Help with Derevi
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Dec. 10, 2016, 1:01 p.m. by Cmasa435
Ok, for a while I have been debating on what Commander I should build and play with next, after much deliberation I have decided to go with Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. I have a deck list made up, Tap Dat..... Everything (keep in mind this is a rough list I made up while unsure of the direction I wanted to go, so its probably gonna suck), but I'm not sure I'm going in the right direction. Looking at deck lists there are 3 versions of Derevi I commonly see, Voltron with the Swords, Stax, and Tokens. Voltron and Stax are the most appealing to me, but I don't have the funds to get all 5 of the Swords so Voltron would be a bit weaker, and I'm not sure how to go about fully abusing Stax. For both methods I have to take into account my budget (about $100 is my max) and while I would like a beastly deck, I'm unsure of the best way to go about it. So I turn to you, oh wonderful people of Tappedout, please help me!
joshuaizac, thanks for the link, the deck looks really nice, as do the enchantments in it. I do like the idea of enchantments, given that they tend to cost less $$ than the higher power Equipment do, but I can see a minor problem. One of the best things about Derevi is she can keep coming back for only for the entire game, but when she dies so do the enchantments, that's what gives the Equipment an edge as they stay even when Derevi dies. A few of those enchantments, namely Spirit Loop and Rancor return to the hand when they hit the grave so they would work well as i can cast them again when Derevi is back on board. Thanks for the suggestion, if you think of any more, please send em my way.
December 10, 2016 4:59 p.m.
JaceTheSwagSculptor says... #4
I think everyone would be able to help you better if you knew how you wanted to theme your deck. Right now your deck just looks like bant good stuff. I could pretty much slap any general in Derevi, Empyrial Tactician's spot and it would be the same deck.Think of some unique thing that Derevi really specializes in and build around it or even it can be some quirk pertaining to a card that you're really interested in. I just don't see a Derevi theme in this deck. Here's some food for thought so that I might spark an idea for you...
Obviously stax is the most competitive option, but will probably make you the biggest target once people learn what your trying to do. Your willingness to play stax should be something you should gauge based on your playgroup. If you're playing with randoms in the weekly EDH league, then who cares, but if your sitting down with the group of friends then you might want to reconsider depending how tolerant they are. On the other hand, you can play a less competitive version like I chose to do and use tokens to gain multiple untaps on things like Salvaging Station (which the deck was built around abusing).
Comment and detail more of what direction you want to take the deck, then maybe I can be of more help.
December 10, 2016 6:18 p.m.
JaceTheSwagSculptor, I have never built with Bant before so I was unsure of the best way to go about it, and like you noticed that has amounted to a less than focused deck theme. Overall from looking at other deck here on tappedout I think that Stax would be the way I would want to go, but as I said in the original post I'm not sure how to go about it as I have never done Stax before. I did like the idea of Volton to begin with, but there are better Commanders for that (Uril, the Miststalker immediately comes to mind) and as for tokens I'm not a big fan of them so what remains to me is Stax. And as for my playgroup, each of them has at least one competitive Commander to pull out when they just want to wreck people, so they cant complain too much about a Stax deck. And even if they do complain, I don't mind being enemy number 1.
December 10, 2016 6:29 p.m.
JaceTheSwagSculptor says... #6
This is the competitive Derevi stax list from the EDH tier list on Tappedout, it should give you some starting points. Obviously the deck is wayyyy out of your $100 budget, but you should be able to cut some cards. Idk about making it work, though, as stax needs some pretty highly optimized cards to function properly.
December 10, 2016 6:36 p.m.
JaceTheSwagSculptor says... #7
I hate to be a downer, but a viable three color mana-base is really expensive. Having mana come into play tapped really negatively impacts stax. Unless you're really sold on Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Brago, King Eternal will allow you to still run stax; have a more consistent mana base; allocate more money in cards that are not lands; and still have a competitive general for your budget.
December 10, 2016 7:06 p.m.
JaceTheSwagSculptor, sadly I know that the mana base is going to cost me a LOT, but I'm think of having the base start off cheap, the as I get more $$ I can gradually upgrade it. And I am kinda set on Derevi for one big reason, the people I play with tend to go after the Commander (no matter what it is) as soon as it hits the field and having Derevi be able to always cone in for only 4 mana, she will never get to huge to cast. I have used brago before and he is an amazing commander, but usually he gets nuked as soon as he hits the field and eventually gets to big to reasonably cast (at least when I play with him)
December 10, 2016 7:16 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #9
A look at the stax cards of Derevi. After that, any card that taps to make tokens, like Thraben Doomsayer, lets any hit to a player make another token.
December 10, 2016 11:02 p.m.
CharonSquared says... #10
My Derevi deck focuses on abusing her ability with creatures that have tap abilities. A few options are Kazandu Tuskcaller, Beguiler of Wills, Arcanis the Omnipotent, Captain Sisay. Then you'll also want some useful creatures with evasion to help trigger Derevi, like Trygon Predator and Thada Adel, Acquisitor. And since you'll hopefully be connecting with a couple small creatures each turn, Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Bident of Thassa help keep your hand full.
December 10, 2016 11:10 p.m.
joshuaizac says... #11
in response to your comment about the value of permanence of quips over chants...while true....just outta curiosity ... did you see the section labeled Recursion? aka...
there's another card or two like these, but less budget...
Not trying to beat a dead horse if you're going a different direction, just making sure you saw how it works....
joshuaizac says... #2
If the Voltron playstyle appeals to you.... you can still voltron with enchantments rather than with swords/equipment.....its way cheaper...and bant is the best damn colors for it anyways.....
Bant-Chantress (My cousin and I's Deck) might give you some ideas if you wanna go that route....
gl & hf
December 10, 2016 4:41 p.m.