Feather, the Redeemed - Weaponised Jankmas Incarnate

User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

Yeah, Reckless Rage is the best of the bunch, to the point where I'm running it. However, the other variants seem like more mana for less gain. True, Fire can go to face, but every card can have its day given the correct circumstances. I've died because of being unable to block a Wing Splicer swinging at me on the ground.

Sneak Attack is less good tech here because my creatures are cheap, but I can see it being great in an ETB deck with some high-end haymakers, you're making good use of it. I guess I should try out Veilstone Amulet one day, it looks tempting.

I guess there's pretty consistent testimony that Boros Charm is on the lower end of the deck's power, I've earmarked it as the current Goldspan Dragon cut. Maybe something else will come to mind, but I doubt it. In my list, it's a leftover relic of Paradox Engine combo kills which still sometimes does enough to not feel completely dead. Speaking of every card having its day actually - the last time I drew it, I gave Feather double strike and killed a guy a turn early.

Aria of Flame is not global, it's a single-target zing. But if Liege works for you then cool. Phalanx Leader is a solid token pumper, but he fell out of my list and I don't miss him. Tokens are for chumping, Phyrexian Altar fuel and Zada empowering, including via Fists of Flame finishing. When every one of the chumps gets upward of +30 power, all other pumps kind of stop mattering.

Sorry for the mild delay of reply, got distracted with real life matters. You inspired me to write back in here with your comment about Clarion Spirit. I don't think it's Feather material - I often find myself circulating a solitary cantrip or other value spell, only adding more stuff to the rotation once I have the mana for it. Plus this caps out at one token a turn. It just feels like an all-around weak token producer, and this is coming from a guy who's still jamming the heroic ones in his list.
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

Tags:

User avatar
BeneTleilax
Posts: 1330
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by BeneTleilax » 3 years ago

I tend to run spot removal anywhere it doesn't cost me net CA, just because of how it lets me play politics. As for Clarion Spirit, I'll test it in place of Akroan Crusader, because I feel like it will give me more tokens over a game.

User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

Yeah, and that's perfectly valid. I tend to go light on removal, letting people have their fun.

Do report back with findings - I've done really stupid things like not put Anointed Procession into my Daxos because it was "winmore" :P maybe this new token dude will actually be fine? Matching him up with how I tend to pilot the deck doesn't seem to indicate that would be the case though.
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

User avatar
BeneTleilax
Posts: 1330
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by BeneTleilax » 3 years ago

It might well go back to the differences in our builds, because I tend to play a bit more reactive on opponents' turns, I meet Doot Ghost's trigger more often.

gunar
Posts: 9
Joined: 3 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by gunar » 3 years ago

wondering if Birgi, God of Storytelling could make her way in here...gaining one mana per spell is really nice. I tend to need alot more white mana than red mana tho. Goldspan seems nice as I have yet to cut smothering tithe. My play group always seems to find some way to kill my extortist or play a board wipe that removes its targets.

User avatar
BeneTleilax
Posts: 1330
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by BeneTleilax » 3 years ago

After some testing, Goldspan Dragon is nuts and almost always wins me the game if it resolves. Doot ghost is okay, I've found it generates around 1.5 bodies a turn cycle. I think having enough airborne garbage to block scary fliers puts it over the threshold of playability, but it's nothing to write home about.

User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

KHM Change


How long after KHM spoilers came out are we? I don't even want to think about it. I typically make the rounds in about a day or two, but this time around I just kind of lost the will to do anything somewhere along the way. Especially as the main conclusion from the set was already drawn - Goldspan Dragon is ridiculous and goes in immediately. Let's get that out of the way then.

KHM Change
Approximate Total Cost:

I took a while thinking about potential cuts to make room for Goldspan. Boros Charm is the weakest of the spells, its combo days are long gone, its board-wide indestructibility less impressive since focus moved to Zada Hoof for winning, its double strike under-utilised. A package of interesting options for two mana, in a land where you have to do something truly special to cost more than one. Sunforger, with its ridiculous mana intensity and ultimately narrow bag of tricks. Aria of Flame/Guttersnipe due to them pretty much being backups for Fishbowl/Zada Hoof wins. Akroan Crusader/Vanguard of Brimaz because I can see Goldspan being a targeting hog, driving their effectiveness down, kind of how Tenth District Legionnaire never really made it. Heck, even Kor Cartographer/Solemn Simulacrum because they are ultimately rather slow. Or Psychotic Fury, the two mana cantrip that can't be Zada radiated. Being away from the deck for a bit helped me look at things with a fresh eye and pick up a bunch of weak spots to probe for cuts later. I ultimately went with Boros Charm. It's not that it's a bad card, but the list has just been going in a different direction and doesn't make particularly good use of any of the modes anymore. It's kind of neat how Charm, the last piece of the old Pengine combo, gets phased out just as the new powerhouse engine gets put in and the last mention of Pengine gets scrubbed from the main text of the primer. When Pengine went, I put in a cheap dig instant in its place. In a way, this is just undoing that cut after a while :P

There are a number of other potential cards worth discussing in KHM, but none make it into the deck.
  • Alpine Meadow has land types, so it can be gotten by Kor Cartographer and fetches. But that's it. And the deck wants to come blazing out of the gates, so it doesn't have time for taplands.
  • Axgard Armory gets Sunforger, for the Sunforger-inclined Feather builds. However, it is a tapland, and costs an effective five mana (plus a land sac) to get the effect going. I just can't imagine myself ever using it.
  • Birgi, God of Storytelling is a card I thought I'd love. I shepherded a guy into some test games... and it did nothing. Turns out that the deck spending most of its time casting instants for W does not cooperate super well with an engine piece that rewards you for it with a R. One for the more red-inclined decks, or just ones that run more 2+ drop spells. I did have a few explosive main phases with rocks and permanents. Add the power for this to more reliably contribute to spell spamming and suddenly it becomes a valid include. I just found it too clunky and inconsistent.
  • Clarion Spirit returns 1.5 bodies on average per turn cycle, as per BeneTleilax above. I can believe that, with appropriate sequencing. Still, the rate of return is lower than the other token producers, and even the heroic ones can get a better thing going if they get to be the targets.
  • Glorious Protector is another Lumbering Battlement for the more blink inclined builds, with the extra power to flash out and nope a mass interaction spell. Not for this take on Feather, but I can imagine a number of people being happy about this.
  • Wings of the Cosmos is technically a one mana repeatable instant. It's not the worst thing in the world, think I'd run Djeru's Resolve over it though.
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

User avatar
BeneTleilax
Posts: 1330
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by BeneTleilax » 3 years ago

Glorious Protector's inability to get Feather makes it rather disappointing. I went all in on a flicker plan and it was subpar in my tests. Both her and Battlement need to have a bunch of good flicker creatures in play to be worth it, and in my experience there are two terms for that board state: "badly overextended" and "already won"

User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

Yeah, my insight into blink Feather is second hand observation only. I guess you can hide Feather under Lumbering Battlement if you insta-flicker it in response to a wipe. Being winmore technically depends on how many ETBs are likely to come out over the course of a regular setup, but all of that is quite mana intensive. And then the mega-blinker costs mana too.
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

User avatar
pokken
Posts: 6281
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 2
Pronoun: he / him

Post by pokken » 3 years ago

Eh, I feel like the tools are definitely there for a really nice feather flicker list. Stuff like Goblin Dark-Dwellers resetting/recasting spells for free, Sun Titan reanimating feather, etc. I think it's probably more a matter of it taking a lot of testing to get the right ratio of everything.

You ought to be able to put people down pretty fast with Felidar Guardian combos - say, Restoration Angel + Felidar Guardian + Purphoros, God of the Forge type effects, or just win by accumulating insane amounts of value.

Stacking some card draw dudes like Wall of Omens and Bedlam Reveler and Seasoned Pyromancer could let you crank through your deck pretty fast.

Figuring out the right balance of bombs to draw dudes to control guys is probably hard. Feather's ability to let you Skyclave Apparition over and over again with Cloudshift is really damn powerful though.

User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

Oh, there are some Feather flickers going around. BeneTleilax dropped one in here recently, darrenhabib has a thread. Pretty sure he used to run some Kiki combos. I've kept my ETBs cheap and efficient (well, mostly :P ) - why would I spend all this mana/effort on the dedicated flicker strat when I can just Heal stuff?
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

"Image"
courtesy of Greendawg, who also made the thread's banner

Storm-Kiln Artist is obscenely good, and everything Birgi, God of Storytelling teased at. Yeah yeah, you don't get to make mana off non-spell plays, but sink four mana into this bugger and that's the mana returns of a Phyrexian Altar plus swarm setup, in one card. Oh and it also happens to be recruiterable, by both recruiters. I have no idea what's up with all the zada.dec support recently, but I will happily take it! I'm interested to see what else magecraft might bring to the table, but even if this is it for meaningful contributions then Feather made out like a bandit for the second set running. One could even offer the hot take that Dorf is better than Goldspan in a way, due to the whole recruiterability business.

Things are pretty cool in Feather land on the whole. The TSR printing is tempting me, as I'm an old border fiend. The deck gets walked sometimes, and I had a neat game about a month ago where some backline performers got their chance to shine. The draw was rather middling, there wasn't a lot to do, Feather only came out on turn five after I topdecked a cantrip. However, there was an Unwinding Clock plus various rocks. One of the foes started building up some creatures, so Intimidation Bolt kept him from swinging as Guttersnipe shredded through the opposition. Two of the guys died somewhere in the middle of turn seven, but the board presence guy I had to stop from punching wasn't having any of it and was gaining crazy life off Purity instead. However, he was quite light on fliers, so Feather got to have protection from white and rolled in as a double striking six-power on turns seven and eight. And that was that. A nice reminder of what cool things those cards can do, and why they're in the list.
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

RhysticSage
Posts: 1
Joined: 3 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by RhysticSage » 3 years ago

Just wanted to say I think Ojutai Exemplars deserve more love.

A 4 mana 4/4 is fine base line body. A little high on our curve, but not untenable.

Blinking itself out is a good defense and ensures our investment pays off. It makes him a really good blocker and nearly impossible to remove, and he does it with basically no investment.

First strike and lifelink are probably the worst, but it's enough to dissuade attackers or blockers and it's a nice trick in conjunction with other buffs. Again, pure upside.

Tapping creatures isn't the best removal out there, but being able to do it 4 or 5 times per turn cycle for free is really powerful. Defensively, you can lock down powerful attackers effortlessly while filling your hand. Offensively, you can clear out problematic blockers while pumping up your board. Politically, I've eliminated players by simply lowering their defenses and opening them up to their opponents.

It's good on attack. It's good on defense. It's nearly impossible to remove, and it turns every cantrip into board interaction.

The only drawback is that you can't recruit it

User avatar
pokken
Posts: 6281
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 2
Pronoun: he / him

Post by pokken » 3 years ago

4 mana plays in this deck need to be absolutely bomb diggity to be considered. Look at the 4 cmc spells. They're all wincons pretty much. The only incremental value at 4 is Solemn and Kor Cartographer because they create an overwhelming mana advantage after a single turn cycle most of the time (and honestly I suspect those will start to get replaced as cards like that new treasure making dude come in). Solemn/Cartographer also have value when they drop which exemplars does not.

User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

I'm with pokken on this one - the deck likes rocking a lean and mean curve, and the higher up the mana values we go the more stringent it gets. Plus, for one mana more you get Akroan Conscriptor, who is just flat out better. Why tap a blocker when you can slam it in their face instead? Or yoink something (like a swinger) mid-combat, possibly block with it? And do gross things with Cloudshift and removal spells? Even then, in the great rock-paper-scissors-off, the Conscriptor eventually lost his place to Meteor Golem as a more versatile answer piece, which then got trimmed as seven drop.

The KHM update post where I poked at the weak points at the deck, in tandem with Dorf's reveal, has some part of me want to take a machete to the deck and do a lot of cuts. Like pokken pointed out, Dorf is the same mana value as Kor Cartographer, dammit! Thing is, there are more cuts than includes. What good will cutting the Depression Automaton do if there's nothing relevant to replace it with? However, we're on the brink of a very spells-matter set, with the theme leaking into Boros if Returned Pastcaller is anything to go on. There's a good chance I'll be armed with some good putative includes in a week or so. Hoping the inevitable magecraft Peezy ends up in {R/W} for us to use it :P At the same time, I'm trying to temper expectations - while the set's theme seems tailor made for Feather, TBD looked like the ideal match for Daxos yet turned out to be a flop and a half.
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

User avatar
BeneTleilax
Posts: 1330
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by BeneTleilax » 3 years ago

I think Dorf, Goldspan, Extortionist and Smothering Tithe start to constitute a proper Treasure package for this deck. Wondering if Magda might be worthwhile to fetch Dragon Zada and Goldie.

User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

I stumbled upon this cEDH-adjacent take on Feather, and I'd say it's the cleanest one yet. One of the multitude of combo lines it supports is Cloudstone Curio abuse making active use of Magda. That said, I'm really not sure whether we want Magda without this sort of combo setup. As you pointed out, there's some treasure support, but rather finite all things considered. Let's assume we manage to get some of it online, and rather than using them immediately we bank up to five. Then we can crack it and go get one of the bomb dragons onto the pitch. So ultimately the cost of a Magda and five treasures, net seven mana to get a dragon, overhead of two. May as well run Sarkhan's Triumph instead, as that has an overhead of three and doesn't need any other stars to align. True, it won't get both of the power bomber dragons out, which Magda might given enough time, but let's be real here - one bomb dragon tends to be strong enough :P

I could have sworn we talked about this already, but I've found Smothering Tithe to be way too slow to matter in Feather. Might be a playgroup thing, where the guys don't draw a ton and pay the 2 surprisingly often. What are your experiences with it, dear readers?
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

User avatar
Crazy Monkey
Arcane Themes
Posts: 571
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: New Mexico, US

Post by Crazy Monkey » 3 years ago

What are your thoughts on Sudden Breakthrough here? Even without a Zada/dragon for maximum treasure count it's still effectively low cost Gemstone Array and once Goldspan Dragon is out it's +2 mana every turn.

I'm 80% sure it's going to make it in my Feather build.
Commander Decks


Kemba | Kytheon | Talrand | Unesh | Teferi | Geth | primer Zada | Krenko | Torbran | Patron Orochi | Ghalta | Gargos | Medomai | The Count | Xenagos | Nikya | Jaheira, Artisan | Trostani | Athreos | Jarad | Ivy | Nin | Krark & Sakashima | Feather | Osgir | Gisela | Roon | Chulane | Sydri | Ertai | Mairsil | Vial & Malcolm | Prossh | Marath | Marisi | Syr Gwyn | Riku | Riku | Animar | Ghave | Tasigur | Muldrotha | Rayami | Zedruu | Yidris | Kynaios & Tiro | Saskia | Tymna & Kydele | Atraxa | Akiri & Silas | Sisay | Ur Dragon | Bridge | Horde | Najeela | Genju | Traxos



User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

One of the quirks of Feather is that despite rocking a deck with a negligible curve, it can often feel like you could make use of a lot more mana than you have access to. This is why something like Dorf is so stupid in here, as he single-handedly unlocks your hand's full potential and you can start blasting all the one-drop spells. Even engines with more limited returns, like Unwinding Clock or a flickered Dockside Extortionist, tend to do wonders. However, costing one mana versus two mana is a big deal for a recyclable spell, as the only engine piece that doesn't care is the almighty Goldspan. And this becomes all the more exacerbated if you're stuck with mana pocket change and no engine piece. All in all, it's very hard to make it into the list as a two-drop spell - you cost twice as much as a one-drop, and there are plenty of cantrips and protection spells there which are very useful.

The list of 2+ CMC recyclable instants that survived so far:
  • Apostle's Blessing/Ephemeral Shields - effectively cost less mana to do
  • Eerie Interlude - slow-blinks whole non-token creature population, good at dodging whatever nonsense and keeping the whole engine afloat
  • Fists of Flame - a wincon with Zada, and a cantrip otherwise
  • Intimidation Bolt - a silver bullet that prevents combat, which can be useful at stalling big armies while getting set up
  • Liberate/Long Road Home/Otherworldly Journey - slow-blinks are the best at protecting from interaction, so it's worth paying double for the all-purpose shielding
  • Psychotic Fury - technically a cantrip, but can't be Zada radiated which works to its detriment; helps accelerate Feather voltron kills if needed against specific problem opponents before the rest of the engine comes together
  • Shelter - a protection spell and a cantrip pasted together
Sudden Breakthrough is the most comparable to Fists of Flame, as with Zada and even a modest board the Breakthrough becomes one of those mana engines that just keep on giving. Mana engines are good! However, if there's no Zada, the floor of the card is to spend two mana to bank a treasure for later. It really feels like you can do better things with the mana, especially as this is a two-drop.

I'm a bit torn, but leaning on no. The potential is there, but it requires a Zada to ascend into something useful. And if we've landed a Zada, we're almost certainly going to be fine :P
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

User avatar
Crazy Monkey
Arcane Themes
Posts: 571
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: New Mexico, US

Post by Crazy Monkey » 3 years ago

I didn't realize that you aren't running much (any?) recursion, but Mavinda, Students' Advocate is the type of repeatable recursion that I like in my build. The 1/turn limitation doesn't hurt due to the overall tempo of the deck. I'm personally planning to drop Past in Flames for it. That said, my wincons are much more instant dependent (eg. Arcbond+Martyrdom) so perhaps it's not needed when you're winning on Aria of Flame et all.
Commander Decks


Kemba | Kytheon | Talrand | Unesh | Teferi | Geth | primer Zada | Krenko | Torbran | Patron Orochi | Ghalta | Gargos | Medomai | The Count | Xenagos | Nikya | Jaheira, Artisan | Trostani | Athreos | Jarad | Ivy | Nin | Krark & Sakashima | Feather | Osgir | Gisela | Roon | Chulane | Sydri | Ertai | Mairsil | Vial & Malcolm | Prossh | Marath | Marisi | Syr Gwyn | Riku | Riku | Animar | Ghave | Tasigur | Muldrotha | Rayami | Zedruu | Yidris | Kynaios & Tiro | Saskia | Tymna & Kydele | Atraxa | Akiri & Silas | Sisay | Ur Dragon | Bridge | Horde | Najeela | Genju | Traxos



User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

So here's the thing about me and recursion - I predominantly play with my established group. I dislike venturing into games with randoms, as people on Cockatrice are not the best at communicating about power expectations pre game, And within the established group, people have a good understanding of how the other decks work. This is not abused to run super narrow silver bullet answers, mind you, but for example the other guys know that Feather is ripe with protection spells. Having lost the stack wars they tried early to bust up the setup, they've learned from their mistakes and just hope that something dies to wipes when those come out. As a result, I don't really lose spells during a game. I have a history of cutting responsible backup plan cards, because usually the main plan works out and then they're just sitting there. Recursion in Feather is one of those backup plan things.

Mavinda is the best piece yet for Feather recursion. I'd run this over Past in Flames any day. However, it is a recursion piece, and as mentioned those just sit unused in hand and get themselves cut. This one is a little different as it enables pretty gross Path/Swords play patterns if some sort of swarming is also located (you use the hand copy of the removal spell to blow up an opposing creature, then consume a token when Mavinda picks it up to get it back). This means that it could contribute something even in the event that recursion is not needed. I've been toying with the idea of playing Feather more aggressively in Cockatrice pubs as it tends to hold its own there, and if so then this sort of responsible include is probably a good idea as I feel out the waters. Regardless, dear reader, you should probably run this in your Feather. Do as I say on this one, not as I do :P

Seeing how I'm posting in here already, may as well dig into further playtest observations from STX. I've got 10+ cards jotted down for discussion, and while I'll save most for the update post as they'll be quite brief, one deserves a bit more elaboration - Academic Dispute. I was fully expecting a one mana learn option to come along, and for me to prefer the rummage to scrying. Thing is, weirdly, I don't. As it turns out, by the mid game a lot of junk gets itself cast, and the stuff left in hand as Feather nests on the field tends to be a selection of utility instants. Scrying is cool with that, scrying goes digging for whatever narrow thing you need and ships 90% of stuff to the bottom en route. That's not great odds for ripping something relevant from the top. Cantrips are cool with that, as there's no opportunity cost. Rummage has an opportunity cost - you're giving up a card in a comparably sculpted grip to spin the wheel. Academic Dispute is a great spell to include in rotation when the hand is already quite fat and you can afford to pitch lands or whatever to keep digging, but it's a horrible thing to cast as the lone source of dig in the mid game as you're trying to come online.
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

User avatar
BeneTleilax
Posts: 1330
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by BeneTleilax » 3 years ago

Do you think Monologue Tax gets in here?

User avatar
pokken
Posts: 6281
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 2
Pronoun: he / him

Post by pokken » 3 years ago

BeneTleilax wrote:
3 years ago
Do you think Monologue Tax gets in here?

Wow I misread this as a draw not a treasure

Even as a treasure you're looking at basically +1 mana per turn cycle for this thing on the norm. I think that's too slow for 3 in this deck
Last edited by pokken 3 years ago, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

I'm leaning on no. Smothering Tithe this is not, and that already isn't in here.

I acknowledge that this isn't exactly transferable, but I playtested Mangara, the Diplomat quite a bit in my Daxos deck. That build operates at a slower pacing, and it likes its Smothering Tithe. Mangara barely did anything in there - people would just play single big spells most of the time, and on the occasion that they'd go deep on casting getting a single draw was not an adequate payoff. One particularly memorable line had a guy doing a bunch of sequential draw, into a tutor, into a wipe. And I got to put a Plains in my hand. Yay :P

Admittedly a single Treasure is less likely to get people to police themselves than actual card draw, so Monologue Tax merits some testing. Even then, this testing would predominantly be relevant to Daxos. I might change my perspective on this stuff once I start hitting up the Cockatrice pub circuit, but spending three mana on conditional ramp that depends on the opponents does not strike me as something this deck wants to be doing.
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

User avatar
Rumpy5897
Tuner of Jank
Posts: 1854
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

STX/C21 Changes


It's rare for a set so perfectly aligned with one of my decks to come out. Instants/sorceries matter, to the point of one of the two mechanics being all about casting and copying them. So it should come as no surprise that the set gave rise to a new one-drop instant cantrip and a three-mana cast swarmer... in Golgari?! Alas, the set turned out to be a huge collection of near misses, with the most promising ones already discussed in the prior posts. I'll summarise for the sake of compactness once the obvious swap happens.

STX/C21 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

So yeah, Dorf in. Looking at Dorf and my response to him made me fully appreciate just how much of a role the mana engines play in this deck, how pretty much every Recruiter is implied to get this guy unless counter-evidence is provided. This realisation led to increased emphasis on this in the strategy section of the write-up. Sarkhan's Triumph showing up in discussion about Magda made me realise that it's actually a sensible include in here, as it can get both Goldspan and Mirrorwing. While a single-target tutor, even for a Zada, was likely excessive, the card now reaches two crazy powerful pieces. Goblin Matron is in the list as a three-target toolbox tutor, and I'd say getting Goldspan is more impactful than getting Dockside.

The prior update's prodding at weak spots set up a lot of putative cuts, and Sunforger ends up getting the boot due to the oft acknowledged inefficiency. Stoneforge Mystic primarily existed in the list to have theoretical Sunforger reach, along with two pieces of ramp-oriented equipment. Dowsing Dagger and Sword of Feast and Famine are both pretty cool, but it does not merit keeping a toolbox tutor around for reaching them. With Sunforger gone, that most of the reason for running Mistveil Plains gone, so that turns back into a regular Plains.

STX/C21 card thoughts (most to make it to a primer update yet!):
  • I had high hopes for Academic Dispute, as in a vacuum it seemed a rummage would be better than a scry as a new card ends up in hand. As it turns out, by the early mid-game Feather hands condense to solid stuff worth keeping, and I was giving up an actual useful thing for digging through various junk. Strange outcome, but need to respect the playtest.
  • Archaeomancer's Map could be a source of winmore ramp, hitting some Burgeoning triggers off a cantrip-inflated hand. Three mana, only really works when already doing fine.
  • Beaming Defiance sees hexproof appear on a white instant. If we ever get a one-drop version, I'll have to do some thinking on running it. It's a side-grade from protection, as you get to dodge all forms of targeted removal (I'm coming for you, Duplicant!) at the cost of not avoiding damage wipes or combat shenanigans. I guess it depends on what else is stapled onto the instant.
  • Mavinda, Students' Advocate is a responsible recursion piece that moonlights as a repeatable source of removal for enemy creatures if in possession of a swarm engine. It helped that darrenhabib also doesn't seem to drop spells when jamming his Feather, so I can feel more okay with my irresponsibility :P
  • Reflective Golem could copy a cantrip for 2, I guess? It's rare to see a cantrip fully utilised until a mana engine rolls around, so this guy's window of effectiveness would be unbelievably narrow.
  • Rionya, Fire Dancer would be solid in a properly ETB oriented flicker build. That's a lot of ETB copies. Not a lot for me to do with them here, and Rionya's a five-drop too.
  • Semester's End is another one for the blink decks, an Eerie Interlude impersonator for four mana.
  • Show of Confidence is one for the voltron minded builds. Combine with two prior spells and that's already a permanent +3/+3, which goes a long way towards commander damage killing. Especially if double strike gets to come around too. Less useful here - if I get to 10+ storm, I probably try to end the game that turn rather than get matching stats onto my board.
  • Strict Proctor is an interesting hatebear, and could be of use for versions of the deck interested in that sort of stuff. I'm not sure how the hatebear'y decks look upon an ETB subtheme, in terms of nonbos. I'd imagine it's not a major factor.
  • Sudden Breakthrough is a mana engine that requires Zada to function. Its floor without Zada around is very low. Given how powerful Zada variants tend to be here already, this would be extremely winmore.
 
EDH Primers (click me!)
Deck is Kill Club
Show
Hide

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Decklists”