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talenlee · 3 months

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MTG: Wife Guy Decks

There are 43 legendary creature cards in Magic: The Gathering that use the word ‘And’ in their name, which is used to represent a pair of creatures. For a number of them, like Firesong and Sunspeaker, or Tibor and Lumia, these cards represent relatives, and I have done my best to check for these, and also the pairing with actual children in them. Here the, presented are ten different decks where your commander represents some measure of Wife Guyness.

These two are the earliest example of a card that actually represents a couple on them with ‘and’ in the name. I did some digging but I could not find an earlier card that did this. It’s also a card that isn’t particularly powerful, and certainly doesn’t look like it stands high in this current era of powerful commanders. Look, you don’t become a Wife Guy because you’re dealing with perfect materials, you become a Wife Guy because you see what nobody else can appreciate as perfectly as you do. And if you’re building Anax and Cymede, you wife guy these two.

What I think I’d want to do with Anax and Cymede is a go-wide strategy that uses Auras that create creatures. Anything in this deck wants to be:

A cheap aura that creates a body

A cheap body that can be an aura

Expensive and creates a lot of bodies

Things that draw off the above

Also mixed in with this is it’s very important to throw in some hexproof stuff to protect your stuff while you’re casting auras onto them. Beaming Defiance and Loran’s Escape are my favourites here because they also trigger heroic for Anax and Cymede.

Where Anax and Cymede did it first, it was our Big Gay Kings that did it best. First revealed on Guardians of Meletis, as a couple who after their death had their history rewritten as total buttholes who hated each other and everyone was glad to see dead. That’s pretty homophobic of everyone who was mad about them and glad to see them dead, jerks.

Kynaios and Tiro are an iconic example of a group hug deck. You don’t need me to give you any advice on this one, the EDHRec page is well-worn on how these two work together. The important thing to me is that 8 booty seems a fun angle to take the card. There are, in these colours, plenty of ways to attack with toughness, and I think that’s a fun angle that isn’t just More Group Hug.

This is Yuri.

Drana and Linvala are a card that’s hard to predict in terms of what it’ll let you do, because it looks at what your opponents are doing. In most cases, you’ll see people build Drana and Linvala as a stax deck, with cheap creatures that slow the game down and limit your opponent’s options, and that makes sense since they lock your opponents out of a lot of choices.

Hypothetically, you could spend cards to exchange control of cards you’ve played to give them to your opponents, and use that to make Drana and Linvala into a combo engine, but I wouldn’t. I think your options are extremely thin for giving them creatures – Avarice Totem is pretty much it. Instead, I think you need to think of this as The Second Date; show up with a truckload of value and be willing to slow the game down in the name of just ensuring that you get a little bit more at a time.

If you read the story, sure, Hazoret is a goddess and Djeru is her lieutenant. On the other hand, Hazoret is twelve feet tall and Djeru is something like half that size. Is Djeru a monster-fucker? Is that not a question for you to answer in your own heart, in your own time?

Lords this is a wordy card! You want to keep your hand low, you want a deck full of legendary creature cards, and you want them in red and white. You also want those cards to not strand themselves in your hand because you’re trying to keep your hand low if you want to attack with Djeru and Hazoret, which you do, to cast the free cards. I would look for options in red and white that are legendary creatures that aren’t embarrassing and which would let me kick cards out of my hand.

The big thing to check for is being choked on mana. I would treat Djeru and Hazoret as the curve topper, so that once you can cast them you can reliably kick whatever else you have onto the table.

Fun tidbit: You can cast Kellan’s adventure, Birthright Boon off this for free!

Mechanically, this is a cool card because what it asks is pretty simple: Evasive hasty creatures. The payoff is 5/5 flying dragons, and those solve problems on their own. Like, it’s possible to feel that you need to be able to reliably haste-attack every turn, because you want that hash-tag-value every turn, but you’re making 5/5 dragons. They are big, they defend you until they’re smashing, and you don’t need to have your hasty creatures hit very hard.

I don’t think I want to cast lots of hasty little durdlenauts. They’re easily blocked. What I’d look for is cards that let me create hasty tokens and send them at people, like Legion Warboss and Goblin Rabblemaster.

As a couple, I think these two are cute together. You have your serious scene cybergoth boyfriend and his much more traditional historical LARPer boyfriend. The only real wrinkle, though, is that, like, Goro-Goro is a Atsushi Reply Guy?And he keeps calling her her dad’s name? Keep an eye on this situation Satoru.

Black does not have an exclusive hold on goth girlfriends in Magic The Gathering. Katilda is a witch, but she’s the kind of witch who wants to bring everyone together to get hammered and have a big party (where she can use a bit of your soul, stop worrying about it). You might ask ‘well is she really goth?’ Katilda died and came back. It’s hard to get more goth than a literal ghost.

Lier, on the other hand, is, you know that guy who dresses in grim clothes and is a bit too into quoting Lovecraft? And you know that goth girl who thinks the world would be better off if we just drowned everything? Lier is like if that goth girl was that lovecraft boy.

Be honest; You know that girl, if you’re reading this blog and you might be her. As far as that religious belief in the inevitable drowning of reality’s sorrows, uh, [citation needed]. Quite frankly, I look forward to Lier discovering whatever the Innistrad version of Melatonin, SSRIs, or Estradiol is, and maybe cheering up a bit.

As far as a deck goes, this is a Bant Value card. As a creature they’re pretty basic, just a 3/3, so you’re not voltronning here obviously. They’re a great card because they ask you to do two things at once: you want to cast humans that let you cast cards out of your graveyard. That suggests you want spells that are cheap, flexible, and can be useful early or late, and you want humans that are worth casting. Humans are really good in these colours, obviously, and there are a lot of cheap flash ones that you can use to reuse spells in your bin. I wouldn’t normally bother with a card like Brinebarrow Intruder but in this deck, with them out, it’s a Snapcaster Mage, and that’s a pretty cool card. Look at cheap humans who get you mana, mill you cards, or even get you mana and mill you cards.

I like cards like Flower//Flourish here. If you’re early on, you can use it for a land drop, then cast a human the next turn and get another land – but if you don’t need that, in the end game you can use the Flashback on the Flourish.

You want to see a cool synergy card with this pair? Check out Escape Artist. It lets you put a card into the graveyard, pick up a human and cast it again, in a way that means you can flash back the card you discarded. And you may wonder well why do I want that? Well, check out cards like Secrets of the Key. For one mana, you can investigate twice, because it got a second flashback effect. Is this powerful? No! Is it cute? Yes!

Alright, so like joking around here about these being couples, because you know they’re not, not really, but here in this case I genuinely want to hold out that this is a cool and interesting idea for a couple. If you’re not familiar, Inga is an unsighted Omenspeaker, and Esika is a goddess of the tree, and both of them experience a pretty debilitating condition during the time depicted on this card. Inga can’t see, but she can chart paths to anywhere an Omenseeker has been. Esika is a goddess of the World-Tree, so in this scene she’s suffering from basically overwhelming vertigo, and is unable to work out where she is.

This is a really cool kind of story that reflects something frustrating about our world, which is to say, that often, those people we categorise as disabled are the people who have to come up with ways for them to help solve one another’s problems. It depicts an emergency, a momentary experience where these two find one another and take care of one another.

Alright, so this is a deck for creatures, and ideally, ways to make creatures that make more creatures. Wolfbriar Elemental is a really good example, you can use it to make a big pile of creatures. Verdeloth The Ancient is in the rare category just like it. These are cards that can feed into one another.

Another thing is wanting creatures that can be cast for 3 mana or more, but don’t start your mana curve at 3. For that, check out Morphs and Disguise cards, like Den Protector, Ainok Survivalist, Bubble Smuggler and Mistway Spy .

Fuck lord of the rings

Shalai and Hallar are a cute kind of couple; knightly femme and enby are not a pairing you see that commonly, since you tend to see enbies wind up with enbies in most fiction that bothers to show them. It gets this way that they can segregate the ‘queer’ couples away from ‘the normal ones’ because any relationship with a nonbinary person is necessarily not heterosexual.

(And psst, dude, if you’re one of those people who thinks that some nonbinary people are cute? Guess what, you’re less straight than you thought, and that’s okay.)

Anyway, dice tower! This is a dice tower commander, something that wants to put counters on things, a lot of them. You can go tall, putting counters on Shalai and Hallar themselves, or you can go wide, treating wide counter placement as also burn spells.

Also, if you’re building this deck, please find a room for a Kavu card, because as badass as ‘archer riding on their angel gf’s shoulders and snipe-shooting things’ is sick as hell, don’t neglect the importance of Serahane, Hallar’s Kavu mount.

Ha Ha Ha, Jurassic Park.

I actually went looking for if these two wound up together by the end of the Jurassic Park stories, but it turns out that… maybe? The Jurassic Park Wiki treats this entry as ‘TBA,’ which is a pretty funny way to say ‘nobody in this fandom really cares.’

Anyway, what can you do with this in these colours? My first impulse was that if you use it alongside cycling cards, you can throw one mana cards into the graveyard, exile them with these two, and cast otherwise uncastable spells ‘for free’: Crashing Footfalls, Ancestral Visions, Gaea’s Will, Hypergenesis are potentially cool, but also… what does it matter if you draw a lot of cheap creatures?

Another option is to use them in a deck with nothing but expensive pieces with alternate costs, things like landcyclers, evokers, and channelers. You want to rush from one to five as quickly as possible in most cases, which means a 1 mana accelerator to a 3 mana accelerator, but that requires putting 1 mana cards you can discover in your deck. By comparison, you could take things slower, permit lands that enter tapped, and instead use mana acceleration around the 2-3 range – things like Greater Tanuki and Shefet Monitor.

As for me, well, I think I’d probably wind up making the Katilda and Lier or Anax and Cymede decks I’ve described here. They appeal to me, and they don’t feel like they’d be pushing very sweaty, hard-competitive edges.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Games #Magic: The Gathering

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sarroth · 2 years

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Horde Magic - Cooperative Magic full of Flavor

Part 3: Hordes from History

If you have not heard of Horde Magic, Part 1 is an overview and in Part 2 I provided some example themes based on pop culture other than zombies, with which Horde Magic was designed in mind. If you don’t feel like checking those out or need a refresher, here is a somewhat quick summary:

Horde Magic is a cooperative format where 2-4 players fight against a Horde deck that plays mostly or entirely on autopilot, almost like playing against the AI in the Duels of the Planeswalkers video games. The original horde decks are 100 cards, as they are modeled after Commander decks. Just over half of these cards though are tokens, designed around a theme. Those tokens help decide how big each horse wave is: On the horde’s turn, cards from the library are revealed one by one until a nontoken card is revealed, then each token is put onto the battlefield and then nontoken card is cast. There are some other more specific rules to make sure the players cannot stop the Horde from attacking and to try to make the Horde run on autopilot as much as possible, but this is the gist of what you would need to know for this post. Hopefully the themes I suggest here get you interested in learning more about the format.

I began in Part 2 by describing themes from pop culture other than the zombies that Horde Magic was designed for. This time, I’ll describe themes that represent battles from across history:

The Siege of Troy

Theros is a plane is Magic that takes inspiration from Ancient Greece, with Akros the stand-in for Sparta. A soldier horde limited to creatures from Theros block and Theros: Beyond Death (and a few are also in Magic: Origins, like Iroas's Champion) could represent the siege of Troy, especially when you add Akroan Horse. A lot of these though have triggered abilities that only work when they are targeted (e.g., Phalanx Leader, Anax and Cymede, Hero of the Nyxborn). This could be planned around in the horde deck by using cards with rebound (especially Cast Through Time), flashback (e.g., Angelfire Ignition), or recurring auras like Rancor or Undying Rage that could fit the horde flavorfully (maybe these are very angry Akroans). Strive was designed for this in limited, but for Horde Magic special rules would be needed: Perhaps run spells with strive [e.g., Launch the Fleet and Phalanx Formation] and have a rule where the horde never pays for the strive cost, or increase the difficulty in one of a few ways: The Horde only ever pays the strive cost once; pays for it only for the creatures that have triggered abilities from being targeted; pays for it X times, where X tracks how many turns it has been or how many turns it has been divided by 2, 3, etc.; or, for maximum difficulty, have the horde pay for it so that it affects every creature.

Fall of Rome

A horde deck could also be designed to represent Rome defending itself from invading barbarians. Though there are not many barbarian cards that are mechanically worth a slot in a horde deck and there are no barbarian tokens, Lovisa Coldeyes provides a solution: berserkers and mono/red warriors could join barbarians and flavorfully would likely still resonate for a horde depicting attacks on the Roman Empire. This provides the token options of 1/1 red warriors, 2/1 red berserkers, and 3/1 red and white warriors with trample and haste. There are also 4/4 giant warrior tokens, but whether or not adding the fantasy element of giants distracts from the Ancient Rome flavor is up to each individual horde deck builder.

Vikings

As there is no Viking creature type, and the Kaldheim set that takes inspiration from Viking history and Norse mythology mostly uses berserkers and warriors to represent Vikings, a horde to capture the flavor of defending a town from a Viking raid would feel extremely similar to my above idea for barbarians and the fall of Rome. They could be more differentiated by pulling more from the Kaldheim set: Peruse Kaldheim for any Viking-flavored noncreature cards, such as Haunting Voyage. Whether to include fantastical elements such as dwarves, giants, the gods, and other Norse mythology cards and not just humans is up to each horse deck builder. I’d suggest treating Raiders’ Karve as if it were a token and having 10-20 of those to support the regular berserker or warrior tokens; to simplify the gameplay, treat all vehicles for the horde as if they are animated, without needing to be crewed.

(Vampire) Conquistadors

Fans of From Dusk Til Dawn may be interested in switching away from zombies to black’s other characteristic creature type (I myself haven’t seen the whole thing, but I’m not sure you could really describe Buffy/Angel, Blade, or Twilight as having overwhelming hordes of vamps). Ixalan flavored vampires as conquistadors storming onto the continent to plunder its riches, and a horde experience meant to represent defense against such invaders could be flavorful if most or all of the horde cards were limited to just the Ixalan set. With either option though, there aren’t vampire giants like there are 5/5 zombie giants for the original horde. There are some 3/2 vampire tokens with abilities that could also be considered as smaller replacements for those 5/5 zombie giants from the original horde. There are some 3/2 vampire tokens with abilities that could also be considered as smaller replacements for those 5/5 zombie giants the original horde has if it ends up just not strong enough for your liking.

Until Next Time

That’s it for the real-life-history-based horde deck ideas that I have come up with so far. There are others that I have considered based on MtG lore, which are particular favorites of mine. I will have one more post for those Horde Magic ideas and then a final post on some alternate deck construction ideas or alternate rules to add even more flavor and some more difficulty to Horde Magic. If you’re intrigued and want to read more, please come back to the blog and check it out.

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roguedeck · 2 years

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You should be playing #7 - Gossamer Chains

One of my favorite things to do in enchantress decks is bounce enchantments.

I've made a career flickering Flickering Wards, Whipsilks, and Shimmering Wings (Tempest art, of course).

This is a great way to draw a bunch of cards - or get you Anax and Cymede triggers. But ultimately, that's just a somewhat efficient draw engine.

You're not really doing anything to impact the board.

Enter Gossamer Chains.

You might initially look at this 2-drop enchantment and be less than thrilled. But look again. What you've actually got is a Maze of Ith with an upkeep of WW that also draws you a card or two every turn.

Enchantress decks often really want this. Maybe you are running a voltron-style Galea deck. You need a little bit of defense. Even more pillow-forty decks would like another way to blank an attack step.

Things get even better when you think about the political implications of this card. Not only do you stop combat damage, you also get to blank damage triggers - and you can do it for opponent's too.

Sometimes it's worth striking a deal with opponent A so they don't smashed in the face by a giant dragon. I bet you can get at least a single free turn if you do that enough.

Pairs nicely with:

Kodama of the East Tree

Daxos the Returned

Enchantresses Presence | Mesa Enchantress | Eidolon of Blossoms | Sythis Harvest's Hand | Satyr Enchanter

Underworld Coinsmith

Alela, Artful Provacateur

Weaver of Harmony

Ghostly Prison

Mirrormade

#underplayed #enchantress #mtg #mtg edh #commander #magic the gathering #you should be playing #enchantment #visions

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reuxben · 4 years

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Here’s our MTGinktober for “Rocket,” starring Anax and Cymede and Brimeowth, King of Oreskos! Prepare for trouble.

Click this post’s Source link for this piece’s Making-Of.

More MTGinktober here.

Daily art updates on Instagram and Twitter.

Not normal,

Reuxben

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mtg-cards-hourly · 4 years

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Anax and Cymede

Akros's greatest heroes are also its royalty.

Artist: Willian Murai TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

#mtg #magic the gathering #tcg #$0.24 #willian murai #anax and cymede #theros #legendary #creature #human #soldier

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5ecardaday · 5 years

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Anax and Cymede

If you’d like to help support me to keep doing what I’m doing, as well as request your own card conversions, check my page or the notes for the links to my Patreon.

#dnd #dnd 5e #mtg #dnd homebrew #5e npcs #mtg ths #theros set #theros block #monster #npc #cr 8 #humanoid #human #creature #legendary creature #anax and cymede

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lightninggay · 4 years

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I appreciate the nod back to A&C's art with Kinaios and Tito but it looks like arguing neighbours and it's about to flat out turn into a duel deck.

Duel deck: Gays vs Straights. (also if Kinaios and Tiro don't escape from the underworld during TBD wotc are cowards)

#mtg #Kinaios and Tiro #Anax and Cymede #shitpost

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edh-a-to-z · 6 years

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17 - Anax and Cymede

LORE:

Go tell the Spartans. It’s time to abuse the Heroic mechanic.

Anax and Cymede are the King and Queen of Akroas, AKA Theros version of Sparta. Except with less slavery and more noble warrior stuff.

From here:

Anax is a burly man in his late 40s, once a follower of Iroas. In his later years he has turned to Purphoros as he steers his people through the creation of a small empire. This shift is reflected in the trend in art now seen from Akroan artisans. Swords and armor are now decorated. Pottery, clothing, wall paintings, and weaving show ancient Akroan patterns and symbolism handed down for generations. To his people, Anax is a great leader to be followed without question. To other poleis, he is known as a skilled tactician and heartless killer.

Cymede worships Keranos primarily. She is a skilled warrior but a more powerful seer. Having herself been struck by lightning and given a glimpse of the future, Cymede is seen by some as being partly responsible for her husband's effectiveness as king. Cymede is beginning to become aware of the power of godly creatures such as nymphs. She has seen abstract glimpses of their power and feels the gods are bestowing gifts on the faithful. Because of this, the cult of Keranos is gaining a foothold in the Kolophon. Cymede has even had a special temple built on a distant mountain summit where the storms are particularly severe. During the storm season, she visits there, meditating on a silver platform.

THE CARD:

Though it takes a bit jumping through a hoop, Anax and Cymede offer something rather rare in Boros colors - Trample.

The card is also pretty solid for a 3 drop - First Strike and Vigilance are great on a 3/2 three drop, and the aforementioned buff will be how we win.

BUILDS:

We want to abuse Anax and Cymede’s Heroic ability. For that, we need combat tricks, Auras that can be cast multiple times, and the ability to go wide. And we need them to stay alive.

Luckily, we’re in Boros colors. We have plenty of cheap and effective combat tricks and auras that we couldn’t use elsewhere. We’ll have plenty of tokens, and we’ll use an equipment fetching tech to keep out commander alive.

This deck is also super budget. The basic version can be done for under $100 (probably lower, but I’m not in the mood for math), and can be easily upgraded.

BATTLE PLAN:

We want things that work like Heroic (Anax and Cymede plus the best of the Heroic cards).

Then we want things that target - multi targeting cards with Strive, Enchantments that can bounce to hand and target again, anything to activate heroic. Then, we need to make use of A&C’s ability - we need to go wide. Lots and lots of tokens to throw at the enemy, that get buffed and have trample.

Akroan Crusader, by Johann Bodin

First we want Akroan Crusader, Akroan Conscriptor, Akroan Line-Breaker, Dawnbringer Charioteers, Fabled Hero, Favored Hoplite, Hero of Iroas, Leonin Iconoclast, Phalanx Leader, Tethmos High Priest, and Vanguard of Brimaz are all great Heroic choices (most of the remaining just have some +1/+1 counter syngery, which is a little underwhelming).

We also want Mirrorwing Dragon and Zada, Hedron Grinder. We cast battle tricks and buffs on them, and they copy it for the whole team.

EDIT: Whoops! Looks like I got that wrong, the copies Mirrorwing and Zada make won’t trigger Heroic for your whole team, as Heroic works on a casting trigger, not just being the target. They’re still amazing cards to play with since we’re running this many combat tricks, so try them out! Thanks for the catch, @imadrewid!

For spells we want two groups: reusable enchantments, and combat tricks that can target multiple creatures (alternatively, you can just do single targets with the desire to hit Anax and Cymede and nothing else).

I wish this card wasn’t 10 dollars. - R Angelic Destiny, by Jana Schirmer & Johannes Voss

Conviction, Crown of Flames, Flickering Ward, Ghitu Firebreathing, Mark of Fury, and Sun Clasp are all enchantments that can be cast more than once. They’re all super cheap, and if you have more money to burn, there’s Angelic Destiny and Eldrazi Conscription.

Next, we have the instants and sorceries. We want the best of the Strive cards, plus some fun combat tricks, preferably ones that replace themselves or hit multiple targets.

Ajani’s Presence, Desperate Stand, Launch the Fleet, Phalanx Formation, Rouse the Mob, and Twinflame are some of my favorite instants. Check here for some more ideas.

C’mon guys, we’re almost at Arbys! Launch the Fleet, by Karl Kopinski

Finally, we need an army. Any token generators, especially ones that make multiples or can do it repeatedly, are great choices. We already have Akroan Crusader and Vanguard of Brimaaz, and there’s Assemble the Legion, Hanweir Garrison (don’t forget Hanweir Battlements too!), Captain of the Watch, Hero of Bladehold, Monastery Mentor, and Sram’s Expertise. There are more, but these are my favorites.

THE REST:

If the deck has one weakness, it’s the Boros color’s aggro - weak draw. We can make up for this with a few cards.

We also want to protect Anax and Cymede - our deck is really designed around them not dying. So a basic equipment package is our go-to, so check this out here. Plus, anything that adds hexproof or indestructible are great choices. The Kaldra trio, Darksteel Plate, Mask of Avacyn, Swiftfoor Boots are great equipment.

On the enchantment side of things, try Shielded by Faith, Unquestioned Authority, Indestructible, Spirit Mantle, and Holy Mantle - a mix of Protection from Creatures and Indestructible works great on the battlefield. Add some enchantment tutors to speed things up.

“Alright peasants, this is a sword. Hold it like this” - Mentor Mentor of the Meek, by Jana Schirmer & Johannes Voss

We can draw with the White classic of Mentor of the Meek (given all the tokens we’ll be making). Plus Sram, Senior Artificer works great with our auras that jump around. Also to consider - Mesa Enchantress and Kore Spiritdancer for more draw.

There’s also spell doublers. Chandra, the Firebrand, Dual Casting, Primal Amulet/Wellspring do it on the cheap, and Dualcaster Mage, Fork, Reverberate, Howl of the Horde, Increasing Vengeace are more doublers, but need mana to fire off to make copies. Extra copies is extra heroic triggers. May or may not work with the deck.

There’s always classic Boros Legendaries like Aurelia, Blade of the Legion, Iroas, God of Victory, and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. I just love having these guys around, and they work in any Boros deck.

WEAKNESSES:

Heavy reliance on the board state leaves us vulnerable to Board Wipes, and Boros colors has a hard time recurring that.

”SCREW YOU, STUPID SWORD!!!” - That guy, probably Disenchant, by Andrew Goldhawk

Defensive measures likes Propaganda or Silent Arbiter hurt our efforts. We need to bring White’s responses of Disenchant, Oblivion Ring effects, and Return to Dust. Plus any artifacts that can do they same are also good.

We can’t wipe the board easily. While Mass Calcify can be an option, the presence of red cards in our deck, plus White creatures potentially being in other players decks, makes this card less reliable than I like. Alternatively, you can run Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Thalia’s Lancers (to tutor her), plus as many Board wipes as you want.

Boros also lags behind in ramp, so add in the normal - Boros Signet/Cluestone/Keyrune are great, as are basic fetches of Evolving Wild and Terramorphic Expanse. Knight of the White Orchid is great, Land Tax, Solemn Simulacrum, Burnished Heart, Weathered Wayfarer all pricey, all great.

Knight of the White Orchid, by Mark Zug

RATINGS:

Control: 4/10

You don’t have a lot of options outside of White’s Hate creatures and Board wipes, but you can’t use the latter whenever you want since you’re married to the board.

With the exception of the Avacyn + board wipes, you’re relying almost 100% on the board, aside from whatever white single target removal you run.

Aggro: 9/10

This deck rewards aggressive behavior, and does it great. With evasion and team buffs, Anax and Cymede go for the throat. The cards I reccommend are heavily influenced by this idea.

Combo Potential: 7/10

Depends what you mean my combo. There’s lots of potential here without insane levels of power. The commander itself has combo synergy, but doesn’t break the game.

Overall Power: 4/10

While a decent choice for EDH, and great in Tiny Leaders, it’s a cEDH Tier 4 leader, and lags behind the pack in most respects. And Boros is the weakest EDH color pair.

Versatility: 6/10

There’s a lot of way to build it for a Boros deck. Not unlimited, but they’re there. Unfortunately they’re all limited to aggro versions.

Affordability: 10/10

This is one of the fiscally cheapest commanders I have covered. Easy manabase, easy mechanic to abuse, a lot of stuff at low rarities.

Overall Score: 40/60

A surprisingly respectable score. Anax and Cymede offer aggressive players a lot to work with, and a lot of room to work in. Plus, cards that work well with them are super-budget, or work excellent in other Boros aggro commander decks.

One of the 99: Decent

While it takes some buildaround to use Heroic, Anax and Cymede have a decent body for a creature, and can add a lot of value to an Aggro Boros build.

FINAL VERDICT:

While a little small, with some work, they make a solid workhorse of a Boros commander. While not a powerhouse, they can hold their own against a lot of decks.

That’s it for now campers! Stay tuned for Angus Mackenzie, Bant god of turbofog decks!

#mtg #edh #edhatoz #commander #theros #anax and cymede #atoz commander

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talenlee · 6 months

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MTG: TransMoremers, Part 2

Even just short treatments of the Transformers commander cards winds up taking a lot of space, and I’m trying to be brief. By ‘brief’ I apparently mean ‘this is going to take a whole week,’ because yes, I only get through five more here!

Arcee, Sharpshooter is a red-white creature who looks like she’s designed to win combat. She has first strike and she can spend counters on her to deal damage to creatures. She could give up a counter at a time, to work with cards like Bellowing Aegisaur and Frilled Deathspitter, which plays into her long term tradition of dealing with stupid dinosaurs she needs to whallop on the nose.

Some stuff I had to shake my head out of: She doesn’t care if she’s targeted. She doesn’t care if the targeting happens on your turn. She doesn’t care about the mana value of the targeting card. All she cares about is the number of creatures and vehicles you control that got targeted. That means that she needs you to have other creatures, which I think pulls us towards multi-targeting buff spells, and heroic creatures. That’s right, Arcee’s going to Theros baybee!

Arcee also does something cute with Bestow; you can cast a Bestow creature onto her vehicle form, which gives her a +1/+1 counter and transforms her. Then, the next time you transform her into a vehicle, the bestowed creature falls off, and stands around on the battlefield like ‘what?’ This is different to if you Mutate onto her, where the mutated card will hang around on the vehicle and not care about that it’s stuck on an ‘illegal’ target. Those cards are one card now.

What I’d Look For: Stuff that makes Arcee bigger, but also ways to get multiple combat steps in one turn, with an evasive Arcee, so after she builds up, she doesn’t just wipe out one player on the spot and instead takes out the whole table.

Examples: Aggravated Assault[card], [card]Combat Celebrant[card], [card]Akki Battle Squad, Akroan Crusader, Phalanx Leader, Anax and Cymede

Blaster, Combat DJ seems like he’s got a pretty clear set of possible groups. He could be built for red-green vehicles, with cards that crew everything for big swingy hits, or +1/+1 counter synergy or artefact creature synergy. I like the idea of shifting tokens around, and turning Blaster into a +1/+1 counter storage spot.

There’s a type of deck known as ‘dice factory’ that I like for this, where you spend your time building up things that care about counters on them, and get out of hand. It’s a chance to use some of the odder modular cards, like Arcbound Reclaimer, too.

What I’d Look For: Things that reward artifacts for stompy decks, and solid creatures, things that don’t mind dying, and ways to recur artifacts. I would try to avoid creatures that aren’t artifacts, just because that feels aesthetically pleasant to me.

Examples: Canoptek Spyder, Arcbound Slith, Cradle Clearcutter, Mindless Autamaton, Hardened Scales, Lizard Blades

Cyclonus, the Saboteur asks you build up three points of extra power on him, and then rewards you with extra upkeeps (and draws). The upkeeps are the things I find juicy. I mean, yes, okay, an extra upkeep and draw are cool but you can already have those in blue and black!

What I’d Look For: Cool upkeep triggers, global ways to grant power bonuses, cool tap abilities

Examples: Dreadhorde Invasion, Bitterblossom, Creeping Bloodsucker, (sigh) Call of the Ring, As Foretold, Homicidal Seclusion, Ent-Draugt Basin

Flamewar, Brash Veteran – wait a moment, who the heck’s this mean girl? Oh they added more girls to the lineup? Because G1 Transformers had exactly one girl? Yeah that is obviously bad when you say it like that. Alright, what is Flamewar… hm. Flamewar is a red-black card that sacrifices artifacts, gets counters, and is pretty challenging to block. But she can only transform back and forth once a turn, and she’s deliberately slow. You can’t sacrifice a lot of artifacts to her to get her real big then attack, you have to get one per turn. She is cheap, but she’s also really fragile.

Black and red don’t have any synergies with transformation – there’s a little bit of Incubate support in black, but white was really the place that stuff stayed. Black has a very small amount of Abzan +1/+1 counter support.

I think this means that the best thing you can do with Flamewar – well it’s probably some busted combo, but setting that aside, I’d look for artefact sacrifice synergies in red and black, and treat being able to draw cards off her over time a nice bonus. Hypothetically, she does get to grow slow and steady, and she can sacrifice token artifacts.

What I’d Look For: Artifact token creators, ways to protect her while she attacks, artefact protection spells

Examples: Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, Loyal Apprentice, Oni-Cult Anvil

There’s a clear direction to Goldbug, Humanity’s Ally: He wants to support attacking humans. His More Than Meets The Eye Cost is very cheap, and means that he’ll never be attacking as a 1/3 if you can find any human in blue and white to support him. Now a note of rules is that you won’t be able to necessarily use him to pre-emptively protect a human spell: If you cast two spells, the second spell will still be counterable before the transformation trigger resolves.

Even with that, though, this projects a swarming, cantrippy, aggressive human deck that wants to go wide and find ways to protect the whole board. I’d look for spells that phase out my permanents, and oh boy, does blue and white have that. I’d also look for cheap humans. A big part of this kind of deck would be staying power. Sure, being able to deploy a giant cloud of 2/2s and 3/3s is great for dealing with a player at a time, this is for a multiplayer format and you could just get squished on the backswing.

I dunno, I can see Goldbug heading up a cool swarm deck, but I always feel like swarm decks are just waiting to have their entire world wrecked by a sweeper. I guess this is a rare space for Scapegoat to shine.

What I’d Look For: Cheap humans with interesting abilities that care about attacking, ways to recover from sweepers.

Examples: Drannith Magistrate, Grand Abolisher, Thalia’s Lieutenant, Dusk//Dawn, Crush of Tentacles, Storm of Souls, Ascend from Avernus

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Deck Speculation #Transformers #Games #Magic: The Gathering

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askkrenko · 7 years

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@ zephramtripp says: “Hey Krenko! It would be great if you could comment on my EDH deck, lead by Anax and Cymede. It has yourself in it, so it could be interesting. Thanks for the help!”

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Welcome to Krenko’s Command Tower, which taps for Red, Red, Red, Red, or Red! Today we’ll be taking a look at Anax and Cymede, Theros’ ultimate power couple! At least until those gay guys moved in across the street and built two statues. But other than that, ultimate power couple.

Anax and Cymede have an interesting trigger and reward payoff. The trigger is casting spells on them, which would generally encourage a deck that uses a lot of enchantments to improve their ability to ruin somebody’s face... But the reward is a team buff, meaning you want to go wide. In order to facilitate this, we need some sort of hybrid between a voltron deck and a deck that goes wide. Zephram’s initial build is clearly working toward that, so let’s take a look at what here is good, what here is less good, and what might be missing.

CREATURES

Akroan Hoplite gets interesting with a lot of other creatures, but you do need a lot of other creatures for it to be good. Anax and Cymede give it sorely-needed trample, but it’s still only a major reward when there’s already a host of creatures out. Consider cutting it in favor of cards that give you more creatures.

Aurelia’s great no matter what you do. Balefire Liege, like his entire cycle, is a pretty easy include in any two-color Commander deck, especially if going wide. Beetleback Chief is a great use of one card for multiple creatures, though it has ‘siblings’ that could be included. Mogg War Marshal and Siege Gang Commander are both excellent ways to get multiple creatures with one card, as are Hero of Bladehold, Hanweir Garrison, and that new Cat Lord coming in Amonkhet, The trick to going wide is to get as many creatures for a card as possible. Captain of the Watch knows what she’s doing, being 4 creatures for one card.

Chancellor of the Forge is... iffy. I don’t trust it. I’ve tried, really tried, to make it good, but I tend to find that if I have enough creatures for him to really make an impact, I’d have been better off just casting Dynacharge and swinging for lethal. Keep on eye on him,

Doomed Traveler is fine, though maybe a bit small. Heliod is good. Hopeful Eidolon is great here. Krenko, Mob Boss wins games on his own, attracts women, and can even do your taxes for you.Mentor of the Meek is spectacular. Mirror entity’s a win. Nobilis is good...

Phalanx Leader here serves as a backup commander in case something happens to Anax and Cymede. Very important.

Pyreheart Wolf is... okay, I guess, but mostly just makes me realize that this list doesn’t have Iroas. You should really be running Iroas here. Anax and Cymede are devout worshipers of him. At that thought, you need Purphoros, too. They both serve this deck very, very well.

Requiem angel is fine, serving to help protect against board wipes. Scourge of the Throne is... fine, but I think there’s better cards for this deck as far as synergies go. Sun Titan is incredibly strong, especially with all the auras he can bring back onto himself. Sunhome Guildmage is a good way to close the game if you’re prone to having a lot of mana.

I wouldn’t bother with Argus Kos. Too many of your tokens are white. You’re better off finding ways to just give everything +1.

With strong auras, you may want to ruin Boonweaver Giant. You may also want to consider running more Bestow cards. Eidolon of Countless Battles, Ghostblade Eidolon, and Everflame Eidolon can all help Anax and Cymede close out a game, trigger Heroic, or just come into play as a creature when you need them.

Instants and Sorceries

Boros Charm yes. Faith’s Shield... eeehh. It’s not useless but it’s not impressive. I suppose there’s not much better. God’s Willing is fine. Raise the alarm is alright. Rally the Peasants is great here. Rootborn Defenses is important for dodging Wraths. Secure the Wastes is basically perfect. Swords to Plowshares is great, though you should also have a Path to Exile in here. Temur Battle Rage for Anax and Cymede is solid, though the fact that they gain trample anyway is a bit disappointing. Try Uncaged Fury either instead or in addition to. Getting another +1/+1 is great when it’s with double strike. Wear and Tear is an auto-include in color.

Deploy to the Front is alright, but seven is a lot of mana and it’s prone to doing nothing. In my Heliod deck, I use Conquerer’s Pledge and Increasing Devotion. I’d suggest both here. Nomad’s Assembly is even worse because if you have nothing you get nothing.

Descent of the Dragons is an interesting option, upgrading your tokens or killing creatures. I’m curious to see how good it is. That said, I wouldn’t run Devout Invocation. If you have enough creatures to really make it terrifying, you’re better off just casting a pump spell and swinging. Worse, like Deploy and Assembly, it’s prone to doing nothing.

Hordeling Outburst and Krenko’s Command are good. You may also want to try Goblin Rally, Also, near and dear to my heart, is Mogg Infestation. It can either double your creatures or it can kill an enemy’s creatures. Sure, giving enemies goblins is a problem, but I’d rather they have six goblins than three dragons!

Mizzium Mortars and Vandalblast are both perfect. Revoke Existence has been good to me. Spectral Procession fits this deck just right. Tempt With Vengeance is great. Waves of Aggression is very efficient.

Instants and Sorceries are good overall, though I do worry a bit about lack of removal. You have some, but you could certainly use more. Austere Command lets you aim your mass removal well, Fell the Mighty lets you keep your tokens, as does Hour of Reckoning. March of Souls gives everybody tokens. Martial Coup gives you a whole lot of tokens and can always be ‘held back’ if you don’t want to wipe your board. There’s a number of other board wipes, too, that you can choose from to suit your needs. Return to Dust should also be in here. It’s one of the best cards for Artifact and Enchantment removal.

You could also use a few more spells to target your commander with. Seething Anger works well with Heroic and winds up being +4/+1 per 4 mana. Change of Heart can work well defensively, or can be used on Anax and Cymede after you’ve declared attackers to pump your team. While on the topic of buyback, you really can’t go wrong with Shattering Pulse. Also, Fall of the Hammer and its weaker sibling Tail Slash both trigger heroic while damaging an enemy creature.

Enchantments

Everything on your list right now is good, but there’s a few things you might want to make it better.

First off, like Ghitu Firebreathing, Conviction lets you trigger Heroic repeatedly for 3 mana each. Further, Anax and Cymede could really stand to be a 4/5 base. Crown of Flames and Flickering Ward are good for the same reasons, and each only cost two to repeat.

In my experience, Dictate of Heliod works better than Cathar’s Crusade. Crusade can win the game on its own, but first you need to cast Cathar’s Crusade, then you need to cast the creatures, and then you can swing with the creatures after. Dictate of Heliod might only be +2/+2, but you can either drop it in right before your turn or throw it down after blockers are declared to ruin an opponent.

You could probably use more auras here in general, though admittedly finding auras that aren’t awful is difficult. I might try Bravado, enabling Anax and Cymede to get sudden power boosts when you make tokens. Mantle of Leadership has a similar effect, though all at once. Felidar Umbra gives lifelink and totem armor. You are actively missing Scourge of the Nobilis. +2/+2, improved Firebreathing, and lifelink is just too good to not run if you’re throwing Auras on your commander. Squee’s Embrace is +2/+2 and a worse version of totem armor, but it’s only two mana. Vow of Duty and Vow of Lightning are both a bit redundant on Anax and Cymede, but they double as soft removal, especially if you’re playing with multiple opponents.

Artifacts

Loxodon Warhammer and Swiftfoot Boots are both very good, but, uhh... Where’s your Sol Ring?

As much as I’d normally recommend other equipment for a deck, I’m guessing you already came to the same conclusion: use auras instead to trigger Heroic. The only thing I’d suggest using more artifacts for is mana fixing and acceleration. Boros Signet and Keystone should both be in here. Sword of the Animist is also very good.

Lands

As usual, I’m going to ignore the mana base as manabase. Nobody needs me telling them that their deck would be better if it ran Plateau.

You probably want a Windbrisk Heights here. You should easily be able to trigger it. Kor Haven and Kjeldoran Outpost would also work very well for the deck. Hanweir Battlements is also great, especially if you have Hanweir Garrison, which fits the deck quite well.

Hope this helps, and may you have many victories in the future.

#Krenko's Command Tower #anax and cymede #mtg commander #submission

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radramblog · 3 years

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Every Boros Commander, Part 1

Every one of these rambles is going to be longer and nerdier than the last, I guess. We’ll see how long I can keep that up for.

If you aren’t or haven’t been at least a casual fan of Magic: The Gathering, this post is going to be completely lost on you, sorry.

Oh also I’m having to split this in half since it took basically all afternoon to write and its still juuuust not done.

Boros gets a lot of shit for being bad and having bad generals for EDH until recently, and seeing as its my favourite two-colour pair I felt like exploring, well, every option we have for the combo. I’m excluding the new Commander Legends partner commanders in this, since I don’t have all day, and I’m also not covering Akiri and Bruse Tarl since no-one ever builds just Boros with them, and I’m not including 3-5 colour decks that just happen to have red and white in them. That’s not Boros.

Boros’s strengths are in manipulating combat, in tokens, and with Voltron strategies. It is the best pair for Equipment decks and top tier for Aggressive decks, to the point of being arguably shoehorned by WOTC into such strategies for a long time. Its weaknesses are mostly to do with card draw and ramp, possibly the most important things in a casual game of Commander, but the former is alleviated by many of red’s recent card draw options and the latter easily supplemented with mana rocks- if you have enough money, any deck can have good ramp, but enough budget options exist these days that it isn’t too bad even for the “worst colors”.

Anyway, enough beating around the bush lets get into this. Going in Chronological order.

Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran (29th most played as of writing)

…It seriously took until Ravnica to get a legendary RW creature? Heinous. Cool as Agrus is as protagonist of the Ravnica novel, his card simply does not hold up in 2021, let alone beforehand. He’s a Glorious Anthem style commander, except he works best only with creatures that are both red and white, and not nearly enough cards produce multicolored tokens for him to boost. Oh, also he’s a 5 mana 3/3 with no protection or evasion that has to attack to get his effect. Save it for the novel.

Razia, Boros Archangel (30th most played as of writing, the last place finalist)

Speaking of Ravnica. Razia is fucking cool, between the art and unique, if underwhelming, activated ability. She is also 8 mana and not green. She is the only commander to my knowledge that can redirect damage to opponents’s creatures, so if that’s the deck you want to build, go for it, though enjoy the distressingly small cardpool. God, they couldn’t have given her an extra power, could they?

Brion Stoutarm (6th most played as of writing)

Brion is the first actually viable commander of the bunch, being a pretty decent head to either a Fling deck with Ball Lightnings or Acts of Treason, or just Giant Tribal with his Lorwyn compatriots. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or played against Brion yet, but I’d be interested in doing so. Having lifegain in the command zone with a deck that likes throwing damage around is pretty nice. It’s surprising that he’s still so high, especially considering EDHREC (my data source) only now pulls from the last 2 years of decks, but I’m certainly not sad to see him there.

Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer (19th most played as of writing)

Spoilers: Jor is actually the best Anthem commander. +3/+0 is huge, and when most of your ramp and some of your draw is artifacts you’re not going to have a hard time getting metalcraft. 5 mana is a fair chunk for an aggressive deck but he turns the damage output up enough notches that I think he’s pretty good. Underrated in my opinion. How are there more Tajic, Legion’s Edge decks than Jor Kadeen decks?

Basandra, Battle Seraph (24th most played as of writing)

Basandra is the head of my current Boros deck, being a pillowfort/combat manipulation deck. She’s, uh, not ideal in that even, since she stops even you from casting removal and such during combat. Having an extra must attack effect in the zone is nice, though, and a flying commander can be nice for closing games out. Basandra at least has the gift of being fairly open-ended, but also, she doesn’t really do anything, so that’s probably got something to do with it.

On a side note, fuck you Terese Nielsen for turning out to be a cunt. No-one else seems to have drawn this character, so I can’t even make an alter. Fuck.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight (10th most played as of writing)

Gisela has a lot of very attractive words on her. Unfortunately, 7 mana and that ability means that as soon as you drop her out of the zone, you better use her quick because she isn’t sticking around long. Obviously lends herself to group slug or Earthquake decks, but the former paints an even bigger target on your head and the latter is even mana hungrier than normal. I prefer her in the 99.

Aurelia, the Warleader (5th most played as of writing)

Aurelia was the “best” Boros commander for a long time, and it’s easy to see why- haste and an extra combat trigger add up to a lot of damage very quickly and it’s not like there was much competition for a while. She’s actually the only one of the top 5 Boros commanders that wasn’t printed in the last 5 years, so I guess she’s stood the test of time, much like Brion. I’d argue she’s pretty boring though, seeing as she has the one thing she does, but she does it well and there’s no faulting her for that. She’s the closest we have to r/custommagic’s favourite “double combat triggers” legend. A lot of people seem to run her as Angel Tribal too, which of the available Angels in the zone I’d argue that’s a pretty good shout. The Red/Boros Angels are fun!

Tajic, Blade of the Legion (20th most played as of writing)

The first on this list I’d consider playing as Voltron, Tajic’s first card is indestructible which as a former Sapling of Colfenor player is fucking excellent in the zone for when you have to play defensively. He does, however, require other creatures in the deck to truly shine, and you do have to have those creatures attack, so it can be awkward to get the most out of him. He’s a cool dude though, much better than his other card imo.

Anax and Cymede (23rd most played as of writing)

The first draft I ever played was a Born of the Gods draft in which I splashed Anax and Cymede. Clearly, I had no idea what I was doing. Anax and Cymede look a lot like Tajic in deck, to be honest, since they’re creatures that like having buffs but also want other creatures around to benefit. Heroic is kind of an awkward requirement, however, and I suspect you’d be spending more time just having it as a buff for the royals themselves. Its nice to see a loving married couple as a Magic card, though, I’m sure things will be good for them always.

Iroas, God of Victory (9th most played as of writing)

Somehow despite it being common in the 99 of aggressive decks, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Iroas deck in my local metas. I think it has the potential to be pretty powerful, since if you can meet his (admittedly harsh) requirement he’s an indestructible evasive commander with that magical 7 power making commander damage a 3HKO. And when he’s not ready to rumble, he’s nigh impossible to kill on account of the limited targeted enchantment exile people tend to play in the format. Otherwise, he makes attacking free and bountiful for other creatures, and so is just kinda good to have around- I can see running him for that alone.

Munda, Ambush Leader (27th most played as of writing)

Somehow more people are playing Munda than Razia or Agrus, despite being just the worst commander with Ally in the text (outside the type line, love you Zada) and not doing actual anything outside of that. Why the fuck doesn’t he draw the cards? Why does he just stack them? God, Munda sucks. Also I have like 3 of them, since I drafted a lot of that deck in that environment and people just pass him around. Anyone want one? Be my guest.

Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas (11th most played as of writing)

Precon face commanders always get a bit more love and a bit more power than the average legend, and Kalemne is no exception. Double Strike in the zone on a creature that gets bigger is just nuts, and it means she kills people astonishingly quickly. Even my non-voltron Kalemne deck that just wanted to play big idiots had her as a huge threat since even if she gets killed she stays big. Kalemne also happens to be probably better for Giant tribal than Brion, though he does at least get to yeet those removal magnets if they do get removed.

Anya, Merciless Angel (26th most played as of writing)

I didn’t think Anya would be this low. While she is another indestructible commander, it is conditional, and her abilities are self-sabotaging- if someone is in range of being killed by her, you’re probably not going to want to attack them just so you can keep indestructible and buffs, but you also, yknow, want to kill them. I can see her being political in this way though- keeping someone alive with her swords at their throat can have some fun implications. I think shes underrated despite her awkwardness.

Archangel Avacyn (14th most played as of writing)

(Her colour identity is RW since her other face is a red creature. It’s a bit odd, I know)

Avacyn was fucking unbeatable in draft and obnoxious in Standard (though one of my favourite magic stories involves her, so,), and since I never managed to get one for Kalemne when that deck was around I have no real love for her. She’s generically powerful without leading in a particular direction, but her flip ability is pretty cool as is her story in the set. It’s OK. Also why do people keep putting her in Angel decks? You know she doesn’t flip off those, right?

Adriana, Captain of the Guard (22nd most played as of writing)

Adriana, Adriana. I didn’t dislike Adriana as much as I did until I actually did the math on her. Typical commander games are 4-player, so she is a +3/+3 anthem at maximum assuming you have good attacks on every single opponent and that none of them are dead yet. I’m really not sure why you’d play this over Jor Kadeen, and it looks like people aren’t, so. Melee was a fun mechanic in draft, but I completely understand why it hasn’t crossed over, ever, to other formats, seeing as there are 7 total cards with it and most of them are draft chaff. CONTINUED IN PART 2...ANOTHER DAY. PROBABLY SOON SINCE IT’S 2/3 DONE ALREADY.

#mtg #commander #edh #ramble #boros #fuck you adriana

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mtgbracket · 3 years

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Round of 1024 - Batch 8

We reach the half way mark!

If you like Mirri, then today is your day as all THREE versions are up for voting. Plus we have Leovold, Progenitus, and Chulane!

Voting is open for one week here. Batch 1 results will be up shortly.

Full list of matchups for today:

Commander Eesha vs Rick, Steadfast Leader Angus Mackenzie vs Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker Grusilda, Monster Masher vs Stitcher Geralf Kiku, Night's Flower vs Mirri the Cursed

Gisa and Geralf vs Lu Su, Wu Advisor Mogis, God of Slaughter vs Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper Rhys the Exiled vs Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar vs Inalla, Archmage Ritualist

Nebuchadnezzar vs Pia and Kiran Nalaar Emmara Tandris vs Kopala, Warden of Waves Jalira, Master Polymorphist vs He Who Hungers God-Eternal Kefnet vs Silumgar, the Drifting Death

Prossh, Skyraider of Kher vs Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage Kiyomaro, First to Stand vs Volrath, the Shapestealer Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist vs Otrimi, the Ever-Playful Ragnar vs Patron of the Orochi

Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter vs Xira Arien Lim-Dûl the Necromancer vs Borborygmos Enraged Mikaeus, the Unhallowed vs Ma Chao, Western Warrior Orim, Samite Healer vs Mirri, Cat Warrior

Johnny, Combo Player vs Shisato, Whispering Hunter Admiral Beckett Brass vs Progenitus Silvos, Rogue Elemental vs Vadrok, Apex of Thunder Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker vs Chulane, Teller of Tales

Hazduhr the Abbot vs Korvold, Fae-Cursed King The First Sliver vs Kamahl, Fist of Krosa Bruna, Light of Alabaster vs Judith, the Scourge Diva Josu Vess, Lich Knight vs Hunding Gjornersen

Leovold, Emissary of Trest vs Anax and Cymede Rin and Seri, Inseparable vs Torbran, Thane of Red Fell Ol' Buzzbark vs Lavinia, Azorius Renegade Rebbec, Architect of Ascension vs Drana, Liberator of Malakir

#mtg #magic the gathering #mtgbracket #tournamentofchampions

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alurenrecycle · 4 years

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Plains League - Boros Heroes vs Impact Tremors

Another Boros deck versus a Goblin deck. The match came down to Anax and Cymede. Game 2, they did not make an appearance and lost. Games 1 and 3, the couple praised their heroes and trampled over the tiny goblins.

#mtg #quarantourney #magic the gathering #magic #quarantine hobby #plains League #Boros Heroes #vs #Impact Tremors #q

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nehebthewordy · 4 years

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Theros: Beyond Death EDH Legend Review: Uncommon

Hello everyone and welcome to our first Legend Review. Before we begin, I’d like to apologize for the unplanned hiatus this month; unfortunately, I will not have a budget brewing article for you this week.

But onto the main event! Like Dominaria, the new Theros set has a large number of uncommon legendaries, giving us budget brewers a large selection of new generals to build. While most of these are monocolored, we do have a couple sweet new multicolor legends, which will appear at the end of tonight’s article.

Daxos, Blessed by the Sun Unlike his previous iterations from the original Theros block and the 2015 commander decks, new Daxos has dropped to only one color. At face value, he’s a bear with a combined effect of Ajani’s Welcome and the latter half of Ashes of the Abhorrent. While neither are bad cards in their own right, this new Daxos is not something white needed nor is it a particularly creative legend. As a whole, it feels like the same stuff white’s had since the beginning.

Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea Unlike our previous legend, Callaphe is totally new to us. At base devotion, he’s a 2/3 for 3 with a small taxing effect. Honestly, this is such a small ability that I can’t even think of what to say about it. I’d sooner run Monastery Siege on Dragons, even if it can’t go in the command zone.

Tymaret, Chosen from Death Another returning character, Tymaret has also dropped a color. Similar to Daxos, he’s a bear at base devotion, however his ability may be even smaller than his white counterpart. It’s potentially useful, of course, but I can only recommend Tymaret over another black legend if your meta includes a lot of graveyard decks such as Muldrotha, Karador, or Whisper.

Anax, Hardened in the Forge Our fourth demigod is also our third, and final, returning uncommon legend. As with the other two, Anax has lost his white alongside Cymede. Out of the five, Anax is actually one of the two that I believe could make good commander potential. While his satyrs can’t block, being able to sac away Squees to create more of them can keep a never-ending army swinging every turn. If you can empower your fodder creatures further, you can even get twice the number of goat-men.

Renata, Called to the Hunt Our final demigod may be our most powerful. Literally, a deck led by Renata can easily raise her devotion to over five before she even comes out (on curve!) While it will play a lot like the Rishkar and Nissa lists I’ve written up before, Renata gives you the advantage of automatically empowering a token army. With a few counter-boosting cards like Hardened Scales or Pir, you can quickly build a field of solid beaters.

Alirios, Enraptured And now even Narcissus has a card in Magic. While I can’t personally say much on this new blue legend, I’m sure many of you have already brewed up ways to abuse his EtB effect to create more and more reflections. As a whole though, I think he fits way better in the 99 than as a commander himself.

Siona, Captain of the Pyleas Our first Selesnya auras commander since perhaps Krond himself, Siona... has a weird strategy. Through stacking auras you create tokens, except they’re made on entry rather than Valduk’s combat trigger. Honestly, I can’t figure a way to make this good. Tuvasa does auramancy better, Krond gets more value from your enchantments, Sigarda keeps forced sacrifice from destroying your best stuff. As a whole, I’m not sure Siona will see much play as a general, much less in the 99.

Eutropia, the Twice-Favored Our final uncommon legend from Theros is one of the best on this list. While I’m having trouble building this as more than a generic Simic counters deck, I can see its potential power. It feels like Bred for the Hunt was made for this card, and if removal is a concern you can get good use from Plaxcaster Frogling. As a whole though, enchantments are a huge part of her strategy: don’t build so much goodstuff that you forget all your enchantments.

And that’s the last of Theros: Beyond Death. This is the most uncommon legends we’ve had since Dominaria, and Theros was such a good plane to bring them back on. Though most of them are the power level you’d expect from their rarity, a few may be diamonds hidden among weaker commanders such as Yargle or Callaphe. Thanks for tuning in to our first legend review. I’ll see you all next week.

#Legend Review #theros beyond death #commander #mtg #magic the gathering #nehebthewordy #long post

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