I've always been curious about Thantis, the Warweaver as it seems like it could be quite a political deck without being the typical pillow-fort, defensive style, and these types of decks often make play experience more fun. I guess my question is how does this play? Do you use Thantis politically to keep your opponents hitting each other and not you? Do people enjoy being at the table with this deck win or lose? I'm curious mostly because I want to find a deck to pull out the for the game after I destroy the group with nasty combos that they know they'll have more fun with, and Josh and Jimmy on CZ suggested that Thantis was such a commander.

I am really digging the diverse interaction category

Guerric: First, thanks for comment and upvote. To help with your question: I haven played this deck in an actual game due to Covid restrictions, as my LGS hasn't been allowed to offer the gaming day for more than year now. If you'd like answers regarding game experience, I'd sugges asking Gleeock, as he massively helped me tuning this deck.

The way my deck is intended to be played isn't very political, as I simply want to be as unattractive to attack as possible. There are some political cards in here ( Healing Technique , Skullwinder ), but I mostly want to hide behind blockers while my opponents have problems keeping any creatures alive. It's basically a very Jund-y deck in that I have masses of good individual creatures and lots of ways to grind out a win in very attacky games in the form of lifegain, removal and card draw.

I'm heavily looking forward to playing the deck. I'm actually getting excited for the day.

Gleeock: Thanks, mate. That's great to hear. I didn't yet see it this way, great perspective on it.

Yea, So I've played a similar version. I've found that the games are pretty close usually as there are a bunch of midrange plays that are not game ending. You do have to get used to a different play style with it. Dmg and life total pressure is important in this deck versus many others where this does not matter. I personally never expect Thantis to be around too long, but she is a really good game altering commander when you've been picked apart or you've set the table for chaos. It is very fun to see other players struggle with threat recognition when you build it right, because decisions usually are out of comfort zones, which is my entire goal.

Gleeock: I actually did some playtesting yesterday (with four times myself...times are rough) will a pod of the following decks of mine (all of which are uploaded here in more or less updated state):

Lurrus of the Dream-Den eggs/aristocrats

Siona, Captain of the Pyleas

Moraug, Fury of Akoum

And finally my above Thantis. While Lurrus basically annihilated the table including the floor beneath it, the way Thantis played out was exactly like you described: It put out some major threats and would have had a pretty big influence if any of it could have kept any of the three boards it build (as I said, Lurrus went totally nuts, also Moraug had to double-wipe before and after Siona went off on turn 5...).

Yep, that's why I've gone so heavy on graveyard hate as my primary hate because it is essentially an attrition deck and if you are not careful graveyard decks will run away with the attrition game.. Mine reflects how often I see aristocrats and Muldrotha, the Gravetide . But it is really fun to mostly not focus on control and then trying to force everyone into attrition games. I like making situations where people have to deal with other threats because the spider don't care.

Gleeock: Great point about the graveyard hate. I'll definitely expand on this!

This deck looks really awesome and I think it'll be a real powerhouse, have you thought about maybe adding in Spore Frog again? They seem like a lot of value for the deck

xander11: Thanks for comment and upvote. I'm not exactly sure how it would be value here, but I'll consider it. What would you suggest cutting?

seshiro_of_the_orochi So because you everyone has to attack each combat having a recurable fog will still buff your commander helping reduce risk of you swinging as well I would get rid of Honor Troll the +1 to life gain seems a little underwhelming

xander11: I get your reasoning. I'll have to think about it. Honor Troll's big upside is that it's a 4/4 vigilance early in the game. That's rare in green and very useful. Thanks for your input.

It depends on the amount of recursion you are running. I have often found Spore Frog to be underwhelming without playing recursion-heavy or tapdown heavy Thantis. You have to remember IF you have Thantis out that frog has to be attacking someone as well. A 1/1 that you have to consider force-sacrificing or just losing to a block doesn't feel great.

Gleeock: That was my thought on that pretty exactly. The second thing is, I'm only playing two recurson pieces. I recently considered adding Storrev, Devkarin Lich . That way, Frog would make sense, otherwise, not so much.