Unique Partner pairs

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Cyberium
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Post by Cyberium » 4 years ago

Soliciting ideas here: What are some of the more interesting Partner pairs (and their respective decks) you can think of?

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MeowZeDung
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Shameless plug: I think my Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder + Kraum, Ludevic's Opus deck is interesting. The link is in my signature, and it's probably not what you'd expect based just off of reading the two commanders :cool:

I've always wanted to see Akiri, Line-Slinger built well. I think she could be really good, though "good" does not necessarily mean "interesting", so I guess it depends who she pairs with.

I feel like Reyhan, Last of the Abzan + Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker are worth taking a look at.
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pokken
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Post by pokken » 4 years ago

I really enjoyed tymna the weaver and ludevic, necro-alchemist. Don't think I have ever seen anyone play that pair but me. I had them in a really fun 4c affinity deck (seen here: https://deckbox.org/sets/2471549)

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TheAmericanSpirit
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Post by TheAmericanSpirit » 4 years ago

I've played Tymna/Akiri and Ludevic/Akiri in the past and currently run Akiri/Thrasios. Akiri is one hell of a threat (very commonly a 12/3 with a half dozen keywords), but you need a critical mass of artifacts to really get any mileage out of her. She also does nothing but battle, so her partner really needs to bring the card advantage.

IF testing fails for Thras & Ak, my next plan is to build a Thrasios/Sidar Kondo deck based on mana dorks and rocks called "Small Ball" a la the Houston Rockets.
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Post by onering » 4 years ago

I run an Akiri/Thrasios tribal mana rocks deck and its pretty fast. She plays like Voltron that doesn't actually need Voltron cards, just artifacts, so you can load up 30 mana rocks into the deck letting you build up your mana base and Akiri's power simultaneously. Thrasios acts as a mana dump that lets you grab even more rocks to power up Akiri and dump even more mana into Thrasios, all while digging for the other action cards in the deck. It runs MLD to lock in wins, because all those rocks mean you don't really care all that much about losing your lands.

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Cyberium
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Post by Cyberium » 4 years ago

There's an Akiri/Thrasios deck on StarCityGames last year: http://old.starcitygames.com/decks/disp ... eck/133998

It focuses on spellsing and commander related cards, such as using cost reduction and sac outlet to abuse Myth Unbound, build up commander cast count so each of the Storm card as well as Commander's Insignia to take full advantage of Akiri/Thrasios's cheap cc. I modified it into my version with a horde of small creatures and cheaper spells for Bygone Bishop/Ongoing Investigation/Trail of Evidence.

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Post by AvatarofHope » 4 years ago

I run a Birds & Eggs deck with Ishai and Silas Renn that I enjoy, you can check it out here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/esper-bird-teamup/

It's pretty grindy at the moment. I choose not to run combos but it's got enough moving parts that it wouldn't be hard to add some instead of sillier birds if that's more your style.

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Post by NZB2323 » 4 years ago

I run a cleric tribal deck with Tymna the weaver and Ravos, soultender. I've never seen anyone else run it. It has no infinite combos or MLD, but it has great card advantage and tutoring but it always seems like it needs more mana, unless I get crazy value off of Smothering tithe, or if turn 1 I can go sol ring into arcane signet.
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Post by Feyd_Ruin » 4 years ago

Tymna and Sidar was my choice, no competition.

Sidar grants evasion, which Tymna turns into card advantage. By using small casting cost creatures with power 2, you can consistently lay down multiple creatures per turn, creating a real engine. GWB Hate Bears fills out a good chunk of the creatures, since they fit into it perfectly. Kataki, War's Wage, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Leonin Arbiter, etc.

There's some really great support cards for this engine too. Meekstone and Dusk // Dawn styled cards can offer board control that doesn't hit you. Bower Passage with Sidar makes your creatures completely unblockable, outside of reach. Overwhelming Instinct and Lifecrafter's Bestiary are card drawing all-stars here. Add in any GWB control elements you want, creatures with power 1-2 that offer more control or removal, etc etc.
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Post by Dragoon » 4 years ago

I've played a Boros equipment deck with Akiri, Line-Slinger and Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder. It was pretty fun. :p

I also played an aggressive lifegain deck with Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper and Tymna the Weaver. There was no way to gain life other than by attacking or blocking. No pillowfort or anything of the sort. Just a deck that was looking to beat down your opponents and refill your hand with the black draw spells and your increased life total.
onering wrote:
4 years ago
I run an Akiri/Thrasios tribal mana rocks deck and its pretty fast. She plays like Voltron that doesn't actually need Voltron cards, just artifacts, so you can load up 30 mana rocks into the deck letting you build up your mana base and Akiri's power simultaneously. Thrasios acts as a mana dump that lets you grab even more rocks to power up Akiri and dump even more mana into Thrasios, all while digging for the other action cards in the deck. It runs MLD to lock in wins, because all those rocks mean you don't really care all that much about losing your lands.
That looks really fun! I might give that idea a try sometime!

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Post by toctheyounger » 4 years ago

It's weird, I hear a lot from others about how partners were busted AF, and to me it seems more like they spread across enough colours to put together some mad combo and that's about it. Except for Thrasios, Triton Hero, because colorless mana sinks in the command zone are pretty nuts. I actually really like the idea and would like to see it return - with careful design of said commanders of course. I guess it's a case of this format being as broken as you make it; if you allow yourself to combo no one is stopping you, but you don't have anyone else to blame. Anyway, derail over.

My favourite combination of late has been Vial Smasher the Fierce and Kraum, Ludevic's Opus. They kind of both give you a good engine at different parts of the game, and I've been using them at the helm of a mid-range superfriends/historic build that's been pretty fun. Vial gives you booms for casting high cost spells (which walkers tend to be), and Kraum benefits you anytime someone tries to build as well. They represent the Grixis shard really well to me; explosive, fun, relentless and just slightly zany.
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Post by Dunharrow » 4 years ago

I play Reyhan and Ishtai, and Ishai is just there for colors basically. Reyhan is a beastly combo card. All those people who play Ghave should switch. Reyhan can go infinite with ease, but also goes huge without the need to go infinite. Even something like T1 or T2 sac outlet, T3 Reyhan, T4 Master Biomancer, Turn 5 Reef Wurm will spiral the game out of control. I frequently have turns where I give out hundreds of +1/+1 counters.
Ishai is basically a card I can sac if I need to sac a creature. If there was a Jeskai partner I would swap it for Ishai. Red would give access to some good cards!

And you need to try Reyhan with a doubling season. Nuts. Let's say you sac a Knight of Autumn with 2 counters on it. DS puts 4 counters on something else. Sac that. Now you have 8 counters to put somewhere. Cards that make a lot of tokens end the game with Reyhan out.


That's what's funny about the partners. You tend to build around one of them and use the second for additional colors only.
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onering
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Post by onering » 4 years ago

I played against a Reyhan and Tana deck once that was really cool. It was sacrifice centric and focused on sacrificing Reyhan to power up Tana so she could create more tokens, which where then sacrificed. It was really synergistic and out valued the table.

I have a Ravos and Tana deck focused on tokens and anthems. It's pretty fun building up a downright frightening board, and it does pretty well at recovering from wipes due to Tana being an army in a can and Ravos getting key creatures back from the yard, but it's also really fair, at the end of the day it wins by turning dudes sideways, with purphoros as support.

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Post by tempoEDH » 4 years ago

This is actually my current deckbuilding project and MAN is it fun. Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept. This idea originally started as me deciding whether I wanted to build Sidar/Ravos or Sidar/Tymna, the argument being repetitive value on an anthem effect, or card advantage in the command zone. I wanted the deck to be a very low mana curve, but still running more than the normal amount of ramp sources, acting kind of like elfball, but with just..... creatures. Creatureball, if you will. I wanted it to rely on pumping out creatures and then various combat damage effects, drawing at least 3 cards off of tymna every turn, etc. This all changed when I realized how much more efficient this strategy would be if I could just run cards like Coastal Piracy, Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Bident of Thassa. But to do this, I needed blue. I knew I still wanted to be running black, so the only other partner that fit my colors was Silas. It felt a little awkward at first, until I realized that I could be running an eggs like deck. So now my deck had a loose framework- creatureball/eggs. It was awkward to balance, but.... it works. The curve peaks at 4, except for 1 Craterhoof Behemoth, and yet still runs 6 signets, 6 talismans, and 17 mana dorks, along with Sol Ring and Cryptolith Rite. The deck should not work at all and yet.... lots of creatures, lots of mana, lots of unblockable effects combined with things like Trygon Predator, Dimir Cutpurse, and Throat Slitter to control the board, repetitive value from recurring either things like Executioner's Capsule for control or just Terrarion for more cards turn after turn with Silas, until a craterhoof or Triumph of the Hordes can be dropped. Probably the weirdest EDH deck I've ever built, but DAMN is it fun.
Current Decks:
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death EDH
Karlov of the Ghost Council EDH
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Edgar Markov EDH
Emmara, Soul of the Accord EDH
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Grenzo, Dungeon Warden EDH
Kalamax (No infinites) EDH
Ghalta EDH
Current Projects:
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa/Silas Renn, Seeker Adept EDH
Neheb, the Eternal EDH

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Post by hyalopterouslemur » 4 years ago

Feyd_Ruin wrote:
4 years ago
Tymna and Sidar was my choice, no competition.

Sidar grants evasion, which Tymna turns into card advantage. By using small casting cost creatures with power 2, you can consistently lay down multiple creatures per turn, creating a real engine. GWB Hate Bears fills out a good chunk of the creatures, since they fit into it perfectly. Kataki, War's Wage, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Leonin Arbiter, etc.

There's some really great support cards for this engine too. Meekstone and Dusk // Dawn styled cards can offer board control that doesn't hit you. Bower Passage with Sidar makes your creatures completely unblockable, outside of reach. Overwhelming Instinct and Lifecrafter's Bestiary are card drawing all-stars here. Add in any GWB control elements you want, creatures with power 1-2 that offer more control or removal, etc etc.
I've used Sidar with Silas Renn for similar. The deck relies heavily on artifacts and on saboteurs. Bident of Thassa is an all-star.
Thanks to Feyd_Ruin for the avatar!

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Post by Feyd_Ruin » 4 years ago

hyalopterouslemur wrote:
4 years ago
I've used Sidar with Silas Renn for similar. The deck relies heavily on artifacts and on saboteurs. Bident of Thassa is an all-star.
Ohhhhhh :o :o
What I wouldn't give to have a Bident-styled card in my GWB take.
I'm not much of a fan of blue usually, but I can definitely feel the appeal here.
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Post by pokken » 4 years ago

Feyd_Ruin wrote:
4 years ago
hyalopterouslemur wrote:
4 years ago
I've used Sidar with Silas Renn for similar. The deck relies heavily on artifacts and on saboteurs. Bident of Thassa is an all-star.
Ohhhhhh :o :o
What I wouldn't give to have a Bident-styled card in my GWB take.
I'm not much of a fan of blue usually, but I can definitely feel the appeal here.
ohran frostfang yo :)

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Post by Myllior » 4 years ago

Feyd_Ruin wrote:
4 years ago
Ohhhhhh :o :o
What I wouldn't give to have a Bident-styled card in my GWB take.
I'm not much of a fan of blue usually, but I can definitely feel the appeal here.
There's Ohran Frostfang. It even has 2 power to interact positively with Meekstone and all that.

E: Dammit pokken you ninja :P
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pokken
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Post by pokken » 4 years ago

I may or may not have been brewing the heck out of such a deck lately just for an excuse to play prophetic flamespeaker and dreadhorde arcanist.

I am leaning toward Sidar + Ludevic, but could do Ludevic+Ikra

Really excited about trying the ramp strategy of just sword of feast and famine effects (bear umbranature's will dowsing dagger derevi, empyrial tactician so kinda leaning Sans-Black.

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Post by Cyberium » 4 years ago

tempoEDH wrote:
4 years ago
This is actually my current deckbuilding project and MAN is it fun. Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept. This idea originally started as me deciding whether I wanted to build Sidar/Ravos or Sidar/Tymna, the argument being repetitive value on an anthem effect, or card advantage in the command zone. I wanted the deck to be a very low mana curve, but still running more than the normal amount of ramp sources, acting kind of like elfball, but with just..... creatures. Creatureball, if you will. I wanted it to rely on pumping out creatures and then various combat damage effects, drawing at least 3 cards off of tymna every turn, etc. This all changed when I realized how much more efficient this strategy would be if I could just run cards like Coastal Piracy, Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Bident of Thassa. But to do this, I needed blue. I knew I still wanted to be running black, so the only other partner that fit my colors was Silas. It felt a little awkward at first, until I realized that I could be running an eggs like deck. So now my deck had a loose framework- creatureball/eggs. It was awkward to balance, but.... it works. The curve peaks at 4, except for 1 Craterhoof Behemoth, and yet still runs 6 signets, 6 talismans, and 17 mana dorks, along with Sol Ring and Cryptolith Rite. The deck should not work at all and yet.... lots of creatures, lots of mana, lots of unblockable effects combined with things like Trygon Predator, Dimir Cutpurse, and Throat Slitter to control the board, repetitive value from recurring either things like Executioner's Capsule for control or just Terrarion for more cards turn after turn with Silas, until a craterhoof or Triumph of the Hordes can be dropped. Probably the weirdest EDH deck I've ever built, but DAMN is it fun.
Curiously enough, I started a thread in the past using Konda/Silas for a ninja deck, dubbing it "Ra's al Ghul and Assassin's League". The deck is probably even more amusing now given Modern Horizon's new Ninja cards.

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Post by tempoEDH » 4 years ago

Cyberium wrote:
4 years ago
tempoEDH wrote:
4 years ago
This is actually my current deckbuilding project and MAN is it fun. Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept. This idea originally started as me deciding whether I wanted to build Sidar/Ravos or Sidar/Tymna, the argument being repetitive value on an anthem effect, or card advantage in the command zone. I wanted the deck to be a very low mana curve, but still running more than the normal amount of ramp sources, acting kind of like elfball, but with just..... creatures. Creatureball, if you will. I wanted it to rely on pumping out creatures and then various combat damage effects, drawing at least 3 cards off of tymna every turn, etc. This all changed when I realized how much more efficient this strategy would be if I could just run cards like Coastal Piracy, Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Bident of Thassa. But to do this, I needed blue. I knew I still wanted to be running black, so the only other partner that fit my colors was Silas. It felt a little awkward at first, until I realized that I could be running an eggs like deck. So now my deck had a loose framework- creatureball/eggs. It was awkward to balance, but.... it works. The curve peaks at 4, except for 1 Craterhoof Behemoth, and yet still runs 6 signets, 6 talismans, and 17 mana dorks, along with Sol Ring and Cryptolith Rite. The deck should not work at all and yet.... lots of creatures, lots of mana, lots of unblockable effects combined with things like Trygon Predator, Dimir Cutpurse, and Throat Slitter to control the board, repetitive value from recurring either things like Executioner's Capsule for control or just Terrarion for more cards turn after turn with Silas, until a craterhoof or Triumph of the Hordes can be dropped. Probably the weirdest EDH deck I've ever built, but DAMN is it fun.
Curiously enough, I started a thread in the past using Konda/Silas for a ninja deck, dubbing it "Ra's al Ghul and Assassin's League". The deck is probably even more amusing now given Modern Horizon's new Ninja cards.
Any chance you could link that in? :P
Current Decks:
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death EDH
Karlov of the Ghost Council EDH
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant EDH
Edgar Markov EDH
Emmara, Soul of the Accord EDH
Yarok, the Desecrated EDH
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden EDH
Kalamax (No infinites) EDH
Ghalta EDH
Current Projects:
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa/Silas Renn, Seeker Adept EDH
Neheb, the Eternal EDH

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Cyberium
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Post by Cyberium » 4 years ago

tempoEDH wrote:
4 years ago

Any chance you could link that in? :P
It's an old thread that has yet to be updated in a while: https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the ... injas-lets

It also had a theme of morph/manifest for flavor.

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MeowZeDung
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

pokken wrote:
4 years ago
I may or may not have been brewing the heck out of such a deck lately just for an excuse to play prophetic flamespeaker and dreadhorde arcanist.
Ermagersh I love Prophetic Flamespeaker so much! That is a card I've always wanted to make work in a deck but haven't quite gotten there yet. Maybe an extra combats deck? It's certainly tasty with a Bident of Thassa type effect.
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pokken
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Post by pokken » 4 years ago

MeowZeDung wrote:
4 years ago
pokken wrote:
4 years ago
I may or may not have been brewing the heck out of such a deck lately just for an excuse to play prophetic flamespeaker and dreadhorde arcanist.
Ermagersh I love Prophetic Flamespeaker so much! That is a card I've always wanted to make work in a deck but haven't quite gotten there yet. Maybe an extra combats deck? It's certainly tasty with a Bident of Thassa type effect.
Yeah I was thinking of jamming the aggravated assault / waves of reckoning combat steps interactions, with off beat ways to enable the mana for them like reconaissance + earthcraft, as well as nature's will, feast and famine, bear umbra, etc.

Feels like it might just be a bad najeela deck on one hand, but ludevic is always so fun for me. Could play a goad sub theme with grenzo and a few other sources to really get people swinging :P

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Post by Segrus » 4 years ago

NZB2323 wrote:
4 years ago
I run a cleric tribal deck with Tymna the weaver and Ravos, soultender. I've never seen anyone else run it. It has no infinite combos or MLD, but it has great card advantage and tutoring but it always seems like it needs more mana, unless I get crazy value off of Smothering tithe, or if turn 1 I can go sol ring into arcane signet.
I've been running a Ravos + Tymna deck that's meant to be kinda legendary tribal with a Reanimator slant. It's been pretty fun to take advantage of the legends who interact with the graveyard in Orzhov, since there's a decent amount of them.

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