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By: Plainswalker83, Plainswalker83
Jan 03 2018 1:00pm
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First I want to start by saying I wish you all had a happy holiday and a Happy New Year. I have had some time to enjoy family and play a little bit of Magic.      

This year for Christmas I wanted to get my son some more cards for his Commander deck but I didn't want to spend 30$ on just 3 or 4 cards and I also did not want to drive out to one of the local game stores to buy the cards. That gave me the brilliant idea of building him a commander deck on MTGO.

I wanted to give him something familiar so I went to work building him a Marath, Will of the Wild deck. It was fairly budget but when he opened the decklist he was pretty excited. All he wanted to do all day was play MTGO with his new commander deck and if I let him he would have ignored family and slung some digital cardboard.

Of course I wanted to play with him but in making his deck, I actually made it much better than the budget Mono White list I had built. I wanted to build a better Commander deck for me to play. As I started digging through decklists I realized I wanted to build a deck to play competitive 1v1 as well. I have been building Modern for some time but I never had time to play nor did I have time to keep up with the latest changes. A big decision was made for me.

I knew it was time to put my dreams and aspirations of doing something big with Magic on the back burner. I would not be able to put the time and money into playing the competitive formats. Who knows, if somehow a tier 1 mono white aggro deck comes back that may be enough to lure me back in but for now I believe I will stick to Commander and I am looking into Pauper as well.

What I do like about Commander is that you only need 1 copy of the card and you can put it into multiple decks. Not like in paper where you have to unsleeve the card and keep swapping it around. Also getting one of each fetch land or dual land is a lot easier than getting four of each. However I will admit I do not know a lot of the cards used nor do I even know what is in each Commander deck. That will take some time for me to learn and hopefully some games against some of the community here to get me on my feet.

The deck I decided to settle on should comes as no surprise because to my knowledge it is one of the best aggressive decks in the format.

Edgar 1v1
- 100 Cards Total
Creature
1 Asylum Visitor
1 Brutal Hordechief
1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
1 Falkenrath Aristocrat
1 Olivia, Mobilized for War
1 Vampire Nocturnus
1 Bloodline Keeper
1 Bloodcrazed Paladin
1 Bloodghast
1 Captivating Vampire
1 Falkenrath Gorger
1 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle
1 Kalastria Highborn
1 Guul Draz Assassin
1 Mirror Entity
1 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
1 Stromkirk Noble
1 Stromkirk Condemned
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Carrier Thrall
1 Blood Artist
1 Indulgent Aristocrat
1 Heir of Falkenrath
1 Gifted Aetherborn
1 Sanctum Seeker
1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
1 Vampire Cutthroat
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Rakish Heir
1 Olivia's Bloodsworn
1 Bold Impaler
1 Bloodthrone Vampire
1 Blood Seeker
1 Guul Draz Vampire
1 Insolent Neonate
1 Quag Vampires
1 Pulse Tracker
1 Stromkirk Captain
1 Shadow Alley Denizen
1 Viscera Seer
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Vicious Conquistador


Instant
1 Abrade
1 Dismember
1 Fatal Push
1 Fire Covenant
1 Dark Ritual
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Terminate
1 Nameless Inversion
9 cards
Sorcery
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Vindicate
1 Steelshaper's Gift
3 cards

Artifact
1 Obelisk of Urd
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Skullclamp
3 cards
Enchantment
1 Outpost Siege
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Shared Animosity
3 cards

Land
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Command Tower
1 Blood Crypt
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Badlands
1 Arid Mesa
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Concealed Courtyard
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Marsh Flats
1 Mana Confluence
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Godless Shrine
1 Scrubland
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Plateau
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Unclaimed Territory
8 Swamp
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Canyon Slough
1 Graven Cairns
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Temple of Silence
1 Temple of Malice
1 Tainted Field
1 Tainted Peak
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 (Path of Ancestry)
35 cards
Commander
1 (Edgar Markov)
1 cards
 

I made some changes with the lands because I needed something cheaper. Otherwise this deck I believe is pretty stock. First thing I did after building this deck was try to get some test games in. I tried the Tournament Practice room. It was very hard to find anyone to play with there so I went searching in the Just for Fun room. What I learned is that Mr. Markov is not someone that a lot of people like to play against. I had a few concede when my Commander was revealed and had one guy tell me that Edgar is almost impossible to beat.

That wasn't very encouraging and I really wasn't able to test out the deck too well. So I figured I would try a trial by fire. I jumped right into the 2 man queues. Once again I learned something. 1v1 does not fire as often as other formats. Maybe it was the time of day but it was taking quite a while for matches to launch. I lost a few tix getting my butt kicked but then got into a bit of a groove. A complaint I have is that once in a queue someone can load up a deck basically built to beat you. Of course that would mean that they would need multiple decks but it happened to me multiple times. I played someone and beat them pretty easily and loaded up another game. It was the same player and I was ready for another win but this time they had a commander that was pro white and pro black and I pretty much had no chance to win. That happened for 2 more matches until I decided to take a break from playing to stop giving the guy free wins. To have 3 top tier decks must cost a decent sum and I don't have that right now. Money is important in Commander and I will have to improve my deck to have some more success.

Besides the better lands there are other additions I think I would like to make. The problem is I don't see the cards played in a lot of the lists. Does that mean they are not as effective? Or is the deck is just streamlined and not want the extra cards? Here are the cards I was thinking of adding.

Blood Baron Of Vizkopa Mizzium Mortars Swords to Plowshares

I felt like Blood Baron Of Vizkopa would be good against many of the popular removal spells but maybe paying 5 mana for a 4/4 is not where I want to be. It is very rare that his other text becomes important. Because while you do have 30 life pretty often, you do not often get your opponent to 10 for it to be useful. If you do you pretty much have the game won anyway.

Mizzium Mortars I feel would be good against the mirror and other swarm decks. Also it can be a single removing spell for most creatures. It might cost too much to overload but I still may attempt to try it out.

Damnable Pact is in the paper version of the deck and at the least be some sort of Fireball to finish off the game. I had a few games where my opponent stabilized at less that five life. Also there are times where I feel the deck runs out of gas. Card draw may be needed and Asylum Visitor and Outpost Siege may not be enough.

Painful Truths is another card that I wanted to try out. Sometimes you just need to refill your hand and this may be one of the best ways to do so.

Swords to Plowshares The only reasons I can see to not run this is that there is not a ton of white mana and your opponent gaining life is not what you want to happen. Still good removal is good. This is pretty much the best White has to offer, plus it is my favorite card. I may have to make room for this or at least Path to Exile.

I will continue to test and practice with this deck. I hope some of you have suggestions because I am completely new to the format and could use a lot of help.

I am also going to attempt competitive Pauper. I have struggled with the format in the past because of how grindy it can be. Though I have been seeing plenty of aggressive decks doing well. I would love a few suggestions of what you think the best aggro decks are. I was looking at Kudlotha Boros or even Mono Green Stompy. I will be doing my research but I do value your opinions as well. Let me know in the comments.

Thank you all for reading. I look forward to this new adventure and having a lot of the pressure off. Until next time!