The Command Tower (EDH Hangout)

[bury the year]

exactly, probably should've elaborated. it's a 49/48 split between the two color identities, the one leftover being dune-brood nephilim because... c'mon, i gotta run the nephilim.

I'm actually sorta curious to see what a list would look like: if you'd post yours we could compare notes. Was coincidentally considering a similar exercise a few days ago at the gym, but with Tana and Tymna instead of Ravos. (I do think Tymna > Ravos in most circumstances.)

 

EDIT: Okay, now I have to make a list of cards that I think would fit under each identity.

 

Gruul

Artifact Mutation

Boartusk Liege

Clan Defiance

Decimate

Dragonlair Spider

Ghor-Clan Rampager

Gruul War Chant

Hull Breach

Omnath, Locus of Mana

Rubblebelt Raider

Rubblehulk

Runes of the Deus

Savage Twister

Signal the Clans

Ulasht, the Hate Seed

Xenagos, God of Revels

 

Orzhov

Anguished Unmaking

Athreos, God of Passage

Campaign of Vengeance

Gift of Orzhova

Merciless Eviction

Mortify

Necromancer's Covenant

Obzedat's Aid

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts

Tymna, the Weaver

Vindicate

Zealous Persecution

[bury the year]

So I thought of a semi-daily event to post to inspire more discussion. I'll post a random commander and another card that's thematically related, and then they'll be the topic of discussion. Hopefully this'll inspire a bit more activity, or maybe even an idea for a new deck of yours.

 

 

Padeem, Consul of Innovation 3U

Legendary Creature - Vedalken Artificer

Artifacts you control have hexproof.

At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control the artifact with the highest converted mana cost or tied for the highest converted mana cost, draw a card.

"Impress me."

1/4

 

My Thoughts: Padeem falls into the heritage of mono-blue legends that care about artifacts, with Arcum Dagsson and Muzzio before her. Of the three, Padeem has the least potential for explosive plays, but she brings a unique ability to the table. Giving all of your artifacts hexproof is super important: people don't usually run a ton of mass removal for artifacts, so it makes interacting with your board that much more difficult. Furthermore, if you're playing the deck right your big permanents will likely be artifacts, so her draw ability is useful to restock your hand. Overall, she'll never be a top-tier commander, but I think Padeem is a solid consideration for a player that wants to fiddle with artifacts, yet doesn't have the desire to put such a big target on their heads with Arcum and doesn't want to shell out for a three-color mana base for Sharuum.

 

 

Thopter Spy Network 2UU

Enchantment

At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control an artifact, create a 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying.

Whenever one or more artifact creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, draw a card.

 

My Thoughts: Pretty good. The tokens make good chump blockers at worst, and getting an extra draw each turn by hitting the opponent without flying blockers is always great. I think this is one of the few enchantments that should go into almost any artifact deck.

[Flame Dragon]

Its funny you went with those two cards since I'm planning on cutting Spy Network for Padeem in Sharuum. Both need work to get the card draw, but the Hexproof Padeem gives is better than 1/1 fliers and it seems a little bit easier to get the draw from her than from Spy Network. Though since every commander deck runs some number of artifacts I can see it being the case where I won't always have the ability to draw.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

I'll tell you what, spy network has been sublime in Breya. It fuels my endless need for artifact permanents to sacrifice, as well as provide card advantage by giving me an extra card each turn.

 

The biggest issues are its mana cost and card type. 4 is a lot of mana. My deck has a few cards that produce mana that can only be used with artifacts, not to mention chief engineer and cards like sharuum that cheat artifacts into play. As an enchantment, this simply isn't an option, and the card is more difficult to work with as a whole.

 

Furthermore, you don't get a thopter until your next upkeep, which is a pretty big wait for a four mana investment. That thopter will then have summoning sickness, so unless you have another artifact creature to hit with, you will be waiting even longer before you get to draw cards.

 

 

 

Padeem feels really funking good with darksteel forge, and aggressively mediocre without it. This pretty much limits her to Muzzio, Arcum., and Sharuum.

[Forest Fire]

it would seem to me that Network is better for mass artifact sac'ing while Padeem is better for protection.

just depends what you need.

[bury the year]

Here's round 2!

 

 

Tariel, Reckoner of Souls 4WBR

Legendary Creature — Angel

Flying, vigilance

T: Choose a creature card at random from target opponent's graveyard. Put that card onto the battlefield under your control.

"After death you face paradise, damnation, or Tariel."

—Priest's teaching

4/7

 

My Thoughts: There are simply better options than Tariel in Mardu colors. First off, at 7 mana, she's expensive. You're probably only going to cast her twice in the span of an average game, so you'd better make that count. While her tap ability is pretty good on first glance, since you've no control over which creature you get back, it can become frustrating to get any meaningful value off of her. At least she has vigilance so you can attack and activate the ability later on. (I swear, vigilance is probably the most useful evergreen keyword for EDH.) Anyways, not a fan of her at all.

 

 

Adarkar Valkyrie 4WW

Snow Creature — Angel

Flying, vigilance

T: When target creature other than Adarkar Valkyrie dies this turn, return that card to the battlefield under your control.

She doesn't escort the dead to the afterlife, but instead raises them to fight and die again.

4/5

 

My Thoughts: Now this just feels like a better version of Tariel! Being able to steal a creature out from under the nose of a boardwipe gives me such a fuzzy feeling inside. Her presence on the battlefield also means that your opponents are going to think twice about using any removal spells on your guys with her untapped. And once again, vigilance takes her from good to great. I don't think she fits in every deck due to the high converted mana cost, but with a reanimator theme or creature-heavy build (or heck, even snow tribal), she probably has a slot.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Tariel is fine as a commander if you want to play something like Mardu control, simply because she (he? they?) gives consistent value. You may not be able to choose what you get, but unless the opponent has Phage or something else obnoxious, you are still gaining overall. That said, she is still incredibly underwhelming, especially when considering the power behind other options such as Kaalia or Bruse+Vial Smasher.

 

A lot of people like Adarkar Valkyrie. I am not one of those people. While she does have vigilance, allowing her to attack while still making use of her ability, it doesn't make up for the issues she has. Her ability is completely reactive, only working if something else is going to die, so unless the opponent plays into it or you use other cards to further support her, she simply doesn't do anything. Summoning sickness is a big problem on her, as it gives the opponents an entire turn cycle to do the plays that she otherwise would have discouraged, or to simply kill her. Answering her is easy, as they just need to target her with removal, and then not kill whatever she ended up targeting in response. Even if the playgroup runs little to no removal outside of boardwipes, she can't save herself, and you effectively are paying 6 mana for an awkward Beacon of Immortality.

 

Put simply, both of these cards suck. Tariel has the advantage of being a commander, which greatly reduces the opportunity cost of running her. With her in the command zone, you do not need to worry about drawing into her, and she instead just becomes something you can cast if you don't have a significant play for the turn.

[~Faytl~]

Tariel excels in low-resource situatons, so you can actually start tossing out Winter Orb and MLD effects after she comes out. What do you care, you can just play from the graveyard for a simple tap... If your playgroup doesn't immolate you after you play MLD.

[bury the year]

OK SO. I'm not gonna randomly pick a commander this time, or choose a support card. (I make the rules, so I can break them.) Instead, I want people to consider a couple of pairings that I've been ruminating for a while now. Get into the spirit of C16 and all.

 

[spoiler=Akiri and Silas (Non-Green)]

 

Akiri, Line-Slinger RW

Legendary Creature — Kor Soldier Ally

First strike, vigilance

Akiri, Line-Slinger gets +1/+0 for each artifact you control.

Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)

0/3

 

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept 1UB

Legendary Artifact Creature — Human

Deathtouch

Whenever Silas Renn, Seeker Adept deals combat damage to a player, choose target artifact card in your graveyard. You may cast that card this turn.

Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)

2/2

 

[spoiler=Ravos and Reyhan (Abzan)]

 

Ravos, Soultender 3WB

Legendary Creature — Human Cleric

Flying

Other creatures you control get +1/+1.

At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)

2/2

 

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan

Legendary Creature — Human Warrior

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan enters the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters on it.

Whenever a creature you control dies or is put into the command zone, if it had one or more +1/+1 counters on it, you may put that many +1/+1 counters on target creature.

Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)

0/0

 

These two pairings stand out to me as having some of the most obvious synergies amidst the mess of partnerships. Akiri/Silas strike me as a 4C voltron build. Akiri's job is to hold a bunch of equipment, and with her built-in Cranial Plating effect her power should grow quickly enough to one/two-shot people. Silas serves a more utility role: if people try to keep your equips off the board, drop him and connect to get them back. He also lets you recur baubles (like Dispeller's/Executioner's Capsule) to help control the board some more. Ravos/Reyhan, meanwhile, are an Abzan +1/+1 counters build that doesn't sound the alarm as strongly as Ghave does. One big problem with counter builds is that removal sets back your progress a lot, but these two help to alleviate that. Reyhan ensures that your counters always have an inheritor, while Ravos lets you get back your creatures once they die.

 

Thoughts? Also would love to hear about any other partner combinations that people find interesting. (I know at least one person's been brewing Ishai/Bruse voltron, and personally I'd love to hear about the potential of Akiri/Kydele clue tribal.)

[Flame Dragon]

Personally the combination I'm most interested in trying is Reyhan plus Tana. Tana is a great place to dump counters and the tokens she makes work really well with all the cards that give +1/+1 counters to lots of creature. Not to mention Jund has tons of things to do with random bodies.

[~Faytl~]

I know at least one person's been brewing Ishai/Bruse voltron

 

He's reffering to me here, you see, xata has seen my list for this deck.

 

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/big-birbs-dont-cry-big-birds-jeskai/

 

It's not EXACTLY voltron, it's also sorta midrange-y. I was trying to think about how Bruse needed to be protected, since attacking with him seems like the best way to trigger his ability (flicker mechanics take a lot of dedication), and I remembered a friend of mine using Reconnaissance in his Alesha build to pull her out of combat after first strike damage. I just thought, OH, I can pull Bruse out of combat after his trigger goes off, and he's fine.

 

This made me realize, usually players calculate double strike damage in addition to regular damage, as its just the quickest way to calculate s***, but it IS technically two separate instances of damage. So my deck has a lot of effects that trigger off of combat damage. For example: Most things aren't surviving 12 damage, so Balefire Dragon seemed like a good add. Steal people's cards for your own use? Daxos of Meletis, Thada Adel, Sphinx Ambassador and the new Grenzo are perfect, or just eliminate their key cards with Rootwater Thief. Plus on mana with Rapacious One or take extra turns with Medomai the Ageless, and get even more of your combat triggers off of Aurelia, netting you up to four triggers of, say, Celestial Mantle. Why yes, I WILL go from 5 to 80 life, sir.

 

Gotta say though, the all-star of the deck is turning out to be Hands of Binding. Cipher is incredibly potent with double strike, especially when it lets you tap down key threats for a turn. Packing the deck with other enablers like Flying Crane Technique and the new Duelist's Heritage allows you to double up on double strike (heh). It's probably the most unique ideaI've ever had in regards to deck-building and it's a blast to play so far. Lemme know what you guys think about it.

 

 

As for the ones Xeta listed, Akiri seems much better when you describe her in terms of Cranial Plating. You hook her up with some evasion, +1 for every artifact adds up REAL fast, especially as you can get three out for six if you run Breya and you're likely loaded up with artifact-based ramp in the form of Signets and the like to alleviate the strain of a four-color manabase. I think Reyhan has maybe more potential with Ishai, but I do like your point about the two raising fewer flags than Ghave. I've seen people lose their sh*t at seeing a Ghave flip.

[Flame Dragon]

Speaking of double strike, Bruse is one of the cooler partner commanders. Can double up damage for the combat kill partners and gives extra triggers with Silas Renn and Tana. I think I said earlier that a number of the partner commanders don't play very well with the others, but giving double strike to stuff is such a great ability on a partner.

[bury the year]

So I completely dropped my plan of picking random cards to discuss. So sue me. I'll start up again at some point.

 

As I'm sure you're all aware, the full spoiler for Aether Revolt has been released. What do you plan on putting in your decks? Anything else interests you? The set has given us six new legends to play around with, so I'm curious as to your thoughts.

 

[spoiler=New legends.]

 

As for my new includes:

• Rashmi gets Disallow and Heroic Intervention, both of which are very solid instants for her to use.
• Saskia gets... nothing. There aren't any of the types of aggro creatures that the deck needs from here.

If I do end up building the Akiri/Silas list that I've been thinking of, though, I'll have a ton more to get.

[Flame Dragon]

I'm going to figure out deck updates later. ATM the only think I know for sure if Engine is stupid and Bridge seems really good in a super ramp deck.

 

As for the new legendaries

 

Sram seems much better in the 99 than at the lead. He isn't bad, but if your doing enchantment/equipment stuff (I think most vehicles aren't good in commander) you have better commanders to pick.

 

Baral also seems better in the 99. The discount effect is powerful, but counter spells are a lot weaker in commander. That said he might not be that bad.

 

Yahenni seems like a solid commander. They have built in protection and grow. Can't ask for much more. Not really sure what kind of deck they'll have to be built around them, but being more open ended is fine.

 

Kari seems MUCH better in standard than commander. She is really bad at killing with commander damage and even normally she is just so low impact.

 

Rishkar is my personal favorite of the legendaries and a card I'm eyeing for some commander decks. Basically costs 1 if you give counters to things that aren't summoning sick, and can generate mana if you have a bunch of counters on things already. The down side is only making G means he isn't super useful in +3 color decks. Still seems solid there if they make a lot of counters though.

 

*aside* Atraxa got a LOT of love in this set. I bet the people that got her are super happy. *end aside*

 

Hope seems interesting. While it won't be good against everyone it is REALLY good against certain decks. It does have problems. It can't be used until post-combat meaning your opponent can still do a lot before it connects and just connecting might be hard since its really small. That also means it dies easily. As a commander it becomes expensive quickly since you need to blow it up to use it. The first few times aren't that bad, but it becomes too much really fast and being limited to colorless is REALLY bad for something like this.

[Forest Fire]

Baral is such a dick move in 1v1 edh. I love it.

Herald of Anguish goes in Sheoldred. Would also go well in Yidris if you're doing no-hand-for-your-opponents-Yidris

Yahenni seems like he would be a deck with a lot of on death triggers. They also maybe get a spot in Atraxa and in Sheoldred.

[~Faytl~]

Personally I'm VERY dissapointed we didn't get a commander that utilizes Energy. Like, I GUESS you can go Atraxa, but then you can't use Red. Just very sad we can't really utilize the mechanic to the fullest in EDH by haing it on a legendary creature. 

[Flame Dragon]

Personally I'm VERY dissapointed we didn't get a commander that utilizes Energy. Like, I GUESS you can go Atraxa, but then you can't use Red. Just very sad we can't really utilize the mechanic to the fullest in EDH by haing it on a legendary creature.

Thing is, the commander is very unlikely to have been 5 colors so a color(s) would've been left out anyway. Given the insane amount of support Atraxa got they might have been going for this. That being said, I get where you're coming from.

[Sixty]

sram is a hot option for a monowhite commander, and goes handily into the 99 of other white voltron builds

 

rishkar could be a fun mono green counters general, but i've found sachi, daughter of seshiro or ezuri is generally better if you want mono green ramp/elves. his expertise is gonna be fun to copy with wort.

 

forget baral. probably running his expertise in isperia and himself in ultimus, my only deck with counterspells.

 

kari zev is a fun time, too bad pirates are UB.

 

yaheeni is cool, but not terribly exciting. a free sac outlet is nice, but the effect it gives is redundant. their expertise is gonna be nutso for constructed, and will probably make a splash in some edh decks.

[Flame Dragon]

Checked for commander updates. More than I was expecting.

 

Animar: Aid from the Cowl

Gahiji: Maulfist Revolutionary, Ajani Unyielding, Oath of Ajani

Sharuum: Mechanized Production, Trophy Mage, Whir of Invention, Tezzeret the Schemer, Cogwork Assembler, Inspiring Statuary, Scrap Trawler, Spire of Industry

Freyalise: Heroic Intervention, Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Paradox Engine, Planar Bridge, Walking Ballista

Hanna: Restoration Specialist, Disallow, Trophy Mage. Whir of Invention, Planar Bridge

Grenzo: Metallic Mimic

Ezuri: Disallow, Maulfist Revolutionary, Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Rishkar's Expertise, Scrounging Bandar, Walking Ballista

Slivers: Rishkar's Expertise, Paradox Engine

Gitrog: Aid from the Cowl, Planar Bridge

Kozilek: Cogwork Assembler, Gonti's Aether Heart, Paradox Engine, Planar Bridge, Scrap Trawler

Kemba: Gonti's Aether Heart, Inspiring Statuary

Sidisi: Metallic Mimic

Phenax: Trophy Mage, Whir of Invention, Paradox Engine

 

Nothing

Karador, Sedris, Iroas

 

I noticed the set doesn't really have a ton of cards I want, but the few I do are good in a number of the decks I have. Also, I have a ton of lists made up at this point so I'm going to have a lot of repeats like this.

 

I should also note these aren't all going in. This is just the list of cards I'm considering.

 

I'm dumb. I forgot to include Sram in my cards for Kemba list. Hell, he can replace her as the commander realistically. I think I underestimated him for this reason. Equipment based White decks are already pretty common and getting to add in Aura removal and getting stuff for it is pretty strong.

[Sixty]

had a pretty great game with sek'kuar where i was super behind, then top decked skullclamp and drew into living death, of which a demon of dark schemes was reanimated among ten other creatures. everyone else's stuff died to it, giving me a ton of energy. next turn i reanimated some creatures of mine that died including ashenmoor liege, then resolved the nastiest din of the fireherd i've ever resolved where one opponent was a little further ahead of the other had to sacrifice 14 creatures and 12 lands. then i just swung out with like 100 damage of tokens and creatures between the two of them.

[~Faytl~]

Had a pretty swaggy game with my Arjun against a Marchesa (Grixis Marchesa to be exact) and NewSigarda. The Sigarda player dropped out Stony Silence and pretty much neutered my starting hand (I had kept a 2-land hand since I had Thought Vessel and Pristine Talisman in it). That put a huge target on his head and the Marchesa player and I ganged up on him (I countered a few choice things) until he was dead. The return of my rocks instantly pushed me ahead far enough to stabilize, especially since I dropped out Glacial Chasm. He dug like crazy for a land destruction effect, but I managed to bounce it back to my hand before it got it with an Izzet Boilerworks, because I finally got out Meishin the Mind Cage, knocking everything down by -8/-0. He tried to push through with a bounce spell on that eventually but luckily I had held up one blue for a Swan Song. 

 

I eventually managed to just mill him out with Jace's Erasure and Sphinx's Tutelage turboing him, a combo I set up with Arjun via Parallel Thoughts. Only had 7 life at the end of it, but it was a swell game.

[bury the year]

Checked for commander updates. More than I was expecting.

 

Animar: Aid from the Cowl

Gahiji: Maulfist Revolutionary, Ajani Unyielding, Oath of Ajani

Sharuum: Mechanized Production, Trophy Mage, Whir of Invention, Tezzeret the Schemer, Cogwork Assembler, Inspiring Statuary, Scrap Trawler, Spire of Industry

Freyalise: Heroic Intervention, Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Paradox Engine, Planar Bridge, Walking Ballista

Hanna: Restoration Specialist, Disallow, Trophy Mage. Whir of Invention, Planar Bridge

Grenzo: Metallic Mimic

Ezuri: Disallow, Maulfist Revolutionary, Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Rishkar's Expertise, Scrounging Bandar, Walking Ballista

Slivers: Rishkar's Expertise, Paradox Engine

Gitrog: Aid from the Cowl, Planar Bridge

Kozilek: Cogwork Assembler, Gonti's Aether Heart, Paradox Engine, Planar Bridge, Scrap Trawler

Kemba: Gonti's Aether Heart, Inspiring Statuary

Sidisi: Metallic Mimic

Phenax: Trophy Mage, Whir of Invention, Paradox Engine

 

Nothing

Karador, Sedris, Iroas

 

I noticed the set doesn't really have a ton of cards I want, but the few I do are good in a number of the decks I have. Also, I have a ton of lists made up at this point so I'm going to have a lot of repeats like this.

 

I should also note these aren't all going in. This is just the list of cards I'm considering.

 

I'm dumb. I forgot to include Sram in my cards for Kemba list. Hell, he can replace her as the commander realistically. I think I underestimated him for this reason. Equipment based White decks are already pretty common and getting to add in Aura removal and getting stuff for it is pretty strong.

 

I literally just saw this post, Flame. Sorry for lateness. :'(

• What's Maulfist doing in Gahiji? I would guess planeswalkers is why.
• Skyship Plunderer is a worthy inclusion for Ezuri, if you haven't noticed them already.
• Gonti's Aether Heart just seems sorta lame in non-energy decks: I know it's a colorless extra turn spell, but it just doesn't seem terribly good even with that in mind.
• Assuming Sidisi is tribal zombies, correct?

[Flame Dragon]

I literally just saw this post, Flame. Sorry for lateness. :'(

• What's Maulfist doing in Gahiji? I would guess planeswalkers is why.
• Skyship Plunderer is a worthy inclusion for Ezuri, if you haven't noticed them already.
• Gonti's Aether Heart just seems sorta lame in non-energy decks: I know it's a colorless extra turn spell, but it just doesn't seem terribly good even with that in mind.
• Assuming Sidisi is tribal zombies, correct?

Yea, Gahiji is really heavy on planeswalkers.

 

My issue with Plunderer in Ezuri is the deck stacks counters high so getting one more isn't the BIGGEST thing. If I'd put something in I'd go for Thrummingbird.

 

I decided against Heart in Kozilek, but I decided I like it in Kemba. Getting the extra turn means more cats and cats I made earlier can now attack.

 

Sidisi is indeed Zombie Tribal.

[Sixty]

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/nice-wall/

 

i threw together a wall deck this weekend, and it's a lot of fun. gave me an excuse to use partners again

[Flame Dragon]

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/nice-wall/

 

i threw together a wall deck this weekend, and it's a lot of fun. gave me an excuse to use partners again

I feel like Always Watching isn't good in this deck. You want as many of your creatures to get the Sidar bonus and since 2 is such an easy number to go over I feel like the slot has better use. If you want something to give vigilance to everyone Heliod is better.

 

Sphere of Safety likely doesn't have enough enchantments.

 

Also, needs more Warmonger's Chariot.