My hope for Commander 2019 themes this year is that they give us a 5-colour angel that does something similar to The Ur-Dragon with command zone cost reduction. I was excited for Rienne too until I realized she'd only recur like 4-5 angels at most out of all the ones I wanted to include. Same with Morophon, he only reduces angels by 1-2 at the most and requires being on the field. Golos just happened to be perfect and works kinda like Karametra does, but here's also hoping they print more angel legendary creatures in the years to come too...they definitely have to know people want one that allows all colours to be used lol
Funny enough, my Angels deck was Karametra also before M20 was spoiled. I've moved on to Golos, Tireless Pilgrim as the commander now. Sure, he's not an angel, but thematically him being a pilgrim that never rests fits angels as a concept.
It gives all colours to use all angels you could want, he ramps when ETB to give more freedom to cast big angels, and with his ability can free-cast lots of high costing angels. Him being colourless himself makes him good for grabbing utility lands like Volrath's Stronghold and Hall of Heliod's Generosity to bring back key cards during the game, or just mana fixing to cast whatever angels you want.
I even put Karametra herself in the deck with all the dual-land targets she can find. Golos casts with his ability so if she's on the field too, any angel he free-casts will also find a land off Karametra.
There's a very obvious commander for this deck in Muldrotha, the Gravetide that would allow you to also use the mill on yourself and then cast whatever gets dropped in the bin. With cards like Bloodbond March and Faces of the Past you can quite easily end up casting 12+ Petitioners in one go, even right after a boardwipe.
Fast mana 100%. If someone lucks into all their fast mana rocks and no one else does, they usually win before anyone else has a chance to do anything. At the very least they get so far ahead that they can dominate and deal with people trying to deal with them as they have much more mana to recover from any setbacks.
Tutors in the late game can be game winning, but really there's so many strong effects in EDH that almost anything late game can be game winning. Fast mana is the problem because it allows someone to artificially get to that late game waaaaay earlier than anyone else. Nothing like kicking a Tooth and Nail or using Omniscience turn 2-4 because you lucked into fast mana.
He is pretty awful, the only things I can suggest is trying to use Pestilence style effects and then trying to win with a big Chandra's Ignition with all the tutors black has. The only real advantage Kazarov has is commander damage out of nowhere, but it generally requires a ridiculous amount of mana. You could also just use him for the colours and try to assemble a combo kill instead, like infinite mana into Exsanguinate or something.
Anafenza, the Foremost based around grave hate could easily help deal with all of his things. Mardu has a much harder time recurring non-creature things, so you should just be able to do the same thing he's doing to you. Exile/destroy his stuff and the addition of green over red means you have access to much more grave hate and recursion than he will. Abzan also has more ways to protect permanents to help stop him from removing stuff. This also includes access to ramp and killing/exiling Alesha until she's uncastable.
A great way to blow him out without relying heavily on creatures is just casting Anafenza and then any boardwipe. If he can't spot remove her at that moment, all of his stuff still gets exiled when Anafenza dies/goes to the Command Zone at the same time. She's also harder to remove with the said Fiend Hunter sac outlet combo because it will also exile the Fiend Hunter at the same time, making it a one-shot move. The new Ravenous Slime is another great option too for the 99.
Sounds like you need a bunch of grave hate. If there's nothing for Alesha to recur, she's much less effective. Stuff like Relic of Progenitus and Tormod's Crypt at the right time can really mess up her game plan. If you're in black, Bojuka Bog is alright too. If you want to go nuclear, Rest in Peace and the like can also stop dies effects.
Unless this is meant for 1v1, I'd suggest a couple sac outlets for when the player you give Xantcha to dies. It's been ruled that she goes back to you after her controller dies, so the rest of the opponents could use her to kill you if you can't get rid of her. I suppose you could kill her with your own kill spells but that seems like a waste lol
You can, yes. Though the recasting of Necromancy would then cause it to trigger the sacrifice again and be sacrificed during the new cleanup step that happens immediately after.
Both of you are right, but what happens all depends on the timing of each ability.
He's right in that he can get infinite mana and recur every creature as they die with Nim Deathmantle, as once he has the mana in his pool he can just pay it for every trigger it gets as each creature dies. This would make any single-shot removal like a kill spell or regular boardwipe almost useless.
The key way to stop him from doing so would be to use Pestilence in response to him sacrificing the Composite Golem the very first time to start the chain. Basically, as soon as he says he wants to start the chain and sacrifices the Golem and Nim Deathmantle triggers, you activate in response to that first trigger, killing all of his other creatures before the Golem comes back to give him more mana. He will still get the triggers for all of his creatures dying, but unless he has mana for them without the Golem chain, he likely won't be able to recur them. After you're done and let the Golem trigger resolve, it would then come back and he would choose to proceed or not with the mana chain. Also remember that Pestilence sacrifices itself when there are no creatures left, so unless you can get rid of the Nim Deathmantle it's not a permanent solution.
Edit: This also depends on the creatures he has on board. If they are all lower toughness than the Golem, then there's actually no way you'll be able to stop him with Pestilence. The creatures would all die before the Golem from the 1 damage pings and then he could start the chain as soon as they did.
This is as close as EDH will get to having a non-specifically worded Planeswalker as a Commander I guess lol. Have her in zone to always be able to find her father, unless he gets exiled...but then you run Pull from Eternity to try and bring him back.
I've been waiting to test a Marchesa, the Black Rose pirate list until this set is fully spoiled. She may not be a pirate herself but with some of her themed cards being pirate-like rogues, I think she's pretty thematic for a pirate deck too.
Now if it'll be good or not, no idea. The idea of getting constant raid triggers every time the pirates attack and possibly die is tempting though.
Each copy made by Blade of Selves would immediately die to the Legend Rule, so they'd never live to deal combat damage in the first place and never trigger his ability. Only the copy you decide to keep will get the ability proc, assuming it's attacking the player who did combat damage to you.
Edit: As an added note, the copies made by Blade of Selves all have to attack different players too, so even if the copies didn't die, they'd never be able to attack the same player.
It gives all colours to use all angels you could want, he ramps when ETB to give more freedom to cast big angels, and with his ability can free-cast lots of high costing angels. Him being colourless himself makes him good for grabbing utility lands like Volrath's Stronghold and Hall of Heliod's Generosity to bring back key cards during the game, or just mana fixing to cast whatever angels you want.
I even put Karametra herself in the deck with all the dual-land targets she can find. Golos casts with his ability so if she's on the field too, any angel he free-casts will also find a land off Karametra.
Tutors in the late game can be game winning, but really there's so many strong effects in EDH that almost anything late game can be game winning. Fast mana is the problem because it allows someone to artificially get to that late game waaaaay earlier than anyone else. Nothing like kicking a Tooth and Nail or using Omniscience turn 2-4 because you lucked into fast mana.
Is the event 1v1 or multiplayer?
A great way to blow him out without relying heavily on creatures is just casting Anafenza and then any boardwipe. If he can't spot remove her at that moment, all of his stuff still gets exiled when Anafenza dies/goes to the Command Zone at the same time. She's also harder to remove with the said Fiend Hunter sac outlet combo because it will also exile the Fiend Hunter at the same time, making it a one-shot move. The new Ravenous Slime is another great option too for the 99.
He's right in that he can get infinite mana and recur every creature as they die with Nim Deathmantle, as once he has the mana in his pool he can just pay it for every trigger it gets as each creature dies. This would make any single-shot removal like a kill spell or regular boardwipe almost useless.
The key way to stop him from doing so would be to use Pestilence in response to him sacrificing the Composite Golem the very first time to start the chain. Basically, as soon as he says he wants to start the chain and sacrifices the Golem and Nim Deathmantle triggers, you activate in response to that first trigger, killing all of his other creatures before the Golem comes back to give him more mana. He will still get the triggers for all of his creatures dying, but unless he has mana for them without the Golem chain, he likely won't be able to recur them. After you're done and let the Golem trigger resolve, it would then come back and he would choose to proceed or not with the mana chain. Also remember that Pestilence sacrifices itself when there are no creatures left, so unless you can get rid of the Nim Deathmantle it's not a permanent solution.
Edit: This also depends on the creatures he has on board. If they are all lower toughness than the Golem, then there's actually no way you'll be able to stop him with Pestilence. The creatures would all die before the Golem from the 1 damage pings and then he could start the chain as soon as they did.
Now if it'll be good or not, no idea. The idea of getting constant raid triggers every time the pirates attack and possibly die is tempting though.
Edit: As an added note, the copies made by Blade of Selves all have to attack different players too, so even if the copies didn't die, they'd never be able to attack the same player.