John Barleycorn Must Die
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 7 | 510 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS
First play-throughs —Sept. 27, 2021
The first incarnation of this deck had way too many options for how to infinitely combo. I ran into this a few years ago with an Alesha, Who Smiles at Death deck. There are so many options and so many cards that work together and in theory, also function on their own. However after playing it through, while certain cards DID work well on their own like Reveillark they had little to no useful synergies with the rest of the deck. This time, I narrowed down what combos I'm going to use, added more tutors, added way more draw card, and added more +1/+1 counter synergies.
My main takeaway was that above all this deck needed way more draw card. Someone said once "card draw solves problems" and multiple times in the game did I wish I could just tutor for a goddamn Necropotence. I'm so used to playing Mardu or Rakdos colors and what I'd give for a Night's Whisper in this deck.
I also believe that Leinore, Autumn Sovereign as a commander is more powerful that people are giving the deck credit for. Coven, to me, functions a lot like Monarch, in that you net an extra card each turn - conditionally. However, coven isn't something your opponents can take away every turn and it's extremely easy to achieve in these colors. Leinore is a sister to Queen Marchesa for me, but with a little less keywords. I also think as a commander she will be more innocuous than Saffi Eriksdotter, Captain Sisay, or Rhys the Redeemed.
Despite the setbacks, this deck did secure a win after two play-throughs. It wasn't as quick as I wanted it to win, but it did have a lot of setbacks and the combo was stopped early on. What it was, was resilient and I hope that with this update it maintains that endurance.