The banlist update today means a new elephant (scarecrow) in the room for Jaya decks: Painter's Servant. I'm of course going to try it out - it has the obvious use of turning Jaya's first ability into Vindicate, but cheaper and instant speed. It also plays nicely[?] with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Ugin, the Ineffable, both of which I like a lot in this deck. I'm also well aware that any self-respecting Jaya primer has to include something about Servant if it's legal. That's even more true if it doesn't stick, which is a possibility.
My concern is that it's too high profile. Jaya threatens a lot of decks already. Blue decks have a strong incentive to remove her without any support cards, any deck relying on a small general doesn't want her on the table, and really no one other than the pilot wants her to stick with enough mana to activate the third ability. Increasing that to every deck at the table at all stages of the game is a big part of why I don't run Distorting Lens, despite the power.
There's definitely something to be said for running cards that function as removal magnets. I'd much rather lose a Servant than a Gauntlet effect to artifact hate and Jaya can be repeatedly replayed. They also come with enormous upside most of the time. If Painter and Jaya both stick, the effect is unquestionably great. The downside is that not every removal spell in a multiplayer format is aimed at you and the deck does make extensive use of Jaya as is, so additional incentives to target you are an actual downside.
This also feels like a good time to try Imperial Recruiter again, and to find a spot for Goblin Engineer. Having a high impact, low CMC artifact creature makes that entire package much more cohesive. I'm not sure what the cuts for those are yet.
There are some minor things I'd like to see changed on there now that I've had a chance to look around the site for a bit, but I'm content to wait until whatever you're all dealing with around the site launch has resolved. Definitely looking forward to alternate themes, because black text on gray backgrounds with whatever that font choice is gives me a little bit of a headache.
For anyone who's interested in continuing the discussion at MTGNexus, I've started up the new thread here. It's missing all of the actual primer text until I have some time to play with the BBCode options over there, which will hopefully happen over the next couple weeks.
Honestly, the only request I have is to get the Rules Committee and/or Commander Advisory Group more involved with the site. I wish they officially could become more involved with the site as it was the only thing missing from this one. Having a discussion board is one thing, but having a discussion board that the RC and CAG frequent is even better.
While mods can help with that, it's mostly on the userbase. The RC stayed off of this site for a long time because of the amount of vitriol they had to deal with every time they posted something. If there's a moderately sized commander community willing to engage in civil discussion and the RC/CAG is aware of it, they're going to be a lot more likely to visit. Aside from keeping things civil and the normal stuff they'll want to do to grow the community (which I hope and assume they'll be doing anyways), I'm not sure what mods and admins can do beyond extend an invitation to the RC/CAG.
My take on those two is flipped. Bag of Holding seems more broadly useful and I'd expect Glint-Horn Buccaneer to die well before having a meaningful impact. I'm a little worried about how attractive a removal target Bag of Holding is after you've exiled a few cards to it, especially because everyone will be able to see what's in it.
I'm also in no particular hurry to make edits right now. There have been a lot of changes to the deck recently and I still haven't even seen all of those in game yet.
A, this deck doesn't really perform well enough to have a stock list. I don't think I've even seen an MTGO league 5-0 in the last year. B, the last time Manamorphose was mentioned in this thread was almost 2 years ago so I'm not sure who you're responding to.
These all vary wildly with decks. I'm going for most generally useful, but this is still so broad that it's difficult to answer in places. For context, I'm usually on the high power end of the casual spectrum. I don't play a lot of cards that would be considered format staples (mostly fast mana, unrestricted tutors, and a handful of staples that get frequent complaints), but do still like having good support pieces for the jank that makes up most of my deck.
Ramp - Cheap ramp that also has the potential to fix colors trumps more expensive, larger options most times
Tutors - My preference runs to more restrictive tutors. Cards like Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor are best in class by a large margin, which makes discussing them kind of boring.
Card draw - Again, my preferences run to efficiency more than anything. Some large burst draw and draw engines are good to have, but less important to a lot of decks
In a format like EDH Yarok kills imagination, because it builds deck itself, instead of players building their own deck with unique ideas and personality. EDH is suppose to be less boring than tournament formats.
I don't think this is a reasonable critique of Yarok. ETBs are pretty wide open, even constrained to those colors. There are over a thousand creatures with ETB effects and at least a couple dozen noncreatures that trigger when a creature ETBs in those colors. There are certainly some cards, like Reclamation Sage that I'd expect to see in most Yarok decks, but the rest of the deck can vary pretty wildly. Yes, you can do control/general ETB value and it's likely to be popular. You could also build stax, tokens, reanimator, combo, and probably numerous other varieties of deck. Yarok is kind of boring but it's not railroading you into building one particular deck. If that's what ends up happening it's on the players more than the general.
There are couple reasons for me. First, the staff is moving. A number of them are people who I've interacted with for years and who I know have the best interests of the community in mind. I don't know what the replacement staff here is going to be like, so I'm going with the known quantity. Feyd's also posted about what he's doing with tags on the new site and it looks like there's going to be some significant improvements.
The second thing follows from that. Curse bought the site years ago and there was lots of talk about how it was going to improve things. In that time, basically nothing materialized. There's presumably some under the hood stuff and a deckbuilder (which I don't use anyways), but I haven't seen much. There have also been some changes that I didn't like. The site was initially being sold instead of shut down at least in part because there's enough weird code under the hood that Curse didn't think a new owner would be able to handle it (or because of proprietary code, or something else along those lines - I'm a regular user without any particular insight here). The new owner also appears to have created the company in response to various Curse sites shutting down. My understanding is that it's the creator/former owner of one of the others. Their own site had almost nothing on it aside from links to a few of the former Curse sites day of the announcement, which doesn't exactly fill me with hope that they're going to be good stewards of this site.
I'm in the crowd that typically uses this as ramp. Nonbasic ramp is uncommon enough, but nonbasic ramp that brings the land in untapped is (I think) unique. Late game flexibility to grab other permanents is icing on top of that. There's also some potential for bluffing here, though it's unlikely that someone who was considering countering your tutor is going to be less willing if you overpay to give yourself more options.
One of the nice and/or frustrating things about Karador is that there's a huge pool of creatures that are all excellent fits, so even Karador lists with similar themes and gameplans can look vastly different. The gets amplified when you start looking at noncreatures, especially because the slots for those are usually more limited.
For this one, some thoughts:
Do you have any trouble activating Mistveil Plains? I'm counting 13 white permanents other than Karador, which is a little light for having two on board. If so or if you don't find it worth activating often anyways, is it worth coming in tapped?
I'm counting 4 sac outlets, the three lands and Greater Good. Even if you're consistently tutoring for the lands, that seems light. If you're trying to avoid combos, something with a mana cost a la Attrition or Evolutionary Leap could be a good one. Related to this, Corpse Dance feels a little underutilized when you have less ability to put a fresh creature on top of the yard or sac the one you've recurred
I've always found Agent of Erebos a touch awkward. It's nice to proactively and repeatedly clear yards, but not being able to respond is painful sometimes. Additionally, you're always a clone away from losing your own yard (especially without numerous sac outlets). Would this be better as Scavenging Ooze or Withered Wretch?
You have almost no artifacts in the list. If you're feeling lightly stax-y, Collector Ouphe, Stony Silence, and Null Rod only turn off Burnished Hart. In my experience, those slow other decks down quite a bit and you have a very grindy list here
Necrotic Sliver has felt very slow to me in recent years. While I have fond memories of it from when I started with the format, it's not a good rate for what it does anymore. You have plenty of instants and a couple other creatures to answer Torpor Orb effects, which is probably its best use at this point
Not specific to your list, but I've liked Underrealm Lich a lot in my own Karador. It's excellent filtering, fills the yard without going all in on it, and is pretty sticky. The Sylvan Library interaction is a lot of fun too
My concern is that it's too high profile. Jaya threatens a lot of decks already. Blue decks have a strong incentive to remove her without any support cards, any deck relying on a small general doesn't want her on the table, and really no one other than the pilot wants her to stick with enough mana to activate the third ability. Increasing that to every deck at the table at all stages of the game is a big part of why I don't run Distorting Lens, despite the power.
There's definitely something to be said for running cards that function as removal magnets. I'd much rather lose a Servant than a Gauntlet effect to artifact hate and Jaya can be repeatedly replayed. They also come with enormous upside most of the time. If Painter and Jaya both stick, the effect is unquestionably great. The downside is that not every removal spell in a multiplayer format is aimed at you and the deck does make extensive use of Jaya as is, so additional incentives to target you are an actual downside.
This also feels like a good time to try Imperial Recruiter again, and to find a spot for Goblin Engineer. Having a high impact, low CMC artifact creature makes that entire package much more cohesive. I'm not sure what the cuts for those are yet.
There are some minor things I'd like to see changed on there now that I've had a chance to look around the site for a bit, but I'm content to wait until whatever you're all dealing with around the site launch has resolved. Definitely looking forward to alternate themes, because black text on gray backgrounds with whatever that font choice is gives me a little bit of a headache.
I'm also in no particular hurry to make edits right now. There have been a lot of changes to the deck recently and I still haven't even seen all of those in game yet.
Untapped, color producing, two-drop mana rocks: the talisman cycle, the signet cycle
Fast mana: Kind of goes without saying, but it's not something I like to play in this format
Artifact/enchantment spot removal: Nature's Claim, Return to Nature
Artifact/enchantment sweepers: Austere Command, Bane of Progress
Creature spot removal: Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Terminate
Creature sweepers: Toxic Deluge, Wrath of God/Damnation
Slightly larger draw: Night's Whisper, Painful Truths, Chart a Course
Largest draw: Recurring Insight, Sphinx's Revelation
Engines: Beast Whisperer, Guardian Project, Grim Haruspex, Necropotence (has to be mentioned, though it's higher power than I like to play)
Full GY: Scavenger Grounds, Nihil Spellbomb, Tormod's Crypt
Noncreature: Snapcaster Mage, Mission Briefing, Replenish
The second thing follows from that. Curse bought the site years ago and there was lots of talk about how it was going to improve things. In that time, basically nothing materialized. There's presumably some under the hood stuff and a deckbuilder (which I don't use anyways), but I haven't seen much. There have also been some changes that I didn't like. The site was initially being sold instead of shut down at least in part because there's enough weird code under the hood that Curse didn't think a new owner would be able to handle it (or because of proprietary code, or something else along those lines - I'm a regular user without any particular insight here). The new owner also appears to have created the company in response to various Curse sites shutting down. My understanding is that it's the creator/former owner of one of the others. Their own site had almost nothing on it aside from links to a few of the former Curse sites day of the announcement, which doesn't exactly fill me with hope that they're going to be good stewards of this site.
For this one, some thoughts: