I'm looking at making a deck based around alternative win conditions. The rule of the deck is that every card with a built in "you win the game" clause must be included unless impossible in EDH (ie Battle of Wits.
What I'm after are enablers for these wincons. Mainly cards that are decent at enabling several different wincons rather than one card that is insta-win with one wincon and useless for the others. It's still early days so I know there will be a ton of cards that I haven't thought of or which are straight up better than what I'm currently planning to use.
Please note; as much as possible I'm looking for non-instant means of achieving a win with these cards. For example, Chance Encounter + Frentic Efreet is less an alternative wincon and more an infinite style combo that ends the game immediately. The whole point of this deck is to be a combo deck without that element of combo.
To help with suggestions I've grouped a number of these wincons together based on their requirements and shown cards that I have for specific wincons or which can influence several wincons.
This is possibly the hardest wincon for me to build around. It's combo pieces are mostly useless outside of the win, it seems to be difficult to synergise with other wincons, and actively nonbos with a number of the lifegain ones.
I currently dislike this wincon a lot, as it either goes infinite with Frenetic Efreet or does nothing. Impulsive Maneuvers is an attempt to build a non-infinite version of the wincon.
My favourite wincons as their specific cards are wincons in their own right and lifegain synergises easily with various mechanics - in this case providing fatties for Mayael's Aria.
Going off of this thread, the last thread and your sig, I'd probably carry a grudge over several games against you too.
Have you considered that maybe these things are happening for a reason? Consider how you play and your attitude and how it stacks up compared to those you play with. If its seriously at odds then you need to find a new play group or change what you are bringing with you to the table.
I'm looking at creating a deck based around the idea of giving my opponents creatures and then making them hit each other, relying on pillow forts, incentives (the new curses etc) and combat blowouts (such as Comeuppance) to minimise how much damage I end up taking. The general would either be Ruhan of the Fomori, or the partner pair Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa. The real general of the deck is Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs just with extra colours, so the focus should be on giving tokens etc that won't kill my ogres.
So I'm looking for suggestions for cards that can either;
a) give my opponents creatures, example; Akroan Horse
b) force opponents to attack, example; Disrupt Decorum
c) incentivise attacking others or mitigate damage against me from the creatures I give my opponents, example; Curse of Opulence
d) general purpose political stuff for bribery and deal making, example; Intellectual Offering
Would appreciate any suggestions along any of these lines!
Jeez, thats slim pickings. Looks like its almost entirely the mill artifacts. Though I took a look through and saw that there is enough for a terrible 'mill suite' in a non UB deck...
I'm wondering if anyone is aware of any decent cards for a mill style strategy in these colours. Anything that can help put a graveyard into a library or exile would be considered - its just really hard to search for this effect on gatherer as it can be worded in different ways.
Bear in mind my threshold for "decent" is pretty low.
Once I played sol ring into crypt into more fast mana into a tutor and then comboed out for infinite on turn 2 with my commander against Advisor Tribal and mono white mill. Wrecked those scrubs.
White horseman should allow the defending player to decide which permanent, in the style of Evangelize. Stealing any permanent of your choice is powerful and feelbad, not what you want for a custom card.
Scarab God - nothing but clones and controlled randomness such as Knowledge Pool. Exists to create complicated boardstates and try to find a win with my opponent's stuff. Main deck and slowly extending and altering all of the cards in the deck. Default deck for unknown playgroups as clones.deck tends to be around the same power as the other decks at the table.
Xira Arien jund beaters - for playing simple beatdown combined with a ton of combo disruption, and also for preying on other battleshippy fatties decks. Made as a response to a friend's big fat Naya deck. Might be rebuilding into 4c lifegain because who the hell plays life gain.
Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient artifact synergies - the 'serious' deck for competitive matches, can stand up to lighter end "cEDH" but dies to proper vintage lite EDH. Makes me feel special because its mono-red artifacts but isn't Daretti. Kept largely because Daretti was first real EDH deck because those semi-competitive combo matchups are few and far between.
Arahbo, Roar of the World cat tribal. For playing against my kid nephew really. Not much changed from the precon, this deck is very bad and exists to make 2/2 cats into 5/5 cats and then die to his consistently flipped Elbrus, the Binding Blade
Yeva, Nature's Herald - "mono green control". Made it because was joking with some friends how bad mono green control would be and the label just stuck. Exists to be naturalize effects that can turn sidewise ie Conclave Naturalists. Really highly tuned compared to mny other decks but still incredibly trash.
Thada Adel, Acquisitor annoying sh*t tribal - exists for the purpose of having a mono deck in UUU. Largely superseded by Scarab God and might be rebuilt into UW daxos, at which point it becomes a fusion between Scarab God and the equipment deck and is yet again made redundant.
Kraum, Ludevic's Opus and Tymna the Weaver saboteurs tribal / voltron. Realized one day a while back that drawing on combat damage was a card draw mechanic I'd never seen anyone play so built a deck around that. I mainly bust it out when I want to play Sunforger or try to voltron people.
O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami dragonball z theme deck - for when I want to play incredibly casual theme decks. Every card has had art and flavor text altered in Magic Set Editor, even the basic lands. Mainly creatures that can put +1 counters on themselves, and then various creature power based effects.
Simic Lord Roborosewater a deck made up of cards generated by recurrent neural networks. Busted as all hell, I get this out when everyone just wants to play for laughs.
Thrasios and Vial SMasher is very effective as a UG durdle ramp build into extra turns and other big spells. Friend of mine runs it and its obnoxious enough to kill on sight. I don't know if it's 'competitive' against the fast combo decks though
The whole point is to try and turn a low value resource into a deck theme.
I don't play combos and usually play against them - I also feel that "combo makes it irrelevant" can honestly be applied to pretty much anything that isn't combo in this format.
After some of the cool vampires spoiled I'm looking to transform my jund beaters deck into RWBG lifegain running a pair of partners I've been excited about for a long time - Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper for double lifelink shenanigans.
The aim of the deck is to be fatties based, using beaters to smash face and also gain a ton of life at the same time. So I'm looking for suggestions on what fatties are useful in other ways - ie Bloodgift Demon gives card advantage and is evasive to get through for the life gaining hits. Theres currently a few creatures with non-keyword lifelink that are good and as leftovers from the Xira deck, creatures that can tap to destroy other creatures.
I'm also keen on suggestions on what to do with the life. I've been through gatherer for clauses such as "pay life" and "whenever gain life" so I think I have most of it but there might be some obscure things that haven't been thought of.
So far the best one IMO is Aetherflux Reservoir. Don't care how effective that is or not but getting to 51 life and saying "attack me if you dare" would just be so sweet
What I'm after are enablers for these wincons. Mainly cards that are decent at enabling several different wincons rather than one card that is insta-win with one wincon and useless for the others. It's still early days so I know there will be a ton of cards that I haven't thought of or which are straight up better than what I'm currently planning to use.
Please note; as much as possible I'm looking for non-instant means of achieving a win with these cards. For example, Chance Encounter + Frentic Efreet is less an alternative wincon and more an infinite style combo that ends the game immediately. The whole point of this deck is to be a combo deck without that element of combo.
Wincons; Near-Death Experience, Hellkite Tyrant, Mechanized Production, Revel in Riches, Maze's End, Laboratory Maniac, Mortal COmbat, CHance Encounter, Biovisionary, Hedron Alignment, Barren Glory, Mayael's Aria, Epic Struggle, Darksteel Reactor, Helix Pinnacle, Azor's Elocutors, Approach of the Second Sun, Felidar Sovereign, Celestial Convergence.
To help with suggestions I've grouped a number of these wincons together based on their requirements and shown cards that I have for specific wincons or which can influence several wincons.
Near-Death Experience
Specific Cards; Wall of Blood, Volcanic Hellion, Fortune Thief
Shared Cards; N/A
This is possibly the hardest wincon for me to build around. It's combo pieces are mostly useless outside of the win, it seems to be difficult to synergise with other wincons, and actively nonbos with a number of the lifegain ones.
Mechanized Production, Revel in Riches, Hellkite Tyrant
Shared Theme; Win via quantity of artifacts
Specific Cards:
Shared Cards: Doubling Season, Nuisance Engine, Progenitor Mimic, Genesis Chamber
One of the easiest build-arounds, all three cards have some value outside of the wincon and they all naturally synergise to some extent.
Biovisionary, Hedron ALignment
SHared Theme: WIn via copies of the same card
Specific Cards: Research // Development
Shared Cards: Progenitor Mimic, Rite of Replication, Riku of Two Reflections
THis one is really pushing it due to the singleton nature of EDH, but the idea of winning with Hedron Alignment is just too sweet to pass up.
Chance Encounter
Shared Theme: Coin Toss
Specific Cards: Frenetic Efreet, Impulsive Maneuvers
Shared Cards: N/A
I currently dislike this wincon a lot, as it either goes infinite with Frenetic Efreet or does nothing. Impulsive Maneuvers is an attempt to build a non-infinite version of the wincon.
Felidar Sovereign, Celestial Convergence
Shared Theme: Win via high life total
Specific Cards: Aetherflux Reservoir, Approach of the Second Sun
Shared Cards: Cradle of Vitality, Crested Sunmare, Vampire Hexmage, Trostani, Selesyna's Voice, Primeval Bounty
My favourite wincons as their specific cards are wincons in their own right and lifegain synergises easily with various mechanics - in this case providing fatties for Mayael's Aria.
Mayael's Aria
Theme: Win via fatties
Specific Cards: N/A
Shared Cards: Doubling Season, Cathars Crusade, various token making fatties (Dragonlair Spider, Ant Queen, Avemger of Zendikar), Cradle of Vitality, Crested Sunmare, Greater Gargodon, Primeval Bounty
A hard one to pull off the win with but easy to synergise with due to just requiring that cards be 5/5 or greater.
Barren Glory
Specific Cards: Enchantment based removal (Oblivion Ring), Obliterate
I just cannot see this one being pulled off without a whole deck dedicated to enabling it.
Epic Struggle
Theme: Win via large # of creatures
Shared Cards: Cathars Crusade, various token fatties, Rapacious One, Trostani, Selesyna's Voice, Nuisance Engine, Trading Post, Primeval Bounty, Riku of Two Reflections
Has a lot of synergies with other wincons but is hard to achieve itself.
Darksteel Reactor, Helix Pinnacle
Theme: Gather counters
Shared Cards: Doubling Season
Azor's Elecutors
Theme: Remove COunters
Shared Cards: Vampire Hexmage
Another one of those insta-win or bust wincons, not too happy about it.
What would you recommend to swap out glint-nest (to play in pauper) and Drafna's Restoration (which isn't on MTGO)?
Have you considered that maybe these things are happening for a reason? Consider how you play and your attitude and how it stacks up compared to those you play with. If its seriously at odds then you need to find a new play group or change what you are bringing with you to the table.
So I'm looking for suggestions for cards that can either;
a) give my opponents creatures, example; Akroan Horse
b) force opponents to attack, example; Disrupt Decorum
c) incentivise attacking others or mitigate damage against me from the creatures I give my opponents, example; Curse of Opulence
d) general purpose political stuff for bribery and deal making, example; Intellectual Offering
Would appreciate any suggestions along any of these lines!
Bear in mind my threshold for "decent" is pretty low.
*they attack me anyway*
It doesn't deter anything and I just blow them up regardless of whether they swing, but it's still great fun.
If Mairsil can clone himself this deck is 100% going the mirror gallery route
Xira Arien jund beaters - for playing simple beatdown combined with a ton of combo disruption, and also for preying on other battleshippy fatties decks. Made as a response to a friend's big fat Naya deck. Might be rebuilding into 4c lifegain because who the hell plays life gain.
Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient artifact synergies - the 'serious' deck for competitive matches, can stand up to lighter end "cEDH" but dies to proper vintage lite EDH. Makes me feel special because its mono-red artifacts but isn't Daretti. Kept largely because Daretti was first real EDH deck because those semi-competitive combo matchups are few and far between.
Arahbo, Roar of the World cat tribal. For playing against my kid nephew really. Not much changed from the precon, this deck is very bad and exists to make 2/2 cats into 5/5 cats and then die to his consistently flipped Elbrus, the Binding Blade
Yeva, Nature's Herald - "mono green control". Made it because was joking with some friends how bad mono green control would be and the label just stuck. Exists to be naturalize effects that can turn sidewise ie Conclave Naturalists. Really highly tuned compared to mny other decks but still incredibly trash.
Thada Adel, Acquisitor annoying sh*t tribal - exists for the purpose of having a mono deck in UUU. Largely superseded by Scarab God and might be rebuilt into UW daxos, at which point it becomes a fusion between Scarab God and the equipment deck and is yet again made redundant.
Kraum, Ludevic's Opus and Tymna the Weaver saboteurs tribal / voltron. Realized one day a while back that drawing on combat damage was a card draw mechanic I'd never seen anyone play so built a deck around that. I mainly bust it out when I want to play Sunforger or try to voltron people.
O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami dragonball z theme deck - for when I want to play incredibly casual theme decks. Every card has had art and flavor text altered in Magic Set Editor, even the basic lands. Mainly creatures that can put +1 counters on themselves, and then various creature power based effects.
Simic Lord Roborosewater a deck made up of cards generated by recurrent neural networks. Busted as all hell, I get this out when everyone just wants to play for laughs.
I don't play combos and usually play against them - I also feel that "combo makes it irrelevant" can honestly be applied to pretty much anything that isn't combo in this format.
The aim of the deck is to be fatties based, using beaters to smash face and also gain a ton of life at the same time. So I'm looking for suggestions on what fatties are useful in other ways - ie Bloodgift Demon gives card advantage and is evasive to get through for the life gaining hits. Theres currently a few creatures with non-keyword lifelink that are good and as leftovers from the Xira deck, creatures that can tap to destroy other creatures.
I'm also keen on suggestions on what to do with the life. I've been through gatherer for clauses such as "pay life" and "whenever gain life" so I think I have most of it but there might be some obscure things that haven't been thought of.
So far the best one IMO is Aetherflux Reservoir. Don't care how effective that is or not but getting to 51 life and saying "attack me if you dare" would just be so sweet