Crimsonglade

Indeed, one of the harder things to do when sculpting a list is to have the self discipline to commit to a plan despite your wanting to put as much stuff in as you can make fit. Feel free to put in pet cards and whatnot, just don't try to fit too many different themes in, you're just diluting the list and it wont feel like an actual deck when you play it, but a collection of cards in the colors instead.

If +1/+1 is still the plan then you can just put in the 2 outlast dudes that give First Strike and Deathtouch to your stuff, they'll do the job just fine and can provide their own counters.

Hey there.

If your goal is to get into EDH as a format, I would honestly suggest that you check out the Commander 2016 Atraxa list. The 2016 decks are very well built and serve as a perfect introduction into the format.
This next part will sound very boring to do but it really is the best way to settle on a list that works for you:
- make a list of cards you'd like to add to the deck and aren't in there already
- play it as is, without changes and note down which cards you feel don't do too much for you and which seem to over-perform
- slowly take under-performing cards out and add cards from your wishlist in that serve similar function

Like I said, this is a rather boring way of doing it since it means you have to play quite a few games with a deck that you didn't have any input in making, but it does wonders for getting you to understand (a) how the format usually plays (b) how your deck tends to play (c) what the people you play with are okay with.

Making a deck from scratch is much of the fun in MTG but many times it is the case where you make something completely new and if it doesn't work you can't quite identify immediately where the issue lies. This way you have a basis to work on, and with the way the pre-constructed decks are built you also have a solid land - ramp - spell distribution.

If you'd like more specific suggestions I would rather suggest that you check out lists of decks, either of Atraxa herself, or of similar generals and see if you find anything in there that you may have missed or didn't think would be worth it.

Much of the fun is in the discovery process, so have fun ;)

(Feel free to check out some of the lists I've made if you'd like. I've done Hapatra, Ghave and Rishkar who love to play around with counters of varying types)

They would, indeed. Haven't included them mostly due to pricing :)

Hey, thanks for your comment and suggestions.

With that out of the way though, I find it a bit odd that you'd just assume that I took the staples off of EDHREC and ran with those. As a matter of principle I always build my decks from scratch. If they coincide with EDHREC then so be it, but the list didn't come from there. If only you could see my unlisted stuff, any given public list has about 10-15 WIP versions preceding it.

As far as the actual card examples I will just say that as of yet this deck is untested and it will remain to be seen whether something like Rubblehulk would be necessary in my play group.

Greater Good and the likes are indeed perfectly fine and reasonable cards that may very well find their way in here at some point. I'll simply have to see how hard wraths hit me in my playgroup. It usually ends up being myself who brings out the most wraths (check http://www.mtgvault.com/crimsonglade/decks/edh-it-ends-in-death/ for reference; I went a bit overboard with it in there) so I wanted to kind of just ignore that aspect entirely for this list.

Cheers

New Addition ~$76 - Oriss, Samite Guardian:
http://www.mtgvault.com/crimsonglade/decks/budget-edh-oriss/

Rather ironic indeed.

Master of cruelties will never make the cut for this particular deck. Budget criteria is on a card by card basis, not overall price :), but thanks for the suggestion.

Had a few more red cards to add, but they go over the allocated budget (stuff like Aurelia, Gisela, Assemble the Legion and such), even if by very little.

New addition ~$39 - Queen Marchesa Tokens:
http://www.mtgvault.com/crimsonglade/decks/budget-edh-marchesa-tokens/

It is more of a niche fit. If the list overall ends up in that direction it can be worthwhile mainboard, otherwise I do agree it is mostly just a sideboard card.

Going for a theme approach is always fun :o
Looking interesting and I love the clear cut restriction to the 2 Ravnica blocks ^^

New addition ~$44 - Rishkar Counters:
http://www.mtgvault.com/crimsonglade/decks/budget-edh-rishkar-counters/

My limits were rather strict for that one, wanted each individual card (Meren excluded) to be no more than 0.25 euro, rarity was not a concern.

Looking rather strong within the restrictions, very nice :)

When you're talking enchantments, for me Sigil of the Empty Throne is an auto-include, no questions asked, pin to the wall, set me on fire, put it in and move along.

Also, out of a conversation with a friend on token strategies, I suggest Illness in the Ranks. Your board won't really feel it, it simply hoses all x/1 token strategies on your opponents' side and it can also function as a fun way to get a buuuunch of death triggers on your end if you have some way to capitalize (and if you've actually got x/1 tokens of your own). It's also an enchantment on its own so there's that too.

For the most part it is, I keep going down on the number of copies, I'll just take them out completely for other stuff.

Future Sight is indeed rather good, but for my specific plans I'd rather keep my hand a complete mystery >:)

Thanks for your suggestion though ^^

Thanks for your suggestions.

If I'm grabbing more cards for this deck at some point the counters and Future Sight + Magus of the Future are getting added for sure :).

Switcheroo on the other hand is a brilliant suggestion. I have one that I completely forgot about, thanks for mentioning it :)

It would be a very good addition indeed. I have considered adding it but ended up not doing so for 1 reason: it's a bit too expensive for me right now.

I plan on getting this list together and I'm only about 30$ short of getting it done (thanks to owning this deck I really love to play: http://www.mtgvault.com/crimsonglade/decks/transmuter/ )

The Forge will eventually hit the list. Thanks for the suggestion :)

I have indeed considered them and I would ideally like to depend on as few permanents as I can get away with. The X costed spells feel more appropriate to the vision of this deck to me. It also ends up working quite nicely in multiplayer, which is what it was made for in the first place :)

Having obvious threats on the board draws aggro. Not having anything out does not quite as much. It always leaves opponents confused as to whether you have something or you're just bluffing ;)

Kill a creature or 2 if they try to attack you and they'll be very afraid to do anything to you.

I figure if you're not already a big name on the site the deck just gets buried. Oh well. Thanks for the +1 :)

My take on the subject is pretty much to play what makes you have fun.

As a deck-building principle I would say pick an idea or a card that you really like and see where you can go with it; maybe you want to fully commit, maybe you want to deviate slightly, maybe you want the initial idea as a supporting element (in my following examples those cards could be Master Transmuter, Sharuum the Hegemon, Prophet of Kruphix, Nemata Grove Guardian).
Experimentation is key, get an idea and see it working or failing to learn from it. It's lots of fun.

Quiz-wise it's a toss-up between Johnny and Timmy, I'm all for cute interactions but not turn 1-2 instant win combos. Those are nice to see in practice the first time, but afterwards you're just reshuffling your deck for a new game altogether.
In practice I love using cards that either interact nicely with the rest of the deck or can be mini-games all on their own.

The deck I've been working on the most and which has had most overall success for me is my Transmuter deck:
http://www.mtgvault.com/crimsonglade/decks/transmuter/
I even threw in a nifty combo that may win the game every now and again.

On the mini-game side of things would be something like my Simic Tokens deck:
http://www.mtgvault.com/crimsonglade/decks/simic-tokens/
This is again a deck that has traditional synergy between cards and also makes the point of playing what makes you have fun. Selvala has no real use in the deck, but I love the card and want to play it in something that wouldn't rely on her at all.

I like longer game plans and since my playgroup is predominantly casual multiplayer, games tend to go longer with low early pressure.

+1 on the article and I'm sure the deck example ends up being pretty silly in practice :)