AD&D - Artifacts, Dwarves and Dragons
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 8 | 10 COMMENTS | 1220 VIEWS | IN 4 FOLDERS
In's and Out's —April 16, 2021
IN: All in for protection!
Mages' Contest - Funny counterspell in red. Not much more to say
Null Brooch - Tutorable Negate. You must discard you hand, but you can pull it when faced with a game ending Non-creature spell. It's also worth mentioning, the curve on this deck is really low, so it's not that uncommon to have 2 or less cards in hand by the time you'll need to use it. Therefore, the drawback of this abillity is usually not that big and since it can be reused, the next time I do, it wont have a drawback at all. All the draw effects I have will help me replenish my hand afterwards and Magda's tutor abillity can be all I need to stay in the game. All the more importance to protect her (and my board) at any cost.
Cauldron of Souls - Tutorable protection from wipes that doesn't require us to pay 5 (Soul of New Phyrexia) or to expose our entire board to an instant speed removal (Worldgorger Dragon). The negative counter could kill my dwarves, but I have more than a few ways to make'em bigger, and I wouldn't fetch this if I had none in the board, since it wouldn't be worth the trouble, in first place.
Duplicant - Great removal! Not sure why I haven't thought about this guy before, honestly!
OUT: Too much Ramp, maybe?
Blood Moon - Like I stated before in a coment: free wins are kinda meh. Otherwise it can be completely useless. Not very good either way IMO...
Wayfarer's Bauble - I'm building this deck to have a dwarf coming down T1, followed by Magda on T2 and start generating treasures... This card is, oddly enough, too slow for this strategy. Even if I play this on T1, I wont be cracking for the land before T4 since I can use the treasures for a quicker ramp if needed be.
Treasure Map Flip - Another clunky ramp that's also a clunky draw. This deck tries to be fast early on, so I can start cheating big artifacts or dragons on the board ASAP. And I normally dont have time to spend the 1 to scry, so the transformation takes a while to happen. The draw is great, but maybe too slow if I can already place The Immortal Sun by then.
Solemn Simulacrum - The one card I'm not sure if it's correct to remove: 4 mana for this 2/2 feels right, you know? At T4 it's alright to ramp since I've already played the dwarves that'll generate the treasures and it also draws a card at LTB. Honestly those changes are making my curve higher and if I had more than enough ramp before, taking 3 pieces of it now could be too much... This one may be reversed.
Oh! I almost forgot. I could see Nevinyrral's Disk being extremely useful as a board wipe, destroying artifacts, creatures and enchantments, and you can tutor it from your library directly with Magda. The Disk coming into play tapped is a bit rough, but can be fixed with Mobile Garrison.
March 7, 2021 6:52 p.m.
KevinB Hey man! Thanks for coming and giving some insights! So, first of all, I must say I have thought about almost every card you've recommended (althought I didn't consider Conqueror's Galleon Flip and Trading Post ).
Here comes the long post:
For the dwarves, I have all those "useless" 1 CMC dudes just to make sure I can start generating treasures as fast as possible (Still hoping the D&D set will bring a few more red dwarves for that) and right now, I dont think I can take away any of those for the 2 CMC you've mentioned. On other hand, the flex spot I have available would be the 7x spots for the Seven Dwarves , and I cant take out just 1 or 2... Either I play with 7 of'em or with none, right? So basically these dudes dont make the cut simply because they have the wrong CMC or a worst abillity from what I have right now, but if we get 4-5 decent dwarves on 1 and 2 CMC on the near future, I can see myself switching the seven dwarves for those guys.
As for Brass Herald , I think Obelisk of Urd does a better job being a possible combat trick (if I pull it with Magda's abillity after attacking the +2/+2 could make a difference), as well as being a little harder to remove, not being a creature. Considering all the other anthem effects I have available, they all seem to give me a better deal than a 6 mana 2/2 that maybe draws cards. But who knows, there're a few golems in this deck, and Coat of Arms could make it interesting should I start using more golems in the future.
The thing with Nevinyrral's Disk and Perilous Vault is that both of'em ALSO removes my own artifacts with the removal. Normally, what I'm sensing is that if I have my board cleared or even if I find myself needing to clear the board, if I still have my artifacts on board (things like The Immortal Sun or Caged Sun ), there's still a chance to come back to the game. But sure, a board wipe that can be instantly tutored could prove to be useful. Maybe I'll test switching a disk for Star of Extinction , although maybe the vault could be better.
Lastly, Conqueror's Galleon Flip and Trading Post are quite interesting suggestions. I can see myself switching the galleon for Solemn Simulacrum (not exactly good news for Brass Herald 's case, lol) since it also ramps and draws, as well as being a tap-enabler for my dwarves (the high crew cost sucks a little bit, though). But I'm Not sure what to take away for the post... It's value, for sure, but I'm not sure if it's more eficient than what I have right now in this deck (mana cost and resource-wise). What do you think on this matter?
March 9, 2021 9:57 a.m.
Blood Moon is listed as a win-con? I can respect that.
Not running all seven Seven Dwarves ? I have a hard time respecting this.
Anyways, cool deck
KevinB says... #1
Hello! Thank you for your advice on my budget deck. I had a few ideas that might work to help with yours as well.
I might swap out Arcane Signet for Everflowing Chalice . While Chalice doesn't get you red mana, it is a variable cost-efficient mana rock. You can burn down extra treasures to boost Chalice's multikicker to get enduring mana at a 1 for 2 ratio.
For boosting your dwarf tribal and getting more dwarves out, Brass Herald might be useful, I don't see it being as strong as Coat of Arms, but in the right situation it might compete with Obelisk of Urd.
I could also see Fearless Liberator being more useful than some of the dwarves you have already. Rimrock Knight also gets you some extra utility on a 3/1 dwarf which could be useful. Vault Robber seems ideal for Magda, as when she is out you can get two treasures on a single tap.
For draw, I think both Conqueror's Galleon Flip and Trading Post could be quite useful. Conqueror's foothold can start out as a great blocker and dwarf tapper, and can transform into ramp, looting, card draw and card return. Trading Post can get you life, blockers, draw and return artifact cards, I could see it comboing particularly well with Spine and Meteor Golem.
Lastly... I don't think this is necessarily a good board wipe, but a fun one in combination with Magda and might work pretty good with your giant dwarves would be Brawl . If nothing else you get some treasures while everyone blows up each others creatures.
March 7, 2021 6:46 p.m.