#Teshar Ancestor’s Apostle

[dominarianplowshare]

I just posted the final chapter of “New Benalia’s Light,” my series charting Danitha Capashen’s struggle with the trauma of her father’s death, the agony of her doubts, and the devastation of the Phyrexian Invasion! Give it a read!

It was such a cathartic experience to write this chapter, which I've been drafting ever since I decided to expand the first entry beyond its one-shot status. I really struggled to decide whether to split this one up into two more reasonably sized sections, but I decided to release this mega-deluxe-hot-dog of a chapter to give a sense of the scale I'm working through.

'New Benalia's Light' has been my love-letter to my favorite character, my favorite faction, and my favorite plane in all of Magic, and I hope you've enjoyed the ride as much as I have. My hope, as I've discussed in these notes and elsewhere, has been to see how we got from the Danitha of 'Dominaria' and 'Dominaria United' to the Danitha of 'March of the Machines: Aftermath,' including her new green-white color identity (as a side note, I'm a big color pie enthusiast, and I've loved thinking throughwhat it looks like for a White Mana character to add Green). My greatest goal of all has been to figure out *why* she fights, beneath the veneer of honor and chivalry, and what the Church of Serra--which, to me, is the most beautiful of all Magic's religions--means to her. I hope I've done the character justice.

[favoritemtgcard]

- bearscape: secret lair art (because obviously)

- Nethroi, Apex of Death: showcase art

- Kangee, Airee Keeper (I love this janky ass bird)

- Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle

- Baleful Strix (the Nhils Hamm art)

Nethroi, Apex of Death (art by Tomasz Jedruszek)

Kangee, Aerie Keeper

Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle

I am currently only taking 3 submissions per person, and both Bearscape (6) and Baleful Strix (2) have been previously nominated

[zoydraft]

AF's Jack-o'-Lantern Cube

March 22, 2024 Draft. 4 players, 5 packs of 9

List: cubecobra.com/c/8rja

Earlier this week AF posted a last minute offer to host a draft in the Toronto Cube Community Discord (let me know if you want an invite), finally at a time that wouldn't make me feel like a neglectful parent. We drafted his Jack-o'-Lantern Cube as a pod of four. It's a lower-power synergy list with some streamlining restrictions: no shuffling and thoughtfully limited tokens.

The environment pushed towards back-and-forth games with lots of relevant decision-making. At times it felt like retail limited, while other game states felt more puzzle-oriented, with a lot of on-board information to navigate, but not to an unmanageable degree. There was rarely an unambiguous beat down; both sides of the table were taking actions and shifting the dynamics of the game most turns. Boards seized up sometimes, but there was never a point where there was nothing relevant for me to do.

This should all be taken with a grain of salt. With the draft set up, each seat only saw 150 cards* out of the full ~400 card list, which pushes decks and gameplay to a Sealed vibe: with decks deploying suboptimal cards and games extending a little longer. If anything, it's interesting that the synergies were able to shine in that small pool.

* (9+8+7+6)*5 = 150

I drafted a low curve red white artifact creature deck. There wasn't a specific card that pulled me in, I'm always willing to draft aggro decks and the colours felt open (I read that correctly). In pack 1 or 2 I got Arcbound Shikari on the wheel and that locked me for this modular / +1/+1 counters build.

AF warned us that removal is scarce. Volt Charge and Settle Beyond Reality were representative of the calibre of removal, and did a lot of work for me. I had to be picky about what I removed, and you rarely double-spelled with them. The Proliferate on Volt Charge did a lot. On the other hand, Pyrite Spellbomb's shock was often dead. There was a shortage of 2 toughness creatures I needed to kill (could be poor threat assessment by me), but there were also on-board effects that invalidated it, like adding counters or sac'ing for value. Fierce Retribution played narrower than I expected.

The removal suite gave games a retail texture: most game actions added to the board (although two-for-ones aren't common) and inefficient removal is worth running.

I struggled in the draft to identify creatures above 2 mana that I really wanted for this deck. Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle was huge for me, and I didn't have complaints about the others. Blessed Hippogriff, Sanctifier of Souls, and Twinshot Sniper may have made my deck better, but they're more value-oriented than natural top-end for an aggro deck.

I'm a degenerate for lands, so the 10% fixing lands felt light (I run >17%), but the Clue lands felt good—slow, but worthwhile. I had enough artifacts that Rustvale Bridge's typeline was never relevant. I didn't see anything that paid off a critical mass of artifacts.

My first match was 2-1 against a base blue deck (with some red and black, IIRC). Time of Ice caught my eye. It was both good and engaging to play around.

After that I went 1-2 in a marathon match against a BGr deck. Neither of us could get many clear attacks. I could chip away with flyers and Gingerbrute while Tireless Provisioner would pump out food to undo the damage. Thankfully for me, Grateful Apparition kept pumping up my Modular creatures, especially Arcbound Javelineer, but it wasn't enough to grind out the match. Makeshift Munitions was huge, finishing off game one and a difference maker later l.

Finally, I was taken out 2-0 by 5C stuff. Games didn't last many turns, but they were dense with decisions.

The length of games was potentially an issue, and I have a few theories, all of which probably have a grain of truth to them:

I am slow. All three rounds, my match went longer than the other one.

My deck did not have a good way to close out games beyond chipping away. The closest I came was piling counters on Gingerbrute, but it was always answered quickly.

There is a lot of lifegain. The GBr especially was pumping out Food tokens and didn't have something better to do with it than eating it. My deck had a bunch of lifelink that was totally incidental, so life totals didn't have a sharp tendency toward zero.

Given the powerband, there are a lot of unfamiliar cards, many of which were not brief. I don't think it was egregious, but amid everything else I do think it slowed things down a little bit as people grappled with what cards were actually doing.

Ultimately I think the cube is providing the kind of gameplay that AF is pursuing. The decision-making is rich, aggro is restrained, you play to the board, and even when combat slows down you're still taking meaningful actions. On the other hand, that may need to be balanced with the time games take to play. The limited pool of tokens and restriction on shuffling help, so I know it's a consideration.

Thanks a ton for hosting, and to everyone for the games. I had a great time drafting, playing, hanging out, and reflecting on the cube, and I hope to play it again in the future!

[edhbrew]

Teshar cEDH

Apologies for taking a while off! 

However, as promised, I have created a Teshar cEDH deck for you. With the recent banning of Krark-Clan Ironworks in Modern, this is a good use for all those copies lying around! 

So here ya go: Teshar cEDH.

[mtgbracket]

Round of 1024 - Batch 4

Here is the fourth instalment in the Tournament of Champions!  Once again we are looking for the greatest Legend in Magic: the Gathering.

You can vote here on hits such as Alesha, Isamaru, Urza, Krenko, Nicol Bolas, and even Richard Garfield himself.

Full list of matchups:

Tsabo Tavoc vs Gisela, the Broken Blade Hixus, Prison Warden vs Grand Warlord Radha Treva, the Renewer vs Mangara of Corondor Akroma, Vision of Ixidor vs Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim

Braids, Conjurer Adept vs Infernal Kirin Myojin of Seeing Winds vs Zetalpa, Primal Dawn Alesha, Who Smiles at Death vs Sygg, River Cutthroat Kari Zev, Skyship Raider vs Ertai, the Corrupted

Heidar, Rimewind Master vs Tarox Bladewing Thassa, Deep-Dwelling vs Ob Nixilis, the Fallen Nicol Bolas vs Damia, Sage of Stone Obzedat, Ghost Council vs Emiel the Blessed

Sidisi, Brood Tyrant vs Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet Urza, Lord High Artificer vs Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn Xun Yu, Wei Advisor vs Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius Zo-Zu the Punisher vs Michonne, Ruthless Survivor

Kodama of the South Tree vs Nekusar, the Mindrazer Rashmi, Eternities Crafter vs Krenko, Mob Boss Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle vs Rith, the Awakener Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh vs Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician

Obeka, Brute Chronologist vs Animar, Soul of Elements Archangel Avacyn vs Neheb, the Eternal Isamaru, Hound of Konda vs Tahngarth, Talruum Hero Nikara, Lair Scavenger vs Vial Smasher the Fierce

Crovax the Cursed vs Rakdos, the Showstopper Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit vs Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger Yuan Shao, the Indecisive vs Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge Adeliz, the Cinder Wind vs Keruga, the Macrosage

Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt vs Ghalta, Primal Hunger Grandmother Sengir vs Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle Richard Garfield, Ph.D. vs Marisi, Breaker of the Coil The Scorpion God vs Etrata, the Silencer

[eclipsemeteor]

Felt it was time to make a deck for this foil Bird Cleric! Introducing deck #24, Teshar!

[foxgirlintestines]

Suspending Disbeleif in Lotus Bloom

I haven’t made a post about deck building in what seems like forever so lets dive into a topic about an ability on some of the more awkard yet powerful cards in the Commander format; Suspend.

So, some of the suspend cards from Time Spiral were callbacks to some of the most powerful cards ever printed in the early days of Magic, but they came at the drawback of requiring you to wait for them as they had no Mana Cost. Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Balance, these cards are all banned in Commander and with good reason, and even Wheel of Fortune despite being not banned is one of the more powerful cards that is legal. Waiting is a big drawback though. As the power level of decks goes up the amount of turns you have to make relevant plays goes down, and you can very easily just lose while still waiting on a card. This isn’t even a cEDH consideration, a well tuned deck can put down heavy pressure that must be answered pretty quick. The other big drawback is just how inconsistent these cards are in a 99/98 card deck that is singleton. If you could guarantee a Black Lotus would drop down on your 3rd turn every game then these cards would be cEDH staples. Not only do you have to wait for the effect, but you also need to find them quickly or you could be waiting on them when the game has already developed pretty far and they have become a lot weaker. Are the most broken cards ever printed worth so many drawbacks? Well, a lot of the time the answer is no, but not always.

I will only really be discussing Lotus Bloom, Ancestral Vision, Mox Tantalite, and Wheel of Fate. Hypergenesis and Living End have their merits, but are not well suited to Commander, and Restore Balance is very niche in its uses. Playing them Fair: So when is the benefit worth the drawback? Many times that comes down to what other options are available or a lack thereof. Despite the cards being pretty slow, they still do occasionaly see cEDH play in decks like Godo, Bandit Warlord, and Daretti, Scrap Savant, and I once saw Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle running a single Lotus Bloom. These are not top tier decks, but they can hold their own in certain pods. Two Commanders are noteably mono-red and the other is mono-white, which means their options are very limited. Daretti and teshar have some ways to synnergize with Lotus Bloom, but Godo does not, so when that deck chooses to play this card it is solely weighing the reward and cost and finding that it is worth it. Red does not have an abundance of card draw and mana ramp available, neither does white, so these mono-color decks may have some benefit from a rare effect for their decks. Thats the cap of cEDH (at least not top tier cEDH anyway), the cards are more playable as the power level goes down. When the game lasts longer the odds of these cards coming out of exile is better, not amazing, but much better. Only a few archetypes can really make the best use of them though. This mainly comes down to resilient combo decks, more midrage value decks, and decks that can make really big swings with some powerful help. Mox Tantalite is weak even in these decks, as a Jeweled Amulet can often provide more effective ramp with a downside that is a bit easier to work with even if it is not perfect. 3 Mana from nowhere out of a Lotus Bloom however can really power out a big turn, or 3 extra cards or a full hand refill if planned around can allow a deck to freely spend resources knowing that as long as they keep things under control then they will be rewarded later. Ancestral Visions has a bit of competition though as Blue has an abundance of card draw so even with the low mana investment a faster card can be more useful. Wheel of Fate provides card draw to decks that don’t have as many options though, and so a Red deck with White or even Black and extra benefits from a full grave can be well worth the wait. The other time these cards may be worth it is due to budget. Lion’s Eye Diamond while it also has a hefty drawback is much more reliable than Lotus Bloom, but one of those cards costs over 10 times the other. Wheel of Fortune is pricey as well, as are most of the legal Moxen in regards to Tantalite. Its not optimal to have a worse card in your deck, but sometimes that’s what you have access to. If you have a budget and so does your playgroup then the power level could be lower and these cards can have a chance to really shine. Playing them Unfair

How do you make these cards better? By circumventing the drawback. These cards are pretty interesting in that they are pretty easy to abuse. they cannot be directly cast, but any effect that allows you to cast them including an alternative cost or so allows them to be played right away. A card like Dreadhorde Arcanist can cast the sorceries for no mana when it attacks, and a much more popular Commander card Bolas’s Citadel can cast them without a life cost making them even better than the card they were mimicing in some cases. The artifacts in particular are easy to abuse because there are many effects that put them right into play. Reshape and transmute Artifact can trade a used up artifact for a Lotus Bloom and net mana. Without casting them and milling or discarding them will allow cards liek Scrap Mastery to put them into play to power a big often game ending turn, and so on. One of the more popular way fo using these cards in both Commander and Modern is Cascade. Noteably Yidris, Maelstrom Weilder and The First Sliver are commanders that work very well with these cards (Maelstrom Wanderer would rather hit things much bigger so it doesn’t benefit). Yidris can give every card you cast from your hand Cascade, and whenever you cast a 1 cmc spell it can reward you with one of these very powerful cards. The First Sliver on the other hand grants all your slivers Cascade, and so if your deck is mostly Slivers you can cascade chain all the way down to a 1 drop Sliver that will then reward you with one of these cards. Even Mox Tantalite becomes better than a Diamond, Chrome Mox, or even an Opal if you lack Metalcraft in these kinds of decks. Its is not the most popular of strategies, and The First Sliver is better for Food Chain than Sliver tribal, but it still demonstrates that these cards do have homes in Commander where they shine. So try them out if your deck is the right fit for them, or if your playgroup just is at a power level where they don’t feel dead. They are swingey, but just like the power of a turn 1 Sol Ring including more high potential cards in your deck can grant you more explosive starts. Just don’t overload on them as they do fall of later.

[commandertheory]

New podcast episode is live!

In this episode, Nick and Zak look at EDHREC rankings of all the monocolor commanders in the format to find out which commanders are being slept on by the majority of Commander players. Decks discussed in this episode: Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle Hokori, Dust Drinker Thada Adel, Acquisitor Iname, Death Aspect Marton Stromgald Reki, the History of Kamigawa Hua Tuo, Honored Physician Follow Commander Theory on Twitter for more Commander content!

If you like our podcast, please support us on Patreon!

[homebrewdtyrant]

Dank-Jank Tech: Jodah Cheerios

Welp, here it is! Sorry for the long wait, I hope this makes up for it a little. Decklist is not complete, treat this post as more of guide on how to approach a Cheerios style EDH deck and what to keep in mind while building it. 

What is Cheerios? No, we aren’t talking about the delicious breakfast cereal when we reference “Cheerios” in MtG! The deck archetype “Cheerios” is named such after the fact that the main win con of the deck is 0 mana costed artifacts, which resemble the O shape of a Cheerio!  Now that we’ve defined Cheerios, how does it win?  Cheerios win thru a few factors but primarily by taking advantage of an old boogie man mechanic called Storm! With most Cheerio combos we cycle thru loops of free casting 0 costed spells, gaining a huge storm count and then casting one giant spell (like Grapeshot) to one shot an opponent! Cheerios can also utilize EtB and LtB effects but they’re not as common. Why Jodah as our Commander? Wouldn’t Breya be a better Commander? While normally yes, I would agree that Breya is one of the best toolbox artifact commanders and would deff be a great fit for the archetype Cheerios, I don’t usually do meta, and Breya is very linear and boring to me. Don’t get me wrong, if you have Breya I fully encourage you to run her! She’s an AMAZING artifact commander, just not one I want to run in this deck. Jodah gives us access to all 5 colors of Magic, and this can be very powerful and very limiting at the same time. But that’s what makes this deck exciting! I’ve tried to work a few smaller combos and support cards into the deck to help us smooth out the rough edges that come with running 5 colors. Let’s dive right on in.

The Breakfast Cereal Combo

First off we need a creature or permanent (in this case mostly creatures) that lets us draw cards when we cast our 0 mana costed artifacts. For this purpose I enlisted Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, Sram Senior Edificer, and Puresteel Paladin for their help. With an Artificer’s Assistant out we can filter our draws more when we cast our artifacts to get the good stuff faster.  Now for the big problem we run into with running a Cheerios deck in EDH: the 99. We have a lot of cards to filter thru and cast to kill someone with 40ish life. Good thing we have a lot of 0 mana costed artifcts, to list a good few: Accorder’s Shield, Bone Saw, Chrome Mox, Claws of Gix, Dark Sphere, Darksteel Relic, Everflowing Chalice, Fountain of Youth, Kite Shield, Lodestone Bauble, Herbal Poltice, Mana Crypt, Memnite, Mishra’s Bauble, Ornithopter, Paradice Mantle, Phyrexian Walker, Mox Amber, Mox Opal, Shield Sphere, Spellbook, Spidersilk Net, Tormod’s Crypt, Urza’s Bauble, Welding Jar and Zuran Orb.  That’s a fairly long list, you don’t have to use all of them but redundancy is key in EDH. Some of them also provide a nice toolbox effect with cards like Tormod’s Crypt to hose graveyard, the Moxs and Paradise Mantle to fix mana, and Spellbook to let us hold onto our big draws. We have a base for our brew!

Tutoring Effects

Generally I know that tutors can be frowned upon in certain playgroup, but for this combo, we need to assemble our pieces. For creature tutoring I’m using cards like Time of Need, Primal Command, Birthing Pod, Jarad’s Orders, Brutalizer Exarch, Eladamir’s Call, Fauna Shaman and Eldritch Evolution. I’ll explain why we run cards like Birthing Pod, Fauna Shaman and Eldritch Evolution here in just a moment, but with these cards we can tutor up most of our combo creatures or utility creatures whichever fits our need at the time. 

With artifact tutoring we have Trinket Mage, Trophy Mage, Treasure Mage, Fabricate, Artificer’s Intuition, Enlightened Tutor, Tezzeret the Seeker, Whir of Invention, Sphinx’s Summoner, and Reshape. Some of these spells require the sacrificing of artifacts but fear not, we will have ways to recur them back! In EDH, only in exile can things find eternal rest. 

Tutoring for the rest we run cards like Spellseeker, Mystical Tutor, Mystical Teachings, and Merchant Scroll to get our instant/sorceries and you know about black tutors like Vampiric and Demonic, I hope I don’t have to explain too much about them to cover the rest. Transmute is also an amazing ability we can’t forget about!

Now that we’ve covered all the tutors, let’s talk a bit about the utility of our permanents that tutor. The Mage trio (Trinket, Treasure, Trophy), Brutalizer Exarch and Spellseeker are good examples of why we run cards like Birthing Pod, Eldritch Evolution and Fauna Shaman. On EtB we get our tutor effect but once the creature is in play it’s done its part. We are a toolbox deck and everything has value to us in one way or another. By running Birthing Pod we can sacrifice the Trinket Mage to search up Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle and thus bringing us to our next segment. 

The Teshar Combo

This deck runs a lot of artifacts and smaller creatures, so we can take advantage of that using cards like Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle (I’ve been trying to find a way to break Teshar so badly!). Using the Birthing Pod  method we can sac Trinket Mage to the the Pod to fetch up Teshar and begin some shenanigans. You will need a free creature sac outlet (such as but not limited to: Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod’s Altar) to really keep the combo going.  We can try this combo: 1) Have Ashnod’s Altar out on the field with Teshar.  2) Cast the Trinket Mage, go fetch a cheerio to hand.  3) Sacrifice the Mage to the Altar to get 2 colorless mana. 4) Play the cheerio we fetched for free to trigger Teshar, bringing back our Trinket Mage to go get another cheerio.  5) Loop as many times as needed until all your 0 and 1 mana costed artifacts are out of your deck and you have an excess of colorless mana to spend however you want.  If we sacrifice Teshar to the Pod however, we can use it to go tutor up a Phyrexian Delver, and use Delver’s ability to return to our bird friend to play with the small expense of a few life, then continue to chain the Delver into bigger threats like Sun Titan and  Brutalizer Exarch. 

So what do I do with all this nonsense?

Win with the jankiest combos possible. I’ve shown you how the basics work and how to enable your combo, now you need to win! 

Burn them to death with Molten Nursery and Grapeshot, amass an army of Golems with Golem Foundry. If you need a higher spell count, Hurkyl’s Recall and Retract can bounce your artifacts to give you more spell casts. Don’t forget about Aetherflux Resevoir either. 

(After post edit: Birthing Pod and Prime Speaker Vannifar are interchangeable or run both for redundancy!) 

Auntie Sidisi missed you all very much, and I hope I never take a long leave of absence again for a while! Let me know what you would run or use to streamline this deck concept! The jankier, the better I always say! What’s in a game if you’re not having fun?

[thisbrutalbelle]

            valentine’s fortunes...[ 4/9 ]

ephram...teshar, ancestor’s apostle...white

complex of morale, you find your own law, made of love and expression you have never had difficulty finding people to worship you, or to worship in return. beautiful are your phrases and pleasant is your tongue, it turns phrases as quickly as the fates change hearts so this evening watch your words, because they can see, not all words are grains of salt, some fill seas.  

bellamy...judith, the scourge diva...red, black

the world is your stage but an actor you are not. you’ve never been as skilled at hiding your intentions, and lonely this will leave you. for you are fated to end all evenings as such. if your lace and lies are all you can offer try dropping the curtains on this stages show before you’re left all alone.

the pair...nomad’s outpost...red, white, black

backs to cliffs edge but resilience inside you each are a pair, two of one kind. as strong as you are weak in each others presence your evening could take one of two turns. one road takes you to sweetness, pleasures and more, while the other demands a fall. regrets serves no one but which road finds it? some things are not as they appear, especially in the dark.

@ephrampettaline

[edh-a-to-z]

Dominaria - Legendaries, Part 1.

JUST IN TIME FOR THE PRE-RELEASE

There’s 30+ Legendary Creatures and Planeswalkers.

That’s like some Kamigawa, like some Legends level of legends. And that’s not including all the Legendary other cards I covered in my other sections.

So I’ll split them up. White and Blue and Black, Red and Green, then the Multicolors, Planeswalkers.

White

Danitha Capashen, Paragon

1 of the 99: B

Commander: C+

Builds: Voltron

Whew, that’s a good card. Good as a one-of for equipment and other Voltron decks, as well as making a solid Voltron option herself. 

And look at that french vanilla word salad! Boy, have we come a long way from the Uncommon Legendaries of Legends. 

Baird, Steward of Argive

1 of the 99: B+

Commander: D-

Builds: Pillowfort, Combo

Baird is straightforward. He’s a defensive commander. He’s there to tax people attacking you. Unfortunately hiding being a fort in MonoWhite isn’t really that great.

He’s a great choice for established Pillowfort Suites looking for more defensive options, and ones that need some blockers. For W more than Ghostly Prison, you also get a 2/4 vigilant blocker - nice to hit undefended players, and keep out stray creatures that pay the tax.

Evra, Halcyon Witness

1 of the 99: ???

Commander: D

Builds:  Voltron, Lifegain

If you got guts, this can be a killing machine. At best we get a new health of 4-6 (if we can buff Evra), so we’re hyper-vulnerable to Instant speed damage. If we have 8 mana, we can swap again, so that’s nice.

We can sneak in thanks to White’s great relation with Equipment or Auras (and thus unblockability), and Evra can easily kill a player. As one of the 99, we can also use some Boros toys, like extra attack steps and Fling. 

Kwende, Pride of Femeref

1 of the 99: B- (In a Narrow FS deck)

Commander: D

Builds: Voltron, Go-Wide

Best friends with Archetype of Courage. First Strike can always be found in White, and if we can get some evasion or Trample, we can really raise hell. With an army of First Strikers, you can make a nasty assault on the field. Seems like an easy to build commander, and a usable asset in a lot of White decks relying on combat tricks (tons of combat tricks grand FS as well!)

Lyra Dawnbringer

1 of the 99: B

Commander: C+

Builds: Angel Tribal, Lifegain

Baneslayer Angel basically. And that’s just where it starts - it makes the whole Angel token crew become Baneslayers. 

Also makes a solid beater creature, or any deck with a handful of angels, or some Angel token creators. You can include non-angels alongside the set of Angelic Armaments, Angelic Destiny, Call to Serve. 

I’ve waited my entire life for this commander, so take my ratings here with a grain of salt. The first Angel Angelic Tribe commander. She’s a simple, elegant dame. Plus, with all this lifegain, LG win-cons are super easy when you get life at chunks of 5 at a time.

Shalai, Voice of Plenty

1 of the 99: A-

Commander: C

Builds: Counters.dec, Combo

It must be my birthday, two angel legends. Feels like Avacyn Restored. 

Technically Selesnya, and feels like a Sigarda, and looks like a fairly costed card. The last mana dump ability is sugar on top of its amazing text. Play Avacyn 1.0 alongside her to see non-UB players start crying.

Doesn’t really enable any particular win-con, but Creature hexproof makes combos easier, and fits really well into any other deck trying to do...well...anything.

Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle

1 of the 99: B+

Commander: C+

Builds: Artifact, Historic

I like free stuff. And this fella plays the Sun Titan better than Titan sometimes. Given that Red and Blue have much more artifact synergy, and Sisay makes the best Legendary deck pilot, and I’m not sure about Sagas in EDH yet.

There’s plenty of CMC>= 3 creatures out there, from classic white HateBears to mana dorks. Teshar feels more like a 1 of the 99 legendary so the birb can have more color synergy, 

Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp

1 of the 99: D

Commander: D+

Builds: Voltron, Blue Goodstuff

3U and Improvise is nice. Basically a strictly better Mahamoti Djinn, but I still wouldn’t run that as a commander if I have other monoblue options, and same CMC I could play Wurmcoil Engine. 

Not dodging Commander Tax is disappointing, but not too bad. Mechanically fine, but not my cuppa tea.

But seriously, I wouldn’t have Mahamoti as my commander, and I’d barely consider it for 1 of the 99.

Naban, Dean of Iterations

1 of the 99: B+

Commander: C

Builds: Wizard Tribal

I love ETB effects, and wizards have a lot of good ones, even simple ones like Archaeomancer. Also works fine with going crazy on Aura Shards or Cathar’s Crusade. Works better as part of the team than the commander, but Naban will be a solid workhorse like Brago and blinking.

He’s so bloody cheap it’s hard to deny using him. Grab a Panharmonicon and have some fun.

Naru Meha, Master Wizard

1 of the 99: C

Commander: D

Builds: Spellslinger, Wizard Tribal

For 1 more mana than Dualcaster Mage, you get 2 more stats and a Lord effect. Decent for a tribal commander, but since Inalla is already so good, Naru has some tough competition.

And adding 1 to Dualcaster makes it a lot worse, unless we’re throwing infinite mana round.

Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive

1 of the 99: B

Commander: B

Builds: Infect, Ninjitsu, Vraska’s Assassins (Sultai?)

The newest delivery system for murder. So many 1 mana creatures can deal some nasty effects when unblockable, from Vraska 1.0′s Ult assassins, to Master of Cruelties. 

For mono-blue, there’s a handful of Blue Infect creatures like Viral Drake. Plus literally any creature - super top heavy stuff...okay, Red has most of the X/1 creatures, but I think there’s tons of potential here.

Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep

Free Willie

1 of the 99: C

Commander: D-

Builds: Leviathan Tribal?

Kraken tribal is there. Whelming Wave, and now this, it’s time is soon. /s

Blue loves a big body, and for a kicker of 1U, Whelming Wave is a 95% chance of a board wipe, with 2% being that one time someone else played a blue fatty, but that’s okay, and 3% when you go against Merfolk Tribal, which isn’t. 

Sure, any 8 mana 10 mana spell can get countered, and it makes you feel like trash, but so what? Splashy plays are the name of the game, and it’s why casual EDH exists.

Demonlord Belzenlok

Gas Demon, Ultimate Faker

1 of the 99: B

Commander: D-

Builds: Griselbrand Wannabe, 

Hey, why is he an Elder? 

He draws only nonlands, and can chain a bunch of 4+ card draw. So if you build your deck to have a CMC of 4 average, he can probably net you 1-3 cards, maybe more on lucky days where Sol Ring doesn’t mess things up.

In top-heavy CMC decks, he’s more dangerous, as he could pull ten or fifteen cards in really bad days.

Exile and Reveal clause kinda stinks for black, who usually gets to tutor and draw in secret from their library.

Josu Vess, Lich Knight

1 of the 99: B+

Commander: D

Builds: Tokens, Zombie Tribal, Go Wide

Wow, some seriously scary zombie token army, that doesn’t entered tapped.

Josu is fairly priced with some evasion. The real deal is the kicker - 16/16 worth of Menace stats for 6 extra mana is a bargain. Zombie and Knight are nominally useful tribal types, especially the former.

The only big problem is he’s. so. darn. EXPENSIVE. Down on turn 10 (optimally turn 8) is slow as heck, and lets your opponents dig up ways to deal with him and his army.

Karazov, Sengir Pureblood

1 of the 99: C

Commander: C+

Builds: Voltron, Vamp Tribal, Ping.dec

A decent enough Voltron with evasion and easy growth. Technically Rakdos, but I left this in the mono colored commander section.

Bringing in any Red AOE like Anger of the Gods or Pyroclasm will pump Kazarov fast, but the fact it drops at turn 7 really hurts his offensive potential. A threat you see coming 7 turns away? I bet someones already tutored/drawn Swords to Plowshares.

Torgaar, Famine Incarnate

1 of the 99: C

Commander: B+

Builds: Voltron~, Exquisite Blood

It’s been theorycrafted to get this guy out turn 1 (Swamp - Dark Ritual - three 0 drops, maybe two and a 1 drop, sac play) and probably doable turn 2-3.

He sets someone to . Great way to control the LG player like Magister Sphinx or Sorin Markov. Also makes it easier to beat face.

Torgaar ain’t complicated, get it out fast, buff it, whale on someone. Find some blink effects and keep everyone’s life total under wraps, or increase yours to 20 if below. Have fun!

Urgoros, the Empty One

1 of the 99: D

Commander: F

Builds: Discard Synergy, Voltron

Feels like Specters haven’t been around in a while.

Compare with Hypnotic Specter. It’s a flyer that, when it connects, forces a random discard. Unlike most specters, it also has a case where there’s another benefit if it can’t force a discard, so that’s nice.

With that said, a 4/3 flyer for 6 is a rough sell. Type doesn’t matter, evasion is only so-so, ability isn’t amazing, and it has no protection so it sits naked in the field for a turn.

Whisper, Blood Liturgist

1 of the 99: B

Commander: B-

Builds: Entomb, Meren-Style GY, Sac Decks, Token decks

Whisper is the cream of the uncommon crop. Built for combo potential, she needs some help to get going.

We need something to drop 2+ tokens, and maybe have a Phyrexian/Ashnod’s Altar out to make some mana. With some blue spells like Freed from the Real you can untap her all you want, resurrect all your big Entomb’d creatures, and run wild. 

Works better as 1 of the 99 to get access to Blue’s untapping, and other colors offer more variety of creatures, but a solid Black commander.

Yargle, Glutton of Urborg

1 of the 99: F

Commander: F

Builds: Memes

Memes aside, it doesn’t pass the Bolt test. There’s Legends legends that are more interesting than this.

So that’s the first batch of Legendaries.

I was happily surprised to see solid Uncommon Legendaries, and am looking forward to seeing them on the battlefield.

See you soon campers.

[dominarianplowshare]

Part III of New Benalia’s Light, my Danitha Capashen series, is up!

The story follows Danitha Capashen as she struggles with her father’s legacy, her wavering faith in Benalia and in Serra—and the Phyrexian Invasion. Guest starring Teshar, the Ancestor’s Apostle, and Aryel, Knight of Windgrace!

I’ve loved getting to work on the story—and planning what’ll come next. Give it a view and a comment if you’re interested in bridging March of the Machine to MOM: Aftermath!

[mtggoldfish]

Can Squee, the Immortal be a game breaking combo piece in Standard backed by Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle? Instant Deck Tech: Infina-Squee (Standard). https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/instant-deck-tech-infina-squee-standard

[edhbrew]

Teshar Twenty

A combo deck based around Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle. What’s more, it only costs £20! (~$25, don’t talk to me about the tragic state of the pound right now).

Warning: this deck is not for the faint-hearted. I’ve playtested it a lot, and even bought a (slightly more expensive) version of the deck, and whilst I love it, it’s real hard to pilot.

Functions just like a classic eggs deck, which is nice with Teshar being a bird and all. It also has the benefit of having clear upgrades that can be made to it - more win cons, more sac outlets, KCI, if you want to splash out the money. In fact, if you go full out with LED, moxes, etc., it wouldn’t be a bad cEDH deck. 

So, good luck, have fun, and enjoy! Teshar Twenty.

[mtgbracket]

Round of 256 - Batch 1

The third round begins now!

This batch has a fun flavour matchup, with Ib Halfheart facing off against Zedruu, the Greathearted.  Plus we have Leovold, Emrakul and many more.  Voting is open for one week right here.

Today’s matchups are:

Marchesa, the Black Rose vs Breya, Etherium Shaper Anje Falkenrath vs Dragonlord Ojutai Varina, Lich Queen vs Adamaro, First to Desire Leovold, Emissary of Trest vs Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero

Maelstrom Wanderer vs Xenagos, God of Revels Ertai, Wizard Adept vs Sliver Hivelord Norin the Wary vs Feather, the Redeemed Ghoulcaller Gisa vs Lovisa Coldeyes

Dragonlord Silumgar vs Sharuum the Hegemon Mogis, God of Slaughter vs Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur Tuktuk the Explorer vs Karador, Ghost Chieftain Lyra Dawnbringer vs Emrakul, the Promised End

Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician vs Zedruu the Greathearted Memnarch vs Kami of the Crescent Moon Tinybones, Trinket Thief vs Borborygmos Enraged Mishra, Artificer Prodigy vs Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle

[mtgdays]

【海外】2021年2月 人気統率者色分けTOP３

今回の記事では、海外の統率者専門サイト『EDHREC』で、2021/2/24までの過去2年間でもっとも多く投稿され��「各色」「色の組合せ」をトップ３まで紹介していきたいと思います！ 「他の色が気になっていた」「この色の組合せで人気の統率者は何だろう？」など、今後の統率者選びの参考になれば幸いです。それでは早速見ていきましょう！ 単色・無色 白 １位：934 Deck《太陽冠のヘリオッド》 Heliod, Sun-Crowned ２位：891 Deck《上級建設官、スラム》 Sram, Senior Edificer ３位：757 Deck《祖神の使徒、テシャール》 Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle 青 １位：2575 Deck《最高工匠卿、ウルザ》 Urza, Lord High Artificer ２位：1227…