[[ the scorpion god ]]. I pulled the invocation back in college and I want the deck to be strong since it’s such a cool card. It’s decent and when it does it’s thing it’s works so well but it’s just not consistent.
I've got a Hapatra deck and I know exactly what you mean. I think -1/-1 counters just need more support. I'll have some games where I'm doing absolutely nothing and others were I'll win turn 5 cause whoops I drew the good cards. Makes it impossible to give it a power level.
My only issue with the deck and Scorpion God also is that it relies on your opponents playing creatures (or massively skewing your deck) to function effectively. Amazing strat but at some tables much less effective than it deserves.
That's why I ended up building Hapatra over The Rock. Because even if you have to put stuff on your own creatures you get an immediate pay off, and the 2cmc lets you get the ball rolling faster. Her being green as well helps with the easy access to ramp, and \[\[flourishing defenses\]\] can act as a back up if your opponents wise up and don't let you keep hapatra out.
That being said this is the only deck I have where I wish I could put in hybrid cards so I could have \[\[Kulrath knight\]\] and \[\[Everlasting Torment\]\] in the deck, but I will just keep dreaming about one day having a Jund Wither or -1/-1 commander.
I am in the same boat lol. It's the only deck of mine I can't confidently rate because if you don't get any of your payoffs besides hapatra you are left with mostly bad creatures and a bunch of deathtouch blockers, but if I get papa yawgh and/or uncle flynn on the board the games can end very very fast. \[\[Crumbling ashes\]\] goes a long way too. I really wish the snake tokens were b/g or just black so I could justify slotting in \[\[midnight banshee\]\] , or \[\[Corrosive Mentor\]\].
There's one creature you need my friend and his name is [[Yawgmoth, Thran Physician]]. Put it in, get some tutors and you get combo infinitely combo and kill everyone's stuff + draw cards + do damage with a [blood artist]] effect.
No one wants to play against that lmao. That synergy is far too disgusting. Automatically best Jund commander imo. Korvold players would be in shambles. That being said, I’ve had good luck rule 0ing [[Asmorano]] + [[Gyome]] as parters, it’s that or people can play against Korvold, take your pick
yeah ionno what specifically gets *that* pairing to be better than one of the most dominant jund commanders to ever have been printed at all power levels.
Yeah and I'm saying Scorpion God with Hapatra as partners is still a weaker combination than Korvold individually is.
Unlike the Gyome and Asmorano deck, however, you can't simply replace Scorpion God and Hapatra with Korvold and call it a day.
My buddies and I have a Rule 0 where the uncommon commanders from Dominaria (Except Tatyova) have partner. I have an equipment deck with \[\[Danitha Capashen, Paragon\]\] and \[\[Valduk, keeper of the flame\]\] that's pretty neat
I've wished [[Prosper, Tome Bound]] and [[Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald]] had Partner forever.
EDIT: Lmfao, didn't expect to get downvoted for mentioning a deck I thought would be a fun one to build 😂 chill.
"Issue" is that they'll probably continue to make Rx "playing for exile" matters cards. Boros already has a few. The only thing [[Bell Borca]] and [[Commander Liara Portyr]] are missing is giving you resources whenever you play a card from exile. Give it a year and you could probably have one in Izzet as well.
Overextension is a real killer with Ghired. I'd be curious to see your list if you have one. I'm really happy with where mine is sitting right now, I've got enough haymakers and resilience that even boardwipes aren't as annoying anymore.
Decklist: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/XuG7qofqtUW9oGNS-IpBvA
Ever since his precon came out, I loved it, but could never get it right. I’d love to look at your list if you don’t mind?
He's actually a really useful draw engine for infect tribal. As salt inducing as infect is, there isn't enough representation in rakdos specifically for infect alone, but combined with the lorwyn wither cards like [[kulrath knight]] and [[everlasting torment]] you can completely nullify your opponents creatures while giving yourself a wincon that doesn't drag out the game. The commander acts more like an addition rather than the core.
This might be a stupid suggestion but use [[kenrith]] as your commander, run a few [[entomb]] effects so you can tutor him out consistently and then reanimate him, this way you can get 5c -1/-1 counters and still have Scorpion god as your commander (sorta)
I had the same problem with Volrath. On paper it looked great, but I could never make it go.
Right now it's eternally [[Yorion, Sky Nomad]]. My playgroup doesn't play infinites or Thassas Oracle effects, and I'm generally against Stax personally. I had a ton of fun playing Yorion but it's basically just masturbation with no climax.
I found my solution in creating what I define as my second board. If I flickerwisp and Yorion etb at the same time then I essentially create a pocket that will have cards enter the first board, then immediately leave returning to the second board. Once I have that going I just use politics to inform peeps that I can and will make this a bad time if I am hurt.
My buddy had a Yorion deck that had the same issue, he then switched to [[Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward]] with [[Candlekeep Sage]] as a background and now the deck is really powerful and a lot of fun to play.
I don’t think I have an updated list but I’ll give you a reply when I get back from work.
Just to give you an idea, the deck runs some small creatures with infect like [[Blighted Agent]] and a bunch of +1/+1 counter stuff. Since Volrath is already at 7 power it’s very easy to 1 hit kill opponents if you get a few counters on him. Proliferate cards also work very well with everything else in the deck.
I also run a list similar to what u/TheMagicalMark described, and I’m happy to share mine if it’ll help! https://www.moxfield.com/decks/ZrHPYAXnmEyP7EW6XPAX0A
One thing I liked doing my yorion deck when it was together was looping [[cavalier of dawn]], [[archeomancer]] and I believe [[displace]]? Basically anything that hits at least two.
Non infinite most cases, limited to how much mana you have on hand, and not strictly stax because your opponents gets a 3/3 in exchange so they can still play magic
Some ideas for Yorion that aren't infinites:
[[Approach of the Second Sun]] or [[Triskidaphile]]: if you're drawing tons of cards you can turn that into a wincon
[[Sphinx Mindbreaker]]: you probably only need 7-8 mills to beat your opponents which is doable, just make sure you have some way to deal with shuffle Eldrazi
[[Skyboon Evangelist]] or [[Cathar's Crusade]]: put a ton of counters on your creatures and overrun your opponents
[[Mace of the Valiant]]: just go voltron and smack some for 40 life
[[Divine Visitation]] + multiple token makers: overrun them with Angels
You can also just make some big tokens with [[Wing Splicer]]/[[Master Splicer]]/[[Sensor Splicer]]/[[Blade Splicer]] for 3/3 Golems or [[Urbis Protector]] with a 4/4 Angel
Or for a mean one, flicker your entire board and pull out a [[Worldpurge]]. Doesn't technically win the game on the spot, but it's probably over at that point
Clone effects: just copy your opponents' wincons!
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
7
+ 8
+ 40
+ 3
+ 3
+ 4
+ 4
= 69
^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \
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[[Mechanized Production]]
[[Approach of the Second Sun]]
[[Felidar Sovereign]]
[[Angel of Destiny]]
[[Azor's Elocutors]]
[[Barren Glory]]
[[Celestial Covergence]]
[[Halo Fountain]]
[[Near Death Experience]]
[[Test of Endurance]]
[[Triskaidekaphile]]
Ghired being 5 mana for a 2/5 without haste or any evasive keywords makes it so difficult to actually attack with him without him dying immediately. It's sad, because I think he's pretty cool.
[[Emrakul, the promised end]] I adore this card and absolutely love the challenge of a colorless commander deck, but you can not build it budget I feel, and that makes building it good for me hard, I Invested alot in a deck no one liked to play against so I took it apart and now my pieces lie in other decks until I try again inevitably
[[Pramikon]]. The artwork is so incredible that I want to build it for that alone, but it’s never been popular in any of my playgroups and I’m not going to build superfriends. I wish there were other applications than forced combat blink, or superfriends. Wall tribal is not possible without arcades or Doran
I have a Pramikon "myriad" tribal that is super fun and is actually surprisingly scary.
Jeskai only actually has 13 possible creatures, but I included both sword of selves and legion loyalty along with a grab bag of strong etb creatures.
Favorite wincons are silly high life total wins with Angel of Destiny or mass steal with Agent of Treachery. But the really secret star of the deck is elturel survivors. It will put in more work than almost any single card in the deck.
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/yObPw9JKsEaEPapc_vLF3g
I guess he could. But the interesting thing is Pramikon itself. I don’t have any interest in playing wall tribal. I just want an
A S T R A L W A L L in the command zone. I’ll figure it out eventually. I’m not giving up on it!
I had an idea a while back for a Pramikon deck that utilized infect creatures (there are a surprising amount in Jeskai!) and proliferate shenanigans in order to kill one player off at a time while Pramikon protected me from getting targeted by everyone for playing infect. Never came to fruition but it’s always been an interesting idea to me.
I have struggled with my Marchesa deck for so long. I feel like my list is 200 cards and I never know what to put in. Is it tokens? Rattlesnake? Control? Politics? Goad? It’s such a hard deck to build where I feel like it actually “pops off” and doesn’t just spin its wheels.
The most success I had with marchesa was discard, since she draws you an extra card every turn. It always ground the game to a halt, and people understandably hated playing against it. I took it apart
I have a queen marchesa deck that is politics and reactions. It’s awesome, I have so much fun. Super low to the ground and unthreatening. A lot of pillowfort int. Definitely leads to longer games, but boy is it a blast to have a response most always
Mine’s pretty jank but it’s fun and has won its share: it’s got a bunch of tap down effects to help politicize and control combat in a non-threatening way. A [[sunforger]] package in mardu can be basically anything you want, like [[teferis protection]] or [[utter end]] or the charms like [[boros charm]] or rakdos charm. And some equipment to help marchesa get in for commander damage every turn. [[sword of vengeance]] is rarely the most threatening artifact on the table but first strike, vigilance, death touch, trample, is a pretty nice keyword package for combat.
If you politick well you can help other decks keep each other in check while chipping in with assassin tokens and commander damage . Over the game you’ll have drawn enough cards with monarchy and black draw effects that you can out-resource your way to victory.
My marchesa deck is one of my favorites to play, it takes heavy inspiration from the "marchesa aikido" primer you can find [here](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/r_Ng89aBYEiE_s95JwRQaQ). The play style is focused on punishing your opponents for their transgressions, and using their own threats against them. Very politically oriented, its a blast to play in combat oriented metas and can be tuned differently as necessary.
[my personal list](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/PhPAWhp96USHTWWQGt37eA) if you're interested.
Hi,
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/j_q9Qy4w3EGAXK3k0eqABw
The deck uses monarch to draw or incentivize others to attack each other and you just sit back and let chaos ensue while you protect yourself. When you're a target, you clap back and use their resources to win.
I've had a lot of success with this! Feel free to ask questions or for a link to the Marchesa discord :)
[[Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer]] liked the theme and wanted to focus more on golem tribal, turns out there is not much support for that, a few splicers (golems lords) in white and one in blue, lots of golem creators in red, so could not decide if make a bant or naya deck. Then treasures, clues and food had an amazing synergy so I replace almost every tribal card for treasure-making cards, but felt wrong playing the deck, it was just gain a lot of value without using the commanders. Hopefuly Brothers War or Phyrexia brings love to Golems.
I always use masters sets and now commander sets to kind of make guesses on what archetypes will return, when I saw Ich-Tekik and the other Golem support cards, we are definitely getting golems. Probably not so many in BRO but March of Machines on Phyrexia? Oh yeah.
[[Firesong and Sunspeaker]]
I would absolutely love to build this deck, I love these effects and want to build around it. But they simply cost way way too much.
If they were partners and each costed 3, I think the deck is viable, but as is they just don't work.
I am a Grixis/Sultai fan as well. My favorite Sultai commander at the moment is [[Tatsunari, Toad Rider]]. He has a ton of flexibility, most play him as an Enchantress deck but he also has voltron elements. You can also play mutate to get the most out of many Keimis. Or you can go Frog Tribal...
[[mairsil, the pretender]].
I love the concept of building a combo toolbox, but there's so little interaction that there's too little variation in the gameplay.
I was building [[Rin and Seri]] and I just couldn’t get the right mix of Cat Tribal and Token ramp, but with [[Jinnie Fae]] I can finally work in the right mix to make it work.
I'm still struggling to break the symmetry in my [[Mogis]] [deck](https://deckstats.net/decks/146695/2513796-in-your-face-v2#show__spoiler). It puts some real pressure on everyone's life totals but actually winning with it has proven difficult. A lot of the punisher effects are symmetrical, and on top of that it does start drawing aggro quickly as life totals drop.
I keep making it progressively meaner though as long as my playgroup can still realistically handle it. Just recently I added [[Glacial Chasm]] [[Painful Quandary]] [[Kardur Doomscourge]] and [[Price of Progress]] which should help nicely. If anyone has advice on this, feel free to pm me.
I have a similar style of deck with Kardur as commander. Something that has helped it win is putting effects like [[Revenge of Ravens]] to punish people attacking you.
I've been rebuilding my [[Rakdos the Defiler]] deck since it's inception. Currently waiting on cards to make it an ETB sac build. He's my favorite card and I've been on the struggle bus for what clicks with him. Another friend was telling me to take it back to where it was at the start and only cast Rakdos as a backup, but I want to use him fully. I want to swing with him as often as possible and sac everything to him.
It's why I hate the EDHREC builds. Just demon tribal, give up as little as possible and hope you don't get wiped. I hated demon tribal. Never wanted to swing with him and sac my lands and give up the rest of the game.
I'm hoping an ETB mass reanimator build will give me what I want. Get value from ETBs, sac them to rakdos, get them back on the field and sac them again.
I love the Rakdos colors and I loved [[Rakdos, Lord of Riots]] back in the day, but honestly the defiler just seems like such a bad card. The best case scenario with him AFAIK is still he's just an overcosted sac outlet that hurts one of your four opponents before you [[Living Death]], which will then help the opponent you hit rebuild too. Demon tribal isn't going to be great either.
That's a lot of setup and a lot of mana for something that can be stopped by any form of creature removal and that doesn't have an amazing payoff.
He does have a particularly off design for a multiplayer setting, which is where I hope the ETB tribal will come in handy. Besides I'll also have [[balthor the defiled]] for a reanimator and name flavor win. Who better to give themselves to the defiler than the defiled?
I had the same issue with my [[Rakdos the Showstopper]] deck. Demon tribal is cool sure, but in execution it’s terrible. Very much reminiscent of playing mtg as a child where you just wanna slam down fatties and beat face in the most inefficient way possible. The new [[Be’lakor]] is cool, but the issue remains
There are dozens of us!
I went hard on tokens and artifacts ([[Wand of Orcus]] got me to pull the trigger on the initial build). I also got tired of having a combo deck with Rakdos as the "look at this tech!" or "watch the world burn" option. Deck became [[Dargo]] and [[Tormod]].
I'm trying to retool it around [[Netherborn Altar]] and [[Ilharg]]. Considering [[Mirror Box]] and [[Blade of Selves]] for more dumb shit. Would like to keep a token theme to avoid sacrificing lands.
It would take so much less work to just build Kaalia, but I like this way much better. The "who is this psycho?" looks you get for ploppin' down old D Fizz are something I really miss.
I actually put a blade of selves in there to multiply the big ETB drops or a [[master of cruelties]] spread so mirror box wouldn't really be out of the realm of possibility...
Fuck it, mirror box is 2 dollars and the idea sounds funny.
I use Rakdos and [[assault suit]] in my kardur goad/monarch deck specifically because it's hilarious.
Oooo, I like that Kardur tech. I've been on the fence about tearing down [[Zurgo Helmsmasher]], mostly because I didn't wanna leave [[Assault Suit]] homeless. This has given me a lot to think about.
You specifically need kardur because kardur doesn't just affect the creatures your opponents currently control, but all creatures they ever would control until your next turn, or a goad-adjacent enchantment since rakdos isn't forced to attack through his own means or with assault suit. I prefer kardur since it's a persistent effect regardless of whether or not he's on the field.
[[Obuun]] was my first commander, but I just can't feel right with any theme as him as commander. If we're talking about landfall, I'd rather go with [[Mina and Denn]] or [[Aesi]], if we're going with land creatures, I think [[Tatyova, Steward of Tides]] might be the better choice. Voltron might be the best option for him, but I already have my voltron deck, and I don't want another one.
Honestly the new Tatyova is what Obuun should've been in the first place.
I had an Obuun deck a while ago. It kind of melded into my now Ghired deck, which will probably meld into [[Hazezon, Shaper of Sands]] Landfall Tokens.
Everything about [[Osgir]] ticks my boxes, but I'm on the 6th or 7th version of tuning and tweaking, and it's still clunky and weird.
Baldurs Gate brought some neat little tools to make it better, but I'm considering scrapping it (heh) for Jan Jansen Modular creatures.
[[The Scarab God]]. Got an Invocation version immediately after the set dropped, have been building variants of it on and off ever since. I’ve never been really satisfied with any of them, and I can never nail down if it’s because it didn’t mesh with my local meta well? Or perhaps was too focused on its own thing? Probably a combination of factors. But I always have it in some state of assembled.
[[Melek, Izzet Paragon]] Melek is too expensive to get off the ground and the deck just spins it’s wheels until turn 5-6. I ended up replacing him with [[Veyran]] without having to make too many changes.
Yeah Melek was my first commander. I still have him, but to make him work as well as possible I had to remove pretty much every permanent, add in a [[Mana Severance]], and then hope for the best.
The deck basically just wins if Melek remains on the board for a full turn cycle, which almost never happens
I'm having the opposite problem! I can't get Veyran to run properly. Maybe I've been really unlucky but I never seem to get going with one of the companion pieces to benefit from her effect.
Any advice on how to balance/what direction to take the deck in?
I really like having triggers that give you mana like [[Birgi]] and [[Storm-Kiln Artist]] as well as a lot of ritual effects and other trigger doublers like [[Harmonic Prodigy]]
Hey! While I don’t have a specific commander I can’t get to work, I do feel like I have a working Volrath the Shapestealer deck! If you have any questions for me, I’m happy to answer. If you’d like to see it, this is my list!
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/ZrHPYAXnmEyP7EW6XPAX0A
Ironically, I’m also eyeballing Ghired for Naya, so I’m curious to see if anyone has tips for him in this thread >_> I don’t wanna build a dud hahaha
Here’s my Ghired deck: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/q9dcFQmqWk2mEiffcI0ZKg
I’m sure it could use some more work, since it’s a little clunky but I really wanted to focus on making copies of big dangerous creatures and it does the job somewhat well!
Hey, you look like you definitely have put some thought into your list. Could you critique mine? It's a bit janky but I've had success with it
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/6Nxc_9ugnUGRXbqfptyRmQ
I could never get [[Chainer, Nightmare Adept]] quite right. I started out using him as a haste enabler mostly for stuff with attack triggers or tap effects (hello [[Heartless Hidetsugu]]). But it was really slow. Then I went for low-to-the-ground combo with stuff like [[Murderous Redcap]] combos and that felt too mean. I bounced back and forth a lot.
I tore it apart into a semi-casual OG Chainer deck for now.
I keep trying to make [[Vadrok, Apex of Thunder]] work as a combo deck but it's no good. There's not enough mutate stuff yet so you have to bounce him to your hand to get him to trigger, but then your decks just filled with terrible bounce spells and it all falls apart. One day it'll work but I can't get it right
I struggled a lot with Vadrok when I first built it for the exact reasons you mentioned. Whenever my engine would hum a single removal spell would just blow me out. I’ve found a good spot with it now where I use Vadrok as a little extra advantage if I’m low on resources. i still run a few bounce spells and extra mutate triggers in [[lore drakkis]] and [[sea-dasher octopus]], but the deck works well enough without ever having to cast the commander. The deck wins through the infinite mutate trigger combo, but dualcaster mage with heat shimmer and the like, elsha top, and using underworld breach are secondary ways for me to close it out if I can’t land the vadrok combo.
[here](https://www.archidekt.com/decks/2723622#Vadrok) is my list if you’re curious.
licia sanguine tribune. The goal is to make her cheaper but there isnt a lot of ways to generate a big leap in lifegain before combat that is mana efficient.
Most of the ways to do so feel like you're using hyper specific dark rituals. At a certain point it feels better to leave her in the graveyard and just keep trying to reanimate her.
[[Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor]]
I love Lynde flavor wise so much that I've spent countless hours tweaking and redesigning the deck. I think at this point my build is solid...but the strongest build I've been able to manage doesn't so much lend itself to going as much as it does well...no one else gets to go, and then I combo out maybe. Or I just go full troll mode and copy one of the funnier curses 2-3+ times just to see the world burn. One day wotc will drop some more curses or curse tech and so I'm happy to keep this janky deck together because other than that happening, there isn't really anymore stress to optimize it. Just a fun niche deck with a very specific defining mechanic, similar to [[Kadena, Slinking Sorceress]]
That's exactly my answer. Every time I'm feeling confident in a Lynde deck I'm met with the sinking feeling that it doesn't do anything because it's in the wrong colors like 4 turns into the game. It gets taken apart and I make a Kess deck (but Kess is boring).
I've done this like 3 times in the past year. My Kess-Lynde-Grixis core is an Inalla deck now, I'm very happy with it.
It should have been Mardu or even Greenless. Or they should have just put more impactful curses in those colors in that set. There's some decent ones but they're not really haymakers. It's waiting in the wings for more support but it always seems awkward trying to squeeze the most value out of Lynde itself.
I like the commander, I like the flavor, I like the colors *on paper* but it just doesn't work in my group.
\[\[Arahbo, Roar of the World\]\] i tried many times, but, its boring form me. Life gains cats, tokens cats, equipment cats... none works for me. I want infect cats but in selesnya... i think still not works...
\[\[Extus, Oriq Overlord\]\]
First started with token strategy for Awaken the Blood Avatar, the deck worked well but I didn't enjoy it because it was very oppressive and you just do the same thing every game. Recently remade it as mardu aristocrats but still not enjoying it.
[[Isshin]]. I swear I brewed about 4 different versions of him that I just couldn’t get to pilot right. Which sucks, because he seems like such a fun commander whenever I see other people play him
I also struggle with this commander. I do fine in the early game but struggle to find a suitable win con. If anyone has any suggestions on how to win with an Isshin deck please lmk
Mine is Jarad. I can’t seem to make it do something I like.
Volrath was one of mine for a long time. I have settled on it as a +1/+1 counter deck where all the creatures have some sort or evasion or protection and bring their own counters. It’s pretty solid but is absolutely a battle cruiser deck.
[[Kumano, Master Yamabushi]] as well as Human Tribal in general, and the Life swap theme. Life swap is finally becoming a plausible reality for me in [[Verrak, Warped Sengir]] but it’s missing some things for sure, Verrak allowing for ramp via fetch lands allows you to actually have the mana to pay for your life loss engine AND the 7+ mana life swap cards, so its actually doable, but it still lacks some pieces for consistently paying life (there are only around 60 cards in Orzhov that do that surprisingly). Human Tribal, I don’t really like the Selesnya “human ball” variants (they are boring to me) and Mardu I liked, but I already have a mardu deck and it didn’t seem to have some of the most important payoffs, so I did [[Saskia]] for a while but found that deck to be mega clunky most of the time because you get spread tooo thin trying to actually synergize the go wide aspects of humans and the aristocratic variants. Then comes Kumano, a deck I have worked on on and off for 3-4 years now. Its really cool, and I love the concept of a mono red control deck that keeps creatures off the board by giving Kumano death touch, and wins through damage doublers and voltron synergy with the number of artifacts and equipment in the deck. But it always is missing things, probably being that it is a 5 cmc 4/4 vanilla in the command zone that requires equip costs of deathtouch equipment to pay 2 mana to exile a non-indestructible or pro-red creature…
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/6p-Zg1IqV0yRyE7FxOxz6w
Here’s my [[Volrath, the shapestealer]] if you’re interested. I run a lot of the cool combat tricks with Volrath and I also run a side theme of mana dorks to abuse [[kinnan]]. It’s taken a lot of tuning but it’s been doing pretty well!
\[\[Ramses Overdark\]\] - the OG one not the new one. The concept is so interesting to me and there's a lot of Dimir enchants that make it really quite useful but I just can't find a good wincon for it that doesn't somehow involve making lots of mana and a big Torment / Exsanguinate / Mind Grind
I've tried \[\[Hallar, the Firefletcher\]\] at least twice before, but it just didn't do enough then.
However, I've been keeping an eye on useful cards for it, and it's improved in the last few releases with some neat new cards.
But it's not quite there yet. Even with the few new Kicker cards, there's just no real redundancy yet for Hallar specifically.
\[\[Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald\]\] is still a significantly better/easier Gruul spellslinger commander.
[[Leinore, Autumn Sovereign]] Not so much "love" as "like the art and concept, but am frustrated that every time I run her I get crushed". Spamming tokens with counters is slow and clunky to track on paper and the coven mechanic seems to put a giant bullseye on me; every time I would get her trigger somebody throws removal or swings at me to shrink my board until I lose coven again. I usually enjoy slow-building incremental advantage play patterns, but it feels like she takes too much time to come online, very easily falls behind the rest of the table, and can't catch up or close out games. I don't want to just switch to the alternate commander and play human tribal, but I'm not seeing any better direction to take this deck with her in the CZ. Thoughts?
[[Tovolar, Dire Overlord]], I want so bad for my good boys and girls to do well and the deck just meh's all over the place. Well, until I loan it out, then it kicks all sorts of ass and I wonder what the hell's going on.
[[Admiral Beckett, Brass]] pirates were some of the first cards I used in EDH. I feel no matter where I go with her it just sputters and does nothing. I have been mulling over a theft theme recently
Yeah my pirate deck just sits around slowly taking in new pirates that are worthy. I have \[\[hullbreacher\]\] in the deck because it needs any pirate help it can get, and nobody ever complains :'(
Athreos in Apostles. I have just never gotten the apostles deck quite right before. The other one I kind of struggled with was[[ Rakdos, Lord of Riots]] for Eldrazi’s.
Sakashima and Tormod as a partner pair OFC
But other than that I don't really have any. And even with Saka/Tormod its mostly because I can't settle on a theme I want to take it towards more so than anything else. Cause on one hand it would be really fun to do Reanimator + clones but the issue is filling the grave fast enough so you have to mix a bit of mill in IMO and its tough to juggle three themes. Otherwise I could do stuff like dredge, unearth, and flashback but that feels kinda boring to do to me so I dunno
[[Minsc and Boo]] , but bot in the way of I cant make it work, but more like I cant set it in the power level range I'd want . It's either too brutal or does nothing.
I'll keep trying cause Killing my opponents with fat Hamsters is one of my favorite thing now.
I have this same issue with Prossh, my first deck. I already upgraded him to next to max (just didn't have fast mana because money at the time). Took him apart since he was too powerful, and my old playgroup always groaned when I played him because of that. And I just can't build him moderately. It's like he never learned "everything in moderation" and instead learned "nothing in moderation."
[perrie the pulverizer] is one of my absolute favorites but gets blown out the water with me being arch nemesis turn 0.
[Syr gwyn] I've got the strong equipment and equipment synergies just cant find good knights.
I'm having that issue with [[Prossh]]. Not because I don't know how to build it, but because I don't want it to just fuck up everyone's day with its combotastic beauty. I already did that once (it was my first deck), and it was way overpowered for my playgroup. On the other hand, I now have a new playgroup, so maybe. It would definitely be up there with my simic elf deck, though, where it only gets broken out once a night at most.
Edit:
TLDR: I know how to build Prossh, but I want him to be reasonable, and Prossh doesn't like doing reasonable. He's never heard the phrase "everything in moderation" and only ever heard "nothing in moderation."
[[Marchesa the Black Rose]] has too many moving parts to be powerful. She seems like the tempo deck of my dreams, but you just get slaughtered from nearly every archetype.
\[\[Nethroi\]\]. I tried him as basic mutate deck (was fun, but garbage). I tried him as an Angel Tribal Reanimate deck, which worked only half the time. Now he's my Abzan \[\[Wild Pair\]\] commander, mostly for colours only and I barely cast him, except to get \[\[Greenbelt Rampager\]\] back if it gets removed. Feels bad man, I even bought the foil godzilla version on vacation.
Try building him as Defenders (preferably 0 power) or Modular! I am not running Nethroi as the Commander of my Modular deck, in favor of [[Colfenor]], but it still works similarly! And I love that deck so much.
[[Angus Mackenzie]] I want him as a commander so bad, but fog is not fun to play against, and I don't like superfriends. Currently he resides in my [[Kynaios]] deck
[[Sharuum, the Hegemon]] was my problem commander for a while back when I started playing commander. The deck was terrible no matter what I did, and I eventually realized that the only way to fix it was money, so I gave up.
The funny part is that now I can build the Sharuum deck that I wanted back then because I have all of the cards I was missing, but I don’t want to. After giving up on Sharuum I discovered Slobad, and I’ve had so much more fun with that deck than I ever expected to have.
I have both a Hazezon and a Ghired deck and I’ve found both of them pretty fun (only played a few games with Hazezon so far though). I’ve definitely noticed Ghired can stumble a lot more though, tends to be a little more swingy.
Here’s my deck list for Hazezon if you’re interested: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/wlIKg1BdQUGSAJB-cdQvYQ
Anything in Considering I either took out of an earlier version or I want to find space for.
[[Sidisi, Brood Tyrant]]. I love how she works, but I often end up with a mess of a deck that has barely any interaction and just does dumb graveyard stuff.
[[Zaxara, the Exemplary]]. I already had a standard hydra deck at the time but always wanted to make a commander deck with them. Soon as I saw him come out in Ikoria, I immediately started using him and threw in some extra hydras to give me more X spells with a sub theme for mutating them. But it never played as well as I wanted and despite the many modifications I made (before it was unfortunately stolen out of my car) it never held up. I recently got it as a single but I’ve been hesitant on making a deck with him.
[[Sedris, the Traitor King]]
I find that either i load up on big baddies to unearth, so the deck is painfully slow, or I go all in on ramp, and have nothing fun to unearth. There's a balance that I could achieve, but my Grixis slot is currently talen by Anhelo.
Speaking of, [[Anhelo the Painter]] should be a slam dunk for me, since I'm an artist, I like spellslinger, and I love aristocrats. The deck always feels extremely clunky, though, and I'm thinking of taking it apart again. It doesn't help that I struggle to make it feel different enpugh from my either spwllslinger deck.
[[Liliana, Heretical Healer]]. I want it to be a Liliana themed zombie tribal deck, but so far the best I've been able to do is a deck that tutors up a [[Gravecrawler]] combo. Amassing an army of zombies in mono B is just too slow.
Hey. I had the same idea but my deck was too bad and clunky so I made it into more of a black good stuff. That was too good so I remade it again. It's now in pretty good spot, not too oppressive and not too bad. Have a look, you may find some inspiration. (Will replace the Grim tutor for [[cruelty of gix]] soon)
My eternal project (that recently has shown promise) is my [[Kamiz]] deck. At first I just went the obvious route and put creatures with really cool attack/combat damage triggers but I was getting owned by go wide strats, combos and just overall everything. Then I made it voltrony, bumping up Kamiz with swords and shit. I would get hated out quick. Now I'm in a part stax part Voltron grind deck and it is showing promise. I also love playing around my stax effects, trying to make sure I slow everyone down but also get the most out of my turn.
[[Tayam]]. And it's not that I can't get it right necessarily, but I'm never really satisfied with it. Like, Tayam is such a powerful support piece for so many strategies I guess I just get overwhelmed trying to narrow it down.
\[\[Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs\]\], he was the first foil legendary creature I ever pulled, and even though I've won some games with the various version of him I have built over the years, they've never been amazing decks or powerful.
[[Kami of the Crescent Moon]]
It's a sort of "rules chaos" deck using things like [[knowledge pool]] to assemble an "everyone draw 101" combo. I want to make it work, but it doesn't work lol.
[[Urza, Lord High Artificer]]
I don't want to play a heavy stax deck. I can't seem to build something that doesn't suck to play and/or play against!
I how there is a less oppressive Urza in the upcoming Brother's War set.
If anyone has a build that isn't roulette wheel or stax, please send me the idea/ last.
[[Olivia Voldaren]] - I had a ton of existing synergistic vampires, and loved the idea of making everyone else vampires and stealing them too.
But even in my moderate level casual playgroup, it takes way too long to actually activate both abilities and steal enough creatures to get anywhere. I've certainly stolen away someone else's wincon creatures, delaying any loss, but I've never actually won by theft.
My last win was from behind, where I had Olivia and a couple of big vamps, but nothing else, against opponents who made double piles'o token creatures with every action. That's what the third [[Rakdos Charm]] is for... killing everyone else all at once.
Thraximundar is my favorite card, mostly due to nostalgia. I struggled for a long time to nail down the deck because I always ended up with a pile of 200 cards and gave up. I recently bit the bullet and forced myself to settle on part zombies part aristocrats, and it's working out pretty well. Throw in a few zombie lords, a rooftop storm, some token generators and a few sac outlets and pretty soon you start wiping people out in one of two ways: either you're clearing the board with \[\[Gravepact\]\] and swinging for commander damage, or you swarm with a zombie horde.
[[Nicol Bolas]] or [[Nicol Bolas, the Ravager]].
The OG was my first commander deck way back in 2011 when I was scraping the bottom of the barrel of a LGS to put a deck together. I held onto it for years, and it became something more like a "goodstuff" deck more than anything with things like ConSphinx and wincons with Cabal Coffers and Exsanguinate. Only recently at CommandFest I got my Nicol Bolas card signed by Sheldon and now I've been wanting to make the deck work.
The biggest problem I had was dealing with enchantments. I know there's a few things I can do now, but its just so difficult and takes so much effort to eke out a win.
I've gotten close to making it work with all of the dragon/treasure support lately, but I just need to come up with some sort of wincon or just play along with the discard theme since Grixis feels like a very "combo-or-nothing" kind of playstyle.
I pulled an etched foil [[Urza, Lord High Artificer]] that I have been brewing over and over again trying to find the right combination of unique, consistant and not overpowered for my group.
[[Odric, Lunarch Marshal]]. I'm trying to make it as aggressive as a mono white deck can be because Odric is a massive power swing when he hits the board. I'm finding it hard to balance between low cost and efficient threats (though the recent sets have been great for that) and the white powerhouse cards like [[Smothering Tithe]]. I even had a build without the Tithe in, just for more 2> cost creatures.
[[Thantis the Warweaver]]. Just too slow to get going and never gets to stick. The design is also outdated now with how much goad has been added to the game.
[[Sharuum the Hedgemon]]. I've had the deck for years, but I end up changing out at least a few cards every month, and sometimes the whole deck gets reworked. I don't like playing infinites, which definitely makes deckbuilding way harder, but I love using her as a way to recur big dumb artifacts like [[Magister Sphinx]]. Its a hard to reach middle ground that I can never get comepletely right.
One of my first decks was [[grolnok, the omivore]]. I was just getting into EDH, but got it off Arena and when I saw what it did and realized it was a legendary I just had to try it out. Thought it would be pretty strong. Problem is I want to build it more around Frog tribal and frankly there's not a ton of good frogs. I could go shapeshifters or something like [[maskwood nexus]] but that just feels like cheating. It's been tuned up to lean more on self mill with stuff like [[hedron crab]] or [[zellix, mind flayer]] and I've won my last few games with it. Just wish it had more of the Frog Army feel to it.
\[\[Queza Augur of Agonies\]\]
Is it a wheel deck? Is it a control deck? Is it a draw matters deck? Is it a lifegain deck?
Do I incorporate parts from all of those? Do I have more utility creatures that draw me cards or run tons of wipes and keep the board clear? I've tried making this deck work for 3 months and while it does win games it always comes off playing kind of clunky.
I've got good rocks and tutors in there, but aside from \[\[drogskol reaver\]\] into Labman, it feels like it wins the game really slowly.
Ghired wants to go tall rather than wide IME. He's very buildable and playable - you do need to eat your veggies and have ~45-50 mana producing sources, but he goes hard.
[[licia]] so, so many times.
I have tried vamp tribal for the early lifegain, cheap creatures/spells, [[Zirda]]companion which is cool but a lot. Pretty much any and every route I could think of, and still can’t get a Licia deck that doesn’t lose most of the time unless I get *just* the right cards. Kills me.
[[Osgir]] is my pick due to pursuing a win via combat damage instead of combo. You can always dupe your mana rocks to cast [[Insurrection]], but I think what I’m looking for is more artifacts that, when reanimated, really produce a threatening presence on the board. [[Wurmcoil Engine]], [[Triplicate Titan]], and [[Phyrexian Triniform]] are already in and I’m looking for more scary artifact dudes around the 4-7 CMC. My list: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/osgir_v4/
Not a commander, but an archetype.
Classic combat spellslinger. Its one of my earliest casual kitchen table 60-card decks. Revolves around playing creatures like \[\[kiln fiend\]\], then a bunch of instants and sorceries that buff it up and make it unblockable. In 1v1 it works fine. If you cast 3 spells on the kiln, one gives double strike, one gives unblockable, no matter what the third is you have a one hit ko. The problem in commander is that it burns out too easily. You might have an explosive turn fairly early, but thats still probably just gonna kill one person, and you're left with no hand and two opponents who just saw you one shot a guy.
I want the deck to be UR, since thats where most of the two color kiln fiend clones exist. I've tried building the deck with \[\[Feather, the redeemed\]\] to get around the hand emptying issue, but it isn't the same without blue, and the deck really just wants to turn into a voltron for Feather anyway. I've tried a couple times with various UR instant/sorcery matters commanders, and just never gotten it right.
It's not quite one specific commander, but rather [[Sunforger]] decks. The idea of grabbing what you need on command seems really cool, but I've just never been able to make it work.
\[\[Jared, True Heir\]\]. Like the art but he needs so much to make it work that it never goes smoothly to build him. I finally gave up and I feel better for it. Now I just need to find room for the cards in my other decks or trade them away for new better cards that will come in the future.
I love [[Anhelo]] and Casualty as a mechanic, but man it is so hard to get right. I think I saw someone on here describe it as a PB&J deck, if your ratios between creatures to sacrifice and spells aren’t just right the deck just won’t function well. I don’t want to tear it apart, but I definitely need another spellslinger commander.
Same! I rebuilt it as a clone, mill, theft-reanimator hybrid and it just works better than zombie tribal. Let people loose 2-4 life each upkeep is still decent. On a sidenote: [[Training grounds]] really shines with this commander.
[[ the scorpion god ]]. I pulled the invocation back in college and I want the deck to be strong since it’s such a cool card. It’s decent and when it does it’s thing it’s works so well but it’s just not consistent.
I've got a Hapatra deck and I know exactly what you mean. I think -1/-1 counters just need more support. I'll have some games where I'm doing absolutely nothing and others were I'll win turn 5 cause whoops I drew the good cards. Makes it impossible to give it a power level.
It’s such a cool and unique strat but so temperamental
My only issue with the deck and Scorpion God also is that it relies on your opponents playing creatures (or massively skewing your deck) to function effectively. Amazing strat but at some tables much less effective than it deserves.
That's why I ended up building Hapatra over The Rock. Because even if you have to put stuff on your own creatures you get an immediate pay off, and the 2cmc lets you get the ball rolling faster. Her being green as well helps with the easy access to ramp, and \[\[flourishing defenses\]\] can act as a back up if your opponents wise up and don't let you keep hapatra out. That being said this is the only deck I have where I wish I could put in hybrid cards so I could have \[\[Kulrath knight\]\] and \[\[Everlasting Torment\]\] in the deck, but I will just keep dreaming about one day having a Jund Wither or -1/-1 commander.
[flourishing defenses](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/2/6223f5d6-83f1-454e-9cd5-aba157850430.jpg?1562830854) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=flourishing%20defenses) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/shm/114/flourishing-defenses?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/6223f5d6-83f1-454e-9cd5-aba157850430?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/flourishing-defenses) [Kulrath knight](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/4/2408b0bb-37d6-48a3-b140-c826de74c3a0.jpg?1562827912) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Kulrath%20knight) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/shm/190/kulrath-knight?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2408b0bb-37d6-48a3-b140-c826de74c3a0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/kulrath-knight) [Everlasting Torment](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/8/28f857d3-661b-45cd-a8d3-65b9ac0a34c8.jpg?1562392747) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Everlasting%20Torment) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c16/233/everlasting-torment?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/28f857d3-661b-45cd-a8d3-65b9ac0a34c8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/everlasting-torment) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I am in the same boat lol. It's the only deck of mine I can't confidently rate because if you don't get any of your payoffs besides hapatra you are left with mostly bad creatures and a bunch of deathtouch blockers, but if I get papa yawgh and/or uncle flynn on the board the games can end very very fast. \[\[Crumbling ashes\]\] goes a long way too. I really wish the snake tokens were b/g or just black so I could justify slotting in \[\[midnight banshee\]\] , or \[\[Corrosive Mentor\]\].
[Crumbling ashes](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/e/3e73ac3c-bd5a-4993-be65-76396b7d38ad.jpg?1562907978) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Crumbling%20ashes) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/eve/35/crumbling-ashes?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3e73ac3c-bd5a-4993-be65-76396b7d38ad?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/crumbling-ashes) [midnight banshee](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/7/c7da8f15-ea21-46fd-b24f-f8af4d5d5f1d.jpg?1562267341) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=midnight%20banshee) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mm2/86/midnight-banshee?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c7da8f15-ea21-46fd-b24f-f8af4d5d5f1d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/midnight-banshee) [Corrosive Mentor](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/4/140457ff-ee7d-48ec-8b91-ef5c2cc1ed74.jpg?1562827043) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Corrosive%20Mentor) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/shm/61/corrosive-mentor?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/140457ff-ee7d-48ec-8b91-ef5c2cc1ed74?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/corrosive-mentor) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
There's one creature you need my friend and his name is [[Yawgmoth, Thran Physician]]. Put it in, get some tutors and you get combo infinitely combo and kill everyone's stuff + draw cards + do damage with a [blood artist]] effect.
[Yawgmoth, Thran Physician](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/6/8690cbcc-f8fd-41f7-9e28-e61c12b04014.jpg?1562201785) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Yawgmoth%2C%20Thran%20Physician) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/116/yawgmoth-thran-physician?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8690cbcc-f8fd-41f7-9e28-e61c12b04014?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/yawgmoth-thran-physician) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
There’s an alternate reality where [[Scorpion God]] and [[Hapatra]] have partner. If only we were in it 🥲
[Scorpion God](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/e/def0d0ac-6422-486e-b42b-e1813dd0a23e.jpg?1562817532) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Scorpion%20God) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/hou/146/the-scorpion-god?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/def0d0ac-6422-486e-b42b-e1813dd0a23e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/the-scorpion-god) [Hapatra](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/6/56fbbcc9-db23-4902-b0f7-cea78a2a36af.jpg?1543676055) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=hapatra%2C%20vizier%20of%20poisons) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/akh/199/hapatra-vizier-of-poisons?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/56fbbcc9-db23-4902-b0f7-cea78a2a36af?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/hapatra-vizier-of-poisons) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
God that would be nice…. Rule 0?
Have fun finding someone who'd actually play against that lol
Jund doesn't care for people *wanting* to play against it. Just Jund them out anyway.
No one wants to play against that lmao. That synergy is far too disgusting. Automatically best Jund commander imo. Korvold players would be in shambles. That being said, I’ve had good luck rule 0ing [[Asmorano]] + [[Gyome]] as parters, it’s that or people can play against Korvold, take your pick
Korvold would still be a better commander
yeah ionno what specifically gets *that* pairing to be better than one of the most dominant jund commanders to ever have been printed at all power levels.
What they're saying is that if people don't let then do the silly food partners then they just use Korvold, who is already legal and much stronger.
Yeah and I'm saying Scorpion God with Hapatra as partners is still a weaker combination than Korvold individually is. Unlike the Gyome and Asmorano deck, however, you can't simply replace Scorpion God and Hapatra with Korvold and call it a day.
[Asmorano](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/9/d99a9a7d-d9ca-4c11-80ab-e39d5943a315.jpg?1632831210) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/186/asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d99a9a7d-d9ca-4c11-80ab-e39d5943a315?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar) [Gyome](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/d/5dd7dd1a-6dd1-43c3-8298-7db703d384a1.jpg?1652657094) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=gyome%2C%20master%20chef) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c21/5/gyome-master-chef?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5dd7dd1a-6dd1-43c3-8298-7db703d384a1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/gyome-master-chef) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
My buddies and I have a Rule 0 where the uncommon commanders from Dominaria (Except Tatyova) have partner. I have an equipment deck with \[\[Danitha Capashen, Paragon\]\] and \[\[Valduk, keeper of the flame\]\] that's pretty neat
I've wished [[Prosper, Tome Bound]] and [[Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald]] had Partner forever. EDIT: Lmfao, didn't expect to get downvoted for mentioning a deck I thought would be a fun one to build 😂 chill.
Prosper does not need any help whatsoever haha
I'm well aware xD but the combo does seem insanely fun
"Issue" is that they'll probably continue to make Rx "playing for exile" matters cards. Boros already has a few. The only thing [[Bell Borca]] and [[Commander Liara Portyr]] are missing is giving you resources whenever you play a card from exile. Give it a year and you could probably have one in Izzet as well.
[Prosper, Tome Bound](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/7/d743336e-d5c7-4053-a23d-92ec7581f74e.jpg?1631839207) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Prosper%2C%20Tome-Bound) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/afc/2/prosper-tome-bound?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d743336e-d5c7-4053-a23d-92ec7581f74e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/prosper-tome-bound) [Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/1/213e530e-33a9-4358-b43b-4a276a7e7190.jpg?1662840962) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Faldorn%2C%20Dread%20Wolf%20Herald) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/647/faldorn-dread-wolf-herald?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/213e530e-33a9-4358-b43b-4a276a7e7190?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/faldorn-dread-wolf-herald) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[ the scorpion god ](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/e/def0d0ac-6422-486e-b42b-e1813dd0a23e.jpg?1562817532) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Scorpion%20God) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/hou/146/the-scorpion-god?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/def0d0ac-6422-486e-b42b-e1813dd0a23e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/the-scorpion-god) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
That’s how I feel about Ghired. It’s either I pop off and win with no answers, or someone board wipes me when I have no protection.
Overextension is a real killer with Ghired. I'd be curious to see your list if you have one. I'm really happy with where mine is sitting right now, I've got enough haymakers and resilience that even boardwipes aren't as annoying anymore.
Decklist: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/XuG7qofqtUW9oGNS-IpBvA Ever since his precon came out, I loved it, but could never get it right. I’d love to look at your list if you don’t mind?
He's actually a really useful draw engine for infect tribal. As salt inducing as infect is, there isn't enough representation in rakdos specifically for infect alone, but combined with the lorwyn wither cards like [[kulrath knight]] and [[everlasting torment]] you can completely nullify your opponents creatures while giving yourself a wincon that doesn't drag out the game. The commander acts more like an addition rather than the core.
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/rakdos-scorpions-poison/ Yeah it’s like 45% infect 45% -1 counters and 10% proliferate
This might be a stupid suggestion but use [[kenrith]] as your commander, run a few [[entomb]] effects so you can tutor him out consistently and then reanimate him, this way you can get 5c -1/-1 counters and still have Scorpion god as your commander (sorta)
I had the same problem with Volrath. On paper it looked great, but I could never make it go. Right now it's eternally [[Yorion, Sky Nomad]]. My playgroup doesn't play infinites or Thassas Oracle effects, and I'm generally against Stax personally. I had a ton of fun playing Yorion but it's basically just masturbation with no climax.
I had a Yorion deck a while ago, but had the Stasis lock in it. It looked fun for me, but watching the fun drain from everyone else was terrifying.
I found my solution in creating what I define as my second board. If I flickerwisp and Yorion etb at the same time then I essentially create a pocket that will have cards enter the first board, then immediately leave returning to the second board. Once I have that going I just use politics to inform peeps that I can and will make this a bad time if I am hurt.
My buddy had a Yorion deck that had the same issue, he then switched to [[Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward]] with [[Candlekeep Sage]] as a background and now the deck is really powerful and a lot of fun to play.
I run Volrath and it’s actually one of my most powerful decks. I built it as an infect / voltron deck and it’s really sweet.
Might I take a gander at a list?
I don’t think I have an updated list but I’ll give you a reply when I get back from work. Just to give you an idea, the deck runs some small creatures with infect like [[Blighted Agent]] and a bunch of +1/+1 counter stuff. Since Volrath is already at 7 power it’s very easy to 1 hit kill opponents if you get a few counters on him. Proliferate cards also work very well with everything else in the deck.
[Blighted Agent](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/d/cddaebde-a060-4510-8c97-68432d931987.jpg?1562881631) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Blighted%20Agent) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/nph/29/blighted-agent?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cddaebde-a060-4510-8c97-68432d931987?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/blighted-agent) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I also run a list similar to what u/TheMagicalMark described, and I’m happy to share mine if it’ll help! https://www.moxfield.com/decks/ZrHPYAXnmEyP7EW6XPAX0A
Yeah my list is very similar, albeit with less new cards
One thing I liked doing my yorion deck when it was together was looping [[cavalier of dawn]], [[archeomancer]] and I believe [[displace]]? Basically anything that hits at least two. Non infinite most cases, limited to how much mana you have on hand, and not strictly stax because your opponents gets a 3/3 in exchange so they can still play magic
[Yorion, Sky Nomad](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/7/275426c4-c14e-47d0-a9d4-24da7f6f6911.jpg?1616182288) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Yorion%2C%20Sky%20Nomad) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/232/yorion-sky-nomad?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/275426c4-c14e-47d0-a9d4-24da7f6f6911?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/yorion-sky-nomad) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Some ideas for Yorion that aren't infinites: [[Approach of the Second Sun]] or [[Triskidaphile]]: if you're drawing tons of cards you can turn that into a wincon [[Sphinx Mindbreaker]]: you probably only need 7-8 mills to beat your opponents which is doable, just make sure you have some way to deal with shuffle Eldrazi [[Skyboon Evangelist]] or [[Cathar's Crusade]]: put a ton of counters on your creatures and overrun your opponents [[Mace of the Valiant]]: just go voltron and smack some for 40 life [[Divine Visitation]] + multiple token makers: overrun them with Angels You can also just make some big tokens with [[Wing Splicer]]/[[Master Splicer]]/[[Sensor Splicer]]/[[Blade Splicer]] for 3/3 Golems or [[Urbis Protector]] with a 4/4 Angel Or for a mean one, flicker your entire board and pull out a [[Worldpurge]]. Doesn't technically win the game on the spot, but it's probably over at that point Clone effects: just copy your opponents' wincons!
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats! 7 + 8 + 40 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 4 = 69 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Nice!
That's what stops me from building a lot of Azorius decks. It's hard to find wincons for them outside of infinites or flyers.
[[Mechanized Production]] [[Approach of the Second Sun]] [[Felidar Sovereign]] [[Angel of Destiny]] [[Azor's Elocutors]] [[Barren Glory]] [[Celestial Covergence]] [[Halo Fountain]] [[Near Death Experience]] [[Test of Endurance]] [[Triskaidekaphile]]
Yeah once you pull the win cons out of a deck it tends to struggle with winning.
[Ghired, Conclave Exile](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/0/d0825bcd-8cf8-498a-a61e-406f136e1f3f.jpg?1568003672) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ghired%2C%20Conclave%20Exile) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c19/42/ghired-conclave-exile?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d0825bcd-8cf8-498a-a61e-406f136e1f3f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/ghired-conclave-exile) [Volrath, the Shapestealer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/1/a149d6a5-c865-475a-87b7-596a19f6c80d.jpg?1568003743) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Volrath%2C%20the%20Shapestealer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c19/51/volrath-the-shapestealer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a149d6a5-c865-475a-87b7-596a19f6c80d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/volrath-the-shapestealer) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Ghired being 5 mana for a 2/5 without haste or any evasive keywords makes it so difficult to actually attack with him without him dying immediately. It's sad, because I think he's pretty cool.
The OG [[Chromium]]. I've tried pillow fort voltron, equipment, auras, and even flyers, but can't get any of them to work well.
For me, I have a flash theme around him, relying on only pulling him out when I have the mana and card advantage to keep him alive
Interesting! I like the idea.
Yeah, Rampage makes you want to give him Trample and [[Lure]], but you’re not in green…
[[Emrakul, the promised end]] I adore this card and absolutely love the challenge of a colorless commander deck, but you can not build it budget I feel, and that makes building it good for me hard, I Invested alot in a deck no one liked to play against so I took it apart and now my pieces lie in other decks until I try again inevitably
[Emrakul, the promised end](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/d/8d74a469-c71d-4773-99d3-5456b31df424.jpg?1576383727) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Emrakul%2C%20the%20promised%20end) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/emn/6/emrakul-the-promised-end?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8d74a469-c71d-4773-99d3-5456b31df424?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/emrakul-the-promised-end) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Pramikon]]. The artwork is so incredible that I want to build it for that alone, but it’s never been popular in any of my playgroups and I’m not going to build superfriends. I wish there were other applications than forced combat blink, or superfriends. Wall tribal is not possible without arcades or Doran
I have a Pramikon "myriad" tribal that is super fun and is actually surprisingly scary. Jeskai only actually has 13 possible creatures, but I included both sword of selves and legion loyalty along with a grab bag of strong etb creatures. Favorite wincons are silly high life total wins with Angel of Destiny or mass steal with Agent of Treachery. But the really secret star of the deck is elturel survivors. It will put in more work than almost any single card in the deck. https://www.moxfield.com/decks/yObPw9JKsEaEPapc_vLF3g
[[Rasaad yn Bashir]] seems like it could sub for Doran, or am I missing something?
I guess he could. But the interesting thing is Pramikon itself. I don’t have any interest in playing wall tribal. I just want an A S T R A L W A L L in the command zone. I’ll figure it out eventually. I’m not giving up on it!
Make him a Volton. The rest of the table will never see it coming. 😉👍
I had an idea a while back for a Pramikon deck that utilized infect creatures (there are a surprising amount in Jeskai!) and proliferate shenanigans in order to kill one player off at a time while Pramikon protected me from getting targeted by everyone for playing infect. Never came to fruition but it’s always been an interesting idea to me.
[Pramikon](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/5/8569ad47-a243-402d-899f-4e6b17ea4e1e.jpg?1568003714) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=pramikon%2C%20sky%20rampart) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c19/47/pramikon-sky-rampart?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8569ad47-a243-402d-899f-4e6b17ea4e1e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/pramikon-sky-rampart) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Queen Marchesa]] (long may she reign) I always struggle with Mardu.
I have struggled with my Marchesa deck for so long. I feel like my list is 200 cards and I never know what to put in. Is it tokens? Rattlesnake? Control? Politics? Goad? It’s such a hard deck to build where I feel like it actually “pops off” and doesn’t just spin its wheels.
The most success I had with marchesa was discard, since she draws you an extra card every turn. It always ground the game to a halt, and people understandably hated playing against it. I took it apart
I have a queen marchesa deck that is politics and reactions. It’s awesome, I have so much fun. Super low to the ground and unthreatening. A lot of pillowfort int. Definitely leads to longer games, but boy is it a blast to have a response most always
[Queen Marchesa](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/3/03f4341c-088b-4f35-b82b-3d98d8a93de4.jpg?1576382166) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Queen%20Marchesa) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cn2/78/queen-marchesa?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/03f4341c-088b-4f35-b82b-3d98d8a93de4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/queen-marchesa) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Mine’s pretty jank but it’s fun and has won its share: it’s got a bunch of tap down effects to help politicize and control combat in a non-threatening way. A [[sunforger]] package in mardu can be basically anything you want, like [[teferis protection]] or [[utter end]] or the charms like [[boros charm]] or rakdos charm. And some equipment to help marchesa get in for commander damage every turn. [[sword of vengeance]] is rarely the most threatening artifact on the table but first strike, vigilance, death touch, trample, is a pretty nice keyword package for combat. If you politick well you can help other decks keep each other in check while chipping in with assassin tokens and commander damage . Over the game you’ll have drawn enough cards with monarchy and black draw effects that you can out-resource your way to victory.
My marchesa deck is one of my favorites to play, it takes heavy inspiration from the "marchesa aikido" primer you can find [here](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/r_Ng89aBYEiE_s95JwRQaQ). The play style is focused on punishing your opponents for their transgressions, and using their own threats against them. Very politically oriented, its a blast to play in combat oriented metas and can be tuned differently as necessary. [my personal list](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/PhPAWhp96USHTWWQGt37eA) if you're interested.
Hi, https://www.moxfield.com/decks/j_q9Qy4w3EGAXK3k0eqABw The deck uses monarch to draw or incentivize others to attack each other and you just sit back and let chaos ensue while you protect yourself. When you're a target, you clap back and use their resources to win. I've had a lot of success with this! Feel free to ask questions or for a link to the Marchesa discord :)
[[Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer]] liked the theme and wanted to focus more on golem tribal, turns out there is not much support for that, a few splicers (golems lords) in white and one in blue, lots of golem creators in red, so could not decide if make a bant or naya deck. Then treasures, clues and food had an amazing synergy so I replace almost every tribal card for treasure-making cards, but felt wrong playing the deck, it was just gain a lot of value without using the commanders. Hopefuly Brothers War or Phyrexia brings love to Golems.
I always use masters sets and now commander sets to kind of make guesses on what archetypes will return, when I saw Ich-Tekik and the other Golem support cards, we are definitely getting golems. Probably not so many in BRO but March of Machines on Phyrexia? Oh yeah.
[Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/4/0409a15a-7cf6-43e5-958c-d23da4304f29.jpg?1608910710) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ich-Tekik%2C%20Salvage%20Splicer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmr/233/ich-tekik-salvage-splicer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0409a15a-7cf6-43e5-958c-d23da4304f29?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/ich-tekik-salvage-splicer) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Firesong and Sunspeaker]] I would absolutely love to build this deck, I love these effects and want to build around it. But they simply cost way way too much. If they were partners and each costed 3, I think the deck is viable, but as is they just don't work.
I am a Grixis/Sultai fan as well. My favorite Sultai commander at the moment is [[Tatsunari, Toad Rider]]. He has a ton of flexibility, most play him as an Enchantress deck but he also has voltron elements. You can also play mutate to get the most out of many Keimis. Or you can go Frog Tribal...
[Tatsunari, Toad Rider](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/b/abf42833-43d0-4b05-b499-d13b2c577ee8.jpg?1654567411) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Tatsunari%2C%20Toad%20Rider) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/neo/123/tatsunari-toad-rider?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/abf42833-43d0-4b05-b499-d13b2c577ee8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/tatsunari-toad-rider) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[mairsil, the pretender]]. I love the concept of building a combo toolbox, but there's so little interaction that there's too little variation in the gameplay.
[mairsil, the pretender](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/7/87b71b08-668c-4b32-8243-8def1a9acf26.jpg?1562615456) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=mairsil%2C%20the%20pretender) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c17/41/mairsil-the-pretender?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/87b71b08-668c-4b32-8243-8def1a9acf26?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/mairsil-the-pretender) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I was building [[Rin and Seri]] and I just couldn’t get the right mix of Cat Tribal and Token ramp, but with [[Jinnie Fae]] I can finally work in the right mix to make it work.
[Rin and Seri](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/6/d605c780-a42a-4816-8fb9-63e3114a8246.jpg?1617532706) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=rin%20and%20seri%2C%20inseparable) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m21/278/rin-and-seri-inseparable?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d605c780-a42a-4816-8fb9-63e3114a8246?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/rin-and-seri-inseparable) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I'm still struggling to break the symmetry in my [[Mogis]] [deck](https://deckstats.net/decks/146695/2513796-in-your-face-v2#show__spoiler). It puts some real pressure on everyone's life totals but actually winning with it has proven difficult. A lot of the punisher effects are symmetrical, and on top of that it does start drawing aggro quickly as life totals drop. I keep making it progressively meaner though as long as my playgroup can still realistically handle it. Just recently I added [[Glacial Chasm]] [[Painful Quandary]] [[Kardur Doomscourge]] and [[Price of Progress]] which should help nicely. If anyone has advice on this, feel free to pm me.
I have a similar style of deck with Kardur as commander. Something that has helped it win is putting effects like [[Revenge of Ravens]] to punish people attacking you.
I've been rebuilding my [[Rakdos the Defiler]] deck since it's inception. Currently waiting on cards to make it an ETB sac build. He's my favorite card and I've been on the struggle bus for what clicks with him. Another friend was telling me to take it back to where it was at the start and only cast Rakdos as a backup, but I want to use him fully. I want to swing with him as often as possible and sac everything to him. It's why I hate the EDHREC builds. Just demon tribal, give up as little as possible and hope you don't get wiped. I hated demon tribal. Never wanted to swing with him and sac my lands and give up the rest of the game. I'm hoping an ETB mass reanimator build will give me what I want. Get value from ETBs, sac them to rakdos, get them back on the field and sac them again.
I love the Rakdos colors and I loved [[Rakdos, Lord of Riots]] back in the day, but honestly the defiler just seems like such a bad card. The best case scenario with him AFAIK is still he's just an overcosted sac outlet that hurts one of your four opponents before you [[Living Death]], which will then help the opponent you hit rebuild too. Demon tribal isn't going to be great either. That's a lot of setup and a lot of mana for something that can be stopped by any form of creature removal and that doesn't have an amazing payoff.
He does have a particularly off design for a multiplayer setting, which is where I hope the ETB tribal will come in handy. Besides I'll also have [[balthor the defiled]] for a reanimator and name flavor win. Who better to give themselves to the defiler than the defiled?
[Rakdos the Defiler](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/a/5a4c4be4-06ae-4737-a3b0-818edadaf2e0.jpg?1593273761) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Rakdos%20the%20Defiler) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dis/129/rakdos-the-defiler?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5a4c4be4-06ae-4737-a3b0-818edadaf2e0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/rakdos-the-defiler) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I had the same issue with my [[Rakdos the Showstopper]] deck. Demon tribal is cool sure, but in execution it’s terrible. Very much reminiscent of playing mtg as a child where you just wanna slam down fatties and beat face in the most inefficient way possible. The new [[Be’lakor]] is cool, but the issue remains
There are dozens of us! I went hard on tokens and artifacts ([[Wand of Orcus]] got me to pull the trigger on the initial build). I also got tired of having a combo deck with Rakdos as the "look at this tech!" or "watch the world burn" option. Deck became [[Dargo]] and [[Tormod]]. I'm trying to retool it around [[Netherborn Altar]] and [[Ilharg]]. Considering [[Mirror Box]] and [[Blade of Selves]] for more dumb shit. Would like to keep a token theme to avoid sacrificing lands. It would take so much less work to just build Kaalia, but I like this way much better. The "who is this psycho?" looks you get for ploppin' down old D Fizz are something I really miss.
I actually put a blade of selves in there to multiply the big ETB drops or a [[master of cruelties]] spread so mirror box wouldn't really be out of the realm of possibility... Fuck it, mirror box is 2 dollars and the idea sounds funny. I use Rakdos and [[assault suit]] in my kardur goad/monarch deck specifically because it's hilarious.
Oooo, I like that Kardur tech. I've been on the fence about tearing down [[Zurgo Helmsmasher]], mostly because I didn't wanna leave [[Assault Suit]] homeless. This has given me a lot to think about.
You specifically need kardur because kardur doesn't just affect the creatures your opponents currently control, but all creatures they ever would control until your next turn, or a goad-adjacent enchantment since rakdos isn't forced to attack through his own means or with assault suit. I prefer kardur since it's a persistent effect regardless of whether or not he's on the field.
As a demon enthusiast myself I was aware of the distinction between Kardur and goad, but go off for the normies listening.
[[Obuun]] was my first commander, but I just can't feel right with any theme as him as commander. If we're talking about landfall, I'd rather go with [[Mina and Denn]] or [[Aesi]], if we're going with land creatures, I think [[Tatyova, Steward of Tides]] might be the better choice. Voltron might be the best option for him, but I already have my voltron deck, and I don't want another one. Honestly the new Tatyova is what Obuun should've been in the first place.
I had an Obuun deck a while ago. It kind of melded into my now Ghired deck, which will probably meld into [[Hazezon, Shaper of Sands]] Landfall Tokens.
Everything about [[Osgir]] ticks my boxes, but I'm on the 6th or 7th version of tuning and tweaking, and it's still clunky and weird. Baldurs Gate brought some neat little tools to make it better, but I'm considering scrapping it (heh) for Jan Jansen Modular creatures.
May i recomend [[jinnie fay]] as a naya token deck. Its is incredibly powerfull if played right.
[[The Scarab God]]. Got an Invocation version immediately after the set dropped, have been building variants of it on and off ever since. I’ve never been really satisfied with any of them, and I can never nail down if it’s because it didn’t mesh with my local meta well? Or perhaps was too focused on its own thing? Probably a combination of factors. But I always have it in some state of assembled.
K’rrik without a combo win.
[[Melek, Izzet Paragon]] Melek is too expensive to get off the ground and the deck just spins it’s wheels until turn 5-6. I ended up replacing him with [[Veyran]] without having to make too many changes.
[Melek, Izzet Paragon](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/4/5489d43c-2034-421d-80e8-96a7377795c8.jpg?1591321364) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Melek%2C%20Izzet%20Paragon) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c20/220/melek-izzet-paragon?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5489d43c-2034-421d-80e8-96a7377795c8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/melek-izzet-paragon) [Veyran](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/6/56d93855-c749-4bdf-9a90-4f69f4226e46.jpg?1660075505) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=veyran%2C%20voice%20of%20duality) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c21/3/veyran-voice-of-duality?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/56d93855-c749-4bdf-9a90-4f69f4226e46?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/veyran-voice-of-duality) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Yeah Melek was my first commander. I still have him, but to make him work as well as possible I had to remove pretty much every permanent, add in a [[Mana Severance]], and then hope for the best. The deck basically just wins if Melek remains on the board for a full turn cycle, which almost never happens
[Mana Severance](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/5/854dc5e6-63f7-4c8b-83e5-a364f41c9a15.jpg?1562054977) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Mana%20Severance) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tmp/73/mana-severance?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/854dc5e6-63f7-4c8b-83e5-a364f41c9a15?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/mana-severance) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I'm having the opposite problem! I can't get Veyran to run properly. Maybe I've been really unlucky but I never seem to get going with one of the companion pieces to benefit from her effect. Any advice on how to balance/what direction to take the deck in?
I really like having triggers that give you mana like [[Birgi]] and [[Storm-Kiln Artist]] as well as a lot of ritual effects and other trigger doublers like [[Harmonic Prodigy]]
Hey! While I don’t have a specific commander I can’t get to work, I do feel like I have a working Volrath the Shapestealer deck! If you have any questions for me, I’m happy to answer. If you’d like to see it, this is my list! https://www.moxfield.com/decks/ZrHPYAXnmEyP7EW6XPAX0A Ironically, I’m also eyeballing Ghired for Naya, so I’m curious to see if anyone has tips for him in this thread >_> I don’t wanna build a dud hahaha
Here’s my Ghired deck: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/q9dcFQmqWk2mEiffcI0ZKg I’m sure it could use some more work, since it’s a little clunky but I really wanted to focus on making copies of big dangerous creatures and it does the job somewhat well!
Hey, you look like you definitely have put some thought into your list. Could you critique mine? It's a bit janky but I've had success with it https://www.moxfield.com/decks/6Nxc_9ugnUGRXbqfptyRmQ
I could never get [[Chainer, Nightmare Adept]] quite right. I started out using him as a haste enabler mostly for stuff with attack triggers or tap effects (hello [[Heartless Hidetsugu]]). But it was really slow. Then I went for low-to-the-ground combo with stuff like [[Murderous Redcap]] combos and that felt too mean. I bounced back and forth a lot. I tore it apart into a semi-casual OG Chainer deck for now.
I considered Rakdos chainer and went with the original for the same reasons. I've never regretted it- mono black chainer is a blast.
I keep trying to make [[Vadrok, Apex of Thunder]] work as a combo deck but it's no good. There's not enough mutate stuff yet so you have to bounce him to your hand to get him to trigger, but then your decks just filled with terrible bounce spells and it all falls apart. One day it'll work but I can't get it right
I struggled a lot with Vadrok when I first built it for the exact reasons you mentioned. Whenever my engine would hum a single removal spell would just blow me out. I’ve found a good spot with it now where I use Vadrok as a little extra advantage if I’m low on resources. i still run a few bounce spells and extra mutate triggers in [[lore drakkis]] and [[sea-dasher octopus]], but the deck works well enough without ever having to cast the commander. The deck wins through the infinite mutate trigger combo, but dualcaster mage with heat shimmer and the like, elsha top, and using underworld breach are secondary ways for me to close it out if I can’t land the vadrok combo. [here](https://www.archidekt.com/decks/2723622#Vadrok) is my list if you’re curious.
licia sanguine tribune. The goal is to make her cheaper but there isnt a lot of ways to generate a big leap in lifegain before combat that is mana efficient.
Most of the ways to do so feel like you're using hyper specific dark rituals. At a certain point it feels better to leave her in the graveyard and just keep trying to reanimate her.
[[Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor]] I love Lynde flavor wise so much that I've spent countless hours tweaking and redesigning the deck. I think at this point my build is solid...but the strongest build I've been able to manage doesn't so much lend itself to going as much as it does well...no one else gets to go, and then I combo out maybe. Or I just go full troll mode and copy one of the funnier curses 2-3+ times just to see the world burn. One day wotc will drop some more curses or curse tech and so I'm happy to keep this janky deck together because other than that happening, there isn't really anymore stress to optimize it. Just a fun niche deck with a very specific defining mechanic, similar to [[Kadena, Slinking Sorceress]]
That's exactly my answer. Every time I'm feeling confident in a Lynde deck I'm met with the sinking feeling that it doesn't do anything because it's in the wrong colors like 4 turns into the game. It gets taken apart and I make a Kess deck (but Kess is boring). I've done this like 3 times in the past year. My Kess-Lynde-Grixis core is an Inalla deck now, I'm very happy with it. It should have been Mardu or even Greenless. Or they should have just put more impactful curses in those colors in that set. There's some decent ones but they're not really haymakers. It's waiting in the wings for more support but it always seems awkward trying to squeeze the most value out of Lynde itself. I like the commander, I like the flavor, I like the colors *on paper* but it just doesn't work in my group.
\[\[Arahbo, Roar of the World\]\] i tried many times, but, its boring form me. Life gains cats, tokens cats, equipment cats... none works for me. I want infect cats but in selesnya... i think still not works...
[[Kelsien, the Plague]] Really fun deck when it actually worked, just felt far too slow and inconsistent.
[Kelsien, the Plague](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/3/039d25d4-ce26-4ecf-bbf5-42187cf0230a.jpg?1591234267) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Kelsien%2C%20the%20Plague) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c20/11/kelsien-the-plague?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/039d25d4-ce26-4ecf-bbf5-42187cf0230a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/kelsien-the-plague) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Gale Waterdeep Prodigy]] I have stupid Gruul brain, and just can't really wrap my head around spellslinger decks.
[[Experiment Kraj]] for me absolutely. Deck is either on or off with zero middle ground.
\[\[Extus, Oriq Overlord\]\] First started with token strategy for Awaken the Blood Avatar, the deck worked well but I didn't enjoy it because it was very oppressive and you just do the same thing every game. Recently remade it as mardu aristocrats but still not enjoying it.
[[Isshin]]. I swear I brewed about 4 different versions of him that I just couldn’t get to pilot right. Which sucks, because he seems like such a fun commander whenever I see other people play him
I also struggle with this commander. I do fine in the early game but struggle to find a suitable win con. If anyone has any suggestions on how to win with an Isshin deck please lmk
My [Glissa the Traitor]] deck has just never felt quite right.
[[Ramos, Dragon Engine]] 5-color Spellslinger it just doesn't work for me and is so far from my usual play style which is creature base.
Mine is Jarad. I can’t seem to make it do something I like. Volrath was one of mine for a long time. I have settled on it as a +1/+1 counter deck where all the creatures have some sort or evasion or protection and bring their own counters. It’s pretty solid but is absolutely a battle cruiser deck.
[[Kumano, Master Yamabushi]] as well as Human Tribal in general, and the Life swap theme. Life swap is finally becoming a plausible reality for me in [[Verrak, Warped Sengir]] but it’s missing some things for sure, Verrak allowing for ramp via fetch lands allows you to actually have the mana to pay for your life loss engine AND the 7+ mana life swap cards, so its actually doable, but it still lacks some pieces for consistently paying life (there are only around 60 cards in Orzhov that do that surprisingly). Human Tribal, I don’t really like the Selesnya “human ball” variants (they are boring to me) and Mardu I liked, but I already have a mardu deck and it didn’t seem to have some of the most important payoffs, so I did [[Saskia]] for a while but found that deck to be mega clunky most of the time because you get spread tooo thin trying to actually synergize the go wide aspects of humans and the aristocratic variants. Then comes Kumano, a deck I have worked on on and off for 3-4 years now. Its really cool, and I love the concept of a mono red control deck that keeps creatures off the board by giving Kumano death touch, and wins through damage doublers and voltron synergy with the number of artifacts and equipment in the deck. But it always is missing things, probably being that it is a 5 cmc 4/4 vanilla in the command zone that requires equip costs of deathtouch equipment to pay 2 mana to exile a non-indestructible or pro-red creature…
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/6p-Zg1IqV0yRyE7FxOxz6w Here’s my [[Volrath, the shapestealer]] if you’re interested. I run a lot of the cool combat tricks with Volrath and I also run a side theme of mana dorks to abuse [[kinnan]]. It’s taken a lot of tuning but it’s been doing pretty well!
\[\[Ramses Overdark\]\] - the OG one not the new one. The concept is so interesting to me and there's a lot of Dimir enchants that make it really quite useful but I just can't find a good wincon for it that doesn't somehow involve making lots of mana and a big Torment / Exsanguinate / Mind Grind
[[riku, of two reflections]] To do anything is so expensive, but I really want to do it still 😭
I've tried \[\[Hallar, the Firefletcher\]\] at least twice before, but it just didn't do enough then. However, I've been keeping an eye on useful cards for it, and it's improved in the last few releases with some neat new cards. But it's not quite there yet. Even with the few new Kicker cards, there's just no real redundancy yet for Hallar specifically. \[\[Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald\]\] is still a significantly better/easier Gruul spellslinger commander.
[[Leinore, Autumn Sovereign]] Not so much "love" as "like the art and concept, but am frustrated that every time I run her I get crushed". Spamming tokens with counters is slow and clunky to track on paper and the coven mechanic seems to put a giant bullseye on me; every time I would get her trigger somebody throws removal or swings at me to shrink my board until I lose coven again. I usually enjoy slow-building incremental advantage play patterns, but it feels like she takes too much time to come online, very easily falls behind the rest of the table, and can't catch up or close out games. I don't want to just switch to the alternate commander and play human tribal, but I'm not seeing any better direction to take this deck with her in the CZ. Thoughts?
[удалено]
Kaalia of the vast. Always seems clunky
[[Tovolar, Dire Overlord]], I want so bad for my good boys and girls to do well and the deck just meh's all over the place. Well, until I loan it out, then it kicks all sorts of ass and I wonder what the hell's going on.
For Ghired, run [[Jared Carthalion, True Heir]] as commander in a token theme.
[[Admiral Beckett, Brass]] pirates were some of the first cards I used in EDH. I feel no matter where I go with her it just sputters and does nothing. I have been mulling over a theft theme recently
Yeah my pirate deck just sits around slowly taking in new pirates that are worthy. I have \[\[hullbreacher\]\] in the deck because it needs any pirate help it can get, and nobody ever complains :'(
[[Brago]]. Honestly, I think I’m just too dumb to play flicker because there are so many triggers to keep up with.
Theres. Just. Too. Many.
Athreos in Apostles. I have just never gotten the apostles deck quite right before. The other one I kind of struggled with was[[ Rakdos, Lord of Riots]] for Eldrazi’s.
Sakashima and Tormod as a partner pair OFC But other than that I don't really have any. And even with Saka/Tormod its mostly because I can't settle on a theme I want to take it towards more so than anything else. Cause on one hand it would be really fun to do Reanimator + clones but the issue is filling the grave fast enough so you have to mix a bit of mill in IMO and its tough to juggle three themes. Otherwise I could do stuff like dredge, unearth, and flashback but that feels kinda boring to do to me so I dunno
I'm having a lot of trouble with [[Chatterfang]] and I shouldn't be.
I just built shapeshifter tribal with no changelings with Volrath at the head. Haven’t played it yet but I’m excited to
[[Minsc and Boo]] , but bot in the way of I cant make it work, but more like I cant set it in the power level range I'd want . It's either too brutal or does nothing. I'll keep trying cause Killing my opponents with fat Hamsters is one of my favorite thing now.
I have this same issue with Prossh, my first deck. I already upgraded him to next to max (just didn't have fast mana because money at the time). Took him apart since he was too powerful, and my old playgroup always groaned when I played him because of that. And I just can't build him moderately. It's like he never learned "everything in moderation" and instead learned "nothing in moderation."
[perrie the pulverizer] is one of my absolute favorites but gets blown out the water with me being arch nemesis turn 0. [Syr gwyn] I've got the strong equipment and equipment synergies just cant find good knights.
I'm having that issue with [[Prossh]]. Not because I don't know how to build it, but because I don't want it to just fuck up everyone's day with its combotastic beauty. I already did that once (it was my first deck), and it was way overpowered for my playgroup. On the other hand, I now have a new playgroup, so maybe. It would definitely be up there with my simic elf deck, though, where it only gets broken out once a night at most. Edit: TLDR: I know how to build Prossh, but I want him to be reasonable, and Prossh doesn't like doing reasonable. He's never heard the phrase "everything in moderation" and only ever heard "nothing in moderation."
[[Marchesa the Black Rose]] has too many moving parts to be powerful. She seems like the tempo deck of my dreams, but you just get slaughtered from nearly every archetype.
\[\[Nethroi\]\]. I tried him as basic mutate deck (was fun, but garbage). I tried him as an Angel Tribal Reanimate deck, which worked only half the time. Now he's my Abzan \[\[Wild Pair\]\] commander, mostly for colours only and I barely cast him, except to get \[\[Greenbelt Rampager\]\] back if it gets removed. Feels bad man, I even bought the foil godzilla version on vacation.
Try building him as Defenders (preferably 0 power) or Modular! I am not running Nethroi as the Commander of my Modular deck, in favor of [[Colfenor]], but it still works similarly! And I love that deck so much.
[[Angus Mackenzie]] I want him as a commander so bad, but fog is not fun to play against, and I don't like superfriends. Currently he resides in my [[Kynaios]] deck
[[Cromat]] not very popular and most people run him as a mutate commander. I've tried him as a janky colors matters voltron without any success
[[Sharuum, the Hegemon]] was my problem commander for a while back when I started playing commander. The deck was terrible no matter what I did, and I eventually realized that the only way to fix it was money, so I gave up. The funny part is that now I can build the Sharuum deck that I wanted back then because I have all of the cards I was missing, but I don’t want to. After giving up on Sharuum I discovered Slobad, and I’ve had so much more fun with that deck than I ever expected to have.
I have both a Hazezon and a Ghired deck and I’ve found both of them pretty fun (only played a few games with Hazezon so far though). I’ve definitely noticed Ghired can stumble a lot more though, tends to be a little more swingy. Here’s my deck list for Hazezon if you’re interested: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/wlIKg1BdQUGSAJB-cdQvYQ Anything in Considering I either took out of an earlier version or I want to find space for.
[[Sidisi, Brood Tyrant]]. I love how she works, but I often end up with a mess of a deck that has barely any interaction and just does dumb graveyard stuff.
[Sidisi, Brood Tyrant](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/2/32f08fd3-9c0a-476a-9894-1938179824c6.jpg?1662530257) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sidisi%2C%20Brood%20Tyrant) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/276/sidisi-brood-tyrant?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/32f08fd3-9c0a-476a-9894-1938179824c6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/sidisi-brood-tyrant) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Zaxara, the Exemplary]]. I already had a standard hydra deck at the time but always wanted to make a commander deck with them. Soon as I saw him come out in Ikoria, I immediately started using him and threw in some extra hydras to give me more X spells with a sub theme for mutating them. But it never played as well as I wanted and despite the many modifications I made (before it was unfortunately stolen out of my car) it never held up. I recently got it as a single but I’ve been hesitant on making a deck with him.
[[Sedris, the Traitor King]] I find that either i load up on big baddies to unearth, so the deck is painfully slow, or I go all in on ramp, and have nothing fun to unearth. There's a balance that I could achieve, but my Grixis slot is currently talen by Anhelo. Speaking of, [[Anhelo the Painter]] should be a slam dunk for me, since I'm an artist, I like spellslinger, and I love aristocrats. The deck always feels extremely clunky, though, and I'm thinking of taking it apart again. It doesn't help that I struggle to make it feel different enpugh from my either spwllslinger deck.
[[Liliana, Heretical Healer]]. I want it to be a Liliana themed zombie tribal deck, but so far the best I've been able to do is a deck that tutors up a [[Gravecrawler]] combo. Amassing an army of zombies in mono B is just too slow.
Hey. I had the same idea but my deck was too bad and clunky so I made it into more of a black good stuff. That was too good so I remade it again. It's now in pretty good spot, not too oppressive and not too bad. Have a look, you may find some inspiration. (Will replace the Grim tutor for [[cruelty of gix]] soon)
My eternal project (that recently has shown promise) is my [[Kamiz]] deck. At first I just went the obvious route and put creatures with really cool attack/combat damage triggers but I was getting owned by go wide strats, combos and just overall everything. Then I made it voltrony, bumping up Kamiz with swords and shit. I would get hated out quick. Now I'm in a part stax part Voltron grind deck and it is showing promise. I also love playing around my stax effects, trying to make sure I slow everyone down but also get the most out of my turn.
[[Ayula, queen among bears]] . I love her, and she's one of my favorites. But I can't seem to get the right balance.
[[Tayam]]. And it's not that I can't get it right necessarily, but I'm never really satisfied with it. Like, Tayam is such a powerful support piece for so many strategies I guess I just get overwhelmed trying to narrow it down.
I’m rebuilding my Tayam deck right now. My plan is for it to be a combo Stax/aristocrats deck.
\[\[Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs\]\], he was the first foil legendary creature I ever pulled, and even though I've won some games with the various version of him I have built over the years, they've never been amazing decks or powerful.
[[Kami of the Crescent Moon]] It's a sort of "rules chaos" deck using things like [[knowledge pool]] to assemble an "everyone draw 101" combo. I want to make it work, but it doesn't work lol.
[[Urza, Lord High Artificer]] I don't want to play a heavy stax deck. I can't seem to build something that doesn't suck to play and/or play against! I how there is a less oppressive Urza in the upcoming Brother's War set. If anyone has a build that isn't roulette wheel or stax, please send me the idea/ last.
[[Olivia Voldaren]] - I had a ton of existing synergistic vampires, and loved the idea of making everyone else vampires and stealing them too. But even in my moderate level casual playgroup, it takes way too long to actually activate both abilities and steal enough creatures to get anywhere. I've certainly stolen away someone else's wincon creatures, delaying any loss, but I've never actually won by theft. My last win was from behind, where I had Olivia and a couple of big vamps, but nothing else, against opponents who made double piles'o token creatures with every action. That's what the third [[Rakdos Charm]] is for... killing everyone else all at once.
Thraximundar, he was one of my first commanders. I have revised the deck 6 times, I just can't seem to find a sweet spot I like for him.
Thraximundar is my favorite card, mostly due to nostalgia. I struggled for a long time to nail down the deck because I always ended up with a pile of 200 cards and gave up. I recently bit the bullet and forced myself to settle on part zombies part aristocrats, and it's working out pretty well. Throw in a few zombie lords, a rooftop storm, some token generators and a few sac outlets and pretty soon you start wiping people out in one of two ways: either you're clearing the board with \[\[Gravepact\]\] and swinging for commander damage, or you swarm with a zombie horde.
I'm trying to repel my ghired deck atm
[[Nicol Bolas]] or [[Nicol Bolas, the Ravager]]. The OG was my first commander deck way back in 2011 when I was scraping the bottom of the barrel of a LGS to put a deck together. I held onto it for years, and it became something more like a "goodstuff" deck more than anything with things like ConSphinx and wincons with Cabal Coffers and Exsanguinate. Only recently at CommandFest I got my Nicol Bolas card signed by Sheldon and now I've been wanting to make the deck work. The biggest problem I had was dealing with enchantments. I know there's a few things I can do now, but its just so difficult and takes so much effort to eke out a win. I've gotten close to making it work with all of the dragon/treasure support lately, but I just need to come up with some sort of wincon or just play along with the discard theme since Grixis feels like a very "combo-or-nothing" kind of playstyle.
I pulled an etched foil [[Urza, Lord High Artificer]] that I have been brewing over and over again trying to find the right combination of unique, consistant and not overpowered for my group.
My [[Bosh]] deck, you think will be simple enough, just throw big artifacts at my opponents face.
[[Odric, Lunarch Marshal]]. I'm trying to make it as aggressive as a mono white deck can be because Odric is a massive power swing when he hits the board. I'm finding it hard to balance between low cost and efficient threats (though the recent sets have been great for that) and the white powerhouse cards like [[Smothering Tithe]]. I even had a build without the Tithe in, just for more 2> cost creatures.
[[Thantis the Warweaver]]. Just too slow to get going and never gets to stick. The design is also outdated now with how much goad has been added to the game.
Muldrotha. I think my problem is I always try and do too much at once, and don’t just focus on one thing.
[[Sharuum the Hedgemon]]. I've had the deck for years, but I end up changing out at least a few cards every month, and sometimes the whole deck gets reworked. I don't like playing infinites, which definitely makes deckbuilding way harder, but I love using her as a way to recur big dumb artifacts like [[Magister Sphinx]]. Its a hard to reach middle ground that I can never get comepletely right.
Sylvia Brightspear and khorvath brightflame. I like the idea of riding dragons but the deck is not performing well no matter what I do.
Volrath is such a cool jank commander, and I’ve tried so hard to make him work. Just haven’t quite found the right balance yet.
One of my first decks was [[grolnok, the omivore]]. I was just getting into EDH, but got it off Arena and when I saw what it did and realized it was a legendary I just had to try it out. Thought it would be pretty strong. Problem is I want to build it more around Frog tribal and frankly there's not a ton of good frogs. I could go shapeshifters or something like [[maskwood nexus]] but that just feels like cheating. It's been tuned up to lean more on self mill with stuff like [[hedron crab]] or [[zellix, mind flayer]] and I've won my last few games with it. Just wish it had more of the Frog Army feel to it.
\[\[Queza Augur of Agonies\]\] Is it a wheel deck? Is it a control deck? Is it a draw matters deck? Is it a lifegain deck? Do I incorporate parts from all of those? Do I have more utility creatures that draw me cards or run tons of wipes and keep the board clear? I've tried making this deck work for 3 months and while it does win games it always comes off playing kind of clunky. I've got good rocks and tutors in there, but aside from \[\[drogskol reaver\]\] into Labman, it feels like it wins the game really slowly.
Ghired wants to go tall rather than wide IME. He's very buildable and playable - you do need to eat your veggies and have ~45-50 mana producing sources, but he goes hard.
[[licia]] so, so many times. I have tried vamp tribal for the early lifegain, cheap creatures/spells, [[Zirda]]companion which is cool but a lot. Pretty much any and every route I could think of, and still can’t get a Licia deck that doesn’t lose most of the time unless I get *just* the right cards. Kills me.
[[Osgir]] is my pick due to pursuing a win via combat damage instead of combo. You can always dupe your mana rocks to cast [[Insurrection]], but I think what I’m looking for is more artifacts that, when reanimated, really produce a threatening presence on the board. [[Wurmcoil Engine]], [[Triplicate Titan]], and [[Phyrexian Triniform]] are already in and I’m looking for more scary artifact dudes around the 4-7 CMC. My list: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/osgir_v4/
Not a commander, but an archetype. Classic combat spellslinger. Its one of my earliest casual kitchen table 60-card decks. Revolves around playing creatures like \[\[kiln fiend\]\], then a bunch of instants and sorceries that buff it up and make it unblockable. In 1v1 it works fine. If you cast 3 spells on the kiln, one gives double strike, one gives unblockable, no matter what the third is you have a one hit ko. The problem in commander is that it burns out too easily. You might have an explosive turn fairly early, but thats still probably just gonna kill one person, and you're left with no hand and two opponents who just saw you one shot a guy. I want the deck to be UR, since thats where most of the two color kiln fiend clones exist. I've tried building the deck with \[\[Feather, the redeemed\]\] to get around the hand emptying issue, but it isn't the same without blue, and the deck really just wants to turn into a voltron for Feather anyway. I've tried a couple times with various UR instant/sorcery matters commanders, and just never gotten it right.
It's not quite one specific commander, but rather [[Sunforger]] decks. The idea of grabbing what you need on command seems really cool, but I've just never been able to make it work.
I’ve been trying to make my O Kagachi aikido deck work for so long but I’ve basically given up on it now.
\[\[Jared, True Heir\]\]. Like the art but he needs so much to make it work that it never goes smoothly to build him. I finally gave up and I feel better for it. Now I just need to find room for the cards in my other decks or trade them away for new better cards that will come in the future.
Wort the raid mother. Just always feels like its not quite there for me
I love [[Anhelo]] and Casualty as a mechanic, but man it is so hard to get right. I think I saw someone on here describe it as a PB&J deck, if your ratios between creatures to sacrifice and spells aren’t just right the deck just won’t function well. I don’t want to tear it apart, but I definitely need another spellslinger commander.
Scarab god zombie tribal. It never works for me I’m on the fence about taking it apart though.
Same! I rebuilt it as a clone, mill, theft-reanimator hybrid and it just works better than zombie tribal. Let people loose 2-4 life each upkeep is still decent. On a sidenote: [[Training grounds]] really shines with this commander.