Prima Donna Dolorosa

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BaronCappuccino
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Post by BaronCappuccino » 4 years ago

Athreos, God of Passage is perhaps best known in Commander for helming a Shadowborn Apostle deck. Notably, the deck gained a lot of notoriety (relatively), after Josh from The Command Zone played it on his podcast. When I saw Judith, my first thought was, "Here's an Athreos without the variable of an opponent's choice". I knew what I had to do. This is what I did. The deck is actually a bit more of a very long-term work in progress that began as a Rakdos the Defiler [/card] pseudo-budget and very casual deck. Somebody, I think here but in another thread, set me straight on that deck, and I went back to the drawing board. Hovering around two grand depending on TCG or Card Kingdom, it's no longer budget, but is it competitive? Not 100%. It's my most competitive deck, pretty much ever, and a whole new ballgame in even trying, so it'll be a work in progress till I feel worthy to submit for primer status.

Last edited by BaronCappuccino 3 years ago, edited 16 times in total.

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bobthefunny
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Post by bobthefunny » 3 years ago

Looking over your list with @Sinis .

So it seems that the plan is to get to 6 apostles, sac them, get a tutor, and go get thrumming stone?
At first I was questioning The Cauldron of Eternity, but I see that it's to combo with the thrumming stone to put the disciples back on the bottom, and loop them with Judith for the kill. As a combo, this is naturally very glass cannon.
I also see the Grenzo + Cauldron + Ashnod's Altar + Judith kill.
Tainted Strike was a question we had earlier, but we've caught that it goes onto Judith for the kill.

So the priority of the deck would be to get the combo, protect it, and disrupt your opponents.


Interaction

For that, the first thing that we note is that your interaction is very low. You have no removal to speak of. Some amount of interaction would be good to disrupt your opponents, such as Abrade or Goblin Cratermaker. Tragic Slip or Murder for creature removal. Damnation and Toxic Deluge may fit well in the wrath slots. Feed the Swarm and Pharika's Libation are your options for enchantment removal. Living Death is a good board wipe that fits the theme and goals of your deck as well.

I would also recommend Imp's Mischief for fighting counterspells on the stack, possibly Red Elemental Blast or Pyroblast if counters are big, Ricochet trap or Fork effects if you want to be less narrow. Warping Wail can help protect against wraths, while serving additional utility.

These are especially important since your combo seems to be easily disrupted by creature removal, artifact removal, or even GY removal.

Buried Ruin can help return your combo pieces, as most are centered around artifacts.


Ramp

Mox Diamond is card disadvantage for a deck that's not wanting that, and also seems difficult with 36 lands. Mox Tantalite also seems questionable, since it's also a large card disadvantage. Even with the mass of 1 cost creatures, your demons are expensive, and 36 lands seems low.

Mind Stone is more costly on the CMC, but might provide more utility overall.


Draw

Draw seems to be focused on small numbers of big spells. While the apostles can tutor out some draw, there's only 7 draw spells in the deck, that's not bad, but I usually like to see at least 8, if not more. Possibly Corpse Augur could have a place in the deck. Wheel of Fate seems a little slow, Magus of the Wheel would be preferred over it. Promise of Power could be a good draw option as well.

Underworld Breach seems questionable on the recursion side, as you'll rapidly run out of cards in the graveyard. Magus of the Will may be preferable to it.


Questions

Rakdos, Lord of Riots Doesn't seem to contribute much to the plan. I suppose it's a way to get big demons from the hand into play, but he seems questionable to trigger.
Blood Speaker seems to be a questionable tutor. You don't really want the demons in your hand. Demonic Tutor seems more flexible to get your other combo pieces.
Angrath, the Flame-Chained seems questionable - he doesn't do very much for 5 mana. If you're looking for hand disruption, perhaps Mindslicer is more where you want to be, though Sire of Insanity seems to already hit the spot.


Lands

Cabal Stronghold seems questionable, as you only have 8 basic swamps.
Myriad Landscape could be low opportunity cost ramp.

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BaronCappuccino
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Post by BaronCappuccino » 3 years ago

Thanks for the valuable advice. I immediately included four pieces of removal - Bedevil, Chaos Warp, Feed the Swarm and Strip Mine. I got rid of Cabal Stronghold because I don't have enough basics to support it, even with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play. I added Magus of the Will and Magus of the Wheel, the former at your suggestion, though I didn't lose Underworld Breach - not yet. There's no blue in my kitchen table group at the moment, but if the first combo deck in the group changes that, I own most of your suggestions there. I also removed Tainted Strike and Liliana's Contract because they didn't feel like they added much to the chances of winning, and unlike my other combo pieces, aren't independently good.

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Post by BaronCappuccino » 3 years ago

Discovered Liliana's Standard Bearer and couldn't pass up what amounts to another Wheel of Fortune.

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Post by BaronCappuccino » 3 years ago

I took your advice on anti counter interaction and added six low cmc options: Dualcaster Mage, Fork, Pyroblast, Red Elemental Blast, Reiterate and Reverberate. There's no blue in the group now, but there will be if this is worth playing.

edit: Swapped out the two blasts for flavour reasons as well as Feed the Swarm and Bedevil for four more target changers: Ricochet Trap, Deflecting Swat, Shunt, and Bolt Bend because I'm paranoid about not landing my combos. This makes eight "counters".

edit: Nine with Imp's Mischief as suggested. I lost Aetherflux Reservoir as it does nothing outside the combo.

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