The Myr General?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Jan. 22, 2016, 12:11 a.m. by Drahydra
I am quite stuck. It was my goal to make semi-tribal EDH deck, featuring more Myrs than were necessary. It's an artifact build, yes, but I'm stuck in the color department. My choices are Esper and Jeskai as far as the deck I want to make goes. If someone could explain the playstyle differences between the two as artifact decks, I would appreciate it. As for the commanders, I was feeling either Sydri, Galvanic Genius or Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest would be most fitting for each color scheme. The deck itself would be a Myr-themed deck, with Proliferate as a sub-theme (charge counters and poison counters galore!).
asasinater13 says... #3
but at either of those definitely sydri. More synergy with your commander and black is a better color for removal, draw, and mana purposes than is red. Though I guess red has some artifact synergy, I like black better.
January 22, 2016 12:37 a.m.
There's only 35 Myrs in the game. Many of these cards are awful and even have color identities that make them unplayable for you. If you want to go with artifacts, esper's definitely the way to go. I suggest you play Sharuum the Hegemon over sydri as she pilots a general artifact strategy a little better. Both commanders are known for their combo-potential, but can be placed in charge of good stuff decks.
I know it's not really what you want to do, but if you're open to broadening your scope a little bit, you improve your deck's potential quite a bit by choosing a more general artifact deck.
January 22, 2016 12:37 a.m.
As for your question about Jeskai vs Esper in commander - well there is not a huge amount of differece. Balck has more access to tutors which is good. Red has direct damage spells. It just depends on how you you want to build the deck. In general, you will find more cards that suit an artifact theme better in Esper.
Just a heads up, whenever you build a tribal theme deck, you set the glass ceiling on the capabilities of the deck lower than if you weren't to. Sure, picking cards is easier however in general you'll find yourself running subpar cards just to stay on theme. As long as you're ok with that, go nuts.
January 22, 2016 12:52 a.m.
asasinater13 says... #6
no! take myr tribal! it's a lot of fun. just run a whole bunch of clones, every myr that makes mana, and Myr Galvanizer, then get infinite mana really easily, which gives you also infinite uses of Myr Propagator, which gives you infinite myrs.
but seriously I don't think your color choice matters significantly if you're truly dedicated to playing a myr deck instead of an artifact deck. Myrs in general are not nearly competitive power-level for commmander, but they can do degenerate things when you get to build up to a mass, and most of the support they need is from Darksteel Forge, Akroma's Memorial, Eldrazi Monument or other artifact things. Because you want all of the myrs possible, I recommend going to 5 colors. since you're in artifacts having imperfect mana isn't really that horrible, you'll have a majority colorless casting cost things either way, and lots of rocks/myrs to fix your colors.
January 22, 2016 12:59 a.m.
Yes, I am aware that Myrs alone are pretty suffocating as far as synergies go. This isn't a strict tribal deck. The Myrs are there mostly for swarming, as Myrs are the best artifact creatures at doing so. The ideal situation would be having a wall of Myrs, harassing my opponents and keeping their creatures at bay, while comboing off with things like Darksteel Reactor, Grinding Station, or Myr Galvanizer.
January 22, 2016 1:02 a.m.
I think that Thopters are better at swarming than Myrs. You have cards like Thopter Foundry, Sharding Sphinx, Thopter Spy Network, Thopter Assembly, Hangarback Walker, etc. While you don't have access to the buff from something like Myr Galvanizer, you can just use cards like Tempered Steel which triple your throughput. And on top of that, Thopters naturally have flying, making them more likely to connect and give more blocking options.
January 22, 2016 1:08 a.m. Edited.
asasinater13 says... #9
I see all of your points about thopters, but really, are they even close to as cool? I don't think so.
January 22, 2016 1:21 a.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #10
January 22, 2016 1:32 a.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #11
Also, Thopter Assembly + Time Sieve = infinite turns. Another reason thopters are amazing.
January 22, 2016 1:35 a.m.
asasinater13 says... #12
yeah but is there a thopter turbine? no? guess what. there's a Myr Turbine. your 0 mana creature? 0 power. my 0 mana creature? puts some power in play.
January 22, 2016 1:35 a.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #13
Or you could run both, since you're playing EDH, you'll need all the best creatures/cards/combos you can get. :)
What better way to win than by raining down death upon your foes with Myr's riding Thopters?
January 22, 2016 1:41 a.m.
Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer is really good if you're trying to go aggro.
January 22, 2016 1:50 a.m.
Not gonna lie. I kinda like the idea of thopters as well. I just feel that Myrs have more synergy as far as interactions with other Myrs. Two Myr Galvanizer and two Myr-dorks are essentially the end of the game, for example; especially with a sink like Myr Propagator or Coretapper seeing all of it. I might split it between Myrs and Thopters, since Thopters are better at overrunning the board, while Myrs are more combo-city.
January 22, 2016 1:51 a.m.
asasinater13: if you're refering to Memnite, he's a construct... And yes, thopters are in fact as cool, if not cooler.
Drahydra: If you're going to talk about artifact combo, that's not a good example. Your creatures need to not have summoning sickness, you need a clone spell, Myr Galvanizer and two other mana producing myrs, just to get infinite mana. That's 4 cards on top of the combo pieces. And infinite mana by itself absolutely does not equal game over. You actually need a mana sink that is relevant to end the game.
Whereas something like Sword of the Meek + Thopter Foundry + Krark-Clan Ironworks is 3 cards for infinite (albeit colourless) mana. Throw in a Blasting Station and that actually is game. Hell, even without Blasting Station you still have infinite tokens.
As for infinite mana production, you just can't go past Grand Architect + pila-pala though. 2 cards for infinite mana that will work with the rest of the deck.
January 22, 2016 2:16 a.m. Edited.
What I found to be an excellent general for the Myr is Muzzio, Visionary Architect, especially with the mana myr and some tapping / untapping this gets sick pretty quickly.
January 22, 2016 5:48 a.m.
asasinater13 says... #18
enpc, wow I messed up on memnite badly. that said, he should definitely have been a myr.
I think it's well established that myrs are not the most powerful option, but they're a cool tribe that's unique to magic, so it's fun to be able to play them.
January 22, 2016 8:41 a.m.
Postmortal_Pop says... #19
I actually ran a lot of myrs in my Arcum Dagsson deck, my favorite way to win was comboingMyr Battlesphere+Prototype Portal+Altar of the Brood with infinite mana. No one ever expects to be milled to death by token generation and with Arcum I could reliably mill the whole table on turn 7.
Honestly I think WUB would be your best bet for an artifact centric deck, you get a good deal of helpful cards from esper. That said, I don't think sydri is a good choice. Myrs synergize well with, well, myrs. Half of her abilities would go to waste as I doubt your be running a ton of high cost non creature artifacts that you can use as beaters without risking a useful support. Sharing would probably work out better or even oloro, he may not be artifact oriented but he brings life and card draw to the table consistently. Honestly though this is based off of my personal taste so take it as a grain of salt, commander is fun because of the greater range of personalization so pick the commander for you
asasinater13 says... #2
just go to WUBRG, run Child of Alara, and never cast your general unless you want to become a brick wall for people to run into or have a Darksteel Forge in play. also Sliver Queen I believe is alright even without sliver tribal because myrs can get infinite mana and then infinite guys.
January 22, 2016 12:36 a.m.