What's your most unusual commander and/or deck?

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RxPhantom
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Post by RxPhantom » 4 years ago

I'm feeling a lot of samey-ness in a lot of pods lately, so I just wanted to see what kind of unique, off-the-beaten-path commanders and/or decks that people are proud of. So, I'm really not trying to hear about your Atraxa superfriends, Yarok landfall, or pretty much any OG Kaalia build. I wanna see your weird stuff.

Lord of Tresserhorn probably gets the most quizzical looks and questions. The deck's original intent was just to mitigate his obvious drawback, and aside from stuff like Torpor Orb, the answer was death triggers. Giving another player a couple of cards can also have some political benefit, but we're mostly trying to get the most value out of things dying.

Merieke Ri Berit heads my most cutthroat deck, and it also gets a lot of "it does what again?" The deck is all about abusing her ability (as I assume most Merieke decks are), as well as the abilities of other creatures that tap to activate, like Arcanis the Omnipotent and Cao Cao, Lord of Wei.

Anyway, those are my two oddest. Lemme see yours.
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Segrus
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Post by Segrus » 4 years ago

Currently, I think my weirdest is Colorless Slivers. Headed by Sliver Hivelord, the deck is entirely colorless color identity. Most of its strategy revolves around creating tokens which can Slivers, like from Birthing Boughs or Volrath's Laboratory. It is super casual.

Otherwise, I've got some different theme-heavy decks: Christmas zombies with Evil Santa Zur, Dragonriders of Pern (Selvala, Explorer Returned), a Queen Marchesa deck all about damage redirection, Atraxa Saprolings/Fungi (well, when I built it the deck was unique), Muldrotha Spirit tribal, Daxos the Returned 1 CMC only, Zetalpa sorta mono White land ramp, Witch-themed The Gitrog Monster. I still have a 'B'-movie Monsters of Animar list, but the detailed movie references got lost when the Commander forums went down, so...oh well...

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FenrirRex
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Post by FenrirRex » 4 years ago

I've got some assorted flavor-focused decks, but I think the one that is consistently given the most sideeye is my Voldemort theme deck headed by Tasigur, the Golden Fang. Something to be said for picking out cards based just around how they work in a theme. Given how homogeneous my higher power decks can get, it's refreshing to play out a Torrent Elemental "Dementor" and enjoying some literary motifs.

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Post by Outcryqq » 4 years ago

My most unusual deck is my Jodah, Archmage Eternal flavor text deck. Besides land, every card in the deck has what I consider good flavor text. And the deck is actually halfway decent!

As an aside, Phantom, I also made a Lord of Tresserhorn deck a long time ago for similar reasons. I even had a primer on salvation. I love that deck and agree - I love the looks on the faces of people that have never played against the card!

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Airi
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Post by Airi » 4 years ago

Lovisa Coldeyes, easily. I've never seen another Lovisa deck in person, and only a handful online. It's just a dumb aggro deck, so in terms of strategy it's not anything special, but I'm still pretty proud of what it's turned in to.

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lyonhaert
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Post by lyonhaert » 4 years ago

So probably the most unusual I run is the Spider Spawning deck, based on one of Brian David-Marshall's. If I could have a sorcery as the commander, that card would be it (aside from blue being really handy for some resilience). So instead Sidisi, Brood Tyrant provides good colors and helps start the self-milling, but the main goal is making spiders.

(The Zedruu build is highly unusual, too, but tstorm823 can speak to it since its his.)
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pokken
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Post by pokken » 4 years ago

I would say that my two big mana mono-colored Golos decks always get the weirdest looks - after the third snow-covered plains people are curious :)

That said, my Maelstrom Wanderer or Omnath, Locus of the Roil elemental landfall lands deck is my opinion for my most unique deck. It skips most of the normal MW tropes in favor of a deck that's basically just a strong RUG landfall deck that can play either commander. The power level swings at least a full point by switching to Omnath as the commander (from 8 to 7 or even 6), since jam a bunch of lands then cast Maelstrom Wanderer is really powerful.

Ephara is unique just because no one really plays her and her play style is a bit unique, but she does play a ton of powerful staples these days.

My old 4c Affinity deck was really a work of art imho, just at the power level my groups play at it wasn't strong enough to do anything except mind sieve combo most of the time. When I got into the right level of pod it was really fun trying to win with little guys combat damage plus swords plus various tezzeret activations to drain life. I saved that deck and it's here: https://deckbox.org/sets/2471549

It played an awful lot like Modern Affinity and was a good time :)

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Post by RabidVacin » 4 years ago

The people here that know me know that most of my decks are unusual. But the strangest one has to be Sivitri Scarzam high cmc tribal. You can find the list here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sivitri-scarzam-4/
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Dusk
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Post by Dusk » 4 years ago

I'm building Edgar Markov alt win cons deck. It aims to win through things like Bloodchief Ascension/Mindcrank. Yes, it is vampire tribal as one would expect but I'm taking it a more fun/less normal route
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onering
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Post by onering » 4 years ago

Grixis Group Hug with Ludevic and Vial Smasher with Ludevic being the primary commander and Vial Smasher coming out late. It has some group slug elements (Duskmantle Seer is in it, as is Nekusar) but they are limited and support the hug theme with only a bit of pain added. It's gives out hugs via card draw and tokens, and uses cards that encourage hitting other players (like Ludevic, the curses, Xantcha, etc). People are usually surprised to see group hug in Grixis. It's not not brainless hand out hugs without a plan style group hug, it's got ways to win (though it's primary plan is let opponents use your gifts to hit eachother or get enticed by the promise of rewards for hitting eachother and then finish them off with Vial Smasher and my own threats) and it runs enough removal and permission to stop anything too stupid, but it also runs stuff like Shah of Naar Isle. It's a blast to play and uses some unique cards.

Honorable mentions to Horobi (which uses a ton of weird stuff that would never see play anywhere else, like Banshee and Ghosts of the Damned, but is probably too played itself to be considered that weird), Muldrotha Skeletons tribal, Munda allies, Dong Zhou mono red blink, Tasiguur Arcane spells matter, Atraxa Energy matters, and Akri and Thrasios Mana rock tribal.

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Post by Toshi » 4 years ago

Lazav, the Multifarious!
Holy crap, the amount of weird cards in the deck is hilarious. There isn't a single starting hand that doesn't make me grin. And it's actually quite potent.

As far as archetypes go Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle. Mono- Weenie Artifact Reanimator Eggs is as off as it gets, compared to what our usual EDH pods look like.

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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Keranos, God of Storms pingers. It's a deck full of Thermo-alchemists, Razorfin Hunters, and Gelectrodes with damage augmentors like Gratuitous Violence and Torbran. Good, clean, casual fun.
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Post by kirkusjones » 4 years ago

My weirdest deck is probably my Grismold, the Dreadsower group thug deck. It focuses on giving away tokens to all players, then killing them off with stuff like Illness in the Ranks to make Grismold huge. It's a lot of fun. If you're curious at all, the list is here.

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Dunharrow
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Post by Dunharrow » 4 years ago

Creatureless Mogis: Deck is basically built around Tainted Aether and burning sands and giving people tokens which I also kill. Like Grismold, I guess.... but Mogis doesn't trigger ETBs. The deck started around making a creatureless Panharmonicon deck.

I also based a deck after someone on Sally - a Sydri Vehicle deck that uses Sydri to turn cards like Winter Orb into creatures and tap them by crewing vehicles.
So unique in my meta but not in our community.

I guess those are my weirdest ones, but I like to think all of my decks have some weird in them.
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sadgasm
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Post by sadgasm » 4 years ago

Feather - but it is a blink deck. Years ago on Sally I had a Brion Stoutarm blink deck that was horrendously janky but a ton of fun to play. I took that apart in 2012ish, but decided to revisit the idea now that archetype has received some help in the last few years.

Golos, Tireless Pilgrim - 5 color Black. I wanted to play Bringer of the Black Dawn and Debtor's Knell and Unburial Rites but still be Mono Black. So I decided to use Golos. I am running the black shocklands and a few others to maybe fire off his ability every now and then. All cards are black inclusive color identity such as Life/ Death. Honestly Golos is mostly there to fetch Coffers, the real commander.

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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 4 years ago

Most unusual deck? Almost-creatureless Zedruu the Greathearted. No win conditions other than Goblin Charbelcher.... which is fine, because the explicit goal of the deck is to stall the game until everyone agrees on a draw.

Other than that, my decks are generally 80% tuned, 20% theme - I like throwing in themes or restrictions for my deckbuilding, although some of my older decks are a bit less hindered.

Samut: tap abilities
Kess: villain themed (both the silver-bordered legendary villains, and stuff like Cruel Ultimatum)
Tatyova: trade binder.dec - I can't acquire cards specifically for it
Brago: zero combos, just vaaaaaalue. Also, I refuse to record the contents of the deck.
Tasigur: no monoblue cards
Animar: Primal Surge

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Crazy Monkey
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Post by Crazy Monkey » 4 years ago

I would estimate that about half of my decks are some sort of theme, either conceptual or mechanical. The more oddball commanders are Kytheon, Genju of the Realm, (arguably) Patron of the Orochi, Medomai, Sydri, and Traxos.

That said, the more common a commander is the more offbeat I feel the need to go, generally. Atraxa experience counters is one good example, but so are Roon Eldrazi tribal and Ghalta power storm.

I feel confident saying that the oddest deck of mine is Zedruu magic hack and color word changing with color specific hosers. It has even completed the combo of donating a modified justice with text changed to white with opalesence in play with a trigger on the stack.
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gilrad
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Post by gilrad » 4 years ago

Ephara all-flash. Except for a few two-mana rocks to help get Ephara out turn three occasionally, everything in the deck can be done instant-speed, and most of the cards somehow trigger the commander enough that I am running zero card draw. It wins from honest combat, runs very few counters (and those it does run all do more than just behave as removal), and it generally enjoys watching people play their decks, right up until you decide to attack me that is.

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folding_music
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Post by folding_music » 4 years ago

Got an Arjun deck with a Kobold theme; the six originals from Legends (ignoring Rohgahh who's outside of the colour scheme), Taurean Mauler, Kher Keep and Metallic Mimic. once a million turns have elapsed and the deck truly has gotten going you end up casting them all in one turn for ludicrous amounts of card selection and, with Mana Echoes in play, a way to finish the game! It's terrible but I adore it!

(anyone got any hints on how to build an interesting Obdezat? looking on EDHRec I see life-gain triggers with a side of Triskaidekaphobia. I was hoping to build something more Pestilency, Equipoisy and Myth Realizedy lol)

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Post by Dragonlover » 4 years ago

Gotta be Golos Alt-Wincon tribal really, although I'm still the only person I know with a morph-themed deck even after the precon dropped.

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Rumpy5897
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Post by Rumpy5897 » 4 years ago

I tend to gravitate towards oddball commanders with weird designs, or doing things in the wrong colour combinations. However, I subsequently try to build the best deck I can around them, so no goofy self-constrained themes to be found here. The most obscure commander I've built is Tromokratis, the deck's on its last legs as my playgroup despises its tapdown control/tempo ways. My two personal favourites are Patron of the Orochi, who started out as Ant Queen swarm before becoming a proto-Selvala, and a slightly speedbump'y big-mana Daxos the Returned. This whole Eutropia kid is shaping up pretty promising too ;)
 
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tstorm823
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Post by tstorm823 » 4 years ago

lyonhaert wrote:
4 years ago
(The Zedruu build is highly unusual, too, but tstorm823 can speak to it since its his.)
I don't know, Zedruu seems like a pretty popular answer in here. It's probably the right answer, but I want to say something different.

I do have a deck built around the lands that give legends banding and then only legendary creatures. Other people have done that, but I've never seen that in person.

In terms of just doing something I've never seen anyone else do, I think the most unique thing I've done was my Jodah, Archmage Eternal deck, where the ideal win condition was to Conflux for Grozoth, Hypergenesis, and Dualcaster Mage so that I could cast Hypergenesis from hand with Jodah (style points), and then fork it with Dualcaster so that Grozoth tutored out like 15 9-drops with a Hypergenesis still on the stack. But that was one of those win-cons that impressed people only the first time I won with it and never again, and also proved to me that casting 9-drops with Jodah is a better win-con than Grozoth combo, so it's no longer with us.
Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 4 years ago

3c Slivers also gets a look towards me.

The fact I play Kari Zev as a red aggro deck in a 40 life format to prey on %$#% decks that lack early game interaction/fold to blood moon.

Any time I bust out the white border deck.

Modern
R{R/W} 87guide Burn
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WRKellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon (local secret santa gift)
RTorbran, Thane of Red Fell (Red Deck Wins)
WBRAlesha, Who Smiles at Death (Slivers)
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Post by sadgasm » 4 years ago

3drinks wrote:
4 years ago
3c Slivers also gets a look towards me.
Who is the commander? You have piqued my interest.

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3drinks
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Post by 3drinks » 4 years ago

sadgasm wrote:
4 years ago
3drinks wrote:
4 years ago
3c Slivers also gets a look towards me.
Who is the commander? You have piqued my interest.
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death.

Modern
R{R/W} 87guide Burn
Commander
WRKellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon (local secret santa gift)
RTorbran, Thane of Red Fell (Red Deck Wins)
WBRAlesha, Who Smiles at Death (Slivers)
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