Obosh, the Preypiercer // Vial // Kraum - [Companion // Commanders Parings]

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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 3 years ago



Carrying on my quest of building around all the companions that can be played in commander, so far there has been;

"Image"
Jegantha, the Wellspring // Sisay, Weatherlight Captain



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Zirda, the Dawnwaker // Kenrith, the Returned King (also Golos, Tireless Pilgrim)



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Kaheera, the Orphanguard // Morophon, the Boundless



"Image"
Keruga, the Macrosage // Animar, Soul of Elements




When I was looking at legendary creatures to companion with Obosh, the Preypiercer, I wanted one that had "damage" somewhere in the text, and Vial Smasher the Fierce stood out as a candidate.
Nekusar, the Mindrazer was another option, but man that build has been done to death, so didn't interest me in the slightest.
I then looked at odd converted mana cost partners, and although there are a number of options, I really wanted Blue specifically for Curiosity, Ophidian Eye and Tandem Lookout to get card draw with Vial.
Kraum, Ludevic's Opus seemed like a great option as you can swing in for 8 damage each attack with Obosh, the Preypiercer in play, plus the card advantage.

With Grixis colors I wanted to avoid a storm build that often you gravitate towards, and if I was going to do that then Nekusar, the Mindrazer would have been the better option.
So this is a control deck, which also has the ability to apply quite a bit of pressure with damage from the commanders and companion.

Avoiding storm meant that I didn't want to play cards like Timetwister, Windfall and Wheel of Fortune.
With Obosh restricting you to odd converted cards, playing the Moxes like Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Mana Crypt, along with a few others, does make this draw 7 plan far less appealing as well.

So in the end we are a control deck that looks to spoil the fun of opponents basically winning and putting them on a reasonable clock.

Saucy cards in the deck are things like Guttersnipe dealing 4 damage to opponents with Obosh in play.
In competitive metas a renowned Scab-Clan Berserker can make it very hard for your opponents to combo off, as it'll be doing 4 damage each non-creature spell they cast. It adds up very quickly.

With Vial ability to deal damage each opponents turn as well as yours, I wanted a high number of instants, and even those that have higher mana costs but are cost reduced in some manner.
Force of Will, Misdirection, Commandeer, Nexus of Fate are prefect for this and with Obosh double damage, they can be taking around a 1/4 off opponents life totals.
Frantic Search and Force of Negation are other freebie type spells and of note I will be playing other "free" spells from Commander 2020 when they are available in Fierce Guardianship and Deflecting Swat as these are perfect with Vial/Obosh dealing damage in opponents turns, while giving you protection and the ability to tap out.

With the plan of doing damage with Vial and Obosh, there are other cost reduced type cards in Mulldrifter, Shriekmaw, Treachery, Temporal Mastery. They can deal 10 or 14 damage to an opponent (Vial+Obosh), and this all accumulates quite quickly.

With Curiosity, Ophidian Eye, Tandem Lookout and Wavebreak Hippocamp I also wanted a number of cheap instants to trigger Vial, and 1 cmc counterspells can pull double duty in this regard.

Izzet Staticaster and Vendilion Clique have flash, so help with triggering abilities in opponents turns, and Staticaster can shoot for 2 damage with Obosh which actually nails a lot of creatures.
If you think in terms of Vendilion Clique also hits for 6 damage with Obosh, you can see how cost efficient your ability to gain card advantages while putting pressure on opponents adds up.

Killing creatures is easy with double damage as you can use spells like Fire Covenant, Flame Sweep to mop up more creatures than normal.
With only 4 artifacts in the deck, Subterranean Tremors is a nice option to use for both the creature kill and destroy artifacts.
Blasphemous Act of course destroys everything, and if you've been forced to use it with Obosh and Vial in play that's 18 damage to one opponents face as well, all for probable r.

There are more card draw cards that lose you life like Necropotence and Phyrexian Arena, but these are not damage, so Obosh will not cause double up effects.
You do tend to take a lot of damage from the deck in general with fetchlands and shocklands, Fire Covenant, Toxic Deluge and with the nature of being both aggressive and control, you do tend to end up being a bit of the arch-enemy a lot of games, so expect focused targeting of attacks.
Vampiric Link can help with this by hopefully targeting Vial for continuous life gain each turn. Although if you need you can still put it on Kraum or Obosh if needed.

There are a couple of ways to get Obosh back from your graveyard with Kolaghan's Command and Volrath's Stronghold if need be, although Obosh is not essential to the deck functioning, its just that 10th card "in hand" at the start of the game that helps to make the aggression plan more efficient. So you can run it out without fear of removal.



Obosh, the Preypiercer // Vial Smasher the Fierce // Kraum, Ludevic's Opus

Planeswalkers

Approximate Total Cost:

Last edited by darrenhabib 3 years ago, edited 5 times in total.

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Avz
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Post by Avz » 3 years ago

Really like the deck. I just build a deck with Kraum and Vial smasher around Curiosity effects, miracles, and a light splash of wheels and notion thief/Narset. Didn't think about Obosh as a companion but seems perfect for these two commanders.

Heads up you have mystic remora listed twice. I'm really not sure about Mayhem Devil, seems like you're relying on your opponents a lot for that damage to come through. It's not super competitive but have you thought about running some of the odd suspend cards? Play your spell for turn and get a Vial smasher trigger, then suspend something like a shivan meteor or a Phtsis and get a cheap vial smasher trigger later. It might be a little too cute but I seemed like a fun idea.

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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 3 years ago

Avz wrote:
3 years ago
Really like the deck. I just build a deck with Kraum and Vial smasher around Curiosity effects, miracles, and a light splash of wheels and notion thief/Narset. Didn't think about Obosh as a companion but seems perfect for these two commanders.

Heads up you have mystic remora listed twice. I'm really not sure about Mayhem Devil, seems like you're relying on your opponents a lot for that damage to come through. It's not super competitive but have you thought about running some of the odd suspend cards? Play your spell for turn and get a Vial smasher trigger, then suspend something like a shivan meteor or a Phtsis and get a cheap vial smasher trigger later. It might be a little too cute but I seemed like a fun idea.
Mayhem Devil has been an underperformer so far. I think I've cast it once for no value. The idea is that you can still attack for 6 damage as well, but it is definitely first on the chopping block.

Ah I typed Mystic Remora again instead of Mystical Dispute.

I haven't looked at the suspend cards, but now that you mentioned your splash "miracles" build I should be playing Temporal Mastery for sure.
There we go cut Mayhem Devil for Temporal Mastery.

sweetwaterbob
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Post by sweetwaterbob » 3 years ago

I was thinking about this triple threat from Grixis since technically every opening hand is 7 cards + 1 opening draw + 2 partners in cmd zone + obosh in companion zone, which is 11 cards.

Thinking of odd cmc combos just to start collecting them in one place.

Demonic Consultation and Laboratory Maniac

Izzet Chronarch or Mnemonic Wall +Crystal Shard + time warp

Tandem Lookout or curiosity + Glint-Horn Buccaneer

Is there any way to create infinite nexus of fate loops with vial smasher out?

Basically this deck takes the cEDH 4c curiosity control and brings it down to a more 75% meta. I kinda love this idea and having obosh in foil next to the two foil commanders seems sweet.

Cute ODD CMC cards

Mind's Dilation
Anathemancer
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Ardeyn
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Post by Ardeyn » 3 years ago

Taking a page out of "Curious Control":
Tandem Lookout and Glint-Horn Buccaneer would be nice redundance (for curiosity) and finishing combo, respectively.

Ardeyn
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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 3 years ago

sweetwaterbob wrote:
3 years ago
I was thinking about this triple threat from Grixis since technically every opening hand is 7 cards + 1 opening draw + 2 partners in cmd zone + obosh in companion zone, which is 11 cards.

Thinking of odd cmc combos just to start collecting them in one place.

Demonic Consultation and Laboratory Maniac

Izzet Chronarch or Mnemonic Wall +Crystal Shard + time warp

Tandem Lookout or curiosity + Glint-Horn Buccaneer

Is there any way to create infinite nexus of fate loops with vial smasher out?

Basically this deck takes the cEDH 4c curiosity control and brings it down to a more 75% meta. I kinda love this idea and having obosh in foil next to the two foil commanders seems sweet.

Cute ODD CMC cards

Mind's Dilation
Anathemancer
Yeah because of the fact that you can't play zero cost artifact mana (Mox Diamond, Mana Crypt, etc) and then a huge bulk of the 2 cmc cards that you'd see in cEDH, it means that the deck scales down somewhat into a 75% meta. But it still feels really good to play. When you get all 3 in play, the best way to describe it is that you feel like a Sith Lord.

I kind of like the fact that the deck murders people, rather than instant combo wins. So Demonic Consultation and Laboratory Maniac feels a bit weak anyway given that you still need a draw card to win (if you didn't want to wait to get blown out for a whole turn) as you can't use the much more efficient Thassa's Oracle and also double up on the Tainted Pact. I sort of have this mentality if you can't do it probably, don't do it at all.

If you did want to pursue the Time Warp theme, then you can also use Lore Drakkis with return creatures to hand cards like Trusted Advisor or Glitterfang for infinite.

If you have Nexus of Fate in hand then you can Demonic Consultation away you library and get infinite turns that way.

Anathemancer could easily represent 10 damage with an opponent only having 5 non-basics in play.
Last edited by darrenhabib 3 years ago, edited 1 time in total.

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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 3 years ago

Ardeyn wrote:
3 years ago
Taking a page out of "Curious Control":
Tandem Lookout and Glint-Horn Buccaneer would be nice redundance (for curiosity) and finishing combo, respectively.

Ardeyn
Tandem Lookout is perfect. I'll play it over say Peregrine Drake.

I did look at Glint-Horn Buccaneer, but figured because I don't play the discard/draw cards like Wheel of Fortune and Windfall that it wasn't that good.
But I didn't think about Curiosity and discarding at end of turn. But that does mean that you need 8 cards in hand, and again I'll harp back to if you don't have the wheel effects its a little less likely that you'll line this up. I'm not saying its bad, but its not quite the auto win that you might find in other more cEDH builds (with Wheels).

sweetwaterbob
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Post by sweetwaterbob » 3 years ago

Odd CMC ramp

midnight clock late game refill potential
Curse of Opulence great for pushing players to swing at other players
gilded lotus
treasure nabber cute and since we're on a weird odd ramp plan this can steal a lot of those missing 2cmc rocks.

Odd Cmc Draw

Notion Rain
Skeletal Scrying
Honor the God-Pharaoh This creates a chump blocker
Fevered Visions potential dmg ceiling at 4dmg
Ever-Watching Threshold
Tomebound Lich chump blocker with deathtouch and potential quasi bob effect since whenever it deals dmg you get to draw a card
Azra Oddsmaker seems pretty good paired with Kraum

Odd CMC boardwipes
Last One Standing Always hilarious and has always been super fun to cast
crux of fate budget damnation

Odd Cute DMG
Delirium
backlash
Mind's Dilation

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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 3 years ago

sweetwaterbob wrote:
3 years ago
Odd CMC ramp

midnight clock late game refill potential
Curse of Opulence great for pushing players to swing at other players
gilded lotus
treasure nabber cute and since we're on a weird odd ramp plan this can steal a lot of those missing 2cmc rocks.

Odd Cmc Draw

Notion Rain
Skeletal Scrying
Honor the God-Pharaoh This creates a chump blocker
Fevered Visions potential dmg ceiling at 4dmg
Ever-Watching Threshold
Tomebound Lich chump blocker with deathtouch and potential quasi bob effect since whenever it deals dmg you get to draw a card
Azra Oddsmaker seems pretty good paired with Kraum

Odd CMC boardwipes
Last One Standing Always hilarious and has always been super fun to cast
crux of fate budget damnation

Odd Cute DMG
Delirium
backlash
Mind's Dilation
I'll give Treasure Nabber a go, the deck is very thirsty for any type of additional mana, and I've experienced it doing work in the past from opponents sides.

I feel like I just don't have enough creatures that I could personally attack with to get the benefits of Curse of Opulence, even though it encourages attacks not against me.

Ever-Watching Threshold made me think of Verity Circle as another card draw engine. I kind of just want to play both if I can. Incremental draw is key to this deck, and even though Ever-Watching Threshold doesn't actually give you draw, as I've mentioned chewing through your life total does happens, and avoiding attacks is appealing.


sweetwaterbob
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Post by sweetwaterbob » 3 years ago

sweltering suns seems like it could have a place in the deck. It also has cycling which is great.

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Myllior
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Post by Myllior » 3 years ago

I don't have much to offer in the way of suggestions, but wanted to say thanks for putting this together! I've been looking for a second Grixis deck to round out my core group of decks and this seems like the right fit. As combo isn't particularly present in my playgroup, I may try out some nifty value-oriented cards like the Pulse cycle from Darksteel (e.g. Pulse of the Grid) and some Big Dumb Stuff like Possibility Storm and Eye of the Storm paired with Kaervek the Merciless, but I'll definitely be starting from your list.
Kefnet Voltron | Ayli Reanistocrats | Derevi Pod | Kodama//Ishai Blink | Jetmir Hatebears | Kess Storm | Smasher//Sakashima Control

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