Archenemy/Planeschase deck ideas
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on May 17, 2022, 7:14 a.m. by Stardragon
Me and my friends are planning on a archenemy/planeschase game and i drew the short end (or maybe long end) of the stick and am now the archenemy... the problem is i have now idea what commander i should go with/what to build them as. the 4 decks im up against are
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow ninja tribal
Averna, the Chaos Bloom Landfall/Cascade
Chainer, Nightmare Adept Reanimation and
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice Superfriends
any ideas are welcome to help me win (or at least put up a good fight) (note my budget is a hard $325)
that being said even though i have no idea what to do i was thinking of maybe going the fast stompy route like Omnath, Locus of Mana sure i may not be able to afford things like craterhoof or blightsteel but there are plenty of cheap big creatures i could play with. OR
I could go hard control. OR
The Locust God Infinite Draw/Swarm
IDK
I would argue that from a power standpoint, the singular most effective game winning combo in EDH is Consult Oracle. Add in Tainted Pact and you'll be pretty set. Even on a budget, you can still get a pretty good unique manabase if you run more colors. My recommendation for commanders would be Thrasios, Triton Hero and Tymna the Weaver/Kraum, Ludevic's Opus. You'll be able to win quickly or grind value for a longer game. With three or four colors you'll also be able to run a diverse manabase pretty easily, even on a budget.
May 17, 2022 11:40 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #4
Sliver Hivelord mutate/copy-tokens could be pretty fun here.
Hear me out:
You have four opponents with pretty powerful commanders. You could go with basically a cEDH deck, but it doesn't matter if you win or lose, the game propably won't be a lot of fun.
The Hivelord mutate deck can do some insane stuff, it floods the board with absurd creatures, and you'll have access to each and every powerful piece of interaction.
What's more, the game will feel really epic due to the sheer monstrous absurdity it brings to the table.
Budgetwise, Hivelord itself isn't too expensive, as are most of the mutate cards, so you'll have plenty of budget left for important cards to make it run smoothly.
May 17, 2022 12:23 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #5
Unlike Two-Headed Giant, life totals are not shared. Your best efforts are to find a Commander or style that hits everyone at once.
May 17, 2022 3:38 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #6
Kokusho, the Evening Star reanimator / aristocrats would be brutal
May 17, 2022 4:19 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #7
If you are playing with Ongoings and Schemes, I'd recommend Bolas' over Xenagos'
May 17, 2022 4:34 p.m.
Just to be on flavor with the Bola schemes I would build any of the bolas commanders since they will have synergy with the schemes.
May 18, 2022 11:38 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi I actually really love the idea of mutating slivers. That sounds hilarious and terrifying at the same time!
My recommendation for this would be something like maybe Kess, Dissident Mage or Anhelo, the Painter? Spellslinger synergies that could go in multiple directions like tokens or discard or burn or something.
(Take this with a grain of salt. Never played Archenemy before)
May 20, 2022 3:26 p.m.
Stardragon says... #10
seshiro_of_the_orochi but aren't sliver uber expensive plus i haven't been able to wrap my head around mutate
May 20, 2022 8:14 p.m.
Most of them aren't, it's just the top few that are.
A quick search through Scryfall says that there are currently 109 sliver creatures. Of those 109, only 15 are above $5 and if we discount Sliver Queen because she's Reserve List, that's 14/108.
Mutate is a bit confusing as a mechanic, admittedly. Playing around with it on Arena made it a bit easier for me to understand, though.
May 20, 2022 8:23 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #12
Mutate basically works like this:
Suppose you have Skullwinder on the battlefield - ironically chosen not because it's from Ikoria's Commander set, but because I clicked the Random Card option on Gatherer and it was literally the first one who cropped up.
I cast, and resolve, Archipelagore for it's Mutate cost.
If I put Archipelagore beneath Skullwinder, I'll now have a 1/3 green Skullwinder who happens to have "Whenever this creature mutates, tap up to X target creatures where X is the number of times this creature has mutated. Those creatures don't untap during their controller's untap step."
If I put Archipelagore on top, I'll now have a 7/7 blue Leviathan who has "Deathtouch", since the ETB effect would have already resolved.
The "goal" of Mutate is to keep making your creatures larger and larger, adding more and more abilities onto them.
- (I am not sure if they retain all colors, or just the color(s) of whomever is on top.)
But yes, Mutate is a very poorly designed mechanic. Essentially think of it like Bestow from Theros, except when the creature dies, you don't retain the rest of it.
With Bestow, if I target Skullwinder with Celestial Archon, then my 1/3 green Snake gets +4/+4, flying and first strike on top of the deathtouch. Then, when it is murdered, Skullwinder is moved to my graveyard but Celestial Archon remains on the battlefield, now as a creature. So I retain the value of Celestial Archon even after Skullwinder has left the battlefield. And this isn't just with being killed; Bounced / exiled and possibly blinked all do this, as well.
But Mutate, once one dies they all die. So really, it's more akin to regular Auras - Once the enchanted creature goes, everything attached goes with it.
May 20, 2022 8:40 p.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #13
The deck actually doesn't need any slivers besides Hivelord, but you could absolutely include them.
Hivelord is the only WUBRG commander with inherent indestructibility. You mutate onto it and use copying effects/clones to create more indestructible monsters. Progenitor Mimic is especially cool here.
Btw, if you enchant a mutate pile with Kaya's Ghostform and it dies, all of the creatures enter the battlefield seperately. Works with blink/flicker effects, as well.
May 21, 2022 1:47 a.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #14
Run Child of Alara and enjoy living a life without friends.
May 21, 2022 1:52 a.m.
Stardragon says... #15
TypicalTimmy lol i have a child deck Board state getting you down? Try Nukes! it's not great but it's hilarious and fun to play
May 21, 2022 10:15 a.m.
I think you should really make sure you have some life gain effects. Your opponents should be hitting you with a lot of chip damage. You could easily find yourself just getting whittled down to the point where you can't go on offense. Lifegain is probably a good way to keep yourself going.
I agree with TypicalTimmy's idea about aristocrats being a good option. You'll want resiliency in your game plan and the ability to hit everyone at once.
I'll propose a different route: Naya tokens. Use the soul sisters and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice to gain life and kill everyone with Purphoros, God of the Forge and Impact Tremors. Your goal won't necessarily be to hit everyone with a Craterhoof, but rather to get loads of blockers out there and killing everyone while you do it. I'd roll with Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer as your commander so you can tutor up the Purphoros or the soul sisters.
Honestly the mutate thing sounds super fun, but I think it might fall apart with you as the arch enemy.
May 21, 2022 3:29 p.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #17
Abaques: That Naya lifegain plan sounds pretty awesome, too! I'm still trying to find a deck to inlcude Rocco in, and if Purph wouldn't be that expensive, I'd actually build that.
May 21, 2022 4:04 p.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi Thanks! I think you could build that on a pretty low budget with Purphoros as the most expensive card in the deck by a long ways.
griffstick says... #2
I think that's an easy budget also I think landfall is the strongest strategy to go with. Also the most budget if you exclude fetch lands. Most of your budget will be lost in the Azusa, Lost but Seeking Type cards. But alot of the landfall payoff cards are budget. And throwing in all the cascade cards to go with the commander will make it more budget because most cascade cards are cheap. I like Averna, the Chaos Bloom
May 17, 2022 11:13 a.m. Edited.