This is a budget list for Inalla, Archmage Ritualist with some combos to win the game immediately. I've firstly bought the Arcane Wizardry deck back then because I saw Inalla's potential to be broken and also because I love UBR. There's plenty of room for improvements, including additional combo pieces to the deck. I prefer to keep it budget because my playgroup is casual and that's why I put cheap tutors (Transmute cards). Please let me know what you guys think!
I know it seems counterproductive to add lands that only tap for a single color when you want better fixing, but it's true. Sunken Hollow and Smoldering Marsh are just going to come into play tapped. You'll still have difficulty turning on Drowned Catacomb, Dragonskull Summit, and Sulfur Falls. It's important that your lands that can come into play untapped actually do so.
You have some filtering with the Signets and Graven Cairns, but you probably want Cascade Bluffs and Sunken Ruins as well. Cards like Ash Barrens and Grixis Panorama can be untapped lands or can help you find a basic to allow your buddy lands to shine. You will have opportunities to play lands tapped, since your not doing anything on turn 1 (except playing Kederekt Parasite in a deck with only 2 red permanents - not ideal).
Also, check your colorless utility lands. I get some of them, but Halimar Depths, Reliquary Tower, Temple of the False God and Boseiju, who shelters all all strike me as unnecessary. Yeah, getting something countered sucks, but your playing a bunch of redundant spells. If they counter one wheel affect, the next one will work.
Other than that, you split your mana relatively evenly, despite the fact that the casting costs in your deck are not evenly split. You have very few red cards, and yet you run as many red sources as you do black sources, when you play lots more black cards with more intense casting costs (see Underworld Dreams).
And obviously, fetchlands would be huge. They grab you duals, they ensure your buddy lands can enter untapped, they are exactly what you want. I assume budget has kept you away from them.
Hm true, I always overlook the quantity of basic lands I put when considering the amount of colored mana I have to spend. The reason why I put Boseiju, who shelters All is because we have a permission Azami in the playground ;( and imo Reliquary Tower is a must because Waste Not, Howling Mine and Geth's Grimoire nets me tons of cards I may need to keep myself on the board. I don't wanna spend tons of money to make my manabase cause I live in Brazil and cards here are thrice expensive, that's why I didn't include Cascade Bluffs and Sunken Ruins, the fast lands and the fetchlands (Scalding Tarn is pricey as hell now). Currently my manabase looks like this:
Nekusar is slow, how would you burn out everyone fast enough?
Focusing solely on "hand cycling" as much as possible, maximizing Nekusar, draw-triggers, and discard triggers. You have most of these pieces in your current decklist already, but these decks eschew milling cards like Mind Grind, Psychic Spiral, Psychic Corrosion, or Mindcrank in favor of running things like Teferi's Puzzle Box, Wheel of Fortune, Winds of Change, or Memory Jar. I think you would find that you would speed up your clock if you removed the milling cards and got away from the Laboratory Maniac plan and just focused on the damage plan. In the end, yes this is a relatively slow way of winning still, but right now you are in-between the "burn them out" route and the Control+Laboratory Maniac route.
As for the mana base, I think the biggest issue is the number of lands that enter the battlefield tapped. You have 9 lands that will always enter play tapped, and another 5 that will likely enter play tapped because you don't have enough lands with the appropriate basic land types to support them (only 8). This especially makes the Ravnica Bouncelands even worse as they will often have to bounce a land that will itself have to enter the battlefield tapped. I think that you are better off running more basics and finding some ways to run more low-cost cantrip spells like Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Night's Whisper, Chart a Course, etc. to help you draw into the appropriate lands and smooth out your draws in the early game. I think that will help out your mana and the speed of the deck more than the rituals.
I have them already but I was thinking about adding Skyscribing and Fascination but they're slower. The thing is that if I wanna win fast enough with Neku solely on those two spells I'd have to use infect Tainted StrikePhyrexis but my playgroup loathes at infect (they hate land destruction too, but they find infect more acceptable)
I like Thought Vessel and Commander's Sphere
I would cut ;Rakdos Carnarium;Izzet Boilerworks;Dimir Aqueduct;Foreboding Ruins;Choked Estuary - the bounce lands I only play if I can untap them for extra mana. Forboding Ruins and Chocked Estuary will mostly enter tapped since you don't have that many basic land types. I think basic lands would mostly be better. Temple of the False god is also tough in a deck that is trying to get to 4 mana quickly.
Next, if you find your commander slow... it could be for other reasons. Nekusar doesn't do much on his own. You need to have the wheel effects to start killing people.
If Nekusar is being hated, you need to get Lightning greaves out more consistently.
I was also thinking about cutting off those bounce lands and the ''reveal'' lands but I didn't find any substitution to them. And this is another problem, starting the game with enchants and wheels and good artifacts. My initial list doesn't have lightning greaves (maybe I should really put it) and none of the tutors.
That where I would look if you don't want fetch lands.
Regarding starting hands... Nekusar can either try to control the board, and grind out a win, or Nekusar can race to burn out the opponents as fast as possible. What would you prefer?
Being somewhere in the middle is not the best... Casting a windfall and a bunch of grindy enchantments doesn't kill your opponents very quickly. It just makes you the enemy. So you can either control the game, and win slowly, or you can forget the slow grindy stuff and just try to set up your fastest win.
Nekusar is slow, how would you burn out everyone fast enough?
I wouldn’t really call rituals ramp due their impermanence. Rituals are usually combo pieces. If you feel like what you’ve got is insufficient look into Nirkana Revenant and Crypt Ghast. With Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmawth they are very powerful. If you want to dump some cash there is, of course, Cabal Coffers. Other than that Grixis can be pretty hard up for ramp. Solemn Simulacrum is a fine choice. Burnished Hart is acceptable but not stellar.
I put Solemn Simulacrum on my first deck but I felt like I needed more bicolored lands since grixis has intense color needs. I'm thinking about putting Expedition Map.
I like Thought Vessel and Commander's Sphere
I would cut ;Rakdos Carnarium;Izzet Boilerworks;Dimir Aqueduct;Foreboding Ruins;Choked Estuary - the bounce lands I only play if I can untap them for extra mana. Forboding Ruins and Chocked Estuary will mostly enter tapped since you don't have that many basic land types. I think basic lands would mostly be better. Temple of the False god is also tough in a deck that is trying to get to 4 mana quickly.
Next, if you find your commander slow... it could be for other reasons. Nekusar doesn't do much on his own. You need to have the wheel effects to start killing people.
If Nekusar is being hated, you need to get Lightning greaves out more consistently.
I was also thinking about cutting off those bounce lands and the ''reveal'' lands but I didn't find any substitution to them. And this is another problem, starting the game with enchants and wheels and good artifacts. My initial list doesn't have lightning greaves (maybe I should really put it) and none of the tutors.
Hi there! I play tons of casual commander, especially those of grixis and now I've started to dig into more "competitive" ways to play. Maybe competitive isn't the right word. My favourite commander (as one may easily notice) is Nekusar, the Mindrazer but he gets tons of hate and is very slow, at least to me. For the past few days I've been trying to come up with a good, fast and solid manabase and yet not absurdly expansive and I can't find the right balance between lands and spells.
Should I put them in the deck or should I just put cheap tutors (transmute cards)? The average CMC of the deck is 3.00, that's why I run it with 37 lands.
Now that Amonhket block rotated out, building a good and consistent grixis deck has been really hard for me. Surveil and jump-start kinda don't synergize well, and this whole meta just doesn't favour tricolors, at least for UBR. And the lack of flavour baffles me
So far I tried to build a surveil grixis deck and it's just plain stupid. I tried to be a spellslinger deck but it's not fast enough. Midrange is another crap option wihtout The Scarab God and without Sweltering Suns going against Selesnya with all of its tokens has been pretty hard too.
!Sweltering Suns > Ritual of Soot
So I decided for the first time in my entire life to buy a MTG bundle box and bought the core set 2019. Got super new Nicol Bolas, the Ravager(so lucky :p) and now I'm thinking about building an EDH deck with him. But, I'm a bit lost since I can't come up with a single win condition for this deck. So far I've got this list to buy, but before buying those cards I wanna hear other opinions. Major themes are dicard and mill (for the flavor). Minor themes are control and some creature stealings.
If you don't like Aetheflux Reservoir, be advised that the general cascade strategy (even with other cards like the ones Dunharrow mentioned) is prone to result in a game experience that is very similar to Aetherflux combo, in my personal experience. You might end up with a high octane storm deck that most often wins in one fell swoop. Not saying that's bad or anything, but I personally found that classical cascade/spell trigger focused Yidris builds often end up as a highly linear deck that most often plays out in a very consistent and similar manner.
EDIT: A friend of mine has a very fun combat damage triggers based Yidris deck. Here's the list.
I noticed but I was thinking about using Yidris' ability to cast strong creatures and use voltron
I've always been fond of Ignite Memories. I find that most storm cards are weak enough that you basically have to build around and generate infinite storm count and that gets boring. But IM doesn't need a high count to knock off one player, and in a deck like Yidris that isn't trying to go infinite but can still generate a respectable count, it makes for an interesting card to cascade into. Do you play it safe and nuke one player or take the gamble and spread the love?
I'd rather go with "wide damage" cards (cards that affect all the opponents)instead of just targetting one player, but since I prefer more casual groups I tend to consider these cards. Some cards came to my mind like Primeval Bounty, Primal Vigor and Doubling Season, but it seems that Yidris only supports storm strategies
I'm willing to build a Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder deck but I've been wondering with there are other possible ways to build a deck around his ability, cascade. I did some research on this triggered ability and everything I came across was the Aetherflux Reservoir combo, and honestly I didn't like because I play casually (and that combo is boring). I thought about putting some strong creatures coupled with +1/+1 spells to make a voltron deck, but I'm not sure since I don't know many cards that would "fit" cascade mechanic. I found some interesting enchants like Temur Ascendancy and Sunbird's Invocation. I'm still thinking if they might be good additions to the deck. Please share what you guys think! Thanks in advance.
Just for future reference, decklists don't go in the main "Commander (EDH)" forum. They go in their appropriate subforum, like "Multiplayer Commander Decklists" in the instance of this deck. Try to remember this in the future. You'll typically get responses faster and it makes less work for the mods.
As for the decklist, it seems pretty good. If you're worried about price, looking at it on TCGplayer (by clicking the TCGplayer icon in the top right of the decklist) it comes to about $100 usd. If your budget is less than that, then the Planeswalkers are pretty easy to drop without impacting the deck.
A couple suggestions for down the line, if you decide you like the deck and want to keep it and make it better, are Howling Mine, Font of Mythos, and Forced Fruition at ~$4, ~$7, and ~$10 usd respectively.
Sorry I didn't know about that. It won't happen again.
I made a casual Nekusar but I'm a bit afraid it maybe unplayable in a 4man pod. I'm aware that he draws a lot of hate but that's not an issue to me (actually UBR always draw aggro). I'm also worried about the price since I have to buy each card separate. I'd like to know budget options for this deck and if I should keep those two planeswalkers. Ty in advance!
Okay, so we know that Vraska is basically a sleeper agent for Jace while working under Bolas. As far as we know, Nic doesn't know anything about Vraska's involvement with Jace.
We also know that Ral is an agent of Bolas, unbeknownst to Jace, the Gatewatch, and even his own Izzet guild.
so with each side having a "man on the inside" of he opposition, wouldn't they just kind of cancel each other out? How do you see the roles these two have in the upcoming conflict playing out?
We still don't know how far Ral Zarek is involved with Uncle Bolas, but I don't expect much from him. However, if Bolas wants to seize control over Ravnica I presume he needs the help of guilds to achieve that, which possibly means that he will put Tezze in charge of the Dimir, Ral in charge of Izzet and Vraska in charge of the Golgari, but Bolas will have to deal with Niv first.
1 Inalla, Archmage Ritualist
Creature
1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1 Stonybrook Banneret
1 Fatestitcher
1 Merchant of Secrets
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Sage of Fables
1 Trophy Mage
1 Aether Adept
1 Dualcaster Mage
1 Naban, Dean of Iteration
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Bloodline Necromancer
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Marchesa, the Black Rose
1 Naru Meha, Master Wizard
1 Ghitu Journeymage
1 Wanderwine Prophets
1 Docent of Perfection
1 Final Iteration
Enchantment
1 Splinter Twin
1 Kindred Discovery
Land
1 Shivan Reef
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Crypt of the Eternals
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Underground River
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Command Tower
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Sulfur Falls
9 Island
7 Swamp
7 Mountain
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Paradox Engine
1 Izzet Signet
1 Dimir Signet
1 Vanquisher's Banner
1 Door of Destinies
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Obelisk of Grixis
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Sol Ring
Instant
1 Clutch of the Undercity
1 Perplex
1 Shred Memory
1 Dispel
1 Dramatic Reversal
1 Siren's Ruse
1 Reality Shift
1 Memory Lapse
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Terminate
1 Dark Ritual
1 Arcane Denial
1 Counterspell
1 Brainstorm
1 Anticipate
1 Impulse
1 Desperate Ritual
1 Brainspoil
1 Dimir Machinations
1 Rite of Flame
1 Chain Reaction
1 Vandalblast
1 Torment of Hailfire
1 Kindred Dominance
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Fireball
The combos are:
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist+Ashnod's Altar+Bloodline Necromancer = limitless tokens and colorless mana.
Naban, Dean of Iteration+Ghitu Journeymage+Siren's Ruse+Dualcaster Mage = kill your opponents.
Aether Adept+Paradox Engine+3 mana rocks = Infinite Mana
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist+Fatestitcher+Illusionist's Bracers+Splinter Twin = limitless tokens
Dramatic Reversal+Isochron Specter+Paradox Engine+ Mana rocks/Tokens = limitless untaps, limitless mana and limitless storm counts
Dualcaster Mage/Naru Meha, Master Wizard+Siren's Ruse+Kindred Discovery = draw your library
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist+Wanderwine Prophets = unstoppable turns
Combo pieces supplementatitons: Vela the Night-Clad; Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Hm true, I always overlook the quantity of basic lands I put when considering the amount of colored mana I have to spend. The reason why I put Boseiju, who shelters All is because we have a permission Azami in the playground ;( and imo Reliquary Tower is a must because Waste Not, Howling Mine and Geth's Grimoire nets me tons of cards I may need to keep myself on the board. I don't wanna spend tons of money to make my manabase cause I live in Brazil and cards here are thrice expensive, that's why I didn't include Cascade Bluffs and Sunken Ruins, the fast lands and the fetchlands (Scalding Tarn is pricey as hell now). Currently my manabase looks like this:
Bad River
Blood Crypt
Boseiju, Who Shelters All
City of Brass
Command Tower
Crumbling Necropolis
Darkwater Catacombs
Dragonskull Summit
Drowned Catacomb
Exotic Orchard
Grixis Panorama
Luxury Suite
Mana Confluence
Morphic Pool
Reliquary Tower
Rocky Tar Pit
Shadowblood Ridge
Shivan Reef
Smoldering Marsh
Steam Vents
Sulfur Falls
Sulfurous Spring
Sunken Hollow
Tainted Isle
Underground River
Watery Grave
So I'll remove Choked Estuary, Foreboding Ruins, the three ravnican bouncelands and put City of Brass, Mana Confluence, Sunken Hollow and Smoldering Marsh. I can include Teferi's Puzzle Box, it's just that that card sometimes backfires and unfortunately I don't have money to buy Wheel of Fortune and Memory Jar (that's why I love playing MOL).
I have them already but I was thinking about adding Skyscribing and Fascination but they're slower. The thing is that if I wanna win fast enough with Neku solely on those two spells I'd have to use infect Tainted Strike Phyrexis but my playgroup loathes at infect (they hate land destruction too, but they find infect more acceptable)
Nekusar is slow, how would you burn out everyone fast enough?
Nekusar, the Mindrazer+Helm of the Ghastlord+Geth's Grimoire+Psychic Corrosion+Windall mill synergy, it can get more savage if you put Notion Thief or Consecrated Sphinx.
I put Solemn Simulacrum on my first deck but I felt like I needed more bicolored lands since grixis has intense color needs. I'm thinking about putting Expedition Map.
I was also thinking about cutting off those bounce lands and the ''reveal'' lands but I didn't find any substitution to them. And this is another problem, starting the game with enchants and wheels and good artifacts. My initial list doesn't have lightning greaves (maybe I should really put it) and none of the tutors.
So far the lands I put for my Nekusar are the following: Mikokoro, Center of the Sea;Geier Reach Sanitarium;Reliquary Tower;Rakdos Carnarium;Izzet Boilerworks;Dimir Aqueduct;Foreboding Ruins;Choked Estuary;Luxury Suite;Morphic Pool;Sulfur Falls;Drowned Catacomb;Dragonskull Summit;Shivan Reef;Underground River;Crumbling Necropolis;Sulfurous Springs;City of Brass;Temple of the False God;Darkwater Catacombs;Shadowblood Ridge;Halimar Depths;Scavenger Grounds;Command Tower;Exotic Orchard;Boseiju, who shelters all;Watery Grave;Steam Vents and Blood Crypt.
The artifacts are: sol ring, the three signets and the two talismans, mind stone, basalt monolith, fellwar stone, darksteel ingot and thran dynamo.
The thing is that I'm afraid those cards aren't enough for mana acceleration, so I'm thinking about adding these spells: Dark Ritual;Cabal Ritual;Rite of Flame;Desperate Ritual;Pyretic Ritual;Seething Song;Mana Geyser.
Should I put them in the deck or should I just put cheap tutors (transmute cards)? The average CMC of the deck is 3.00, that's why I run it with 37 lands.
So far I tried to build a surveil grixis deck and it's just plain stupid. I tried to be a spellslinger deck but it's not fast enough. Midrange is another crap option wihtout The Scarab God and without Sweltering Suns going against Selesnya with all of its tokens has been pretty hard too.
!Sweltering Suns > Ritual of Soot
1 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Some cards at the maybeboard: Unmoored Ego,Mind Rot,Underworld Dreams,Stain the Mind,Mind Shatter,Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge,Oona, Queen of the Fae,Harsh Scrutiny,Duress,Divest,Archfiend of Ifnir,Pain Magnification,Crosis, the Purger, Psychic Spiral,Mortive,Nighthowler,Wit's End,Nekusar, the Mindrazer,Rakdos Charm,Sadistic Sacrament.
I haven't considered storm cards because they aren't well viewed by casual groups but I'm gonna give them a try.
I noticed but I was thinking about using Yidris' ability to cast strong creatures and use voltron
I'd rather go with "wide damage" cards (cards that affect all the opponents)instead of just targetting one player, but since I prefer more casual groups I tend to consider these cards. Some cards came to my mind like Primeval Bounty, Primal Vigor and Doubling Season, but it seems that Yidris only supports storm strategies
I'm willing to build a Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder deck but I've been wondering with there are other possible ways to build a deck around his ability, cascade. I did some research on this triggered ability and everything I came across was the Aetherflux Reservoir combo, and honestly I didn't like because I play casually (and that combo is boring). I thought about putting some strong creatures coupled with +1/+1 spells to make a voltron deck, but I'm not sure since I don't know many cards that would "fit" cascade mechanic. I found some interesting enchants like Temur Ascendancy and Sunbird's Invocation. I'm still thinking if they might be good additions to the deck. Please share what you guys think! Thanks in advance.
Sorry I didn't know about that. It won't happen again.
I made a casual Nekusar but I'm a bit afraid it maybe unplayable in a 4man pod. I'm aware that he draws a lot of hate but that's not an issue to me (actually UBR always draw aggro). I'm also worried about the price since I have to buy each card separate. I'd like to know budget options for this deck and if I should keep those two planeswalkers. Ty in advance!
1 Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Creature
1 Kederekt Parasite
1 Whirlpool Warrior
1 Duskmantle Guildmage
1 Barbed Shocker
1 Jace's Archivist
1 Magus of the Wheel
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 The Locust God
1 Bane of the Living
1 Archfiend of Ifnir
1 Dragon Mage
Enchantment
1 Frozen Aether
1 Megrim
1 Underworld Dreams
1 Liliana's Caress
1 Dissipation Field
1 Spiteful Visions
1 Fevered Visions
1 Waste Not
1 Propaganda
1 Fate Unraveler
Land
7 Island
6 Swamp
6 Mountain
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Command Tower
1 Dimir Guildgate
1 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Grixis Panorama
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Submerged Boneyard
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Bloodfell Caves
1 Cinder Barrens
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Highland Lake
1 Teferi's Puzzle Box
1 Obelisk of Grixis
1 Sol Ring
1 Izzet Signet
1 Dimir Signet
1 Mindcrank
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Rakdos Signet
Instant
1 Faerie Trickery
1 Dark Ritual
1 Increasing Vengeance
1 Reverberate
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Grixis Charm
1 Wild Ricochet
1 Dissipate
1 Counterflux
1 Insidious Will
1 Crosis's Charm
1 Cabal Ritual
Sorcery
1 Molten Psyche
1 Time Reversal
1 Mind Grind
1 Incendiary Command
1 Prosperity
1 Skyscribing
1 Mana Geyser
1 Howl of the Horde
1 Dark Deal
1 Fascination
1 Talent of the Telepath
1 Chain Reaction
1 Delirium Skeins
1 Devastation Tide
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Whispering Madness
1 Windfall
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained
We still don't know how far Ral Zarek is involved with Uncle Bolas, but I don't expect much from him. However, if Bolas wants to seize control over Ravnica I presume he needs the help of guilds to achieve that, which possibly means that he will put Tezze in charge of the Dimir, Ral in charge of Izzet and Vraska in charge of the Golgari, but Bolas will have to deal with Niv first.