U/W combo-pillow fort, should I switch to bant?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on July 12, 2015, 12:15 a.m. by asasinater13
I play a U/W pillow-fort deck that has some splashes of group hug and combo. My commander is Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer. I'm considering switching to Phelddagrif to add in Privileged Position, Courser of Kruphix, herald of the pantheons, and some other stuff. mostly I get better removal and better protection of my combos, while looking even more ridiculous with a flying purple hippo. Would it be worth complicating my land base and lowering some of my pillow-abilities, maybe cutting the Mind Over Matter and Temple Bell combo because people tend to feel bad after it happens, and this is meant to be a deck for fun.
Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer is pretty weak sauce. The real question is how much money do you have? If we're talking $500+, then no, going tri-color isn't that bad at all. It's going to have about the same consistency as long as Blood Moon or Back to Basics aren't big in your meta. The big reason to go green is ramp. For pillowfort, the only real draw to bant would be Angus Mackenzie as he's an accessible fogger that's great for politics. He's damn expensive though. Green doesn't give you all that much for pillow forting. You don't actually get better removal or protection by going green. You've got tons of good options in U/W.
Still, the two big pillowfort commanders in U/W are Grand Arbiter Augustin IV who gets hated on often and Hanna, Ship's Navigator. Hanna's a great source of recursion and costs very little.
I play in a highly competitive group and one of my friends pilots Hanna. It's pretty great, actually. He paid and arm and a leg for the judge's promo version. It's gorgeous. She'll be a commander I guarantee your group will leave alone.
July 12, 2015 1:14 a.m.
asasinater13 says... #4
I definitely don't have that much for a mana base, but I'm playing against a lot of people running pre-cons out of the box, so I'm not too concerned about having the best possible. with enough rocks and taplands I'm confident I could make the colors work, just deciding if slowing myself down is worthwhile.
on hanna/GAAIV, I know both exist and that both are much better than gwafa, but I've kind of mixed pillow fort and group hug decks together, because it lets me be playing the game while not overpowering the people I'm with. I'm much more invested into the game and have a deck that rarely loses against my group over the summer. This is my project for when I want to have fun, I use gwafa to give the players who are struggling extra draws, often just targetting a solem simulacrum or Burnished Hart to help them out while they're behind. I'm purposely not playing the deck as best as could exist, because it just isn't as fun to be playing against players that can't compete with it.
July 12, 2015 3:22 a.m.
asasinater13 says... #5
I'm looking at green almost entirely because Phelddagrif is ridiculous and fun, while it offers a bit of benefit in ramping and Privileged Position, Herald of the Pantheon, and more love in Rites of Flourishing. nothing makes me less of a target than feeding the table cards, and if someone does target me the rest of the table tends to turn on them. It's pretty fun to politics howling mine effects in non-competitive groups. So mostly I'm asking if green is worth slowing my deck down for to get a bit better ramp and a more ridiculous commander. you seem to be saying no, but I'm not sure if that's about not being competitive or not being fun.
Blood Moon and Back to Basics aren't cards that get played in my group, we're very much for casual interactions and seeing people play out their combo or deck correctly is just nice to see, rather than focused on winning.
July 12, 2015 3:26 a.m.
RoarMaster says... #6
Id go Esper colors for a good pillowfort deck. Use Oloro, Ageless Ascetic as the commander and sit back and gain life while your opponents fight it out beyond your walls. If you can make it not worth their while to attack you, your free to mess with the table as you see fit.
July 12, 2015 4:55 a.m.
Ok. Fair enough. For your land base then, I'd go something like:
- 3 Shocks
- 3 Checks
- 3 Pains
- 3 Temples
- Command Tower
- Reflecting Pool
- Seaside Citadel
- Whatever Utility Lands
- Basics
If the shocks are too expensive, you can use fast lands or karoos.
July 12, 2015 10:25 a.m.
asasinater13 says... #8
I probably won't be able to get all the necessary shocks, fastlands should work. thanks for the help. I'm not sure how I feel about Reflecting Pool though. never been a big fan of it. I think I'll probably go guildgates or the khans refuges over pains as well, I'll want things that are color-demanding pretty constantly (running Render Silent and Voidslime, and just significant amounts of cards wanting triple color costs, as well as wanting to be able to use whichever of Phelddagrif's activated abilities consistently) so I like to avoid pains, I know it's very negligible life-loss in most situations, but I'm fine being a bit slow for that.
on oloro, I used to play a very oppressive build of him, where I basically played board wipes howling mines and indestructible creatures. At this point my group hates him out every time they see him, so I've got to give it a few months at least before I can make an oloro deck without being hated on. if there's another reasonable esper commander for pillow fort you know of, I'd be open to that. I've already got the lands for that.
July 12, 2015 1:32 p.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #9
If you're running Privileged Position, why not Sterling Grove too? Having them both out at once? Fun times.
July 12, 2015 3:12 p.m.
asasinater13 says... #10
Sterling Grove will devinitely make the cut, thanks.
asasinater13 says... #2
I should note I'm playing at a very casual level, not looking for opinions on how to be more competitive at it, i'm looking for opinions on what can be fun while functional.
July 12, 2015 12:21 a.m.