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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Freeform | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Modern Beyond Horizons | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Planar Constructed | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| PreDH | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Altar of Shadows
Artifact
At the beginning of your precombat main phase, add (Black) to your mana pool for each charge counter on Altar of Shadows.
(7), Tap: Destroy target creature. Then put a charge counter on Altar of Shadows.
Czarnian90 on
Hellegion, Shadows and Flames (Raphael)
4 months ago
Commander Update: Shadows Rise, Flames Burn
After several games against tough opponents, I’ve made a few changes to the deck and, more importantly, swapped the commander of the Hellegion. The Balrog, Durin's Bane is still very much part of the deck—playing him as a commander was fun and flavorful, but I wanted a leader who can impact my board more directly and help set the pace of the game. The Balrog remains a force of nature, and having him lurking in the deck, ready to be unleashed, still feels great. I believe he’ll continue to be a major threat even when he's not always leading the charge.
Raphael, Fiendish Savior steps in as the new commander, supporting the game plan more consistently. He helps stabilize the board, buffs my army, and sets the stage for the Balrog’s arrival. I run several cards that can fetch him straight from the deck—Blood Speaker, Demonlord Belzenlok, Rune-Scarred Demon, Icon of Ancestry, Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted, and others—so even as a lurking horror, he’s never too far away.
I also added more damage-dealing spells for better control and direct pressure on opponents. Beyond classics like Devil's Play, Terminate, and Dreadbore, I’ve added Hell to Pay and Rakdos's Return to punish hands and boards alike. On top of that, I doubled down on devil token synergy and death-triggered burn effects. These little fiends now serve not just as blockers or sac fodder, but as a win condition on their own—especially when paired with Raphael’s lifelink boost. Every dying devil becomes pain for the enemy and healing for me.
I’ve now included four versions of Ob Nixilis — yes, it’s a bit much, but each fills a unique role. This one Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted punishes card draw and bolsters removal. Tibalt, Rakish Instigator is still here too, classic devil support: fueling tokens and preventing opponents from healing the damage my demons and devils dish out. They don’t live long, but if timed right, their impact is massive.
I’ve also added some recursion (Oversold Cemetery) and a spicy alternate wincon in Liliana's Contract.
Some bigger demons were swapped out for stronger synergy or pure flavor—welcome Asmodeus the Archfiend, Balor, Kardur, Doomscourge, and others to the Hellegion.
Sadly, a few cards had to go — Imskir Iron-Eater, Archfiend of Sorrows, some regenerating skeletons, and a handful of artifacts are no longer marching with the legion.
I still have a few cards waiting on the bench—Burn Down the House, Rakdos Keyrune, Doom Whisperer, Overseer of the Damned, Skirsdag High Priest, Spawn of Mayhem, Breath of Malfegor — and I’ll be testing space for them soon.
In the long run, I’d love to add some heavier hitters and staples like Kindred Dominance, Altar of Shadows, Bontu's Monument, Krav, the Unredeemed, Rite of Belzenlok, Demonic Tutor, Sudden Spoiling, Grave Pact, Dark Prophecy, Attrition, Vilis, Broker of Blood, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Pestilence Demon, Lord of the Void, Archfiend of Depravity, and especially Karlach, Fury of Avernus.
We’ll see where the Hellegion marches next—and who joins, or falls, along the way.
77hi77 on Restrictions to make commanders interesting?
1 year ago
I've been looking through my decks lately, and it's really hitting me how weird my deckbuilding style is. So while I don't consider myself an experienced player by any stretch of the imagination, I might have some perspectives to share.
Similar to what legendofa said, I'm a huge fan of messing with the colour pie. So, one deck I'm working on is Evra, Halcyon Witness, which most people would see as a life gain commander, I see it as a really specialized version of Hatred, but instead of "Pay X life", X is set for you. So that made me think, can I build a mono-white deck that plays like a mono-black? How many options does white have for paying life and sacrificing your own creatures? I'd like to do something similar with the other colours, like how many one-drops can I use to make a funky aggro deck?
A deck I'm still in the theorizing process for is the answer to the question "how funny would it be if I built a deck where I can't cast the commander?". Right now I'm thinking Inalla, Archmage Ritualist but build the deck in mono-blue and just go blue wizard tribal. Maybe I'd allow myself a Fellwar Stone and one card that can let me steal another player's mana rock, so that casting my commander becomes an achievement to celebrate. From there it's a balance of building a viable 99 that has a chance to win the game, while sticking to the idea that I want this deck to be funny. This was very much inspired by watching Commander at Home whenever Olivia gets incoherent from laughing so hard at her own shenanigans.
My favourite deck I've built yet, which still needs quite a bit of work, is Defile Me Daddy Rakdos. Rakdos the Defiler is the commander, and most decks I've seen with him as the commander focus on how painful it is to be hit by him, then double down on that pain. I thought, it'd be more fun if I were to lean into the politics of a commander like that. So I put in a whole bunch of cards that demand deals: Scheming Symmetry, Infernal Offering, Sower of Discord, and other effects that either say "two of us will get a very nice thing" or "two of us will get a very bad thing". I see it as forcing you to get in character, you kind of have to play like a demon to pilot this demon deck.
I've also been eyeing proliferating commanders, mostly because the lands and mana rocks that use counters of some sort are really cool. Peat Bog, Altar of Shadows and Pyramid of the Pantheon, for example. Then balance it with non-standard proliferating wincons, so instead of +1/+1 counters and infect, I've been thinking of cards like Strixhaven Stadium, or the ult on a few planeswalkers (Vraska, Scheming Gorgon immediately comes to mind).
Hope that gave you some ideas! I'm on the exact opposite journey, because I'm too good at restricting myself, and whenever I try to bring friends into the game I can't really lend them any of my decks.
legendofa on Card creation challenge
3 years ago
Random card: Do-Over. Ha.
Random card 2: Altar of Shadows from Mirrodin.
Yert the Usurper
Legendary Creature - Vampire
Protection from green
At the beginning of your end step, any player may sacrifice a creature or artifact. If they do, that player loses 3 life and gains control of Yert. If the sacrificed creature had power greater than Yert's, put a number of +1/+1 counters on Yert equal to the difference.
: Gain control of Yert the Usurper. Yert's owner may activate this ability any time they could cast a sorcery.
4/4
https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Yert
Same challenge. Pick a random Commander-legal card, and create a commander for that set that shares at least part of its color identity with that card.
Mortlocke on
Atraxa’s Endless Scream
4 years ago
I always love seeing more Atraxa decks, so +1 from me. This take is rather different, but I honestly find your whole game plan very difficult to follow. What is your wincon? Is it Commander damage ala Endless Scream? You seem to prioritize a path less travelled by avoiding superfriends (which is super non-vorthos and not very interesting in my opinion) and +1/+1 counters. What would be the most helpful in this situation is if you sat down and wrote a proper deck description detailing your intent, budget, primary synergies, combos, and wincons. Right now your deck's description is very barebones and I can only guess at possibly useful card suggestions to you. A good resource for getting a deck description together is Epochalyptik's Do You Want to Write a Primer?. It provides a nice skeleton for writing a detailed deck description for all visitors to your deckpage to enjoy.
Onward to your listed combos - Atraxa, Praetors' Voice + Endless Scream doesn't place counters on Atraxa to proliferate, correct? It's just a static boost in power? Might I suggest using a sword instead? Specifically Sword of Feast and Famine. It does so much more than Endless Scream in that it provides protection, ramp, as well as pumping both power and toughness. Altar of Shadows + Black Market - I fail to see the synergy here, and would appreciate an explanation. The only possible synergy I could see is that they have similar effects that trigger on the precombat main phase...but that's it.
Since it is clear you want to avoid +1/+1 counters, might I suggest you try out Darksteel Reactor? It synergizes very well with Atraxa and can be a viable alternate wincon given enough proliferation triggers.
Neotrup on Can i respond to universal …
5 years ago
Also, with the question of "would destroying it cancel the effect?" Although it obviously doesn't work here as you can't, it's worth addressing for other situations, but the answer's still no. If someone activated Altar of Shadows targeting your Kozilek, the Great Distortion and you Naturalize it, your Kozilek still dies.
basicimpulse17 on
Passive Black Mana-Ramping
7 years ago
Altar of Shadows is pretty nice, if anything I would put it in the sideboard, the mainboard is about non aggressive control and ramping, but if I'm playing with my sideboard in I'm going to have a more aggressive play style anyway, thanks for the tip! Didn't know about this card
GhostChieftain on
Passive Black Mana-Ramping
7 years ago
Altar of Shadows could be decent in this deck since you can easily ramp into it and then use it to ramp into more. Pretty high on the curve though
Caerwyn on
Healing Indestructible Artifacts
7 years ago
You mentioned that you get combos assembled on turn 15... I have to ask, what are you playing this against? While I've seen (and built) some particularly horrific control decks designed to stall well into turn 20, there's no way I would let you assemble this combo. Not that it would make a difference--any semi-competitive long-term control deck would have rendered your combo useless ages ago through cards like Ensnaring Bridge.
When it comes down to it, if you want to build a colourless competitive deck, you have two real options: Tron or Affinity. I'm going to try to limit my feedback to suggestions you can easily slot into your current deck, but I do not think you will ever make this overly competitive. Darksteel Forge is too much mana for a card that does not win you the game that turn. Altar of Shadows is an absurd amount of mana for a card that not only doesn't win you the game, but requires you to spend another absurd amount of mana just to make use of it.
Worldslayer is too much mana, but its a fun card, and exactly the kind of unusual card I'd build a deck around. But there are better ways of doing this--you'll want a mix of tron and naturally indestructible creatures.
I think you should really consider what direction you want to go before asking for feedback. You're kind of all over the place. You have too many cards you are only running one copy of, and no real synergy other than "colourless". You have artifact-matters cards, but also Eldrazi. Your converted mana cost is blisteringly high.
I know that all sounds a bit harsh, and for that I apologize. However, you asked on your forum thread how to make this deck more competitive, and the simple answer is "figure out what you wish to do first, and optimize from there."
That said, I'd hate to be that guy who gives negative feedback without some guidance on the way forward. Here are a couple suggestions:
Cranial Plating is absurdly powerful, and its ability means you can equip it at instant speed! This means you can slap it on one of your unblocked Ornithopters.
There's no reason to run any lands that enter tapped--they only slow you down. Add three more Darksteel Citadels to utilize artifact synergies, then add some black producing lands for Cranial Plating.
You should remove your "no coloured cards" restriction--Galvanic Blast and Dispatch are two great cards that you're missing out on.
I'll keep an eye on this deck and your comments, and provide more specific feedback once I have a better understanding about what exactly you are trying to do.