As a Yisan player, Yisan isn't the best. Zur is the best. Yisan's biggest weakness, fast combo, is pretty big right now. Zur has very few weaknesses, and in my opinion, is the undeniable best. Lots of commanders are passed off with a casual "Well, he's no Zur." This should say something about the definitive best deck in the format.

As a Yisan player, Yisan isn't the best. Zur is the best. Yisan's biggest weakness, fast combo, is pretty big right now. Zur has very few weaknesses, and in my opinion, is the undeniable best. Lots of commanders are passed off with a casual "Well, he's no Zur." This should say something about the definitive best deck in the format.

the black gearhulk is le garbage. not even tragic arrogance, not even roidcaster mage, not even 8/8 for 5. not at all syrup. also, how many more legends are going to be spoiled? like is energy counters going to get a legendary bro to pilot energy proliferate?

Have you played with ShaperSavant's list Leinahtan?

He's got stax elements to slow combo down and it works wonders.

Also, someone just figured out the combo with the reservoir; Sydri, Galvanic Genius.

Make it a creature, give it lifelink, table is dead

Maximum T5 kill there disregarding ramp if you swing to gain 4 first.

Ohthenoises, You have to be at 50 life first to do that, which is tricky to do by turn 5 if you spend turns 3 & 4 casting your commander and reservoir (disregarding opening with Serra Ascendant of course). Definitely still a solid wincon, but I don't think it's going to create too many turn 5 wins. (Unless you're saying run Sydri and Reservoir in the 99 of Oloro?)

Also, Reservoir is like, best friends with Rings of Brighthearth. And I really want to see someone get Stifled while trying to combo with this.

Hotcake_Gotsyrup, Noxious Gearhulk is not garbage. I play Shadowborn Demon in ETB oriented lists for a creature kill without much targeting restrictions. Noxious is a one more mana Shadowborn with fewer drawbacks that can also play with artifact synergies. It's sub optimal, but there are places for it in this format.

sonnet666 Yeah disregarding ramp, playing Oloro as commander, T3 Sydri, T4 Reservoir, T5 animate Reservoir and swing, go to 54 life, off the table before leaving combat.

I'm pretty certain it's possible to make a very competitive Sydri, Galvanic Genius deck with that new artifact. Yes, you need to gain life, but in those colors you have options for a stax deck that protects your life while tutoring for the combo-kill. You also have access to counterspells (if needed). Finally, the colors are full of lifegain. A kind of best-case scenario would be Serra Avatar into Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim on turn 2 and then you could quite easily get a turn4 or 5 kill.

Obviously a list needs to be made, but there's a good chance for Sydri to move up a tier.

I meant Serra Ascendant of course

All you technically need is to get to 51, after that the kill takes care of itself. And since we wouldn't be playing the artifact and going off the same turn it's likely that we could attack with it just to gain 4 so that puts the total at 47.

7 life over 5 turns max is doable, mainly because people in cEDH don't typically attack until they have lethal (or not at all)

Chances are this strategy might land sydri in T2, her speed is on par with Azami given best case scenarios of having the combo pieces in hand. (Azami at 5 and MoM at 6 with ramp) The total mana cost is less with Sydri as well, 10 compared to Azami's 14 for MoM and Lab Man.

Another deck up for consideration with Reservoir is Trostani.

I've seen a few Serra Avatar flicker builds that are LOL inducing, Flickerform on avatar or Blade of Selves with the reservoir in play is very lethal.

"people in cEDH don't typically attack until they have lethal (or not at all)"

Relying on people's bad habits is not a good plan. If you have a creature and someone's open, it's usually best to swing.

But yes, I think a combo deck for Syrdi is doable. The main hurdle is probably going to be finding enough sources of lifegain that either do something else worthwhile, or are eficeintly costed enough that you don't care that they're not advancing your boardstate. Serra Ascendant is one, but you're not going to have enough to sac with Ayli for her to get you there on her own, so what else is there? Sangromancer? You don't have any wheels...

I'm just super hesitant to get behind lifegain as a deck's main strategy. It's never as good as people think it is.

Ohthenoises, did you also mean Serra Ascendant?

Nevermind, I forgot how Trostani worked for a second.

Yeah it's the whole "flicker Avatar and double my life total" thing.

Super silly with Blade of Selves.

There are plenty of ways to abuse Aetherflux Reservoir outside of esper. Any infinite life combo works. Kitchen Finks makes it especially easy.

Edit: In fact, palinchron and high tide also breaks it. Lot's of ways to bust this thing open.

Ohthenoises, Not to mention that putting Blade of Selves on Trostani gets you 20 life in a four player game even without the avatar. 45 life in 5 player.

kyuuri117, Hmm, I usually avoid infinite lifegain combos as a competitive wincon, but it might be worthwhile with this turning it into infinite damage...

On Trostani you have the problem of the legend rule but I suppose

The new paradoxical outcome could do some stupid powerful things in the right shell especially with that etb doubler. Bounce stax pieces and mana rocks on your end step or in response to removal and reuse them the following turn to lock down the board again

The really fun thing about the avatar + blade thing is the scaling.

40 starting, play avatar go to 80, swing with avatar, go to 240, populate go to 480.

Alternatively Rhox Faithmender is almost worse.

40 starting, play mender go to 50, swing with faithmender and populate in response to trostani's trigger to go to 290 and have a 4x multiplier for anything played that turn.

(lmk if my math checks out)

It doesn't.

Trostani, Selesnya's Voice has a triggered ability.

Serra Avatar:

40 starting, Trostani in play. Play Avatar, go to 80. Swing with Avatar+Blade, make two copies (4 player game), get two Trostani triggers. First trigger resolves, go to 160. Second tigger resolves, Avatar's P/T is now 160, go to 320. Populate, go to 640.

Rhox Faithmender:

40 starting, Trostani in play. Play Mender, get Trostani trigger. You have a x2 multiplier, so you go to 50. Swing with Mender+Blade, make two token Menders, get two Trostani triggers. Populate one Mender while the triggers are on the stack, get a third trigger. You now have 3 triggers attempting to gain you 5 life and a x16 multiplier. You gain 80 three times and go to 290.

And the legend rule is irrelevant when you put blades on trostani, since all the copies see and trigger off of each other before they die as a SBA.

Rule interactions are fun.

I also think the reservoir could be of any use in a storm deck such as ANT Sidisi? Maybe not groxis, because we have more colors to toy around, but in mono-black it could be a 3rd win con, and it could let us get back the life we need to cast AN again the same turn simpply out of storm, no needto cast Tendrils or Exsanguinate first. At 4 mana may be a little high for this, but I will still test.

Ohthenoises: I have played with Shaper's list. While the stax pieces are nice, the fact that Yisan can't tutor for them, coupled with Storm's removal (usually stuff like Chain or counters like Spell Pierce) makes it hard to keep them down. Zur has counters of his own, so he doesn't have to worry.

Zur doesn't really rely on the general at all. The deck is Doomsday primarily, with ANT as a backup plan. Zur helps the backup plan. Yisan, on the other hand, relies on the general heavily. The entire deck is basically built around Yisan. You only need 1 piece of removal to kill Yisan (I typically don't go for Safekeeper first verse unless I have a combo piece in hand, so you'll only get protection on your next casting), while it takes several pieces of removal to get rid of Zur.

Zur is just broken. Maybe Leo will be a new contender, but really, you can't say that Yisan is better than Zur. (I mean, if I thought he was better, then I'd love for my commander to be considered "the best." However, he just isn't.)

sonnet666 Doesn't this mean that she will only gain you what she sees enter? (i.e. 80): 10/1/2012 Trostanis first ability checks the creatures toughness as it resolves. If that creature has left the battlefield, use its toughness from when it was last on the battlefield. You cant lose life this way if that creatures toughness was less than 0.

How I read that is she checks when they ETB not when her ability resolves.

How did you read, "Trostani's first ability checks the creatures toughness as it resolves," and get, "she checks when they ETB not when her ability resolves," ...?

Those statements are actually the opposite of each other.

The " If that creature has left the battlefield," part isn't even relevant here so long as someone doesn't instant speed remove the Serra Avatars. (and why would anyone do that?)