Unreleased and New Card Discussion

[Ertai Planeswalker]

Thanks for the rules explanations everyone. This makes Gerrard quite good as a commander, even if you don't go full Darrenhabib with him.

[Mookie]

Is it just me, or is Gerrard just Eggs: The Commander? I suppose there may not be enough eggs in WR to make the deck work, but someone will try. He's definitely a combo card.

The way I see it, there are four ways to run Gerrard:

The fair way - run Gerrard as boardwipe protection for your aggro deck, or run him alongside your own boardwipes to make them one-sided.
The combo way - run Gerrard alongside a bunch of sac outlets and ways to recur him and try to combo off. I suspect that this will function as a bad Saffi Eriksdotter deck in practice, since it requires a lot more pieces to set up.
The value way - run Gerrard alongside a bunch of eggs or creatures that you sacrifice for value, then cash in Gerrard to do it all again. There are other commanders that probably work better for an eggs deck (like Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain), but Second Sunrise in the command zone is certainly interesting. Hard to say how competitive this will be.
The 'please don't play with me' way - run Gerrard alongside cards like Johulhaups and Obliterate. Probably the most consistent / easiest way to build him, since it can otherwise function like a normal/fair deck.

[folding_music]

Given Gerrard's mana colours it's gonna be tempting to run board resets no matter what sort of player you are. people'll start out mild but will soon be playing him with Sneak Attack and Memory Jar and making everyone else's resources and creature strats look mildly silly!

[3drinks]

I just want wedge "lair" lands, honestly. Oros' lair, Teneb's lair, etc. Would be a pretty cool throwback.

[Ertai Planeswalker]

I just want wedge "lair" lands, honestly. Oros' lair, Teneb's lair, etc. Would be a pretty cool throwback.

Or enemy colored slow fetches!

[Serenade]

Kadena wants you to find ways to give creatures flash.

[DirkGently]

Rayami is interesting...any hexproof/indestructible critters that can easily sac themselves?

Edit: lol phylactery lich with no artifacts in play for maximum value.

[Rumpy5897]

Huh, how's this morph related? You slurp the secret morphs with abilities on them? That said, this gives me hope for some interesting secondary legends in the decks.

[DirkGently]

One neat thing: because the exile is a replacement effect and not a trigger, if you have a hexproof critter and a sac outlet, there's nothing your opponents can do to prevent you gaining hexproof (well, split second, but if your sac outlet is a mana ability like phyrexian tower then they're totally boned.)

[3drinks]

Well link it here dang it. Daily mtg is worthless to try to find anything on.

[Mookie]

Rayami certainly looks interesting. 5/4 body with a pile of potential keywords makes a good voltron base, although five power isn't the greatest. Notably, I do not believe there are currently any creatures with double strike in those colors, but all the others should be achievable. I can't think of any other obvious voltron commanders in Sultai colors - most are more of a midrangey, value / graveyard based strategy. Arguably The Mimeoplasm, I suppose?

The exile ability is particularly intriguing - Rayami is, unlike pretty much every other Sultai commander, terrible at graveyard strategies, since it shuts off most of your own recursion. On the other hand, shutting off your opponents' graveyard recursion is pretty obnoxious. I know my Teysa deck already hates playing against Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, so not looking forwards to playing against this stuff more often.... expecially when it probably has hexproof/indestructible/protection.

I've jokingly considered playing Brago Processors before (with a bunch of Oblivion Ring effects), and this just makes me want to do it more.

....overall, I don't think Rayami to be particularly powerful, but certainly looks interesting from a deckbuilding perspective, and annoying to play against.

[Rumpy5897]

There's a thread in previews already, but here ya go:

[3drinks]

Thanks.

Feels like an easy justification to #FreeRecurringNightmare with attention made to this kind of strong grave hate.

[Rumpy5897]

I wouldn't be too surprised if Recurring Nightmare walks free some time soon'ish. When asked about the card they'd be the most likely to unban at the Gen Con panel, two of the four RC members pointed to it.

[Artaud]

It seems color pie (for tribes) got broken again with Rayami being a green... Vampire! We've seen blue ones (Garza) but green? Blasphemy!

[DirkGently]

pendant of prosperity looks phelddagrif-able.

Probably not going to be very popular because most people build decks with the intention to be the threat as quickly and as often as possible, so it might just do nothing for them whatsoever. But for the craftier players, this seems like it could have some merit. I know if someone donated me one, I'd have a hard time not wanting to use it as often as possible.

Or you could regain control of it somehow. Then it's just busted. Kinda surprised they didn't word it to prevent such shenanigans.

[Artaud]

pendant of prosperity looks phelddagrif-able.
[...]
Or you could regain control of it somehow. Then it's just busted. Kinda surprised they didn't word it to prevent such shenanigans.

More like Zedruu-able but anyway - too much effort to break it I think.

[3drinks]

pendant of prosperity looks phelddagrif-able.
[...]
Or you could regain control of it somehow. Then it's just busted. Kinda surprised they didn't word it to prevent such shenanigans.

More like Zedruu-able but anyway - too much effort to break it I think.

Yeah, it looks tailour made for Zedruu. Pre-donated, gives them CA and you CA, and your commander gives you more CA with it.

[lyonhaert]

Token copies of Pendant of Prosperity could be one way to break it, maybe. Otherwise give an opponent the original, then give another and then give another.

I guess you could also copy it with Mirage Mirror, Mizzium Transreliquat, or make it a creature and copy it with Vesuvan Shapeshifter or something so that you can activate it and be its owner.

[mention]3drinks[/mention], you won't be able to Donate it.

[3drinks]

Token copies of Pendant of Prosperity could be one way to break it, maybe. Otherwise give an opponent the original, then give another and then give another.

I guess you could also copy it with Mirage Mirror, Mizzium Transreliquat, or make it a creature and copy it with Vesuvan Shapeshifter or something so that you can activate it and be its owner.

@3drinks, you won't be able to Donate it.

I know that. I said it comes pre-donated, not that I need to. As in half of Zedruu's job is done. I draw my extra card/turn now, then I draw an extra card when you activate it. Or you get nothing and I just get my +1. Very similar to the way Humble Defector played out in Yasova Dragonclaw decks.

Sweet design. Not a card I'd play in my brews, but sweet design.

[Lifeless]

So we're just printing better Illusionay Masks now? Laughs in Phyrexian Dreadnought

Rayami is pretty cool. I've been lamenting the lack of solid aggro options in Sultai forever. The fact that this hates on your own recursion strategies isn't great for these colors, but it's a very strong ability to have in the command zone.

[3drinks]

It's funny because I've been running astral slide and now I don't need an Exalted Angel specifically to do that bait and switch trick......................................

[lyonhaert]

Okay, this one's cool. Doesn't even have to be the -1/-1 counter.

[folding_music]

thinking about how Volrath EDH could be the evil version of Kraj EDH!

[3drinks]

Okay, this one's cool. Doesn't even have to be the -1/-1 counter.

It'd be cool to see a Havengul Lich reprint in this deck.