You're missing what would be a crucial part of any Kelsien deck, the cards that give your opponents 1/1.s Forbidden Orchard in a Kelsien deck becomes 'add 1 mana of any colour, give Kelsien an experience counter'. Then you have Varchild, which gives your foes 1/1 survivors that cant attack you and that you can take when Varchild dies. Varchild's Raiders's cumulative upkeep adds 1/1 survivors every upkeep. Mogg Infestation is a board wipe that replaces all those big dangerous creatures with 1/1s. Clackbridge Troll is a 8/8 with trample and haste that gives 3 0/1 goat tokens AND has the potential to give you card draw depending on how much your opponent loves their life total. Want to draw cards? Play humble defector. 2 mana draw 2, give it to someone else then kill the bastard as soon as he hits the opponents field. Then you can bring it back with, say, kolaghan's command, play it again, draw 2 more and get more experience counters. Kelsien is a lot better than people think he is. Experience counters dont go away easy. You drop Kelsien down after a boardwipe he comes back with the same power and toughness he had when he left and he swings for the fence with that haste.
You're better off using proliferate to get counters after the first one, rather than giving your opponents potential chump-blockers. Kelsien has no evasion, so the least blockers the opponents have, the better.
@@DarkEinherjar If you're playing Kelsien you're probably going voltron, plenty of ways to give him evasion in that kind of deck. Though proliferate is another way to do it. Throw in sword of truth and justice to double your counters every turn automatically
for anyone who confused about the sharkrider curiosity combo at least as much as I was. 314. Cleanup Step 314.1. If the active player’s hand contains more cards than his or her maximum hand size (normally seven), he or she discards enough cards to reduce the hand size to that number (this game action doesn’t use the stack). 314.2. After discarding, the following actions happen simultaneously: all damage is removed from permanents and all “until end of turn” and “this turn” effects end (this game action doesn’t use the stack). 314.3. If the conditions for any state-based effects exist or if any triggered abilities are waiting to be put onto the stack, the active player gets priority and players may play spells and abilities. Once the stack is empty and all players pass, another cleanup step begins. Otherwise, no player receives priority and the step ends.
@@qwormuli77 Or they could have made his huge benefit come with a giant drawback. Seeing as Urza was straight up crazy for like, all of the books after Brothers War, I believe.
I agree, and I really want to see what a post spark Urza card would look like. As a planeswalker, I feel like the card would have to be as strong as JTMS at minimum.
i was lucky enough to pick it up when it was $40 I don't know why it shot up in price about six months after i bought it. i know it's kinda a reserve card but hopefully they reprint it in commander legends, too many people need it and red doesn't really get refill your hand cards that don't have conditions.
@@ryanmatthews7405that's what I meant, no card is "sort of" on the reserve list, they either or are not. It has been reprinted in the past. reserve list makes no sense anyways, WotC promises to not reprint cards because it would hurt collector's card values but that means they acknowledge the secondary market which legally they shouldn't be allowed to do.
Some cheap wheels include "Heartwarming Redemption" "Leave // Chance" and they're almost NEVER recommended despite being good. Probably because your opponent isn't drawing cards off them? Hahaha! Who cares
Their point on Mardu being the weakest precon (or at least the commanders) without a second thought wounds my soul. I'm a die-hard Mardu fan, and this year was just so disappointing. Doesn't help that, of the 4 Mardu precons since 2011, all 4 were tribal. Kaalia, Gwyn, Jirina, Edgar. I'm praying that Legends has a super good/interesting Mardu commander.
Yeah it is sad and the only reason that i dont plan to build a mardu deck because theres only a few viable ones and most are tribal which is already narrow.
I'm actually the most excited for the mardu precon. I've been building a digital version of Trynn/Silvar and playing it online, and can't wait to build the physical version. Kelsian seems like a fun, political style commander as well, which i haven't had much experience with.
Yeah I agree. There are really only 3 Mardu commanders worth building around (IMHO) - Kaalia, Edgar and Marchesa. Mardu really needs help, and an "aggro" human deck wasn't what the wedge needed.
That's a pretty good observation, i never thought about it. All they do with mardu is give it some kind of creature type and/or combat synergy. Maybe what mardu really need is the kind of idea that give birth to Kelsien, just tinkered better.
Omiscience Haldan: "What did you find boy?" Pako: "*I have finally found the answer to the ultimate question*" Haldan: "What?" Pako: "*I now know who the good boy is*"
Haldan/Pako, unlike most "top deck steal" cards, let you keep the exiled Counterspells and cast it when you're ready, or any spell you feel that you should wait before casting. Temporal Spring/Memory Lapse work wonder with them.
Commandzone: "Syr Konrad, the Grim is one underrated commander." Meanwhile, in my Meta: Meren runs him Korvold runs him Anje runs him Athreos (Shadowborn Apostle) runs him
I've fought against that lock before, it's so painful to get around. Had to steal Taigam with a Gilded Drake multiple times to get rid of that dovescape ughhhh
Kalamax can get the infinite copy loops pretty easily on your own turn. Just lead with your own sorcery. You are going to run mostly instants, but a couple sorceries is fine. Chandra's Ignition is particularly fun. By the time it resolves, your infinite copy loops makes Kalamax as big as he needs to be to knock everyone out.
I wish that kelsien scaled, meaning I wish he would tap: deal damage equal to the number of experience counters plus one. I’m sure he’d have to be more expensive mana cost wise but that would be so cool and make him a really interesting commander I think.
Lord Peasant i mean you give him deathtouch with equipment and it doesn’t really matter. This idea would be better if he could also target players with his tap ability. That probably make him a decent amount higher cmc altogether, idk if that would actually make better in terms of raw card power.
I feel like people are sleeping on this card more than they should. Thor nite staff and deathtouch make this thing capable of doming someone straight out of the command zone for a bunch of damage. Plus there’s sooo many good tutors for artifact/equipment or enchantments in white. Revel in riches/smothering tithe/dockside extortionist is also a totally viable win con in this deck
@@Nergal123 commanders being dependent on 2 cards in your deck don't usually make for good commanders. And yes I agree I forgot to also say he'd need player pings as well
@@AndJDrake Win cons as easy to disrupt as that aren't very good, yeah you can tutor for that to hit someone for the number of creatures the opponents have + 2, but look at the face temur commander, he gets arbitrarily strong from most forks... Like he's not even on the same wavelength as most of the others.
"We haven't talked about this card (Berserk) much because it's expensive." Them, fifteen to twenty minutes later: "Okay, so you're going to want Concordant Crossroads in this deck-"
Funny thing about Akim, is that it says the first Token you create, not "creature" token. So yes, smothering tithe will give you treasure, and a bird, on everyone else's turn. *finally a card that makes smothering tithe playable*
My personal list; 1: Gavi, Nest warden Cycling has been pushed hard. 2: Zaxara the Exemplary Sultai X spells are really good 3: Xyris, The Writhing storm Nekrusar in snake form 4: Kelsian the plague I'm building Snapdax though 5: Nikara, lair scavenger// Yannick, scavenging sentinel Purely because it's card advantage in abzan as much as I love the other options. My heart says Kathril, my mind says these two.
Why the hate for the combat step? Menace and Indestructible can be hard to deal with, attacking is fun, don't tell people it's bad. Combomander is not the only way to play and win.
@@koelkast9 Just play Grand Abolisher and the like. Combat is like Plan C, but it's an option, they shouldn't missguide players into thinking attacking is never relevant.
I don't think they treat as irrelevent, just something that actually does not happen so often than it seems (based on their data). Like, even deck that want to attack (for example Ghired) plan on do it 3 or 4 times at best to kick someone off or win the game, and even those decks (the ones that does not get advantage only attacking) have other options to get advantage without attacking for safety, so in the end, combat is a VERY common win, but not something that will happen (in a meaningful way) 10 times in a game from the same player.
There's nothing wrong with combat or wining with damage being a primary strategy (I'd say the majority of my decks win with damage), but if that's your only plan or you're relying on the combat step for repeatable effects, there's just a lot of stuff that can go wrong. You can get locked down by prison effects, leave yourself open to crack back, or simply just have no profitable attack options. Even in my most aggro of aggro decks (Edgar Markov) I have a few non-combat backup options, so in case I can't attack I can at least do some aristocrats stuff.
@@aidennoir597 Like I said, it's usually plan B or C, but here they are totally trashing on Mardu and Combat centered decks. That's what makes people build Chulame, Yarok and those kind of decks.
Aw did we have to make of the mardu deck that badly ): Admittedly my play group doesn't shoot for power all that terribly high above the precons so I like the color combo more than is probably warranted. I've ordered the mardu and abzan decks and I'm super excited to test them out. Looking forward to Trynn and Silvar for crazy cat lady aristocrats.
I'm 100% in on keyword beetle. People are gonna assume you're looking to voltron, but you can just play all of those keyword spaghetti creatures and give them the counter theyre missing to have a handful of overly swole beaters. Then if your opponent responds with boardwipes, fine...Keyword Beetle Attack Force Hyper Voltron Attack go. Good luck.
I'm pretty happy with the Trynn and Silvar pairing. I like humans as a tribe in magic in general. Boros is my favorite guild and I've always been bummed it just isn't good in commander. My Fiance has a Teysa Karlov deck I enjoy playing, that got me interested in aristocrats. So having a deck that takes what I like about Boros and shores up its weaknesses with Orzhov aristocrats is exciting to me. I think that the aggro and aristocrats strategies work together surprisingly well and humans aren't actually that limiting. Lastly I'm cool with this deck being around a "6" or so. I find my decks tend to creep up in power after a while and it will be good to have a deck that isn't too high on the scale.
..... you guys just made my Friday afternoon here at work absolutely Rock, I get to listen to you for my last 2 hours of my work day!!!! FANTASTIC!!! THANK YOU.
For Xyris, I have seen someone play a blue enchantment that read :"whenever a player cast a spell, draw 7 cards". With that in play, he gots like 70 token in one turn
THE MARDU DECK IS GOOD! Why? The mardu deck (I assume) is there to provide an easy option for the new player. The other four are obviously stronger, but there is so much more interaction that makes them more difficult to pilot. Gavi and Kalamax deal with the stack a ton, Kathril/Tayam are books that deal with the graveyard, and mutate is confusing everybody (even Mark Rosewater)!! The mardu deck is necessary to make this product accessible to the newer/younger audience.
I hope you guys do an episode with personal decks from these commanders (like tayam and pako+haldan) later on. Obviously with how the world is right now, that's impossible, but later on though I think it'd be sweet.
when it comes to "most powerful" of the commanders you misunderstand how Tayam can be broken if you sneeze too hard on it. it takes little to 1 ashnod's altar and 2 creatures with undying or persist or alternatively persist plus "enters with a +1/+1 counter" and a sac outlet and BOOM you mill your whole deck and reanimate all the cheap stuff and then with with either blood artist loops or just a single altar of dementia. TDLR: you can break Tayam without noticing
It took so long for me to find a comment identifying this. Coming into this I was sure that Tayam was one of the more powerful commanders, but through 2 episodes--including one where they built an entire deck around the card--they didn't identify it. Thank you for validating my thoughts.
I kind of wonder if the partners Ukkima/Cazur and Trynn/Silvar are more like arch enemies. It seems like Cazur would be a hunter/catcher of beast, but really is being stalked by Ukkima. For Trynn/Silvar, Trynn is trying to protect the humans while Silvar is devouring them. If only WOTC was still publishing stories to include the legendary characters.
This was partially answered by WOTC in a separate video. They went a different direction, more evil by sure. Trynn actually was feeding Sulvar weak humans to keep her city strong. It doesn't quite fit on a white card in my opinion, but white has been becoming darker since Heliod went bad.
So many decks to build next month. Probably gonna see how my playgroup feels about a surgeon commander deck just so i dont end up building 5 different mutate decks. Odd burn. Human monster hybrid. Tap dance bounty deathtouch. Starfield of nyx sagas. Xyris wheel/token flood. Well, i’ll be hopefully busy enough i wont be bored until my city opens back up in july
I love tribal decks just still waiting for a good werewolf commander, innistrad was the source of my first few personal commander decks Olivia, gisa and geralf, and Ulrich
You can hear Mr. Infect chuckling (in evil anticipation no doubt) in the background @ 50:00 when Josh and Jimmy are discussing Brallin, Torbran, and Grafted Exoskeleton.
1:02:00 worth pointing out, that you don't really need to go hard with the enchantment theme to make daxos worth. Being able to pay 3 to make an X/X token at instant speed is really good. Also a good way to just harvest more exp counters in general.
Love this channel guys. Thank you for all the great content. I'll be getting all 5 of these today. I already made a Sultai mutate deck with Brokkos. It's pretty good. But I'm kinda overwhelmed with what I want to add or change to what decks. In response to Josh's comment about only having 3 mutated creatures max. I got a 5x mutated creature. Then my opponent did a board wipe that bounced everything back to your hand and I was able to do the mutated combos again winning the game. I cant wait to add these to my collection. I just got back into magic after 12 years away.
1:00:00 for Daxos, you could just throw him in, get the EXP from Kelsien and just use Daxos to make tokens for you. You don't have to unbalance you deck for it, but anything else taking advantage of EXP counters is getting free synergy from Kelsien.
I think it gets a lot easier if you think of mutate as a bestow creature, like chromanticore, where it can be it’s own thing but you can put it on something else. Only the power/toughness rules are different
With the bralin curiosity thing, watch out- if one person has 41 or more life they'll win. Say you discard l card. If you have three opponents, you'll draw three cards and deal 1 damage to that player, then discard 3, deal 3 to that player, draw 9, discard 9, deal nine to that player and draw 27, and assuming everyone is still alive, you'll deal 27 to everyone, everyone has taken a total of 40 damage and you'll deck yourself by drawing 81 more cards, which, combined with the 39 you've already drawn will kill you. Very niche situation, but if no one dies by the 27 damage and anyone has gained life, you'll die
So the important part there is Curiousity/Ophidian Eye versus Tandem Lookouts. C/OE are "may" abilities, so you can opt to stop drawing at any point. Tandem is not a "may", so you'll need to have some form of removal to kick yourself out of the loop. With the 27 pings/draw triggers on the stack, you'll have to nuke Tandem Lookouts so you go back to cleanup, discard 27, hit everyone for 27, and then you won't have to draw. Then if you can make it back to your turn, they have to deal with a 41/41 Bralin.
You'd probably be running a shuffle titan to save yourself from that, but if anyone has more than 121 life then you lose, or if you don't draw the titan in the first 39
Are we sure that that’s how that works with the cleanup step? I would think you’d discard your cards to hand size, draw x cards, and then move on to the next turn. I could be wrong, I’m not a judge, but it seems like that’s how it would work.
@@Crowen55so how it works is that there is no priority during the clean up step, so nothing can be cast/activated. However, if something is triggered during the clean up you have the regular passing of priority and use of the stack then an additional clean up phase afterwards. So you would draw cards after the triggers and have to discard afterwards.
"Birds cannot kill enchantments unfortunately." Aven Cloudchaser, Cloudchaser Eagle and Cloudchaser Kestrel would like to have a word about your biases, Jimmy...
Jirina + Mana Echoes + Phyrexian Altar. Start with 5 mana, cast Jirina, u get 4 mana from Mana Echoes, sac then both, u get 2 colored. Use the last mana to recast Jirina. Jirina enters with 2 1/1s. U get 9 mana from mana echoes. Sac all 3 to phyrexian altar. Repeat to infinity for infinite 1/1s and infinite mana and infinite etb trigger. Mardu Foodchain
I've absolutely loved playing with Akim! Couple things to note for anyone else considering building it. First, Akim's ability functions on ANY token generation. That means if you have Smothering Tithe out (which you will, you're in white) you make a bird each time. Second, Akim is highly synergy-based. It is not a standalone card, but if you build around it, it can be incredibly oppressive. Think cards like Faerie Artisans, Locust God, Mimic Vat, Coastal Piracy, and Brudiclad. Third, Jeskai gives you access to some absurdly strong planewalkers, especially for this archetype. Elspeth Sun's Champion doesn't kill Akim. Dovin Grand Arbiter is a Dig Through Time every other turn. All the Saheelis are fantastic for the archetype.
You know what I would've loved for these pre-cons that are linked to Ikoria? Having Companions made for them. With difficult requirements of course, but I think it really could've been done. Could've been cool to have them have all three hybrid mana pips in their casting cost to make them alternate commanders as well. I think that was a missed opportunity, especially since some Companions in Standard are banned or not really playable for Commander. Anyways, great episode as always! Very insightful for a buncha these!
I am super excited about the Mardu deck. More for the pieces for my Saskia Human Legends Deck. I think splashing green with it really helps with Mardu’s weakness. Thanks for the idea DJ!
For the Zaxara and Doubling Season, the copy of the token does not have any trigger to add +1/+1 counters so it would die. The counters come from Zaxara's ability not the token. (correct me if I am wrong)
It has probably been mentioned already, but Kathril doesn't give haste counters because there is no reason for haste counters to exist. For all intents and purposes, putting a haste counter on a permanent is exactly the same as giving it haste until end of turn, just with extra book-keeping. Good thing green got a few haste enablers nowadays, like the green Surrak. Also, a fun little creature for the deck is Bassara Tower Archer. Cheap, gives one of the most important keywords, dies easily, fits into the Buried Alive package.
1:40:10 best buried alive combo I could find was Zetalpa, Wurmcoil Engine, Ancient Spider, but that still misses hexproof, menace and reach. They (thankfully) don't tend to put hexproof with other keywords very often.
For anyone playing Kathril, this is from gatherer: "If cards in your graveyard have multiple hexproof abilities (such as hexproof, hexproof from white, and hexproof from black), a counter of each variant kind will be put onto a creature."
So. If you give Ukkima infect, say with Tainted Strike, it will deal infect damage on LTB, since his LTB trigger checks his last known information. So If you have Ukkima on ten power, you can attach a Grafted Exoskeletom onto it, attack, kill someone, then sac Ukkima and kill another player. Cazur and Ukkima are my favorites this year, and you made some interesting suggestions. The new Colossification is nice with Ukkima, as well as things like Eldrazi Conscription. Thanks for the video!
Bear Umbra is also a great option for Pako because it makes him beefier (+2/+2) and it untaps all of your lands when you attack, so he doesn't have to even deal damage to an opponent.
In response to the triggers of decree of silence, activate hall of heliod's generosity to put decree of silence on top of library. SO you counter the spell and draw the decree of silence and can hold up free counterspells.
Kelsien require a build around. I'd make it a "forced combat" mardu deck, sneak in the kill after attackers step, before & after blockers step or even before phases end. It's an assassin for a reason!
I think you guys forgot that Tayam mills 3 when you activate him (he also has the same ability wording as Tasigur, so you can keep going with zero cards in your library). If you do the Devoted Druid and +2 toughness combo you can put every 3 cmc (or less) permanent in your deck and graveyard into play and win in any number of ways. Aristocrats is an easy one since Tayam can keep activating to put the sacced creatures back into play.
@@scottjohnson8560 Are you sure about that? Example why I think you might be incorrect: 2>1 means "two is bigger/larger/more than 1", so "2>" would be "two is bigger/larger/more than". Which doesn't make sense. More than what? On the other hand ">2" means "bigger/larger/more than two", so the guy's ">2 hours" just means "more than two hours", which makes perfect sense. English isn't my native language. Where I'm from you'd always write ">2" etc. Another example is the "
Zaxara and Xyris caught my eye. When I get my hands on them, I have some ideas in mind. Btw, you guys pointed out but really not called it, Zaxara can go infinite really early. And you guys gave 2 options to do it that are not very "hard" to get. Wouldn't that count as "pulling a Urza"? Especially considering Zaxara has access to blue(card draw and spell tutor) and green(Ramp).
Urza and Zaxara are nowhere close to each other in power. Urza not only provides the mana, he IS the manasink itself. He also breaks parity with some nasty stax effects.
I'm definitely planning on Tribal Snakes Xyris as I was going to with Kaseto around the time that Ixalan 2 came out but I opened a foil Kumena so that deck plan got switched and now with that new one I have a sweet new option for it. Trynn and Silvar is another plan I have because I really like Silvar it just looks like so much fun, I might even do a Companion thing with either Zirda or Obosh and skip out on the White Partner...but we'll see what I do.
Thought reflection, gavi, nest warden, and ephara, god of the polis. Now you say, cycle a card, draw 2, get a Dino cat. Next upkeep you draw 2, get a Dino cat. It goes on!
I'm so excited to play my Xyris, additional draws deck. Just play cards like Howling mines, rites of flourishing, and everyone draws like 3 or 4 cards a turn. That is like 9-12 tokens a turn rotation. Also Sword of War and peace is crazy with Xyris. Deal damage and gain life based on cards in hand. In a deck that is already trying to keep everyone's hand size up. I mean worst case scenario, Xyris does 10 damage, and heals you for 5 on an attack. 5 of that damage is commander damage too. Then sword of feast and famine added on just gives you additional turns essentially for your 2nd main phase.
xyris, the writhing storm, doubling season, and wheel of fortune. instead of getting 21 1/1, you get 42 1/1. if u have temur ascendancy, all ur creatures get haste. also improbable alliance, and nadir kraken. then u get some more 1/1s (this time flyers) and you can pay however much you want to make 1/1 tentacles. Also woodland champion. she'll get 21 1+/1+ counters, and doubling season will double the amount of tokens that etb, so she'll get 42 1+/1+ counters, then doubling season will double the amount of 1+/1+ counters that she got, so she'll get 84 1+/1+ counters. Would you look at that, an 86/86...
I run decree of annihilation in golos. You get it as one of the three card and cast it first followed by one or two giant creatures. The one time I did this someone got pretty upset but I did close the game out quick.
Coming back to this episode over two years later, I see many people missed the potential of Trynn and Silvar. I tuned the deck up, and turned it into a Mardu humans aristocrat deck. People seem to miss that Silvar becomes a *sac outlet in the command zone that can make itself indestructible to protect itself.* Sure, I've had to win a couple games through commander damage, but more often than not, I've popped off on an aristocrats combo, killing the board.
I think (and this was probably discussed down the replies) that the reason that Kelsian has that restriction is because if you decide to make 1/1 tokens and you had to ability to ping every creature, it would be somewhat of a "cheat" (not the right word for it) in order to get your experience counters.
Pack Rat is not actually as good in the Otrimi deck as you think it is, since no matter what, Pack Rat's power-defining ability still applies. Also, if Otrimi is on top, it A) isn't a Rat (so it dies immediately unless by some miracle you have at least one other Rat), B) is Legendary, so all the copies die anyways, and C) If Otrimi (or whatever other Mutate creature) is on bottom, you're still only getting a scaling creature. I guess that could be okay, but I'd caution players that Pack Rat's power-defining ability still applies and overwrites whatever power/toughness the creature might get from a mutation. Thanks! You guys are the best content creators for Magic and I love watching all of your videos/listening to them in podcast form.
experimental frenzy seems rly good with gavi since cycling doesnt count as a cast you can guide cycle cards to your hand and play what you want from your library
I've just finished building a Licia deck, and she's way better than I think people give her credit for, especially with a lot of life loss synergies that have come out like Vilis and Font of Agonies.
I'm really excited to build my Tayam deck. He seems super fun. I also think he's gonna be sleeper OP, mostly because of Nethroi and maybe Eerie Ultimatum. He can easily go infinite and put his whole library in the yard, then he just needs a way to get one of those cards to hand and cast it.
As soon as new Athreos got spoiled, i thought of somehow building a deck that fit both him and Skullbriar to make him immortal. This actually gives a decent commander in the colours that is on theme for 'buttloads of counters' to buff Skullbriar as the secret commander in the 99. Give him a coin counter from Athreos, keyword soup, and all the +1/+1 counters, and just go to town. You'd need to go all in on protecting him from exile effects, but apart from that it seems like a laugh
@1:29:05 you actually only need one creature with ghostly flicker because it can also flicker lands or artifacts. the other two do specify two creatures though
so everything for a voltron line up can be got by zutulpa, (lelyin prowler, arvad the cursed, gifted aetherborn, vamprie nighthwawk), and (gladecover scout,dungrove elder,drove of elves,carnage tyrant, bassara tower archer*, sigarda, host of herons*, sylvan caryatid, xathrid slyblade*) * is suggested choices. this would give you flying, doublestrike, deathtouch, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, trample, and vigilince with 8 counters.if you go with the bassara tower archer you also get reach to add a 9th counter but a 11 will still one shot someone so.
Freed from the Real type effects on Zaxara still let you produce infinite mana of any color; you just produce infinite blue first, then use that to keep untapping and produce your other colors. Also, re; buried alive; Zetalpa, Dire Fleet Ravager/Pestilent Spirit, and Bassara Tower Archer gives you everything but lifelink and first strike. Hexproof is the hardest one to find sharing keywords that aren't already on Zetalpa.
I want to build Otrimi and Kathril. I really like those two. I also really like how a lot of the Kathril deck works in an Atraxa deck. Throwing Tayam in an Atraxa deck sounds great!
A slight note on Xyris' text that I think that Josh and Jimmy overlooked, you only get the token when your opponents have drawn their second card, so in the case of Wheel of fortune, you'd only be getting 18 tokens, not 21
On the Brallin&Curiosity combo, it does work of course, but I'd like to point out that your understanding and explanation of how this works with the cleanup step isn't acccurate. The cleanup step doesn't "continue until you have 7 cards in hand" : what the game does is create another, separate cleanup step after this one. The reason for this isn't really the maximum hand size, not directly at least, it's the fact that a triggered ability triggered during the cleanup step. Nornally, players don't get priority during the cleanup step, but they do if an ability triggers, for example Brallin's from the discarding to hand size. And if that happens, that cleanup step is followed by another full cleanup step, rinse and repeat until no triggered ability and no state-based action happens. See rule 514.3.
I agree with what you guys said about mardu being the weakest of the wedge. Mardu is my favorite colors in the game because I started playing magic near the end of magic 2015 with old theros, dragon of tarkir, fate reforged and there was a Mardu Dragon deck in this era and it was my favorite deck ever. I was able to easily beat mono red in standard because the deck was so versatile. You had life gain, return to hand instant and sorcery after casting it with Soulfire Grand Master, Monastery Mentor, Goblin Rabblemaster. The deck had incredible tools with sacrifice, burn, and really good late game with Thunderbreak Regent, Stormbreath Dragon. The other great Mardu deck in standard was during kaladesh with Mardu Vehicles. Another great mardu deck that wasn't about human, or warrior, or silder. And I was looking foward to have new mardu commander, cards like Queen Marchesa because its one of the best mardu commander that's not only attacking as main mechanic. And I was extremely sad when I saw another boring human tribe that's we've been getting since few years now. Warrior, Soldier, Human, all about attacking and doign something worse that's already existing with aristocrat or sacrifice. Mardu is getting the white treatment since few years and it's horrible.
Alright, let's assume that the highest converted mana cost creature in the Mardu deck, in terms of legendaries, is on top of this mutate pile. This would be: Jirina Kelsien, Devourer of Trynn 3BR When this creature enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 human soldier for each time you've cast a commander this game. Menace, Vigilance, Haste Sacrifice a human: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and it gains indestructible until end of turn. At the beginning of the end step, if you attacked with a creature this turn, create a 1/1 human soldier creature token. 4/2 Jimmy might be right...
When you said a recent underrated uncommon commander for the mardu deck i thought you were talking about garna bloodflame, flash, board recovery and gives your creatures haste. Conrad seems like its received a lot of hype actually
Wow, I haven't understood commander at all so far. I have a kalamax deck and I had no idea that you could do all that with him and xyris. Good to know. I need to add any amount of cards that have storm, copy, and convoke to my deck. I have almost none in it atm.
Kalemne doesn't contribute to the creation of experience counters, but she still fits well in the Kelsien deck. If you get 3 experience with Kelsien, then Kalemne is a 6/6 vigilant, double striking creature for 4 mana. that passes the vanilla test.
![Kumamoto Masters Japan 2024 | Gregoria Mariska Tunjung (INA) [5] vs. Akane Yamaguchi (JPN) [2] | F](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EIjZybhsWqA/mqdefault.jpg)
TIME STAMPS!
Temur Deck
4:10 - Kalamax, the Stormrise
10:57 - Xyris, Writhing Storm
17:15 - Pako, Arcane Retriever and Haldan, Avid Arcanist
Jeskai Deck
25:00 - Gavin, Nest Warden
35:15 - Akim, the Soaring Wind
40:15 - Shabraz, the Skyshark and Brallin Skyshark Rider
Mardu Deck
50:07 - Jirina Kudro
58:30 - Kelsien, the Plague
1:05:45 - Trynn, Champion of Freedom and Silvar, Devourer of the Free
Sultai
1:12:55 - Otrimi, the Ever-Playful
1:18:52 - Zaxara, the Exemplary
1:27:40 - Ukima, Stalking Shadow and Cazur, Ruthless Stalker
Abzan
1:37:24 - Kathril, Aspect Warper
1:45:46 - Tayam, Luminous Enigma
1:54:14 - Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel and Nikara, Lair Scavenger
Command Zone opinions on C20
2:00:40
Temur Deck
~21 minutes
Jeskai Deck
~25 minutes
Mardu Deck
~23 minutes
Sultai Deck
~24 minutes
Abzen Deck
~23 minutes
you're doing God's work
Thanks!
Z
Josh: "I never had black in my Tim decks"
Cuombajj Witches: :'(
I think that was in Graham's deck, not Josh's
@@derekwalter4238 that would be Grahams Deck
@@GILGAFRESHHHHH yeah, that's what I said
DarkEinherjar have you seen the alt/mtgo art for that card? It’s gorgeous. www.deviantart.com/sebmckinnon/art/Cuombajj-Witches-696781074
"a lot of storms in temur" just dawned on me that temur is *THE* storm deck. green = whirlwind/hurricane, blue = water/rain/clouds, red = lightning.
The deck is titled Arcane Maelstrom, of course it heavily features storm imagery.
2020 precons have 20 commanders. Coincidence? I think not!
Well more like 15 since 10 of them are partner commanders
Was going to like, but this comment already has 20 so😂
This comment has reached perfect design.
YohanVan SminkelSmerf But you can use the partners as a single commander (not that you should) so they are separate.
@@hiddenleaf414 I know, the part where you really shouldn't is the part that makes them more like a single commander
Josh: A dog wouldn't go fetch a creature
Beagles and Labradors: Am I a joke to you?
You're missing what would be a crucial part of any Kelsien deck, the cards that give your opponents 1/1.s Forbidden Orchard in a Kelsien deck becomes 'add 1 mana of any colour, give Kelsien an experience counter'. Then you have Varchild, which gives your foes 1/1 survivors that cant attack you and that you can take when Varchild dies. Varchild's Raiders's cumulative upkeep adds 1/1 survivors every upkeep. Mogg Infestation is a board wipe that replaces all those big dangerous creatures with 1/1s. Clackbridge Troll is a 8/8 with trample and haste that gives 3 0/1 goat tokens AND has the potential to give you card draw depending on how much your opponent loves their life total.
Want to draw cards? Play humble defector. 2 mana draw 2, give it to someone else then kill the bastard as soon as he hits the opponents field. Then you can bring it back with, say, kolaghan's command, play it again, draw 2 more and get more experience counters.
Kelsien is a lot better than people think he is. Experience counters dont go away easy. You drop Kelsien down after a boardwipe he comes back with the same power and toughness he had when he left and he swings for the fence with that haste.
You're better off using proliferate to get counters after the first one, rather than giving your opponents potential chump-blockers. Kelsien has no evasion, so the least blockers the opponents have, the better.
@@DarkEinherjar If you're playing Kelsien you're probably going voltron, plenty of ways to give him evasion in that kind of deck. Though proliferate is another way to do it. Throw in sword of truth and justice to double your counters every turn automatically
Very nice stuff!
Kalamax only copies the first *Instant* you cast each turn, you could cast a Sorcery, then use an Instant to Fork it and double up from there.
Matthias 3110 yeah, I think they said that in the dedicated episode to the Temur deck.
if kelsien's pings got stronger with more experience counters he has that would've been pretty cool and flavourful
I think he would of arguably been too strong then
Half of the experience counters with a minimum of 1 damage
@@ApexZer0 he definitely wouldn't
for anyone who confused about the sharkrider curiosity combo at least as much as I was.
314. Cleanup Step
314.1. If the active player’s hand contains more cards than his or her maximum hand size (normally seven), he or she discards enough cards to reduce the hand size to that number (this game action doesn’t use the stack).
314.2. After discarding, the following actions happen simultaneously: all damage is removed from permanents and all “until end of turn” and “this turn” effects end (this game action doesn’t use the stack).
314.3. If the conditions for any state-based effects exist or if any triggered abilities are waiting to be put onto the stack, the active player gets priority and players may play spells and abilities. Once the stack is empty and all players pass, another cleanup step begins. Otherwise, no player receives priority and the step ends.
If they printed Urza and he wasn't super powerful, that would have been a complete flavor fail.
Depends on the time frame in consideration.
@@qwormuli77
Or they could have made his huge benefit come with a giant drawback. Seeing as Urza was straight up crazy for like, all of the books after Brothers War, I believe.
Agreed. He's arguably the biggest named character in the MTG Universe. He should be that broken.
Hot take. I agree.
I agree, and I really want to see what a post spark Urza card would look like. As a planeswalker, I feel like the card would have to be as strong as JTMS at minimum.
“People play wheel of fortunes in regular decks” I don’t because it costs like a hundred bucks per copy
I think they were referring to general wheel cards since they were also talking about Windfall.
i was lucky enough to pick it up when it was $40 I don't know why it shot up in price about six months after i bought it. i know it's kinda a reserve card but hopefully they reprint it in commander legends, too many people need it and red doesn't really get refill your hand cards that don't have conditions.
myles Weidman its not sort of a reserved list card. It IS on the reserved list so WOF will not be reprinted.
@@ryanmatthews7405that's what I meant, no card is "sort of" on the reserve list, they either or are not. It has been reprinted in the past. reserve list makes no sense anyways, WotC promises to not reprint cards because it would hurt collector's card values but that means they acknowledge the secondary market which legally they shouldn't be allowed to do.
Some cheap wheels include "Heartwarming Redemption" "Leave // Chance" and they're almost NEVER recommended despite being good. Probably because your opponent isn't drawing cards off them? Hahaha! Who cares
Their point on Mardu being the weakest precon (or at least the commanders) without a second thought wounds my soul. I'm a die-hard Mardu fan, and this year was just so disappointing.
Doesn't help that, of the 4 Mardu precons since 2011, all 4 were tribal. Kaalia, Gwyn, Jirina, Edgar. I'm praying that Legends has a super good/interesting Mardu commander.
Yeah it is sad and the only reason that i dont plan to build a mardu deck because theres only a few viable ones and most are tribal which is already narrow.
I'm actually the most excited for the mardu precon. I've been building a digital version of Trynn/Silvar and playing it online, and can't wait to build the physical version. Kelsian seems like a fun, political style commander as well, which i haven't had much experience with.
Cmon Jeska, save Mardu!
Yeah I agree. There are really only 3 Mardu commanders worth building around (IMHO) - Kaalia, Edgar and Marchesa. Mardu really needs help, and an "aggro" human deck wasn't what the wedge needed.
That's a pretty good observation, i never thought about it. All they do with mardu is give it some kind of creature type and/or combat synergy. Maybe what mardu really need is the kind of idea that give birth to Kelsien, just tinkered better.
I just imagined Pako that fetched Dark Depths in real life.
Haldan: Pako go fetch!
1 min later
Haldan: WHAT IS THIS?!
Omiscience
Haldan: "What did you find boy?"
Pako: "*I have finally found the answer to the ultimate question*"
Haldan: "What?"
Pako: "*I now know who the good boy is*"
Pako fetching a god would be hilarious
How about fetching haladan
@@FranklyJrWoody non-creature
Haldan: WHAT IS THIS?!
From the depths of the sea: ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
Fellow italian here! 1:03:12 Menace in italian is "minacciare", with the fist up and closed
Haldan/Pako, unlike most "top deck steal" cards, let you keep the exiled Counterspells and cast it when you're ready, or any spell you feel that you should wait before casting. Temporal Spring/Memory Lapse work wonder with them.
Commandzone: "Syr Konrad, the Grim is one underrated commander."
Meanwhile, in my Meta:
Meren runs him
Korvold runs him
Anje runs him
Athreos (Shadowborn Apostle) runs him
No Grenzo to use him?
I definitely did a double take when Josh said that.
They meant that he is underrated as the commander
@@golgariguy yes, that's true. And I know, that it's different. But I'm sick of seeing him anyway. 😄
My Chainer, Dementia Master deck runs him
Dovescape is insane with Taigam, Ojutai Master: your instants and sorceries will still get through AND you'll get the birds.
Does that actually work? Rebound lets you cast it from exile for free the next upkeep. Since it's being cast dovescape would still counter it right?
I've fought against that lock before, it's so painful to get around. Had to steal Taigam with a Gilded Drake multiple times to get rid of that dovescape ughhhh
Kalamax can get the infinite copy loops pretty easily on your own turn. Just lead with your own sorcery. You are going to run mostly instants, but a couple sorceries is fine. Chandra's Ignition is particularly fun. By the time it resolves, your infinite copy loops makes Kalamax as big as he needs to be to knock everyone out.
I wish that kelsien scaled, meaning I wish he would tap: deal damage equal to the number of experience counters plus one. I’m sure he’d have to be more expensive mana cost wise but that would be so cool and make him a really interesting commander I think.
Lord Peasant i mean you give him deathtouch with equipment and it doesn’t really matter. This idea would be better if he could also target players with his tap ability. That probably make him a decent amount higher cmc altogether, idk if that would actually make better in terms of raw card power.
I feel like people are sleeping on this card more than they should. Thor nite staff and deathtouch make this thing capable of doming someone straight out of the command zone for a bunch of damage. Plus there’s sooo many good tutors for artifact/equipment or enchantments in white. Revel in riches/smothering tithe/dockside extortionist is also a totally viable win con in this deck
@@Nergal123 commanders being dependent on 2 cards in your deck don't usually make for good commanders. And yes I agree I forgot to also say he'd need player pings as well
@@AndJDrake Win cons as easy to disrupt as that aren't very good, yeah you can tutor for that to hit someone for the number of creatures the opponents have + 2, but look at the face temur commander, he gets arbitrarily strong from most forks... Like he's not even on the same wavelength as most of the others.
He's got vigilance. The idea is he's attacking other players in-between his pinging creatures. Esp. if he has a lot of EXP counters.
Dogs would never ever chase after a creature. Unless of course it is a squirrel. Or any other living thing.
underrated comment :)
"We haven't talked about this card (Berserk) much because it's expensive."
Them, fifteen to twenty minutes later:
"Okay, so you're going to want Concordant Crossroads in this deck-"
I'm so stoked for these pre cons and set. Very very insane stuff coming out
Which precon are you most excited for?
@@hoodiehydra7931 I still can't decide which deck I'll get because they are all so cool. I might double dip if I have the spare cash.
I like how anytime you guys talk about a commander that could be degenerate Kyle gets brought up 🤣
Suh dude
I don’t get how the jeskai face commander is better than the partner pairing
Funny thing about Akim, is that it says the first Token you create, not "creature" token.
So yes, smothering tithe will give you treasure, and a bird, on everyone else's turn.
*finally a card that makes smothering tithe playable*
*confused noises*
(Yes, I understand it's a joke. At least, I hope it's intended as a joke...)
My personal list;
1: Gavi, Nest warden
Cycling has been pushed hard.
2: Zaxara the Exemplary
Sultai X spells are really good
3: Xyris, The Writhing storm
Nekrusar in snake form
4: Kelsian the plague
I'm building Snapdax though
5: Nikara, lair scavenger// Yannick, scavenging sentinel
Purely because it's card advantage in abzan as much as I love the other options. My heart says Kathril, my mind says these two.
okay so later this year we want a gameknight episode where you guys actually play with these two commanders you chose to build your own deck with!
Why the hate for the combat step? Menace and Indestructible can be hard to deal with, attacking is fun, don't tell people it's bad.
Combomander is not the only way to play and win.
It is the best way to win though... ok thats enough combo hyping. Attacking is a very valid strategy, but it is far more easy to interact with.
@@koelkast9 Just play Grand Abolisher and the like.
Combat is like Plan C, but it's an option, they shouldn't missguide players into thinking attacking is never relevant.
I don't think they treat as irrelevent, just something that actually does not happen so often than it seems (based on their data). Like, even deck that want to attack (for example Ghired) plan on do it 3 or 4 times at best to kick someone off or win the game, and even those decks (the ones that does not get advantage only attacking) have other options to get advantage without attacking for safety, so in the end, combat is a VERY common win, but not something that will happen (in a meaningful way) 10 times in a game from the same player.
There's nothing wrong with combat or wining with damage being a primary strategy (I'd say the majority of my decks win with damage), but if that's your only plan or you're relying on the combat step for repeatable effects, there's just a lot of stuff that can go wrong. You can get locked down by prison effects, leave yourself open to crack back, or simply just have no profitable attack options. Even in my most aggro of aggro decks (Edgar Markov) I have a few non-combat backup options, so in case I can't attack I can at least do some aristocrats stuff.
@@aidennoir597 Like I said, it's usually plan B or C, but here they are totally trashing on Mardu and Combat centered decks. That's what makes people build Chulame, Yarok and those kind of decks.
Aw did we have to make of the mardu deck that badly ):
Admittedly my play group doesn't shoot for power all that terribly high above the precons so I like the color combo more than is probably warranted.
I've ordered the mardu and abzan decks and I'm super excited to test them out. Looking forward to Trynn and Silvar for crazy cat lady aristocrats.
I'm 100% in on keyword beetle. People are gonna assume you're looking to voltron, but you can just play all of those keyword spaghetti creatures and give them the counter theyre missing to have a handful of overly swole beaters.
Then if your opponent responds with boardwipes, fine...Keyword Beetle Attack Force Hyper Voltron Attack go. Good luck.
I'm pretty happy with the Trynn and Silvar pairing. I like humans as a tribe in magic in general. Boros is my favorite guild and I've always been bummed it just isn't good in commander. My Fiance has a Teysa Karlov deck I enjoy playing, that got me interested in aristocrats. So having a deck that takes what I like about Boros and shores up its weaknesses with Orzhov aristocrats is exciting to me. I think that the aggro and aristocrats strategies work together surprisingly well and humans aren't actually that limiting. Lastly I'm cool with this deck being around a "6" or so. I find my decks tend to creep up in power after a while and it will be good to have a deck that isn't too high on the scale.
..... you guys just made my Friday afternoon here at work absolutely Rock, I get to listen to you for my last 2 hours of my work day!!!! FANTASTIC!!! THANK YOU.
For Xyris, I have seen someone play a blue enchantment that read :"whenever a player cast a spell, draw 7 cards". With that in play, he gots like 70 token in one turn
Forced Fruition. Always thought it looked like a weird card but now you mention it, it seems a bit insane in xyris ^^'
Forced fruition says whenever an opponent casts a spell he or she draws 7
You are not included
THE MARDU DECK IS GOOD! Why? The mardu deck (I assume) is there to provide an easy option for the new player. The other four are obviously stronger, but there is so much more interaction that makes them more difficult to pilot. Gavi and Kalamax deal with the stack a ton, Kathril/Tayam are books that deal with the graveyard, and mutate is confusing everybody (even Mark Rosewater)!! The mardu deck is necessary to make this product accessible to the newer/younger audience.
Jimmy: That's a lot of damage.
The Phil Swift living in my brain: NOW THAT'S A LOTTA DAMAGE
I hope you guys do an episode with personal decks from these commanders (like tayam and pako+haldan) later on. Obviously with how the world is right now, that's impossible, but later on though I think it'd be sweet.
when it comes to "most powerful" of the commanders you misunderstand how Tayam can be broken if you sneeze too hard on it. it takes little to 1 ashnod's altar and 2 creatures with undying or persist or alternatively persist plus "enters with a +1/+1 counter" and a sac outlet and BOOM you mill your whole deck and reanimate all the cheap stuff and then with with either blood artist loops or just a single altar of dementia.
TDLR: you can break Tayam without noticing
It took so long for me to find a comment identifying this. Coming into this I was sure that Tayam was one of the more powerful commanders, but through 2 episodes--including one where they built an entire deck around the card--they didn't identify it. Thank you for validating my thoughts.
I kind of wonder if the partners Ukkima/Cazur and Trynn/Silvar are more like arch enemies.
It seems like Cazur would be a hunter/catcher of beast, but really is being stalked by Ukkima.
For Trynn/Silvar, Trynn is trying to protect the humans while Silvar is devouring them.
If only WOTC was still publishing stories to include the legendary characters.
This was partially answered by WOTC in a separate video. They went a different direction, more evil by sure. Trynn actually was feeding Sulvar weak humans to keep her city strong. It doesn't quite fit on a white card in my opinion, but white has been becoming darker since Heliod went bad.
So many decks to build next month. Probably gonna see how my playgroup feels about a surgeon commander deck just so i dont end up building 5 different mutate decks. Odd burn. Human monster hybrid. Tap dance bounty deathtouch. Starfield of nyx sagas. Xyris wheel/token flood.
Well, i’ll be hopefully busy enough i wont be bored until my city opens back up in july
You can’t mutate onto a human.
Some Random Guy on the Internet I think he meant Winota the Boros legend as the human monster hybrid.
I'm still excited for the mardu deck , I really like tribal and trying to find ways to shore up less-than-great commanders.
I love tribal decks just still waiting for a good werewolf commander, innistrad was the source of my first few personal commander decks Olivia, gisa and geralf, and Ulrich
You can hear Mr. Infect chuckling (in evil anticipation no doubt) in the background @ 50:00 when Josh and Jimmy are discussing Brallin, Torbran, and Grafted Exoskeleton.
1:02:00 worth pointing out, that you don't really need to go hard with the enchantment theme to make daxos worth. Being able to pay 3 to make an X/X token at instant speed is really good.
Also a good way to just harvest more exp counters in general.
Love this channel guys. Thank you for all the great content. I'll be getting all 5 of these today. I already made a Sultai mutate deck with Brokkos. It's pretty good. But I'm kinda overwhelmed with what I want to add or change to what decks. In response to Josh's comment about only having 3 mutated creatures max. I got a 5x mutated creature. Then my opponent did a board wipe that bounced everything back to your hand and I was able to do the mutated combos again winning the game. I cant wait to add these to my collection. I just got back into magic after 12 years away.
1:00:00 for Daxos, you could just throw him in, get the EXP from Kelsien and just use Daxos to make tokens for you. You don't have to unbalance you deck for it, but anything else taking advantage of EXP counters is getting free synergy from Kelsien.
I think it gets a lot easier if you think of mutate as a bestow creature, like chromanticore, where it can be it’s own thing but you can put it on something else. Only the power/toughness rules are different
With the bralin curiosity thing, watch out- if one person has 41 or more life they'll win. Say you discard l card. If you have three opponents, you'll draw three cards and deal 1 damage to that player, then discard 3, deal 3 to that player, draw 9, discard 9, deal nine to that player and draw 27, and assuming everyone is still alive, you'll deal 27 to everyone, everyone has taken a total of 40 damage and you'll deck yourself by drawing 81 more cards, which, combined with the 39 you've already drawn will kill you. Very niche situation, but if no one dies by the 27 damage and anyone has gained life, you'll die
So the important part there is Curiousity/Ophidian Eye versus Tandem Lookouts. C/OE are "may" abilities, so you can opt to stop drawing at any point. Tandem is not a "may", so you'll need to have some form of removal to kick yourself out of the loop. With the 27 pings/draw triggers on the stack, you'll have to nuke Tandem Lookouts so you go back to cleanup, discard 27, hit everyone for 27, and then you won't have to draw. Then if you can make it back to your turn, they have to deal with a 41/41 Bralin.
You'd probably be running a shuffle titan to save yourself from that, but if anyone has more than 121 life then you lose, or if you don't draw the titan in the first 39
@@notalgeria if the shuffle Titan is in the bottom half of your deck you'll die before you discard it
Are we sure that that’s how that works with the cleanup step? I would think you’d discard your cards to hand size, draw x cards, and then move on to the next turn. I could be wrong, I’m not a judge, but it seems like that’s how it would work.
@@Crowen55so how it works is that there is no priority during the clean up step, so nothing can be cast/activated. However, if something is triggered during the clean up you have the regular passing of priority and use of the stack then an additional clean up phase afterwards. So you would draw cards after the triggers and have to discard afterwards.
Hydra Tribal with Zaxara and a side win condition of Simic Ascendancy. "X Gonna Give It to Ya"
Don't forget Helix Pinnacle! Dump 100 mana into an enchantment to win :D
I hadn't even heard of that card! Thanks!
"Birds cannot kill enchantments unfortunately."
Aven Cloudchaser, Cloudchaser Eagle and Cloudchaser Kestrel would like to have a word about your biases, Jimmy...
Jirina + Mana Echoes + Phyrexian Altar. Start with 5 mana, cast Jirina, u get 4 mana from Mana Echoes, sac then both, u get 2 colored. Use the last mana to recast Jirina. Jirina enters with 2 1/1s. U get 9 mana from mana echoes. Sac all 3 to phyrexian altar. Repeat to infinity for infinite 1/1s and infinite mana and infinite etb trigger. Mardu Foodchain
I've absolutely loved playing with Akim! Couple things to note for anyone else considering building it. First, Akim's ability functions on ANY token generation. That means if you have Smothering Tithe out (which you will, you're in white) you make a bird each time. Second, Akim is highly synergy-based. It is not a standalone card, but if you build around it, it can be incredibly oppressive. Think cards like Faerie Artisans, Locust God, Mimic Vat, Coastal Piracy, and Brudiclad. Third, Jeskai gives you access to some absurdly strong planewalkers, especially for this archetype. Elspeth Sun's Champion doesn't kill Akim. Dovin Grand Arbiter is a Dig Through Time every other turn. All the Saheelis are fantastic for the archetype.
You know what I would've loved for these pre-cons that are linked to Ikoria? Having Companions made for them. With difficult requirements of course, but I think it really could've been done. Could've been cool to have them have all three hybrid mana pips in their casting cost to make them alternate commanders as well. I think that was a missed opportunity, especially since some Companions in Standard are banned or not really playable for Commander. Anyways, great episode as always! Very insightful for a buncha these!
I am super excited about the Mardu deck. More for the pieces for my Saskia Human Legends Deck. I think splashing green with it really helps with Mardu’s weakness. Thanks for the idea DJ!
For the Zaxara and Doubling Season, the copy of the token does not have any trigger to add +1/+1 counters so it would die. The counters come from Zaxara's ability not the token. (correct me if I am wrong)
It has probably been mentioned already, but Kathril doesn't give haste counters because there is no reason for haste counters to exist. For all intents and purposes, putting a haste counter on a permanent is exactly the same as giving it haste until end of turn, just with extra book-keeping. Good thing green got a few haste enablers nowadays, like the green Surrak.
Also, a fun little creature for the deck is Bassara Tower Archer. Cheap, gives one of the most important keywords, dies easily, fits into the Buried Alive package.
1:40:10 best buried alive combo I could find was Zetalpa, Wurmcoil Engine, Ancient Spider, but that still misses hexproof, menace and reach. They (thankfully) don't tend to put hexproof with other keywords very often.
For anyone playing Kathril, this is from gatherer:
"If cards in your graveyard have multiple hexproof abilities (such as hexproof, hexproof from white, and hexproof from black), a counter of each variant kind will be put onto a creature."
So. If you give Ukkima infect, say with Tainted Strike, it will deal infect damage on LTB, since his LTB trigger checks his last known information. So If you have Ukkima on ten power, you can attach a Grafted Exoskeletom onto it, attack, kill someone, then sac Ukkima and kill another player.
Cazur and Ukkima are my favorites this year, and you made some interesting suggestions. The new Colossification is nice with Ukkima, as well as things like Eldrazi Conscription.
Thanks for the video!
Bear Umbra is also a great option for Pako because it makes him beefier (+2/+2) and it untaps all of your lands when you attack, so he doesn't have to even deal damage to an opponent.
In response to the triggers of decree of silence, activate hall of heliod's generosity to put decree of silence on top of library. SO you counter the spell and draw the decree of silence and can hold up free counterspells.
Kelsien require a build around.
I'd make it a "forced combat" mardu deck, sneak in the kill after attackers step, before & after blockers step or even before phases end.
It's an assassin for a reason!
I think you guys forgot that Tayam mills 3 when you activate him (he also has the same ability wording as Tasigur, so you can keep going with zero cards in your library). If you do the Devoted Druid and +2 toughness combo you can put every 3 cmc (or less) permanent in your deck and graveyard into play and win in any number of ways. Aristocrats is an easy one since Tayam can keep activating to put the sacced creatures back into play.
With yank you can play it and then flicker it with rune and find some way to untap tune and make everything infinitely big.
>2 hours
jesus christ, let me get my lunch in the microwave and pop open a coke.
Reminds me of the old days on the channel
*Eyes the Pause icon*
Actually it is 2>
@@scottjohnson8560 Are you sure about that? Example why I think you might be incorrect: 2>1 means "two is bigger/larger/more than 1", so "2>" would be "two is bigger/larger/more than". Which doesn't make sense. More than what? On the other hand ">2" means "bigger/larger/more than two", so the guy's ">2 hours" just means "more than two hours", which makes perfect sense. English isn't my native language. Where I'm from you'd always write ">2" etc. Another example is the "
Zaxara and Xyris caught my eye. When I get my hands on them, I have some ideas in mind. Btw, you guys pointed out but really not called it, Zaxara can go infinite really early. And you guys gave 2 options to do it that are not very "hard" to get. Wouldn't that count as "pulling a Urza"? Especially considering Zaxara has access to blue(card draw and spell tutor) and green(Ramp).
Zaxara I feel is going to be a cEDH commander
I agree I think Zax could easily be cEDH playable
Urza and Zaxara are nowhere close to each other in power.
Urza not only provides the mana, he IS the manasink itself. He also breaks parity with some nasty stax effects.
@@BjornEinarr True but Zax still seems cEDH playable although not favorably comparable to Urza
a more accessible card than doubling season is primal vigor. It'll double the number of tokens and double the number of counters on those tokens
I'm definitely planning on Tribal Snakes Xyris as I was going to with Kaseto around the time that Ixalan 2 came out but I opened a foil Kumena so that deck plan got switched and now with that new one I have a sweet new option for it. Trynn and Silvar is another plan I have because I really like Silvar it just looks like so much fun, I might even do a Companion thing with either Zirda or Obosh and skip out on the White Partner...but we'll see what I do.
When i saw the decks i thought it was strange how much weaker the mardu deck was.
So naturally i bought it. I love a challenge.
Thought reflection, gavi, nest warden, and ephara, god of the polis. Now you say, cycle a card, draw 2, get a Dino cat. Next upkeep you draw 2, get a Dino cat. It goes on!
You guys are so lucky you get to play these decks months before release and get to own the decks
I'm so excited to play my Xyris, additional draws deck. Just play cards like Howling mines, rites of flourishing, and everyone draws like 3 or 4 cards a turn. That is like 9-12 tokens a turn rotation.
Also Sword of War and peace is crazy with Xyris. Deal damage and gain life based on cards in hand. In a deck that is already trying to keep everyone's hand size up. I mean worst case scenario, Xyris does 10 damage, and heals you for 5 on an attack. 5 of that damage is commander damage too.
Then sword of feast and famine added on just gives you additional turns essentially for your 2nd main phase.
xyris, the writhing storm, doubling season, and wheel of fortune. instead of getting 21 1/1, you get 42 1/1. if u have temur ascendancy, all ur creatures get haste. also improbable alliance, and nadir kraken. then u get some more 1/1s (this time flyers) and you can pay however much you want to make 1/1 tentacles. Also woodland champion. she'll get 21 1+/1+ counters, and doubling season will double the amount of tokens that etb, so she'll get 42 1+/1+ counters, then doubling season will double the amount of 1+/1+ counters that she got, so she'll get 84 1+/1+ counters. Would you look at that, an 86/86...
Temur Ascendancy has solid synergy in Xyris. While you are at it why not add Parallel Lives, Primal Vigor, and Skullclamp to make it extra spicy?
@@sierrameeves4781 Getting 7 cards together is a bit of a challenge... You might have to add some alternatives as well.
or you could have hammer of purphorous or fires of yavimaya.
@@mikemcglasson1286 or the gruul enchantment from war of the spark that makes you choose between haste or +1 counter
It seems more flexible
@@FelixUchiha Rhythm of the Wilds specifies non-token creatures so it wouldn't help making all the snakes go fast. Still a great card, though.
Panharmonicon with Kathril to double the trigger to really increase how many counters you get.
Edit: Or Strionic Resonator
I run decree of annihilation in golos. You get it as one of the three card and cast it first followed by one or two giant creatures. The one time I did this someone got pretty upset but I did close the game out quick.
Coming back to this episode over two years later, I see many people missed the potential of Trynn and Silvar.
I tuned the deck up, and turned it into a Mardu humans aristocrat deck. People seem to miss that Silvar becomes a *sac outlet in the command zone that can make itself indestructible to protect itself.*
Sure, I've had to win a couple games through commander damage, but more often than not, I've popped off on an aristocrats combo, killing the board.
I think (and this was probably discussed down the replies) that the reason that Kelsian has that restriction is because if you decide to make 1/1 tokens and you had to ability to ping every creature, it would be somewhat of a "cheat" (not the right word for it) in order to get your experience counters.
Finally! A notification I’m happy to see.
Pack Rat is not actually as good in the Otrimi deck as you think it is, since no matter what, Pack Rat's power-defining ability still applies. Also, if Otrimi is on top, it A) isn't a Rat (so it dies immediately unless by some miracle you have at least one other Rat), B) is Legendary, so all the copies die anyways, and C) If Otrimi (or whatever other Mutate creature) is on bottom, you're still only getting a scaling creature. I guess that could be okay, but I'd caution players that Pack Rat's power-defining ability still applies and overwrites whatever power/toughness the creature might get from a mutation. Thanks! You guys are the best content creators for Magic and I love watching all of your videos/listening to them in podcast form.
experimental frenzy seems rly good with gavi since cycling doesnt count as a cast you can guide cycle cards to your hand and play what you want from your library
It just dawned on me that kalamax can light his own farts...😐
It starts at 3:15. You are welcomed! (sorry about skipping the sponsors and produtcs placement but it's not what I came here for)
It is how they can continue to exist
Bless you good sir.
I've just finished building a Licia deck, and she's way better than I think people give her credit for, especially with a lot of life loss synergies that have come out like Vilis and Font of Agonies.
Command Zone: Mardu needs a powerful commander!
Edgar Markov: Am I joke to you?
Wow really get those notifications fast! Nice!
I'm really excited to build my Tayam deck. He seems super fun. I also think he's gonna be sleeper OP, mostly because of Nethroi and maybe Eerie Ultimatum. He can easily go infinite and put his whole library in the yard, then he just needs a way to get one of those cards to hand and cast it.
As soon as new Athreos got spoiled, i thought of somehow building a deck that fit both him and Skullbriar to make him immortal. This actually gives a decent commander in the colours that is on theme for 'buttloads of counters' to buff Skullbriar as the secret commander in the 99. Give him a coin counter from Athreos, keyword soup, and all the +1/+1 counters, and just go to town. You'd need to go all in on protecting him from exile effects, but apart from that it seems like a laugh
@1:29:05 you actually only need one creature with ghostly flicker because it can also flicker lands or artifacts. the other two do specify two creatures though
>play Jirina Kudro twice;
>sac her and a human for Ashnod's Altar;
>use the 4 mana for Nim Deathmantle;
>repeat;
Congrats, you win!
so everything for a voltron line up can be got by zutulpa, (lelyin prowler, arvad the cursed, gifted aetherborn, vamprie nighthwawk), and (gladecover scout,dungrove elder,drove of elves,carnage tyrant, bassara tower archer*, sigarda, host of herons*, sylvan caryatid, xathrid slyblade*) * is suggested choices.
this would give you flying, doublestrike, deathtouch, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, trample, and vigilince with 8 counters.if you go with the bassara tower archer you also get reach to add a 9th counter but a 11 will still one shot someone so.
Ephara god of the polis +rielle the everwise + Gavi nest warden = josh dream
Freed from the Real type effects on Zaxara still let you produce infinite mana of any color; you just produce infinite blue first, then use that to keep untapping and produce your other colors.
Also, re; buried alive; Zetalpa, Dire Fleet Ravager/Pestilent Spirit, and Bassara Tower Archer gives you everything but lifelink and first strike. Hexproof is the hardest one to find sharing keywords that aren't already on Zetalpa.
I want to build Otrimi and Kathril. I really like those two. I also really like how a lot of the Kathril deck works in an Atraxa deck. Throwing Tayam in an Atraxa deck sounds great!
In Xyris, Ezuri seems nuts. A wheel means Xyris turns into lethal damage on combat from Ezuri.
A slight note on Xyris' text that I think that Josh and Jimmy overlooked, you only get the token when your opponents have drawn their second card, so in the case of Wheel of fortune, you'd only be getting 18 tokens, not 21
It's weird wording, but check the card again. It's whenever they draw a card that isn't the first one they draw in their draw step.
If you use Brallin, Skyshark Rider to discard creatures, that would work well with Feldon of the Third Path
On the Brallin&Curiosity combo, it does work of course, but I'd like to point out that your understanding and explanation of how this works with the cleanup step isn't acccurate. The cleanup step doesn't "continue until you have 7 cards in hand" : what the game does is create another, separate cleanup step after this one. The reason for this isn't really the maximum hand size, not directly at least, it's the fact that a triggered ability triggered during the cleanup step. Nornally, players don't get priority during the cleanup step, but they do if an ability triggers, for example Brallin's from the discarding to hand size. And if that happens, that cleanup step is followed by another full cleanup step, rinse and repeat until no triggered ability and no state-based action happens. See rule 514.3.
I agree with what you guys said about mardu being the weakest of the wedge. Mardu is my favorite colors in the game because I started playing magic near the end of magic 2015 with old theros, dragon of tarkir, fate reforged and there was a Mardu Dragon deck in this era and it was my favorite deck ever. I was able to easily beat mono red in standard because the deck was so versatile. You had life gain, return to hand instant and sorcery after casting it with Soulfire Grand Master, Monastery Mentor, Goblin Rabblemaster. The deck had incredible tools with sacrifice, burn, and really good late game with Thunderbreak Regent, Stormbreath Dragon. The other great Mardu deck in standard was during kaladesh with Mardu Vehicles. Another great mardu deck that wasn't about human, or warrior, or silder. And I was looking foward to have new mardu commander, cards like Queen Marchesa because its one of the best mardu commander that's not only attacking as main mechanic. And I was extremely sad when I saw another boring human tribe that's we've been getting since few years now. Warrior, Soldier, Human, all about attacking and doign something worse that's already existing with aristocrat or sacrifice.
Mardu is getting the white treatment since few years and it's horrible.
Alright, let's assume that the highest converted mana cost creature in the Mardu deck, in terms of legendaries, is on top of this mutate pile.
This would be:
Jirina Kelsien, Devourer of Trynn 3BR
When this creature enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 human soldier for each time you've cast a commander this game.
Menace, Vigilance, Haste
Sacrifice a human: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and it gains indestructible until end of turn.
At the beginning of the end step, if you attacked with a creature this turn, create a 1/1 human soldier creature token.
4/2
Jimmy might be right...
That would make these mardu comanders actually playable
When you said a recent underrated uncommon commander for the mardu deck i thought you were talking about garna bloodflame, flash, board recovery and gives your creatures haste. Conrad seems like its received a lot of hype actually
I went a little nuts and got all 5 decks, the bundle with the booster box and bundle box, all 6 themed booster and 1 collectors booster haha
Wow, I haven't understood commander at all so far. I have a kalamax deck and I had no idea that you could do all that with him and xyris. Good to know. I need to add any amount of cards that have storm, copy, and convoke to my deck. I have almost none in it atm.
Kalemne doesn't contribute to the creation of experience counters, but she still fits well in the Kelsien deck. If you get 3 experience with Kelsien, then Kalemne is a 6/6 vigilant, double striking creature for 4 mana.
that passes the vanilla test.