Haman wrote: ↑2 years ago
Hello isb.. I am interested to build a budget version of daryl.. so I decided to use yr listing as a base. After dissect your listing, these are the stats.
-Snip-
Qn: Wat do you think are the more important cards in each section ?
Qn: Are the gods relevant? They seems unreliable to become creatures?
Qn: There is only 1 protection spell... How often do you have to recast daryl? Does people constant remove your commander?
I think the most important things to consider in this deck are:
Ramp into Daryl - Get him in early as it means more zombies spawned which turns into more cards drawn. Ramp also helps repeatedly play him so I would say that 2 or less mana ramp that will accelerate him is kind of important. Its likely that I should actually run that commander lotus as well but I didn't really think about it before now. Getting him in early and being able to replay him is really a big deal though.
Sweep the zombies - I usually aim for doing 2-3 damage or if its more than that only as an emergency or when you can do it to all creatures not yours. Daryl generally can't keep up with the number of tokens he spawns without help. I have in fact run into situations where someone has like 12 zombies because I haven't been able to en mass sweep them and it gets spooky fast.
I really don't think its that important to be on any specific cards in this deck. I think its a bigger deal to be on some broad concepts which for me is ramp to commander which also helps replay him and the ability to sweep out the tokens. Everything else is kind of up to you as to how you want it done.
Relivant Cards Per Section - I have a hard time saying get this and omit that because when you are on a budget its hard for me to say what is and isn't important. Lots of the creatures I run for instance have some nice synergy with drawing extra cards, doing damage to the board, or taking damage themselves. There are several that I think work just fine like
Dragon Broodmother,
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, and
Cavalier of Thorns but really aren't core to what I am doing so I would likely lump them in as something I wouldn't put a high priority to. If I were to impress a priority in what to obtain it would be an emphasis on ramping and sweeping though. After you get that stuff at an acceptable range I would say to start working on things that take damage profitably which would be some of the enrage kind of trigger stuff because its cool, fun, and works well with what the deck will be doing by then.
Gods - I only have two gods but especially if you are on a budget I would just pass on them for now. I like both of them and they do animate quite often for me but mostly I like that they are hard to remove buff kind of effects.
Klothys, God of Destiny gives me some small but consistant damage output / lifegain with some graveyard hate and potentially ramp. Its just an all around fairly good effect for the mana and if you look at it from a standpoint of doing 2 damage to each opponent each turn thats 6 damage in a 3 player game and that didn't even get into attacking or blocking which he can still do. I primarily think of Klothys as just an efficient and useful utility for the mana sort of an effect that is fairly good when drawing a bunch of cards.
Xenagos, God of Revels in my opinion is a little more hit or miss but given the damage sweepers I often don't even need trample in this deck for Xenagos to punch in for some really big numbers. I also run
Embercleave and
Kessig Wolf Run which can pair with him very nicely for some big numbers. I think that the gods are good in this deck which is why I run them but I also wouldn't put them so high as to say that they should be any sort of priority if you are making your own list on a budget. I would say you are far better off getting other things in place before them. I would say that maybe after you get like 75% of the list how you want it consider them but I wouldn't do it much before then.
Protection - I run very little protection in part because I don't feel that there are very many worth considering. Most protection effects are going to cost you extra setup or more mana past casting him. Lots of the redirect effects for example cost 2+ mana to cast them. I also think that a lot of protection requires setup, extra mana, and is situational at best. My philosophy towards commanders has mostly shifted to a concept of ramp into them and ramp into the ability to continue to cast them. Ramp is a far better strategy than protecting as it lets you do more things with draw which is something this deck does. I won't pretend that nobody ever kills Daryl but ramping into him and ramping into the ability to continue to cast him is generally where I stand. If someone shuts him down immediately and repeatedly then yes, that is a problem but I don't think that you are going to protect him from something like that either. Generally speaking something like Lightning Greaves I view more as a haste outlet than I do as protection as when you go to equip it they can just shoot him then and usually have more incentive to do so in response to a greaves equip than if he just sat there in my opinioin. My stance on protection has shifted more towards a less is better concept and just ramp into playing them early and the same ramp will help you replay them as well as play out the cards you are going to draw from him. I also often force people to deal with threats other than Daryl and that helps me a lot. People have a hard time going after Daryl while they watch me damage sweep with a
Vigor for instance and most panic and go after him instead. Its part of why I took a lot of my build up Daryl effects out and opted to diversify threats instead of making Daryl himself better in most cases.
