Trying to choose a new commander
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on April 14, 2016, 2:15 a.m. by ComradeJim270
With my financial situation a little shaky right now my ability to finish my optimizing my Krenko deck is looking to be in some jeopardy. I'm not liking my Daxos the Returned deck very much though and taking that apart leaves me with only two EDH decks, one of which pisses people off but can't always take the hate yet. That's no fun. I'll need to build something new.
I have ideas. Maybe I'm missing a potentially fun commander though. I'll take suggestions (unless they're voltron commanders, in which case I totally won't). Anyway, on a limited budget and for a cutthroat, highly diverse but still casual metagame... what do you folks think I should pursue? Some options:
Pros: Kickass Orzhov commander. I still like Orzhov. Does combo shenanigans, but also tokens. I like tokens.
Cons: Getting more good tutor spells is pricy. Likely to get run over by faster combo decks.
Pros: Merfolk! Tribal! Merfolk Tribal! Also, he can protect some clever combos or just go aggro. Blue means access to counterspells... also... Merfolk tribal!
There is approximately a 100% chance I will build this deck, just not sure if it's what I need now.
Cons: Weak in higher-power games. Narrow.
Pros: Hilarious. Being from FRF wins points with me. Can include some Temur goodstuff without really losing anything. Already own a number of pieces and have part of a decklist (Nice Creature... I'll Take it!).
Cons: Not actually that good, kind of useless in creature-light games.
Pros: See comment on FRF above. Fun color identity. Can be built as combo or as value engines. Can be very powerful.
Cons: Haven't come up with themes or ideas to stop it from just being goodstuff reanimator. If I build this one, flavor counts!
Pros: Fairly potent, and gives direction beyond "mono-blue goodstuff" with his ability. Lets me dig for what I need, and says "fuck you" to Nekusar. Cheap manabase. Countermagic is a huge plus.
Cons: Has all the limitations of mono-blue. Wants some pricy things in his deck. Doesn't offer a ton of clear direction.
Pros: Fairly cheap to build and does potent things. Lots of clear direction for deckbuilding.
Cons: Deck tends to function poorly if Brago can't connect with an opponent. Kind of grindy for my taste.
Raging_Squiggle says... #3
Build an Azami, Lady of Scrolls deck. ;) Become a disciple of the Wizards.
Or voltron Tromokratis, super budget and no one will ever see an 8/8 kraken coming. I built it for more casual games and it does good work.
April 14, 2016 2:37 a.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #4
@Pokemaster325: He can certainly be built on a budget. I considered it at one point, but more as a deck for others. "Beat people up with a massive fatty" is typically not my style. Xenagos himself would go in Yasova if I go that route.
I'd still be interested to see a decklist!
@Raging_Squiggle: I've seen her power first hand because I know know at least three people who have Azami decks. Saldy, that makes it less fun to build one of my own. I do like tribal, though. Still, I think if I wanted to go the mono-blue route though I'd go with her buddy Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar. Less powerful when optimized, but that ability is fun.
In fact, I'm adding him to the list.
April 14, 2016 2:51 a.m.
Out of the options you listed, Yasova is the one I would vote for. Just has so much build versatility.
Karametra, God of Harvests - I play her with only permanents and Primal Surge. Building ANY Primal Surge deck is a good idea.
Zurgo Helmsmasher - creatureless aggro. 99 non-creature cards and Zurgo turning sideways for the win. Include plenty of wraths.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Wizard tribal. Zegana Wizard Control - I admit I am biased, but the deck is awesomely fun.
April 14, 2016 3:06 a.m.
ForgeCityGames says... #6
what sort of budget are you working on? if you cant make a goblin deck work with said budget im struggling to see how you can build a new one.
might give is more to work with if we have an idea of what you are willing to spend.
also, not to counterbuild or anything, but what do you normally play against? helps when deciding how much power is needed in a deck.
April 14, 2016 5:26 a.m.
I personally run a Mizzix of the Izmagnus deck its very fun to play and the prebuilt deck comes with melek and the spells in the prebuilt deck are very useful and you don't need to put to much money into the deck I put about 40 dollars into it and it just wins out of nowhere Izzet Mizzix Insanity is the deck if you want to have a look at it
April 14, 2016 7:04 a.m.
Lord of Tresserhorn. Nobody remembers him, and nobody expects him to be played with his ability. I know you didn't want Voltron, but he works great as a stax commander. I have a deck that takes control of people's permanents in order to play him. It's a lot of fun and super budget. 69/10, do recommend.
April 14, 2016 7:13 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #9
ComradeJim270: I was also going to suggest Xenagos, God of Revels. He is inexpensive because it is basically a bunch of creatures that aren't great elsewhere. You said you would be interested in a list. Xenagos, God of "You're Swinging with a HOW BIG?" is my Xenagod build. It is intentionally a little weaker than it could be because I also play in a group that is midpowered. I can have explosive starts, but with enough control I can be slowed down enough to not win every time.
I am usually a combo player and I also am not usually the type to just turn creatures sideways, but there is something satisfying about swinging for 16+ off of one creature on turn 5 or 6.
April 14, 2016 7:57 a.m.
I found Daxos the Returned to be fair underwhelming as well. Moved on to Karlov of the Ghost Council with success. It's basically BW Goodstuff with a life gain sub theme. It makes use of some cool stuff that sees little play, so bonus points there in my opinion.
Another fun general I a currently piecing together is Brago, King Eternal. He isn't voltron at all. You just get a bonus for connecting with him. You probably want a lot of other stuff to be turning sideways with him as well. UW gives access to some great ETB LTB effects. I suggest you give t a fair look.
April 14, 2016 8:52 a.m.
Sorry, I know these aren't necessarily what you had in mind but they can all be done on a budget. Most of these started out very budget and evolved through playtesting, less money constraints, and me starting to suck less.
Talrand, Sky Summoner can be built on mostly $0.15 cards and still be quite effective. Load it with counters, bounce, and cantrips/card draw and you got yourself a deck. You can go creatureless or do what I did and go polymorph by tucking a drake with a Proteus Staff and pull out a big bomb like Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur within the first few turns... My deck: Drakes, Drakes, and Drakes, Oh My!
Purphoros, God of the Forge since you already have a Krenko shell, adapting it to a Purphoros deck will be quite simple. Purphy can be done on a budget and is quite effective. Genesis Chamber + Norin the Wary with Purphy out is usually gg. I've beaten other highly competitive, no budget control decks and they hated it! Sometimes it just explodes and wins out of nowhere. This is currently my main deck. My deck: Purphy's Goblin Party
Brago, King Eternal I can second. I built a cruel control stax version that is somewhat budget. You don't have to go that route. But I will disagree with capriom85, Brago's blinking effect is needed to take full advantage of ETB/LTB effects. Connecting with him is essential, not just a bonus :p However, if you can't connect with him or if he is kept off the board via removal/counters you will end up durdling a bit (I speak from experience). He also has a neat interaction with the manifest enchantments Cloudform and Lightform as the manifested cards are blinked back face up allowing you to play your entire deck (assuming you have Strionic Resonator/Sol Ring/ect.) My deck: Brago, King of Blinkage Deck
Tajic, Blade of the Legion is just plain fun to me. I loaded it with indestructible critters, some MLD, and plenty of wraths. It's very much a "Tajic blows up the world" type deck with Worldslayer and other equipment/equipment support. He can be built on a budget but probably isn't a lot of people's cup of tea. My deck: Tajic and His Dolls
April 15, 2016 1:28 a.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #12
Finally home, and I'll attempt to reply to the many replies; starting with one I think asks a very important question:
@ForgeCityGames: My Krenko deck is an a playable state. It's meant to be the most powerful of my decks, though. The reason "finishing" it is out of budget right now is because the missing cards are things like Mox Diamond and Mana Crypt. Not having the key cards puts it in a weird place where it can often be hated on harder than it can withstand.
My actual budget for an initial build on any of these decks is probably in the $150 range. Upgrades could happen later.
I don't have a consistent playgroup, though I do have people I play with more often than others. This is why having multiple decks at different power levels is important to me. Some games are more casual, but I tend to err on the side of more power to make up for the fact I can't tune to a more defined metagame.
From what I can tell, people at my LGS are less fond of battlecruiser EDH than most. As a general rule I assume kills via combo are possible and likely in every game, and also that the life expectancy of creatures is short. I almost never get into a game where people are slamming creatures into each other for hours.
If one specific thing is inordinately popular there, it's graveyard shenanigans. Even that's not guaranteed.
@Boza: I'm actually very interested in hearing some ideas you may have for Yasova. My decklist is in the original post and the description outlines some ideas I had; but if you have some other creative ways to make it more than "steal people's creatures.dec" I'm eager to hear them.
I like Zegana, and in a Wizard tribal shell you could also put Azami stuff to get some power out of that. If I were building her though? No way I could resist stuffing a bunch of infinite combos in there. Simic is a fun color identity too.
@dritchie: Tunnel Visioning a card scried to the bottom and overloading Mizzix's Mastery is the dream. That said, I still might prefer Melek over Mizzix because he asks less in terms of deckbuilding and is less important to keep on the table. If I go Izzet though, I'll try both out.
@Flagellum: I run Purphoros in the 99 with Krenko. He works pretty well when the number of creatures ETBing on your side during a turn ranges from "a couple dozen" to "numbers only mathematicians know the names of".
@People suggesting Xenagod: I did try to build him once before, and might still be enticed to do so. At that point though I'm almost more inclined to just do Yasova anyway so I can get blue; he's auto-include in her 99.
@People suggesting Brago: I've played against him plenty of times. He's a fun commander and one I've considered in the past. If I could make him less grindy and more combo-y I'd be interested.
April 15, 2016 3:32 a.m.
@ComradeJim270, there you go. The overall idea is that you have Yasova as your only creature and run a ramp/control deck behind her.
April 15, 2016 4:44 a.m.
Flagellum, connecting with Brago IS essential the deck as in connecting with a lot of other creatures. All I said was its not a Voltron build, which it isn't. There a lot of creatures in a blBtavo deck you'd want to be tapping to attack. I simply meant that a deck that takes advantage of blinking creatures couldn't really support a Voltrom build. Since the commander's ability is paramount to this deck working I just wanted to point to the post originator that it wasn't a "make him as big as possible and just swing". That said, you're right that Bragonis essential and not just a bonus. That was lousy wording from me.
April 15, 2016 6:31 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #15
Yasova featuring Xenagod is a completely different deck than Xenagod, although it does sound more like what you are looking for. I would definitely run a number of sacrifice outlets though so that your opponents don't get their creatures back.
April 15, 2016 7:43 a.m.
capriom85 no worries mate! I do agree that Brago would make a bad voltron commander. No question about that. I just wasn't sure if you thought his blinking was just a side issue :p But that is also his major weakness that say Roon doesn't have since Brago has to hit to do anything. The strategy is pretty much well known/ counterable/ predictable
April 15, 2016 2:25 p.m.
Yes it is, which is why my Brago deck went under a serious overhaul recently, Flagellum. Unfortunately, in terms of competitive commander he is no longer the "bees knees". He is a lot of fun and I'm trying to hang on to the deck to the bitter end, but I may scrap it and turn the damn thing into Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer just to screw with my play group.
April 15, 2016 2:35 p.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #18
I'm adding Brago to my list of candidates, but I need to investigate him a bit more. A combo-control list would be my preference. Straight stax is too grindy.
Zegana is still an option, I just need to choose a direction and examine builds and costs.
Of the commanders I originally listed:
Teysa might actually be better than I thought; her combos are pretty resilient and she can pack in a fair amount of removal to disrupt opponents' efforts. I have some of the more expensive cards she wants.
Sygg feels very soft to sweepers. That can be mitigated with countermagic, but running too much of that drops my threat density. He does sit in a good place in terms of power level and U/W Merfolk can do numerous combos, but I might wait on him.
Melek and Taz are probably off the table for cost reasons, but I might be able to do some reanimator stuff with Alesha. I know she can be extremely powerful but it'll be a tricky build.
Tomorrow is actually still an appealing option. A mono-blue mana base is easy and the deck has a lot of room for tweaking and improvement. Also, countermagic is good!
@Boza: It looks good. I do like the idea of a more controlling approach. However, the more I think about it the more I realize that it probably makes more sense to hold off on building Yasova until I have more consistency in playgroup(s). Right now I think there would be a lot of games where her ability wouldn't be useful. What I'm probably going to do is finish a list but not build it until that changes.
April 15, 2016 2:48 p.m. Edited.
capriom85 I'm in the same boat. I love Brago but if he isn't faster than other control decks he tends to get shut down. That and people generally don't like the grindy stax route that I took. He is still fun...for me lol.
ComradeJim270 Brago forms an infinite combo with numerous things and you HAVE to understand how to work the stack. Sol Ring + Strionic Resonator allows you to copy Brago's blink trigger infinite times. The Resonator is Brago's best friend. Like I said earlier, with Cloudform/Lightform you can play your entire deck for free, of if you have another mana rock, Peregrine Drake/Cloud of Faeries, =infinite mana. That's just a slice of what he can do. Abusing the stack with Resonator and Oblivion Ring you can permanently exile threats.
April 15, 2016 5:05 p.m.
Oh I forgot about his interactions with vanishing counters or just counters in general. Blinking Reality Acid means goodbye permanent but once it reenters the BF you get to enchant something new. Blinking Parallax Tide / Parallax Wave refreshes the counters and if you exiled your tapped lands or creatures they come back untapped.
April 15, 2016 5:11 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #21
I like Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar, but this is coming from a hardcore blue player. Arcanis the Omnipotent or Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir are also options.
I'll also suggest a Damia, Sage of Stone for a commander option. Sultai is arguably the best color scheme for commander, and Damia can refill your hand very efficiently.
April 15, 2016 5:38 p.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #22
Thanks everyone! After some consideration I think I've narrowed it down to three options (it'd still be more if I'd seen appealing budget lists for Melek and Taz).
Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar is more appealing to me than other mono-blue commanders. I really like that card selection ability, and it's interaction with some cards and effects like Possessed Portal. Looking at EDHrec and some staples in these colors, I could make a list on a budget.
However, Teysa, Orzhov Scion and Alesha, Who Smiles at Death are cool and share a lot of cards; the possibility that I could turn one deck into the other is very interesting and means investing in one or the other feels very safe.
April 17, 2016 1:24 a.m.
iBleedPunk says... #23
You could always do Horobi, Death's Wail also. Can be pretty budget and still effective enough at pissing people off
April 17, 2016 2:03 a.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #24
It'd do that! I didn't even know that card existed. He does have the some of the same problems as Yasova, though and kind of looks like a troll commander.
April 17, 2016 2:11 a.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #25
Plus it's rather difficult to protect Horobi, Death's Wail. You can't equip the Boots or Greaves to him, can't give him protection from anything, can't enchant anything on to him, or give him any sort of evasion. All an opponent has to do is target him with a cheap ability like Master Apothecary and Boom, commander down.
April 17, 2016 2:27 a.m.
Oh I can vouch for Horobi. He definitely changes how the game is played. There are certain equipment that can work with him like Hero's Blade but the fact you can't protect him is why he is so dangerous, because nobody else can protect theirs either. (Horobi's Death Chimes). Touch of Darkness becomes a Plague Wind, as does Cauldron of Souls (target your opponent's creatures and they are destroyed before they gain persist). Neat combos are to be had with Liquimetal Coating + Gate to Phyrexia or Karn, Silver Golem allowing you to blow up enchantments, planeswalkers, artifacts, lands- the things mono black has problems with. Counters are wasted, removal spells are also wasted. Can turn the game upside down.
April 17, 2016 10:39 a.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #27
I think it's down to Teysa and Tomorrow, now. I'll probably make decklists for both and proxy them up for testing.
iBleedPunk says... #2
I used to run a hella budget Xenagos, God of Revels deck that stomped nearly everything except for super combo decks like Damia, Sage of Stone and Arcum Dagsson. Maybe Xenagos will sate your thirst for thy enemies blood? Lol
April 14, 2016 2:33 a.m.