Ghired, Conclave Exile - Triple Dipping Naya Lards

[yeti1069]

I'm slotting in Trailblazer, new Ghired, Annie Joins Up, and the Extortionist to try out. Haven't played Ghired at all in a while, but will put it into the cycle of recently edited decks to try.

[yeti1069]

Here's my current list: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/lBNXw0EkvEOVsb8rdGmthg
Had a close game with it last night vs Mothman, Loot, and some mono-white voltron enchantments commander--he scooped the turn he swung at Mothman for lethal, because he had a family issue. Would have been challenging dealing with him.

I kept a hand with too many lands, Shadow in the Warp, and something else, figuring I'd get Ghired down early and find more stuff as the game went on, but I got very mana flooded. Later, I stole and copied a Sphinx of the Second Sun from Loot with Firbolg Flutist, which helped get me some cards. I had been having a rough time before that with a Mothman I couldn't block and didn't have removal for, and no safe attacks for Ghired. Eventually managed to get some draw, build up a little, and was able to swing out at Mothman, then survived at 1 life with 1 more blocker than Loot could swing with, which was good, because I had to double block a big trampler.

However...I had 1 Rad counter still...flipped a nonland and died with Loot within striking distance. Didn't see any of the newly added cards.

[yeti1069]

Got some games in with some of the cards I've added.
Skyhunter Strike Force was solid as a cheap Overrun. Note: since it gives melee to the creatures, so Harmonic Prodigy will double the trigger on any attacking shamans or wizards (Ghired, mostly).
Outcaster Trailblazer was great! I drew it on a turn where it didn't make sense to plot it, but casting it for 3, then refunding a mana immediately meant I got to make some additional plays.
New Ghired was stupid. Played it after combat, then was able to tap itself, Wood Elves, and Prodigy to make 3 more rhinos, which drew me 3 more cards. On the following turn, I cast Sundering Growth on an opponent's end step, which got me a rhino, then I tapped most of my creatures to make more rhinos and draw a bunch more cards.

All that ended up not mattering vs Koma and Haktos. Haks played a few things to ensure he could get attacks past my appropriately CMC blockers and had me at 14 commander. I made some efforts to prevent him from killing me on the last turn. All the draw got me a Flawless Maneuver to save my board from his Blasphemous Act, but Koma sacrificed his tokens to tap my stuff so Hakdos could swing freely at me.

My next turn I had Annie Joins up, Aurelia (already in play--got fogged on my previous turn), and Parallel Lives.

[yeti1069]

A few notes:

Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds really, really wants either haste or valuable ETBs. I had a turn where I played Pathbreaker Ibex, copied with Flameshadow Conjuring, and was going to make several copies of the Ibex, but then realized that none would have haste. Instead, I copied...

Firbolg Flutist which continues to be hugely impactful. I'd cast it earlier, copied with Flameshadow, and copied with OGhired's trigger, which got me Ur-Dragon and O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami before combat, and nicked a blocker during combat. The dragons I stole were legendary, so I got to sacrifice the originals, swing in the air for 16, draw 2, and drop a permanent onto the field. On the Ibex turn, I instead used OGhired's attack trigger to copy Flutist again, then proceeded to make a few more copies with New Ghired's ability, removing blockers and clearing the way for Ibex-empowered rhinos and the Flutist token to get in for lethal on 1 player, and put the other two very low, and they scooped. So, it removes blockers, it gives me attackers, it gives me an opportunity to permanently copy valuable creatures across the table with OGhired, multiplies damage, and acts as removal against legendaries.

I set up all of this initially with a plotted Outcaster Trailblazer on 3, Flameshadow on 4, passed on 5 with mana up for some interaction, then on 6...
Cast Outcaster, which give me a mana to copy it with Flameshadow (draw a card).
Copy made a mana.
Cast OGhired, ETB make a rhino (draw 2 cards), spend the floating red to copy Ghired and let the original go back to the command zone.
Make another rhino (draw 2 cards).
Attack with Ghired copy, populating itself, letting the first copy go.
Make a rhino (draw 2).

So, I drew 7 cards and made 3 rhinos. Gas!

If I had remembered that the copy of the Outcaster would make a mana, I could have done this on 5.

[Rumpy5897]

OTJ Changes

Dammit, I didn't even bother plugging in OTJ includes in the thread and we're on the brink of MH3 release. In my defence my Molten Duplication got stuck in the mail for two weeks and for whatever reason I wanted to update the threads once the decks were paper accurate. This ended up having some interesting knock on effects, to which I shall get shortly.

OTJ Changes

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Out:

1 Crashing Drawbridge

1 Elemental Bond

1 Mirage Phalanx

1 Wood Elves

In:

1 Glimpse the Core

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Molten Duplication

1 Outcaster Trailblazer

Approximate Total Cost:

Molten Duplication got spoiled after I last discussed putative OTJ stuff in thread, and it's an obvious shoe-in. Twinflame is nicer as it can technically do multiple creatures, but this is a nothing-to-sneeze-at two drop copier so in it goes. Mirage Phalanx is the cut as the worst of the existing copiers - the "except it has" haste delivery is something Dopehawk cares about, and it is technically repeatable, but it does cost six and is inflexible. Outcaster Trailblazer goes in over Elemental Bond as close to an upgrade. Set it up on three mana, get Ghired out a turn early. Sequences in as a two drop in later turns. Two drops are nicer than three drops, as it turns out. Yeah, it has legs and dies, but honestly that feels like a risk worth taking for the other benefits.

So about two drops being nicer than three drops, once Duplication finally arrived, I pulled the Ghired box out to retrieve the cuts and chanced upon Wood Elves. I don't actually copy this guy at all these days, so may as well shave the mana off while add another Rionya synergy piece and stuff in Glimpse the Core. The swap immediately paid off the next game as I linked it up with Arbor Elf and Hall of the Bandit Lord to power out a hasted Ghired turn three. Also in some earlier game I was doing stuff in the midgame and thought about whether I'd prefer to see Lightning Greaves or Crashing Drawbridge, were I to draw it right now. And despite the fact I didn't actually immediately need haste, Greaves felt like a safer option. The fact they're not a creature actually matters quite a bit for quickly bouncing back from wipes, clogging the board up a bit with rhinos. Combine that with reactions in thread and I undid the swap.

Given the release of Ghired 2 and my prior grumbling about the deck's gameplay, I did a bit of soul searching and in the end I'll stay the course. I found a post from 2019 where I giddily recount a surprise table kill off a Kalonian Hydra. This was kinda the whole point of the deck, and it's not actively detrimental to gameplay enjoyment. And as for Ghired 2, he's actually a combo deck when put at the helm (just add some chumps that untap when creatures enter). I'm not that excited by the perspective of him in the 99, especially with Drawbridge departing and haste mattering as noted by yeti. Railway Brawler becomes the first beef on the bench, and Smuggler's Surprise is an interesting tech piece that doesn't really do anything particularly well. Not protecting small things matters to our small commander, as it turns out. Other stuff was discussed before and is not important enough to retread.

I didn't even have Annie Joins Up pencilled as a putative discussion card. Smack a creature, and then have an inferior token doubler. Nice to hear Firbolg Flutist is doing work, it does sound like it would tip the scales quite nicely in combat. Molten Primordial is technically a similar stall-breaker, but without built in token shenanigans. That said, I seem to remember Hate Mirage working a lot better for you than for me, so at least we're still consistent there. Shadow in the Warp looks like a somewhat questionable include, what's that about?

[yeti1069]

Shadow went in because I'd picked it up, then didn't put it in the intended deck. It performs nicely, as a sort of universal Urza's Incubator with some hate tied on.

[yeti1069]

In my list Annie doubles up on Ghired, Toski, Rionya, Aurelia, and Duke Ulder. Removal + Harmonic Prodigy seemed worth trying.

[KneeJustice]

Railway Brawler becomes the first beef on the bench

I have a question about Railway Brawler and your beatstick graph from earlier. Did you run the numbers when RB's (Arbys!) cast for his plot cost on turn Ghired-1 and then plotted in before Ghired et. al. (so Ghired gets buffed to 4/7 and the rhino to 8/8) on Turn G? Then, with a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker coming out on turn G+1, you would accelerate the graph by essentially an entire turn. So, am I correct in thinking that this choice cut of Roast Beef can do enough damage (at least in the abstract) to kill the entire table by turn G+2, which would be a feat unrivaled by any of the other beatsticks when placed in this scenario?

If so, am I also right in thinking that the possibility of plotting a beatstick for 4 mana makes this guy worthy of inclusion, with a higher high than the Baloth, but not really a lower floor when caught in rhino mode?

I realize there are serious downsides to hinting to your opponents what you are about to unleash upon them ahead of time, but this is still outrageously good, no?