Raugrin Crystal

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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
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Raugrin Crystal

Artifact

: Add , or .

Cycling *(, Discard this card: Draw a card.)

slashdotdash on

3 years ago

Hey there Kronhamilton,

First of all, I like the improvements youā€™ve made to your deck. Itā€™s already looking a lot slicker and I can see youā€™ve made some very fun looking changes to how the deck plays.

Youā€™ve got a nice array of threats (I always love to see the Bringers and Ur-Dragon) and a decent amount of ramp which are both a big plus. Additionally, youā€™ve got the beginnings of some nasty graveyard synergy shaping up, which looks really, really cool as a sort of plan B.

That being said, Iā€™d like to make a few suggestions to help guide you toward a more consistent and powerful Golos deck. Please remember that these suggestions are just my informed opinion, and that I totally respect whatever deck choices you decide to make. I really just want to help you get comfortable with deck building and learning what to look for in a ā€˜goodā€™ or ā€˜badā€™ card.

Broad Suggestions

I would encourage you to add 2 Lands, 3 Removal cards, and 8 Draw cards. Iā€™d also think about adding 2 more Ramp cards, but that is less critical to the overall health of the deck. Your Threats look great and I think your Sweepers are also appropriate. Anything that synergizes with your graveyard backup plan is great.

There are a couple of things to think about as you play this deck; 1. ā€œAm I happy or sad to be holding this card in my hand or drawing it off the top of my deck?ā€ ā€“ If a card seems to constantly be ā€˜the wrong cardā€™ for the situation, or you can never seem to cast it, or you always play other cards instead, or you tend to die while holding a certain card, then you probably want to think about how well that card fits in your deck and whether or not you should cut it or modify the deck to support it. 2. ā€œWhat ongoing advantage does this card give me?ā€ ā€“ Some cards seem like a decent card based on having decent power/toughness, a fair cost, and some neat keywords or abilities. Just having those upsides alone though doesnā€™t make a card truly powerful. Instead, try to think about what ways a card can synergize with your deck to create crazy effects or otherwise how it will become more dangerous as the game progresses (like a Quartzwood Crasher, Scute Swarm, or Giant Adephage). Additionally, try to find cards that do multiple things such as Chasm Skulker which gets bigger when you draw cards and also explodes into tokens when it dies, or even Ravenous Chupacabra which deals with a threat and also acts as a blocker when you are facing pressure. The key is finding a way to levarage the most amount of value in each individual card ā€“ even a 2 mana ramp spell will set you up to play all of your future spells 1 turn earlier than normal for the rest of the game, which can be an insane advantage when you think about it. 3. ā€œAm I out of options?ā€ ā€“ If you canā€™t seem to find a solution to a problem or youā€™re ā€˜running out of steamā€™, then it is likely that you need more card draw and more ways to create ā€˜enginesā€™ that accrue value. An example of an engine would be Fertilid + Evolution Sage or Rampaging Baloths + Elemental Bond or Kruphix, God of Horizons + Victory Chimes or Atraxa, Praetors' Voice + Ajani, the Greathearted or Anointed Procession + Endless Ranks of the Dead or Search for Azcanta Ā Flip or Deadbridge Chant or Mind Unbound, etc.

Ramp

Your ramp looks pretty good with 10 dedicated Ramp cards. Iā€™d suggest adding 2 more Ramp spells to really help speed things up early. Examples would be Kodama's Reach, Llanowar Elves, Wild Growth, Farseek, Rampant Growth, Springbloom Druid, etc.

Ramp - 10

Not Ramp

Draw

Overall, I think your card draw package needs a little bit of love. I want to note I see a lot of ā€˜lootingā€™ effects like the ones on Teferi, Master of Time or Obsessive Stitcher and while these cards are great for a graveyard strategy they still donā€™t count as card draw. Iā€™d keep most of these ā€˜lootingā€™ type cards, but try to find cards that get you about 2 or 3 cards such as Harmonize, Concentrate, Escape to the Wilds, Urban Evolution, Moldervine Reclamation, Deathreap Ritual, Recurring Insight, Mind Unbound, Underworld Connections, Cloudblazer, Mulldrifter, Drawn from Dreams, Return of the Wildspeaker, Harvester of Souls, Momentous Fall, Dream Trawler, Keeper of Fables etc.

Draw - 2

Not Draw

  • Barrin, Tolarian Archmage ā€“ drawing 1 card does not really count. If anything, Barrin is like slow, bad removal for dealing with your opponentsā€™ stuff temporarily. If youā€™re interested in reusing Golosā€™s land finding ability I would recommend playing Soulherder instead.

  • Solemn Simulacrum ā€“ He has sort of ā€˜incidental valueā€™ with his death trigger but doesnā€™t actively net you a bunch of cards like Keruga, the Macrosage or Beast Whisperer. Sad Robot is still great though.

  • Titanoth Rex ā€“ still keep this guy because he is a threat that isnā€™t dead in your hand on turn 5.

  • Void Beckoner ā€“ same story as the Rex

  • Teferi, Master of Time ā€“ Teferiā€™s great, but he is really at his best when youā€™ve got 4-7 card in hand so that you can throw a bunch of big threats to the graveyard and hopefully draw a reanimation spell. Other than that, Teferi isnā€™t going to refill your hand so he doesnā€™t count as true draw.

Removal

Your removal package looks like it needs a couple more additions to keep your deck responsive and able to handle imminent-doom type threats. It is worth noting that cards like Blatant Thievery or Mythos of Illuna can save you in certain situations, but be wary of their crazy mana costs and the fact that they are not instant-speed answers. Examples include Mythos of Nethroi, Beast Within, Price of Fame, Reality Shift, Terminate, Return to Nature, Putrefy, Utter End, Eat to Extinction, Murderous Rider, etc.

Removal ā€“ 4 (aim for 7)

Cuts

There are several cards that I would consider cutting first when modifying the deck.

  • Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast - he relies very heavily on luck and only interacts with creatures. This makes him good with only 30% of your deck. Additionally, Lukka canā€™t ā€˜protectā€™ himself like Garruk can (making tokens to block for him), nor does he have an immediately accessible removal ability like Teferi. Overall, Lukka is interesting but a little lacking in consistency, defensibility, and power.

Azusa, Lost but Seeking ā€“ you donā€™t have enough land + card draw to really capitalize on Asuzaā€™s ability. Yes, you can use the double lands (like Gruul Turf) to bounce a land to hand and then play that land with Asuza, but realistically thatā€™s such a narrow and relatively tame synergy (in this non-landfall deck, that is) that you would be better off playing a Farseek or a Rampant Growth or even a Fertile Ground.

  • Sparkhunter Masticore - This little fellow has a major drawback and no seriously crazy abilities that make him worthwhile. Yes he can deal with planeswalkers, but so can a Murderous Rider or an Eat to Extinction. Yes he can be an indestructible 3/4, but you have to pay 3 mana just to make him indestructible. Under normal circumstances thatā€™s 6 mana for a 3/4 that dodges death one time - a 3/4 just isnā€™t fantastic. The biggest bad news about this robocat is its ā€œadditional cost to castā€ ability which means that even if you hit it with Golosā€™s ā€˜Rainbow Wheel of Deathā€™ ability, you still have to discard a card for a 3/4. I just honestly think youā€™d rather have a removal spell (Beast Within, Mythos of Nethroi) instead of this cat any day.

  • Pursued Whale - While this whale is kinda cool and he does force combat, he is just sorta expensive for what he does. 7 mana for an 8/8 is pretty standard and giving your opponents tokens (that they could just attack you with or sacrifice to an effect) can be a bad idea in some situations, such as when they have an Beastmaster Ascension or a similar effect on the field. While his semi-hexproof ability (3 more mana to target) seems nifty, that is one of the only really powerful highlight abilities of this card, meaning that ability is protecting a relatively low-powered card. A couple immediate alternatives come to mind for me; Geode Rager to force combat AND keep you safe, and Dream Trawler for a flying, hexproof, lifelinking, card drawing threat.

  • Renata, Called to the Hunt - She just isnā€™t fantastic. You arenā€™t playing a devotion centric deck in which she might become a 10/10, and your strategy doesnā€™t really care about 1/1 counters either. I would consider replacing her with a Harmonize or another 3 or 4 drop with more impactful abilities. Heck, even another reanimation spell could be nice like Unburial Rites or Grave Upheaval since your deck seems to have some tendency to but things in the graveyard for later.

  • Lorescale Coatl - Cards like this (or his bigger cousin Chasm Skulker) are really designed for ā€œwheel decksā€ that play ā€œwheel effectsā€ like Windfall or Reforge the Soul. He is fine, but really not much better than that. If you want a threat that can grow faster and do more important things, try Managorger Hydra or even Scute Mob.

  • Colossification - This aura is too expensive, taps your creature down, and worst of all is an aura. Auras are generally quite bad because your opponent can destroy your creature and the aura attached to them with one spell ā€“ and odds are theyā€™ll do that because it is usually too juicy not to. The fact that you canā€™t attach Colossification and attack immediately means that your opponents will have a full turn to deal with it before you get a chance to use it (and keep in mind your Colossified creature needs to survive 3 opponentsā€™ turns!). This means youā€™ll most likely run out of cards in a hurry without accomplishing anything.

  • Door to Nothingness - Unlike Progenitus, you canā€™t reanimate the Door, nor can you get its full value off of the Rainbow Wheel of Death. The only time this card does anything at all is when you literally have 10 mana of the exact color combination necessary to use it. Itā€™s still your call, and I know some people make it a goal to Door their opponents, but be warned: you probably donā€™t have as much ramp as you need to make this work well. Iā€™d consider supporting this crazy cards (and your many expensive threats for that matter) with a few more ramp spells ā€“ Boundless Realms, Migration Path, Circuitous Route, Kodama's Reach, Explosive Vegetation, Zendikar Resurgent

  • Azor's Gateway Ā Flip ā€“ This card belongs in a very specific variant of Golos. That variant is the Minamo, School at Water's Edge Golos deck which also runs stuff like Vizier of Tumbling Sands, Fatestitcher, Kiora's Follower, and other payoffs like Jegantha, the Wellspring, or Captain Sisay. Especially considering that Sanctum of the Sun (the flip side) adds X mana of only 1 color, I think this card is just rarely going to work like you want it to unfortunately.

  • Lathliss, Dragon Queen - Basically, you only have 3 other dragons in the deck so I would either exchange a bunch of cards for more dragons or cut Lathliss, since she will rarely be able to use her best ability (5/5 tokens). Keep in mind, you could also run a bunch of cards with the ā€˜changelingā€™ keyword if you wanted to get really funky, in which case you may as well also play stuff like Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, Reaper King, Crested Sunmare, The First Sliver but thatā€™s a very slippery and insane slope that Iā€™m not sure you want to get sucked into.

Summary

Nice changes Kronhamilton, I can see that your deck is really starting to shape up as a rampy graveyard-mingling Golos deck, and thatā€™s really cool. I encourage you to try and pay attention to what situations you find yourself in, as thatā€™s often the best way to tell what cards you need to cut or add to the deck for it to work best. As a default, Iā€™d consider making a few of the changes I mentioned in the Broad Suggestion section, as those changes should just generally help with your deckā€™s consistency.

Please do let me know how you decide to tune your deck ā€“ itā€™s really fun to watch honestly, and Iā€™m always down to help advise you. Other than that, take care and enjoy Golos!

Best,

-Slashdotdash

Stardragon on

3 years ago

Thxs LeaPlath, TriusMalarky, Flooremoji and Oloro_Magic for all your help

Now Update

Cards cut:

Archangel of Tithes

Baird, Steward of Argive

Isperia, Supreme Judge

Syncopate

Call the Gatewatch

1xOath of Teferi

Jeskai Banner

Raugrin Crystal

Nahiri, the Harbinger

Tibalt, Rakish Instigator- Moved to maybe may add to side board to stop life gain deck if they're a thing in pioneer

Tezzeret, Artifice Master- Moved to Maybe

Narset of the Ancient Way

1xMountain

1xPlains

1xIsland

Cards Added:

2xNarset, Parter of Veils

3xOath of Nissa

4xGrowth Spiral

2xFires of Invention

2xOath of Chandra

2xDig Through Time

2xDeploy the Gatewatch

2xRender Silent

2xAbsorb-I that TriusMalarky said to have Absorb but than i remembered Render Silent and put both on here for know I will get rid of the weaker one, gaining life is nice but stopping players from casting other spells is too nice to ignore but im sure how many deck will have more than one spell per turn to be played in pioneer

4xQuench

2xInterplanar Beacon

2xSunpetal Grove

2xCinder Glade

2xHinterland Harbor

1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon- For big finisher

2x Spark Double- Mostly for fill but being able to copy planeswalkers is a nice boon though for 4 mana might be too much

Still going to find room for Wrath effects

slashdotdash on 5 color no theme deck

3 years ago

Dear Kronhamilton

Golos, Tireless Pilgrim is my favorite commander, and I've been brewing around him ever since he was teased. Let me just say you've chosen an excellent commander.

(Iā€™ve written quite a lot in an attempt to make a sort of guide for you, so if you want the short version, check out the Suggestions panel)

Golos can be tricky to build around since he can do literally anything pretty well. The easiest way to make an effective Golos deck is to lean into Golos's 7 Mana Rainbow Wheel Of Death. Before getting into that though, we need to cover some EDH deckbuilding basics.

I think the most useful advice I can give someone who is just beginning to explore the deck-building territory of EDH is to structure your deck and mind your Ratios. By this I mean it is useful to categorize the cards in your deck according to the role they fulfill.

Weā€™ll begin by looking at some core categories that youā€™ll want to make your deck function effectively. Then Iā€™ll present the Ratios (how many of each category of card) you will want to make a generic Golos deck function effectively. Next, Iā€™ll include a detailed (but not totally complete, because Iā€™d be here all day) catalogue of cards within some of those categories. Iā€™ll also offer up some suggestions and input about some of your specific card choices. Lastly, since Iā€™m about to unpack a lot of information, I will include a brief list of suggestions (see the bottom) for a generically good Golos ā€˜Shellā€™ that should be able to support most Golos strategies.

Categories

  • Draw

  • Ramp

  • Removal

  • Sweepers

  • Threats

  • Support

  • Land

Draw Show

Ramp Show

Removal Show

Sweepers Show

Threats Show

Support Show

Land Show

The art of Ratios is all about determining what combination of cards from each category makes your deck run the most smoothly.

Please note that these Ratios will not total to 99 cards. This is because you will invariably have extra flexibility to choose how your deck behaves even after establishing functional Ratios. Also keep in mind that although these Ratios do recommend you adhere to the minimum number of cards in each category, you still can choose which cards will fill those slots. The point is not to restrict your options, but instead to create a ā€˜Shellā€™ that is reliable enough to power your Threats cards, Support cards, and other cards. Whatever you do, make sure you have at least the minimum number of Draw and Ramp cards. THE MOST IMPORTANT CARDS IN THE DECK ARE DRAW AND RAMP!!!

While I ultimately suggest Ratios resembling the Basic Golos Shell, I will lay out the Ratios for several different Shells;

  • Template: a sort of baseline beginnerā€™s guide which is commonly promoted as a place to start.

  • Basic Golos: a modified version of the Template that suites most Golos decks.

  • Control: a version tailored for a slower game with many Sweepers.

  • Aggro: a version designed to act quickly and deploy Threats before the opponents are prepared.

  • Big Mana: a version invested heavily into Ramp with the goal of deploying many end-game Threats.

  • Mega Mana: an even more extreme version of Big Mana with extremely expensive Threats.

Template Show

Basic Golos Show

Control Show

Aggro Show

Big Mana Show

Mega Mana Show

Draw Show

Support Show

Please remember that any suggestions I make are because I am trying to help. Ultimately, the choices you make with your deck are up to you, and I can only provide constructive criticism based on my own experience and opinions.

Good luck :)

Ratio Fixing

The most effective change to your deck would probably be adjusting the Ratios, especially with regard to your Draw cards. Applying the most basic Template Shell, you want to have at least these three quantities nailed down for a smoother and reasonably powerful deck;

  • Lands ā€“ 36 --> You have 40 Lands (Cut 4 Lands)

  • Ramp ā€“ 10 --> You have 5 true Ramp cards (Add 5 to 8 Ramp cards)

  • Draw ā€“ 10 --> You have 3 true Draw cards (Add 7 to 10 Draw cards)

What I counted in your deck Show

Mutate

Depending on how strong your Mutate subtheme is, some of your Mutate inclusions may act as engines. However, I must state that Mutate is a VERY risky and even fragile strategy since your Mutate ā€˜Pileā€™ of creatures will all be destroyed at once if your opponent uses a Removal spell or a Sweeper. For that reason, I recommend leaning out of the Mutate theme (unless the Mutate card is just straight-up insane, as in the example of Nethroi, Apex of Death).

With that said, playing a Mutate theme is your decision and I totally respect that and if you want to stick to a Mutate theme then by all means do so. I just want to be sure you know that Mutate is a risky strategy that you cannot depend on to fulfill your Ramp and Draw slots (so youā€™ll just need to supplement it with other cards).

Cut or Include?

At a glance your deck seems like something you have created using just your collection ā€“ and thatā€™s great! However, if you want to incrementally upgrade your deck, then I recommend replacing most of the cards in your deck with more powerful options over time.

Here is a list of cards you should probably keep playing: - Barrier Breach (Removal, because exiling 3 enchantments is helpful in some situations)

In my opinion, there are other, better options for all of the other nonland cards in the deck, however it is up to you to decide on how you would like to proceed so I wonā€™t intrude.

I strongly recommend cutting the Planeswalkers though ā€“ Calix, Destiny's Hand doesnā€™t seem to synergize much with the deck and I feel that Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast is not very potent.

Lands

Just as a recommendation, I would suggest the following spread of Basic Lands;

  • 8 Basic Forests

  • 3 of each other Basic Land

The remainder of your lands could be either more basics (which is really, really, risky if you donā€™t have tons of Ramp ā€“ think like 15 Ramp cards and about 12 Basic Forests) or Color Fixing Lands (see the Catalogue for more options). It is rough to have your lands enter the battlefield tapped, but unless you want to either lean into Green or spend a lot of money on lands, you will just have to live with it (I play around 5-10 tapped lands in a normal Golos deck and it isnā€™t really that bad).

In this section, I will list out an example of the Basic Golos Shell complete with the necessary Ratios and some examples of good/fun cards in each category. Iā€™ll try to keep it relatively Budget sensitive and most of these cards will be relatively random ā€“ this wonā€™t be based on any particular theme so donā€™t expect it to be optimal.

As a reminder:

Basic Golos Show

The Shell

Ramp ā€“ 12

Draw ā€“ 13

Removal ā€“ 7

Sweepers ā€“ 2

Threats ā€“ 12

Support ā€“ 7

Land ā€“ 36

Good Luck :)

-Slashdotdash

multimedia on GaviĀ“s Rrecycle Bin

4 years ago

Hey, Tectonic Reformation which is included in the precon gives you a repeatable source of low mana cost cycling using lands. This is wanted to repeatedly trigger Gavi, Slide, Drift and Haven. Idyllic Tutor is worth including because it can tutor for one of Reformation, Slide, Drift or Haven and you can recur it with Archaeomancer to tutor again.

There's a lack of ramp here and ramp is a fundamental part of all Commander decks. You want to make room in your deck for ramp since ramp also is color fixing. In the precon are Sol Ring/Arcane Signet these are good rocks for ramp, add them to your deck. There's also three Signets in the precon I suggest adding those rocks too.

Chromatic Lantern is not included in the precon, but it's a good mana rock with Reformation because then you can tap any land to make red mana to cycle a land with Reformation. Raugrin Crystal is the new Jeskai mana rock that has cycling.

Smothering Tithe is a fantastic card for repeatable ramp in multiplayer Commander since your opponents, much more than not, are not going to pay the two mana to deny you a treasure when they draw therefore each time around the table you're going to make treasures and these treasures can be saced to make any color of mana. Smothering is also good with Reformation because treasures can make red mana.

Some good budget cards with cycling to consider adding:

I offer more advice including what cards to consider cutting. Good luck with your deck.

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