Thieves' Auction

Sorcery

Set aside all nontoken permanents. Starting with you, each player chooses one of the cards set aside and puts it into play tapped under his or her control. Repeat this process until all those cards have been chosen.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

DreadKhan on Painful chaos

2 weeks ago

I have a Rakdos deck that's trying to do some similar things, I leaned into creatures that could double as removal, some games you can eliminate a player by resolving an early Dwarven Miner/Dwarven Blastminer, Tsabo Tavoc is a hilarious card in a Commander game, Olivia Voldaren and Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief make very good use of late game mana and can create a whole mess of trouble, maybe War Cadence is a very political card I love to try to sneak into decks, the really sweet part is you can use it on an opponent's attack to help THEM get in, and an Archenemy is tapped out that means you only need to spend {1} to make everything unblockable... it's a real skill testing card IMHO. Rite of the Raging Storm can kill off any opponents that don't have blockers, and it survives most Wraths. It's also a sacrifice effect when it dies, so it works with Mayhem Devil without support. Even without it's combo I find Exquisite Blood can be an amazing card, it's hilarious with Protection Racket out! If you want things to get chaotic/people to have to make choices you might like some of the Dr. Who stuff, the only card I personally use is Ensnared by the Mara, which isn't too jarring IMHO, most people wouldn't realize it's Universes Beyond at a Glance IMHO. Humble Defector is a fun card even if you don't run ways to kill him off right after he changes hands, some players will agree to trade him back even! Din of the Fireherd and Fevered Suspicion are pretty chaotic effects, though some people will really get up in arms if you take away more than a couple lands! Speaking of taking a couple lands, Volcanic Offering is hilarious IMHO.

Rakdos isn't the ideal colours to make him pop but I still like Brash Taunter, he's also great with anything that gives him lifelink, but it's surprising value if you can resolve something like Scavenged Brawler on Taunter, it's worth noting that Brawler would also help turn Vial Smasher into a much better threat/life source.

Finally, have you thought about some auctions, maybe Thieves' Auction or Illicit Auction? 5 mana to maybe not get a creature isn't amazing, but in practice if you ever have the most life it's just 5 mana to steal whichever creature you want! Thieves' Auction is a good card if you have a lot of permanents that work just by being out (like symmetrical chaos effects), but it's also decent if you don't run an especially sturdy board (since you pick first!), I've had situations where nothing on my board was taken until everyone else's boards were taken, my cards were that bad! Such a great feeling to get value out of stuff like Thieves' Auction.

I like the idea of your list here, you might get a kick out of my Pavel the Mighty, Hero We Deserve list, it's a Chaos deck that overflows with pet cards!

SufferFromEDHD on Tsabo Tavoc Havoc

1 month ago

Damn you Mary Sue!

Scavenged Brawler incredible suggestion. I'm trying to keep the deck creatureless but this is definitely worth bending the rules for. Eternal Warrior might be worth considering too.

Starke of Rath I see your angle. Flavor, lore, tap effect and the decks lack of creatures. I'm gonna chew on this one.

Wow. I love jank and I never really use Thieves' Auction because it feels to random. Your analysis makes this seem like an underused EDH bomb. My deck is very symmetrical so if they steal my stuff it's still mine :) Clever!

You successfully got me to add a creature to my creatureless list. Fantastic suggestions DreadKhan

DreadKhan on Tsabo Tavoc Havoc

1 month ago

I think part of why you don't see as many is how dirty Tsabo was done in the lore, lots of villains are screwed over, but she's literally Protection from Legends and got taken out by a bunch of Legendary Mary Sue characters. It's nice to see a list where she's a right terror, as she deserves to be!

As one of the better sources of vigilance I feel like Scavenged Brawler might be a fun card in here, you'd mostly use it for the counters. Interestingly it'd be really good on either Tsabo or Kaervek, and the 4/4 creature version can be more impactful than expected, and it literally means nothing to lose it because it's better in the bin. I kinda like the idea of Starke of Rath in here as a 'backup' Commander, one that can come out pretty early potentially. In my limited experience with the card people tend to go after creatures first, and you don't run other creatures.

I'm not sure if it would work as well in here, but my Rakdos list gets a surprising amount of mileage out of Thieves' Auction, you obviously hold it up until someone else has something you want (you go first), but you also wait until you have nothing worth taking but lands/mana rocks, you can steal the best card each cycle of choices, and unless someone else is on the same colours they don't have any interest in your mana. The best decks for Thieves' Auction use a lot of cards that don't care who controls them, because they're symmetrical or are something like an Aura that applies an effect to something else and can't take any actions, if you end up with a board where you don't care about any of your permanents and can snag a WILDLY better board it feels pretty awesome.

DreadKhan on Lil' Shit

9 months ago

IMHO their are few bigger 'lil shit' type cards than Rite of the Raging Storm, if their is an opponent who can't handle 5/1 Tramplers they are dead meat very quickly, it's a very chaotic atmosphere with Rite out. It's also very good with many cards that would work well with your Commander, such as Mask of Griselbrand, and I can point out a bunch of other options. Relic of Sauron is a very good Grixis mana rock that can also draw a card now and then. I think copy effects are probably pretty good with your Commander, if you cast Rite of Replication on your Commander you still get 5 copies ETBing and dying, which should clear out hands and serve as a huge board wipe (you get 5 triggers each of the ETB and death trigger, if you have 3 opponents left 2 of them have 1/4 of their permanents and one has half left, similar for their hands. Irenicus's Vile Duplication is another fun copy effect, this one doesn't die right away and has flying. If you like annoying creatures you might like some of the specters out their, Hypnotic Specter is an old classic that will always take away a card from whomever you hit, and Stronghold Rats can take one from each player fwiw.

I can't decide if MImic Vat would be worth it with your Commander, if you can get him into the Vat you can make a copy each turn for very little mana, but it doesn't get sacrificed unfortunately, it gets exiled at end of turn, so you'd need sac outlets to get his Death Triggers (but on the upside nobody is going to block you).

Their are a few Chaos type cards that might help with your plans to annoy the table, I've always enjoyed Teferi's Puzzle Box, but any effect that cares about your opponent drawing cards really loves the effect, if you can get Box and a Notion Thief out your opponents each lose their hand and you draw cards equal to how many they had when they lost them. Grip of Chaos can help keep your Commander (or another key permanent) alive longer, and you don't run a ton of targeted interaction yourself. Omen Machine is pretty funny, it's especially useful if you use a high average MV, same with Timesifter. Some people will try to flip the table if you resolve a Possibility Storm, especially if your deck isn't trying to abuse the effect. If you leaned harder into your spell plan, or into permanents that work regardless of who controls them you could try Thieves' Auction, a card many that is so obnoxious that some people consider scooping rather than resolving the effect.

I hope some of these ideas aren't too disruptive, it's fun to have a deck that can troll your playgroup a bit!

mtgApprentice21 on https://www.madhouse.dek/troll

1 year ago

Sigh... Sumradagnoth, you were right. Squee and Goblin Assassin are actually kind of amusing. I didn't see it right away 'cause I'm just dumb like that, I guess? I also put in two basic lands and took out Scrambleverse and Thieves' Auction. The former was a headache that couldn't be resolved in less than 30 minutes (trust me, I've tried) and the latter was just a 15 minute minigame that does essentially nothing for the most part. I kept Warp World in the list, though.

fszk on Rakdos Santa Deck

1 year ago

DreadKhan To be perfectly honest with you, I have yet to play this deck. So many of the things you said I just haven't thought about, thanks. About the Thieves' Auction / Blim interaction you are right, it can be hurtful. Initially I threw the Auction in to sow chaos and as a way to give a bunch of stuff away. But thinking about it I'll probably end up with a bunch of my own stuff anyways and get burned by Blim for the stolen stuff. I'll take those out.

I love Midnight Oil in this deck, seems like it'll do a lot of work, I'll throw a couple of those in as well as some Dark Ritual

Do you have any idea about how to re-use the Harmless Offering? I've been struggling with that and I don't want to splash another color in. Thanks mate.

DreadKhan on Deck of Degeneracy (Purphoros EDH)

1 year ago

Glad some of my suggestions were of interest!

I find that some playgroups don't like the absolute chaos that Thieves' Auction creates, but most people are willing to give it a chance if your deck is actually doing something, most people find that it's chaos without a plan to win that's problematic. Either way it can't hurt to ask, you can always have another card you can swap it out for if a group doesn't like more chaotic Magic?

When I was testing it, I remember it feeling like a solid deck, it has nice consistency going for it due to it's Commander being such a stable build around. If a deck can deal with Purphoros (Commander theft seems like it'd be a problem, also enchantments like Oubliette or Imprisoned in the Moon) you'll be in trouble, but usually you'll have a consistent and actionable game plan. The deck can create interesting board states with it's tax/pain effects, and it has solid number of creatures. It also feels fresh and interesting, but I have a fondness for weirder archetypes, and I have a high tolerance for ones that many people would say are actively annoying, so keep that in mind. I could see some people getting a bit salty, if you are worried about that with random opponents you can have a Rule 0 conversation in which you talk about the things that can be bothersome to opponents, I have a few decks that I have to do this with.

philsonwilson on Deck of Degeneracy (Purphoros EDH)

1 year ago

Thanks for sharing your deck NV_1980 seems like a great version too!

DreadKhan - there's some wicked suggestions there. Hadn't thought of cards like Citadel of Pain or Rite of the Raging Storm. I love Thieves' Auction too, never seen it before and seems like it would fit thematically... though my play group might not agree! How did you find the playtest? I haven't had much chance to play it in a larger game but rather 1v1 setting.

ThassaUpYo@ssa I do have Solphim, Mayhem Dominus in the maybeboard already but the others are great suggestions too! As I play a relatively casual style I don't often spend much so having cards like Terror of the Peaks was a deep cut, hence why Fiery Emancipation hasn't been added - though if the deck is fun I'll be looking at adding it too.