I'll definitely pick her up. Foil's are around $2.50 as well, I love cheap foil commanders. Do you have a list Nhan? I read through the whole primer (awesome job Weebo) and the example lists. Was interest in some people's brews.
Thank you! Someday I actually will update the first post with some of the more recent stuff. It's just a bigger time sink than I have time for most of the time. I've seen a couple people mention reading it in the last couple weeks so it sounds like there's some demand.
I've re-read the primer quite a few times when I'm bored at work. It's very well-done; I'd say the demand is there.
It's only okay. Being able to insta-cast Living End from your hand if you draw it is nice, but the global -3/-3 can actually be sort of problematic if you're trying to make it profitable. I suppose it would depend on what kinds of creatures you find yourself wrathing away on a regular basis. Ironically, it's better against decks whose creatures don't die to the -3/-3.
@Polymorph:
Question the 1st: Not "strictly better." Please remove that phrase from your Magic vocabulary. Murmuring Bosk taps for an extra color, but it always comes in tapped. It's up to you to determine if you feel that's worth the risk.
I recently sat down with Akuta to a game with two of my friends. One of them is playing Brion Stoutarm (R/W Equipment shenanigans), and the other is playing Márton Stromgald (all-in Red). I'm feeling pretty good about this - neither of the opposing decks' colors are known for drawing heaps of cards, so I should be able to keep Akuta's reanimation condition online from a very early stage.
The opening turns develop slowly. Brion runs out an early Grand Abolisher and his general. Márton has played a couple of small token-makers. Meanwhile, our intrepid hero has little else but a Needle Specter and Geth's Grimoire. I send the Specter at Brion, and he discards Anger. Womp. Next turn the Specter heads for Márton. HE discards Anger. At that point, I've resigned myself to taking a huge hit from Márton and friends. My only hope is that I'm considered non-threatening enough to be left alone for at least another turn.
Brion tries to set up his shields with Adarkar Valkyrie. Márton answers by casting his general, Act of Treasoning the Valkyrie, and sending in his team, which included four or five Goblin tokens (Krenko's Command, Mogg War Marshal, etc) and an Emrakul's Hatcher with all its Spawn. Brion eats about a hundred damage or so and dies. Now it's just me and Márton. I haven't shown much in the way of board presence other than the Grimoire, the Specter, a Hero's Blade (unequipped), and Liliana of the Dark Realms (which has been innocuously fetching swamps). I cast a Mutilate with seven swamps in play, melting Márton's board and putting him into topdeck mode. He draws and plays a creature, and attacks me to 22. I don't remember which creature it was, because Liliana promptly -3'd to kill it on my turn. I cast Akuta, who picks up the Blade and deposits 6 commander damage on Marton. He draws a brick and recasts Marton, sending him in to kill Liliana.
And now, for the moment of truth. My original plan was to drop Whip of Erebos to get some lifelink action going and put the game out of reach, but I rip Nightmare Lash off the top. Now the plan is to cast Whip, cast Lash, pay three life to equip and smash for 14. Now sitting at 20 commander damage, no hand, and no way to take me down from 33 with a single card, Marton concedes.
The big reason why I don't care for Ethersworn Canonist is that it's occasionally a hindrance; there are plenty of artifact-heavy decks out there that will appreciate being the only ones able to cast spells.
Small update: I replaced Vampiric Rites with Infernal Tribute. Rites wasn't horrible when I was able to get it in play, and it may very well make it back into the deck at some point, but I've been on the hunt for Tribute for a while now - it's a sac outlet that can also eat things like Dark Prophecy and Necropotence if I need to conserve my life total. And just look at that BBB cost! Devotion monster!
I like when people blow up Necropotence (unless they use Krosan Grip). "Yeah, that's going to resolve, but first I'm going to activate Necro a few times."
Hence my use of a foil copy of that to attract attention to it.
The part that kills me is that I was accused of "using Necro as a crutch" when they killed it a second time and I showed them a Monk Idealist (which I had originally planned to use to retrieve Necro post-Austere Command before Replenish showed up). Necro wasn't what killed them. The stax pieces killed them. Necro was just for rubbins.
Paradoxical Outcome seems like a bomb with your discard-happy 'Togs. You can cast it on the previous opponent's end step, scoop up all of your Stax pieces (or even selectively choose), and sink them into Psychatog or whatever.
Fling, Rite of Consumption, and Soul's Fire can all kill from out of nowhere. It gives you something to do with your gigantic Togs, at least.
So I was able to get some action for Daxos a little while ago (tough to do with so many decks now, but w/e) during a nice three-man sit-down with my roommate (who is one of those people who frowns on graveyard hate in EDH and conveniently has the deck that benefits the most from having a full bin) and downstairs neighbor (who is a chill dude). Neither of them have seen Daxos in action yet.
Roommate's playing Breya, Etherium Shaper (modified from the precon; typical artifact value shenanigans), neighbor's playing Brion Stoutarm (pretty well-tuned Equipment-matters deck; known for running wacky and crippling cards in his Sunforger package).
Early turns consist of an early Daxos and Lightning Greaves to protect him. Breya's a turn behind thanks to all of her lands coming into play tapped, and Brion has just entered play. I slam Skybind on turn four, and my opponents comment on how it's "a neat value engine" with Daxos. Ohhh, if only they knew...
Anyways, I'm adding random enchantments to the board - Phyrexian Reclamation, Spirit of the Labyrinth, etc - and generally staying out of trouble, using Skybind to blink my lands. Eventually I draw the ire of the table by playing Thoughtrender Lamia. My foes begin the process of steadily pitching cards. Finally, Breya attempts a power move with Sharuum the Hegemon (dammit, Lamia). She's slowly building up an attack force, and I'm a little pinched on white mana, so Righteous Aura isn't looking particularly helpful. Brion has found Stonehewer Giant (and by extension, Sunforger) and Mirran Crusader. I have to save Aura activations for Crusader, which lets Sharuum slam into me for a turn or two.
Agent of Erebos joins the team, which makes Breya complain. I get Necropotence into play and get one turn's worth of cards out of it before it's promptly Disenchanted by Brion. I'm prepared to answer Sharuum with the Ashen Rider I've drawn into (not that it would have worked anyway with Breya in play, but w/e) when Brion casts Austere Command on his next turn. Much to my chagrin, he chooses to name enchantments and small creatures, which pulverizes my board while leaving Breya relatively unscathed. I guess between Necro, Spirit, Rule of Law, and the Thoughtrender, I should have expected the table to collude against - oh, look at that, Replenish off the top.
Now my opponents have no hand, no graveyard, Skybind is going STUPID, and Attrition is picking off their creatures. Rule of Law prevents topdecked tutors from finding another answer, and I use the turn's worth of time to make a heap of 12/12 Spirits with Daxos and kill the table.
TL;DR: "Daxos is bad? Yeah, that's what everyone tells me. Anyways, attack you for 72."
Im running 4 SSG now,so I can't add more,however going with the moon idea,I do have a bloodmoon as well as 2 magus of the moon I could include to replace fulminator.Just playtested against goblins and stingmoggie was to slow,it requires mana I wanted for other things.
How much do I need to adjust the manabase to run the moon package?
I'd have to see your list. Chances are you'll be running more fetches and/or basics.
So I know it's probably been a little while since any of the regulars here have looked at the primer, but I've slowly been attacking it to make it look nicer.
I'm also updating it with the latest tech, new card releases (which for us is just Blooming Marsh, but hey), and matchups. Notably, I've added a section on how to fight against Suicide Zoo.
Please read it and shower it with likes so I can continue to improve my status on teh interwebs.
So the reason I'm playing mountains is because allied duals are either bad (filter, checklands, BFZ), or expensive. I felt that the pains and kaladesh lands were the best mana I could get for the money as well as the shocks which play nice with my land cyclers. My current setup gets me 10R, 11B, and 8G. The foreboding ruins are the worst lands and the first ones I will replace once I get the money, but since I already had them I think running them instead of basics or a tapland is better than not running them. With 10 ways to untap them they actually haven't been too bad.
Hey Ion, thanks for sharing your list!
Blooming Marsh is a fine substitute for the other fastlands, since it comes in untapped early and can cycle all of your guys.
I'm in agreement with Kramer in that a set of fetches should be your first upgrade - either Bloodstained Mire or Wooded Foothills, since those are the cheapest. I think you'll find that they'll be the single best improvement to your manabase. Of the two, Mires are slightly cheaper.
A single copy of Stomping Grounds will run you about $12 USD - it lets your Pale Recluses find red mana. Cutting a Mountain for it essentially adds three G/R sources to your deck.
Six two-mana cyclers is a tad slow (I've only very recently gone down to five - 3 Pale Recluse and 2 Jungle Weaver), but you should be okay. There's not much to do in the way of changing that up until you optimize the mana (in which case you could probably cut a Recluse or Twisted Abomination.)
The 4th Fulminator will set you back about 20 bucks, but I've seen lists get away with running three. You could always look into Avalanche Riders if you're in the market for additional land-death. They're kind of slow in non-Simian Spirit Guide builds, though.
At the end of the day, I'd save up for some number of fetches and a Stomping Ground. That will probably get you the most "win%," as you put it.
I've re-read the primer quite a few times when I'm bored at work. It's very well-done; I'd say the demand is there.
It's only okay. Being able to insta-cast Living End from your hand if you draw it is nice, but the global -3/-3 can actually be sort of problematic if you're trying to make it profitable. I suppose it would depend on what kinds of creatures you find yourself wrathing away on a regular basis. Ironically, it's better against decks whose creatures don't die to the -3/-3.
@Polymorph:
Question the 1st: Not "strictly better." Please remove that phrase from your Magic vocabulary. Murmuring Bosk taps for an extra color, but it always comes in tapped. It's up to you to determine if you feel that's worth the risk.
Question the 2nd: Why not both?
I recently sat down with Akuta to a game with two of my friends. One of them is playing Brion Stoutarm (R/W Equipment shenanigans), and the other is playing Márton Stromgald (all-in Red). I'm feeling pretty good about this - neither of the opposing decks' colors are known for drawing heaps of cards, so I should be able to keep Akuta's reanimation condition online from a very early stage.
The opening turns develop slowly. Brion runs out an early Grand Abolisher and his general. Márton has played a couple of small token-makers. Meanwhile, our intrepid hero has little else but a Needle Specter and Geth's Grimoire. I send the Specter at Brion, and he discards Anger. Womp. Next turn the Specter heads for Márton. HE discards Anger. At that point, I've resigned myself to taking a huge hit from Márton and friends. My only hope is that I'm considered non-threatening enough to be left alone for at least another turn.
Brion tries to set up his shields with Adarkar Valkyrie. Márton answers by casting his general, Act of Treasoning the Valkyrie, and sending in his team, which included four or five Goblin tokens (Krenko's Command, Mogg War Marshal, etc) and an Emrakul's Hatcher with all its Spawn. Brion eats about a hundred damage or so and dies. Now it's just me and Márton. I haven't shown much in the way of board presence other than the Grimoire, the Specter, a Hero's Blade (unequipped), and Liliana of the Dark Realms (which has been innocuously fetching swamps). I cast a Mutilate with seven swamps in play, melting Márton's board and putting him into topdeck mode. He draws and plays a creature, and attacks me to 22. I don't remember which creature it was, because Liliana promptly -3'd to kill it on my turn. I cast Akuta, who picks up the Blade and deposits 6 commander damage on Marton. He draws a brick and recasts Marton, sending him in to kill Liliana.
And now, for the moment of truth. My original plan was to drop Whip of Erebos to get some lifelink action going and put the game out of reach, but I rip Nightmare Lash off the top. Now the plan is to cast Whip, cast Lash, pay three life to equip and smash for 14. Now sitting at 20 commander damage, no hand, and no way to take me down from 33 with a single card, Marton concedes.
Chalk one up for the Saviors legend!
Still, though - that is some pretty cool art.
I'm feeling pretty good about this, you guys. Can't wait to see what Reaper comes up with!
The part that kills me is that I was accused of "using Necro as a crutch" when they killed it a second time and I showed them a Monk Idealist (which I had originally planned to use to retrieve Necro post-Austere Command before Replenish showed up). Necro wasn't what killed them. The stax pieces killed them. Necro was just for rubbins.
Fling, Rite of Consumption, and Soul's Fire can all kill from out of nowhere. It gives you something to do with your gigantic Togs, at least.
Roommate's playing Breya, Etherium Shaper (modified from the precon; typical artifact value shenanigans), neighbor's playing Brion Stoutarm (pretty well-tuned Equipment-matters deck; known for running wacky and crippling cards in his Sunforger package).
Early turns consist of an early Daxos and Lightning Greaves to protect him. Breya's a turn behind thanks to all of her lands coming into play tapped, and Brion has just entered play. I slam Skybind on turn four, and my opponents comment on how it's "a neat value engine" with Daxos. Ohhh, if only they knew...
Anyways, I'm adding random enchantments to the board - Phyrexian Reclamation, Spirit of the Labyrinth, etc - and generally staying out of trouble, using Skybind to blink my lands. Eventually I draw the ire of the table by playing Thoughtrender Lamia. My foes begin the process of steadily pitching cards. Finally, Breya attempts a power move with Sharuum the Hegemon (dammit, Lamia). She's slowly building up an attack force, and I'm a little pinched on white mana, so Righteous Aura isn't looking particularly helpful. Brion has found Stonehewer Giant (and by extension, Sunforger) and Mirran Crusader. I have to save Aura activations for Crusader, which lets Sharuum slam into me for a turn or two.
Agent of Erebos joins the team, which makes Breya complain. I get Necropotence into play and get one turn's worth of cards out of it before it's promptly Disenchanted by Brion. I'm prepared to answer Sharuum with the Ashen Rider I've drawn into (not that it would have worked anyway with Breya in play, but w/e) when Brion casts Austere Command on his next turn. Much to my chagrin, he chooses to name enchantments and small creatures, which pulverizes my board while leaving Breya relatively unscathed. I guess between Necro, Spirit, Rule of Law, and the Thoughtrender, I should have expected the table to collude against - oh, look at that, Replenish off the top.
Now my opponents have no hand, no graveyard, Skybind is going STUPID, and Attrition is picking off their creatures. Rule of Law prevents topdecked tutors from finding another answer, and I use the turn's worth of time to make a heap of 12/12 Spirits with Daxos and kill the table.
TL;DR: "Daxos is bad? Yeah, that's what everyone tells me. Anyways, attack you for 72."
I'd have to see your list. Chances are you'll be running more fetches and/or basics.
I'm also updating it with the latest tech, new card releases (which for us is just Blooming Marsh, but hey), and matchups. Notably, I've added a section on how to fight against Suicide Zoo.
Please read it and shower it with likes so I can continue to improve my status on teh interwebs.
Hey Ion, thanks for sharing your list!
Blooming Marsh is a fine substitute for the other fastlands, since it comes in untapped early and can cycle all of your guys.
I'm in agreement with Kramer in that a set of fetches should be your first upgrade - either Bloodstained Mire or Wooded Foothills, since those are the cheapest. I think you'll find that they'll be the single best improvement to your manabase. Of the two, Mires are slightly cheaper.
A single copy of Stomping Grounds will run you about $12 USD - it lets your Pale Recluses find red mana. Cutting a Mountain for it essentially adds three G/R sources to your deck.
Six two-mana cyclers is a tad slow (I've only very recently gone down to five - 3 Pale Recluse and 2 Jungle Weaver), but you should be okay. There's not much to do in the way of changing that up until you optimize the mana (in which case you could probably cut a Recluse or Twisted Abomination.)
The 4th Fulminator will set you back about 20 bucks, but I've seen lists get away with running three. You could always look into Avalanche Riders if you're in the market for additional land-death. They're kind of slow in non-Simian Spirit Guide builds, though.
At the end of the day, I'd save up for some number of fetches and a Stomping Ground. That will probably get you the most "win%," as you put it.