The Community Deck Build Project v9.0

[3drinks]

What *IS* the community build-a-deck? Inspired by a subject on the MTG Nexus commander forums, ths project takes a randomly determined legend (and partner, or background, if the random button falls on an applicable legend) where we work together on the deckbuild process. For the sake of historical reference, each finished deck will be archived here on my Moxfield. Then There are some rules involved, though;

• I will start the deck with a randomly determined legendary creature or legendary planeswalker that can be a commander. In the event of pulling a partner, I will randomly determine what it's paired with from all the available partners pool. I may reroll the random commander in some cases, because no one wants to see a full build for such all-stars as Tobias Andrion, of course.
• Two randomly determined users from a list of those active in the game will be chosen each day/two days if discussion is strong on previous cards, and they will nominate a card for the day's discussion. Majority yays/nays in twenty-four hours is enough to confirm or reject a card, or three yay/nay if the project has a lot of participants.
• In the interest of streamlining, let's not abstain from cards. Just a yay/nay and why that's the case so that there would be fewer "executive actions" taken as cards clog up the queue. Present an alternative that we can comment on and vote in, in place of instead.
• This aim is about communication and cohesion, if you don't agree with a direction or card choices, SPEAK UP, and let's talk it over. Preferably with more than a one sentence quip. If we can't communicate effectively, this project will fail every time. I'm fascinated by the progress we've made as our own little AI machine brains have more and more begun to recognize how each other is thinking and how we can compliment what each other is doing...or not doing. Looking back on the earlier iterations to present is such a fun process!
• Let's aim for a "higher than mid, lower than high" power level. I'm all for expression, but decks should be functioning on it's own power in random pickup games. Card suggestions should be more intricate than chair tribal, but not as parasitic as ThOracle-Consult either.
• Let's talk tutours! Since they're such a polarizing card type, let's limit the mana value of them to 3mv, or 2mv in the event of them being specialized (a la rampant growth or eladamri's call).
• How cool would it be if some number of us actually took these decks and brought them into their paper world? Let's try to leave the Reserve List stuff out, as well as keep the spell selections to ~$35. Occasionally you will see price "spike" cards break this for really synergistic interactions (such as Inkmoth Nexus in the first deck with Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat, or Yawgmoth, Thran Physician in Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant). These price numbers are not set in stone however, just a general guideline to stick close to.
• Each finished deck will go on to my Moxfield to live forever as "@mtgnexus Community Deck Project {deck number}" for reference point.

@mtgnexus Community Deck Build Project v1.0

@mtgnexus Community Deck Build Project v2.0

@mtgnexus Community Deck Build Project v3.0

@mtgnexus Community Deck Build Project v4.0

@mtgnexus Community Deck Build Project v5.0b

@mtgnexus Community Deck Build Project v6.0

@mtgnexus Community Deck Build Project v7.0

@mtgnexus Community Deck Build Project v8.0

- I reserve the right to amend these guidelines as we go, should questions arise.

Without further ado, the commander randomly determined for v9.0;

OR

OR

[aliciaofthevast]

Is this a mulligan? The middle one reads like bad Talrand and the first is a boring Voltron. I could get down with some Tymaret action but I suspect most don't care?

[toctheyounger]

Of these I'd choose Alandra, Sky Dreamer. Talrand with a twist, blue overrun is kinda novel. I'd happily reroll too, it's the only one of these I'm into.

[3drinks]

Mulligan choices are live.

[gsgfdf]

I would like to vote for

I already have build this one and it is a great deck for a lower power table. It is way more interesting than Tarland and arguably more powerful.

[toctheyounger]

Yeah thinking on it Minn isn't bad at all. I've been busy having my car stolen, but on first blush of that second roll I was kinda meh on all three.

But another look at Minn and it could do some cool stuff. Use sac effects to cheat stupid things into play sounds like something I could be in on. Even just a way to break parity on Phimage a little more is pretty sweet.

I'm in on it for sure. Mono blue is out of my wheelhouse so it should be fun.

[3drinks]

The Mardu in me wants to see how far we can take a tier 3 tribe with a not-great commander and see if it can pull some weight despite it's high mv. Even if it does read a little boring for a payoff.

Yeah thinking on it Minn isn't bad at all. I've been busy having my car stolen, but on first blush of that second roll I was kinda meh on all three.

Whoa, well damn did you at least get it back? Or have insurance to foot the bill for a new one? Was it a high profile theft target, or just an out of convenience hit? Hopefully you had it paid off at least.

[toctheyounger]

boring for a payoff.

Mardu gang rise up, but this above is it for me. We all know what this deck is gonna do, seems a waste of time if we're not challenging ourselves to me. I could be convinced, but it looks pretty vanilla to me. I'm still on Minn, I think Treebeard is way too self-restricting to make it an interesting exercise and Guinevere is just voltron with knights.

Whoa, well damn did you at least get it back? Or have insurance to foot the bill for a new one? Was it a high profile theft target, or just an out of convenience hit? Hopefully you had it paid off at least.

Not yet but it got found. My wife is gonna have a look this arvo at the impound lot to see how bad it is. Insurance are sending an assessor out too, so we will see. It was mostly paid off, so if it is a write off we might just come out ok.

It was totally a convenience thing, apparently Toyota Aquas are really easy to lift, so that's what they did. I doubt anything comes of it in terms of catching the people who did it, the police here are way overburdened and this kind of stuff is happening everywhere here at the moment. 12yo kids doing ram raid burglaries and such, they know they can get away with it. And if they are caught they get a slap on the hand. Our country is a mess as far as crime goes, the gangs rule the roost. Interesting times.

[Henlock]

Minn looks like it can do something odd. Plus, I don't really do monoblue It should be interesting.

[Dunharrow]

I would do Minn or Treebeard.

[aliciaofthevast]

Ohhhh! I been dealing with some stuff guys sorry. But I like Tree beard cause it's like having Ageless Entity in the command zone. I'd vote for that if we can stay off tribal because those tribes will be traps here!

[Dunharrow]

Minn pushes us to broken things, and probably has some optimal cards that need to be included that will take up a lot of the deck. I do like that it is monocolored. It also feels like we are going to spam illusions to cheat in Omniscience or something.
Treebeard pushes towards lifegain voltron. This is more flexible in my opinion. Gives us more wiggle room to come up with interesting subthemes.

[toctheyounger]

I dunno, I feel like Minn is more interested in stuff like Maskwood Nexus and Vesuvan Duplimancy than anything really gross. We're not going to be comboing off or anything.

Treebeard, I dunno man, I'm just not seeing anything interesting in that build at all. I could be wrong, but I don't see it going anywhere interesting personally.

[3drinks]

I dunno, I feel like Minn is more interested in stuff like Maskwood Nexus and Vesuvan Duplimancy than anything really gross. We're not going to be comboing off or anything.

Treebeard, I dunno man, I'm just not seeing anything interesting in that build at all. I could be wrong, but I don't see it going anywhere interesting personally.

I see Minn, since the illusions will stack off each other's power like a Karnstruct will, it's easy to pop these things for 8 and start dropping like...ulamog's crusher and similar type threats. Very one-sided show and tell esque, which is fun precisely one game. I can think of exactly 0 games where someone cheats out Omniscience where I said "Hmm, what an interesting game, I wonder what will happen!"

Treebeard reads like Selesnya soul sisters, which isn't exactly breaking any barriers. And it can't even use Drogskol Reaver for a proc!

And then we have poor Syr Gwyn. So close, yet so far. Who is playing a 6mv commander that doesn't come close to winning the game, these days? Especially for such a niche tribe.

[Dunharrow]

I actually think Minn would have been more interesting without the ability to cheat things in.

[toctheyounger]

Why don't we reroll one more time? Seems like no one is feeling these...

[gsgfdf]

A quick note on Minn, cheating out an Omniscience or other various 7+ drops is Christmas magic land. She makes an illusion only once per turn, getting them to 7+ power would require utterly dominating the game anyway. In most situations our tokens work the same as Krosan Wayfarer .

[3drinks]

A quick note on Minn, cheating out an Omniscience or other various 7+ drops is Christmas magic land. She makes an illusion only once per turn, getting them to 7+ power would require utterly dominating the game anyway. In most situations our tokens work the same as Krosan Wayfarer .

They stack off each other. I.e. having two is two 2/1s i.e. a 4mv cheat. It'll Scale Up relatively trivially from there, especially with any tribal support. I know I'd be pushing for all sorts of power boosts to maximize this.

[3drinks]

I just chose from the same colour identity of the cards that were on the board for ease. Not a full reroll sure, but enough to inspire more discussion and not be horrendously under or over powered.

Without further ado, the commander randomly determined for v9.0;

OR

OR

[Dunharrow]

I vote Isshin, Two Heavens as One for extra Etali triggers.

[toctheyounger]

Yeah Isshin seems the obvious pick here. I'd give that a go.

[aliciaofthevast]

I'd enjoy Isshin, I think! I know 3drinks ended up dissatisfied with the eldrazi reanimator concept, maybe that'll turn out better with all of us!

As a secondary I think that blue card is pretty sweet, but I think definitely a distant second to Isshin.

[gsgfdf]

A quick note on Minn, cheating out an Omniscience or other various 7+ drops is Christmas magic land. She makes an illusion only once per turn, getting them to 7+ power would require utterly dominating the game anyway. In most situations our tokens work the same as Krosan Wayfarer .

They stack off each other. I.e. having two is two 2/1s i.e. a 4mv cheat. It'll Scale Up relatively trivially from there, especially with any tribal support. I know I'd be pushing for all sorts of power boosts to maximize this.

I don't understand this. If you have 2 illusions and one dies you get a card in play. There is no way to get a with just 2 illusions.

My vote goes to Isshin as well.

[3drinks]

Sounds like Isshin is the clear winner. So, what's our strategy?

I'm partial to the concept of Exhume < Pathrazer of Ulamog because I don't like having friends, I guess. Surely this isn't the only way to build the deck, so what else is on deck?

I started the corre of the deck here, with all the lands and boring ramp stuff.

I don't understand this. If you have 2 illusions and one dies you get a card in play. There is no way to get a with just 2 illusions.

My vote goes to Isshin as well.

Too many words on these modern overpushed cards, my math brain was adding up all the numbers.

[Dunharrow]

I think haste enablers, extra combat steps, and big attack triggers is how I would go, but I think this is a timmy way of building it.
Probably a low cmc swarm with Hellrider effects would be better?

Like if I made this I would put Drakuseth, Maw of Flames and ignore good removal spells.