Pet decks or commanders you keep retrying

User avatar
BaronCappuccino
Posts: 246
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 1
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Quiet Corner

Post by BaronCappuccino » 2 years ago

For years, I've been on the hunt for a pet deck. On practically every post I make, I reference a different Commander I'm trying. I only want to own a single deck that becomes something of an identity. I keep coming back to Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder. I think it's destined to happen. What he lacks in raw power he makes up for in a perfect realisation of storytelling via game mechanics. Anyone else have similar goals? One deck as the pride and joy that you want people to associate with you?

Tags:

User avatar
Dunharrow
Posts: 1821
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Montreal

Post by Dunharrow » 2 years ago

When I really like one of my decks I end up tuning it and then often it becomes too powerful and doesn't get played.
That's why I made my Karador Spirit Tribal deck, so that it could never be too good to play. The deck is really bad and the best thing I can do is win with Mortal Combat.

It has been a long time since I built a deck and didn't like it. Like nearing on 10 years. I had made a Damia, Sage of Stone deck that played all the universal discard effects. Deck was too clunky and Damia too much of a target.
The other one was Avacyn Angel of Hope, what a horrible deck idea.
Don't intend to ever retry them.
The New World fell not to a sword but to a meme

User avatar
materpillar
the caterpillar
Posts: 1299
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: Ohio

Post by materpillar » 2 years ago

Define "Pet Deck"? I built my Progenitus dredge deck when original innistrad was released in 2011. I've been playing Chromium since before then. Jaya Ballard, Task Mage and Tivadar of Thorn I created around that time. I eventually deconstructed and reconstructed them, so I haven't played them through.

I wrote up a Primer on my The Ur-Dragon, so I'd be pretty happy if that was associated with me too. I'm also really ok with my Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge deck being associated with me.

I guess I break down decks far less frequently than I make them.

User avatar
Treamayne
Posts: 591
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Treamayne » 2 years ago

I have a 60-card Griffin tribal deck that I originally built at the Visions pre-release when I pulled two Griffin Canyons and Zuberi (in those days, a small set pre-release was three packs of the first set and three of the new set - Sealed only, I don't think draft existed yet), and that is probably my true "pet" deck. It has never been taken apart, but gets irregular updates when I see something I want to add.

It is seconded only by an original "Voltron" (not the EDH term) deck from the same era that I built shortly after release. The "Voltron" deck then was Iron-Heart Chimera and company (since the Visions Chimera seemed to be based on Voltron). It has not remained the whole time, but I rebuild versons of it frequently and the most current iteration was built in 2015 and is still together. It is also 60-card Tribal Legacy.

I've tried versions of both of them in EDH, but they just don't translate well - though I do have a Zuberi, Golden Feather deck on MTGO, loosely themed around Enduring Renewal, and using things like Mtenda Griffin and Emeria, the Sky Ruin to make use of discarded creatures.

In EDH, I would have to say I'm known for Tribal in general, as 90+% of my decks are creature type based (IAW the non-primer Tribal EDH rules I posted). If any of them might be considered a Pet EDH deck, it's probably my Progenitus' Proliferating Hydrae deck, which has been built and updated continuously since Progenitus was released in Conflux. For a long time it wasn't even a tribal deck, since it is only the last few years that WotC changed gears from Wurm as green's flagship tribe to Hydra; and there were not enough Hydrae to meet my personal 30-card requirement. All lesser creatures have since been banished though, finally.
V/R

Treamayne

knight_seb
Posts: 47
Joined: 3 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by knight_seb » 2 years ago

I didn't build a EDH deck around a commander for years. I keep updating my 10 existing and with time, all became my pet decks. In my playgroup (7 people), no one play the same generals as me (except of one player which has a Kaalia deck).

In Legacy, I'm known to play WG Enchantress and a WGB Astral slide.deck (with knight of reliquary, pernicious deed, etc ...). I play astral slide since onslaught, at first WR then WRG then WBG years later ... I think of it as my first pet deck.

In peasant (no rare, 5 uncommons max, side included), my pet deck is one with Tortured Existence as engine.

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 871
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 2 years ago

My pet decks have both undergone many changes, but I consider them the same deck even though they may not have any non-land cards that are identical to the original list from 2009. These are my first 2 commander decks I ever built, and they remain to this day and always will. They are the two decks I'm "known for".

Karador, Ghost Chieftan, previously Teneb, the Harvester reanimator. Karador took the helm when he was released and I never looked back. I think he ages well due to the cost reduction and solid ability. I have had zero desire to move him from the command spot. Karador has evolved from a battlecruiser reanimator to something much more lean and mean. Focusing on removal and control, leaning on a few graveyard fillers (no dredge) to get the graveyard stacked and win with a loop of some game winning creature or Living Death.

Kalamax, the Stormsire previously Riku of Two Reflections previously Intet, the Dreamer. This deck has been a labor of love. Started out as Intet, but Riku took over quickly. Ended up foiling out most of Riku and winning many games but the deck got stale; as the format got faster, Riku was too slow. He had the helm for 10 years as I looked for other commanders to spark inspiration. I could never find anything that made me want to retool this foiled out deck until Kalamax. It pained me to pull Riku apart, but his essence remains in Kalamax, and the deck is much more interactive and fun to play. While Riku was too "goodstuff" with not enough emphasis on synergy or theme (my fault, not his), Kalamax gives me Riku's powerful Copy ability in a slightly more difficult but less mana intensive package. And Kalamax can act as a win condition to boot.

I've had a couple other decks that lasted years, but eventually I did a culling when I got married and moved for work. My play time shrank to a fraction of what it was and I no longer needed to maintain 12+ decks. Dropped it down to 3-4 some years ago and now I'm back up to 7 :grin:. I have really been liking Titania, Protector of Argoth, but not sure she is pet deck status yet.

User avatar
Sinis
Posts: 2034
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by Sinis » 2 years ago

This is a fascinating topic for me, because I almost never do rebuilds of commanders I've dismantled. The only one has been Intet, the Dreamer, because so many more top-of-deck cards were printed, but that was years ago.

User avatar
Hawk
Slayer of Threads
Posts: 1165
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Post by Hawk » 2 years ago

I don't think I've ever rebuilt a previously dismantled deck. I've been tempted by The Mimeoplasm (for nostalgia) and Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge (lots of great additions have been printed in recent years).

I'm also reasonably comfortable "killing my darlings". I'd had Doran, the Siege Tower Treefolk for a loooong time, for instance, basically since I first went deep into EDH all the way back in 2011. But Doran finally got dismantled in late 2019, since my wife wanted to build Arcades, the Strategist and the two decks were going to have too much strategic/card overlap for my tastes in my collection. I keep going back and forth on doing the same to Daretti, Scrap Savant who at this point is up to 7 years of active service in some form or another - the deck is unfun for most folks. I love to iterate and tweak, but I'll also just fold reasonably quickly. I wanted to do Darigaaz, the Igniter "old card face only", for instance - and the deck just lost. It lost all the time, every game. I had two choices - sink hundreds of dollars into getting a serious Survival of the Fittest plan going in it, or scrap it, and I easily chose "scrap". On the other end of the spectrum, it only took a few games to see that Xenagos, God of Revels and Pir, Imaginative Rascal // Toothy, Imaginary Friend were going to be brutally unfun for my meta and playgroup and weren't super fun for my own tastes of durdle-fest nonsense, no matter how I tweaked or iterated, and they both got swiftly dismantled too.

My wife is more like that. She's got an arsenal of decks she enjoys playing with, but her go-to deck is Mirri the Cursed Vampire Tribal. That was her first deck I built and bequeathed to her in 2012 when we were just engaged (trusting her with one of at the time my only Demonic Tutors among other $$$ cards - that's love, folks!) and while we've tweaked and upgraded here and there the deck is mostly 90% the same as it was on first crack, and it is unfathomable we'd ever dismantle it without just up and quitting the game first. The deck fits her creepy-cute vibes and aesthetic, lets her play with her favorite cards in MtG History (D-tutor, Sign in Blood, Cabal Coffers, Sorin, Sword of Feast and Famine, Gravepact), and is still reasonably competitive even after all these years.

User avatar
Serenade
UnderKing
Posts: 1408
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Serenade » 2 years ago

Gavi, Nest Warden
Kykar, Wind's Fury
Shabraz, the Skyshark/Brallin, Skyshark Rider
Rielle, the Everwise
Zirda, the Dawnwaker

My attempts to quit a non-green cycling deck then settling on a monored Brallin, Skyshark Rider deck that I always misplay and lose by a turn.


I also always start and quit a merfolk tribal deck because I don't know what to do with it.
Mirri, Cat Warrior counts as a Cat Warrior.

User avatar
TheAmericanSpirit
Supreme Dumb Guy
Posts: 2194
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 1
Pronoun: he / him
Location: IGMCULSL Papal Palace

Post by TheAmericanSpirit » 2 years ago

Maelstrom Wanderer

Every 18 months or so, I get a thirst I cannot deprive to rebuild this thing. He's an OG and one of the old EDH baddies, but I just can't seem to reinvent his wheel and that continually bugs me. I really want to make a MW deck whose primary objective is not "get 8 mana", but it always ends up that way (more or less). I've tried elfball, super-cascade, boardwipe/voltron, storm... I'm not sure where else to go with it at this point. Yet the thirst persists.
There's no biscuits and gravy in New Zealand.
(Except when DirkGently makes them!)

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 871
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 2 years ago

I had a Scion of the Ur-Dragon reanimator deck for a while years ago before every playable Dragon was $20+. I have not been able to keep up with all the new dragons, but I have several older dragons and I don't have any 5 color decks. One day I'll rebuild it when I really want a 5 color deck again. I really like Scion, but I didn't build the deck correctly the first time around and struggled to get off the ground. Too many reanimation spells, not enough draw and removal to keep me in the game. He will rise again someday.

User avatar
Toshi
ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
Posts: 636
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Freiburg, Germany
Contact:

Post by Toshi » 2 years ago

My friends can't comprehend how much i love Zada, Hedron Grinder. And with every set they print even more ridiculous stuff for it. It's just crazy how many things go absolutely wild with her.
On top of that it's a fairly cheap deck aside from one or two cards that are rather nice to have than strictly necessary.
I will never dismantle it.

In the same vein, Lazav, the Multifarious is just as odd and amazing at the same time. Creatures you might never see anywhere else are certified stars in there. And even if i ever get bored of my Voltron build, there'd be plenty of toolbox and combo approaches to convert it to.

As far as pure joy goes, few decks compare to playing Grenzo, Dungeon Warden. You might blank a lot, chain redundant pieces or just go off out of nowhere. You never know what you'll my find on the bottom of your deck.

Universally speaking, one could say i'm intrigued by rather unique techs, even if that means stumbling over my own feet at times.

User avatar
Cyberium
Posts: 837
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Cyberium » 2 years ago

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen and his five Egyptian God Cards. I love how their abilities intertwine with each other, with an entire deck made so my direction changes depending on which God I drew.

Neptune
Posts: 20
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Neptune » 2 years ago

I definitely have a pet deck(s). I have three Omnath decks. 3 color Omnath is a great card in the 99 for 4C Omnath.
mono-G Omnath is all combos like Sword of the Paruns and Priest of Titania.
RG Omnath ramps into himself, then overextends playing lots of land and inviting boardwipes.
WURG Omnath is lands.dec with cards like Life from the Loam, Field of the Dead, and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle.
I have a foil The Gitrog Monster ready for 5C Omnath. Can't wait.

User avatar
gilrad
Posts: 105
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by gilrad » 2 years ago

My labor of love that I just can't quit is making instant-speed tribal decks. The extremely limited card selection and the ability to leverage the rest of the table makes them all play differently each game. My attempts so far have been:

Surrak Dragonclaw - Mostly failed, this is where I learnt that color access is super important when you're playing with such a limited selection of cards. The lack of "turn the game around" bombshell plays meant I was never able to capitalize on being ahead of the table, and the similar lack of sweepers meant I had to proactively prevent players from spiraling out of control.

Ephara, God of the Polis - This one works much better thanks to the inclusion of white. Decree of Justice and similar instant-speed "dump mana into the board" spells give me something to pressure the table with if I have space to advance my board, and the two instant-speed creature sweepers rout and Fated Retribution round out the sweeper package nicely. Adding green for Fracturing Gust would be perfect but it's sufficient as it is. The commander's ability to passively keep my hand full also means I don't need to dedicate deck space to card draw, so it's really dense with threats and answers.

Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded - This is a different approach I wanted to take, and it works out okay but in this case the limited card selection creates different kinds of problems, namely reaching a critical mass of interaction and a critical mass of draw effects. For interaction, sweepers that you can just drop into play and tone to board down are very few and far between, basically relying on Bloodfire Colossus and yucky sorcery speed Blasphemous Act. Card draw when I built the deck was limited enough I had to rely on an artifact subtheme, but perhaps with the printing of Ruin Grinder, critical mass is possible and I can rely on it and the other discard-draw creatures to keep a full hand.

I've also got a couple of other ideas on the back-burner, though I'm still not playing in person yet so I'll have to mull it over for a while yet I think:

Codie, Vociferous Codex - I was thinking of making a "modal instants tribal" deck out of this. The idea being that if they're all modal, the flexibility would make up for the random nature of the commander's ability. Being five color also gives a lot more card availability to fill in some of the more difficult niches (sweeper packages in particular). Only foreseeable downside is there's just not a whole lot of easily castable instants that create creatures, meaning I would have a bit of a weak board presence if I'm not careful.

Chromium, the Mutable - Basically I was thinking about taking my Ephara deck, adding instant-speed card draw, go less on the token theme, add a few tasty black cards in there, and see where it goes. The addition of flash creature tribal support from Ikoria also helps with the payoff too. I've experienced in the past that threatening a three-turn commander clock also does a good job of lighting a fire under the table's butts when things get a little too durdly.

User avatar
folding_music
glitter pen on my mana crypt
Posts: 2236
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: they / them

Post by folding_music » 2 years ago

not so much a commander as a theme; have gone through both Sigardas, Colfenor, Siona and Tayam (as well as joke choices like Lord Magnus) trying to build a deck where forests matter, and where as many lands in the deck as possible were forests, obsessing over Murmuring Bosk and that gorgeous Triome, using Llanowar Druid like no-one ever has in a multicolour deck before... then they printed that stupid Yavimaya easy-mode card and now I never want to think about forests again

User avatar
scatteredsun
Posts: 9
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by scatteredsun » 2 years ago

I've been trying to get a Modular deck to work. About to tear apart my current incarnation of it using Rebbec and Armix. It's just not clicking and can't get the machine going. Marchesa is the closest I've gotten to making it really sing.

User avatar
3drinks
Kaalia's Personal Liaison
Posts: 4830
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Ruined City of Drannith, Ikoria

Post by 3drinks » 2 years ago

I think it's clear I'm associated by Kaalia, and as her personal liaison I'd say that's to be expected. Alesha slivers is probably my most notorious of Alesha builds, even as I've done WB with goblins and slowly move to zombies. I suppose WB Korvold will arrive at this point too. Mono-r even if not Kari Zev (which should be Ragavan but I had my Kari altered so....) should be part of my profile by now.

As for decks I keep retrying, I'd imagine this medal has to belong to Trynn, Silvar, and my need to force rebels even when it's clear there's better tribes out there, such as just going with humans and not locking yourself into an overly niche tribe of mostly vanilla bodies.

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)
WBRKaalia HQ

User avatar
Lifeless
Not here to contribute.
Posts: 629
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Lifeless » 2 years ago

I've probably tried to build 30 UG decks over the years and I either scrap them in design or bail on them after a couple games. They all just end up being the same generic advantage decks with zero personality. I think the problem is that Simic has a pretty narrow design space and if you want to do more than counters or play lands you're left in the lurch. The one notable exception was Ezuri, Claw of Progress Infect, but that got out of hand somewhat quickly and even when I took out the easymode combos it wasn't enjoyable to play or play against.

User avatar
Guardman
A Dog's Dream of Man
Posts: 1725
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: In a Turn-Based World

Post by Guardman » 2 years ago

For me, the commander I keep retrying, it has to be Korvold, Fae-Cursed King. I love the art, the flavor, even the design. But he is just too powerful and any deck that even has a little bit of sacrifice in it quickly causes every game to play the same as you just play him, draw your deck and win. I really need to give up on him, but it's hard since I am so enamored by his art and design.

As for my pet deck, it's clearly Etali, Primal Storm. It is my favorite deck to play (and unlike Korvold every game plays different) and I haven't even thought about disassembling it since I built it.

Dragonlover
Posts: 546
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Dragonlover » 2 years ago

Lifeless wrote:
2 years ago
I've probably tried to build 30 UG decks over the years and I either scrap them in design or bail on them after a couple games. They all just end up being the same generic advantage decks with zero personality. I think the problem is that Simic has a pretty narrow design space and if you want to do more than counters or play lands you're left in the lurch. The one notable exception was Ezuri, Claw of Progress Infect, but that got out of hand somewhat quickly and even when I took out the easymode combos it wasn't enjoyable to play or play against.

Have you considered Ezuri morphs? They all trigger him, there's some cool manifest stuff, and you keep the counters when you flip as well.

Dragonlover
All my decks are here

User avatar
Lifeless
Not here to contribute.
Posts: 629
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Lifeless » 2 years ago

Dragonlover wrote:
2 years ago

Have you considered Ezuri morphs? They all trigger him, there's some cool manifest stuff, and you keep the counters when you flip as well.

Dragonlover
I've run morph before but not this version. Since I already have all the cards it could be an interesting take. Thanks.

User avatar
WizardMN
Posts: 1963
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 124
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Twin Cities
Contact:

Post by WizardMN » 2 years ago

I think I have only rebuilt a single deck after dismantling it and that was due more to the circumstances of dismantling it than anything else. And that is my Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck. It is also the one, above all others, I would rather have associated with me. My first deck was a Doran, the Siege Tower deck that I basically stole from online as a way to play EDH with my cousin. After the first outing, since Karador had just been printed, he suggested I switch. This means Karador is my first/oldest deck

It has gone through a number of different iterations and changes but the core tenets of the deck have mostly remained unchanged after changing a few things up from the "stock" list I copied from.

I took it apart because I tried a Non-Blue 4 color deck that combined my Jund and Abzan decks together but I didn't end up liking it so I went back to Karador.

Otherwise, I have tried (and failed) a number of a times to build a Sultai deck. I didn't care much about the general but I just wanted one since I liked the color combination. I think I finally got a winner with Volrath, the Shapestealer (changed from partners based on a suggestion by pokken).

Dragonlover
Posts: 546
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Dragonlover » 2 years ago

To actually answer the question, my pet deck is Molimo. I don't see it ever being taken apart, even if I quit the game entirely.

I suspect the deck I'm most associated with is Golos though. People remember that kind of madness far more than "random assortment of green stuff".

Dragonlover
All my decks are here

User avatar
Ulka
Posts: 1538
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Minneapolis
Contact:

Post by Ulka » 2 years ago

When I look on my history with my decks I keep coming back to Bladewing the Risen as one of my staple decks which has continued since I started. It was my 5th deck build and its the only one that has lasted almost 10 years. While I don't play it frequently anymore it is still an amazing deck and honestly I think this reflection has made me realize I should spend some more time playing this deck.
Modern: Goryo's Gifts | Heartless Architect | Soul Sisters | MonoGreen Devotion
Pauper: Blackened Eggs | Zombies | Domain Zoo | Sultai Teachings | Jund Gardens

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Commander”