Casting essentially a triple land drop on T4 seems like one of the best things you can do in EDH. UG has a ton of strong things to do without needing to rely on a commander ability, so simply "get more mana" seems very powerful for enabling any deck.
In contrary to much of this thread he also seems to me one of the more interesting UG legends, as his competition is powerful but that is different from being an interesting deck. Due to the ability to enable pretty much any deck direction you like, the choices made for turning on or leaving as a land, and his ability to be a 2 hit commander kill (which requires setup) as a primary or backup plan for the deck, I find him far more interesting than "tutortoolboxcombo.dec" or the other commanders that often just build themselves. I feel they absolutely nailed his design and I expect him to get more popular than this place seems to suggest.
Tawnos will be popular because he is absurdly broken. He is a tremendously powerful artefact enabler on an optimized low cost haste body. I'm very surprised to see anybody rating him low, because there are plenty of players around who are after strong generals, and artefacts are strong, blue is strong, and he is very effective at doing blue artefact things.
but for me, he's perfect - my only gripe is the lack of Hexproof or gaining Trample on awakening. Keywords are fun.
I love him the way he is. Hexproof is incredibly boring and easy to use, whereas his slumber mechanic is a form of protection that requires strategic consideration and is more interesting. Likewise he's too easy to turn on to give you a 12/12 trampler - I think a 12/12 no evasion is right on the money.
If the aim is for the decks to balance roughly against each other, don't put "tap: draw 3" in one command zone and complain about a lack of card draw for the white option =/
White's strongest elements in EDH (imo) are removal, flicker effects and stax. These each have their issues; white flicker is straight up worse than GW or UW flicker by a huge margin, removal heavy decks only really function with draw to back it up or as wrath tribal, and both wrath heavy decks and stax type decks are unwelcome at the sorts of tables where people will be considering mono-white anyway.
I run a colour cycle of decks too, and of them white is the worst by leaps and bounds. 9 tails is an interesting general, as she is a mana dump for pulling shenanigans on the table when you inevitably run out of better things to do. Heliod is another good option, being a mana sink for tokens which is better than doing absolutely nothing. In your case, white's lack of gas is emphasized by it's combat focused go-wide general. I can very eaily see Odric not drawing enough creatures, getting one or more stolen by the blue deck, and then doing nothing all game.
Make a sectond deck that doesn't do any graveyard stuff. Those 8 maindeck graveyard hate cards become dead draws and your friend will start making a deck that is balanced for different opponents instead of just hosing you.
I've been building a cube designed to support durdly decks with lots of repeatable interaction, to hopefully create interesting political games. Originally it was an uncommon/common only cube but I've lately spotted some garbagefire rares that would have a home in the deck, and am wondering if there are any suggestions the community here can give me for others.
All of these cards are pretty bad, but in a low power durdlecube they can generate increasing value over time and support the type of game experience I want.
I would pretty much swap out every commander I own for Sovereign Right immediately if that became legal.
The biggest issue for 'eminence' commanders that I see is highlighted pretty well in the above post - it will be the usual EDH theme of undervaluing U or B card advantage in the design process, leading to stuff like free double draw each turn for those commanders while RWG will get some trash like dealing 1 damage to a creature.
I don't think the "MLD is bad because sometimes bad people use it badly" is a very good argument for banning it. Love me some LD, it's a great equalizer for red and white, it puts the breaks on the ramp decks that IMO can plague non-combo metas, and the great red nonbasic land can help even the power difference between monocolour (currently with very little going for it) and "lol I'll add a 4th colour because why not it's so easy" (which I'm guilty of as well, because nobody plays MLD around here).
Sadly, most people I play with get mad about MLD, even if they are fine with turns, combo, or dumb ramp ramp win decks.
Generally, I consider MLD as one of the 'anti-fun' strategies along with combo, turns, and various stax/discard. Got no problem playing with or against this stuff but it needs to be kept away from the more relaxed decks or discussed before the game.
I'm building a multiplayer peasant cube, and am looking for creatures that do interesting things with regards to combat. Everything is pretty low powered -
while I am open to rares in the cube I'm generally after weaker stuff. These are some examples of what I mean;
Deftblade Elite. It can act as a form of removal on the attack by forcing a block by something important, it can tie up a single blocker and fog the damage, or it can be an indestructible blocker itself by fogging whatever it blocks.
Thornscape Apprentice and it's cycle. Not so much of an attacker itself with 1/1, but it can tap down a blocker or attacker, or you can use the first strike to help attackers push through without a trade or a block to turn from a trade into straight removal.
Toxic Nim. It swings in every turn for 4 Infect, regenerating if it's taken down and withering anything with enough toughness to survive. Over several turns it will devour their entire board, or start getting in for dangerous levels of infect damage.
Shipwreck Singer. It can fly in to poke for 1 every turn, which is always useful in a stalled board. But it can also force attacks into crowded defenses, and even turn sideways to debuff creatures attacking you (or another player!) to cause trades and losses that otherwise would not have happened.
Keen on any suggestions for cards that would work in this cube.
Mindstone, Cultivate are top ramp. Honestly I'd put in anything 3 CMC or less that adds mana and cut that many fatties.
Edit: If your collection is limited, honestly throw all of that ramp in and cut the most vanilla beaters you've got.
Your still going to have a subpar deck though, and thats not going to lead to a good play experience. I really can't stress enough that GR is not the place for a new player to be. Avoiding topdeck mode is more important than winning and adding blue or black is the easiest way to do that.
I'd cut any beater that is just a beater - for example Scion of Ugin.
You should also run a bunch of ramp to get to those fat creatures - maybe 10 or 12 variantions on Rampant Growth
But probably the single best thing you could do is change the general to add blue. Blue scales exceptionally well to a format like EDH, and gives you easy access to draw (amongst other things). With a list like this, and especially when you are new to the format, you will run out of cards and go into "topdecking lands and passing your turn" mode real fast.
While I'd probably go far enough to say that any deck can improve by adding blue in this format, I'd particularly support new players taking advantage of its easy card advantage to keep themselves playing magic long enough to be able to make their own thing when they have a little more experience.
Hey all, I've been experimenting with an equipment based UW deck for modern. I've had a lot of success in the casual play area and am looking for feedback from people who know the format better on the deck before I go get smashed by some tier decks in the competitive zone.
The core of the deck is Puresteel Paladin and Sram, Senior Edificer alongisde a number of cheap equipment that can turn them into solid threats. By having threats that cantrip the deck can put pressure on the board while simultaneously digging for answers, lands, or whatever else is needed. I run a number of flash creatures that can double as a foil to removal or flash in at EoT to equip up and swing.
The aim is a more midrange deck rather than one of those paladin decks that tries to combo with free equipment.
Can I use the "tap three brainiacs" ability to roll multiple additional dice for each tap of The Big Idea? IE, tap him to roll a dice, tap three dudes to roll two dice and add them, and tap three more dudes to replace one of those two dice being rolled with two dice... etc etc? Or is it a one off addition to the dice being rolled for the tap ability?
Casting essentially a triple land drop on T4 seems like one of the best things you can do in EDH. UG has a ton of strong things to do without needing to rely on a commander ability, so simply "get more mana" seems very powerful for enabling any deck.
In contrary to much of this thread he also seems to me one of the more interesting UG legends, as his competition is powerful but that is different from being an interesting deck. Due to the ability to enable pretty much any deck direction you like, the choices made for turning on or leaving as a land, and his ability to be a 2 hit commander kill (which requires setup) as a primary or backup plan for the deck, I find him far more interesting than "tutortoolboxcombo.dec" or the other commanders that often just build themselves. I feel they absolutely nailed his design and I expect him to get more popular than this place seems to suggest.
Tawnos will be popular because he is absurdly broken. He is a tremendously powerful artefact enabler on an optimized low cost haste body. I'm very surprised to see anybody rating him low, because there are plenty of players around who are after strong generals, and artefacts are strong, blue is strong, and he is very effective at doing blue artefact things.
I love him the way he is. Hexproof is incredibly boring and easy to use, whereas his slumber mechanic is a form of protection that requires strategic consideration and is more interesting. Likewise he's too easy to turn on to give you a 12/12 trampler - I think a 12/12 no evasion is right on the money.
White's strongest elements in EDH (imo) are removal, flicker effects and stax. These each have their issues; white flicker is straight up worse than GW or UW flicker by a huge margin, removal heavy decks only really function with draw to back it up or as wrath tribal, and both wrath heavy decks and stax type decks are unwelcome at the sorts of tables where people will be considering mono-white anyway.
I run a colour cycle of decks too, and of them white is the worst by leaps and bounds. 9 tails is an interesting general, as she is a mana dump for pulling shenanigans on the table when you inevitably run out of better things to do. Heliod is another good option, being a mana sink for tokens which is better than doing absolutely nothing. In your case, white's lack of gas is emphasized by it's combat focused go-wide general. I can very eaily see Odric not drawing enough creatures, getting one or more stolen by the blue deck, and then doing nothing all game.
For example; Courtly Provocateur, Cellar Door, Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage, Acorn Catapult, Bloodforged Battle-Axe.
All of these cards are pretty bad, but in a low power durdlecube they can generate increasing value over time and support the type of game experience I want.
The biggest issue for 'eminence' commanders that I see is highlighted pretty well in the above post - it will be the usual EDH theme of undervaluing U or B card advantage in the design process, leading to stuff like free double draw each turn for those commanders while RWG will get some trash like dealing 1 damage to a creature.
Sadly, most people I play with get mad about MLD, even if they are fine with turns, combo, or dumb ramp ramp win decks.
Generally, I consider MLD as one of the 'anti-fun' strategies along with combo, turns, and various stax/discard. Got no problem playing with or against this stuff but it needs to be kept away from the more relaxed decks or discussed before the game.
while I am open to rares in the cube I'm generally after weaker stuff. These are some examples of what I mean;
Deftblade Elite. It can act as a form of removal on the attack by forcing a block by something important, it can tie up a single blocker and fog the damage, or it can be an indestructible blocker itself by fogging whatever it blocks.
Thornscape Apprentice and it's cycle. Not so much of an attacker itself with 1/1, but it can tap down a blocker or attacker, or you can use the first strike to help attackers push through without a trade or a block to turn from a trade into straight removal.
Toxic Nim. It swings in every turn for 4 Infect, regenerating if it's taken down and withering anything with enough toughness to survive. Over several turns it will devour their entire board, or start getting in for dangerous levels of infect damage.
Shipwreck Singer. It can fly in to poke for 1 every turn, which is always useful in a stalled board. But it can also force attacks into crowded defenses, and even turn sideways to debuff creatures attacking you (or another player!) to cause trades and losses that otherwise would not have happened.
Keen on any suggestions for cards that would work in this cube.
Edit: If your collection is limited, honestly throw all of that ramp in and cut the most vanilla beaters you've got.
Your still going to have a subpar deck though, and thats not going to lead to a good play experience. I really can't stress enough that GR is not the place for a new player to be. Avoiding topdeck mode is more important than winning and adding blue or black is the easiest way to do that.
You should also run a bunch of ramp to get to those fat creatures - maybe 10 or 12 variantions on Rampant Growth
But probably the single best thing you could do is change the general to add blue. Blue scales exceptionally well to a format like EDH, and gives you easy access to draw (amongst other things). With a list like this, and especially when you are new to the format, you will run out of cards and go into "topdecking lands and passing your turn" mode real fast.
While I'd probably go far enough to say that any deck can improve by adding blue in this format, I'd particularly support new players taking advantage of its easy card advantage to keep themselves playing magic long enough to be able to make their own thing when they have a little more experience.
The core of the deck is Puresteel Paladin and Sram, Senior Edificer alongisde a number of cheap equipment that can turn them into solid threats. By having threats that cantrip the deck can put pressure on the board while simultaneously digging for answers, lands, or whatever else is needed. I run a number of flash creatures that can double as a foil to removal or flash in at EoT to equip up and swing.
The aim is a more midrange deck rather than one of those paladin decks that tries to combo with free equipment.
4x Puresteel Paladin
4x Sram, Senior Edificer
Flash Creatures
4x Deputy of Acquittals
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
Removal
3x Path to Exile
Equipment Synergies
3x Sigarda's Aid
4x Steelshaper's Gift
The Toolbox
1x Basilisk Collar
1x Bonesplitter
1x Explorer's Scope
4x Flayer Husk
1x Infiltration Lens
1x Mask of Memory
1x Sword of the Animist
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Loxodon Warhammer
1x Strata Scythe
1x Sword of Vengeance
1x Argentum Armor
4x Flooded Strand
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Prarie Stream
2x Island
8x Plains
2x Supreme Verdict
2x Wrath of God (budget reasons, otherwise 4x Supreme Verdict)
1x Path to Exile
4x Negate
1x Prowler's Helm
1x Kusari-Gama
3x Disenchant
Known issues are low maindeck removal, and a few crappy pet cards that were fine for casual but will need to come out (ie Elbrus).
Can I use the "tap three brainiacs" ability to roll multiple additional dice for each tap of The Big Idea? IE, tap him to roll a dice, tap three dudes to roll two dice and add them, and tap three more dudes to replace one of those two dice being rolled with two dice... etc etc? Or is it a one off addition to the dice being rolled for the tap ability?