Iroas, God of Victory
Start Commander Deck
Set Price Alerts

Combos Browse all Suggest

Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander 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
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Iroas, God of Victory

Legendary Enchantment Creature — God

Indestructible

As long as your devotion to red and white is less than seven, Iroas isn't a creature.

Creatures you control have menace. (They can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)

Prevent all damage that would be dealt to attacking creatures you control.

Recommendations View more recommendations

Crow-Umbra on Michigone

1 month ago

Hi there! I thought I'd try my best to answer the questions you left for me on my wall. I mostly play the "typical" 4-person EDH pod, with the occasional 5 person game here or there. All of my decks are built with a multi-player setting in mind. To answer your other questions as best as possible:

  • 1 - What is my win rate with Isshin? - This is something I haven't kept close track of, unfortunately. In the past year, I've played at least 20 games with the deck, so I'd have a rough guess that it's won about 25% of the games it has played, and threatened wins another 15-20% of the time, but couldn't quite close it out for one reason or another. My primer has some game logs in the long list of updates if you want to try to read through those. I tried to capture the summary of some of my more memorable games, win or lose.

  • 2 - How do you win with Isshin in multiplayer? - Damage, whether combat or group slug/drain damage. Any aggro or damage based strategy has to find a way to pump out at least 120 damage over the course of a game, or capitalize on openings made by other decks in peoples' defenses. My Isshin deck wins by making swarms of tokens, and antheming them up with Battle Cry, Melee, or some other static power/toughness boost. The times I've won with combat damage, was typically off the back of Iroas, God of Victory because I had a board that could swing away and was hard to block. This is why I also have the damage effects of Purphoros, God of the Forge, Mishra, Claimed by Gix  Meld, Commissar Severina Raine, Impact Tremors, and Brutal Hordechief. The group damage and combat damage help each other out. They both soften up your opponents and help make each other more viable. These damage effects also help you get "around" blockers.

"So what do I do? Lean more into group slug, i.e. put in Impact Tremors? Lean away from wipes and focus on ramp and draw? More protection for my creatures?"

These are all generally good ideas. Adding in more ramp and draw can help your deck with consistency, especially for staying gassed up in the mid-late game. While board wipes are helpful, I've found that sometimes it can get annoying to reset the game too many times. At some point someone has to win, and wiping the board 3+ times in a single game can make it tedious instead.

  • 3 - "Is it mean/distasteful to eliminate the player that is the biggest threat, then finish off everyone else? Am I a bully?*" - Personally, I don't think so. I guess it depends on how well you know the people you are playing with. If the "threat" you eliminated has a deck that consistently pops off if it isn't dealt with, then I don't think it's wrong for them to sit one out. I've been a similar position numerous times with Isshin where I'll eliminate the player that might be the biggest threat to me specifically or could be the biggest threat to the table. If I become archenemy of that game, then so be it. Being archenemy can be fun, and it can be a compliment. Congrats, your deck is now the Big Bad Scary Thing. This is a game, and someone has to win each match up. Yes, EDH is supposed to be a "casual format", and that means a variety of different things to players, but after all is said and done, someone has to win. Ideally it can be you.

  • 4 - "As the only deck in the meta with a robust removal suite..." - I will address the rest of the statement you left, but woof, it sounds like the group you played with this time around was maybe very casual? I found that when some of my friends first started playing EDH, they didn't run a whole lot of removal, often to their own detriment. As one friend and I like to echo, "removal wins games". I think you were correct in removing the Ghired's Anointed Procession, but left their other enchantment alone so they could have fun. Ideally, you shouldn't have to be the "Removal Police" and manage every threat you have the capability to. I typically use my removal to A) Address threats most pressing to me B) Address threats that are most detrimental to the table, but will buy me some good will and time to build afterwards. You can utilize removal for achieving parity as you see fit. In terms of this being a good strategy, I think a better question is more about was a fun game environment created? Being "Removal Police" is fun for some and not as much for others. Eventually, everyone else around the table might have to reconsider running more removal to stay relevant and interactive in games, if that's the type of play they want.

  • 5 - "Board wipes made our games longer" - Going back to what I said a couple paragraphs up "While board wipes are helpful, I've found that sometimes it can get annoying to reset the game too many times" - I personally run 2 wipe effects in each deck. Most of my removal is single target, or can hit multiple things, but isn't quite a board wipe (Wear / Tear, Dismantling Wave, Grasp of Fate, Ashes to Ashes, or Druid of Purification). This is all personal choice though.

  • 5.1 "How do I recover more quickly after a board wipe than my opponents? Do I need more card draw? Do I need more protection to keep my creatures around? " - Card draw is always more helpful. Upping the amount of card draw is typically helpful. The tricky part is tuning the type of draw utilized and finding the balance that feels right for you. For me I have about 14 effects in my deck that can draw cards in either cantrip single instances, in multi-card bursts, or in consistent but slow manners. It takes plenty of playing to see what feels right for you. I also run about 11 different effects that protect my board. I've found that Flawless Maneuver and Teferi's Protection have saved my board and kept them in tact enough to maintain momentum the times I've successfully pulled them off. Clever Concealment is a new option that is especially good in token decks. Scapegoat is another cool and cheap option for token decks, and also lets you redeploy your board strategically. I also keep my overall average CMC of my deck as low as I can, so in the event that I don't have a protection effect, but have drawn into plenty of material, I can play cheaply costed creatures and removal/interaction/protection while everyone else is still rebuilding.

  • 5.2 "when is the right time in an aggro deck to play a board wipe?" - This requires more nuance and playing IRL to determine what feels right to you. I typically board wipe when someone else is building a bigger board than me, and is out-pacing me in that regard, but I have things in hand to quickly rebuild with afterwards, or have a protection effect to spare my board from my own wipe. It also depends on the types of wipes you are playing. White has a ton of options such as Promise of Loyalty, Slaughter the Strong, Retribution of the Meek, Vanquish the Horde, Farewell, Austere Command, and By Invitation Only to name a few. I've found it can be helpful to maybe have 1 wipe that is somewhat asymmetric, usually by presenting each player a choice on what they get to keep. This is a double edged sword since.... people get a choice on what they get to keep. While this may not solve the threat you were looking to eliminate, this may at least make things more manageable. I know Ruinous Ultimatum is a popular option because of how one-sided it is, but the restrictiveness of the mana cost can be annoying. Isshin doesn't necessarily win in 1 big flashy play that seemingly comes out of nowhere, like a combo deck might, but does build up a board presence and aggro momentum over a few turns. If you can continue to build and maintain a momentum, and add in more damage modifiers or Impact Tremors effects, it may then open up the opportunity for a big alpha strike turn, or a turn where you make a bunch of tokens with krenko tin street king pin because it stuck around long enough and you also have Impact Tremors and/or Hellrider and will either make a metric ton of goblins when Krenko swings, or you already have a metric ton of goblins to swing with for Hellrider.

Ultimately this is about finding what is most fun and engaging for you to play, and balancing that out with what is fun for your group. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same definition of fun. Some people will think its unfun or boring to get token swarmed or killed with Impact Tremors, and that's okay.

Takeaways:

  • Definitely add more draw and ramp. Cut down your mana curve and on splashy, but inconsistent effects where possible.

  • Running robust removal and interaction is helpful, but don't think you have to be "threat/parity police" because of it. Other people can choose to step up their removal/interaction suites too. Less board-wipes can be a good thing.

  • A variety of board protection effects will help you maintain the momentum you are building. A lower mana curve helps you go into aggro mode faster, and hopefully rebuild more quickly after wipes. Ideally, this also helps leave a little mana leftover for your Clever Concealments, Boros Charms, and other protection effects.

  • Group Slug and combat damage help each other out and make each other more viable. You are trying to land 120 damage around the table to take out 3 other players, so ideally you should maximize your damage output and find what works best for you, and what is most fun and dynamic for you.

Best of luck and hope you continue to have fun playing this awesome commander.

lil_cheez on Multiple Instances of Damage Prevention

1 month ago

Good day folks,

I run an Iroas, God of Victory commander deck and I always look for creatures with high devotion when a new set releases, and Phyrexian Vindicator got my attention.

But then I realized that when attacking, the damage to the Vindicator would be prevented by Iroas' ability, and not by the Vindicator's; and Vindicator clearly says that to do its trick the damage should be prevented by its own ability ("When damage is prevented this way...")

Am I able to choose what "barrier" of damage prevention is being applied to a Vindicator I control? Or at the moment it attacks Iroas' "barrier" kicks in and nullifies the Vindicator's? Because if this is the case, I don't think it'll be worth a slot in the deck.

If the answer could be backed up with the rule It'd be very helpful!

Thanks in advance!
Lil Cheez

Stardragon on Custom Theros Set

1 month ago

wallisface-First and foremost my experience is commander not standard or legacy or modern or vintage nor sealed or draft just commander. So all these cards are built with commander in mind. So lets tackle each card one at a time.

Gods- All the god effects are based on their old cards and built upon and tweaked with some research done on their lore and made sure it fits in their color pie (since soo many people are anal about color breaking though i find it fun and interesting). So if you find it samey blame me for my lack of imagination but also some of Wizards for making the OG's that way as well

Iroas- You said his second ability is too much but is OG card protected from combat damage Iroas, God of Victory and slap on Tajic, Legion's Edge ability to protect against non combat damage and white has lots of cards that destroy tapped creatures or blocking/attacking creatures so i gave him a conditional removal sure you could put him a boros weenie deck and have continuous removal it basically X/1, X/2 or X/3 deathtouch for white but white has done similar thing like that though for equipment only but this is a god so yeah it ment to be powerful. Also he is at Mythic Rare meaning you except game winning/breaking effects and for modren/sealed playstyle 6 mana is along to invest if im told right unless you cheat it into play but not my area of expertise.

Shield and Spear- Just made to giving creatures Lifelink, ward 3 and Battlecry

Hakatos- For his for first abiliy this will cover all demi gods so let me explain (this also for you TypicalTimmy) Let do Dexos and Heilod as an example Daxos, Blessed by the Sun is a double white 2/* which by himself makes him a 2/2 and gives 2 devotion to Heilod all other demigods are the same in this way and gives you roughly half of the devotion needed to the gods into creatures with the gods them selves also giving 1 devotion to their own color giving you three meaning you only need 2 more to that god online. Since all the Muilticolored gods need 7 devotion insstead of 5 i gave all thier demigods 4 devotion (may cut that to three) leave 3 devotion and since each multi god gives two devotion that leaves only 1 needed to get them online, and since each mono colored demi had 2 devotion making them all 2/3 if or 2/2 by themselves if I did that with the multi colored ones as Timmy said that would make them all X/4's or 4/X's much to powerful for uncommons even if their legendary so i nerfed it in that you need one of each color pip to give them a boost to there X stat so if you just had 1 red AND 1 White on the field Hakatos's Power would be 1 and if had 1 Red AND 3 white is power would still be 1 but if had 5 red AND 5 white his power would be 5. It was a way to try and balance them out it maybe rough but i could work

No on to his second ability is play on OG card Haktos the Unscarred which also gives him protection from certain numbers this just makes so weak creatures can't chump block him it not broken or confusing to to keep track of he is fine once I find a way to smooth out the devotion thing.

Karmatra- Creatures are spells and they do ETB that how ETB effects trigger I honestly don't know what your talking about here. as for the mana cost i think 5 mana for whenever a non-token creatures ETB's you get to search for ANY land is fine 4 mana seems too cheap for repeatable effect hell 5 mana maybe too little.

Her Scythe- I admit may not be as flashy as others but neither is farm work lol but gains mana fixing and ramp but making all you creatures into a BOP, and you can you three of those creature to ramp even harder with it second effect can summon a 6 or higher drop buy turn 4 or 5 depending on your field and gains life to help get head or stabilize, it very powerful just not in the flashy immediate way which feels right for basically the god of agriculture's tool it not fast but be patient and you'll reap the benefits. Again it don't see much wrong with it.

Sythis- This one is the inspired but it's literaly just her OG card Sythis, Harvest's Hand without the card draw and with scrying instead and scrying is all color effect partically in theros where the mechanic was officially named and a bunch of cards from every color had it tacked on. So she every much fits into the GW pie

Ephara- She basically is a tweaked Rhystic Study or Smothering Tithe which is fine bu ti do agree with the non land and caring about your opponent thing will fix that but i do want it a bit more unique than your standard tax card

Medomai- I assume other than the devoion power/toughness thing you dont have a problem with him

Kruphix- i can agree that cards for and indestruable card is powerful maybe busted but again he is mythic rare and a god those two things together you would expect some bust things about it BUT i can see spiraling way to out of control will think but nerfing the draw

Kydele- Her effect is for THE END OF THE TURN, Not the beginning and you than have a choice of untapping three land so you have access to outer spells or other creature protection on you opponents turn or having that card in hand that you've probly already scryed and want in your hand the flexability is what makes nice and you may not always want to draw in case you're milled out out lose life if you draw niche in the grand scheme of thing but a useful to have. i probaly will cut the adding a +1/+1 counter to creature though to much for an uncommon

Cymede- Fix her egregious spelling mistakes and just made scry 2 simple but decently powerful particularly when paired with her god

Atris- Fixed his until end of phase to end of turn but that's it. Thier are other cards that give sorceries flash like Hypersonic Dragon and Wizards of Thay give sorceries flash, Vedalken Orrery and Tidal Barracuda give all spells flash sorceries included. So it safe to say that sorceries can and do interact with flash even if it rare and it not even a pie break.

Mogis- Fix him it was always meant to be at the end of the turn not upkeep and tack only the current player's creatures I don't how those got past me. And made clear that it for each creature that didn't attack.

Rhordon- I assume other than the demigod clause your fine with him Axe- For the the self afflict dmage was decause rakdos has alot of power cards that deal damage to you, and i felt that as the god of slaughter's weapon it was fitting that it doesn't care about it summoner/owner but i will reworded so that the damage procs at the end of each other player's turn so it it works as intended

Pharika- Her frist ablity is fine it just a powerful Desecrated Tomb, Tormod, the Desecrator or Quintorius, Field Historian (and i say more powerful be cause of the poisonous 1) and they are powerful with Tormod's Crypt so I think it is fine is fine.

Her second effect is also mostly fine the card is fine if you 1 opponent and they have 5 posion counters on them you still only draw 1 card if have 7 opponent's and 3 have say 8 poison counters on them you will only draw 3 cards and while powerful is nothing in commander compared to some of the crazy card draws other even with out going infinite. fixed the left aspect of it though

Hythonia- Is just a Syr Konrad, the Grim with deathtouch and he is an instant win with graveyard exile and he also an uncommon and not even legendary! So no her effect if fine

Hope that answers your questions feel free to voice your thoughts again after reading this (IK it alot) i take all feed back and contine to scrutinize the rest of the cards

carpecanum on Isshin, the bearded beauty!

2 months ago

Utvara Hellkite would give you a dragon army pretty fast. Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin would give you goblins pretty fast.

Dolmen Gate, Iroas, God of Victory or even Bubble Matrix would let you attack with impunity

griffstick on Your Cheap Obscure Overperformers?

2 months ago

I love Infiltration Lens this cards draws so many cards. I have it in my Iroas, God of Victory so my creatures have Menace. This means if they block I draw 4 cards. Also the cards is soo cheap in cost and equip. And you can literally buy it for under .25

Last_Laugh on My first magic deck Kaalia

3 months ago

4.37 is a really high avg. cmc. I would recommend a lot more 2 and under drop ramp to offset this a little.

Talisman of Indulgence, Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Conviction, and Fellwar Stone are all good options. Cut Commander Sphere and Darksteel Ingot though... 3 drop ramp won't actually ramp you into a 4 drop commander.

The other thing I'm noticing is a severe lack of card draw. Esper Sentinel, Plumb the Forbidden (use in response to boardwipes), Necropotence, Black Market Connections, Battle Angels of Tyr, Twilight Prophet, Jeska's Will, Smuggler's Share, and Court of Grace, are all options here.

Dolmen Gate, Iroas, God of Victory, and Spirit Mantle will all help you attack safely like Reconnaissance.

I have 2 mardu decks you could check for more ideas. Upvotes on any of my decks are appreciated. Edgar's Dega Vampires and Isshin - Army of Darkness

Crow-Umbra on Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū

3 months ago

Happy to see another Isshin deck using those Musashi references. Kinda unfortunate most of the MtG Samurai don't work super well with Isshin, & you couldn't do Samurai tribal.

Your deck looks really solid overall. I don't think you'd have to change much, but I do have a handful of things for you to consider:

KBK7101 on Isshin, Two Heavens As One - Eiganjo Uprising v1.0

3 months ago

I actually already have a copy of both of them. Got some other cards I think I can shift around to fit into here, too, like Iroas, God of Victory, Savai Triome and Reconnaissance. I also just ordered a handful of the ones that I don't have on hand. I might update the deck next week sometime, depending on how things go.

Thanks again!

Load more