Just built my first EDH deck

Posted on July 23, 2014, 10:01 a.m. by Named_Tawyny

deck-large:Bosh of the Heat

And I'm looking for advice. Are there any EDH staples that I just don't know about that would work here? Are the Colossuses (Colossi?) worth adding in, or are they too mana intensive?

It's a golem-tribal deck, with splashes of red. Trying to figure out how many burn spells to have, vs other types. Is 34 creatures a good amount? How's my land base? What do EDH curves look like?

Any help would be appreciated. Trying to keep it budget friendly (for now... ha)

Bosh, with the Heat Playtest

Commander / EDH* Named_Tawyny

SCORE: 0 | 2 COMMENTS | 37 VIEWS

probably helps if I get my deck name right. Ha.

July 23, 2014 10:04 a.m.

MagicalHacker says... #3

From what I've experienced in this format, a general that costs more than 5 has a few issues:

They don't hit the field early enough to really take advantage of the card advantage it provides.
They don't hit the field early enough to have synergies and combos between it and other cards become useful and powerful, except with commanders that infinite combo (like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed ).
If they die, it's hard to get the 8 or more mana to cast it a second time. If they get killed AGAIN, then it takes Omniscience CMC to get them out a third time.

So because of those reasons, I want to suggest you consider cheaper commanders, especially since Bosh costs eight. Now, if you REALLY want to work this out, it's gonna take a bit of ramp cards, and I want to suggest you consider every card that adds multiple mana to your mana pool (like Palladium Myr , Gilded Lotus , Astral Cornucopia , etc.).

Unfortunately, there aren't any commanders that ask for a golem tribal build in their abilities, so I can't suggest anything based on that.

Also, do you want to build specifically mono-red? I can give suggestions based on cheap red commanders...

Sorry if I wasn't much help, I'm just having trouble because in order to help, I think you should hit the drawing board, and I know that's not being helpful most of the time.

July 23, 2014 10:46 a.m.

Named_Tawyny says... #4

That's actually quite a lot of help. =)

Nope, Mono-red was never really my goal. I originally went in thinking 'colourless', but then the difficulty of even getting a land base as completely colourless hit me. Enter Bosh, Iron Golem lets me stick artifacts, but also gives me basic land I can use (and, while I'm using mountains, might as well as some red spells, right?)

There's a blue identified legendary Artifact creature as well, yes?

In fairness, I came up with this idea in the post 1am timeslot when I realised I wasn't sleeping. ;)

July 23, 2014 10:55 a.m.

MagicalHacker says... #5

Okay first, tell me everything you like in a deck and everything you dislike in a deck.

You can even go into what decks you enjoyed playing in the past and whatnot, and I can try to help you from there.

(I have built over 300 commander decks, each with different commanders.)

July 23, 2014 11:01 a.m.

nobu_the_bard says... #6

Generally speaking, direct damage spells like Lightning Bolt in Commander tend to be a little too small-scale. It depends on the meta though, and your strategy. I would not bother with Shock at all, for example. Having some for spot removal is probably fine, though damage-based spot removal is a little less reliable. However if you want them, then run the higher impact ones like your Lightning Bolt (not conditional, cheap, efficient) or Feedback Bolt (potentially a finisher if you get enough artifacts into play) instead of Shock ; Shrapnel Blast or Galvanic Blast also sound like too much work to me for the results.

You generally want every creature to be able to matter. Ornithopter for example is not going to do much on his own; you might rather have Steel Hellkite or Darksteel Forge . The deck could use some big splashy finishers like Wurmcoil Engine or Colossus of Akros too, and ways to cheat them into play, like Quicksilver Amulet or Goblin Welder .

That said stuff like Shield Sphere can shut down early attacks, Roterothopter might be okay but I don't think you'll have the mana. You need more stuff to help you draw cards and play cards like Staff of Nin or Mind Stone .

You need some stuff to ramp your mana like crazy. Red is not super good at it but playing a bunch of myr and something like Mana Echoes or Blinkmoth Urn might help.

In Commander you need to think big. 40 Life is a lot to chew through.

Also you should play Golem Foundry . It'd be amusing.

July 23, 2014 11:07 a.m.

MindAblaze says... #7

Just to clarify, colorless commanders can still use basic lands. A land that would produce any color outside it's commander's color identity will just produce colorless mana instead.

July 23, 2014 11:07 a.m.

nobu_the_bard says... #8

Colorless commanders cannot use basic lands. Basic lands have an ability that reads: "T: Add C to your mana pool" where C is the color produced by the land. They don't actually print them on the card anymore, they're implied by the land type, but the Commander rules restrict them.

They can use land fetches, because those technically do not produce colored mana, but that would be pointless as they have no lands to search for. Esper Panorama for example is legal in all commander decks regardless if there is actually anything it can find.

July 23, 2014 11:12 a.m.

MindAblaze says... #9

Oh yes, you're right. NM. Not thinking clearly, not enough coffee yet this morning.

July 23, 2014 11:39 a.m.

DarkHero says... #10

Yes, Bosh, Iron Golem does actually have a color identifier of red, so you can play red cards. I actually almost went off about how he has to be colorless but realized that last second. I left you some suggestions on the deck in the comments. Burn spells really are not very useful in EDH.

July 23, 2014 12:54 p.m.

DarkHero says... #11

34 creatures is ALOT of creatures

July 23, 2014 12:55 p.m.

Gidgetimer says... #12

Memnarch is the blue identity Artifact general you were asking about. It also opens up the "Steal your dudes to hit you" game plan. It also allows you to go with the blue artifacts and Mycosynth Lattice . I agree with running lots of stuff that produces multiple mana, but I feel Astral Cornucopia may not fill this role since you have to pay 6 for it to be anything except Manalith #3. And I would put forward Temple of the False God

July 23, 2014 3:24 p.m.

MagicalHacker says... #13

Proliferatable Manalith with "replicate" is totally neat.

But Named_Tawyny, what colors do you like? What strategies do you like? What type of player do you consider yourself? What were your favorite decks in the past?

July 23, 2014 4:15 p.m.

nobu_the_bard says... #14

Actually if you wanted to complain about Astral Cornucopia or its cousin Everflowing Chalice you ought to be mentioning that they have a casting cost of zero, which makes them not great sacrifices for Bosh.

In that case you might rather have Dreamstone Hedron , Ur-Golem's Eye , Sisay's Ring , Khalni Gem , Mind Stone . If you're more hard-pressed, Darksteel Ingot , Heart of Ramos , Fire Diamond , Vessel of Endless Rest .

Sol Ring is pretty great and a EDH staple.

July 23, 2014 4:38 p.m.

Named_Tawyny says... #15

MagicalHacker, I tend to play a variety of colours (just look at the decks I've made) although blue seems to be less than others (and green and white probably the top two). I'm every inch a Johnny (I mean, why else would I try to make an artifact EDH deck, right?) Winning is always fun, but being awesome is always better.

Most of my decks tend to be mid-range, although I do like interesting combos as well.

This has been very informative. Lots of mana rocks that I didn't know about, lots of possibilities.

July 23, 2014 6:42 p.m.

Named_Tawyny says... #16

Thanks all! Second Draft is complete! Your suggestions have been very very helpful.

(There's a bunch that I put on my acquire board for this deck, as they're not budget friendly, but would be great to have eventually)

July 23, 2014 7:36 p.m.

MagicalHacker says... #17

Oh man, that's still quite a bit to work with... Anywho! Here's a list of all the commanders that are multicolored, don't have blue, have either green or white in their colors, are commanders I would reccomend, and are not strictly aggro or control (but rather have midrange or combo elements instead or in addition):

Any of those tickle your fancy?

I built a sample deck for all of those guys if you want to get an idea of the combo/synergy behind each of them. :D

July 23, 2014 7:55 p.m.

Named_Tawyny says... #18

Doran, the Siege Tower looks like a whole lot of Johnnyish fun. =)

July 23, 2014 10:23 p.m.

MagicalHacker says... #19

Here's a deck list I built that is based more around synergy and combos than having the best cards or the most versatility. It may give you some inspiration:

MagicalHacker - Doran, the Siege Tower Playtest

Commander / EDH MagicalHacker

SCORE: 1 | 0 COMMENTS | 35 VIEWS

July 24, 2014 12:23 a.m.

Named_Tawyny says... #20

Hey guys:

One last (for now) question, to those more familiar with the format. Obviously, I need lots of mana, and colourless vs red isn't that big of an issue.

Is there any sense of putting the Urza land (Powerplant, Mine, Tower) in the deck or, with 100 cards to get through, is the chances of getting all of them just too small?

Thanks!

July 31, 2014 1:03 a.m.

Gidgetimer says... #21

The thing is that most lands only produce 1 to begin with. As long as you aren't getting color screwed by not having a colored source in their place, the Urza lands have no downside with the possibility of a huge upside.

July 31, 2014 6:57 a.m.

MagicalHacker says... #22

Out of personal opinion, the upside to those lands are not enough in any deck outside completely colorless decks (and I only think Karn, Silver Golem is not too expensive).

So if you're making a colored deck, I wouldn't use them.

July 31, 2014 7:21 a.m.

Gidgetimer says... #23

With only 29 colored mana symbols and only 4 other lands that don't make colored mana I think he can afford the loss of colored sources. Although Temple of the False God should make its way in before the Urza lands.

July 31, 2014 8:07 a.m.

This discussion has been closed

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