The Community Deck Build Project v6.0

[Henlock]

I'll yay yay yay, too.

[3drinks]

Well, safe to say sol ring and arcane signet have been confirmed. I can't really confirm mind stone yet because if I make exceptions for one, I have to make exceptions for everything. But I can say as that puts us to 12/12 in the ramp category, I can open up the card selection category. Let's shoot for 10 slots here, since this deck is going to need to dig to hit land drops and play the thing, though fourteen may be closer to the mark with a 7mv dragon. I'm trying to be conservative here so we have other fun slots too.

I'll put @RxPhantom and @TheAmericanSpirit on the clock today to start this category.

[RxPhantom]

We have a commander whose sweet ability triggers on attack, so I'm nominating Waves of Aggression so it can attack as many times as possible. It's pretty pricy at $25, but this is what the deck wants to do, right?

[3drinks]

I like waves of aggression, and I like the idea of more of these, but only the ones that also give you an additional main phase. The ones that just give another combat are a bit too narrow. Glad waves of aggression is like the former. Yay.

I guess it's kinda in that card selection category since it turns excess lands to excess combat? So it fits with the category we're on?

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I nominate Scroll Rack. We can set up big Velo plays, dig a bit, and if we can get enough shuffling or a Land Tax, we can maybe draw some cards.

[RxPhantom]

Oh. I thought this was the card selection part as in 'selecting cards that are good with the commander.' My bad.

Yay Rack.

[Crazy Monkey]

Yea Waves of Aggression, casts off the commander and allows for more attack triggers.
Yea Scroll Rack: why spend 5 mana on waves of aggression when I could spend 1? Setting up spells to trigger is great here.

[3drinks]

Scroll Rack is confirmed. I'm so glad that thing is back down, it used to be $45usd at one point. More list printings, please! Need one more vote on waves.

Continuing the card advantage/selection role (of which we're about to be 2/10 slots), we'll round out this cycle of votes with @Henlock and @aliciaofthevast.

Waves of Aggression yay - 2 nay - 0

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Yay waves

[RxPhantom]

How much quality topdeck manipulation is available *and* financially affordable in our colors? I know that no one has suggested it yet, but I wanted to say how much I absolutely hate Sensei's Divining Top. It slows games down soooooo much. I will downvote it so hard! Someone suggest Crystal Ball.

[aliciaofthevast]

I didn't know divining top wasn't like a million dollars, and I do think it's best in class for what we're trying to do! Getting to look at least half into the dragon's trigger goes a long ways towards making sure we have a good attack. As to those that don't know how to play the card responsibly, blame the player not the card.

Sensei's Divining Top|ema, final answer!

[toctheyounger]

I'm gonna yea the top, sorry Rx. I get the frustration but I think it's worth it here. It's not like we're going all in with fetches and brainstorm, we're just making our commander as good as it can be. Given that we really only need to be using it pre combat and pretty minimally.

[RxPhantom]

-__-

Nay Top.

[3drinks]

I too, do not see the hatred for top. That's a wonderful yay.

[RxPhantom]

If I ever hear "in response, I'll Top" again in my life, it'll be too soon.

[Henlock]

I nominate Sunforger.

I'll nay top. I don't think that looking at the top three gives us enough info regarding our attacks. Putting things .into.our hand is not something we're crazy about (Actually, it would be nice being able.to put cards from.our hand on top.of our library)

I understand the value.of setting our draws, but tbh I feel the checking takes excitement from Velomachus' triggers. We also have Tithe and Waves.of Aggresion already hitting the budget.

[RxPhantom]

Bless you, @Henlock. I think I've got a solid nomination in my next pick, everyone. You just wait. Down with Top! I'll accept Top if someone can alter it into a Rabbi's Divining Dreidel.

[toctheyounger]

Bless you, @Henlock. I think I've got a solid nomination in my next pick, everyone. You just wait. Down with Top! I'll accept Top if someone can alter it into a Rabbi's Divining Dreidel.

I would totally be into that.

[Dunharrow]

I really dislike Sunforger for this deck. I am a huge Sunforger fan, but it is mana intensive and our commander already costs 7. I don't even know what we would equip it to. Nay.

top is also nay from me. I don't think it's worth playing at all. How does it impact this deck?

[Crazy Monkey]

I spent a while thinking about top, and ended up also a nay on Sensei's Divining Top. Velomachus Lorehold looks 7 cards deep, so rearraigning the top 3 cards doesn't really pay off much. If it was a "flip until you Reveal X" then I'd agree that it pays off. I could see using it to chose what we draw with "end of turn, spin top" so that the higher MV instant/sorceries stay in the deck but that seems like a smaller payoff for the time and mana investment.

Yea Sunforger, and not just because it's a pet card. This deck will likely include a large number of targets for it, so it should have sufficient depth to pay off. The flexibility it allows for +4 power is a potent threat with our evasive and vigilance commander and increases the threshold for free-casting. Then we can also use it to assemble stack based combinations, whether that's Reiterate or board wipe + Boros Charm. Despite this not being an equipment deck, I think that it provides a sufficient role.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Yay sunforger. It's a wonderful control toolbox and the +4 turns Velo in a 3 hit kill. We need some goons to support it though.

[RxPhantom]

When I started this crusade against Top, it didn't occur to me that rearranging the top three actually isn't the greatest synergy with Velomachus. I just hate Top's effect on games. I'm torn on Sunforger. We will need some creatures to put it on, and I thought this deck would have a low creature count.

[3drinks]

Sensei's Divining Top has been eliminated, 2-3. I personally don't understand, a crystal ball is not enough, and attacking blind is how you end up with a disappointing whiff on triggers because this dragon is certainly not going to table (it shouldn't, if players are half competent anyway). Feels like the Top is suffering the sins of bad players that are irresponsible with it, and that's a real shame. I wish we could play Soothsaying in this deck.

I'll nay Sunforger. It is a trap pick. Everyone believes "oh I'm in wr, I have to use it, it's insane, it's this, it'll let me do that, yes yes yes..." without realizing you're paying 6wr for the first activation. Eight! That's more than this dragon costs, and it needs a creature to attach to be used. It is highly telegraphed. Those voting it, have you never been left in that awkward place where your equip target gets blown up right as you activate the equip ability? you're left in this massive tempo blow as you begrudgingly pass turn with this wasted mana. All so you could spend 3wr, on a four or less cost spell. You're never making mana advantage with this thing, even assuming we have the perfect conditions to work it. If we're in Jeskai, there's at least the added benefit of pulling a counterspell out of the deck with it. We don't have that here (don't you dare mention Reprieve ). This is not the deck for it.

As today is Sunday and we're at the top a new cycle, I'll put @toctheyounger and myself on the clock. Since we're still at 2/10 card advantage/selection, I'm going to nominate Unexpected Windfall. Not just as the other big score, but it's still a fantastic hit while being good at getting us to the seven we need to drop the dragon.

[RxPhantom]

Given the colors we're in, we were never going to be digging all that deep and Top doesn't let us ship anything to the bottom. Plus, it's annoying. This deck will have to include some spells with incidental scry that would be pretty ho-hum in other builds. There will have to be a balance between these spells and payoffs.

Yay to Windfall.

[aliciaofthevast]

I think I agree with 3drinks, this isn't the deck for sunforger. There's too many directions this wants and they're mostly parallel with spellslinger, not perpendicular. The two axis don't intercept.

Yay windfall. We already got her first version, so the close clone has to be just as good right?