What is my Edgar Markov missing?? [EDH]
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Nov. 27, 2020, 1:05 p.m. by 2black2well
Here is a link to my EDH deck. Im trying to stay somewhere around the 200 dollar mark, and the meta im involved in largely includes a guy who is a non-issue because he is almost always mana-screwed and even when he isn't, he builds his decks to be fair to the table and almost always wacky or hairbrained. The other individual relies on having 1-3 hexproof tron creatures and a surplus of ramp and endgame noncreature spells
How do i make this deck faster or hit harder?
The issue I'm having is that in a bubble i can just barely kill someone turn 6, provided they do absolutely nothing for that long. Obviously that wont happen, and i generally have to kill a second player afterwards as well which is proving to be difficult to find a solution to.
How should i balance an entire deck of 1 and 2 drops with a 6CMC commander?
Next, i think i've shaved my manabase and CMC down to suitable levels for aggro, but Edgar Markov himself costs 6CMC, which is far and beyond everything else in this deck. In the interest of keeping the deck lean and low to the ground, ive cut out most mana rocks except for Sol Ring and whittled my lands down to 35, and that makes reasonably casting edgar while i have momentum challenging.
How can i reload my hand reliably or have my creatures be more impactful?
Lastly, in playtesting, i frequently run out of cards in hand, and after so many turns, have a dead hand and a small army of 1/1s which are not particularly effective at any one thing.
And if i messed up something somewhere please let me know! this is my first thread :^)
Last_Laugh says... #3
Harder/Faster: Resilience is the key to multiplayer aggro decks, not speed and overextending into the first boardwipe. Consider Teferi's Protection, Flawless Maneuver, and Scapegoat (doubles as a finisher with Purphoros out ) in addition to Boros Charm.
1 Drop/6 Drop: Most Edgar lists don't cast Markov and instead rely on his eminence triggers only. I've personally enjoyed the deck a lot more with Edgar in play and a slightly higher curve (2.79 avg. cmc is where mine comes in at.) Edgar's Dega Vampires for reference.
Card Draw/Preventing Topdeck: Necropotence, Dark Prophecy, and Twilight Prophet are your best options. Ideally these are backed up with Tutors like Vampiric, Enlightened, Demonic tutor and Diabolic Intent for redundancy. The cards to protect your board also help you overextend safely and prevent topdeck mode.
November 28, 2020 10:32 a.m.
2black2well says... #4
Last_Laugh Thanks for the input. This is my first aggro deck so That may have been my problem in trying to barrel over a single person without protecting my investments. While Teferi's Protection is a bit out of my price range, i will consider what purpose it would serve in a deck. Scapegoat seems like a wonderful card to add though.
I wasn't sure about needing to cast my commander, but something about largely being locked out of playing him most of the time seemed like a sour note.
while i hadnt yet considered or known about Dark Prophecy, i did consider Dark Tutelage but ultimately took it out due to it killing me faster than prophecy would for less returns. Im also trying tooth and nail to avoid Necropotence solely for the price point, but i guess theres a reason for that. I do have Twilight Prophet as a must-have though.
And thank you for sharing your decklist! Funnily enough, i think you were the direct inspiration for Reconnaissance already being in my deck, which seems stupid-crazy useful for what i want to do.
November 29, 2020 3:41 a.m.
ShutUpMokuba says... #5
About quanity vs quality of tokens/creatures in general it depends on what you can get better. I'll explain myselft better, you need to see if you can manage to make a ton of small tokens or if you can manage better to make big ones. In my The Locust God i go on quantity, in my Alela, Artful Provocateur i go on quality. Because compromises between the two strategies don't work well with token decks. Of course you can put some lord effect if you pick quantity and, on the other hand, some multiplier if you pick quality but you need to focus and pick on way and implement that. If you want to go big Icon of Ancestry cards are what you are looking for in the first place, if you want to get many consider Anointed Procession effects. Then again you can combine the two but try to pick one strategy over another.
Another consideration, the tribal decks sometimes fail to get explosive turns unless you have some broken synergy you can pull off. It's more like a building your army slowly but surely most of the times.
That being said, you should consider cutting off some creatures and implement the removal/boardwipe compartment. I get that you may don't want to erase the board completely but you probably don't need so many creatures and basically one-two removals. I'll add at least 2 boardwipes ad have at least 6 target removal spells.
Looking at your Mana curve you need to consider that one-two drops are fine, but you also need to have more impactfull cards on the board when the game goes on. You can chose to be super fast but without some expensive (in terms of mana cost) you will suffer in the late game.
About the card draw, you need more consistent cards that allows you to draw many times. Read the Bones is a one time effect. Look for cards like Phyrexian Arena and similar. You will need at least 5 cards with such effects, to implement if you consistently don't draw enough. That being said the main reason you run out of cards is that your mana curve is very low and you probably manage to cast many cards per turn. The problem here is that i don't believe honestly that many of those creatures are actually impactfull. With tribal decks you may fall in the mistake that a card of the chosen type is always just fine, because you have some synergy here and there. The secret is to take the creature type out of the equation and evaluate the cards on their own first and then inside the deck. For example, a vanilla 2/2 vampire can get to be a 5/5 thanks to lord effects, but without is just a 2/2 doing nothing else nor helping building up your strategy.
I had the same problem with my first attempt to The Scarab God deck where i put in a lot of zombies that in the long term don't do enough. You may have to reconsider some choices in the creature compartment imo.
November 29, 2020 4:20 a.m.
TriusMalarky says... #6
First, you have 4 taplands. Please, man, with a $200 budget you can fix 4. Exotic Orchard, The red Tainted land, Graven Cairns and friends. Easy, you can find a good number of them for $10-20 and make your manabase SO much better. The only one I'd even consider is the triland, and only because it taps for all three colors.
Also, cards like Village Rites become incredibly valuable. Rites itself is 1 mana draw 2, and the other versions(Costly Plunder, Altar's Reap) add a mana and instant speed. You'll have enough tokens that it's just free value here.
Between Champion of Dusk and Ad Nauseam, you've got some high power draw. IMO, just add some more tutors. Wishclaw Talisman, Scheming Symmetry, Grim Tutor are all plenty good to go get your nice Ad Naus or Champion to draw waaaay too many cards. For other tutors consider Brainspoil to get Ad Naus, Shred Memory for something like Cordial Vampire or Impact Tremors, and possibly Dimir Machinations and Dimir House Guard.
For win cons, consider Purphoros, God of the Forge. Deals damage twice as fast compared to Impact Tremors, and both of them are really solid cards. Burn at the Stake could probably take your horde of tokens and off somebody as well. Also tutorable by Brainspoil.
November 30, 2020 10:39 a.m.
2black2well says... #7
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ShutUpMokuba, thats very helpful. I dont know why the thought hadnt occured to me that i should specialize and double down on the tokens i wanted. I get the impression that alot of suggestions are leaning the deck more towards midrange, but my relationship with the MTG terminology for decks is hazy at best so what do i know. Im really hesitant to add too many removal cards and any boardwipes honestly as my main threat is someone who plays alot of hexproof and i cant imagine ever wanting to boardwipe. i will reconsider though. Thats also very helpful about how to choose my tribal vamps as i very much did just put as many of the cheapest ones in as possible. Thank you for putting ballpark numbers on the amount of each cards i should think about adding as well!
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TriusMalarky, i understand what you're saying. I typically don't worry about premium lands much at all, and especially as it seems like edgar markov's 'must-haves' are a suite of $5, $10, and $20 cards, like Necropotence. Its a card i have to remind myself not to take out every time i look at the price. I very much like the 'sac to draw 2 cards' though, thank you! I do have one question though, wouldnt a card like Wishclaw Talisman or Scheming Symmetry give my opponent just as much of, if not more of an advantage? In my head, they can tutor up a boardwipe, or some kind of soft counter to whatever i would draw, right? Burn at the Stake is a fantastic card that ive overlooked as well, thank you!!
December 1, 2020 7:36 p.m.
Last_Laugh says... #8
Another option if you can't justify spending $20+ on some of the better draw engines is make your opponents discard to equalize hand sizes.
I had Pain Magnification in the deck at one point for this purpose (check out my Marchesa discard deck Hand Hate Marchesa, most of the discard stuff in there is black). Your opponents can't make you discard but they can make each other discard... it's oddly political (little reminders like "Blue players at 6 mana with 2 cards in hand... he might have Cyclonic Rift") and I just look at it as a really good curse that affects all my opponents.
December 1, 2020 10:40 p.m.
TriusMalarky says... #9
They don't know what you're tutoring on Symmetry and such. Also, the point is typically to grab the card, draw it if you used Symmetry, and then use it to win/prevent a win on the same turn. BEFORE the other person gets their card.
Often, I'd say just activate Wishclaw to get Burn at the Stake when you need a player out of the game. . . and maybe hit the player you gave the tutor to ;)
IMO, lands are important. So they should be high on your list to get. Of course, don't go all-out, but do look at my suggestions.
Caerwyn says... #2
This thread was moved to a more appropriate forum (auto-generated comment)
November 27, 2020 4:25 p.m.