Your Signature Spellbook
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on March 31, 2019, 5:55 a.m. by DrukenReaps
Recently this Podcast did this episode on their personal spellbooks. I thought it would be cool if we did the same thing. I'm going to base mine just off cards that mean a lot to me or have been my favorites.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lqPRtPay3k
Karn, Silver Golem - my first commander, I still have the deck. I should probably get that up on this website...
Killing Wave - I love giving people bad choices to make and everyone underestimates these cards. Trust me after the 5th bad choice you have to make you'll be feeling the pain.
Queen Marchesa - I had built a few half hearted pillow fort decks before finding her but she leads my first real pillowfort deck. A strategy that I rather enjoy.
Mairsil, the Pretender - Leads my absolutely favorite deck. I've always loved doing weird combos and Mairsil combines cards in ways they are not meant to be. This leads to having the highest potential number of combos in a single deck.
Shadowborn Apostle - I still haven't really settled on who I want as the commander of my Apostle deck but I always have fun charging in with these guys and then bringing out ridiculous demons later in the game.
Vraska the Unseen - I just really like this character... She needs a version that can be my commander!
Quillspike and Devoted Druid - Cheating here a bit since I'm counting this as one 'signature spell' but this is the first combo I remember discovering myself. In reality I was far from the first person to see it but I didn't know that.
Stuffy Doll - I need this to be a legendary creature... It is just such an awesome card and so funny to me!
This is my spellbook. I tend to find ways and effects that bend the colour pie, as well as some spells I consider "hidden gems"!
March 31, 2019 9:27 a.m.
Only eight spells hmmmmm... mine would definitely be as that's my favorite color combo
Animar, Soul of Elements
Beast Whisperer
Bloom Tender
Maelstrom Wanderer
Man-o'-War
Nature's Lore
Sensei's Divining Top
Temporal Manipulation
March 31, 2019 9:53 a.m.
ZendikariWol says... #5
Okay 1) make Athreos, God of Passage the commander. Then you can play Edgewalker and FREE APOSTLES!!!
Now, my spellbook?
Forced Adaptation : through my time as a magic player, I have been... well, forced to adapt. For my first several years, the only people I had to play with were markedly wealthier than I and knew more about the game, having played with players of a level I did not have access to. I had to get tricky to stand a chance, and tricky I got! Not only that, but counters is one of my favorite archetypes to play, and I have built many a variant over the years (I think 5-8 just on my account), as you’ll see is consistent with several strategies down the line.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth : I tried to four or five different aristocrat decks, which I likely put together and took apart a total of a dozen times or more. Aristocrats is another favorite of mine, though I’ve brewed comparatively few. The one that remains? My Meren brew. She has served me well- so well, in fact, that outside of competitive settings I no longer play her.
Bloodhall Priest : I still remember the day that I laid eyes on a madness deck the first time and thought “being empty-handed can be a good thing?”, and something just connected. I don’t have my madness deck anymore, I sent it to a new player that I got into the game. Hope she’s enjoying it.
Roon of the Hidden Realm : bounce is another one of my favorite strategies, and I’ve never seen a commander who does it like Roon. Who’s got the boons to make you swoon? It’s Roon. It’s Roon.
Vigean Hydropon : represents my current +1 counter deck: my two-headed giant variant. I LOVE this brew, and no one sees the grafts coming.
Zurgo Helmsmasher : represents my current politics deck. Like a couple other strategies, I have thrown everything at the wall to see what sticks with this, and my current edition I call “Zurgo Backswing”, lovingly nicknamed “swing bitch, I dare ya”. I suspect it may be fairly similar to your Queen Marchesa deck, ShutUpMokuba.
Jace, Memory Adept : mill is an archetype near and dear to my heart. My second deck was a mill, and it was terrible, but I knew that one day I would finally mill someone out- that eventually my work would be completed. Well, nowadays I have no mill deck, but I think I might brew one in 2hg- mix in a little pillow fort...
Sygg, River Cutthroat : and finally, one of my favorite commanders ever. This deck is truly a thing of beauty. She has draw for days, removal, spelljack, mill, everything a blue/black player could ask for. I love her dearly.
March 31, 2019 10:42 a.m.
Death by poison is my spellbook, how many different formats can I play infect in? All of them. It was what drew me into magic originally.
March 31, 2019 12:25 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #7
Sweet, someone else was thinking the same thing I was thinking! For those curious, I posted my signature spellbook in a comment on that video yesterday :D
March 31, 2019 2:53 p.m.
PhotogenicParasympathetic says... #8
Savra, Queen of the Golgari - Commander of the first EDH deck I built from scratch, which is still a formidable attrition style deck. Runs a convoluted, but very resilient, infinite combo as an emergency finisher.
Toshiro Umezawa - Commander of my highest-rated deck here on EDH, I've put a lot of time into making his list run smoothly and the primer I have here is the result.
Neheb, the Eternal
- Commander of my most fun deck. He makes so much mana, and can have unbelievably explosive games, finishing people off with almost nothing in play. My favorite moment with this deck was killing a player from 40 with the exert trigger of a
Glorybringer
.
Moonlight Bargain - Such an amazing card, so underrated. Until it's recent release in a commander product, I'd never seen it played by anyone else.
Nissa Revane - The first planeswalker I pulled from a pack, and still my favorite planeswalker. Is she good? No. Do I care? No.
The Great Aurora - Why does no one run a mono-green board wipe? This thing is fantastic. Ramp a bunch, float some mana, cast this, then rebuild your board before anyone else gets a chance.
Archangel of Thune - Gotta represent my love of angels somehow, and this card is just a friggin' beast, easily one of my favorite cards. It's got it all - excellent art, good flavor text, and a game-ending ability. I've got a sweet stained-glass alter of one that looks absolutely amazing.
Permeating Mass - It's my dream to one day build a Permeating mass first strike deck, with the goal being creating a field of as many permeating masses as possible. Someday.
March 31, 2019 7:07 p.m.
8 cards? Well My choices are as follows, it's certainly a hard choice to narrow all of my favorites down. I have been playing since Journey into Nyx.
Prophet of Kruphix - Was one of the leading cards in my first ever Magic deck that I built to play casually and for a time I played it in my first commander deck led by Vorel of the Hull Clade until it's later banning.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - One of my favorite planeswalker cards of all time that I play both in my modern tron deck as well as Atraxa, Praetors' Voice commander deck. Can turn a game around so easily, his power cannot be denied.
Omniscience - One of the reason I always liked this card was simply for it's art, and I enjoy doing splashy, big plays in commander especially in decks like my Kruphix, God of Horizons .
Westvale Abbey Flip - Was a card that I built an earlier casual standard deck around involving Blisterpod , Cryptolith Rite , and other eldrazi scion generators to flip this card into Ormendahl, Profane Prince . If that wasn't possible, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger was another card that you could ramp into from tapping and then sacrificing the scions.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger - I had one of these first in my above mentioned casual deck that was mostly simic goodstuff, and even after that I made a place for it in a Vorel of the Hull Clade , Atraxa, Praetors' Voice deck alongside the other praetors for flavour and now he resides in my Kruphix, God of Horizons deck where one of my favorite things to do with him is cheat him into play with Natural Order to make tons of mana for cost cards or Helix Pinnacle .
Winding Constrictor - Led a former standard deck of mine between Aether Revolt up until the later rotation all around +1/+1 counters. decks were all that I played in standard between Kaladesh to Guilds of Ravnica, only now with Ravnica Allegiance have I finally played a deck in different colours. I still have one in my Atraxa, Praetors' Voice deck for now until I convert it to superfriends fully with War of the Spark.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - I played this card a ton when it was in standard and I have held onto my two copies of the card which see a bit of commander play in my Edgar Markov and Oloro, Ageless Ascetic decks. Definitely one of my favorite black mythics of all time. I might in the future consider using them in a modern deck mainboard / sideboard if I ever build some deck in modern.
Cabal Coffers - There were so many cards besides this one I could still pick but this one really appeals to me as it embodies the power and greed that is black. Alongside Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth this is such good value, and I now use the card in two commander decks, Lord Windgrace and Gonti, Lord of Luxury .
Honourable Mentions of mine,
Dragonlord Ojutai , Hydra Broodmaster , Horizon Chimera , Bearer of Silence , Roil Elemental , Managorger Hydra , and Slivers!
April 1, 2019 1:57 p.m.
I guess mine would probably consist of the following.
Smothering Tithe Since this card came out it has been included in every deck I have that runs white without access to green since it can potentially give so many treasure tokens for big plays.
Spell Swindle This one I just find to be a really fun mid to late game Counterspell especially since one person in my playgroup casts son many high cost planes walkers or Omniscience
Thaumatic Compass
Flip I kinda like this card for land searching and the transformation. Mostly included since I have a foil version in one of my decks.
Geist of Saint Traft
Really love this guy as one of my most recent edh decks since I made into and aura Voltron style deck that I think does some really good work.
GhostChieftain says... #2
Fleshbag Marauder
Aura Shards
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Damnation
Parallel Lives
Karmic Guide
Genesis Wave
Path to Exile
All of these are cards I have had in my karador at one point. It has gone from spirit tribal, to tokens, to cheating out big stuff, to combo, and it has become a fairly well tuned hulkweaver deck. All of them hold a special place in my heart for all of the hours over the past 9ish years they have spent in my hand waiting for the perfect moment to shine.
March 31, 2019 8:12 a.m.