ISBPathfinder wrote: ↑2 years ago
Some things to consider adding to your list:
- Fierce Guardianship is amazing backup / protection for the commander as it does catch a lot of the things that will take him out (not creature based removal but a lot of other things). I noticed you don't have one in your list which I would strongly suggest in any blue deck not on a budget.
- Eerie Interlude - I saw the Ghostway in your list so I guess this suggestion shouldn't be that surprising.
- Guardian Project / Panharmonicon / Teferi's Ageless Insight - I don't really know when enough draw is enough but these could work with the commander and some even on their own. I think Guardian Project is likely the best of them because it doesn't rely on the commander being in play but Panharmonicon probably has the most value added to them. I am not really sure if this is a route we should go but they have synergy with the commander. I opted to run Teferi's because of price tag :D
- Earthcraft - Assuming its within the budget I think earthcraft is crazy in a deck like this full of cheap cantrip creatures. The fact that you can tap them the turn you played them to generate mana is crazy. It really allows some snowballing of cheap creatures filled with ramp.
- Gaea's Cradle - I assume any creature based deck that runs Growing Rights but not cradle is doing it due to the cost. I don't blame you but assuming you have one / can afford I think its good in a deck like this.
Questioning a few things:
- Delay? I would say a Fierce Guardianship or Mana Drain would be my own preference. If those are too expensive you might even just consider a budget friendly Arcane Denial or something of the sort. I just don't like Delay lol.
- Dusk - I get the idea behind this card I just don't like its lack of flexability. Someone could have a ton of tokens, utility creatures, or even combo pieces and this card just lacks flexibility which is often why I don't run this effect myself. Personally I would add in Wave of Reckoning as it seems like its practically built for this deck.
- Wall of Lost Thoughts - I don't know if I am missing something but..... why this card? The only thing I can possibly think of with this card is possibly if you set up some repeated loop with Cloudstone Curio but outside of that, I just.... don't understand its inclusion.
- Meekstone - I have a bit of a history of hating on this card and its mostly just because big stompy creatures that repeatedly swing is just not a good tactic in this format. If you are lucky you can drop this after someone swings with an eldrazi at someone other than you but this is really not a good answer as it doesn't stop that first swing from hitting you and once its in play people will just save up to one shot you while this doesn't actually protect you. Swinging repeatedly with big creatures just isn't how most people die unless you want to consider Craterhoof Behemoth swinging with big creatures. My point is its sort of poor defense that seems to be target hating on voltron and some niche case aggro tactics which tend to be a weaker archetype of commander. I just think there are better cards out there and I don't like this form of defense.
- Tree of Redemption - I am just going to point it out because its a big expensive wall that lacks any evasion or added value. If you want to keep it its fine but I think its very reliant on swinging behind some sort of added evasion or tempo based sweeper.
- Tower Defense / Akroma's Will - I don't like them mostly because they are one shot effects that are entirely dependent on your commander still being in play after you cast them. Its part of why I shifted most of my buffing effects to be continuous effects rather than one shot ones. I don't know if my route is correct or not but I wanted to run buffs that even if my opponents interacted with my commander I would still have a separate threat other than my commander persisting through.
I am probably going to steal some ideas from you too lol. Some things I overlooked in my first draft.
I am not crazy about adding
Ghostway given its price tag but that seems to almost entirely be based on its lack of reprints given that
Eerie Interlude is actually strictly better and its like $1 card. I own a copy and I assume at some point it will get reprinted and
plummet to the nothing value card it should be.
Thanks for taking a look at my deck
@ISBPathfinder . Yes it's still in transition from the Wall-Ball clone. I threw in several cheap walls initially and once in a great moon I'll playtest it. So far, it's so-so. I was excited to see your post to get some ideas. AND...as I said before. I really like your logic in terms of simply protecting Arcades and ramping. I'm going to modify my deck over the next few days, but I've been super busy the last few days with work and family and I still have a few more to go. There are a few cards you suggested that just don't have. I don't actually have an unlimited budget, so currently I don't have
Gaea's Cradle and probably never will. Thus, the Growing Rites. I don't want to fork out for
Earthcraft. I'd like some Fierce Guardianships for my Varina deck and now this one, but that'll take time. I pretty much only buy/sell cards via Cardsphere so that I'm not really putting any extra money into MTG from my wallet. I have a single bid for a
Fierce Guardianship in right now, but that's slated for my Varina deck which I LOVE to play. For now, I'm going to search my collection for some of the 2+ CMC green ramp spells and add them in. I did find an
Eerie Interlude. I think I put
Ghostway in there because I've running
Lightning Greaves, so if I need to save Arcades with that attached I can because Eerie Interlude targets creatures whereas Ghostway doesn't. What are you thoughts on Lightning Greaves in here? That also reminds me that I need to put a bid in for a
Giver of Runes in Cardsphere and search my collection for a
Mother of Runes. (I think I have her.) I found an
Ephemerate as well, so yay.
As for
Tower Defense and
Akroma's Will, I like the idea of combat surprises particularly with Akroma's Will, but I can take or leave Tower Defense. One question I've always had about Akroma's though, do you have cast it before you attack to get the benefit of vigilance, because that has always been a hitch for me? Then you basically have to telegraph what you're doing. But, I really like that card for a kill shot and the super-duty lifegain to keep you going. Speaking of which, you might like
Perimeter Captain over
Jaddi Offshoot. Jaddi may gain you more life, but Perimeter has a bigger butt.
Wall of Lost Thoughts I just threw in there and have already planned to take it out. Just haven't yet. I used
Cloudstone Curio for looping when the deck was combo-based, but I kept it in thinking I could gain more ETB triggers by recasting walls. Your thoughts? I had
Aluren in there too, but I decided it benefited others too much even when I had Lavinia in the deck. I'm trying to go way more towards tribal. However, I'd like to try several of the 1 CMC protection spells you have, so it won't be fully tribal.
Again, thanks for your suggestions. I'm going to take a few of them, the less expensive ones, quite seriously. I'll probably get it all in a few days. And now, I'm going to Cardsphere.
Cheers,
Dave