Need some advice on how to upgrade my first EDH deck

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Posted on July 1, 2015, 11:39 p.m. by zephramtripp


Two Heads ARE Better Than One! Playtest

Commander / EDH zephramtripp

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This is my very first EDH deck. I think it has a large amount of squandered potential. How could I improve it and stay on a budget? I can trade for some more expensive cards if necessary.

Any suggestions will be considered. Thank you for your help

sonnet666 says... #2

This is going to be a really hard deck to make work.

Nothing to do with how you built it, it's just that red/white is already inherently at a disadvantage in commander as they are the two worst colors. (I love them but they are, neither draws well.)

And then added onto that is the fact that Anax and Cymede will always force a split between trying to make lots of creatures to beef up and lots of heroic enablers to trigger your mini-overrun effect (something that's really temporary and uses a set of cards that are very hard to recur).

If you really want to go with Anax and Cymede don't let me stop you. I'm just warning you that it's going to be a uphill battle, and when that happens you sometimes wind up having to turn to the really expensive colorless cards to cover your weaknesses, like Mind's Eye.

A more reliable commander for a R/W aggro strategy would be Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer.

July 2, 2015 8:33 a.m.

I would focus on instants and sorcery cards that have as much as a noticeable effect as possible, and will work well enough as stand alone cards in case you can't put out enough creatures to make use of the overrun effect.

All of the doubling effects (you have some already) seem like safe bets, as well as cards that have lasting effects (cards that add +1/+1 counters, for example). You can make the deck more about getting you Commander in than about trying to maximize the overrun effect, and you'll probably end up with a more consistent deck.

July 2, 2015 12:15 p.m.

Sainted says... #4

I would say Voltron it. I believe Anax and Cymedes ability effects itself as well as it IS a creature you control.

July 3, 2015 1:56 a.m.

pahamaki says... #5

I would actually urge you to go wide with soldier (token) tribal, boosting your side up from their weenie status, and then giving them trample with Anax and Cymede.

  • Anax and Cymede provides a mass boost, where the trample is clearly more important than the +1/+1. The goal should be creating a table position where trample matters enough to do a nice bit of damage. I'll get to triggering this effect reliably later.

  • Red and white both excel at token production, and soldiers are a prominent tribe in both colours. Rise of the Hobgoblins, Martial Coup and any number of "put a crapload of white soldier tokens into play" should help you here. If possible, focus on either creatures as token production, or spells that do something else in addition to token production to get maximum value.

  • White is good at boosting creatures. Glorious Anthem, Marshal's Anthem, Cathars' Crusade and so on help you a lot. Soldiers as a tribe have some pretty good lords, such as Captain of the Watch, Auriok Steelshaper, Aven Brigadier (which has pretty cool art, btw), even including oddballs like Cenn's Tactician. Also, focusing on soldiers as a tribe allows you to benefit from Obelisk of Urd, Coat of Arms and Konda's Banner. This should make your dudes big enough for the trample to be an actual threat.

  • You'll want to reliably trigger Anax and Cymede once your board is good and ready to blow out. To this end, I'd veer away from instants and sorceries, and rather focus on enchantments: both red and white have a bunch enchantments with built in bounce: Conviction, Crown of Flames (and its many variants, there's a number of these things), Flickering Ward and Mark of Fury to name a few. These cards mean that you can repeatedly trigger your commander's Heroic ability. Then there's stuff like Spirit Loop, which you can't bounce at will, but will get back if Anax and Cymede die.

  • Card draw is a challenge for these colours. You should look into artifact options like Mind's Eye and so on to guarantee a full grip. Inheritance is a pretty ghetto white option, and red has a number of Wheel of Fortune effects. Also, focusing on ramp which can be cashed in as cards later helps: Mind Stone, Commander's Sphere and Boros Cluestone at least. White has tutors for enchantments and artifacts, look into those for consistency.

  • Finally, support and removal: Purphoros, God of the Forge is really strong with a token strategy, Aurelia, the Warleader is really good too. Maybe stuff like Angelic Skirmisher would do: remember that you get a multiplied benefit from any mass effect like that if you have the most dudes on the board. Legion's Initiative and Boros Charm protect you from boardwipes nicely. As for removal, well, white is the best colour for wraths, you should play into that. Also, there's reusable stuff like Shackles to tie in nicely with the enchantment use in general, which is good for making the most of tutors (and you can even Shackles your own Anax and Cymede in a pinch :D).

July 3, 2015 5:31 a.m.

sonnet666 says... #6

A few things:

Dictate of Heliod, and Crescendo of War are better anthems than most of what pahamaki listed (except Cathars' Crusade, beautiful card). As is Glory of Warfare, Archangel of Strife, Balefire Liege, and Gratuitous Violence. In general you should never be running anything that gives your creatures less than +2/+2 unless your commander is, in and of itself, a token producer. It wastes slots.

("But, but, but... Some of those are symmetrical! I can't have my opponents getting power ups. That's bad!" Who cares? So long as your 1/1's can trade with their big scary high cost creatures, it's a win for you. Just play Archetype of Courage and give everything first-strike.)

Oh, and how could I forget Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite?

And here are all the possible heroic enablers: Anoint, Change of Heart (you can play it after attacking), Seething Anger, Conviction, Crown of Flames, Flickering Ward, Ghitu Firebreathing, Shackles. As you can see there are only eight. Consider some tutors or Sunforger to get them out reliably.

Looking over your deck zephramtripp, I see a lot of one shot instants and a lot of small creatures that don't really do very much. I know I'm going to get some flak for saying this, but there's no reason that either of those things should be in a commander deck. You should cut most of the one shot spells (i.e. all of your instants and sorceries other than Fury of the Horde, End Hostilities, Boros Charm, Secure the Wastes, and Wear / Tear) for anthems and the heroic enablers, and cut all the small creatures for efficient token producers. Go for things that can make at least 3 bodies: Hero of Bladehold, Assemble the Legion, Siege-Gang Commander, Martial Coup, Militia's Pride, Promise of Bunrei, Twilight Drover, Springjack Shepherd, Evangel of Heliod, Cloudgoat Ranger, Conqueror's Pledge, Elspeth Tirel, Geist-Honored Monk, Increasing Devotion, Knight-Captain of Eos, March of Souls, Nomads' Assembly, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Storm Herd, Dragonmaster Outcast, Rakka Mar, Emrakul's Hatcher, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Goblin Marshal, Chancellor of the Forge, Shrine of Loyal Legions, Spawning Pit, Trading Post, Wurmcoil Engine, Goblin Trenches (more of late game card), Rise of the Hobgoblins, Kjeldoran Outpost, and Kher Keep.

Also some other good options for draw are: Outpost Siege, Endless Horizons, Land Tax, Liar's Pendulum, Mentor of the Meek, Mask of Memory, Slate of Ancestry, Memory Jar, and Sword of Fire and Ice

Also red/white aggro can reliably satisfy the conditions of both Spinerock Knoll and Windswept Heath, so there's no reason not to include both.

But seriously though, consider changing your commander to Jor Kadeen. CommanderTheory explains it better here than I ever could: (link).

July 3, 2015 9:09 a.m.

pahamaki says... #7

Yeah, sonnet666 has a lot of good stuff there. You should be able to go forward with this massive list, methinks, even though some of the options listed aren't particularly cheap. If you still have questions or need to try and figure out a budget composition for the deck I'll gladly help you slap together a list.

As for switching to Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer: he might be more powerful on the whole, but a lot of the appeal of EDH for me at least is to see if I can make lower tier commanders work. It's more fun to build around something silly like Anax and Cymede than just pick the best commander for the colour combo. But my meta isn't particularly competitive, so to each their own.

July 3, 2015 10:43 a.m.

sonnet666 says... #8

I meant to recommend Windbrisk Heights earlier, not Windswept Heath. Just clarifying.

July 3, 2015 7:21 p.m.

This discussion has been closed