It's weird that there seems to be no one here running Arbiter, so I'm gonna drop some of my thinking over Arbiter's combos in a spoiler below. I'm going to put together this list for the day-long commander session my friends and I are going to have this Saturday. Expecting to see Animar, Karador, Tasigur, elf ball, Narset, Nath Stax, XenaGod, etc.

The current Arbiter list we've got up seems sorta iffy to me for reasons outlined in the spoiler below. I feel like I could improve it and put up list that's not based on my meta for the purposes of our example decks. I'd appreciate help since I haven't played a tuned arbiter list before. I've run the guy in shop metas before, but not at anything resembling high-level play before. This weekend's gonna be trial by fire.

If you can clear the board, Mycosynth Lattice and March of the Machines after sticking a planeswalker should win you the game.

next up on the t3 commanders that need a deck, melek. If someone can give it the twice over to see if it is decent then hopefully thats one more.

melek v1

Commander / EDH* chaosumbreon87

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something something HT is stupid when you can copy everything.

Why is Cloud Key played in Future Sight+Cloud Key+Sensei's Divining Top when Helm of Awakening exists? It seems like a strictly better card unless I'm really missing something.

HarroHunter Helm is symmetrical and Cloud Key is just for you. Helm is usually better in fast-combo context, but playing a Helm and passing to your opponents is very dangerous.

@chaosumbreon87: Storm and extra turn effects don't synergize well at all. I'd advise dropping the extra turns and going all in on Storm. It'll speed up your Melek build quite a bit.

I'd like to make a couple of suggestions. I think Jevala should be moved to tier 2, as it's proven to be rather slow. Also, Leovold should be tier 0, which is marked as too good, should be banned. Griselbrand, if he were legal, would be tier 0, for reference.

Say you're going for your combo but have to fight for it once the pieces land on the table. Someone's pointing a Beast Within at your stuff, using Chord of Calling to fetch a Reclamation Sage, or whatever. Not only are plays against you easier to make now that Helm of Awakening is on the field, it could end up backfiring tremendously if your combo is interrupted and Helm of Awakening is left on the field. Imagine how happy your opponents on Storm would be, for example.

Future Sight with Helm isn't good, because the only reason to run Helm is to be faster. Given that faster combos exist outside of future sight even in mono blue, I'd prefer to fall back on the future sight combo using the safer option.

The only time I'll play a helm is in my Azami (which that whole package is getting gutted for paradox engine anyways) where I have a high density of counters and I'm going off THAT turn.

I've been using Etherium Sculptor when I can get away with it.

Penthoplayer: Jevela is the preferred general for a top 5 deck in cEDH (grixis storm). Even with Yidris running a similar deck Jevela as the general for grixis storm is simply too good to drop. In cEDH we don't often build around the commanders abilities much, as that is a liability. Even Zur the Enchanter who is the best general, is usually just a Necropotence in the command zone. Leovold is honestly a middle of the pack tier 1 general. There are several commanders who are worse. He is terrible to play against in casual playgroups but he is hardly unstoppable. Grislebrand would not be that bad as a general. Hes an 8 drop so you would often lose before you could cast him. Hes only banned because people cheat him into play on turn 1-2 and use him to draw your deck and win.

Penthoplayer, your claims about Jeleva and Leovold are quite wrong. I basically agree with everything Lilbrudder said: Jeleva is a top-5 commander (probably top-3 with Zur and Tazri?), while Leovold is a weaker to middle of the pack tier 1 (i.e. ~7-10th).

To extend on the last comment, I'd probably say the top 5 generals are:

1. Zur
2. Jeleva
3. Tazri
4. Gitrog
5. Prossh

However, lilbrudder is making some interesting claims that Sidisi, Brood Tyrant may be superior to Prossh, slotting in around 4th or 5th. Currently, this forum doesn't seem to accept Gitrog is a top-5 commander (he's currently in tier 2 which seems clearly false), and I may be incorrect, but I have reasonable experience with almost every tier 1 and tier 2 commander and I think he's a top-5.

Oh, yeah, Thrasios and friends is possibly a top-5, but that seems to be still shaking out.

With regards to the sidisi claim, I am too biased to know for sure but I think its safe to say this much:

FC sidisi is worse that tazri due to not having white. Her line to victory often (but not always) uses the graveyard, which is a liability. However she has between 3-4 playable outlets which is on par with Tazri and a 3 color mana base which is a slight advantage. She has less slots than Tazri for interaction but more than Proshh. She also has at least one built in backup win condition that costs 0 card slots since labman tainted pact and demonic consultation are essential cards to the FC plan. Her color scheme is very superior to proshh. While proshh has more outlets, which sometimes gives him the feel of a 1 card combo he is a 6 drop combo piece so to be fast he has to run like 30+creatures so he has little room for interaction. This makes him slightly more fragile. Also the quality of his tutors and cards in general are lower. I made this shell, which has tested very well, but is still raw. I think based on what we know about Tazri, that it has POTENTIAL to be better than Proshh but only time will tell. I tend to be dramatic at times so take my boasts with a grain of salt :-)

@TheDevicer; I've played that GAAIV list (BigLupu's), I can answer a few questions:

Future Sight is good cause it's an amazing engine just by itself. And it's fantastic with Sensei's Divining Top, which you already want to play in a control list. Then, it just wins with Cloud Key so you might as well throw that in. Cloud key is better than Etherium Sculptor since the deck leans on Humility.

Helm of Obedience is good because it's a one-card combo with Rest in Peace, which is one of the most essential pieces of hate to run, since it stops a number of Tier-1 decks. So if you're already playing RiP, helm is just added free wins.

Grim Monolith and Basalt Monolith are good because the deck wants to set up an early EOT Stroke of Genius or Sphinx's Revelation for 8-9 cards. This usually lets you untap and move into a win that turn or the next. Power Artifact is good cause it's a one-card combo with stuff you already really want to play, so you might as well include it for the free wins.

hope that helps!

I feel like Reaper King stax might actually be pretty good due to him being a vindicate in the command zone per scarecrow entering. Get lots of blink, clones, and other general stax and it would probably work. I have brewing to do now.

Is there any chance of any similarly experienced cEDH players taking a look at my Arcum revision and help me with some card choices that might be a better fit? I just completely reworked my list after testing Wednesday and last night, and while I've been pleased with the changes I know there's a lot of room to explore that I am not utilizing. This is really the only place I could think of to ask besides the cEDH Reddit:

Arcum's Asylum

Commander / EDH PookandPie

SCORE: 16 | 26 COMMENTS | 2631 VIEWS | IN 6 FOLDERS

I am always coming and looking at this list for inspiration because I feel that the listing is pretty accurate. I was wondering if there were any speculated adjustment for the release of Aether Revolt. Does anyone think a commander might go up a tier by getting a new toy? Like Arcum Dagsson getting Paradox Engine?

I don't think Arcum (or Captain Sisay, the other big Paradox Engine combo general) are going to go up any time soon. A consensus on new and improved versions of them probably won't be reached until a few weeks after the actual release of AER.

Azami seems like the most obvious engine target.

I will say that Paradox Engine has given Azami a huge buff. As for a promotion for any generals based on Paradox Engine (Azami included) I'm uncertain. It's a great way to seal a win for each of them, but they have their flaws.

I think with the combination of Baral and Engine Azami and Arcum deserve another look but only after a few months in to AEther Revolt being released

actually interested on improving my sen triplets for 1v1 but i was wondering what people's thoughts are on running her with doomsday and her protection she provides from one player to protect the combo ... guessing her esper package is rlly great for that combo but unsure what her multiplayer version would look like since i'de like to have two versions :s ...

she is only tier 3 but i wanna make the best out of it

Adding Engine to Arcum cut off over a turn on average goldfish time. I still wouldn't advise moving him up, simply because, while this increases his speed, it does nothing to curb his deck's reliance on its commander or difficulty navigating certain forms of hate. Same for Sisay.

Also, a fellow cEDH Discord user is trying to make a purely competitive tier list. Thoughts? Link