Propaganda

Enchantment

Creatures can't attack you unless their controller pays for each creature he or she controls that's attacking you.

Discussion (50)

carpecanum on Gone Rogue

3 days ago

Bubble Matrix would allow your little guys to block big scary guys if they had to. (Ooh that went up in price. Maybe not)

You might need a couple cards to keep from being attacked. Propaganda is the obvious choice but there are many others. I see Aetherspouts there but I'd put in a couple more.

fmastrome2008 on Atraxa, Planeswalkers Voice

6 days ago

Fyi, Propaganda and Ghostly Prison don't prevent opponents from attacking your planeswalkers, just you. I ended up just using Ensnaring Bridge .

Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 6: Azorius …

3 weeks ago

Here’s something interesting: while there are over 120 mono-colored legendary creatures, there are less than fifty to each color pairing. As the pool has grown limited, we’ll need to shake up the format of these articles going forward. I’ll be grouping playstyle-linked generals where possible, but where that's not an option we’ll instead discuss generals who match the color pair’s themes overall. And today, we discuss Azorius!

Maybe you came here to build a deck build around flying. Maybe. Assuming you’re not Peter Pan, you probably came sniffing after a combination of White stax and Blue control. Maybe this is about enchantments for you. Maybe this is about blink. But in summary, this pairing has a general slant toward prevention and manipulation rather than offensive power.

White, when played defensively, comes across as a big, solid castle that central catering forgot to stock with anything but a vat of sour cream and the world’s blandest potatoes. Thick walls, but comparatively little offense or subtlety. This ties into stax in part, but also touches on themes which weren't covered in the white article: potent life-gain a la Rhox Faithmender and friends, shockingly powerful barriers such as Solitary Confinement and sweeping control of the board like the Aven Mindcensor . One of White's inherent disadvantages, however, comes to mind: besides a handful of "I win" cards like Felidar Sovereign and Near-Death Experience , white has no teeth outside the combat phase, and relatively little draw to dig for them. Test of Endurance and Celestial Convergence are made more reliable by white's fine pile of enchantment tutors, but personally I'd rather not depend on cards that give your opponents time to prevent your win.

Blue, on the other hand, isn’t so much defensive or offensive (in one sense, anyway), skipping that spectrum in preference of sidestepping problems until you can strategery your way to victory. It's great, in theory, and generally in practice. Blue, so long as we're lampooning, is a brilliant, twerpy engineer. A pest so frail they’d crumple under a breeze, so agile you’ll never tag them, and so annoying they’ll leave you begging for the clean killing blow they're too reedy to actually fetch you. The glaring problem, though, is that if an opponent can ignore a blue player's tricks and actually land a few hits, said blue player is probably screwed.

Combine them, though... Combine them, and they shore up one another's weaknesses in a big way. Combine them, and you potentially have the most solid, strategic defense in the game. Suddenly you have all the draw you could want for your Approach of the Second Sun , your Sphere of Safety will have an Enchanted Evening , and you can actually, feasibly win with Azor's Elocutors ... which will probably see you dying alone, unloved, and undoubtedly quite pleased with yourself.

For today, we're discussing Blink/Flicker, Control (again), and the Miscellaneously Themey. As always, please bear in mind that our focus here is not necessarily competitive but rather on thematic, archetypical commanders.

Blink/Flicker

ETB effects are wonderful, wonderful things. You get a body, sometimes even a good solid one like the Sun Titan and some nice, tasty effect that hopefully makes said body only the icing on a fine, fine cake. The classic example would be Palinchron : pair it with something repeatable like Deadeye Navigator and you have infinite mana. Then you can Meteor Golem the table's collective psyche straight into the nearest mental ward. Or, if you really want to emotionally cripple someone, blink their commander whenever they try to attack, attach some voltrony wincon, or... well, anything.

With White providing the protection keyword, Blue shelling out unblockable, and flying sourced from both, this pairing inarguably has the best evasion. Brago may not have the muscle to kill someone as is, but there are some great options for fixing that. Not that you need to: if you have a board of flickerhappy boyz, Brago's a great pick for commanding your blinking battalion.

Upon reading this card you may feel a great disturbance in the force, as though millions of token decks cried out in terror and were suddenly detained. Ask yourself: how many permanents cost less than 4 mana in a game? Assuming you're not playing an entire meta of leafy green lunatics, the answer is "most." This was my wife's first deck. Lavinia had herself a Conjurer's Closet , or something like, most games. I was grateful when she switched to slivers.

I like this guy. I like spirits. Rewarding the blink life with a swarm of tokens and supporting a neat mechanic with a number of good cards, Ranar's a great choice for someone who wants it all.

Control

Turtle up until you find your win, you spineless wart. Or, as Sun Tzu would say "Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack." Ghostly Prison AND Propaganda anyone? Nobody buys time like Azorius (blue extra turn shenannigans notwithstanding). The best spread of control options are tied up in these two colors, maintaining a proper hold on the battlefield to ensure you can, eventually, uninterruptedly, shamelessly legalese someone to death.

Simple. Direct. Rude. Terse? Resentful? Me? Absolutely. Do. Not. Want.

I have seen Gaddock Teeg a few times, to my discomfort. This feels like Teeg playing favorites. For someone labeled as a renegade, Lavinia certainly abides by this pairing's preference for smacking people in the kisser with a banhammer. Opponents can't cast anything large. Opponents can't cast anything free. Those fond of Izzet spellcasting combos must HATE this card. Hell, as someone who plays Rashmi, Eternities Crafter , I hate this card and haven't even seen it played.

Taking a step back from going wide, Gwafa reminds me of that scene in Robin Hood: Men in Tights where the sheriff tries to laugh his way though delivering bad news. "Your creature is worthless, haha. But you draw a card, hoho, isn't that nice? Hehe, aren't I nice?" Go to the darkest, dankest, smelliest hell, Gwafa.

Miscellaneous

Most of the removal tied to artifacts and enchantments works off of destroy effects, not exile, so if your focus isn't on commander-based synergies but rather your board state, Hanna may serve you well, especially considering how often tossing an artifact will get you a new one.

If you really want to flyspam, Kangee is a solid pick: blue-white has a whole mess of options to hose down the opponent with an airborne death swarm. Top marks if you manage to regularly play Dovescape and know the pleasure of watching your opponents try to process all their cool stuff turning into birds.

You like auras? Here you go. Avoid stuff like Reliquary Tower , overload your hand with goodies like Steel of the Godhead and All That Glitters , then gloat when you slap Bruna down and get everything you discarded into play without the bother of paying for it. Hell, put your auras on the creatures that tutored them. Bruna doesn't mind. She'll take them anyway, from anywhere. Thank God she doesn't have haste.

And, for my personal favorite...

This guy is a fantastic face to put on a political deck. Nobody wants to smash the guy who gives out free cards and life! At least, not until you find Mind Over Matter , or something like. You won't deck anyone thanks to this wascally wabbit's wording, but you'll have your entire deck in hand. That should be all, folks. The only reason Kwain doesn't have a deck in this house is because Rashmi and Pramikon got here first and stole all the good stuff.

That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back soon for Dimir!

Other Articles:

Mono-Green, with links to the other colors at the bottom

brianizbrewtal on Anowon, the Ruin Guy

3 weeks ago

I forgot to mention Crawlspace as well. That plus the Propaganda you already have will help against all those tokens

Lucas88 on Burn My Dread (Izzet Style)

4 weeks ago

Hey dude i like your style! im a izzet fan so anything that goes there i like!...if you are running the Nivs i recommend you to use Curiosity , also Propaganda i think its a must in this kind of decks maybe Silent Arbiter aswell... Mizzix's Mastery is a really cool finisher, Mind's Desire Eye of the Storm really fun cards to play in izzet.... Baral, Chief of Compliance Curious Homunculus  ^Flip Birgi, God of Storytelling  ^Flip Storm-Kiln Artist usefull bears....cheers mate!

seshiro_of_the_orochi on breena the demagogue deck suggestions

1 month ago

Ok, a forced combat deck in WB? Awesome!

There are three cards with Goad you can include: Bloodthirsty Blade , Martial Impetus , Parasitic Impetus

Then, there are multiple useful Propaganda -like effects:

Ghostly Prison , Sphere of Safety

Marchesa's Decree , Revenge of Ravens , Hissing Miasma , Blood Reckoning , Search the Premises ,

These are cards that give bonuses for attacking one player in particular: Curse of the Forsaken , Curse of Shallow Graves

Orzhov Advokist is similar to Breena.

Finally, Crown of Doom is pretty cool for a little game of hot potatoe.

VampRamped on What is a Man? (a hyper aggro Edgar Markov EDH)

1 month ago

YamishiTheWickedOne

Very Nice Aggro Edgar Markov list especially for a deck that is your first foray into commander. The Main problem I see you running into with this deck is that it is very soft to board wipes, and you will almost certainly lose the game if one resolves. I would recommend including Teferi's Protection , Flawless Maneuver , Boros Charm , Make a Stand , Unbreakable Formation , and Patriarch's Bidding . While these cards are skillful to utilize and require an understanding of your opponent's decks to know when to leave up mana to utilize them you will find you will be grateful to have them and win more often because of them.

Necropotence is an insanely strong card advantage engine especially in Edgar Markov that I would highly recommend as it allows the deck to continue to have the steam it needs going into midgame and mid-late game. In fact, when I am going for the aggressive strategy in my own deck it is the first card I tutor for if I can. Champion of Dusk , Pact of the Serpent , and Stinging Study are almost as good and serves the same purpose.

Stromkirk Condemned Is a pretty strong lord that most games you should have the land to pitch to it to boost your board, especially if you include some of the card advantage I recommended.

Reconnaissance Is also an amazing card for an aggressive strategy as it essentially gives all your creatures vigilance and you can remove any unfavorable blocks in combat.

For cards to remove to play them I will suggest cutting cards in different area's that I think have their advantages but probably benefit your decks aggro plan the least

Zealous Persecution and Vampiric Fury are not very necessary for yours deck. If you have not seen it already in time you will find that your anthem affects lords Shared Animosity , and Sanctum Seeker will be more than sufficient to win the game. Additionally, the card is quite soft to fog effects which are not too uncommon in commanders.

Anointed Procession is simply a card that is too slow for what an aggressive Edgar Markov deck wants to be doing and is much more suited to midrange aristocrat lists. Spending 4 mana for an effect that does not do anything is too slow and you would much rather want to be playing things like Sanctum Seeker , Vampire Nocturnus , and Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip

Abrade , Dismember , and Nameless Inversion have two main problems. For one when you are playing an aggressive Edgar Markov deck you are committing to winning the early mid-game so spending the time you need to kill your opponents interacting with their board states is not doing you any favors. Secondly, as an aggro deck the only permanents that are outright going to stop you are Magus of the Tabernacle , Windborn Muse , Propaganda , Ghostly Prison , Collective Restraint , Sphere of Safety , and Humility so if your going to play removal spells in your aggro deck the spell at a minimum should target enchantments though creatures as well can be valuable.

Obelisk of Urd Is ok but is probably to expensive on mana and you would rather be punching with creatures than using them to convoke this spell out.

Bloodcrazed Paladin is really only good when there is a board wipe and that is the last thing you want to happen to your board so would not recommend playing a creature that's only strength is to give you a measly benefit in the worst-case scenario.

Bloodthrone Vampire is not very good in aggro since you want to have as many creatures around as possible for all of your tribal payoffs and since your deck is not particularly geared towards and Edgar Markov Aristocrats Strat.

Stoneforge Mystic and Steelshaper's Gift help you get Skullclamp but you probably don't want to be looking for that card too hard especially if you play Necropotence , or Champion of Dusk as I recommended as you don't have to sacrifice your board state to get card advantage when a wide board state is exactly what you are looking for. Additionally, you are not playing too many sacrifice effects anyway so when you play a lord it effectively turns off your Skullclamp .

Those would be my additions and removals for your removals but your the one who gets to play the deck so make adjustments to suit your playgroup and what you want to get out of the deck. Feel free to check out my own Edgar Markov Deck A Vampire Storm *Primer*, not the exact same strategy as your deck, but you may find some useful advice in my section on my mindset of how I play Edgar Markov aggressively. Would be happy to hear your thoughts on my suggestions as well as what you think of my own deck.

Epicurus on Double Trouble EDH ⫸PRIMER⫷

1 month ago

Nice build, very creative. Damn, that was a lot to read through, haha.

My impression is that it doesn't have enough protection. The one card that I see in your maybe board for that which I like is Stonewood Invocation , since it doubles as a pump spell. But I would also like traditional protection cards like Heroic Intervention and Swiftfoot Boots (you wouldn't want Lightning Greaves , since they would prevent you from pumping Rafiq). Some other less standard protection cards might include Sylvan Safekeeper , Bastion Protector , Guardian Augmenter , and Shalai, Voice of Plenty . I would maybe pull from your mana-ramp to make room for at least a couple of these, since your mana curve is so low, and your pump spells are so cheap.

As for the disruption category, if it were my deck, I would do it differently. Blue and white have all of the best tax spells. It would take a novel to list them all, but for this deck I would include Ghostly Prison , Propaganda , Kataki, War's Wage , AEther Barrier and Norn's Annex , as well as artifacts like Crawlspace , Defense Grid , Damping Sphere ... this list could go on forever. And I like that you included Silent Arbiter , which makes me want to recommend using Dueling Grounds as well. Especially if you can fit in that Maze of Ith on your maybe board.

And finally, I'm confused by the inclusion of Green Sun's Zenith . What are you searching for with it? Your big pounder is in the command zone, not your library. Are you tutoring mana dorks with it? It doesn't seem entirely necessary. Maybe you can explain the reason to me that I'm not seeing. Frankly, I'd replace it with another land. You only have 32 of those.

Hope any of that helps. Cheers!