Hello everyone, this is my first duel commander deck. A bunch of my friends started making them and I wanted to be able to play with them, so I set out to build it. I didn't want to convert one of my current EDH decks since it would require massive tweaking and I would essentially lose all that I had built with those decks, so I started from scratch.
I'm a pretty competitive player, but I generally dislike playing top-tier decks - especially since they're usually largely explored already, and I feel a lot less creative when I use one of those decks.
When the guild champions were spoiled for Dragon's Maze, I was pretty excited. Tajic seemed like the perfect amount of jank and power that I wanted. I decided playing a lot of board wipes would be an awesome way to exploit his indestructibility.
Cards I want in the deck, but don't have a copy of yet:
Student of Warfare - A very deadly 1-drop. I like powerful 1-drops because they are great at getting in before counterspell defense is ready, and they are really good at baiting counterspells, or being cast after I bait one.
Tectonic Edge - Really no excuse, I don't think it's hard to get a copy of one. I just don't have any right now, and I wanted my list to be accurate to my actual paper list so that game results would be meaningful.
Mutavault - Basically Mishra's Factory #2. I will try to pick one up when M14 is released. There will likely be a bunch of them for trade, and I may pull one from a pack.
Magus of the Moon - I'm not sure if it would replace blood moon in the list, or go in along side it yet. It is definitely good though. A creature (for battalion and equipment) as well as massive colour screw for colour intensive decks.
Molten Disaster - Basically an uncounterable earthquake. This could be a very solid game ender - working as a pseudo banefire as well as a board wipe.
Sulfur Elemental - Uncounterable anthem + creature that is also a combat trick. My deck suffers against counterspell-heavy decks, so this could help me get through. A 3/1 Tajic is better than a 2/2 Tajic.
Abeyance - Essentially a silence against most decks (when used on my turn), and it cycles itself. This card would be added in just to help me get through counterspells (probably the biggest weakness of the deck).
Proclamation of Rebirth - This could be a powerful play if I add in the 2 other 1-drops above. The forecast ability is really hard to counter and if the 1-drops are worth it, it can be very powerful. Getting back student of warfare over and over in the late game would be quite annoying for my opponent.
Aven Mindcensor - Forgot about this guy. Zvros reminded me. It kills tutors (including fetch lands) and is an evasive creature to help with battalion/carry equipment.
Cards I intend to take out, or are underperforming and could use an upgrade:
Dread Statuary - This is basically just a placeholder for mutavault or mishra's factory (both cards I intend on getting). The extra power is nice, but cheap activation is necessary to make manlands into valuable battalion enablers/equipment holders.
Return to Dust - It's a strong card, and I love when I get to use it with sunforger, but I feel sometimes like it is just too much mana, and sometimes I use it just to kill 1 thing since it needs answering right away. I'm not sure what to replace it with though.
Flamebreak - It's tough to cast. It's overall worse than breath of darigaaz. I think a good replacement would be slagstorm, but I don't have one yet. I'll test it out when I get one most likely.
Assemble the Legion - It feels really slow, but the potential of it always makes me keep it in. It doesn't help that I have a foil copy I love my foils. I typically look at it as a 5-mana goblin assault (which is overpriced).
Notable Cards:
Cards in my list that may need explanations.
Genju of the Spires - This card is awesome. I think more people should play it. It's basically a repeatable ball lightning (although without trample) and it is fast enough to get in before counterspells. It also recurs itself if you lose the mountain, so it makes great use out of late game lands.
Ricochet Trap - Basically read R - counter target counterspell. It's like a really weak red elemental blast, but a lot less narrow against non-blue decks. I can also use it with sunforger so it's quite useful.
Guardian Idol - Allows for a turn 3 Tajic, and can help activate battalion or carry equipment later in the game.
Kher Keep - One of my favourite 'man' lands. It doesn't actually become a creature, but it still lets me create creatures which can be clamped, carry equipment, or even just swing to enable battalion. Very versatile card, and the activation cost is quite low.
Martial Coup - Kill all the creatures (except Tajic), and leave behind a bunch of 1/1 tokens (to enable battalion). So awesome.
Pyrohemia - With Tajic in play, it will always have a creature in play so it won't be sacrificed. It kills all creatures in the way, and leaves Tajic standing. I can earthquake every turn at instant speed. This card is ridiculously powerful with Tajic.
Goblin Assault - underrated card in my opinion. It really helps with battalion, and it makes sure I have creatures to carry equipment every turn.
Boros Guildgate and Ancient Amphitheatre - Typically not very good, but my deck wants a stronger mid game most of the time. The mana base is extremely greedy with colourless lands, so I needed all the colour fixing I could get.
Combos:
Well, there are no combos if you define them as instant wins, but there are a few card combinations that work well together.
Basically, the aim is to control the board with board wipes and removal. Tajic can survive all of the board wipes in the deck, so he can always carry equipment in to deal some damage after board wipes. Manlands are uncounterable and can dodge boardwipes, so they are good replacements for Tajic if he keeps dying, and they are also good enablers for battalion. Even if all the equipment gets countered or destroyed, Tajic is still a threat with battalion. Battalion is a weak mechanic (requiring that you overextend into board wipes, or just not working from a rough board position), but manlands can keep him a deadly threat.
Plan A:
Get Tajic in play with a sword or two. Use wraths to clear all the blockers, and swing in for huge advantage. Alternate strategy is to use other creatures or manlands to trigger battalion over and over until the enemy is dead. Board wipes don't stop this kind of pressure (2 manlands and indestructible Tajic) which is actually quite devastating for some decks.
Plan B:
Use creatures and/or manlands to carry equipment and bash your opponent. If the equipment is destroyed, you can just keep the pressure on with creatures + Tajic later in the game.
Plan C:
Kill them with sunforger, sun titan, or stonehewer giant. If any of those cards stay in play for an extended period of time, the game is pretty much yours.
I haven't had a chance to play the deck too much yet, but I have played a bit. Unfortunately, I've mostly only played it in regular EDH games, but it still seems to fare quite well against them. The mass boardwipes really helps in big free-for-all games, and there is usually someone I can punch with a sword or 2 to get some advantage. In 1v1, the pressure combined with removal is usually too much for regular EDH decks.
Change Log:
Changes to the deck that I have made since posting the thread.
If you're planning to play competitively, what are your weaknesses when you play against different decks?
I don't plan to play too competitively (mostly just with my friends and maybe the occasional local tournament), but the biggest weakness of the deck is counterspells.
Four mana for Tajic makes him almost unplayable against counterspells unless they tap out, and alone, he is quite bad, meaning he is probably not what I want to play on the turn they tap out (if they ever do). My only hope lies in manlands, low costing cards that can combine to bait counterspells and then land threats, or pushing a bunch of stuff through with cavern of souls and similar.
Like I said in the OP, this is my first duel commander deck, and so I am inexperienced in it. I have read some of the high level metagame stuff for duel commander though, and the blue dominance poses a huge problem for my deck. Any blue deck that likes counterspells will probably kick my butt unless I get the right cards. That's why I added expedition map to grab my cavern of souls.
EDIT:
I may be overly pessimistic about counterspells killing me, but I do think they are the main problem.
I play Sisay, and while you lack the land fetch of green, I must say that landing and protecting cavern is a key against blue.
I think your equip package is a little big. Im not a fan of Body and Mind. It just seems to be the weakest as the mill will kill you against Iname/Karador and the wolf dies to just about any wrath. I am a fan of Batterskull. A 6/6 Lifelink, Vigilance Tajic can be nasty and gets nastier with Battalion.
I play Sisay, and while you lack the land fetch of green, I must say that landing and protecting cavern is a key against blue.
I think your equip package is a little big. Im not a fan of Body and Mind. It just seems to be the weakest as the mill will kill you against Iname/Karador and the wolf dies to just about any wrath. I am a fan of Batterskull. A 6/6 Lifelink, Vigilance Tajic can be nasty and gets nastier with Battalion.
Yeah I wasn't sure about it, but threw it in anyway. The wolf still gives me battalion, and if I have battalion, I usually don't need to use a wrath. I also like that it has protection from blue, but I don't know how much that matters.
Batterskull would be quite nice. I'll add it to the list of 'cards I want in, but don't have'. It's also a ridiculously powerful combo with stoneforge mystic. If I land that, it's an uncounterable, very powerful piece of equipment. My main reason for not running it (other than not having one) is that I felt the equip cost was a lot. I'll proxy or something to give it a try.
The pro-blue doesnt matter too much from when I played with swords.... maybe rarely against bounce. The cost of 'skull is a valid point, but as you said, its a sick synergy with Stoneforge. It also comes in with a creature and it can protect itself if you have extra mana up. Just an overall nasty card for your foe....
Mother of Runes may have a place in here as she can protect a dude. Yea, she goes to a wrath easily and is as strong as a wet paper towel, but I've seen opponents waste many a kill spell on her over other things just because she gets annoying.
The pro-blue doesnt matter too much from when I played with swords.... maybe rarely against bounce. The cost of 'skull is a valid point, but as you said, its a sick synergy with Stoneforge. It also comes in with a creature and it can protect itself if you have extra mana up. Just an overall nasty card for your foe....
Mother of Runes may have a place in here as she can protect a dude. Yea, she goes to a wrath easily and is as strong as a wet paper towel, but I've seen opponents waste many a kill spell on her over other things just because she gets annoying.
As for mother of runes, I tried it before, and didn't really have good results with it. It could have easily been because the games I played were not ones where it would shine. I could try it again possibly. I think I'd rather put in weathered wayfarer first, since it can get cavern of souls for me, though.
I agree with Macius here, it feels like you have too many swords in here. The only equipment you need are Skullclamp, Jitte, Feast and Famine, Fire and Ice.
I like the sunforger package, it is slow but potentially worth it.
Lightning greaves is nice, but you want to tutor swords more often, and you have 2 other sources of haste for your team. The protection is only worth it on tajic, but your swords can provide it for you.
I would recommend playing at least 2 more lands, your deck's curve is very high. You want to hit all of your spells on time because they are powerful, and you also need mana to both activate a manland and equip it.
I think you'll find that stranglehold will do nothing a lot of the time.
Ricochet trap is really neat, I'll have have to try it sometime. Just be careful, a spell cannot target itself, so you cannot have the counter target itself and you cannot change the target to ricochet trap. You need another spell on the stack for it to work the way you want it to.
I looooooove pyrohemia, I'm glad to see it in here.
The thing about mother of runes is that if she is not killed on the spot your opponent can never play removal again or attack/block profitably. I'm not sure if a midrange deck with few creatures wants her as much since she won't be doing a lot for most of the game, but she does give you an early play that can block really well and keep your big creatures safe late game. Looking at your list again, you play tons of sweepers, so probably not a great choice here.
I don't think silverblade paladin is good in here. Your looking to win with tajic, a big finisher, or a sworded creature/land. Your not very aggressive so he won't be very effective a lot of the time. The same goes for Thalia, guardian of thraben, she hurts you just as much as your opponent since you have more non-creature spells.
I think you want value creatures more in here, so that they can still attack/block but won't miss them much if you need to sweep the board. Things like blade splicer or solemn simalcrum.
Or at least creatures that are exceptional all the time, like hero of bladehold.
Return to Dust is a little expensive. In a 1v1 format there's usually only 1 thing to hit on the board. Play seal of cleansing instead. Oblivion ring is also a nice catch all card.
@Zavros: I like L&S if only for the fact that it basically removes one of the few ways to kill Tajic in Board-sweeps. Yes, its not solid over-all like a jitte or F&I, but it plays well with the idea of what you said with value creatures. Getting back a Solemn or Splicer just seems good.
I also agree on your assessment of MoM as you do bring up a good point about here not going to well with the sweepers.
I feel like my Biggest issue with offering advice on this deck is Tajic seems to want 2 seperate directions to me. He wants creatures to get battalion, but he wants to be voltron. I think bringing up the whole "value" creatures point is a happy medium. You get creatures to get his battalion, but even if they die, they still gave you something.
I'm pretty sure ricochet trap does work for countering spells. If you cast Ricochet Trap targeting a spell that targets a spell on the stack (like Cancel does, for example), you can't change that spell's target to itself. You can, however, change that spell's target to Ricochet Trap. If you do, that spell will be countered when it tries to resolve because Ricochet Trap will have left the stack by then. - Copied from gatherer.
Should I take stranglehold out? I felt it was weak a lot of the time like you say, but I was worried about stuff like zur, and decks that can tutor into brutal answers a lot. My friend kept grabbing his maze of ith which was a pain in my butt. I think if I had the wasteland effects I'm planning on adding it would not be so bad.
I like the value creatures you suggested. Solemn simulacrum is one I've been looking at for a while since wrathing it away would basically be a good thing.
I basically put in thalia purely to annoy counterspell players, but I haven't actually casted it yet (hardly comes up and I have almost no card draw). I wouldn't mind cutting it. And you are right that it does hit a huge portion of my deck (only around 12 creatures in the current list).
@Macius - I totally agree about Tajic. It has torn me in multiple directions trying to make him work, and I find the current version is pretty good and fun.
At first, I was just going aggro weenie, but I found it very vulnerable and uninteresting to play.
I then moved to voltron with wrath effects and stuff like devastation and wildfire. It was really funny and awesome when it worked, but it was really inconsistent and fell hard to counterspells (I had a lot of mana rocks so I burned too many cards before playing threats).
After adding some cards and playing around with it a bit, I found that manlands were working really well. They are tough to get rid of, and don't die to board wipes. Tajic really doesn't need strong, well-costed creatures to give him battalion, with battalion, he just kills stuff. The equipment is sort of left-over from the voltron version of the deck, so I could see cutting some of them.
I think I will take a look at my list tonight and do some big changes. I particularly like the idea of removing the 4-cost spells that aren't very good (return to dust and stranglehold). Taking out some of the swords, while painful (the whole cycle looks really nice together :P), is probably for the better. I think I will probably keep light and shadow and the 2 other good ones you suggested I keep. It will combo nicely with board wipes and value creatures like Macius pointed out, and protect Tajic from exiling spells like path to exile.
EDIT:
I agree with your assessment of silverblade paladin. Is doublestrike really that useful? I thought it would be amazing for triggering swords, but they could just be win-more (hitting with swords is usually winning). I kind of want to make room for more colourless lands and sunhome, fortress of the legion could come out. What are your thoughts on slayers' stronghold?
Should I run graveyard hate at all? I play-tested my deck against my mimeoplasm EDH deck (not a duel commander deck) last night. I went 1:1 with it, but the game I lost, I just got completely obliterated by living death. It was pretty funny actually. Eternal witness was in the graveyard, so it got living death back each cast. My board wipes were pointless and would have just resulted in more permanents lost to sylvan primordial and woodfall primus.
My bad on richochet trap. It seems really awesome now.
Stranglehold is expensive, doesn't cantrip, and often comes too late to stop your opponent. A much better card is aven mindcensor, as he has surprise factor and is a creature.
The best defense against Zur is to kill him immediately before he swings.
Wasteland effects will help a lot for maze like you said.
Silverblade paladin is only good in an aggressive deck, where you can immediately soulbond him and make him and the creature your attacking with huge threats. Your deck doesn't have many creatures to bond him to, so his double strike is on and off. If you want a solid double striker, mirran crusader is a good choice. Double strike is incredible with swords, but being able to connect with a sword is usually enough.
So slayer's stronghold. what creatures are you looking to haste out? lets say sun titan, he seems great with haste. You need 9 mana total to do that though with stronghold. not so great. It's much better in a deck with smaller creatures. If you really want haste, hall of the bandit lord is a pretty good option.
My bad on richochet trap. It seems really awesome now.
Stranglehold is expensive, doesn't cantrip, and often comes too late to stop your opponent. A much better card is aven mindcensor, as he has surprise factor and is a creature.
The best defense against Zur is to kill him immediately before he swings.
Wasteland effects will help a lot for maze like you said.
Silverblade paladin is only good in an aggressive deck, where you can immediately soulbond him and make him and the creature your attacking with huge threats. Your deck doesn't have many creatures to bond him to, so his double strike is on and off. If you want a solid double striker, mirran crusader is a good choice. Double strike is incredible with swords, but being able to connect with a sword is usually enough.
So slayer's stronghold. what creatures are you looking to haste out? lets say sun titan, he seems great with haste. You need 9 mana total to do that though with stronghold. not so great. It's much better in a deck with smaller creatures. If you really want haste, hall of the bandit lord is a pretty good option.
Slayers' stronghold was really just an extra way to dump mana when I don't have much to do. I do agree that the haste on it is weak, but it does give +2/+0 and vigilance which are kind of handy. I could see myself taking it out though. Perhaps when I get a tectonic edge or something.
What about sunhome, fortress of the legion? I see that we agree that doublestrike + swords is mostly just win-more, but this is just from a land. I don't know how often I'll be able to activate it though - it costs a lot of mana. It could probably come out for a regular land or something like dust bowl when I get one.
As for graveyard hate, I suppose I will just wait and see what it's like. I still haven't played the deck much, and I think a lot of games will be against regular EDH decks. One of my friends recently quit magic so that doesn't help with play testing. I also don't get to play too often. Hopefully I can make some switches tonight though and update the list.
EDIT:
Forgot about aven mindcensor. I added it to the 'looking to add' list in the OP. It's really hard to find copies though.
I think stronghold works decently with your general, allowing him to both attack and defend effectively. I don't think it works well with your other creatures, its better with smaller creatures allowing them to trade up, and also first strike creatures.
Your late game mana sinks are your man lands. Activating and equipping takes at least 4 mana.
Sunhome usually isn't worth it, there aren't many times where activating it is better than equipping a sword. Ruhan sometimes runs it, but usually they want to hold up counter spells.
Having things like Tectonic edge and dustbowl are definitely worth it, pick them up when you can.
I'm leaving in the sunhome and slayers' stronghold as place holders for tectonic edge and dust bowl. I don't want to pretend I will have a better mana base than I will in the future. I may even just proxy them since they are not very expensive cards.
Obviously more is coming out than going in, so I need some cards that could go into the deck. What are your thoughts on these cards? goblin ruinblaster - I like it except that it is 4 mana. I could see myself running it though. Especially since I don't have tectonic edge and similar yet. kor cartographer - Basically a worse solemn simulacrum, but it can get sacred foundry or mistveil plains which is a nice bonus. Being 4 mana is a bit sucky, but it's still a nice effect. knight of the white orchid - Could be good. I would need to get a copy first, but is it worth it? The 2 white mana and conditional ramp make it less ideal, but it could be a really solid turn 2 play when it works. duergar hedgemage - Again, conditional, but potentially quite awesome. It has a 'may' clause too so I don't have to blow stuff up like I would with other similar cards.
I'm looking for some creatures that have good ETB effects since I can just wrath them away without worry, and if times are good, I can use them for battalion or equipment.
goblin ruinblaster- a fine card. Avalanche riders is also good. Usually you find these in more aggressive decks, so i'm not sure if this is an effect you really want.
kor cartographer- i'm a fan of this card, as i played it in those mono white emeria decks in standard. You might want this; I think pilgrim's eye would work better. Usually you want to play tajic t4, the eye ensures you have that land, while cartographer doesn't quite do as much for you. Also the eye has evasion, which is important for swords and such.
knight of the white orchid- this guy is pretty sweet. You don't have to land him t2 either. works really well with your equipment.
I wasn't sure about pilgrim's eye when I first looked at it, but I'm starting to like it more. Being not 4 mana is definitely a huge bonus. Being a 1/1 means I can use skullclamp on it which is great, and with flying, it is a boss for activating battalion/carrying equipment safely/effectively.
I think for the other 3 additions, I will put in pilgrim's eye, duergar hedgemage, and knight of the white orchid. I like that they are all lower on the curve (below tajic who is my usualy 4-drop) and give me a nice advantage. I don't think I'll add the plains. I think 37 or 38 lands is a good amount, but I remembered I took 1 or 2 out since tithe and expedition map are basically lands (especially tithe - 1 mana for 1 or 2 lands). Pilgrim's eye will also help with that extra land drop.
I will have to proxy a couple cards, but it's no problem. My group proxies all the time. They are not even expensive cards (dust bowl, tectonic edge, knight of the white orchid, and I'm pretty sure I don't have a pilgrim's eye lol, that can be fixed quite quickly next time I'm at the store).
EDIT:
I forgot that I wanted to take out Thalia, guardian of thraben and silverblade paladin. Any suggestions for the 2 extra slots? Preferably creatures that cost 3 or less mana, and have a handy ETB effect or something. I may proxy in weathered wayfarer for 1 slot since that needs to be in the deck. Maybe student of warfare for the other?
EDIT2:
What does everyone think about mindclaw shaman? It could whif, but I could see what they have in their hand, it's a nice ETB effect so having the creature die does not matter to me, and it could be a huge blowout by removing a deadly spell from their hand.
Mindclaw shaman- At the point in the game when you can cast it, its probably a dead card. Against a control deck, if they have something they don't want you to cast from their hand, they'll counter it. Against aggro, will hit armaggedon? Against midrange it might hit removal, but they will probably use it in response. It might do something against jhoira.
I would still recommend mirran crusader, his protections and double strike are solid. Student of warfare is pretty great. you might want a kargan dragonlord also.
I added a change log to the OP and put in the changes I made last night. I will update the list soon as well. A bunch of the card changes are proxies, but it should be fine in my play group. None of the cards are really obnoxious anyway (particularly based on their price).
Mirran crusader could be a solid addition. Do you think he is better than boros reckoner? I doubt the reckoner will ever get to epicly combo with an earthquake due to removal and counterspells, so removing him wouldn't be that bad. The crusader also has protection from some removal spells as well.
Would flametongue kavu be good in this list? Extra removal (strong enough to kill Zur, I might add), and it's on a strong creature for battalion/equipment.
Thoughts?
EDIT:
There's also the new red colour-hate creature: Mindsparker
He punishes the right colours we want to, but not that badly. Thing is, though, he is still a 3/2 first strike for 3 mana, and against the right deck, he could be pretty good.
Thoughts?
Played a few games last night with the deck. Neither of my opponents had duel commander lists, so we just played 40 life total. The difference in life total is crazy! 18 compared to 8 life is a ridiculous difference after you've done 22 damage.
Game 1 (against omnath, locus of mana)
A slow start from both of us. I was sitting on path to exile and volcanic fallout. I went first so when he cast his commander on turn 3, I cast volcanic fallout before me turn. I cast Tajic. He didn't have much to do in his hand, so he cast cultivate and passed the turn. I cast and equipped sword of feast and famine. It was a rather brutal game after that. I eventually cast pyrohemia as well.
Game 2 (against omnath again)
I don't remember too well what I had in my hand and stuff, but I got sort of mana flooded. He couldn't kill me easily because Tajic could block omnath all day, but I wasn't getting anywhere. I eventually played land tax and was thinning out my deck, but I never drew into a much needed board wipe. He eventually beat me down with budoka gardener tokens and omnath. Looking at my next card for fun, it was wrath of god. The card after that was Elspeth, knight-errant. I would have won if I was 1 turn ahead oh well. Can't really avoid bad hands.
Game 3 (against lavinia of the tenth)
My deck was poorly shuffled and since I had land tax the previous game, so I eventually just scooped.
Game 4 (lavinia)
Turn 2 mind stone, turn 3 koth of the hammer resolves. I immediately start beating him with 4/4 mountains. He couldn't find an answer to it fast enough, so I got to use his -5 when he had 6 loyalty (I board wiped when at some point to protect him). I continued on, thinking it was my game.
He cast tsabo's web at some point, but I didn't think it mattered. I could have killed it instead of some other enchantment I blew up with orim's thunder, but decided not to since it wasn't hitting any of our lands. Then we realised that my Koth emblem gave my mountains a non-mana ability. HUUUUUUUUGE misplay I was so sad.
He eventually detain locked me with flickerform on lavinia and when I finally blew the web, he use catastrophe to blow up all the lands. I couldn't block with Tajic, and I couldn't attack because of ghostly prison, and he had protection from red for free swings until I was dead.
Game 5 (lavinia)
I mulligan down to 4 cards just to get another land. It was terrible. At least I was on the draw (we just rolled for each game).
I played some lands and used enlightened tutor(even more card disadvantage ) to get umezawa's jitte. I used the jitte and blinkmoth nexus to start gathering counters. I made a small misplay and killed lavinia in response to her triggered ability with the jitte. I realised that he would just recast her later and it would be more annoying than leaving her in play.
After quite a long game of slowly poking in, I got 3 nice strong swings with Tajic's battalion, and finished him off with a boseiju, who shelters all-powered earthquake for 13 damage (I was at 27, he was at 11, so I won).
I think I got a little unlucky and made some bad plays against lavinia, but I think I could have been more consistent if I didn't make those mistakes. The protection from red was such a pain in the butt, and the mass detain hits pretty much my entire deck. Killing her (my natural response) is typically a bad move.
Against omnath, I think I need a nice tempo-oriented hand. If I can keep the early omnath away, then it really slow him down. I have quite a bit of removal though, so it shouldn't be a problem. Running out of steam can be a problem though. He doesn't have much of a card advantage engine either, but omnath can use ALL of his mana.
I was fairly pleased with the results even though I ultimately went 2-3. 40 life is harder for my deck to finish off against lavinia's control, and I made some misplays that I will not make again. Also, getting land screwed hardly counts as a loss we weren't playing for anything anyway.
On another note, found a card that I like: Desolation Giant
He's basically another board wipe. It's probably on par with catastrophe. It's also a creature so I can use it to carry my equipment after board wiping them
Boros reckoner is pretty solid. While he can't deal with everything, he can stop/trade with anything on the ground. He is also difficult to block, and throwing a sword on him makes it a nightmare for your opponent. I wouldn't trade crusader for reckoner.
Maybe crusader isn't the best choice in here after reading your games, as against green you have tajic to block dudes all day, and against black, if you don't have multiple creatures they can edict you easily, making him worse. He probably fits an aggressive deck much better. After playing those games, do you feel you need to be more aggressive or more defensive?
You should definitely play with 30 life, it makes 1v1 much better.
Flametongue kavu is a creature you really want, It fits your game plan of kill all the things and swing really well.
Mindsparker seems sweet. First strike on a 3 power dude is great(beats a lot of random creatures in the format), even better with equipment. His hate ability is just icing on the cake.
Boros reckoner is pretty solid. While he can't deal with everything, he can stop/trade with anything on the ground. He is also difficult to block, and throwing a sword on him makes it a nightmare for your opponent. I wouldn't trade crusader for reckoner.
Maybe crusader isn't the best choice in here after reading your games, as against green you have tajic to block dudes all day, and against black, if you don't have multiple creatures they can edict you easily, making him worse. He probably fits an aggressive deck much better. After playing those games, do you feel you need to be more aggressive or more defensive?
You should definitely play with 30 life, it makes 1v1 much better.
Flametongue kavu is a creature you really want, It fits your game plan of kill all the things and swing really well.
Mindsparker seems sweet. First strike on a 3 power dude is great(beats a lot of random creatures in the format), even better with equipment. His hate ability is just icing on the cake.
I like to have removal. If there are more 1-mana powerful removal spells, I'd consider them. Are there any good 2-mana removal spells in my colours? I haven't found any that I particularly like.
I don't think I need to be more aggressive, I just need to be able to make sure my key spells resolve. Anti-countermagic is quite important. Maybe another source of card advantage would be good too to pull me through a bad or slow opening (like the second game against omnath). Not really sure if any cards fit that though.
I probably should have asked the guys I played if they were okay with 30 life starting totals, but their decks were regular EDH decks so I didn't bother.
Any suggestions on what to add? I like flametongue kavu as well. I'll definitely try out mindsparker at some point.
Have you tried Worldslayer? It's expensive, but if you cheat it into play with Stoneforge or Stonehewer, it can absolutely ruin the opponents game completely. I ran it in my Tajic deck i ran for a while and it won more games than i thought it would.
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Have you tried Worldslayer? It's expensive, but if you cheat it into play with Stoneforge or Stonehewer, it can absolutely ruin the opponents game completely. I ran it in my Tajic deck i ran for a while and it won more games than i thought it would.
I have, but I don't think it can cut it for duel commander. There is a lot of spot removal in 1v1, even bounce like vapor snag. If they remove Tajic after I blew everything up, it is even ground again, and it wouldn't help me.
If I got a little lucky, I could still win with it, but the real problem comes when I draw it, and can't use it for the whole game. It's absolutely useless except when I have Tajic and they have no blockers, and if that's the case, I may as well hit them with a sword.
I took it out eventually (even though I absolutely wanted to run it) because it was too often a dead card, and in my colours, I cannot afford dead cards.
I'm a pretty competitive player, but I generally dislike playing top-tier decks - especially since they're usually largely explored already, and I feel a lot less creative when I use one of those decks.
When the guild champions were spoiled for Dragon's Maze, I was pretty excited. Tajic seemed like the perfect amount of jank and power that I wanted. I decided playing a lot of board wipes would be an awesome way to exploit his indestructibility.
Here's the list:
4 Tajic, Blade of the Legion
Creatures - 13
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Student of Warfare
1 Weathered Wayfarer
2 Grand Abolisher
2 Knight of the White Orchid
3 Boros Reckoner
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage
3 Pilgrim's Eye
4 Anger
4 Solemn Simulacrum
5 Urabrask the Hidden
6 Sun Titan
Tutors - 8
1 Expedition Map
1 Land Tax
1 Tithe
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Steelshaper's Gift
2 Stoneforge Mystic
5 Stonehewer Giant
6 Godo, Bandit Warlord
Equipment - 6
1 Skullclamp
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Sunforger
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Sword of Light and Shadow
Battalion Enablers - 7
1 Genju of the Spires
2 Guardian Idol
3 Goblin Assault
4 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Koth of the Hammer
5 Assemble the Legion
5 Gideon Jura
1 Flame Slash
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Oust
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Wear // Tear
2 Disenchant
2 Seal of Cleansing
3 Aura of Silence
3 Orim's Thunder
Board Wipes - 13
2 Breath of Darigaaz
3 Flamebreak
3 Volcanic Fallout
4 Pyrohemia
9 Blasphemous Act
4 Day of Judgement
4 Wrath of God
5 Rout
6 Austere Command
6 Catastrophe
6 Phyrexian Rebirth
Other - 5
2 Boros Charm
2 Mind Stone
3 Blood Moon
3 Lapse of Certainty
4 Ricochet Trap
Lands - 36
0 Arid Mesa
0 Marsh Flats
0 Boros Guildgate
0 City of Brass
0 Clifftop Retreat
0 Command Tower
0 Rugged Prairie
0 Ancient Amphitheatre
0 Sacred Foundry
0 Blinkmoth Nexus
0 Dread Statuary
0 Forbidding Watchtower
0 Ghitu Encampment
0 Inkmoth Nexus
0 Kher Keep
0 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
0 Cavern of Souls
0 Buried Ruin
0 Flagstones of Trokair
0 Mistveil Plains
0 Tectonic Edge
0 Dust Bowl
9 Mountain
4 Plains
Cards I would love:
Wasteland - I simply just don't want to spend that much money on 1 card. If I ever get a copy though, it would be in without hesitation.
Plateau - Same as wasteland.
More fetchlands - Same as wasteland.
Cards I want in the deck, but don't have a copy of yet:
Weathered Wayfarer - For similar reasons as Student of Warfare. The land tutoring will grab me manlands and wasteland effects (when I add them).
Tectonic Edge - Really no excuse, I don't think it's hard to get a copy of one. I just don't have any right now, and I wanted my list to be accurate to my actual paper list so that game results would be meaningful.
Dust Bowl - Repeatable tectonic edge. Sacrificing flagstones of trokair would make me very happy
Mishra's Factory - More cheap manlands.
Mutavault - Basically Mishra's Factory #2. I will try to pick one up when M14 is released. There will likely be a bunch of them for trade, and I may pull one from a pack.
Magus of the Moon - I'm not sure if it would replace blood moon in the list, or go in along side it yet. It is definitely good though. A creature (for battalion and equipment) as well as massive colour screw for colour intensive decks.
Molten Disaster - Basically an uncounterable earthquake. This could be a very solid game ender - working as a pseudo banefire as well as a board wipe.
Sulfur Elemental - Uncounterable anthem + creature that is also a combat trick. My deck suffers against counterspell-heavy decks, so this could help me get through. A 3/1 Tajic is better than a 2/2 Tajic.
Celestial Crusader - Basically sulfur elemental #2. It's quite awesome.
Abeyance - Essentially a silence against most decks (when used on my turn), and it cycles itself. This card would be added in just to help me get through counterspells (probably the biggest weakness of the deck).
Proclamation of Rebirth - This could be a powerful play if I add in the 2 other 1-drops above. The forecast ability is really hard to counter and if the 1-drops are worth it, it can be very powerful. Getting back student of warfare over and over in the late game would be quite annoying for my opponent.
Batterskull - probably better than sword of body and mind, and it's a huge threat even if I don't have a creature to equip it to. It's also a super easy combo with stoneforge mystic.
Aven Mindcensor - Forgot about this guy. Zvros reminded me. It kills tutors (including fetch lands) and is an evasive creature to help with battalion/carry equipment.
Cards I intend to take out, or are underperforming and could use an upgrade:
Return to Dust - It's a strong card, and I love when I get to use it with sunforger, but I feel sometimes like it is just too much mana, and sometimes I use it just to kill 1 thing since it needs answering right away. I'm not sure what to replace it with though.
Flamebreak - It's tough to cast. It's overall worse than breath of darigaaz. I think a good replacement would be slagstorm, but I don't have one yet. I'll test it out when I get one most likely.
Assemble the Legion - It feels really slow, but the potential of it always makes me keep it in. It doesn't help that I have a foil copy I love my foils. I typically look at it as a 5-mana goblin assault (which is overpriced).
Notable Cards:
Genju of the Spires - This card is awesome. I think more people should play it. It's basically a repeatable ball lightning (although without trample) and it is fast enough to get in before counterspells. It also recurs itself if you lose the mountain, so it makes great use out of late game lands.
Ricochet Trap - Basically read R - counter target counterspell. It's like a really weak red elemental blast, but a lot less narrow against non-blue decks. I can also use it with sunforger so it's quite useful.
Guardian Idol - Allows for a turn 3 Tajic, and can help activate battalion or carry equipment later in the game.
Kher Keep - One of my favourite 'man' lands. It doesn't actually become a creature, but it still lets me create creatures which can be clamped, carry equipment, or even just swing to enable battalion. Very versatile card, and the activation cost is quite low.
Martial Coup - Kill all the creatures (except Tajic), and leave behind a bunch of 1/1 tokens (to enable battalion). So awesome.
Pyrohemia - With Tajic in play, it will always have a creature in play so it won't be sacrificed. It kills all creatures in the way, and leaves Tajic standing. I can earthquake every turn at instant speed. This card is ridiculously powerful with Tajic.
Boros Reckoner - A solid 3/3 for 3 mana, and he can act as a finisher with stuff like earthquake and blasphemous act. Even with breath of darigaaz, it's an 8 damage punch to the opponent's face.
Goblin Assault - underrated card in my opinion. It really helps with battalion, and it makes sure I have creatures to carry equipment every turn.
Boros Guildgate and Ancient Amphitheatre - Typically not very good, but my deck wants a stronger mid game most of the time. The mana base is extremely greedy with colourless lands, so I needed all the colour fixing I could get.
Combos:
Sunforger:
Sunforger + tithe + mistveil plains - I can use sunforger to cast tithe from my deck to fetch mistveil plains. Using mistveil plains, I can put spells in my graveyard back into my library. Then I can cast them again with sunforger allowing for repeatable spells. Lapse of certainty with this is a nice soft lock. This combo is slow, but will win longer games.
Skullclamp:
Kher keep/goblin assault/assemble the legion/elspeth, knight-errant + skullclamp - lots of card draw. All of these cards also help with battalion as well.
Strategy:
Plan A:
Get Tajic in play with a sword or two. Use wraths to clear all the blockers, and swing in for huge advantage. Alternate strategy is to use other creatures or manlands to trigger battalion over and over until the enemy is dead. Board wipes don't stop this kind of pressure (2 manlands and indestructible Tajic) which is actually quite devastating for some decks.
Plan B:
Use creatures and/or manlands to carry equipment and bash your opponent. If the equipment is destroyed, you can just keep the pressure on with creatures + Tajic later in the game.
Plan C:
Kill them with sunforger, sun titan, or stonehewer giant. If any of those cards stay in play for an extended period of time, the game is pretty much yours.
I haven't had a chance to play the deck too much yet, but I have played a bit. Unfortunately, I've mostly only played it in regular EDH games, but it still seems to fare quite well against them. The mass boardwipes really helps in big free-for-all games, and there is usually someone I can punch with a sword or 2 to get some advantage. In 1v1, the pressure combined with removal is usually too much for regular EDH decks.
Change Log:
July 10, 2013
- Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
- Slayers' Stronghold
- Sword of War and Peace
- Sword of Body and Mind
- Lightning Greaves
- Return to Dust
- Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
- Silverblade Paladin
- Stranglehold
+ Tectonic Edge
+ Dust Bowl
+ Solemn Simulacrum
+ Knight of the White Orchid
+ Pilgrim's Eye
+ Seal of Cleansing
+ Weathered Wayfarer
+ Student of Warfare
+ Duergar Hedge-Mage
What do you guys think of my deck?
Are there cards you think I'm missing?
Are there cards that you think I should cut from the list?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
Duel Commander
URG [Primer] Maelstrom Wanderer [Primer] URG
Duel Commander Current Projects:
RGWMarath, Will of the WildRGW
BRXMogis, God of SlaughterBRX
RWxIoras, God of VictoryRWx
WBxAthreos, God of PassageWBx
Created By: DarkNightCavalier
I don't plan to play too competitively (mostly just with my friends and maybe the occasional local tournament), but the biggest weakness of the deck is counterspells.
Four mana for Tajic makes him almost unplayable against counterspells unless they tap out, and alone, he is quite bad, meaning he is probably not what I want to play on the turn they tap out (if they ever do). My only hope lies in manlands, low costing cards that can combine to bait counterspells and then land threats, or pushing a bunch of stuff through with cavern of souls and similar.
Like I said in the OP, this is my first duel commander deck, and so I am inexperienced in it. I have read some of the high level metagame stuff for duel commander though, and the blue dominance poses a huge problem for my deck. Any blue deck that likes counterspells will probably kick my butt unless I get the right cards. That's why I added expedition map to grab my cavern of souls.
EDIT:
I may be overly pessimistic about counterspells killing me, but I do think they are the main problem.
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
I think your equip package is a little big. Im not a fan of Body and Mind. It just seems to be the weakest as the mill will kill you against Iname/Karador and the wolf dies to just about any wrath. I am a fan of Batterskull. A 6/6 Lifelink, Vigilance Tajic can be nasty and gets nastier with Battalion.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyYeah I wasn't sure about it, but threw it in anyway. The wolf still gives me battalion, and if I have battalion, I usually don't need to use a wrath. I also like that it has protection from blue, but I don't know how much that matters.
Batterskull would be quite nice. I'll add it to the list of 'cards I want in, but don't have'. It's also a ridiculously powerful combo with stoneforge mystic. If I land that, it's an uncounterable, very powerful piece of equipment. My main reason for not running it (other than not having one) is that I felt the equip cost was a lot. I'll proxy or something to give it a try.
Thanks for the suggestion!
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
Mother of Runes may have a place in here as she can protect a dude. Yea, she goes to a wrath easily and is as strong as a wet paper towel, but I've seen opponents waste many a kill spell on her over other things just because she gets annoying.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyI'll definitely give batterskull a test run.
As for mother of runes, I tried it before, and didn't really have good results with it. It could have easily been because the games I played were not ones where it would shine. I could try it again possibly. I think I'd rather put in weathered wayfarer first, since it can get cavern of souls for me, though.
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
I like the sunforger package, it is slow but potentially worth it.
Lightning greaves is nice, but you want to tutor swords more often, and you have 2 other sources of haste for your team. The protection is only worth it on tajic, but your swords can provide it for you.
I would recommend playing at least 2 more lands, your deck's curve is very high. You want to hit all of your spells on time because they are powerful, and you also need mana to both activate a manland and equip it.
I think you'll find that stranglehold will do nothing a lot of the time.
Ricochet trap is really neat, I'll have have to try it sometime. Just be careful, a spell cannot target itself, so you cannot have the counter target itself and you cannot change the target to ricochet trap. You need another spell on the stack for it to work the way you want it to.
I looooooove pyrohemia, I'm glad to see it in here.
The thing about mother of runes is that if she is not killed on the spot your opponent can never play removal again or attack/block profitably. I'm not sure if a midrange deck with few creatures wants her as much since she won't be doing a lot for most of the game, but she does give you an early play that can block really well and keep your big creatures safe late game. Looking at your list again, you play tons of sweepers, so probably not a great choice here.
I don't think silverblade paladin is good in here. Your looking to win with tajic, a big finisher, or a sworded creature/land. Your not very aggressive so he won't be very effective a lot of the time. The same goes for Thalia, guardian of thraben, she hurts you just as much as your opponent since you have more non-creature spells.
I think you want value creatures more in here, so that they can still attack/block but won't miss them much if you need to sweep the board. Things like blade splicer or solemn simalcrum.
Or at least creatures that are exceptional all the time, like hero of bladehold.
Return to Dust is a little expensive. In a 1v1 format there's usually only 1 thing to hit on the board. Play seal of cleansing instead. Oblivion ring is also a nice catch all card.
I also agree on your assessment of MoM as you do bring up a good point about here not going to well with the sweepers.
I feel like my Biggest issue with offering advice on this deck is Tajic seems to want 2 seperate directions to me. He wants creatures to get battalion, but he wants to be voltron. I think bringing up the whole "value" creatures point is a happy medium. You get creatures to get his battalion, but even if they die, they still gave you something.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyI'm pretty sure ricochet trap does work for countering spells.
If you cast Ricochet Trap targeting a spell that targets a spell on the stack (like Cancel does, for example), you can't change that spell's target to itself. You can, however, change that spell's target to Ricochet Trap. If you do, that spell will be countered when it tries to resolve because Ricochet Trap will have left the stack by then. - Copied from gatherer.
Should I take stranglehold out? I felt it was weak a lot of the time like you say, but I was worried about stuff like zur, and decks that can tutor into brutal answers a lot. My friend kept grabbing his maze of ith which was a pain in my butt. I think if I had the wasteland effects I'm planning on adding it would not be so bad.
I like the value creatures you suggested. Solemn simulacrum is one I've been looking at for a while since wrathing it away would basically be a good thing.
I basically put in thalia purely to annoy counterspell players, but I haven't actually casted it yet (hardly comes up and I have almost no card draw). I wouldn't mind cutting it. And you are right that it does hit a huge portion of my deck (only around 12 creatures in the current list).
@Macius - I totally agree about Tajic. It has torn me in multiple directions trying to make him work, and I find the current version is pretty good and fun.
At first, I was just going aggro weenie, but I found it very vulnerable and uninteresting to play.
I then moved to voltron with wrath effects and stuff like devastation and wildfire. It was really funny and awesome when it worked, but it was really inconsistent and fell hard to counterspells (I had a lot of mana rocks so I burned too many cards before playing threats).
After adding some cards and playing around with it a bit, I found that manlands were working really well. They are tough to get rid of, and don't die to board wipes. Tajic really doesn't need strong, well-costed creatures to give him battalion, with battalion, he just kills stuff. The equipment is sort of left-over from the voltron version of the deck, so I could see cutting some of them.
I think I will take a look at my list tonight and do some big changes. I particularly like the idea of removing the 4-cost spells that aren't very good (return to dust and stranglehold). Taking out some of the swords, while painful (the whole cycle looks really nice together :P), is probably for the better. I think I will probably keep light and shadow and the 2 other good ones you suggested I keep. It will combo nicely with board wipes and value creatures like Macius pointed out, and protect Tajic from exiling spells like path to exile.
EDIT:
I agree with your assessment of silverblade paladin. Is doublestrike really that useful? I thought it would be amazing for triggering swords, but they could just be win-more (hitting with swords is usually winning). I kind of want to make room for more colourless lands and sunhome, fortress of the legion could come out. What are your thoughts on slayers' stronghold?
Should I run graveyard hate at all? I play-tested my deck against my mimeoplasm EDH deck (not a duel commander deck) last night. I went 1:1 with it, but the game I lost, I just got completely obliterated by living death. It was pretty funny actually. Eternal witness was in the graveyard, so it got living death back each cast. My board wipes were pointless and would have just resulted in more permanents lost to sylvan primordial and woodfall primus.
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
My bad on richochet trap. It seems really awesome now.
Stranglehold is expensive, doesn't cantrip, and often comes too late to stop your opponent. A much better card is aven mindcensor, as he has surprise factor and is a creature.
The best defense against Zur is to kill him immediately before he swings.
Wasteland effects will help a lot for maze like you said.
Silverblade paladin is only good in an aggressive deck, where you can immediately soulbond him and make him and the creature your attacking with huge threats. Your deck doesn't have many creatures to bond him to, so his double strike is on and off. If you want a solid double striker, mirran crusader is a good choice. Double strike is incredible with swords, but being able to connect with a sword is usually enough.
So slayer's stronghold. what creatures are you looking to haste out? lets say sun titan, he seems great with haste. You need 9 mana total to do that though with stronghold. not so great. It's much better in a deck with smaller creatures. If you really want haste, hall of the bandit lord is a pretty good option.
For graveyard hate, this is really a meta call. Relic of progenitus, scrabbling claws, and phyrexian furnace are the most common generic graveyard hate.
Slayers' stronghold was really just an extra way to dump mana when I don't have much to do. I do agree that the haste on it is weak, but it does give +2/+0 and vigilance which are kind of handy. I could see myself taking it out though. Perhaps when I get a tectonic edge or something.
What about sunhome, fortress of the legion? I see that we agree that doublestrike + swords is mostly just win-more, but this is just from a land. I don't know how often I'll be able to activate it though - it costs a lot of mana. It could probably come out for a regular land or something like dust bowl when I get one.
As for graveyard hate, I suppose I will just wait and see what it's like. I still haven't played the deck much, and I think a lot of games will be against regular EDH decks. One of my friends recently quit magic so that doesn't help with play testing. I also don't get to play too often. Hopefully I can make some switches tonight though and update the list.
EDIT:
Forgot about aven mindcensor. I added it to the 'looking to add' list in the OP. It's really hard to find copies though.
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
Your late game mana sinks are your man lands. Activating and equipping takes at least 4 mana.
Sunhome usually isn't worth it, there aren't many times where activating it is better than equipping a sword. Ruhan sometimes runs it, but usually they want to hold up counter spells.
Having things like Tectonic edge and dustbowl are definitely worth it, pick them up when you can.
Here are the current things I am planning to do:
Out:
Sword of war and peace
Sword of body and mind
Lightning greaves
Stranglehold
Return to dust
In:
Solemn simulacrum
Seal of cleansing
Possibly an extra plains.
I'm leaving in the sunhome and slayers' stronghold as place holders for tectonic edge and dust bowl. I don't want to pretend I will have a better mana base than I will in the future. I may even just proxy them since they are not very expensive cards.
Obviously more is coming out than going in, so I need some cards that could go into the deck. What are your thoughts on these cards?
goblin ruinblaster - I like it except that it is 4 mana. I could see myself running it though. Especially since I don't have tectonic edge and similar yet.
kor cartographer - Basically a worse solemn simulacrum, but it can get sacred foundry or mistveil plains which is a nice bonus. Being 4 mana is a bit sucky, but it's still a nice effect.
knight of the white orchid - Could be good. I would need to get a copy first, but is it worth it? The 2 white mana and conditional ramp make it less ideal, but it could be a really solid turn 2 play when it works.
duergar hedgemage - Again, conditional, but potentially quite awesome. It has a 'may' clause too so I don't have to blow stuff up like I would with other similar cards.
I'm looking for some creatures that have good ETB effects since I can just wrath them away without worry, and if times are good, I can use them for battalion or equipment.
Are these changes good? Any advice is welcome!
Thanks for all the help so far.
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
kor cartographer- i'm a fan of this card, as i played it in those mono white emeria decks in standard. You might want this; I think pilgrim's eye would work better. Usually you want to play tajic t4, the eye ensures you have that land, while cartographer doesn't quite do as much for you. Also the eye has evasion, which is important for swords and such.
knight of the white orchid- this guy is pretty sweet. You don't have to land him t2 either. works really well with your equipment.
duergar hedgemage- i like it, give it a shot.
I think for the other 3 additions, I will put in pilgrim's eye, duergar hedgemage, and knight of the white orchid. I like that they are all lower on the curve (below tajic who is my usualy 4-drop) and give me a nice advantage. I don't think I'll add the plains. I think 37 or 38 lands is a good amount, but I remembered I took 1 or 2 out since tithe and expedition map are basically lands (especially tithe - 1 mana for 1 or 2 lands). Pilgrim's eye will also help with that extra land drop.
I will have to proxy a couple cards, but it's no problem. My group proxies all the time. They are not even expensive cards (dust bowl, tectonic edge, knight of the white orchid, and I'm pretty sure I don't have a pilgrim's eye lol, that can be fixed quite quickly next time I'm at the store).
EDIT:
I forgot that I wanted to take out Thalia, guardian of thraben and silverblade paladin. Any suggestions for the 2 extra slots? Preferably creatures that cost 3 or less mana, and have a handy ETB effect or something. I may proxy in weathered wayfarer for 1 slot since that needs to be in the deck. Maybe student of warfare for the other?
EDIT2:
What does everyone think about mindclaw shaman? It could whif, but I could see what they have in their hand, it's a nice ETB effect so having the creature die does not matter to me, and it could be a huge blowout by removing a deadly spell from their hand.
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
I would still recommend mirran crusader, his protections and double strike are solid. Student of warfare is pretty great. you might want a kargan dragonlord also.
Mirran crusader could be a solid addition. Do you think he is better than boros reckoner? I doubt the reckoner will ever get to epicly combo with an earthquake due to removal and counterspells, so removing him wouldn't be that bad. The crusader also has protection from some removal spells as well.
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
Thoughts?
EDIT:
There's also the new red colour-hate creature: Mindsparker
He punishes the right colours we want to, but not that badly. Thing is, though, he is still a 3/2 first strike for 3 mana, and against the right deck, he could be pretty good.
Thoughts?
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
Game 1 (against omnath, locus of mana)
A slow start from both of us. I was sitting on path to exile and volcanic fallout. I went first so when he cast his commander on turn 3, I cast volcanic fallout before me turn. I cast Tajic. He didn't have much to do in his hand, so he cast cultivate and passed the turn. I cast and equipped sword of feast and famine. It was a rather brutal game after that. I eventually cast pyrohemia as well.
Game 2 (against omnath again)
I don't remember too well what I had in my hand and stuff, but I got sort of mana flooded. He couldn't kill me easily because Tajic could block omnath all day, but I wasn't getting anywhere. I eventually played land tax and was thinning out my deck, but I never drew into a much needed board wipe. He eventually beat me down with budoka gardener tokens and omnath. Looking at my next card for fun, it was wrath of god. The card after that was Elspeth, knight-errant. I would have won if I was 1 turn ahead oh well. Can't really avoid bad hands.
Game 3 (against lavinia of the tenth)
My deck was poorly shuffled and since I had land tax the previous game, so I eventually just scooped.
Game 4 (lavinia)
Turn 2 mind stone, turn 3 koth of the hammer resolves. I immediately start beating him with 4/4 mountains. He couldn't find an answer to it fast enough, so I got to use his -5 when he had 6 loyalty (I board wiped when at some point to protect him). I continued on, thinking it was my game.
He cast tsabo's web at some point, but I didn't think it mattered. I could have killed it instead of some other enchantment I blew up with orim's thunder, but decided not to since it wasn't hitting any of our lands. Then we realised that my Koth emblem gave my mountains a non-mana ability. HUUUUUUUUGE misplay I was so sad.
He eventually detain locked me with flickerform on lavinia and when I finally blew the web, he use catastrophe to blow up all the lands. I couldn't block with Tajic, and I couldn't attack because of ghostly prison, and he had protection from red for free swings until I was dead.
Game 5 (lavinia)
I mulligan down to 4 cards just to get another land. It was terrible. At least I was on the draw (we just rolled for each game).
I played some lands and used enlightened tutor(even more card disadvantage ) to get umezawa's jitte. I used the jitte and blinkmoth nexus to start gathering counters. I made a small misplay and killed lavinia in response to her triggered ability with the jitte. I realised that he would just recast her later and it would be more annoying than leaving her in play.
After quite a long game of slowly poking in, I got 3 nice strong swings with Tajic's battalion, and finished him off with a boseiju, who shelters all-powered earthquake for 13 damage (I was at 27, he was at 11, so I won).
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I think I got a little unlucky and made some bad plays against lavinia, but I think I could have been more consistent if I didn't make those mistakes. The protection from red was such a pain in the butt, and the mass detain hits pretty much my entire deck. Killing her (my natural response) is typically a bad move.
Against omnath, I think I need a nice tempo-oriented hand. If I can keep the early omnath away, then it really slow him down. I have quite a bit of removal though, so it shouldn't be a problem. Running out of steam can be a problem though. He doesn't have much of a card advantage engine either, but omnath can use ALL of his mana.
I was fairly pleased with the results even though I ultimately went 2-3. 40 life is harder for my deck to finish off against lavinia's control, and I made some misplays that I will not make again. Also, getting land screwed hardly counts as a loss we weren't playing for anything anyway.
On another note, found a card that I like: Desolation Giant
He's basically another board wipe. It's probably on par with catastrophe. It's also a creature so I can use it to carry my equipment after board wiping them
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
Maybe crusader isn't the best choice in here after reading your games, as against green you have tajic to block dudes all day, and against black, if you don't have multiple creatures they can edict you easily, making him worse. He probably fits an aggressive deck much better. After playing those games, do you feel you need to be more aggressive or more defensive?
You should definitely play with 30 life, it makes 1v1 much better.
Flametongue kavu is a creature you really want, It fits your game plan of kill all the things and swing really well.
Mindsparker seems sweet. First strike on a 3 power dude is great(beats a lot of random creatures in the format), even better with equipment. His hate ability is just icing on the cake.
I like to have removal. If there are more 1-mana powerful removal spells, I'd consider them. Are there any good 2-mana removal spells in my colours? I haven't found any that I particularly like.
I don't think I need to be more aggressive, I just need to be able to make sure my key spells resolve. Anti-countermagic is quite important. Maybe another source of card advantage would be good too to pull me through a bad or slow opening (like the second game against omnath). Not really sure if any cards fit that though.
I probably should have asked the guys I played if they were okay with 30 life starting totals, but their decks were regular EDH decks so I didn't bother.
Any suggestions on what to add? I like flametongue kavu as well. I'll definitely try out mindsparker at some point.
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
I have, but I don't think it can cut it for duel commander. There is a lot of spot removal in 1v1, even bounce like vapor snag. If they remove Tajic after I blew everything up, it is even ground again, and it wouldn't help me.
If I got a little lucky, I could still win with it, but the real problem comes when I draw it, and can't use it for the whole game. It's absolutely useless except when I have Tajic and they have no blockers, and if that's the case, I may as well hit them with a sword.
I took it out eventually (even though I absolutely wanted to run it) because it was too often a dead card, and in my colours, I cannot afford dead cards.
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
1) testing your real deck against potentially completed and tier 1 opponents.
2) Provided a wish list for next purchase.
Duel Commander
URG [Primer] Maelstrom Wanderer [Primer] URG
Duel Commander Current Projects:
RGWMarath, Will of the WildRGW
BRXMogis, God of SlaughterBRX
RWxIoras, God of VictoryRWx
WBxAthreos, God of PassageWBx
Created By: DarkNightCavalier