Divine Machinations (Cleric Tribal)

Commander / EDH Gadianten

SCORE: 164 | 56 COMMENTS | 33093 VIEWS | IN 97 FOLDERS


Creature change up —Sept. 4, 2018

I have decided to try and go more all in on the clerics with tutor effects and as such have included a suite of options for them depending to meet my needs at the time. Heliod's Pilgrim has been added with this in mind with reanimation effects like Animate Dead and Underworld Connections as a potential replacement for Custodi Lich amd will hopefully play nicer with the decks primary reanimation combo.

electromancer says... #1

Not trying to make things complicated but I found a couple others that are kind of interesting:
Cover of Darkness You might want to skip this suggestion if you know you're not going to win through combat damage.
Harsh Mercy I didn't know this existed until a couple minutes ago, but it looks like it could be fun.
Ok more suggestions for cuts:
True Conviction- I think you should reserve this CMC slot for cards that will guarantee a high impact. Since all of your creatures are utility, I don't think this card makes as much sense in this deck as it would in others.
Custodi Lich- CMC is a bit much for giving your opponent the choice of what to sac. It also looks like you can only do this once per game unless someone else likes being the monarch, so it's anti-synergetic with flicker and reanimation.

August 24, 2018 1:01 a.m. Edited.

Gadianten says... #2

Thanks electromancer for the comments I always appreciate an outside eye for critiquing the deck. I have run Cover of Darkness from time to time and found its usually better in aggressive builds, encourage card draw, but its always one of those cards that never seems to quite make the cut but I always like what it could potentially do. Were I to add it I would probably replace Bitter Ordeal but I am still testing that card.

Harsh Mercy seems on the surface to be a good pick but the problem is I typically play multiplayer so a total of four creature types will be exempt and odds are pretty slim I will actually kill what I really needed removed. Kindred Dominance or Toxic Deluge would probably be suited to my needs for filling in removal duty, although I don't know how I missed that one when I used to play tiny leaders.

True Conviction is a test card currently, I have it in as part of a suite of enchantments to use with Academy Rector depending on the situation it seems like it could be a high impact card. The theory is that it will make a difference by giving me an edge on any defensive blocking and forcing opponents to make unfavorable blocks when my humble 2/2's can hit for four, also the life gain is definitely useful and nightmarish if I have Archangel of Thune out. However, it still needs to be tested and if found lacking I would probably swap it out Cover of Darkness.

Custodi Lich is mainly in here because he tends to net me 2-4 cards is a 4/2 blocker/attacker and sticks it to someone else. Currently the best gotcha moment I have had with it is when a player managed to get a turn two The Gitrog Monster out and nobody had a response, I play my second land for the game and proceeded to cast Custodi Lich using Mana Vault... the laughter at the table man... While he does not work with the reanimation schemes of the deck I don't think I can really replace him unless I find another fairly reliable source of card draw while keeping cleric count up. If they would just print an etb Human Cleric with card draw...

August 25, 2018 11:22 p.m.