The Community Deck Build Project v8.0

[Henlock]

What about Syphon Mind?

[Dunharrow]

I think for card draw I have settled on it being instant speed or 1-3 MV. Preferably 1-2 mana. I just don't really want to spend my turn 4 drawing 3 cards at sorcery.
I also think in this deck we run the risk of our opponents being hellbent a lot of the time and this card only drawing 1-2 cards.

So, not my favourite for card draw in this deck. I think a lot of this has to do with my personal preferences.
Nay.

[toctheyounger]

I've never really been a fan of the Syphon cards myself, they're fairly overcosted and unreliable. You can take variance in some places but ideally you want your draw rock solid. Nay from me, sorry Henlock.

I think we're pretty close to done with a discard package anyway, I'd say we want maybe one or two more slots at most.

[TheGildedGoose]

Nay Syphon Mind. I think it's a bit greedy and has an abysmal floor. We get what, maybe 3 cards drawn and the worst card out of each opposing hand? I think we could do better,

My nomination is Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I was going to suggest him earlier but it wasn't until now that we had the black pips to support him. Some topend reach and stabilization all in one.

[cheonice]

Nay Siphon Mind. I'm with the others here.
Yay to Gary. He's an excellent lategame bomb. If we can squeeze in some Reanimation he gets even better.

[Dunharrow]

Yay Gary

[3drinks]

I've never seen Gary utilized in a manner that isn't some sort of deterministic finish, so I can only liken it to a kokusho/highway robber effect. Which it's probably fair at, sure since on it's own it replicates robber and would punch up almost trivially. It's probably good, so I'm okay confirming it to the deck.

For today, let's put @gsgfdf and @aliciaofthevast on the clock.

I went ahead and started the moxfield link here to take a better look at where we are.

[aliciaofthevast]

We still doing discard? If so let's run with Cunning Lethemancer. Unless we want a finish then Guul Draz Specter ...but we're not fully shredding hands right so maybe the specter is bad?

Lethemancer has to be the pick I think.

[gsgfdf]

Yay Gray Merchant of Asphodel. It takes a special deck to not include this.
Nay Syphon Mind. This was a mediocre card even back in the day, I don't think it makes the cut now even if we focus on discard.
Yay Cunning Lethemancer

I would like to nominate Skull Storm. We have two commanders, Virtus will be removed a lot and I think this could work as a late game bomb.

[Dunharrow]

Yay lethemancer

I am going to say that 9 mana finishers aren't great for this deck, especially since this doesn't finish our opponents. Our commander brings down life totals quickly, so we need burn, not more halving of life totals.

But mostly we are low to the ground and I don't think this deck has enough gas to get to 9 mana consistently.

[3drinks]

Yeah, being a life halver effect at the nine slot when we've been halving life all game, means this is gonna look really sad for the mana invested. It's not like a Vial Smasher the Fierce deck where you dome people for nine off this (or eleven off Blood for the Blood God!). That's a nay here.

I would yay Lethemancer for the confirm.

On the clock today is @cheonice and @toctheyounger.

[cheonice]

I think a one-shot discard spell would round up our selection so let's go with Thoughtseize. While EDH typically isn't the format for these effects, using the gold standard to get rid of the control player's removal spell sound like something we want to do.

[Dunharrow]

I've thought of nominating thoughtseize a few times but I do not think I would play it in this deck. It is really close.

I wanna hear from the rest before I vote.

[aliciaofthevast]

I can't imagine a random one-of spot discard spell doing anything of note, you need a critical mass of these effects and they just don't exist. I just don't understand and so I'm gonna vote nay because I don't understand how this is good. Like, when we're ready to go, we hope that we draw the one spell and hope and pray that we hit the right player? I just don't buy it.

[toctheyounger]

I'm not into Thoughseize here. In a control shell it'll do not nothing but here it's gonna be fairly dead. Nay from me.

Dauthi Voidwalker is my pick. It's unblockable with built in Rest in Peace and a free cast of anything it hates out. This isn't THE best place for it, but it's also guaranteed draw with Frostfang or Toski.

[3drinks]

I'll yay Dauthi Voidwalker.

Putting myself on the clock to end the cycle, does it make sense to push Feign Death, Undying Evil & Undying Malice to make sure we can keep our guy on the board? Or are these worse Tamiyo's Safekeepings? This is getting problematic with how many of these we need to be playing xD

And to start off the next cycle of picks, let's put @TheGildedGoose on the clock.

Dauthi Voidwalker yay - 1 nay - 0

[TheGildedGoose]

I've been very busy today.

I nominate Heroic Intervention. Sorry for the lack of effort. My feet hurt.

[3drinks]

Weekends are always the slowest so we'll keep this discussion open. And I'll yay Heroic Intervention.

Dauthi Voidwalker yay - 1 nay - 0
Undying Malice yay - 0 nay - 0
Feign Death yay - 0 nay - 0
Heroic Intervention yay - 1 nay - 0
Phyrexian Reclamation yay - 0 nay - 0

[cheonice]

Yay to Voidwalker, she feels fantastic for our strategy.
I'm not sure I really like Undying Malice, Feign Death, or Heroic Intervention. We already play three protection spells that do a similar job. Nay to all of them.

(@3drinks, you forgot my nomination of Thoughtseize. I'm not to sure about it anymore either. If possible I would change my nomination to Phyrexian Reclamation. Cheap repeatable recursion sounds like a good addition to our deckplan.)

[Henlock]

Yay to Voidwalker.

I'm more.into Raise dead effects for this deck than Undying Malice and the likes. I'll yay Phyrexian Reclamation and nay the rest.

[toctheyounger]

Yea Intervention, yea Reclamation. I think this is the sort of deck where Raise Dead effects can be pretty good, just on the basis of a lower curve for our creatures. It'll give us legs into the midgame a bit more.

Feign Death et al I'm gonna nay. Outside of intervention I don't think we want too many ways to protect our stuff on the spot. We've got enough, and I don't think we're adding any further value to the deck for adding more at this point. Honestly, not even sure we need Intervention, but it is a good card so my yea is more on the 'better to have it and not need it' side of things.

[aliciaofthevast]

Heroic intervention is a heck of a card, I'd be pretty hard pressed to vote against that.

I think the feign death effects are better than raising to hand though! We put the guy to our hand and then lose another turn to cast and hope it sticks. These blank the removal and keep it in place which narrows the interaction window significantly. I don't get the hate. I'd rather see these than phyrexian reclamation if I'm being honest.

[Dunharrow]

Yay intervention

Nay reclamation - I don't think we quite have enough going to our graveyard for this to be better than literal Raise Dead in most games.

Nay Undying Evil and friends. Mainly, no hexproof means they still can exile our permanents, which I believe is becoming more and more common. I also think too many of these effects is overkill. I would rather see Kaya's Ghostform to be honest since this also protects against exile and can be used on our Liliana of the Veil. But this is sorcery and so still not amazeballs.

[3drinks]

Why is Phyrexian Reclamation in such higher regard than the quicker options? 1bb & two life to get back the first body, and it goes up from there. Plus the mana value of the creature, and it probably doesn't have haste so the time investment is real. And I don't think this deck is one that benefits from games going long. Is it a hesitance towards holding up reactions? I'd guess I'd understand, not everyone likes to present such a proactive approach as me and that certainly lends itself to the mismatch I'm reading here.

I'm still gonna nay reclamation though.

It's Monday, so let's put @Dunharrow and @cheonice on the clock.

Dauthi Voidwalker yay - 3 nay - 0
Heroic Intervention yay - 5 nay - 2
Undying Malice yay - 1 nay - 3
Feign Death yay - 1 nay - 3
Phyrexian Reclamation yay - 2 nay - 3

[TheGildedGoose]

Genuinely shocked that Reclamation didn't get the pass. Y'all do realize we're running a self-discard package, right?