A little over a year ago, I decided to change from Gahiji to Rhys because I wanted to play tokens and I was tired of sometimes not getting token makers even though i had 30 at one point. I thought Rhys would be better because he can make his own.
For the most part my deck does fine. It wins most of its games with by tutoring up a seedborn muse when I have 6 mana and double things 3 times and I win with a craterhoof. This is easy to pull off with a bunch of tutors. However because this is the way I tend to win, it makes me question the other contents of the deck. I don't really have a consistent meta. Sometimes there is no boardwipes, sometimes 8 can happen in a game, when that happens, I'm usually dead.
I'm wondering if there is a way to make it kind of toolboxy like your deck, Spooky. At the same time I want to see if i can keep a bigger emphasis on token makers. My favorites are the instant speed x spells like Secure the Wastes and March of the Multitudes because of the instant speed. Sadly they are sometimes underwhelming without a token doubler or a mana doubler. I don't know if I should give up on them, or build the deck better to accommodate them.
Mimeoplasm is probably my most consistent deck that I get more wins out of than my others.
Someone here mentioned the Ballista/Lord Combo. That is how I manage to snag a win most of the time. but it does require time to build up the graves of enough people to get to the point where you can knock everyone out.
I used to run the Gaea's Revenge/Shadow combo but stopped when I realized two things. 1) Death Shadow was only good for the counters and nothing else. So I replaced it with Emrakul, the Promised End[ 2) Knocking out one person does not end up being so fun when they have to sit back and watch 3 more people play magic if they had an answer for my 21 power Plasm's Revenge
If you are just looking for a small list for things you want Plasm to become that can lead to a one shot here is what I use that tends to work out.
1) Emrakul, the Promised End I've found no matter what the card's purpose is it is always good. IF you can cast it for 6 or so because you milled yourself, you have a big 13/13 and you got control of someone's turn and can mess them up hopefully. If she becomes a Plasm target, you don't get the cast trigger but you now have a big thing with protection from Instants and evasion. If you like something else with a different effect, it's 13 counters.
2) Void Winowner another card where both things are good. It is a good creature with a great effect, or 11 counters on something else. Has the potential to swing in uncontested if opponent has even cmc blockers.
For your second request. Don't worry too much about overflowing your hand as a way to use the eot discard clause to put stuff in the yard. There are plenty of ways to do that.
I recommend all good wheels sultai can offer. Windfall [/c]Whispering Madness[/c] [/c]Dark Deal[/c] [/c Jace's Archivist[/c] They fulfill double duty of dumping your cards and your opponent's so more options. Ancient Excavation is also really really good.
Mesmeric Orbis nuts. you can't get a better effect for that cmc. Consecrated Sphinx is obvious but its the best thing i can think of that overflows your hand for discarding.
on another note. It is not your grave but Psychic Corrosion is decent with just regular draw steps but becomes insane when the wheels, excavation and Sphinx are involved.
And this is just my little cute card that isnt very popular. I play Manic Scribe just so i can have another early play that does not become a dead card in the late game.
Ive only used Zombie Master but i will take a closer look at Wonder and Filth
A card i saw in an edhrec article Diviner's Wand actually seems like a way to get Varina through and possible provide a wincon through commander damage.
While I am not new to commander. Varina, Lich Queen is my first real attempt at doing a tribal deck. I am not posting a decklist on the decklist because I dont think I need help with the list, its more of I feel like I need help figuring out the strategy and when I get that downpact I will consider posting the list. It is also very simillar to another list posted by another member here so I feel like it may not be necessary.
So right now my game plan does like this.
Main Plan: Have a bunch of zombies and zombie tokens in order for more Varina triggers and more importantly get damage through.This will also helo me find what I need when, I need it. This leads into plan B
Plan C: With enough filtering/drawing and tutoring It is entirely possible to acquire the pieces for Rooftop Storm/Grave crawler with a Vengeful Dead on board.
These are the issues I am currently having. Right now I am only relying on the suite of zombie lords I have in the deck as anthem effects. I would list them but I'll make it easy on everyone and say its the usual suspects. I feel like I need something else more impactful. as I was writing this thread, I thought of Eldrazi Monument What do people think about Coat of Arms? the boost it would give is what I'm looking for but I feel the drawback of helping other decks with tokens, tribal etc is too big a risk to warrant inclusion. Does anyone know of any other good anthems worth considering.
One other issue is save servant and merchant, there is nothing I can think of that has great impact when it comes to mass reanimator. If those two arent in the graveyard the plan is, hope I can get to my next turn without getting board wiped, or if I do get wiped the dies trigger everyone takes a life does some work.
I am trying to figure out Varina myself. In still not sure if the best route it a bunch of acctual zombie creatures or more instant and sorcery zombie tokens makers/removal spells that will become zombie through Varina's ability. It sounds good on paper but because the graveyard is a finite resource maybe that is not the best idea.
I really like your build and the one I'm working on is more of the same. I think these may be good for you.
Myriad Landscape: You have a bunch of swamps and this is just a ramp spell that takes up a land slot. Crypt of Agadeem You have mostly black creatures so this seems like good ramp.
Radiant Destiny one of the better anthems you can use thanks to white. Maybe replace Executioner because it costs more? Gissa's Bidding I think I saw you took this card out but was that for when the deck was Oloro? It just seems good with Varina cuz of Madness. It seems like an upgrade from Moan of the Unhallowed because I'm not sure when there is ever time I want to pay 7 Mana for 2 2/2s
I am very curious. When you cast the big reanimator sprlls like Apocalypse, Death and Bidding how can you win on the spot. The only things that standout are Wayward Servant and Gary Merchant. Is there anything else I'm missing? If there really isn't anything else maybe some tutors? Final Parting seems like a good way to ensure something good in the grave and get you closer to coffers/urborg. I do not play with these cards myself but I am strongly considering Filth along with Parting to have an instant way to Swampwalk my whole team. It is also a very easy decision to discard with Varina.
I have been playing Mogis, God of Slaughter for years at the helm of my rakdos punisher commander. I really did like how Mogis stuck around for a long time and it rarley got removed but when I saw Xantcha, I switched to her because she was literally the answer to my rakdos not having a lot of good card draw problem.
Your list does look pretty good. A Key to the City may be worth considering as another way to get Xantcha past big blockers. Perhaps you can try Sire of Insanity as a way to make people loose their hand and now they have no choice but to use Xantcha's activated ability if they top deck into land and want to make a play, and if they draw something they can't use the sire will get rid of it.
I have been playing Mogis, God of Slaughter for years at the helm of my rakdos punisher commander. I really did like how Mogis stuck around for a long time and it rarley got removed but when I saw Xantcha, I switched to her because she was literally the answer to my rakdos not having a lot of good card draw problem.
Your list does look pretty good. A Key to the City may be worth considering as another way to get Xantcha past big blockers. Perhaps you can try Sire of Insanity as a way to make people loose their hand and now they have no choice but to use Xantcha's activated ability if they top deck into land and want to make a play, and if they draw something they can't use the sire will get rid of it.
I have been playing Mogis, God of Slaughter for years at the helm of my rakdos punisher commander. I really did like how Mogis stuck around for a long time and it rarley got removed but when I saw Xantcha, I switched to her because she was literally the answer to my rakdos not having a lot of good card draw problem.
Your list does look pretty good. A Key to the City may be worth considering as another way to get Xantcha past big blockers. Perhaps you can try Sire of Insanity as a way to make people loose their hand and now they have no choice but to use Xantcha's activated ability if they top deck into land and want to make a play, and if they draw something they can't use the sire will get rid of it.
I put together Alesha slivers and it was really fun to play. Only problem is that it made me want to convert it to an actual 5 color sliver tribal deck.
I'm not sure what the rules are about talking about cards that aren't out yet in the not rumour section but I will say this. It may seem a bit bad cuz of its own set of drawbacks but that jund Hydra legend seems like a fun tale on the Alesha/Kaalia type of strategy. I might want to make that now.
I've visited Alesha twice now, and twice had the same desire to strip her apart after tuning her to be best I could. In the decks I've ran the various combos, the sweet interactions, and 1-shots via master of cruelties and hatred, but I've always just been disappointed with the decks performance.
For my group, the best performance was not focusing on any sort of combo. The best versions still had a few things like entomb/faithless looting, but ended up just a good etb-value deck with a few relevant equipment (since her first-strike was relevant).
But both times when the Alesha deck turned more into an etb-value deck, I found myself missing my wood elves and mulldrifter, and then the deck would quickly be stripped apart for something else.
I think she fits in a deck that is 10% voltron, 10% reanimator, and 80% good-stuff etb for the colors. It's too difficult to rely on her for more voltron (no evasion), or more reanimator (she requires attack step, hard reanimation spells are usually better). If mardu is the good-stuff etb creature color combination you want, and you specifically like creatures with power = 2 or less, then she may be perfect. But I felt that she was far too limiting.
I think that's the best way I can answer your first question. Per your second question, check out grenzo, dungeon warden. He is much easier to set up a multi-player-game-winning combo with, and you have a bit more room to work with the creatures in the deck (even when loosing white).
I considered Grenzo when I looked a some lists and i saw a lot of them also stick to the 2 power creature theme. Main reason i never considered him in the past was because I already had a red/black Mogis deck and i didn't want to make another deck that was just red/black. I did end up coming to the same conclusion about her being too limiting. I don't usually like to compare commanders like this but with my Mimeoplasm if I want it to be a certain creature I all i have to do is play it. You do have to jump through a few hoops get get Alesha reanimating stuff.
To me, the best cards to reanimate are Avalanche Riders and Fulminator Mage. To me, this is an aggro attrition deck with some combos built in.
I think the tough part is to figure out how many finishers (Master of Cruelties, Ignition Team, etc) you want to play vs how many controlling cards you want to play. I would play more grindy control cards...
The deck that plays most similarly to this is Marchesa, the Black Rose. Usually, my deck cripples the opponents with stax effects and beats face. There are some combos, but mostly it is combat damage that wins the game.
it was actually my friend's Marchessa list that made me not want to give up on Alesha. If you happen to have a list somewhere already posted would you mind sharing it? I wouldn't ask anyone to type their whole list for me lmao.
Sorry, no list
Do you have any dredge or self mill? Altar of Dementia? Marchesa wants to get creatures in play by any means and sac them once they have a counter. Sneak attack and manifest cards are great. Puppeteer clique is great. But these are not the cards for Alesha. Alesha, to me, would be best utilizing some Karador, Ghost Chieftain tech to fill the graveyard. Then you have an answer to everything sitting in your graveyard. Buried Alive, Entomb, Stinkweed Imp, etc.
There is also all-star Magus of the Moon. It is so asymmetrical to have him in play, stopping your opponents, then sacrificing him during your turn, casting your spells, then bringing him back with Alesha.
You may want Strionic Resonator so you can bring back more creatures per turn. Extra combat steps also seem good.
Hi, resident Alesha connoisseur here. I've discussed at-length the nine some odd versions I've built with this commander, including some weak builds like infect and birds (though if it weren't for doing crappy bird things, I'd have never discovered Vulturous Aven, which is Alesha's own Mulldrifter...)
You've played with both Recruiters right? These are the best targets to bring back, followed after by SFM. I like tutouring every turn...Looter Scooter is a natural include, and one of the stronger pieces of the deck.
Similar to Avalanche/Fulminator which have been discussed, don't forget about Goblin Settler & Ravenous Baboons too. And complementing the LD guys are Thalia/Glowrider/Vryn Wingmare. You can pile on that disruption with Hyppie/Blazing/Needle spectres as well as Dreamstealer. You can bring back Sculler/Fiend/Maggot for more hand disruption too...
Lots of removal options - fiend hunter/banisher priest, duplicant, faceless butcher, ravenous chupacabra. I've especially loved resurrecting Goblin Legionnaire and Selfless Spirit personally. Stingscourger is another personal fave. Necrotic Sliver is a stand out here because of it's versatility, despite 3 being a heavy cost to hold up.
Lastly, one of my most successful, and renown, builds was actually with sliver tribal. 3c Slivers works with Alesha because of their average power being </= 2 while having abilities that are sacrifice-based, which turns Alesha into an engine piece. Plus, you can play Hivestone to make Alesha and her supporting cast into Human Warrior Slivers.
Yeah i do have both recruiters. I apologize what exactly is SFM?
The removal creatures are my favorite things to get back that are not the Master of Cruelties and the guys who half ppl's life. Resolute blademaster has won me a game in the past and I know how great that one can be.
I must say Im incredibly intrigued by Alesha slivers. I know I just changed the deck up to be more of etb value town but now I really really want to give that a shot. I remember i bought a few allies a while back to try and do ally alesha tribal but never followed through.
I'm not going to give up on Alesha just said. Thanks to everyone here I got some new ideas and a few different directions I can take the deck. if they end up not working out... we got Commander 2018 just around the corner and i admit that Jund lands and Esper Topdeck both sounds like fun things to play with.
To me, the best cards to reanimate are Avalanche Riders and Fulminator Mage. To me, this is an aggro attrition deck with some combos built in.
I think the tough part is to figure out how many finishers (Master of Cruelties, Ignition Team, etc) you want to play vs how many controlling cards you want to play. I would play more grindy control cards...
The deck that plays most similarly to this is Marchesa, the Black Rose. Usually, my deck cripples the opponents with stax effects and beats face. There are some combos, but mostly it is combat damage that wins the game.
it was actually my friend's Marchessa list that made me not want to give up on Alesha. If you happen to have a list somewhere already posted would you mind sharing it? I wouldn't ask anyone to type their whole list for me lmao.
I never felt the need to make a thread about it myself, I tried to take advice from some of the threads I saw already on similar subjects. Despite all my efforts my Alesha suffered from an identity problem.
When I it a token deck it was just a worse version of my Gahiji tokens
When I made it more reanimator it was very underwhelming compared to my Mimeoplasm
My Mogis was able to play the stax game better.
In each version of the deck I always did keep the combo pieces of Goblin Bombardment/Altar of Dementia and Karmic Guide/Revilark because even though they were combo pieces they just so happen to fit in with the deck.
Against a lot of the other decks in my playgroup she feels really weak. Aurelia, Kaalia, Ur Dragon, Maelstrom Wanderer can do big things without much effort while I'm reanimating a 2 power dude.
1) Is there some kind of good way to build Alesha that i'm not really seeing. (atm im trying for a Gray Merchant/Purphoros hurt everybody else plan)
2) If I can't figure out what to do with Alesha is there something else that seems good that i can replace her with and can I can make use of my expensive Alesha gems (recruiter, phyrexian tower, masterpiece Duplicant)so they don't go to waste? If anything I can hold off until C18.
For lack of a better term, I'm having a similar issue to writer's block but for building a new deck. I want to try something new and fresh from Dominaria but there are plenty of options to go through. If anyone else has had a similar issue how did you get over it?
A quick run down of the decks I have.
Gahiji: Make a bunch of tokens and pump them, swing for game.
Mimeoplasm: Reanimator, Goodstuff, no unlimited combos but have a few ways to close out a game like Ballista with Lord of Extinction counters or a 21 power Gaea's Revenge
Mogis: Plain and Simple Punisher deck.
Kess: Control Spellslinger. Wincons are usually the big X spells.
Alehsa: a bit of a problem child atm. has some unlimited combos but not a dedicated combo deck. (Revilark, KArmic Guide, Goblin Bombardment or other sac outlet and purphoros. Not exactly sure what it is, I have some token makers, some removal creatures, but no solid theme.
As you can see most of my decks are red and black So I feel like i kind of want to build a new deck without any of those colors. Two that interest me the most were Tatyova, Benthic Druid and Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage but I'm having trouble trying to make them because it seemed i gravitated towards commanders that acted as win conditions and both of these seem like they are more supportish, so I have no idea how to go about building either of them. But im open to trying any of the new stuff regardless of color,
Went 0-2 tonight at lgs. Round 1 was mirror match but he got nut draws while i got land screwed. Round 2 was Abzan where game 1 was mana screw and g2, the Grim Flayer got big and i couldnt deal with it because my blockers kept getting removed.
I know its not an in-depth recap but there really was not much to explain. When i last played two weeks ago I got mana flooded in the majority of my games. When i checked my deck there were 20 lands in there. I thought it was too much, considered 18 but decided 19 was a safe bet. I will admit it was probably a mistake to keep a one lander (mutavault) g2 vs merfolk, despite having a vial and a Speaker, as he did the same t1 play but drew into his lands.
When I spoke to the merfolk player afterwards, I asked him about his build and he said he wasnt running the new lord because he always felt 12 was enough. I saw him use Branchwalker and it did a good silvergil impression by picking up a land. He did have Kumena but he was winning anyway so i cant say how good it was.
Even though i wanted to experiment with the numbers of some of the stuff in the deck, i did not have much of an opportunity to do so tonight and im still not sure if it's a good idea going forward. I may reconsider branchwalker at 2 the most.
I would like to give any advice I have for Alesha as ive been playing with her for a little over a year but im still trying to figure out what it wants to do myself.
My first build was a cut and paste of the budget deck from MTG goldfish because i wanted to something new to play and i couldnt think of what i wanted to brew.. Then i wanted to change stuff up a bit and i made it a stax tax theme and I played stuff like Aven Mindcensor and Eidolon of Rhetoric just to mess with people. Now i made it into some weird combination of tokens and the tax theme. I use the cards that makes everyone's stuff get tapped down loxodon gatekeeper and Kinjalli's Sunwing and a bunch of the 2 power token makers. In each iteration of the deck I kept an unlimited combo way to win. Sun Titan/Fiend Hunter plus sac outlet plus blood artist or purphoros or have the outlet be goblin bombardment or alter of dementia
My main issue with Alesha are the numbers. I can never figure out how many of a particular thing is correct. Should I run 4 sac outlets or 6? How many of the creatures should make tokens? What is the correct number of cards that mess with the board should i use?
My other issue with Alesha is the commander itself. In all my other decks (Gahiji, Mimeoplasm, Kess, and Mogis) I dont mind if they die cuz i can play them again and the commander tax is usually no big deal. With Alesha if im paying 5 for it, it just feels terrible.
If any of my experience could somehow be of help to you then that would be awesome. I'm gonna stick around to see if you find out anything cool that can help me as well.
For the most part my deck does fine. It wins most of its games with by tutoring up a seedborn muse when I have 6 mana and double things 3 times and I win with a craterhoof. This is easy to pull off with a bunch of tutors. However because this is the way I tend to win, it makes me question the other contents of the deck. I don't really have a consistent meta. Sometimes there is no boardwipes, sometimes 8 can happen in a game, when that happens, I'm usually dead.
I'm wondering if there is a way to make it kind of toolboxy like your deck, Spooky. At the same time I want to see if i can keep a bigger emphasis on token makers. My favorites are the instant speed x spells like Secure the Wastes and March of the Multitudes because of the instant speed. Sadly they are sometimes underwhelming without a token doubler or a mana doubler. I don't know if I should give up on them, or build the deck better to accommodate them.
Someone here mentioned the Ballista/Lord Combo. That is how I manage to snag a win most of the time. but it does require time to build up the graves of enough people to get to the point where you can knock everyone out.
I used to run the Gaea's Revenge/Shadow combo but stopped when I realized two things. 1) Death Shadow was only good for the counters and nothing else. So I replaced it with Emrakul, the Promised End[ 2) Knocking out one person does not end up being so fun when they have to sit back and watch 3 more people play magic if they had an answer for my 21 power Plasm's Revenge
If you are just looking for a small list for things you want Plasm to become that can lead to a one shot here is what I use that tends to work out.
1) Emrakul, the Promised End I've found no matter what the card's purpose is it is always good. IF you can cast it for 6 or so because you milled yourself, you have a big 13/13 and you got control of someone's turn and can mess them up hopefully. If she becomes a Plasm target, you don't get the cast trigger but you now have a big thing with protection from Instants and evasion. If you like something else with a different effect, it's 13 counters.
2) Void Winowner another card where both things are good. It is a good creature with a great effect, or 11 counters on something else. Has the potential to swing in uncontested if opponent has even cmc blockers.
For your second request. Don't worry too much about overflowing your hand as a way to use the eot discard clause to put stuff in the yard. There are plenty of ways to do that.
I recommend all good wheels sultai can offer. Windfall [/c]Whispering Madness[/c] [/c]Dark Deal[/c] [/c Jace's Archivist[/c] They fulfill double duty of dumping your cards and your opponent's so more options. Ancient Excavation is also really really good.
Mesmeric Orbis nuts. you can't get a better effect for that cmc. Consecrated Sphinx is obvious but its the best thing i can think of that overflows your hand for discarding.
on another note. It is not your grave but Psychic Corrosion is decent with just regular draw steps but becomes insane when the wheels, excavation and Sphinx are involved.
And this is just my little cute card that isnt very popular. I play Manic Scribe just so i can have another early play that does not become a dead card in the late game.
Ive only used Zombie Master but i will take a closer look at Wonder and Filth
A card i saw in an edhrec article Diviner's Wand actually seems like a way to get Varina through and possible provide a wincon through commander damage.
So right now my game plan does like this.
Main Plan: Have a bunch of zombies and zombie tokens in order for more Varina triggers and more importantly get damage through.This will also helo me find what I need when, I need it. This leads into plan B
Plan B: Mass reanimate with Zombie Apocalypse Patriarch's Bidding and Living Death This will help me recover from a board wipe and becomes a really good win condition if I so happen to have Wayward Servant and Gray Merchant (most of the stuff I have have a lot of black mana symbols)
Plan C: With enough filtering/drawing and tutoring It is entirely possible to acquire the pieces for Rooftop Storm/Grave crawler with a Vengeful Dead on board.
These are the issues I am currently having. Right now I am only relying on the suite of zombie lords I have in the deck as anthem effects. I would list them but I'll make it easy on everyone and say its the usual suspects. I feel like I need something else more impactful. as I was writing this thread, I thought of Eldrazi Monument What do people think about Coat of Arms? the boost it would give is what I'm looking for but I feel the drawback of helping other decks with tokens, tribal etc is too big a risk to warrant inclusion. Does anyone know of any other good anthems worth considering.
One other issue is save servant and merchant, there is nothing I can think of that has great impact when it comes to mass reanimator. If those two arent in the graveyard the plan is, hope I can get to my next turn without getting board wiped, or if I do get wiped the dies trigger everyone takes a life does some work.
I really like your build and the one I'm working on is more of the same. I think these may be good for you.
Myriad Landscape: You have a bunch of swamps and this is just a ramp spell that takes up a land slot.
Crypt of Agadeem You have mostly black creatures so this seems like good ramp.
Radiant Destiny one of the better anthems you can use thanks to white. Maybe replace Executioner because it costs more?
Gissa's Bidding I think I saw you took this card out but was that for when the deck was Oloro? It just seems good with Varina cuz of Madness. It seems like an upgrade from Moan of the Unhallowed because I'm not sure when there is ever time I want to pay 7 Mana for 2 2/2s
I am very curious. When you cast the big reanimator sprlls like Apocalypse, Death and Bidding how can you win on the spot. The only things that standout are Wayward Servant and Gary Merchant. Is there anything else I'm missing? If there really isn't anything else maybe some tutors? Final Parting seems like a good way to ensure something good in the grave and get you closer to coffers/urborg. I do not play with these cards myself but I am strongly considering Filth along with Parting to have an instant way to Swampwalk my whole team. It is also a very easy decision to discard with Varina.
Your list does look pretty good. A Key to the City may be worth considering as another way to get Xantcha past big blockers. Perhaps you can try Sire of Insanity as a way to make people loose their hand and now they have no choice but to use Xantcha's activated ability if they top deck into land and want to make a play, and if they draw something they can't use the sire will get rid of it.
Your list does look pretty good. A Key to the City may be worth considering as another way to get Xantcha past big blockers. Perhaps you can try Sire of Insanity as a way to make people loose their hand and now they have no choice but to use Xantcha's activated ability if they top deck into land and want to make a play, and if they draw something they can't use the sire will get rid of it.
Your list does look pretty good. A Key to the City may be worth considering as another way to get Xantcha past big blockers. Perhaps you can try Sire of Insanity as a way to make people loose their hand and now they have no choice but to use Xantcha's activated ability if they top deck into land and want to make a play, and if they draw something they can't use the sire will get rid of it.
I'm not sure what the rules are about talking about cards that aren't out yet in the not rumour section but I will say this. It may seem a bit bad cuz of its own set of drawbacks but that jund Hydra legend seems like a fun tale on the Alesha/Kaalia type of strategy. I might want to make that now.
Yeah i do have both recruiters. I apologize what exactly is SFM?
The removal creatures are my favorite things to get back that are not the Master of Cruelties and the guys who half ppl's life. Resolute blademaster has won me a game in the past and I know how great that one can be.
I must say Im incredibly intrigued by Alesha slivers. I know I just changed the deck up to be more of etb value town but now I really really want to give that a shot. I remember i bought a few allies a while back to try and do ally alesha tribal but never followed through.
I'm not going to give up on Alesha just said. Thanks to everyone here I got some new ideas and a few different directions I can take the deck. if they end up not working out... we got Commander 2018 just around the corner and i admit that Jund lands and Esper Topdeck both sounds like fun things to play with.
When I it a token deck it was just a worse version of my Gahiji tokens
When I made it more reanimator it was very underwhelming compared to my Mimeoplasm
My Mogis was able to play the stax game better.
In each version of the deck I always did keep the combo pieces of Goblin Bombardment/Altar of Dementia and Karmic Guide/Revilark because even though they were combo pieces they just so happen to fit in with the deck.
Against a lot of the other decks in my playgroup she feels really weak. Aurelia, Kaalia, Ur Dragon, Maelstrom Wanderer can do big things without much effort while I'm reanimating a 2 power dude.
I feel like I'm at my best when I'm reanimating a Raving Dead Virtues the Veiled Master of Cruelties Ignition Team but save those I'm not usually impressed.
I suppose I have two questions.
1) Is there some kind of good way to build Alesha that i'm not really seeing. (atm im trying for a Gray Merchant/Purphoros hurt everybody else plan)
2) If I can't figure out what to do with Alesha is there something else that seems good that i can replace her with and can I can make use of my expensive Alesha gems (recruiter, phyrexian tower, masterpiece Duplicant)so they don't go to waste? If anything I can hold off until C18.
A quick run down of the decks I have.
Gahiji: Make a bunch of tokens and pump them, swing for game.
Mimeoplasm: Reanimator, Goodstuff, no unlimited combos but have a few ways to close out a game like Ballista with Lord of Extinction counters or a 21 power Gaea's Revenge
Mogis: Plain and Simple Punisher deck.
Kess: Control Spellslinger. Wincons are usually the big X spells.
Alehsa: a bit of a problem child atm. has some unlimited combos but not a dedicated combo deck. (Revilark, KArmic Guide, Goblin Bombardment or other sac outlet and purphoros. Not exactly sure what it is, I have some token makers, some removal creatures, but no solid theme.
As you can see most of my decks are red and black So I feel like i kind of want to build a new deck without any of those colors. Two that interest me the most were Tatyova, Benthic Druid and Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage but I'm having trouble trying to make them because it seemed i gravitated towards commanders that acted as win conditions and both of these seem like they are more supportish, so I have no idea how to go about building either of them. But im open to trying any of the new stuff regardless of color,
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Flooded Strand
1x Polluted Delta
4x Botanical Sanctum
4x Island
2x Cavern of Souls
3x Mutavault
2x Breeding Pool
Creatures: 32
4x Kumena's Speaker
4x Cursecatcher
4x Silvergill Adept
3x Harbinger of the Tides
4x Merfolk Mistbinder
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Master of the Pearl Trident
3x Merrow Reejerey
2x Watertrap Weaver
4x Aether Vial
Enchantments: 4
4x Spreading Seas
Instants: 1
1x Dismember
2x Echoing Truth
3x Relic of Progenitus
3x Natural State
3x Dispel
4x Negate
1x Ceremonious Rejection
Went 0-2 tonight at lgs. Round 1 was mirror match but he got nut draws while i got land screwed. Round 2 was Abzan where game 1 was mana screw and g2, the Grim Flayer got big and i couldnt deal with it because my blockers kept getting removed.
I know its not an in-depth recap but there really was not much to explain. When i last played two weeks ago I got mana flooded in the majority of my games. When i checked my deck there were 20 lands in there. I thought it was too much, considered 18 but decided 19 was a safe bet. I will admit it was probably a mistake to keep a one lander (mutavault) g2 vs merfolk, despite having a vial and a Speaker, as he did the same t1 play but drew into his lands.
When I spoke to the merfolk player afterwards, I asked him about his build and he said he wasnt running the new lord because he always felt 12 was enough. I saw him use Branchwalker and it did a good silvergil impression by picking up a land. He did have Kumena but he was winning anyway so i cant say how good it was.
Even though i wanted to experiment with the numbers of some of the stuff in the deck, i did not have much of an opportunity to do so tonight and im still not sure if it's a good idea going forward. I may reconsider branchwalker at 2 the most.
My first build was a cut and paste of the budget deck from MTG goldfish because i wanted to something new to play and i couldnt think of what i wanted to brew.. Then i wanted to change stuff up a bit and i made it a stax tax theme and I played stuff like Aven Mindcensor and Eidolon of Rhetoric just to mess with people. Now i made it into some weird combination of tokens and the tax theme. I use the cards that makes everyone's stuff get tapped down loxodon gatekeeper and Kinjalli's Sunwing and a bunch of the 2 power token makers. In each iteration of the deck I kept an unlimited combo way to win. Sun Titan/Fiend Hunter plus sac outlet plus blood artist or purphoros or have the outlet be goblin bombardment or alter of dementia
My main issue with Alesha are the numbers. I can never figure out how many of a particular thing is correct. Should I run 4 sac outlets or 6? How many of the creatures should make tokens? What is the correct number of cards that mess with the board should i use?
My other issue with Alesha is the commander itself. In all my other decks (Gahiji, Mimeoplasm, Kess, and Mogis) I dont mind if they die cuz i can play them again and the commander tax is usually no big deal. With Alesha if im paying 5 for it, it just feels terrible.
If any of my experience could somehow be of help to you then that would be awesome. I'm gonna stick around to see if you find out anything cool that can help me as well.