Vow of Lightning

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena 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
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Vow of Lightning

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature

Enchanted creature gets +2/+2, has first strike, and can't attack you or a planeswalker you control.

Gory.Flory on The Queen Of Politics

2 years ago

Online class is in session, which just means I've got an excuse to post my suggestions now. My suggestions for lands are a doctrine I'm going to press on you; the following suggestions are just ideas that you can decline based on your taste. Overall, your list epitomizes the Commander format to me.

  1. LANDS MAN LANDS! You could have the best cards in every format and never play them when you need them because you're topdecking the wrong basics at the wrong time. There's budget options, not every mana base needs to be fetches and shocks. Prioritize your lands over cards that are powerful but not essential to your strategy. There are some specific lands that would be interesting in here too. I recommend prioritizing buying one or all of these cycles before buying stuff like Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth if you don't already have one. The basic land ratio can then be more specific once your lands are fixed, but that can be the last step of your construction.

Your Mardu and Commander staples: Command Tower , Savai Triome , Nomad Outpost , Exotic Orchard , Terramorphic Expanse , Evolving Wilds . I have a Forbidden Orchard that would be cool in this deck but would need to be part of a good deal (I'm strict about lands).

Your bicolored lands:

a. Pain lands: Caves of Koilos and Battlefield Forge are cheap as hell. Sulfurous Springs is the most expensive of these three but if you can get your cycle of lands for less than $15, it's still really good.

b. Filter lands: Graven Cairns , Rugged Prairie , Fetid Heath . You can get all three of these for $16 so it doesn't pass our test... but I have a Cairns for trade, bringing you to $12.50. These are good because you have some cards essential to your strategy that have double-colored-mana costs and others with multicolored costs. These are a great budget cycle, especially for your colors.

c. Temples are super cheap now: Temple of Malice , Temple of Silence , Temple of Triumph .

Less good bicolored lands that are require deckbuilding technique:

c. Check lands: these are fantastic if you have a good basic land ratio (why it would be important not to run both the thriving lands and the pathways at the same time as these)- Dragonskull Summit , Clifftop Retreat , Isolated Chapel

d. Pathway lands: Needleverge Pathway  Flip, Brightclimb Pathway  Flip, Blightstep Pathway  Flip. You saw the foil full art Blightstep Pathway that was in my knight deck, you asked about the price when you said it was cool. I wouldn't necessarily go out of your way to buy these, but definitely seek them out in binders. If you're not running cards like Cultivate where you want to have some ratio of basic lands, these are strictly better than basic lands and could replace your Thriving Lands (which are a decent start; I have the nonred ones available).

e. These lands: Foreboding Ruins , Shineshadow Snarl , Furycalm Snarl

  1. Curses, Vows, Impetuses: these could be cool, especially with the Sigarda's Aid you already own. Having these in your hand (and even better, a sigarda's aid in play) means when you say "if you attack this person instead of me, I'll reward you with ____" and bluff, or if someone attacks you you could flash in a Vow of Duty . I have most of these in the cube (as well as marchesa and the jankier cards in your deck), so you can try these out and see if you like them.

a. The other vows are Vow of Lightning , Vow of Torment , and Vow of Malice (quick trivia- there's two black vows because R&D has tried to ween off of intimidate and other mechanics like protection from [color] and likely didn't want to include it in Commander Legends).

b. More aggressive and prone to cause kamikaze-style attacks, the Impetuses are similar to the vows but definitely play very differently. Martial Impetus , Shiny Impetus , and Parasitic Impetus could even be considered removal for multiple creatures in combat if you flash them out with Sigarda's Aid.

c. Curses: Marchesa was the most popular commander for curses until Ghen, Arcanum Weaver was released. Curse of Chaos encourages the player with a shitty hand to swing in a bit. Curse of Bloodletting punishes the opponent who is too far ahead. Curse of Shallow Graves is cool at a table with Gedan's Varina, Lich Queen deck. The curses from Commander 2017- Curse of Opulence and Curse of Disturbance are the best in your deck as they also give you something when your opponent attacks them too. These are really the only curses that fit the theme and psychology of your deck by not making you a target IMO, but .

  1. Removal: You have some "soft" enchantment synergy going on, so you might as well make it more broad. You're in the late game, you've got all your powerhouse enchantments in order and extra mana... why not cast Idyllic Tutor for whatever removal would smooth out your schemes? Darksteel Mutation shuts down commanders. Seal of Cleansing can be recurred with Hall of Heliod's Generosity . Dark Banishing is honestly a better run for your cash over Bedevil ... you're supposed to be able to convince those opponents to remove the black creature ;)

  2. Individual cards: Gedan has a Rite of the Raging Storm you could get. Wishclaw Talisman is more on theme than Diabolic Tutor or cheaper than Infernal Tutor . This is the only deck I wanna see those and Grim Tutor in since I know what you tutor for will actually be interesting and not a combo piece. Sphere of Safety would be impenetrable and bait removal if you have the mana for it. I have a foil Keeper of the Accord somewhere but I don't know where it is. Commander's Sphere as a budget option for Chromatic Lantern , and if you build a solid budget land base the draw effect would be better (adding but lantern but not replacing would be good eventually)

  3. Some cards I'd remove or wanted to comment on, but understand maybe stylistic or preferred: Sunforger can be a cool aikido spell tutor at instant speed. However, looking at your white instants, you have to spend 3 and then RW to save yourself with Angel's Grace . That could be a cool maneuver. I was also going to suggest dropping Akroma's Will until I saw Sunforger... that's fucking cool too, especially game changing after blockers are declared. Otherwise you're Mortify ing a creature, having your opponent talk to the Deflecting Palm , or Tear ing an enchantment in half. Batwing Brume wouldn't do anything with Sunforger. Therefore Sunforger basically has two game-changing effects and three utility effects, but I'd suggest keeping an eye on Sunforger to see how often the 3RW cost is available and worth it. The fewer cards you're dependent on, the more decentralized your strategy is, making it way harder to compete against (I'm saying this both critically and in favor of Sunforger- just keep it in mind). Torment of Hailfire wins you the game, but isn't gonna be less than $15 in the next couple years. You might not need it. Revival / Revenge can make you one of six creatures or one of three opponents an enemy- it seems like there are better cards you could play. Revel in Riches makes you a threat that your opponents need to race against, and I (genuinely) don't know if that's a position you want or if you want to maintain your monarch status. Try to think of when you want to win with this deck- by beating down your opponents individually, by beating them all at once, by spontaneously winning, or by drawing the game out for as long as possible and having the best resources throughout the game.

I haven't been able to analyze most of my own decks this intensively in a while, your design is competitive while still unique and interesting. Knowing your play style and how well it fits to this too also helps me suggest cards- it's the difference between auto-generating a deck from EDHRec and building a deck. I haven't been super inspired in the decks I've been building for myself, but this one of yours has me just as interested in the game as you now.

carpecanum on Rograkh and Ardenn's Swords for Everyone

3 years ago

Valduk, Keeper of the Flame, Heavenly Blademaster, Eidolon of Countless Battles, Brood Keeper. You don't seem to be focusing on auras, so maybe not the last two.

Crown of the Ages could be a sideboard card in case your opponents have enough auras to make it funny. It doesn't change control of the aura but you get access to other colors.

Vow of Duty, Vow of Lightning, Martial Impetus, Shiny Impetus and Bloodthirsty Blade are good defensive cards until you put them all on your guy and wreck shop.

DarkHero on House Of 1000 Curses

3 years ago

Mixing in a little Bloodthirsty Blade, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, Vow of Malice, Vow of Lightning along with your Disrupt Decorum would be icing on the cake.

Gleeock on Commander 2020 commanders released

3 years ago

shadow63 I didn't say otherwise... You still control/own the aura, so treasure is still coming your way. There will still be a temptation for a different 2-for-1 dynamic (from an opponent's perspective - remove a creature with 2 other player's mana sunk into it). 2 opponents still may gun for whatever creature has the aura, or boardwipes happen, but at least this way you get potentially: some treasure return, eventually someone using removal on an opponent's creature, & forced damage being thrown at someone else. Better upside than Vow of Lightning, for example, which usually falls flat with no return. Maybe less durability than Bloodthirsty Blade, but more possibility of some return as well. Feels like R&D has been doing a good job learning that even politics cards should have the possibility of payoff attached & suddenly they become more playable.

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