Copy/Paste Personal EDH Philosophy Bit
In building my decks, my end goal is "strong but fair". In other words, I want to win, yes, but not at the expense of fun. For me, that means:
- No infinite combos
- No MLD
- Very few discard/countermagic/tutors
- Try to limit format staples only to decks they fit mechanically or thematically
Hello, everyone! I've gotten my first post out of the way, so now I can choose any of my remaining decks to post. Now, my long-term goal is to have a deck of every kind and while I have yet to formulate a clear definition of that term, I'm positive that one of the "kind"s is "a deck with an illegal commander". So, here it is:
For a somewhat old-timey, experienced EDH player (you know, the type who still sometimes says "EDH" instead of "Commander"), the first card that comes to mind when they see Evershrike is Uril, the Miststalker. My goal with Evershrike is to play a more interesting, less frustrating version of Uril. 'Shrike has the same "+2/+2 per Aura on it" bonus as Uril, but it trades three points in both stats for built-in flying, and perhaps most importantly, it trades hexproof for the ability to turn every single Aura card in the deck into an instant-speed, uncounterable reanimation spell for itself. I swear, people I play with tell me this is still less frustrating that Uril's hexproof, hard as it may be to believe. But yeah, Evershrike's ability means all my Auras are no longer dead cards if I don't have a creature out. Topdecking an Aura with an empty board is suddenly a good thing. It also means I almost never have to care about such peasant frivolities like the commander tax. Now, the last difference between Uril and 'Shrike is the color identity. Not having red and green means no easy haste and/or trample access, which is a bummer for a Voltron deck. Now, the lack of haste is mitigated by me being able to reanimate my commander at the end of an opponent's turn, the lack of trample is mitigated by flying, so you know, not too salty about that loss in the end. On the other hand, having black means access to black Auras, which is a group of cards very few decks tap into, which in turn is another reason I like this deck. Now, what does this look like in practice? Let's see the list:
Evershrike
General
Auras
Recursion
Sphere of Safety
Removal
Approximate Total Cost:
The plan is basic Voltron: play my commander, put a bunch of Auras on it, punch face. To help me survive until then, I use my black access to get some cool removal, plus some of my Auras can be used on my opponents' creatures to neutralize them. As I mentioned, since Auras are never dead cards with Evershrike, I can play a hefty package of them. I have some that make 'Shrike harder to kill, some that punish my opponents for killing it, some that return to my hand when they die so I can use them to bring back my commander over and over again, some draw me cards, etc. I especially like those that don't even have to be on Evershrike to harm opponents and/or benefit me. For example, Casting of Bones causes me to draw three cards and discard one of them when the enchanted creature dies. Not the controller of the creature, ME. I fel that most of the cards are pretty self-explanatory, but I'd still like to give special mention to a few of them:
- Fallen Ideal — This one is special because in this particlar deck, it's a sacrifice outlet that's extremely hard to get rid of. The one way my opponents may make me put Evershrike into the command zone and pay the tax is by exiling it. Fallen Ideal means I can sacrifice it to escape that fate, then the Aura returns to my hand, ready to bring Evershrike back like nothing happened.
- Prison Term — An awesome Pacifism variant that I can use to revive my general, then let it move onto an opponent's creature to do its thing. And once again, with Evershrike in my graveyard, I can do it at instant speed in response to somebody else casting a creature.
- Orzhov Charm — I have no idea why it's the black/white charm that does it, but the first mode on this card is "Return target creature you control and all Auras you control attached to it to their owner's hand". Not the it's relevant that often, but it sure is convenient.
Antis, out.
