Gahiji: Forever War

Commander / EDH* awalloftext

SCORE: 153 | 83 COMMENTS | 25894 VIEWS | IN 81 FOLDERS


Commander 2015 Updates! —Nov. 7, 2015

Commander 2015 Additions

Commander 2015 spoilers are here! There's a few real winners here, and a few more cards I'll be keeping my eye on and occasionally swapping in for testing.

  • Rite of the Raging Storm: This card is more or less perfect for this deck, I think. Will be trying it out in place of Bitter Feud.
  • Oreskos Explorer: Fun mana fixing! The dream here is grabbing 2 shocklands and a Mistveil Planes. Might go into the place of a Signet; see section below.
  • Command Beacon: Seems great. Getting Gahiji back into play for cheap is a big win; also repeatable with Sun Titan and has minor synergy with Knight of the Reliquary. Unsure if my mana base can handle another colorless land; we'll see.

Update to Ramp Package

Removing Signets, adding some different cards that fit the deck a bit better.


Potential Commander 2015 Tryouts

Here are some other cards I'll be testing, but I'm still unsure of. I'll be swapping them out and giving them a shot, but are only a solid "maybe" for now:

  • Blade of Selves: Either insanely explosive or useless. Imagine slapping this on a Hornet Queen? So spicy. The issue, however, is the fact that the Myriad clones don't get Gahiji's buff. In addition, the vast majority of games I win with this deck come down to a few turns of 1 on 1; this card simply doesn't do anything in that situation.
  • Arachnogenesis: At first blush, this seems like an auto-include for this deck. However, considering I'm running a modest pillow fort package, the chances this card will ever reach its full potential are slim. Still a funny enough card to try out.
  • Dawnbreak Reclaimer and Skullwinder: Political recursion. But, I think, not quite as good as Sun Titan and Den Protector.

ExiledKing says... #1

+1 great deck, btws how you make the background do dis???

October 21, 2015 1:34 a.m.

awalloftext says... #2

ExiledKing - All thanks to this tutorial. I followed all of that user's guides to make the custom elements on this page.

October 21, 2015 1:47 a.m.

NateJH says... #3

Love the idea, just some simple ideas I would consider.

1.) You are in green, there is no reason to play Gruul Signet or Chromatic Lantern when you can play land ramp like Rampant Growth or Cultivate.

2.) Some better removal options to consider: Chaos Warp, Path to Exile, Beast Within, Oblation. All are more cost effective or can hit a wider range of permanents.

3.) Some more constant token producers: Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Hero of Bladehold

4.) How to make combat truly a mess: Avatar of Slaughter, Grand Melee, Boros Battleshaper, Crescendo of War, Archangel of Strife

October 27, 2015 9:54 p.m.

awalloftext says... #4

NateJH - Thanks for the comment!

Point taken on the Signet/Lantern vs green ramp spells. Really, I just wanted an excuse to have all three relevant signets in a single deck, but that's probably just being too cute. Next time I do a pass on this deck, I'll consider swapping the signets out at least - Rampant Growth, Cultivate, and extra piece of removal seem like easy replacements.

Speaking of removal, Chaos Warp and Beast Within are always on my watch list for potential swap-ins. Beast Within is basically a better Mercy Killing anyway, but Killing has become a sort of a pet card of mine.

Elspeth (all of 'em!) are in my variants section for a more "token aggro" focused build. However, Hero of Bladehold is an EXCELLENT suggestion that somehow never crossed my mind. Definitely will try to pick up an extra copy at some point.

I tried Crescendo once - it was fun! But ended up backfiring on me. I swapped it out for Heliod, God of the Sun. Similarly, Grand Melee used to be in the deck; I think I replaced it with Bitter Feud, if memory serves?

October 28, 2015 3:04 a.m.

Cybersix says... #5

I've often wanted to see how to include Bassandra, Battle Seraph in a deck.

October 29, 2015 1:02 a.m.

clayperce says... #6

An extremely solid deck and a great write-up, awalloftext! I love Naya and went back and forth on Gahiji vs Rith for the longest time. I ended up with Smashface Gardening w/ Rith (EDH Dragons), but I've always wondered "what if I'd brewed Gahiji instead?" I'm hopeful it would have been something like this.
+1!

Really, there's only a few things I can think to mention:

  • Shamanic Revelation, if you still find card advantage a weakness. I think the ONLY downside to this card is it's not a "may" effect, so don't accidentally mill yourself out :-)
  • Spear of Heliod, as a nice pump and also a great rattlesnake, if you find yourself wanting more of either.
  • Maybe a Hunted Wumpus or Hunted Dragon instead of the Hunted Troll. Troll's regenerate is pretty awesome, but Wumpus gives your opponents their own dudes instead of something new, and Dragon gives them dudes that are easier to keep out of your face.

So how does Dragon Broodmother play in the real world? It looks AMAZING, but my deck's on a very tight budget and I worry it might draw Planeswalker-level hate from the table.

Also, I can't believe I've never seen Master Warcraft before. What a cool card!

November 4, 2015 8:27 p.m.

awalloftext says... #7

Thanks clayperce! I think Shamanic Revelation is a great call for a tryout sometime.

Dragon Broodmother is not essential to the deck, it's just a solid card. Usually it just eat removal or a wrath (usually a wrath), but forcing wraths can be important for decks with tokens, I think! When it does stay on the board, it gets scary quick, and having tokens that fly is pretty great too. Pity about its price tag... old mythics with no reprints, and all.

November 4, 2015 11:23 p.m.

clayperce says... #8

Hi again, awalloftext!
Have you seen Rite of the Raging Storm yet? It just got spoiled over on The Command Zone and I immediately thought of your deck!

November 5, 2015 7:11 p.m.

awalloftext says... #9

clayperce - Dude. That card. Felt like Christmas.

I'm going to do an update once the set is fully spoiled, but Rite is probably gonna go in place of Bitter Feud.

November 5, 2015 7:19 p.m.