I. Introduction: More of Something Different
Continuing on my quest to find something new and different, I found a deck online based around a funky Commander that I thought was interesting. So I decided to outright steal the idea, and pretty much the entire deck, and show it here to you guys. It has actually been a long time since I have blatantly ripped someone off (back in my third article about Fatties was really the only time I have done it), and I actually thought I would be using others ideas more while writing these articles. But there's nothing wrong with finding a little inspiration elsewhere.
II. The Deck: Big Card Goes Boom!
Let's take a look at the General:
She's not all that impressive, but she is a very smart dresser! Actually, I'm sure that some of you are scratching your head. Why would I use this general, when there are plenty that are great in the Jund colors, like Kresh the Bloodbraided, Darigaaz, the Igniter, or even Bartel Runeaxe? Well, her ability is actually useful. Having a way to draw a card now and again is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, Xira is not exactly essential to the deck's game plan.
What got me onto Xira in the first place? Well, I found a decklist online using her as the general, which you can find HERE. It basically only had creatures and lands in it. I thought it was a pretty fun idea, but could not resist adding some cards like Lurking Predators, which is just great in a creature based deck. However, a while later I found another Xira deck online which had a similar feel, in that it did have a ton of creatures. It also had Lurking Predators and very few sorcery cards. But it had a slightly different focus and game plan. It sounded different enough from what I usually play that I had to try it.
Well, what is the game plan?
I am sure that I just lost a bunch of you right now, knowing that this is a deck based around Warp World. However, what I really liked about this deck was that it was essentially creature based beatdown with a bunch of landfall guys. And that isn't horrible at all. Warp is just icing on the cake. You all should know how a Warp World deck works: You have plenty more permanents than your opponents, usually through mana ramp or through token creation. When you cast Warp World, you should be in a better position than the rest of your opponents. If you can cast it more than once in a turn, you should be even better off, in an almost unbeatable position. Since many decks, especially control decks, have a large amount of non-permanent spells, while almost every card in your deck is a permanent, it is hard to end up behind after Warping.
I found the decklist HERE. Although I tried messing around with it a lot, I really didn't improve it much. As a matter of fact, many of my changes made the deck worse. I even tried changing up the general, but didn't find anything that worked as well as Xira. I thought Karrthus would be a cool general, but I rarely cast him. If Xira is out when you Warp, it isn't the end of the world, as the deck doesn't depend on her. And the changes that I made that were good (like adding Titans) were picked up by the original deck creator, Littlest Morte. Let's take a look at the deck itself:
Lots of creatures and "comes into play" abilities. Let's take a closer look at some of the cards.
| Mana Ramp |
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          :
Wood Elves, Farhaven Elf, Bloom Tender, Lotus Cobra, Oracle of Mul Daya, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Seedguide Ash, Solemn Simulacrum, Primeval Titan, Yavimaya Dryad: Creatures that put lands directly into play are very helpful, as they make extra permanents for when you Warp World. In addition, Lotus Cobra is great for the multiple landfall triggers that occur once there is a Warp. And Primeval Titan works for both.
This is my first time playing with Primeval Titan, and he is a beast. I'm always happy to draw him.
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| Token Creation |
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            :
Emrakul's Hatcher, Siege-Gang Commander, Avenger of Zendikar, Mitotic Slime, Grave Titan, Pawn of Ulamog, Rampaging Baloths, Garruk Wildspeaker, Symbiotic Wurm, Awakening Zone, Creakwood Liege, Kher Keep: Plenty of ways to make tokens in this deck. Although Garruk does not come into play off of a Warp, it is still useful at pumping out tokens and helping with mana. The Rampaging Baloths and Avenger of Zendikar really like coming into play off of a Warp. These are especially brutal if you have the ability to give everyone haste. Mitotic Slime and Symbiotic Wurm work great when you have a sacrifice outlet. |
| Tutors |
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Grim Tutor, Imperial Seal, Diabolic Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Survival of the Fittest, Dimir House Guard, Liliana Vess: Obviously you are going to want to have methods of finding Warp World, and most of these fit the bill fine. I know that there are other black tutors you could add, but I think what is in here is enough. It gives the deck the opportunity to play out like a normal beat down deck. But if you want additional consistency, you can always add Vampiric Tutor and the others as well.
If you want to go another route and don't have Warp World available for whatever reason, Survival of the Fittest works great for you if you have a Living Death in hand.
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| Sacrifice Outlets |
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Phyrexian Plaguelord, Greater Good, Skullclamp, Goblin Bombardment, Phyrexian Tower, Miren, the Moaning Well: This deck packs Grave Pact and Butcher of Malakir for creature control. Many times, after a Warp, you will have a lot of tokens meaning that you have plenty more creatures than your opponents. If you warped out one of the Grave Pact effects, along with a sac outlet, you can control the creatures your opponents have.
Skullclamp is an all-star in this deck, in that you can draw a ton of cards from it. Many of the tokens you create are going to be small, and you also have Bloodghast and his friends who always come back for more.
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| Removal |
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Acidic Slime, Big Game Hunter, Terastodon, Duplicant, Indrik Stomphowler, Woodfall Primus: Other than through the use of Grave Pact, there isn't a whole ton of removal in this deck for creatures. However, there is some good stuff for getting rid of non-creatures. Ideally if a bad enchantment like Moat comes out from a Warp, you can also pull out one of the big three of Acidic Slime, Terastodon or Indrik Stomphowler. If it doesn't happen? That's part of the fun with Warp World, you never know what you are going to get. |
| Recursion |
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Anarchist, Eternal Witness, Charnelhoard Wurm: If you are able to Warp World twice in the same turn, you should win the game 95% of the time. Both the Witness and Anarchist can bring it right back to your hand the turn they come into play. If you bring out a haste enabler with Charnelhoard Wurm, it is more than likely to work as well. Usually if you Warp a second time, everyone else will concede though. |
In addition, there are two haste enablers in Madrush Cyclops and Fires of Yavimaya that are great. Nothing like attacking with extra large plant tokens on the turn they come into play. Ob Nixilis is great as well. If it comes out late game after a Warp, it usually takes at least one player out.
So the deck plays like a beat down deck, until you get a tutor. Then it immediately turns into a combo deck. Sometimes you won't even search up the Warp World, as you may already be in a great position and don't want to chance helping out another player. Sometimes you just want to keep the beat down going. Be especially careful against Mayael the Anima decks, as they generally pack a ton of large creatures. In addition, de prepared for dealing with a lot of triggers after you Warp.
How does the deck do?
III. The Game: Fight!
Here are the opponents for this game:
Agrus Kos is a fun guy, who can be soldier themed, token themed, or just red/white control. Sedris obviously loves using the graveyard as a resource, and probably plays with a bunch of guys with "enters the battlefield" abilities. Merieke is Esper colored, which usually means control. Creatures aren't safe once she gets out and active. I win the roll. Here is my first hand:
I don’t like the mana on this one, and send it back. Don't forget that you get 7 cards after your first mulligan, so there is nothing wrong with sending back mediocre hands. My second hand:
Round 1
M: Island.
Round 2
A: Plains. Pumps the Figure once and attacks me. I block with the Elder, and sac him for a Swamp.
Great early turn play.
Standstill creates a lot of tension in the early game. You really don't want to be the one to crack it, because you want someone else to do it. Especially since you want the cards. But it doesn't make sense to start discarding good cards just to avoid cracking it. We will see what happens.
M:
Mystifying Maze.
Round 3
A: Mountain. Pumps Figure up to 4/4, then attacks M (36).
M: Island.
Round 4
Me: Draw
Stalking Vengeance. I decide that I’m willing to break the
Standstill, and play the
Rampaging Baloths. Everyone else draws 3. I didn’t really want to take a hit again from the Figure, and I knew with the extra cards he would rather play out his hand than discard. There were also other open targets for him.
A: Plains,
Umezawa’s Jitte, equips the Figure. Attacks S (36) and the Jitte gets a couple counters.
Great with tokens and to get rid of Commanders.
Round 5
Play the
Strip Mine, getting a Beast token. I attack S with the Baloths, thinking that I’m probably going to lose them to the Staff soon. He drops to (30). I then play Xira, as I could use the card draw to get a second source of black mana.
A: Mountain. Attacks me with the Figure (36), and the Jitte now has 4 counters.
Round 6
Round 7
Interesting and unexpected bounce with alternative casting cost.
LP triggers and gets
Creakwood Liege, pumping everyone. A drops to (19), S goes to (21), and M goes to (29).
When the Titan comes back, A removes a few counters from the Jitte to make Grave Titan 3/3, and kills him with the Titan's
Lightning Bolt.
Round 8
IV. Conclusion
You can find the deck for download or purchase HERE. It costs around $295, which should be expected considering it has Titans and Survival and some other Standard staples. I know that it is high, but it is a pretty fun deck to play, and well worth it. Some of the substitutions you can make to drop the price are Fauna Shaman for Survival, Skeletal Vampire for Grave Titan, Ghost Quarter for Strip Mine, and Crystal Ball for Sylvan Library. Taking out Avenger of Zendikar would cut some of the cost as well, but that is a very tough card to loose.
There are a couple of issues the deck can have. Counterspells can be a pain, and other decks with lots of permanents are also a problem. Counters can sometimes be dealt with by using Vexing Shusher, but I didn't include it in the deck. If you find that you see counters a lot, feel free to include the Shusher. Other decks with a lot of permanents are usually Mayael decks and other Jund decks, like Kresh the Bloodbraided. Sometimes, although it is rare, these guys can out permanent you.
I know this isn't the deck for everyone, but I had fun with it. Hopefully many of you will like the look of it too. Until next week!
Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO
mrmorale32 at yahoo dot com
31 Comments
man i love the deck but $300? thats tough. lol. I know how it goes though I picked up my Primeval titan for edh earlier this week at 28 tickets. Probably the most i have paid for a single card ever...maybe grave titan next week.
Overall though great deck.
First, I love this series (I usually end up trying out your decks and enjoy playing them).
Yeah, I love Commander because I only have to buy one of each card. I usually end up finding substitute cards for the ones I can't afford. However for Commander at least, a lot of the same cards come up over and over, so eventually I'll have enough to try out decks without spending a lot.
Maybe a substitution section for the budget minded?
well his whole last paragraph is a substitution section....though he did leave out that Birds of Paradise while nowhere near as awesome as Lotus Cobra does provide all three colors of mana...
Also Draconias I know he has done at least one budget article. The Kaervek deck he did was originally based around a 5 ticket edh deck that i found online. true since i have been playing it it has become a 130 ticket deck but its whatever.
hehe ;) Conclusions aren't just conclusions. Shows me to comment without reading.
Yeah I got my Primeval Titan as well and was lucky enough to purchase an Avenger of Zendikar when it was 5 tickets.
Despite the fact that there are some pretty high priced cards for edh, I find it to be worth the investment because the cards are often used in other decks.
Yeah, pretty expensive compared to my normal decks, and that's due to the amount of Standard playables. My decks typically come in around 180 tickets or so. I'm guessing we can chop off at least 100 by making some of the changes I mentioned (and Shard):
Survival -> Fauna Shaman: Save 47 tickets
Strip Mine -> Ghost Quarter: Save 13 tickets
Grave Titan -> Skeletal Vampmire: Save 11 tickets
Sylvan Library -> Crystal Ball: Save 7 tickets
Lotus Cobra -> Birds of Paradise: Save 19 tickets
That's 97 tickets right there. You can also take out Demonic Tutor for Diabolic Intent and save another 7. Primeval Titan and Avenger of Zendikar should definitely be kept though. Primeval costs a ton, I understand, but you will love it every time you draw it. Especially with all the landfall in here.
You can also add money to the deck by including the original duals. That would add another 60 or so tickets to the deck at least.
Glad you guys liked it. Thanks again to Littlest Morte for coming up with the deck.
Completely agreed with Primeval Titan. I was skeptical to pick him up at first due to his price, but he is such a house its insane. Due to him being awesome my next few pickups are definitely going to be Grave Titan and possibly a Lotus Cobra.
I'm glad you liked the deck enough to write about it. It's been a big hit in my playgroup. It saddens me that I couldn't afford to play it on Magic Online though. I don't even want to think about how much the physical cards are worth.
You're absolutely right about other permanent heavy decks being potential trouble after Warp World. That's the fun part! It's interesting to see when other decks are capable of competing on such an altered gameplan. Grave Pact effects make up for a lot of ground against those decks though. I used to run an It That Betrays + Malfegor combo to potentially Warp into a permanent Insurrection, but cut it because the cards were pretty weak individually.
I'm interested in the differences in our mana bases, specifically Temple of the False God and Gaea's Cradle. I had completely forgotten about the Cradle, to be honest, but it seems like a natural inclusion in a deck that's mostly creatures with a token subtheme. Temple I'm a little dubious on. With that first hand you drew, if ToFG had been any green producing land, that hand would have been a solid keeper. I just don't like how it doesn't do anything if you draw it in your opening hand, and the mana boost later is barely worth it, especially with all the land accelerators we're playing.
Nice game play-by-play as well. That's exactly why I love playing the deck. It just feels like you're doing something completely broken while everyone else is busy doing nothing relevant, but you're doing it in a socially acceptable way.
Cradle is great and has always done well for me. It is usually the target or land destruction pretty early on.
I have a love/hate relationship with Temple. Many times it feels like it pushes me over the hump, but I hate seeing it in my opening hand. I can totally see taking it out though.
Thanks for your additional insights and glad you liked the write up!
Well I admit I picked up the deck myself with a few alterations for budget reasons...Mainly no Cobra...(yet) and Fauna Shaman over Survival. Also Im short the Bloomtender, SIegeGang and Woodfall. But those are all staples I tend to pick up eventually except for the Bloom Tender, it just seems meh. But the deck is a blast. I love warping into Ob-Nixilis or the Baloth.
Edit: Also I was slightly disappointed but In the Web of War does not work with Warp World...it made me cry tears of sadness, but then I remembered Akroma's Memorial...it made me cry tears of joy.
I know exactly what you mean by being disappointed with triggered enchantments. My first draft had Pandemonium in it and it was a sad day indeed when I found out that it didn't work like I wanted it to.
I just played the deck yesterday too. (With the subs above). I played against an exalted (Rafig), a green land acceleration (Baru), and a Uril deck. Each of them went crazy with pure stomping power. While I had a Ker Keep (which really was the save my ass card) and a couple of non threatening creatures. My best in hand creature was a Woodfall but I really needed to hold it to get rid of the Armadillo Cloak and Bear Umbra on Uril, or the Sword of Vengeance and Basilisk Collar on Rafig.
Anyhoo, the other players got so powerful that they battered and ganged up on each other. The Baru was the first out because he was dropping three or four land a turn so Rafig and Uril ganged up on him. Rafig was got about nineteen damage from uril so he was almost out (via lifelink Rafig had crazy amounts of life). However Rafig pulled a the sword of vengeance and got enough damage through to take out Uril.
That left myself which really seemed totally nonthreatening (I mean Baru had the chance to wipe me out with a bunch of 7/7 tramples, against my kobolds) and a player with sixty life. He got one 16 damage attack on me with his commander before my Woodfall took care of the sword. After Ker Keep saved me with his lack of trample. Siege-gang came out later to help with a nasty Shapeshifter that would have copied my Woodfall. Eventually I whittled him down, near the end when he was at about twenty I had a Vicious Shadows in my hand that I didn't play because he always had only one or two cards. But he played a Mind Spring and victory was pretty much assured (I mean siege-gang could nuke my left over goblin and himself for 14!)
Anyhoo, this deck is pretty brilliant (probably one of my favourite from your series). I think mainly because it does what any good commander deck should do, not come on too strong but really ramp up near the end. The problem with alot of decks, is when you become the most powerful on the board, you are the target. Whereas if you are a sleeper deck, no one really pays attention until it's too late. This really does seem almost broken and useless until the end.
you know I saw this and again got excited because you were reading my mind.. I just made a Xira deck two days ago for commander, but then I got to Warp World and that was the end of the article for me
Come on, you know you looked at the game play pics even if you didn't read the whole article ;)
Seriously though I know Warp World isn't for everyone. This is pretty close to a solid Kresh List though. If you want to switch to Kresh here are my proposed changes.
Out
Xira
Warp World
Liliana
Ob Nixilis
Lotus Cobra
In
Kresh
Insurrection
Mad Sarkhan
Damnation
Decree of Pain
Viola! Kresh deck!
Edit. Oh yeah take out Anarchist for Genesis
So, is Warp World one of the cards people get pissed at in Commander? I mean, if I asked you to rate the cards people hate most among Armageddon, Obliterate and Warp World, what would the order be? I'm just wondering to what extent this breaks that nebulous "social contract".
Warp World has been very well received in my playgroup. The first few times I played this deck, people would even show me the counterspell for Warp World and then let it resolve "just to see what happens." The random nature of the spell means its far less annoying to most people than something like Obliterate, which sets everyone to zero. It might be a pseudo-Wrath, it might be a faux-Armageddon, or it might just take you from 6 lands to a winning position, but you never know until it actually happens. I certainly don't see it as a problem card, even when I'm running a deck that's not built around it.
it goes....
1. Obliterate
2. armageddon
956. Warp world
seriously wapr world isnt even close to annoying in edh. Unless you have out hive mind
Oh come on ....there have to be more annoying cards in EDH than Armageddon...Jokulhaups? Decree of Annihilation hard cast? Any infinite combo engine (of which there are an absolute shitton)? Turn 3-4 Emrakul? Id say all of those would end the game for me quicker than an armageddon which is basically a gamble that you will recover quicker than all 3 of your opponents which you can set up for but not guarantee.
well since those were the three cards he asked about i ranked them in their order. i mean sure if i wanted to pull cards out of thin air that no one had questioned the list would be totally different. here context is key...
In context...you said
1...
2. Armageddon
9xx Warp World...
Do you see how in this context I might have assumed you felt Armageddon was at the top of the list?
ummm well i was still only ranking the three cards he mentioned...i chose the numbers as i did to show that warp world comes nowhere close to even comparing to the others
Warp is seen as sort of a janky one card combo. A lot of people don't like playing against it because many times it acts as an Obliterate that doesn't effect the caster. People don't like putting effort into playing their resources only to have them wiped out.
People who like to play control, as well as others, often don't like using the card due to the inherent randomness. You can warp into bunch of land while someone else gets Emrakul. So there are several reasons people don't like it.
People groan if it hurts them but are fine if it helps. People really get annoyed if you get more than one off in a turn. So you will see people concede a bunch. So like I said its not for everyone.
I'd like to see a "what cards piss people off in Commander" list. I think it would make an interesting article and with you experience I bet you could put together one with a lot of cards people would agree with.
I put a Razia's Purification in my Red/White deck, but couldn't bring myself to play it even when it was in my hand. It's since been removed. I would have felt dirty (and possibly blocked) doing that to the rest of the table.
Though a lot of times it's the combo, not the individual cards. Mindslaver once may be annoying but it only pisses me off when it's used over and over again.
Card number 1- Gaddock Teeg....ok im good
just wanted to get that off my chest
1) Azusa as a commander, because all that deck does is ramp into
2) Eldrazi Monsters, specifically Emrakul. Actually, Emrakul is the only one that really pisses me off.
i'm sure more will come to me...
It that betrays? I imagine that one is pretty darned upsetting.
Yeah, that ones pretty nasty, If I wanted to be mean I'd stick on of him in my sedris the traitor king deck.
i actually had two players concede on me the turn i cast emrakul...I thought it was kind of lame that they did this only because it was turn 14...my only ramp with a rakdos Carnarium and a Temple of the false god...but its whatever...
I suspect it was more a matter of Annihilator:6 with no chance of removing it that made them quit than the fact that you dared cast something uncasual.
eh one was playing blue and the other had white...i was just of an opinion that both should have answers and its there own fault i made it to turn 14 and had the opportunity to cast him.
How about turn 5? I've seen azusa decks drop a primevil titan on turn 3, fetching both eldrazi lands, turn 4 they attack with the titan, fetching temple of the false god or some other accell, fetch Cthulu just before turn 5, hardcast him.
It's a strategy that is very hard to deal with because spot removal and counterspells aren't a big part of the EDH metagame.
Heck, turn 5 in most commander games, I haven't even played a spell yet. While I'm a big advocate for budget casual play, I never advertise 'no eldrazi' or join games like that. But the Azusa deck is making me reconsider.
Seems like PT is the big culprit there.