How to Have Fun in EDH - Phelddagrif Surprise

Commander / EDH poorpinkus

SCORE: 403 | 322 COMMENTS | 124720 VIEWS | IN 308 FOLDERS


1v1 Results —May 24, 2015

So I played two 1v1 games a while back, I thought I should mention them

First one was against a deck using Daghatar the Adamant, my first draw was a Forced Fruition. I let both of us draw extra cards with Dictate of Kruphix, played the Forced Fruition and then just countered the other guy's spells that he was going to use to deal with the enchantment. I agree that it was lucky for me to draw it but still, that card is amazing in this format

Second game was against a Rafiq of the Many deck that really liked totem armor. Since it was a lot of creatures, I threw down a Dawnstrider, needless to say it kept me alive for a long time. One thing I've noticed about the strider is that it works even better in a 1v1 because I tend to have a lot of cards that are mainly used for 4-player politics. Anyways, I then played Walking Archive along with both Dictate of Karametra and Heartbeat of Spring. I already had a Temple Bell out and was drawing a lot of cards, but I didn't draw any counterspells. My opponent had to play a Polymorphist's Jest just to stay alive near the end as Walking Archive had over 20 counters on it. He admitted that he kind of regretted using Sage of Hours while I had a lot of mana for Walking Archive, but either way, that was won as well!

Anyways, I'm kind of reluctant to do 1v1 battles again because I kind of want to keep this winning streak, obviously Pheldy isn't meant for these kind of EDH battles, but it is definitely viable and it's pretty hilarious when it wins! I will say that this deck has required the most strategic thinking of pretty much all of the decks I've played so far just because of all of the unconventional things one has to do with it, but I've really had fun with it!

poorpinkus says... #1

Alright, so I've updated the deck to be a bit more budget. Do you guys agree with my choices?

February 26, 2015 12:58 p.m.

Just an edit, but you mention Mikokoro, Center of the Sea being $100 when it's only $10

Other than that it runs about the same, you cut a lot of cards i did in mine. I added a Kruphix, God of Horizons. it gives a good place to stick your mana over time and hold on to it.

February 26, 2015 2:36 p.m.

poorpinkus says... #3

Oops, typo, also I have been considering Kruphix, God of Horizons but I don't know if he would draw unneeded attention, especially since people know that I can draw them to death with "draw X" spells

February 26, 2015 6:07 p.m.

matbyrne says... #4

Might I also suggest Gaea's Blessing as a "don't deck out card"? You don't have too many means to keep cards in your hand past the discard phase so, discard it and shuffle your whole deck back in. I would also suggest the two legendary, legacy-legal Eldrazi but that would make you a target. Also Wheel of Sun and Moon is a good card for what you want to do.

February 26, 2015 11:59 p.m.

poorpinkus says... #5

Gaea's Blessing seems like it would be good if it wasn't required to be put into the graveyard from my library. Also, I really like Wheel of Sun and Moon but I'm concerned about it drawing too much unnecessary attention, like, Elixir of Immortality I can pass off as just a way to gain life in case people attack me, and people tend to not pay much attention to Quest for Ancient Secrets as it doesn't really do anything until I use its effect (which requires it to get counters). Plus, it's a lot less money-wise to purchase. I'm fairly content right now with my maximum hand size modifiers and "Not decking yourself" cards as the only time I really will find them useful is when I've drawn a ton of cards, and at that point I usually have drawn one of those cards.

Please feel free to argue with my logic, I am mainly just not sure what I would replace for these cards

February 27, 2015 12:33 a.m.

poorpinkus says... #6

By the way SkylordAleksander, were there any other cards that you cut because they were too expensive? If so, how did the deck run without them?

February 27, 2015 3:31 p.m.

Well, most came in today, sadly everyone in my group just left for spring break. And i didn't cut too much for cost more for just to change a bit. Like I added Forced Fruition because it was too funny not to have. Phelddagrif, Lover of Hugs

February 27, 2015 11:55 p.m.

poorpinkus says... #8

Aw that sucks that your friends are away, and yeah I actually have Forced Fruition in my material deck, but I know the bad attention it can draw so I kept it out of the decklist. Also, I keep seeing Dakra Mystic in these kinds of decks, do you find it worth having? I just keep thinking that I probably have enough card draw mechanics and I don't like paying the mana cost, but I mean it could be worth it

February 28, 2015 2:05 a.m.

It's nice because you can drop out peoples combo cards. I have it just to answer some of my friends infinite combo shenanigans. In my group i'm using this to act like a sheriff, We have some people that have played for a while and are really good but don't tone it down for the new people. So i'll help everyone get to the endgame where the decks become equal and help slow down and hurt the better people.

February 28, 2015 3:41 p.m.

poorpinkus says... #10

Oh that's good, it's interesting because this deck can function in more ways than I first realized, like, it can either make the game insane, be the "sheriff" of a game or just speed up the game by giving people a head start. That's interesting, thanks for the input!

March 1, 2015 2:24 a.m.

poorpinkus says... #11

I'm still taking suggestions, but I think this deck is starting to reach an equilibrium where there isn't much left to change. I'm working on another deck: Exponential Growth in EDH - Experiment Kraj Combo which is basically an interactive combo deck, it isn't scummy as it is easy to stop and the combo is actually pretty interesting, if you want to, check it out!

March 2, 2015 4:40 p.m.

Hey, I made a list of cards I'm still considering for my deck, thought I would share them here with you. I wrote them down a while back and just forgot about most of them when making my deck.

Jushi Apprentice: More draw, and a flip. Interesting and isn't seen as much.

Reward the Faithful: Life gain for everyone who isn't targeting you. Hopefully everyone.

Cultural Exchange: The best in all of these. I will most likely pick it up soon. Just too funny not to have.

Dimensional Breach: A board wipe that just makes it fun. Could see some interesting game changes.

Curse of Echoes: Can lead to funny situations. I could see even putting this on myself to double my life spells and all draw spells

Void Stalker and Vortex Elemental: Can tuck a bothersome commander that ruins the games for others. cough cough Nekusar, the Mindrazer cough cough

Diluvian Primordial: Fun interaction with others, with Curse of Echoes it gets really crazy fast

Zur's Weirding: Gets rid of instant win combos, but could make drawing take FOREVER. My biggest fear for it.

Let me know what you think, just a block of cards I'm thinking of.

March 2, 2015 10:11 p.m.

poorpinkus says... #13

They all seem like good cards if I could find a place for them, I think that Jushi Apprentice looks cool but I don't know how long it would survive in my situation, Reward the Faithful is also very strong but, I mean, Phelddagrif can already let people gain a lot of life, Cultural Exchange would be hilarious, I'll definitely consider that one, Curse of Echoes I'm not too sure about since I've been trying to stay away from curses and if I put it on myself it would be similar to Hive Mind where counterspells would become an issue to try to use , Void Stalker and Vortex Elemental are also really good but I think I have enough tucking (people hate it with a passion but it is sometimes necessary), Diluvian Primordial is also a really good card but I feel like people might find it a bit "selfish" to run and Zur's Weirding I love, but again it could hinder my progress, especially when I'm giving people life, in which case it could force the game to a halt. Overall the suggestions are awesome, I just think in my playgroup some of them might not work well, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't work well in yours. I'm definitely going to make space for a couple of them though

Also, sorry for the late reply I didn't notice your comment on my news feed

March 9, 2015 11:05 p.m.

poorpinkus says... #14

Oh and Dimensional Breach would be good for a field wipe but on the other hand it doesn't necessarily get rid of anything. My main problem with it is that it could favour those with big creature decks over those with small creature spam, and I am trying to be as fair as possible

March 9, 2015 11:08 p.m.

Yeah, and Dimensional Breach was in my list as well, but it is more for the funny side of it. And it's all good. I just got some good playtesting in and the group LOVES it. I've had some CRAZY stuff happen (the funniest being a 6 mana Weird Harvest + Tempting Wurm against two naya creature decks) and a game wide draw haha.

March 9, 2015 11:47 p.m.

poorpinkus says... #16

Lol that's awesome, yeah I'll put some more consideration into Dimensional Breach but I'll probably only put it in if I get some more people's opinions on it. By the way my most glorious moment (that ended up ending the game) was a Weird Harvest for 13, Tempting Wurm and using Jester's Mask's ability on the stack to give the player whose win was imminent a hand full of lands, but I was playing with strangers and one of them played a Filigree Angel with a copy creature spell, a Sanguine Bond and a bunch of artifacts... That didn't work well

Anyways it's awesome to hear that your group loves the deck, it's definitely something else lol, it's good to have another deck on hand though as some people just want to play regular old-fashioned EDH

March 10, 2015 2:46 a.m.

Yeah, I always keep the Elves and my BANT Superfriends (Derevi Leads The Bant Superfriends ) around with me as well!

March 11, 2015 12:50 p.m.

Fecundity and Oath of Scholars are great for card draw for opponents, New Frontiers and Arcane Melee are great ramps, Seed the Land , Saproling Cluster and Akroan Horse are effective token sharing Gaea's Herald and Divine Presence are good group protection and Iwamori of the Open Fist is strong for you and your opponents.

April 4, 2015 1:42 p.m.

poorpinkus says... #19

Alright, Thraximunder12345, so I added your cards to the maybeboard (thanks for all the suggestions! It gives me a lot to think about), but I'm not entirely sure what I should/would change to accommodate for them, any ideas? In my opinion I'd rather go for the approach of letting people get out high mana cost stuff rather than a lot of tokens as it makes the game more interesting so I'm reluctant to add the token cards, and Gaea's Herald could be problematic for me as my main strength is the ability to selectively allow people to do things. Divine Presence seems good but people have been getting upset with me already in terms of slowing down the game, so I'm not too sure about that one either. I might add Iwamori of the Open Fist but it's very volatile and that kind of card can cause one player to instantly win (it's happened to me before), but on the other hand it is very cool. Fecundity tends to benefit token/small creature decks more than anything, and I don't like the idea of having to kill my creatures for card draw (the cards should benefit me as much as everyone else), but Oath of Scholars looks really interesting. Since it's instants and sorceries people can't benefit from it in any rediculous way, but it gives me more options and allows for me to play creatures/enchantments in addition to instants/sorceries rather than having to choose. My only concern is that there are only about 13(?) cards in the deck that would take full advantage of it (probaly about 7 more that would take partial advantage of it), and it doesn't change the fact that a lot of my cards have heavy colour requirements. Being 4 mana, it could still be worth it, but I'd need to consult some other people first

April 8, 2015 3:22 a.m.

squose says... #20

To anyone wondering, if you remove the nonbasic lands that are over 3 dollars, the deck is only !110 dollars!

April 12, 2015 6:13 p.m.

poorpinkus says... #21

squose Where are you buying your cards from? I paid less than $100 for the whole thing

April 13, 2015 1:49 a.m.

It's been a while. but found a fun card i'm thinking of throwing in. Humility . . . biggest troll card ever

May 17, 2015 5:07 p.m.

poorpinkus says... #23

That's a pretty funny card, unfortunately it's a bit above my budget limit

May 18, 2015 2:43 a.m.