Tivadar of Thorn, Slayer of Goblins

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materpillar
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Post by materpillar » 3 years ago

Years ago my meta-game some how evolved into literally everyone playing mono-R. You'd get Jaya Ballard, Task Mage vs Purphoros, God of the Forge vs Ashling the Pilgrim vs Rakka Mar. I figured this was getting out of control so I flipped through my binder and there he sat...


I knew that there was just so many goblins that needed slaying. The original combo was Kithkin Harbinger for Shields of Velis Vel so that Tivadar could slay his goblin enemies. Out of that terrible memey combo the deck with the highest win-rate of any deck I've ever created was birthed into existence. The deck was full of a pile of pure draft chaff, no one would focus me. Suddenly, everyone at <10 life because of various Mana Flare + Earthquake stupidity. Tivadar of Thorn would ascend on high to finish off my foolish opponents. He cares not for your petty Blasphemous Acts and Chain Reactions.

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The deck's original philosophy was "if Tivadar kills a goblin during the coarse of the game I consider that as good as winning." I mark his card every time he slays a goblin, he's slain 31 as of 1/5/2021. The actual game plan was Tallowisp for various enchantments using a variety of arcane spells, most of which I cut in the latest revision. It could also win with Martial Coup + Cathars' Crusade.
I took the deck apart years ago but I've been wanting to build a lower power deck to tango with newer players so the team is getting back together. The gameplan is to use Mistveil Plains + Kithkin Harbinger/Forerunner of the Legion + Conjurer's Closet to be able to draw Shields of Velis Vel every turn/every other turn so let the goblin slaying really happen.

Commander legends has added the spicy combo of using Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist to equip Runed Stalactite or Amorphous Axe to my opponents creatures so Tivadar of Thorn can put those dirty goblins in the dirt.

I built a blink/recursion shell based around getting one of those two plans online. I really feel like Knights of Thorn should be here... but they just seem like they won't do anything. I think Eldrazi Displacer should probably be here somewhere. I really need to cut something for Commander's Plate as a way to actually end the game.
Last edited by materpillar 1 year ago, edited 10 times in total.

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Hawk
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Post by Hawk » 3 years ago

This is the dumbest and silliest deck I've ever seen, and I mean that as a sincere complement. Just ridiculous and beautiful.

You definitely do want Displacer, and in your newest version you have only five cards that can trigger Tallowisp and only four cards it can hit. You may be better off dropping it and Bruna, the Fading Light for Heliod's Pilgrim + Eldrazi Displacer.

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materpillar
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Post by materpillar » 3 years ago

Hawk wrote:
3 years ago
This is the dumbest and silliest deck I've ever seen, and I mean that as a sincere complement. Just ridiculous and beautiful.

You definitely do want Displacer, and in your newest version you have only five cards that can trigger Tallowisp and only four cards it can hit. You may be better off dropping it and Bruna, the Fading Light for Heliod's Pilgrim + Eldrazi Displacer.
You want to know something immensely satisfying? Watching a Krenko, Mob Boss deck's owner read Tivadar's Crusade.

Tallowisp was just one of the original cores of the deck. I have a hard time emotionally cutting it. I used to be running Ethereal Haze, Hundred-Talon Strike and Kami of the Honored Dead just to help trigger it. I once got exactly lethal with Hundred-Talon Strike it was glorious.

I think I need to slot back in some more spirits instead of cutting Tallowisp, Glancing through EDHrec and riiiiight Karmic Guide used to be in here. I think Remorseful Cleric is also a good idea. Maybe Bygone Bishop... hrmm

I've also been wondering if I need a sacrifice outlet like Fanatical Devotion or Martyr's Cause,

Lastly, I was pondering Icon of Ancestry as a combo with Kithkin Harbinger but I need to go through and figure out creature types first. [edit]: Not nearly enough

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Post by materpillar » 3 years ago

I assembled the ultimate combo of Tivadar of Thorn, Angel of Flight Alabaster, Angel of Condemnation and Shields of Velis Vel. 3 goblins fell before Tivadars might (as did a player, Armored Ascension is no joke).

Maybe I'll start a kill counter...
Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire
Chainer, Nightmare Adept
Corpsejack Menace

[edit]:
Golos, Tireless Pilgrim
Emrakul, the Promised End

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materpillar
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Post by materpillar » 3 years ago


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Post by materpillar » 1 year ago

@ISBPathfinder Howdy sir. I just played a game with this deck yesterday and just lost because I couldn't close out the game fast enough. I was wondering if you had any recommendations on how to increase my clock a little bit. It doesn't have to be something extreme like Armageddon but something more of the nature of Cathars' Crusade. Or even just a handful more angels so I can clock people in the air more. I was just wondering how you close out games efficiently in Bruna, the Fading Light?

My most updated list is the following
https://aetherhub.com/Deck/tivadar-slayer-of-goblins

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Post by ISBPathfinder » 1 year ago

With a deck like my Bruna I mostly slow my opponents down with sweepers and hatebear effects. My overall goal with that is primarily to disrupt opponents from assembling something that goes infinite while I bust them in the face with my creatures. I would say my bruna deck probably has something like a 60/40 kill rate with my commander vs random creature beats.

The downside of a commander like Tivadar of Thorn is going to be how situational his ETB is but I think you could possibly push a little harder on your equipment package on the flip side because you will have a commander you can curve into some good value equipment. With my Bruna deck I had the downside that my commander costs so much and I want to cast her as a value play which can make her a lot slower as a threat into play as well as having an equipment carrier. I could see loading up on more of the Sword of X and Y series assuming you have room in the budget for them. The new one looks really good to me as well.

I like to take three cmc commanders and ask what their role is. I see the cute goblin hate thing but that is also going to miss more often than be relivant so you might want to push a little harder on getting some value as an early and consistant attacker with them. I could also see adding something like Dowsing Dagger // Lost Vale which curves well with your commander. I really do think that pushing an early game commander into value and ramp equipment into higher end stuff can be an option to play but if you are asking how to make a frindge commander more viable vs combo its going to get a lot harder to answer that without examining commander choices. Mono white as a whole is really hard to play at the peak of competition as well. It might come back to the question of communcation before a game starts to try to be on the same page of competativeness.

I also think I like Opal Palace in almost every deck where you might be attacking with a commander. You lack evasion though so I don't know if it has as much value added but its something I often consider if that is your plan. Several of the swords I was talking about can also give you that evasion you naturally lack through the protections.

If you want to get a little more fringe in suggestions you might look at something like Angelic Destiny or Armored Ascension where you get a power boost and evasion. The downside is they are a little more fragile being auras but they can also be a little more budget friendly assuming your game plan is voltron (which I still don't know if it is).
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Post by pokken » 1 year ago

Akroma's Will is my go to smashy in white nowadays. It's such a clean finisher a lot of the time.

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ISBPathfinder
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Post by ISBPathfinder » 1 year ago

pokken wrote:
1 year ago
Akroma's Will is my go to smashy in white nowadays. It's such a clean finisher a lot of the time.
This is also true. I have this weird thing about dedicated wincons where I just don't really pack them but yea this sort of thing is really great especially if you can be sort of low key in your threat perception. I don't ever get to ride low on threat perception though and everyone is often gunning for me so I tend to play a lot more defensively lol.
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Post by materpillar » 1 year ago

ISBPathfinder wrote:
1 year ago
I like to take three cmc commanders and ask what their role is. I see the cute goblin hate thing but that is also going to miss more often than be relevant so you might want to push a little harder on getting some value as an early and consistent attacker with them.
I'm not sure why I have a cEDH tag on this deck, I guess that was me being funny. It isn't supposed to be super competitive. This deck started out as a complete meme, because my friends all had mono-R decks and I'd usually end up winning on the back of Tivadar of Thorn commander beats since everyone was slinging around Earthquake effects and just randomly ended up at sub-10 life. I'd win off of everyone being low and ignoring me because the deck was pure meme.

However, the deck has kind of turned into a bit of a blink powerhouse that can't slide under people's radar and the people I'm playing with have way less chip damage that I can piggy back off of. As such I can't just fly under the radar and wait for everyone to kill everyone else. I need to be a bit more proactive. In the last game I played I had Emeria Shepherd online with my Tivadar of Thorn + Shields of Velis Vel + Angel of Flight Alabaster and a bunch of blink stuff online to control the board but I was just kinda chipping people for 6 in the air. I ate back to back to back wrath spells and couldn't really recover from that.

Most of my wins recently have been me getting into 1v1 with Emeria, the Sky Ruin and grinding people out with Archon of Coronation. That takes forever though. I threw in Avacyn, Angel of Hope as a wincon but she has not performed at that task at all.
If you want to get a little more fringe in suggestions you might look at something like Angelic Destiny or Armored Ascension where you get a power boost and evasion. The downside is they are a little more fragile being auras but they can also be a little more budget friendly assuming your game plan is voltron (which I still don't know if it is).
I'm running Armored Ascension and it does wonders but I don't have any way to find it consistently. I used to have a Tallowisp package but it got cut.

I've been pondering Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite/Mirror Entity/Cathars' Crusade. I guess I was hoping for something blinky that might help go wide but not just be a straight wincon like Akroma's Will.

@toctheyounger any thoughts mayhaps?

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Post by 3drinks » 7 months ago

materpillar wrote:
1 year ago
I'm running Armored Ascension and it does wonders but I don't have any way to find it consistently. I used to have a Tallowisp package but it got cut.
Should be enough to ensure you can find your killing aura.

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