Won game 1 off the back of Elenda and Teysa interactions. Buried my opponent under 20 tokens when I sacrificed one Elenda with 10 counter to the other post combat.
Lost game 2. Too much spot removal for the control match. Mortify felt really dead in hand at times. Using it to clear away Karn tokens doesn't feel good. Never saw a Kaya's Wrath, which hurt late game. DV landed and did wonders with Legion's Landing, but I lost the attrition war.
Lost game 3. I boarded in Contempt, but my only attempt was countered, leaving Teferi to dominate.
Well I've been rereading through the Painter's Servant thread, and it's worth a read again, but I'll just post this quote from papa_funk: "You can't evaluate PS card by card. No one card is getting it banned. You have to look at the whole spectrum of interactions, from the Ionas and Grindstones to the All is Dusts to the Lifeforces to the Teysas to the Phyrexian Slayers to the Regal Forces. On balance, that's a lot of detriment and not a lot of counterweight, Even then, it's still a card that's on the border and gets talked about a lot."
Not that I have a horse in this race; I don't think I've once wanted to include it in a deck.
Edit: I was taken aback to see Sheldon say that Iona occupies interesting design/deckbuilding space.
Yes, the ever interesting design space of "you bought one of the mono-colored EDH decks as your intro to the game? Well, you're about to learn today by twiddling your thumbs for 20 minutes."
I've railed against Iona before, and I do it still. If you play a mono colored deck, and see someone running white, you need to kill them ASAP otherwise you lose. That's not fun at all.
elenda and tesya would be fine and you would just have to reduce divine visitation copies.
that was partly my arguement that you've but to much around visitation and if you dont de one it seems like you'd be kinda silly dallying without it
Running Abzan, most of the afterlife trigger dudes would be pointless since G/W has much better token generation making Teysa pointless outside her token pump (which G/W also does better). Without Teysa, Elenda loses a lot of luster as well.
wouldn't abzan be a better one to try? it has a few token generating spells and has the one pump spell that blows people out. ontop of better enchantment hate and have things like vraska, golgari queen assassin's trophy and adds more versatility with your sideboard and main board.
plus you get probably the best token spell that has probably been made in March of the multitudes.
divine visitation is solid and all but you are building your deck around it which means the deck probably falls short without it and if you fall behind it can just become dead.
Abzan tokens would probably be stronger, but it would be an entirely different deck since Elenda, Teysa, and DV wouldn't really have a place in it.
Guns don't kill people because we set a penalty for killing people. My hunch is that if we said, " you know, we have this law that says you can't kill people and people STILL kill each other. Let's just get rid of all the laws.", then I'm pretty sure murders would go up. Sure, within closed communities you would find people adhering to their own set of laws, but there would be a lot more people who didn't and good luck interacting with other communities.
Have you actually every played without a ban list? Like, not for one or two games, but just within your group thrown it out the window and played long enough to see what sort of meta developed as people acted and reacted? I haven't personally, but from anecdotal posts from a few people who have, it did not make the games brtter.
Anecdotally, one of my local shops did a no-banlist EDH night with prizes. In all honesty, not a lot changed. The same three players who consistently combo kill the board on turn 5 or 6 with a banlist did so on Turn 4 or 5 (proxies of Power Nine cards were permitted). Saw one Turn 1 kill off a Black Lotus and Mana Crypt (Swamp, Crypt, Lotus, Buried Alive (Mike and Trike), Reanimate, Exhume). But I've seen that player do that Turn 2 with a banlist.
Removing the banlist wouldn't make things better for anyone. But for the most competitive groups, they would barely notice.
Well, here we go into standard again, with the spoiling of Teysa Karlov, the third one of her, and the second you can play without looking dumb (not that I didn't try to make B/W Reanimator in RtR/Theros)
Her death triggers are meant for afterlife, and Elenda in particular, with Divine Visitation being the card to finish the job.
Gameplan is to try and establish early value and damage through forcing the opponent into bad trades. Once Elenda comes down, we can make better use of Pontiff and Final Payment to make things difficult. DV finishes the job be burying the opponent in board advantage. If things go badly early game, we run enough removal to stabilize.
Vona's is to give more ways to deal with Hexproof, Mavren Fein provides a better token generation against slower decks, CC deals with problematic enchantments, VC is our go to Planeswalker removal.
I think the deck can be improved, so any input would be appreciated.
Agree 100%. On that note, announcement should be a week from today. Predictions?
Personally, I expect another "no changes". I think that as.far as the list is concerned, the only card that is realistically on the chopping block is Iona, and Gifts is the only safe unban. But I dont expect either. Rules wise, there is a steady push to accentuate what makes Commander different while at the same time keeping the rules as mirrored to regular Magic as possible. To that extent, planeswalkers as commanders and the partner mechanic would be the only logical sweeping change, but they dont seem too receptive to doing that.
Of course, I'll always hold out hope that they remove PBtE and unban Library or bring back tuck and the BaaC list, but that's not going to happen.
If they remove PBtE, then there is zero reason to not unban Black Lotus and the Moxen. I own a Mox Sapphire, but I doubt I would sleeve it up for weekly commander. But those cards are on the same level as Mana Crypt in a 40-life format.
Old Teysa is better in competitive circles, because she goes infinite with Darkest Hour. In less competitive, she works well as a removal on a stick that forces your opponent to keep your board clear if they want to land any non-shroud creatures.
The new one has potential to do some fun stuff, and could create an interesting death trigger build. But it won't be as competitive, if that matters to you.
7 mana might just be worth for it for the "you're at 4" effect. Makes your opponent squirm the next turn and scramble to remove it. It's a solid wincon card.
That is a HUGE loss of Orzhov power lore wise. Most of their power came from contracts that bound the dead to their servitude, now they’re all gone.
Not that I have any love for Orzhov, but this is the biggest change happened to any of the guild this far. What exactly will happen to Orzhov now?
I imagine they'll still be a debt agency/corrupt bank since Ravnica still uses and abuses currency, and with the Obzedat gone, Teysa is free to use her legal skills to build whatever guild she wants.
I am still not convinced that Elenda is better than Seraph of the Scales. With Elenda, you’re paying 4 for a 1/1 and need a sac outlet that most likely uses mana get the most value out of her. The Seraph seems like a more efficient threat on the board with a death trigger that is usually as good or better than Elenda’s
If your Elenda trigger is giving you less than Seraph's, you built your deck very wrong.
Right, but I think that it will be tough to build a deck that makes elendas trigger better most of the time. Especially without a free sac outlet
Ideally, completely free, but I doubt we'll be getting anything along those lines. Pontiff is better than temple probably, but I'm not sure if either are really good enough.
You also get cards like Costly Plunder, Severed Strands or Vicious Offering as solid one-use sac outlets.
Do: Re-read Magosi the Waterveil. It doesn't work the way you think it does. In the way you describe, you would be giving your opponents infinite turns, which seems counter-productive.
It doubles the damage your creatures deal, in the same vein as cards like Rage Reflection and True Conviction. There are a lot worse combat boosting enchantments that see play, and I see GratVio in a lot of combat based red EDH decks.
How many instants and sorceries are you running that Oath of Nissa isn't reliably a "G: look at top 3 and draw a card"? It's one mana draw in standard, plus card selection.
-1 Swamp
-1 Plains
-1 Divine Visitation
+3 Costly Plunder
The land count is actually hurting more than helping, and Costly has been helpful in getting some more card advantage while keeping tempo.
Won game 1 off the back of Elenda and Teysa interactions. Buried my opponent under 20 tokens when I sacrificed one Elenda with 10 counter to the other post combat.
Lost game 2. Too much spot removal for the control match. Mortify felt really dead in hand at times. Using it to clear away Karn tokens doesn't feel good. Never saw a Kaya's Wrath, which hurt late game. DV landed and did wonders with Legion's Landing, but I lost the attrition war.
Lost game 3. I boarded in Contempt, but my only attempt was countered, leaving Teferi to dominate.
Yes, the ever interesting design space of "you bought one of the mono-colored EDH decks as your intro to the game? Well, you're about to learn today by twiddling your thumbs for 20 minutes."
I've railed against Iona before, and I do it still. If you play a mono colored deck, and see someone running white, you need to kill them ASAP otherwise you lose. That's not fun at all.
Running Abzan, most of the afterlife trigger dudes would be pointless since G/W has much better token generation making Teysa pointless outside her token pump (which G/W also does better). Without Teysa, Elenda loses a lot of luster as well.
Abzan tokens would probably be stronger, but it would be an entirely different deck since Elenda, Teysa, and DV wouldn't really have a place in it.
Anecdotally, one of my local shops did a no-banlist EDH night with prizes. In all honesty, not a lot changed. The same three players who consistently combo kill the board on turn 5 or 6 with a banlist did so on Turn 4 or 5 (proxies of Power Nine cards were permitted). Saw one Turn 1 kill off a Black Lotus and Mana Crypt (Swamp, Crypt, Lotus, Buried Alive (Mike and Trike), Reanimate, Exhume). But I've seen that player do that Turn 2 with a banlist.
Removing the banlist wouldn't make things better for anyone. But for the most competitive groups, they would barely notice.
Her death triggers are meant for afterlife, and Elenda in particular, with Divine Visitation being the card to finish the job.
4x Hunted Witness
3x Elenda, the Dusk Rose
2x Imperious Oligarch
3x Ministrant of Obligation
3x Orzhov Enforcer
3x Pitiless Ponitff
2x Seraph of the Scales
3x Teysa Karlov
3x Kaya's Wrath
4x Final Payment
3x Mortify
3x Costly Plunder
Enchantments (6)
3x Legion's Landing
3x Divine Visitation
4x Godless Shrine
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Plains
2x Memorial to Glory
4x Swamp
Gameplan is to try and establish early value and damage through forcing the opponent into bad trades. Once Elenda comes down, we can make better use of Pontiff and Final Payment to make things difficult. DV finishes the job be burying the opponent in board advantage. If things go badly early game, we run enough removal to stabilize.
4x Vona's Hunger
4x Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle
3x Crush Contraband
3x Vraska's Contempt
1x Kaya's Wrath
Vona's is to give more ways to deal with Hexproof, Mavren Fein provides a better token generation against slower decks, CC deals with problematic enchantments, VC is our go to Planeswalker removal.
I think the deck can be improved, so any input would be appreciated.
If they remove PBtE, then there is zero reason to not unban Black Lotus and the Moxen. I own a Mox Sapphire, but I doubt I would sleeve it up for weekly commander. But those cards are on the same level as Mana Crypt in a 40-life format.
The new one has potential to do some fun stuff, and could create an interesting death trigger build. But it won't be as competitive, if that matters to you.
You solely play Modern. For you, literally 95% of every set is worthless.
I want to see this happen.
I imagine they'll still be a debt agency/corrupt bank since Ravnica still uses and abuses currency, and with the Obzedat gone, Teysa is free to use her legal skills to build whatever guild she wants.
You also get cards like Costly Plunder, Severed Strands or Vicious Offering as solid one-use sac outlets.