I've been seeing Glissa in LGSes for the last half a dozen years and being intrigued by her. The art is awesome, she looks deadly and alluring at the same time, Chris Rahn is an incredible painter. I've also always recognised that the card itself is strong. For GGB you get a first striking deathtoucher, with bonuses when stuff dies? She's great value.
The problem was always being busy building other decks, and not knowing what I wanted to do with her. Part of that is that she's a commander that doesn't have an immediately clear build path; she could support combo, voltron with equipment, artifact creatures, reanimation, stax, or a mishmash of the above. In all honesty, I've struggled with this here and there - being able to do so much makes it a lot harder to decide what I want to do. That has changed from time to time, but I believe the build I currently run is something that I'm very much happy with in terms of enjoying the way it plays.
Since picking her up I've tried two differing builds; the first was a specific artifact/eggs recursion build, and it was a little inconsistent and durdly (the list is still below, but doesn't represent an existing deck). It was fun enough, but struggled to achieve anything before being walked over.
The build I've moved towards now is a more dedicated Birthing Pod build. With this in mind, every creature inclusion is fit to curve and establishes its place with either value on board or a solid ETB trigger, or both. There's a certain degree of resilience built into the deck, in terms of being able to recur artifacts and creatures while still building presence. I'm not entirely convinced that it's perfect, but what deck ever is? At any rate, the deck is an evolving beast, and I've very much enjoyed building it, playtesting it and tweaking it.
As with all of my builds I'm always interested in improvements, increasing synergies and plays I haven't thought of or thought through, so I very much encourage feedback.
This build was my first take on her - I recognise that she's a versatile commander. I think in many cases this can lead to a variety of builds, and/or very unfocused builds. I had wanted to avoid this, and had decided against Voltron, Deathtouch tribal, Stax, in favour of a 'recursion of artifacts for enduring value' type of deck. It was a little hit and miss, and durdled a lot. Ultimately I disbanded this build, but with a bit of work this could've been a viable strategy.
This has probably been the most challenging deck to build - not so much in terms of acquiring cards, the challenge has been to make it do what I want it to, but without losing focus, spreading myself too thin, just plain durdling, achieving nothing, you name it. It's been really easy to add in 'goodstuff' and let it loose, but keeping the deck focused and effective has been difficult.
Part of what I've tried to achieve is value at every part of the game and in every type of card included, but also giving myself options for rebuilding where needed. Glissa is great, but she gets removed a lot. It's inevitable. So, Scrap Trawler is her lieutenant. As is Meren of Clan Nel Toth. Birthing Pod helps us get threats out early, and if it gets removed, we can build in other ways with Sheoldred, Whispering One or Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and punish our opponents with things like Smokestack and Dictate of Erebos.
So, with all of this going on I've tried my best to curve with Birthing Pod as well as Scrap Trawler, and still keep all of our other threats as relevant to Glissa as possible. It truly has been a real balancing act, and I'm not entirely sure I have it spot on, but it's as good as it has been.
There's always considerations for further playtesting or building. Here's what's down for consideration at present:
One of the cheaper tutor that have worked well in my Sidisi edh is Jarad's Orders
You can tutor for a solution while setting up for a threat to be recurred
One of the cheaper tutor that have worked well in my Sidisi edh is Jarad's Orders
You can tutor for a solution while setting up for a threat to be recurred
Thanks, I'm not really big on tutors though. I prefer not to run them in favour of more synergistic options. If a card has other modes like Liliana Vess, or other reasons to be included like Sidisi, Undead Vizier in my Thraximundar build, I'll play it if I have it. But I definitely don't add them just to fill a space. I do appreciate the suggestion though.
I have seen yr other threads, you really don't like tutors.. As for me, I am not a fan of excessive tutoring too, but I do allow myself the maximum of 2 tutors in one deck, ... in a metagame of non combo, sometimes you just need to find something to stop people from going cray cray.
The problem with Glissa, while you are just a valuetown commander, you are often perceived as threat...so its hard to keep her around.
Graveyard hate is also a problem, you can try to bait out relic , play wisely or just play at least 3 to 4 artifact hate cards and play around bojuka bog.
lastly glissa have problem closing games...
here are a few more cards that you can consider Sylvok Replica - Team "I hate graveyard hate" Attrition - glue of your deck , someone has to do the killing for glissa... helps get creatures to graveyard Command tower - best land in commander?
You really are relying on your commander too much. Your deck does a whopping nothing without her. What's your deck's game plan? How do you want to win / get card advantage? It sort of feels like you forced yourself to play bad cards for the principle of synergizing with her ability somehow. If your deck's only purpose is to go along with Glissa (which it's not doing well right now IMO), then all your opponents have to do is keep killing her - and eventually you won't be able to cast her, so you'll just be taken out of the game by default.
I strongly suggest thinking what you'd like your deck to do regardless of your commander - from your current deck it looks like you're going for a weird artifact - reanimator hybrid deck, with some completely random lantern control elements, and some deathtouch tribal. If you decide you want to go the lantern control route, or focus on deathtouch pingers, good luck with that. Otherwise, I'd focus on reanimator and threats, and Myr Battlesphere is excellent for that, and so is Duplicant. I'd also recommend more classical reanimator staples, like Fauna Shaman, Buried Alive, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Birthing Pod, but you don't like tutors, so I don't have much else to say about that.
There are also great cards in BG that help raise your deck's consistency, like Phyrexian Arena, Erebos, God of the Dead, Sylvan Library, Skullclamp, not to mention the classical ramp cards like Nature's Lore, Cultivate, etc.. And if you insist on running janky artifact value cards, at least make them good value cards like Filigree Familiar, Tormod's Crypt, etc. instead of the brothers' Baubles.
Either way, running a bunch of deathtouchers like Thorn of the Black Rose and some cards like Viridian Longbow and hoping they mix together won't get your deck very far. I'd really rethink the deck idea if I were you. Good luck!
You really are relying on your commander too much. Your deck does a whopping nothing without her. What's your deck's game plan? How do you want to win / get card advantage? It sort of feels like you forced yourself to play bad cards for the principle of synergizing with her ability somehow. If your deck's only purpose is to go along with Glissa (which it's not doing well right now IMO), then all your opponents have to do is keep killing her - and eventually you won't be able to cast her, so you'll just be taken out of the game by default.
I don't disagree - I have to be honest, Glissa is more of an 'open plan' commander than what I'm used to building, and it's something I've struggled with getting my head around. So to answer the question, honestly I'm not sure what the game plan is/win cons are. Ideally I'd like to stick clear of classic combo wins like Mike and Trike, Urborg/Coffers Exsanguinate etc. Ultimately my plan was to playtest some and see what was missing, and what might fit to squeeze in.
Otherwise, I'd focus on reanimator and threats, and Myr Battlesphere is excellent for that, and so is Duplicant. I'd also recommend more classical reanimator staples, like Fauna Shaman, Buried Alive, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Birthing Pod, but you don't like tutors, so I don't have much else to say about that.
I intend to pick up Myr Battlespherenext LGS visit, likely a Duplicant too. I do have a spare Birthing Pod somewhere about, so it may find its way in here. To be clear, I'm not completely anti-tutor - I prefer not to use strict tutors like Vampiric and Demonic, but cards like Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Birthing Pod have secondary functions over and above finding a specific card for me. The sac can be helpful, the fact that either one is a permanent with a repeatable ability, there's value there so I'm happy to consider these options.
There are also great cards in BG that help raise your deck's consistency, like Phyrexian Arena, Erebos, God of the Dead, Sylvan Library, Skullclamp, not to mention the classical ramp cards like Nature's Lore, Cultivate, etc.. And if you insist on running janky artifact value cards, at least make them good value cards like Filigree Familiar, Tormod's Crypt, etc. instead of the brothers' Baubles.
These are the sort of cards I'll be using to fill out the deck as I can grab them - although to some extent I am on a budget - I can't afford another Sylvan Library, but I could probably track down some of the other bits and pieces you mentioned. I'd happily take further recommendations, too - I know the draw and ramp are important, if you have any further ideas as to what sort of directions I could take I'd gladly listen. As I mentioned, a fair portion of the deck is placeholding, and I don't by any stretch consider the deck fully cohesive or finished. At present, it's 100 cards that are being playtested.
I have seen yr other threads, you really don't like tutors.. As for me, I am not a fan of excessive tutoring too, but I do allow myself the maximum of 2 tutors in one deck, ... in a metagame of non combo, sometimes you just need to find something to stop people from going cray cray.
It's not that I don't like tutors AT ALL. It's more that if it's just a card to find another card, I'd rather the first card had more intrinsic value, or did something else as well. Adding on top of this the price of the high end tutors and I'm not that interested.
The problem with Glissa, while you are just a valuetown commander, you are often perceived as threat...so its hard to keep her around.
Graveyard hate is also a problem, you can try to bait out relic , play wisely or just play at least 3 to 4 artifact hate cards and play around bojuka bog.
I'll be honest, this is definitely something I don't know how to combat at present. She's small but comes with a reputation and a dominance in combat. It seems like something you could sort of play around. Cast her when you're ready to roll heads, get the benefit, hit some value recursion, rinse and repeat once she gets felled. Otherwise, I'm open to suggestions.
lastly glissa have problem closing games...
here are a few more cards that you can consider
Sylvok Replica - Team "I hate graveyard hate"
Attrition - glue of your deck , someone has to do the killing for glissa... helps get creatures to graveyard
Command tower - best land in commander?
I thought I was missing Command Tower. It needs to be here. Sylvok Replica could be good too, although I probably don't have the spare money for Attrition. I'd be happy to take other suggestions for wholesale slaughter though.
Still very much a work in progress, here. These seem like good adds, though. There's a reasonable curve for the pod, and the Vat will be decent value - it always is. I'm still very much interested in suggestions, as this is a tentative start at best.
Those seem like meta changes.
If there is a lot of tokens ratchet bomb is great and if you need more grave hate I guess tormod's crypt is good, since you don't want to exile your own grave but crypt still seems a bit meh.
Man its been a long long time since I had Yavimaya Elder (or Armillary Sphere) in my deck, they were there in the early days. One of my issues with Elder was that double green and I ended up with so many colourless lands that I couldn't get double green easily in the early game when that card is at its best. I basically preferred the artifact based card draw to find lands.
Horizon spellbomb is kind of slow but its an alternative if you have a similar problems.
I really like mishra's bauble, you can look at the top card of your deck then decide if you want to use a fetchland or mill it with codex shredder. I understand if you find remembering the draw trigger to be annoying though.
Those seem like meta changes.
If there is a lot of tokens ratchet bomb is great and if you need more grave hate I guess tormod's crypt is good, since you don't want to exile your own grave but crypt still seems a bit meh.
Man its been a long long time since I had Yavimaya Elder (or Armillary Sphere) in my deck, they were there in the early days. One of my issues with Elder was that double green and I ended up with so many colourless lands that I couldn't get double green easily in the early game when that card is at its best. I basically preferred the artifact based card draw to find lands.
Horizon spellbomb is kind of slow but its an alternative if you have a similar problems.
I really like mishra's bauble, you can look at the top card of your deck then decide if you want to use a fetchland or mill it with codex shredder. I understand if you find remembering the draw trigger to be annoying though.
I have to admit, I am sort of struggling with how to flesh this deck out from where it is, which is why flopped back and forward on my inclusions. There's a few more bits I want to pick up that are standard inclusions - Spine of Ish Sah, Myr Battlesphere, Wurmcoil Engine. The first two I'll order, the last I'll have to wait until I can sell my kidney, because goddamn is it ever expensive.
As far as the 'all things going well' plan, I'm fairly happy with how things are looking for when Glissa is on board and not being focussed on. It's more the peripheral stuff I'm struggling with. I'm not sure what to include as contingency plans, alternate win cons, and so forth.
I feel like there's more options with this update. Better removal, options if Glissa isn't around, better value artifacts, and a couple of extras to round out the Birthing Pod chain, as it was weak around 5 CMC.
Hey Toc,
I've been playing a Glissa deck for about six years now, and it's one of my pet decks, so I get excited when I see someone else who's interested in her. I think you and I probably differ a bit in how we like to play Commander, but I hope I can be helpful regardless. I've always liked the idea of running a Birthing Pod version of the deck, so I'm glad you took that direction with it.
I know you said you wanted to stay away from Urborg/Coffers/Exsanguinate, but even if you don't want to play Exsanguinate, Urborg/Coffers would really be a great help to the deck. If you already have those, I would slot them in. If you do get Urborg into the deck, it's a good reason to put Crypt Ghast back in as well, though I definitely agree with you dropping it if you don't have Urborg.
If you want to play a Salvaging Station package with the baubles, don't let anyone tell you not to. It's the one aspect of my deck that hasn't changed in all this time and I still swear by it. I'm not sure if there's room for a big bauble package andBirthing Pod, but keep in mind that it's a direction you can take if you want. I'm currently playing Chromatic Star, Chromatic Sphere, and Conjurer's Bauble in addition to the two zero-mana ones.
In the same vein, Voyager Staff is a card I think you should consider, especially in a Pod deck. It lets you re-use your ETBs, it can protect Glissa from removal or your own board clears, or it can remove a problematic creature from play, if only temporarily.
Lotus Petal seems underwhelming - I'd rather use my Glissa trigger to draw a card than make a mana most of the time.
I'd be interested in hearing your experiences with Strionic Resonator. I don't personally put a lot of stock in it, but I'm open to being wrong on that.
What's your reasoning behind Ratchet Bomb? Lots of tokens in the local scene?
I haven't been playing Nev's disk in a very long time, it feels incredibly slow to me. That said, I play with a bunch more tutors so I'm fine with just the one O-stone for all of my board-wipe-on-artifact needs.
Spine of Ish Sah is incredibly overcosted. If you want to play it, you probably also need more ways to sac it than just Trading Post. And Phyrexia's Core? If you're set on playing it, maybe consider Krark-Clan Ironworks, it's the only way Ish Sah has ever felt playable to me. Would Unstable Obelisk be a better option?
I'd try to find a Scavenging Ooze if you can. The price has really come down and it's an incredible piece of grave hate.
I generally prefer Wood Elves to Farhaven Elf even if it can only find Forests. Since we're going back to Ravnica soon, it might be easier to get your hands on an Overgrown Tomb for it, too.
Hermit of the Natterknolls seems like an odd choice. If you're trying to protect yourself from counterspells, it doesn't really stop your things being countered, it just.. makes it a little bit worse? But it's not going to help you get something important through.
Pawn of Ulamog has pretty obvious synergy but I've never been impressed with it. I'm really glad you're playing Revel in Riches, I think that card is sweet - I don't think you need the creature version.
I think you might find that you don't have enough Black mana symbols for Gray Merchant of Asphodel to really carry his weight, especially with the density of artifact creatures you want to be playing. I haven't played a creature-heavy version of this deck very much, so it's another thing I might be wrong about, but I have a feeling.
If you're looking for another 5-mana card, I think you should play Tutor Sidisi. She has an extra reason to be in your deck over any other tutor just because she's filling an important slot in your Pod chain.
I know you mentioned you were trying to get ahold of one, but I'd encourage you to get Duplicant. I would personally play it over the Gearhulk just for the exile effect, but I don't think it would hurt to have both. I think Harvester of Souls costs a lot for what he does, and I think Steel Hellkite without a way to get haste is not going to connect very often. Although as a placeholder for Wurmcoil, it's probably quite fine.
I might cut a 7-drop just to slim the curve a little but I don't think any of the ones you're playing are bad.
Elemental Bond definitely seems like it won't trigger often enough.
Oh, Tortured Existence. I've always wanted to play that card in my Glissa deck but never had enough creatures to support it. Trading artifact guys for regular guys is great when you can get the artifact guys back.
I'll pop back in if I think of any other cards I think you might like to try.
Hey Toc,
I've been playing a Glissa deck for about six years now, and it's one of my pet decks, so I get excited when I see someone else who's interested in her. I think you and I probably differ a bit in how we like to play Commander, but I hope I can be helpful regardless. I've always liked the idea of running a Birthing Pod version of the deck, so I'm glad you took that direction with it.
Thanks! Pretty sure I've said it before in this thread, I find Glissa hard to build around. She's so wide open in design that without a clear and obvious path to build, I struggle with decent picks for the deck, so feedback is definitely appreciated.
I know you said you wanted to stay away from Urborg/Coffers/Exsanguinate, but even if you don't want to play Exsanguinate, Urborg/Coffers would really be a great help to the deck. If you already have those, I would slot them in. If you do get Urborg into the deck, it's a good reason to put Crypt Ghast back in as well, though I definitely agree with you dropping it if you don't have Urborg.
Part of this is the fact that I only have one Urborg, and I only have 2 coffers. Both are in use, although I am thinking about taking Chainer apart, as it's been a while since I played him. I do have a spare Exsanguinate, so it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to have an insta-win, here. Just not sure if it's worth it without some big mana options.
If you want to play a Salvaging Station package with the baubles, don't let anyone tell you not to. It's the one aspect of my deck that hasn't changed in all this time and I still swear by it. I'm not sure if there's room for a big bauble package and Birthing Pod, but keep in mind that it's a direction you can take if you want. I'm currently playing Chromatic Star, Chromatic Sphere, and Conjurer's Bauble in addition to the two zero-mana ones.
This is encouraging. After some playtesting last night, I agree with the assessment of Lotus Petal. The extra mana is nice, but cantripping baubles are far more useful. I found myself topdecking really quickly, so draw is something I'll need to look at moving forward, and the extra baubles could help.
In the same vein, Voyager Staff is a card I think you should consider, especially in a Pod deck. It lets you re-use your ETBs, it can protect Glissa from removal or your own board clears, or it can remove a problematic creature from play, if only temporarily.
I can see the value in this. Like Conjurer's Closet but with a few more applications and a reduced cost. I might try and pick up a copy.
If you feel a need for Pithing Needle, you should also consider Phyrexian Revoker.
I'd be interested in hearing your experiences with Strionic Resonator. I don't personally put a lot of stock in it, but I'm open to being wrong on that.
I've yet to draw either of these to playtest them, so I can't really speak for their utility. I guess they're pretty specific, although of the two I'd prefer to keep Stri Res, as it can be pretty versatile. Even if it's just a spare mana sink. I'll test it before removing regardless, although I can see losing Pithing Needle pretty easily.
What's your reasoning behind Ratchet Bomb? Lots of tokens in the local scene?
Yeah, I have a pretty rough Ghoulcaller Gisa deck in my scene, as well as tribal cats. That one has less scary tokens, but Ratchet Bomb could be helpful.
I haven't been playing Nev's disk in a very long time, it feels incredibly slow to me. That said, I play with a bunch more tutors so I'm fine with just the one O-stone for all of my board-wipe-on-artifact needs.
I'll admit, it wasn't a lot of use last night. I kind of got stuck on a Karmic Justice. I had a Pernicious Deed and Nev out, didn't want to pop either one as the KJ owner made it clear if I blew up the board she would blow up my lands. I can't blame her, if I'd done it the game would've slowed to a crawl.
Spine of Ish Sah is incredibly overcosted. If you want to play it, you probably also need more ways to sac it than just Trading Post. And Phyrexia's Core? If you're set on playing it, maybe consider Krark-Clan Ironworks, it's the only way Ish Sah has ever felt playable to me. Would Unstable Obelisk be a better option?
This was absolutely evident last night. I played it, it sat there, and did nothing. I can't believe it didn't occur to me how anti-synergistic it is with Glissa, either. I can't ever recur it. It's on the chopping block.
I'd try to find a Scavenging Ooze if you can. The price has really come down and it's an incredible piece of grave hate.
I generally prefer Wood Elves to Farhaven Elf even if it can only find Forests. Since we're going back to Ravnica soon, it might be easier to get your hands on an Overgrown Tomb for it, too.
Wood Elves I'm assuming you want for untapped land ASAP? I can get behind that. Ooze I'd be happy to add, I can maybe track down a copy or sweet talk my wife for her copy.
Hermit of the Natterknolls seems like an odd choice. If you're trying to protect yourself from counterspells, it doesn't really stop your things being countered, it just.. makes it a little bit worse? But it's not going to help you get something important through.
Pawn of Ulamog has pretty obvious synergy but I've never been impressed with it. I'm really glad you're playing Revel in Riches, I think that card is sweet - I don't think you need the creature version.
I haven't had the opportunity to see whether Pawn holds it's place yet, Hermit is definitely a placeholder. I don't really know what to replace it with, but I'd be happy to. I guess the idea was having it there for draw.
I think you might find that you don't have enough Black mana symbols for Gray Merchant of Asphodel to really carry his weight, especially with the density of artifact creatures you want to be playing. I haven't played a creature-heavy version of this deck very much, so it's another thing I might be wrong about, but I have a feeling.
You may be right, although Gary is strong enough that I want to try him here before I knock him.
If you're looking for another 5-mana card, I think you should play Tutor Sidisi. She has an extra reason to be in your deck over any other tutor just because she's filling an important slot in your Pod chain.
Another reason to pull Chainer apart. I could see her doing well here.
I know you mentioned you were trying to get ahold of one, but I'd encourage you to get Duplicant. I would personally play it over the Gearhulk just for the exile effect, but I don't think it would hurt to have both. I think Harvester of Souls costs a lot for what he does, and I think Steel Hellkite without a way to get haste is not going to connect very often. Although as a placeholder for Wurmcoil, it's probably quite fine.
Yeah, Duplicant is strong. I really do want a copy here, and I'm holding out for a copy of Wurmcoil Engine too, but jesus it's a lot of money. Harvester I can see dropping, Hellkite too (in this area I see either/or with Ratchet Bomb and the bomb is cheaper).
Elemental Bond definitely seems like it won't trigger often enough.
Explosive Vegetation seems kind of odd as your only sorcery ramp spell.
I'd play a Buried Ruin over that Haunted Fengraf.
If you're looking for another possible win condition, I've heard good things about Psychosis Crawler.
Darksteel Plate, Sylvok Replica, Hedron Archive, and Gilded Lotus are all things I'd get your hands on if at all possible.
Elemental is another placeholder, and I'm short on ramp staples, so I need to work on that. Cultivate and Skyshroud Claim both just got reprints, so I can pick them up. Hedron Archive I can add, Sylvok Replica I would have to track down, Darksteel Plate I've been waiting for the price to drop on. With the recent reprint, I'm pretty sure it's a little cheaper.
Oh, Tortured Existence. I've always wanted to play that card in my Glissa deck but never had enough creatures to support it. Trading artifact guys for regular guys is great when you can get the artifact guys back.
Seems like secret tech, could be viable. I don't have a copy, so I'd have to do some digging.
Thanks for all of the suggestions, there's lots to work on here. The deck seems fun to play, but definitely needs some work. I need more ramp, more draw and need to switch out more placeholders.
So, I made the tough decision to pull apart Chainer last night. I haven't played it in a while, and it's a bit of bummer, but I probably have more decks than I can play anyway, and he always seemed a bit too combo oriented for my preferences. The good thing is Glissa benefits HUGELY from this. I've ported a lot over, mostly in terms of draw and ramp, and I've added a few leaning-out improvements following the last playtest, too.
I'm mostly happy with this, there should really be no excuse for poor draw now. Better removal, better creature options, mostly. I'd still like to pick up Salvaging Station and some of the last few cantripping baubles to fill out land ramp and draw (Chromatic Star, Chromatic Sphere, Horizon Spellbomb, Wanderer's Twig, Conjurer's Bauble) but otherwise I'm excited to play this again, it should be a lot more resilient.
I used to run a Glissa deck, and my favorite thing to do was recur Memory Jar. It beats the hell out of bringing back baubles. Also, Forbidden Orchard is great at fixing your mana and generating easily disposable bodies against opponents that don't run very many creatures.
I used to run a Glissa deck, and my favorite thing to do was recur Memory Jar. It beats the hell out of bringing back baubles.
The two serve different purposes. Baubles provide a lot of incremental value over time, while Memory Jar is a card I mostly play when I'm going off. If you're playing Memory Jar to simply refill your hand over and over, the resources that your opponents gain are going to outpace your own. That said, I love Memory Jar in my own build, but I mostly only use it when I believe I'm going to win and the cards my opponents draw won't matter.
Also, Forbidden Orchard is great at fixing your mana and generating easily disposable bodies against opponents that don't run very many creatures.
Forbidden Orchard is a phenomenal addition. It may fall outside of the OP's budget restriction, though.
The two serve different purposes. Baubles provide a lot of incremental value over time, while Memory Jar is a card I mostly play when I'm going off. If you're playing Memory Jar to simply refill your hand over and over, the resources that your opponents gain are going to outpace your own. That said, I love Memory Jar in my own build, but I mostly only use it when I believe I'm going to win and the cards my opponents draw won't matter.
My opponents aren't actually drawing cards they'll get to use off of the jar though. I'm pretty much only ever cracking it on my turn when my opponents are tapped low. I also ran Lodestone Golem, Defense Grid, and a good number of other cards that restricted my opponents' ability to do anything at all. My Glissa build was pretty mean and ultimately too antisocial to exist for very long.
Okay I'll move my list over to this primer I guess... I made some small changes to the lands with memorial to folly and myriad landscape. I considered Ash barrens and Zhalfirin Void as well. I mean I am not really a ramp deck but one day I'll get a cabal coffers but I just don't feel I need it.
I am also looking to get a walking ballista and Karn, Scion of Urza but too much money atm I'll wait for them to rotate out of standard (I actually have one ballista but its in my modern deck I have proxied things across before)
Dominaria seems really interesting because of historic Phyrexian Scriptures seems really interesting to me... although I already have damnation. I mean I could replace disk its basically the same, wait a turn then wrath but doesn't hit your creatures. at the cost of recursion. Mishra's Self-Replicator: Oh man this would be hallirious but that's probably only magic christmas land but it gets completely out of hand with baubles. Traxos, Scourge of Kroog: Its a large large in an artifact deck, seems pretty good to me.
So, yeah. My LGS broke up an anthology set and I took Daretti. Glissa benefits. Slightly conflicted by the fact that I like the look of Daretti and am tossing up breaking up Sydri and porting staples over, but that's neither here nor there. Wurmcoil is too expensive to have multiple copies of, so here it stays for now.
Phyrexian Scriptures seems really interesting to me... although I already have damnation. I mean I could replace disk its basically the same, wait a turn then wrath but doesn't hit your creatures. at the cost of recursion.
[/deck]
I really like it, it's a good addition to The Abyss. I like your side of the board clean.
I like the flavour of it. It shares the predominant flaw of sagas in that it telegraphs to some degree, and that's probably the biggest reason not to run it. It allows you to save Glissa, or any other non-artifact creature you might fancy, but it is slow. That being said, we have plenty of ways to end creatures, so it's rarely going to be operating in isolation.
I forgot to mention that I run Guardian Beast, so the first chapter of Phyrexian Scriptures has value for me. But you have a point regarding signalling, and with Scriptures being an enchantment it's not so easily recurred.
Anyway, that's not really budget either. I explored a bunch of building blocks for Glissa. Your inclusion of Myr Battlesphere takes me to Steel Overseer: that is good with untapping your stuff. A deck with tap abilities like Steel Overseer, Scarecrone and Myr Turbine (or whatever, the options are legion: Grimoire of the Dead, Contagion Engine, Metalworker, Predator, Flagship...) can get a lot of value out of Unwinding Clock and Seedborn Muse. And nowadays there's obviously Paradox Engine. An artifact like that can make a deck explode. And since it's an artifact, you can recur it with Glissa. Recurring baubles every turn is nice, but recurring bombs is better.
I did kind of labor over the removals here. I guess it's the sort of thing to playtest and see what's missing and whether any of this stuff needs to come back in. With all the baubles it starts to look a little janky, but I did make sure there are plenty of ramp and draw iterations present. Most of these are usable and reusable, so I'm happy.
Anyway, that's not really budget either. I explored a bunch of building blocks for Glissa. Your inclusion of Myr Battlesphere takes me to Steel Overseer: that is good with untapping your stuff. A deck with tap abilities like Steel Overseer, Scarecrone and Myr Turbine (or whatever, the options are legion: Grimoire of the Dead, Contagion Engine, Metalworker, Predator, Flagship...) can get a lot of value out of Unwinding Clock and Seedborn Muse. And nowadays there's obviously Paradox Engine. An artifact like that can make a deck explode. And since it's an artifact, you can recur it with Glissa. Recurring baubles every turn is nice, but recurring bombs is better.
I agree with all of the above, but I don't have the spare cards to add, unfortunately. I'm fairly happy with the direction this is going for currently, and don't really feel the need to add the entire untap suite at present. I own all of Unwinding Clock, Voltaic Key, Clock of Omens, Scarecrone, Myr Turbine, Mycosynth Lattice, Paradox Engine, Seedborn Muse, but they're currently all in use; I've decided to take apart Sydri to at least temporarily try out Daretti with this shell.
I guess what I'm saying is adding all of this stuff would be a pretty vast departure from the current way this deck plays. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but I sort of like the way it plays presently, and I don't feel the need to drastically change direction right now.
The problem was always being busy building other decks, and not knowing what I wanted to do with her. Part of that is that she's a commander that doesn't have an immediately clear build path; she could support combo, voltron with equipment, artifact creatures, reanimation, stax, or a mishmash of the above. In all honesty, I've struggled with this here and there - being able to do so much makes it a lot harder to decide what I want to do. That has changed from time to time, but I believe the build I currently run is something that I'm very much happy with in terms of enjoying the way it plays.
Since picking her up I've tried two differing builds; the first was a specific artifact/eggs recursion build, and it was a little inconsistent and durdly (the list is still below, but doesn't represent an existing deck). It was fun enough, but struggled to achieve anything before being walked over.
The build I've moved towards now is a more dedicated Birthing Pod build. With this in mind, every creature inclusion is fit to curve and establishes its place with either value on board or a solid ETB trigger, or both. There's a certain degree of resilience built into the deck, in terms of being able to recur artifacts and creatures while still building presence. I'm not entirely convinced that it's perfect, but what deck ever is? At any rate, the deck is an evolving beast, and I've very much enjoyed building it, playtesting it and tweaking it.
As with all of my builds I'm always interested in improvements, increasing synergies and plays I haven't thought of or thought through, so I very much encourage feedback.
Birthing Pod list
3 Glissa, the Traitor
Creatures
0 Hangarback Walker
1 Deathrite Shaman
2 Myr Retriever
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Eternal Witness
3 Filigree Familiar
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Scarecrone
3 Scrap Trawler
3 Sylvok Replica
3 Wood Elves
4 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
4 Pitiless Plunderer
4 Ravenous Chupacabra
4 Solemn Simulacrum
5 Lord of Extinction
5 Massacre Girl
5 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
5 Verdurous Gearhulk
6 Duplicant
6 Grave Titan
6 Marionette Master
6 Noxious Gearhulk
6 Wurmcoil Engine
7 Myr Battlesphere
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
8 End-Raze Forerunners
8 Terastodon
8 Woodfall Primus
3 Beast Within
3 Krosan Grip
4 Deathsprout
Sorceries
2 Torment of Hailfire
3 Maelstrom Pulse
5 Living Death
7 All is Dust
Artifacts
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Mind Stone
2 Swiftfoot Boots
3 Ashnod's Altar
3 Mimic Vat
3 Oblivion Stone
4 Birthing Pod
4 Hedron Archive
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
4 Smokestack
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Trading Post
Enchantments
3 Journey to Eternity
3 Necropotence
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Phyrexian Arena
4 Deathreap Ritual
4 Greater Good
5 Revel in Riches
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Inventor's Fair
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Buried Ruin
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Command Tower
1 Blast Zone
1 Tree of Tales
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Hissing Quagmire
1 Tainted Wood
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Temple of Malady
1 Twilight Mire
9 Forest
12 Swamp
This build was my first take on her - I recognise that she's a versatile commander. I think in many cases this can lead to a variety of builds, and/or very unfocused builds. I had wanted to avoid this, and had decided against Voltron, Deathtouch tribal, Stax, in favour of a 'recursion of artifacts for enduring value' type of deck. It was a little hit and miss, and durdled a lot. Ultimately I disbanded this build, but with a bit of work this could've been a viable strategy.
3 Glissa, the Traitor
Artifacts
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Wanderer's Twig
1 Traveler's Amulet
1 Expedition Map
1 Codex Shredder
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Sol Ring
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Skullclamp
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Golgari Signet
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Mimic Vat
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Mirage Mirror
4 Birthing Pod
4 Jester's Cap
4 Vedalken Orrery
6 Salvaging Station
Creatures
1 Disciple of the Vault
2 Myr Retriever
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Wood Elves
3 Moriok Replica
3 Sylvok Replica
3 Scarecrone
3 Scrap Trawler
3 Burnished Hart
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Merciless Executioner
4 Arcbound Reclaimer
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Ravenous Chupacabra
4 Treasure Keeper
4 Graveborn Muse
4 Crypt Ghast
5 Sly Requisitioner
5 Acidic Slime
5 Kuldotha Forgemaster
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
6 Duplicant
6 Marionette Master
6 Wurmcoil Engine
6 Noxious Gearhulk
7 Myr Battlesphere
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
11 Darksteel Colossus
3 Necropotence
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Deathreap Ritual
5 Revel in Riches
5 Dictate of Erebos
Instants & Sorceries
1 Crop Rotation
2 Exsanguinate
3 Beast Within
3 Cultivate
3 Dismember
3 Krosan Grip
7 Necromantic Selection
8 Decree of Pain
Lands
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Command Tower
1 Hissing Quagmire
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Tree of Tales
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Buried Ruin
1 Tainted Wood
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Foul Orchard
1 Phyrexia's Core
7 Forest
14 Swamp
Part of what I've tried to achieve is value at every part of the game and in every type of card included, but also giving myself options for rebuilding where needed. Glissa is great, but she gets removed a lot. It's inevitable. So, Scrap Trawler is her lieutenant. As is Meren of Clan Nel Toth. Birthing Pod helps us get threats out early, and if it gets removed, we can build in other ways with Sheoldred, Whispering One or Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and punish our opponents with things like Smokestack and Dictate of Erebos.
So, with all of this going on I've tried my best to curve with Birthing Pod as well as Scrap Trawler, and still keep all of our other threats as relevant to Glissa as possible. It truly has been a real balancing act, and I'm not entirely sure I have it spot on, but it's as good as it has been.
There's always considerations for further playtesting or building. Here's what's down for consideration at present:
Please do feel free to make suggestions and recommendations.
Thanks!
You can tutor for a solution while setting up for a threat to be recurred
Thanks, I'm not really big on tutors though. I prefer not to run them in favour of more synergistic options. If a card has other modes like Liliana Vess, or other reasons to be included like Sidisi, Undead Vizier in my Thraximundar build, I'll play it if I have it. But I definitely don't add them just to fill a space. I do appreciate the suggestion though.
The problem with Glissa, while you are just a valuetown commander, you are often perceived as threat...so its hard to keep her around.
Graveyard hate is also a problem, you can try to bait out relic , play wisely or just play at least 3 to 4 artifact hate cards and play around bojuka bog.
lastly glissa have problem closing games...
here are a few more cards that you can consider
Sylvok Replica - Team "I hate graveyard hate"
Attrition - glue of your deck , someone has to do the killing for glissa... helps get creatures to graveyard
Command tower - best land in commander?
I strongly suggest thinking what you'd like your deck to do regardless of your commander - from your current deck it looks like you're going for a weird artifact - reanimator hybrid deck, with some completely random lantern control elements, and some deathtouch tribal. If you decide you want to go the lantern control route, or focus on deathtouch pingers, good luck with that. Otherwise, I'd focus on reanimator and threats, and Myr Battlesphere is excellent for that, and so is Duplicant. I'd also recommend more classical reanimator staples, like Fauna Shaman, Buried Alive, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Birthing Pod, but you don't like tutors, so I don't have much else to say about that.
There are also great cards in BG that help raise your deck's consistency, like Phyrexian Arena, Erebos, God of the Dead, Sylvan Library, Skullclamp, not to mention the classical ramp cards like Nature's Lore, Cultivate, etc.. And if you insist on running janky artifact value cards, at least make them good value cards like Filigree Familiar, Tormod's Crypt, etc. instead of the brothers' Baubles.
Either way, running a bunch of deathtouchers like Thorn of the Black Rose and some cards like Viridian Longbow and hoping they mix together won't get your deck very far. I'd really rethink the deck idea if I were you. Good luck!
I don't disagree - I have to be honest, Glissa is more of an 'open plan' commander than what I'm used to building, and it's something I've struggled with getting my head around. So to answer the question, honestly I'm not sure what the game plan is/win cons are. Ideally I'd like to stick clear of classic combo wins like Mike and Trike, Urborg/Coffers Exsanguinate etc. Ultimately my plan was to playtest some and see what was missing, and what might fit to squeeze in.
I intend to pick up Myr Battlespherenext LGS visit, likely a Duplicant too. I do have a spare Birthing Pod somewhere about, so it may find its way in here. To be clear, I'm not completely anti-tutor - I prefer not to use strict tutors like Vampiric and Demonic, but cards like Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Birthing Pod have secondary functions over and above finding a specific card for me. The sac can be helpful, the fact that either one is a permanent with a repeatable ability, there's value there so I'm happy to consider these options.
These are the sort of cards I'll be using to fill out the deck as I can grab them - although to some extent I am on a budget - I can't afford another Sylvan Library, but I could probably track down some of the other bits and pieces you mentioned. I'd happily take further recommendations, too - I know the draw and ramp are important, if you have any further ideas as to what sort of directions I could take I'd gladly listen. As I mentioned, a fair portion of the deck is placeholding, and I don't by any stretch consider the deck fully cohesive or finished. At present, it's 100 cards that are being playtested.
It's not that I don't like tutors AT ALL. It's more that if it's just a card to find another card, I'd rather the first card had more intrinsic value, or did something else as well. Adding on top of this the price of the high end tutors and I'm not that interested.
I'll be honest, this is definitely something I don't know how to combat at present. She's small but comes with a reputation and a dominance in combat. It seems like something you could sort of play around. Cast her when you're ready to roll heads, get the benefit, hit some value recursion, rinse and repeat once she gets felled. Otherwise, I'm open to suggestions.
I thought I was missing Command Tower. It needs to be here. Sylvok Replica could be good too, although I probably don't have the spare money for Attrition. I'd be happy to take other suggestions for wholesale slaughter though.
In:
Birthing Pod
Mimic Vat
Woodland Cemetery
Out:
Forest
Thorn of the Black Rose
Lignify
Still very much a work in progress, here. These seem like good adds, though. There's a reasonable curve for the pod, and the Vat will be decent value - it always is. I'm still very much interested in suggestions, as this is a tentative start at best.
In:
Marionette Master
Ratchet Bomb
Tormod's Crypt
Fleshbag Marauder
Yavimaya Elder
Fellwar Stone
Out:
Dire Fleet Ravager
Plague Boiler
Mishra's Bauble
Urza's Bauble
Smallpox
Armillary Sphere
If there is a lot of tokens ratchet bomb is great and if you need more grave hate I guess tormod's crypt is good, since you don't want to exile your own grave but crypt still seems a bit meh.
I was using Curse of death's hold + Pharika, God of Affliction, "Combo" which is great tech against both tokens and graveyards. But in the end it was cut for more artifact based cards.
Man its been a long long time since I had Yavimaya Elder (or Armillary Sphere) in my deck, they were there in the early days. One of my issues with Elder was that double green and I ended up with so many colourless lands that I couldn't get double green easily in the early game when that card is at its best. I basically preferred the artifact based card draw to find lands.
Horizon spellbomb is kind of slow but its an alternative if you have a similar problems.
I really like mishra's bauble, you can look at the top card of your deck then decide if you want to use a fetchland or mill it with codex shredder. I understand if you find remembering the draw trigger to be annoying though.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
I have to admit, I am sort of struggling with how to flesh this deck out from where it is, which is why flopped back and forward on my inclusions. There's a few more bits I want to pick up that are standard inclusions - Spine of Ish Sah, Myr Battlesphere, Wurmcoil Engine. The first two I'll order, the last I'll have to wait until I can sell my kidney, because goddamn is it ever expensive.
As far as the 'all things going well' plan, I'm fairly happy with how things are looking for when Glissa is on board and not being focussed on. It's more the peripheral stuff I'm struggling with. I'm not sure what to include as contingency plans, alternate win cons, and so forth.
In the meantime, though, I do like the idea of Mishra's Bauble as pseudo-scry. Moreso than Tormod's Crypt, so I've put it back for another spin, and trying Evolutionary Leap here too.
2 Thought Vessel
2 Damping Sphere
0 Mox Amber
7 Spine of Ish Sah
7 Myr Battlesphere
3 Merciless Executioner
5 Acidic Slime
3 Pawn of Ulamog
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Deathreap Ritual
3 Workshop Assistant
4 Crypt Ghast
1 Viridian Longbow
1 Scrabbling Claws
3 Ashes to Ashes
5 Murderous Cut
2 Shadows of the Past
2 Bonds of Mortality
3 Read the Bones
3 Vampire Nighthawk
8 Archetype of Endurance
I feel like there's more options with this update. Better removal, options if Glissa isn't around, better value artifacts, and a couple of extras to round out the Birthing Pod chain, as it was weak around 5 CMC.
I've been playing a Glissa deck for about six years now, and it's one of my pet decks, so I get excited when I see someone else who's interested in her. I think you and I probably differ a bit in how we like to play Commander, but I hope I can be helpful regardless. I've always liked the idea of running a Birthing Pod version of the deck, so I'm glad you took that direction with it.
I know you said you wanted to stay away from Urborg/Coffers/Exsanguinate, but even if you don't want to play Exsanguinate, Urborg/Coffers would really be a great help to the deck. If you already have those, I would slot them in. If you do get Urborg into the deck, it's a good reason to put Crypt Ghast back in as well, though I definitely agree with you dropping it if you don't have Urborg.
If you want to play a Salvaging Station package with the baubles, don't let anyone tell you not to. It's the one aspect of my deck that hasn't changed in all this time and I still swear by it. I'm not sure if there's room for a big bauble package and Birthing Pod, but keep in mind that it's a direction you can take if you want. I'm currently playing Chromatic Star, Chromatic Sphere, and Conjurer's Bauble in addition to the two zero-mana ones.
In the same vein, Voyager Staff is a card I think you should consider, especially in a Pod deck. It lets you re-use your ETBs, it can protect Glissa from removal or your own board clears, or it can remove a problematic creature from play, if only temporarily.
Lotus Petal seems underwhelming - I'd rather use my Glissa trigger to draw a card than make a mana most of the time.
If you feel a need for Pithing Needle, you should also consider Phyrexian Revoker.
I'd be interested in hearing your experiences with Strionic Resonator. I don't personally put a lot of stock in it, but I'm open to being wrong on that.
What's your reasoning behind Ratchet Bomb? Lots of tokens in the local scene?
I haven't been playing Nev's disk in a very long time, it feels incredibly slow to me. That said, I play with a bunch more tutors so I'm fine with just the one O-stone for all of my board-wipe-on-artifact needs.
Spine of Ish Sah is incredibly overcosted. If you want to play it, you probably also need more ways to sac it than just Trading Post. And Phyrexia's Core? If you're set on playing it, maybe consider Krark-Clan Ironworks, it's the only way Ish Sah has ever felt playable to me. Would Unstable Obelisk be a better option?
I'd try to find a Scavenging Ooze if you can. The price has really come down and it's an incredible piece of grave hate.
I generally prefer Wood Elves to Farhaven Elf even if it can only find Forests. Since we're going back to Ravnica soon, it might be easier to get your hands on an Overgrown Tomb for it, too.
Hermit of the Natterknolls seems like an odd choice. If you're trying to protect yourself from counterspells, it doesn't really stop your things being countered, it just.. makes it a little bit worse? But it's not going to help you get something important through.
Pawn of Ulamog has pretty obvious synergy but I've never been impressed with it. I'm really glad you're playing Revel in Riches, I think that card is sweet - I don't think you need the creature version.
I think you might find that you don't have enough Black mana symbols for Gray Merchant of Asphodel to really carry his weight, especially with the density of artifact creatures you want to be playing. I haven't played a creature-heavy version of this deck very much, so it's another thing I might be wrong about, but I have a feeling.
If you're looking for another 5-mana card, I think you should play Tutor Sidisi. She has an extra reason to be in your deck over any other tutor just because she's filling an important slot in your Pod chain.
I know you mentioned you were trying to get ahold of one, but I'd encourage you to get Duplicant. I would personally play it over the Gearhulk just for the exile effect, but I don't think it would hurt to have both. I think Harvester of Souls costs a lot for what he does, and I think Steel Hellkite without a way to get haste is not going to connect very often. Although as a placeholder for Wurmcoil, it's probably quite fine.
I might cut a 7-drop just to slim the curve a little but I don't think any of the ones you're playing are bad.
Elemental Bond definitely seems like it won't trigger often enough.
Explosive Vegetation seems kind of odd as your only sorcery ramp spell.
I'd play a Buried Ruin over that Haunted Fengraf.
If you're looking for another possible win condition, I've heard good things about Psychosis Crawler.
Darksteel Plate, Sylvok Replica, Hedron Archive, and Gilded Lotus are all things I'd get your hands on if at all possible.
Oh, Tortured Existence. I've always wanted to play that card in my Glissa deck but never had enough creatures to support it. Trading artifact guys for regular guys is great when you can get the artifact guys back.
I'll pop back in if I think of any other cards I think you might like to try.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
Thanks! Pretty sure I've said it before in this thread, I find Glissa hard to build around. She's so wide open in design that without a clear and obvious path to build, I struggle with decent picks for the deck, so feedback is definitely appreciated.
Part of this is the fact that I only have one Urborg, and I only have 2 coffers. Both are in use, although I am thinking about taking Chainer apart, as it's been a while since I played him. I do have a spare Exsanguinate, so it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to have an insta-win, here. Just not sure if it's worth it without some big mana options.
This is encouraging. After some playtesting last night, I agree with the assessment of Lotus Petal. The extra mana is nice, but cantripping baubles are far more useful. I found myself topdecking really quickly, so draw is something I'll need to look at moving forward, and the extra baubles could help.
I can see the value in this. Like Conjurer's Closet but with a few more applications and a reduced cost. I might try and pick up a copy.
I've yet to draw either of these to playtest them, so I can't really speak for their utility. I guess they're pretty specific, although of the two I'd prefer to keep Stri Res, as it can be pretty versatile. Even if it's just a spare mana sink. I'll test it before removing regardless, although I can see losing Pithing Needle pretty easily.
Yeah, I have a pretty rough Ghoulcaller Gisa deck in my scene, as well as tribal cats. That one has less scary tokens, but Ratchet Bomb could be helpful.
I'll admit, it wasn't a lot of use last night. I kind of got stuck on a Karmic Justice. I had a Pernicious Deed and Nev out, didn't want to pop either one as the KJ owner made it clear if I blew up the board she would blow up my lands. I can't blame her, if I'd done it the game would've slowed to a crawl.
This was absolutely evident last night. I played it, it sat there, and did nothing. I can't believe it didn't occur to me how anti-synergistic it is with Glissa, either. I can't ever recur it. It's on the chopping block.
Wood Elves I'm assuming you want for untapped land ASAP? I can get behind that. Ooze I'd be happy to add, I can maybe track down a copy or sweet talk my wife for her copy.
I haven't had the opportunity to see whether Pawn holds it's place yet, Hermit is definitely a placeholder. I don't really know what to replace it with, but I'd be happy to. I guess the idea was having it there for draw.
You may be right, although Gary is strong enough that I want to try him here before I knock him.
Another reason to pull Chainer apart. I could see her doing well here.
Yeah, Duplicant is strong. I really do want a copy here, and I'm holding out for a copy of Wurmcoil Engine too, but jesus it's a lot of money. Harvester I can see dropping, Hellkite too (in this area I see either/or with Ratchet Bomb and the bomb is cheaper).
Elemental is another placeholder, and I'm short on ramp staples, so I need to work on that. Cultivate and Skyshroud Claim both just got reprints, so I can pick them up. Hedron Archive I can add, Sylvok Replica I would have to track down, Darksteel Plate I've been waiting for the price to drop on. With the recent reprint, I'm pretty sure it's a little cheaper.
Seems like secret tech, could be viable. I don't have a copy, so I'd have to do some digging.
Thanks for all of the suggestions, there's lots to work on here. The deck seems fun to play, but definitely needs some work. I need more ramp, more draw and need to switch out more placeholders.
3 Swamp
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cabal Coffers
3 Swamp
0 Urza's Bauble
1 Expedition Map
1 Traveler's Amulet
3 Unstable Obelisk
4 Hedron Archive
5 Psychosis Crawler
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Necropotence
5 Dictate of Erebos
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Crypt Ghast
4 Graveborn Muse
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
2 Exsanguinate
8 Decree of Pain
1 Haunted Fengraf
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Ash Barrens
1 Darksteel Citadel
3 Forest
0 Lotus Petal
2 Damping Sphere
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
7 Spine of Ish Sah
3 Hermit of the Natterknolls
3 Pawn of Ulamog
3 Reclamation Sage
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
5 Ogre Slumlord
6 Harvester of Souls
6 Brutalizer Exarch
2 Evolutionary Leap
3 Elemental Bond
4 Explosive Vegetation
9 In Garruk's Wake
I'm mostly happy with this, there should really be no excuse for poor draw now. Better removal, better creature options, mostly. I'd still like to pick up Salvaging Station and some of the last few cantripping baubles to fill out land ramp and draw (Chromatic Star, Chromatic Sphere, Horizon Spellbomb, Wanderer's Twig, Conjurer's Bauble) but otherwise I'm excited to play this again, it should be a lot more resilient.
The two serve different purposes. Baubles provide a lot of incremental value over time, while Memory Jar is a card I mostly play when I'm going off. If you're playing Memory Jar to simply refill your hand over and over, the resources that your opponents gain are going to outpace your own. That said, I love Memory Jar in my own build, but I mostly only use it when I believe I'm going to win and the cards my opponents draw won't matter.
Forbidden Orchard is a phenomenal addition. It may fall outside of the OP's budget restriction, though.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
My opponents aren't actually drawing cards they'll get to use off of the jar though. I'm pretty much only ever cracking it on my turn when my opponents are tapped low. I also ran Lodestone Golem, Defense Grid, and a good number of other cards that restricted my opponents' ability to do anything at all. My Glissa build was pretty mean and ultimately too antisocial to exist for very long.
I am also looking to get a walking ballista and Karn, Scion of Urza but too much money atm I'll wait for them to rotate out of standard (I actually have one ballista but its in my modern deck I have proxied things across before)
Dominaria seems really interesting because of historic
Phyrexian Scriptures seems really interesting to me... although I already have damnation. I mean I could replace disk its basically the same, wait a turn then wrath but doesn't hit your creatures. at the cost of recursion.
Mishra's Self-Replicator: Oh man this would be hallirious but that's probably only magic christmas land but it gets completely out of hand with baubles.
Traxos, Scourge of Kroog: Its a large large in an artifact deck, seems pretty good to me.
3 Glissa, the traitor
Creatures(26)
0 Hangarback walker
1 Deathrite shaman
2 Myr retriever
3 Filigree Familiar
3 Scrap Trawler
3 Moriok Replica
3 Sylvok Replica
3 Burnished Hart
3 Scarecrone
4 Solemn simulacrum
4 Meren of clan Nel Toth
4 Archbound reclaimer
5 Acidic slime
5 Precursor golem
5 Verdurous Gearhulk
6 Wurmcoil engine
6 Soul of new phyrexia
6 Duplicant
6 Steel hellkite
6 Grave titan
6 Massacre Wurm
6 Noxious Gearhulk
6 Marionette Master
7 Sheoldred the whispering one
7 Myr battlesphere
8 Craterhoof behemoth
Enchantments(3)
2 Sylvan library
3 Pernicious Deed
5 Dictate of Erabos
Artifacts(27)
0 Mishra's bauble
1 Sol ring
1 Pithing needle
1 Nihil spellbomb
1 Viridian longbow
1 Expedition map
1 Skullclamp
1 Codex shredder
1 Conjurer's bauble
1 Chromatic star
1 Wayfarer's bauble
1 Executioner's capsule
2 Strionic resonator
2 Mind stone
2 Nim deathmantle
2 Thornbite staff
3 Oblivion stone
3 Mimic vat
3 Ashnod's altar
3 Unstable Obelisk
4 Trading post
4 Birthing Pod
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
4 Panharmonicon
4 Vedalken Orrery
5 Batterskull
6 Salvaging station
6 Mindslaver
3 Putrefy
3 Krosan grip
Sorceries(4)
2 Life from the loam
3 Ashes to Ashes
4 Damnation
8 Decree of pain
Lands(37)
1 Arcane lighthouse
2 Tectonic Edge
3 Reliquary tower
4 Buried ruin
5 Phyrexia's core
6 Mirror pool
7 Inventor's Fair
8 Darksteel citadel
9 Myriad Landscape
10 Blighted fen
11 Evolving wilds
12 Terramorphic expanse
13 Verdant Catacombs
14 Forbidden Orchard
15 Tranquil thicket
16 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
17 Bojuka bog
18 Memorial to Folly
19 Barren moor
20 Vault of whispers
21 Hissing quagmire
22 Woodland cemetery
23 Temple of malady
24 Golgari rotfarm
25 Jungle hollow
26 Llanowar wastes
27 Overgrown tomb
28 Forest (5)
29 Swamp (3)
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
+ Wurmcoil Engine
- Overseer of the Damned
So, yeah. My LGS broke up an anthology set and I took Daretti. Glissa benefits. Slightly conflicted by the fact that I like the look of Daretti and am tossing up breaking up Sydri and porting staples over, but that's neither here nor there. Wurmcoil is too expensive to have multiple copies of, so here it stays for now.
I really like it, it's a good addition to The Abyss. I like your side of the board clean.
Anyway, that's not really budget either. I explored a bunch of building blocks for Glissa. Your inclusion of Myr Battlesphere takes me to Steel Overseer: that is good with untapping your stuff. A deck with tap abilities like Steel Overseer, Scarecrone and Myr Turbine (or whatever, the options are legion: Grimoire of the Dead, Contagion Engine, Metalworker, Predator, Flagship...) can get a lot of value out of Unwinding Clock and Seedborn Muse. And nowadays there's obviously Paradox Engine. An artifact like that can make a deck explode. And since it's an artifact, you can recur it with Glissa. Recurring baubles every turn is nice, but recurring bombs is better.
In:
Wanderer's Twig
Chromatic Sphere
Salvaging Station
Moriok Replica
Sylvok Replica
Duplicant
Out:
Pithing Needle
Strionic Resonator
Commander's Sphere
Hedron Archive
Precursor Golem
Steel Hellkite
I did kind of labor over the removals here. I guess it's the sort of thing to playtest and see what's missing and whether any of this stuff needs to come back in. With all the baubles it starts to look a little janky, but I did make sure there are plenty of ramp and draw iterations present. Most of these are usable and reusable, so I'm happy.
I agree with all of the above, but I don't have the spare cards to add, unfortunately. I'm fairly happy with the direction this is going for currently, and don't really feel the need to add the entire untap suite at present. I own all of Unwinding Clock, Voltaic Key, Clock of Omens, Scarecrone, Myr Turbine, Mycosynth Lattice, Paradox Engine, Seedborn Muse, but they're currently all in use; I've decided to take apart Sydri to at least temporarily try out Daretti with this shell.
I guess what I'm saying is adding all of this stuff would be a pretty vast departure from the current way this deck plays. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but I sort of like the way it plays presently, and I don't feel the need to drastically change direction right now.