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Magic the Gathering Thread

Boingotango

Hellovan Onion
General MTG discussion, it's not vidya technically, but it's still a game, so fuck it.


Talk about anything MTG realted, but Imma go ahead and post this Commander deck I just made for criticism.

Easy to read TappedOut version


Commander:

download.png



Creature (27)​

Instant (5)​

Planeswalker (3)​

Enchantment (17)​

Sorcery (7)​

Land (36)​

Artifact (5)​



Basic Idea get out lots of tokens to be sacrificed to activated by ability to draw cards, put out cards that benefit from gaining life like Wall of Limbs or Scion of the Swarm or Bloodthirsty Aerialist. Few big creatures that synergize like Demon of Death's Gate or something like Plague of Vermin or Endless Ranks of Undead where I put out a shit ton of tokens to win with. Possibly get out Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond infinite combo.


Think it might be a little scattered, possibly put a tutor or two in to make combo more viable. Also was thinking about Dash Hopes to cover my butthole a little.
 
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Mike Stoklasa Simp

Remarkable Onion
Little unfocused. Pick between the lifegain synergies or the token/sac synergies and work around that.

Regardless of what you go for, it's probably better to drop waste not and mindcrank, unless those are specific for your local meta. Cards like Ghoulcaller's apprentice could also be easy updates. You'll also want to probably pick up some sweepers, Mutilate and Toxic Deluge being the best. Deluge is a bit pricey, though black has lots of alternatives like Damnation. If you spring for snow-covered swamps, dead of winter is also solid. Hero's downfall, Never // Return, and Murderous Rider should all be considerations for spot removal over murder/doom blade.

I would say you've got more the makings of Ayara than Vito at the moment. Ayara zombie tribal has some neat potential opportunities. I personally find Vito drain less interesting.
 

Boingotango

Hellovan Onion
Little unfocused. Pick between the lifegain synergies or the token/sac synergies and work around that.

Regardless of what you go for, it's probably better to drop waste not and mindcrank, unless those are specific for your local meta. Cards like Ghoulcaller's apprentice could also be easy updates. You'll also want to probably pick up some sweepers, Mutilate and Toxic Deluge being the best. Deluge is a bit pricey, though black has lots of alternatives like Damnation. If you spring for snow-covered swamps, dead of winter is also solid. Hero's downfall, Never // Return, and Murderous Rider should all be considerations for spot removal over murder/doom blade.

I would say you've got more the makings of Ayara than Vito at the moment. Ayara zombie tribal has some neat potential opportunities. I personally find Vito drain less interesting.
Updated it a little, forgot about Hero's Downfall and Never // Return, much better options. Considering making it more Vampire tribal focused, but it seems so lackluster without multicolored cards.

Also added Sorin Markov, not a perfect synergy, but damn he's good.
 

Mike Stoklasa Simp

Remarkable Onion
Sorin's great, so long as your playgroup doesn't ban him. Pack a backup in the event they do. Spot removal for dorks on a stick, and setting someone to ten life is busted.

Monoblack vampires can work, just not as much with Vito in my opinion. Vito's a good card in a mono-black vampires build, but as a commander you would want to play more of like a bunker-down drain variant, where your wincons are cards like Exsanguinate and Torrent of Hellfire (hailfire?), with cards like Marchesa's Decree or Revenge of the Ravens to deter people from attacking you. Problem is, that's a really boring strategy, and you usually want Boseiju, Who Shelters All to provide counter-proof protection to it.

Which is why I think Ayara's just a more flexible and more fun commander. You can play with sac synergies, you can play with ancillary drain, you can throw in big mana cards as you feel like it, you can make a zombie tribal, you can do whatever. I will say that cards like Demon's Horn and Staff of the Death Magus aren't as good in a build like that, since they don't actually generate card advantage and you seem to have enough ways to trigger Well of Lost Dreams already. Beyond that, seriously, you could just play around with her.

I'll also add not to sleep on the new Zendikar dual-faced land cards: https://scryfall.com/search?q=type:land+c=b Super low opportunity cost to include (just replace a swamp), and the only expensive one is Agadeem's awakening. Arguel's Blood Fast and Westvale Abbey aren't what I'm talking about, but they are also just great cards. Leechridden swamp feels like an auto-include for this deck, and I'm also a big proponent of isolated watchtower in mono-color builds. Here's a list of all black color-identity lands.

If you get the urge to buy anything in paper, just bear in mind that the market's in a hot place right now. Peacekeeper was $5 when I bought him for a "no fun allowed" deck a few months ago.
 

Boingotango

Hellovan Onion
Sorin's great, so long as your playgroup doesn't ban him. Pack a backup in the event they do. Spot removal for dorks on a stick, and setting someone to ten life is busted.

Monoblack vampires can work, just not as much with Vito in my opinion. Vito's a good card in a mono-black vampires build, but as a commander you would want to play more of like a bunker-down drain variant, where your wincons are cards like Exsanguinate and Torrent of Hellfire (hailfire?), with cards like Marchesa's Decree or Revenge of the Ravens to deter people from attacking you. Problem is, that's a really boring strategy, and you usually want Boseiju, Who Shelters All to provide counter-proof protection to it.

Which is why I think Ayara's just a more flexible and more fun commander. You can play with sac synergies, you can play with ancillary drain, you can throw in big mana cards as you feel like it, you can make a zombie tribal, you can do whatever. I will say that cards like Demon's Horn and Staff of the Death Magus aren't as good in a build like that, since they don't actually generate card advantage and you seem to have enough ways to trigger Well of Lost Dreams already. Beyond that, seriously, you could just play around with her.

I'll also add not to sleep on the new Zendikar dual-faced land cards: https://scryfall.com/search?q=type:land+c=b Super low opportunity cost to include (just replace a swamp), and the only expensive one is Agadeem's awakening. Arguel's Blood Fast and Westvale Abbey aren't what I'm talking about, but they are also just great cards. Leechridden swamp feels like an auto-include for this deck, and I'm also a big proponent of isolated watchtower in mono-color builds. Here's a list of all black color-identity lands.

If you get the urge to buy anything in paper, just bear in mind that the market's in a hot place right now. Peacekeeper was $5 when I bought him for a "no fun allowed" deck a few months ago.


Ah for reference, I only really play with my wife and we play with whatever, since we have Cockatrice and just play whatever want.

I did switch back to Ayara after a little playtest with myself. I definitely agree she's a lot more interesting than vito too.


Damn, didn't even know about these bad boys. How do they work? Can I just play them as either a land or the opposite side? Can I play the Sorcery version after i cast it as a land?

Thank you, I ended up getting super lazy on my lands and never went back and fixed that. AND thank you for teaching me a better way to search for lands in scryfall.
 

Mike Stoklasa Simp

Remarkable Onion
Damn, didn't even know about these bad boys. How do they work? Can I just play them as either a land or the opposite side? Can I play the Sorcery version after i cast it as a land?
They are by default the other side, and their 'back side' is the land. From your hand, you can play them as either side. Anywhere else, they're only considered their 'top' side, the non-land side. This means that if you've got a Muldrotha out, you can only play Blackbloom Rogue, not the land, from the GY. These cards made whole decks in modern and pioneer (the latter of which just got banned out) that were built around milling literally your entire deck with 'mill until you hit a land,' because these cards don't count as lands in the deck.

Kaldheim has introduced a lot of other ones as well that are permanent / permanent, so the top side is the side that has the foil stamp or the other detail about the set. Once you play it as one side, it stays as that side. Think of them like model cards in your hand, and just the face anywhere else. In your hand, you can choose either to have a land or to have the face-side; once it's on the field, it is what it was played as. So the lands stay lands until they go to another zone (deck, hand, gy, exile).

Every color has some of these cards, and they're absolutely worth scooping up while they're cheap. They're basically auto-includes because their opportunity cost is just a land. That's why Bala Ged Recovery is $2.50 despite being an uncommon from a new set - if your commander deck has green, you would be insane not to run this card.
Thank you, I ended up getting super lazy on my lands and never went back and fixed that. AND thank you for teaching me a better way to search for lands in scryfall.
Since lands are technically colorless, it can be a real pain in the ass to just use the "c" function. "ci" lets you see the color identity, so it includes colorless cards like lands that fit the color identity of a black commander. You can use it like any other function, too: ci>=b will give you everything that has at least some black in its color identity. Lands are boring but important to keep beefed up. I tend to personally avoid expensive land upgrades, but something as simple as barren moor (the cycling one) can be a life-saver over a swamp.

2-player commander can be fun, but there's nothing quite like 4-player for the political shenanigans. I forget if cockatrice has the capability for 4-player, but it really does add a lot to the game. I make goofy decks specifically for having lots of opponents, like one that gives them creatures and then forces them to kill themselves with them. It also mitigates slight power differences between decks, whereas 1v1 can too often be a stomp.
I have no clue what you nerds speak of, yet the spirit of it admirable.
It's a phenomenal way to waste your money, but also a fun creative card game thing. Whereas most magic is fat and sweaty tryhards that play ubercompetitively and have all the social ability of a dead lemur, commander (except for competitive commander, cEDH) attracts more laid-back people who like the idea of building a wonky rube goldberg machine, of beating you to death with a flock of birds, or just making a deck that plays solitaire if people ignore it too long. I think I've seen maybe one true & honest woman play 'regular' magic, but way more enjoy commander. Probably because there's a greater chance your entire playgroup actually showers.

Magic's an insanely complex card game that can do a lot of crazy, ridiculous things from what's been poured into it over the years, but those things aren't mostly good enough for competitive play. The stuff I'm sperging about is a way of playing the game built pretty expressly around letting you do goofy shit with goofy cards.
 

Boingotango

Hellovan Onion
They are by default the other side, and their 'back side' is the land. From your hand, you can play them as either side. Anywhere else, they're only considered their 'top' side, the non-land side. This means that if you've got a Muldrotha out, you can only play Blackbloom Rogue, not the land, from the GY. These cards made whole decks in modern and pioneer (the latter of which just got banned out) that were built around milling literally your entire deck with 'mill until you hit a land,' because these cards don't count as lands in the deck.

Holy fucking shit. I just made a self mill deck that I thought was pretty good, but now my dick feels pretty small for not knowing about this tactic. That's awesome.

2-player commander can be fun, but there's nothing quite like 4-player for the political shenanigans. I forget if cockatrice has the capability for 4-player, but it really does add a lot to the game. I make goofy decks specifically for having lots of opponents, like one that gives them creatures and then forces them to kill themselves with them. It also mitigates slight power differences between decks, whereas 1v1 can too often be a stomp.

I think it does have that. That actually sounds like lots of fun, lots of cards for other players that look really cool that I just haven't had the opportunity to use.

It's a phenomenal way to waste your money, but also a fun creative card game thing. Whereas most magic is fat and sweaty tryhards that play ubercompetitively and have all the social ability of a dead lemur, commander (except for competitive commander, cEDH) attracts more laid-back people who like the idea of building a wonky rube goldberg machine, of beating you to death with a flock of birds, or just making a deck that plays solitaire if people ignore it too long. I think I've seen maybe one true & honest woman play 'regular' magic, but way more enjoy commander. Probably because there's a greater chance your entire playgroup actually showers.

Magic's an insanely complex card game that can do a lot of crazy, ridiculous things from what's been poured into it over the years, but those things aren't mostly good enough for competitive play. The stuff I'm sperging about is a way of playing the game built pretty expressly around letting you do goofy shit with goofy cards.

THIS!

That's why I like playing with my wife, because we'll sort of just try to stay somewhere in the same powerlevel range and just play whatever. However, most people on cockatrice seem to play uber competitive, because well, every card is available + it's super easy to just download competitive decks.

However, I might make fun deck and, ya know, add some sol rings or moxes to get it going, just whatever works as long as you and the other players are on the same wavelength about what's fair and what's bullshit.
 
I was thinking about a grixis EDH deck like a standard control style thing to stall out to the silly combo of:
Underworld breach
Wheel of fortune (or a 3cmc wheel effect)
Turgred, god of fright.

I'm still thinking of the whole deck, and the turgred is for spice, but damn does it sound fun to pull off!
 

Boingotango

Hellovan Onion
I was thinking about a grixis EDH deck like a standard control style thing to stall out to the silly combo of:
Underworld breach
Wheel of fortune (or a 3cmc wheel effect)
Turgred, god of fright.

I'm still thinking of the whole deck, and the turgred is for spice, but damn does it sound fun to pull off!
I've been cumming over Tergrid, God of Fright but I haven't figured out exactly how I want to use him. I kinda like your idea. Could benefit from a Mirror-Mad Phantasm and Treasure Hunt and Jace's Archivist. Could use Sedris, the Traitor King, or Kess, Dissident Mage as your commander, or you could even go with Adun Oakenshield if you wanted to go with Mulch cards + more mana ramp
 
I've been cumming over Tergrid, God of Fright but I haven't figured out exactly how I want to use him. I kinda like your idea. Could benefit from a Mirror-Mad Phantasm and Treasure Hunt and Jace's Archivist. Could use Sedris, the Traitor King, or Kess, Dissident Mage as your commander, or you could even go with Adun Oakenshield if you wanted to go with Mulch cards + more mana ramp
Death cloud, smoke stack, edicts, sheoldrid- you have lots of options.

However the commander i was thinking of was the latest bolas to come out;
51QHKXUALgL._AC_.jpg

The commander hates everyones hand and can turn to a planeswalker to get ahead later in the game.
 

Mike Stoklasa Simp

Remarkable Onion
Holy fucking shit. I just made a self mill deck that I thought was pretty good, but now my dick feels pretty small for not knowing about this tactic. That's awesome.
Aaaaaand with balustrade spy and undercity informer banned in pioneer, the oops all spells deck died off.
Modern no-lands goblin charbelcher is still kicking at least, even if the simian spirit guide ban made it less explosive
I was thinking about a grixis EDH deck like a standard control style thing to stall out to the silly combo of:
Underworld breach
Wheel of fortune (or a 3cmc wheel effect)
You could build a generic 'wheels' effect deck and just throw Tegrid in, but if you like Bolas, I'd generally suggest playing a discard-focused deck that uses stuff like megrim, liliana's caress, waste not, geth's grimoire and so-on. Bolas works well with this strat because that etb is spicy good, and those colors give you access not just to the wheels, but also to dark deal, windfall, whispering madness.

I also don't recommend including wheel of fortune unless you're, like, using modo/cockatrice/proxying. It's the best in the game at what it does, sure, but that still ain't worth $200-500. If you like the idea of constantly-spinning with underworld breach, might be worth considering Birgi and something like arcane melee to generate mana and reduce the cost of them.
 
You could build a generic 'wheels' effect deck and just throw Tegrid in, but if you like Bolas, I'd generally suggest playing a discard-focused deck that uses stuff like megrim, liliana's caress, waste not, geth's grimoire and so-on. Bolas works well with this strat because that etb is spicy good, and those colors give you access not just to the wheels, but also to dark deal, windfall, whispering madness.

I also don't recommend including wheel of fortune unless you're, like, using modo/cockatrice/proxying. It's the best in the game at what it does, sure, but that still ain't worth $200-500. If you like the idea of constantly-spinning with underworld breach, might be worth considering Birgi and something like arcane melee to generate mana and reduce the cost of
But that's just boring, you can play a few early mana rocks a red ritual, underworld breach and play wheel of fortune and just mill out the table on the early turns of the game. Who wants boring when you can have fun?

I also play on MTGO, price isn't really an issue. (Thanks covid)
 

Mike Stoklasa Simp

Remarkable Onion
I mean, why play bolas for that strat and not something like Nekusar or Kess? Bolas' built-in discard is the big draw for him moreso than the planeswalker side

I don't personally think that wheel decks are that entertaining because they tend to do the same thing every single game and don't really interact with other players all that much. You could probably rent most of the cards you want to try out since it's modo and see what I mean. Fun a few times, but it gets stale to me. Maybe if you're playing with randoms it'd stay fresh longer, rather than people who will just start gunning for you first and foremost
 
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