[Primer] Colored Mana is for the Weak

Commander / EDH* Decrepit_Angel

SCORE: 78 | 53 COMMENTS | 15988 VIEWS | IN 49 FOLDERS


Some Changes for the New 4 Color Meta —Sept. 2, 2017

Despite going on at length of how much I like Maze of Ith, I am finally going to cave in and cut this for another Wastes. Nonbasic land hate is a thing that has been gaining a lot of popularity since all of the 4 color decks started taking over everything. Although a Blood Moon is only mildly inconvenient, an early Back to Basics can be really bad for this deck if I don't have a Candelabra of Tawnos to fight through it. And in the rare situations that people actually run stuff like Ruination, this can also be hard to recover from. That and I finally had the situation come up in a game where I was copying Burnished Hart's ability with Rings of Brighthearth and I did not have enough basic lands left in library (leaving me 1 mana short of winning the game on my turn).

Also, Mirage Mirror is absolutely insane in this deck. I have no idea how I ran this deck so long without it. Yesterday I had Unwinding Clock and Mirage Mirror (with a bunch of mana rocks) against UGW Thrasios, Triton Hero control, some random Sliver deck, and a stax deck and I just kept copying the Thrasios and drawing multiple cards on each other person's turn until one of them played a Razaketh, the Foulblooded and I copied that and sacrificed my Inkmoth Nexus and Blinkmoth Nexus to tutor for some stax pieces to go with my Eldrazi Gods. The ridiculous versatility that this card has cannot be understated.

There are a few other cards I am planning on testing out, but I won't update them into the primer unless I decide they are good enough to deserve the spot. These are primarily more early plays for the deck like Mind Stone or Plague Myr but I am really not sure what to cut at this point.

And as always, if anyone can think of something I should try out (or especially cards that I should cut to make room to try out other cards) that I may not have thought of, feel free to comment and let me know.

ComboCrazy says... #1

Blightsteel Colossus as another heavy-hitter, Mycosynth Lattice as a countermeasure against artifact wipes, and Not of This World, because why not? Free counterspell.

August 23, 2016 1:33 p.m.

Decrepit_Angel says... #2

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm definitely planning on getting a Blightsteel Colossus. As for Mycosynth Lattice, the most common artifact hate towards this deck is through Vandalblast and Stony Silence. This helps against the latter but makes the former even more powerful for my opponents to play which is why I have not put it in the deck. It also makes All Is Dust and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon fairly useless. As for Not of This World, I ran this card for quite a while and recently just cut it. When it worked, it was amazing but it felt too situational and often sat around in my hand for 6 or 7 turns just to be dead when my opponent played Wrath of God or Descend upon the Sinful or Terminus... or Vandalblast, hence why Warping Wail is still there but Not of This World is not. I might throw it back in eventually but I would prefer to just have more ramp and/or giant creatures to play given that those are more useful after a board wipe.

August 23, 2016 2:15 p.m.

ComboCrazy says... #3

Ah. You have one of those playgroups. I agree, if you're up against stuff like Vandalblast then Mycosynth Lattice isn't a good idea.

August 23, 2016 2:48 p.m.

Decrepit_Angel says... #4

I didn't have one of those playgroups until I started playing this deck. Everybody got sick of Kozilek's tyranny and started adding all the disruption they could. You know you are doing something right when the entire playgroup modifies their decks to include tons of cards just to try to stop you.

August 23, 2016 3:01 p.m.

Decrepit_Angel says... #5

Definitely one of the most random things I have encountered playing this deck but I thought it was funny enough to share. It turns out that an opposing commander of Dong Zhou, the Tyrant is really good at shutting this deck down. Especially when that player can put two additional copies of him onto the field a turn. Genuinely made me contemplate adding a Platinum Emperion for situations like this. Too bad commander doesn't have a sideboard.

August 26, 2016 3:30 p.m.

Ocelot44 says... #6

You might wanna try Scroll Rack and Mikokoro, Center of the Sea for the redundancy with Geier Reach Sanitarium. Card draw can be awkward with no colors to support you

September 16, 2016 4:55 p.m.

Decrepit_Angel says... #7

Thank you for the recommendations.

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea definitely deserves a spot in here. I think that in 90% of circumstances it is a strictly better Geier Reach Sanitarium considering that I don't really want to be discarding cards so I will make sure to pick one up the next time I'm at the card store.

As for Scroll Rack, this is a card I really want to run but can't think of anything to cut for it. I'm still trying to figure out some stuff to cut to add more stax effects like Tangle Wire and Storm Cauldron. That and Scroll Rack is infinitely better with easy ways to shuffle your library so you can ditch cards you don't need and avoid just drawing them again. The only consistent ones I have are Eye of Ugin and if Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre dies and hits the graveyard. If you can think of something good to cut for it, let me know.

September 17, 2016 2:56 a.m.

Ocelot44 says... #8

At this point, I'd say cut a mana rock. You seem to have plenty, even if your curve is stupidly high. Maybe Thought Vessel since you won't be drawing many cards? It's up to you

September 19, 2016 3:21 a.m.

Decrepit_Angel says... #9

That is probably what I will end up doing but it always feels bad to cut a rock. This deck can brick hand worse than any other deck I have played which is why I would rather have too many mana rocks over too few. Also helps with the occasional turn 2 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. And oddly enough, Thought Vessel is actually really relevant in this deck. Kozilek draws me 4 whenever I cast him and copying his cast trigger with Strionic Resonator is just too great to pass up, even if I end up discarding cards because of it.

I'll probably end up cutting Darksteel Ingot because it just has indestructible and not really anything else of note because I don't care about getting colored mana. Either that or Kozilek's Channeler because he is just a mana dork that doesn't even help with the artifact shenanigans.

September 19, 2016 3 p.m.

I have thought about adding colors to this before but honestly, my favorite part about it is that it is entirely colorless. It makes it feel like more of a challenge to make it good and people tend to be less afraid of it than some of the more obvious combo commanders like Oona, Queen of the Fae. I'm not too big of a fan of playing combo decks and Memnarch definitely supports combo over beatdown which is why I chose Kozilek originally over him and a few others that I had thought about. After I played it for a while, I realized that having an (almost) un-counterable card draw stapled onto the commander is really great and it is actually a lot of fun to just throw giant creatures onto the field and see what happens. Usually they get answered but having one as the commander means that eventually my opponents will run out of answers to them.

I guess that I don't really have any direct responses to counters/exile/etc., but I tend to think of Mindslaver and Emrakul, the Promised End as preemptive answers to those. Nothing like wasting your opponents own removal on their stuff, especially their commander and choosing to not return it to the command zone (and people thought the change to the tuck rule meant their commander was safe). I could go on for pages about how great Mindslavering an opponent can be but it really goes without saying... especially if they are playing blue and I can use that against them to do something stupid like cast their Enter the Infinite and then just force them to deck out or actually do their Doomsday combo and just forget to cast the Laboratory Maniac. And If I can ever find a Cavern of Souls, I can at least make my Eldrazi uncounterable so theres that.

Honestly, my only real complaint with this deck is that it can brick hand like none other with all the giant crap and that if my opponents have fairly low tiered decks, the power gap is way more noticeable than in most games which can make it completely unfun to go against for newer players. Well that and enough hate can eventually shut down the deck but I guess that is true for any strategy.

October 3, 2016 7:04 p.m.

Really cool. Once I get a job I'm playing this... but until then, I'll have to play my sliver commander deck.

January 22, 2017 8:02 p.m.

Really cool. Once I get a job I'm playing this... but until then, I'll have to play my sliver commander deck.

January 22, 2017 8:02 p.m.

Sorry for double post.

January 22, 2017 8:03 p.m.

Definitely give it a shot. And if you have the extra cash, most of the cards in the maybe section deserve a spot in the deck but are not included due to cost. Static Orb just needs testing and Staff of Domination is mainly if you are going for a more combo oriented build (which just got way easier with the addition of Paradox Engine) but everything else is just expensive and hard to find.

And one of these days I will get around to updating this list into a primer to help people that want to run a similar deck, especially on some of the finer points of the deck, such as mulligans because this deck has very odd draws that would seem perfectly fine for most other decks to keep but are not likely to be fast enough for this one. Eventually I will also get around to updating the description too because some cards have been cut to try out new things.

January 23, 2017 12:43 p.m.

Ohthenoises says... #15

I know it takes a haste source or a turn to untap but have you considered Endbringer? I've found it to be super decent when I play Koz acting as a second Staff of Nin. (It can be Eye of Ugined which isn't irrelevant.)

August 27, 2017 7:59 p.m. Edited.

Ohthenoises says... #16

Sorry for the double post, missed editing by that much.

As I mentioned on the Tier list page I play your list with some swaps for budget, The Rube Goldberg Engine. I go into what I said about the Spine being my go-to combo there. I put in a lot of reps with the deck and found that people have a really hard time dealing with Engine + Spine when you manage to double activate Kuldotha Forgemaster to go get both parts. (Snag Engine then snag Spine.) I like going with that line since it also lets me untap Staff of Domination infinitely on the spot with the next tutor.

August 27, 2017 8:09 p.m.

I am very glad that my list was helpful to you.

I ran Endbringer for while but without a haste enabler it is fairly slow and only really shines when you have an Unwinding Clock. It is definitely a good budget option, but for a competitive meta, it is just not high enough of an impact card from my experience. It is great at sniping some mana dorks or combo pieces like Hermit Druid which is always a great feeling, but against most of the Tier1-1.5 decks, it is just too slow and too fragile for me to justify it. Also, I run The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and fetch it out fairly often due to the ridiculous impact that card has against creature based decks so I try to run creatures that are still + mana after paying for Tabernacle (i.e. Palladium Myr) or win the game (like and Eldrazi God) which fully justify the mana to keep them around.

And on the topic of the Spine of Ish Sah + Paradox Engine combo, I just realized that I forgot to list that in the combos section of the primer. That is definitely one of the strongest combos in the deck. I never really thought of using the Kuldotha Forgemaster line to get Staff of Domination though. I always just grabbed Krark-Clan Ironworks to complete the combo and just destroy all permanents I don't control. I guess the result is the same.

August 27, 2017 8:30 p.m.

merrowMania says... #18

I'm surprised there is no Hall of the Bandit Lord. I understand that the ETB tapped hurts tempo, but one would think it would would be more relevant than Maze of Ith.

August 28, 2017 1:13 a.m.

Ohthenoises says... #19

I actually meant to say Staff of Nin derp. If you just get SoN you can just kill the table on the spot. Sorry for the confusion.

Forgemaster for Engine, cast anything, Forgemaster for spine, have it blow itself up, cast spine and blow itself up, Forgemaster for Staff of Nin, GG.

August 28, 2017 3:43 a.m.

merrowMania: Hall of the Bandit Lord is a decent card if you are focusing more on combat wins than I am. Also, like any good cEDH deck, I often do quite a bit of damage to myself through Mana Crypt and Ancient Tomb, etc. so the 3 life from Hall of the Bandit Lord adds up, especially when doing Candelabra of Tawnos shenanigans. You are right about Maze of Ith though. That card is one of the few pieces left from when I built this deck as a casual deck. However, even in competitive games, if enough stax pieces hit the field to shut people down, they will start attacking with whatever creatures they have and Maze of Ith has saved me far too many times for me to be willing to cut it. Also, like every other land, Candelabra of Tawnos allows for some ridiculous stuff to happen with it.

That said; Tana, the Bloodsower/Tymna the Weaver, Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Captain Sisay, Animar, Soul of Elements, Karador, Ghost Chieftain, and even some builds of The Gitrog Monster (and this is just the Tier 1-1.5 lists) attack with creatures often enough that Maze of Ith is still useful. Considering I run other lands that do not traditionally tap for mana, both Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Chromatic Lantern are important cards used to circumvent this and are cards I try to play early in most games. All of this is enough form me to justify the inclusion.

TLDR: Maze of Ith has been better for me than Hall of the Bandit Lord due to this list focusing more on combo/stax than combat wins and Maze of Ith is better at keeping me alive if I slow the game down with multiple stax pieces.

Ohthenoises: Staff of Nin makes more sense. I was thinking that you were referencing making infinite mana off of the Spine of Ish Sah + Paradox Engine combo and then just using Staff of Domination as your win condition. This is definitely a reasonable Kuldotha Forgemaster line, especially because it still works if you only have exactly enough mana from nonland sources to recast the Spine of Ish Sah.

August 28, 2017 2:19 p.m.

thegigibeast says... #21

Hello fellow colorless player! I just swapped your decklist to be the one featured on my tier list ;)

Just wanted to ask you one question... Have you ever considered Blinkmoth Well? It can be quite amazing with stax cards such as Static Orb.

August 28, 2017 5:57 p.m.

thegigibeast: Thank you for featuring my decklist. And I already run Blinkmoth Well for exactly that reason. It can also do stuff like tapping down my opponents artifact mana on their upkeep which is made even better with Candelabra of Tawnos and Unwinding Clock to mess with more than one player.

August 28, 2017 7:33 p.m.

thegigibeast says... #23

What are your thoughts on Myr Battlesphere? Pretty good in Kuldotha Forgemaster using Clock of Omens

August 31, 2017 7:51 a.m.

thegigibeast: I ran Myr Battlesphere for quite a while but for the sake of consistency, I dropped it. It is definitely one of the best cards when trying to win with Kuldotha Forgemaster but at , there was almost always something else that I wanted to cast more. That and it severely under performs as a finisher so if it is not being used for combo shenanigans or acceleration with a Clock of Omens, it is fairly bad considering the other options this deck has to end the game at or around . Pretty much the only time I ended up missing the card is when I could cheat it into play with Kuldotha Forgemaster or in situations where I was already far enough ahead that it didn't really matter and I just wanted to abuse Clock of Omens some more. That and it doesn't go well with The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale or Torpor Orb.

I definitely still see it as a great budget option for a more casual meta, but in cEDH, it is just too slow and unimpactful, especially because it does not synergize with some of the stax cards I am running.

August 31, 2017 12:46 p.m.