#dreadbore

[whatsthatmagiccard]

(Ohhhh. That Secret Lair.)

Which group of cards do I have framed on my wall?

(I can only see the reflection of your door on this one, but I'm willing to try with a slightly wider angle.)

[aflo]

this modern bait is tempting, but im not convinced it will make an impact. the world of removal has passed up Dreadbore a long time ago, and while cards that snipe 1-drops have seen play in the past, i don't see this effect taking off at 2 mana, especially not at sorcery speed. this will only be worth it in a matchup with creatures and 1-drops worth killing, and even then only if you can comfortably descend it.

in pioneer, this is a strict upgrade to Dreadbore for niv to light decks and will give the deck even more ammunition against hardened scales. i doubt it will make a splash in the RB piles unless they're also gunning for hardened scales.

[dailymtgflavortext]

In Rakdos-controlled neighborhoods, everyone is part of the show.

-Dreadbore

[dailytopimagic]

Topi’s Daily Card #1154:  Dreadbore

Simple removal for simple problems.  It’s biggest downfall is that Dreadbore is at sorcery speed, leading to whoever casts that creature or planeswalker can do things to protect it or at least use it once.  Still, it’s hard to turn down a two mana one for one spell that hits two important things.

[og-reesetti]

This card will always be funny to me after I played against my friend who was playing Riptide with Dreadbore

"Ha, I can block him with a defense reaction"

"Nuh uh, he's an arrow I shot him at you with my bow"

And that mental image will hit me every time I see this little guy

FaB Daily Day #26: Ravenous Rabble

Originally printed in: Arcane Rising Artist: Maxim Kostin

[legion1349official]

LAS VEGAS LEGION: CHAOS AWAITS. We are just a few hours away from 1349 bringing AURAL HELLFIRE to The Dive Bar, along with Goatwhore, Tombs, Sicarius, and Dreadbore. Doors are at 8:00 PM. DO NOT MISS IT. #legion1349 #auralhellfire #thedivebar #lasvegas #goatwhore #tombs #sicarius #dreadbore #blackmetal (at TheDive Bar)

[theposterchildofgrixis]

Today marks this blog’s first official post about Grixis, the Blue-Red-Black color combination from Shards of Alara block.

The focus of this article will be the backbone of Grixis, effectively indicating cards that are a good baseline for any building any Grixis deck in EDH.

First, it is important to note that Grixis has many unique and varying identities in EDH, some such themes being Spellslinger and Reanimator. These types of decks both utilize their graveyard as a resource, whether as a storage space for useful spells later on, or a way to circumvent the high cost of getting a powerful creature into play. Both strategies can benefit from cards such as Forbidden Alchemy or Entomb. Forbidden Alchemy provides a bit of filtering to find land drops or situational answers, while also supplying additional targets in the graveyard. Entomb is effectively a Demonic Tutor for one less mana for some decks, and at instant speed, can set up a perfect subsequent turn with limited time for opponents to disrupt.

  Grixis also has a tremendous strength in varying forms of draw power. Players can choose between effects that Reforge the Soul that can fill the graveyard of all players for reanimation targets while also drawing each player a fresh new hand, opt for low CMC draw spells that cost life as well, such as Night’s Whipser, or merely instead choose direct draw power in the form of cards such as Deep Analysis. These options will vary from deck to deck, as each general and player may have a different preference.

Removal in Grixis is pretty solid, as the color combination can destroy any type of permanent except for enchantments, which it can bounce if necessary. Two of the premium removal spells are Crosis’s Charm and Dreadbore. The former is a modal spell, with great utility in answering just about any problematic card on the board at instant speed. The latter is merely an efficient answer to any creature or planeswalker.

  Speaking of planeswalkers, there are a great many possible planeswalkers to run in a Grixis deck. The three most versatile are Dack Fayden, (the Greatest Thief in the Multiverse), Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy (who does not start as a planeswalker, but definitely has a home in many a deck on either side), and Liliana Vess. Dack Fayden, besides stealing Sol Rings, provides looting and helps put desirable cards into the graveyard. Dack’s plus can also be used on opponents in niche situations where that could be beneficial (such as doing so while controlling a Notion Thief). Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy also a solid Looter, but differs when he transforms into Jace Telepath Unbound. Jace’s minus allows Grixis players to rebuy instants and sorceries to furter reap their benefits. The best part to this ability is that the chosen card stays in the graveyard if you don’t cast it. Jace’s -3 can be used to target a counterspell “just in case”. Finally, Liliana Vess is a planeswalkers whose discard helps disrupt opponents, but can also pitch cards into the graveyard to be reanimated. Her -2 tutors any card to the top of the library, where it is typically safe from opponent interaction, and if perchance it happens to get milled, that’s just another resource for Grixis. Her -8 also allows Grixis decks to take over the game through mass reanimation of all graveyards to any so fortunate as to keep her around long enough.

  That’s all for now! Thank you for reading! Let me know what you liked/disliked about this article and if there are any other standout cards that you think I overlooked. Hopefully, I’ll be able to conduct further analysis and write about the Grixis wizards from the new Commander 2017 deck soon.

~The Poster Child of Grixis

About Time: A Grixis Post Today marks this blog's first official post about Grixis, the Blue-Red-Black color combination from Shards of Alara block.

[inventors-fair]

A Second Chance at Commentary Part 1/2

Here’s the commentary for all our entries for the Second Chance to be Legendary contest!

Due to popular request, this will be a longpost with the commentary directly under each entry.

Momir Vig, Perfect Evolution by @aethernalstars​ This was a great idea that’s a little oddly costed. A 5-mana 2/2 with a biomancer effect that only triggers once you’ve payed another 6 mana is really steep. That being said, a biomancer that also gifts keyword counters is really cool. A great idea that didn’t quite hit the mark.

Pianna of the Order by @antediluvian-microchip​ I get where you were going with this card, but I think this really needed something to make it stand out. It's not really doing anything we haven't seen before, and I wish you would have taken a bit more of a chance. A good idea, if a little safe.

Daxos, Forgotten by the Sun by @big-think​ This entry surprised me, considering Daxos has two fantastic commanders with Daxos the Returned being one of the powerful experience counter commanders, and Daxos, Blessed by the Sun being a very powerful soul sisters-esque commander. As for the design itself, having to pay 3 each trigger for an enchantment-specific Yarok trigger is really exspensive, and this card not being in green means we miss out on the vast majority of enchantress effects.

Torsten, Winged Cavelier by @dimestoretajic​ This was a solid design that just didn’t stand out. Torsten’s two abilities means you can focus on either going wide or going tall, which is a godsend for token decks, but unfortunately he’s competing against other incredible token commanders that just do things Torsten just doesn't. Good design that just missed the mark.

Dakkon, Blacksmith by @driftingthroughthecosmos​ This design is... busy. The first ability is trademark Dakkon, but the second ability being a universal artifact tutor that re-triggers itself makes it very easy to abuse, and the third is just... woof. I would be very surprised if anyone using this just dumps a whole hand worth of artifacts just to ramp impossibly hard, then using the new boatload of mana to recur those artifacts to either keep abusing the third ability or to start pumping absurd amounts of mana into the second ability.

Malfegor, the Devourer by @emmypupcake

When looking at designs this week, I had two criteria I couldn’t ignore as a commander player: The designs should be fun to play with, and play against. This entry violates the second criteria. 3 mana to force a sacrifice is both incredibly powerful, and incredibly unfun, especially considering the first ability is prompting players to build a death and taxes style deck that forces sacrifices out of your opponents.

Crovax Windgrace// Crovax, Compleated Tyrant by @fractured-infinity​ I love, love, LOVE this design, but it had a single fatal flaw that let it down. 2 mana for a repeatable fling effect is far too cheap. This was a fantastic design, and you should be proud of it, but it just crosses the line in terms of power for cost.

Thalia, Veteran of Thraben by @gollumni​ While I’ll always champion for white to get card draw, this is very commander-unfriendly. While not a bad idea, I’d argue that it’s basically just a legendary white Rhystic study without the pay mana option, as I can’t imagine any scenario where an opponent doesn't just let you draw the card rather than have their spell countered.

Karametra, of Bountiful Harvest by @hypexion​ I’m not quite sure why you chose Karametra, a uniquely land and creature spell based commander, to make another generic green/white token commander. This design is rather on the safe side, and doesnt do much to make itself stand out from the massive pool of green/white token commanders.

Ixidor, Maddened by Despair by @i-am-the-one-who-wololoes​ This was a really cool idea (with very squicky art) that was let down by a single detractor: 3 mana to turn an opponents creature into a 2/2 with no abilities in insanely powerful, considering your deck is likely to be full to the brim with morphs. You can also target an already face-down creature you control, as a face-up creature is not part of the targeting conditions.

Hythonia the Wicked by @ignorantturtlegaming​ While I love the idea of a commander-worthy Hythonia that isnt just “Haha boardwipes go brrr”, I’m not quite sure what you were aiming for with her first ability. Is she supposed to be turning herself to stone to protect herself? Also, a 4/3 with deathtouch isn’t going to be able to leverage that deathouch very well.

Phage, Avatar of Death by @illharg-the-rave-boar​ While I love the idea of a playable Phage commander, and I understand that she had to be expensive for her multi-quietus spike ability, 9 mana is far too expensive for a mono black commander without investing in a lot of blacks sparse and/or expensive mana generation. This is a kill-on-sight commander, and she’ll very quickly become too expensive to cast reliably. A great design, but maybe not designed perfectly well for commander.

Norin, Fearful Tactician by @ishouldgetatumbler​ I’m not quite sure what you were going for here. This is literally just Norin with +1/+1. The addition of the blocks trigger is pointless because Norin will exile himself whenever a creature attacks anyway, and any deck built around this card will be the exact same gimmicky Norin deck that already exists. If anything, this design is worse because original Norin trigger himself when he attacked.

Ludevic, Grave Stitcher by @karkatvantasticvantas​ While this isn’t a bad design, I’m not sure why you’ve made the Blue/Red Ludevic into a Blue/Black card. This feels more like a Geralf card with the stitcher-like focus.

Temmet, Vizier of Ruins by @kavinika​ I really love the idea of a blue/white zombie commander after Amonkhet’s fantastic zombies, but this design was let down by how incredibly powerful the third ability is. A repeatable reanimation effect that fuels itself and that can lift creatures out of any opponents graveyard is far to strong not to require either mana or a tap of Temmet Himself.

Rakka Mar, Hate Summoner by @koth-of-the-hammerpants I’m so glad someone tried to give Rakka Mar a second chance. Unfortunately, this otherwise fantastic design is let down by turning the tap of any creature with haste into a lightning bolt is incredibly powerful, which is then amplified by the fact that the creatures themselves do the damage, making the 2-mana 3/1s that Rakka makes into repeatable Dreadbores, that also let you loot off Rakka’s second ability. All in all, this effect is far too strong for just 4 mana.

[shera-dnd]

Master of Cruelties

I just spent almost 3 hours writing this angsty mess (that is somehow 12k words long) and I feel like I fucked things up tremendously at some point, but I want to post it anyway

Disclaimer: Things will get spicy and things will get angsty and I’m not responsible if you start crying or if you hate me for this

onward with the pain

The Princesses of Power campaign had been rough for Catra and Adora. They normally used the game nights as date nights. A way of showing affection in a more elaborate way, through their characters, but all their characters have been showing in Etheria was aggression and pain. Now, at least, the first campaign was behind them and Catra could finally relax at home with her girlfriend.

She was standing by Adora’s bike, waiting for girlfriend. When Adora showed up she looked worried and Catra was immediately put on edge by that “Hey, Adora, is everything ok?” She stepped forward to hold Adora’s hand.

“I was gonna ask you the same thing” Catra was very confused by that statement and it must have shown in her face “It’s just that the way your character’s been acting reminds me a lot of...you know”

That was an odd way of phrasing it. What was her character doing that- Oh no “No no no” Catra sputtered “It’s nothing like that. That shit is all in the past now”

Adora didn’t seen relieved at all by this “It’s just that you acting out all that stuff just…”

“Brings back some bad memories. I get it” Catra pulled her closer “I thought we had put that shit behind for good, but if you want I can just talk to GM and change my character a bit”

“You don’t have to, but please talk to me if things like that start happening again for real” Adora gave her a quick kiss for reassurance “Now let’s go home”

~~~

Catra was enjoying kicking everyone’s ass with her beautiful commander, Alesha, as she usually did late night at the Moon Opal. She had just wiped the floor with some dumbass newcomer who underestimated her, when three of her friends approached her, looking very conspicuous.

Glimmer, Bow and Perfuma all looked like they wanted to talk to her, but didn’t know how to approach her, like she might bite their heads off if they got too close. As much as she enjoyed being feared by her peers, this was was getting tiresome so she just called out “What are you nerds doing?”

The way Glimmer jumped after hearing her voice made Catra giggle a bit, but that died out as she noticed how serious all of them looked “What? Am I scaring away the clientele again?”

“No no no” Bow said defensively.

“It’s just that you and Adora have been looking very tired lately” Perfuma continued. Oh god, could they get on with it already?

Glimmer was either really good at really Catra’s expression or her nerves just couldn’t handle more than 3 seconds of her death stare, for she simply blurted “We overheard you talking to Adora last week”

Catra just sighed and started shuffling Alesha “You guys up for some MTG?” she casually asked.

“We actually just wanted to know if things were ok with you two” Bow answered

“Things have been fantastic between me and Adora, but I know you dumbasses are gonna spend the next month torturing yourselves about all the vague shit we said” She put her deck down “So we can talk while we play”

Glimmer and Bow both looked unsure about playing a match with her involved, but Perfuma was almost jumpy, she wanted to be sure Catra was ok and she knew she could take her on “Do you wanna hear the story or not?” Catra spat out.

The two seemed to give in and Perfuma rushed for her spare decks. When everyone was set up Catra drew her seven cards and started talking “So do you remember the closet incident?”

Glimmer rolled her eyes “I try to forget it”

Catra just laughed at her reaction “What if I told you that was not the first time we did that? That was just the first time you caught us” She casually played out her turn as everyone just stared at her “Plains, sol ring, chrome mox imprinting dreadbore, Alesha, go”

“Don’t you just chrome mox me” Glimmer almost shouted and Angella shushed her from the other side of the store “What do you mean by that? How long had you been ending arguments by making out?”

“About a month” She said nonchalantly

“But you only knew each other for two months by then” Bow pointed out

“So what?” Catra shrugged “Did you really think it would take that long for us to start hate fucking each other?”

“You did what?!” this time the three of them shouted and they all got shushed by Angela

Catra sighed “Just let me tell the story, ok?”

~~~

Catra’s apartment was empty for the night as Lonnie, her roommate, was away for some music festival or whatever and this meant Catra could practice with her own favorite instrument: Adora’s screams. She did not care about her neighbors, she just wanted to have lots of angry sex and forget about all her problems.

She was just warming up when Adora just pushed her away “We can’t keep doing this” she said breathlessly.

“What? Your friend catches you in the act once and you chicken out?” Catra mocked.

“No” Adora said, in a more assertive tone this time “We can’t just keep ending every argument with sex and pretend that fixes anything”

“Who said anything about fixing shit?”

Adora was taken aback by that comment “Is this all you want?”

“Duh, that is all we’ve been doing since we met” Seriously, how was Adora not grasping that “We don’t make up, we make out. How did you expect anything else from this?”

Adora looked sad for a split second, before turning to cold anger “I’m done with this” She got up and started picking her stuff “If you ever want a real relationship you know where to find me”

Catra took a moment to process what had just happened. Did she just leave? That was not supposed to happen. Angry Adora was supposed to pin her down and have her way with her, not just get up and leave.

~~~

“Alesha brings back the entombed Master of Cruelties and that is GG, Bow” Catra announced.

Everyone looked stunned for a second. Perfuma seemed to be the first to recover her composure “I’m sorry, Catra, but that was simply awful of you”

“The way I treated Adora or killing Bow on turn two?” Catra asked, mostly just to rub it in that she killed Bow on turn two.

“Both” Bow exclaimed “Seriously, why  would you say any of that?”

“Oh, you know how I was back then. Always acting angry and pissing off the people around me so I could avoid dealing with my own emotions” She hopped her nonchalant act was holding up, because talking about all of this was bringing back some old feelings she would rather keep dead and buried.

“Was?” Glimmer asked jokingly, but one stare from Catra was enough for her to back down with the teasing “Sorry, but how exactly did you fix that?”

“I did something I swore I would never do” Catra straightened her posture “I apologized”

~~~

One week. Catra could not believe it took only one week for her to give in. Adora was just some random girl she met at the store, she should not be reacting like this. Who was she kidding? She could say that shit all she wanted, that wouldn’t change the truth and it would only make things harder. God damn her stupid pride.

She gesture for Adora to follow her outside the store and she waited. Every fiber of her body telling her to abort mission and run, but there was still something inside her that needed this to happen. She didn’t know what part of her she hated the most.

When Adora showed up she didn’t look angry or sad, she was impassive and Catra didn’t know how to deal with impassive. They took a quick and silent ride to Catra’s apartment and just sat there in her room. Catra trying to gather her courage and Adora waiting for her to say something.

“I’m sorry” The words felt like teeth being pulled out “I shouldn’t have said all that shit. You mean much more to me than all of that and I’ll try to make this shit work, ok?”

Adora remained impassive and Catra felt like her stare would burn her to a pile of shame and ash. Every second of silence was more excruciating than the last. Catra would say anything if it meant having Adora react in any way.

“Why?” Adora asked. Catra was dumbfounded for a moment. There were plenty of different whys for this particular situation “If you really didn’t mean it, why did you say any of that?”

“Because I’m a huge mess that doesn’t know how to deal with her own feelings” She didn’t even think, she just blurted out her answer “Is that what you want to hear?”

“No” Adora let the word hang in the air for a moment “I have to know why you feel like this. If we are gonna have a relationship we need to deal with that” Catra was divided between feeling relief for Adora finally showing some emotion or complete and utter despair at the idea of having to delve into that mess.

She started tapping her foot, feeling nervous as she tried to put all her feelings into words. After some thinking she sighed “You know that look on your face when you start talking about stuff you like? How you get all cheerful and you feel like you can forget about the world, because all that matters is that one silly hobby you wanna talk about?” Catra gave her a weak smile “That was probably why I started having a crush on you. Like, you were so happy that it was impossible not to be happy too and how do you not get a crush on a girl that looks like that when she talks about her hobbies. All you can think is ‘damn, if I got her to talk like that about me I would be the happiest girl alive’”

Catra chuckled “Well, I never got to be like that. Every time I talked about anything I cared I had to justify it, every time I said I liked something I had to prove it, every time I played a game I had to be the best at it. If I didn’t no one would take me seriously and I would just be another fake nerd girl. I’m only as good at magic as I am today, because the only way people would believe I wasn’t just lucky is if I never lost, and then I just move here, find the Moon Opal and find you and suddenly all the shit I went through was for nothing. You get to be nerdy, you get to like things and have fun with them, you get to be gay and no one fucking questions it and suddenly all the things I fucking love about you start making me feel worse and worse. Why do you get to do all that and I don’t? Why did so many people hate me and hurt me, but you get to just live your goddamn life? I wanted to hate you, to hurt you, but I just fucking can’t”

~~~

“Please, tell me the crying is because of the story” Catra sighed “I told you not to kill the Master of Cruelties, Glimmer, it’s not my fault if you got killed two turns later”

Oh god, all three of them were crying now “Catra, we love you so much” Bow moved to hug her and she quickly pushed him away, but Perfuma and Glimmer took advantage of her distraction and hugged her too. Great, now she was being crushed by three crying nerds. Why were her friends like this?

“Can we please get back to the game? I still have to kill Perfuma” They slowly returned to their sits, but she could’ve sworn she caught Castaspella snapping a picture before they let go of her.

Glimmer wiped away her tears “Ok, what did you guys do after all that?”

“We avoided each other for another week” Catra could see the ‘What?!’ coming, so she just raised her hand to stop them “We agreed that we needed to think about things and that spending time together would only make things worse. All things considered I would probably do exactly what my Princesses of Power character did and things would go to shit”

The three collectively let out a sigh of relief. Perfuma drew her next card and cheerfully announced “Merciless Eviction, targeting creatures” Catra cursed under her breath “And what did you do after that week?”

“Well, we met at my apartment again and we had an incredibly sappy moment talking about all the things we learned about ourselves and how we now trusted each other and then we did what any reasonable adult women would do in a moment like that and just fell asleep while hugging and crying” All of them moved to say something again “None of you can judge me and you know it” They all put their hands down and looked expectantly at her to continue “The next morning I taught her how to play magic, she sucked at it and we just laughed at that together. She looked so happy for losing that I just had to kiss her and we agreed that was our real first kiss”

Bow made a sound that could only be described as a pterodactyl screeching “You two are so adorable. I thought I couldn’t love the two of you any more than I already did”

Glimmer just nodded at that “I’m just surprised you managed to deal with all that in just two weeks”

Catra laughed at that, a lot “Oh no no no” she tried her best to regain her composure “We had to deal with ghosts of that shit for like a year. Why do you think I still refer to my childhood as my ‘vaguely tragic backstory’? But we haven’t had to deal with any of that for years now. That is why my P.o.P. character borrows so much from that drama, I just felt that shit was far enough in our past that we wouldn’t feel bad for using it on a character, but I guess I messed that up too”

“Well, I’m glad you two worked things out in the end, but speaking of losing at magic” Perfuma smiled at her “Sorin’s Vengeance triggering Sanguine Bond, I win”

“Oh fuck me”

[mishas-workshop]

Chainer, Your Opponents’ Worst Nightmare

I have to say, when the deck themes were revealed for Commander 2019, I was not very excited. Flashback decks have been done, same with tokens. Morph was kinda neat. The only one that gave me any bit of excitement was the madness one. After the full spoilers, the madness deck was still the only one that had any appeal to me. A big reason for this was Chainer, Nightmare Adept. I have wanted to build a deck around the original Chainer, but Bontu and Skithiryx were already in my rotation, so I didn’t really want to add another mono black commander. The Nightmare Adept had me up all night, brainstorming ideas for how I could build around him. So, I did. Shortly after my LGS opened, I went and picked up a copy of the Merciless Rage precon.

Chainer is essentially, a fixed version of Recurring Nightmare, a card so powerful, it was banned from commander. Not to mention, I am a huge fan of reanimator style decks, so that is the direction I went. In short, you fill your graveyard through looting type cards, then reanimate your creatures and take out everyone! The preconstructed version focuses very heavily on the madness mechanic, and while this deck still utilizes the abilities, it is more focused on accruing value through the graveyard.

Since this is a reanimator deck, let’s start by taking a look at the cards that we will be using to cheat death. Animate Dead is going to be very useful. Very little drawback, not to mention that it combos with Worldgorger Dragon, which allows the deck to do all sorts of crazy infinite combos. Reanimate will bring anything back at the cost of some life. Stitch Together is also in here because of the threshold synergy with a big discard pile. Grave Betrayal has a cmc of seven, but I put it in the deck because taking opponents’ dead creatures is just extra value, especially when someone drops a boardwipe. Not to mention a handful of other things like Boneyard Parley and Mimic Vat.

There are many great reanimation targets that the precon already gave us. Archfiend of Spite is a madness costed Phyrexian Obliterater, Flayer of the Hatebound is a second Warstorm Surge for the deck and Meteor Golem is removal. A few other targets I added include Demonlord Belzenlock, for some additional card advantage. Tsabo Tavoc, to destroy legends at will. Sepulchral Primordial to get even more reanimation value. Finally, Archfiend of Ifnir is a force to be reckoned with in a deck that has so much discard.

That demon is far from the only card in the deck that rewards discarding. Faith of the devoted can help us win over a longer period of time if we need to grind out a win in a control matchup. Bone Miser is a new card from the precon and it is outstanding in a deck like this, it is an inverted Waste Not. Some cards with the original Madness mechanic are: Call to the Netherworld (free Raise Dead), Big Game Hunter (removal), Stromkirk Occultist (card advantage) and Fiery Temper (bolt) among others. Plus, Anger and Filth to benefit all of our creatures if they wind up in the yard. Squee, Goblin Nabob and Sanitarium Skeleton are also here to ensure that we always have something to pitch.

Looting is another mechanic that is a huge part of this deck. Red and Black have a hard time drawing cards without a cost. However, this deck tries to turn that cost into a benefit, seeing as how we want the graveyard to be stacked. Anje Falkenrath, Mad Prophet and Rummaging Goblin are all looters on bodies. Similarly, this build of the deck also runs Magus if the Wheel for an all out discard and draw en masse, if necessary. Tormenting Voice, Cathartic Reunion, Faithless Looting and Burning Inquiry all do a great job at filling both our hand and discard pile. I also put Ill-Gotten Gains in the deck as a way to not only disrupt opponents, but to get extra value out of discarded cards.

Rakdos decks tend to have a bit of a problem with ramp. Solemn Simulacrum is great, especially when it can be used multiple times. However, that isn’t nearly enough. The full ramp package also includes: Rakdos Signet, Rakdos Locket, Sol Ring, Hedron Archive and Gilded Lotus, plus an Armillary Sphere for additional fixing. At some point, I might increase the size of this aspect of the deck by one or two cards. As of right now, it seems a little light to me. More play testing is required before I make a decision.

Removal is something that Rakdos, as a color combination, has loads of. Excluding anything mentioned previously, here is the full removal package: Decree of Pain, In Garuuk’s Wake and Nightmare Unmaking are all mass creature removal. Shattering Spree works as both single and multi target artifact destruction. Bedevil, Dreadbore and Chaos Warp are the other single target removal spells. Chaos Warp can be great at removing enchantments, as Rakdos has an extremely hard time dealing with them in general.

Lastly, I want to touch on some cards that are hard to categorize. Swiftfoot Boots is great and can easily be upgraded to a Lightning Greaves, or paired with on for additional protection and haste. Key to the City helps fill the grave, allow our creatures to get in unblocked and can draw cards to replace those we discarded. Read the Bones is just a solid draw card that can fix the deck before drawing. Entomb puts any one creature i to the graveyard *cough* Worldgorger Dragon *cough*. Wildfire Devils are in here because... I want to see how they do. Garna, the Bloodflame is also here because they allow us to save some of our graveyard if someone threatens it.

This deck is a very fun, very strange deck to play. Often times, it feels like you are shooting yourself in the foot and then suddenly, you have the upper hand. I am pleased with how this deck turned out, but I know there can be even more modifications made. I hope this guide helped some people who may have been interested in a Chainer deck or a reanimation deck, or were on the fence about which of the new Commander 2019 products to pick up. Happy Brewing and as always here is my list: https://manastack.com/deck/chainer-nightmare-adept-5

Artist Credit:

Steve Prescott - Chainer, Robert Bliss - Reanimate, Michael Sutfin - Tsabo Tavoc, Greg Staples - Squee, Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai - Burning Inquiry, Dan Scott - Solemn Simulacrum, Mathias Kollros - Decree of Pain, Wayne England - Worldgorger Dragon

[edh-a-to-z]

Ravnica Allegiance - Rare

Hi Campers!

Here’s where I pick the best of the rares of Ravnica, and give them a preliminary grade for how well I think they’ll do in EDH. Let’s go!

Best of the Rares: Bedevil

The natural evolution of Dreadbore from the last Ravnica set. Dealing with 3 nasty options at instant speed is a steal for 3 mana. Only Vindicate could be more fun, and that’ll never be Standard legal again.

Absorb - If you care about lifegain, it’s good. Otherwise it’s Cancel that’s harder to cast. I prefer to pay less than 3 mana to counterspell, and 3 life isn’t enough for me to usually care about. C-

Biomancer’s Familiar - The card is good even outside of the Adapt decks, as well as making that mechanic worthwhile in EDH. A-

Blood Crypt & Co - All the shocklands are bread and butter of EDH players who stay in the format for the long run. Each reprint just makes it better. 2+ color decks love it. A-

Cindervines - I like the pings, but the removal makes it nice. Just having it hanging can act as a deterrent. Not super-powerful, but interesting. C-

Deputy of Detention - Removal is always worthwhile. Being able to knock out same-named creatures is okay, and especially effective against token strategies and counter heavy decks. C

Electrodominance - Possibly the most EDH-esque card of the set, it lets you Fireball and playing another card (even cards that have Sorc speed, or Suspend cards with no CMC) A-

End-Raze Forerunners  - A poor man’s Craterhoof Behemoth. Makes a good backup for the big beast, and a solid fatty of it’s own.

Ethereal Absolution  - A purist EDH spell - hard to play in any other formats, but splashy enough (and wonky enought) to be played here. The buff and debuff are nice, and the weak token/GY hate effect is usable, especially in some Esper control decks that like to hold mana and assemble a combo. C

Glass of the Guildpact - A pure build around - a massively undercosted buff if you just happen to run 60%+ multicolored creatures, which is easy enough in EDH where mana fixing allows 5 Color decks. Or a fail. Build around C+

Gruul Spellbreaker - A rather weak protection ability all things considered, stapled to a well-costed, but quickly irrelevant, creature. D-

Guardian Project - Compare with Colossal Majesty, against what you’re likely to play in terms of creatures. More big critters, Majesty. More small critters, Project. C-

Hero of Precinct One - Weakish payoff, but no one would ever bother removing it except with incidental damage, so it might do some value game in some multicolor decks. D-

Incubation Druid - Decent ramp, and if you play something like Battlegrowth it can pump out some mana earlier. Otherwise it’s a good elf, and has some late game utility that most dorks lack C

Kaya’s Wrath - Nice board wipe, and EDH has easy mana fixing. Good side effect of lifegain, especially if you’re killing like 8+ creatures. B

Mass Manipulation - Go big mana, and steal lots of things. A big flashy spell screams EDH to me. Infinite mana for infinite stealing. Solid B+

Mirror Match - COIN FLIP FTW

If you’ve been paying any attention to some of the MTG Arena feeds, high rolls on this card have gotten a lot of attention. If it’s fun for any format, it’s fun for EDH. That, plus more coin flip synergy available has a lot going for it. MEME

Pestilent Spirit - A lot of ping options synergize, but monoblack can’t really swing that alone. Surprisingly solid body and abilities. I think this is not as good as I think it is, and I don’t think it’s that good. Up to C-

Priest of Forgotten Gods - A lot of token decks love interesting sac outlets. Any choice of targets to Shock and Pact is nice, and getting BB and a card is phenomenal. With the means to sac and recur things, as well as something to untap the Priest with, there’s a lot of options here. B+

Rampage of the Clans - Like a Beast Within, but hits everything Naturalize hates. Knocking out an enchantment or artifact heavy players can utterly decimate them, and replacing them with underpowered (for EDH) Centaurs feels pretty ok. C

Repudiate // Replicate - Counters are nice, and token copies are great, especially in EDH. Both are extremely relevant in EDH, even in decks not devoted to exploiting those abilities. B

Revival // Revenge - Resurrection is always potent, even with limitations, and lifegain on this scale (functionally gain YOUR LIFE) is phenomenal, especially in the Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood type of deck. B (I’m biased)

Simic Ascendancy - I love alternate win-cons, and I especially like those that do something on top of just sitting around. Sure, mana dump for Counters isn’t much, but it feels more dynamic than Helix Pinnacle. And synergizing in general with a +1/+1 deck is nice. A-

Smothering Tithe Feels like Orzhov’s Rystic Study. I like taxing with Propaganda effects and Study in a Control Esper decks, and I think this fits in great. In a format where people go for drawing effect hard, it has some real utility. B

Sphinx of Foresight - I just want it cuz all the modern players want it. There’s a lot of unexplored design with the Chancellor ability, and I hope it comes back. Nice for combos. And those nuts running Unesh Sphinx Tribal. 

A beefy 4 drop for 4. C

Thrash // Threat - Feels like two mediocre cards slapped together into a tolerable one. I’m not stoked for either side, but a budget option card is still nice for Gruul. D

Tithe Taker - I love taxes, I like Afterlife. An easy to revive target for a lot of decks like Alesha. Not super impactful, but very annoying. C

Unbreakable Formation - I always come down hard on combat tricks, because they’re “once and done.” Saving your whole team in multiple scenarios is intriguing offensively and defensively. C-

Verity Circle  - There’s a lot of mana dorks and other abilities that have tapping clauses, and free cards is neat. A mana dump ability to tap down creatures, even with a restriction, is also useful. Good value for 3 mana. B-

Warrant // Warden - Unlike the Gruul split card, this makes a token worth having, and is a removal ability that feels good to use, especially against big plays. Hopefully we’ll get some more interesting Sphinx tokens, like Angels (though this could have been an Angel IMO). B+

That’s the Rares of Ravnica Allegiance! Stay tuned for the Mythics, campers!

Stay warm kids!

[aflo]

winota and fires are picking up in popularity in pioneer, and im a little pressed about those matchups. i think im favored against fires provided i can keep the enchantment off the table. if not, there's some sweet sideboard tech for the matchup like lavinia, trostani, or grafdigger's.

winota im a little more concerned about. pretty much my only sideboard option is grafdiggers cage, which doesn't really tech with my gameplan. also my primary removal spells all miss winota; dreadbore is too slow, vanishing verse misses, and abrupt decay comes up short.

[gigaguessmtg]

Oooh!  Dreadbore, plus Artifact removal!

[dailymtgflavortext]

Ravnica Allegiance Overview

Hello everyone!

I had a good time at the prerelease yesterday. It was a weird split of guilds, something I didn’t expect. There were 4 people playing Gruul (I thought there would be many more, it seemed like the best guild to me), two people playing Azorius, a handful playing Simic, and about a dozen (myself included) playing Orzhov. Nobody chose Rakdos. I ended up going 2-2 in the end, but we split the prize in the final round. Actually, the final round was pretty bad to be honest. I had no mana in the first game, he had only mana in the second game, and once again I had no mana in the third. Quickest three games I’ve ever been part of.

Anyway, I’ve done this once before, so I thought it would be kinda fun to do again. After the break, I’m gonna go through the cards in the set that I’m most looking forward to using. Keep in mind, I play commander almost exclusively, so that’s the lens through which I view them all.

First and foremost, there are a few angels in this set that I’ll have to acquire foil versions of.

Fine additions to my collection.

Now, on to the cards I need for my decks. There are a lot of Gruul goodies in this set, so Thromok gets some cool things to play with:

Riot is such a good mechanic. Haste is important for Thromok, so being able to give it to any creature I cast is super. Domri will probably find a home in the deck, and I’ll give Rhythm of the Wild a shot as well.

Nikya will be an interesting experiment. I really like the design of this card, and Thromok only has like 6 non-creature spells in the deck, so the huge mana-boost it gives might just be worth it.

Although I didn’t see a lot of Rakdos in the prerelease, there are still a number of cards I want to try out. Tymaret and Mathas both get some potential upgrades here:

Tymaret can deal direct damage pretty easily, so I don’t think it’ll be much of an issue to play the cards Theater of Horrors exiles. It’s almost like another Phyrexian Arena, so I hope it works out. The only possible issue is that something important could be exiled before I’m actually able to cast it.

One of the gimmicks of my Tymaret deck is to create a lot of tokens and sacrifice them for various effects. Sacrificing two at once may not always be feasible (or a good idea), but I think Priest of Forgotten Gods has potential.

Bedevil is an extremely powerful kill spell, so I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t use it. The instant-speed makes it worth running over Dreadbore, but I think I’ll still run them both in Tymaret if I can. Mathas has plenty of good kill spells already, so it will be a strict upgrade there.

I don’t actually think Captive Audience will be that great, but it seems like the kind of thing I’d use in the Mathas deck. It’s worth a shot, anyway.

Daghatar gets a bit of love in this set too:

I feel like this is a weird effect for an “Azorius” card. They don’t usually give their things +1/+1 counters, do they? Well, it’s still something good for Daghatar, so I’m not complaining. It can be used both defensively and offensively, so the versatility is great.

This seems like a neat counterpart to Gyre Sage. Throwing a counter on it shouldn’t be a problem, so it should make for some pretty good mana-ramp.

Unfortunately, this set didn’t give me the kind of Orzhov cards I wanted. Not to say they were bad, they just didn’t have a lot of synergy with my Karlov deck.

I want the deck to mess around with everyone’s life totals a lot, so Revenge seems like a good addition. Probably a game-ender with Sanguine bond as well, so that’s something. Even Revival is a decent choice, since there are a lot of small creatures in the deck.

This was my foil from the prerelease, and I think I might give it a try. I know, the irony of using it in a Karlov deck is pretty heavy. Oh well, RIP Obzedat and my dream of you getting a third card...

Smothering Tithe is just a cool card, so I hope it’s worth using here. Honestly, it would probably be better with Mathas, since I have Revel in Riches in that deck as well. Hmmmm...

Now, just for a few miscellaneous one-offs for various decks:

As I play Shu Yun more and more, I’ve found how necessary it is to always have some sort of evasion spell. This one gives a decent boost in power as well, so I think it’s worth using. It’s kinda funny how many of these little common combat-trick spells I’ve managed to fit into that deck.

It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at my Scarab God deck, but Thought Collapse continues my tradition of using bad “mill slightly” counterspells in it. Hooray!

Awwwwwww yeeeeahhhh more Gate-tech for Karona. It doesn’t even enter tapped, so it’s not a bad multi-coloured land for the mid-game.

Excellent. Another excuse for Iwamori of the Open Fist to PUNCH!

And finally, a card that I’m sure many people are excited for. I don’t like using a lot of X-cost spells in Melek, but I feel like casting this one and copying it a few times is just tooooo good to pass up. And at Instant speed, no less. Just crazy.

Well, if you‘ve made it this far, I congratulate you. I hope you enjoyed my opinions on these cards! Now, I must ask, what cards are you most looking forward to using? Not even just in commander, but any format?

[marsnolias]

I would love to see a secret lair X looney tunes. I need Marvin as a Commander.

If he were a card... well, he is very ambitious (black) and impulsive (red) and also good with technology, so his card may be something to do with artifacts.

I think it'd be fun if he had some sort of effect that put charge counters on artifacts, as well as some dreadbore type effect? Like.

Marvin, Supreme Conquerer 2BR

Legendary Creature — Martian Soldier

If you would put a charge counter on a permanent you control, put twice that many counters instead.

T, remove five charge counters from among permanents you control: destroy target nonland permanent. It can't be regenerated.

1/1

alternatively, some sort of effect that creates and buffs instant Martian tokens.

[legion1349official]

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