I should have called it "stop hitting yourself".dec
Plan A: steal their dudes and get sac value or beat on them
Plan B: using ETB recursion and toolbox spells/dudes to create a dominant board
Plan C: Red zone with titans, valkyrie, clones and manlands
Constructive criticism welcome - I'd like some input for things I might have left out or things that might help the 'Plan A/B' paths-to-victory, and any cards that I'm stupid for having missed or skipped over
1. Shut down Commander / Creature bombs. Deck was built from square one to have a large number of ways to keep enemy bombs from taking over. 2. Build an incremental advantage and set up some kind of creature-theft combo 3. Slow play combo parts that seem to have a low threat-level.
Cards like Synod Sanctum, Miren and Proteus Staff aren't usually respected as "must-kill threats" compared to cards like Birthing Pod or Seedborn Muse. 4. Run a heavy search and recursion engine.
Sets it up so the deck's primary paths of play are available most of the time. Especially important to be able to recover from sweepers.
Rubinia takes their dude. These cards convert their dude into my advantage, allowing Rubinia to untap and do it again.
Synod is especially awesome because it protects any permanent you want... and it always gives it to YOU, no matter who used to control it. It's one of a very few nonclone ways to get someone else's ETB effect.
Valkyrie is removal prevention on a solid body, but also combos for recursion or theft. Miren or pod combos naturally with sword of light and shadow, reveillark, witness, or sun titan.
If you take something from them, and kill it, valkyrie gives it back to you and it forgets it ever belonged to anyone else. You can also use it when anyone else kills anyone else's creature. Want one of their dudes postwipe? go for it!
Mangara-and-card combos: Synod Sanctum, Momentary Blink, Thousand Year Elixir, Miren+recursion
Mangara is catch-all, and can be sacced or multi-tapped to be used again later.
Elixir + mangara + blink = exile 2 permanents a turn for a few turns. NOT BAD.
Momentary Blink-for-value: (every creature in the deck but valkyrie/memnarch/rubinia)
blink is just amazing in this deck... absolutely hilarious on a post-persist woodfall primus. Just don't use it on an enemy's stolen creature... Best blinks are in response to removal or blocking something nasty. Blink is especially good with evoke creatures, since it stops them from dying.
Seedborn Muse allows Rubinia to take the driver's seat and control the game... and if any of the non-sorcery-speed Rubinia combos are around, it wins very quickly. Memnarch + Seedborn Muse also ends the game pretty fast.
A few quick notes:
Countermagic - I'm not a fan of counterspell.dek in commander. 5-6 counterspells is about the right number in 100. Enough to feel a bit blue, not enough to stop everyone else from playing the game. All counterspells should be either board-enhancing or just one part of a utility card.
Time Warp et al -
I felt time walk effects were just unfair / unfun in this kind of deck so I cut them.
Power Level -
The deck is aiming for a "mid-high" power level. It utilizes a strong recursion engine, plays powerful vintage cards, and has multiple soft-locks for creature based decks. However, it doesn't run any truly degenerate combos, can't go infinite in any way, stumbles in the face of heavy GY hate, and has very few outs to blood moon.
Land Count - 34 mana lands is low. Sometimes this means mulligans or intuition for loam/lands. Tradeoff is running accelerant heavy, with some 10-13 accelerants and a search engine that can be turned towards mana ramp as needed.
Staples that are missing -
Consecrated Sphinx is not there because I think it's a totally uninteresting way to win.
Future Sight/Magus tended to cause me to die immediately.
Sensei's Divining Top makes a deck with a crapton of triggers and difficult decision trees play even slower on MTGO.
Bribery is a bit too 'freeroll' for me and looks silly vs homeward path. Acquire is weaker but more 'fun', and opponents are normally more tolerant of it.
Tooth and Nail is awesome, but kinda pricey, a bit too powerful, and is so common it's gotten boring to see. I might cut rite of replication for the same reason.
Strip Mine and friends are out because of wanting too many colorless lands already, and my personal dislike of strip mine recursion (which the deck could do easily if mine was in there). Vesuva plays removal against the better legendary lands in a pinch. Several other spells can blow up / exile lands, anyhow.
"I want this in but it's not in this build" cards -
Obi Stone - one sweeper isn't really enough, and it's awesome w/ seedborn muse.
Sword of Fire and Ice - Light/Shadow is better for me but SoFI is definitely a card I'd like in. Batterskull gets the nod right now because the deck wants more lifegain options.
Clone / Body Double / vesuvan doppleganger - deck wants more clone effects but it's tough to cut enough to get them in. They're especially awesome for killing hexproof / pro-blue legends.
Transmute Artifact - I love this card and it was one of my final cuts to the deck due to the low artifact count stranding it in my hand occasionally. I still miss it.
Cards I'm considering cutting/changing:
Praetor's Counsel - this card is amazing when it's good, but dead when it's not. Maybe it should just be a restock or a regrowth.
Land mix - maybe I should cut some of the less-amazing duals or fetches for more basics. There might be one too many bouncelands.
Draining Whelk - I've gone back and forth on whelk and mystic snake. It's desynergistic with proteus staff and some other things, but great with blink and other cards. Right now it's in, mainly so eladamri's call and chord of calling can be used as counterspells, but as I said I'm not big on heavy countermagic.
Creature Cost Mix for Pod - Right now Pod doesn't do as much as staff or sanctum. I've been thinking it's fine tho' - Pod normally only lasts a turn or two before someone blows it up anyhow.
Plan A: steal their dudes and get sac value or beat on them
Plan B: using ETB recursion and toolbox spells/dudes to create a dominant board
Plan C: Red zone with titans, valkyrie, clones and manlands
Constructive criticism welcome - I'd like some input for things I might have left out or things that might help the 'Plan A/B' paths-to-victory, and any cards that I'm stupid for having missed or skipped over
Deck type: Control-Combo (non-infinite, soft-lock style combo)
Deck Goals / Design Philosophy -
1. Shut down Commander / Creature bombs.
Deck was built from square one to have a large number of ways to keep enemy bombs from taking over.
2. Build an incremental advantage and set up some kind of creature-theft combo
3. Slow play combo parts that seem to have a low threat-level.
Cards like Synod Sanctum, Miren and Proteus Staff aren't usually respected as "must-kill threats" compared to cards like Birthing Pod or Seedborn Muse.
4. Run a heavy search and recursion engine.
Sets it up so the deck's primary paths of play are available most of the time. Especially important to be able to recover from sweepers.
1 Adarkar Valkyrie
1 Duplicant
1 Draining Whelk
1 Eternal Witness
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Mangara of Corondor
1 Memnarch
1 Mulldrifter
1 Phyrexian Ingester
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Primeval Titan
1 Quicksilver Gargantuan
1 Reveillark
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Sun Titan
1 Trinket Mage
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
1 Woodfall Primus
Lands 35
1 Forest
2 Island
2 Plains
1 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Arid Mesa
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Breeding Pool
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Command Tower
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Savannah
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Temple Garden
1 Temple of the False God
1 Tolaria West
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Vesuva
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Batterskull
1 Birthing Pod
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Proteus Staff
1 Sol Ring
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Synod Sanctum
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Voltaic Key
Sorceries 14
1 Acquire
1 All Suns' Dawn
1 Austere Command
1 Blatant Thievery
1 Deep Analysis
1 Farseek
1 Life from the Loam
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Nature's Lore
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Reap and Sow
1 Rite of Replication
1 Trade Secrets
1 Wargate
Instants 13
1 Bant Charm
1 Chord of Calling
1 Cryptic Command
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Intuition
1 Mana Drain
1 Momentary Blink
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Spelljack
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Sylvan Library
1 Volition Reins
Commander 1
1 Rubinia Soulsinger
Various combos -
Commander-and-card combos: Synod Sanctum, Birthing Pod, Proteus Staff, Miren
Rubinia takes their dude. These cards convert their dude into my advantage, allowing Rubinia to untap and do it again.
Synod is especially awesome because it protects any permanent you want... and it always gives it to YOU, no matter who used to control it. It's one of a very few nonclone ways to get someone else's ETB effect.
Sac-engine-and-card combos: Adarkar Valkyrie, ETB creatures + Recursion
Valkyrie is removal prevention on a solid body, but also combos for recursion or theft. Miren or pod combos naturally with sword of light and shadow, reveillark, witness, or sun titan.
If you take something from them, and kill it, valkyrie gives it back to you and it forgets it ever belonged to anyone else. You can also use it when anyone else kills anyone else's creature. Want one of their dudes postwipe? go for it!
Mangara-and-card combos: Synod Sanctum, Momentary Blink, Thousand Year Elixir, Miren+recursion
Mangara is catch-all, and can be sacced or multi-tapped to be used again later.
Elixir + mangara + blink = exile 2 permanents a turn for a few turns. NOT BAD.
Momentary Blink-for-value: (every creature in the deck but valkyrie/memnarch/rubinia)
blink is just amazing in this deck... absolutely hilarious on a post-persist woodfall primus. Just don't use it on an enemy's stolen creature... Best blinks are in response to removal or blocking something nasty. Blink is especially good with evoke creatures, since it stops them from dying.
Seedborn Muse + Repeatable Combo: Synod Sanctum combos, Miren combos, Memnarch
Seedborn Muse allows Rubinia to take the driver's seat and control the game... and if any of the non-sorcery-speed Rubinia combos are around, it wins very quickly. Memnarch + Seedborn Muse also ends the game pretty fast.
A few quick notes:
Countermagic - I'm not a fan of counterspell.dek in commander. 5-6 counterspells is about the right number in 100. Enough to feel a bit blue, not enough to stop everyone else from playing the game. All counterspells should be either board-enhancing or just one part of a utility card.
Time Warp et al -
I felt time walk effects were just unfair / unfun in this kind of deck so I cut them.
Power Level -
The deck is aiming for a "mid-high" power level. It utilizes a strong recursion engine, plays powerful vintage cards, and has multiple soft-locks for creature based decks. However, it doesn't run any truly degenerate combos, can't go infinite in any way, stumbles in the face of heavy GY hate, and has very few outs to blood moon.
Land Count - 34 mana lands is low. Sometimes this means mulligans or intuition for loam/lands. Tradeoff is running accelerant heavy, with some 10-13 accelerants and a search engine that can be turned towards mana ramp as needed.
Staples that are missing -
Consecrated Sphinx is not there because I think it's a totally uninteresting way to win.
Future Sight/Magus tended to cause me to die immediately.
Sensei's Divining Top makes a deck with a crapton of triggers and difficult decision trees play even slower on MTGO.
Bribery is a bit too 'freeroll' for me and looks silly vs homeward path. Acquire is weaker but more 'fun', and opponents are normally more tolerant of it.
Tooth and Nail is awesome, but kinda pricey, a bit too powerful, and is so common it's gotten boring to see. I might cut rite of replication for the same reason.
Strip Mine and friends are out because of wanting too many colorless lands already, and my personal dislike of strip mine recursion (which the deck could do easily if mine was in there). Vesuva plays removal against the better legendary lands in a pinch. Several other spells can blow up / exile lands, anyhow.
"I want this in but it's not in this build" cards -
Obi Stone - one sweeper isn't really enough, and it's awesome w/ seedborn muse.
Sword of Fire and Ice - Light/Shadow is better for me but SoFI is definitely a card I'd like in. Batterskull gets the nod right now because the deck wants more lifegain options.
Clone / Body Double / vesuvan doppleganger - deck wants more clone effects but it's tough to cut enough to get them in. They're especially awesome for killing hexproof / pro-blue legends.
Transmute Artifact - I love this card and it was one of my final cuts to the deck due to the low artifact count stranding it in my hand occasionally. I still miss it.
Cards I'm considering cutting/changing:
Praetor's Counsel - this card is amazing when it's good, but dead when it's not. Maybe it should just be a restock or a regrowth.
Land mix - maybe I should cut some of the less-amazing duals or fetches for more basics. There might be one too many bouncelands.
Draining Whelk - I've gone back and forth on whelk and mystic snake. It's desynergistic with proteus staff and some other things, but great with blink and other cards. Right now it's in, mainly so eladamri's call and chord of calling can be used as counterspells, but as I said I'm not big on heavy countermagic.
Creature Cost Mix for Pod - Right now Pod doesn't do as much as staff or sanctum. I've been thinking it's fine tho' - Pod normally only lasts a turn or two before someone blows it up anyhow.