There were a few things that stood out to me in your list. I don't really know what is in your list due to budget vs what you are intentionally running so sorry in advance.
Single Flicker - So, my issue with single target flickers is that generally speaking the incentive to run them tends to be more in mass flickers like
Ghostway,
Eerie Interlude, and
Lumbering Battlement. One of the big reasons I avoided running much of the single target flickers is that they are reliant on having other good creatures to flicker to be good. Paying 3+ mana to single target flicker an Elvish Visionary for instance is sort of questionable for instance especially given that you could use Livio to help facilitate that. I think that the
Flickerwisp /
Felidar Guardian /
Restoration Angel are generally things I would try to move away from is what I am saying as their bodies aren't great, they are reliant on having something good to flicker, and the payoff when they work isn't that great in this list. Replacing them with more creatures with ETB effects will probably pay off better.
Earthshaker Giant /
Thunderfoot Baloth - I guess I question if its worth running these when what these accomplish is covered by Kamahl. They are expensive to cast and for the most part just redundancy for Kamahl. Kamahl might be expensive to cast, but having him as your commander gives him a good level of consistency. I also believe in keeping a curve appropriate and to me it feels like this is two six drops that could be replaced with more cheap etb creatures like say
Elvish Rejuvenator.
Crashing Drawbridge - I think, its probably better to not resort to this personally. I think its worth focusing more on rebuilding quickly and or being sticky to the board rather than it is relying on a bad card to try to give haste. Personally I also think that
Lightning Greaves is a bit of a miss for me in this list as well from the standpoint that the point of it would be to put it on Livio. My issue with this is that if Livio dies, you need to recast him, then there is the question of having at least 3-5 mana left to activate him and really, I just think its easier to play him first if he dies and see if he dies again. He is cheap enough that and we are a ramp deck so its kind of hard to repeatedly play whack a mole with him anyways. My other thought is that if someone wants to burn all their removal on Livio then its far more likely that Kamahl will be clear when he comes in so I personally took the stance that being sticky and just spamming the board repeatedly rather than trying to protect.
Day of Judgement /
Wrath of God - these are workable, they just don't have any versatility. I just think that
Tragic Arrogance,
Rout,
Austere Command, and
Cleansing Nova all offer a lot more versatility to them and the cost increase of 1-2 mana seems acceptable to me. Generally speaking I am of the belief that if you need a four mana wrath, its because you are playing against extremely fast decks, MLD, or combo. I don't think these type of commanders really are the type to play against those strategies though.
Unbreakable Formation - I feel like this should probably be
Ghostway. You could possibly also go for
Teferi's Protection or
Flawless Maneuver given that you are sort of token based.
Overall, I think you could possibly use a little more interaction to your list. Right now it feels too much like you are racing to see who can kill whom first. I say this from the standpoint that Kamahl + bodies isn't a super fast strategy in a lot of cases. I think some of your protection cards are also not on synergy with what this deck does. Don't get me wrong, I think
Heroic Intervention is a strong card, I just think that something like
Reveillark has a lot more synergy with the list. I also have a lot of issue with how many things get past
Heroic Intervention these days (
Toxic Deluge,
Living Death,
Cyclonic Rift,
Tragic Arrogance) just to name a few.
gabrielv wrote: ↑3 years ago
I didn't win any game but in a couple of occasions I was just a turn away from swinging lethal. The problem I ran into was having to wait a whole turn cycle to be able to swing. Since
Concordant Crossroads is out of my budget, I'll use
Vivien, Champion of the Wilds as a way to cast creature at flash speed, and also
Chord of Calling.
Crashing Drawbridge for haste, although it's slow. I'm looking for ways to make the deck more explosive.
I agree about the mana dorks. I was boardwiped several times. I might still use some since they allow me to set up early but I might lower their number. But maybe I should focus more in the ETB value...
As I've played the deck, my pattern is to cast early draw and ramp ETB creatures, then bring out Livio and flicker for value. Latter on, I use Kamahl for pumping tokens or big creatures (at this point, the board has been wiped and Livio has probably died 2 or 3 times). In this sense, ETB creatures that make lots of tokens at once help,
Avenger of Zendikar being an all-star, of course. I wish I could afford
Field of the Death, it's such a powerful card (maybe too much, in my opinion, but that's another topic).
Notable cards not on your list:
Guardian Project has always been great, it has brought me back to the game after a boardwipe more than once (specially with
Conjurer's Closet). Also
Blessed Sanctuary did well, and its first ability proved relevant at least once.
Kogla, the Titan Ape is solid removal on ETB and can return any of my commanders to hand. Finally, I haven't had the chance to test
Dual Nature. While risky because it's symmetrical, it can theoretically get you endless value (with Fiend Hunter, it exiles the board, or combined with other ETB creatures can draw your deck or get all the lands). I realize that doesn't win the game, but I don't want to play cards like
Altar of the Brood that are useful only in the combo situation. I don't love infinite combos, but I like to have the option when playing against cascade decks or similar. It seems like the only way to outvalue them.
I'll keep on tuning this deck. Even if it doesn't win too much, so far it's been fun to play, as it feels like I'm always doing something relevant. Cheers!
I don't really think that adding haste is the way to go personally. I think its a bit of a trap that assumes your opponents don't have specific types of disruption and or that they have other specific types. Its good vs wraths but only if you can go out and kill one or more players due to it. Beyond that, there are a lot of cases you will draw these effects and they won't be overly useful. Personally I think its far better to move in a way to add disruption to our plan and make yourself harder to disrupt from removal. I also don't like leaning heavily on flash as a means of playing just because honestly, I don't love a lot of the flash options we have. I run
Winding Canyons myself but I think a lot of the other options use up a card on something that is easy to disrupt and not very good against a lot of strategies.
Guardian Project - I will try to work a copy into my list. I have also been looking at a few cards from this upcoming set so I figured I would figure out some new cards in addition to this.
Blessed Sanctuary - I see the potential of this card and you could Livio exile a bunch of creatures, play this, and then return them. The problem with that is that I keep seeing the setup required for this card and it seems to be Livio + creatures + 8+ mana.
Kogla, the Titan Ape - I guess my concern with it is that there are so many things that it dies to or can't kill. Beyond that you could run
Duplicant or
Luminate Primordial for a superior creature removal effect that doesn't have as many restrictions (size and or indestructability). I guess its nice that it can also attack and disenchant but I find its ETB to be weaker to a lot of other options out there. Its interesting that it can bounce Livio out but I don't know that that really sells me on it.
Cascade - Try
Archon of Emeria /
Rule of Law effects. These effects can be very good against draw and or cast heavy archetypes. I also think that in a lot of cases disrupting opponents commanders can really screw with several of these strategies. I think your current build is a little light on disruption.
Mangara of Corondor,
Skyclave Apparition, and
Cavalier of Dawn could all be useful in increasing your disruption options.
Weathered Runestone and
Grafdigger's Cage also shut down cascade but tend to be a bit more specific of hate cards.
DECK CHANGES:
- Aluren → Guardian Project I think that Aluren is interesting..... but I also think that its a weird tempo effect that can backfire on me. I wanted to give it a shot but the only time I have seen it, it was too much of a liability and it stayed in my hand.
- Lumbering Battlement → Glorious Protector - it costs less, has flash, and gets me further from having some infinite Karmic Guide loop which is a positive to me. Karmic Guide is my only angel in deck so I think this is a good swap for me.
- 1 Snow-Covered Plains → Arctic Treeline - More ETB tapped lands don't excite me but its a dual land so that helps on the Emeria, the Sky Ruin front. I might as well throw it in and see how things go.
I briefly thought about
Toski, Bearer of Secrets in this deck and it actually got me thinking about maybe running
Ohran Frostfang in here. The addition of deathtouch to my creatures, drawing cards, and or flickering out creatures I don't like how they get blocked is all an option here. It might be something I explore at some point.
