Leori, Sparktouched Hunter - I'm less popular than freaking Omarthis? Wtf?

[DirkGently]

Ok, I know I obsess too much over EDHrec stats, but I'm genuinely baffled over the unpopularity of Leori, Sparktouched Hunter. Nor can I believe how popular the colorless commanders are. Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate is honestly such a mess - +1 counters in colorless only is a super narrow theme, needing to die in order to get the payoff is pretty annoying in a CI with minimal recursion, and looking at the top cards for him, so many of them are 0/0 base creatures that enter with counters - how is manifesting supposed to be a good payoff? Imo he's probably in the running for the worst commanders of all time. And somehow Leori is less popular than he is despite a solid body with a solid payoff. Knowing something is unpopular definitely gets my motor running, but I thought Leori was the most interesting build from CMM before I even looked at EDHrec, so seeing him at the bottom of the list poured gasoline on the fire of my interest, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor.

Anyway, as I mentioned briefly in the off-topic, something I like a lot about Leori is that he doesn't pressure you towards including a ton of planeswalkers in the deck. As long as you have something to copy, he's pretty much fully utilized. And while I think superfriends decks are kinda lame, having a decent smattering of planeswalkers I think is good clean fun.

That said, the deck is currently probably too heavy on pws and pw synergies, and could use more interaction. BUT I know my local group (well, Jon mostly) are big babies about interaction so I'm going to go light on the control for now, and leave pw count high. We'll see how it feels. Probably cut some planeswalkers as I get a feeling for how many is sufficient.

Leori the forgotten

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander (1)

1 Leori, Sparktouched Hunter

Planeswalkers (20)

1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage

1 Mordenkainen

1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno

1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

1 The Eternal Wanderer

1 Tezzeret the Seeker

1 Sarkhan the Masterless

1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

1 Elspeth Tirel

1 Elspeth Resplendent

1 Dack Fayden

1 Saheeli, Filigree Master

1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Zariel, Archduke of Avernus

1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

1 Jace, Cunning Castaway

1 Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis

1 Serra the Benevolent

1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

1 Narset of the Ancient Way

Planeswalker Synergy (10)

1 Sword of Truth and Justice

1 Flux Channeler

1 Staff of Compleation

1 Skyship Plunderer

1 Thrummingbird

1 Grateful Apparition

1 Brago, King Eternal

1 Displacer Kitten

1 Elspeth's Talent

1 Oath of Teferi

Commander Protection (6)

1 Mother of Runes

1 Giver of Runes

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Swiftfoot Boots

1 Unquestioned Authority

1 Spirit Mantle

Voltron (5)

1 Duelist's Heritage

1 Lizard Blades

1 Silverblade Paladin

1 Flaming Fist

1 Hexplate Wallbreaker

Planeswalker Protection (6)

1 Moat

1 Loyal Apprentice

1 Noble Heritage

1 Thaumatic Compass

1 Maze of Ith

1 Fog Bank

Control (5)

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Cyclonic Rift

1 Fierce Guardianship

1 Unexpectedly Absent

1 Subterranean Tremors

Tutor (4)

1 Steelshaper's Gift

1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Stoneforge Mystic

1 Open the Armory

Ramp (7)

1 Scholar of New Horizons

1 Curse of Opulence

1 Mox Diamond

1 Jeweled Amulet

1 Mana Crypt

1 Sol Ring

1 Chrome Mox

Land (36)

9 Fetches

3 ABU duals

3 Shocks

3 Pathways

1 Command Tower

1 Raugrin Triome

1 Spectator Seating

1 Training Center

1 Sea of Clouds

1 Plaza of Heroes

1 Skycloud Expanse

1 Prismatic Vista

1 Gemstone Caverns

1 Karn's Bastion

8 Basics

Approximate Total Cost:

Okay the lands are kinda halfassed but I'm tired so I'm going to bed.

[pokken]

So question about Leori. It's "Planeswalker Type"

If you play like, 15 copies of Gideon, do *all* your gideons work?

I wonder if that'd be a fun angle if so, where you play like, all Chandras or all Ajanis or something. In this color scheme I think you could do a buttload of Jaces and Chandras potentially, or even Gideons or Ajanis (although they are kinda crappy)

---

One random note, the flip walker Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound is likely to overperform here. That one has always been amazing for me in EDH. When you inevitably up our interaction quotient a little anyway.

[Chromaticus]

Yes, it works for all planeswalkers in class - so it definitely reads to me like a card that wants to go Chandra, Teferi, or Jace tribal. Sure, it's great to double one thing - but doubling all the things is even better.

Ichormoon Gauntlet, therefore, is bananas. Picture a case where you have 3 walkers of the same type. You get double proliferates on the first two, and then likely can double ultimate the third.

[pokken]

Yes, it works for all planeswalkers in class - so it definitely reads to me like a card that wants to go Chandra, Teferi, or Jace tribal. Sure, it's great to double one thing - but doubling all the things is even better.

Mono-Teferi feels like it could be....really good. (narrator: It wasn't. there aren't that many and most of them suck)

Also, you could just combo town with Tezzeret the Seeker too? (grab rings + monolith)? lol Man, that might be a thing to do with all my mana rocks!

[DirkGently]

@pokken @Chromaticus Oh right, I forgot to explain my thoughts about planeswalker-subtype tribal. As you've noticed, teferi is too sparse to fill out a deck, and I think that holds true for all of them really. The only ones that really have enough available that you're likely to draw more than 1 of the same type in a reasonable time frame are Chandra and Jace, and both those lists are loaded up with starter deck walkers that are bad and often redundant (jace version - draw cards, then draw more cards! chandra version - deal damage, then deal more damage!), not to mention heavy on the 6-drop slots. I suspect that's why he's been so unpopular - people read him, think "oh boy, I can make X planeswalker tribal!" then look at the available pools and ditch the idea. But I think he's still quite viable even if you assume you'll never get double-value.

Good point about Tezzeret, though you'd still need an outlet for infinite colorless. Rings is a decent card for the deck as-is, too. Not my cuppa, but if someone else wants to take a stab at it, be my guest.

[Chromaticus]

Not a The Chain Veil fan? I had assumed it was in here and double checked.

[DirkGently]

Not a The Chain Veil fan? I had assumed it was in here and double checked.

I'm not a fan of it, no. 4 is so much to activate especially if you're casting the relevant pw that turn, which I think you should assume you are. Generally speaking Leori synergizes best with pws that have a powerful minus ability. Sometimes that can be activated twice like mordenkainen, but a lot of the time you can only activate it once and then you're stuck doing pluses, which can be done a lot more efficiently via proliferate.

It's the sort of card that makes a lot more sense in a straight-up superfriends deck, but that's not how I see this deck, if anything I think the number of pw and pw synergies should be reduced in favour of more control spells.

[DirkGently]

While I'm thinking about it, here are my picks for weakest pws in the list:

Narset - kind of a worse Chandra basically

Jtms - none of his abilities are THAT nuts to copy

Jace, cunning castaway - it's basically purely for the ult but the ult is soooo funny.

Elspeth resplendent - not sure how reliable the minus is.

Teferi temporal archmage - sure he's mana-positive the turn you play him, but then you aren't doing something else more interesting. I guess he's pretty strong tempo if he lives but 6 is a lot.

Anyone else have opinions on this? I'll probably try the deck unmodified to start but I suspect the correct number of pws is closer to 15.

[Chromaticus]

What about Rowan Kenrith and Will Kenrith? They search each other up to keep you up on gas, and Will is very good at protecting yourself.

[DirkGently]

What about Rowan Kenrith and Will Kenrith? They search each other up to keep you up on gas, and Will is very good at protecting yourself.

We'll see how the deck feels gas-wise (I intentionally avoided value outside of pws, but that might need to change). I don't think those two are great though, as they don't have particularly exciting abilities to copy imo. Will's minus is decent but the other +s and -s are meh, and the ults I don't think we're plausibly set up to achieve. We don't run much ramp so a 6-drop walker needs to be really spectacular imo.

I do want to find room for Jaya's Phoenix. Forgot that one since I don't have it yet (nor do I have Leori - luckily they're pretty cheap atm, because I'm sure not paying full price for the precon).

[DirkGently]

Got to play this quite a few times last night and it was a blast. Ultimatted Teferi, Hero of Dominaria into Jace, the Mind Sculptor's brainstorm, and then next turn his brainstorm 3x...everyone scooped. and then another game ultimatted Elspeth, Sun's Champion while keeping her alive so I could spew out 9/9 flying per turn, then gave it haste with Zariel, Archduke of Avernus to zerg everyone down with multiple combat steps off Hexplate Wallbreaker. But, I also lost a couple games thanks to my lack of interaction, so maybe it's best that I keep this list mostly as-is for now - I suspect if I gave it more counterspells and removal it'd become too powerful for my local.

Still want to get a double or triple ult off at some point. I was so close to getting a triple ult off of Elspeth when my double-striking commander got killed. I mean I still won handily but it would have been WAY funnier to give all my dudes +6/+6.

[Chromaticus]

I have a Carth the Lion deck - only seems fitting to round it out with the other half of the planeswalkers :D

Are you mostly angling for commander asap, play any walker after to profit?

Or is it moreso wait for the coast to be clear?

[DirkGently]

@Chromaticus I pretty much always play Leori on 3, and then connect on 4 and name whatever is in my hand before casting it. Most of the walkers make tokens, so especially doubled up they defend themselves pretty well. Sometimes it goes voltron, sometimes it goes wide, sometimes it does a bit of both.

[Chromaticus]

Quintorius Kand seems like a shoe-in for this deck. Double Discover 4 is extremely strong.

I'm also looking to assimilate a more robust interaction package.

What do you think is the minimum number of walkers to reliably have 1 on turn 4?

[DirkGently]

Quintorius Kand seems like a shoe-in for this deck. Double Discover 4 is extremely strong.

I'm also looking to assimilate a more robust interaction package.

What do you think is the minimum number of walkers to reliably have 1 on turn 4?

Possibly, though do consider the quality of your hits. Interaction can be fairly weak discover hits.

I definitely had a planeswalker consistently with this build. Mathematically speaking I'm pretty sure you can go a decent bit lower, but having redundancy seems preferrable to whiffing imo. I wouldn't go lower than 16.