Aggro goes in all formats Terminate is insanely efficient. Taking it out is unacceptable. I think stacking saskia with Totem armor would be a wise option Also jamming extra combats would be perfect to bring more pain Ruric Thar is fantastic for telling the draw go players to go sod off.
Watching this episode again because the auto play spooled it up, which is timely because I'm coming back to Saskia after a hiatus. What I'm finding effective is tokens with ETB damage (Impact Tremors, etc.) and aristocrats (Elenda and Zulaport Cutthroat are amazing) backed up with classic aggro pump spells for the late game finish.
A great card to pair with Invasion Plans is Heat Stroke from Weatherlight. Basically lets you trade your worst creature for their entire board. Fight to the Death does a similar job. To keep your stuff alive things like Boros Charm,Cauldron Haze and Rootborn Defenses are good. For a better Faulter just use Gruul Charm. Waves of Aggression is a nice finisher that you can even use multiple times in a turn if you have the mana
In terms of protection, I added selfless spirit, and make a stand, stuffing any wrath cards instantly. Also, casting become immense with titanic growth and temur battle rage on a unblocked 1/1 saporling with Saskia out in the late game is really fun too... 22 dmg x 2 yes please
Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant is another way. Most of the time, I've brought him out in my Alesha deck and he transforms into the legendary enchantment after bringing him back with her attack ability.
Elesh Norn is pretty good for an anthem and one sided board wipe. You can also include survival of the fittest, and the Alesha, Master of Cruelties combo. Jarads Orders is a pretty good tutor if you need a master or an Anger in the yard.
Id say Reconnaissance from Exodus is a card that is a must have in Saskia, means you can always be attacking, without fear of losing your creatures to blocks.
Bedlam and the new Grenzo, Havoc Raiser together can make for some brutal swings in multiplayer and with Saskia. Bedlam makes it so no creature can block, and Grenzo allows you to goad a creature each time you deal combat damage to an opponent. Grenzo also has the Gonti, Lord of Luxury style stealing from the top of the library, which is also pretty devastating.
I feel like Rally the Ancestors would be good in here because you could board wipe then drop a Rally and get all your old creatures back with no blockers to deal with them.
I find that this deck is actually way better when using Tana and Ravos as the partner commanders. They both work really well with each other, and the amount of saprolings that can come out is pretty ridiculous. Combine that with something like Beastmaster Ascension and those tokens get huge. I almost always use those two partners over Saskia in a game with more than two players (aka most commander games).
Not the best card I know, but I enjoy the effects of Fumiko the Lowblood in multiplayer. For a wide deck, I'd definitely add hellrider, also warstorm surge, and some effects that increase damage, especially combat damage.
I'm curious about what you guys think about this: I was thinking of building a Saskia deck using Meren of clan Nel Toth, Kalemne Disciple of Iroas. Just an idea I had
I feel like flicker effects, eldrazi displacer, cloud shift, restoration angel, etc to change saskia's target player could be silly. Also, nice harmonization at the end.
i think necrogenesis is a house of a card. it shuts off any graveyard synergy decks! meren... karador... scion or any reanimator generals... makes any reanimator card dead in opponents hand. the meta in my city is heavy with graveyard synergies and for CC you get to hose them
Myriad seems like it has decent synergy with what the deck wants to do (Blade of Selves, Herald of the Host, in particular), i.e. attempting to damage multiple players at once. Probably a more 75%-ish inclusion, but could do some work.
Rules question for you guys: Can order//chaos that comes in the deck be found with sunforger and either half be cast? The total mana cost of the card is 7 but the split cards are both 4 cmc and under. Related to this, the new split cards that have fuse. can you cast both halves without paying their mana costs? I'm thinking of wear//tear as the example. It even fits the color and the combined CMC is under 4, so can you cast it for both halves for free? As far as cards, I'm surprised gisela, blade of goldnight and gratuitous violence were not mentioned. And to a lesser extent, tainted strike, since you included triumph of the hordes.
Wiseley T The answer is yes. Since both halves meet the criteria to be casted by sunforger it can be searched for and casted. However, you can only cast one or the other not both using this ability.
i think more anthems would be good in the deck like gruul war chant and true conviction would be strong additions and marshal's anthem to add some more recursion
Hydra Omnivore + Triumph of the hordes *drooool* A card I would take out is everlasting torment. I mean you get to prevent them from gaining life but I find the effect is so marginal and also you tend to be able to deal them damage faster than they gain life.
In this Yidris video, you mainly talked about Kydele + Vial Smasher the Fierce. So how come you didn't consider Ravos + Tana this time? With eighteen cards being power 2 or less and seven token makers, that strategy seems to be a lot closer to the out of the box plan than all this damage doubling stuff.
Hey guys! I loved this episode and listen to your podcasts often. This episode partially inspired me to make my own channel. I just uploaded a Saskia deck tech and was wondering if you would take a look at it! Thanks for all your great content.
{Legion's Innitiative} is much better than {Ghostway} guys... Also, {Aurelia, the Warleader}, {Gisela, Blade of Goldnight} or even {Avatar of Slaughter} is just broken synergy with Saskia! Giving my creatures quadra-/octastrike/16x-strike?? GIMMEGIMMEGIMME
Robert Goode 16? how did you calculate 16? it is 6 normally, with a damage doubler it is 12, commander damage. The rest of the damage is not commander damage
Robert Goode The set up you gave. Whispersilk Cloak and Fireshrieker on Saskia, only deals 6 commander damage. The other 6 damage is normal damage. If you have a damage doubler, like Gratuitous Violence, Saskia deals 12 commander damage and 24 normal damage.
I would think infect cards would not work well with Saskia since your creatures no longer deal actual "combat damage" to a player, therefore Saskia's ability would not trigger. Plus I overall don't like infect in commander
Ya but I mean if the attacking creature has infect, it's never actually dealing damage. So Saskia won't trigger and double up the damage. The same is true if you give Saskia infect. She won't deal the same amount of damage but place an equal amount of poison counters on the chosen player. Either way I don't feel the Commander is being used to its full potential. I'm sure it's still fun though :) 702.89b: "Damage dealt to a player by a source with infect doesn’t cause that player to lose life. Rather, it causes the player to get that many poison counters".
No, it's still cool. Infect damage of any kind takes the form of poison or -1/-1 counters, but it doesn't prevent combat damage from being combat damage, or non-combat damage from being non-combat damage. All damage triggers still work as normal, the only difference is that no life is lost, and so life-loss triggers don't work with infect.
Timothy Kuehn that was something I thought of, as Dragons are my favorite tribe and she gives you the best colors, I haven't built it yet. Would love to see how it goes
It's a bit obvious how neither of you liked this deck, the podcast was super short and most of the time you were speaking about other stuff. For a token based deck I would put for sure the Cathars Crusade, Overwhelming Stampede, and maybe even Kamahl, Fist of Krosa for his recurrent Overruns. The worsts cards in the precon are Breath of Fury (wich is just bad) and Blind Obedience (wich is a good cards but doesnt work at all on this deck. This precon deck is so freaking bad.
Pappy the problem with making it 20 infect is that you might as well just do normal combat damage. infect's one of those mechanics where your group should decide whether allow it or not
I think perhaps Pappy means in EDH games, they make lethal Infect damage be 20 instead of 10. That way it is more similar to how it's used in normal games: Deal half your opponent's starting life total in Infect Damage = They Lose. Maybe this is how Infect should be modified so it can be used across multiple formats?
I feel like you could cut 10 minutes out of the video if you didn't read everything on the card like the casting cost and the card type. We can see the casting cost. I feel like you guys just go into way too much detail and the video can drag on. You guys do have a lot of helpful info, but still it's way too much sometimes.
Hi Giancarlo - the majority of our audience is audio listeners since this is a podcast, so it is necessary for us to read out card descriptions so everyone can follow along regardless of what format they're listening/watching the content in! -jimmy
![Welcome to the Dark Side [Full Episode] | Escape From the Bloodkeep Episode 1](/img/1.gif)
Aggro goes in all formats
Terminate is insanely efficient. Taking it out is unacceptable.
I think stacking saskia with Totem armor would be a wise option
Also jamming extra combats would be perfect to bring more pain
Ruric Thar is fantastic for telling the draw go players to go sod off.
Watching this episode again because the auto play spooled it up, which is timely because I'm coming back to Saskia after a hiatus. What I'm finding effective is tokens with ETB damage (Impact Tremors, etc.) and aristocrats (Elenda and Zulaport Cutthroat are amazing) backed up with classic aggro pump spells for the late game finish.
A great card to pair with Invasion Plans is Heat Stroke from Weatherlight. Basically lets you trade your worst creature for their entire board.
Fight to the Death does a similar job.
To keep your stuff alive things like Boros Charm,Cauldron Haze and Rootborn Defenses are good. For a better Faulter just use Gruul Charm. Waves of Aggression is a nice finisher that you can even use multiple times in a turn if you have the mana
In terms of protection, I added selfless spirit, and make a stand, stuffing any wrath cards instantly. Also, casting become immense with titanic growth and temur battle rage on a unblocked 1/1 saporling with Saskia out in the late game is really fun too... 22 dmg x 2 yes please
Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant is another way. Most of the time, I've brought him out in my Alesha deck and he transforms into the legendary enchantment after bringing him back with her attack ability.
Elesh Norn is pretty good for an anthem and one sided board wipe. You can also include survival of the fittest, and the Alesha, Master of Cruelties combo. Jarads Orders is a pretty good tutor if you need a master or an Anger in the yard.
Id say Reconnaissance from Exodus is a card that is a must have in Saskia, means you can always be attacking, without fear of losing your creatures to blocks.
reconnaissance is a great way to mimmic Iroas ability (and also get to untap it!)
I've been waiting for this! Saskia is the precon I got and I've been looking forwards to your recommended additions
Bedlam and the new Grenzo, Havoc Raiser together can make for some brutal swings in multiplayer and with Saskia. Bedlam makes it so no creature can block, and Grenzo allows you to goad a creature each time you deal combat damage to an opponent. Grenzo also has the Gonti, Lord of Luxury style stealing from the top of the library, which is also pretty devastating.
Hey guys, few cards to consider for Saskia: Charnelhoard Wurm, Barbed Shocker, Mage Slayer & Snake Umbra.
I feel like Rally the Ancestors would be good in here because you could board wipe then drop a Rally and get all your old creatures back with no blockers to deal with them.
For 3 plus player games I added Bitter Rivalry to up the damage dealt to opponents as well as making them stall out.
great video & series too. thanks for all the hard work.
I find that this deck is actually way better when using Tana and Ravos as the partner commanders. They both work really well with each other, and the amount of saprolings that can come out is pretty ridiculous. Combine that with something like Beastmaster Ascension and those tokens get huge. I almost always use those two partners over Saskia in a game with more than two players (aka most commander games).
Gruul Charm over Falter since it can potentially deal with fliers. Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury and Sarkhan Vol also seem good in the deck.
A hatebear version of this is bonkers!
Not the best card I know, but I enjoy the effects of Fumiko the Lowblood in multiplayer. For a wide deck, I'd definitely add hellrider, also warstorm surge, and some effects that increase damage, especially combat damage.
I feel like damage doubling enchantments would do well in this deck
it's beginning to look alot like christmas, everywhere you go
I'm curious about what you guys think about this:
I was thinking of building a Saskia deck using Meren of clan Nel Toth, Kalemne Disciple of Iroas. Just an idea I had
Karmic Guide, restoration Angel, Aurelia the warleader and Odric Lunar Marshal has been key players in my Saskia deck
Saskia loves combat abilities that are about damage: Lifelink, doublestrike, Shadow, infect.
Allowing a siege Siege Behemoth to attack kills someone
I feel like flicker effects, eldrazi displacer, cloud shift, restoration angel, etc to change saskia's target player could be silly.
Also, nice harmonization at the end.
i think necrogenesis is a house of a card. it shuts off any graveyard synergy decks! meren... karador... scion or any reanimator generals... makes any reanimator card dead in opponents hand. the meta in my city is heavy with graveyard synergies and for CC you get to hose them
Myriad seems like it has decent synergy with what the deck wants to do (Blade of Selves, Herald of the Host, in particular), i.e. attempting to damage multiple players at once. Probably a more 75%-ish inclusion, but could do some work.
Harsh Justice is super flavorful in this deck. If you're going down, might as well bring someone with you haha
Rules question for you guys:
Can order//chaos that comes in the deck be found with sunforger and either half be cast? The total mana cost of the card is 7 but the split cards are both 4 cmc and under.
Related to this, the new split cards that have fuse. can you cast both halves without paying their mana costs? I'm thinking of wear//tear as the example. It even fits the color and the combined CMC is under 4, so can you cast it for both halves for free?
As far as cards, I'm surprised gisela, blade of goldnight and gratuitous violence were not mentioned. And to a lesser extent, tainted strike, since you included triumph of the hordes.
Wiseley T
The answer is yes. Since both halves meet the criteria to be casted by sunforger it can be searched for and casted. However, you can only cast one or the other not both using this ability.
i think more anthems would be good in the deck like gruul war chant and true conviction would be strong additions and marshal's anthem to add some more recursion
I think its cheaper and better to buy some of these cards individually and make a better deck with her
Hydra Omnivore + Triumph of the hordes *drooool*
A card I would take out is everlasting torment. I mean you get to prevent them from gaining life but I find the effect is so marginal and also you tend to be able to deal them damage faster than they gain life.
I traded my everlasting torment out with Erebos, because he draws cards AND stops stupid lifegain
In this Yidris video, you mainly talked about Kydele + Vial Smasher the Fierce. So how come you didn't consider Ravos + Tana this time? With eighteen cards being power 2 or less and seven token makers, that strategy seems to be a lot closer to the out of the box plan than all this damage doubling stuff.
Golgari Charm Is pretty nice in here.
ok guys I'm new to MTG and and I bought this deck, I'm looking for more cards to add and build up this deck! any help will be appreciated!
I would bring Saskia card draw, into damage doublers with some big hasty creatures.
Hit someone for 24 and the target for 48.
Sower of discord works nice with saskia a ability as well, it’s a dead card in 1v1 though lol
What about a copy of decimate ? And politics with ghost way ? Tell someone they'll re target and not target them in exchange for help/favor ?
Gisela, blade of goldnight is mandatory in my opinion
Gisela, extra combats, I would build the deck with a curve in mind, dragon lord Dromoka
Hey guys! I loved this episode and listen to your podcasts often. This episode partially inspired me to make my own channel. I just uploaded a Saskia deck tech and was wondering if you would take a look at it! Thanks for all your great content.
{Legion's Innitiative} is much better than {Ghostway} guys...
Also, {Aurelia, the Warleader}, {Gisela, Blade of Goldnight} or even {Avatar of Slaughter} is just broken synergy with Saskia! Giving my creatures quadra-/octastrike/16x-strike?? GIMMEGIMMEGIMME
grenzo, havoc raiser. goad is no joke with saskia
These guys are always gangin up on poor Craig.
Saskia with Whispersilk cloak and Fireshrieker. 16 commander dmg in one hit if I'm not mistaken. that is if it gets through.
Robert Goode
16? how did you calculate 16? it is 6 normally, with a damage doubler it is 12, commander damage.
The rest of the damage is not commander damage
Whoops. it'd be 12. For some reason I was thinking whispersilk gave +1/+2 but thats Mask of Avacyn
Robert Goode
The set up you gave. Whispersilk Cloak and Fireshrieker on Saskia, only deals 6 commander damage. The other 6 damage is normal damage. If you have a damage doubler, like Gratuitous Violence, Saskia deals 12 commander damage and 24 normal damage.
the dream is using alesha to bring back master of cruelties
Luke Trout lol
You can make a Saskia tokens deck and run Sidar Kondo for the lolz.
Hero of Bladehold, yo.
I would think infect cards would not work well with Saskia since your creatures no longer deal actual "combat damage" to a player, therefore Saskia's ability would not trigger. Plus I overall don't like infect in commander
Infect doesn't require combat damage. Any source can deal infect.
Ya but I mean if the attacking creature has infect, it's never actually dealing damage. So Saskia won't trigger and double up the damage. The same is true if you give Saskia infect. She won't deal the same amount of damage but place an equal amount of poison counters on the chosen player. Either way I don't feel the Commander is being used to its full potential. I'm sure it's still fun though :)
702.89b: "Damage dealt to a player by a source with infect doesn’t cause that player to lose life. Rather, it causes the player to get that many poison counters".
No, it's still cool. Infect damage of any kind takes the form of poison or -1/-1 counters, but it doesn't prevent combat damage from being combat damage, or non-combat damage from being non-combat damage. All damage triggers still work as normal, the only difference is that no life is lost, and so life-loss triggers don't work with infect.
No way! That is so broken...
Thanks for info Marky!
epic Carol of the Bells rendition, lol
I would have gotten the attraxa deck but my lgs doesnt have em. Saskia it is.
add Godo and mirror entity with a bunch of saps.
I'm building a saskia deck with all the myriad cards possible and all the melee cards possible, lets just bash everyone on thr table at once
How about all Myriad card/ Blade of Selves and Hydra Omnivore? And Josh dayum what have you been eating recently, you look super buff! o_0
i went a different way with saskis /saskia-and-the-unyielding-dragons/
Timothy Kuehn that was something I thought of, as Dragons are my favorite tribe and she gives you the best colors, I haven't built it yet. Would love to see how it goes
YokiDragon tappedout.net/mtg-decks/saskia-and-the-unyielding-dragons/ you can see on my tappedout page.
i added cryptborn horror cause it can get big
Does cardkindom ship to other countries?
karavek the merciless! punish other players for wanting to have a game that last longer than 10 turns
Can you guys suggest cheaper cards!?!?!?!?!?
Am I the only one thinks she would be great as a token commander.?
Two words: Brutal Hordechief
Marcus Warr it's in the precon
and it's three words
Also Eerie interlude
Strictly better than ghostway since you can choose the creatures that are flickered
WilhelmScreamer agreed
And, you don't have to lose any tokens you got with Eerie Interlude, if you went with a token theme.
I had those $10 dollars ready, but that singing tho...
anthem effects
Um what about aggravated assault? It's not that good for this particular deck but still an ok card.
Does anyone else think they should template effects that say "Other creatures you control get +X/+X" as "Anthem X?"
It's a bit obvious how neither of you liked this deck, the podcast was super short and most of the time you were speaking about other stuff.
For a token based deck I would put for sure the Cathars Crusade, Overwhelming Stampede, and maybe even Kamahl, Fist of Krosa for his recurrent Overruns.
The worsts cards in the precon are Breath of Fury (wich is just bad) and Blind Obedience (wich is a good cards but doesnt work at all on this deck. This precon deck is so freaking bad.
don't encourage players to play infect in commander guys please! infect is such grrrr mechanic... i'm salty
As I have found, creatures with infect aren't really the problem, save for Blightsteel Colossus, it's the cards that give infect that are the problem.
It's the 10 poison counter rule, which is just fundamentally wrong in commander , which causes problems.
Garudabr infect is fine, SPECIALLY in commander.
Pappy the problem with making it 20 infect is that you might as well just do normal combat damage. infect's one of those mechanics where your group should decide whether allow it or not
I think perhaps Pappy means in EDH games, they make lethal Infect damage be 20 instead of 10. That way it is more similar to how it's used in normal games: Deal half your opponent's starting life total in Infect Damage = They Lose. Maybe this is how Infect should be modified so it can be used across multiple formats?
I feel like you could cut 10 minutes out of the video if you didn't read everything on the card like the casting cost and the card type. We can see the casting cost. I feel like you guys just go into way too much detail and the video can drag on. You guys do have a lot of helpful info, but still it's way too much sometimes.
Hi Giancarlo - the majority of our audience is audio listeners since this is a podcast, so it is necessary for us to read out card descriptions so everyone can follow along regardless of what format they're listening/watching the content in! -jimmy