Edric, Spymaster of Trest EDH Deck
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Oct. 23, 2015, 12:30 a.m. by Flagellum
Deck:
I'll rip the secrets from your flesh! Playtest
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 13 VIEWS
So I built a budget Edric, Spymaster of Trest deck and had some questions about it. While I get the gist of it, small evasive creatures that net me card advantage. I've seen a lot of Edric players run extra turn cards but those are sort of out of my price range and doesn't altogether interest me. The main strategy here is to use a Biomass Mutation effect and nail my opponents with evasive creatures while hopefully they focus on each other for card draw. As a backup plan I threw in Psychosis Crawler. I'd appreciate any input or suggestions.
Questions:
Are there any more efficient cards out there other than 1 time use instants/sorceries that tap out my opponents and are these sorts of cards very useful? I know there's Opposition but that taps out my critters preventing them from drawing me cards. Right now I'm running several Icy Blast type effects, but feel like I could utilize those spots for better cards.
Do I need more pillow fort cards or cards that can deter opponents from attacking me? I'm only running Propaganda and Meekstone. I want to make attacking me look unfavorable or regrettable. I fear once my strategy is revealed/figured out those extra cards they draw will no longer interest them.
Do I need more alternative wincons? Right now it's pretty much dig till I hit Biomass Mutation or Vitalizing Wind. Psychosis Crawler has synergy here and acts as my only alternative wincon but I'm unaware or any others.
Should I run any mana ramp? I always seem to have a full hand (playing solitaire) with several lands. I'm just wondering if Kodama's Reach ect. would be very useful here with such a low curve.
Should I run things that allow me to dump out more than one basic land a turn? I run Terrain Generator currently, but cards like Exploration seem like they might be worth a spot.
It's not that I tap them out to hit but more or an insurance policy against fliers. Or use it politically so my opponents can't block other opponents creatures.
Guess I'll just have to playtest it to see if I'm targetted often or not.
I run Beastmaster Ascension but also Biomass Mutation, Vitalizing Wind, Triumph of the Hordes, and Craterhoof Behemoth. Chasm Skulker, Lorescale Coatl, Psychosis Crawler are creatures that can get out of hand.
Aluren is a way to cast every creature in the deck for free too. I'm not totally sold on the mana dorks. Without haste and after turn 2 they're just chump blockers mostly. I actually have Eladamri, Lord of Leaves in my Rhys deck. Only thing is without the dorks I only run 3-4elves aside from Edric. But yes he would work.
October 23, 2015 11:38 a.m.
RoarMaster says... #5
Im not sure what you mean by an insurance policy against fliers. You should be running both enough unblockable guys to not worry about their flyers blocking, and enough flyers to block their flyers. Besides, even if they block a couple of your flyers and kill them but more make it through, you just recast a bunch of 1/1 flyers for 1-2 and are ready to do it again next turn. And since this is a multiplayer deck(since he is banned in 1v1) you should almost always have a few players that dont have much in the way of flyers going on and swing at them with your flyers and at other people with your unblockable guys.
As for eladamri, well he does everything your deck wants, he is a creature, allowing the potential to draw cards off of him, he grants your commander evasion, allowing him to draw you cards, and he protects your commander, who without your deck crumples. All good things. His synergy with the dorks was just icing on the cake, not a reason to run him.
As for spell ramp vs dorks, well, again, this deck wants creatures because creatures is the possibility of cards, it also wants mana to cast all the cards you draw, it also wants cheap cards since you need to keep pumping out said critters. Dorks are all of these, while kodamas reach and friends are none of them. The icing on the cake here is that dorks also chump. And you already say you find yourself with a bunch of lands in hand, so why add more spells that put them there?
Side note, vitalizing wind seems far to expensive, Id drop it for sure.
October 24, 2015 1 a.m.
You're running most of the good ways. You can always increase the effectiveness of Opposition by quite a bit though. When paired with Prophet of Kruphix or Seedborn Muse, it actually enables you to tap down opponent's fields during their turns, giving you a nice open board when you swing on your combat phases. Surprised you're not running Prophet. She's pound for pound one of the best creatures available to BG, and she can be picked up for as low as $.50 on tcgplayer.
No. Edric plays best as a creature-based control commander. Pillow fort effects are usually bad unless you're playing Oloro as your commander. With your massive creature swarm, you should have zero trouble with people wanting to swing.
Most Edric lists I've seen win via overrun effects like yours, namely Beastmaster Ascension. I think keep doing what you're doing and you should be fine.
Yes. Yes. Yes. And more yes. If you're playing nearly ANY deck that runs green, you usually want to play the "Basic Four". These consist of the incredibly cheap elf mana dorks: Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, and Arbor Elf. There are a few more expensive staples, namely Bloom Tender, Birds of Paradise, and Lotus Cobra that are also run wherever possible. Those might be out of your price range, but for sure add the four elves. They're mana when you need them, and card-gaining bodies when you don't. Pure awesomeness.Even slightly weaker dorks like Wood Elves, Joraga Treespeaker and Sakura-Tribe Elder can be worth running in certain decks. can be worth running most of the time.
Nah. Green has so much ramp than lands become almost redundant beyond the first few it takes to get things going. What you have now seems fine.
Some random extra cards I'd recommend adding:
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard. I love this card. He's a toolbox that both tutors and puts into play for just three mana. Essentially a slightly more costly Birthing Pod that doesn't have to sac creatures to pull targets. Very fun to play without being broken (unless you're playing an optimized Derevi list).
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary. He's pretty costly, but he tutors, and plays very nicely with Eldric in general. Momir into Prophet tutoring and drawing Craterhoof is a thing. A very terrifying, surprisingly consistent thing. Even if you only cast a green creature with Momir on the field, you're still stacking whatever answer you need to be drawn by Edric's ability.
Reclamation Sage and Acidic Slime. general toolbox creatures to deal with the countless artifacts and enchantments that plague, and occasionally break, commander games. They leave behind bodies to eventually generate card advantage, and they can be chain-tutored by Yisan, which is always a plus. Having a decent toolbox of utility creatures is always useful when playing in green, especially when the deck relies so heavily on creatures.
Hope these recommendations helped!
October 24, 2015 3:03 a.m.
Okay. So once I'm not on my phone I'll update the list. I'll be taking out Meekstone and Propaganda as well as the tap x creatures sorceries/instants. Will be adding in mana dorks and Murkfiend Liege and Prophet of Kruphix. Eladamri as well, I'll just have to see what spots are available. Opposition may find a spot too since it works well the liege and prophet.
October 24, 2015 8:52 a.m.
9 slots openned up. 4 mana dorks, prophet, eladamri, opposition, and liege are going in. I own most of the expensive cards so I can toss a few here and there. Might eventually toss in Momir Vig, Simic Visionary since I can see how he could get nuts. What're your guys thoughts on Aluren and Nature's Will? I know they're good but should I replace liege with one of those two? Thanks for all your input BTW. First forray into the simic side of things :)
October 24, 2015 1:55 p.m.
Have you considered pairing up unblockable dudes with equipments like Quietus Spike?
I like having some pillowfort options but I most prefer things like AEtherize and Gather Specimens that make opponents more concerned about what might be in your hand and make attacking your opponents easier.
October 24, 2015 2:11 p.m.
I thought about it but Quietus Spike takes 6 to finally equip and there isn't any support for it like my boros deck has. Plus I don't want to make myself that big of a target . I have thought about AEtherize or Illusionist's Gambit as well but now I would have no clue what to cut for them. Ideally the deck wants to play fast.
October 24, 2015 3:47 p.m.
It is a tricky balance. When you have few threats and somewhat reduced disruption, then you really are counting on the politics to fall your way. On the other hand, if every nonland card in your deck amounts to a threat or a disruption, you will need to be careful, conservative, and patient to avoid drawing too much hate.
When I play tested this, I found it to work really well because most of the fliers got through and that accelerated the draw to help you get what you needed. However, no matter how fast the synergy set in and how well the draw engine worked, a single counterspell or well placed disruption meant that all the turns of fantastic synergy amounted to maybe up to 15 damage on the way to 40 against a single opponent. Of course, if everyone else has done most of the work for you already, that could be enough.
October 24, 2015 6:28 p.m.
Well it does bank on overrun type effects and hopefully some politics. Just got to reserve mana for counters to our overrun effects or wraths. Then there's Triumph of the Hordes/Blighted Agent so we only need 10 damage which is much easier to do. When that doesn't work we fall back on Psychosis Crawler or Notorious Throng. It's no goblin swarm or elfball but acts similar. Finally updated the list.
October 24, 2015 9:24 p.m.
The problem with Yisan is the tutor wouldn't work for something very useful until I used it 5 times (to fetch Liege/Prophet/Crawler). Other than that almost all of my critters are 1-2 drops which I will be drawing into regularly. Most aside from Eladamri are no special butterflies well....faeries so no reason to really use him as opposed to another 1-2 evasive drop.
So I'm going to add fog-like effects to see whether that can persuade people from attacking me or keep them guessing. Something like Illusionist's Gambit, AEtherize, Tangle and maybe one or both of the following: Respite, Moment's Peace.
October 26, 2015 4:20 p.m.
Posted something similar on my decklist page as well (same card reasoning anyways). So I think I've finalized it until I get to playtest it. 3 of the 4 recommended mana dorks made it. Opted to use one of the mana dork slots for Dawnstrider (see below). I think I like this sort of strategy but need to find out how effective it is.
AEtherize: because bouncing their creatures will set them back, maybe force a discard and just plainly removes threats.
Illusionist's Gambit: redirects their attacks on someone else.
Spore Cloud: if used when they attack you, simply cast before declaring blockers and it will only affect my opponent's attacking creatures. Or use when your opponents attack each other after they declare attackers/blockers to tap down everyone for 2 turns
Tangle: See above; really hinders their attack plans when their creatures don't untap for 2 turns.
Constant Mists: A reusable fog. Especially in the late game when lands are abundant sacrificing one of them isn't a big deal. The land sac is optional, otherwise its just a worse Fog
Dawnstrider: Almost missed this beauty! A reusable fog effect on legs. With the card advantage we get from Edric, it will be no problem to keep this going. GREAT synergy with Prophet of Kruphix and Murkfiend Liege (or Scryb Ranger to a lesser extent) where we can use her on each of our opponents turns. Just beware to not overuse her...
The idea here is to be political with these not use them just to piss everybody off: I mean, do you reeeeeeeeally want to attack me? Might be a bad idea. Why not get some free cards by attacking some other guy? :p
RoarMaster says... #2
Answer 1: You should not need to tap out your opponents creatures in order to swing through for damage, as your creatures should be all but unblockable anyway. If you are thinking about as defence, usually you simply use a few of the weezy little guys you cast that turn and were unable to attack with to chump block the biggest threats. That and rely on other peoples greed and edrics ability obviously.
Answer 2: Kind of answered by answer one already, but if you find that you start getting overtargeted in your group, there are plenty of options available to you such as Elephant Grass and Collective Restraint.
Answer 3: You could probably use a few more win cons, Beastmaster Ascension is pretty classic here.
Answer 4: You generally dont run the classic ramp spells with edric, but instead go for all the mana dorks you can. They lead to t2 edrics, and also can net you cards early game before all players get blockers out. Late game they chump. There are a few very good rampy cards for edric though Nature's Will and Bear Umbra mainly as they allow you to cast all those cheap creatures you just drew with your attack. Also Azusa, Lost but Seeking if you can afford her.
Answer 5: azusa and Oracle of Mul Daya as they are both creatures and exploration is good too.
Random suggestion: Eladamri, Lord of Leaves. Gives shroud and evasion to edric and any other elves(mainly mana dorks).
October 23, 2015 3 a.m.