-Flaring Pain
-Leyline of Punishment
-Skullcrack

I'm thinking the deck needs to be faster and looser. It can do this by changing up a lot of tools I suspect. Some tools had become too brittle (Garruk, Quicksilver Amulet). Gleancrawler is a problem because he's too slow; opponents can remove him before his ability triggers, potentially leaving me hanging. I could sure use another flyer though.

I know from experience that the deck's most reliable win involves Blasphemous Act creating a horde of tokens from Saber Ants or Hornet Nest or Broodhatch Nantuko, so I'll look into Chain Reaction as another boardwipe of the same stripe. There's a couple of other similar effects like Inferno but they tend to seem less cost effective. Swamyard. Golgari Charm, and Ascetism allow my creatures to survive these effects.

A secondary success has been Skullclamp. Brood of Cockroaches works very well with it, and Swarm of Bloodflies will like seeing my creatures gobbled up. The shear card advantage the clamp and an army of tokens can generate is overwhelming.

A potential problem is damage prevention. Locally, Fog,Spore Frog and Spike Weaver have become popular, so an aggro deck like mine has trouble getting damage through. I may add at least Flaring Pain, as its flashback makes it more flexible.

Well-Prepared Bug — Feb. 18, 2015
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Mana Fly — Nov. 1, 2014
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Land Buggy — Nov. 27, 2013
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Revision 30 See all

(7 years ago)

+1 Chain Reaction main
-1 Descendants' Path main