What do you mean by "easy to build"? Usually the oddball commanders or decks with unusual strategies are harder to build than straight forward decks for commanders that build themselves.
That being said, I will allways suggest Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer. He is a very unique take on token strategies and very fun to build/play as a "copy tribal" deck. Also very swingy and deceptively powerful. I really enjoy using my opponents deck as a resource for my own gameplan because it gives even more gameplay variety and that is exactly what Brudiclad thrives on. Its also the perfect colors to include a bunch of "chaos" cards, if that is something you enjoy.
Oh my, the salt is real in this thread. i agree with the calmer voices here, lets see how it play out before we call the cops on wotc.
I like the keyword counters. Having a trample counter on a creature makes it actually more apparent to me that the creature has trample than it just being printed on the card, so I don't think thats gonna be a problem. the punch-out counters are neat, too. What i don't like about this is the fact they introduced it as a set mechanic. I guess it will make quite a splash, making cards viable and so on but i can't help the feeling that there is nothing new here. Its just a new way of granting existing (even evergreen) abilities.
Cycling is good of course but its not very interesting, its just a card flow mechnic like scry. It doesn't bother me, but it doesn't excite me either.
Mutate is cool I guess, but it just doesn't feel particularly powerful. Without having played the mechanic I would guess that you need hexproof creatures as your chassis to mutate on or get x-for-1ed on a regular basis. What actually bothers me is that the wedge legendaries seem so utterly meh by themselves (except maybe the Temur one).
Companion... ugh. I just can't bring myself to like it. It has issues in standard, it has issues in commander and it has issues in limited. Every companion card spoiled so far I would have preferred without companion.
Overall I am a bit worried by the set mechanics because they just don't excite me.
there are several resources around the internet that can help you with suggestions for cards or decklists.
Check out edhrec.com for a ton of both cad suggestions, theme suggestions and a decklist database.
If you would like more personal feedback and tips, we need your decklist (make sure to use the deck posting feature) and most importantly a description of what your goal is for the deck (what do you mean by "decent"?).
It really depends on your definition of budget and... well, how skillful you are.
There are decks in the Meta that are both cheap and strong enough to win an event like FNM with. Here are two mono red decks that have won competitive standard events in the last week (links to mtggoldfish.com): Link1 and Link2.
On the same site there is a budget deck section with decks on the cheaper side that one of the site's host brews up and plays for testing. Some of those turn out to be quite well placed in the meta.
You have to remember that the top Meta decks are not decks that win 100% of the time, but rather sometning like 55% of the time, so as long as you are happy to win some and lose some, you can have a lot of fun with budget decks.
Look, this has been proposed since the stone age of MTG. I'm going to ignore your suggestion to have players start with only one card in hand because it is absolutely ludicrous (so I play a ramp deck and start with a 6-drop in hand. whats my game plan?).
The problem with your "solution" of two decks is that it eliminates one of the core mechanics of the game, wich is risk management. If I can draw lands consistently I can play high-CMC cards consistently, without regards to the risk if I ever get that many lands. At the same time, I could run decks that top out at 3 drops and have a perfect game 90% of the time. I think you are completely wrong suggesting the meta would be slower, everyone would be playing RDW because it could perform near perfect every single game. Good deck builders try to minimize risk of having a flood or drought scenario by increasing deck flow in some way. The other end of the spectrum are high risk high reward decks, which are less consistent but maybe feel more rewarding. Your solution would take those nuances away.
If you are convinced that you are on to something, just playtest this. Take 5-10 decks and play them against each other again and again. Then come back with some (anecdotal) evidence. You would be the first to report that this method improved the game.
Unfortunately, it can't target players, which is a not insignificant downside.
Quite contrary, that is a very significant downside. The decks playing Lightning Strike right now (mostly RDW) are very interested in pointing the damage to the face. I doubt this will see more play than Lava Coil for pure creature removal.
Clackbridge Troll 3BB
Creature - Troll
Trample, haste
When Clackbridge Troll enters the battlefield, target opponent creates three 0/1 white Goat creature token.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, any opponent may sacrifice a creature. If a player does, tap Clackbridge Troll, you gain 3 life, and you draw a card.
8/8
I was super surprised by the off-hand announcement of all of next year's standard sets, but I'm not complaining. It's nice to see that this thread evolved into a constructive discussion after the doomsayers all belched out their bile on page 1....
Return to Theros:
The set symbol alone promises a focus on the underworld, and I could see the entire set focussing much more on Nyx as well, rather than the hero-vs-monster theme that was around last time. Elspeth in the underworld plotting revenge against the tyrannical Heliod and recruiting unlikely allies (Erebos etc), then herself ascending to godhood to replace Heliod? Yeah, I'm ready for this. Devotion is a given, since it is the mechanical link between the plane's inhabitants and the Gods/Nyx, which are the most prominent feature on Theros. I could see then dropping the enchantment-focus however.
Ikoria:
As a Timmy, yay. As a commander player, I am afraidthat the "build-your-own-monster" mechanic is so out there (MaRo implied this) that its parasitic and does not play well with other sets/themes. Lets see. I do like the sound of Monster world, so I'm hyped anyways.
Teferei Core set:
Well. I guess this is going to be a Teferi-themed set as much as M20 was a Chandra-themed set, so we don't have to be afraid of that. Curious to see a new set symbol for a core set, the last time we had that was origins, and that was supposed to be the segway into not having core sets anymore. Since than, core sets have felt much more like origins rather than the older core sets (I'm talking M10-M14 here). I wonder if all new core sets will have a clear theme with a custom set symbol.
Return to return to Zendikar:
Aah, finally. I was so sad to see Adventure world turn into Alien annihilation world. Glad to see them returning to the roots of what made Zendikar a cool plane in the first place. It was ceretainly not "being eaten by Eldrazi". For all the doomsayers claiming that Zendikar's only draw were the Eldrazi - thats not true at all. ZEN and WWK were much more popular than ROE; and BFZ + OGW proved that the Eldazi-theme was not what people wnted out of the return to Zendikar. Indiana Jones plane all the way =)
So sad to see a thread completely derailed by phobia. I would much rather have had a thread discussing the actual topic. Since we have this however, I'll applaude FlossedBeaver, Blackwaltz3, ilovesaprolings and others earlier in the thread for fighting the good fight.
On topic: His character's motives reads very red to me, and I associate shapeshifting with blue (although I could see them doing a non-blue shifter). On the other hand, his artwork screams green and black. So neither Temur, Jund nor Grixis would suprise me. Sultai seems off to me.
Huge probz for immediately taking action and looking to create a new home for the community. I hope it will be more than just a shadow of its former self.
Not gonna lie, this does not make me happy. Shes strong for sure but also super lame.
Please tell me people will not just build ye ole superfriends/good stuff deck where they tutor up everything and every game plays out the same. Yeah, not gonna happen.
Hard pass for me.
I am curious how they flavor this. Black removal has always been about killing living things which ssems off with enchantments.
Something like countercurses or some kind of blood magic that requires life payment maybe. I would like to see black explore life payment mechanics more.
Generally speaking, its a good thing to have a third color be able to combat enchantments. They always felt least vurnerable.
That being said, I will allways suggest Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer. He is a very unique take on token strategies and very fun to build/play as a "copy tribal" deck. Also very swingy and deceptively powerful. I really enjoy using my opponents deck as a resource for my own gameplan because it gives even more gameplay variety and that is exactly what Brudiclad thrives on. Its also the perfect colors to include a bunch of "chaos" cards, if that is something you enjoy.
I like the keyword counters. Having a trample counter on a creature makes it actually more apparent to me that the creature has trample than it just being printed on the card, so I don't think thats gonna be a problem. the punch-out counters are neat, too. What i don't like about this is the fact they introduced it as a set mechanic. I guess it will make quite a splash, making cards viable and so on but i can't help the feeling that there is nothing new here. Its just a new way of granting existing (even evergreen) abilities.
Cycling is good of course but its not very interesting, its just a card flow mechnic like scry. It doesn't bother me, but it doesn't excite me either.
Mutate is cool I guess, but it just doesn't feel particularly powerful. Without having played the mechanic I would guess that you need hexproof creatures as your chassis to mutate on or get x-for-1ed on a regular basis. What actually bothers me is that the wedge legendaries seem so utterly meh by themselves (except maybe the Temur one).
Companion... ugh. I just can't bring myself to like it. It has issues in standard, it has issues in commander and it has issues in limited. Every companion card spoiled so far I would have preferred without companion.
Overall I am a bit worried by the set mechanics because they just don't excite me.
there are several resources around the internet that can help you with suggestions for cards or decklists.
Check out edhrec.com for a ton of both cad suggestions, theme suggestions and a decklist database.
If you would like more personal feedback and tips, we need your decklist (make sure to use the deck posting feature) and most importantly a description of what your goal is for the deck (what do you mean by "decent"?).
There are decks in the Meta that are both cheap and strong enough to win an event like FNM with. Here are two mono red decks that have won competitive standard events in the last week (links to mtggoldfish.com): Link1 and Link2.
On the same site there is a budget deck section with decks on the cheaper side that one of the site's host brews up and plays for testing. Some of those turn out to be quite well placed in the meta.
You have to remember that the top Meta decks are not decks that win 100% of the time, but rather sometning like 55% of the time, so as long as you are happy to win some and lose some, you can have a lot of fun with budget decks.
The problem with your "solution" of two decks is that it eliminates one of the core mechanics of the game, wich is risk management. If I can draw lands consistently I can play high-CMC cards consistently, without regards to the risk if I ever get that many lands. At the same time, I could run decks that top out at 3 drops and have a perfect game 90% of the time. I think you are completely wrong suggesting the meta would be slower, everyone would be playing RDW because it could perform near perfect every single game. Good deck builders try to minimize risk of having a flood or drought scenario by increasing deck flow in some way. The other end of the spectrum are high risk high reward decks, which are less consistent but maybe feel more rewarding. Your solution would take those nuances away.
If you are convinced that you are on to something, just playtest this. Take 5-10 decks and play them against each other again and again. Then come back with some (anecdotal) evidence. You would be the first to report that this method improved the game.
Quite contrary, that is a very significant downside. The decks playing Lightning Strike right now (mostly RDW) are very interested in pointing the damage to the face. I doubt this will see more play than Lava Coil for pure creature removal.
Creature - Troll
Trample, haste
When Clackbridge Troll enters the battlefield, target opponent creates three 0/1 white Goat creature token.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, any opponent may sacrifice a creature. If a player does, tap Clackbridge Troll, you gain 3 life, and you draw a card.
8/8
From Noxious' reveal video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYL28w0hmwg)
Looks like we got a buffed up Desecration Demon
(Edit: spelling)
Return to Theros:
The set symbol alone promises a focus on the underworld, and I could see the entire set focussing much more on Nyx as well, rather than the hero-vs-monster theme that was around last time. Elspeth in the underworld plotting revenge against the tyrannical Heliod and recruiting unlikely allies (Erebos etc), then herself ascending to godhood to replace Heliod? Yeah, I'm ready for this. Devotion is a given, since it is the mechanical link between the plane's inhabitants and the Gods/Nyx, which are the most prominent feature on Theros. I could see then dropping the enchantment-focus however.
Ikoria:
As a Timmy, yay. As a commander player, I am afraidthat the "build-your-own-monster" mechanic is so out there (MaRo implied this) that its parasitic and does not play well with other sets/themes. Lets see. I do like the sound of Monster world, so I'm hyped anyways.
Teferei Core set:
Well. I guess this is going to be a Teferi-themed set as much as M20 was a Chandra-themed set, so we don't have to be afraid of that. Curious to see a new set symbol for a core set, the last time we had that was origins, and that was supposed to be the segway into not having core sets anymore. Since than, core sets have felt much more like origins rather than the older core sets (I'm talking M10-M14 here). I wonder if all new core sets will have a clear theme with a custom set symbol.
Return to return to Zendikar:
Aah, finally. I was so sad to see Adventure world turn into Alien annihilation world. Glad to see them returning to the roots of what made Zendikar a cool plane in the first place. It was ceretainly not "being eaten by Eldrazi". For all the doomsayers claiming that Zendikar's only draw were the Eldrazi - thats not true at all. ZEN and WWK were much more popular than ROE; and BFZ + OGW proved that the Eldazi-theme was not what people wnted out of the return to Zendikar. Indiana Jones plane all the way =)
On topic: His character's motives reads very red to me, and I associate shapeshifting with blue (although I could see them doing a non-blue shifter). On the other hand, his artwork screams green and black. So neither Temur, Jund nor Grixis would suprise me. Sultai seems off to me.
Please tell me people will not just build ye ole superfriends/good stuff deck where they tutor up everything and every game plays out the same. Yeah, not gonna happen.
Hard pass for me.
Not sure this is gonna be cheap. It is still a rare in a $6-per-pack product. I wish this was an uncommon. Easy include in all my EDh decks.
Something like countercurses or some kind of blood magic that requires life payment maybe. I would like to see black explore life payment mechanics more.
Generally speaking, its a good thing to have a third color be able to combat enchantments. They always felt least vurnerable.