[Re:Commanders] Freyalise, the Oathbreaker

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Yatsufusa
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Post by Yatsufusa » 2 years ago

"Scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one-sided and easily processed.
Yet every misshapen spark's unseen beauty is greater than its would-be judgment."

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Introduction


Welcome to Freyalise, the Oathbreaker. Perhaps the most innovative deck of all 8, and likely the weakest because of said innovation. Freyalise, the Oathbreaker is a deck built with one absolute condition: No creature cards. I'll get to why and how I did it in this very guide.

If you have the luxury of listening to music whilst reading this thread, enjoy the appointed official song for Freyalise, the Oathbreaker: Senbonzakura.


Disclaimers

Same across all threads, skip ahead if you've read it elsewhere before)
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Freyalise, the Oathbreaker is part of Re:Commanders, a suite of eight decks I've established since 2015 with the intent to "retire" from the game/format, with its stability permitting me to bling my own decks out as my own vanity project. I've written out these guides roughly with the primer style guide, but they are not meant to be primers. In fact, my updates will be sporadic as in recent years I've had less and less time to play the game due to commitments.

Generally, Re:Commander decks / guides follow these rules:

High-Powered Cards – When I started Re:Commanders in 2015 I was already sitting on 11 years' of collection, including 4 years within the format that already assembled a structural skeleton for most of my decks. My decklists often contain a lot of high-powered, cEDH-worthy cards that can be easily deemed unaffordable to the random viewer seeing the guide at any given time, but I do not feel the need to feature budget options as those change with the times, as my focus on presenting the guide is to establish an understanding of what role does a card play in the deck, and the discerning player with the understanding should be able to find their own substitutes for that role within their own budget/collection/time. I merely used my own high-powered examples because I have it, nothing more. The game is just way too big (and getting bigger faster every year now) for me to cite random alternatives nowadays, especially with prices also randomizing on their own scales.

Personal Quirks - I have some small aesthetic quirks, the most common easy example being I don't play off-color fetchlands and I don't play ABUR duals because they can't be foiled. A lot of these small factors go a ways to lower the power level of my decks in small doses. I also try to diversify card options across decks, so while there are staples I play across all decks (mostly colorless artifacts and lands), I try to keep a variety of colored cards (and for those I don't I even try to get different art/frames to compensate) across my decks. If some colored staple feels missing, that's likely because it's housed in another deck in the suite I felt was just better for it (or I just lack it in my collection, I don't have everything, after all).

Personal Definition of "75%" – My personal definition on a "75%" deck is essentially a singular deck is flexible enough to perform on both casual and competitive tables. They aren't completely "just built to win" like cEDH decks, they're first built thematically, and then built with two distinct functions – first, a way to win within context of the theme, then secondly all decks usually have an infinite outlet (or at least a substantially huge wincon) or combo or some sort because I believe that a deck should always have a way to close the game when the primary plan/theme fails. Even a bland infinite combo used as a last resort is a better game-closer than you durdling an entire game playing Kingmaker/trying to lose last.

I don't shy away from tutors. This combined with the combo aspect does really ramp it up to feel close to cEDH levels (and almost certainly pubstomping in the wrong cases), but ultimately I built the deck for me, myself as the pilot. The Commander RC has a policy of "build casually, play competitively", but due to my wide-range meta (that can contain anywhere from new players to cEDH players depending on time), I adopted a custom formula – "Build enough to face competitive opponents but without abandoning the theme, then play accordingly to the table in question".

I'm aware some people feel like it's an insult to not "play at maximum" at a table, but I just don't see that way, I have a thematic way to (attempt to) win that's not too far above the casual table and my combos are now my last resort game-closers, something I actively want to avoid having seen purely-casual tables lack it and end up playing a game of too-much-politics-and-kingmaking-trying-to-lose-last compared to actual Magic played when thematic plans fall apart.

Deck History


For a full-blown history of the establishment of Re:Commanders as a whole, as well as anything the deck might have within its context, please refer to the central hub of the Re:Commanders here.
Deck History
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I was doomed to have a G deck in the suite because my first two choices during planning were Temur and Abzan, for more details refer to the general history in the link above.

G is known for creatures and is capable of going both tall and wide. But my flagship deck, Animar is already all about battlecruisers and Karador, its "shadow" is also about big creatures, but is also capable of going wide. In addition my Zombie deck is pretty bent on producing zombie tokens. Essentially any direction I took I felt that the G would pale in fun compared to all these other decks I've already established.

My only experience with mono-colored decks was basically with the C14 planeswalker precons, the only time I brought the entire set of precons (because I justified mono-colored cards could easily fit in multi-colored, but not vice-versa). I took a look at the face-Commanders again and when I saw them its struck me – what if I went the complete opposite route, build a G with no creature cards at all, even the Commander, since they went out of the way to make some planeswalkers eligible as Commanders? This way I effectively minimize conflict between the G deck and the two decks I arguably favor the most and give it its own identity in the process?

It helped at this time I was also leaning towards Ryusei, the Falling Star leading my other mono-colored deck (by some technical virtue of being my first Legendary card, history over at its own thread). I gave the all the 2014 planeswalkers one last look and confirmed my choice.

I never fancied a W deck for my equipment theme (it's in Mardu now, but at bare minimum I would have preferred Boros anyway). Teferi is strong, but me being weak at control as a player I preferred it not be also my mono-colored deck (Azorius/Yorion having that spot). Ob-Nixilis is okay, but B toolbox just felt like a souped-down version of my goodstuff decks (mostly Karador).

Daretti was the strongest competition because I felt he led down strong in a thematic direction I wasn't opposed to (even more than Freyalise, actually), but when he was pitted against the idea of playing my first ever Legendary card combined with the fact I also locked myself into having to play a mono-G deck, he couldn't prevail.

And so I begun the journey of building a creature card-less G deck. If you've noticed, there's a severe lack of mentioning how the deck morphed over the ages, because it didn't. While most other decks have gone through turbulent changes or at least were a loose spiritual successor to a past idea, this was brand-new when I started Re:Commanders and is arguably still going through its tinkering and era of turbulent change.

Commander Analysis


Truth be told, there are simply no alternatives, Freyalise is the only non-creature Commander in G. That being said, even after years of building and playing around this self-imposed restriction , the deck has more or less attuned to having the Commander be relevant, although to be fair Freyalise can be said to be pretty self-reliant as well. Would there be an alternative printed in the future that would be better? Perhaps, and I wouldn't be opposed to changing Commanders, having done several times even after establishing Re:Commanders (which was supposed to only reinforce color and archetype balance, not locked Commander choices).

But let's just go through what Freyalise offers as a planeswalker-in-charge.


A thousand cherry blossoms,
covered by the sky of night.

5-Mana 3 Starting Loyalty Counters

Solely from text, that's not a very good starting point, 3 starting loyalty counters means the Commander is easily vulnerable the turn she comes out, but she does have ways to protect herself, mainly:


+2: Create a 1/1 green Elf Druid creature token with "T: Add G."

That's extremely powerful. In a vacuum, planeswalkers that can produce blockers are valued for their ability to protect themselves (especially in metas where planeswalkers are seen as acceptable attack targets moreso than players). Sure, it's a 1/1 token, but it's stapled onto a plus ability, which means Freyalise protects herself even more.
In addition, the token is essentially a Llanowar Elves, so outside of the vacuum assuming you have other tokens/ways to protect Freyalise, it's also functions as a pretty potent source of ramping mana.
Also, it's a +2 ability, not just +1. Without a doubt, this is her bread-and-butter ability.


-2: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.

Well, her minor minus ability is honestly a bit of a letdown within context, since mono-G should have little trouble with other cards destroying artifacts or enchantments. Still, it can be used in an emergency, although it must be noted if used immediately Freyalise stands at very frail 1 loyalty and honestly if you had to use it immediately you're generally already screwed that game.


-6: Draw a card for each green creature you control.

Freyalise's "ultimate". Even when card draw is vital in the format and especially in G deck that doesn't run creature cards, it can seem underwhelming that's what Freyalise has instead of some "game-altering/winning" emblem some people might be used to seeing instead.

But that's what keeps Freyalise slightly safer. Card draw shouldn't be underestimated, but it's still a magnitude less threatening than a game-changing emblem. In addition, while Freyalise does build up the creature count by herself for the benefit, the draw is still conditional and could be rendered useless in case of a timely wipe, which helps further lower the threat scale she would otherwise present.

In a vacuum, she also needs 2 turn cycles before she can even activate her ultimate, which basically amounts to an eternity considering how quick the board can shift within even one cycle. Also, assuming a vacuum scenario, she'll leave herself at a vulnerable 1 loyalty after using her ultimate for the first time. That being said, as mentioned right before, the turbulence of the battlefield and the fact she could still be directly removed at anytime also means as long as you could get a decent number of cards (I would say 3 at least generally, although even 1 card might be preferable to a token/removal if you know she's getting removed), you should just activate it for some cards risking vulnerability.

In short, you're likely using Freyalise's +2 twice, then activating her ultimate to hopefully net more cards because you've been also building up green creature tokens from other cards in the meantime, and that's assuming she's always under the threat of removal but not actually removed.
In some corner/desperate cases you might be using her -2 to get rid of some threat, but almost never as a luxury. You could potentially just keep using her +2 to just generate tokens/mana, but that carries the risk of getting her outright removed before you could extract your card advantage.


Alternate Commanders
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Alternate Commanders... or not
As I've said, there simply no alternative Commanders to suggest with my restrictions in-place, any suggestion, even if it does help the gameplan, simply breaks the restriction by itself anyway, so instead I'm going to focus on how the deck intends to win, especially considering the Commander can't deal damage by herself, her tokens are mostly just ramp/blockers and she's functionally card advantage even in an ideal situation.


Indigo sky faraway,
launch that flash bomb.

Well, since the deck is already "innovative", might as well go the extra mile and try to win with one of the most janky alternate win condition in the color, should we not? Even within a vacuum of the card and the Commander, it's a pretty favorable synergy because Freyalise generates mana dorks. Of course, realistically the Pinnacle is going to need a lot of external help to get there, including infinite mana generation acting as the "last-resort" game closer with it, although I'd say I'll probably just try to pull it off whenever I can since the Pinnacle still has time-delayed weaknesses to cover after that.

Alone, it's a 1-mana enchantment with shroud, but the real burden it carries is the amount of mana poured into it through a game that stands to be lost at any given time, so while it's technically pretty easy just to get it back online, you'd have to rebuild the mana investment into it as well. With no infinite mana threat looming yet, most opponents are also less inclined to remove it pre-emptively, so the true game with Helix Pinnacle is balancing the mana investment and when you think you could move in to finish the job while preventing interruptions and also ensuring it's luxury mana you're pouring in, not mana that hurt you later because you spent them on the Pinnacle instead of something else.


It's a feast within a steel cage,
look down from that guillotine.

Realistically we shouldn't expect to win with Helix Pinnacle. While the deck can generate quite a number of creature tokens, their size makes combat possibly quite unfavorable for an offense (and the few cards that generate larger tokens are often clunky themselves and prone to removal it makes them unreliable) and as a result, are favored mostly for defense.

Throne of the God-Pharaoh provides an alternate way out, albeit with its own conditions. If you could supply enough tapped creature tokens, the Throne provides a substantial life loss effect and more importantly affects all opponents.

Of course, a question is how tokens get tapped if they're not great at offense? The deck provides support in some ways, such as Cryptolith Rite (or Song of Freyalise for flavor, although I find the temporary effect to be unreliable) to grant them a tap ability instead (that also supports Helix Pinnacle). In the earlier-game you could also just attack an exposed player and they tend to not want to waste resources on smaller tokens.

Once you get the tokens down, you could also keep them locked down with stax effects like Freyalise's Winds so you don't have to risk another attack. The stax effects are also symmetrical and hence help slow your opponents down along so that the typical slower tempo of this deck can keep up. Of course, in the case of Cryptolith Rite and Helix Pinnacle the stax choice is pretty anti-synergistic, but that's where you have to analyze which path is better on a game-to-game basis.

Theme Analysis

Is Freyalise, the Oathbreaker a deck for you?
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With the knowledge of what Freyalise is capable of, now we explore what my build for the deck features in its themes to support the Commander (and vice versa). If the following themes (combined preferably) appeal to you, then this deck might be for you!

Innovation – The crux of the deck. The whole wonky idea of not having any creature cards in the 100 (not even the 99) is the sort of whacky idea you love. How does the color best known for its creature cards fare without any in the format? And how does it do it? My own route was shaped by my own experiences and decisions and you could just briefly read my guide, set the same restrictions and end on your own conclusion. I'm also literally restricted to only one Commander choice now, and that might change in the future, or you could even change it now by applying the same restriction on another noncreature Commander in other color identities (although I'd say G is extra delicious for the irony in particular).

Tokens – I only restricted cards and while I did, for very, very brief time entertained not allowing creature tokens, it effectively capped the (only) Commander (choice) too much it became of strangling creativity instead of breeding it. So yeah, this deck isn't shy of generating tokens and with the game's relatively recent shifts, it's not limited to creature tokens only either.

Stax – I'm usually not a huge stax player, and it isn't actually a major theme in this deck either, more of a support role, but the deck does employ stax strategies in ways that either the alternate win conditions and/or token generation of the deck could help keep us in better shape than our opponents, in an attempt to turn the natural disadvantages of the deck due to its restriction to an advantage instead.


However, no deck can cover everything the game can offer and Freyalise does lack in multiple departments. Also, no deck comes completely without weaknesses. If missing any of these themes or having to deal with any of these weaknesses if a big red flag for you, this deck might not be for you.

Going Big – Due to the token generation, this deck can go wide, but going big isn't its forte. There are some moderate-sized tokens and some ways to increase small amounts of power, but you aren't going toe-to-toe with battlecruiser-sized threats directly, outside of swarming with quantity. This also ties in with G's primary method of dealing with creatures is combat, and this deck has to math it out with quantity because it doesn't generate the size often enough.

Elves – Freyalise is a popular Commander choice for Elf decks because of flavor, and Elves are heavily supported tribe capable of going both wide and big because of that. Our restriction kills too much interesting and/or powerful options for the tribe and while it's probably possible to do an Elf build with my restriction, it would likely feel like playing a miserable, watered-down tribal deck rather than an innovative deck. You are free to attempt on your own, but this guide won't be even hinting in that direction remotely.

Winning – I said the deck was innovative. I never said it was good. This not the deck you bust out when you just want to win a game, this is the deck you play knowing your win-rate is likely to be below average. Your enjoyment must come from the attempts itself and actual victories are just extra-sweet toppings (and likely a consequence of the politics of a game coinciding with a favorable build-up, rather than the deck just managing to assemble itself perfectly).

Decklist


Now you've had a solid idea of whether you would enjoy the Commander/deck, I present you the decklist of Freyalise, the Oathbreaker.

Freyalise, the Oathbreaker

Battle (1)

Approximate Total Cost:

Card Choices


My deckbuilding process goes in this sequence: Ramp → Draw → Removal → PRO (Protection, Recursion, Others) → Manafixing Lands. There are some specific processes that are done within/in-between, but I'll get into detail when as I move through this guide.

Ramp
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Magic games are fun because you can cast things, and the ability to be able to cast more things as the game progresses is vital. It's tremendously less fun to watch someone cast a huge spell a couple of turns earlier or cast 2 more spells than you did in your turn in the same cycle, or you to exhaust all your mana getting something out while everyone else could afford to leave mana open so they could interact with the game and turn it in their favor. Ramp is the backbone that solves all that, the cornerstone of decks everywhere.

In general, I recommend at least 15 ramp sources, around 10 of which are fast, early-game options and the remainder could be slower or conditional ramp sources that hopefully synergize with the themes of the deck.

The Big Three
I don't even think I need to introduce/explain these three cards. As much as I love my diversity, I had to admit these three cards are also dubbed the "ubiquitous three" for me and exist in every one of my decks (and yes, you will see this exact section in every thread). They obviously account for 3 of the early ramp options of every deck hence.
I usually don't mention prices, but Mana Crypt is a standout I have to state due to my personal declaration of ubiquity here. As long as your meta isn't as high-powered as mine, you don't need Mana Crypt, you can replace it with a (basic) land. In fact, the overall land count in my decks could be said to be 1 below-average solely because Mana Crypt is powerful enough to justify it and you should put a land in-lieu of Crypt to get healthier numbers for a deck without one.

Fast Ramp
Fast ramp is defined by the ability to drop on turn 2 or earlier and have an immediate effect on casting spells.


Mid Ramp
Mid-ramp refers to a specific group that essentially come online by turn 3 or 4 in a vacuum.


Slow Ramp
Slow ramp refers to all cards that only take effect turn 5 or later in a vacuum, or are usually only much better later in the game.


Conditional Ramp
Conditional ramp refers to cards that either have specific activation requirements, certain requirements to even work, or need other crutch cards to actually effectively ramp.

Card Draw
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Ramp may be the cornerstone of a deck, but there's no point in having mana if there's nothing to cast. Card draw is the axle-grease that keeps the deck capable of building upon itself in a game.

Like with ramp, I recommend at least 15 sources of card draw. It may sound excessive, but I personally classify a huge range of card effects under its umbrella, including cantrips, discard-draw effects and wheel effects. To me, the filtering provided by such effects to get to the correct cards you want to be casting at any given time qualifies them under the primary objective of drawing.

That being said, card advantage is an important factor, especially in a multiplayer game and as such between all sources of draws I recommend at the very least about 8 (preferably 10) of your draws are capable of generating card advantage, be it directly (one-shot draw multiples, or strong straightforward draw engines) or indirectly (can be cast multiple times by itself, or generates synergy with the deck's theme to do so like an on-theme conditional engine).
As most cards primarily placed for their drawing abilities are pretty straightforward, I will not be explaining each of the common sections and the choices that fall under them.

Single-Use

Repeatable Draw

Tutors

Most of G's more famous tutors, such as Worldly Tutor, Tooth and Nail and Birthing Pod center around a card type we've chosen to abstain from, so we've effectively rendered ourselves with almost no tutors. Ring of the Three Wishes can work here, but it's pretty slow to the point I'd opted for relying on more draw options instead.
Removal
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EDH games are not played in vacuum – as much as you're ramping, drawing cards and presenting threats, so are your opponents. Someone has to be faster than someone else in most games and it's unlikely you're always the fastest on board. The ability to dispose of threats that would otherwise end the game (or you from the game) should never be underestimated.

At the same time, there's only so much space you can afford for removal, especially having spent space for ramp and card draw and needing some for other utilities. I cannot you teach you the specifics as it differs game-to-game, but threat assessment is key skill in any EDH game, as it can easily seem that there are more threats than you have answers for, as there are three opponents. You need to identify which threats are the most dangerous to you, preferably as early as possible, but only dispose of them in a timely fashion, not necessarily as early as possible. If a threat has a chance to pose a bigger threat to another opponent, then it may be beneficial to either let it weaken said opponent first or let them notice the threat (even if it's blatant verbal politics) and spend their removal to get rid of a problem for you.

Removal is divided into two main catergories, Spot Removal, which are cards that remove usually one, but can be up to a few targets (and usually do use a targeting mechanic). The other is board-wipes, which refer to cards capable of removing an entire subset of cards (or almost) from every player (or opponent, but those usually cost more) in the game.

Counterspells for most part are almost always considered single-target removals, as the bulk of them are usually used to negate a singular threat before it manifests. There's some debate because there's an array of cards that exile entire graveyards, but I personally classify all grave hate to be single-target removal on the concept that most decks that don't rely on the graveyard as theme still do have some limited recursion options, and the reason one utilizes an entire graveyard exile is simply because the cards that perform them tend to be more cost-effective, and the real objective is usually a specific card. Sure, sometimes you hit a graveyard-reliant opponent and it feels like a boardwipe, but I don't feel that means I have to classify all cards that entire exile graveyards as wipes because they're opponent-dependent.

I recommend at least a minimum of 8 spot removals, with a reinforcement of 10-minimum if you're unsure about your threat assessment skills. Unless you have really good synergy with your removal options, generically around a cap of 12 spot removals should be ceiling, otherwise it'll pressure too little space for your utilities. Cover all your bases, make sure you have at least a way to get rid of graveyards and lands, as removals for those two are often overlooked while threats they present are no less dangerous than your usual culprits.

With board wipes my minimum recommendation is at least 3 and preferably 2 of those are capable of removing creatures, the most common permanent threat-type by nature of damage, but there should also be at least one option capable of handling artifacts and enchantments. Generally speaking mass land removal is socially frowned upon (especially if you're just going for walk-in games), so pay extra attention back to your spot removal to handle the notorious few problem-lands in the game.

Like with draw, the removal effects themselves are straightforward, with my emphasis already done on ensuring you have the diversity to deal with threats of varying natures being the actual important factor. Hence, I'm not explaining my specific choices in each deck and substitutes for this section are arguably the easiest to look for with any collection.

Spot Removal

Board Wipes
PRO (Protection, Recusion & Others)
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With three pillars of any EDH deck settled, we move on to slightly less important parts (no part can be considered unimportant because an EDH deck is supposed to be a machine with all its part working in sync ideally). Protection & Recursion can be said to be two sides of a same coin, under a function of keeping other parts of deck intact so those could perform their duties. Basically the opposite of removal, the attempt to keep your threats intact (or returning/reusing them after they got disposed).

Protection & Recusion

Protection is pro-active and prevents a card of yours from either be removed, or at least it helps by hindering your opponents from doing so (so effects that grant shroud or hexproof qualify). This prevents the card from leaving the battlefield or get countered, so it's less vulnerable to grave hate options, but in exchange, protection requires timing and mana left open and can be tricky to maneuver, even more so than threat assessment. Some counterspells can function as protection, but for simplicity's sake I just classified them under removal due to my processing order, but take note if you already run counterspells they might be pulling double-duty as Protection.

Recursion, as I said, is the opposite of the same coin. It doesn't prevent the destruction, but bringing something back from the graveyard to the hand, deck or battlefield means there's no real timing restriction outside your own personal urgency. Likewise, it's vulnerable to gravehate, which is arguably the #1 factor that would provide a sense of timing urgency.

While they're distinct enough that I have to provide paragraphs establishing their roles, Protection and Recursion could be said to be one tier below the three pillars of deckbuilding (ramp, card draw & removal), as it's theoretically possible for a deck to just ignore it altogether and operate on "If it's gone, it's gone" principle) and still reasonably perform well if it's other components are settled well. This cannot be said for the three pillars (which would visibly affect performance significantly more if they were missing).

That being said, it definitely never hurts to have some countermeasures of your own against removals, especially if your deck's themes and/or combos are heavily reliant on one card with poor redundancies/substitutes. There's no real "guide number", but I'd recommend around 5 in total, divided any way you want between the two sub-types. Most preferably your choices have synergy with your Commander of deck theme, even if it means going all-in with one and ignoring another.

Protection

Recursion
Others
Actually more accurately referred to as Utility (but PRO sounded much better than PRU), this is the "last" section you fill in. But wait, isn't mana-fixing lands after this? Yes, which is why you need to do one thing before you starting filling this "last" section, which is to clarify your numbers.
Walls of Text, but Critical to Deckbuilding
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At this point you need to tabulate the total number of cards already in your deck. Then you need to determine the number of lands you need in your deck. It may feel like a contradiction to think how many lands you need before you got all your non-lands in to determine your mana curve/intensity, but blindly going in more-often results in people loving to stuff it to the gills only to find out they only have space left for 20 lands (which is a big NO-NO), which is why this guide even focuses on establishing numbers for all your three pillars and PR before moving to this Utility section, which is probably the most "fun" part of deckbuilding.

If you completely have no idea of what your mana curve/intensity would look like, the general recommendation for total land count is to be at 38 lands. If it's not your first time building a deck and you could sort of mentally preview your curve to be much lower than the average, there's an argument for cutting down up to 2 lands, and if you're running Mana Crypt like me, you could safely reduce the count by 1. That makes the absolute minimum land count 35 and even then you really must anticipate/know your mana curve accurately.

On the opposite path, if you know you're putting too much weight, you might want to up to count by a couple at most, and even then 40 lands does put you at a risk of land-bloating that I would whether recommend you keep a tight rein on both the 38 land count and the "calorie intake" of your card choices instead. The only exception is if your deck is a lands-matter deck, and assuming it's a main theme of the deck, the numbers are skewed to around 40-minimum-to-45-maximum with no real average. There are some other decks out there that really delve deep into the theme with 50+ lands that do work, but I don't specialize in that and will not elaborate further (and 99-land decks are their own thing).

Let's say you took the 38-land assumption (no Crypt) and booted up on the minimum/average recommended suggestions I made (15 ramp, 15 draw, 13 removal and 5 PRs). That brings the total to 86 cards. Not counting the Commander (and I'm assuming no Partners), that leaves a whooping total of 13 spaces left for your utility, "fun" stuff. Sounds incredibly small, sad and not enough space for all the awesome ideas you had for your deck but now can't fit in.

It'll be tempting to start trimming cards from the prior sections, but please do not, for that is the most common temptation newer/casual players fall for, only to find out their deck doesn't churn along because the pillars that keep the deck (including the "fun" parts) running just aren't up to the task.

But, now is the time to restore a bit of hope. It's time to check back on the cards already in the deck and see how many lands are already residing there. Did you use Ancient Tomb as ramp? Did you let War Room smooth out your draws? Did you file Buried Ruin under recursion because you didn't want to waste a spell slot to get back one important but not numerous artifact in the deck? Everyone land you already used counts under the land total, which means you free one more space for your utility fun.

But what happens if you found out you didn't have that many lands that helped you free up space? Then I'd recommend you start looking up for those lands to take over some of your nonland choices in these categories to create that space. The secret to a well-oiled EDH deck that has space for its luxury plays is the one that finds the most land openings to fill in the pillars of its own oiling, not just cutting the pillars off for luxuries that no pillars are around left to support.

When it's done you should have around 15 to 20 open spaces for your utilities/fun (I actually have less because I usually go a couple above the recommended minimum for my pillars). It can still feel "little", especially for newer players, but at this point I just have to say that's the sacrifice it takes to be able to get what you consider fun up-and-running in a 99-card deck format with so much variance, it certainly isn't just 60+ cards of fun and lands. That's why like how you find lands in your pillar card-choices to make space, it's in your best interests to find nonland cards in those sections as well that synergize better with your themes, so that your pillars are also fun to play with as well.
Another small beacon of light to look forward to, there are lands that are utility and/or fun, and like with all lands before them, they fall under the land total quota, so they don't eat up your remaining spaces. That Treetop Village that isn't really protection but just small utility? Doesn't eat up your remaining establish space.

One very important thing to note when distinguishing if a land actually falls under the land total. I do not consider lands that are incapable of producing mana by themselves in a vacuum to one, if they're in for a non mana-fixing reason (which is why I count those last) and can't produce mana on their own, they're functionally like 0-mana "non-land" cards in a way. Maze of Ith strikes as the most common example (and no, even if you run Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth in the deck it doesn't just reverse this classification in the deckbuilding process, which usually favor in-a-vacuum status.
With the importance of juggling numbers in this section finally out of the way, let's briefly go through my miscellaneous card choices.
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Core/Combo

As I said, Re:Commanders decks are almost always built with combo-ways to close the games in case the primary win condition style is rendered unachievable, hence the pieces for these combos are usually my first priority in filling out my utility spaces. As I have a section dedicated to explaining the combos, I'll leave this part as short as possible.

Token Generation

These are the cards whose primary function is to generate tokens. It seems little, but they're not the only token producers, just the ones whose only function is essentially that, whereas the others also fill in for more "important" roles in the sections prior – a reminder that cross-synergy is important even for selecting candidates for the pillars of ramp, draw and removal.

Support

Doubling Season is the most costly, but because it affects the Commander, I daresay it's also the most powerful/crucial. Parallel Lives is more of an enhancer and while I daresay it's still important because of how weak the deck is (and needs the enhancing), if you could stretch your budget to Doubling Season but not both, then forgo it for Season.

I would recommend Primal Vigor as the closest substitute for Parallel Lives (we don't use enough +1/+1 counters that generally speaking Parallel Lives' cheaper mana cost is more beneficial and hence is the better card), but it might not exactly qualify for budget either.

Other Utility
Just some utility cards to round the deck up. Freyalise's Winds is a thematic stax card that works with proliferate. The planeswalkers serve multiple roles across different sections above, so I've just decided to group all of them simply here instead.
Color-Fixing Lands
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At this point you should be done with all your nonland cards, and with some lands slots already taken up, you should roughly have about 30 land slots left in a multicolored deck, or substantially less (around 25) for a monocolored deck.

This is a mono-colored deck, so there isn't a need for color-fixing. Due to aesthetics I don't run off-color fetches, which means I don't run any in my mono-color decks, but you can include up to 4 (Wooded Foothills, Windswept Heath, Verdant Catacombs and Misty Rainforest) if you want to, for technical optimal deck thinning purposes.

Piloting the Deck

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I'm not going in-depth into this section (partially because I haven't had many actual games myself), but if you've established an understanding of how each card in the deck works, I don't think I need to overtly dictate specifically how any of my decks should play out in a game. Bluntly speaking, you need to ramp and set up draws as early as possible, and your starting hand should revolve around that set-up. General threat assessment usually means don't waste your removal on early "threats" that aren't lethal or overtly crippling (unless someone's super-aggro), you'll need to juggle around the mid-game and if you've resourcefully saved them could afford to be a little trigger happy nearer to the end-game.

Mulligan & Early Game (T1-T4)

Many of the engines in the deck (token, draw or stax) are pretty costly and could easily eat a turn up, so ramping is the number one priority in the early game. In a deck where Helix Pinnacle is the win condition, there's really no such thing as excessive mana production. The idea is to ramp to the point where you can comfortably drop one of your engines and still have mana left for defensive measures (or to feed win conditions if no defense is required).

Dropping an early token generator like Awakening Zone would be wise, even if only to guard against early aggression without having to lose too much resources, your few key removal pieces would generally serve better later in the game.

Mid-Game (T5-7/8)

Ideally by now you've at least gotten a token generator and draw engine online. The mid-game is similar to the early game, except it's the expansion of token generation and card draw, and a shift from ramping (although ramp is almost never bad any time) towards attrition, because your opponents should also be gearing as well.

Ideally around this phase you deploy some of the stax options as part of the attrition package and have enough generation to make sure you come out ahead of the this war. In slower games you could be rounding up the mid-game by deploying them instead.

Also, the mid-game should be the time you've already started setting up the win-conditions, be it Pinnacle or Throne, because those really need time to get going. There's a solid chance you didn't see either piece and some aggressive drawing might be required during this phase.

Late-Game (T8+)

Ideally by now you've kick-started the win conditions, or even better are already halfway through with them. Token production and card draw should be peaking and if you haven't deployed the stax attrition tools, better get going on that so that they can support the win-conditions.

In the games you've determined you already can't win attrition, then generating infinite mana with Basalt Monolith in a "final" attempt at Helix Pinnacle should go. Failing that, then I'm afraid that you really have to pilot the tokens in an attempt to simply beat them down, with hopefully Throne and/or other opponents having already reducing each others' lives to make the job somewhat easier.

Remember, ultimately in a typical 4-player game where there can only be 1 winner, the odds are stacked against each player individually and the war of attrition is just a matter of who's the lucky one who managed to get his beatdown/combo down at the right moment when the other three exhausted all their immediate resources.

Combo Strategies


As much Mana as there are Leaves in the Forest
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There's only one combo in this deck and it's obvious as day (and that's even before considering I've already mentioned it multiple times in this guide). It's primary purpose is to fuel Helix Pinnacle for a final attempt of winning that way, but there are is an alternative way to utilize the infinite mana, thanks to one powerful card that was once upon a time banned in the format.


At last we shall see denouement,
in between the applause.

Basically, you could draw your entire deck, but the main crux is to generate a bunch of tokens (with Beacon of Creation), then tap them all down with the staff, then let Throne of the God-Pharaoh do its thing. Beacon does cost G per cycle (since the infinite mana is colorless), but chances are that you should produce enough tokens to complete the job.

With the addition of Staff of Compleation, while the newer staff can't go infinite on its own with just mana, Staff of Domination can net you infinite life, so it's a secondary add-on for more fun ways to finish the game, including proliferating everything and producing colored mana (although as of now I don't really have unique outlets to make use of the colors).

Closing


This brings us to the end of this guide for Freyalise, the Oathbreaker. My most innovative deck, but the same restriction that gave it that title also made it arguably the weakest deck in the suite. But for all its intentional flaws I enjoyed the concept and never felt bad playing it in practice (although it could be because my flagship deck is creature-heavy and hence acts as a counter-balance).

There was one time someone hit me multiple times with Lord of the Void, with the justification that "it's a G deck it must have some juicy creatures to steal!". I decided to be coy and never revealed the deck's gimmick until the game was over (I obviously didn't win that game) but I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in a game before. Honestly, that memory alone probably is strong enough to justify why I'm likely never going to change the deck's concept as long as the suite is around (and I'm locked to G anyway).

Flavor

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Well, this is no primer, so instead of giving credits, I'm just going to the customized flavortown for the deck. (Actually the real reason is I sort of just absorbed random tidbits over the decades and can't remember all the specific sources I got, some I simply kept/forgot in my brain until years later, only randomly recalling the tidbit when I come up or have to refine my ideas/decks).

I'll be honest, because this deck was blatantly built bottom-up mechanically around a restriction concept there isn't really flavor. Yes, I run Freyalise's Winds (and tried Song of Freyalise before) as a small nod to the Commander, but the deck as a whole concentrates on trying to make its mechanical aspects work.

Everything coated with flavor here was pretty loosely applied on the idea that I was trying out such an unorthodox concept. The epithet was taken directly from the Oathbreaker format which spawned itself from Commander (and before that I just used placeholder titles I wasn't attached to and can't even recall now actually). The quote is from the RWBY Yellow trailer, but mostly because I felt the words themselves also resonated with the idea of "weird ideas are shunned", not because of its source (and spark is wordplay for a Planeswalker Commander).


"Senbonzakura" serves as the deck's theme song, alongside the 7 other songs (Each Re:Commander deck is assigned 8 songs, one as its own theme song and one that it shares with each of the other 7 decks of the suite). Links to each song are below, and disclaimer that it's safer to assume every link is NSFW than vice-versa so make sure you're in your safest environment before pressing any links.

(Theme Song) Senbonzakura
(Song with Najeela) Paradox
(Song with Yorion) X4B the Guardian
(Song with Extus) Ignite
(Song with Ryusei) Boiling Blood
(Song with Karador) Sajajihen
(Song with Animar) Blumenkranz
(Song with Grimgrin) Requiem
If you enjoyed this [Re:Commanders] thread and would like to see another one, feel free to visit either the main [Re:Commanders] hub or any of the other [Re:Commanders] threads linked below

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