That Ain't Legal: M'odo, the Gnarled oracle

[Gashnaw]

M'odo, the Gnarled oracle
BUG
Legendary Creature- Zombie Elf Wizard
Eminence- X, discard a crad: Target player reveals cards until they reveal a creature with converted mana cost X or less. Put taht card into play under your control (Paraphrased but you get the idea)
0/3

So Sheldon has gone on record to state that cards created by wizards that can function as a commander can be a commander, for the person who owns it. Of course Sheldon also does not allow proxies, but we will ignore that for now.

So i printed out a proxy of M'odo (I am also going to be doing The legend of the Arena, but I will start a fresh thread for that one) And i am hoping to get some help on building a relatively budget friendly deck. I like the ability to steal creatures and harass people's plans. The reason i want this to be budget friendly is so my playgorup doesn't get too sour. (The will probably still get salty, but I am playing with a legal commander, if I owned the card i would bring it in myself. just to prove i have the card, and then use the proxy anyway)

I feel M'odo would be a land based deck, a way to generate a lot of mana, and then start stealing opponent cards. Green ramp, blue draw (As I need to discard a card for his ability) and black, i dunno, cabal coffers, necropotence?
anyway, in addition to land/ramp i need some other spells for the deck. Looking for plans in this regard. (I think Ashnod's altar can also help, as I can sac the creatures i have stolen to play a big spell, like Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate. just to finish them off in the end.Most lands that produce black will probably produce it in addition to another color, as black is not my focus, sure i have a few black spells (Maybe some tutors) but the main focus will be ramping and drawing so i can steal stuff.

so looking for help.

[NZB2323]

You could make it zombie tribal, as a lot of zombies you're okay with discarding. Green gives you access to Golgari zombies and zombies cards from Apocalypse like Llanowar dead and Strength of night.

[Gashnaw]

You could make it zombie tribal, as a lot of zombies you're okay with discarding. Green gives you access to Golgari zombies and zombies cards from Apocalypse like Llanowar dead and Strength of night.

Not wanting to do zombie tribal. i is a decent plan but i have a done zombie decks and i have a thrax zombie tribal.

Only zombie creature i would like to run are those that can return to my hand easily.

[darrenhabib]

I guess first of all you get to see decks (keep revealing) on Turn 0 if you wanted, by just doing X for zero.
If you are playing against random people at an LGS then that accounts for something.
This makes cards that search opponents libraries better; Bribery, Acquire, Head Games, Jester's Mask, Knowledge Exploitation, Life's Finale, Praetor's Grasp, Thada Adel, Acquisitor.

Playing off the top of opponents is also is a little better as you have information about their deck in general; Villainous Wealth, Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Shared Fate, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, Ashiok, Nightmare Muse, Fallen Shinobi, Lord of the Void, Nightveil Specter, Thief of Sanity.

Exiling cards from opponents' libraries, particularly creatures is beneficial to his ability as it allows you better chance of success on what is put into play. So for example you might want to exile all the low converted mana creatures so that you hit their bigger creatures.
Bitter Ordeal, Denying Wind, Jester's Cap, Neverending Torment, Nightmare Incursion, Rootwater Thief, Sadistic Sacrament.
I feel like this would be one of the few decks where Neverending Torment is actually viable because you don't need the commander in play and you can keep putting lands into play to spend more on X or the card you draw for the turn is just for the discard.

Obviously because you can discard on Turn 0, anything to do with reanimation is going to be good as well. Discard Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur on turn 1, cast Reanimate, go.
Also dredge can be started before you even have your first draw. And with the guaranteed discard outlet you can literally do dredge every turn.

[DirkGently]

Oops, I misread this as vivien's arkbow at first, and thought it was maybe almost kinda reasonable.

Because you just go until you hit something, you can essentially use it as a free tutor for every creature in your deck, so long as you do it sequentially.

So T2 eot pay 2, hit pili-pala. Untap T3, play land, pay 3, hit grand architect. Generate infinite mana. Dump it into your commander to play any creatures you want - mike trike, all the fattest eldrazi, some hasty dudes followed by craterhoof, put a bunch of your opponents creatures into play...however you want to win.

If your opponents don't have instant-speed creature removal they lose T3, and more likely T2 because you'd obviously run all the fast mana in the universe, with T1 even being very plausible. Even force of will doesn't do a damn thing (although it could also least prevent some of the fast mana...who doesn't love 2-for-1ing themself to stop a turn 1 lotus petal?) And since you only need to dedicate a couple slots to winning the game on turn 2, the rest of the deck can be all the cheapest interaction, just in case someone actually does keep up an STP. Or you could include sylvan safekeeper, which makes the combo cost 1 more (Paying 6 whole mana to win the game? Casual.) but nearly immune to removal, making it almost entirely uninteractive.

Shockingly, it's even more absurdly broken than the other one. Very impressive.

[Gashnaw]

Oops, I misread this as vivien's arkbow at first, and thought it was maybe almost kinda reasonable.

Because you just go until you hit something, you can essentially use it as a free tutor for every creature in your deck, so long as you do it sequentially.

So T2 eot pay 2, hit pili-pala. Untap T3, play land, pay 3, hit grand architect. Generate infinite mana. Dump it into your commander to play any creatures you want - mike trike, all the fattest eldrazi, some hasty dudes followed by craterhoof, put a bunch of your opponents creatures into play...however you want to win.

If your opponents don't have instant-speed creature removal they lose T3, and more likely T2 because you'd obviously run all the fast mana in the universe, with T1 even being very plausible. Even force of will doesn't do a damn thing (although it could also least prevent some of the fast mana...who doesn't love 2-for-1ing themself to stop a turn 1 lotus petal?) And since you only need to dedicate a couple slots to winning the game on turn 2, the rest of the deck can be all the cheapest interaction, just in case someone actually does keep up an STP. Or you could include sylvan safekeeper, which makes the combo cost 1 more (Paying 6 whole mana to win the game? Casual.) but nearly immune to removal, making it almost entirely uninteractive.

Shockingly, it's even more absurdly broken than the other one. Very impressive.

Reanimator theme, T1, get dryad arbor. if you know other decks and know they have dryad arbor, grab them too. Okay this can be pretty disgusting. Luckily of teh two decks i wish to make, this is less appealing. Arena is the one i want to make more.

[Mimicvat]

Treasure hunt deck? There are a lot of ways to get lands to hand that are often more efficient than trying to draw an equivalent number of cards. Thats a pretty solid direction to take him.

Don't think he'd be that good outside of the combo, big chance that you pay seven and get a random one drop =(

[DirkGently]

If you want fatties, just don't play any small creatures. Then you can hit whatever cmc you want.

Alternatively, You could scout your opponents deck with a 0 and then count how many 1s, 2s, etc. Then strip their deck cmc by cmc.

Absurd brokenness aside, gotta say that this design is terrible. Why is it a 0/3? Casting it is actually worse than keeping it in the command zone, where it can't get imprisoned in the moon or whatever.

[Feyd_Ruin]

Putting the above together, this is kind of a broken combo.

Assuming you don't play first:
Turn 0: Pay 0, discard (6) - get Dryad Arbor
Turn 1: Draw(7). Land. pay 2, discard (6) - get Pili-Pala
Turn 2: Draw (7). Land, pay 2, disccard (6) - get Grand Architect
.. Infinite mana, 6 cards in hand for fuel.
...fetch Thallid Soothsayer (4)
...fetch Golgari Rotwurm (5)
...fetch Ant Queen (5)
..now.... draw your deck, create infinite tokens, sac them for infinite life drain...

:|

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 M'odo, the Gnarled Oracle

Creatures

1 Pili-Pala

1 Grand Architect

1 Thallid Soothsayer

1 Golgari Rotwurm

1 Ant Queen

1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Land

1 Dryad Arbor

92 Island

Approximate Total Cost:

You don't even have to muligan if you draw one of the critters, since you can just cast them.
This is an 8 card deck that combos on turn 2 pretty much every game.

[3drinks]

Wait, is this a real card? Not some kind of awful custom card creation?

[materpillar]

Wait, is this a real card? Not some kind of awful custom card creation?

I believe there's only 1 in existence as it was made specifically for a wizards of the coast employee. It's pretty much an awful custom card creation.

Absurd brokenness aside, gotta say that this design is terrible. Why is it a 0/3? Casting it is actually worse than keeping it in the command zone, where it can't get imprisoned in the moon or whatever.

I agree with this totally. I seriously dislike this card a ton.

Personally, I'd build this as a voltron commander, just because there's literally no reason to cast it ever. That design is just so awful, that I can think of nothing more hilarious than lethaling people with it. Attack someone Might of Oaks + berserk + discard target yourself to find God-Eternal Rhonas. Maybe soul-bond tribal with Wolfir Silverheart and Elgaud Shieldmate

I feel M'odo would be a land based deck, a way to generate a lot of mana, and then start stealing opponent cards. Green ramp, blue draw (As I need to discard a card for his ability) and black, i dunno, cabal coffers, necropotence?
anyway, in addition to land/ramp i need some other spells for the deck. Looking for plans in this regard. (I think Ashnod's altar can also help, as I can sac the creatures i have stolen to play a big spell, like Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate. just to finish them off in the end.Most lands that produce black will probably produce it in addition to another color, as black is not my focus, sure i have a few black spells (Maybe some tutors) but the main focus will be ramping and drawing so i can steal stuff.

so looking for help.

If you build your deck around targeting yourself with this card or as a dredge/reanimator enabler its going to get extremely broken extremely fast. However, assuming you're doing what you said and only targeting your opponents, then this general is likely to be massively underwhelming for you. Imagine dropping 8 mana into this general and then flipping your opponent's Birds of Paradise. I just glanced at my changeling tribal deck and there's about 3 creatures in that deck you'd actively like to hit. In my Gishath, Dinosaur stompy deck which is a "timmy smash!" deck, there's about 10-12 creatures you'd like to hit. That's only 1/3 of the creatures in the deck. That means the majority of the time you target an opponent you're going to get garbage not bombs.

If you go that route I'd recommend some cards like oversold cemetery and gutterbones to mitigate the card disadvantage of constantly discarding things.

You could do a madness subtheme deck with him that'd be pretty balanced though.
https://edhrec.com/themes/madness

Another interesting deck would be using him as a command zone Soothsaying or as a 0, discard a card: shuffle target players library. Then abuse future sight, oracle of mul daya and stuff like that.

[Gashnaw]

i forgot i could target myself. yea it is a commander that reads "5 turn clock, maybe less"

With the Dray arbor, Pili pala and Grand architect. With infinit emana though i need to know what bombs to get. (plus i need that extra blue mana to get infinite)

Not bad but i need a draw spell to keep my hand full.

[CalebLost]

i forgot i could target myself. yea it is a commander that reads "5 turn clock, maybe less"

With the Dray arbor, Pili pala and Grand architect. With infinit emana though i need to know what bombs to get. (plus i need that extra blue mana to get infinite)

Not bad but i need a draw spell to keep my hand full.

You can declare pili-pala as attacker, use architect to get 2colorless, activate the tapped pilipala to get U and start the combo, you are in the middle of the combat but all the activations are instant-speed

[materpillar]

Putting the above together, this is kind of a broken combo.

Assuming you don't play first:
Turn 0: Pay 0, discard (6) - get Dryad Arbor
Turn 1: Draw(7). Land. pay 2, discard (6) - get Pili-Pala
Turn 2: Draw (7). Land, pay 2, disccard (6) - get Grand Architect
.. Infinite mana, 6 cards in hand for fuel.
...fetch Thallid Soothsayer (4)
...fetch Golgari Rotwurm (5)
...fetch Ant Queen (5)
..now.... draw your deck, create infinite tokens, sac them for infinite life drain...

:|

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 M'odo, the Gnarled Oracle

Creatures

1 Pili-Pala

1 Grand Architect

1 Thallid Soothsayer

1 Golgari Rotwurm

1 Ant Queen

1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Land

1 Dryad Arbor

92 Island

Approximate Total Cost:

You don't even have to muligan if you draw one of the critters, since you can just cast them.
This is an 8 card deck that combos on turn 2 pretty much every game.

Nah you're thinking too hard. Just generate infinite mana and find Lore Weaver and deck every opponent.

[ilovesaprolings]

If you want to build this you must understand nothing about magic. This is beyond broken. Without eminence it would be the most broken instaban general, with eminence is like bringing a Ferrari to a unicycle race.

[Gashnaw]

If you want to build this you must understand nothing about magic. This is beyond broken. Without eminence it would be the most broken instaban general, with eminence is like bringing a Ferrari to a unicycle race.

I could also build this to be fun. I could not go for infinite combos and it would be much more of a "for fun" deck. i will still run dryad arbor, as it is still a good turn 0 ability to get one extra land, which i may need, but i won;t do the inifnite combos.

Every general can be good and bad. The ur-dragon is very good with dragons, but he could also just be a five color that has the benefit of drawing a card and putting something on the field. My Playgroup has to nuke him immediately because he is a 10/10 in a dragon tribal deck. BUT if i build him just to be a 5-color general, they may not care as much, he is still a 10/10 with flying but, doe snot have an addition 6 dragons swinging with him.)

I wan to build m'odo, but for fun, not to just combo off turn 3 every game. I want to have fun stealing their creatures too.

[materpillar]

I could also build this to be fun. I could not go for infinite combos and it would be much more of a "for fun" deck. i will still run dryad arbor, as it is still a good turn 0 ability to get one extra land, which i may need, but i won;t do the inifnite combos.

Every general can be good and bad. The ur-dragon is very good with dragons, but he could also just be a five color that has the benefit of drawing a card and putting something on the field. My Playgroup has to nuke him immediately because he is a 10/10 in a dragon tribal deck. BUT if i build him just to be a 5-color general, they may not care as much, he is still a 10/10 with flying but, doe snot have an addition 6 dragons swinging with him.)

I wan to build m'odo, but for fun, not to just combo off turn 3 every game. I want to have fun stealing their creatures too.

As long as you build this and never target yourself with it, its probably a fair if not slightly weak general. The moment you start abusing the fact you have a free discard outlet in your command zone or building your deck with the intent of getting specific creatures from your own deck its powerlevel spikes though the roof. For example. targeting yourself for a free dryad arbor is extremely powerful. That's like having a zero mana 0, instant speed rampant growth in your opening hand every game. Even if your general had no other text he'd still be very strong. You know how Sol Ring is a fair and balanced magic card? Tutoring for dryad arbor is roughly half a sol ring, which is still really really good. Its probably not going to make your opponents rage quit or anything but if your opponents are smart it should get some eyerolls.

I'm slowly getting a better grasp of your playgroups meta-game. If you're playing "dragon tribal", you're not playing an incredibly strong deck. It might be strong in your meta-game but there are playgroups out there that will eat any dragon tribal deck for dinner and casually spit out their bones. For clarity, I don't mean that as an insult or anything. I believe EDH is greatly improved when people aren't trying to play cEDH. My favorite deck is The Ur-Dragon Changeling Tribal, I can tell you for a fact it isn't a strong deck. I designed it that way. The Ur-Dragon is a reasonably balanced general. He's strong enough to be respectable but even tuned to be as powerful as possible the Ur-Dragon is by no means a degenerate game ruining powerhouse. The Ur-Dragon isn't even the most broken Ur-Dragon This M'odo guy has the potential to be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay stronger than the Ur-Dragon could ever hope to be.

[Gashnaw]

I still think the only "dick move" i will do with this deck (Aside form stealing peoples stuff just cause i can) Is getting Dryad arbor turn 0. Aside form that I don;t think i will have anything that is truly degenerate. Keep the illusion that M'odo is not OP simply by not making him OP.

[Gashnaw]

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 M'odo, the Gnarled Oracle

Creatures

1 Pili-Pala

1 Grand Architect

1 Thallid Soothsayer

1 Golgari Rotwurm

1 Ant Queen

1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Land

1 Dryad Arbor

92 Island

Approximate Total Cost:

Why ulamog?

[Feyd_Ruin]

Why ulamog?

Ulamog can let you shuffle everything back up. Either by drawing him with Soothsayer and then discarding him, or by fetching him and sac'ing him to Rotwurm. Assuming someone stops your combo, it lets you go again, getting back any missing piece. You can also draw the deck with Soothsayer, and then cast him, sac him, draw him, cast him, sac him, etc, to remove any and all permanents in your way (ie: Leyline of Sanctity).

[Gashnaw]

So kozilek can also do it. I am building both decks. Just in case I am having and night and want to do a quick game where I win before I leave for the night.

[Feyd_Ruin]

Koz can shuffle up, but Ulamog can Vindicate problems when you cast him.
Overall the point is kind of moot though. 99% of the time you'll either win turn 2/3 or someone has a way to stop the infinite mana before it begins.

[Gashnaw]

The best they can hope to do is path or swords. Stifle only makes me wait until the next upkeep (not even my own)

[Mookie]

As others have pointed out, M'odo is pretty broken if you want it to be, which will promptly get it banned by your playgroup (if they decide to allow it in the first place).

That said, when I first saw it announced, I contemplated building a 98 land + Ramunap Excavator deck, which seems sweet. Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Oracle of Mul Daya, and other cards are obvious possible inclusions, but may also push it over the line depending on the power level of your meta. I like M'odo mostly because there aren't many viable commanders for 90+ land decks - you give up way too many deck slots for lands. Being able to play out of your opponents' decks gives a lot more flexibility and versatility, while also making the deck a lot less repetitive.

[Gashnaw]

As others have pointed out, M'odo is pretty broken if you want it to be, which will promptly get it banned by your playgroup (if they decide to allow it in the first place).

That said, when I first saw it announced, I contemplated building a 98 land + Ramunap Excavator deck, which seems sweet. Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Oracle of Mul Daya, and other cards are obvious possible inclusions, but may also push it over the line depending on the power level of your meta. I like M'odo mostly because there aren't many viable commanders for 90+ land decks - you give up way too many deck slots for lands. Being able to play out of your opponents' decks gives a lot more flexibility and versatility, while also making the deck a lot less repetitive.

Hmm, sounds like a good plan for deck #2, but i am curious, whould it be at al vible with no spells of your own? I might not play many creatures, but no spells of my own could be problematic.
(Regardless of deck, drya is going to be in both though.I mean come on. its pretty much a free land.)