zKtu wrote: ↑2 years ago
Quick question, do you think your list is viable in cEDH? I'm currently using the decklist from Mateus_Nogueira on Moxfield. I run into exactly the same problems you mentioned in the beginning of this thread:
1. Commander reliant. As soon as opponents sniff a combo, they immediately remove teshar
2. Draw dependent due to lack of tutors, although the deck is sufficiently redundant to get you somewhere
3. Current Meta uses a ton of stax and teshar is especially susceptible to this. If someone casts Ouphe, you're screwed. Someone casts Drannith, you're screwed. Any graveyard hate, you're screwed. So I'm basically left playing solitaire as I want to keep all removals for self preservation.
What do you think?
Hard to say. There's cEDH and then there's cEDH...
Some of my more frequent matchups consist of
Kess, Dissident Mage,
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy,
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger,
Saffi Eriksdotter,
Heliod, Sun-Crowned,
Rielle, the Everwise and
Karador, Ghost Chieftain. Against them the deck does fairly well. It is very adept at finishing games and a lot less capable of stopping others (no counters, duh).
From my experience getting
Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle countered is more critical than her getting removed.
For one there are few ways to interact with counters - mainly
Grand Abolisher,
Lapse of Certainty and
Mana Tithe or if you got the money
Cavern of Souls. Also, once we resolved our commander, we have a plethora of things to protect it.
Benevolent Bodyguard,
Selfless Savior,
Selfless Spirit,
Selfless Samurai,
Mother of Runes,
Giver of Runes,
Apostle's Blessing,
Flawless Maneuver,
Sejiri Shelter // Sejiri Glacier, ...
If you feel like splashing the money, forcing
Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle out early with
Mana Crypt,
Mana Vault and
Grim Monolith does work wonders as well, especially since several lines of play require 0 mana to combo off and if you're able to squeeze our commander past Stax you don't need much mana.
As things stand, i am quite happy with the tutor package combined with redundancy.
Enlightened Tutor,
Moonsilver Key,
Recruiter of the Guard and
Ranger-Captain of Eos work wonders and you can easily abuse 3 of them.
So far i didn't have much trouble with
Drannith Magistrate. My meta isn't heavy on white,
Kess, Dissident Mage,
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger and others fold to it on more levels than this deck does and will attempt to remove
Drannith Magistrate instantly and the only card we're invested in casting from anywhere than our hand is our commander... So pack your
Dispatch,
Swords to Plowshares,
Path to Exile,
Angelic Ascension,
Fateful Absence,
Generous Gift,
Unexpectedly Absent,
Fiend Hunter,
Skyclave Apparition ... and you'll be fine in most cases. This'll help against
Collector Ouphe just as well.
When it comes to graveyard hate, that can be neck-breaking indeed. But the better my deck got the less it hurt me. Compared to my
Lazav, the Multifarious deck, which utilizes a graveyard toolbox, we rarely need anything more than 1 exact card in the graveyard. I try to pull early yard hate, then follow it up with fresh graveyard stuff. If you get to force your opponents
Tormod's Crypt that's one less silver bullet in their deck and your combo pieces are far more redundant.
Noteable mention:
Keen-Eared Sentry,
Aegis of the Gods and
True Believer are all creature based protection pieces, since most of the best graveyard hate pieces say "from target player's graveyard", see
Bojuka Bog &
Tormod's Crypt.
I found handling expectations to be a real thing with unusual combo decks and cEDH in general. In 3 and 4 player pods, winning 1/3 or 1/4 respectively is an absolutely fair rate - not even taking in consideration you could be the underdog more often than not.
The format/power level is defined by heavy interaction, so i'm already happy if i got to a point where i was that one small window of opportunity away from comboing off.
Plus, the biggest key to success is adjusting to your own meta. Do you need more removal or more fast mana? More protection or more draw? Start out with a generalized version and tweak it inch by inch. If you aren't sure yet, sleeve up some proxies and check if it can keep up or won't, even with adjustments. Also, there are "only" 13 cards in my list that cost $10 or more, so you could either build a cheaper list for testing purposes or you'll find other decks for them if you just can't make it work.
If you go through with it and build a similar deck, feel free to sift through my extensive guide of excludes, my more recent change logs and you'll likely find everything you need to work with. You can always hit me up for advice, i'll gladly help.