PrimevalCommander wrote: ↑7 months ago
There are a few mass destruction sorceries that leave each player a single creature, whether that be a commander or any creature of their choice. That might be a good way to keep Akroma in play while still keeping board states in check without having to recast or reanimate her. I don't remember the names off hand but they are out there. I see you don't have a ton of wraths anyway, but thought it worth a mention.
Most of white's best draw lately has been geared toward making tokens or small creatures, which unfortunately are not that good here.
War Room and
Bonder's Enclave might be worth a look.
Command Beacon in case Akroma gets answered a couple times.
Endless Atlas.
I did consider some of the sac all but one like
Single Combat,
Urza's Ruinous Blast,
Slash the Ranks, and
Divine Reckoning. I do think they can be fine but the reason I didn't add them was mostly because they give my opponents options and while they can be very good I don't feel like I have as much control to them as I really want. I included
Tragic Arrogance and
The Eternal Wanderer as wraths because they let me pick for my opponents which feels a lot stronger and if they have any junk creatures it lets me sac their board. I could see including them I just felt like I liked the versatility of what I had in my deck a bit more than the ones left.
Most of the effects in my deck give me an option to avoid killing my commander if she is in play and I like that. I think
Rout is the only wrath I am running that doesn't let me exclude her but the option of instant casting a wrath is something I really like given how many decks tend to try to win very suddenly. I also don't hate having some generic kill everything sweepers as I won't always have my commander in play.
War Room /
Bonder's Enclave - I haven't ever been very impressed at their performance given the cost to draw. The one thing I will say about them though is that with my increased instant count in the deck these could give me options if I don't need to cast something. I will see what I can do but I feel like my landbase is already stretched in a bunch of ways already. I don't love their efficiency but I am also in mono white with a lot of emphasis on ramp.
Endless Atlas - Its fine I have run it a bunch in the past and its fine. The cost to cast and draw in the same turn is a little expensive. I don't think its a slam dunk but I don't think its wrong to run either. I prefer monarch for sure but there is also a point where you start getting a diminishing return from monarch because the effect in duplicate tends to not be very good otherwise I would be running more monarch instead.
The big question comes down to the speed of the clock for her. At six base power she REALLY wants at least one more power to go from a 4 turn kill to a 3 turn clock (assuming no blocks). There is valid reasons to go with some of these larger pumps as it brings her from a 4 turn clock to a 2 turn clock but the downside is that they tend to be single function effects in that they give her power. Some of my problem with them though is also that its hard to play Akroma and them in the same turn and due to her haste I feel like you are going to have to either play these effects the turn before her or the turn after. That isn't to say that the other cards I am running to buff her don't likewise need to be in the turn before for the most part but they are also multi functional cards more so than focused just on buffing her.
I focused more on bumping her by one power and having multi functionality in effects than I did in dedicated buffs. I do think that
Duelist's Heritage of these three cards is the one I would be most likely to run due to its lower cost and ability to do some annoying things like buff other people's attacking creatures on other players. I don't think its wrong to run these cards but I was really going for some cards that sort of fit into the deck already with other functionality like in the landbase for small buffs without spending cards specifically on them. Even something like
Crovax, Ascendant Hero buffs my commander by that one power while also giving me some protection from things like Aristocrats and Tokens.
Ultimately I really wanted to run the list with a KISS concept (keep it simple stupid) and have less focus on trying for burst damage and instead just rely on my commander being mostly everything I want just as is. I think she will actually probably take a lot of hate and removal already as is and going deeper into making her better when I already expect a lot of spot removal seems like, I don't know.
