Stranglehold

Enchantment

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If an opponent would begin an extra turn, that player skips that turn instead.

Discussion (51)

Royal-Tot on Eternally Cursed | Primer

3 days ago

Fenryr yeah Heartwood Storyteller has no business in a Cedh meta. Sure you get to draw a card but so does a flash hulk player or one on consult lines. That’s why I think scheming symmetry is a no go unless you’re playing Stranglehold

RNR_Gaming on Red Stax Enchantments

1 week ago

Viable in certain situations. Typically stax are just taxes and in certain situations they're great but in others they do nothing. For example Stranglehold is amazing if you're playing against someone running fetches and tutors but against someone playing fair top deck magic it's a 4 mana do nothing

dingusdingo on Tana / Tymna, Draft Two

1 week ago

Alright, lets look at Loyal Retainers in another way.

You're running 7 legendary creatures outside of your commanders (which we will assume you WONT send to GY), so there are only 7 creatures that Loyal Retainers can return. Assuming a 99 card deck, 7 in starting hand, and 2 specific cards to see (retainers + legend), you've got a 7% chance to get Retainers, and a 41% chance to have one of your legends in your opener. After 5 draws, you're only at a 60% chance to hit a legend.

Now lets compare to Life . Same chance to see the card, 7%, but it works with 29 creatures instead of 7. Geometric calculator is telling me 91% chance to see a creature in your opener that works with Life . After 5 draws, 98.8% that you'll have a critter.

Obviously Retainers does have some benefit. It can be used to make an infinite etb/ltb loop for winning. How valuable is that to your deck though? Loyal Retainers can only be used BEFORE combat on your turn, and Tymna gives you cards AFTER combat. Your main source of card advantage is going to cause you to have to wait a rotation after finding all the pieces to your combo. This is a massive downside. You can already assemble infinite loops with Saffi + Titan, or Saffi + Karmic.

Lets imagine another scenario. You have the Saffi on the board with Retainers, but you have Sun Titan/Karmic Guide in the graveyard. Loyal Retainers can't grab that half of your combo back for you.

Reveillark is going to outperform Loyal Retainers most of the time. It forms a loop with Saffi + Karmic + sac outlet to recover your entire GY.

• Sacrifice Saffi Eriksdotter targeting Karmic Guide
• Sacrifice Karmic Guide . It returns to battlefield, we put ETB trigger on stack targeting Reveillark
• After Reveillark returns to battlefield, we sacrifice Karmic guide. We now have both Saffi + Guide in GY
• Reveillark is sacrificed, we will return both Saffi AND Karmic.
• We now pull creature 1 we want from GY with Karmic
• Sacrifice Saffi, targeting Karmic. Sacrifice Karmic, it returns from Saffi effect, giving us Reveillark again. Sac Karmic so its in GY, then sac Reveillark to give us Karmic + Saffi. Karmic entering gives us creature 2 from our GY. Rinse and repeat until you pull entire GY and combo finish.

Other Stuff

You're running Kiki and splinter twin but you don't have any creature payloads to win. If you want to value reuse/copy creatures with an ETB, there are more cost efficient ways of doing it. I recommend you either cut these or put in Village Bell-Ringer or Combat Celebrant to have a Kiki payload. Overall though, I would just cut this combo.

You're running Yisan and Birthing Pod but you aren't running the cards to make them go. You need effects that untap them based off creature ETBs or actives, which are slot intensive. Yisan is dope, but if you aren't running the cards to support it you're running a slow tutor. Once again, I'd cut these if you aren't going to build around.

You are trying to fit too many combos in. Pick 1 or two that overlap in card usage and cut the others. Its better to do two things extremely well than it is to do 5 things mediocre. You should run reanimation loops + protean hulk + sac outlets, OR you should run kiki combo + pod/yisan lines. The hulk/animation loops both require sac outlets to be present on your field, while kiki/pod lines require untap effects. This will let you reuse your combo cards in multiple spots which will help reduce dead draws. Nothing feels worse than when you're holding 3 different pieces to three different combos that have very little utility outside combo lines. This is also why you're struggling to find space for more stax and ramp pieces.

You are also running a pretty high amount of beater cards. You should pare them down and run only the most efficient beater cards with high utility. Cathars' Crusade is a nice card but it does nothing on its own and buckles from Wrath effects. Compare to Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite which gives a buff but can also beat even if its your only creature. It also hurts your enemies board presence greatly. Bitterblossom is a fantastic card but you aren't getting as much value out of it because you aren't running enough pieces to slow down the game. Keep it but consider that a 1/1 flyer doesn't do much if your opponent is able to drop their giant dragon commander, you have to slow the game! Champion of Lambholt will provide you with free swings, but if you just lock the game out instead you don't need the evasion and this card doesn't beat that well. Custodi Soulcaller is a meme card, it requires either haste or an untap step (so its slow), you have to swing to use it, and its limited in what it can grab, and it gets worse the fewer players there are.

Price of Glory is a wonderful hate card, but unfortunately far less effective than you think. Compare to Grand Abolisher . Abolisher can beat down, which is your game plan. Abolisher 100% protects your combo window. Price of Glory doesn't stop the counterspell that stops your combo, it just exacts a massive price for your opponent casting it. However, when faced with the option of losing the game or losing two lands, every single opponent is going to choose the two lands. Strong card but you don't need to run it.

Zombie Infestation is a nice discard outlet, and great when you're ahead and have locked the board. Just like Bitterblossom though, you have to slow the game or this card will be outclassed by the casual stompy 6 drops that are allowed to hit the table. Stax up or cut out.

Broken Bond is nice for minor ramp but bad for sorcery speed. Doesn't let you stop combos popping off. Don't be tempted by this card. Run Nature's Claim for cheap instant speed removal.

Cryptolith Rite is strong when you have a mana sink or tons of critters. Tymna will keep you stocked up on cards to dump with, while Tana gives you the critters. If you can afford it, Carpet of Flowers will outperform this card though. Keep it around if you don't have access to the Carpet.

What Goes In

So after cutting down all the shenanigans, heres what you want to add

DORKS: You get cards for hitting with creatures. Dorks are creatures that give mana and come out very fast. The maximum density of turn 1 dorks means Tymna turn 2, means free cards turn 3. This will improve the consistency of your deck more than anything else you can put in. You're currently missing Llanowar Elves Fyndhorn Elves Boreal Druid Deathrite Shaman Arbor Elf Elvish Mystic . These have the bonuses of working well with Priest of Titania and Elvish Archdruid , which will help you if you decide to run mana denial cards like Winter Orb or Armageddon (which I recommend both). Deathrite hates on GY and will ramp consistently with fetchlands which are prevalent in the format, extremely value. Arbor Elf can ramp more than 1 in tandem with Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth . These dorks will help guarantee strong starts and consistent power to your deck I can't stress this enough.

ROCKS: Adding in the signets/talismans is going to ramp you, color fix you, and work in tandem with shutting off your opponents mana. Really really recommend these especially if your playtesting leaves you unhappy with mana availability.

STAX: This deck only works when you slow the game, I also want to stress this. Yeah you have some neat combos for winning discretely, but you are primarily a beater stax deck. Your commander gives you cards PER TURN, your other commander gives you CREATURES PER SWING. You want to games to go longer so you get more turns for more cards and more free creatures. It really isn't that hard dude. Cards that slow down the game will help you far more than they help your opponent, even symmetrical ones. This is why the deck runs Blood Moon despite being a four color deck. If you let your opponents start tutoring and dropping their big creatures, they will do better in combat than you and you will have a real bad day. If you hit their mana, stop their tutors and draw, and destroy their engines, you will pull ahead from the massive value you generate in the command zone. Please look at Root Maze Winter Orb Armageddon Rule of Law Deafening Silence Eidolon of Rhetoric Stranglehold Collector Ouphe Kataki, War's Wage

SAC OUTLETS: Real important if you decide to go with Reanimation/Protean combo lines. Look at Viscera Seer Carrion Feeder Altar of Dementia

Closing Thoughts

If you want to run a stax deck, you have to run the slow down pieces. If you want to build a cool reanimation combo deck, I recommend switching commanders or lists, take a peek at Karador Boonweaver

https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/621075-karador-boonweaver-combo

This list is certainly looking a lot better with the first round of revisions! With some more cuts and shaving off some combos, you will improve its efficiency a lot!

P.S. I couldn't open the choice guidelines tab you made sorry bud.

multimedia on Akiri and Bruse *EDH Testing*

2 weeks ago

Hey, saw your forum topic asking for help. This is a good start, you have the right idea if you want to make this a cEDH deck then stax is a direction to consider, but there's only three stax cards here.

Consider more stax and hatebears?

• Tangle Wire
• Static Orb
• Smokestack
• Ethersworn Canonist
• Blood Moon
• Armageddon
• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• Hokori, Dust Drinker
• Phyrexian Revoker
• Pithing Needle
• Sphere of Resistance
• Magus of the Moon
• Stranglehold
• Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• Smoke
• Spirit of the Labyrinth
• Rule of Law
• Containment Priest
• Rampaging Ferocidon
• Torpor Orb
• Harsh Mentor

Priest, Ferocidon and Mentor depend on the meta you play in, but each can stop combos. Priest prevents reanimation combos, Ferocidon prevents infinite creature combos and Mentor prevents infinite nonmana activated abilities combos.

Red does a good job of hating on blue.

• Pyroblast
• Red Elemental Blast
• Boil

All these can be cast with Sunforger.

Extra turn spells can let you hit another player with Akiri potentially killing two players or more with Commander damage.

• Angel's Grace
• Last Chance
• Final Fortune
• Chance for Glory

Grace can prevent you from losing the game after casting these extra turn spells and Grace can be cast with Sunforger.

Other cards to consider adding:

• Gamble
• Mana Vault
• Grand Abolisher
• Faithless Looting
• Chaos Warp
• Vandalblast

---

Out of all these suggestions consider this expanded stax package and additional cards to consider adding:

• Tangle Wire
• Static Orb
• Ethersworn Canonist
• Blood Moon
• Armageddon
• Phyrexian Revoker
• Pithing Needle
• Smoke
• Spirit of the Labyrinth
• Rule of Law
• Gamble
• Mana Vault
• Grand Abolisher
• Pyroblast
• Vandalblast
• Angel's Grace
• Last Chance
• Final Fortune
• Chance for Glory

Good luck with your deck.

Myrmecodia on Norin Naughty Time

3 weeks ago

Interesting I'll try it out! Until now I didn't realize that Stranglehold specified opponents- I thought it was all players. What a brutal card, I'm definitely going to add it in.

MagicalHacker on EDH “auto adds”?

1 month ago

There's only one colorless card that is present in all 19 decks of mine, and it's not Sol Ring... it's Boompile .

As for colored spells, Enlightened Tutor is in all my white decks, Cyclonic Rift is in all my blue decks, Decree of Pain and Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor are in all my black decks, Stranglehold and Sunbird's Invocation are in all my red decks, and Song of the Dryads is in all my green decks.

As for multicolored cards, Ashiok, Dream Render is in all my decks playing blue and black and Assassin's Trophy is in all my decks playing black and green.

As for cards that aaaalmost made it, but was missing in one deck that could play it (but were in at least 3 decks), there were quite a few: Maze of Ith , Myriad Landscape , Strip Mine , Tolaria West , Gamble , Aven Mindcensor , Smothering Tithe , Weathered Wayfarer , Beast Within , Carpet of Flowers , Compost (currently being tested), and Sylvan Library .

SideBae on Devouring Despair

1 month ago

So the main bonus of green in EDH is its access to mana dorks. Llanowar Elves , Elves of Deep Shadow and Orcish Lumberjack all belong in this deck, and you may want to find a place for Elvish Mystic , Priest of Titania , Fyndhorn Elves , Birds of Paradise , Deathrite Shaman , Arbor Elf and/or Bloom Tender . Note that Arbor Elf is especially powerful if you end up running cards like Wild Growth , Elvish Guidance and/or Wild Growth . Dorks will accelerate you early game and provide sac-fodder in the late game.

Regrowth is a strictly-better Nature's Spiral .

Faithless Looting is a really good source of card selection for one mana. You're probably going to want to run it, as it makes a lot of mediocre hands much more keepable.

Green Sun's Zenith is a great card to consider, especially since you're already running Dryad Arbor . If you cast Green Sun's Zenith turn one for X = 0, you can fetch Dryad Arbor right away. It's a good form of one mana ramp outside dorks and enchant-lands.

A lot of your dudes are gonna die in a sacrifice deck. In order to get card-advantage out of this, you should run Grim Haruspex , Midnight Reaper and/or Harvester of Souls . Unfortunately, these don't trigger with token-deaths, but they'll still help a lot. Deathreap Ritual is similarly powerful and triggers with token deaths, though it only triggers once a turn.

Speaking of card-draw, you have access to some good stuff there. Painful Truths is a three-mana draw-three I've been very impressed with, and Shamanic Revelation is also helpful. From a permanent-based point of view, Phyrexian Arena and Slate of Ancestry are the way to go.

A lot of your removal are one-for-ones (see Terminate , Hero's Downfall , Doom Blade , etc.). In general, I find one-for-ones are usually not very powerful in a format with three opponents, as you're facing three times as many cards as you have. Your Damnation is a great start; consider Toxic Deluge , Hull Breach , Decimate , Casualties of War , Windgrace's Judgment , Reckless Spite , By Force , Ancient Grudge , etc. I've found these to be more efficient, and therefore more powerful, than one-for-ones. Some one-for-ones, though, are so tough to counter or are so efficient as is that they're worth including: Nature's Claim and your Krosan Grip come to mind.

Runes of the Deus comes to mind as a good way to force through commander damage.

Command Tower , City of Brass , Mana Confluence , Reflecting Pool , Forbidden Orchard , Exotic Orchard and friends are all good ETB untapped lands to consider.

I've always liked Smallpox , both in general and in EDH. You might have luck with it in this deck; similar cards include Innocent Blood , Smokestack and the card Pox itself. If you choose to go the Smokestack route, Bitterblossom and/or Ophiomancer are worth considering. They might be worth considering anyways, though.

Spellbreaker Behemoth is an efficient creature that disrupts countermagic. Harsh Mentor , Pyrostatic Pillar , Eidolon of the Great Revel , Shattergang Brothers or Stranglehold are similar ways to punish opponents while having good cards on your side.

Finally, you should consider Overrun effects as secondary win-conditions. Using Natural Order to grab Craterhoof Behemoth while you have a wide board can easily win you the game; Green Sun's Zenith or Chord of Calling also do the job, though they're more expensive mana-wise and therefore worse. Triumph of the Hordes is a similar card that can snatch games, though it cannot be tutored as easily.

Ok! Good luck -- that's all I got.

SideBae on Chainer - Necrotic Ooze and Worldgorger Dragon

1 month ago

This list looks really good. I have a few thoughts:

With regard to combo packages, you generally want to use pieces that can be valuable on their own, while taking as few card-slots as possible. I highly suggest only leaving in the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and the Worldgorger Dragon combos. I say this because the other combos require more cards that are dead on their own and/or cost too much mana. Leaving in just two combos, which have some interchangeable parts, means you have more slots for disruption, the deck is more consistent, and the average power of each top-deck you get increases.

You may want to consider haste-enabling reanimation magic, since you can use it to combo off without needing your general on the table. In general, the more you can combo off independent of your commander, the more frequently you'll win; people know 'kill on sight' generals, and can generally keep them off the table. Some spells to consider are: Corpse Dance (stacking the creatures you Buried Alive so Necrotic Ooze is on top of your 'yard), Shallow Grave (same stack) and Torrent of Souls . Obviously, this is a secondary method, but it's worth considering running one of these spells.

Your opponents are going to hate on you pretty hard (as people hate on all combo decks), so counter-disruption is going to be necessary. By Force is a powerful way to knock out Grafdigger's Cage , Nihil Spellbomb and similar stuff. Enchantment-based hate is a lot more difficult to deal with in Rakdos; I suggest using Engineered Explosives and/or Blast Zone to deal with cards like Leyline of the Void or Rest in Peace .

Your manabase is good, but I see some room for improvement. I think High Market is probably better than Miren, the Moaning Well as a sac-outlet, simply because it costs a bunch of mana to activate Miren, the Moaning Well . I may be missing something, but I don't think Piranha Marsh and Sunscorched Desert are very good here. I suggest running basic Mountain s and Swamp s instead.

If you craft your manabase carefully, you can run some pretty disruptive nonbasic land hate. Magus of the Moon and Blood Moon are both big hosers in EDH, and Ruination ain't bad either.

I think you're also running two to three too many lands. You're running the best two-mana rocks, but running some of the slightly-less-awesome ones instead of a few lands can let you ramp to cast your general turn three. Mind Stone , Fellwar Stone and Coldsteel Heart are all good in addition to your Sol Ring , Talisman of Indulgence , etc.

Finally, red has some pretty great hate cards. Pretty much every deck searches at some point, so Stranglehold is a great card (that also occasionally hoses Narset, Enlightened Master decks). Price of Glory is good as a deterrent to countermagic. Depending on your meta, Flashfires , Boil and Omen of Fire can all end games -- I'm not sure what dork at R and D make Boil and Omen of Fire instants, but he deserves a high five.

Right. That's all I got. Good luck man! Hope this helps.