Awkward Hug Phelddagrif
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 1 | 218 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS
A Few Smart Changes —March 18, 2019
Cut some "cute" cards in order to experiment with more impactful plays.
Sheltering Ancient > Weird Harvest: Sheltering Ancient defines cute. It dips a toe in an alternative way to influence the game (+1/+1 counters) and has synergy mainly with one other card, Primal Vigor. Weird Harvest favors creature decks, allows me to benefit, and can completely swing the balance of play in the right circumstances. It's worth testing, especially if I'm already running a bomb like Awakening.
Bant Charm > Counterspell: My mana doublers cause lands to produce multiples of a single color. Bant Charm therefore tends to be wildly inefficient, eclipsing the utility of the different options. Counterspell is an obvious budget pick & keeps my "counter count" at a solid 5.
Akroan Horse > Hunted Wumpus: Akroan Horse is lame. Hunted Wumpus gives me a 6/6 and allows creature based decks to advance their board state as well. Obvious pick in retrospect.
Tempt with Reflections > Cultural Exchange: Tempt with Reflections only allows me to "tempt" with my own weak creatures, primarily Phelddagrif herself. For this reason, cute Crafty Cutpurse related shenanigans proved underwhelming. For 2 more CMC, Cultural Exchange can be more devastating than a board wipe under the right conditions; it dodges hexproof by targeting the player, synergizes with P-Griff's token granting powers, and can even provide powerful troops to me directly.
Crafty Cutpurse > Progenitor Mimic: With Tempt with Reflections out, underwhelming ol' Crafty had one less target in the deck and became an obvious cut. Mimic is the obvious and less janky replacement, being able to directly reproduce the powerful creatures I help my opponents to summon. However, I consider this a highly contested slot and may replace it with any of: Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer, Felidar Sovereign, or Sphere of Safety, etc.