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Goaded With The Sauce

Commander / EDH Goad Manifest Sacrifice UB (Dimir)

DingoLingo03

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Creature (23)

Instant (13)

Land (35)

Enchantment (8)

Commander (1)

Commander: altered Jon Irenicus, Shattered One

Artifact (14)

Sorcery (6)

Maybeboard

Creature (17)

Enchantment (12)

Sorcery (5)

Artifact (4)

Instant (3)

Open for critique and assistance in upgrading this deck. I want this thing to be mean!

Are you a fan of presents?

Well, what if those presents were actually writhing masses of malignant tumors, with teeth and arms, and a penchant for pissing on your brand new rug?
"It really tied the room together!"

Big bad Joneleth is here to gift your opponents with his twisted experiments, much to their own detriment, only to reclaim them back when the time is right.

My interpretation of this build requires Santa-like subterfuge, using face down enablers like Illusionary Mask, Scroll of Fate, and Primordial Mist to disguise your devious little critters, before sending them off to their victi...uh, I mean, loving new homes!

We can then spend the mana cost to flip em, or better yet, get Ixidor, Reality Sculptor to do it for us on the cheap.

Surprise! Now Sac all your stuff!

Speaking of, we are doing our best to prevent our opponents from keeping their creatures, and other permanents, on the board to defend themselves with. We can even resort to stealing them when they hit the yard to bolster ourselves, with includes like Sheoldred, Whispering One, Gisa, Glorious Resurrector, and Tergrid, God of Fright   (Another potential player is Herald of Leshrac, but use him at your own discretion. For some reason, people get really irritable when you steal all their lands?)

While it's all well and great being a generous donor to those less fortunate, you have to remember to treat yo self every once in a while. To that end, we'll get some draw advantage in the forms of Master of the Feast, Maeve, Insidious Singer, and Notion Thief. We're going to need plenty of mana to cast some of those chonkier bois with, so we have a decent land base with lots of dual lands, along with the usual mana-rock suspects.

Eventually, once we slowly whittle down our competition, we're going to be face to face with our delightful delinquents, which we'll need to deal with swiftly before they pound us into fine red mist. Might as well make use of some board wipes, like the classic Damnation, or the newer The Phasing of Zhalfir, which even gives us the choice to save a critter or two, before plopping down some 2/2 Phyrexian tokens. We've also got quite a few pillow fort pieces, such as Crawlspace, Koskun Falls, Propaganda, No Mercy, and Dissipation Field. (There's also a fun little synergy between Ensnaring Bridge and Thought Eater. We might take a hit to our hand size keeping the Eater on our side of the field, but it almost guarantees that our donated creatures will be too powerful to swing at us!) Finally, we have some bounce effects to return our creatures en masse, like AEtherize, Cyclonic Rift, and Homeward Path.

Now, this deck is quite light in terms of protection, opting for spell counters over equipment or auras to keep Jon safe. (Though we do have Diplomatic Immunity and Swiftfoot Boots). This is certainly a weakness. The deck will quickly fall apart without Jon in it, so be prepared to counter stuff, and try not to fall for bait!

Thanks for reading!

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Licecolony says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #1

I really like your manifest take on Jon. Consider Dulcet Sirens. It's a clever way to mitigate risk of having those horrible creatures for yourself. I'll definitely be adding Crawlspace and Endless Whispers to my list.

Suggested removals from deck Plague Reaver. While it's a nice card to give away, the turn you play it you'll have to sacrifice Jon Irenicus to Plague Reaver's trigger regardless of which order you put the abilities onto the stack. You'd rather not lose Jon.

Gisa, Glorious Resurrector. It's something you can't give away, which means it's good when you're ahead, but not great when you're behind,. Your mileage may vary, but I think getting something more immediately impactful on the board tends to be best.

Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker. You're not running a mill strategy, you'll only be filling the graveyard of dedicate graveyard decks.

Taniwha. I love this creature and totally understand running it for the memes, but phasing triggers before your upkeep, which means that when you give it away, it'll be phased out for the first turn under your opponent, so they'll keep their lands and you won't draw a card from Jon's ability. The turn cycle has to make two full rounds before Taniwha does anything.

Tergrid, God of Fright  Flip. Unlike Sheoldred, Tergrid doesn't make the opponent do either of its effects. It's another creature you don't want to give away, and Jon makes cards unsacrificeable. It just won't trigger much unless you're against a sacrifice deck.

Ensnaring Bridge. The creatures you donate will often be quite big. Ensnaring bridge will prevent them from attacking your opponents and deny you card draw.

Chromatic Lantern. It's only good if you need the mana fixing. You don't need the mana fixing. Try something like Thought Vessel or Decanter of Endless Water or Midnight Clock instead.

Assault Suit doesn't goad the creatures itself. Often they'll swing at you if possible.

Dissipation Field. Not as good as it looks. Doubles ETB triggers. Anti synergy with cards like Endless Whispers.

No Mercy Jon just has better options for this slot. If you can replace a non-creature with a creature in this deck, you usually want to.

Grave Betrayal. That's 7 mana for a card that could ruin your game by forcing you to revive bad cards you do not want.

Diplomatic Immunity. You want instant speed protection and protection from board wipes. Something like March of Swirling Mist is more versatile offensively and defensively.

Dark Ritual. I'm uncertain what you're trying to ramp into so quickly that you would need this. Maybe I'm wrong.

Countersquall. You may as well play the one mana version in An Offer You Can't Refuse.

Redirect may be bested by Narset's Reversal? That's a matter of opinion.

AEtherize risks bouncing creatures attacking other opponents such as those you've goaded but want them to keep. Try replacing this with a more versatile effect like Reins of Power or a more aggressive effect in Illusionist's Gambit.

Damnation. Jon prefers sacrifice board wipes so that your opponents keep their shit creatures.

Overall I think you could run less counter-magic in favor of more proactive effects.

Cards to Consider Creatures Generally I want to focus on adding creatures that you can give away and then steal back later to win the game.

With Jon, you often want cheap evasive creatures to give out for early card draw with his ability. Right now you have 1 two-drop creature. Throwing in a Changeling Outcast or a Slither Blade can mean you can give a creature away for cheap and still hold up mana for other things. Slither blade wouldn't die to Heartless Summoning too.

In the two-drop slot, you can run creatures that are more defensive like Baleful Strix, or give you card draw like Sygg, River Cutthroat or just more powerful creatures like Flesh Reaver which is a goaded 6/6 that can deal 12 damage a turn or Wretched Anurid. Heck, you can even add a versatile two-drop in Dimir Infiltrator which can be given away in the early game or used as a tutor in the late-game.

In the three drop slot, I think your idea of adding Steel Golem is a great one to make sure the only creatures your opponent has are the ones you're giving them. It's a brutal card. Rotting Regisaur is a card you don't mind giving away early, and can take back later to win. Phyrexian Soulgorger can be donated to an opponent as a goaded 10/10. They won't have to pay the upkeep, but that's a great body to give someone as a political tool. Cephalid Facetaker is also worth consideration though I personally don't run it.

In the four-drop slot, like you mentioned, Grid Monitor is a proactive creature counter. Abyssal Persecutor can save you from death. Archfiend of the Dross is risky but fun (it comes back to your control after the opponent dies).

In the 5-drop slot, both of the evil-eye cards are absolute ALL STARS. They work so well every game I've drawn them. They can also replace some of your weaker defenses like No Mercy and Dissipation Field

As a sidenote, I also like Deep-Sea Kraken as an unblockable 8/8 that can win you the game with homeward path.

Removal I recommend running more sacrifice-based removal since it'll mean your opponents keep the crap you give them. Things like Tergrid's Shadow or Vona's Hunger or All is Dust (one of my favorites) or Killing Wave. I also prefer Toxic Deluge to some of your other removal since it goes through hexproof. Curse of the Swine is also an exile effect that can be selective and works really well. You can also run single-target removal like Reality Shift or Pongify if you'd rather instant speed interaction. Feed the Swarm is quality. If you really don't care about cruelty, you can run Torment of Hailfire, but that card is honestly always too boring for me to want in my decks.

Card Draw Jon has access to some great card draw that most decks can't take advantage of. Fateful Handoff is a card draw spell that also donates (though does not goad). Sygg, River Cutthroat works well with evasive threats you give away (though should not be donated). Verity Circle works great with Jon's ability since it donates the creature first, and then taps it down. Teferi's Ageless Insight allows you to double your draw triggers from Jon.

Equipment Remember that you can donate creatures while they're equipped and you still control the equipment so they can't re-equip it. Pact Weapon makes the attacking creature bigger, while ensuring you can't die, and will draw you another card whenever the donated creature attacks. Dowsing Dagger  Flip works effectively on evasive creature to get you ramped. Vorpal Sword is a win condition on your unblockable evasive creatures.

Goad Dulcet Sirens, Bloodthirsty Blade.

Misc Graveyard removal is king. Throw in a Scavenger Grounds. My favorite card to run is Reality Shift. Make an Avenger of Zendikar spawn a dozen Wretched Anurids. It's not GREAT, but it is always funny. Cultural Exchange is a fun time too with all your manifest and shitty creatures.

That is all. Hope it was helpful.

April 7, 2023 10:27 a.m.

Licecolony says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #2

Sorry, I meant Mystic Reflection for that combo at the end

April 7, 2023 10:38 a.m.

DingoLingo03 says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #3

Licecolony Thank you for the comprehensive message! I appreciate the input, especially on adding the smaller, more evasive creatures into the mix and removing some counterspells. Any time I build I have a knee-jerk reaction to slot in some counters, even when they're not really necessary in the overall scheme of the deck.

Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker, Gisa, Glorious Resurrector and, sadly, Taniwha are getting chopped. I share your love for the 'ol phasing sea serpent, but I agree that it's far too slow in games where it's seen play to warrant an inclusion. My thought process behind adding Mirko was to shift aggro onto an opponent's board. His ability certainly has bite, but I find he often becomes a pain in the neck for me in the late game. Puns intended. Gisa's just sorta not great.

I'm not so sure about cutting Tergrid. She acts as a foil to Jon: when my donations cause opponents to sac their good creatures, they become my defensive line against the hot garbage I've gifted them. I'll have to do some trial runs with and without to see if I can cut her out of the 99.

Plague Reaver is, tentatively, on the chopping block. Reaver's value and ability is just grand, but it does suck having to lose Jon for a turn. Assault Suit was a means of mitigating that issue, by keeping Jon off the board I could cast both cards while not having to face the backlash, then toss it around to all my opponents at their upkeeps. Suit is probably going to stay in the 99, because it still has great synergy with other creatures, especially those that sac at the player's upkeep.

Good calls on Dissipation Field, No Mercy, and Grave Betrayal. Diplomatic Immunity doesn't really work as intended anyway, and I very much prefer your replacements for AEtherize, so consider those cut. Dark Ritual I think will stay, always good to get a discount on higher cost spells. I'm leaving in Countersquall for now. I tend to shy away from cards that gift treasures to opponents, unless I've got a Dockside slotted into the 99. Redirect is, hands down, one of my favorite cards ever, and while Reversal is good, I think Redirect will stay.

I'm also going to take your suggestions on the sac-based removals as well.

Thanks again!

April 8, 2023 3:35 p.m.

Licecolony says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #4

Redirect is a ton of fun for sure ^_^ at the end of the day there's nothing better than playing with the cards that bring you fun.

April 8, 2023 3:43 p.m.

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Created with Highcharts 9.3.3Card costs (outer) ​Land mana (inner)
Created with Highcharts 9.3.3Creature​CreatureLand​LandEnchantment​EnchantmentArtifact​ArtifactInstant​InstantSorcery​Sorcery
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99% Casual

Competitive