Long time filthy casual who dabbles in some sweatier formats like Legacy and cEDH, I mostly brew Commander decks that range from Casual to High Power.

Of particular interest is my pod of Legends Beaters, decks built around some of those Legends creatures you look at and wonder how they ever got famous enough to be a Legendary Creature! Wonder no more how they achieved such lofty status in a world where Royal Assassin was kicking around, because achieve it they clearly did! These decks are meant to explore that space a bit, as well as dabble in an alternate Dominaria, so many of the Role Play elements of those decks don't necessarily fit the Magic canon, nor are they entirely serious (as should be apparent).

Pavel the Mighty, Hero We Deserve Rakdos Chaos Control (radical egalitarian, carnival strong man, and rock musician out to improve the world through chaos)
Tobias Andrion, Political Mastermind Azorius Political Weenies (think leader of the Dominarian equivalent of the CIA, only he's a long distance telepath that invents mechs)
Riven, Savior of the People Dimir Interactive Combo (often Archenemy, this cutthroat for Casual deck uses combos. Riven uses populism and unrest to recruit people into organized crime)
Falconer of the Forbidden Way Gruul Eldrazi (ridiculous average MV beaters deck, the old 'downtrodden trod up' story, only with WAY more tentacles)
The Legend of Green Eyes (Lord Magnus) Selesnya Tokens/Anthems (charismatic Druid fighting to protect nature, nouns follow him anywhere, the pod's 'good guy')

Each of these is designed to generate fun and memorable games, with all of them eschewing things that are overly fast or powerful. They are all designed to do things their colour pair excels at. Interestingly enough, the better decks are usually able to hold their own in general metas, but I think it's safe to say that piloting them requires more skill than an average deck if you want win regularly. Over time I'll probably add more storyline to them, and/or clean up what's there already.

Another couple recent decks I'm very fond of that could probably be played vs a wide range of decks:

Staxdrop! (Snowdrop Vorthos Deck) This is my Snowdrop deck, it's designed to be played vs relatively powerful decks, probably 6-8 power level, below that it's too oppressive potentially.

Blood for the Bloodbraid! This is my Kresh deck, Kresh is an old Commander that came out during my really long hiatus from Magic, so I never got to play with him when he was 'fresh'. As is it can get out of hand, and since I've added some more spice to the deck it is very able to pull off explosive wins, this deck no longer has to win via attacks. I feel like it's probably getting too spicy for 6s, and might be able to hang with 8s more effectively.

My cEDH deck is Zur cEDH (Proxies), this is the proxy version, but I technically have the paper for Salt Miner (Rule of Law cEDH), my OG cEDH deck. The deck is complete homebrew, so keep that in mind if you take inspiration from it, but if you can keep other people from winning early it is a shockingly oppressive deck. Salt Miner is a fairly strong High Power deck as well fwiw, Rule of Law also does a lot of work in High Power, if not quite as much as cEDH.

I have tons of other decks, some of which have been kept up to date. If out of date most aren't wildly so, and I've found that it usually doesn't matter in practice if you don't run the 'best' of something and the 2nd best isn't 'way worse'.

DreadKhan says... #1

hheraa I don't use discord (not sure what it is tbh), but if you want more help you can always tag me in a comment, you can click on the little head-and-shoulders icon just above the text box, and then type/paste my username after the : to tag me. You can also type it out you enclose user: followed by the username you want tagged in double square brackets [ [ (with no spaces). It's hard to explain this to people because they've set up the site to detect when you're 'close' to a tag so people don't post broken tags constantly.

Also, as you've figured out, if you do a ton of brainstorming work and you feel like a deck is cluttered you can make a new post for it, so you can also just start brainstorming and then tag me in a comment on the new deck, the site will then notify me.

I can get pretty busy sometimes, but I check this site most mornings, if only to cycle a deck, so it shouldn't take me too long to get back to you. Hope your Teysa deck works for you!

June 5, 2024 5:38 a.m.

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No sure if they are pushed enough for your needs, have you tried Feldon of the Third Path and/or Rionya, Fire Dancer in here?

June 6, 2024 10:17 a.m.

Said on DreadKhan...

#2

hheraa I don't use discord (not sure what it is tbh), but if you want more help you can always tag me in a comment, you can click on the little head-and-shoulders icon just above the text box, and then type/paste my username after the : to tag me. You can also type it out you enclose user: followed by the username you want tagged in double square brackets [ [ (with no spaces). It's hard to explain this to people because they've set up the site to detect when you're 'close' to a tag so people don't post broken tags constantly.

Also, as you've figured out, if you do a ton of brainstorming work and you feel like a deck is cluttered you can make a new post for it, so you can also just start brainstorming and then tag me in a comment on the new deck, the site will then notify me.

I can get pretty busy sometimes, but I check this site most mornings, if only to cycle a deck, so it shouldn't take me too long to get back to you. Hope your Teysa deck works for you!

June 5, 2024 5:38 a.m.

Said on lonely goth girl...

#3

It gets past split second when you flip your Morph because Morph doesn't use the stack, the time the opponent can interact with your Morph effect is when you cast it for face down, or while it's waiting face down, when you pay to flip it it just flips! It's a card that on first glance seems incredibly 'meh', but once you see it in action it plays well. Brawler was the same way for me, I got the card thinking 'well, it's a huge flavor win at least?' only to find it's one of the better cards in any deck I throw it in, the creature itself isn't worthless (the combinations of evasion, vigilance and lifelink are fairly powerful) in practice, and once it's in the graveyard the card goes bonkers, it turns any Commander (by itself even) into a voltron threat, and one that can be pretty good at deterring attackers due to Vigilance and Lifelink.

June 3, 2024 9:16 a.m.

Said on lonely goth girl...

#4

Not sure if I mentioned it yet, but Gift of Doom is a really sneaky Black card, especially if your Commander makes tokens, you can cast it for 3 and as long as you've got a creature your Commander can gain Indestructible and Deathtouch at instant speed (and the opportunity to counter it was when you cast it as a Morph, so this is hard to get around, you can even use it vs Split Second effects, or something like Grand Abolisher). Deathtouch might not seem especially good, but if you have Trample as well it turns your creature into an almost unblockable terror as they only need to deal 1 damage to anything that blocks, and it won't care about damage being dealt to it. Gift is best used when it can cost an opponent a card somehow, hopefully letting you dodge removal or survive a dirty trick in combat, but it's also great in the face of a wipe since your Commander is all you need to keep if you've got Voltron set up. Once it's blanked a spell it still sticks around offering value. I love getting Gift on the same creature as Scavenged Brawler, all those keywords stack in a pretty impressive way.

June 2, 2024 12:54 p.m.

If you cast a Torment and have to pay for it you can choose to pay X on top of . I think it's when you cast without paying that X = 0.

June 2, 2024 6:19 a.m.

Said on lonely goth girl...

#6

I think I like where you're headed, the extra oomph should allow you to generate your share of wins, especially at the power level you're aiming for. Do you need more advice on what cards to cut?

May 31, 2024 8:10 p.m.

Said on lonely goth girl...

#7

Well, my Pavel Maliki deck liked to use a few interesting sources of evasion, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Dauthi Embrace, Mask of Griselbrand, and possibly Scavenged Brawler. I use these in conjunction with a fairly large number of board wipes that help thin the board and help get in for Commander damage. Flying, Shadow, Fear, and Trample are all useful ways to get in for damage, even if the opponent has potential blockers, they might not count. If your Voltron is big enough to try for the win you might try Mandate of Abaddon, this can easily let you one shot someone if Teysa's power is high enough (and nobody is retaliating vs you). You could also try Promise of Loyalty, this clears out almost all the creatures while also preventing the survivors from coming after you.

Not sure why I didn't think of it earlier, but despite people making fun of it Grave Betrayal seems like it'd have some synergy with your Commander, not only do you get the 1/1, you'd also get their creature!

May 28, 2024 6:31 p.m.

Said on lonely goth girl...

#8

It's not impossible to do a voltron strategy in Commander with a relatively unintuitive Commander (I have a Pavel Maliki deck that has significant voltron elements, and he's similar in terms of body to Teysa), but I was figuring your deck was aiming to capitalize on tokens (or something of that sort, seeing the Commander I assumed you weren't planning to attack and risk Teysa). How exactly does Teysa win as a Voltron strategy? I mean, combat damage, I think if I knew what you're planning to do I could make better suggestions.

You could take a look at my Paval the Mighty deck for some Black voltron elements, and there might be some useful White stuff in my Tobias Andrion, Political Mastermind list.

May 28, 2024 12:50 p.m.

Said on lonely goth girl...

#9

Axis is your own effect, so it isn't affected by your own Hexproof (this is different than Shroud, see Lightning Greaves), unless you mean you run into that card a lot? If so then Axis won't be as consistent, but you could also consider running Soltari Visionary to blow up Enchantments.

One nice thing about Skullclamp is that you can always put it on your creature that is most likely to be killed, this at least nets you 2 cards if it happens (it also stacks with actual sacrifice effects since it doesn't kill the creature unless it has 1 toughness).

I can see you being iffy about Angel's Trumpet, but my theory was that with your Commander people are almost certainly going to try to swing at one another, because if they don't all their creatures are going to die and give you the only board. Meanwhile, those 1/1s have evasion, so even if most opponents will benefit from vigilance, your creatures might not care because they can still get in (and are then available to block). It might depend on how people in your area play, so no offense taken.

A few you might consider trimming are: Blight Herder, this is a lot of mana for very little value if you can't make the 1/1s. Ironclad Slayer seems like a poor fit to me, when I run stuff like this it's always in my opener! Do you have many cards that care about Ugin, the Ineffable's effect? 6 mana is an awful lot for this effect when Vindicate exists, and the tokens are pretty minor in Commander, I think you need to care about each of the abilities for Ugin to make sense. Is Relic Seeker in here just to find Dowsing Dagger? It seems like it'd be a challenge to actually achieve Renown with Seeker. All That Glitters is often a very strong card, but I'm not entirely convinced you have enough synergy to make it work, is Voltron really a good plan in this deck? Angelic Purge and Bone Shards are pretty 'meh' removal spells for an Orzhov deck, White has the best versatile removal effects by itself, to say nothing of Anguished Unmaking and Utter End, both of those are instants, and neither costs you a body (and both are more versatile). There is also Generous Gift in White, which lacks exile but hits anything. I don't love Celestial Judgement, aren't you likely to have a lot of 1/1s? It's great if you've got Cathar's Crusade out, but it can be pretty bad without it. Piercing Rays seems pretty unimpactful, it has too many limitations for a Sorcery speed effect that costs more than Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares. I don't like Acolyte's Reward, if you've got lots of White devotion surely you could just block?

Hope some of this helps!

May 28, 2024 7:56 a.m.

Said on lonely goth girl...

#10

I'm not sure if Teysa would even want a friend, but Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker is a bit of a kindred, maybe they could hang for tea?

If you want people to attack a lot there is Angel's Trumpet, very handy that your Spirits have flying! Exquisite Blood is a combo piece, but it's also a strong card on it's own, it synergizes with your Commander very powerfully I'd say, if people come at you their creature's die, and if they go at each other then you gain life. Breena, the Demagogue can be used to make your stuff better. Shadrix Silverquill has a really good interaction with your Commander, if you give someone an Inkling and they come at you it dies and you get a 1/1, and if you give your board +1 counters twice than your 1/1s clobber inklings. I would run Transmogrifying Wand over Murder, it's 4 mana for the first creature but only 1 more for the next 2. You could also try something like Reckless Spite. I am a big fan of True Conviction, very good with a big token army.

It's a pretty janky card but I often enjoy using Axis of Mortality in White decks that are trying to stay on budget, you can punish or reward people as you see fit, it's a very strong political effect, and if people are losing creatures to your ability to lower your life total (while giving you evasive attackers) then you're probably gaining ground.

It's up to you obviously if you don't want to run more lands, but have you thought about including some MDFCs? I use Hagra Mauling  Flip and am happy to see it now and then, ETB tapped lands aren't great, but if the spell effect is also a playable effect their value is incredible. I'm sure you could find a use for Malakir Rebirth  Flip too, though that is less budget.

In the time that I've played Commander I've come to the conclusion that one of the hallmarks of a good deck is card draw, especially low to the ground effects. Stuff like Sign in Blood and Night's Whisper are very good in practice, there are also things like Village Rites, Corrupted Conviction, Plumb the Forbidden, and Reckoner's Bargain, these are all handy with your tokens, but also if you can't protect your Commander and they're getting blown up anyways, this can also prevent effects like Oubliette from working (which can be VERY helpful if your deck depends on your Commander, you might want a couple in the deck in case). If you think your tokens might stay 1/1s, or that you can get them to die with consistency then Skullclamp draws a lot of cards. Stinging Study draws a whopping 7 cards in this deck, for only 5 mana, I'd say that'd be handy late game.

May 28, 2024 6:19 a.m.

Said on Opinions on my …...

#11

I tested it out, one thing I noticed is that you don't have a ton of card draw, I wonder if Jalum Tome would work as a x1 or x2? It's a great card if you're flooding in particular. Animate Dead is a nifty Black card that might be worth a look, you have Mind Twist so you might steal something even, but I'd mostly see you using it on your own creatures.

May 27, 2024 4:20 p.m.

Said on Tuvasa CEDH stax...

#12

What do you think of Estrid's Invocation in this list? Each upkeep it becomes whatever Enchantment is situationally best, that seems worth a look? It's really good if you've already got Sterling Grove or Greater Auramancy out, then your Enchantments are shrouded. Have you thought about something more spicy than Wrath of God in here? I was wondering about something like Single Combat, Promise of Loyalty, or even Winds of Abandon? There is always Cyclonic Rift, with Rule of Law out Rift is a truly backbreaking play in my limited experience. In my Stax deck I found Brave the Sands very useful, it can make it easy for my single large creature to attack with impunity, as well as block up to two creatures per combat (which is usually enough if you've got something like Stasis or Static Orb out).

I can't seem to figure it out on my own, but I'm guessing you have a good reason not to use All That Glitters in here? Not enough synergy perhaps/Tuvasa is usually big enough on her own?

Anyways cool list, cEDH Stax is tons of fun!

May 27, 2024 9:58 a.m.

Pet decks are so much fun to play, just drawing into certain art (even if they're dead cards at the time) can feel pretty sweet. Here are a few of my favorite Blue cards that can also make an opponent's life difficult! War Tax can be really crazy, you can use it during anyone's turn to limit their attacks. Cultural Exchange can let someone else enjoy your Seacoast Drake (it seems mean to hog fun cards like that, right?), it can also generate a lot of advantage. Mass Diminish is a weird card even by the standards of weird cards, the effect last for a REALLY long time in a bigger game, and it inexplicably has Flashback at a low MV. I'm not sure if it needs support to 'work', but not many cards are as annoying to a table as a resolved Counterbalance. She used to be pricey, but Empress Galina is a REALLY weird Blue card to throw in, if people can't answer it they are going to lose their Commanders. Callous Oppressor is pretty good, steal the best thing and then use it to chump the new biggest thing (and then steal that thing with Oppressor). Fatespinner is a nifty Stax piece that can slow your opponent's game plan quite a bit (but it doesn't nothing if they're wildly ahead, so it's still 'fun'). Not sure if you want the removal, but Transmogrifying Wand is a very good effect if it sticks around, but Oxing even 1 creature can be pretty helpful.

May 26, 2024 10:31 a.m.

Said on bungo...

#14

You're right about the Once Per Turn clause, I obviously missed that! I look forward to hearing how these work for you!

May 24, 2024 3:03 p.m.

Said on bungo...

#15

I'm not super familiar with Zombie decks (and have zero experience with Crime decks), but I think I can spot a few cards that you could probably cut for something better. Brain Pry seems like it'd be embarrassing to cast, I'd cut this unless you want actively bad cards (I keep them in some decks so I know when I'm drawing truly awful, but it's very suboptimal). Crippling Fear seems pretty small when there is Kindred Dominance and even Necromantic Selection, either of these is a much bigger, beefier effect. Diabolic Tutor is not a very good card IMHO, if you have access to large amounts of mana potentially (and you do from multiple sources) Diabolic Revelation is a much bigger, better effect, I like to run it with Emergence Zone. Gravestorm is a pretty uneven card if your Commander isn't out, I'd cut this for Phyrexian Arena, your Commander comes out late and resolving Arena on turn 3 feels amazing, if you miss 2 or 3 free cards you might not even be able to cast Gisa. I feel like I'd run Sadistic Hypnotist over Cabal Therapist, even at 5 mana the effect is so much stronger. I might be missing something with Hunted Bonebrute, it's not a Zombie, and Hunted Horror exists, offering a much stronger political play. I usually like Keen Duelist, but your MV might not be high enough to support this kind of effect, in general you should be regularly walloping your opponent with huge MV stuff to justify this. I guess if you throw in Kindred Dominance and/or Necromantic Selection Duelist gets a bit better, but your MV probably needs to be closer to 4 or this will just give free cards to opponents unless your Commander is out (and people are going to be wiping you a lot I suspect). Unless you throw an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in I don't know if Oblivion Sower is good enough, ymmv. If you already have it by all means keep it in, but I feel like Urza's Incubator is not a very good card in here? You have a lot of mana requirements, and your zombies aren't especially big overall, I'd switch this for Sceptre of Eternal Glory if possible.

This is a bit out in left field, but can you imagine if you have Zombie Trailblazer out with your Commander and an Amulet of Vigor? That's infinite, right? Not sure if you want infinites or not, just wanted to mention it (because it'd be a sweet combo because you'd still need Haste or your Altar of Dementia, so it'd still be a 'look out next turn!' thing at 3 cards).

Generally I'd say discard effects are a lot less powerful the less of them you use, but I get that you want to commit crimes in here, perhaps you could look into repeatable removal sources? Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief is a budget card that can commit a crime for BB, and if you have extra mana you can also pump Drana while killing off Blockers. You might also try out Transmogrifying Wand, this can commit 3 very useful crimes, 2/4 vanillas are about as useful as floppy carrots in Commander, especially compared to 3 of the best creatures on the board (which you can reanimate I guess, since it's a Destroy effect). There is always good old Royal Assassin, this is SO MUCH better than Urza's Glasses in practice, and it's only BB more to make a gigantic impact on the board.

Here's some stuff you might consider adding, Night's Whisper is a very good low-to-the-ground card draw effect, as is Sign in Blood, both can help you get your Commander out on time more consistently. Sign can even be used to finish off a vulnerable opponent in a pinch. You also might be curious about War Room and Bonders' Enclave, both are lands that can draw, very useful with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

Sorry if I missed some synergies, I like the idea of this deck but am a bit agog at how much this Commander can do if properly supported, Ward seems like major overkill! Have fun out there!

May 24, 2024 9:19 a.m.

I'm happy some of the ideas were good fits! Best of luck with Talrand, the deck looks great!

May 22, 2024 4:01 p.m.

Said on Sandstorm...

#17

In addition to 31 lands not really feeling like a lot of lands, do you have enough fixing in here? I'm seeing about 4 Fetch lands and an awful lot of colourless lands, do you find you have enough early access to Green mana in here? Green is very good at fixing your other colours, while also being good at speeding up your game plan, most decks with Green that aren't playing cEDH should favor Green sources, or run enough total sources that the ratio is less important.

That brings me to my next point, what happens if your Commander is killed twice? I don't see much ramp in here, much less than I'd expect, Green land ramp spells are amazing IMHO, even if they are mostly sorceries. In particuar Farseek, Three Visits, and Nature's Lore are each able to find your Triome or any Dual with types (some are quite cheap and are still reasonably playable). If you ran more Basic lands you could run stuff like Harrow, Cultivate, or Kodama's Reach, IMHO Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are MUCH better cards the more lands you've shaved down, getting a bonus land in a 45 land deck means less than doing so in a 31 land deck. Also, no Hour of Promise in here? Am I missing something?

It's a very 'cute' card, but Ruin Ghost is a way to get an extra landfall each turn for only W (and the land can enter untapped), it might be too small, but if you've got enough landfall triggers in a deck then it's a solid enough card.

I didn't really have that much time to look over your deck before posting this, so if I've missed something key and I sound like a crazy person, sorry! I'll probably take another look when I have more time.

May 22, 2024 10:38 a.m.

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Finished Decks 66
Prototype Decks 42
Drafts 0
Playing since Revised Edition
Avg. deck rating 7.74
T/O Rank 21
Helper Rank 10
Favorite formats Legacy, Commander / EDH
Suppressed formats Standard, Alchemy, Pioneer, Canadian Highlander, Highlander, Leviathan, Pre-release, Tiny Leaders, Oathbreaker, Block Constructed, Arena, Unformat
Cards suggested / good suggestions 611 / 276
Joined 4 years