Jaxis, the Troublemaker

Legendary Creature — Human Warrior

{R}, {T}, Discard a card: Create a token that's a copy of another target creature you control. It gains haste and "When this creature dies, draw a card." Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. Activate this ability only as a sorcery.

Blitz {1}{R} (If you cast this for this spell's blitz cost, this gains haste and "When this creature dies, draw a card." Sacrifice this at the beginning of the next end step.)

Tokens

• Copy Clone

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
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (26)

jawz on BR Dirge for Drivnod

11 months ago

I saw a list trying to get value from Generous Plunderer and Bloodvial Purveyor as targets for the Lively Dirge. Plunderer has become my favorite ramp card recently so I'm in. Donating all these artifacts to the opponent helps maximize the Plunderer damage trigger which the Bloodletter doubles. Plunderer ramping from 2 to 4 seems better than Goldhound ramping from 1 to 3 given the deck doesn't have many 3 drops but has a lot of key 4 drops.

Purveyor is a nasty clock as a 5/6 flying trample for 4. Especially in a Bloodletter deck. Jaxis, the Troublemaker is a scary combo piece too for Purveyor or Plunderer.

I also felt like Drivnod's double death trigger ability was getting forgotten, so I looked around a bit for possible synergy cards. Body Launderer and Mask of Griselbrand caught my eye. Giving them a try too.

I decided to move away from the Bitter Reunion for Into the Fire instead. I have plenty of 2 drops but few 3 drops. Fire gives me more digging and at least an option for a small sweeper against wide aggro decks. Without the Goldhound I'm less cautious about sweepers. And I'm ok with putting some of my 2 drops into the graveyard because I can rely on Dirge to get a couple back. I don't think I need the Reunion's haste option as much as I originally thought I would.

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

1 year ago

First a quick introduction. I've been playing magic off and on for years. When this site first started out, I was super active and then I stopped playing. I recently got back into it and plunged deep into the Commander format. I love building decks around interesting concepts and often trying to break cards.

My slightly ambitious goal is to create a series of threads that show my thought process as I build a commander deck. I figure it will serve two purposes: First, it will aid newer players who have some precon decks and perhaps are looking to upgrade them or they see a commander and want to build it, but aren't sure how. The second is purely self-motivated in that more experienced players can fine tune my own logic and make suggestions for my own improvement.

So with that, the first commander deck I'm going to build here is Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds. This is a card that begs to be broken and creates for interesting and powerful decks. There are also several different lines you can choose to go with. You can make it go infinite if you like degeneracy or don't like the people in your playgroup, or you can decide to go the way of building lots of tokens quickly and then turning them sideways and swinging. (Spoiler alert we are going infinite)

So first things first, we need to think about what the commander actually does and what it is going to need to do that effectively. First, it allows all nontoken creatures to tap and create tokens that I control that entered the battlefield this turn. So a couple things to point out: First is that it is tokens not creature tokens specifically, so treasures, clues, food, etc. are fair game. Secondly, it doesn't have to be my turn that the tokens came in, you can activate the ability at instant speed if you create a token on your opponent's turn. Now Ghired also is only 3 mana in Naya colors with Haste which means he's going to come down early in the game, so we'll want some other creatures out there when he comes down to start building up tokens right away.

With his abilities in mind, there are a couple things that we want to think about: Cards that create tokens, cards that double tokens, cards that untap things, and cards that do interesting things when they're tapped, example Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero, who comes down early as well, and when she is tapped I gain life and draw a card. We will obviously need to consider interaction, ramp, and card draw, but those are secondary in my thoughts. Every deck needs those, but what items you add often depends on what your deck is trying to do. In this case, we want to make tokens, tap creatures, make more tokens.

Token Generators

So a couple really good token generators here to start would be things that keep making them rather than one offs. In my playtesting Oltec Matterweaver is hard to beat. It comes in early (turn 2 if you can get a sol ring). When you cast a creature spell you can copy a target artifact or bring out a 1/1 gnome. Turn 1 you play a plains and a sol ring. Turn 2 you bring this out, turn 3 you bring out Ghired, creating a copy of sol ring, tap your Oltec Matterweaver and create another sol ring. You now have 3 sol rings on the field on turn 3... You are now the archenemy, congrats? EDIT: So as it was pointed out in the comments Oltec only creates copies of TOKEN artifacts. We could use Molten Duplication to create a copy of an artifact, but still Oltec still does great at producing consistent tokens.

Some other standouts are Emmara, Soul of the Accord who when tapped creates a 1/1 soldier with lifelink. So tapping will actually create two tokens. Also if you need a token for Sunstrike Legionnaire to go infinite you can tap her down (she's only 2 mana) create your 1/1 soldier, untap sunstrike, with Ghired on the field, tap Sunstrike to create infinite lifelink 1/1 soldiers. (actually happened in playtesting)

Generous Plunderer deserves a mention as you really need consistent tokens every turn and this does that. It gives you treasure tokens which is great and is likely to stick around since your opponents like the possibility of getting a treasure token as well. Dockside Extortionist can take the deck to new levels of degeneracy depending on when you play it/number of times you copy it with things like kiki jiki and jaxis.

Selvala, Eager Trailblazer is also great as you get 1/1 creatures every time you cast a creature spell. Her ramp also goes surprisingly well in the deck. I highly recommend it.

Thousand Moons Smithy  ^Flip is another beast of a card. It comes down turn 4, Ghired is already out along with any other low cost creatures. Let's say you have a Birds of Paradise and Ghired when this comes down and maybe a mana rock. You create a 5/5 Gnome (2 creatures, 2 artifacts, and the gnome itself). Now you tap the bird and Ghired and create two more Gnomes. You now have 3 7/7s, on turn 4...

Honorable mentions here are things like Smothering Tithe who will create treasures each opponent's turn, tap a creature and create another. Rain of Riches, create some treasures, copy them, cast something, and get cascade.

Also, populate is a thing, I like Growing Ranks and Nesting Dovehawk for that.

Doublers

Ok, so doublers is a pretty easy topic, there are quite a few out there, they are expensive and honestly for this deck you don't need much. I chose a couple that I particularly like for this and by like I mean I own them and didn't have to go out and spend $50-60. Examples are Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Primal Vigor (careful as this one applies to everyone not just you).

I ended up starting out with 3 of these and then cut it down to just the two creatures mondrak and ojer taq. Both are still great and can quickly overwhelm the opponent. I found myself holding onto the enchantments in preference to playing token creators and creatures.

Untapping Abilities

Untapping abilites can make it even worse as time goes on. If you have a Seedborn Muse you untap each upkeep so they draw a card, Smothering Tithe creates a treasure, during their end step you tap your creatures creating more treasures. Untap on the next opponent's untap step, rinse and repeat.

This is also where infinite combos begin to happen. Sunstrike Legionnaire untaps everytime a creature enters the battlefield. Make a creature token, tap sunstrike legionnaire, create another creature token, sunstrike legionnaire untaps, rinse and repeat, gg. Midnight Guard works too for one more mana. Other options include making copies of your own creatures that untap creatures when they enter the battlefield like Hyrax Tower Scout, Zealous Conscripts, Sparring Mummy. Mix that with notable salty cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Molten Duplication, Splinter Twin, Jaxis, the Troublemaker and you're off to infinite again. (Jaxis uses his ability targeting sparring mummy, sparring mummy comes in untaps him, now Jaxis just taps to make a copy of the sparring mummy token (from Ghired) which has haste, it comes in untaps Jaxis, rinse and repeat, swing with a legion of sparring mummies)

Don't got too heavy on these or you won't have enough tokens to copy.

Cards that do cool things when tapped aren't super plentiful, but the two I've mentioned already are great for this deck. (Wylie and Emmara).

Interaction, ramp, card draw

Now for the ramp, interaction, and card draw. Ramp is fairly straightforward, since we have the Oltec Matterweaver, I opted to put in some signets, but left some other stones out. Normally when I'm in green I go heavy on green ramp. I opted for cheap ramp spells like Rampant Growth, Farseek, Three Visits and Birds of Paradise (could maybe use more mana dorks since having a body later will help in producing larger tokens).

Interaction is super important in this one. Board wipes are coming, targeted removal is coming, so need to prepare, but we also need to be flexible in taking out our opponents. So to save us from board wipes, we have Heroic Intervention, the ubiquitous and hopefully soon to be reprinted (one can dream) Teferi's Protection, Boros Charm, and Smuggler's Surprise (which is heroic intervention in disguise).

Getting rid of threats is crucial, so Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares are useful, but not as useful as Beast Within, Generous Gift, and Stroke of Midnight. These obviously target more than just creatures, but also produce tokens. There are situations where a well-timed beast within on your own treasure token to create a 3/3 beast that you can copy a bunch of times is the right play. That make it not just removal, but also a token generator.

Finally, we come to card draw. Since we are producing tokens (hopefully most turns) we can include things like Bennie Bracks, Zoologist and Idol of Oblivion. I also like Welcoming Vampire for this deck. It is creature heavy so Guardian Project is great, so is Beast Whisperer and Garruk's Uprising. Esper Sentinel is always good. We already have Wylie from earlier. Getting card draw is vital to the survival of any deck and particularly this one as we need to be producing tokens regularly and you need cards to produce them. I chose to run about 11 card draw engines in the deck to ensure I'm drawing regularly.

Lands... I mean... make sure you have dual lands in the deck and triomes if you can. One noteworthy utility land is Grove of the Guardian which can have a nice payoff when you create an 8/8 with a few creatures out along with Ghired.

I'll post the deck that I built from this thought process on my page in case you want to see the final product. And if you made it this far thanks for joining me on this, I hope it was helpful. Feel free to comment on how you would do it differently or cards that should have been mentioned. Also feel free to mention commanders you want to see built. I have a couple in mind to start but want to see suggestions as well.

Here is the final decklist: Ghired the infinite outlaw

SufferFromEDHD on Avoiding Consequences

1 year ago

Really like this shell. Corpse Dance and Sneak Attack are pet cards of mine and this is a great home for both!

Urza's Saga get dreadnought or your ring.

Hall of the Bandit Lord and/or Flamekin Village haste is useful in a pinch.

Riptide Laboratory commander protection.

Demonic Collusion neat discard outlet.

Prismari Command and/or Kolaghan's Command really neat swiss army knives.

Jaxis, the Troublemaker and/or Saheeli, the Sun's Brilliance on theme.

CamraMaan on Interaction between God-Eternal Bontu and …

1 year ago

This is going to cause problems at my kitchen table, so I'm preemptively getting a ruling/answer I can refer to.

So I use Jaxis, the Troublemaker to copy God-Eternal Bontu, but I opt to keep the token and sacrifice the real card, putting it back into my deck third from the top. I'm assuming I can order the ETB trigger of the copy and the death trigger of the real card in any order I want, since they should be attempting to enter the stack simultaneously. If I sacrifice enough creatures I should be able to draw Bontu right back into my hand, since he'll be going into my deck before that trigger's resolution, correct?

Next, does the legendary rule's timing prevent me from choosing the original copy as a target to sacrifice to the ETB trigger? My assumption is yes, that it will be gone before the trigger resolves, and therefore would be a fizzled target, but I want to be sure.

TIA!

amarthaler on EDH Kardur, Doomscourge

2 years ago

Updates!

Out: Warmonger Hellkite... Drivnod, Carnage Dominus... Supernatural Stamina

In: Jaxis, the Troublemaker... Frenzied Saddlebrute... Mahadi, Emporium Master

yggup on Kir 'em With Fire

2 years ago

Well I have it to keep the tokens made from cards like Flameshadow Conjuring and Molten Echoes like I do in my Jaxis, the Troublemaker deck, but I don't get them often enough. I'll likely sub it for something else.

Crow_Umbra on Alesha EDH

2 years ago

Always happy to see another Alesha player! She was my favorite and longest running deck for a while before I took her apart about a year ago to build my Isshin deck.

All in all your deck looks fairly solid and like you have most of the core components that a more combo focused Alesha deck would want. Pulling off the Master of Cruelties resurrection with Alesha once is definitely a favorite memory from my time playing it.

I'd recommend checking out Jaxis, the Troublemaker if you like Preston, the Vanisher for getting additional token copies and value. Jaxis fits really nicely with Alesha's general game plan and does some solid work of filling your yard and also drawing with Blitz.

Although it may sound counter-intuitive, I'd actually recommend swapping out 2-4 lands for some mana rock ramp, like the cycles of Talisman of Indulgence or Orzhov Signet or even something like Hazoret's Monument. 40 lands is a bit high for a deck that isn't necessarily Landfall focused, or utilizing a higher land count as part of its strategy. Being able to cast mana rocks can be helpful on those earliest turns. Besides ritual spells and treasures, mana rocks are the next most helpful way for the non-Green color combos to try and keep pace on ramp.

Crow_Umbra on Alesha combo

2 years ago

Happy to see another Alesha combo deck. She was my old favorite before I converted the deck into Isshin about a year ago. I like your primer and think it's well-written and covers all the most important details for piloting the deck. I have a few recommendations for your consideration, in case you're looking to make swaps:

• Gamble - Another tutor if you need one. I think the price has dropped a bit since it was recently reprinted in the Coin Flip Secret Lair deck.
• Loran of the Third Path - Potentially repeatable removal with Alesha, and also a political draw piece.
• Tocasia's Welcome - About 21 of your 34 creatures (including Alesha) would trigger it.
• Welcoming Vampire - About 29-30 of your 34 creatures (including Alesha) would trigger it. I think this or Tocasia's Welcome could potentially replace Mentor of the Meek.
• Jaxis, the Troublemaker -Can net you some additional token copies of stuff in a similar vein as Preston, and has additional upside to help you loot and draw.

I hope these suggestions are helpful. All in all your deck and primer are both solid.