Zealous Conscripts
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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
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Zealous Conscripts

Creature — Human Warrior

Haste (This can attack and as soon as this comes under your control.)

When this enters, gain control of target permanent until end of turn. Untap that permanent. It gains haste until end of turn.

Flarhoon13 on Arjun's Shifting Flames

5 months ago

Oct 18 Arjun win. Turn 3 Arjun via Mana Vault. Turn 5 Parallel Thoughts allowed turn 6 Mana Geyser, Zealous Conscripts and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, attacked for 6 million

Flarhoon13 on Arjun's Shifting Flames

5 months ago

Having completed my quest to play all 52 of my decks, I decided to try getting a win with all of my deck

Sep 20

Arjun 4-9 mana screwed, discarding to hand size turns three to five but still almost won with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Zealous Conscripts

Profet93 on I have a bad feeling about this

6 months ago

Siege-Gang Commander - Expensive but might be worth considering.

Feldon of the Third Path - Reuse ETB synergies

Flametongue Kavu - Removal on a creature

Humble Defector - While not ETB, gives you draw which you really need in red. it's a political tool and works best with Homeward Path, the other political tool, especially useful against GY decks that take your creatures

Zealous Conscripts - Super helpful on it's own and can combo with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Kiki adds so much value on it's own as well

Terror of the Peaks - No explanation needed

Curse of Opulence - Politics + useful with Norin.

Outpost Siege > Vigilante justice - Different modes and while it works differently, it's almost the same. Card draw is very important in red EDH

Warstorm Surge - No explanation needed

RiotRunner789 on All the combos

10 months ago

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite or Zealous Conscripts for infinite attackers. Also. Kiki can copy other combo pieces and each piece is useful on its own.

Grenzo, Dungeon Warden + Timestream Navigator + Ascend and at least 6 mana for infinite turns.

Stranglehold + Maralen of the Mornsong locks opponents out of card draw and tutoring. Maralen can also tutor for the other piece or other combo piece but opponents will probably tutor for answers.

Demonic Consultation + Thassa's Oracle for instant win. Demonic can also just be used to grab another combo piece.

Smothering Tithe + Stasis for a lockout.

Teferi's Protection or some indestructible spell + Jokulhaups for a hard opponent reset. Teferi and Apocalypse or some other degenerate red board wipe also works.

Mana Vortex or some other land destruction like Armageddon + ability to play lands from grave like Crucible of Worlds for a combo people will hate you for.

There are a million combos, so it's probably best to pick ones that work with your commander or contain pieces that work on their own. Or, at least have a few defensive pieces (board wipes, stax, Propaganda, counters, etc.) to hold off your opponents.

Quickspell on Build a Deck with Me …

1 year ago

If I may add a few other notes to your thought process.

At this point, you are already on the track of using known combos and putting them into a Naya shell. There are many other combos that can go with this, you just need to tutor for them.

Note that haste is an important aspect to this. Zealous Conscripts is much better than Hyrax Tower Scout or Sparring Mummy for this reason, even though both have cheaper mana value. Without haste, your million tokens will just be board-wiped. You could argue for redundancy, but the truth is that tutors and recursion such as Eternal Witness and Skullwinder are much better, because they add to your strategy with more flexibility.

Most creature tutors are green non-creature spells that search for green creatures. However, you want to keep the amount of non-creature spells low, because Ghired's ability doesn't apply to them. But there are some great tutors that can help you find your pieces:

Most of these cards use ETBs. If you can give them haste - ideally with creatures - you can cast them, make use of their ETB, and directly tap them with Ghired for value. Anger comes to mind, Hellraiser Goblin is great (you won't be attacking, because you are going to tap your creatures with Ghired), Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods can be okay. As for non-creature spells, you have Mass Hysteria, Concordant Crossroads, Fervor, Rising of the Day. Though I would probably only consider Hammer of Purphoros as it can create tokens.

As for the token doublers, I'm not sure if they really fit the deck. Sure, they are staples for token strategies. But what's the point of making infinite tokens go double? Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  Flip will put a bounty on your head which is not a good thing in a combo-deck. You want to stay under the radar until you can go off.
Mondrak only doubles creature tokens, so you are not making more treasures. And the other doublers like Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives etc. will not tap with Ghired. Since you also want to put in all the other Naya-staple enchantments like Smothering Tithe and Guardian Project etc., you will just fill your deck with non-creatures that don't synergize with your commander.

Some cards worth mentioning are:
- Illusionist's Bracers - Cloudstone Curio (create a creature token, return a creature with an ETB to your hand). - Helm of the Host

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

1 year ago

First a quick introduction. I've been playing magic off and on for years. When this site first started out, I was super active and then I stopped playing. I recently got back into it and plunged deep into the Commander format. I love building decks around interesting concepts and often trying to break cards.

My slightly ambitious goal is to create a series of threads that show my thought process as I build a commander deck. I figure it will serve two purposes: First, it will aid newer players who have some precon decks and perhaps are looking to upgrade them or they see a commander and want to build it, but aren't sure how. The second is purely self-motivated in that more experienced players can fine tune my own logic and make suggestions for my own improvement.

So with that, the first commander deck I'm going to build here is Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds. This is a card that begs to be broken and creates for interesting and powerful decks. There are also several different lines you can choose to go with. You can make it go infinite if you like degeneracy or don't like the people in your playgroup, or you can decide to go the way of building lots of tokens quickly and then turning them sideways and swinging. (Spoiler alert we are going infinite)

So first things first, we need to think about what the commander actually does and what it is going to need to do that effectively. First, it allows all nontoken creatures to tap and create tokens that I control that entered the battlefield this turn. So a couple things to point out: First is that it is tokens not creature tokens specifically, so treasures, clues, food, etc. are fair game. Secondly, it doesn't have to be my turn that the tokens came in, you can activate the ability at instant speed if you create a token on your opponent's turn. Now Ghired also is only 3 mana in Naya colors with Haste which means he's going to come down early in the game, so we'll want some other creatures out there when he comes down to start building up tokens right away.

With his abilities in mind, there are a couple things that we want to think about: Cards that create tokens, cards that double tokens, cards that untap things, and cards that do interesting things when they're tapped, example Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero, who comes down early as well, and when she is tapped I gain life and draw a card. We will obviously need to consider interaction, ramp, and card draw, but those are secondary in my thoughts. Every deck needs those, but what items you add often depends on what your deck is trying to do. In this case, we want to make tokens, tap creatures, make more tokens.

Token Generators

So a couple really good token generators here to start would be things that keep making them rather than one offs. In my playtesting Oltec Matterweaver is hard to beat. It comes in early (turn 2 if you can get a sol ring). When you cast a creature spell you can copy a target artifact or bring out a 1/1 gnome. Turn 1 you play a plains and a sol ring. Turn 2 you bring this out, turn 3 you bring out Ghired, creating a copy of sol ring, tap your Oltec Matterweaver and create another sol ring. You now have 3 sol rings on the field on turn 3... You are now the archenemy, congrats? EDIT: So as it was pointed out in the comments Oltec only creates copies of TOKEN artifacts. We could use Molten Duplication to create a copy of an artifact, but still Oltec still does great at producing consistent tokens.

Some other standouts are Emmara, Soul of the Accord who when tapped creates a 1/1 soldier with lifelink. So tapping will actually create two tokens. Also if you need a token for Sunstrike Legionnaire to go infinite you can tap her down (she's only 2 mana) create your 1/1 soldier, untap sunstrike, with Ghired on the field, tap Sunstrike to create infinite lifelink 1/1 soldiers. (actually happened in playtesting)

Generous Plunderer deserves a mention as you really need consistent tokens every turn and this does that. It gives you treasure tokens which is great and is likely to stick around since your opponents like the possibility of getting a treasure token as well. Dockside Extortionist can take the deck to new levels of degeneracy depending on when you play it/number of times you copy it with things like kiki jiki and jaxis.

Selvala, Eager Trailblazer is also great as you get 1/1 creatures every time you cast a creature spell. Her ramp also goes surprisingly well in the deck. I highly recommend it.

Thousand Moons Smithy  Flip is another beast of a card. It comes down turn 4, Ghired is already out along with any other low cost creatures. Let's say you have a Birds of Paradise and Ghired when this comes down and maybe a mana rock. You create a 5/5 Gnome (2 creatures, 2 artifacts, and the gnome itself). Now you tap the bird and Ghired and create two more Gnomes. You now have 3 7/7s, on turn 4...

Honorable mentions here are things like Smothering Tithe who will create treasures each opponent's turn, tap a creature and create another. Rain of Riches, create some treasures, copy them, cast something, and get cascade.

Also, populate is a thing, I like Growing Ranks and Nesting Dovehawk for that.

Doublers

Ok, so doublers is a pretty easy topic, there are quite a few out there, they are expensive and honestly for this deck you don't need much. I chose a couple that I particularly like for this and by like I mean I own them and didn't have to go out and spend $50-60. Examples are Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  Flip, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Primal Vigor (careful as this one applies to everyone not just you).

I ended up starting out with 3 of these and then cut it down to just the two creatures mondrak and ojer taq. Both are still great and can quickly overwhelm the opponent. I found myself holding onto the enchantments in preference to playing token creators and creatures.

Untapping Abilities

Untapping abilites can make it even worse as time goes on. If you have a Seedborn Muse you untap each upkeep so they draw a card, Smothering Tithe creates a treasure, during their end step you tap your creatures creating more treasures. Untap on the next opponent's untap step, rinse and repeat.

This is also where infinite combos begin to happen. Sunstrike Legionnaire untaps everytime a creature enters the battlefield. Make a creature token, tap sunstrike legionnaire, create another creature token, sunstrike legionnaire untaps, rinse and repeat, gg. Midnight Guard works too for one more mana. Other options include making copies of your own creatures that untap creatures when they enter the battlefield like Hyrax Tower Scout, Zealous Conscripts, Sparring Mummy. Mix that with notable salty cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Molten Duplication, Splinter Twin, Jaxis, the Troublemaker and you're off to infinite again. (Jaxis uses his ability targeting sparring mummy, sparring mummy comes in untaps him, now Jaxis just taps to make a copy of the sparring mummy token (from Ghired) which has haste, it comes in untaps Jaxis, rinse and repeat, swing with a legion of sparring mummies)

Don't got too heavy on these or you won't have enough tokens to copy.

Cards that do cool things when tapped aren't super plentiful, but the two I've mentioned already are great for this deck. (Wylie and Emmara).

Interaction, ramp, card draw

Now for the ramp, interaction, and card draw. Ramp is fairly straightforward, since we have the Oltec Matterweaver, I opted to put in some signets, but left some other stones out. Normally when I'm in green I go heavy on green ramp. I opted for cheap ramp spells like Rampant Growth, Farseek, Three Visits and Birds of Paradise (could maybe use more mana dorks since having a body later will help in producing larger tokens).

Interaction is super important in this one. Board wipes are coming, targeted removal is coming, so need to prepare, but we also need to be flexible in taking out our opponents. So to save us from board wipes, we have Heroic Intervention, the ubiquitous and hopefully soon to be reprinted (one can dream) Teferi's Protection, Boros Charm, and Smuggler's Surprise (which is heroic intervention in disguise).

Getting rid of threats is crucial, so Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares are useful, but not as useful as Beast Within, Generous Gift, and Stroke of Midnight. These obviously target more than just creatures, but also produce tokens. There are situations where a well-timed beast within on your own treasure token to create a 3/3 beast that you can copy a bunch of times is the right play. That make it not just removal, but also a token generator.

Finally, we come to card draw. Since we are producing tokens (hopefully most turns) we can include things like Bennie Bracks, Zoologist and Idol of Oblivion. I also like Welcoming Vampire for this deck. It is creature heavy so Guardian Project is great, so is Beast Whisperer and Garruk's Uprising. Esper Sentinel is always good. We already have Wylie from earlier. Getting card draw is vital to the survival of any deck and particularly this one as we need to be producing tokens regularly and you need cards to produce them. I chose to run about 11 card draw engines in the deck to ensure I'm drawing regularly.

Lands... I mean... make sure you have dual lands in the deck and triomes if you can. One noteworthy utility land is Grove of the Guardian which can have a nice payoff when you create an 8/8 with a few creatures out along with Ghired.

I'll post the deck that I built from this thought process on my page in case you want to see the final product. And if you made it this far thanks for joining me on this, I hope it was helpful. Feel free to comment on how you would do it differently or cards that should have been mentioned. Also feel free to mention commanders you want to see built. I have a couple in mind to start but want to see suggestions as well.

Here is the final decklist: Ghired the infinite outlaw

scotchtapedsleeves on Marchy March and the Funky Bunch

1 year ago

Hey! Coming over from Reddit to give some advice.

First off, some overarching themes that I notice:

  • Draw vs Card Advantage - A lot of the cards in your "Draw" category don't actually provide any impactful draw, only scrying and cantrips. I'm an enormous fan of Fell Stinger and Thought Sponge. Easily repeatable draw effects that dump cards in your hand. Scry isn't useful unless you're drawing a ton of cards or are doing some topdeck manipulation.

  • Your creatures are too big - Marchesa appreciates small bodies with big effects rather than big bodies with meh effects. For this reason, I would take out Combustible Gearhulk, Vindictive Lich, Vengeful Ancestor, and Gyruda, Doom of Depths. Playing lots of small, cheaper bodies lets your deck fly under the radar until it pops off. It will also give you more targets for Imperial Recruiter.

  • Aristocrats style - Marchesa doesn't play like your typical aristocrats deck, Blood Artist isn't very effective when you're only sacrificing 2-3 creatures a turn. It's also counterintuitive to Dethrone. Abusing ETB and LTB effects is more important than slowly draining opponents

  • Not enough counter distribution - You only have 5 cards under counters and they're all either situational or restrictive. Drop some Thran Vigil type cards in there and you'll go far

Overall, you're too reliant on creatures for draw, removal, etc. Run some efficient draw and removal spells

Next up, cards I recommend removing. I've playtested most of these and they're not nearly as impactful as they seem.

  • Blood Artist - Covered this above, you don't want to gain life
  • Combustible Gearhulk - Opponents will often just take the damage early game and late game you do NOT want to be spending 6 mana on a 6/6 with no impactful ETB.
  • Vindictive Lich - An alright card, not fantastic though. I'm very pressed for 4 drops in my deck so it didn't make the cut.
  • Vengeful Ancestor - Not a very impactful card. You're running Kardur, Doomscourge so this card is just overshadowed.
  • Gyruda, Doom of Depths - 6 mana to maybe cheat in one creature? Not a huge fan. If you want to replace it with a grave robber effect Puppeteer Clique is better. Still not fantastic, it didn't make the cut in my deck
  • Aether Channeler - A fine card, the mode selection is okay. I'm not in love with the effects it gives though
  • Morbid Opportunist - Only one draw a turn? Blasphemy
  • Woe Strider Free sac outlets are nice, but I find I get overrun with them when I have more than 5 in a deck. Also more expensive just to scry? Not a fan
  • Dauthi Voidwalker Will generate so much hate. Unless you can fend off your opponents don't run it
  • Faerie Artisans Not the kind of stealing Marchesa likes, tokens aren't the name of the game here. Something like Zealous Conscripts will take you much further
  • Phantom Steed Same as above, tokens are nice but this isn't a great card
  • Ravenous Chupacabra Too much mana for removal. Black and blue have much cheaper options

There are more that I personally wouldn't run, but that's up to how you like to play your deck.

Now for some cards I would include in every Marchesa deck

  • Thran Vigil - Allows you to immediately sac creatures that come back + an extra layer of protection
  • Uncivil Unrest - Same as above but you can also give haste to fresh casts. Double damage doesn't hurt
  • Fell Stinger - Repeatable, powerful draw on a deathtouch body
  • Thought Sponge - Incredible draw engine. Sac it on opponents turns every time it enters and you'll draw AT LEAST 6 cards a turn cycle.
  • Iron Apprentice - Great 1 drop, can distribute counters if you're having trouble and is sacrifice fodder
  • Rakdos Cackler - sacrifice fodder
  • Flayer of the Hatebound - This card gets a bad rap but it's great in Marchesa
  • Herald of Secret Streams - Wincon alert! This card sneaks under the radar until you hit someone with 25 unblockable damage
  • The Ozolith - Expensive, but who doesn't want to keep their counters for 1 mana!

Of course, please take a look at my deck if you need inspiration. It's pretty casual, but the synergies can be backbreaking if your opponents don't keep you in check. I also have a ton of cards in my maybeboard that I'm considering or have saved for later.

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/guess-whos-back-back-again-and-again/?cat=custom&sort=&cb=1689648313

DadHumanPraetor on Iroas, Menace to society

2 years ago

I run Fighter Class to grab Hexplate Wallbreaker and also Glimmer Lens and Mask of Memory and some other equipments. I also run Sigarda's Aid because I run Splinter Twin to combo with Combat Celebrant and Zealous Conscripts I love Iroas, I equipped a helm on him in a game last night and had 4 of him on the board lol.

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