Commander Liara Portyr

Legendary Creature — Human Soldier

Whenever you attack, spells you cast from exile this turn cost {X} less to cast, where X is the number of players being attacked. Exile the top X cards of your library. Until end of turn, you may cast spells from among those exiled cards.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (3)

Worrad75 on Pia-tiful Impulse Control

3 months ago

The deck has been through quite a few iterations. Here are the changes at a macro level:

Interaction

Get Lost: flexible, cheap removal. Maps aren't so bad to gve because we're going FAST.

Case of the Gateway Express: getting a free anthem stapled to a Doom Blade is great. Sorcery speed is a downside but well worth it

Requisition Raid: Same as the Case above, but for artifacts + enchantments. Super nice that there's only 1 pip in the cost (Commander Liara Portyr can let us cast this from exile with all 3 modes for a single white mana!)

Damage

Delney, Streetwise Lookout, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Stridehangar Automaton: Double tokens = good. Delney has overlapping synergy with a few notable cards (Professional Face-Breaker and Grenzo, Havoc Raiser chief amoung them) and is essentially exactly what we wanted from Cursed Mirror in the initial build but WAY better. The new build has a greater diversity of tokens as well, so Mondrak isnt just here to 2x Pia. Automaton doubling Pia AND triggering off of other artifact tokens is incredible (more on that below).

Illustrious Wanderglyph, Charismatic Conqueror, Dollmaker's Shop / Porcelain Gallery: token diversity is important to this deck; it helps take heat off of our commander (who previously was the only thing producing a meaningful boardstate), and offers us another way to make tokens if our exile plan isn't fully getting off the ground. Wanderglyph buffs our thopters and the Shop tokens (both have incredible synergy with Stridehangar Automaton), Conqueror's tokens give us a bit of much needed lifegain (and synergize with the newly added Case of the Gateway Express), but the biggest add here is the Shop: measly 2 mana investment up front for some free chump blockers/Impact Tremors triggers, and a MASSIVE threat whenever you have 6 mana for the Gallery. Its comically easy to attack with a handful of thopters and have EACH of them hit for 10+ damage, especially because on attack the 3 tokens you get essentially give +3/+3. thats a free Skyhunter Strike Force every turn!

Unstable Amulet, Warleader's Call: Impact Tremors is already a fantastic card that we run. Amulet is essentially a Tremors that also draws us a card and gives us a body thanks to Pia. Warleader's Call is a Tremors stapled to a Glorious Anthem. The passive burn damage with continue until morale improves!

Cards

Connecting the Dots: This seemingly innocuous card is an example of 'layering' at its finest. This deck's ability to build a boardstate is impressive, but it isn't the best at protecting it (using impulse draw as your primary advantage engine makes cards like the now-removed Boros Charm worse than they normally are, as you usually can't use them at the perfect time, and your opponents will see it coming). On top of that, you are usually "spending" the cards in your hand to exile cards from your deck; its not uncommon for this deck to impulse draw 3+ cards a turn while also only having <=3 cards actually in hand. Similar to Skullclamp, CtD allows you to convert your boardstate back into card advantage, but this time its 'delayed' and doesn't require continuous mana investment or for you to get rid of your creatures. Its not uncommon to swing out after playing this, get board-wiped on someone else's turn, only to crack this right before you untap and essentially draw 10+ cards to rebuild with. Low initial mana investment for a huge upside swing that refills the only resource we often get low on; cards in our actual hand.

Elnxida on Cost Reduction Cards

10 months ago

I've noticed a few* omissions, namely effects that let you pay an alternate cost - which can be less than the regular cost (Zombie creaturess: Rooftop Storm) or reduced by other effects (Samurai: Kentaro, the Smiling Cat).

*Yeah, so I decided to do a proper search and it bloated into more than a "few"... Sorry for the wall of text, but here you go!

You've already got Fist of Suns and Jodah, but here are some less ubiquitous ones:

Echo: Thick-Skinned Goblin

Slowly Increasing 1/turn: As Foretold

Runes: Runeforge Champion

Fist of Suns and Jodah-like: Leyline of Mutation

Alchemy, Dragons: Sarkhan, Wanderer to Shiv

Pay life instead as Activated Ability: Marshland Bloodcaster

Alchemy, cards you don't own 1/turn: Grenzo, Crooked Jailer

From Exile 1/turn: Charred Foyer / Warped Space

Colorless 1/turn: Darksteel Monolith

Creature from exile 1/turn: Tlincalli Hunter

Conditional, Cycling: New Perspectives

Pay life instead 1/turn: Cramped Vents / Access Maze

Additionally, other regular omissions:

Flash: Cunning Nightbonder

Instants and Sorceries: Voracious Reader  ^Flip

Creature spells: Krallenhorde Howler  ^Flip, Honest Rutstein

One Giant: Invasion of the Giants

Target me! (auras, buffs, mutate): Spellwild Ouphe, Elderwood Scion

First Kicked: Vine Gecko

Historic: Ballad of the Black Flag

Not your turn: Geyser Drake

Aura and Equipment: Golden-Tail Trainer

Next Spell (honorable mention?): Hardened Berserker, Saheeli, the Gifted

Pay counters instead: Mutated Cultist

Dragons: Nogi, Draco-Zealot

Alchemy, Dinosaurs: Scalespeaker Shepherd (Not sure why is isn't linking, but I promise it exists)

Alchemy, from graveyard: Shellfish Scholar

Instants and Sorceries MV5+: Spectacle Mage

Prepared: Uvilda, Dean of Perfection  ^Flip

Undaunted keyword: Durnan of the Yawning Portal

First instant/sorcery, conditional: Eluge, the Shoreless Sea, God-Eternal Kefnet

Alchemy, Goblin: Goblin Influx Array

Next instant/sorcery (honorable mention?): Maelstrom Muse

Face-down: Panoptic Projektor

Doctors: The Eleventh Hour

Cards from exile: Commander Liara Portyr

Next instant/sorcery, conditional: Elminster

Spells you don't own: Gonti, Canny Acquisitor

Sephyrias on Best Commanders in EDH [Tier List] Part 1

3 years ago

What puts Raffine, Scheming Seer in tier 2 and Evelyn, the Covetous in tier 3, while Anhelo, the Painter is tier 4? I'd argue Anhelo is at the very least on par with Zevlor, Elturel Exile, who also ended up in tier 2. Zevlor and Anhelo are in the same colors and do the same magecraft combos.

Alela, Artful Provocateur has dropped really far, hasn't she? I'm also surprised to see Commander Liara Portyr in the same tier as her, what makes Liara Portyr that good? You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get value out of her. Is there some easy way to infinitely cast a spell from exile with her?

The Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth + March of the Machines combo is very strong, surprised that she is a tier below Siona, Captain of the Pyleas.

Side note: the list currently reads "2x Raggadragga".