I played another game with Gisela this week. It was a really odd game as I never found any of my equipment to really modify Gisela and my overall card draw was low that game. I did end up using Hall of the Bandit Lord to run out Kozilek, the Great Distortion at the mono black reanimator deck that had just tapped out and played Reiver Demon for an exact lethal on him.
From there the other two players started putting together some ground attackers and I moved to a 2x Moat / Magus of the Moat defense as I moved to the offensive with Serra Ascendant and soon after Gisela with 2 counters on her from Opal Palace.
In the end I pushed through with Moat defense that game. It was a super satisfying win. With the few extra recent games I wanted to push a few things around.
DECK CHANGES:
Angel of the Dire Hour -> Comeuppance The angel's body mostly kind of sucks and what I want here is a cheap answer to being swarmed. I cant really abuse the angel in any way so it seems like a smart move to take the cheaper answer to being swarmed.
Erratic Portal -> Duelist's Heritage I dont know what my hopes for the portal were. My commander is cheap enough that its not that big of a deal to recast her considering the lack of card advantage in mono white. I really like that this enchantment in that I can buff opponents when they attack someone other than me and really it doubles the clock of Gisela as well as multi triggering some of my equipment. It is fast acting and somewhat cheap to combine in a turn with something else.
I also considered a few other cards with these changes. In the end I am happy with the ones I decided on but I figured I would mention a few that sort of stood out at the time:
Mystic Barrier The Moats have been doing quite well for me. This one unfortunately controlls me a little too but I can still pick and choose where I am going and who is coming at me. I do sort of like it from the element that it can really funnel someone who has big threats not at me but at the same time it draws a lot of ire from those who are being funneled at as well so I feel like it perhaps gets answered more than something that just stops attackers from happening.
Haazda Shield Mate He is strong on defense and pairs well with having low card economy as he makes more sense to sit behind with low resources. Unlike Peacekeeper he allows me to continue being offensive plus allow opponents to hit each other with just a bit of a harder time focusing me.
Armored Ascension I like the burst of offensive power. I dont have a lot of big bursts of commander damage but I could see this adding 1-2 commander swing turns to my clock. Auras are always a little wonky though.
Parallax Wave I like it from an offense and defense standpoint. I could remove key creatures during an attack aimed at me or jump important creatures through a wrath. When this card hits play you generally sort of own the board for the next 2-3 turns.
Righteous Aura it could be strong against big bursts of damage / voltron tactics. It does almost nothing to tokens but it gives you defensive capabilities to just swing with a commander and keep mana up which I do like.
Rout its a solid creature wrath. I often find my noncreatures a little more important than my creatures so I try to keep my wraths here to creatures if I can help it and then supplement with some spot removal. I chose to go with Comeuppance for now but I could see reasons to go with Rout also.
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I'm really liking this change up between the commanders. It makes sense since Gisela is cheaper and is more useful in the long haul.
I've noticed that your quite the white mage! Your decks using W are very insightful! I feel that W can be a very difficult color to play around with in commander without supporting colors but your lists and descriptions help a lot with overcoming that hurdle. The eldrazi angel is definitely a deck I wanna build, as I've said before. Good thing I'm keeping my eyes on this thread!
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I'm really liking this change up between the commanders. It makes sense since Gisela is cheaper and is more useful in the long haul.
I've noticed that your quite the white mage! Your decks using W are very insightful! I feel that W can be a very difficult color to play around with in commander without supporting colors but your lists and descriptions help a lot with overcoming that hurdle. The eldrazi angel is definitely a deck I wanna build, as I've said before. Good thing I'm keeping my eyes on this thread!
Thanks, I honestly didn't really think this deck was going to work but a cheap evasive commander with a powerful stat line is actually very impressive when it comes to equipment value. I really really love the idea and feel of a mono white flyer and the feeling of Moats / Tabernacle. I happen to own them so I like putting them to use. Even for those who dont own a Moat I suspect that Magus of the Moat, Magus of the Tabernacle, Mystic Barrier, Righteous Aura, Ghostly Prison, and Haazda Shield Mate can all come in as good considerations on how to put together a similar style / feel to it.
I really really do love playing mono white. I have always been a sucker for mono colored decks and white has always been my favorite. One of the hardest obstacles to overcome in mono white is often how to keep being relevant / how to not run out of card advantage and so I usually approach a lot of my decks with a question of how to not flounder with nothing to do. Gisela I started out with as a concept of what if she just bought me time early on with a beater who gives me a life buffer and then I noticed how she was in so early that a lot of equipment was doing a lot of work for her. Then I started noticing I was chip killing a lot of people with her by just swinging for some value and stalling.
I have been working on the OP a little bit today but really there are so many amazing interactions with Gisela and she really can become a beast very easily.
I totally am a W mage through and through
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I have been on a roll with some Gisela changes and I came up with one more I wanted to implement.
DECK CHANGE:
Sunscorch Regent -> Bastion Protector I really do like Sunscorch Regent but its like good as a standalone threat. I keep feeling like I am overcommitting when I try to get it going with Gisela in play and it doesnt really further anything on its own. Given the built in lifegain and beater status of my commander I have been feeling like the Regent has been too much of like an alternate threat to cast instead of my commander and in that I haven't liked it that much. I really do like this card but given what my priorities are in this deck I have felt like its too much of like I could cast it instead of my commander after a wrath rather than feeling like I want to cast it alongside my commander. Bastion Protector buffs my commander and gives me some semblance of wrath protection as well as being a good curve into play. It gives me more proactive things to do that also set me up a little for post wrath which is nice.
I had been thinking this one over the last few days. In some regard Serra Ascendant is also a similar role but for now I will keep it given its super low cost and its impact for its cost is crazy. I can see room to possibly remove it in the future under similar grounds though.
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I see you use a lot of mana rock, ever thought of Pristine Talisman for sunmare/thune triggers?
It would be a cute pickup interaction but I generally focus on two priorities in my ramp here:
Ramp into Gisela. If I can come out a turn earlier it generally means at least one extra turn to be hitting in on people before their defenses are up. It also means I have more time to set up abuse engines and generate value from it. This ramp I generally prioritize in the 0-2 mana ramp because at 3+ mana my ramp no longer ramps me into my commander. With 2 mana stones I generally am just looking for one mana otherwise Grim Monolith would be more appealing to me. Of the more powerful ramp that could bring her in all that much faster I think Mana Vault is the only one I am not running (but I could consider it). There are a few more 2 mana stones that tap for one that I could run I just am not that interested or enthused by the ones I am not running on that end.
Big mana stones. These stones tend to be to get me to later game things like eldrazi faster. I generally look for 2-3+ mana in these and their goal is to get some of my bigger late game effects in sooner. In retrospect on these, its possible I should cut something like Gilded Lotus for Caged Sun just for the small bump to Gisela. I will give that some thought I guess.
I do like the small lifegain interaction of Pristine Talisman but my issue with it is that its not giving enough mana to justify the second group and its not cheap enough to justify it in the first group of mana stones. Three mana stones that give only one mana are just a little underwhelming in this format.
I did a rather thorough examination of my list trying to justify every card and its role in the deck. I ended up putting several cards into question and then deciding on some adjustments to the list based on the results I was having.
DECK CHANGES:
Serra Ascendant -> Fireshrieker I honestly went back and forth on Serra Ascendant for a good while. I happened to have put some time into the consideration of Mana Vault though and in the end I came to the consensus that if I were to get Mana Vault on turn 1 it would be nice but outside of that I found it a little less desirable. Lets assume I have a turn 1 Mana Vault with a turn 2 Gisela. In that sense, that gives me a two turn advantage for speed and its possible that I kill someone two turns faster. The problem with this concept is that it relies on me getting Mana Vault in my opener. The other problem with Mana Vault in this situation is it gives me a burst of mana that I dont have the next turn or the turn after. This means I cannot play a 4-5 mana play to follow it up to build on my ramped up start which means it lacks the follow through play. Serra Ascendant is a lot like the Mana Vault in this case as its a card where if I were to draw and play it very early I love it but outside of that it falls off and does not contribute to my commander damage so it runs its own clock. What I am saying is that I ended up feeling that Serra Ascendant was much like Mana Vault in that I was happy with it early but only sort of and it seemed to fall off later. Fireshrieker picks up great value and it stacks well with other buffs. I considered something like True Conviction instead as its similar mana to drop and equip as to do True Conviction but in the end I liked that it fell into the equipment package as well as being a Sun Titan rez target. This deck should gain plenty of life either way so other than like an eldrazi with double strike there are not that many creatures in the deck that would pick up lifelink + double strike now that I have culled a lot of the strict beaters.
Akroma's Memorial -> Righteous Aura I realized that Akroma's Memorial was bringing more hate down on me than it was worth. I love all of the effects but its a problem that too often people will just bring everything down on you for it. There is the mass haste for it but I dont find it that necessary for this deck. I figure instead I can go for something a little more defensive that might not bring down as much hate on me. Righteous Aura is a little odd but at the same time I am not usually tapping out every turn and it gives a very strong defense against non swarm tactics. I also considered the idea of Crawlspace for this position but I felt that Crawlspace was very narrowly applicable for token decks where as I felt that Righteous Aura had some slightly more broad uses.
Lightning Greaves -> Champion's Helm I figured I still wanted hexproof or shroud of some sort but I realized that in some ways Lightning Greaves hurts me as well because I cant target my commander for a lot of other buffs / equipment while it is on. Its a huge pain to try to move it every time and some of them function as triggers. I wanted to go from shroud to hexproof because of that and I figured the small dmg buff might be stronger for my commander than haste. Its a little bit of an odd trade off as I still have like 4 creatures in deck (eldrazi and sun titan) that would prefer the haste. I felt it was better to build for the better plan for my commander though. Having at least one hexproof equipment on hand gives me access to tutor for answers to mazes or decks that possibly run more spot removal. I considered shifting to Swiftfoot Boots but in the end I felt that the cost to equip would keep me from curving Gisela with the haste so it felt better to run the Helm and accept that its a small power buff over the haste.
Gilded Lotus -> Wayfarer's Bauble I wanted to move to faster ramp to get my commander out and I like that it leaves less on board to be removed via sweepers as well. I like that Wayfarer's Bauble can still ramp my commander's start as well as leave less on board to be swept.
Thran Dynamo -> Stonehewer Giant I am moving from ramp that didn't advance my commander to some card advantage. The Giant is a little bit of a pain in that it draws so much hate to itself but at the same time it might mean my commander not being spot removed. I am still a little uncertain on the giant because it is a little slow to generate its value but essentially as soon as it activates the first time I feel it pays for itself. In the past I have seen it often not get to the point where it can tap is my only concern with the giant so we will see if it holds up or not.
So, overall I am fairly happy with these changes. These changes have a very small decrease in overall CMC of my deck but at the same time I am cutting larger mana ramp to do this. I think it will result in more synergy with my commander though so I think its a good thing. I did want to squeeze in another removal effect if possible so I will think about that a bit more but I just wish I felt like there was another.... better option than Disenchant / Oblation as both of them feel a little underwhelming to add. Act of Authority and Ray of Distortion are also kind of on the consideration list but I am not especially excited about either prospect.
I will think about it. My problem with that is last week I ended up using Tragic Arrogance to get out of a Faith's Fetters. Assuming my answer in a situation like that was Council's Judgment I have like.... 90% certainty that I would not get to exile my choice.
I have a hard time with Council's Judgment because I have always felt it is a card that you have to legitimately not look to be doing well for it to land how you want. I guess it depends some on how political you can be but whenever I give anyone else a say in how my effect works there is always a question of how well I am doing and what I am going after. In a lot of cases I prefer to just be in control of the effect.
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Emrakul, the Promised End - its totally in there for flavor . That said, I have closed out a good number of games with it. Its surprising how much sabotage you can do to someone when you hijack them for a turn. I swing people's commanders into Emrakul and drop them into the graveyard like all the time lol. It totally got added because of the flavor of it though especially in relation to the flavor text of Gisela and Bruna.
Cavern of Souls - when I started this I was building more as a stall and value with Gisela. I suppose its probably time to put it in there considering how much more focus I have shifted to Gisela of late. I do own 6 of these buggers after all (4 foils lol)
Eiganjo Castle is probably something I should make room for as well.
Lol, I figured as much. I imagine that Emrakul can do a lot of sabotage with having the Tabernacle cards in play. You can choose not to pay the upkeep for any of the creatures and then they'd have to be destroyed.
Eiganjo Castle would be a good addition since it can save some of your creatures from burn. It doesn't enter tapped and it gives colored mana.
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Have you considered Island Sanctuary? I did a quick skim of your thread and didn't see it mentioned. Seems like it would be a slightly less effective Moat effect, which is still very powerful.
Edit: I guess I forgot that it was limited to creatures attacking you. Still seems decent?
Lol, I figured as much. I imagine that Emrakul can do a lot of sabotage with having the Tabernacle cards in play. You can choose not to pay the upkeep for any of the creatures and then they'd have to be destroyed.
Eiganjo Castle would be a good addition since it can save some of your creatures from burn. It doesn't enter tapped and it gives colored mana.
I still have some fears of lowering my basic lands too far but given that both of these provide me with white mana for casting my commander I am more ok with it. Reducing basic land count hurts Emeria a little but honestly that is far from consistent anyways so I dont mind that trade off.
Have you considered Island Sanctuary? I did a quick skim of your thread and didn't see it mentioned. Seems like it would be a slightly less effective Moat effect, which is still very powerful.
Edit: I guess I forgot that it was limited to creatures attacking you. Still seems decent?
Island Sanctuary really has two big flaws if you ask me. 1) It does not defend you the turn you play it. 2) It costs you a card / turn to maintain. Its always optional to not pay the card but then you expose yourself to haymaker / burst decks. The fact that it has to be played / set up ahead of time is probably the biggest flaw if you ask me. The fact that people can still attack other players is probably the best redemption of this card as whenever possible I do want my opponents to be killing one another.
Really its a combination of elements but giving up card draw in mono white is incredibly painful. Due to this I like the card a little more when looking to a multicolored deck especially like a UW deck. Its also slow to take effect which is really too bad. I like the flavor of the card and if you could have it kick in the turn you drop it I really would possibly consider it but the combination of issues with it really get me to consider other possibilities.
Plains -> Cavern of Souls being that it still gives me the white for my commander cast I dont see this as much of an issue. My basic count is getting a little lower for Emeria but that isn't a very consistent thing anyways in here.
Plains -> Eiganjo Castle similar to above it gives me the white still. It hasn't been very often but on occasion something like an Inferno Titan / Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle has shot me down and it would be nice to have a small bit of protection from that built into my landbase.
Stonehewer Giant -> Survival Cache I keep second guessing myself here. Stonehewer is just sooooo slow and I really need card advantage here. Survival Cache is sort of a ghetto white Sign in Blood but at the same time its very hard to come by in white and its likely that it will draw me 2 cards. I want Stonehewer to be good but its so slow as a tap for value based creature that I just kind of get this feeling that he is too slow.
Like I said, I am still very torn with Stonehewer Giant. I also contemplated it being a Staff of Nin but in the end I just wanted some faster now style of value. I do think that Staff of Nin is an ok card in mono white but even then I have so many permanents that I am trying to jumble together for Gisela that I felt that it might be better to take an immediate card advantage now than to push my luck for another big expensive card advantage engine. In a lot of case there is also a question of how quickly these things go active as well as how much attention I am drawing with them. Being that Gisela plays into the earlier turns of the game and she picks up equipment and such I felt it was better to rely on a one shot in this case.
With so much big Eldrazi, why are you not running Gauntlet of Power and/or Caged sun and/or Extraplanar Lens? If you can stick one of them they provide all the acceleration you need all by themselves.
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With so much big Eldrazi, why are you not running Gauntlet of Power and/or Caged sun and/or Extraplanar Lens? If you can stick one of them they provide all the acceleration you need all by themselves.
Extraplanar Lens off of 3 Plains will still give you a turn 4 Gisela at least. So it's not accelerated but still not a loss of tempo. And after that all your Plains give WW when tapped for mana. I don't think it's so bad. Even midgame it's still a good draw. It doesn't impact the game when drawn, but it has potential.
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With so much big Eldrazi, why are you not running Gauntlet of Power and/or Caged sun and/or Extraplanar Lens? If you can stick one of them they provide all the acceleration you need all by themselves.
Extraplanar Lens off of 3 Plains will still give you a turn 4 Gisela at least. So it's not accelerated but still not a loss of tempo. And after that all your Plains give WW when tapped for mana. I don't think it's so bad. Even midgame it's still a good draw. It doesn't impact the game when drawn, but it has potential.
By far my biggest issue with mana doublers in this deck is that the deck just doesn't have much to do with a huge surplus of mana. I dont have big X mana spells and I am not running Sacred Mesa / Mobilization tactics. I have 6 cards that are 8+ mana, of which 3 of them are 10+ mana. When you look at playing a 5-6 mana double mana effect, you arent ramping that much into these cards so mostly you are talking about playing them on curve and having at least one or more of these 6 cards in hand to be played early. For these effects to really make sense in this case since I dont really have mana sinks it means I need to curve into a mana doubler and then also have a big mana card to follow it up which sounds too much like a specific hand to me.
My issue is that there are not that many cards that we are talking about ramping into and in general I dont have the card economy to need that amount of mana and I also am not running mana sinks to dump that kind of mana. When I cut Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus recently I put some thought into this and in the end I felt that I just wasn't running enough cards to justify slots to try to ramp into a faster 8+ mana card when most of my deck is focusing on hitting the 4-6 mana range.
When it comes to Extraplanar Lens, my only issue is how often I have seen it get spot removed. I dont want to be set back a land in play in the case that it gets popped when I play it. I have always felt that Extraplanar Lens is a better play in a case where you already have a bunch of mana and for a very cheap investment you suddenly have a large burst of mana in the same turn. In that sense I have always felt that Extraplanar Lens is actually more of a big mana combo card rather than something you would want to curve out due to the high probability of it dying within the next few turns.
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Fair enough, I can see that working out the way you say. But if that is your view, wouldn't it make sense to replace Everflowing Chalice with Worn Powerstone? The latter can tap for 2 if you play it pre-Gisela for 3, whereas Chalice is on Gisela's spot on the curve for 4. Normally I would say the chalice is better since it can be a mana rock for 3+ later in the game but if you focus on the 4-6 cmc range anyway I think this might serve you better in any given opening hand than the chalice does.
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Fair enough, I can see that working out the way you say. But if that is your view, wouldn't it make sense to replace Everflowing Chalice with Worn Powerstone? The latter can tap for 2 if you play it pre-Gisela for 3, whereas Chalice is on Gisela's spot on the curve for 4. Normally I would say the chalice is better since it can be a mana rock for 3+ later in the game but if you focus on the 4-6 cmc range anyway I think this might serve you better in any given opening hand than the chalice does.
Gisela costs 2WW to cast. If I have Everflowing Chalice in my opening hand I am going to cast it for 2 mana and use it to advance Gisela to turn three. I find it to be a very flexible mana stone given this as if I draw it later I am probably going to try to cast it at 6 mana. Worn Powerstone really shines when you start getting to the 6 mana commanders (or sometimes even 5). Worn Powerstone comes in tapped on turn 3 and on turn 4 assuming you hit all of your land drops you will have 6 mana. With Gisela, it would really only do work for me if I dont have my 4th land drop as it is not ramping her into play. Its possible that Worn Powerstone could ramp me into better follow up plays but I am more focused on bringing Gisela into play and being able to enable her.
I have had a few changes I have been trying to work out for a while now. I really do need to get in more games to test some of the more recent changes more as well as I think I have only managed 2 games since a lot of the changes went through. In one of the games I got Sol Ring and no follow up and the other I got Mana Crypt into all the action and I shut down the other two players quick. I moved to a new meta somewhat recently and some of the decks in the new meta utilize some MLD and in general there seems to be less creature tactics and more haymaker wins / lock up games.
DECK CHANGES:
Avarice Amulet -> Teferi's Protection I just never could find myself being all that happy about the amulet. Its draw and its buff but all of it feels underwhelming and a little expensive for what it costs. I have so far found Teferi's Protection to be amazing every time I have seen it so in it goes for testing. Luckily I own 4 copies lol.
Miraculous Recovery -> Profound Journey I will be totally honest that I am a little unsure about this change. Miraculous Recovery has been a decent card but I am not going to use it on my commander and with adding a lot more support for my commander I think I want to move to an any rez.
Ghostly Prison -> Ray of Distortion I have just been seeing less token decks recently and more enchantment based decks. I have been contemplating Ray of Distortion for a while anyways and I just have not been finding myself needing Ghostly Prison nearly as much in this deck.
I will see what I can do about getting more testing in. I will have to fix the changes to the OP list later as I have to run now.
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Now... here I should have probably stayed in the game because I did have Mana Crypt + Thalia's Lancers with a Mask of Memory but I was fairly on tilt and playing a mono white deck vs MLD so I just tilt scooped at this point. Realistically I should not play voltron mono white vs a 6 player FFA but mehhh. It goes to highlight that being the aggro in too big of a game is bad. I also was a little annoyed with all of the premature answers in some cases like the Vhati il-Dal using his kill on me on his turn rather than waiting and hurting more players with its limitation.
Yeah, I feel ya. Sometimes the choices some players make in a multiplayer game eludes me... At least some of the commanders you were playing against seemed pretty casual (or at least not high tier). But I don't think that playthrough would be enough of a gauge for any changes to the deck. Sure, monoW voltron in a 6-player pod is one hell of an uphill battle - perpendicular, even. But all things considering, it's pretty much the greatest weakness to the deck. So instead of any major changes to the deck, I agree that the best course of action is to just use a different deck. As Joshua says in WarGames: "The only winning move is not to play."
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Ashes of the Abhorrent - its a really niche grave hate. In my mind if you are going to pack grave hate use better stuff. The life gain is small and mostly not that important outside of a few small triggers where if you could trigger like an Archangel of Thune / Crested Sunmare on opponents turns it would be good but that is more of a case that those cards are good than this one doing much for us.
Axis of Mortality - For the most part, I think this card is terrible. We gain life with this deck too so trading life totals feels even less good. The one commander I can think of where trading life might be nice would be
Selenia, Dark Angel because you could potentially go to 1-2 life and hand that life total to someone else. This could be nice there because you can have the ability to trade life totals on the stack and then drop your life total which would make it rather challenging to disrupt (takes killing you or stifle).
Bishop of Rebirth - I run 5 targets in the deck. This is not a very good card either on top of having like no targets.
Goring Ceratops - Man.... they really intentionally sand bagged this creature. It costs too much, its stats are bad, and it needs to attack to anthem. Its really bad.
Ixalan's Binding - It is kind of poorly designed if you ask me. Its this odd cross over between Nevermore and Oblivion Ring but really they should have had the wording be name a nonland card and exile it rather than target a nonland. Because they had it target commanders are not blocked with this card and that card has to already be present and targetable. I cant believe they designed this card so poorly to be honest.
Kinjalli's Sunwing - I have never valued the tempo gain of opponents creatures entering tapped much. It is a small damage output gain but really it would take good stats or another ability to offset for it to make it worthwhile in this format. I think creatures entering tapped is probably at its worst in this format.
Legion's Landing / Adanto, the First Fort I cant flip this card so I guess I cant really run it. The ramp and chump blockers could be useful here given we are mono white. It could also give some potential defense vs some edict stuff but I cant flip it so I guess not. Its really unfortunate because in a way, I think decks that cant flip it are the ones who would benefit the most from the land part of the card.
Sanguine Sacrament - Pure lifegain with no other effect is almost always bad. It could trigger some of our when you gain life cards but the card is weak.
Tocatli Honor Guard - I do like Torpor Orb effects. If you are already running Torpor Orb effects it could be nice. Ultimately though I think its probably the weakest of the Torpor Orb effects.
Conqueror's Galleon / Conqueror's Foothold This card has a number of issues with it including the fact that it is also a 4 drop which makes it awkward on curve with Gisela as well as the fact that tapping our commander to activate it is also not all that ideal. I will say though that the land portion of this card does seem really strong to me in a mono white deck. You could also cast Conqueror's Galleon then the following turn Gisela and crew it that turn which is probably less awkward than casting Gisela, then casting Conqueror's Galleon, then waiting another turn to crew it because of summoning sickness. I think its awkward and yet the reward land that comes from it is kind of nice looking.
Dowsing Dagger / Lost Vale - So, this gives me a damage boost for a turn and then a big burst of mana. Its really sort of like getting a Thran Dynamo that gives a damage boost first and then turns into a land which is less likely to get swept. This seems strong to me.
Sorcerous Spyglass - So, this is very similar to Pithing Needle but instead of being 1 mana you pay 2 and you get to peek at someone's hand. I actually like that trade off in this format where you usually should not need the difference between a 1 and 2 mana Pithing Needle.
Thaumatic Compass / Spires of Orazca - I played with this card some in my Kefnet deck. While I think the card is strong in decks like this I think the backfire potential is too strong for voltron strategies against Thespian's Stage / Vesuva. I am going to say that I think this is probably a meta call in that if you don't see a great deal of land copy lands then I think this card is probably a strong consideration but if you do see that sort of thing I think its safer to just avoid this card. Its possible that you may have the Strip Mine effect to save yourself but I just don't see a reason to open up issues.
Treasure Map / Treasure Cove - So, I guess I could see this card working here. I still continuously find myself annoyed that it takes three turns to flip it but scry isn't half bad in mono white and the land it flips to can give me three draw / ramp which is kind of nice too. I see potential in it but its hard to say offhand. I see it as a card that I am happy the sooner I draw it and more annoyed at it the later I draw it given the time to flip it and the time to nibble down those treasures for draw.
Vanquisher's Banner - Its slow and we are not tribal so its a bad buff. It also falls behind curve of our commander and I don't suspect it would draw us much. Its just bad.
Righteous Aura -> Hammer of Nazahn I like the idea behind Righteous Aura but I think ultimately it was a little too awkward in what it defended me from. I think essentially it comes to like.... single big hits that it would defend from which is mostly like voltron and perhaps a few random decks that might throw some sort of big Fireball that is like.... not black lol (Esxanguinate is life loss). I am excited to try out Hammer of Nazahn in this deck. I really wish the hammer itself also was indestructible but even without it adds protection for my commander, it saves mana in my equipping, and it gives me a power boost.
Eldrazi Conscription -> Umezawa's Jitte Back when I did less buffing of my commander and utilized more threats I liked the conscription more but as I have moved to utilizing more focus on Gisela I have come to dislike the expensive aura because I feel its so all in when I am already putting so much focus on building up my commander. Due to this I wanted something cheaper and more sticky and so here I am with Jitte. I have always liked Jitte in voltron decks given the -/- and the +/+ both feel very relivant. I have a lot of lifegain triggers things effects in this deck as well so I guess I could like gain life and trigger some things off that too. The more thought I give to Jitte the more it seems like a great fit in the deck.
Burnished Hart -> Dowsing Dagger - So, Burnished really feels a little odd in here and it really just feels like me trying to value squeeze out two lands. I think the dagger feels like it has more synergy with the deck and it curves a lot better with my commander. Giving an opponent a few defender plants can also be a little political so that's kind of nice.
Not to overly complicate this post but I figured I would post a few other ideas I had while looking at these changes. I had several other cards that I am eyeing as potential cuts as well as other concepts and ideas that I could see possibly expanding on.
CONCERNED WITH:
Champion's Helm - Honestly I really don't much care for the hexproof until and unless I meld my commander, or play Avacyn / Eldrazi creatures. Avacyn is very robust if you can put a hexproof effect on her but I feel like I am holding out on this equipment when I don't really love it.
Ray of Distortion - I am a little worried about how bad of a tempo play it is. I have not drawn it yet and while I like the value of having two spot removal effects from it especially after having run into some arrest effects in a new meta, I constantly second guess its inclusion.
Profound Journey - Really this card is here to recover toys. I like its effect even though I have yet to see it in the deck. The mana cost continues to worry me on this one.
Fireshrieker - I really really like Duelist's Heritage but I worry that the extra equip cost is really not going to be as impressive for me. The deck also does not have as many triggers on combat damage as I had thought. It is probably fine but I guess I just worry.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - honestly I am just getting to the point where my defenses vs tokens feels a little excessive. The cost to play Elesh Norn is a lot and I just feel I have so many outs vs tokens that its not been much of a problem of late. Her anthem buff is so small too when really only utilizing 1-2 attackers at a time. Sometimes her -/- cuts into my opponents utility creatures and commanders but of late I have been feeling her doing less work for me.
CONSIDERING:
Mother of Runes - I did consider adding mom as a defense vs arrest effects as well as spot removal. I think I would really love to play her out in the first few turns before Gisela but I keep thinking of like.... topdecking her later and I feel like I would feel she is super slow. The advantage of protection vs Arrest affects though is that you can protect after it happens and break free. I go back and forth but seeing as that I am not that vulnerable to creature wraths.... maybe?
Valorous Stance - I like the versatility of the spell in that it can remove or protect. I would love to spot protect in response to a wrath. Ideally perhaps with the idea of replacing Swords to Plowshares given the versatility of this card.
Rogue's Gloves - more draw is good right? Its just a little underwhelming in that it feels just as heavy to use as Sword of Fire and Ice but to get half of the effect from it.
Apostle's Blessing / Flickering Ward / Shelter / Spectra Ward - really just some other ideas on some protection. I think I have more issues with them than I do MoM and Valorous though but I thought I would list them as I still think there is some validity to some of them.
EDIT: Eldrazi Displacer - I don't really run much for ETB stuff but this could flicker me through some spot removal / Arrest effects as well as displace opposing attackers or tokens.
EDIT: Stonehewer Giant - the fact that I could draw some hate to Stonehewer Giant instead of my commander. The value over time is good and keeps getting better as I add more and more equipment as well.
I decided after thinking about some of this stuff for the weekend to make a few more changes. In some ways I am taking some more selective responses and trying to turn them into a little more versatile cards that can be used to push for pressure or used defensively.
DECK CHANGES:
Swords to Plowshares -> Valorous Stance with this change, I think in most cases the things I was utilizing swords to plowshares on I feel like most of the time I can still use Valorous Stance on as well. The big difference is that Valorous stance costs a little more and does not exile but on the flip side it can be use to defend my own board vs some wraths / spot removal. More recently with focusing more on Gisela I have found myself being the aggressor a bit more often and so I like the versatility of Valorous Stance from that aspect.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite -> Stonehewer Giant I thought about where I wanted to go with this change for a while. I considered several defensive measures and in every case I felt that the defensive protections were too narrow and hard to keep up at the right times or they had a wait before they went active. In the end I felt that Stonehewer is a good threat in combination with Gisela or in place of to start rebuilding. Really my concern is if I can get Stonehewer Giant to generate value though. I have considered moving the Champion's Helm back to Swiftfoot Boots in part because I am adding him.
I think both of these changes are taking control effects and moving them to more versatile aggro or control effects. The hope is to have less situational cards in hand that are dead while I am doing well because I did have issues with these cards when my deck was working well in a lot of cases.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Its been a while since I updated here. Unfortunately I have not been able to play commander the last two months due to my LGS closing down but I am trying to keep up with things anyways. I think there are some nice colorless options that got added this last set and so I wanted to make some changes to add some draw for this deck especially some that does not focus on my commander being in play to use. I ended up building a counterpart Bruna, the Fading Light deck somewhat recently and it has been a little more of my priority of late but ideally I want both this deck and that one to stick around as both play out very differently.
DECK CHANGES:
Ray of Distortion -> The Immortal Sun I wanted to get a little more removal with the Ray but man.... the card always seemed a little jank. Immortal Sun gives me draw and a small stat buff not to mention its technically a little bit of ramp in its cost reduction. Hating on planeswalkers is really nice for this deck as taking the time to kill a planeswalker with my commander totally sucks.
Champion's Helm -> Golden Guardian (Gold-Forge Garrison) I really just kept having issues with hexproof / shroud protections not being strong enough for me. I felt like I was over extending trying to play those cards to the board and I felt like they were not giving me enough of a buff to make sense for me. Golden Guardian is a little funky still in that I need to buff Gisela before I can split him on her but what I do like about it is that it gives me good ramp and the token production from the flip side seems fairly reasonable to me as a way to give myself more board presence without over extending.
Thawing Glaciers -> Azor's Gateway (Sanctum of the Sun) Thawing seems like a bit of an odd choice in retrospect looking back. I mean.... I do have a bunch of expensive creatures in the deck but its so slow in the early game that I would need other lands in my first several turns if I plan to do anything more than curve my commander. I was kind of eyeing my land count as well asking myself if 39 lands was really appropriate here and I think in retrospect I am going to trim that count by one. Azor's Gateway looks great to me as it gives a cheap filter which I have often felt that this deck needed. I don't really think I will ever flip it but I think the front side of the card is worth running as is. If I do flip it though I have all the mana I should ever need for anything.
Mystifying Maze -> Arch of Orazca the cost to activate both of these cards is actually fairly similar. I still think there are times that a maze is useful but its almost only going to be against opposing voltron decks which while it does happen I think its more viable for me to run a little bit of draw for when I am not facing super burst aggro.
I like that this change gives me more non commander centric draw and mana dumps. White got very little in the last set but I think colorless actually came out quite nice in a way that benefits white more than a lot of colors considering they tend to be one of the more card draw light colors.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I have been fairly low on my time playing magic of late given my LGS closed down back before Christmas. Since then I have only gotten to play one night of magic which makes it hard to really keep up but I am trying to keep my lists up to date with the new releases regardless. Hopefully I figure out something new I can do soon because I certainly miss playing.
Dominaria Set Review:
Karn, Scion of Urza - he is card advantage and a value over time planeswalker. I think that ultimately he isnt half bad but he probably would need to live at least 2-3+ turns for him to really make sense. Given that he costs the same as Gisela and this deck really is not designed for defense so much as being an attacking voltron deck I don't really suspect he will live all that long. Given the lack of expected defense for him I suspect he is not worth including here.
Baird, Steward of Argive - he is mostly inferior to Windborn Muse which is worse than Ghostly Prison so I think that is about all I need to say about him. If you love these effects and run through several of them you may eventually consider this guy but I think he is fairly low priority.
Board the Weatherlight - somewhere around 1/3 of the deck is targetable with this effect. I think its an interesting thought but it still gets just a one for one card draw and its ability to select cards seems low.
Danitha Capashen, Paragon - I like the abilities it has and its stat line. Ultimately though unless I really thought I would suit it up as an alternate wincon though (which I kind of doubt) I don't think it does enough for me.
Dauntless Bodyguard - it could give a little protection but its slow and I don't really have anything to abuse this card with.
Lyra Dawnbringer - Given I already have lifelink on my commander it just gives a small stat gain. Its not a good enough buff given it costs me a card and 5 mana.
Seal Away - its worse removal than what we are already not running. I would go back to Swords to Plowshares or something else over it.
Urza's Ruinous Blast - its an interesting thought and it could be nice to blast away non creatures with this. I like how it does not kill my commander. Still, I rely a lot on buffing my commander so it also strips away my own build up. I think it could work here but I am going to put it on the backburner for now.
Blackblade Reforged - Given this is a voltron deck and most of the other alternate wincons are big legends too... I think this is nice as it does curve behind Gisela really nicely and unlike some effects like Strata Scythe it is not punished by running nonbasic lands. You can always argue that Strata Scythe can be buffed by opponents lands I never rely on that because it so rarely adds up.
Mox Amber - It doesn't ramp into the commander or help replay them.
Traxos, Scourge of Kroog - He is big and cheap but he overlaps in cost with Gisela and while we are not low on historic effects, its really not built on it. I can't think of many decks that Traxos in the 99 might be all that interesting.
Weatherlight - Given I am a voltron deck having a creature to activate vehicles is tough. I love the effect that this card has but I don't see how I could reliably activate it.
Overall there isn't a lot to really talk about this set. There are several cards that seemed like they were maybe close to considerations but for one reason or another did not fit the concept I was going for here. Karn for instance would be great..... if I could keep him alive which I don't suspect I can here. Blackblade Reforged is the only card I really see myself picking up for this deck.
DECK CHANGES:
Dowsing Dagger -> Blackblade Reforged I have been giving it more thought and Dowsing Dagger is a card that has been a bit lacking for me given that its buff is not that big and flipping it also has been questionable as to how relevant it is given that I set up my commander and then set up the dagger and flip it I just question that I sort of gave up a turn to ramp after my commander as a setup for the next time I may need to cast my commander. Sword of the Animist adds up over multiple turns for future ramp while also constantly giving me a buff to my commander. As it stands I am still ok with Sword of the Animist but I think I want to part ways with Dowsing Dagger. Blackblade Reforged looks like a great size buff that should curve well with my commander.
From there the other two players started putting together some ground attackers and I moved to a 2x Moat / Magus of the Moat defense as I moved to the offensive with Serra Ascendant and soon after Gisela with 2 counters on her from Opal Palace.
In the end I pushed through with Moat defense that game. It was a super satisfying win. With the few extra recent games I wanted to push a few things around.
DECK CHANGES:
Angel of the Dire Hour -> Comeuppance The angel's body mostly kind of sucks and what I want here is a cheap answer to being swarmed. I cant really abuse the angel in any way so it seems like a smart move to take the cheaper answer to being swarmed.
Erratic Portal -> Duelist's Heritage I dont know what my hopes for the portal were. My commander is cheap enough that its not that big of a deal to recast her considering the lack of card advantage in mono white. I really like that this enchantment in that I can buff opponents when they attack someone other than me and really it doubles the clock of Gisela as well as multi triggering some of my equipment. It is fast acting and somewhat cheap to combine in a turn with something else.
I also considered a few other cards with these changes. In the end I am happy with the ones I decided on but I figured I would mention a few that sort of stood out at the time:
Mystic Barrier The Moats have been doing quite well for me. This one unfortunately controlls me a little too but I can still pick and choose where I am going and who is coming at me. I do sort of like it from the element that it can really funnel someone who has big threats not at me but at the same time it draws a lot of ire from those who are being funneled at as well so I feel like it perhaps gets answered more than something that just stops attackers from happening.
Haazda Shield Mate He is strong on defense and pairs well with having low card economy as he makes more sense to sit behind with low resources. Unlike Peacekeeper he allows me to continue being offensive plus allow opponents to hit each other with just a bit of a harder time focusing me.
Armored Ascension I like the burst of offensive power. I dont have a lot of big bursts of commander damage but I could see this adding 1-2 commander swing turns to my clock. Auras are always a little wonky though.
Parallax Wave I like it from an offense and defense standpoint. I could remove key creatures during an attack aimed at me or jump important creatures through a wrath. When this card hits play you generally sort of own the board for the next 2-3 turns.
Righteous Aura it could be strong against big bursts of damage / voltron tactics. It does almost nothing to tokens but it gives you defensive capabilities to just swing with a commander and keep mana up which I do like.
Disenchant / Act of Authority its hard to ever have too many disenchant effects.
Rout its a solid creature wrath. I often find my noncreatures a little more important than my creatures so I try to keep my wraths here to creatures if I can help it and then supplement with some spot removal. I chose to go with Comeuppance for now but I could see reasons to go with Rout also.
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[Modern] Allies
I've noticed that your quite the white mage! Your decks using W are very insightful! I feel that W can be a very difficult color to play around with in commander without supporting colors but your lists and descriptions help a lot with overcoming that hurdle. The eldrazi angel is definitely a deck I wanna build, as I've said before. Good thing I'm keeping my eyes on this thread!
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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Thanks, I honestly didn't really think this deck was going to work but a cheap evasive commander with a powerful stat line is actually very impressive when it comes to equipment value. I really really love the idea and feel of a mono white flyer and the feeling of Moats / Tabernacle. I happen to own them so I like putting them to use. Even for those who dont own a Moat I suspect that Magus of the Moat, Magus of the Tabernacle, Mystic Barrier, Righteous Aura, Ghostly Prison, and Haazda Shield Mate can all come in as good considerations on how to put together a similar style / feel to it.
I really really do love playing mono white. I have always been a sucker for mono colored decks and white has always been my favorite. One of the hardest obstacles to overcome in mono white is often how to keep being relevant / how to not run out of card advantage and so I usually approach a lot of my decks with a question of how to not flounder with nothing to do. Gisela I started out with as a concept of what if she just bought me time early on with a beater who gives me a life buffer and then I noticed how she was in so early that a lot of equipment was doing a lot of work for her. Then I started noticing I was chip killing a lot of people with her by just swinging for some value and stalling.
I have been working on the OP a little bit today but really there are so many amazing interactions with Gisela and she really can become a beast very easily.
I totally am a W mage through and through
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[Modern] Allies
DECK CHANGE:
Sunscorch Regent -> Bastion Protector I really do like Sunscorch Regent but its like good as a standalone threat. I keep feeling like I am overcommitting when I try to get it going with Gisela in play and it doesnt really further anything on its own. Given the built in lifegain and beater status of my commander I have been feeling like the Regent has been too much of like an alternate threat to cast instead of my commander and in that I haven't liked it that much. I really do like this card but given what my priorities are in this deck I have felt like its too much of like I could cast it instead of my commander after a wrath rather than feeling like I want to cast it alongside my commander. Bastion Protector buffs my commander and gives me some semblance of wrath protection as well as being a good curve into play. It gives me more proactive things to do that also set me up a little for post wrath which is nice.
I had been thinking this one over the last few days. In some regard Serra Ascendant is also a similar role but for now I will keep it given its super low cost and its impact for its cost is crazy. I can see room to possibly remove it in the future under similar grounds though.
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[Modern] Allies
It would be a cute pickup interaction but I generally focus on two priorities in my ramp here:
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[Modern] Allies
DECK CHANGES:
So, overall I am fairly happy with these changes. These changes have a very small decrease in overall CMC of my deck but at the same time I am cutting larger mana ramp to do this. I think it will result in more synergy with my commander though so I think its a good thing. I did want to squeeze in another removal effect if possible so I will think about that a bit more but I just wish I felt like there was another.... better option than Disenchant / Oblation as both of them feel a little underwhelming to add. Act of Authority and Ray of Distortion are also kind of on the consideration list but I am not especially excited about either prospect.
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[Modern] Allies
I will think about it. My problem with that is last week I ended up using Tragic Arrogance to get out of a Faith's Fetters. Assuming my answer in a situation like that was Council's Judgment I have like.... 90% certainty that I would not get to exile my choice.
I have a hard time with Council's Judgment because I have always felt it is a card that you have to legitimately not look to be doing well for it to land how you want. I guess it depends some on how political you can be but whenever I give anyone else a say in how my effect works there is always a question of how well I am doing and what I am going after. In a lot of cases I prefer to just be in control of the effect.
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[Modern] Allies
A couple of questions though:
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
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Emrakul, the Promised End - its totally in there for flavor . That said, I have closed out a good number of games with it. Its surprising how much sabotage you can do to someone when you hijack them for a turn. I swing people's commanders into Emrakul and drop them into the graveyard like all the time lol. It totally got added because of the flavor of it though especially in relation to the flavor text of Gisela and Bruna.
Cavern of Souls - when I started this I was building more as a stall and value with Gisela. I suppose its probably time to put it in there considering how much more focus I have shifted to Gisela of late. I do own 6 of these buggers after all (4 foils lol)
Eiganjo Castle is probably something I should make room for as well.
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[Modern] Allies
Eiganjo Castle would be a good addition since it can save some of your creatures from burn. It doesn't enter tapped and it gives colored mana.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
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Edit: I guess I forgot that it was limited to creatures attacking you. Still seems decent?
Currently Playing:
Multiplayer EDH Lists (click italics for a link to the thread!)
[Primer] Lord of Tresserhorn - Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do[Primer] Roon of the Hidden Realm - Rhino Blink
5 Color Tribal Guide (Slivers, Atogs, Allies, Spirits)
Also Playing (most decklists can be found on my profile)
MarathGeistKamahlGrenzoBolasThassaGitrog
PiratesZurVial Smasher&ThrasiosYennettJhoira(cEDH)Strix(Pauper)
Legacy: Maverick
Modern:
Melira PodRIP 1/19/15GWHatebearsI still have some fears of lowering my basic lands too far but given that both of these provide me with white mana for casting my commander I am more ok with it. Reducing basic land count hurts Emeria a little but honestly that is far from consistent anyways so I dont mind that trade off.
Island Sanctuary really has two big flaws if you ask me. 1) It does not defend you the turn you play it. 2) It costs you a card / turn to maintain. Its always optional to not pay the card but then you expose yourself to haymaker / burst decks. The fact that it has to be played / set up ahead of time is probably the biggest flaw if you ask me. The fact that people can still attack other players is probably the best redemption of this card as whenever possible I do want my opponents to be killing one another.
Really its a combination of elements but giving up card draw in mono white is incredibly painful. Due to this I like the card a little more when looking to a multicolored deck especially like a UW deck. Its also slow to take effect which is really too bad. I like the flavor of the card and if you could have it kick in the turn you drop it I really would possibly consider it but the combination of issues with it really get me to consider other possibilities.
There are also a lot of other effects that could work such as Haazda Shield Mate, Crawlspace, Silent Arbiter, and Mystic Barrier as well which they all have some merit in how they function.
DECK CHANGES:
Plains -> Cavern of Souls being that it still gives me the white for my commander cast I dont see this as much of an issue. My basic count is getting a little lower for Emeria but that isn't a very consistent thing anyways in here.
Plains -> Eiganjo Castle similar to above it gives me the white still. It hasn't been very often but on occasion something like an Inferno Titan / Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle has shot me down and it would be nice to have a small bit of protection from that built into my landbase.
Stonehewer Giant -> Survival Cache I keep second guessing myself here. Stonehewer is just sooooo slow and I really need card advantage here. Survival Cache is sort of a ghetto white Sign in Blood but at the same time its very hard to come by in white and its likely that it will draw me 2 cards. I want Stonehewer to be good but its so slow as a tap for value based creature that I just kind of get this feeling that he is too slow.
Like I said, I am still very torn with Stonehewer Giant. I also contemplated it being a Staff of Nin but in the end I just wanted some faster now style of value. I do think that Staff of Nin is an ok card in mono white but even then I have so many permanents that I am trying to jumble together for Gisela that I felt that it might be better to take an immediate card advantage now than to push my luck for another big expensive card advantage engine. In a lot of case there is also a question of how quickly these things go active as well as how much attention I am drawing with them. Being that Gisela plays into the earlier turns of the game and she picks up equipment and such I felt it was better to rely on a one shot in this case.
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[Modern] Allies
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Extraplanar Lens off of 3 Plains will still give you a turn 4 Gisela at least. So it's not accelerated but still not a loss of tempo. And after that all your Plains give WW when tapped for mana. I don't think it's so bad. Even midgame it's still a good draw. It doesn't impact the game when drawn, but it has potential.
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My YouTube Channel:
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By far my biggest issue with mana doublers in this deck is that the deck just doesn't have much to do with a huge surplus of mana. I dont have big X mana spells and I am not running Sacred Mesa / Mobilization tactics. I have 6 cards that are 8+ mana, of which 3 of them are 10+ mana. When you look at playing a 5-6 mana double mana effect, you arent ramping that much into these cards so mostly you are talking about playing them on curve and having at least one or more of these 6 cards in hand to be played early. For these effects to really make sense in this case since I dont really have mana sinks it means I need to curve into a mana doubler and then also have a big mana card to follow it up which sounds too much like a specific hand to me.
My issue is that there are not that many cards that we are talking about ramping into and in general I dont have the card economy to need that amount of mana and I also am not running mana sinks to dump that kind of mana. When I cut Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus recently I put some thought into this and in the end I felt that I just wasn't running enough cards to justify slots to try to ramp into a faster 8+ mana card when most of my deck is focusing on hitting the 4-6 mana range.
When it comes to Extraplanar Lens, my only issue is how often I have seen it get spot removed. I dont want to be set back a land in play in the case that it gets popped when I play it. I have always felt that Extraplanar Lens is a better play in a case where you already have a bunch of mana and for a very cheap investment you suddenly have a large burst of mana in the same turn. In that sense I have always felt that Extraplanar Lens is actually more of a big mana combo card rather than something you would want to curve out due to the high probability of it dying within the next few turns.
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[Modern] Allies
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Gisela costs 2WW to cast. If I have Everflowing Chalice in my opening hand I am going to cast it for 2 mana and use it to advance Gisela to turn three. I find it to be a very flexible mana stone given this as if I draw it later I am probably going to try to cast it at 6 mana. Worn Powerstone really shines when you start getting to the 6 mana commanders (or sometimes even 5). Worn Powerstone comes in tapped on turn 3 and on turn 4 assuming you hit all of your land drops you will have 6 mana. With Gisela, it would really only do work for me if I dont have my 4th land drop as it is not ramping her into play. Its possible that Worn Powerstone could ramp me into better follow up plays but I am more focused on bringing Gisela into play and being able to enable her.
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[Modern] Allies
DECK CHANGES:
I will see what I can do about getting more testing in. I will have to fix the changes to the OP list later as I have to run now.
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[Modern] Allies
GAME REPORT:
The game was a 6 player FFA. I cant actually recall the commander of the player to my left but after him it was Marchesa, the Black Rose,
Vhati il-Dal, Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Sydri, Galvanic Genius. We roll and I am going first.
My opening hand is like... Plains, Scavenger Grounds, Wayfarer's Bauble, Mana Crypt, Cradle of Vitality, Austere Command, (cant remember the last card).
T1: Plains, Wayfarer's Bauble, Mana Crypt, pop Wayfarer's Bauble
T2: Scavenger Grounds, Gisela, the Broken Blade
T3: Homeward Path, Cradle of Vitality, attack with Gisela and activate Cradle of Vitality to make her an 8/7.
T4: (no lands to play) Bastion Protector, attack with Gisela and activate Cradle of Vitality to make her an 20/19.
T5: The Vhati il-Dal player had played an Endbringer and it still has summoning sickness. I Stoneforge Mystic intending to get Sword of the Animist to one shot the player who played the endbringer as I need more mana anyways. In response to my stoneforge theough the Hapatra player does a Putrify on my Bastion Protector. I move to a Mask of Memory because I really need to pick up land drops and draw sounds good. I swing in revenge on the Hapatra player who saved the Vhati il-Dal player. I still manage to miss my land drop even with the mask.
T6: The Sydri player wraths all creatures before my turn. I put Gisela in the graveyard as I have Thalia's Lancers. I Thalia's Lancers for Bruna, the Fading Light and get ready to rez and meld.
T7: I mostly am not paying attention to my opponents board states and what they can do so I overlook the fact that Vhati il-Dal has a convoluted commander + Thornbite Staff + creature he played the turn before. I play Bruna, the Fading Light and meld super cool like feeling good. Then Vhati il-Dal shoots me down on his turn. Sydri, Galvanic Genius plays an Armageddon out of nowhere with like... a 7/7 in play is all.
Now... here I should have probably stayed in the game because I did have Mana Crypt + Thalia's Lancers with a Mask of Memory but I was fairly on tilt and playing a mono white deck vs MLD so I just tilt scooped at this point. Realistically I should not play voltron mono white vs a 6 player FFA but mehhh. It goes to highlight that being the aggro in too big of a game is bad. I also was a little annoyed with all of the premature answers in some cases like the Vhati il-Dal using his kill on me on his turn rather than waiting and hurting more players with its limitation.
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[Modern] Allies
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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Really, as it stands I think that Dowsing Dagger / Lost Vale looks promising and I need to put some thought into Treasure Map / Treasure Cove. While I want to make Conqueror's Galleon / Conqueror's Foothold work here I just don't see it working out for me.
DECK CHANGES:
Not to overly complicate this post but I figured I would post a few other ideas I had while looking at these changes. I had several other cards that I am eyeing as potential cuts as well as other concepts and ideas that I could see possibly expanding on.
CONCERNED WITH:
CONSIDERING:
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[Modern] Allies
DECK CHANGES:
I think both of these changes are taking control effects and moving them to more versatile aggro or control effects. The hope is to have less situational cards in hand that are dead while I am doing well because I did have issues with these cards when my deck was working well in a lot of cases.
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[Modern] Allies
DECK CHANGES:
I like that this change gives me more non commander centric draw and mana dumps. White got very little in the last set but I think colorless actually came out quite nice in a way that benefits white more than a lot of colors considering they tend to be one of the more card draw light colors.
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[Modern] Allies
Dominaria Set Review:
Overall there isn't a lot to really talk about this set. There are several cards that seemed like they were maybe close to considerations but for one reason or another did not fit the concept I was going for here. Karn for instance would be great..... if I could keep him alive which I don't suspect I can here. Blackblade Reforged is the only card I really see myself picking up for this deck.
DECK CHANGES:
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[Modern] Allies