Thantis, The Warweaver: is it Viable for CEDH?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Aug. 20, 2020, 5:01 a.m. by Vakarian
Hey Everyone, my playgroup is very much an arms race style group, but one thing i noticed is that have more utility creatures that they would use and not want to lose unless necessary, unless my buddy runs Zada, Hedron Grinder, then there is not usally combat until the Vice is on one or more of us. So i thought why not try giving Thantis a try to force people to fight and also disrupt their plans. I know Thantis is a 6-mana cost commander, and for a CEDH deck it might be unattainable, but again i thought i would give it a try. i have a couple key cards already for the deck, to name a few: Grand Melee ,Hornets nest , Crawlspace ,Revenge of Ravens , Marcesa's Decree , Beastmasters Accension , Xantcha Sleeper Agent . i know i am missing No Mercy (not sure if needed) Slumbering dragon , and a few others. With that said, is there anything you all can think of that would make it faster or more threatening? or some silly jank 2-3 card combo that is good? not looking to go entirely infinite, just puting preasure on all the right areas.
Probably for true cEDH no... but true cEDH has a pretty limited subset of decks. For high casual, yes: Thantis is viable. I am a Thantis expert & have won a lot of EDHdiscord games that The Brown Spider had no business winning. I will have to update my deck & show you what I have. The best part about it though is that there isn't any true optimum for the deck & it is one of those where every so many new sets there is another card to throw in. Also, I use No Mercy but it is definitely not a neccessity
August 20, 2020 9:29 a.m.
TriusMalarky says... #4
I think your friends would hate you if you actually built cEDH. If they are, as you say, "arms race" players, then cEDH would blow them out of the water before they can even start the game.
While Battlecruiser Magic is fun for many, it is not and will never be competitive. That said, Thantis is freaking awesome for Battlecruiser/Arms Race because
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a) It's got a really neat effect
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b) It forces Battlecruiser games to go faster by forcing combat. While you run the risk of being the archenemy, you should really have built your list around that anyways.
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c) It's a value commander. That is the sort of thing that dominates Battlecruiser.
What you really want are cards like Coveted Jewel to make the main 'Archenemy' go around the table. Oh, and Assault Suit. Give everybody the use of Thantis... but not against you. So you can say, 'hey, throw that token at Thantis to buff him and I'll let you use Thantis on your turn'.
August 20, 2020 9:56 a.m.
SynergyBuild says... #5
Sadly, no, thantis doesn't have a currently applicable way to come out early enough or gain any value when it does in cEDH. On it's surface it isn't something that is a great hate piece for the format, nor does it gain card advantage, nor combo potential. It can't even be used as an outlet for other combos such as Food Chain, reanimator lines like Worldgorger Dragon, or even a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo.
Sadly it just isn't on par with the cards that are being run. If you do make it cEDH, I'd recommend making the deck not use the commander at all, as in most games building around it would be worse than building a combo shell in the colors.
If that's what you want, I'd recommend an Ad Nauseam storm combo, something that wins fast, and using Gruul countermagic to back it up against interaction.
August 20, 2020 1:53 p.m.
SynergyBuild says... #6
Well actually cEDH has some aggro decks like Edric and Yuriko, the difference is they both draw cards, have access to blue, and additionally can come down for half the mana or a third the cost.
August 20, 2020 5:05 p.m.
TriusMalarky says... #7
Correction: Aggro is at a downside because it has to deal at least 63-120 damage. Unless you're playing 1v1 cEDH.
August 20, 2020 5:06 p.m.
RNR_Gaming says... #8
Short answer is no this is not viable for cedh. If you want to do well within the parameters you described I'd reccomend playing a pod style deck. Seems like you want to be disruptive and incrementally gain value; pods the way to go for that - but the spider isn't going to help very much with that strategy. If you wanted to play a jund cedh deck I'd highly reccomend foodchain korvald.
August 20, 2020 5:16 p.m.
Thantis, the Warweaver
will never be accepted as a cedh commander
but with that said
if you give up on the timmy aggro and build a powerful jund combo deck
utilizing Thantis, the Warweaver for the goad effect only
(as you stated yourself it is good for tapping down utility creatures)
you could play at a much higher power level then you opponents would be expecting to deal with
August 20, 2020 6:34 p.m.
p.s. by utilizing the goad effect
i meant effects like Living Plane, Nature's Revolt, Titania's Song
August 20, 2020 6:44 p.m.
Phostration says... #11
So my decision to use Thantis as my first attempt at a commander deck was a bad choice? haha
Attack Me But Don't Hurt Me UwU (WIP) for the curious
August 20, 2020 8:46 p.m.
Phostration says... #12
I think i might me missing some important information. What exactly is cEDH?
August 20, 2020 10:01 p.m.
Yep, it depends on the definition of cEDH. When you start to see certain cards repeatedly on tier 0-1 decklists & you see alot of Turn 0-4 win-threats you are entering cEDH territory. I think I would call my usual Meta High-Casual. You are seeing high-power cards, but multiple pet-cards in a game that are not ONLY win-now or jump forward now. Thantis definitely doesn't have to be combo shell to be effective though. You can also play high-impact pet cards that put pressure on other players without looking too threatening, then you play a load of disruption. Maybe today I can post you a decklist. I think my Thantis deck has a single combo in it. It is somewhat difficult to build (lack of inherent focus).
August 22, 2020 5:55 a.m.
SynergyBuild says... #15
Gleeock Well, cEDH is like competitively playing modern, standard, or any other format. You don't build the deck for fun, you build it to win. Each card in the deck is as good as you can get it, with restrictions based on budget occasionally allowed, though many just consider that 'near competitive' which can be indistinguishably good but I allow them to be called cEDH as long as they are as competitive as they can be.
Professional players in other formats study the format rigorously and make no concessions for anything to win tournaments, and cEDH is just like those, making no concessions and attempting to study the format for wins. Less often tournaments, but sometimes that, and more often just good competitive pods!
The thing is, cEDH is actually just the EDH equivalent to every other format, in fact casual EDH is the only strange way to play a format, it's like a sanctioned table-top equivalent of a format!
Now as someone who plays both equally, this isn't to say what is better, but I think both are super fun and are just less vague than people say. Everyone says it's some super complex definition but like, one is just table-top EDH, and the other is tournament level EDH.
August 22, 2020 12:20 p.m.
@Phostration, "So my decision to use Thantis as my first attempt at a commander deck was a bad choice?"
absolutely not!!, thantis is a fantastic commander and there is nothing wrong with your deck
to put it simply its were all just discussing
is it possible to convince a large number of magic players to all agree
that thantis is so good that he should be commenly played at tournaments
August 22, 2020 12:39 p.m.
So The Brown Spider a lot of overlap on the bracket of those cards. Consensus would typically point to this deck not being "competetive" particularly when there are pet cards that rely on opponent choice-based and incremental plays. However, if the playgroup is not exclusively tournament style decks... Animar, T-4 Najeela, etc.... The bizarre disruption & low threat gradient can surprise some people.
August 23, 2020 12:17 p.m.
ANNNDDD.... It didn't update, screw it. Well that is not even close to the deck as it is now. But I don't have the time to change it again. I am mad at tapped out.
ScionsStillLive says... #2
i was thinking, maybe Marisi, Breaker of the Coil
is better because it comes out faster?
August 20, 2020 8:11 a.m.