Bayou

Land — Swamp Forest

(: Add or to your mana pool.)

Discussion (47)

TCG-Player on Honorless Meren cEDH

4 hours ago

I took this deck to a few commander tournaments and it definitely did what it is supposed to, but every game I play with this deck makes me realize, why I dislike cEDH. It is just hit or miss most of the time. If my opponent resolves Ad Nauseam at the end of his turn 2 (my turn 1), there is absolutely nothing I can do. And if I go first and open Protean Hulk, Lesser Masticore, Mana Crypt, Bayou and Necromancy I win without interference. Also, almost no one in my regular LGS plays cEDH and this deck does not fare well against regular EDH decks. It either wins way too fast, is too resilient for the other players to stop, or I just brick too much to win in a reasonable time.

But there are also many things I like about this deck specifically, namely it's speed and consistency. And I am not talking about what turn it can go into combo, but rather it always having a fast start and not many bad opening hands (aside from drawing combo pieces). Since Meren is my favorite commander, I decided to make this deck into a reanimator/toolbox deck.

And now we reach the reason for me commenting: I lack a win condition. I always play decks that are "perfect" within the boundaries I set for myself when building that deck and it is not uncommon that I am asked to play another deck, after winning a game. And that is what I want to avoid. I find that most people don't particularly dislike losing to combo, as long as they feel like it was "fair", myself included. But to me it is one of the worst things to happen in a commander game, if I have to explain to someone why they are not allowed to play the game anymore and that they have to scoop up all their cards now. In my experience, it is always bad if a player wins in a single turn and that everyone prefers to be killed by an army of creatures (or any "foreseeable" thing for that matter), because it just feels "more fair".

So how does this deck win, when combo is entirely off the table? The wincon I most adore is for sure Queen Marchesa's. It combines Group Slug, Pillowfort, Politics and strategic resource management to "control the game without controlling it". It punished decks for what they do best without removing their ability to play the game. It only strikes down other people's strategies when they point their aggression towards the player piloting the Marchesa deck and manages to keep it's opponents in line trough "fear". Once the other players are done fighting and only one victor emerges, it is time to use up all the stored resources to utterly crush the last remaining foe. Truly wonderful

So please tell me if you can think of any "fair and fun" wincon for this deck. I also always liked the idea of Groupslug, as it can't ever be unfair, because it only punished opponents for what they are doing. It does not exclude anyone from the game, while still keeping everything in check. The only decks that need to be destroyed are these glass-cannon cEDH decks. Most of them combo and win, or fail to do so and lose. I do no know a way to make a game enjoyable for this kind of deck, so it just just be crushed.

Daedalus19876 on Toxic Relationship: Hapatra EDH [PRIMER]

1 week ago

WUBRG97: Hmmm. If I were trying to tone down the power level, I'd add a few of my older favorite cards back in: Parallel Lives, Garruk Relentless  ^Flip, Archfiend of Ifnir, Survival of the Fittest... But I'm probably not going to make an explicit separate list with these changes. I will say that I've never been a fan of Blowfly Infestation here; it causes Problems and is often a dead card. I have easier-to-tutor-for combos :)

skeletonkey8: The only real cards I'd add if I had infinite money are Bayou, the rest of the fetches, maybe Chains of Mephistopheles or Living Plane? Plus foiling more things, of course ;)

Kogarashi on Blanchwood Armor - What counts ...

2 weeks ago

You count lands that specifically have the Forest type on the type line. This would not only include the Forest basic lands, but also Snow-Covered Forest, dual lands like Bayou, Ravnica duals like Breeding Pool, Zendikar duals like Canopy Vista, etc.

If you search the Gatherer or Scryfall for anything with "Forest" on the type line, you'll find everything that qualifies for Blanchwood Armor. Here's a link to the search on Scryfall:

All cards with "Forest" on the type line (Scryfall search)

You'll notice that Sunpetal Grove and Oran-Rief, the Vastwood don't have "Forest" on the type line. They don't count.

Also, one card on that search is a Land Creature (Dryad Arbor), but it still has the Forest subtype and thus still counts.

Mortlocke on The Queen's Egg

1 month ago

Yarok, ah I see the confusion here: You think that Skyshroud Claim, Nature's Lore and all of the Fetch lands can ONLY search for a basic land - not a basic land type. Well let me school you a bit - so lands have super types - Basic and Non-basic. Then you have Land Types - i.e. Forest, Plains, etc. Non-basic lands can have any of the previously mentioned land types. Read Taiga for instance - what do you think it means when it says "Add either G or R to your mana pool. Counts as both forest and mountains..."? It's a forest. That means the previously mentioned ramp cards (Skyshroud Claim + Nature's Lore) absolutely can target it. They can also target Tropical Island, Bayou, and Savannah. So why would I include basic lands that only tap for one color of mana when I could fix my manabase and tutor for a forest? Hope you enjoyed class.

As for 1/1's i'm all for swinging in with a buffed up army of wittle baby slivers, but there are far more efficient ways of going about it - namely Brood Sliver + Bonescythe Sliver and/or Sliver Queen. Paying to create a 1/1 is so bad it's laughable. You want to know what also costs ? Freaking Slivdrazi Monstrosity. By the time you create 20 1/1 sliver creature tokens with Sliver Hive's 3rd ability you'd have spent 120 mana over the course of 20 turns.

DementedKirby on Atraxa, Praetors' Voice [Superfriends]

1 month ago

jtorpify

Glad you found the deck helpful!

The reason I run Arid Mesa and Bloodstained Mire is because Arid Mesa can fetch for either the Plains, Godless Shrine, Hallowed Fountain, Savannah, Scrubland, Temple Garden, or Tundra while Bloodstained Mire can fetch for either the Swamp, Bayou, Godless Shrine, Overgrown Tomb, Scrubland, Underground Sea, or Watery Grave. So I guess it's fair to say that even though the deck doesn't run any mountains, Arid Mesa and Bloodstained Mire are pretty useful ;)

RylandL on Ghave Ad Nauseam/Earthcraft

2 months ago

so Mindcensor was definitely supposed to be in the list. I updated that, thank you.

Ouphe DOES stop our lines with the altars, however generally you'd play it to slow down faster decks and their mana rocks/ win conditions. And on our own combo turns, we would simply sacrifice the ouphe to Ghave before we go off.

Three Visits is to find our basic forests for Earthcraft , because it is the core of the deck. But it can also fetch Savannah or Bayou for mana fixing. And in general, lands are much safer than playing more dorks. We already run the all the best dorks we can in Abzan. Force is good, and always considered. I swap it out sometimes.

Toxic Deluge is very tempo negative for us, as we generally want to save our dorks and utility creatures. I've used it before, after casting Ghave, and it was okay. I would have rathered had another tutor or card advantage.

Raknulfr on Casual: What Does it Actually ...

3 months ago

For me, it is kinda like LordBlackblade says, it is the atmosphere. We meet once a week at a bar, play a few hours with some drinks and just have fun. Some just have decks that are build of stuff they have around or got from people and some have really expensive stuff with a playset Bayou or whatever that costs hundrets and we KNOW if he plays those decks that we will probably lose but we take it with a smile and have fun.

OptimalGreen on Toxic Relationship: Hapatra EDH [PRIMER]

4 months ago

That's a fair point. Also outside of the Tower I pretty much have the same manabase and was wondering what would you take out for a Bayou ? My LGS recently got one in and I bought it and I was thinking that taking out a forest for it would be a good idea.