Hi guys! My name is Jonathan and I live in Canada. I started playing mtg in 2011 and the only format I've ever played is Commander. This amazing format is the reason I got into magic and I don't think I'll move on to anything else in the foreseeable future. I play in several different playgroups, some more competitive than others. I consider myself to be half spike and half everything else. I like combos, I like hardcasting fatties, I also pay lots of attention to card arts and flavours. However as much as I like to win, I don't play very well because I haven't been playing for as long as others. I love deckbuilding, in fact I think I enjoy building decks more than playing them. This leads us the next section.
The Tri-colour Madness Deck Series:
As I've mentioned above, I really enjoy building decks and I see it as one of my creative outlets. I take pride in the decks I build and I enjoy seeing them being successful when played by me or others. So far I've built 10 decks, each of them features a unique tri-colour combo (yup, that's all of them!). On top of the the passion for deckbuilding, another reason for me to build so many decks is that I am relatively new to the game of mtg, and I want to try out all kinds of different decks.
You'll see a large variety of deck archetypes from this series including: timmy, theft/aikido, defense, ramp, rock/recursion, artifacts, mill/reanimation, tokens and voltron/aggro. For some decks, I decide on the archetype and general, then I search up all kinds of decklists online and from those I create my ideal list for that strategy(my spike side). For other decks, I just come up with an idea and dive into it blindly which results in decks that are 100% my own through extensive testing and modifying. All of my decks are built to be multiplayer oriented.
One problem that I came across when building these decks is that there are many card overlaps even though all of the decks utilize different strategies. I was unable to avoid including cards like primeval titan and consecrated sphinx in every deck of the appropriate colours. I've been trying my best to avoid this and limit the number of staples that go in all my decks. In the near future I will spend some time to focus specifically on cutting those staples from my decks.
The reason for me to post this series is that I want to share my passion with all of you, and at the same time receive some feedbacks and suggestions in order to help me further improve my decks. I'm sure this will be a great experience and help me and others in many different ways.
Thanks in advance!
When I saw Kresh I knew this had to be my Jund General. All this dude does is getting bigger and bigger. Usually, Kresh is big enough to one hit KO my opponents with general damage. However, no one in my playgroup is stupid enough to allow a 28/28 general swing in uninterrupted. So often times Kresh is more of a prime target for effects like fling, greater good, or Garruk, primal hunter. Oh, and the Raymond Swanland art is really nice.
Basic Land Art
I've been a huge fan of the basic land arts on magic cards ever since I started playing the game. In the beginning I loved the zendikar ones and filled my decks with them. Then they became a bit repetitive and boring. As a result my inner Vorthos pushed me to move on and search for some other land arts that fit well in my decks. I follow a few basic guidelines when searching for my lands. Obviously they must look good. They should also be on theme with the deck, and as a result of that, the lands in a deck are mostly from the same sets/blocks. Lastly, i try to keep my lands new-boardered, just because I like them better.
For Kresh, we have:
I've always enjoyed the hedron concept of lands in zendikar and RoE. In my opinion the timmy deck (also the only deck in which I included Eldrazi Titans) fits the lands really well. Also I don't really like the Jund lands from Alara. This set of lands is actually more subject to change than the others. The lands are quite beautiful individually, however I don't feel that they fit together too well as a trio. I would really love to hear which lands you think are the best for this deck!
Making the Fatties Do Work!
Inspired by Kresh, the entire deck is filled with the biggest multiplayer fatties in MTG's History. In this deck Ulamog and Kozilek barely qualify as fat. Most of the fatties in the deck have no limit to their potential power. On average the power can range from 15 to 45 when they're on the field. Since this is the ultimate timmy deck, I really don't care what other abilities they have. Trample is icing on the cake, but vanilla is totally fine. To make up for that, the deck is filled with cards that give evasion, whispersilk cloak and kessig wolf run are great examples. The deck also has some cards that allows us to use our fatties' high powers to do stuff, mostly damage. This includes fling, stalking vengence, and miren, the moaning well. Flinging a 52/52 lord of extinction when stalking vengence usually ends a game.
The fatties are often expensive, and cards like apocalypse hydra, and primordial hydra can require a ton of mana. As a result the deck needs to ramp very hard in the early game. Low drops like wilderness elemental and tauren mauler can be far ahead of the curve in the early game and drawing into them early can protect myself and possibly go in for some early beats.
My plan is to include the largest fatties and all of the good soul's fire style effects in the deck. However my knowledge of the MTG card pool is quite limited. If you know any other good ones please let me know!
Electropotence: Seems really good. My only concern is that around half of my fatties enters the battlefield as small creatures but grows after that. On top of that my general is a 3/3. I have a question actually, can I pump my creatures in response to electropotence or warstorm surge trigger? So something like, kresh ETB -> sac my 12/12 hamletback goliath in response to electropotence trigger -> kresh bolts for 15? If that does work the card is definitely in!!
Soulblast: this one is cool tool. I've had it in my deck for a while. However I still prefer fing over it. Simply because if I have a large creature on the field, I can always leave 1R open when I pass my turns and threaten to fling my fatty at whoever removes it or does anything to me, even if I don't actually have the card in my hand. It's harder to do with soulblast. Plus it would be humiliating if I sac my board and the spell gets countered :D. Its possible that it'll have a spot in the deck along with fling though. Will test!
I don't know why momentous fall isn't in the deck yet. Ya it's in now! Maybe I should jam in a reliquary tower for all the "draw equal power" effects in my deck. On the other hand, I don't like soul's majesty too much because it can be countered in too many ways. Killing/bouncing/blinking the creature, on top of hard counters can all make me waste my 6 mana.
Jon nice to see you on here! Ya I registered too. Out of all your decks this one is my favourite. Some fatties I'd consider are sutured ghoul, mortivore, mana-charged dragon. I think soulblast is good too. Maybe put in a boseiju who shelters all to keep it from being countered?
Chaos: Nice! Eventhough I don't know why you're talking to me on here when I talk to you almost every day. Oh well, lets take over the internetz! If you remember I had soulblast in my deck for a while, but most of the time I only need to sacrifice a single creature to kill off a player, and often I only have one large creature on the field (the others being something like kiki-jiki, mirror breaker). So soulblast in this deck is almost worse than fling in every way.
Wow that does seem like a nice combo. My only problem is that flayer of the hatebound won't be doing too much unless I have Mikaeus on the field, so its a dedicated combo piece. On the other hand mikeus the unhollowed should be pretty effective in the deck on his own. Will test it out!
One question I after looking through your decks is about the card primal command. This is the only list you run it in, however I dont see how it's particularly good for Kresh. How is the card for you? I'm trying to decide if I wanna use it.
Sorry chaos I've been away for a few days. I don't like primal command that much. Usually its thrown in as a filler card for most of the green decks a build, and eventually it gets cut. Thats because I use it primarily for the creature tutor, however due to the 5 cmc, usually I can't tutor for and cast the creature in the same turn, which I really don't like. And also the graveyard hate isn't extremely useful in my playgroup, the lifegain too.
Fly: True. I will definitely make that switch when I get shocks and duals for this deck. For now I resort to filter lands, pain lands, and m12/innistrad duals for 9 of my 10 decks because of budget restrictions.
also, i've noticed that you dont run mana accelerators, and only uses ramps? thats gonna be your downfall if ever your opponents would try and use armagedon on you.
A team should be as happy as a meal - TEAM HAPPYMEAL
EDH - UWGrand Arbiter Agustin IV UBW Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Modern - Mono U tron / Polymorph / NFTW (ninja for the win)GR tronGR
Buy All the planeswalkers!!!
Buy All the Dual Lands!!!
Buy All the fetches!
Create tons of EDH Decks!!!
Eat Nothing but Oats!! (LOL, not true)
Train MMA!!!
Marry My girlfriend!!!
Get her Pregnant only Once!
Teach my Son/Daughter Sports and magic cards!!!
Continue my legacy son!!!/Daughter!!
As for the infinite combos, I try to avoid them because they seem fun when I pull them off for the first time, and then they become boring and degenerate. However if I want to make my decks more competitive, I will definitely use those.
Putrefax: I've had it in my rafiq deck for a long time, and it's been great for me. However during one game where a friend of mine was playing my rafiq deck. He simply dropped Putrefax out of nowhere and killed another friend of mine (who had no board position at the time) just for fun. As a bystander to that I realized that the card can really be unfun. I might consider putting it back in in the near future though.
As for the mana accelerators, I've always had the mindset of not running them in green decks. Because I often consider them to be strictly worse than ramp spells because they're a lot more fragile than the others. As of non-green decks, I usually play them when I first build the decks, and then slowly cut them for other cards. My approach towards them can be completely wrong though, and I am seriously considering adding some of them back into my decks.
Are there specific kinds of decks that work better with artifact acceleration, or are they just generally good cards for ramp and armageddon prevention?
Haha yeah, it's like made for this deck. Now I don't have to listen to you complain about serra avatar being white. Kind of weird they printed this card out of nowhere. I really prefer this over than random green mythic though.
I like this better than serra avatar actually. The deck desperately needs true fatties below the 5 cmc for early game. Card like lord of extinction isn't fat at all in early game. Taurean Mauler and forgotten ancient are truly subpar at that. Malignus is truly perfect at that.
I have a Kresh deck that has a lot more graveyard interactions. I'm kinda getting sick of recurring living death with ewit (and dealing with a million triggers)...I think I may switch over to something closer to this.
With the amount of +1/+1 counters going around, I wonder if Doubling Season would be a worthwhile addition.
I have a Kresh deck that has a lot more graveyard interactions. I'm kinda getting sick of recurring living death with ewit (and dealing with a million triggers)...I think I may switch over to something closer to this.
With the amount of +1/+1 counters going around, I wonder if Doubling Season would be a worthwhile addition.
That does work really well with some stuff. However looking over my list briefly, only around 10 cards in the deck benefits from doubling season. I think I need a bit more than that.
Ok, so I really want to fit Thromok the Insatiable into this deck. However I don't have enough devour targets. So here are some cards I plan to add in order to have more creatures on the field when I need it.
Garruk, Primal Hunter: Makes beast tokens, the card draw is great for this deck too!
This is more of a note to self. But I would love suggestions for cards that increase the creature count in the deck while not compensating too much utility. Thanks.
Soo how goes the Thromok testing? Really doesn't seem like it'd work to me. You're putting in a bunch of stuff just to make a single card work, and the Thromok is probably a dead card half of the time.
Thromok looks awful for this deck for the most part. He needs to eat four guys before he has a better ratio than Thunder-thrash Elder... a three drop! However, if you have to, put in Squirrels. Acorn Harvest (also known as Lingering Squirrels), Deranged Hermit, and Squirrel Nest/Earthcraft can feed him quite well.
Kresh The Bloodbraided
Introduction:
The Tri-colour Madness Deck Series:
You'll see a large variety of deck archetypes from this series including: timmy, theft/aikido, defense, ramp, rock/recursion, artifacts, mill/reanimation, tokens and voltron/aggro. For some decks, I decide on the archetype and general, then I search up all kinds of decklists online and from those I create my ideal list for that strategy(my spike side). For other decks, I just come up with an idea and dive into it blindly which results in decks that are 100% my own through extensive testing and modifying. All of my decks are built to be multiplayer oriented.
One problem that I came across when building these decks is that there are many card overlaps even though all of the decks utilize different strategies. I was unable to avoid including cards like primeval titan and consecrated sphinx in every deck of the appropriate colours. I've been trying my best to avoid this and limit the number of staples that go in all my decks. In the near future I will spend some time to focus specifically on cutting those staples from my decks.
The reason for me to post this series is that I want to share my passion with all of you, and at the same time receive some feedbacks and suggestions in order to help me further improve my decks. I'm sure this will be a great experience and help me and others in many different ways.
Thanks in advance!
Here are deck lists that I've posted so far:
:symr::symu::symg: Riku's RUG Goodstuff Deck
:symb::symr::symg: Kresh's Ultimate Timmy Deck
:symw::symu::symb: Sharuum's Etherium Empire
:symu::symb::symr: Thraximundar!!! Theft Deck
:symg::symb::symu: The Mimeoplasm Mill/Reanimator
:symr::symw::symu: Zedruu's Defense/Sunforger Deck
:symb::symg::symw: Karador Rock/Recursion Deck
:symg::symw::symu: Rafiq of the 1HKO
:symr::symg::symw: Rith and Her Token Army
The Head Fatty:
When I saw Kresh I knew this had to be my Jund General. All this dude does is getting bigger and bigger. Usually, Kresh is big enough to one hit KO my opponents with general damage. However, no one in my playgroup is stupid enough to allow a 28/28 general swing in uninterrupted. So often times Kresh is more of a prime target for effects like fling, greater good, or Garruk, primal hunter. Oh, and the Raymond Swanland art is really nice.
Basic Land Art
For Kresh, we have:
I've always enjoyed the hedron concept of lands in zendikar and RoE. In my opinion the timmy deck (also the only deck in which I included Eldrazi Titans) fits the lands really well. Also I don't really like the Jund lands from Alara. This set of lands is actually more subject to change than the others. The lands are quite beautiful individually, however I don't feel that they fit together too well as a trio. I would really love to hear which lands you think are the best for this deck!
Making the Fatties Do Work!
The fatties are often expensive, and cards like apocalypse hydra, and primordial hydra can require a ton of mana. As a result the deck needs to ramp very hard in the early game. Low drops like wilderness elemental and tauren mauler can be far ahead of the curve in the early game and drawing into them early can protect myself and possibly go in for some early beats.
Decklist:
1x Kresh the Bloodbraided
Fatties:
1x Apocalypse Hydra
1x Cryptborn Horror
1x Hamletback Goliath
1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1x Lord of Extinction
1x Forgotten Ancient
1x Malignus
1x Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
1x Phyrexian Processor
1x Primordial Hydra
1x Rubblehulk
1x Dark Depths
1x Greater Gargadon
1x Wall of Blood
1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1x Worldspine Wurm
To help our fatties do damage:
1x Berserk
1x Fling
1x Grab the Reins
1x Essence Harvest
1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1x Soul's Fire
1x Stalking Vengeance
1x Warstorm Surge
1x Whispersilk Cloak (also serves as protection)
To protect our fatties:
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Swiftfoot Boots
Ramp/Mana Fix:
1x Cultivate
1x Sylvan Scying
1x Explosive Vegetation
1x Kodama's Reach
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Skyshroud Claim
1x Sol Ring
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Sylvan Primordial
1x Disciple of Bolas
1x Greater Good
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Promise of Power (also makes a flying fatty)
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sylvan Library
1x Momentous Fall
Tutors:
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Chord of Calling
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Tooth and Nail
1x Worldly Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
Removals:
1x Decree of Pain (card draw)
1x Terastodon
1x Beast Within
1x Blasphemous Act
1x Chaos Warp
1x Lavalanche
1x Violent Ultimatum
Misc. Utility:
1x Eternal Witness
1x Quicksilver Amulet
1x Vampire Hexmage
Lands:
1x Dragonskull Summit
1x Rootbound Crag
1x Woodland Cemetery
1x Fire-Lit Thicket
1x Graven Cairns
1x Twilight Mire
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Blood Crypt
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Verdant Catacombs
4x Mountain
4x Swamp
6x Forest
1x Command Tower
1x Savage Lands
1x Thespian's Stage
1x High Market
1x Miren, the Moaning Well
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Cabal Coffers
1x Kessig Wolf Run (evasion)
1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse (evasion)
1x Skarrg, the Rage Pits (evasion)
1x Winding Canyons
1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
1x Reliquary Tower
Deckstat:
Creatures: 23
Sorceries:16
Instants: 8
Enchantments: 6
Non-Creature Artifacts:7
Planeswalkers:2
Lands: 38
What do I need help with?
Changelog:
+Momentous Fall -Greater Gargadon (Gurst)
Thanks for reading my deck tech, please leave your comments! Also check my other lists in the series if you're interested!
Soulblast > Fling
Go big or go home, right?
For card draw, how about Soul's Majesty or Momentous Fall?
Of course Warstorm Surge is better, but maybe Electropotence as a backup second copy?
Kuro, Pitlord - Life Gain/Drain MBC
Malfegor - Discard and Punishment
Ghave, Guru of Spores - Fungus Tribal
building Dralnu, Lichlord - Arcane Draw-Go
Hey Gurst, thanks for the comment!
Those are really good suggestions!
Electropotence: Seems really good. My only concern is that around half of my fatties enters the battlefield as small creatures but grows after that. On top of that my general is a 3/3. I have a question actually, can I pump my creatures in response to electropotence or warstorm surge trigger? So something like, kresh ETB -> sac my 12/12 hamletback goliath in response to electropotence trigger -> kresh bolts for 15? If that does work the card is definitely in!!
Soulblast: this one is cool tool. I've had it in my deck for a while. However I still prefer fing over it. Simply because if I have a large creature on the field, I can always leave 1R open when I pass my turns and threaten to fling my fatty at whoever removes it or does anything to me, even if I don't actually have the card in my hand. It's harder to do with soulblast. Plus it would be humiliating if I sac my board and the spell gets countered :D. Its possible that it'll have a spot in the deck along with fling though. Will test!
I don't know why momentous fall isn't in the deck yet. Ya it's in now! Maybe I should jam in a reliquary tower for all the "draw equal power" effects in my deck. On the other hand, I don't like soul's majesty too much because it can be countered in too many ways. Killing/bouncing/blinking the creature, on top of hard counters can all make me waste my 6 mana.
I've always wanted to Twist Allegiance -> Soulblast.
Takes a lot of mana but OH SO COOL!
Oups, my timmy slipped ;P
TheEndIsNear: Heck YES!! Even without soulbast, a Twist Allegiance + greater good combo can push me miles ahead. Currently I use Insurrection in my deck, which I like better.
Thanks for the comments!
But you insta kill a player I'm sure.
Insurrection, Swing at A. Soulblast B.
Problem?
Quite nice
Wow that does seem like a nice combo. My only problem is that flayer of the hatebound won't be doing too much unless I have Mikaeus on the field, so its a dedicated combo piece. On the other hand mikeus the unhollowed should be pretty effective in the deck on his own. Will test it out!
Skyshroud Claim is strictly better than Explosive Vegetation because the lands come in untapped and you can grab forest/x dual lands.
if you want a faster rafiq deck, you can use interactions such as
Putrefax + rafiq of the many = ends games instantly.
for green based decks.
the ever famous melira combo: melira, sylvok outcast + woodfall primus + blasting station / Goblin bombardment = win.
for deck that runs black and artifacts: Mikaeus, the unhollowed + triskellion = win
also, i've noticed that you dont run mana accelerators, and only uses ramps? thats gonna be your downfall if ever your opponents would try and use armagedon on you.
cards like:
would help you ease up a bit.
EDH - UWGrand Arbiter Agustin IV
UBW Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Modern - Mono U tron / Polymorph / NFTW (ninja for the win)GR tron GR
Buy All the Dual Lands!!!
Buy All the fetches!
Create tons of EDH Decks!!!
Eat Nothing but Oats!! (LOL, not true)
Train MMA!!!
Marry My girlfriend!!!
Get her Pregnant only Once!
Teach my Son/Daughter Sports and magic cards!!!
Continue my legacy son!!!/Daughter!!
As for the infinite combos, I try to avoid them because they seem fun when I pull them off for the first time, and then they become boring and degenerate. However if I want to make my decks more competitive, I will definitely use those.
Putrefax: I've had it in my rafiq deck for a long time, and it's been great for me. However during one game where a friend of mine was playing my rafiq deck. He simply dropped Putrefax out of nowhere and killed another friend of mine (who had no board position at the time) just for fun. As a bystander to that I realized that the card can really be unfun. I might consider putting it back in in the near future though.
As for the mana accelerators, I've always had the mindset of not running them in green decks. Because I often consider them to be strictly worse than ramp spells because they're a lot more fragile than the others. As of non-green decks, I usually play them when I first build the decks, and then slowly cut them for other cards. My approach towards them can be completely wrong though, and I am seriously considering adding some of them back into my decks.
Are there specific kinds of decks that work better with artifact acceleration, or are they just generally good cards for ramp and armageddon prevention?
Thanks for checking out my decks!!
I am one happy person right now.
With the amount of +1/+1 counters going around, I wonder if Doubling Season would be a worthwhile addition.
That does work really well with some stuff. However looking over my list briefly, only around 10 cards in the deck benefits from doubling season. I think I need a bit more than that.
Eternal Witness: probably should have her in there anyways.
Kher Keep: Good card in general.
Raging Ravine, Lavaclaw Reaches, Treetop Village: It is x squared afterall, 1 more can make a huge difference.
Garruk, Primal Hunter: Makes beast tokens, the card draw is great for this deck too!
This is more of a note to self. But I would love suggestions for cards that increase the creature count in the deck while not compensating too much utility. Thanks.