Etali EDH: good, bad, terrible?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Nov. 6, 2018, 3:15 p.m. by greyninja
I'm thinking about building Etali, Primal Storm for a new commander deck.
I'm not huge into mono color decks, and I know red is pretty tough in EDH, but she just seems like a cool way to keep games unique. I'm building this with a lot of cards I already own, but may have to pick a few more up. I would like some opinions on whether the community thinks she's competitive enough before going too crazy.
My game plan is to ramp into Etali, then hopefully extra-combat my way into a win. I'm using boardwipes and flying creatures to help keep my opponents in check.
Link: Etali's Tickle Torture!
Any and all opinions and upvotes are appreciated! Thanks!
goblinguiderevealpls says... #3
looking at the list you already have most of that covered, so i think playtesting is in order!
November 6, 2018 4:27 p.m.
Etali rules! Yes, he can keep up with moderately competitive decks. I run an Etali deck here and there that is fairly successful. You just have to keep in mind that your own deck will have a HUGE focus on early ramp, protection, and haste enabling. So items like Caged Sun, that have 6cmc aren't always the most neccessary ramp (although helps for affording commander tax).
Sokath, His Eyes Open
Commander / EDH
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November 7, 2018 9:07 a.m.
Also, I keep meaning to get: Ward of Bones.... that deck above has been since modified with sweet Etali spiral engines like Possessed Portal
November 7, 2018 9:10 a.m.
Thanks everybody for helping!
goblinguiderevealpls, I hear what you're saying. It's the best you might get out of a 6-drop general in one of the weaker colors. I've put effort into my wife's Aurelia deck to get some bang out of boros
This would be for multiplayer and casual-ish 1v1. I will be kind of... forcing it to be good; like you said. I found a Mana Crypt for "cheap" at ~$80 and decided to go for it and grabbed to promo Etali too
I've never really been interested in building mono until etali. You and I were on the same page looking at your suggestions!
TypicalTimmy, I definitely plan on running a lot of the protection, haste, and unblockable equipments. Might not go full voltron.
Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, and Blood Sun are in there to be a pain in the ass. I've seen a few land destruction lists and it totally makes sense (as with any commander that gives you value for no extra mana costs)! I guess I'm just too friendly for that jazz. In a paid tournament setting I would though ;D
I kinda like your Charmbreaker Devils idea to get back extra combat spells and boardwipes; I appreciate the suggestions!
Gleeock, yuuup that deck looks evil! I'm going much more creature-heavy it looks like. Def hoping to focus on ramp and swinging asap before the opposition can get blockers out. If etali can't hold on I'll try to finish peeps off with dragons I guess. I'm more of a speed-to-the-finish-line over stax kinda guy. We'll see how I do! I might get rocked by control lol
Thanks again y'all! I upvoted some of your decks!
goblinguiderevealpls says... #2
well first off its kinda good and bad.
as far as serious edh is considered, boros is the worst colors due to lack of tutors and draw spells, however that doesnt make them bad it just makes them WORSE, mono- is only really bad in cedh,
as far as etali is concerned, he is a unique take on a mono red general and can be really fun. the problems i can see in etali is that he costs 6 and lacks haste, a turn 6 that the table has a turn to respond to is kinda bad.
however if you really like the deck you can try and MAKE it as good as possible. the best ways to do this is to have a lot of etali protection like equipment and you DEFINITELY want as much ramp as possible, from Seething Song to Coalition Relic to Thran Dynamo, youd need to get etali out much earlier than turn 6 to ensure you get triggers. its also worth noting that Relentless Assault effects double up his ability
the main problem is it has to compete with the other "good" mono red generals, such as Norin the Wary, Krenko, Mob Boss, Neheb, the Eternal all of which cost less mana and are fully dedicated to chaos and burn strategies, this would lean more towards a norin chaos type of decklist
Strionic Resonator copies his ability also
November 6, 2018 4:25 p.m.