MTG Salvation

I'm new to EDH, as in I've never played it before. I'm looking to break into the format with some friends and at my LGS. I'll mostly be playing casually.

Before I quit playing last time (kids took all my magic money) I was really into playing a bant hexproof auras deck.

I've looked at some EDH decks that are similar. But it seems most of them are just GW or RGW. Is it worth trying to find a commander to add blue enchantments in? Or is just going GW the best way?

The 2 commanders that I've looked at are Sigarda, Host of Herons and Uril, the Miststalker. It seems that Uril fits the auras theme better, but I imagine the mana in a 3 color deck would cost the moon. So what are peoples thoughts on this?

Uril probably is your best bet for Auras-matters as it fits directly with that theme. If you are fine with cutting green you could also go with Geist of Saint Traft or Hanna, Ship's Navigator. Honestly, unless there are a few red Auras you are dead set on playing, Sigarda seems like a fine voltron build with Auras or equipment. You could mix and match if you wanted whereas with Uril you are kind of "locked-in" to playing auras. Plus, her evasion and protection (no All is Dust is getting the better of you with her whereas Uril is more susceptible to sacrifice effects).

3-color decks don't have to cost a fortune for the mana base. You can run "budget" options like Shock lands instead of ABUR duals or you could run painlands. Command Tower is less than a dollar and Mana Confluence and City of Brass are fairly cheap. Chromatic Lantern can help as well. You don't necessarily needs fetches either and, since you are running green, you have access to some early green ramp in Search for Tomorrow, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves and so on. Even Burnished Hart and Solemn Simulacrum make fixing easier. Hart can be a contentious choice especially in a green deck but if your meta is a little slow, I think it can help with your mana fixing if you are running more basics.

Keep in mind that your general doesn't have to match your deck's theme (though for an Auras deck, you probably want it to). For example, my Enchantress deck was helmed by Johan because I just wanted him for the colors. Feel free to experiment. Maybe you can even go outside of Bant and go with Esper Auras and have Zur the Enchanter lead your deck. Take what you know and like (auras) and put a new twist on it (Esper instead of Bant).

As noted above, the mana base can be as expensive as you want it to be. I've ran 5-colour-mana-bases that were like 10 bucks in total and still worked. Sure, if you want to go hardcore competitive then you'll want fetches, original duals and shocks, but if you intend to stay casual then there's no need for those. Just pick up lands as you progress.
Now, while she lacks green, Bruna, Light of Alabaster is also a very reasonable option. With the various drawpower and tutors available in Blue/White, it's easy for her to become an invincible murder machine. There's plenty of options, it's just that there's no real good Bant aura legend, this is truth.

ManabaseCrafter is handy tool if you're not familiar with every possible option in your colors.

As LouCypher noted, there really isn't a Bant enchantress/aura commander, which is a sad thing. You can run Rafiq that way, which is a pretty strong option, but very linear, I have a Geist of St. Traft that makes use of auras as one voltron element.

Since you have been out of the game for a bit, you might have missed a couple recent cards that work great with the sort of deck you are talking about. Sigarda's Aid gives auras flash, while Sram, Senior Edificer provides additional strong card draw in an aura build.

Don't shy away from Sigarda. She is a beast! She's probably my strongest EDH deck and I didn't invest heavily in her at all. Tick her up to 7 and start the clock. I went the aura route but I've seen solid equipment based strategies.


If you're determined to have blue, I'd say either Rafiq of the Many or Jenara, Asura of War


You'll just have to rely on Aura's/equip to get your Hexproof/shroud game going.

Thanks for all the sound advice. I'll probably start off building a Sigarda deck and then later down the road think about adding a third color.

I also want to build slivers lol that sounds so fun.

I'm all for building whatever deck you want, but I shied my friend away from slivers as those decks tend to play themselves for the most part. If you can find an interesting sliver build though I'd be happy to see it.

Quote from lespaul5895 »

Thanks for all the sound advice. I'll probably start off building a Sigarda deck and then later down the road think about adding a third color.

I also want to build slivers lol that sounds so fun.

Slivers could be fun... unless it's a 1v1 deck people are going to be very likely to gang up on slivers... I'm not sure about the cost of making a sliver deck nowadays but if you were worried about budgeting for a 3 color deck then hold on tight, 5 color mana bases get scary immediately after the 5 basics you put in lol

Sliver Hivelord isnt the best sliver, queen takes the crown, but is resilient and can lead to a totally different deck building approach. Would recommend 100% for a fun casual 'sliver' deck.
As for Sigarda, aura/equip ...voltron is very sttrong

While I respect the power of the queen, Hivelord is just too cool imo, and will be my Sliver of choice should I ever walk down that dark road. (coming from a guy who's been wrecked many times by sliver queen)

I'm going to +1 for Sigarda, host of Herons. Even with a really loose deck, provided you have your manabase sorted, she's a beast. The hexproof is great. she shuts down attrition style decks, it's a good time.

If you want to go Bant auras, there is a rhino that can help: Roon of the Hidden Realm. Contrary to popular belief, he can be played in ways other than 'blink all day'. Namely, he's a pretty badass rhino with vigilance and trample already nicely fitted in, meaning you can focus more on protection and raw power. It also saves you from a lot of random attacks when you have a huge vigilance-beastie staring them down. Then before your turn, he can blink your Auramancer or Heliod's Pilgrim.

Here is my Sigarda Aura's build. It's pretty budget friendly as well and has done quite well for me.

Quote from Kassill »

Here is my Sigarda Aura's build. It's pretty budget friendly as well and has done quite well for me.

It seems as if my local meta has a pretty nasty slivers deck in it. I'm wondering if it would be worth running Descend upon the Sinful and/or Final Judgment in an effort to curb the indestructibility.

Quote from lespaul5895 »

Quote from Kassill »

Here is my Sigarda Aura's build. It's pretty budget friendly as well and has done quite well for me.

It seems as if my local meta has a pretty nasty slivers deck in it. I'm wondering if it would be worth running Descend upon the Sinful and/or Final Judgment in an effort to curb the indestructibility.

Those are solid EDH board wipes if Wrath of God and Day of Judgment esque ones aren't cutting it. Single target exile is also invaluable and cheap in white so don't skim on those as well.

Agreed. Swords to Plowshares has been reprinted enough to find a copy of. Mangara of Corondor and Archon of Justice are about too.

Fora good anti indestructible board wipe they just reprinted Hallowed Burial.
How goes the aura/equip deck?

There is a bunch of solid advice in this thread, but I feel I would be remiss if I didn't at least try to warn you about building a voltron-style deck (focused on pants-ing up your general and killing your opponents via general damage). Voltron decks are often very linear and seek to minimize interaction, usually via Hexproof and Indestructible, making them somewhat boring to play against. For example, Sigarda, Host of Herons with a Darksteel Plate equipped is extremely difficult for many decks to do anything about, meaning their only way to not lose is to gang up on you and kill you before you can do anything.

I don't want to dissuade you from building the deck you want. If Sigarda is what you want, by all means build the crap out of it and beat 'em senseless. I just want you to be aware that these kinds of decks are potentially alienating for other players, especially if your local group tends farther toward the casual side of the casual/competitive spectrum. Again, I want to make clear, this isn't to try and get you to build something you don't want to. First and foremost, you should build a deck you find enjoyable. I just wanted you to make fully informed decisions.

This is a reasonable assessment. Sigarda equipment voltron can be pretty rough. Enchantress is probably slightly less invulnerable - that being said there are a lot more control elements available that a) give some element of variety to the deck and b) mean that Sigarda is not the only focus for your opponents. Still a very strong build, but there is at least a reasonable amount of variation, so that the deck won't play out the same every time.

Quote from SlaveToPhage »

Fora good anti indestructible board wipe they just reprinted Hallowed Burial.
How goes the aura/equip deck?

It's going pretty well so far. I've only played 2x with it. I won the first match (4 players) then played a couple of decks a friend brought then lost to that slivers deck on the 2nd go with my Sigarda deck.

When you put the opponents commander on the bottom of their library with Hallowed Burial it just goes back to the command zone correct?

Yes, the opponent gets to choose either to put it in the command zone, which happens 99.99% of the time, or into thier deck. 0.01% would be under Mindslaver effects.
*Side note: all percentages are approximate guessing.

I had a bit of luck today at my local Big Box store and found a Breya precon there. I'm trying to decide if it would be worth trying to resell it on the secondary market to try to improve the deck I'm working on, or just keep it as a second deck.

What are the thoughts on that particular deck (Invent Superiority)? Is it decent out of the box?

If you want to start with a fun deck, how about a Karador, Ghost Chieftain bestow deck? It's a mix of reanimation and aura-voltron using Karador's ability to let you bestow directly from the grave (such as Nighthowler. Cards like Dragon Shadow, Dragon Scales and Dragon Fangs also work perfectly with Karador and other high cc creatures you drop in your grave.

Quote from Kassill »

Here is my Sigarda Aura's build. It's pretty budget friendly as well and has done quite well for me.

If I were going to put Daybreak Coronet in this deck what card would you take out for it?