The Command Tower (EDH Hangout)

[Delibirb]

I was told to post this here for discussion, so here I am I suppose.

 

[spoiler=Sphinx Tribal | Isperia the Inscrutable]

Land (33)

1x Adarkar Wastes

1x Azorius Chancery

1x Azorius Guildgate

1x Boreal Shelf

1x Calciform Pools

1x Celestial Colonnade

1x Coastal Tower

1x Command Tower

1x Glacial Fortress

1x Halimar Depths

1x Hallowed Fountain

1x Land Cap

1x Lonely Sandbar

1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge

1x Moonring Island

1x Mystic Gate

1x Plains

1x Remote Isle

1x Sand Silos

1x Saprazzan Skerry

1x Seachrome Coast

1x Seafloor Debris

1x Seat of the Synod

1x Sejiri Refuge

1x Shelldock Isle

1x Skycloud Expanse

1x Svyelunite Temple

1x Teferi's Isle

1x Temple of Enlightenment

1x Thalakos Lowlands

1x Tolaria West

1x Tranquil Cove

1x Wanderwine Hub

Instant (4)

1x Cackling Counterpart

1x Enlightened Tutor

1x Hour of Need

1x Sphinx's Revelation

Creature (22)

1x Alhammarret, High Arbiter

1x Arbiter of the Ideal

1x Argent Sphinx

1x Chancellor of the Spires

x Consecrated Sphinx

1x Conundrum Sphinx

1x Goliath Sphinx

1x Horizon Scholar

1x Isperia, Supreme Judge

1x Jelenn Sphinx

1x Medomai the Ageless

1x Mistform Warchief

1x Prognostic Sphinx

1x Serra Sphinx

1x Sphinx Ambassador

1x Sphinx of Jwar Isle

1x Sphinx of Lost Truths

1x Sphinx of Magosi

1x Sphinx of Uthuun

1x Vexing Sphinx

1x Warden of Evos Isle

1x Windreader Sphinx'

 

Sorcery (14)

1x Acquire
1x Battle Screech
1x Clone Legion
1x Decree of Justice
1x Distant Melody
1x Entreat the Angels
1x Fabricate
1x Hands of Binding
1x Hidden Strings
1x Last Thoughts
1x Polymorph
1x Rite of Replication
1x Stolen Identity
1x Voidwalk

Artifact (19)
1x Azorius Cluestone
1x Azorius Keyrune
1x Azorius Signet
1x Belbe's Portal
1x Chronatog Totem
1x Coat of Arms
1x Cryptic Gateway
1x Eye of Ramos
1x Fieldmist Borderpost
1x Glasses of Urza
1x Obelisk of Urd
1x Ojutai Monument
1x Proteus Staff
1x Seashell Cameo
1x Sky Diamond
1x Skycloud Egg
1x Sol Ring
1x Talisman of Progress
1x Urza's Incubator

Enchantment (6)
1x Telepathy
1x Call to the Kindred
1x Copy Artifact
1x Favorable Winds
1x Gravitational Shift
1x Serra Aviary

Planeswalker (1)
1x Tezzeret the Seeker[/column]

 

 

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Cut some of your goofy lands for more basics.

[Yui]

Out-there idea I had yesterday: 10-player EDH game where each player brings a different dual-colored god as their commander.

(and if we do this I want Karametra)

[Poc]

Out-there idea I had yesterday: 10-player EDH game where each player brings a different dual-colored god as their commander.

(and if we do this I want Karametra)

 

that sounds terrible, I don't want to wait 15m for it to come to my turn. I usually won't play in more than 4 man pods.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Full thoughts on deck, because I was bored.

 

[spoiler=Sphinx Tribal | Isperia the Inscrutable]

Land (33)

1x Adarkar Wastes Painlands are great.

1x Azorius Chancery Personally not a fan of the Ravnica karoo lands myself, but considering your relatively low land-count I imagine this works fairly well

1x Azorius Guildgate I see no reason for you to be running a tapland with no upside, honestly

1x Boreal Shelf As I said, taplands with no upside aren't really the best thing, even in slower formats like EDH

1x Calciform Pools High curve, slow deck? Storage land seems like a good plan.

1x Celestial Colonnade This is the kind of tapland definitely worth running

1x Coastal Tower Running so many taplands just messes up curving. Curving is less important in EDH, but it is still a thing

1x Command Tower Card is awesome. Good call.

1x Glacial Fortress With such a low island and plains count, this ends up as just another tapland. Definitely keep it, but raise the count of islands and plains so it works better

1x Halimar Depths Personally not the biggest fan of it, but if it is working for you there is no problem with this

1x Hallowed Fountain Shocks are good

1x Land Cap If this could tap for colorless without getting a counter, I would be much more onboard with it. As-is, it feels really bad.

1x Lonely Sandbar Cycle lands are good.

1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge Card is good, but even better with Nykthos

1x Moonring Island This card is really bad, in my opinion, and should probably go for a basic island, but if you are lacking in ways to know what is in the opponent's hand (for Isperia) it is excusable.

1x Mystic Gate Filter land is good for all these color-heavy creatures. Speaking of color-heavy creatures, you should run nykthos

1x Plains You need more of these

1x Remote Isle I have never been a fan of the cycle-lands with a cost of more than 1

1x Sand Silos These mono-color storage lands are slow and ineffective

1x Saprazzan Skerry Understandable with color-heavy costs

1x Seachrome Coast Yet another tapland, and at times when it will enter untapped, you don't have nearly as much to do with it

1x Seafloor Debris This just feels worse than all the other taplands

1x Seat of the Synod Other than Tezzeret, how much utility do artifact lands have? Also, why this and not Ancient Den?

1x Sejiri Refuge Never been a fan of Refuges. They are a bit better than other taplands, but unless you are using Oloro, the life gain is hardly relevant.

1x Shelldock Isle Do you honestly think you will get this hideaway to work?

1x Skycloud Expanse Not the worst land, but feels really awkward early-game

1x Svyelunite Temple Like the Skerry thing. Too many lands like this hurts your manabase in the long-run

1x Teferi's Isle This card is adorable, but really bad

1x Temple of Enlightenment THIS is a good tapland

1x Thalakos Lowlands Going through so much effort just for colored mana is annoying

1x Tolaria West This card is really really good.

1x Tranquil Cove Still not a fan of refuges

1x Wanderwine Hub Do you even have merfolk?

Instant (4)

1x Cackling Counterpart This seems hilarious with stuff like Consecrated Sphinx

1x Enlightened Tutor Searching telepathy is key. Good call.

1x Hour of Need Removal that also can be used on your own guys? Ok.

1x Sphinx's Revelation Awesome card is awesome

Creature (22)

1x Alhammarret, High Arbiter I think this guy is terrible

1x Arbiter of the Ideal Cool sphinx. Not terribly strong, but cool. Definitely works better in a high-curve deck like this.

1x Argent Sphinx Really efficient creature, that can also dodge removal.

1x Chancellor of the Spires Card is hysterical. I love it.

x Consecrated Sphinx Really really really really good.

1x Conundrum Sphinx Efficient guy, with a fun combo with moonring isle

1x Goliath Sphinx Nothing but big. Feels kinda meh.

1x Horizon Scholar Scry is nice, but it isn't a very efficient body overall.

1x Isperia, Supreme Judge Keeps people off your ass. Nice card.

1x Jelenn Sphinx Feels really, really meh.

1x Medomai the Ageless Extra turns are fun

1x Mistform Warchief Makes sphinxes a bit cheaper, but doesn't seem to have that great of an impact

1x Prognostic Sphinx I swear by this thing in both standard and EDH. Love it.

1x Serra Sphinx Definitely an efficient guy, but not much else.

1x Sphinx Ambassador THIS CARD IS SO DAMN COOL THAT I DON'T CARE IF IT IS GOOD

1x Sphinx of Jwar Isle The shroud is more important than the other ability, but it combos with Conundrum, so that is cool.

1x Sphinx of Lost Truths Seems like an awesome way to dig, with or without kicker.

1x Sphinx of Magosi Card is freaking awesome.

1x Sphinx of Uthuun Fact or Fiction on a guy is great

1x Vexing Sphinx I adore this card.

1x Warden of Evos Isle Making guys cheaper is good.

1x Windreader Sphinx' Draw power is good.

 

Sorcery (14)

1x Acquire I prefer Bribery, but this is still quite good.
1x Battle Screech What good do these birds do you?
1x Clone Legion This costs SO MUCH MANA
1x Decree of Justice Either mode is a good card.
1x Distant Melody Card is awesome with fae, but how much can you expect to draw when the sphinxes cost so much mana?
1x Entreat the Angels Card is awesome.
1x Fabricate What artifacts are so crucial for you to get?
1x Hands of Binding This feels really suboptimal, IMO
1x Hidden Strings Another reason you should run Nykthos
1x Last Thoughts Aside from the two preceding cards, Cipher really isn't worth it.
1x Polymorph Freaking awesome.
1x Rite of Replication Cloning is always fun. Use on Consecrated Sphinx for max salt.
1x Stolen Identity This is really inefficient, even with cipher.
1x Voidwalk As I said, cipher doesn't justify such high costs

Artifact (19)
1x Azorius Cluestone Commander's Sphere is kinda just blatantly better
1x Azorius Keyrune Is the guy worth running this over something like Darksteel Ingot?
1x Azorius Signet Signets are great.
1x Belbe's Portal Expensive, but cheaper than actually casting a lot of these.
1x Chronatog Totem This is a really subpar mana rock.
1x Coat of Arms Do you expect to have enough sphinxes on board for this to be worth the risk of being against something like goblins?
1x Cryptic Gateway Card is awesome.
1x Eye of Ramos Better than Chronatog Totem, but something like Coldsteel Heart would do more good.
1x Fieldmist Borderpost I am of the opinion that borderposts are really bad, especially when you only have 1 basic land
1x Glasses of Urza Awesome.
1x Obelisk of Urd Making Sphinxes bigger is awesome, but this is a lot of mana. Not sure if worth it.
1x Ojutai Monument This feels like another suboptimal mana rock that can be replaced with something better
1x Proteus Staff Repeatable Polymorph? Sure.
1x Seashell Cameo Weak rock is weak
1x Sky Diamond Why are you running the blue one and not the white one?
1x Skycloud Egg Doesn't really generate mana, and outside a deck where it can be abused, I don't see much point.
1x Sol Ring Of course.
1x Talisman of Progress This is a good mana rock.
1x Urza's Incubator Not sure how many sphinxes have two colorless in their cost, but this still seems awesome for fighting commander tax, if nothing else.

Enchantment (6)
1x Telepathy Works well with Isperia
1x Call to the Kindred Feels really slow
1x Copy Artifact To copy what?
1x Favorable Winds Small anthem, but still pretty good.
1x Gravitational Shift Bigger anthem, and stops some decks in their tracks
1x Serra Aviary That is a lot of mana, given the effect.

Planeswalker (1)
1x Tezzeret the Seeker Helps grab stuff

 

 

 

Tl;dr you need more basics, can cut a lot of those taplands, and a few of your mana rocks can be replaced. A recommendation off the top of my head is Gitaxian Probe, to slightly increase consistency and make Isperia more reliable on the first hit.

[Trebuchet MS]

Out-there idea I had yesterday: 10-player EDH game where each player brings a different dual-colored god as their commander.

(and if we do this I want Karametra)

Sounds slightly better than 6-man Planechase Archenemy EDH.

[Sixty]

throw in the mono colored gods and we could have A FIFTEEN PERSON PANTHEON BRAWL

 

 

Discuss Karametra. I had a deck with her once that consistently threw out every land in it.

[Trebuchet MS]

Karametra + Whitemane Lion or Stonecloaker = mad ramps.

 

Hang tight until the end step prior to your turn, then flash-bounce as many times as you possibly can. Add in Amulet of Vigor to amplify the ramping process.

 

It's beautiful.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Karametra + Whitemane Lion or Stonecloaker = mad ramps.

 

Hang tight until the end step prior to your turn, then flash-bounce as many times as you possibly can. Add in Amulet of Vigor to amplify the ramping process.

 

It's beautiful.

With a lotus cobra you get every forest and plains in the deck.

[Krein]

Yui talked me into joining, so here I am.

 

Currently run Commanders: Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Kaalia of the Vast (kind of, I only used her a couple of times but I still have her deck, so wynaut)

MtG Experience: Around 6 months.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

What are everyone's experiences with 'Voltron' style decks?

[bury the year]

What are everyone's experiences with 'Voltron' style decks?

 

90% of all voltron decks fail if you're playing multiplayer and your opponents know what they're playing against. I've played against a few in my time, and the only one that won a game was Rafiq, because he explodes out just that quickly. The others would always take out 1-2 other players, then lose to the person who took first.

 

Voltron imho is a much more viable strategy in 1v1 than it is multiplayer. It just runs into too many obstacles too quickly.

[Flame Dragon]

I am disappointed in myself for not joining this soon.

 

Current Commander Decks: Karador, Animar, Sedris, Rith, Sharuum, Freyalise. Finishing Hanna.

Experience: 5 years

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

What kind of Hanna build do you have?

[Flame Dragon]

Pillow fort. I wanted a deck that was nothing like what I normally play so just building a wall that says leave me alone felt like the place to go.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Oh, me too. Mind posting your list so I can compare and contrast?

[Flame Dragon]

Sure. As I said, this isn't what I normally do so it likely has a few poor choices. Also has a few cards I wanted to try just for fun.

 

Also, going to use pictures because I imagine looking at the cards is much easier than reading through a 100 card list. Just click on the image to get a better view.

[spoiler=Deck]

 

 

 

I am interested in some feedback since I haven't actually finished putting the deck together.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

I feel like that is the wrong Gideon for the job.

[Flame Dragon]

I feel like that is the wrong Gideon for the job.

I haven't actually put the deck in practice, but ideally my opponent really shouldn't be attacking me making the +2 pretty bad and Champion will often just be bigger than Jura since he is pretty well protected. That said, normal Gideon might not be bad in the deck since being able to pick stuff off and protect me should something happen to my enchantments are both real applications.

[Trebuchet MS]

What are everyone's experiences with 'Voltron' style decks?

Hit-or-miss. Hit being you curve out and land your Commander before anyone has any answers. Miss when someone finds a way to completely hose you from the get-go. The latter happens more often when players are more experienced with what you can dole out once you roll.

 

That's my experiences playing as Narset and playing against Uril.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

With voltron, Rinne was right on the money, I'd say. Decks like Rafiq can consistently win by commander damage by turn six, and can win with infect by turn five (though turn three wins with infect are very real) but are simply ill-suited for large multi-player games.

 

The only voltron decks that can really get a footing in multi-player are those that maintain a combo aspect to them: Prossh (take out control with commander damage, then combo off on the rest of the table), Zur (give zero fucks about the table, because you are playing Zur), and Narset (just narset all over everyone and you should be fine).

 

On the other hand, even without aiming for a voltron playstyle, commander damage can be a very viable way to win. For example, Damia has deathtouch (effectively a form of evasion) and constantly replenishes your hand so you can maintain pressure on the opponent, and 6 hits with her suddenly does seem too difficult.

[Flame Dragon]

On the other hand, even without aiming for a voltron playstyle, commander damage can be a very viable way to win. For example, Damia has deathtouch (effectively a form of evasion) and constantly replenishes your hand so you can maintain pressure on the opponent, and 6 hits with her suddenly does seem too difficult.[/color]

Another easy one to kill with using commander damage is Animar. It has some evasion and protection from removal and by nature of the deck your going to get him big enough even if you aren't trying to kill with commander damage.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

I am just about invested in this place as Thom, so I have another topic:

 

What was your favorite spell to ever cast in a game of EDH? Like, specific one. Story time!

[Poc]

usually Insurrection, no one ever prepares for it and for some god forsaken reason my playgroup never tries to counter it. Then they complain when they lose instantly to it.

 

For maximum stupid, I like my Enchanted Evening+aura thief combo I use in my Derevi Enchantress deck.

[Sixty]

The Great Aurora is a ride and a half. I usually just win after I cast it.