Professional Face-Breaker

Creature — Human Warrior

Menace

Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, creature a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any colour.")

Sacrifice a Treasure: Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn.

Tokens

• Treasure

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
Freeform	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
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

clayperce on The Glory of the Horde (Zurgo Ultra-Budget)

1 month ago

Deck_Building_Dude -
Thank you for all the kind words too ... but honestly, it was your earlier comment that set me on this path, so thank YOU!!!

Yeah, Martial Coup is definitely better for this deck. I think I must have been comparing it to other Mass Disruption options when I cut it, rather than comparing it to other Go Wide options ... derp!

Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon has been fine so far, but thanks much for the thought; I'll definitely keep an eye on her. FWIW, Mardu Siegebreaker is my current "Hmmmmmm ..." card, mostly becuase it's so inconsistent ... amazing with something like Mirkwood Bats on the board, but super-frustrating with a board full of Legendaries and Tokens!

The token doublers are GREAT, but I'm very consciously avoiding them in this deck, just because I hate accidental infinite combos (in case it's not obvious, Exalted Sunborn or Anointed Procession go infinte with Spawning Pit and Pitiless Plunder on the board). I mean, I'm absolutely happy to run infinite combos, but I just hate it when they happen accidentally in a lower-Bracket deck ... if I'm doing combos, I'm going all-in! :-)
Similarly, I'm not running Luminous Broodmoth (2-card combo with any Free Sac), Restoration Angel (2-card combo with Mardu Siegebreaker), Stridehangar Automaton or Forsaken Miner (3-card combos with Pitiless Plunderer and any Free Sac), or Aggravated Assault (3-card combo with Mardu Siegebreaker and Professional Face-Breaker).
All that said, I've REALLY been enjoying working on this deck though for my friend, so I think I'm almost certainly going to try building this as an all-in combo deck (at a higher Bracket and with a higher budget) for myself.

Fanatical Devotion is a fantastic card and I generally try to run both. But if I can only find room for one, it's almost always Reconnaissance. Partly because it always fits nicely on curve (especially with a 3-mana Commander), but mostly because I find the pseudo-Vigilance to be so useful in multi-player.

Great catch on Ashnod's Altar; I'm not sure why I trimmed it. It maybe combo'd with some card that's no longer there? Or was maybe a purely accidental cut? Either way, you'll see it back in the deck soon(tm)!

Good call on Thunder of Unity ... I'll force it into some test games (I seriously can't recall ever having cast it, lol) and form an opinion.

Thanks again for all the thoughtful and kind comments! And good luck (and good skill!) on your remaining finals!

Cheers!

CommanderNeyo on The Ultimate Warriors (Updated)

2 months ago

I love Mardu! My favorite deck plays a lot like this one.

Below are some of my recommendations, but I would mostly recommend you check out the CommandZone on Youtube - they have a deckbuilding guide that is very good. Also, for some ideas on cards, you can check out EDHREC, which is a database for deckbuilding.

Anywho, here are some of my recommendations:

== ADD ==

Isshin, Two Heavens as One and Windcrag Siege double all your attack triggers.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death and Terra, Herald of Hope if you face a lot of removal.

Swords to Plowshares, Damn, Blasphemous Act, and Ruinous Ultimatum for removal.

Boros Charm for protection.

Voice of Victory, Bone-Cairn Butcher, Infantry Shield, and Dalkovan Packbeasts for more Warrior tokens.

Hardened Tactician, Raiders' Spoils, Mindblade Render, Skullclamp, and Zurgo Stormrender for card draw.

Professional Face-Breaker for ramp and card advantage. Boros Signet, Orzhov Signet, Rakdos Signet, Talisman of Conviction, Talisman of Hierarchy, and Talisman of Indulgence for more ramp.

Shared Animosity, Fiery Emancipation, and City on Fire for buffs.

Reconnaissance to remove any creature your opponent blocks so it won't die, and Redoubled Stormsinger to double your tokens.

33 Lands is very low, especially since you have so little card draw and a high average cmc of 2.67. I recommend at least 38, if not 40 - you generally want to be playing a land every turn for the first 5 turns.

== CUT ==

Here are some cards I recommend cutting:

Aeronaut's Wings, Colossus Hammer, Greatsword of Tyr, Inquisitorial Rosette, Mardu Monument, Team Pennant, Amazing Alliance, Cartouche of Solidarity, Rally the Ranks, Shared Triumph, War Effort - Most of these provide modest buffs or require too much mana to use in one go. Most equipment are better in dedicated equipment builds, while Zurgo is generally more about going wide. If you do want to play equipment, I would recommend ones that provide utility (like Sword of the Animist, which you already have) or provide large buffs (like Blackblade Reforged). Cards that only buff your damage by 1 are generally underpowered.

Chromatic Lantern, Commander's Sphere - Your commander is 3-mana, so it is nice to have 2-mana ramp so you can still play your commander on curve.

Diabolic Tutor and Mastermind's Acquisition are a lot of mana for a tutor, and I would generally recommend cutting them.

Anywho, that's a lot, but let me know if any of it was helpful!

Worrad75 on Pia-tiful Impulse Control

5 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.

Crow_Umbra on Watch the Party Die [Primer]

10 months ago

Profet93

• I gave the edge to Giver of Runes for having an additional toughness, and can also protect from colorless, which is a bit niche.

• I addressed this in the Draw & Tutor part of my primer:

"Imperial Recruiter - An excellent option for this deck, especially given the potential for repeat uses. Recruiter of the Guard could be another supplemental option to Imperial Recruiter. She would be able to tutor up 18/34 creatures, with some overlap with the 22/34 that Imperial Recruiter can tutor."

I gave the edge to Imperial Recruiter since it can grab options like Professional Face-Breaker, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Preston, the Vanisher, and Burakos, Party Leader.

• Hall of Heliod's Generosity is more so a contingency in case I recur any of my enchantments. It's niche, but I like it.

• I run Vault of the Archangel in my Mardu/Orzhov aggro decks, espcially if they have the Treasure support in the mid-game to threaten or actually use the activation. It's worked for me before.

Flarhoon13 on Unleashing the Maelstrom: Yidris' Controlled Chaos

1 year ago

Nov 23

Yidris: Controlled Chaos, budget power won a long, kind of crazy game. Darryl cast Jokulhaups via Discord, Lord of Disharmony, which looked like it was handing Nolan the game, since he was able to make his Rakdos, the Muscle commander indestructible. I drew well and cast the greatest thief in the multiverse, Dack Fayden, to steal Darryl's Sol Ring. I cast an Aetherflux Reservoir, and a Sunbird's Invocation. The next turn, I cast a Berserkers' Onslaught, Sunbird's Invocation revealed an Inevitable Betrayal, which I used to get Nolan's Molten Primordial. That stole the Rakdos, the Muscle, a Professional Face-Breaker and an OG Jodah, Archmage Eternal. I attacked Nolan with his own commander and Darryl's Tainted Strike made it lethal, even as I attacked him with Jodah, Archmage Eternal, also for lethal (he was at three life). Doug had enough on board to kill me but I untapped and played Karn's Temporal Sundering, bouncing my Dualcaster Mage. In my extra turn, I had the Dark Petition to grab Ghostly Flicker. Ghostly Flicker copied by Dualcaster Mage does go infinite. Infinite mana, then Seasons Past meant I was totally infinite. I could recur the Dark Petition for Seasons Past and cast them infinitely plus so many more, Aetherflux Reservoir was a win condition

Crow_Umbra on Musashi's Mosh Pit [Primer]

1 year ago

Thank you for checking out the deck and offering some suggestions, Craeter, I appreciate it. I'm overdue on doing a year end wrap up of the various changes I've made this year. Definitely overdue for a primer update in general; I've been meaning to expand on a couple of sections and clean up organization in general. In regards to your suggestions:

• I used to play Sword of the Animist in some of the earliest iterations of this deck, from like February 2022 to at most the following year. A core memory was an early game where I pulled all of the basics out of my deck with the Sword, & my play group saw how this would be a problem. Over time, I've moved away from playing equipment much beyond the Lightning Greaves variants and Skullclamp, especially outside of dedicated Equipment strats. They're useful, but I don't like the play pattern of equipment costs, especially when I run lots of cheap instant speed interaction, that I feel those costs can compete with. I think as I optimized my mana base, Land Tax effectively took the slot that Sword used to be in.

• I'll keep that Kaya in mind. I played Kaya, Geist Hunter for a bit for her anthem effect and token doubling. Planeswalkers don't see a whole lot of play in my play groups because of how aggro and go-wide they primarily lean. Walkers tend to get attacked and removed very quickly.

• Nahiri's Resolve is interesting as an anthem & means of re-setting creatures at end of turn. For a Haste anthem, 5 mana feels kind of slow, especially when there are other haste anthems in the 3-4 cmc range that also offer a power buff in addition to haste. I think this could be a stronger piece in a deck with a more dedicated suite of creatures or artifacts with ETB effects.

• Etali, Primal Storm is another card I used to play in Isshin. There were turns where it popped off & got some really cool pulls off its doubled trigger. The majority of the time I played it, Etali tended to eat targeted removal and board wipes, or the attack triggers whiffed. It's a fun card, but very boom or bust. Big Red effects are fun, but after a while I craved more consistency.

• Mangara, the Diplomat was in some of the earliest iterations of this deck (maybe like the first 4 months). I found that my playgroup would play around Mangara in a way that he didn't feel super impactful. Some of the earliest archetype shifts that I made for this deck were cutting the more defensive pillow-fort effects like Mangara and Emberwilde Captain, and leaning much more into being proactive with my own aggro. I've found that Authority of the Consuls and similar effects have been wonderful here because they hamper early aggro, or cheaply come down when the table is in board-wipe recovery mode and helps me get out ahead.

• I played Gloin briefly in my old Prosper, Tome-Bound deck. Gimli feels like it could be a budget alternative to Professional Face-Breaker, or put in work in a more Legendary focused deck, like you suggested. I toyed around with the idea of a Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge Mardu Legends deck about a year ago, and I think these two Dwarves and Galadriel's Mirror would be more at home there.

Thank you again for the suggestions.

DreadKhan on Eye for Mischief

1 year ago

If you can get copies I feel like Exquisite Blood and Bloodchief Ascension would generate a ton of life with your Goading stuff, the risk of these cards is that you get targeted early, Goad helps offset this nicely I'd wager. It's a bit janky, but Elemental Mastery would be a nifty way to technically swing at each opponent while your Commander is out without risking anything of any value. Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer seems interesting if you can count on having lots of stuff Goaded, he also makes it hard for someone to stockpile weenies to Craterhoof you later (I checked and you can get other versions for cheaper, I just can't seem to link to them!). Professional Face-Breaker is a nice option if you think you can get in for damage.

I absolutely love Ghoulish Impetus in a deck that wants to see people swinging, makes a whole bunch of dead stuff surprisingly quickly if you pick your creatures well.

I think if you really want to run something like Spiteful Visions I'd consider something like Fate Unraveler or even Underworld Dreams, these reinforce the effect. Another card that'd be amazing with it would be Exquisite Blood that I mentioned earlier. Temple Bell or Humble Defector are some draw effects that might synergize with what you're doing, adding political draw effects.

Oh yeah, if you like to sow Chaos, I love how much you can do with Dauthi Embrace. If you like Varchild, maybe Varchild's War-Riders? I remember finding one of these in a store's binder and picking it up, it worked well in 1v1, but if you can goad them all they won't be a problem until late (when you're 1v1), at which point the card lets you sacrifice it.

I bet this deck is a blast to play!

Jopling on Menace to Society ($60 Menace Tribal)

1 year ago

Apollo_Paladin Seeing your deck is actually what inspired me to build my own version!

I didn't even notice the synergy between Professional Face-Breaker and Goldhound. I think I'll remove Nezumi Prowler for it.