strykerzero

6 Decks, 138 Comments, 30 Reputation

I am curious why you are not leaning further into your commanders Vote Ability.

For Additonal Votes
Ballot Broker
Brago's Representative

For Removal (per vote):
Capital Punishment
Council's Judgment
Trap the Trespassers

maybee:
Coercive Portal

I did notice Expropriate in there though :)

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Posted 12 July 2023 at 22:29 as a comment on tivit commander -10

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Enchantment: Pyrohemia
Artifact: Tormentor's Helm
Artifact: Viridian Longbow

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Posted 09 June 2023 at 19:42 as a comment on All the Pews

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The "cannot be sacrificed" text effectively negates bronze bombshells text. It certainly does fit the decks concept though.

As a backup to your commander (if the commander tax gets too high), Have you considered:

Assault Suit
Wrong Turn
Fateful Handoff




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Posted 31 May 2023 at 21:34 as a comment on Let them kill each other

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Apologies for the lengthy post and forgetting that Vampiric Tutor was banned (I frequently confuse the EDH and the Vintage ban lists).

This will be another long post as well but its Soley regarding the sideboard (cards that are not going to be part of your normal deck, so it might not even be relevant to you).

You have a good plan here. Competitive legacy is filled with turn 1-2 wins so competing there it's a futile effort for almost any homebrew deck. You are looking really good for a casual game.

Any deck is going to have strengths and weakness based on its matchups. Your deck appears to be constructed as the "combo" archetype with a light touch of control. The sideboard is technically a part of your deck and you have not fully listed it, so it's something you could tailor to address certain matchups where you are weaker.

Versus Control:
Probably one of your best matchups. Wait for the control player to tap out, then win on the spot next turn. Biggest problem is a small creature attacking you while they hold mana in reserve for their own counter spells and removal.

versus Mid Range:
??? I am clueless here. Probably comes down to a battle of interaction spells. I suspect you have an advantage here because you aren't trying to fight past their creatures, which would make many of their recovery spells irrelevant.

Versus Tempo:
You are probably great here. Disruptions to your mana curve and evasive creatures are not a major threat.

Versus Combo:
Comes down to speed and consistency. You might have challenges here. You need to cast both Ad Naseum and Angels grace to combo off. That takes 6 mana. A ramp spell drops that down to 4.

https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric

If Serum Vision is treated as part of your mana base you only have a 63% chance of having 4 mana available on turn 4. Most of your lands also enter tapped so you might not even have access to four mana on turn 4 even if they are on the battlefield.

Versus Aggro:
This is another potentially weak matchup. 7 Lightning bolts (or similar spells) can deal the 21 points of damage on your opponent's 4th turn.
If we are in a more casual environment, we can assume that would be extended to their 5th turn. This means you need to stabilize or win on your fourth turn.

As mentioned, before you have a 63% chance of having the mana to win on turn 4. It also requires the ramp spell, dropping the chances lower. Angels grace could negate a full turn of damage but then it's not there for you cast to win.

Phyrexian unlife and Near Death experience will stabilize the game for you so it's great in this matchup. The biggest challenge here is the clock. Do you have enough interaction to slow the game down until turn 5 and the consistancy to achive what you need on that turn?


Sideboard Suggestion:
Put 4-6 more counterspells or removal into the sideboard for use when facing other combo and aggro decks. Stopping just 2 spells will likely be enough for you to come out on top.













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Posted 16 May 2023 at 17:46 in reply to #649788 on Win or Lose

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Alright. Thanks. I think I understand the plan now.

As a suggestion. You only have 6 plains in the deck. Because of that, it is highly unlikely Armored Ascencion will provide more than +1/+1 to the enchanted creature.

There are multiple enchantments that can achieve that for 2 mana. At the four mana slot, you have other enchantment's that will provide a larger boost or add additional keyword's (many of which are budget uncommon's).

On Serra's Wings and Serra's Embrace are two that come to mind (there is a rare care, Angelic Ascension, that would make a large impact but its pricey relative to your current deck).

Herald of Hoofbeats is a 4 mana blue Knight that gives every knight you control "Horsemanship" (they can only be blocked by other creatures with horsemanship)

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Posted 16 May 2023 at 17:03 in reply to #649792 on Knights Control

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In a faster 1v1 game, your current plan of single efficient pump spells likely works great (especially howlpack).

Things might skew in a multiplayer or longer duration game (against a control deck). For those, maybe put some board wipes into your sideboard for swapping (it would asymmetric as your stuff will come back and theirs will not).




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Posted 16 May 2023 at 00:39 in reply to #649790 on Persist

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Any chance you could explain the plan here a bit?

I'm seeing a total of three control spells (crashing tide and Nahiri) and two stax spells (authority of the council). This feels more like a +1 Counters Knight deck than it feels like a "control" Knights deck. Crashing tide gets flash when you have a merfolk, but there are only two in the deck. Was this a flavor choice?

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Posted 16 May 2023 at 00:24 as a comment on Knights Control

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Have you considered Decimator Beetle as a method of transferring -1 counters to the opponents' creatures?

There are also numerous enchantments that put a +1 counter on a creature when it enters the battlefield. You seem to be missing the -1 to +1 counter conversion bit in the deck. Or maybe I am just missing your overall strategy.

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Posted 16 May 2023 at 00:08 as a comment on Persist

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Unlife + Labrotory maniac + Ad Naseum is a good win condition but you deck lacks the tutors to ensure you have all three pieces reliably. Have you considering swapping out some of the support cards (such as serum visions) for tutors (such as Vampiric and Enlightened tutors). The are one mana instants and the card disadvantage is not really relevant as you will likely win on the turn you play it.

Replace "Path to Exile" with "swords to plowshares". You don't really care about their life total so it doesn't matter, them getting more land can hurt you.

Doomskar might be better than Supreme Verdict in this case. I dont think you want to use your temporary ramp on it, and I suspect you are trying to combo off on turn 4 anyways. Doomskar can be foretold early on for a 3 mana casting later.

Edit: Removed recomendations for damage prevention spells to combo with Ad naseum as damage =/= life loss.
Edit2: Combo: JACE, WIELDER OF MYSTERIES + PHYREXIAN UNLIFE + SPOILS OF THE VAULT
Jace is an Alternative to laboratory maniac and Spoils of the Vault is an alternative to Add Naseum. They will combo as a win condition (if you name and search for a card not in the deck).
Edit3: have you considering swapping lotus bloom and simian guide for dark/cabal ritual? Granted you current choice can be cast for zero mana but isnt that usually going to be a scenario where you effectively already won?

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Posted 15 May 2023 at 22:38 as a comment on Win or Lose

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Triskaidekaphile is not a legal card in the deck (its blue)

Campfire will also get phage out of the command zone (so you can actually cast her). Expedtion map can tutor up your command beacon.

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Posted 11 May 2023 at 23:23 as a comment on One Touch Kill

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You have some potential here. Some of the ideas are pretty creative. I like the fact that this isn't a $1000+ combo focused monstrosity, it's a breath of fresh air.

One other thing to examine a bit closer is your mana base. If you goal is to avoid putting in all the expensive non-basic dual lands you are going to need to have green represent a significantly higher percentage of your mana sources (probably could also benefit from bumping the count up to around 37).

This is because you are going to be using green spells to search your deck for the colors you are missing (example: cultivate). 2 mana "[guild] Signet"(s) can also help here in lieu of running multi color lands and fetches.

https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric

Statistics wise, if you want to cast a green spell on your second turn, you are going to need 12 green mana sources to have a 70% chance of it.

If you want to cast a green spell that includes 2 green mana on your 5th turn, 12 green lands will only give you a 40% chance. If you want to keep the mana cards cheap and affordable (by using mostly basics) you probably shouldn't being using any spells that require more than 1 of a specific color. Making that 2nd mana "pip" possible would require 20+ sources for your 5th turn.



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Posted 11 May 2023 at 21:55 in reply to #649781 on Scarecrow Nightmare

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I have some questions regarding your choices here:

#1 Power Level and Budget
Where are you envisioning this deck to operate in terms of “power” and Budget? The deck lists the total cost at around $300. I also noticed that more than $100 of that budget is tied up in just two cards Rhystic Study and Alluren.
As a tribe, scarecrows are really weak threat wise. The commander is what makes it functional. Decks that run this commander (that Ive seen) at the upper “tiers” generally get there by using combo loops abusing the fact that scarecrows are also artifacts.
At present, there are only three cards in your deck that synergize with artifacts directly: Unwinding clock, Scarecorwn and Sharuum. I am not sure where your playgroup sits "power level wise", but as long as you don’t go to heavy into those combos and stick to combat damage win conditions, you can still upgrade significantly while still being “fair.”


Removal Spells:
Outside of your commander, I am only seeing 4 removal spells in this deck (Utter end, Aura shards, Crossroads Candleguard and maybe Sunken Hope). Modern pre-constructed decks are typically running more than 8 (one of the newest, scrap trawler, is running potentially 16). In a five color deck, you have access to all the best options in the game. Your commanders biggest strength is the removal effect, lean into this more.

The cornerstone of your deck (the commander) costs five mana. Throwing in a bunch of 4 mana Board wipes is a great way to reduce some of your reliance on him to remove everything that threatens you early game. Even better if you make choices that would exclude your scarecrow artifact creatures.

Mana Curve:
You are really heavy in the three and four mana cost slots and really light in the 2 mana slots. The Commander comes down at five mana, and due the deck design a large chunk of the <4 spells will not be cast until he is on the board (because they are scarecrows). I would suggest reexamining your three and four mana non-creature spells, and replace them with removal and support cards that cost 3 mana or less (preferably 2).

One support card swap suggestion:
Riptide Replicator -> Maskwood Nexus

Othe things to look at
Goblin Engineer (keep targeting your 3 mana Scarecrows)
Darksteel Forge
Lux artillery
Artificer Class

“Myriad”
“Copy target artifact”
“Artifact cost less”

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Posted 11 May 2023 at 21:09 as a comment on Scarecrow Nightmare

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Edit: I didn't notice that Kodama works with any permanent, not just creatures. that makes it significantly better.

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Posted 18 April 2023 at 20:09 in reply to #649534 on Atla Palani, Beat Down

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Re: Kodama

Kodama might not actually work for this deck due to its CMC distribution and current creature count. It has to be less or equal to the "cheated card". Making the Kodama effect happen is going to require ensuring you have a valid creature in hand.

there are only 20 creatures in this deck (20%) and no mass card or creature tutors (to hand). Using Kodama's ability more than once is going to require some significant luck.

On the other hand, this deck would REALLY benefit from creature focused top deck manipulation (as it would ensure that your egg spawns whatever you specifically want it to be).

Slyvan Tutor
Wordly Tutor
Congregation at dawn
Reinforcements

Some other oddities:

1) Summoner's Egg: This card was hit with an errata, that now classifies it as an "egg" creature type. (MTGvault did not make the adjustment so you don't see it when searching for the "egg" creature type). In addition to cheating out a creature from your hand, it would also trigger atla's ability upon death.

2) Scroll Rack: Repeatable effect that draw a new hand and puts the old one on top of your library. You can use that to not only ensure you hit your land drops, you are also putting a big creature from hand on top of your library to be cheated into play by Atla.

3) Maskwood Nexus: Every creature you control (as well as in your library and graveyard") now has the "egg" creature type. Therefore, they will replace themselves after a board wipe. There are also some instants and creatures that would do the same thing. You can also now create an additional 2/2 "egg" each turn for three mana.



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Posted 18 April 2023 at 18:01 in reply to #649534 on Atla Palani, Beat Down

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The deck is labeled drakes, so i assumed when I was first looking at it that it was tribal deck around that.
After looking through the deck it seems to be more. Casting non-creature spells = flying tokens

Kykar the winds fury would be a better commander for that , purely for the additional access to white and red mana.

If the goal is drake tribal…. There need to either be more drakes or ways to dig out the few good sources for them. Polymorph effects get there somewhat since the tribe is really lacking in lord and synergy options (basically just the two wizards already in the deck). Making the two lords work together basically pushes you to a deck that attempts to use sorceries and instants to draw 5+ cards per turn frequently . This deck is doing cantrips….

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Posted 13 April 2023 at 01:02 in reply to #649553 on Drakes

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Win Conditions here are a bit odd.

Early Game: You seem to be bouncing and diminishing enemy creatures.
Mid Game: You are creating a small army of tiny flyers whenever you cast a spell.

End Game: Not really seeing a theme here.
No Major combos
Only a handful of pump effects for the tokens
4-5 big creatures.

One option is to swap out a bunch of things to have an 8-10 card package of "gain control of target creature" or "create a copy of target creature" spells. The tokens and diminish effects will stall for time with an end game plan of winning using the opponent's stuff against them. Side bonus is that you have a deck that would scale to the power level of the others while remaining budget.

If you plan on doing something else, check your deck to ensure you have at least 10 cards in it intended to win the game for you. Removals to make room should probably come from some of your "return to hand" cards. single target bouncing (or tapping) isn't going to do enough for you in multiplayer.

replace some weaker stuff with instant and sorcery tutors/recursion.

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Posted 13 April 2023 at 00:05 in reply to #649553 on Drakes

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heck, seat of synod is even worse than a basic since it is more vulnerable to interaction.

I am dubious on most of the non-basics in this deck. One of the benefits of a mono-deck is always having the color you need and lands not coming in tapped.

Keep Mystic Sanctuary, Demolition field and maybe war room. Other than that, probably swap out everything else for basics

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Posted 12 April 2023 at 23:23 in reply to #649553 on Drakes

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Some more thoughts. Your commander (as well as a bunch of your creatures) are wizards. You could lean into that a bit.

Instant:
Sage's Dousing
Wizard's Retort

Sorcery:
Step Through

Creature:
Sigil Tracer
Ghosthelm Courier

Edit:
If you are loading up the diminish effects, add in vedelkan anatomist.



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Posted 12 April 2023 at 21:09 in reply to #649545 on Drakes

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Whispering Wizard in another creature with the same effect as your commander.

Curiosity Crafter for card advanatge?
(Edit: also Isochron Sceptor and Wizards Spell book to get more usage from your instant/sorceries)

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Posted 12 April 2023 at 18:49 in reply to #649545 on Drakes

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How about "diminish" and "turn to frog" as defensive removal spells (Block with the token you create).

Also maybe use "Polymorph" and "Mass Polymorph" to upgrade your tokens? (edit: also Jalira, Master Polymorphist)

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Posted 12 April 2023 at 18:15 as a comment on Drakes

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