I know you clicked on this thread because you want to know why Xira Arien loves crackers, but I'm not going to tell you...other then to say that when I'm talking about crackers I'm talking about white people.., I mean white bordered cards(Since Xira is black she can get away with saying stuff like that.:weird:). All cards in the deck will be white border. No card in the deck will be black bordered. So it is written.
Thanks for checking this thread out, I consider any and all advice, so please share openly. I play in both highly competitive, and extremely casual groups so I like to have decks to play at both ends. I like to win when possible, so even in Casual groups I try to make sure my decks still have the potential to win every time, even with the limitations of no cheezoid infi combos. But we know how multiplayer goes, don't we? Thanks!:D
And don't tell anyone, but this is my first post in MTGS-ok second because I introduced myself; and I think my first post about Magic ever.
So you may not know me, my name is Sean btw, but I already feel welcomed into the community.
I hope you enjoy my first take at a deck run-through. Comments welcomed!
Lets get you some particulars you need to know before we get started.
Magic Type: Paper magic Deck type: Commander Commander:Xira Arien Playgroup: Competitively Casual (a few griefer cards is ok, a deck jammed full of them is not ok. "I kill you all on the 3rd turn" is generally frowned upon. Not many people looking to combo and kill everyone, but combo to kill 1 person is fine.) Budget: None Restrictions: All cards in the deck must be printed white boarder, not modified Themes: X Spells, Prevention Focus: Control Player Type: Spike Playstyle: Non threatening-small board presence, Responsive, Protective. Alpha strike last one or two opponents.
Why would you play a deck which restricts you to old, underpowered, white bordered cards?
-As MTG's Mark Rosewater always says: "Restriction breeds creativity."
-I like the challenge of creating a deck with limitations that is still good.
-Honestly, its fun to say to a table, I just beat you all with a white bordered deck(ok maybe so, just don't be a jerk about it. This is Casual after all!)
-Sorry, but Mind Twist and Overwhelming Forces, to name a couple, are not underpowered.
There are lots of commanders out there, why choose Xira Arien?
-Well I hope not everyone shares my sentiment/personal preference or else all games of EDH will be really boring. "I'm playing Xira Arien." "Me as well!" "Me three!" ...
-She is very passive and is almost never a target of spot removal.
-She draws a free card every turn. I hear CA is pretty useful.
-After looking at all the white bordered cards, I decided(personal opinion) that Jund had the best spells to offer me.
You will like this deck if you like:
-Putting restrictions on yourself.
-Playing control style decks.
-Being friends with Jund.
-Stealing victories from under your opponents over abused board states.
-Drawing free cards every turn and no one caring.
-Not needing your commander to win.
You will not like this deck if you like:
-Smashing your enemies with Timmys, though the deck does have a few of them.
-A mostly proactive playstyle.
-Overcomplicated board states.
-Infinite Combos.
-Winning with your commander.
DECKLIST: Without further adieu, I give to you my crack(pun intended) at a Xira Arien Commander deck. fyi: Sorted Functionally!
Hecatomb+4xCreature Producer(Sengir Autocrat, Thelonite Hermit)
This is the main reason the deck has lots of Swamps. This is to be used in the late game only, hopefully when the final couple opponents to do not have an answer waiting in their hands because they have wasted them on other threats.
Swamp+Drain Life(Soul Burn, Corrupt, Consume Spirit)
The other reason the deck has lots of Swamps. I know its kind of a wierd 'key interaction' but hey, "beggers can't be choosers."
Recursion(Regrowth, Elven Cache, Betrayal of Flesh) is hopefully saved to bring back these threats and finish the game with a 'W' and not an 'L'.
Cool card choices, I bet the deck looks pretty sweet when it is all 'white bordered out'(It does, thanks), but how does it play? Early game
Goal: Gain Card advantage
-Drop lands, play commander, use commander to gain Card Advantage. *Important note* *use Xira to draw at EOT right before you untap so you can leave mana up for removal if necessary*
-Keep eye for people trying to gain quick wins.
-Take the few points of damage, don't waste precious spot/mass removal yet.
Mid Game
Goal: Don't become extinct, Keep your board(read threat level) to a minimum. Notice I said minimum, not empty. You need to have some presence or else someone will be free to attack you without any repercussions. Aaaannd we don't want that, do we?
-People's battlefields should be getting pretty big, then wiped, then big..well you've played commander before so you know.
-Continue to try and gain card advantage with that underwhelming commander of yours.
-Protect yourself when necessary from being wiped out. Instant creature removal is key here.
-The Creatures in the deck are not yet for attacking and doing damage, they are for preventing/discouraging people from attacking you. It is good to have 1 or 2 of them out, but not more than that because of board wipes. Broken Fall protects them to some extent.
-The protection package is also designed to dishearten people from attacking you. We want people think they gain nothing from attacking you and that they should attack someone who they could do serious damage to.
-If you need to tutor for something to stay alive, do it or you will not get a chance later to tutor for the spell you really wanted. If you dont need to tutor to stay alive, save it for the late game.
Late Game
Goal:Win
-Congrats! You've reached the End Game. That means you were not so much of a threat to anyone that they wanted to off you. That means you had enough of a board presence to not just be a limp fish target. That means that others have been ceremoniously, or unceremoniously, knocked out of the game already. What now?
-Those creatures which were for defense can suddenly take the offensive. Notice how they have evasion?(well except for Bloodfire Colossus, and he is really more for mass creature removal anyways. In case you were oblivious to that fact. And Zodiac Dragon, which is just awesome)
-Using cards like Mind Twist and Overwhelming Forces are now HUGE Bombs.
-If you have one half of the Hecatomb 'combo', tutor for the other half. If you have the enchantment, grab the creature. If you have a creature, grab the enchantment.
-Spam X spells FTW. Drain Life, Volcanic Geyser, etc.
-Dong Zhou, the Tyrant your voltron opponent to the face FTW.
I will now try to defend my card choices to you, and you will try to shred my defense. Bring it.fyi: cards will appear in more than one section if they serve multiple functions. As such they will be evaluated in each section for how well they preform solely for that section's purpose. Lands
Color Production: Mono color lands:
8 Forest
7 Mountain
17 Swamp
I needed enough of each color so I can reasonably play my commander on the 3rd or 4th turn. With my mana base that gives me 15 of each color. Id like more but I really do not want to cut swamps because they are needed for 'teh winning'-which is kinda the purpose, I think. Duel color lands:
Duels: Badlands, Taiga, Bayou
Pain lands: Sulfurous Springs, Karplusan Forest, Llanowar Wastes
Enters battlefield tapped: Urborg Volcano, Shivan Oasis
The choices for good multicolor lands are lacking in white border. I included what I could.
Pain lands will usually be tapping for colorless with the following exceptions: If needed to cast my commander in the first few turns, or when wanting black for a Drain Life or its kin. Tri color lands: Darigaaz's Caldera, Wayfarer's Bauble
Ok, I know, technically Wayfarer's Bauble is not even a land at all. But in reality, all I need is the three different colored mana for casting my commander early game, and after that, color is almost irrelevant. Will mostly be fetching a swamp unless I need it in the first few turns.
Utility lands: Strip Mine
Great for mana in X spells or recasting general, and can double to kill those pesky lands(read: Cabal Coffers). Bottomless Vault
Its sole purpose to to power up those Consume Spirit spells for lethal damage.
Win Conditions
Combo: Hecatomb+Sengir AutocratorThelonite Hermit+..guess what? Swamp
If tapping a swamp to deal a damage is not good(I didn't say the best) in EDH, I don't know what is.
It should also be noted that even if you don't sacrifice the creatures, Hecatomb is on the battlefield and its damage ability can be used before its ETB is resolved and it is saced.
X Spells: In order from best to worst Tier1:Soul Burn, Corrupt, Drain Life, Consume Spirit
These are top tier because they gain life while doing damage, thus hopefully prolonging your life. AND hopefully allow you to use tier 3 X spells.
Soul Burn is best because you can use both black and red mana for a higher X.
Hard Call because Corrupt allows you to do other things like tutor for it in the same turn while still dealing max damage, or leave up mana for removal. However Drain Life and Consume Spirit allow you utilize Pain+Tapped lands for black mana which equals more damage and life gain. Tier2:Volcanic Geyser, Fireball, Rolling Thunder
These cards, while not gaining life, do use all available mana for a high total X dmg.
Volcanic Geyser is an instant so you can EOT it on their turn and then blast another one off on your turn.
Fireball, simply put, costs one less than Rolling Thunder for this purpose.
Searing Wind is an instant, but limited to only(lol) 10 damage. Tier3:Rolling Earthquake, Earthquake, Inferno, Bloodfire Colossus
These are tier 3 because they harm you too, but all you need to do is have more life than your enemy and voila, you've won!
Rolling Earthquake is better than Earthquake in that it hits all creatures; because lets be honest, how many horsemanship creatures do you actually see played?
Inferno is an instant, again for EOT purposes.
Bloodfire colossus is more damage to the dome if necessary.
Creatures:In no particular Order, because they are all good in very different ways. Able to damage defender when blocked: Rhox, Thorn Elemental
These can get in there even with the biggest blockers. Extra bonus points to Rhox because he can survive that attack! Flying+Pump: Two-Headed Dragon, Vaevictis Asmadi, Shivan Dragon
They all fly and can pump, but Vaevictis can get HUGE. Extra bonus points to Two-header because he is doubly evasive. Recurrs: Zodiac Dragon
He keeps coming back! (Obviously 'dies to swords or path' ..blah blah blah) Surprise Damage: Dong Zhou, the Tyrant
If you only have one person left and they have a huge general, slap this baby down from mucho damage for little mana cost. Yes it is situational, and I find that im most situations my opponents have a big creature out. Plus after it does its damage its a body.
Protection Cards(read: hopefully Discourages other players from attacking you)
Damage Prevention: Forcefield, Pentagram of the Ages, Horn of Deafening, Riptide Replicator
All of these are great at preventing your life total from dwindling away. Riptide can respond and pop out a big fatty to block. Don't overuse or it will become a target. Usually you only make a couple tokens at a time max. Once again, this keeps your threat meter down. Just leave it untapped as your way to say "Hey I'm a friendly player. This is just here to defend me"
Hopefully someone will look at your board and turn to someone who they can actually do damage to. Hopefully they don't figure out they need to gang up on you to push damage through, since three of those can only be used once per turn.
Deterrent to not attack you: Ice Floe, Meekstone, Ensnaring Bridge, Nevinyrral's Disk
All of these punish people if they damage you. Hopefully they will not want to have their commander stay tapped, and thus, attack someone else.
Note that Meekstone, Disk, and Bridge are a target/make you a target. Use with caution, or save until end game time.
Creatures: Bodies on the battlefield: Vaevictis Asmadi, Shivan Dragon, Two-Headed Dragon, Rhox, Thorn Elemental, Bloodfire Colossus, Zodiac Dragon
They are just bodies on the field to prevent people from attacking you midgame.
There are not many of these blockers, do not lose them by unnecessarily attacking someone and having that player remove them, spottily style. Protection for those bodies: Broken Fall
This protects your creature even if they block. The reason this is better than just another creature is that it can be played over and over again.
Untapped Mana and a hand full of cards
..Oh right, no cards fall under here.
On the flip side this is quite important to preventing people from attacking you. The mental game is just as important as the physical game. If you have lots of mana and a hand full of cards, some people will automatic assume you have an answer to their attack, and thus, will not attack you. Sometimes they will have assumed correctly, and other times they will not have assumed correctly.
Note: this will not prevent everyone from attacking you, but I guarantee it will work some of the time, so use it to your advantage.
Destruction Cards
Mass Creature Removal:In no particular order Hit 'em all: Earthquake, Rolling Earthquake, Inferno, Plague Wind, Nevinyrral's Disk
These cards(with the excpetion of Earthquake-which doesn't kill your commander or other flyers) hit all your opponent's creatures. I shouldn't need to explain more why killing all the opponents creatures is good. Pick and Choose your battles: Rolling Thunder, Dregs of Sorrow, Overwhelming Forces
Rolling thunder can hit lots of wennies, or a couple big threats, or combo piece commanders. Its versatile. Dregs is also nice for picking the ugliest (non black) creatures out there, and just offing them all.
Overwhelming forces is most useful when you are mono-e-mono at the late game, but obviously can be used to sustain life earlier on.
Spot Removal:Most good spot removal are instants, others will be noted Killed by damage:In order from best to worst Volcanic Geyser, Searing Wind, Dwarven Catapult, Fireball
All these are designed to kill off big threats. Dwarven Catapult is a good response card if you have one large creature or a couple medium creatures coming at you, but really bad if its an army of weenies. Fireball is a sorcery, so bad for spot removal in response to attacks, but its an X spell so it can also be used to finish games and target a couple creatures if necessary. Direct destroy:In order from best to worst Broken Visage, Fissure, Betrayal of Flesh, Dark Banishing, Terror, Diabolic Edict
Broken visage is just awesome! They attack, you kill their biggest creature, and block their second biggest. So good. Fissure and Betrayal are both multi purposed. Dark Banishing, Terror, and Edict are all situational since they have restrictions. Edict(obviously is not destroy- its sac), while it does nothing against an army, it is oh soo handy against that one hexproof, voltron or combo commander. Soul Burn, Corrupt, Drain Life, Consume Spirit
Since these are major win cons in the deck, these 4 should not be used unless you foresee your imminent death; but if you do, then by all means you better be using them.
Other destruction type cards: Strip Mine
For Cabal Coffers, Academy Ruins, Volrath's Stronghold, and other utility lands Nevinyrral's Disk
Nobody likes to be disked, except the person who has it under their control. Grave Pact
Since my creatures are mostly for defensive purposes, leaving them open as blockers doubles the deterrent for enemies to attack you. However this thing is a nice big target. Blood moon
Kills so many decks with a thousand dollar mana base. Desert Twister
More expensive then Vindicate, but whatever, still amazing in this deck because of the hard to come by: versatility. Creeping Mold
Kill only the most pesky of enchantments or that artifact which is totally preventing you from winning the game. Fissure
More versatility. Mind Twist
Most useful against the final opponenent but also useful brownie points by making the permission player discard his whole hand, thus enabling the whole table to play. Fork
Spoon. Word of Command
Use this card during peoples upkeep right after they untap. Hopefully they don't have an instant or other mana sink to drain all their mana. Now you can take their sorcery(read Wrath of God) and play it against them. Evil.
Other Goodies:no explanation needed really
Recurssion: Regrowth, Elven Cache
A Commander deck with zero recurrsion is not really a Commander deck.
Draw Power: Ambition's Cost, Phyrexian Arena, Jayemdae's Tome
Drawing cards is, as stated, pretty good. The tome is weak, so if you show me a card better than the Tome, I will replace it. I just can't find any.
Cards I still want to include as space opens up:
Ancient Craving
Draw three is nice! Bottomless Vault
Slap this baby turn 1, and turn 15 its 15 extra damage to the dome and 15 life for me! Tormod's Crypt
Graveyard hate is for the winners! Vampiric Tutor
I like twilight, that's why I include this card... Red Elemental Blast
Blue hate is almost always useful in multiplayer! Diabolic tutor
I like to tutor tutor!(to the tune of "I like to move it, move it) Naturalize
Not sure if/when I include this it will prove useful enough, but I want to try it out.
Hey you forgot to include card X!Either it's in the list below, or is a personal preference, or you're probably right, I miss things too. If I didn't get things wrong and knew all the tricks, do you really thing I would be sharing all my Super Secret Tech with you guys?!?!
Sylvan Library
After testing with this, I found it lacking in usefulness. With only a few shuffle effects and my commander already drawing an extra card each turn this had minimal effect. I know, i was too. Wolf Pack
I wanted to include this card because it has the same effect as Thorn Elemental, but with one less power and one higher CMC it did not make the cut. Ashes to Ashes
While this card is good at exiling two creatures(something this deck lacks), it costs me 5 life and most importantly it is not an instant. Fireball
Really this card should be in and Lava Burst should not, but as stated I could not bring myself to cut the last card from 'Deckmasters' set I have represented in the deck. By all means the deck would be better if I put fireball in. Sol Ring
Since the deck is a slow control deck, I never found myself needing the extra mana quickly. By the time the late game had started someone already Shatterstormed it away. I'd rather have a Swamp, and if you're not sure why you have not been reading this writeup. Shatterstorm
Speaking of Shatterstorm this was in originally, but with the best of my prevention cards being artifact I had to take it out, since it hindered my long game plan. Creature X, Y & Z:
Because I have numerous board wiper cards I wanted to limit my creatures to those with big bodies for defense, and then evasion for killing. If it does not meet those requirements it most likely did not make the deck.
Hmmm, that's weird that you chose this idea+set of cards for the commander. Wouldn't X playstyle be better?
Possibly
Reanimator:
With cards like Animate Dead and Living Death this could be a viable strat. Honestly when I started making this deck I did not know that Salvat existed and I could not find enough big fatties to make the deck seem good enough. Now that I know Salvat exists it could possibly better a more decent deck, but I already chose the control route.
Combo kid:
Yes almost every commander can have some sort of combo package included in his/her deck. I have other decks with combos in them. This is just not one of them. More power to you, Johnny 'Combo' Rocket, if you make a white border combo deck. Woot.
Good stuffs:
Sure go for it dude. I just like my decks to have a theme and a purpose other then, Theme:good stuff, Purpose:Win. A deck with this much restrictions should not be brought to a SSG or similarly competitive tourny with hopes of taking home the gold.
Thanks for checking out my Xira Arien walkthrough! Again my name is Sean, but you can just call me Vala. I hope you are now smarter at Magix, and not stupiderer. Please help make me smarter by pointing out better cards, cool tricks, etc. that I may have missed!
May the force be with you.
For your convenience, here are all the White border Sets to my knowledge:
Unlimited
3rd(Revised)-9th Editions
Introductory Two-Player & Rivals Quick Start(which are only 4th edition cards)
Starter 1999, 2000
Chronicles
Anthologies
Battle Royal
Beatdown
Deckmasters
Portal Three Kingdoms
Salvat 2005
Arena Insert Promos, (Spanish only)
Actually my "commander" sleeve is clear with two cards in it. It has both versions of Xira back to back, Legends and Chronicles. Because you are totally right, looking at a black bordered Xira is much sexier.
The rest of the deck is all white sleeves, which makes the cards look lolsmall.
While it does not come up on Gatherer or SSG and its kin, Salvat 2005 is a real, legal, paper MtG set. Found mostly in Europe since it is French, Spanish, and Italian only.
Plus while it is almost strictly worse than Fireball, its the only card from the set 'Deckmasters' in the deck and for some strange reason I can't bring myself to cut it. SO sue me.
Wow, I am smart. "S M R T" -Homer Simpson. I thought Lava Burst was my only card from Deckmasters...
Thanks for checking this thread out, I consider any and all advice, so please share openly. I play in both highly competitive, and extremely casual groups so I like to have decks to play at both ends. I like to win when possible, so even in Casual groups I try to make sure my decks still have the potential to win every time, even with the limitations of no cheezoid infi combos. But we know how multiplayer goes, don't we? Thanks!:D
And don't tell anyone, but this is my first post in MTGS-ok second because I introduced myself; and I think my first post about Magic ever.
So you may not know me, my name is Sean btw, but I already feel welcomed into the community.
I hope you enjoy my first take at a deck run-through. Comments welcomed!
Lets get you some particulars you need to know before we get started.
Magic Type: Paper magic
Deck type: Commander
Commander: Xira Arien
Playgroup: Competitively Casual (a few griefer cards is ok, a deck jammed full of them is not ok. "I kill you all on the 3rd turn" is generally frowned upon. Not many people looking to combo and kill everyone, but combo to kill 1 person is fine.)
Budget: None
Restrictions: All cards in the deck must be printed white boarder, not modified
Themes: X Spells, Prevention
Focus: Control
Player Type: Spike
Playstyle: Non threatening-small board presence, Responsive, Protective. Alpha strike last one or two opponents.
Why would you play a deck which restricts you to old, underpowered, white bordered cards?
-I like the challenge of creating a deck with limitations that is still good.
-Honestly, its fun to say to a table, I just beat you all with a white bordered deck(ok maybe so, just don't be a jerk about it. This is Casual after all!)
-Sorry, but Mind Twist and Overwhelming Forces, to name a couple, are not underpowered.
-She is very passive and is almost never a target of spot removal.
-She draws a free card every turn. I hear CA is pretty useful.
-After looking at all the white bordered cards, I decided(personal opinion) that Jund had the best spells to offer me.
You will like this deck if you like:
-Playing control style decks.
-Being friends with Jund.
-Stealing victories from under your opponents over abused board states.
-Drawing free cards every turn and no one caring.
-Not needing your commander to win.
You will not like this deck if you like:
-A mostly proactive playstyle.
-Overcomplicated board states.
-Infinite Combos.
-Winning with your commander.
DECKLIST: Without further adieu, I give to you my crack(pun intended) at a Xira Arien Commander deck. fyi: Sorted Functionally!
1 Xira Arien
Lands 43
17 Swamp
8 Forest
7 Mountain
1 Darigaaz's Caldera
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Taiga
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Urborg Volcano
1 Shivan Oasis
1 Strip Mine
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
Win Cons 6
1 Hecatomb
1 Drain life
1 Corrupt
1 Consume Spirit
1 Soul Burn
1 Dong Zhou, the Tyrant
Sac outlets for Hecatomb 2
1 Sengir Autocrat
1 Thelonite Hermit
Mass Creature Removal 8
1 Earthquake
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Inferno
1 Plague Wind
1 Overwhelming Forces
1 Dregs of Sorrow
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Betrayal of Flesh
1 Broken Visage
1 Fissure
1 Terror
1 Dark Banishing
1 Dwarven Catapult
1 Volcanic Geyser
1 Searing Wind
1 Fireball
1 Diabolic Edict
Creatures 7
1 Bloodfire Colossus
1 Vaevictis Asmadi
1 Two-headed Dragon
1 Shivan Dragon
1 Zodiac Dragon
1 Rhox
1 Thorn Elemental
Tutors/Recursion 6
1 Imperial Seal
1 Grim Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Planar Portal
1 Regrowth
1 Elven Cache
Draw 3
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Jayemdae Tome
1 Mind Twist
1 Creeping Mold
1 Desert Twister
1 Fork
1 Blood Moon
1 Grave Pact
1 Meekstone
1 Word of Command
Protection 7
1 Ice Floe
1 Forcefield
1 Pentagram of the Ages
1 Broken Fall
1 Horn of Deafening
1 Riptide Replicator
1 Ensnaring Bridge
Key Card Interactions
This is the main reason the deck has lots of Swamps. This is to be used in the late game only, hopefully when the final couple opponents to do not have an answer waiting in their hands because they have wasted them on other threats.
Swamp+Drain Life(Soul Burn, Corrupt, Consume Spirit)
The other reason the deck has lots of Swamps. I know its kind of a wierd 'key interaction' but hey, "beggers can't be choosers."
Recursion(Regrowth, Elven Cache, Betrayal of Flesh) is hopefully saved to bring back these threats and finish the game with a 'W' and not an 'L'.
Cool card choices, I bet the deck looks pretty sweet when it is all 'white bordered out'(It does, thanks), but how does it play?
Early game
-Drop lands, play commander, use commander to gain Card Advantage. *Important note* *use Xira to draw at EOT right before you untap so you can leave mana up for removal if necessary*
-Keep eye for people trying to gain quick wins.
-Take the few points of damage, don't waste precious spot/mass removal yet.
-People's battlefields should be getting pretty big, then wiped, then big..well you've played commander before so you know.
-Continue to try and gain card advantage with that underwhelming commander of yours.
-Protect yourself when necessary from being wiped out. Instant creature removal is key here.
-The Creatures in the deck are not yet for attacking and doing damage, they are for preventing/discouraging people from attacking you. It is good to have 1 or 2 of them out, but not more than that because of board wipes. Broken Fall protects them to some extent.
-The protection package is also designed to dishearten people from attacking you. We want people think they gain nothing from attacking you and that they should attack someone who they could do serious damage to.
-If you need to tutor for something to stay alive, do it or you will not get a chance later to tutor for the spell you really wanted. If you dont need to tutor to stay alive, save it for the late game.
-Congrats! You've reached the End Game. That means you were not so much of a threat to anyone that they wanted to off you. That means you had enough of a board presence to not just be a limp fish target. That means that others have been ceremoniously, or unceremoniously, knocked out of the game already. What now?
-Those creatures which were for defense can suddenly take the offensive. Notice how they have evasion?(well except for Bloodfire Colossus, and he is really more for mass creature removal anyways. In case you were oblivious to that fact. And Zodiac Dragon, which is just awesome)
-Using cards like Mind Twist and Overwhelming Forces are now HUGE Bombs.
-If you have one half of the Hecatomb 'combo', tutor for the other half. If you have the enchantment, grab the creature. If you have a creature, grab the enchantment.
-Spam X spells FTW. Drain Life, Volcanic Geyser, etc.
-Dong Zhou, the Tyrant your voltron opponent to the face FTW.
I will now try to defend my card choices to you, and you will try to shred my defense. Bring it. fyi: cards will appear in more than one section if they serve multiple functions. As such they will be evaluated in each section for how well they preform solely for that section's purpose.
Lands
Mono color lands:
8 Forest
7 Mountain
17 Swamp
I needed enough of each color so I can reasonably play my commander on the 3rd or 4th turn. With my mana base that gives me 15 of each color. Id like more but I really do not want to cut swamps because they are needed for 'teh winning'-which is kinda the purpose, I think.
Duel color lands:
Duels:
Badlands, Taiga, Bayou
Pain lands:
Sulfurous Springs, Karplusan Forest, Llanowar Wastes
Enters battlefield tapped:
Urborg Volcano, Shivan Oasis
The choices for good multicolor lands are lacking in white border. I included what I could.
Pain lands will usually be tapping for colorless with the following exceptions: If needed to cast my commander in the first few turns, or when wanting black for a Drain Life or its kin.
Tri color lands:
Darigaaz's Caldera, Wayfarer's Bauble
Ok, I know, technically Wayfarer's Bauble is not even a land at all. But in reality, all I need is the three different colored mana for casting my commander early game, and after that, color is almost irrelevant. Will mostly be fetching a swamp unless I need it in the first few turns.
Utility lands:
Strip Mine
Great for mana in X spells or recasting general, and can double to kill those pesky lands(read: Cabal Coffers).
Bottomless Vault
Its sole purpose to to power up those Consume Spirit spells for lethal damage.
Hecatomb+Sengir AutocratorThelonite Hermit+..guess what? Swamp
If tapping a swamp to deal a damage is not good(I didn't say the best) in EDH, I don't know what is.
It should also be noted that even if you don't sacrifice the creatures, Hecatomb is on the battlefield and its damage ability can be used before its ETB is resolved and it is saced.
X Spells: In order from best to worst
Tier1:Soul Burn, Corrupt, Drain Life, Consume Spirit
These are top tier because they gain life while doing damage, thus hopefully prolonging your life. AND hopefully allow you to use tier 3 X spells.
Soul Burn is best because you can use both black and red mana for a higher X.
Hard Call because Corrupt allows you to do other things like tutor for it in the same turn while still dealing max damage, or leave up mana for removal. However Drain Life and Consume Spirit allow you utilize Pain+Tapped lands for black mana which equals more damage and life gain.
Tier2:Volcanic Geyser, Fireball, Rolling Thunder
These cards, while not gaining life, do use all available mana for a high total X dmg.
Volcanic Geyser is an instant so you can EOT it on their turn and then blast another one off on your turn.
Fireball, simply put, costs one less than Rolling Thunder for this purpose.
Searing Wind is an instant, but limited to only(lol) 10 damage.
Tier3:Rolling Earthquake, Earthquake, Inferno, Bloodfire Colossus
These are tier 3 because they harm you too, but all you need to do is have more life than your enemy and voila, you've won!
Rolling Earthquake is better than Earthquake in that it hits all creatures; because lets be honest, how many horsemanship creatures do you actually see played?
Inferno is an instant, again for EOT purposes.
Bloodfire colossus is more damage to the dome if necessary.
Creatures:In no particular Order, because they are all good in very different ways.
Able to damage defender when blocked:
Rhox, Thorn Elemental
These can get in there even with the biggest blockers. Extra bonus points to Rhox because he can survive that attack!
Flying+Pump:
Two-Headed Dragon, Vaevictis Asmadi, Shivan Dragon
They all fly and can pump, but Vaevictis can get HUGE. Extra bonus points to Two-header because he is doubly evasive.
Recurrs:
Zodiac Dragon
He keeps coming back! (Obviously 'dies to swords or path' ..blah blah blah)
Surprise Damage:
Dong Zhou, the Tyrant
If you only have one person left and they have a huge general, slap this baby down from mucho damage for little mana cost. Yes it is situational, and I find that im most situations my opponents have a big creature out. Plus after it does its damage its a body.
Forcefield, Pentagram of the Ages, Horn of Deafening, Riptide Replicator
All of these are great at preventing your life total from dwindling away. Riptide can respond and pop out a big fatty to block. Don't overuse or it will become a target. Usually you only make a couple tokens at a time max. Once again, this keeps your threat meter down. Just leave it untapped as your way to say "Hey I'm a friendly player. This is just here to defend me"
Hopefully someone will look at your board and turn to someone who they can actually do damage to. Hopefully they don't figure out they need to gang up on you to push damage through, since three of those can only be used once per turn.
Deterrent to not attack you:
Ice Floe, Meekstone, Ensnaring Bridge, Nevinyrral's Disk
All of these punish people if they damage you. Hopefully they will not want to have their commander stay tapped, and thus, attack someone else.
Note that Meekstone, Disk, and Bridge are a target/make you a target. Use with caution, or save until end game time.
Creatures:
Bodies on the battlefield:
Vaevictis Asmadi, Shivan Dragon, Two-Headed Dragon, Rhox, Thorn Elemental, Bloodfire Colossus, Zodiac Dragon
They are just bodies on the field to prevent people from attacking you midgame.
There are not many of these blockers, do not lose them by unnecessarily attacking someone and having that player remove them, spottily style.
Protection for those bodies:
Broken Fall
This protects your creature even if they block. The reason this is better than just another creature is that it can be played over and over again.
Untapped Mana and a hand full of cards
..Oh right, no cards fall under here.
On the flip side this is quite important to preventing people from attacking you. The mental game is just as important as the physical game. If you have lots of mana and a hand full of cards, some people will automatic assume you have an answer to their attack, and thus, will not attack you. Sometimes they will have assumed correctly, and other times they will not have assumed correctly.
Note: this will not prevent everyone from attacking you, but I guarantee it will work some of the time, so use it to your advantage.
Hit 'em all:
Earthquake, Rolling Earthquake, Inferno, Plague Wind, Nevinyrral's Disk
These cards(with the excpetion of Earthquake-which doesn't kill your commander or other flyers) hit all your opponent's creatures. I shouldn't need to explain more why killing all the opponents creatures is good.
Pick and Choose your battles:
Rolling Thunder, Dregs of Sorrow, Overwhelming Forces
Rolling thunder can hit lots of wennies, or a couple big threats, or combo piece commanders. Its versatile. Dregs is also nice for picking the ugliest (non black) creatures out there, and just offing them all.
Overwhelming forces is most useful when you are mono-e-mono at the late game, but obviously can be used to sustain life earlier on.
Spot Removal: Most good spot removal are instants, others will be noted
Killed by damage: In order from best to worst
Volcanic Geyser, Searing Wind, Dwarven Catapult, Fireball
All these are designed to kill off big threats. Dwarven Catapult is a good response card if you have one large creature or a couple medium creatures coming at you, but really bad if its an army of weenies. Fireball is a sorcery, so bad for spot removal in response to attacks, but its an X spell so it can also be used to finish games and target a couple creatures if necessary.
Direct destroy: In order from best to worst
Broken Visage, Fissure, Betrayal of Flesh, Dark Banishing, Terror, Diabolic Edict
Broken visage is just awesome! They attack, you kill their biggest creature, and block their second biggest. So good. Fissure and Betrayal are both multi purposed. Dark Banishing, Terror, and Edict are all situational since they have restrictions. Edict(obviously is not destroy- its sac), while it does nothing against an army, it is oh soo handy against that one hexproof, voltron or combo commander.
Soul Burn, Corrupt, Drain Life, Consume Spirit
Since these are major win cons in the deck, these 4 should not be used unless you foresee your imminent death; but if you do, then by all means you better be using them.
Other destruction type cards:
Strip Mine
For Cabal Coffers, Academy Ruins, Volrath's Stronghold, and other utility lands
Nevinyrral's Disk
Nobody likes to be disked, except the person who has it under their control.
Grave Pact
Since my creatures are mostly for defensive purposes, leaving them open as blockers doubles the deterrent for enemies to attack you. However this thing is a nice big target.
Blood moon
Kills so many decks with a thousand dollar mana base.
Desert Twister
More expensive then Vindicate, but whatever, still amazing in this deck because of the hard to come by: versatility.
Creeping Mold
Kill only the most pesky of enchantments or that artifact which is totally preventing you from winning the game.
Fissure
More versatility.
Mind Twist
Most useful against the final opponenent but also useful brownie points by making the permission player discard his whole hand, thus enabling the whole table to play.
Fork
Spoon.
Word of Command
Use this card during peoples upkeep right after they untap. Hopefully they don't have an instant or other mana sink to drain all their mana. Now you can take their sorcery(read Wrath of God) and play it against them. Evil.
Regrowth, Elven Cache
A Commander deck with zero recurrsion is not really a Commander deck.
Tutor:
Demonic Tutor, Grim Tutor, Imperial Seal, Planar Portal
I don't know why these are in here I just heard black cards are good.
Draw Power:
Ambition's Cost, Phyrexian Arena, Jayemdae's Tome
Drawing cards is, as stated, pretty good. The tome is weak, so if you show me a card better than the Tome, I will replace it. I just can't find any.
Cards I still want to include as space opens up:
Draw three is nice!
Bottomless Vault
Slap this baby turn 1, and turn 15 its 15 extra damage to the dome and 15 life for me!
Tormod's Crypt
Graveyard hate is for the winners!
Vampiric Tutor
I like twilight, that's why I include this card...
Red Elemental Blast
Blue hate is almost always useful in multiplayer!
Diabolic tutor
I like to tutor tutor!(to the tune of "I like to move it, move it)
Naturalize
Not sure if/when I include this it will prove useful enough, but I want to try it out.
Hey you forgot to include card X! Either it's in the list below, or is a personal preference, or you're probably right, I miss things too. If I didn't get things wrong and knew all the tricks, do you really thing I would be sharing all my Super Secret Tech with you guys?!?!
After testing with this, I found it lacking in usefulness. With only a few shuffle effects and my commander already drawing an extra card each turn this had minimal effect. I know, i was too.
Wolf Pack
I wanted to include this card because it has the same effect as Thorn Elemental, but with one less power and one higher CMC it did not make the cut.
Ashes to Ashes
While this card is good at exiling two creatures(something this deck lacks), it costs me 5 life and most importantly it is not an instant.
Fireball
Really this card should be in and Lava Burst should not, but as stated I could not bring myself to cut the last card from 'Deckmasters' set I have represented in the deck. By all means the deck would be better if I put fireball in.
Sol Ring
Since the deck is a slow control deck, I never found myself needing the extra mana quickly. By the time the late game had started someone already Shatterstormed it away. I'd rather have a Swamp, and if you're not sure why you have not been reading this writeup.
Shatterstorm
Speaking of Shatterstorm this was in originally, but with the best of my prevention cards being artifact I had to take it out, since it hindered my long game plan.
Creature X, Y & Z:
Because I have numerous board wiper cards I wanted to limit my creatures to those with big bodies for defense, and then evasion for killing. If it does not meet those requirements it most likely did not make the deck.
Hmmm, that's weird that you chose this idea+set of cards for the commander. Wouldn't X playstyle be better?
With cards like Animate Dead and Living Death this could be a viable strat. Honestly when I started making this deck I did not know that Salvat existed and I could not find enough big fatties to make the deck seem good enough. Now that I know Salvat exists it could possibly better a more decent deck, but I already chose the control route.
Combo kid:
Yes almost every commander can have some sort of combo package included in his/her deck. I have other decks with combos in them. This is just not one of them. More power to you, Johnny 'Combo' Rocket, if you make a white border combo deck. Woot.
Good stuffs:
Sure go for it dude. I just like my decks to have a theme and a purpose other then, Theme:good stuff, Purpose:Win. A deck with this much restrictions should not be brought to a SSG or similarly competitive tourny with hopes of taking home the gold.
Thanks for checking out my Xira Arien walkthrough! Again my name is Sean, but you can just call me Vala. I hope you are now smarter at Magix, and not stupiderer. Please help make me smarter by pointing out better cards, cool tricks, etc. that I may have missed!
May the force be with you.
For your convenience, here are all the White border Sets to my knowledge:
Unlimited
3rd(Revised)-9th Editions
Introductory Two-Player & Rivals Quick Start(which are only 4th edition cards)
Starter 1999, 2000
Chronicles
Anthologies
Battle Royal
Beatdown
Deckmasters
Portal Three Kingdoms
Salvat 2005
Arena Insert Promos, (Spanish only)
Change log:
-10/25/2012: -Lava Burst +Fireball
-10/26/2012: -Sever Soul +Word of Command
GRBXira ArienGRBXIRA ThreadGRB(White Border Cards Only)GRB
RUGRiku of Two RefelctionsRUGRIKU ThreadRUG(Combo-Infinite Turns)RUG
WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBGKARADOR ThreadWBG(Creature toolbox recursion)WBG
WUBSharuum the HegemonWUB(Artifact Related Only)WUB
BXiahou Dun, the One-EyedB(Proletariat-U/C Only)B
WUBRGHorde of NotionsWUBRG(New Framed Cards Only)WUBRG
Tehe. You win sir.
Actually my "commander" sleeve is clear with two cards in it. It has both versions of Xira back to back, Legends and Chronicles. Because you are totally right, looking at a black bordered Xira is much sexier.
The rest of the deck is all white sleeves, which makes the cards look lolsmall.
GRBXira ArienGRBXIRA ThreadGRB(White Border Cards Only)GRB
RUGRiku of Two RefelctionsRUGRIKU ThreadRUG(Combo-Infinite Turns)RUG
WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBGKARADOR ThreadWBG(Creature toolbox recursion)WBG
WUBSharuum the HegemonWUB(Artifact Related Only)WUB
BXiahou Dun, the One-EyedB(Proletariat-U/C Only)B
WUBRGHorde of NotionsWUBRG(New Framed Cards Only)WUBRG
While it does not come up on Gatherer or SSG and its kin, Salvat 2005 is a real, legal, paper MtG set. Found mostly in Europe since it is French, Spanish, and Italian only.
Here is a link to the set:
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/135-rarities-salvat-magic-encyclopedia-cards-spanish-cards-index.html
and to the card on MKM:
https://www.magiccardmarket.eu/Wayfarers_Bauble_2_Salvat.c1p20628.prod
And just for reference this deck has currently 5 Salvat 2005 cards.
Thelonite Hermit
Betrayal of Flesh
Riptide Replicator
Wayfarer's Bauble
GRBXira ArienGRBXIRA ThreadGRB(White Border Cards Only)GRB
RUGRiku of Two RefelctionsRUGRIKU ThreadRUG(Combo-Infinite Turns)RUG
WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBGKARADOR ThreadWBG(Creature toolbox recursion)WBG
WUBSharuum the HegemonWUB(Artifact Related Only)WUB
BXiahou Dun, the One-EyedB(Proletariat-U/C Only)B
WUBRGHorde of NotionsWUBRG(New Framed Cards Only)WUBRG
Wow, I am smart. "S M R T" -Homer Simpson. I thought Lava Burst was my only card from Deckmasters...
Soul Burn is also Deckmasters, which frees up Lava Burst to be replaced by the superior Fireball!
Any thoughts on cards I might have missed?
Or do you have a white bordered deck? post a spoiler of it here cuz I want to check it out!
Don't have a deck like that? Go make one and post it!
GRBXira ArienGRBXIRA ThreadGRB(White Border Cards Only)GRB
RUGRiku of Two RefelctionsRUGRIKU ThreadRUG(Combo-Infinite Turns)RUG
WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBGKARADOR ThreadWBG(Creature toolbox recursion)WBG
WUBSharuum the HegemonWUB(Artifact Related Only)WUB
BXiahou Dun, the One-EyedB(Proletariat-U/C Only)B
WUBRGHorde of NotionsWUBRG(New Framed Cards Only)WUBRG