MTG Salvation

This plus Fluctuator and cards that cycle for ? Potential to draw your deck and combo out?

I currently have a High Tide Jace deck and I've slowly been planning another version since my group hates the infinite combo part and while I'm not sure how "non-traditional" this build would be I have been toying with a mono-blue control variant.

The base of the deck I was thinking about uses cards like Back to Basics, Propaganda, and counters to slow down your opponents while you setup your manabase (mentioned above) to cast powerful blue instants and sorceries like Rite of Replication, Bribery, Expropriate, Time Warp, etc. The goal here to use cards that Jace can flashback for double value to overwhelm your opponents.

Or Mindslaver could be run as a way to grind opponents out by making them fight each other.

So I just wrote out an extremely long response, that took a couple hours to compose but unfortunately that is gone and to spare my sanity I'm going to try to respond briefly.

First, yes this card is obviously overpowered. I set out to make a card to my liking and in doing so I had to be bias as I am trying to achieve a specific set of goals with this card. This is a brief version of the flavor I wanted to build the card upon. A mysterious elemental Drake born out of Zendikar's roil that travels across parts of the plane attracting Drakes and reshaping the terrain much like the actual roil.
From this I assembled a list of goals:
-Lands Matter (Native to Zendikar so a strong influence)
-Create a terrain warping effect like the roil
-Drakes sub theme (not drake tribal)
-Low CMC
-Color Identity of atleast Blue-Green (would prefer to have black as well if it could work)

I appreciate you spending the time to make that card and wow was the amount of text worse than I thought so obviously the land-specific ability needs to be dropped or atleast significantly reworked. I would like to have a similar effect to this, because I'm still attached to the idea that this creature gains power from the lands it's warping based off its type.

The "warping" ability is certainly going to be the base I would like to design this card from going forward and I understand the concerns of how powerful it could be so I was thinking about moving the random land from your library from immediately after to at the beginning of your next upkeep. Doing this keeps you a land behind on your opponents' turns and it gives you another Drake on your upkeep instead of the turn before meaning it can't attack right away. After that landfall drake generator is something I'm looking to keep.

I do really like having the warp effect triggers for each player during their upkeeps but forcing everyone shuffle every turn seems very cumbersome, while forcing myself to shuffle every turn is something I don't mind. What I liked about your version of the ability though was that it added an aspect of control to the card and randomness which I was interested in achieving.

As for a potential deck theme I could see this card fitting in would be a land-based control deck that wins with tokens. Overlapping a bit with Titania strategies.

Thanks for all the responses. Hopefully I can flesh this card out to bit somewhat more balanced this time and update this with my progress.

After seeing Drake Haven spoiled I got inspired to make a Drake based commander deck. Unfortunately though there are no Legendary Drakes and I didn't want to make a Talrand deck. I did a search of all the Drakes available in the game to get an idea of what kind of card I would make and I came across my favorite Drake on my favorite plane, Horizon Drake. Below is my thought process on how I created this card and I'm looking for opinions and constructive criticism on how I should go about improving this card.

I came up with some lore to help me design this card. The setting is pre-ROE Zendikar and focuses on the mystery of the roil. [Insert Name] is an ancient creature born out of the roil, an elemental with the body of a Drake. Much like the roil, [] has the capability to alter the land in its wake. Comparatively though, []'s effect is much smaller and often goes unnoticed to those not looking for it and the few that have been lucky enough to find its trail are often left lost, as the [] is forgiving to no creature. Because of this [] remains as one of Zendikar's mysteries. [] tends to remain in Zendikar's vast seas, harsh swamps and lush forests but as it travels other Drakes are drawn to it. Drakes in the flock follow the will of [].

Card Ideas:
Soon into brainstorming ideas I shifted the primary focus from Drakes to lands to fit into the overall Zendikar theme while trying to keep true to the original Drake theme. With this in mind I have a few key points I wanna hit: interacts with lands, creates drakes, low cmc. Using the previous points and the "lore" I created the following base for the card:

[]

Legendary Creature - Elemental Drake (M)
Flying, Shroud

Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, create a 2/2 blue Drake creature token with flying.

2/2

Originally I wanted to make this a 3cmc commander but I felt that was really pushing it, especially in its current state it feels very bland and I knew I wanted to add another ability. So I came up with this:

-
Whenever a land you control leaves the battlefield, you may sacrifice X Drakes you control. If that land was an Island, untap up to X target permanents you control and tap up to X target permanents an opponent controls, those permanents do not untap during their controller's next untap step. If that land was a Swamp, target opponent discards X cards at random from their hand. If that land was a Forest, you may return up to X cards from your graveyard to your hand at random.

At the beginning of your end step, sacrifice a land. If you do, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a land card, put that card onto the battlefield and then shuffle the remaining cards back into your library.
-

Yes... It's a wall of text, I know. The second half is supposed to be [] using the roil to warp the land as it passes by, hence the end step trigger. I really like this ability but just that alone would be the same thing as just creating another Drake token and untapping a land at my end step so I felt it needed more. That's when I incorporated the Drakes into the equation to add the Zendikar theme of exploration. I decided to use the basic land types as a way to dictate where the group has traveled and what effects they have "gathered". So, rather than having another Landfall ability I decided to make it a LTB ability instead, as if these effects can only be used as the roil is warping the terrain, potentially losing a few Drakes along the way.

Final Product:
[]

Legendary Creature - Elemental Drake (M)
Flying, Shroud

Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, create a 2/2 blue Drake creature token with flying.

Whenever a land you control leaves the battlefield, you may sacrifice X Drakes you control. If that land was an Island, untap up to X target permanents you control and tap up to X target permanents an opponent controls, those permanents do not unwrap during their controller's next unwrap step. If that land was a Swamp, target opponent discards X cards at random from their hand. If that land was a Forest, you may return up to X cards from your graveyard to your hand at random.

At the beginning of your end step, sacrifice a land. If you do, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a land card, put that card onto the battlefield and then shuffle the remaining cards back into your library.

2/2

Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks for reading this. Sorry if this is the wrong place for this thread, just looking for commander specific feedback.

Quote from Hawk7915 »

No consideration for Yahenni, Undying Partisan or Drana, Liberator of Malakir? Both have strong interactions with +1/+1 counter matters cards (admittedly few and far between in black but there is the fun of Puppeteer Clique and Cauldron of Souls alongside Drana especially) and an aggressive bent to them. Yahenni also is a good "Aristocrat" commander - lots of opportunities to do sick stuff with Grave Pact, Pawn of Ulamog, Blood Artist, Skullclamp, etc.

My only thing against Yahenni is that I would prefer a more "traditional" vampire at the helm, whereas she is an Aetherborn first and foremost. Drana, Liberator of Malakir will for sure be in the deck but I wanted to do a little more than just attack. The synergies with persist are something to note though.

Quote from JWK »

Of the choices you list, I think Drana is the best choice, easily. She's very good.

I have a vampire tribal deck, and the general is Garza Zol, Plague Queen. Blue is very much a tertiary color, as I run that deck very much on theme, and thus don't include a lot of the typical blue tricks, but blue does add some cards which give the deck some extra oomph. Clone effects and things like Cackling Counterpart give you extra copies of key non-legendary vampires, if you want to go that route (I play only Cackling Counterpart), while Call to the Kindred is an excellent card in any tribal deck. Garza Zol hereself is a potent threat, as is Blood Tyrant.

This deck has been very successful, winning more than its share of matches. I always enjoy playing it, and various people have told me they have enjoyed playing against it, as it is pretty powerful without being unfair. The biggest complaint anyone has ever had about it is that some people just plain hate Sorin Markov, but let's face it, if he belongs anywhere, a vampire tribal deck is it. Anyone interested can check out my decklist at https://deckbox.org/sets/342949 .

The art on Garza Zol just doesn't do it for me, that's just my opinion though. Other than that I'm not a fan of a CMC of 7. Sorin on the other hand will be in the deck, first for flavor and second because there's a guy in my playgroup that almost always sets my life to 10 with him, time for revenge haha.

Quote from Incanur »

Personally, I have an Olivia Voldaren deck, so I'm biased. The fact that she can give creatures the Vampire subtype facilitates various tribal shenanigans.

Drana seems like the best monoblack choice, because she provides a sink for that big mana that black can generate.

Olivia Voldaren I think I put as a future option for the deck, kinda on a mono color deck kick so maybe in the future I would upgrade the deck to include red. My biggest gripe with Drana 1.0 is that she seems so 1 dimensional, being that your main goal every game is to make a bunch of mana.

Quote from Dunharrow »

Anowon is the most interesting one to me. And you don't have to limit yourself to vampires. Sacrificing things can be to your advantage.

Just play Nim Deathmantle, and Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Kokusho, the Evening Star become win conditions.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is another solid option. It hates on graveyard decks.

I never really though of it this way. That's an interesting way to turn the deck building disadvantage into an advantage. I'm a big fan reusable resources in commander so this certainly ups my excitement to build an Anowon deck.

I've honestly never considered Olivia 2.0 before, she sounds pretty cool though. I like that on the surface she doesn't seem like much of a threat since people in my group tend to target me because of my other decks. She could also open the deck up to a potential reanimator sub theme.

When I say vampire tribal I really mean that I would like to have a main theme of the deck based around vampires and to have synergies with the rest of the non-vampire deck, not just playing a deck with all the best vampires just jammed in.

I've narrowed my options down to 3:

Anowon, the Ruin Sage:
Control/Stax build seems logical
Pro:
-Sacrifice effects are very strong.
-Has a bad-ass feel to him.
-Control Decks are my favorite.
Con:
-Limits the amount of non-vampire creatures I can play.
-Decent body but nothing special and no evasion.

Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief:
Big Mana/Black good stuff
Pro:
-Can be a wincon on her own.
-Evasion and grows in size.
-Has built-in removal.
Con:
-Worried about being a target when she's in play.

Olivia Voldaren:
Pro:
-Can be a wincon on her own.
-Evasion and grows in size.
-Has built-in utility.
-Access to a second color.
Con:
-Not a red player.

Right now I'm leaning towards Anowon but looking for opinions.
Thanks!

The idea comes from Rashmi, Eternities Crafter being an inventor/scientist in the lore and I thought it would be fun to try and make a not so simple combo deck. The main combo piece I planned on using is Paradox Engine. Sorry this is a bit vague, that is because I'm not entirely sure of where I'm going with the deck and how to actually get consistency out of this deck. I had an idea of a deck in my head but a scrapped it because it ended up being just a bunch of combo pieces jammed into a deck.

Potential ideas:
-A near creature-less deck using Time Twister effects as "experiments" to find combos

Might be worth noting that with a single Greenbelt Rampager you can get up to 3 triggers off this artifact.

Thanks for suggestions! So clearly I underestimated the potential power of Enchanted Evening when I said the deck wasn't going to be competitive. First off I really like idea of using cards like Calming Verse, Fracturing Gust, and Cleansing Meditation to reset the game for everyone. Potentially running Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Elspeth, Knight-Errant to build a board of indestructible enchantments and when combined with Greater Auramancy and friends it makes a pretty hard board to remove. Academy Rector and especially Aura Thief look like really fun creatures. Adding Defense of the Heart to bring out key creatures seems strong. Going to try and flesh out a list this weekend.

I've recently come across the card Enchanted Evening again and it inspired me to try and build a deck around it(or at least in theme with it). I know it doesn't have the most immediately powerful affect but with the right deck I can imagine it having a strong impact. My main goal is to create a fun and flavorful deck based around the aforementioned card. I'm not looking to make a super competitive deck but one that can hold its own in multiplayer.

Main Concerns:

1. Flavor: To me Enchanted Evening is a card the wants a story built around it. But what story am I trying to tell? Do I make a Lorwyn/Shadowmoor themed deck? The card's own flavor text screams enchantment control.


2. Who should I enlist to lead this deck? None of the enchantment based legends felt right for this deck. While Hanna, Ship's Navigator and Ertai, the Corrupted are potential cards for the 99 they do not inspire me as commanders and I lose access to green. My thought was to use Progenitus, while it is not part of the plane of Lorwyn it has a mystical presence and is the "soul" of Alara. He also adds an additional win condition if needed.

My ideas for sub themes so far:

• Enchantments Matter: I would like to have a larger number of enchantments, but not the entire deck. I want to create a sense that the deck fits together thematically. Also meaning that my main win cons should be enchantment based or come from enchantments (i.e. token generators).


• Enchantress: This seems like almost an instant include for drawing cards.
Example Cards: Argothian Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence


• Recursion: Life from the Loam is one of my favorite cards in all of magic and while there isn't an enchantment version to this card I would like to build a deck that has similar capabilities to this card. I expect that this deck would be susceptible to massive board destruction so I should plan to have to rebuild at anytime.
Example Cards: Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Replenish


• Enchantments as a Resource: If the deck is already built to rebuild then why not use the enchantments I don't currently need as a secondary resource? I think a small sacrifice them will fit nicely.
Example Cards: Ertai, the Corrupted, Martyr's Bond

Any thoughts or help would be appreciated!

Quote from ReANiMaToR1 »

Quote from Steppe Lynx »

As for the main my questions are: is Kira, Great Glass-Spinner still a playable option? Should it be in the board? Should I board out the Dismembers? Is Coralhelm Commander still playable? Also, I'm aware that Standstill is not played anymore but I plan on running them regardless.

You've definitely got the oldschool build going on there, but answering some of your questions.

Dismember is awesome and is one of the best ways to remove annoying creatures, I personally run 3.

Coralhelm Commander is pretty much gone with the addition of better cards like True-Name Nemesis and Phantasmal Image...

But in your case if you don't have other specific cards, it might be a good fit for you.

Have you thought about buying some on eBay? True-Name Nemesis is only about $10 a pop.

Thanks for the response. Alright, so I'll just keep Coralhelm Commander out of the deck since the Merrow Reejerey is better most of the time. Sad to see my favorite merfolk go. As for True-Name Nemesis, I plan on getting those eventually but the 4th Force of Will is the main priority for me now.

Hello, I came back to magic earlier this year playing primarily commander but I've decided to go to my LGS this Sunday and play Legacy. I have a 5 year old Merfolk deck that I used to play (casually, never attended any tournaments). Here is my current list, the only updates since coming back are the 4 Master of the Pearl Tridents and the True-Name Nemesis. I do not own the remaining Force of Will and True-Name Nemesis, nor do I own any Cavern of Souls. I'm looking mostly to just have fun and get experience with the format so being super competitive is not a concern of mine, but I would like help in optimizing my list so that I don't just lose every match. The main concern I have is my sideboard, I've listed out potential SB options that I own, but please know I'm going in blind so I don't have an idea of the meta. As for the main my questions are: is Kira, Great Glass-Spinner still a playable option? Should it be in the board? Should I board out the Dismembers? Is Coralhelm Commander still playable? Also, I'm aware that Standstill is not played anymore but I plan on running them regardless.

Thanks

I would never play Temporal Mastery in this deck, you just have to remove way to much of the core of the deck just to talk walk? lol

Man, i really wish i went to grand pixs, once these come out i need to get a set!