xardas wrote: ↑6 days ago
How the f uck has actually nobody here or in the "old" topic talked about
Anzrag, the Quake-Mole ?
It is basically the best creature ever printed for Xenagos. It is an basically a 4 Mana unblockable 16 damage. With Xenagos buff he is beafy enough to attack into someone who would be foolish to block. If you ever get to activate this ability it is more or less an entire boardwhipe on the opponents side and 1 person is gonna die.
I have him on my watchlist but the reason I don't play him is because it violates the ethos of being good on his own. Not having evasion means alone he represents two chump blocks required which is almost inconsequential against many decks. Or he blasts for 16 and that's it.
If you look at my creature set they're kind of heavily clustered around 5-6 cmc with lower cmc guys being dudes who generate some card advantage mostly. The creatures who do just beatdowns are few and far between and they're more like
Bloodthirster who automatically yeets one or two players and
Scourge of the Throne who generates 11, then 23 damage (more or less).
I am still considering it but it has some glaring issues primarily not having trample. Compared to godo and embercleave for example is a significant downgrade (godo hits for 16 then 32 tramples).
Anyway I do appreciate the callout as it's a strong card worth considering. Just doesn't quuiiiite get there for me.
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Below is some analysis/grouping of my current creature suite that I will hopefully use for rebuilding the deck when my next order of retrofits gets in:
Early Game CA, 4 or less
The idea of these guys was to provide some early game card advantage that could bridge to Xenagos.
Tireless Tracker has a little synergy with the ramp suite, but by and large has been trash.
Oakhame Adversary has had a really weird run where I literally never have a forest opponent and it generally has drawn one or two cards if it actually gets cast for 4 mana, which it does not.
Doomskar Warrior is a recent addition and has been absolutely amazing both as backup for other creatures and as card draw itself. Being able to cast it on 4 mana, miss land drop 5, and have it chain you into xenagos mana is just :chefskiss:. Cards that dig you out of a jam are really, really good in Commander, and this one is glorious.
I will cut adversary and tracker, likely for more draw spells or creatures that straight up draw for <5 mana.
Make Cards (and maybe Mana)
These effects tend to make both cards and mana because they're post-Xenagos so they need to be strong. Of them,
Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth // Temple of Cultivation and
Vorinclex // The Grand Evolution have been the best overall, with Gargaroth being the weakest and both Etalis being somewhat hit or miss.
Little Etali is a slowish card advantage/mana engine that people tend to freak out on, and is not really explosive enough since the top of my deck tends to suck. The top 3-4 of my deck is great, but the top 1 is trash because it's so heavily ramp spells.
Big Etali is...*fine* but as I said the first spell off the top of my deck is often iffy and other people tend to be playing synergistic crap that doesn't do me any good. I don't think Big Etali does enough for 7 mana.
If I could replace both of these with
Vorinclex // The Grand Evolution and
Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth // Temple of Cultivation type cards, I would, so I need to think and see if I can find more of those at 5-6 mana -- tutors may be another option.
Tooth and Nail would grossly overperform Big Etali in my experience.
One very small thing
Elder Gargaroth brings is Vigilance, which has some utility in various extra combat step effects (e.g.
Seize the Day) and being a good blocker is a reason it likely sticks around.
Make Mana
As a general line of thinking, the creatures who just make mana are somewhat violations of the ethos of the deck in that they require you to have other good cards in hand. Many of these are likely to get cut because of this. These cards tend to create winmore scenarios where I
Genesis Wave for 40, but a simple extra combat step spell would have gotten it done for less mana. These guys combo with
Aggravated Assault a lot, which is fine, but I don't like that card since it violates the ethos of the deck and again is often winmore.
Of these cards,
Old Gnawbone and
Neheb, the Eternal have been the strongest; Gnawbone has explosive synergy and consistently makes 14 treasures or more, Neheb almost always makes ~10 mana. Being red is limiting, but he also is very cheap mana wise and generates some mana with afflict even if blocked.
The beauty of both of those creatures is that they are synergistic with other creatures.
Ancient Copper Dragon has been mediocre; but part of that is my horrible dice luck! my last 5 rolls with it are 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. The main reason it is likely to stay is costing 6 mana, which brings us to...
Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient is small, and costs 7. Not having Trample exposes him to some issues that copper / gnawbone have, The main thing I like about Klauth is he has Haste, so you can use him to recast Xenagos without taking a turn off a lot of the time. But I am not sure that is worth mana. So likely getting cut.
Between
Nyxbloom Ancient and
Regal Behemoth both of these cards have created massive Ws but they have also rotted in my hand. Of them,
Regal Behemoth is significanlty stronger because of the monarch card draw being useful. Often nobody wants to take monarch from me because they're more concerned with staying alive and being the monarch is a good way to get dead (since I want to take it back:D).
Likely both mana doubler guys will get cut for more efficient beats.
YEET
The Yeet section is interesting, I don't have that many pure beasters, and it's prety much dudes who make extra combat steps. Moraug is one where you can play him, cast a ramp spell, and then immediately murder the board (e.g.
Skyshroud Claim or whatever means potentially 3 extra combat steps, He's not amazingly mana efficient since generating explosive combats with him requires more mana in reserve, but man he can go nuts.
His main use is to hit off a
Genesis Wave (and maybe in the future
Tooth and Nail with something that can hit lands like
Cultivator Colossus or
Primeval Herald).
Bloodthirster is an absolute murderer. it blasts smeone for 12, someone for 24, and someone for 48 on its own, and has trample.
Scourge of the Throne is a slightly worse Bloodthirster, blasting for 11 then 23 (with dethrone), but has synergy with your other creatures often presenting a lethal. Again a good
Tooth and Nail target potentially. Mana efficient as well at 6.
Overall I am looking to add to this suite the most, probably cards like
Quartzwood Crasher and
Godo, Bandit Warlord and possibly
Hexplate Wallbreaker (which is the least efficient extra turn bro, but has synergy of being able to be summoned by Godo, bringing its own body that beats for 8/16, etc., and surviving creature wipes.
Interact
Dualcaster Mage is a bit of an odd duck in this slot since it doesn't really ever attack but man it is a counterspell and that's beautiful. IT does a LOT of things in this deck, because our sorcery/instant count is quite high. I may also add some extra combat step spells that are copyable (
Savage Beating has very unfortunate text, but
World at War and
Seize the Day have somewhat more favorable text.
Bane of Progress has been substantially worse than I expected in this deck; the deck is somewhat built around being able to not care about it, but sometimes it gets me and not having trample has been a huge problem. I am likely to keep it around as I Think it gets better if I add a tutor or three.
Balefire Dragon has been pretty good. Costing 7 is unfortunate, but when it's good it's real good. That said, much of the time it would be better to just blast the entire board to death than sweep...but there are times where it's better to leave someone alive and creatureless. The unfortunate thing about Balefire is it doesn't have trample and needs to deal combat damage. So the likelihood is this is getting cut.
Drakuseth, Maw of Flames on the flipside, triggers on attack and clears the way for itself, so is very likely to stay, since it can also blast people in the face to help shorten clocks. Its mana cost is not amazing, so could definitely get cut.
In general I think
Crater Hellion might be a better choice--the card was good when I had it, just occasionally I made bad decisions with it :D
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So as above you can see the main gaps are that I make too much mana and don't draw quite enough cards and don't beat quite enough. Update will focus on that.
Also as far as topdeck draw effects I may try adding
Tooth and Nail since that's apparently socially acceptable to play in my meta now :D If anyone can think of any other effects akin to T&N that both get cards and put them into play I'd be interested.
The World Spell seems like a potentially pretty cool option.
I'm also thinking hard about stuff like
Caves of Chaos Adventurer that fix bad draws at <5 mana.. Likely for the
Tireless Tracker slot.
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complete side note I wanted to write down before anyone else plays
There and Back Again that card is trash. I have never once wanted to cast it. absolute slow as hell garbage that conflicts with
Xenagos, God of Revels mana. puts the T in Trash.
