Minthara - Interaction (and a good manabase) is for scrubs

[DirkGently]

Minthara, Merciless Soul is an interesting design. I like the mini-game of needing to slowly jack her up to a significant threat. In the continued spirit of trying something new, in this deck I avoided including any answers whatsoever. No wipes, no targeted removal, no grave hate, nothing. Okay, fine, I did leave Yawgmoth, Thran Physician in there, but he's just too perfect to take out. In general I want this deck to be pretty predictable, i.e. the opposite of how I normally prefer to play.

A big part of the concept behind this deck is to minimize the slots dedicated to satisfying Minthara's EOT trigger by relying heavily on my lands to accomplish this. So I have a staggering 26 "fetchlands". Many of them don't even properly fix my mana because they can only fetch basics (grr wizards modern card design stomping on the little guy with his ABU dual collection ). I'm not even running command tower in order to make room for more fetches.

I might be too light on draw. There are a decent number of cards in other categories that do draw and draw-line things, and there are a lot of recurring value engines, so we'll see how it goes.

Minthara

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander (1)

1 Minthara, Merciless Soul

Tokens (34)

1 Clarion Spirit

1 Court of Grace

1 The Restoration of Eiganjo

1 Precinct Captain

1 Sorin the Mirthless

1 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia

1 Wyrm's Crossing Patrol

1 Hammers of Moradin

1 Myrel, Shield of Argive

1 Priest of the Blessed Graf

1 Haunted Library

1 Sunset Revelry

1 Oath of Gideon

1 Increasing Devotion

1 Secure the Wastes

1 Grand Crescendo

1 Inkshield

1 Ghoulcaller Gisa

1 Tribute to Horobi

1 Death Tyrant

1 Skrelv's Hive

1 Bitterblossom

1 Black Market Connections

1 Hidden Stockpile

1 Master of Ceremonies

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

1 Felidar Retreat

1 Rabble Rousing

1 Emeria Angel

1 Leonin Warleader

1 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar

1 Hero of Bladehold

1 Battle Angels of Tyr

Anthems (6)

1 Valor

1 Mite Overseer

1 Mondrak, Glory Dominus

1 Anointed Procession

1 Loyal Unicorn

1 Eldrazi Monument

Protection (3)

1 Flawless Maneuver

1 Mother of Runes

1 Giver of Runes

Draw (2)

1 Esper Sentinel

1 Skullclamp

Proliferate (5)

1 Grateful Apparition

1 Staff of Compleation

1 Sword of Truth and Justice

1 Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

1 Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion

Ramp (7)

1 Mana Crypt

1 Sol Ring

1 Brought Back

1 Orzhov Signet

1 Talisman of Hierarchy

1 Mind Stone

1 Arcane Signet

Lands (42)

1 Vault of the Archangel

1 Tyrite Sanctum

1 Urza's Saga

1 Orzhov Basilica

1 High Market

1 Silent Clearing

1 Godless Shrine

1 Scrubland

1 Grasslands

1 Flood Plain

1 Rocky Tar Pit

1 Bad River

1 Flooded Strand

1 Arid Mesa

1 Verdant Catacombs

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Marsh Flats

1 Polluted Delta

1 Windswept Heath

1 Prismatic Vista

1 Fabled Passage

1 Myriad Landscape

1 Evolving Wilds

1 Terramorphic Expanse

1 Naya Panorama

1 Grixis Panorama

1 Esper Panorama

1 Bant Panorama

1 Jund Panorama

1 Broker's Hideout

1 Obscura Storefront

1 Cabaretti Courtyard

1 Riveteer's Overlook

1 Maestros Theater

4 Plains

4 Swamp

Approximate Total Cost:

[pokken]

I think not running Cosmic Intervention is incorrect int his deck. It protects your commander, it mega-ramps. It's really an absurdly powerful card. This deck is strong enough on fetchlands I'd consider playing Sudden Salvation.

That said, I think you probably need more fetchable lands?

[Chromaticus]

Marionette Master could be a cool one depending on where you're at in the game. Love the idea of choosing to make the guys, but the master still being large enough that they can't block them profitably.

[DirkGently]

@pokken The only land in the deck that doesn't either trigger my commander (generally by being a fetch) or is a target for a fetch is Vault of the Archangel, and I'm at (just realized I didn't a number on lands) 42 lands already. I'm having a hard time justifying putting any more lands in there. I think 10 is a sufficiently high number considering my curve isn't too bad and my commander protects itself to some extent. And panos can work as lands without being fetches.

That is part of why I'm not running the otherwise-obvious Crucible of Worlds though. I'm not that high on cosmic intervention either - as mentioned my commander protects itself, it's a token deck so a lot of my perms can't come back, and I don't know that I can plausibly get that many lands off it. At a certain point I have to crack my fetches, and some of them (the capenna cycle) can't be saved up at all. 2 for brought back feels reasonable - I can fire that off on turn 2 - whereas 4 seems excessive. Waiting to crack enough fetches to justify it feels like it's going to slow down my plan significantly, and unlike brought back I can't use the mana from the fetched lands to pay for it, so just to ramp 2 lands is generally going to take until turn 4. I'm a lot more interested in ramp that gets me to 4 mana ASAP since a lot of my stuff costs 4.

@Chromaticus Interesting, idk that the payoff is necessarily worth 6 though, especially since it only hits one opponent at a time and I don't have many artifacts that I intend to put into graveyards.

[pokken]

I'm not that high on cosmic intervention either - as mentioned my commander protects itself, it's a token deck so a lot of my perms can't come back

It doesn't protect itself from sweepers and most of your token generation comes from permanents that CI protects.

I'd propose cutting some of the worse fetching lands for more basics (probably 4-5) so you could conceivably get mana for stuff like flashing back Increasing Devotion.

[duducrash]

Any particular reasons you are not playing the draw synergy with tokens, stuff like Tocasia's Welcome , Welcoming Vampire , Bennie Bracks, Zoologist or Idol of Oblivion , I see you commented in the last paragraph, just curious about the why.


Also, Field of the Dead , left out on purpose?

[DirkGently]

@pokken

I know it's not invincible, but it should hopefully die less than the average commander once it's functionally hexproof. As far as the other non-token permanents that generate tokens, a lot of those won't die in a sweeper so recurring a big chunk of permanents becomes less likely. Based on the curve of my deck I rate the ramp capabilities of the card pretty low, so I don't think the uses add up to making it worthwhile.

As far as fetches vs targets, I want to have a play with the deck to see how it does. After a certain point, hopefully I should be able to force a trade with a token every turn (or maybe trigger myriad, high market, etc), but for the early turns fetches are my only realistic way of triggering her so I don't want to be too light. I think ten targets should be okay, though, my curve stops at 5 and even stuff like the devotion flashback is still easily achievable even with only fetch targets - and I've also got other 11 lands which can tap for mana normally, plus 6 mana rocks, so getting to 9 doesn't seem likely to be a problem. I think I'd be more likely to include more utility lands than more fetch targets, I don't think they'll be necessary.

If I do cut fetches, probably the non-esper capenna ones first? panos seem better since they can most easily be held onto to trigger later, rather than needing to fire immediately.

@duducrash Tocasia's is fine and was considered, although it's mostly just a conditional Phyrexian Arena - I might include both depending how I feel about the draw, although honestly I might be better of running equipment tutors for skullclamp since it's massively stronger than any other draw engine for this sort of thing.

Welcoming vampire, and anything that cares about low power, is antisynergistic with my commander so those are out.

Bennie was considered but I don't love a creature-based draw engine for a go-wide deck since it exposes us more to wraths. And also he's kind of a phyrexian arena.

Idol should maybe be in there, since it's cheaper and not a creature.

Field of the dead should 100% be in there. Not sure if I just wasn't paying attention when leafing through lands, or if it's in another deck somewhere, but I'll track it down.