Dromar's Pillow Fort of Planeswalkers Dreams

Commander / EDH* Thing2

SCORE: 3 | 4 COMMENTS | 1033 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS


Chompythebeast says... #1

Hello again, Dromar - you look well.

Right away I see the glaring omission of Swamp s - you're shocked, I know. I saw the Plains and the Islands, and I had to check three times to be sure I was right in not seeing any swampies, haha. You really are a pot-stirrer, aren't you? Well, I'll bite, let's see... you're not really hurting for black on other lands like Watery Grave and such, and of course you have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, no doubt the crux of this mad scheme of yours... I really don't think it should be a factor that you have only 21% black spells (that to me means a difference of maybe 2 total black producers compared to your blue/white producers, if that), but again, all of your lands are black producers with the magic Urborg in play... so you're probably right, you probably won't have black troubles. BUT still, I'd recommend dropping one of your Islands and one of your Plains for two Swamps. Or at the very least, one Plains for just one Swamp. I know it's quite rare, but occasionally there will be situations where spells from other players will send you searching for basic lands - in which case, it could really come in handy to have two (or at least one) black-producing targets. I'm thinking group-hug cards like Collective Voyage and New Frontiers, and more importantly, the new land destruction cards like From the Ashes and Wave of Vitriol - these two cards will get rid of your Urborg even if you had it, and they will leave you utterly blackless - a seriously crippling situation, and something you can easily avoid by adding two simple swamps. Again, it won't come up every game, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared that way, since the cuts (two other basics) are easy and obvious.

Also on the subject of lands - you must have forgotten Deserted Temple . And Vesuva . And Thespian's Stage . With Cabal Coffers and Urborg, I feel like you're nerfing yourself not to run these ultra-versatile lands (they are good even without a Cabal to copy). And this is black, so you have access to tutors, including the ultimate Insidious Dreams , that lets you set up the most broken mana base in Magic as quickly as possible.

Wait wait - woah! You don't have Insidious Dreams listed! In fact, you don't appear to be running any black tutors except for Demonic Tutor... the fact that you have the one tells me that this isn't necessarily a deliberate choice to avoid tutors altogether. So let me advocate for the Insidious Dreams first: You have access to blue! You have Recurring Insight and Time Stretch! Discard your whole damn hand and get a better one right before your turn, top-deck the Insight, and boom - you just pulled Urborg + Cabal + Deserted Temple + Doubling Cube + Time Stretch + Avacyn, Angel of Hope... or something like that. Something better that I'm missing. But with Time Stretch and Recurring Insight as targets, Insidious Dreams is way better in this deck than in Mono-Black, even if you don't reanimate your discards. Similarly, I'd also run Vampiric Tutor and/or Demonic Collusion . As it is now, it seems like your mana base is relying awfully heavily on Urborg, but without the essential tutors to make it show up consistently enough.

With Dromar the Banisher as your general (and with cards like Evacuation), I have to toss the good old Warped Devotion out there. It turns your general's bounce effect into a kill spell if your opponent has no hand, or fewer cards in hand than creatures in play; and even if it doesn't "kill" the creatures, it kills/counters the other spells your opponents were holding onto. You might think this is more hate than it's worth, but I don't think so - it is super-powerful and yet totally legitimate, not cheesy at all like actually hated cards, such as the single-card-combo that is Vicious Shadows. Dont avoid this card just because it involves discarding. In fact, gravitate to this card for that reason: it doesnt have to be a big theme of your decks, but this card just combos so uniquely and so well with Dromar that its too awesome to ignore. Also, its hilarious with Cyclonic Rift.

Necromancy is cool, and I see what you're doing with the Sun Titan... but I'm still not convinced that makes it better than Fated Return (fast and indie) or Reanimate (slow but cheap-as-can-be). With Sun Titan it's pretty good, but that is just one card, so Necro needs to be able to stand on its own to be considered good enough to run. Perhaps it's worth a try, but I'd keep an eye on it - you'd probably prefer Fated Return in most situations.

Enchantments, enchantments You've got quite a few enchantments, and the Academy Rector... a true theme going. So why in the world don't you run True Conviction ? I hardly need to justify how powerful it is even with just one creature, but more to this deck's point, Double Strike allows you to trigger the Junior Dragons' abilities twice in one swing. I think that along with your Rector and your Enchantment theme makes True Conviction a must-run for you right there, its massive combat potential aside.

I say cut Enchanted Evening for True Conviction. If people have to wipe your enchantments or lose to you, then they'll do it, even if it means wiping lands and everything else along with them. And that's no fun. Also, though youre worried about protecting your enchantments, dont forget that they are still the safest permanents in the game, being immune to damage and having the fewest wipes / targeted spells that can hit them. Of course, the best wipes are the ones that can hit enchantments, but still you enchantments have very little to fear out of Red, Black, and Blue mages.

And (other than Necro and Enchanted Eve) I love your enchantments. Steel of the Godhead and Copy Enchantment are ballerly, and it looks like all the Propaganda you can get your hands on. I never should have made and shown you my list of all the Propaganda Effect cards in the game (<-- shameless self-plugging :P). Even Norn's Annex! Haha... see? It doesn't suck so bad after all. (Although keep an eye on it, it may end up sucking). I'm surprised you couldn't commit Windborn Muse to the Mainboard... I'll add to the voice in your head telling you to put it back in there.

Speaking of enchantments and cards in your Maybeboard, I think Replenish would be a very good thing to have in your hand. It isn't only a recovery from a board wipe - it could potentially be used for something simple, like returning Steel of the Godhead to Dromar. And then killing someone with a suddenly unblockable Dromar. I'd advocate for it making its way Mainboard-side.

I'll also toss out that Walk the Aeons might be better than Time Warp. The Buyback is steep, but if paying it would win you the game, you'd do it. Twice, if you could. Anyway, I think the potential for multiple extra turns is worth the one additional mana.

If you can't find any land cuts for the aforementioned Deserted Temple, Vesuva, or Thespian's Stage, then cut Coalition Relic for any one of them. They are most definitely better draws than the relic at virtually any point in the game, and 36 lands is a better place to be than 35. Whatever your feelings about the Relic, you can't say it competes with an added land that gets you to 36 when that land can so easily become a second (or third) Cabal Coffers. But if you can find 3 land cuts for these guys, I guess that'd be okay too. But I highly recommend them, and think relic is stealing one of their seats if they cant get a ticket elsewhere.

Angelic Arbiter is very reminiscent of the sort of denial that defined the Old Deck and I love that. But if you're considering boner angels, maybe throw Linvala, Keeper of Silence on your Maybeboard as well. She's as great for her 4 mana cost as she is for her crippling ability.

Also, you should run Warped Devotion . I may have said it before, but I still haven't said it enough ;)

And finally, we come to the Planeswalkers. Judging by their number and your decks title, I can see that you are thinking about gaming the fact that Dromar bounces creatures, but leaves Planeswalkers. Well, as Im sure youve concluded, if it can work in any deck, it should work here! Lawl @ Ajani Steadfast for having synergy with other walkers. And two Jaces, eh? I wont even suggest the obviously superior and thematically perfect other Jace that you could run. Jace, the Living Guildpact is kinda neat, but I dont really like Jace, Architect of Thought. It stops 1/1 token hordes, but how often is that really a thing that attacks you? Without an Overwhelming Stampede? Sorin, Solemn Visitor seems a little mediocre as well but other than that, you still have 6 fairly sold Planeswalkers. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage is the best though she is so good. Is she from the plane of Kamigawa, I wonder? Shes not printed in until much later than that block, of course yup, she was born at Oboro, Palace in the Clouds according to MTGSalvation.

You know, back in the day, Dromar and his deck were so OP that people had to build high-profile decks with the deliberately-expressed purpose of Beating Gomar. I have a funny feeling people in your meta will have to do something similar, once this Junior Dragon shows up to the party. (P.S. Intet wanted me to remind you to remind Dromar that her restraining order against him is still active. She also knows she doesn't have a case to sue Dromar for the similarity of his decks' name to hers, but wants him to know that it didn't escape her notice.)

October 30, 2014 7:41 p.m.

aznb01777 says... #2

No The Chain Veil and Tezzeret the Seeker for infinite planeswalker ability activation?

November 4, 2014 5:13 p.m.

Thing2 says... #3

Wow good call on The Chain Veil I had not seen that card! I cut Avacyn, Angel of Hope for it for now. As for Tezzeret the Seeker I don't have enough artifacts to make him good and my meta frowns upon infinite combos. Even though its not entirely infinite I can't run Tezzeret just for that. Thanks for the suggestions!

November 5, 2014 9:56 a.m.

aznb01777 says... #4

just for having Gilded Lotus / Thran Dynamo with ur Doubling Cube is more than enough reason to play Tezzeret the Seeker , or just run some mirrodin artifact lands ( Darksteel Citadel , Ancient Den , Seat of the Synod , and Vault of Whispers ) so he can be ur Garruk Wildspeaker but even better since u can -0 to search and put the land in play.

November 7, 2014 6:56 p.m.

Please login to comment