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| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Alchemy | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Arena | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Brawl | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Pauper Duel Commander | Legal |
| Pauper EDH | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Pre-release | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Standard | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Disdainful Stroke
Instant
Counter target spell with converted mana cost/mana value 4 or greater.
Vicarian on
Raffine Metaschemer
6 months ago
Disdainful Stroke is likewise situational, but if you see a lot of battlecruiser Magic in your meta, then it's also a good inclusion, but only as a 1- or 2-of, since having it in your opening hand is generally an issue, and it's a dead draw if someone's not got any 4 CMC+ things in their library.
wisegreenbean on
Defender 2.0
7 months ago
Decisive Denial works based on power, not effective power, so you're only really using the counterspell mode. In that case, I'd suggest Dovin's Veto or Disdainful Stroke or Bant Charm.
Archetype of Courage and Archetype of Endurance aren't super good value for the mana you put in. If you want increased combat effectiveness, there are toughness buffs, and if you want protection, that are counterspells or targeted protections like Ephemerate or Dive Down or Simic Charm or Resolute Watchdog
Turn to Frog is not a very exciting removal effect if you're in white and could just be running Swords to Plowshares. Same for the tapdown of Winterthorn Blessing, or the delayed value of Fall of the Impostor. Beast Within or Generous Gift are also premier removal.
You have a few off-theme creatures I think you won't much like: Disciplined Duelist works off power, Horizon Chimera gains a little life which is pretty low value overall, same for Lunarch Veteran Flip. Rootcoil Creeper and Llanowar Scout aren't too bad, but I think there are probably better ramp effects for you.
Into the Wilds is kind of a slow and unreliable card advantage effect. I would usually prefer something like Shamanic Revelation or Collective Unconscious or Lifecrafter's Bestiary.
Aqueous Form and Staggering Insight are best on little creatures that attack a lot. You will often struggle to let your creatures attack at all, so I don't recommend them.
Cathar's Shield and Spidersilk Net are pretty low impact buffs. If you really want this effect, there's Slagwurm Armor.
Traveler's Amulet or Dromoka Monument aren't too exciting when you're in green and could have Vine Trellis or Wall of Roots or Rampant Growth.
Pledge of Unity and Brave the Sands are okish team buffs, but you can do better. Bar the Door and Solidarity are a little more on synergistic for your deck.
Slaughter the Strong is crazy strong in your deck!
golgarigirl on
Scarab God UB Zombie Tribal
10 months ago
I would definitely look at some mana rocks (artifacts that make mana) for your deck to help you speed up. Some can even help you with card draw or other things later when you don't need them for mana. I like Mind Stone as an example. I would keep these to 3-drop or less.
Some creatures can help with card draw too. Tomebound Lich, Master of Death, and Liliana's Standard Bearer can all provide card selection on bodies (that you can re-use later if needed). Surveil isn't quite card draw, but in a zombie deck, it should do about the same if you're playing enough reanimation.
Additional card draw I would look at is sacrifice card draw like Village Rites, Reckoner's Bargain, and Deadly Dispute. If you can combine the sacrifice from these cards with an effect your zombies may have, they're extra worth it.
One thing you may consider doing with your deck is seeing how many zombies you get per mana/card spent. Scarab God cares about quantity of zombies to be super effective, so maximizing that is key!
In my group, I am a fan of Reality Shift, Disdainful Stroke, Negate, Hagra Mauling Flip, Negate and Infernal Grasp for removal in these colors.
DreadKhan on
Cheap dragon
1 year ago
Alright, I'll try to keep that in mind and minimize the jargon. One thing I'd say about running lands, it's easy to end up with less than you actually need. The difference between 36 and 38 is extremely minor in terms of how many lands you can draw, so the exact number isn't that important, but if you have a higher cost Commander (Tiamat has a Mana Value of 7, or MV 7), you'll want ramp. A higher cost is usually any Commander requiring more than 4 mana, and/or one that requires more than 2 colours, either makes a Commander harder to cast. I end up on 38 in a deck like Reaper King, but I also use a lot of ramp in that deck to generate the huge mana values that deck can require. This deck probably wants anywhere from 36-42 lands, with 42 being where you want to be if you run relatively few ramp effects, 36 would mean running more of them, at least 10. You should probably run Command Tower. Temple of the False God is a risky land in a deck that isn't running a lot of lands, I hate to run it with less than 40 in a deck unless I have a payoff for a land tapping for 2.
It's worth considering basing your mana base around Green, not because most of the cards will be Green but to use Green ramp spells/mana dorks. I'm guessing you aren't aiming to spend a lot on this, so the cheapest $$$ way to increase your mana available is to use Green spells which can find Basic lands for you. Circuitous Route, Harrow, Roiling Regrowth, Search for Tomorrow, and Dire-Strain Rampage are all very good ramp effects, with most of them being cheap and able to find you colours of mana you might need. Sacrificing a land can be a good thing if you've got several of the same Basic land, which can happen easily. There are a ton of other ramp spells, many quite cheap, especially if you don't mind 3 mana effects. Spells that find land can be much better than artifacts, because artifacts can be blown up very easily compared to lands. I would also look for ones that can find any Basic land compared to ones that can only find a Forest unless you want to raise the budget a bit, as these lands are generally more expensive, but Kaldheim has 10 Snow type dual lands, one for each pair, and they are fairly cheap, and ramping with one of these off of Three Visits or Nature's Lore feels really good, but it'll be more investment. There are a lot of effects that find Forests and can find non-Basic Forests like Breeding Pool or Rimewood Falls, and finding one of those can really help make sure you can cast Tiamat. I would still play cards like Arcane Signet and Sol Ring, and most 2 MV mana artifacts are good cards usually.
A card that should be very useful in Tiamat would be Maskwood Nexus, which makes all creatures, wherever they are (in your hand, library, graveyard, or in play) are all every creature type, including Dragons, so Tiamat can find any 5 creatures. If you end up playing many cards that care about Dragons, this is worth looking at. Silverglade Pathfinder and Dreamscape Artist are pretty helpful some games as creatures that can also ramp you, potentially repeatedly if you are playing Casual games where you have a few more turns.
Interaction to protect your creatures can be very useful, Bolt Bend and Stubborn Denial are interesting options for you in a deck that will often have a power 4 creature out. Disdainful Stroke can stop board wipes, and Saw it Coming can stop anything in it's track, involving only U to cast, I would watch out for counterspells that cost UU (Blue Blue mana) to cast, this can be hard to arrange. You might think of Vindicate and/or Utter End to have removal vs any type of permanent, AFAIK neither is very expensive atm. There are 5 'Signet lands', Darkwater Catacombs, Skycloud Expanse, Shadowblood Ridge, Mossfire Valley and Sungrass Prairie are all very cheap and pretty good dual lands. Ash Barrens is a very good way to find a needed colour, especially Green. The World Tree is getting up there a bit, but it's a card worth looking at in 5 colours, especially if you run plenty of cards that find lands for you. If you have especially good non-Basic lands, IE lands that tap for 2 or more, Crop Rotation, Hour of Promise and Reap and Sow are all worth considering, finding a World Tree or other especially good land can be much stronger than finding a Basic. Faeburrow Elder and Jegantha, the Wellspring are very good ways to generate mana, probably don't run Jegantha as a Companion, just put him in the deck and you have no restrictions from him.
Well, that's what I'm thinking of right now, I'll probably have more later for you. I'll try to think of cards that are cheap and work for your deck, it might be a few posts before I've run out of relevant thoughts.
K1ngMars on Help optimizing my Wilhelt Precon
1 year ago
I would definitely suggest you to include the recently printed Poppet Factory, as it allows Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver to generate a zombie every time you sacrifice a zombie, due to the fact that the Decayed ability gets overwritten. Besides, Gravecrawler too allows for infinite loops with Phyrexian Altar and a permanent dealing damage triggered by creature deaths, like Bastion of Remembrance.
To support the combo route, which could definitely help in keeping up your game, I would also suggest to add some tutors, to help you smooth out your hand and always find the right cards at the right time. Such cards could range from Lim-Dul's Vault to Scheming Symmetry or Demonic Tutor, mainly depending on your budget. Remember, tutors don't necessarily need to be 60 bucks to be good. They are always good.
Apart from that though, another proactive way to stop you opponents into their tracks is to simply use counterspells. Dimir offers some of the best control magic available, amongst which I'll recall: Counterspell, Countersquall, Arcane Denial, Wash Away, Disdainful Stroke... The choices are endless and should be suited to what are the main threats you wish to answer in your playgroup. Overall, 5 counterspells should be enough to step up your game a bit in terms of interaction, without making your deck a control-focused spellslinger deck.
As a last note, I'll link you the deck of one of my friends, which I've helped with in upgrading. It's a comboless Wilhelt with quite a strong presnece in games, hopefully it may be of some inspiration to you.
Undead Unleashed | Upgrade Precon copy
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 2 | 1 COMMENT | 60 VIEWS
wallisface on Help with my landfall deck
1 year ago
eldraziboss9142 While Counterspell can help your crabs stay alive a little, Disdainful Stroke won’t do much at all except maybe catch-out the occasional Solitude/Fury… all other removal in modern costs around 1-2 mana, and in general Disdainful Stroke feels like a sideboard card at-best.
Your big threats, as I see them, are:
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Jund, Control, DeathsShadow: they have enough removal to get around your Counterspell, and because you have no plan-B, will be able to comfortably end your plans
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Burn, HammerTime, Mill, etc: will all be faster than you, and present faster clocks while also being able to disrupt what you’re doing.
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Dredge, Crabvine, LivingEnd, Reanimator: will all be super-stoked that you’re giving them what they want.
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Endurance basically ends your gameplan immediately, as the reset of their deck likely puts you too far behind.
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Leyline of Sanctity makes life very awkward, as it turns off half your crabs.
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Supreme Verdict gets around your counter magic, and leaves you dead in the water.
^ a lot of this can be addressed by having a solid plan-B wincon, as well as finding ways to have your deck win faster. Including a sideboard will help with most the individual cards I mentioned.
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