MTGNexus

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 For the sake of historical reference, each finished deck will be archived here on my Moxfield.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 or Lord Magnus, of course.
- Players will submit one card/day they believe fits the deck's prescribed role, and vote yay/nay on current cards up for voting. Three yays confirms a card and three nays removes it from the docket. In an effort to curb low effort posting where a user would just shout random cards into the void, if you don't participate in the individual card discussions, I won't recognize your card submissions.
- 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 "75% mid to high" power level. We all know the upper ends of cDH are an incredibly small, "solved" card pool, and building to such a pinnacle will lead to some very same-ish decks. That flies directly in the face of this exercise we're doing, no?
- 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. - I reserve the right to amend these guidelines as we go, should questions arise.

Without further ado, the commanders randomly determined for v5.0;

I'll wait for others to weigh in on this one.

This marks the first time a 5c commander has come up, but it's that 5c commander. Imagine how many directions we'll be pulled in with access to all colours haha.

So first thoughts are that there is not a standout best to me.

My rank 1 vote goes to Eutropia the Twice-Favored as an enchantment/enchantress deck with a counters subtheme. Maybe also a negative aura subtheme like Spreading Seas? Aggro/voltron as a strategy, I think? This would have the most brainstorming with a fairly narrow scope, I think.

My rank 2 vote is sportsball memeing with Doran, the Siege Tower, because it would be a highly theme deck. My only problem is that it almost certainly either won't be able to stay on theme or hit the power level target. We would have to pick one. This would be my #1 pick if not for the power consideration.

My rank 3 vote is for O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami, but I have no idea where to go with it. This is my ranked choice "not that guy" vote.

My least favorite is Admiral Beckett Brass. I like tribal, but I have tried brainstorming this guy more than one leading or in decks. Brass just needs so much setup for a small payoff and theft effects always draw fire. I think Brass is a trap card for pirate tribal.

So... I'm interested to see what we can come up with as a group for Admiral Becket Brass. Because she's been very hard to make work, sadly, and I want her to work. That's my top vote.

If we're considering O-Kagachi, I think we should nominate a theme to go with him, so it's not completely open-ended. I propose a pillowfort-y, Jujitsu-style deck, of the "don't attack me or you're the one who gets hit" variety. (Just for full disclosure, I have a Kami Tribal deck around the guy. It's the slowest, grindiest thing ever, and really struggles a great deal to get off the ground at all without a fair bit of luck and being underestimated and ignored, largely due to how all-in I went on flavor, but it is fun when I can get it to kinda work.)

I have no idea what I would do if we went for Abzan Football with Doran. I mean, I have some familiarity with building Doran (it was the third commander deck I ever built, and I've been tinkering ever since), but I don't pay attention to sports basically ever, so I'm not sure I'd be able to stay on theme when I don't even entirely understand the theme. I might end up having to sit out if this one wins, sadly. But it would make for an amusing deck.

Eutropia is just not very interesting to me. She's so straightforwardly aggro, and doesn't even really allow for the flying to be utilized well on defense. On top of that, she's in "generic value engine" colors, and it would be hard to avoid having the deck shaped by that. I'd prefer to avoid her if at all possible.

My vote is O-Kagachi with all the 'every creature must attack every turn' effects as a theme. I am not sure if Goad works though because they can't attack you so that doesn't trigger O-Kagachi. So it has to be more Fumiko the Lowblood and Warmonger Hellkite cards. Bident of Thassa could work too.
I think this plays out as people still don't want to attack you, unless they think they can finally kill you, in which case we bust out the Arachnogenesis and friends.
I think I would call this theme Battle Royal in the fog.

Second choice would be Eutropia the Twice-Favored. I think it is very weak though, so I am not loving it.

I have no interest in pirates or Doran. I hate tribal, and I have seen a million Doran decks.

I think I'd go with O-Kagachi, though I'd be game for all four. I like the jiu jitsu/good idea. Maybe stuff like Avatar of Slaughter?

I really don't know what to say. I despise Simic garbo like the plague and the pirate is really just a hill giant that lords a bad tribe. Of all the 5c decks, I couldn't have landed on Garth, One-Eye? And I don't really meme, but it was mentioned by another user so I figured I'd add it to the list in case others wanted it.

Damn, I was hoping Doran football would be a shoe in. I vote Doran! I summon @kirkusjones! I summon @darrenhabib! I summon @Igzex! I summon @BeneTleilax! I call upon all forces above and below, lend me your votes and knowledge of sports! Let us make this meme a reality.

Edit: Pardon me, kirk. Didn't see you up there! Lend a guy a hand, will ya? The vox populi ain't swinging my way.

Sure, I'll vote Doran. He's a lovely and underrecognized counterpoint to valuebarf Arcades

TheAmericanSpirit wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Damn, I was hoping Doran football would be a shoe in. I vote Doran! I summon @kirkusjones! I summon @darrenhabib! I summon @Igzex! I summon @BeneTleilax! I call upon all forces above and below, lend me your votes and knowledge of sports! Let us make this meme a reality.

Edit: Pardon me, kirk. Didn't see you up there! Lend a guy a hand, will ya? The vox populi ain't swinging my way.

So are we supposed to vote which commander gets the deck building treatment? TBF Rumpy has already done a Eutropia the Twice-Favored primer so that is pretty covered, and Admiral Beckett Brass is pretty set-in-stone spam pirates (boring). I guess O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami is the only real other choice and you could go a lot of directions due to 5 colors.
I wasn't sure why Abzan was chosen in the first place? What was the "lore" on that?

@darrenhabib so the whole abzan football thing happened like this: a week ago, a spambot hit the forum in the middle of the night and posted a 1000 word nonsensical essay on the in-game economy of an upcoming FIFA title. Said spambot tagged the thread as Abzan, because it's the first alphabetical tag. While the spam post was removed, we are left with the traces of the thread it created: a thread about Abzan Football. Doran looks like a pretty scary guy and the motion blur in his art shows he moves at a clip, so I nominated him for team captain.

Thus, Doran Abzan Football: the meme theme deck! Or so I hope. I need more votes...

Pirates are pretty fun, but I guess not multiplayer friendly because who likes their best stuff taken every turn? Then in turn we add extra combat spells so we can get two cards, then three and ...oh. Seems pretty linear for us and boring for others.

The other two I don't see a future in. Maybe this is a reroll?

I vote for Garth One-Eye because they'll be printing official token cards for his ability,

Ivote for the dragon

Legend wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I vote for Garth One-Eye because they'll be printing official token cards for his ability,

this killed me

TheAmericanSpirit wrote: ↑

1 year ago

@darrenhabib so the whole abzan football thing happened like this: a week ago, a spambot hit the forum in the middle of the night and posted a 1000 word nonsensical essay on the in-game economy of an upcoming FIFA title. Said spambot tagged the thread as Abzan, because it's the first alphabetical tag. While the spam post was removed, we are left with the traces of the thread it created: a thread about Abzan Football. Doran looks like a pretty scary guy and the motion blur in his art shows he moves at a clip, so I nominated him for team captain.

Thus, Doran Abzan Football: the meme theme deck! Or so I hope. I need more votes...

As football is a team sport my vote is for Tymna the Weaver (weaving through the defense) and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Flanking and even the "can't block unless has reach" alludes to the goalie being last line of defense. And they are both Human.

TheAmericanSpirit wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Damn, I was hoping Doran football would be a shoe in. I vote Doran! I summon @kirkusjones! I summon @darrenhabib! I summon @Igzex! I summon @BeneTleilax! I call upon all forces above and below, lend me your votes and knowledge of sports! Let us make this meme a reality.

Edit: Pardon me, kirk. Didn't see you up there! Lend a guy a hand, will ya? The vox populi ain't swinging my way.

I have a confession to make. I actually know very little about sports in general D:

@3drinks alright, I concede. Unless Doran gets a deluge of votes, I think we'll let the meme rest. I don't know enough about international Football to carry the whole thing myself lol

Based on the vote tally, I'm getting the sense these are a lukewarm set of random choices given the "top" choice is only getting votes out of reluctance as evidenced by the replies. Here's the numbers;

3 o-kaigaichi
3 admiral or reroll
2 doran
1 eutropia

This tells me we're too split and we could do with a reroll.

In the event of a reroll, these would be the next choices.

Atemsis, All-Seeing I think would have the most diverse amount of decision making because of metrics involved. That's where my vote goes.

Syrix, Carrier of the Flame is just too metal for me not to vote for it.

I like Atsemsis because I always wanted to assemble all the Exodia pieces but in Magic. I like how interesting the phoenix is, the gameplay it promotes, the niche interactions like using tortured existence to keep procing the trigger.

And then there was the Bant commander. tumbleweed

3drinks wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I like Atsemsis because I always wanted to assemble all the Exodia pieces but in Magic. I like how interesting the phoenix is, the gameplay it promotes, the niche interactions like using tortured existence to keep procing the trigger.

And then there was the Bant commander. tumbleweed

I was going to vote for Syrix, Carrier of the Flame but I felt it's to easy to build itself, but I could be wrong.
Galea, Kindler of Hope is super powerful and would be the best deck of the bunch by far. It's too easy to go voltron with it, but if it did get voted then I'd try to help go alternative routes, if that would even be possible.