I actually don't have a NRftW so that's a no. It's cute but idk that it'll give me enough value reliably to warrant a slot anyway.
Renewal is decent but I don't like that it has to be set down in advance, and it's pretty unexciting to protect anything except Lurrus, and doesn't protect him from non-destroy removal either.
Return to the ranks gets its best value with a big grave...I'm a little nervous about trusting my grave to stick around too long.
In a curve-out deck with a low curve, those are most certainly not free.
I went with the cottage because (1) it turns all my fetches into recursion in a pinch and (2) It can be done at instant-speed to protect Lurrus from a graveyard exile effect. Mire and Memorial do neither, so meh.
It's reasonable but seems redundant.
Golgari Thug gives you a dredge outlet, and lets you put Lurrus back on top.
I opted to go pretty low on dredge cards, because Lurrus can't really capitalize on huge graveyards very well.
I don't have THAT many artifacts/enchantments, and Lurrus can recast them for cheaper than recurring specialist and sacrificing him. With a more eggs-esque build, sure.
It was a strong consideration. Might replace scrabbling claws.
Dark Confidant is just great card advantage, even though it may work against Ayli aim of 50 life initially, it will get you to that goal actually more quickly with drawing more life gain cards.
I should probably throw it in tbh.
Nah, I'm not including anything just to sac for life. Lurrus has better things to do (I hope).
Also
Phyrexian Dreadnought is a combo with Ayli and Lurrus as you can sacrifice Dreadnought while the ETB trigger is on the stack to gain 12 life each turn. A couple of turns even deep into the game might get you back up to 50 life.
That's a bit more interesting. Maybe.
Explain? I think they're all pretty great. Deadly designs is probably too expensive, but the rest seem strong.
pokken wrote: ↑4 years ago
* Relic warder is an easy swap in for seal imho; destroy is way less good than exile in today's game; exiling forever
I'd rather have instant-speed reactivity over exile, any day of the week. Especially since it's reuseable anyway.
* Bob is an easy swap in for urza's bauble to me. That card is bleh. 0 mana draw a card later is gonna be good sometimes but you get so much mileage out of x/1 bodies already. Less durdling more power on board/bodies. This deck really seems like it wants warm bodies over derp.
I should probably put in bob, but Urza's bauble is too strong to cut imo. It's the only thing you can play off Lurrus on 3, and it gives you something guaranteed to get value every turn when you have nothing else. And it basically costs you nothing to include.
You may notice that bauble has skyrocketed in price thanks to Lurrus in modern. There is good reason for that.
* Jitte for
Deadly Designs. jitte is going to just be amazing in this deck.
Is it? I'm not much of an attacker. Seems pricey to use if I'm sacrificing a creature every time. Deadly designs is probably too cute, though, I should probably cut it.
*
Mindblade Render I would probably wanna see another piece of equipment but you have a mother, giver, and a ton of ways to kill stuff, so I think you could make it work pretty easily, esp. if adding Jitte.
I'm not in for a card that only maybe does a bob with setup. Nor am I into using mom at sorcery speed to make that happen.
Kelzam wrote: ↑4 years ago
Here's a few suggestions, as well as suggestions for cuts:
Thanks for including cuts!
Spawning Pit - An additional sac outlet. It's one of the very few outlets that doesn't have a cost tied to it's activation.
Altar of Dementia - Also a sac outlet with a free activation cost. Can mill yourself to hit targets with Lurrus, or opponents.
I have a sac outlet on my commander, though. And recursion for my commander on my companion. I mean, free is nice, but I don't think it's worth a slot.
Yeah but why would I want that? It runs counter to Ayli and I've already got CA on Lurrus.
Dusk Legion Zealot &
Suture Priest - As of now it looks like you're really wanting to lean into life gain with all the Soul Sisters (and brother). This means you're going to want to make as many of your effects as possible attached to creatures.
I like wall of omens a lot more than zealot, sacs for more life and doesn't cost any. Priest I don't have at the moment, otherwise it'd likely find a spot. Though I think it's weaker than the other options since it doesn't trigger life loss of my own creatures.
Meh, I think I can do better than that.
Luminarch Ascension - It's quite hard to deal with this if it comes out early game. Since you're playing a lot of low cost creatures, you'll often have blockers to stop opponents from costing you a quest counter.
I almost never run this since I find it tends to make games all about itself, and not what I want the deck to do.
That, and I think we'll ideally have enough other stuff to do that we don't super need a mana sink.
I am allergic, yes. Especially with this many tutors. That said, it's kind of a bad combo anyway.
Vizkopa Guildmage - If you're planning to have a lot of life gain, Vizkopa Guildmage can do serious work. It's 2nd ability is cumulative.
I'm dubious I'll gain enough life in any single turn to take major advantage of the 2nd ability.
Nim Deathmantle - If you aren't able to keep Lurrus out for some reason, this can be a good way to help you get some mileage out of your creatures that die.
4 to recur a 2-drop seems not amazing.
I do think he's a pretty good choice for the deck, I think he kind of got brushed to the side on my couch. Grave pact-esque things that fit within the CMC are nice. I'll probably try to find some space for him.
Urza's Bauble - While it's cute and a card no one expects to see, I'm not sure if playing Lurrus I'd see myself wanting to use the trigger on this over other effects. Some of my suggestions here are based on that: Is this what I want to use my Lurrus cast ability on once per turn?
If I'm tapped out or have nothing else, sure.
More importantly, what's the downside to running it? Practically nothing.
Phyrexian Furnace or
Scrabbling Claws- Above when I mentioned adding
Dusk Legion Zealot, I spoke of having as many of your effects attached to creatures as possible to maximize Soul Sister triggers for life gain. I specifically had these in mind for cuts.
These provide significant added utility, though, where zealot doesn't. The deck is creature-focused, so that is a plus, but I don't think it's worth the tradeoff in this case. And any soul sister/sac trigger will just counter the life I'm losing.
Splitting the cost in half is nice since I can more easily keep up a mana for Ayli to sacrifice Lurrus if he's about to get exiled.
Stoneforge Mystic - While this is a powerful card, I just don't see enough Equipment in the deck to warrant the slot. There's enough recursion effects available to Orzhov to not have to worry much about running Lightning Greaves or the like. If cutting SFM, one could probably cut
Viridian Longbow. I realize people like to play this with Commanders that have Deathtouch, but when I've played it in the past, it seemed underwhelming. It's best in a deck where you have a lot of Deathtouch creatures and can move it around. Ayli is the only real target to equip it to here, so far.
Ayli can be easily recurred, though. And at 2 cmc, she can start killing things pretty early.
Regardless, skullclamp is so much more powerful than any other draw engine in the deck that I doubt SFM gets cut.
Mire's Grasp - Early game this will be good, but anywhere as soon as turn 5 or after, the -3/-3 is going to seem wanting compared to what people will be putting on the board. It'll surely have targets, but the ones you really want to kill will probably be mostly out of reach of this.
That seems like a gross oversimplification. There are lots of very powerful commanders with toughness <= 3. Having constant removal for them seems pretty strong to me.
Politically, having a constant answer to many cards might be suicide, though. I'm curious to see how it goes.