Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Legendary Creature — Human Soldier

First strike

Noncreature spells cost {1} more to cast.

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
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (45)

Andramalech on Shielded

5 days ago

I'd say there's a ton to be said for a White focused Stax deck, see; Hushbringer, Sanctum Prelate, Clarion Conqueror, one slot inclusions such as False Prophet or Kataki, War's Wage. Even so far as Ethersworn Canonist to stop Storm opposition, or Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. I guess it's going to boil down to what element of the game you wish to lock down and out the most. I'd recommend stuff like Authority of the Consuls and Blind Obedience to start, and honestly if you can keep it within white and colorless/artifact focused enough concepts, maybe something like Stoneforge Mystic would benefit you. See any of the toolbox pieces of; Meteor Sword, Lavaspur Boots, Tarrian's Soulcleaver, Shadowspear, Luxior, Giada's Gift, etc. Good luck!

DreadKhan on Elsha's Flashy Show

4 months ago

Have you ever tried Thought Lash in here? The idea is you play it the turn after Elsha is cast and use it like a more controlled Blue Tainted Pact to dig to a win that turn.

I am hoping I can find something that will work to repeatedly clear top decks, so I'm digging into Scryfall! Well, after digging I stumbled on Serum-Core Chimera, maybe this could work? You have a very low land count, so statistically it might help you dig through stuff like lands that you can't cast (or Simian Spirit Guide or a counter that you want in hand can be drawn). I have no idea if you'd ever want to pitch stuff to it, but turning something into a Bolt for no mana seems like real upside, this can snipe Hatebears like Archon of Emeria or Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that might ruin your day otherwise.

Well, maybe something in all this will be helpful?

razelfark on The Blight That Blinds *Updated*

6 months ago

I think if you might want at least 3 copies of Squall as the card is what alot of your cards are synergized around.

Personally I would swap out Suture Priest for Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. The tax on on noncreature spells can disrupt oponents removal and it fits in the 2 drop slot well as an agressive creature for the first strike. Another option I would sugget would be the Voice of Victory as a way to stop opponents from casting during your turn (disabling coutner spells). Tokens Voice make are sadly warriors and not human, so there is some lost synergy, but a solid option non the less.

Maybe swap Blind Obedience for Authority of the Consuls if you want the tap effect. The Authority is nice as a 1 drop meaning you can play it turn 1 and the lifegain does come in handy over needing to spend extra mana for the extort ability which you may not have mana to use if you are tempoing well.

Since you mentioned cutting swords as a possiblity then maybe try Flowering of the White Tree as it pumps all your creatures and adds ward to your legends.

Some 1 cost removal spell options to consider Fatal Push and Seam Rip. The Rip is more sideboard option then main, but they are both solid option to answer early threats while still being able to have a chance to cast other spells in the turn.

Anotehr option to consider for removal would be Sheltered by Ghosts as it provides a little protection for the creature you place it on and provides lifelink to help against other aggro decks.

Personally would cut the Profane Tutor as the card is very slow to use for a creature aggro deck. This card is typically used more in combo control style decks.

Sorry for late response as life got busy. Hope the deck has been working well for you.

Idoneity on Oh Jackdaw Sing Arrogance

10 months ago

Austin_Smith_of_Cards — Oooh! Thank you kindly for the suggestions. I'll pore through them one-by-one.

That Thalia is a lovely card and I do enjoy some taxes in competitive formats, but I do consider it a little too pesky for commander gameplay.

Thalia, Heretic Cathar, however, is one of my favourite cards. I am frankly surprised she did not find a home already. What to cut, I wonder...

Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire is certainly a strong card, and I will probably include it over a Swamp if I can ever find my spare. I am currently at the minimum number possible Plains.

To rack a few out of the way quickly Swords to Plowshares isn't my thing, as I don't like liminal kill spells all too much. Same goes for Path to Exile. I didn't want this to be a sac deck, so I avoided effects like Elas il-Kor and Nasty End. Primevals' Glorious Rebirth is a little grandiose for the "little guys" game plan I wanted to hone. And Teysa Karlov is only so good in this list, as only so many cards are dedicated to tokens.

As for the gleaming diamonds in this bunch, Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle might be simply too good to pass up. It synergies far too efficiently for me to exclude, so it will be the next card in. Secondarily, you are correct that this list struggles against noncreature strategies, so Kambal, Consul of Allocation slots in nicely.

Thank you for your feedback and have an excellent day!

Austin_Smith_of_Cards on Oh Jackdaw Sing Arrogance

10 months ago

Looking like a pretty solid list with lots of card advantage and ramp, and a fantastic mana curve to boot. Where this list could use some improvement is in the interaction category; 4 spot removals and 2 wraths is a bit too low, and makes you vulnerable to solitaire-style decks like combo or spellslinger.

Some cards that immediately come to mind are Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire. The first two are cheap legendary creatures that impede ramp decks, haste decks, and spellslinger. Eiganjo, much like Witch Enchanter, is a sort of modal card that can serve as a land or removal if need be. Kambal, Consul of Allocation punishes spells-heavy lists hard. Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle recurs fodder on cast, which means that even with an otherwise empty board, you can get something from your yard for your legendary creature to sacrifice.

Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are the best bang for your buck removals white has access to; I'd make room for them as well.

Other random suggestions:

Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim adds incidental life loss and gain as you're generating and sacrificing stuff. Bonus points for being legendary and a cheap rattlesnake effect.

Teysa Karlov unfortunately doesn't double up exploit triggers, but it does buffer your tokens defensively and double up any non-exploit death triggers.

Nasty End is a cheap synergistic one-shot card advantage effect.

Primevals' Glorious Rebirth is a solid way to bounce back from a boardwipe, or just outright recur everything you've lost over the course of the game.

DreadKhan on What makes a card or …

1 year ago

I like to build some fairly toxic Commander decks, though I try to warn people if a deck dips too deeply into any of the elements I've noticed that cause toxicity. In Commander most people consider decks that take away player agency to be toxic, so that includes; -excessive permanent removal (clearing each opponent's board repeatedly, or Obliterate/Jokulhaups) -things that limit what you can do (like Rule of Law or Collector Ouphe) -excessively pushed Commanders in Casual (stuff where they throw Ward on for no reason, most of these are also the payoff and enabler in one card) -Chaos effects that turn the game on it's head (Thieves' Auction and Grip of Chaos for example) -stuff that prevents untapping (Static Orb and Winter Orb) -stealing everything strategies (flickering Agent of Treachery infinitely, Insurrection late game) -excessive discard (multiple Necrogen Mists and Bottomless Pit effects) -'win on the spot' effects that don't have an upkeep trigger (there is a few of these on the banlist, like Biorhythm and Coalition Victory) -counter everything strategies (Dovescape) -overly efficient tutoring (Zur the Enchanter *f-etch* fetching out Necropotence, and people are weirdly salty about Vampiric Tutor) -faster elimination strategies that encourage you to target a specific opponent (think anything Infect, and lower to the ground Voltron decks) -I think the last one I can think of is optional tax effects that encourage people to screw their pod and play into the Rhystic Study, if the tax is just a tax, like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben people tend not to mind as much, it's the ability to king make if you're dumb.

In 1v1 I don't think it really matters, unless you only have 1 deck to play kitchen table with just changing decks should generate enough novelty to avoid the build up of bad feelings, and if you're playing competitively it's your call if you want to play nightmarish stuff like Nadu, or something traditionally 'fun' like Aggro... only if everyone plays decks that aren't fun, more people will quit, so it's a 'tragedy of the commons' scenario too if you have a fairly small meta each player needs 'fun to play against' decks, even for 1v1.

DreadKhan on Rushed to die

1 year ago

I find Bonecrusher Giant (and Stomp) play pretty well in a Burn deck, the body is just big enough to be worth casting, and Stomp can remove problematic utility creatures like a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that are ruining your day; two meh effects add up to one surprisingly playable card in my experience! Another random card that might synergize well with what you've got going on is Tourach, Dread Cantor, this guy loves discard effects, offering you a potentially useful body that scales over time, as is you don't have any payoffs for making opponents discard, just that they have no cards in hand (and if that's what you're looking for you should switch Dash Hopes for the old Hymn to Tourach for a more reliable effect, an early Hymn can single handedly win games, 2 random cards for 2 mana on turn 2 is sadistic.

This is incredibly ironic coming from me, but I feel like you probably have too many 3 mana spells in here, when I was testing I had to mulligan more for your deck specifically because I kept running into hands with too many 3 drops. For example, my 80 card Azorius Legacy deck has only 17 3 drops, and I feel like that might be too many, 19 in a 60 card deck that only has 18 lands is asking for trouble IMHO.

YMMV but I wonder if your plan would work better if you leaned harder into discard or harder into burn instead of mixing them? If you cut your weenies you could throw in Racks/Afflictions, if you trimmed some burn spells you could throw in some Lilianas, and suddenly your mana base only needs Black for a discard list. Similarly you could trim the discard stuff and make it an all Red Burn list, it's doable to win on/before turn 3 with Burn in Legacy, and that can be mono-Red, but you'd need cards like Fireblast to make that happen. You could take a look at Got a One Way Ticket to the Blues, my discard list, or Diesel Driven Burn, my Burn list, for potential ideas if you want to lean into a specific lane. Feel free to ignore my advice if you're happy with your list, you're playing your deck after all!

Azoth2099 on Wheeliod - cEDH

2 years ago

This commander is so awesome, man, excellent choice. Consider Braingeyser for sure. This commander also breaks parity on strong stax pieces like Thorn of Amethyst & Thalia, Guardian of Thraben super easily! It's brutal. Cheers!