EDH/Commander General

Unconventional (but Solid) Swarm Commanders Edition

Previous thread: >Official Site: Contains deck building rules and the current ban list.
mtgcommander.net

>Deck List Site: You can search for decks that other people have made. Authors often have comments that explain their deck’s strategy and card choices.
tappedout.net

>Another resource for commander discussion; they have an entire forum dedicated to discussing decks. People often make primers, which go into detail about how they built and play their deck.
mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh

>Statistically see what everyone else puts in their commander decks based on what is posted to the internet.
edhrec.com/

>Find out what lands you can add to your deck, sorted by category, based on a chosen Commander’s color identity.
manabasecrafter.com/

>CARD SEARCHING

>Official search site. Current for all sets.
gatherer.wizards.com/

>Unofficial, but has GOAT search interface.
magiccards.info

Other urls found in this thread:

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/turn-the-wheels/
tappedout.net/mtg-decks/fuck-you-gruul-smash/
tappedout.net/mtg-decks/07-12-16-landsdec/
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/turn-the-wheels/ i need some gotdam recs and cuts ty

God I really have to just commit and build Slobad, but all them good rocks are expensive ;__; I've been playing with him on xmage for months now

You're fine.

Cut myth realized

Honestly, all I have for rocks are Sol Ring, Darksteel Ingot, Basalt Monolith, Fellwar Stone, and Gilded Lotus. Mine works fine in playtesting so far.

Honestly, the money cards I want are Mycosynth Lattice. Damn thing is over $20 now. Mycosynth Golem is over $11 now, too.

And don't get me started on Arcbound Ravage. I wish they'd ban that in modern already so the price will tank sub $20.

Even if it was banned on Modern there's price memory. I don't think Pod cheapened after the ban, for example.

Birthing pod definitely got cheaper after the ban, not immediately if that's what you mean, but it's very cheap now

A few cards tanked after bans. I remember when Ancestral Visions was originally banned, I think it was like $20. Reopening it pushed that card to $40+.

Personally, I think it would fall. The appeal for affinity I've seen mostly is in modern. I see a little bit of it in legacy, but I don't see how it competes with combo decks that win turn 2-3.

>Vision
God how I wish it would come back, I wanted one for Yidris. Modern sometimes just fucks us up.

If it's wheeldsdris just run Visions of Beyond

How does a monoblack deck actually win? Are you just forced to tutor up various combos? My deck just doesn't have strong enough early game to set up my lategame nonsense that will win for me.

Typically you win with big mana into retarded shit.

Yes, and that's all fine and dandy, but how do you get to that part?

My Liliana deck wins through consistent recursion of Kukusho or Gray Merchant, the Bloodchief/Mindcrank combo, or just swinging big with Korlash/Nightmare with a sword attached.

My old Shirei stax deck had a healthy dose of big lifedrain spells, Hatred, and top-tier equipment for the flying weenies like Needle Specter. And a couple of combos. Keep in mind peoples' HP are naturally dropping in multiplyer, and it's less difficult than it seems to choke the board with stax and swing a few times for the win.

You with with Edrik Sahr stax when you see the life and happiness fully drain out of your opponent's eyes as they realize this is no longer a game but a hell of their own doing.

Big mana?

Mono black has access to the highest number of personal mana doublers

Also you tutor for cabal coffers

It's pretty simple honestly, can't figure out how you were not able to figure it out

What is the chillest commander?

I really wanted a zero mana draw card to cascade from 1 mana cantrips. Also Visions of Beyond is 10 bucks god knows why.

...

Snow permanents are pretty chilly

Man fuck you guys.

So my choices are combo or stax? Well, at least I know. I saw an user post a volrath list a while back, and built something very similar, but with all the big nonsense, the deck seems to have a huge problem actually reanimating anything, particularly if your playing against aggressive decks.

Sure, it has flashy wincons, but I think reanimator would be better suited for something else, and I have no idea what to run instead.

>look at me, I'm on the internet, and I'm talking about magic!

>look at me, I ask questions on the internet and get passive aggressive when somebody responds!

I'm confused, were you not asking about how to get big mana in black?

You don't have to choose combo or stax btw, a lot of people just draw lots of cards and make lots of mana, allowing them to kill all their opponents creatures, attack their hands, and win through some combination of beatdown and life drain stuff like exsanguinate

Reposting my Bobby list so you guys can tell me how shit I am at deckbuilding

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/fuck-you-gruul-smash/

If you come up with any ideas for things that need to be in here or things that could go, feel free to share

To be fair, he asked whether he had to tutor up combos to win in monoblack and your response was "generate lots of mana" followed by "well, tutor it, it's not hard".

>Bobby
Brb kicking my own ass

I have a bunch of fairly expensive shit I bought over the summer, but I bought some new computer parts recently so MTG buying took a back seat. Gonna get more stuff after Christmas though/refine the Slobad list a bit more

Stax is just easily available in black and makes your life easier no matter what archetype you're running. Of course, anything can be run in any color depending on how good your meta is and how janky you're willing to go. If you want to run mono-black voltron fill your boots, just don't expect it to be very good.

You're talking to the wrong guy, but regardless if you just scroll up a bit, what actually happened was a guy said "you win with big mana into retarded shit", and he asked "how do you get to that point", so I assumed he meant "how do you get big mana?"

I need to get one of these for my Hazezon deck to replace Jazal Goldmane.

Nope, I was asking about how to win, and if I had to tutor up various combos in order to be successful. Ramp isn't very difficult to set up, it's just not very good, particularly against fast aggressive decks. Volrath seems fine, as soon as you get an established board state, but getting there is a giant pain in the ass.

What are some good low cmc stax cards? I need to smooth out my curve, and the only stax decks I've built are U/W and mono blue, both of which were primarily artifact stax decks. How does black work in terms of stax? I know a few neat combos to nuke people's lands, but I'm looking for something more reliable.

>both of which were primarily artifact stax decks
I'm no expert on stax but I think monoB stax can use those artifacts. Unless you're speaking of colored stuff.

I really quite like his blocking clause as a sort of rattlesnake effect. He's fun.

So I've been brainstorming this chick for quite a while. I originally just wanted to do just her plus Thrasios for Simic fun but I kind of figured it would be pointless since I already run both of them in my Kraj deck.

I tried her with Vial Smasher but four color is too much of a hassle and wheels.dec created some awkward situations for me.

Then I thought, what if Kydele plus Ikra Shadiqi, the Usurper?
>Fuck ton of card draw in black. Promise of Power gives me five cards, five colorless, and plenty of artifacts of pitch.
>Can still use some wheel effects. Can be a Leovold deck in disguise.
>Reanimator colors. Get Jin-Gitaxias in grave and put him out quick.
>Cast Eldrazi, gain life
>Aetherflux Reservoir?

I still plan on using the typical Kydele infi-mana combos (Umbral Mantle, Sword of the Paruns, Thrasios/Staff of Domination/Kruphix if I need a sink) but the main idea is to feed my inner Timmy with some Johnny.

Is this a shit idea or should I go for it?

I was mostly interested in coloured stax things unique to black. I don't have playsets of things that I need, which means I'll have to proxy and that's not my style. UB Stax would be pretty cool, but again, it's just going to be a more tutor-centric version of what I already have, and I'm looking to steer clear of that.

>ramp isn't very good
>because of fast aggro decks

Is that what your experience has been?

I'd have to look at your decklist because most monoblack decks are filled with powerful board wipes and spot removal to kill creatures and they can ramp and use those at the same time

As far as monoblack stax goes, there's contamination, grave pact type stuff, pox effects, hand disruption stuff like oppression or Syphon mind

I'm pretty sure there are enchantment versions of Smokestack in monoB, there's Kuon, Ogre Ascendant and discard effects like Necrogen Mists

Some black stuff that I see in stax decks:

Tainted aether
Spreading plague
Ophiomancer

Okay, that actually sounds more reasonable. How do you go about building a grave pact + smokestack style deck? I'm mostly familiar with the ol' monoblue game plan of draw cheap, play rocks, and counter things you don't like.

>Running half-powered cards in your 99
>Running TWO OF THEM

The most common route I see is to set up token making stuff like bitterblossom, ophiomancer, endrek sahr possibly, and then use your advantage in terms of number of permanents in play to come out on top when you cast stuff like pox or death cloud, and to fuel contamination

Also people usually run crucible of worlds so they don't really miss a beat when lands get sac'd

Basically you make life miserable for everybody but build your deck to be able to survive without a lot of cards in hand or lands in play, so usually lots of artifact mana

Literally has cold in her name. :^)

I want an edit of that with silas' face.

>So my choices are combo or stax?

really depends on your meta. you can do fine with just reanimation shenanigans in most metas. recur some gray merchants or reanimate some mega fatties. or hell, just use the mana doublers in black to do whatever you want, like use pestilence 20 times and drop a wound reflection.

it's only the really tryhard "tutor wincons lmao" metas where you have to go stax/combo, and that's the case for most color combinations. only like white/green can really reliably interact with any permanent, and only blue can reliably interact with the stack. don't build monoblack if you want to sit back and disrupt other people's combos.

>but I think reanimator would be better suited for something else, and I have no idea what to run instead

kokusho, sheoldred, liliana are all good for reanimator, although kokusho is more leaned towards just recurring stuff for etb/ltb effects. mikaeus allows for easier combo autism on top of being really good at recurring stuff

you could also do a zombie tribal like i'm kind of planning to. speaking of zombie tribals, anyone know why pic related isn't more expensive than it is?

>printed once
>old
>unique effect
>pretty good

i know it probably sucks for other formats but you'd think that commander BUYOUTS!!! would've hiked the price up a bit more than like 6 bucks that it is now

>Build a deck for me!

If you can't figure out how to build monoblack ramp, there are other things that need to be addressed in your life.

i swear to fucking christ the next time i forget to post the image i am kysing myself

Everyone is having a polite discussion, yet you insist on being an ass. Can you specifically fuck off?

My only guess is that it's because of the "each player" if you could choose the creature type that gets returned it would be way better.

But as it is, you might as well run rise of the dark realms.

>Haste
>Warriors
>Barbarians
>BERSERKERS
But she demonstrably has ZERO chill.

My vote for pic related. He even has his own personal Chill Zone (tm).

damn that nigga chill

rise of the dark realms costs twice as much though. patriach's bidding can hit really early and really hard with a self-mill deck, way before your opponents have had time to get big graves.

i guess it's just a rare archetype to do a self-milly tribal. i'm kind of interested in making one though. i'm a bit afraid of once again making a deck that just rolls over my group in like a second

>turn 1 island sol ring
>turn 2 island signet
>turn 3 traumatize on self
>turn 4 patriach's bidding
>turn 5 swing with 15 zombies with 5 lord effects

lmao oops haha

when are we getting new fortifications?

I guess that could work, what commander would you use?

I would have put money on them being in BFZ, but now I'm not sure. Maybe new Mirrodin? As like the last holdouts of Mirran rebels? I guess they could fit in a Ravnica block because buildings, too.

>just want some more tutors for my deck
>they're all expensive

Why is this one almost the same price as vampiric tutor? Can't be the beautiful art.

just grimgrin i guess. i don't really build around my commander that much usually, so i'd just use grimgrin as a sac outlet and a removal magnet, and recur him alongside my other zombos.

if i went monoblack, i could also just use balthor who's basically patriach's bidding on a creature

Probably physical rarity. I think that's the set that was only sold by a one legged hooker outside of a Blockbuster in Thailand or some other such nonsense.

I think the problem is my meta. There is one player in particular who plays low cost blue goodstuff in every deck he runs, and while my UW and mono U decks are of a much higher caliber, I'm working on building something that wins more consistently, while not being mike+trike.dek.

The reanimator goodstuff seems fine, in theory, but in practice, they run such non-interactive decks that very few cards end up in my yard. After the discussions in this thread, I was thinking about going in one of two directions:

>1) I have a shitload of discard cards, like a hilariously stupid amount of quality ones that I've been saving for a creatureless mimeoplasm deck. I could leave the reanimator, take out some of the niche things I was using for volrath, fill it mutual discard enchantments, like necrogen mists, creeping dread, mindslash, and plump the rest with the occasional Hymn to Touarch/Whispers of Emrakul.

>2) I could take out the reanimator entirely, and put it into a jund smokestack tokens deck I've been brewing for a while, then just grab as much removal as I can get my hands on, and hit the board hard, while making sure I'm always at an advantage.

when are we getting new curses?

We're apparently extremely likely to go back to Innistrad, so.

We just had a new one in C16, and there was a cycle in C13. Garrisson is the only fortification.

It still surprises me how many times I've come across people that didn't know, or forgot, this card existed, simply because it didn't have the word tutor in it.

it shows up when you google mtg tutor tho

>7€

Nice. probably gonna buy one, already have vampiric tutor, enlightened tutor and mystical tutor. This, demonic tutor amd maybe a runescarred demon should be enough.

I love this card. I'm just sad it became terrible in my monoblack deck recently. I jammed it in my RB Wort deck instead

This Tezzerret actually isn't bad at all for a Sydri deck, or even Silas Renn

This opinion will probably be impopular, but I really hope they print Partners in future Commander sets

I'd love mono-colored partners.

I think they're pushing UB artifacts to go with Bolas and the redstuff graveyard shenanigans of the past few sets.

I kinda want a really good UB artifact commander. Silas is alright, but I need to use him with another off-color asshole, and I don't want that.

But why would you want a UB artifact commander when Lazav is already thing?

Alternatively, Sharuum is really all that you need, and it comes with the added bonus of having all that awesome white support.

I mean, you've got really good artifact commanders with UB in their identity. Just splash white into Sharuum for extra ETB abuse and play it as mostly UB.

Because Lazav doesn't interact with artifacts enough to my liking.

Also, I don't like Sharuum, I went past Combos a while ago. Sydri would probably be something I play, tho.

I run the other two Tezz in my Sydri deck. The new one is alright, he's slightly expensive card advantage but that's all good. And because I run in a more Eggs direction, the -3 is actually relevant sometimes.

Secret combo for a non tribal deck that can tutor them both out somehow?

Well, I know he's not really good, but I expected the Planeswalker facecard to be garbage like Nissa and Chandra from the last planeswalker deck

Sydri is fun, but because she's a colored Karn, she does tend to go in several combo centric directions. Liquimetal coating and dross scorpion is an interaction too spicy to ignore.

Compared to the Ajani that has been spoiled, I think he's reasonably strong. Definitely in comparison to the other planeswalkers. Instead of top 5, it's reveal until and that's always pretty good.
I think I'm going to run him, but I'm a little uncertain about running 3 pw with the same name.
I guess my friend runs every single Jace in his stupid Teferi deck, so it's not that bad for sure.

>I guess my friend runs every single Jace in his stupid Teferi deck, so it's not that bad for sure.
That physically hurt to read...

What would a Bobby player be?

Not only is it a frustrating as fuck combo mono-U deck, with the endlessly annoying Teferi Planeswalker at the helm, every single game I have to look at fucking Jace's smug fucking face goddamn

Not right, I tell ya hwat.

The only way to combat mono blue and teach the fuccbois who play it a lesson is to play something like Talrand all counters. Just fuck their shit up.

or cast boil and then cast pyroblast when they try to counter it

>Swing in with an absurd amount of goblin tokens
>GAAIV player silently taps for 7 mana, and just sets Cyclonic Rift on the table with a smug look on his face.
>Don't even react, just tap a mountain and set Pyroblast on the table, not breaking eye contact
>"Responses?"

There is no better feeling than countering a control players spells with your RG deck.

I have an ethical dilemma Veeky Forums.

I recently was bested by a t1 sol ring into various bullshit. Now, that's fine in and of itself, but it was a proxy sol ring. I don't run a single proxy, despite having a very extensive collection of singles. I'm going to start proxying things in general because I'm not going to buy a playset of simple things, like Rout or Crux of Fate.

Should I go balls to the wall and start proxying everything I have a copy of, or should I tone it back and only proxy cards under $5/not too shittery? I'm not too sure how to balance things, because I have a few diverse decks that involve a lot of good staples, and that could beef up other decks pretty substantially.

What'a your favorite color combo /edhg/?

>gutteral response

Mono blue

>playset
>EDH
???
Anyway, pic related.

Dimir

You could always go zombie tribal. Gisa can make a million billion zombies and Geth can steal shit from other people's yards.

Also a laugh, but I don't include it because 1) it's specific to instants and 2) that creature destruction mode on Pyroblast and REB is super handy.

I've yet to pull off the Reverberated/Forked counterspell, but I live ever in hope.

I run both Pyroblast and REB in my Jor Kadeen because for every time they are a dead draw, there is another time where I see the smug ol' blue player's eyes bug out when they jam a Cyclonic Rift or a timely counterspell only to have it countered by a single Mountain.

Satisfying.

just buy this player a sol ring man they're only two bucks.
Otherwise I don't mind proxies. I have both gold bordered and proxy cards in my decks.
My only caveat is that I only proxy cards I reasonably intend to get or trade for. I don't proxy ABUR duals because I honestly don't intend to get any more than I already have unless a good trade option comes up, but I will proxy an Enlightened Tutor because they're a lot cheaper now they were reprinted and there will be some floating around that I can trade for, eventually.

So I powered down my Azusa deck permanently (group bitched about how it's usually just me playing solitaire with it) so hows this look? I had a few Nim deathmantle combos in here, along with a few other combos I took out. Only wincon's besides smashing face now is Helix Pinnacle.

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/07-12-16-landsdec/

I think your thinking of Descent Into Maddness.

>jace
>silas

Are there other smug looking creatures/planeswalker? I kind of want to play smug tribal.

>semantics
I appreciate your weenie-based macro image, but it's a real question considering I have a very extensive memnarch artifact ramp deck, that could be any mono-coloured deck very easily.

Thanks user, that's a pretty solid answer. I don't really care that he proxy'd it, but I have 3 sol rings, and I didn't have one in the deck he wombo combod, so I'm a little salty.

So, it's alright for me to proxy anything I own, or reasonably intend to purchase? In my head, I didn't want to proxy demonic tutor/swords/vorinclex/deadeye/anything overpowered and kind of shittery, but that might be ridiculous, particularly if I already have most of the cards I want to proxy.

Go with sygg river cutthroat!

>proxied Sol Ring

Were you playing against a homeless person?