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DementedKirby posted a message on Zada - Grinding Up An Arcane StormOkay, so here's my budget build section for the thread. It's just a preview of what's to come. Enjoy!Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
DementedKirby's Budget Section
Intro
Alright, now it's my turn to discuss the awesomeness of Zada, Hedron Grinder! In this section I'm going to delve deep into how to build a decently competitive build without delving deep into your pockets. Zada may grind hedrons for a living but you don't have to grind your wallet to work with it! Currently, this build is so ridiculously cheap, it can be built entirely from scratch with less than $40. Yes, you read that correctly, less than $40. Additionally, if your coffers are a bit deeper than that, you can have a much more solid build while still remaining below the $90 mark (which is the version I currently run). Notwithstanding, I'm constantly testing the budget list on Cockatrice and eliminating players out of nowhere. Zada might as well be Randy Orton disguised as a goblin giving opponents RKO's left and right from - you guess it - OUT OF NOWHERE!
Über Budget Build
Now, this build was made as an extremely budget version of crazy monkey's arcane-themed build. For some, they may feel like they're holding on to arcane spells that are taking up space in their hand when they might want to have better cards instead. Piloting Zada means you have to have one mindset: good things come to those who wait. If you're piloting it as has been explained, you're eventually going to cantrip into some ridiculous combos and some even more ridiculous plays. Then you'll be grateful that you kept a Path of Anger's Flame in your hand instead of something like Fists of the Anvil. Additionally, this build may seem like a glass cannon because it's so dependent on Zada and on being able to draw a bunch of cards in order to send the mother of all alpha strikes across the table. However, there are alternate methods to win such as insanely pumping Spikeshot Elder and then stabbing opponents to a bloody mess with it, or just having Psychosis Crawler in play as you draw practically your entire deck. However, I discuss alternatives to these two builds later on.
Again, this being a budget version of crazy monkey's deck, it's piloted in the same vein. The key to victory here is more simple for lack of some more noticeably absent cards that are not budget. Your goal is to create as many tokens as possible in order to cantrip into the mother of all hands and then produce a ton of mana to empty that hand into an out-of-this-world storm count for Haze of Rage and/or Empty the Warrens. Then just alpha strike for damage well into the dodecadigits.
Alright, so on to the decklist and then some specifics!
When what you really wanted was a legendary Ink-Treader Nephilim.
"I'm a supplemental Zada, if you're interested..."
Deck Stats:
For more detailed deck information like up-to-date average card prices, average CMC, and other stats, you find my decklist here, on deckstats.net.
Card by Card Analysis:
Cost Reduction / Mana Acceleration:
All hail Zada!- Helm of Awakening: Okay, so this may also benefit your opponents. However, it's cheap to cast and will make you less of a target in the beginning of the game thanks to the grouphug effect. Also, it makes your spells cost 1 less which means more value for your mana.
- Ruby Medallion: Similar to Helm of Awakening but it only benefits you. The only downside is that it only reduces the costs of your red spells so your artifacts will still cost the same. However, again, it helps you get more value out of your mana.
- Skirk Prospector: This card is simply amazing in the deck. Tutorable with Goblin Matron and Goblin Recruiter. You can get that much needed extra mana by simply sacrificing a couple of goblins (hopefully you have many more still left). I've also used it comboed with Otherworldly Outburst to get mana and stronger tokens replace the goblins. This deck can become quite mana intensive once it starts rolling and this is a great way to get some R.
- Treasonous Ogre: Along the same vein as Skirk Prospector, you can get R at the cost of 3 life each. Sometimes this can be negligible and I've been known to give up up to 15 life just to get mana needed to end the game. When you're using that life to win, it doesn't matter how much you drop to as long as you win. Getting mana without having to cast spells or tap permanents is incredibly useful when resources are spent or limited.
- Inner Fire: An amazing ritual that goes a long way when you have a huge hand. This card alone can net you anywhere between 20 to 30 red mana if you play it at the most opportune moment.
- Mana Geyser: In triple threat games this card has almost always given me 10 red mana on my fifth turn. It shines even more during mid to late game when opponents are using a lot of mana and tapping a lot of lands. This is definitely a great ritual.
- Battle Hymn: The best ritual of them all, I've easily gone into the triple digits of red mana with this thing. With some great early games, you can get a lot of mana with this thanks to a field full of creatures.
- Brightstone Ritual: Similar to Battle Hymn, this ritual gives you R for each goblin in play. Not as powerful as the latter, but it can still give you a bunch of mana because the most prevalent creature type in the deck and the tokens produced is definitely goblin.
- Desperate Ritual: If not for requiring being spliced onto an arcane in order to get the desired effect of it, this would be the best ritual in the deck. Currently, I would consider it the second best. When paired with any of the arcane spells that can target Zada, this ritual seriously gets out of hand. You will be able to literally cast your entire deck if you drew it.
- Beetleback Chief: 3 creatures for 2RR.
- Chancellor of the Forge: This card is beyond broken here. I'm so glad it's like 50¢. Not only does it basically double the amount of creatures you have in play when it enters the battlefield, but if you reveal it in your opening hand, you start the game with a free token. I wouldn't suggest attacking anyone with that free token during your first turn because some opponents need only that to start a grudge with you, lol.
- Emrakul's Hatcher: 4 creatures for 4R and 3 of those can be sacrificed for mana.
- Ghirapur Gearcrafter: 2 creatures for 2R.
- Krenko, Mob Boss: One of the best token producers in the entire deck. It's also tutorable with Goblin Matron and Goblin Recruiter. Tap for an insane amount of tokens. Not only that, but with the spells that make copies of creatures with haste, you can sac the Krenko that the copy was made from due to the state-based-action of having two legends with the same name, then tap the newly made token in order to get even more tokens. This makes an inconceivable amount of tokens.
- Mogg War Marshal: 2 creatures for 1R with the added bonus of giving a 1/1 goblin token upon death.
- Myr Battlesphere: 5 creatures for 7. I've honestly only ever used it to produce creatures because I've never tapped Myrs in order to boost it.
- Pia and Kiran Nalaar: 3 creatures for 2RR. The only downside to this card being a legend is that when you make a copy of it, one of them gets sacrificed to the legend rule. Still, you get the thopter tokens, at least.
- Pia Nalaar: 2 creatures for 2R. Unfortunately, this creature suffers the same con as Pia and Kiran Nalaar. At least it has the same pros, as well.
- Precursor Golem: A similar effect as Zada but with Golem creatures. Unfortunately, the deck doesn't produce a lot of golem creatures. Can still triplicate your cantrips in a pinch (more if you've managed to make more tokens) and it gives you 3 creatures for 5.
- Thopter Engineer: 2 creatures for 2R.
- Siege-Gang Commander: 4 creatures for 3RR. I've very rarely used it's activated ability but in games where you can generate a lot of red mana and a lot tokens but can't attack a player for some reason, you can burn them to death with it.
- Young Pyromancer: With so many instants and sorceries in the deck, being able to play this creature in early game gives you a great deal of tokens. Sometimes the triggers in a Zada game are overwhelming so it's important to not forget when you have Young Pyromancer in play; it does tend to get drowned in a sea of goblin tokens.
- Dragon Fodder: 2 tokens for 1R. The great thing about spells that give tokens is that these spells can be recurred with Mizzix's Mastery and Past in Flames. They also trigger Young Pyromancer.
- Empty the Warrens: One of the best spells in the deck, when the deck gets going and you've casted around 20 spells so far in the turn, casting this is game-ending. All you have to do is give your creatures haste and it's game over.
- Heat Shimmer: These type of spells that make tokens are incredibly broken because not only do they make tokens with haste, when they copy creatures that make tokens when they enter the battlefield, those tokens aren't exiled at the end of turn.
- Hordeling Outburst: 3 tokens for 1RR. The great thing about spells that give tokens is that these spells can be recurred with Mizzix's Mastery and Past in Flames. They also trigger Young Pyromancer.
- Krenko's Command: 2 tokens for 1R. The great thing about spells that give tokens is that these spells can be recurred with Mizzix's Mastery and Past in Flames. They also trigger Young Pyromancer.
- Make Mischief: One of the more unique token producers out there (similar to Spawning Breath), you get a Goblin Arsonist (basically) per creature at the expensive of giving each of your creatures 1 damage. Sure, it's nothing if you've pumped your creatures' toughness. However, even if you haven't, don't be afraid to use it to make tokens. It also combines well with Otherworldly Outburst.
- Mogg Alarm: 2 goblins for 1RR or for free by sacrificing two mountains (preferably tapped). Great free way to produce creatures. The great thing about spells that give tokens is that these spells can be recurred with Mizzix's Mastery and Past in Flames. They also trigger Young Pyromancer.
- Molten Birth: 2 tokens for 1RR with an opportunity to get it back if you're lucky. The great thing about spells that give tokens is that these spells can be recurred with Mizzix's Mastery and Past in Flames. They also trigger Young Pyromancer.
- Twinflame: These type of spells that make tokens are incredibly broken because not only do they make tokens with haste, when they copy creatures that make tokens when they enter the battlefield, those tokens aren't exiled at the end of turn.
- Otherworldly Outburst: Not only is this card a great response to a wrath, but if you end up killing your creatures with Flare, Zap, Spawning Breath, or Make Mischief or if you're sacrificing them to Siege-Gang Commander or Skirk Prospector, you get a token for your trouble. Oh, and it also pumps the attack stat by 1. Winning!
- Spawning Breath: One of the more unique token producers out there (similar to Make Mischief), you get an Eldrazi Spawn per creature at the expensive of giving each of your creatures 1 damage. Sure, it's nothing if you've pumped your creatures' toughness. However, even if you haven't, don't be afraid to use it to make tokens - especially these that can self-sacrifice to give you mana.
That's not a knife. This is a knife!Pumps:
Channeling some of Rick James's aura.- Distemper of the Blood: +2/+2 and trample for 1R.
- Haze of Rage: Broken on its own thanks to the buyback, but it becomes broken after getting the ball rolling with Zada and casting over 20 spells a turn.
- Reckless Charge: +3/+0 and haste for R with the possibility of recasting thanks to the flashback cost.
- Blazing Shoal: One of the best arcane spells in the deck. Can potentially be cast for free and since it targets, you can use it to splice on Desperate Ritual and/or Path of Anger's Flame.
- Brute Force: +3/+3 for R. Sure, it doesn't do much else, but many a time have a won games by turn 6 simply by using one of these and some other pumps. Besides, you can't complain for the casting cost and price tag. It also pumps toughness which some other pumps don't do, so it helps protect your creatures from spells like Zap, Flare, Make Mischief, and Spawning Breath.
- Brute Strength: +3/+1 and trample for 1R.
- Fatal Frenzy: A great pump to use after you've used all others and are going for the alpha strike. Even though this spell makes you sacrifice your creatures at end of turn, unlike Rush of Blood, it provides trample. Also, if you have to sacrifice your creatures at end of turn, you can cast Otherworldly Outburst and get a 3/2 for every creature you lost - quite the recovery!
- Overblaze: The fact that this card is an arcane is just a bonus. Better than doublestrike, if you cast this multiple times, you're basically applying an exponential growth of damage when the creature hits. Also, it's not just combat damage. So Spikeshot Elder and Purphoros, God of the Forge love this card.
- Path of Anger's Flame: Unfortunately, this doesn't usually do much on its own (unless you have a lot of creatures). However, when spliced onto an arcane spell that targets a creature, its effect gets copied with each creature you control and the resulting effect will require you to bring a calculator to your games or at least use your smartphone's calculator.
- Rush of Adrenaline: +2/+1 and trample for R.
- Titan's Strength: +3/+1 for R with the option of scry 1 for each creature you control. Though it's not scry X, you still get to filter through a great deal of your deck until you topdeck something you want.
- Renegade Tactics: Pretty much just used as a cantrip because you're going to target Zada and copy for all your creatures and they don't block during your own turn.
- Spark of Creativity: Choosing not to damage your own creatures makes this card into Commune with Lava where X is the amount of creatures you control. Unfortunately, similar to an overloaded Mizzix's Mastery, having your arcane spells exiled and not in your hand means you can't splice any of them. You could use cards like Shreds of Sanity to get some arcane sells back into your hand before you cast them from exile, but I feel that this is too many hoops to jump through. I'd just suck up the loss of not being able to splice and just take advantage of my new "hand" and cast all the spells I can. Unfortunately, this also exiles your lands, as well.
- Accelerate: A totally fitting name for this card since it's a cantrip and haste enabler.
- Boiling Blood: Usually used during the turn before yours, it doesn't matter if it's your own creatures because they can't attack that turn. Even if you use it on your own, chances are that if you get the ball rolling you're going to be attacking with everything anyways.
- Crimson Wisps: Cantrip and haste enabler.
- Expedite: Cantrip and haste enabler.
- Rile: Similar to Zap and its ilk but it only costs 1 mana at the price of losing instant speed. However, creatures get the added bonus of trample.
- Fiery Gambit: A crap-rare that really shines in this deck (and probably absolutely nowhere else) thus showing that Zada should really be called Zada, Turd Polisher. It won't always go off but with enough luck and enough copies, you can draw 9 cards and untap all lands you control. Definitely nothing to scoff at. Many a time have I been able to do such things around 6-7 times a game. Drawing 9 cards when luck is on your side is amazing. In order to take advantage of the mana it can also provide, all you have to do is tap all your lands once again after each successful Fiery Gambit in order to have all the mana available afterwards (you can't tap mana while the copy is resolving so if they're not tapped, you just wasted the opportunity).
- Flare: A risky cantrip since it can potentially kill your creatures in the process. Don't hold back because of that, though; the deck makes a lot of tokens and you can easily recover your board state (the important thing is that it doesn't kill Zada).
- Stun: Usually used during the turn before yours, if used at end of turn, you don't have to worry about blocking because the combat phase has passed. If used during your turn, again, you don't block during your own turn. Solid cantrip.
- Zap: A risky cantrip since it can potentially kill your creatures in the process. Don't hold back because of that, though; the deck makes a lot of tokens and you can easily recover your board state (the important thing is that it doesn't kill Zada).
Running from your problems like...- Spellbook: Sometimes you just draw into half your deck but are unable to end the game. Nothing would suck more than to discard half your resources. Fortunately, this artifact is free and allows you to keep your massive hand. Score!
- Mizzix's Mastery: Easily one of the most broken cards in the deck which will never be eliminated no matter the price. This card is ridiculous. After casting 75% of your deck you can then overload this and do it all over again. It's insane. The only downside is that since it's making copies of spells on the stack, you can't abuse the arcane interactions similar to what happens with Spark of Creativity. Still worth it, though.
Wincons:
Love is a red, red rose, and I am very thorny.- Psychosis Crawler: So your opponent has the mother of all pillowforts. So your opponent has an everlasting Circle of Protection: Red and Circle of Protection: Artifacts. So your opponents can prevent all damage. Alright, just draw half your deck with this creature in play and you just won.
- Spikeshot Elder: Can't attack? No problem. Just pump this creature up as much as possible and dump all mana into its ability. Game Over.
- Goblin Matron: Although tucking is no longer a problem in the Commander format, our most important creatures in the deck are primarily goblins - particularly Goblin Recruiter. Unless I have it in my hand, Goblin Matron always tutors for Goblin Recruiter, which in turn gets the rest of the goblins out. If I have it in my hand, then I use Goblin Matron to tutor for Krenko, Mob Boss. Also, it's a goblin which helps Krenko make goblin tokens and can be sacrificed to Skirk Prospector.
- Goblin Recruiter: I've loved this card ever since the first time I cracked it in a Visions booster (been playing for a long time, lol) and for good reason. Thanks to this card, I can tutor up all the goblins in my deck and with a solid cantrip get them all in my hand afterwards. The order doesn't really matter that much unless I don't have a cantrip in my hands. If I don't have a cantrip in my hands, the order (in which you would draw them) is usually Krenko first, then the goblins that produce tokens (in ascending order of converted mana cost), followed by Spikeshot Elder, and then the goblins that don't do either things.
*I will also discuss budget alternatives for those who don't want to run an arcane suite in their Zada build. There are those players out there and I will address your needs.- Into the Fray: Completely useless on its own, it's merely in the deck to provide another arcane for which to splice the arcane spells that don't target. It may seem like a dead draw, but the amount of useful (or at all) red arcane spells means you're going to be grateful when you have this in your hand and draw into Desperate Ritual or Path of Anger's Flame. We're not returning anytime soon to Kamigawa and when we eventually do, I doubt that splice will make a comeback.
- Unnatural Speed: With so many other haste enablers that also do other things, more often than not this card ends up warming your hand like Into the Fray. Even though it can give your creatures haste in a pinch, it's main use is to provide an arcane splice enabler.
But crazy monkey, DementedKirby, I don't wanna use arcane spells!
Okay, the arcane suite is not to everyone's tastes. It is cool to see it in action though. It also keeps into the spirit of why I believe Zada should be renamed Zada, Turd Polisher. However, I'm openminded and I understand your qualms. These changes should more than suffice your denial of using the arcane suite. These changes just make the deck more streamline and less dependent on holding on to cards to optimize arcane. These substitutions are cheap and just continue with the strategy of token production, pump, and cantrips. The change in price on the deck is negligible.
Now, if you like arcane but feel like Unnatural Speed and Into the Fray are just wasting two potential slots, that's also understandable. My suggestion is to take them out for Assault Strobe and Iron League Steed. Assault Strobe provide double strike and Iron League Steed is 2 creatures for 4. Also, in the Additional Strategies section I mention other cards that can be used in order to scrap arcane altogther.
Building with a Bit More Budget
This was the original version that I built and it cost me $0 because, fortunately, I had all the cards lying around and a buddy of mine simply gave me a Zada for nothing (score!). However, out of curiosity, I checked the price of the deck and was pretty surprised to see that it doesn't even reach the $90 mark, amazing as it is. Also, the high price tag is in part to expensive cards like Cloudstone Curio, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Purphoros, God of the Forge, and Past in Flames. Since this build is very similar to the Über Budget Build, I will simply explain the choices for some of the more expensive cards in greater detail. Also, not all cards are absent in the Über Budget Build simply due to budget; those other cards had to be added/removed to compensate for budget. There's only a 9 card difference between to the two builds but that's enough to produce more than double the price from one deck to the other.
Dat mana...
Differences:
If a bouncy house ever needed a gargoyle this would be it.- Cloudstone Curio: If better cards that synergize more with Zada come along then I may cut this card from the deck because, in all honesty, it's just winmore. However, whenever I have this in play, things get ridiculous. Whenever a token-making creature enters the battlefield, the tokens entering trigger Cloudstone Curio. The way the triggers occur allow me to bounce the token maker back to my hand when the tokens it produces enter the battlefield. I can then cast that bounced creature again and repeat for as long as I have the mana to do so. This comboed with Purphoros, God of the Forge ends game with little effort. I have also used it to save my creatures from a wrath if I have Krenko in play. I just tap Krenko in response and, with each token that enters the battlefield, I can bounce a nontoken creature to my hand. Overall it's just an amazing card to include.
- Sol Ring: Allows for a turn 2 Zada.
- Thought Vessel: A mana rock and one of the 3 different ways to guarantee a size-less hand.
- Legion Loyalist: Tutorable with Goblin Matron and Goblin Recruiter, low-costed, and provides a way to give all your attacking creatures trample and first strike for free. Either way, if facing against a similar deck that amasses hordes, creature tokens won't be able to block your creatures.
- Purphoros, God of the Forge: An alternate wincon when you can't simply attack opponents to death. You can simply win the game with mere token production. Oh, and he's indestructible.
- Chaos Warp: One of my favorite cards of the deck because it's fun and different. And broken. With a solid amount of creatures in play, you can shuffle them all into the deck (shuffle the nontoken creatures first so that you can potentially get them back with the Chaos Warp copies) and possibly get a permanent into play for free. Most of the time I get a lot of mountains into play thanks to this. I also get a lot of creatures, as well. One additional perk (besides the obvious fact of getting things into play for free) is that, if you get a lot of mountains into play, you're thinning your deck of lands and getting a massive mana base for casting a whole bunch of spells afterwards. Win/win/win.
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: Very rarely does this land not give a lot of mana. Mid to late game it gives a whole bunch of red mana to make it easier to cast a fat hand.
- Reliquary Tower: The third method to basically eliminate your discard phase. Like Spellbook, it's free but you have to make sure to not play a land before you go digging through your deck for this one. Since it's a mana producing land, you at least get for your trouble. Additionally, lands are harder to get rid of than artifacts.
- Past in Flames: Similar to Mizzix's Mastery but not as broken (because you still have to pay to cast the spells' flashback cost), this allows you to recast all your instants and sorceries from your graveyard. It also has flashback allowing you to do it all over again (with other spells because flashback exiles).
Additional Strategies
This is by no means the absolute way to play Zada - and no one here expects it to be. That being said, the arcane route is by far the most effective way to play it. I will discuss some other budget cards for those who want to know what other cards I've tested and considered when building my budget decks.
But I pump and I cantrip!- Balduvian Rage: I used to run this card because even for X = 0, you still get to draw a bunch of cards at the beginning of your next upkeep. However, you can only cast it during your attack and only on an attacking creature. Meaning that you'd have to attack with Zada, which isn't always a good thing. On top of that, if you generate a lot of mana in your first main phase, it empties from your mana pool at the beginning of combat so you can't sink it all into Balduvian Rage.
- Unwilling Recruit: I used this card quite extensively since it's a great mana sink, it untaps a creature, and gives it haste. This pairs excellently with cards like Spikeshot Elder and Krenko, Mob Boss. However, sometimes you don't have a whole bunch of mana to sink and you need an initial investment of RRR just to get X = 0. Ultimately, I ended up cutting it because it was too expensive to play.
- Enrage: Unlike Unwilling Recruit, it doesn't give haste or untaps, but it does cost RR less and it's at instant speed. It's a good mana sink pump but, again, with Zada, you don't need an X spell to pump your creatures to a ridiculous p/t; you'll find that cards like Reckless Charge are much better.
- Shreds of Sanity: This card is used by other Zada players as more of a toolbox piece. It can recover an instant and/or sorcery from your graveyard and return it to your hand. This is great for recovering any broken spell that had to be used prematurely or to just "duplicate" an instant and/or sorcery. Definitely a great card to consider.
- Goblin Warrens: A great mana sink and token producer. With enough mana and a mere couple of goblins, you can amass a great horde. It's also a relatively inexpensive card and great for flavor, as well.
- Aleatory, Chaotic Strike, and Panic: These are cantrips that most Zada players include simply for them being cantrips. However, as far as cantrips go, they can be a bit troublesome. Also, they require a turn to be in the combat step in order to be cast. If you want to cast them during an opponent's turn, it would have to be during combat and not at the end of their turn - so they still have something to do afterwards. If you want to use them during your turn, then you'd have to attack. I used to run them until better cantrips came along (Expedite, Renegade Tactics, and Spark of Creativity) so the swap has been pretty much permanent. However, of these three, Panic is the most viable since it only costs R.
- Harnessed Lightning: Will produce an insane amount of . However, the deck already runs a parasitic mechanic (splice onto arcane) so most of the times you'll have cards just waiting in your hands. That being said, if future sets provide ways to draw cards, pump creatures, or produce tokens by spending (in Zada's commander identity) then it could be worth considering. Æther Revolt provides Lightning Runner (which is currently (4/12/17) less than $1) that, when combined with Harnessed Lightning, could potentially provide with a ton of additional combat steps. Unlike Seize the Day - which only untaps once - Lightning Runner has the potential to untap all creature at the beginning of each additional combat phase. The only downside is that it's an expensive creature to cast, has a low toughness, and needs to attack for the ability to trigger. That being said, it has built-in haste and double strike. This combo is iffy, at best, but it's still pretty cool. Unfortunately, there are no viable sinks for Zada.
- Fateful Showdown: Could potentially be a complicated card to use but can be great in the right situations. Be prepared to lose all your creatures to this but it allows for some insane plays. If you're going the Psychosis Crawler route, this will win you the game before you deck yourself. However, be careful as you may deck yourself if you're not running cards like Elixir of Immortality or Perpetual Timepiece. Between wheeling yourself with each copy, you are able to cast instants in response so you can at least take advantage of all the cards you're drawing to at least cast instants. Be aware though that doing so reduces the amount of cards you draw each time. If you're interested in breaking this card, you can't do so within budget because you'd need something like Vedalken Orrery to cast anything in between wheels. On budget you can potentially do things that are still cool but if you do, you should definitely run Elixir of Immortality and Psychosis Crawler along with it (and make sure both are in play before you target Zada with Fateful Showdown).
So much potential... Oh well...
What is important to note when piloting any Zada deck is that there has to be a balance between creatures and spells. Too many creatures and you won't run enough spells to take advantage of Zada. Too few creatures and you're going to have spells sitting in your hand without being able to take full advantage of them. So, as any new set appears, the best cards to consider for Zada are those that cantrip, pump for cheap, and creatures that create tokens when they enter the battlefield. Other cards to consider are cheap spells that make tokens and other crazy fun spells like Chaos Warp and Fiery Gambit.
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crazy monkey posted a message on Zada - Grinding Up An Arcane StormSorry about the general lack of response on my own part, I have been taking on more responsibility at work.Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
So far this year's sets have given us rile and I had some fun with Hazoret's Monument in a slower build and may be worth it for you. I am still working on a version that creates fewer tokens via spells and plays 25-30 creatures. In that version, I am testing wily goblin.
I've never serously tested Aetherflux reservoir in Zada, but I expect that it could be less effective win condition to psychosis crawler. It also has some serious synergy with treasonous ogre as mana production via life gain. To answer your question: I definitely cast 10-20 spells when I am going off optimally, but these days my playgroup just scoops when I hit critical mass. -
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CavalryWolfPack posted a message on StompyThe personal attacks and flaming stops now. Keep the discussion on the cards, and consider this to be a final warning: ignoring a moderator is a point, and we could very easily add that in addition to the continued flaming going on here. That's a suspension right there.Posted in: Modern Archives - Established -
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thatmarkguy posted a message on StompyIt costs 4 - which we really don't like in this deck.Posted in: Modern Archives - Established
It has less devotion than Leatherback.
Unless we're playing Fight cards its trigger is unlikely to be terribly relevant. (He is more viable in Dromoka's Command decks than most builds we've run).
We've already rejected 5/5s (Polukranos, World Eater, Deadbridge Goliath) and 5/4s (Surrak, the Hunt Caller) at that exact mana cost. I don't see how this would be any better than any of those.
IF we are to play a 4-drop, I think Thrun, The Last Troll is still the king. Though I do keep trying to find Surrak a home (in a deck like this he usually grants haste to himself the turn he lands and haste to every fatty that comes after him too), it never works out.
(I do agree with the ideal of trying to talk about anything else and steer this trainwreck back towards deck construction. I just don't think Ripjaw is it unless we're going a full fight+dino package. On its own, if we're not building to exploit its trigger, it's worse than other options at that cost, most of which are rejected for being that cost anyway. If Rivals brings more low-cost Dino enablers I could see Ripjaw and Imperiosaur being the top end of a Dino midrange stompy approach - but the pieces aren't there yet). -
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thatmarkguy posted a message on StompyI am trying to wrap my head around why paying 3 mana to 'upgrade board power' by sacrificing a 2/1 to put out a 4/5 is good card economy. If that's how you intend to play, how would it really be any worse to have a real 3-drop (Dungrove Elder, Rhonas, Witchhunter, Kitchen Finks, Boggart Ram-Gang, Groundbreaker, Baloth if you're not already at 4, even Prowling Serpopard or Boon Satyr - depending on your deck ideals) in that slot instead of EE? I like EE as a silver-bullet-finder. But when your biggest bullet is just 'more removable beef', I just don't see the benefit. A creature in its place would result in about the same net board power but spread across more bodies (so less vulnerable to blanking with spot removal), the same E1 evolution triggers, could be more net green devotion... and with EE you're also completely hosed by countermagic (EE's sacrifice is a cost, so one counter 2-for-1's you), and can't play it with an empty board.Posted in: Modern Archives - Established
To me, EE is *only* worthwhile if it's card-advantage-neutral (ergo my mention of Young Wolf above - persist good!), and even then best if it's finding 'hatebear' style silver bullets, not just 'replace chumpy with fatty'. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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I haven't picked up Act on Impulse yet. Was it underperforming for you or why did it get the axe? I've found Tower of Fortunes generally sits in my hand because I rarely have the 8 mana to dump into it, but you've got much better mana sources to power it than me.
I'll keep Aladdin in mind. I originally skipped over him in favor of Viashino Heretic. I'm feeling pretty good about Into the Core, Viashino Heretic, and Brittle Effigy right now, but we'll see how things shake out.