I like Group Slug as an archetype but Big V is mid. The best Group Slug Commanders are: Obosh - Capital S Slug. Double it. Mogis - Stax/Slug Lord of Pain - Political Slug Valvagoth draws cards but Slug is about playing taxes on curve & draw isnt as integral.
I played a game with all four precons and this deck was evil, it put a lot of pressure on us, but the best part was when I attacked into there board for the win, not thinking about it, but it turned out to have ended the game in a four way tie, honestly it’s a very cool deck.
Best title ever. Also, someone was playing your Radha deck on MTGMuddstah's channel and half of the commenter were to the effect of "Radha? You mean Salubrious Snail's Radha?"
I feel like a LOT of newer/bad players are gonna buy and play this deck and get really salty when they’re the archenemy because they won’t understand how strong the commander is.
Sheoldred the apocalypse goes insane in this deck. It’s the card that starts Valgavoths trigger each turn, and then when he draws you a card, that triggers the sheoldred again to gain you life.
I'm building budget Valgavoth, since the precons spiked in price. I identified similar issues, mainly how much aggro it will draw, so I'll think on implementing your tips! I've found that Acquired Mutation can work quite well, since it goads and the rad counters will make opponents lose life.
i have a similar deck and found kardur and kazuul do great work keeping people off your back the red gearhulk also blocks well while generating card advantage or chunking a life total on etb
If you want budget I recommend Obosh or Mogis as Big V is not actually as powerful in practice as he is on paper. He is a Simic commander wearing a Rakdos hat without understanding that Rakdos slug is about setting and enforcing a clock. Obosh doubles your clock instantly. Mogis adds a Stax angle.
Surprised you never mentioned Lord Of Pain, who, frankly, is an amazing commander in his own right, much less as a sort of Sub-Commander. He establishes a presence, lets you dictate the flow of damage, and can punish players for big splashy cards like Craterhoof or Hullbreaker, or just be used to polish off one specific enemy while you focus down the other 2 players. But, it still encourages you to keep them alive until you know you can secure the kill on everyone so you arent saddled with turning the L.O.P. on yourself when youre down to a 1v1. It's a really cool backup commander!
I'd have put Pestilence over Polluted Bonds. And Chandra's Ignition to the add list. Revel in Riches also fits the remove stuff and recast commander plan and is extra sweet with Mayhem Devil and vs. decks that gain life when you don't have stuff out to stop it.
@@salubrioussnail There are actually a few 1 mana black instants that give indestructible or regenerate rather than returning from the graveyard, I think those would be better since you keep the +1/+1 counters on Valgavoth
@@Kyronex0 One card I considered is Rush of Vitality which also gives lifelink, but I decided against that because it's two mana and also does nothing against exile-based removal.
Karakizar is quite good and 100% recommend him instead of Frenzied Gorespawn in general. The only reason he didn't make my changes was because I like to keep my additions at no more than $3 or so each and Karakizar is around $6.
at first your title made me think this was a deck about the creature type "slug" and i got very excited. im a bit disappointed but this still looks like a lot of fun to play
Not Dead After All is an excellent piece of protection for this deck both because it allows for a dies/etb trigger but also because the role token can synergize so heavily with Valgavoth.
Group Slug is for players that can't bring themselves to play Group Hug and this is coming from a player that has been playing Mogis rakdos enchantment GS for years at my LGS ironically no one has ever complained about the deck since the effects affect us all. The deck runs no creatures just horrible enchantments and artifacts, boardwipes/targeted removal for creatures and lands alike. The MLD finisher is the idea being that Mogis is online and ready for their ''Cage Match'' LOL Immagunna' have to pick me up this deck and have another GS deck with creatures. Thanks for chatting about this underrated archetype ;p
Man it's really cool to see Snail talk about GroupSlug right when i've just started playing this archetype a few weeks ago. I proxied valgavoth and a bunch of revealed Duskmourne cards before the official release with my groups permission. Also tried it with different commanders like LordOfPain and Karazikar Just wanted to share some ways mine diverted from Snails'; The main lesson i took away from my first five games was that decks that drain opponents incrementally do good damage, but good damage that is spread out is still inefficient (In a similar way to aggro decks that randomly pick who to attack. STOP DOING THAT) It needs burst of damage to finish off opponents in a timely manner, and pumping valgavoth is not enough imo. I remedied this somewhat by -Leaning even heavier onto goad. Like Snail mentioned it doubles as a form of protection, which enabled the next bullet point. Plus i'm a creature-heavy group so it was extra effective. -Speed up the clock. At first one is tempted to use damage doublers/triplers effects, but i found it much better to use effects that halves life totals or sets them to a certain number. Like Hidetsugu, Grievous Wound, Tree of predition, Captive Audience, Sorin Markov and Unstoppable Slasher (Not an exhaustive list) Food for thought for anyone also considering trying the archetype.
I'm planning on grabbing the commander as a single since I already own most of the cards for a previous Rakdos groupslug shell I ran in the past. Regardless if the deck can actually compete at my table, Val is one of my absolute favorite characters from recent years--and probably among the top for me all-time. Chris Cold knocked it out of the park with the artwork. Also, the Kederekt Parasite reprint is 💯💯💯
I was looking at blessing of leeches as a protection spell. regenerate is weaker than other protection effects but it keeps the counters on valgavoth and is repeatable.
I got happily surprised by the entire Previn package, and honestly the worst precon might by winter’s, but zimone and aminatou also had REALLY solid lists.
Revenge of Ravens is doing a lot of work for me when I run out of ways to goad. This is a fun deck if you enjoy being the archenemy. It's probably also a fun deck to run as the actual Archenemy with the archenemy schemes.
I am loving these suggestions. I'm stealing some of them for my very similar kardur doomscourge deck that also tries to attack life totals. I'm not sure if I should replace with this commander but I'm thinking I'll keep it for now.
I've recently won a commander game after the dino player used his Akroma's Will to get us down to 10 life each. After that I played a Blasphemous Act killing every creature and getting 26 Hissing Iguanar triggers for 1 damage each. But since his Bronzebeak Foragers died, I got my Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might back first, pinging 26 times for 4 damage each ping.
I think that the jeweled lotus ban was a bit of a stretch. The card has an enough downside where I rarely saw it even in decks that didn’t have a budget restriction. Sol ring is obviously a much more powerful and problematic card in the format than lotus was. Ultimately, it was a good round of bans. I still maintain that sol ring deserves a ban and with mana crypt banned it becomes the most ban worthy card in the format.
I think that in CEDH there really doesn't need to be bans. In casual play, rule 0 covers most cards. And if it doesn't you get focused which takes care of the card advantage, most of the time.
I am getting this precon but a bit worried at how strong the commander is, so I may swap it out for Rakdos, Mogis, or the other new legend in the deck.
Hey, I bought the precon and most of the upgrades you suggested, one question though - how do you plan to trigger 'damage on your turn' cards like Rakdos, Lord of Riots and Florian, Voldaren Scion? With Valdavoth attacking? As most of the triggers are on the opponents turns.
i tried playing the "the command zone upgraded" version on your server and i liked it. as a general statement, i think the reason i like it is that it can use many "every-turn ping" cards that were created when the design teams created cards only for 1vs1 in mind and multiply their effects! i'm currently in my usual phase of adding many cards to my online decklist and slowly remove cards until i go back to 100 total cards. i was considering to remove spiteful visions and similar effects, thank you for telling me that this "way of thinking" was already made by people in the past and with the conclusion of not adding it. i was thinking to keep vial smasher the fierce in the maindeck and then have sheoldred the apocalypse in the sideboard so that i already have a good "if i'm playing with high power decks" option. i think kaervek the merciless is powerful, it's easy to never miss a land drop and to play mana rocks. i'm still considering if i should include barbflare gremlin because i want to deal damage, but also i want to try and see all the ways to do it and experience the results myself. i have no comments on using the goad mechanic, but i know how much it can do for a deck like this one. i like the inclusion of raphael as another way to add lifelink, especially since this deck can dip into demon typal cards. a group of cards that i really like in this deck are the competitive pauper commander all star pestilence and the cards that do the same thing as pestilence. thank you for making this video, i was definitively surprised by it ^-^
"Players don't like feeling like they're on a clock" I both agree and disagree with that. I have a Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck, and that deck really puts people on a clock unless they deal with a bunch of "everytime you draw a card take damage"-type effects (and maybe some others I can't recall at this moment), but it's actually a clock they mostly don't mind. UNTIL they notice that all of a sudden their lifetotal has gotten below twenty or so. Then they start going after me. Before that they actually like taking damage for draws. Which is quite understandable. It's fairly common to pay life to draw, but usually it's from spells you cast once in a while, not several times a turn hehe. Having a board that's really dangerous however will put players on a clock they won't like. Like when I play my Pantlaza deck. That deck goes scary big, and doesn't really stop. I tend to become enemy number one when I play that deck. And usually come out on top anyway. Great video like usual! I really like these type of videos. I've seen a fair amount of your videos, and they have all been interesting in one way or another! Really nice stuff!
Forgot to mention this - I basically bought this deck as soon as it was available. I don't regret it for a second. Even if it is a little bit similar to my Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck in some ways. Though I do still prefer that deck. Though that deck really needs to be upgraded...
naw braids arisen nightmare can sac itself for a casual 3 mana draw 3 as it as its worst, the times players sac a creature is so few and while braids instantly drawing cards/not being an upkeep or with Valgoth on their turn draw engine it defintily a major plus in my eye. I just through it into any black deck now because I've drawn skullclamp lvl cards with her converting my pieces that are either no long needed, (turn two ramp to get commander at turn 3) into 3 CARDS or a land becuase I am hell bent and need guaranteed cards.
It's weird to me that this guy is as popular as he is. Maybe is because I play a lot of Ob Nixilis Captive Kingpin and Valgavoth strikes me as a worse version of what Ob Nix does. It's true that he has some in-built protection and is easier to trigger, but the limit on triggering only 3 times per cycle and not having trample makes me think that when the hype wears off this is not going to be that good. I hope I'm wrong in the long run tho.
@@pablo.aranda95 I think in a more casual setting he is better, flying helps a bit as evasion but you could also just an equipment to help make up for that. What I really prefer is a) opponents can't see what he gets you so they can't prepare as well and b) he pulls a bit less aggro than ob nix does from what I've seen so in a casual setting that can be to your advantage
You explained perfectly why my Nekusar group Slug&Hug deck doesn't work. Even though everyone is getting resources and I'm definitely the weakest presence on board I'm still getting the most hate because somehow losing 2 life every turn breaks their brain. But the simic player is getting 32 Scute swarms and no one bats an eye 🙄 Not sure if I'm going to rebuild as a Full on Hate commander like valvagoth
yeah, and they don't realize the math is in their favor if one opponent spends a card to deal damage to each opponent, I would absolutely spend life to make my opponents lose life and not only that but my opponent is spending the mana, and the cards in hand to do this FOR me? That's great! Compare this to group hug where mathematically it's terrible if one opponent gives two of your other opponents a card, that's more resources than they're giving you, but people ignore logic and go with their feelings in commander, so the person pinging them for 1 is seen as less than a threat than the person who ramped 4 turns in a row, or the person who drew 20 cards off rhystic study, or the person who is feeding the empty handed ramp player a full hand.
Do you think Pestilence/Pyrohemia are too good, too volatile, too threatening, or just fine for a mid power version of this precon upgrade? Because I know those cards were the first two I thought of when Valgavoth was spoiled, but their inclusion rates on edhrec suggest I'm missing something.
They seem fine, definitely weaker than Sulfuric Vortex style effects as Valgavoth enablers since they cost an extra 3 mana per turn cycle. They might have other upside as board control, though.
Good take, but tbh I just have gone off the Moth boy. He survives a round or two, then removed. Just over and over and over and over. So he's never big enough do real damage, and once I get any card advantage he's gone and it takes me too long to get him back. Ob Nixilis just seems a lot better, especially with the trample giving me a potential wincon.
maybe you should be looking for more protection or hold back the moth for when the heat won't be so on you. I've played some where around 20 games with this deck with like 11 cards changed? 4 of which were lands i believe and it has won more than most of its games. I can't stress enough on holding back valgavoth until someone else has taken a little bit of heat, if you get away with him on board for only 2 turns at a lower power level table the game is overwhelmingly in your favor. Another thing i recommend is holding back your swings with the moth, players are a lot less likely to worry about the 10/10 flying commander on your board if you havent swung with it in a turn or two. Another thing the deck does really well is politicing, you have a lot of removal in your deck, tell your opponents that if they remove your commander your removal will come towards them, tell them you'll give them a heads up on the next board wipe etc.
So much I've seen with this deck has been groups playing all the precons against each other, being nice enough NOT to bully this deck off this table immediately, and then losing to this deck (or its backup commander). I do like the concept of a precon that sets a clock on a game though. Shuffle this up at your LGS's commander night and your table is almost certainly NOT going to time.
im not a fan of Rakdos lord of riots in this deck, it feels rather awkward as this commander wants to have on opponents turn damage so you need a fair amount of big evasive beaters to attack with each turn to really make use of him... Good thing that big evasive beater is your commander ;)
Why do people keep calling this deck Group Slugs? I thought that term was exclusive to Group Hug decks that deal damage to everyone while also helping them? I guess both are called Group Slug?
Trying not to be negative but it’s boring to play this deck out of the box. No thought is involved when piloting it, the interaction package is weak simply because of its colours as well. With the cons out of the way, the deck functions very well and seemingly consistent. I’m doing an upgrade challenge with my pod and until I get a little more of a budget to work with, this deck is always going to be targeted first if the gulgari deck isn’t popping off.
You are an immortal super intelligent snail, you and your target (an immortal human who will die if you touch them) have each been given 1 million dollars, your goal is to touch and kill the human, what is your plan?
Come on Wizards, I know you can do better than "Do the thing, draw a card for doing the thing" designs that you tend to vomit out. Great video man, but man these commander designs just feel so repetitive and boring.
For sure, in this case I think of it as trying to guide players to playing an interesting archetype by putting a "draw a card" carrot in front of them.
This commander is a worse version of Ob Nixilis, captive kingpin. It lacks one of Ob’s forms of evasion and only triggers once per turn and only on an opponent’s s turn. Half the cards in this list go into Ob and they all trigger him, rather than just the first instance.
It's similar, but I disagree that this is just a worse version. Ob's draw can trigger on every turn but it requires the damage to be exactly 1, which narrows the ways you can build him vs Valgavoth. Plus his draw is impulse instead, which is just worse. And Valgavoth hurting opponents with its Ward if they remove it is strictly better than Ob's nothing.
Goad is pretty good on its own, and when you’re playing this kind of deck you are gonna get a lot of attention. Goading is a really good way to not only ensure damage off of you but on to your opponent’s. But if you don’t want to play goad because you just don’t want to put that in your deck that’s totally valid.
how tf can (casual) edh players even give a frick about the banlist? i just dont get it, i mean theyve proven not to be taken seriously often enough and i dont see why my playgroup should be inflicted with their list. one of my friends plays dockside in a mono red deck without instantly recurring him and breaking the game so why should i tell him to take that out of his deck?
The ability to loop Dockside and make infinite mana is not what makes it broken. What makes it broken is how it is cheap and produces a high amount of mana on ETB, which is powerful in any context, including a casual context
The ban list exists for players who play with random groups and not a consistent one. I haven’t had a consistent playgroup in 3 years and play with new players practically every week. everyone has their own opinion of what is “fair” and “casual” etc. if your playgroup wants to keep dockside legal it isn’t a tournament nobody cares. Better games will be had on my end 10000% with none of these cards legal this is actually some of the best news I’ve had in commander probably since the prophet ban
You can play Dockside and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Invoke Prejudice and Meddling Kids in your commander decks and no one is going to jail. It's like playing Monopoly and putting the taxes in the middle of the board and taking the money when you land on free parking. Get everyone to agree to your house rules and you're fine.
@@Lazydino59 I've echoed this sentiment in quite a few comment sections. It's for the LGS/Spelltable encounters. And it's also awesome for RUclips edh content. I'm happy never seeing those 3 cards again in commander shows.
Channeling my inner Maldhound for a moment I really like the notion of a deck that shows up and says “tik tok its fight o’clock”
Any deck that encourages you to go for blood rather than sit back and do nothing for no reason is good in my book.
I like Group Slug as an archetype but Big V is mid. The best Group Slug Commanders are:
Obosh - Capital S Slug. Double it.
Mogis - Stax/Slug
Lord of Pain - Political Slug
Valvagoth draws cards but Slug is about playing taxes on curve & draw isnt as integral.
I love my Kitt Kanto deck for this reason... im not here to pressure the table.... im here to make THAT guy pressure the table....
You would like Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
I played a game with all four precons and this deck was evil, it put a lot of pressure on us, but the best part was when I attacked into there board for the win, not thinking about it, but it turned out to have ended the game in a four way tie, honestly it’s a very cool deck.
Best title ever.
Also, someone was playing your Radha deck on MTGMuddstah's channel and half of the commenter were to the effect of "Radha? You mean Salubrious Snail's Radha?"
I feel like a LOT of newer/bad players are gonna buy and play this deck and get really salty when they’re the archenemy because they won’t understand how strong the commander is.
i agree. this is a terrible deck for a new player :0
@@palicaoo They'll probably learn quick. This isn't even a great game for a new player.
I learned when I first got the mind razor all those years ago, it's OK to be the heel
I have a Mardu Punisher deck; it's one of my strongest decks, but I've lost all 4 games with it exactly for that reason: I become archenemy
@@Mecal00I consider becoming the archenemy to be the actual win for a group slug deck
Sheoldred the apocalypse goes insane in this deck. It’s the card that starts Valgavoths trigger each turn, and then when he draws you a card, that triggers the sheoldred again to gain you life.
Guys, we broke sheoldred
@@griffintravis8506 Wasnt it broken already?
That's the joke
Oh hey and then can put in tutors so we always have Sheoldred! All I need is $500.
there are lots of cards that trigger the commander all 3 turns, you don't need to spend that much money
Rug of smothering is one of my favorites in group burn its is insane
its such a quietly insane card, shuts down a lot of combos too
It's been a favorite in my Florian deck for like a year
I'm building budget Valgavoth, since the precons spiked in price. I identified similar issues, mainly how much aggro it will draw, so I'll think on implementing your tips! I've found that Acquired Mutation can work quite well, since it goads and the rad counters will make opponents lose life.
i have a similar deck and found kardur and kazuul do great work keeping people off your back
the red gearhulk also blocks well while generating card advantage or chunking a life total on etb
If you want budget I recommend Obosh or Mogis as Big V is not actually as powerful in practice as he is on paper.
He is a Simic commander wearing a Rakdos hat without understanding that Rakdos slug is about setting and enforcing a clock.
Obosh doubles your clock instantly. Mogis adds a Stax angle.
Surprised you never mentioned Lord Of Pain, who, frankly, is an amazing commander in his own right, much less as a sort of Sub-Commander. He establishes a presence, lets you dictate the flow of damage, and can punish players for big splashy cards like Craterhoof or Hullbreaker, or just be used to polish off one specific enemy while you focus down the other 2 players. But, it still encourages you to keep them alive until you know you can secure the kill on everyone so you arent saddled with turning the L.O.P. on yourself when youre down to a 1v1. It's a really cool backup commander!
I'd have put Pestilence over Polluted Bonds. And Chandra's Ignition to the add list. Revel in Riches also fits the remove stuff and recast commander plan and is extra sweet with Mayhem Devil and vs. decks that gain life when you don't have stuff out to stop it.
Withering wisps and snow swamps
Given the amount of cards I draw I would have liked to add 1 mana protection spells like Supernatural Stamina
Don't forget redirection spells, red has plenty. In particular, Bolt Bend is a slam dunk in this deck
Those are a reasonable inclusion for sure, I could see adding a lot more protection after playing around with the deck a bit.
@@salubrioussnail There are actually a few 1 mana black instants that give indestructible or regenerate rather than returning from the graveyard, I think those would be better since you keep the +1/+1 counters on Valgavoth
@@Kyronex0 One card I considered is Rush of Vitality which also gives lifelink, but I decided against that because it's two mana and also does nothing against exile-based removal.
Karakizar the Eye Tyrant goes incredibly hard with this deck, I’m surprised he’s not part of your goad package
Karakizar is quite good and 100% recommend him instead of Frenzied Gorespawn in general. The only reason he didn't make my changes was because I like to keep my additions at no more than $3 or so each and Karakizar is around $6.
He’s great in this deck and the opposite is true too. Valgavoth and Kingpin Ob do some serious work as card advantage in my Karazikar deck.
thanks for always adding CCs helps me and others a lot
Congrats for hitting 50k subs with this video. That’s a pretty impressive milestone for a mollusk
at first your title made me think this was a deck about the creature type "slug" and i got very excited. im a bit disappointed but this still looks like a lot of fun to play
Cut Ribbons is a really amazing card. I think almost any slug deck that runs red black o somewhat of a budget will want it.
The card designer who was hoarding Copper Tablets designed this card, for sure.
I was really happy to pick this up, and was genuinely surprised by the out of the box performance. Banger pickup!
Not Dead After All is an excellent piece of protection for this deck both because it allows for a dies/etb trigger but also because the role token can synergize so heavily with Valgavoth.
Group Slug is for players that can't bring themselves to play Group Hug and this is coming from a player that has been playing Mogis rakdos enchantment GS for years at my LGS ironically no one has ever complained about the deck since the effects affect us all. The deck runs no creatures just horrible enchantments and artifacts, boardwipes/targeted removal for creatures and lands alike. The MLD finisher is the idea being that Mogis is online and ready for their ''Cage Match'' LOL
Immagunna' have to pick me up this deck and have another GS deck with creatures. Thanks for chatting about this underrated archetype ;p
A snail talking about slug? How bizarre this world has become.
On one hand, im tempted to pick up this precon, but it also gave me some insights on how to make changes to my own Liara groupslug deck
Man it's really cool to see Snail talk about GroupSlug right when i've just started playing this archetype a few weeks ago. I proxied valgavoth and a bunch of revealed Duskmourne cards before the official release with my groups permission. Also tried it with different commanders like LordOfPain and Karazikar
Just wanted to share some ways mine diverted from Snails';
The main lesson i took away from my first five games was that decks that drain opponents incrementally do good damage, but good damage that is spread out is still inefficient (In a similar way to aggro decks that randomly pick who to attack. STOP DOING THAT) It needs burst of damage to finish off opponents in a timely manner, and pumping valgavoth is not enough imo. I remedied this somewhat by
-Leaning even heavier onto goad. Like Snail mentioned it doubles as a form of protection, which enabled the next bullet point. Plus i'm a creature-heavy group so it was extra effective.
-Speed up the clock. At first one is tempted to use damage doublers/triplers effects, but i found it much better to use effects that halves life totals or sets them to a certain number. Like Hidetsugu, Grievous Wound, Tree of predition, Captive Audience, Sorin Markov and Unstoppable Slasher (Not an exhaustive list)
Food for thought for anyone also considering trying the archetype.
I'm planning on grabbing the commander as a single since I already own most of the cards for a previous Rakdos groupslug shell I ran in the past. Regardless if the deck can actually compete at my table, Val is one of my absolute favorite characters from recent years--and probably among the top for me all-time. Chris Cold knocked it out of the park with the artwork. Also, the Kederekt Parasite reprint is 💯💯💯
man with those upgrades that's an even more terrifying deck than it already was, i wanna play against it but like damn
Also don't forget this set has a few lands that tap for damage
I was looking at blessing of leeches as a protection spell. regenerate is weaker than other protection effects but it keeps the counters on valgavoth and is repeatable.
I got happily surprised by the entire Previn package, and honestly the worst precon might by winter’s, but zimone and aminatou also had REALLY solid lists.
Revenge of Ravens is doing a lot of work for me when I run out of ways to goad. This is a fun deck if you enjoy being the archenemy. It's probably also a fun deck to run as the actual Archenemy with the archenemy schemes.
This deck needs Zo-Zu the Punisher, just for the memes.
I am loving these suggestions. I'm stealing some of them for my very similar kardur doomscourge deck that also tries to attack life totals. I'm not sure if I should replace with this commander but I'm thinking I'll keep it for now.
I've been trying to find a home for the card Titan Hunter for years now and I feel like this is the perfect deck for it.
I've recently won a commander game after the dino player used his Akroma's Will to get us down to 10 life each. After that I played a Blasphemous Act killing every creature and getting 26 Hissing Iguanar triggers for 1 damage each. But since his Bronzebeak Foragers died, I got my Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might back first, pinging 26 times for 4 damage each ping.
I'm adding Mana barbs + Grievous Wound + Fiendish duo +Wound Reflection !
That was a nice review, i would enjoy a lot one for the death toll precon, kinda struggling to decide which one i get
Cards like kaya ghostform and supernatural stamina seems great in the deck as protection
In theory that's true, but a lot of targeted removal nowadays is exile, so it makes the "whenever this creature dies, return it" effects a lot worse.
I think that the jeweled lotus ban was a bit of a stretch. The card has an enough downside where I rarely saw it even in decks that didn’t have a budget restriction. Sol ring is obviously a much more powerful and problematic card in the format than lotus was. Ultimately, it was a good round of bans. I still maintain that sol ring deserves a ban and with mana crypt banned it becomes the most ban worthy card in the format.
I think that in CEDH there really doesn't need to be bans. In casual play, rule 0 covers most cards. And if it doesn't you get focused which takes care of the card advantage, most of the time.
I am getting this precon but a bit worried at how strong the commander is, so I may swap it out for Rakdos, Mogis, or the other new legend in the deck.
The other legend is a pretty fun option, I'd just add a bit of extra draw if you opt to do that to compensate for losing Valgavoth's draw
Rakdos is absolutely not a weaker commander lol When you play the black-red, you just gotta embrace being a scary deck on the table
Snag on nixilis captive kingpin, or rakdos the muscle. Way less scary dude trust!
@@marcup1584In this deck I think he is weaker, but he is very much strong if you do the mass ping and colorless creatures stuff
For a commander that accumulates +1 counters, I would definitely consider The Ozolith.
Hey, I bought the precon and most of the upgrades you suggested, one question though - how do you plan to trigger 'damage on your turn' cards like Rakdos, Lord of Riots and Florian, Voldaren Scion? With Valdavoth attacking? As most of the triggers are on the opponents turns.
i tried playing the "the command zone upgraded" version on your server and i liked it. as a general statement, i think the reason i like it is that it can use many "every-turn ping" cards that were created when the design teams created cards only for 1vs1 in mind and multiply their effects! i'm currently in my usual phase of adding many cards to my online decklist and slowly remove cards until i go back to 100 total cards.
i was considering to remove spiteful visions and similar effects, thank you for telling me that this "way of thinking" was already made by people in the past and with the conclusion of not adding it. i was thinking to keep vial smasher the fierce in the maindeck and then have sheoldred the apocalypse in the sideboard so that i already have a good "if i'm playing with high power decks" option. i think kaervek the merciless is powerful, it's easy to never miss a land drop and to play mana rocks. i'm still considering if i should include barbflare gremlin because i want to deal damage, but also i want to try and see all the ways to do it and experience the results myself. i have no comments on using the goad mechanic, but i know how much it can do for a deck like this one. i like the inclusion of raphael as another way to add lifelink, especially since this deck can dip into demon typal cards.
a group of cards that i really like in this deck are the competitive pauper commander all star pestilence and the cards that do the same thing as pestilence.
thank you for making this video, i was definitively surprised by it ^-^
Damn I wanted to see your review for the Death Toll precon
Sol Ring is pretty damn comparable, don't have to reach for ancient tomb and mana vault
if money wasn’t an issue, i’d love to see you review all precons that come out
i pulled out 28 cards from the precon but there still good cards for other decks.
"Players don't like feeling like they're on a clock" I both agree and disagree with that.
I have a Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck, and that deck really puts people on a clock unless they deal with a bunch of "everytime you draw a card take damage"-type effects (and maybe some others I can't recall at this moment), but it's actually a clock they mostly don't mind. UNTIL they notice that all of a sudden their lifetotal has gotten below twenty or so. Then they start going after me. Before that they actually like taking damage for draws. Which is quite understandable. It's fairly common to pay life to draw, but usually it's from spells you cast once in a while, not several times a turn hehe.
Having a board that's really dangerous however will put players on a clock they won't like. Like when I play my Pantlaza deck. That deck goes scary big, and doesn't really stop. I tend to become enemy number one when I play that deck. And usually come out on top anyway.
Great video like usual! I really like these type of videos. I've seen a fair amount of your videos, and they have all been interesting in one way or another! Really nice stuff!
Forgot to mention this - I basically bought this deck as soon as it was available. I don't regret it for a second. Even if it is a little bit similar to my Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck in some ways. Though I do still prefer that deck. Though that deck really needs to be upgraded...
I think Slicer could be a fun card in this deck pass the creature around and force people to attack each other getting you triggers all the while
Anythoughts about changing this into a Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck? Like a Wheelless one.
yeah, I'm just going to equip it with Fireshrieker lol
would mana barbs be a good addition? its a great group slug card
I love this monster of a commander
naw braids arisen nightmare can sac itself for a casual 3 mana draw 3 as it as its worst, the times players sac a creature is so few and while braids instantly drawing cards/not being an upkeep or with Valgoth on their turn draw engine it defintily a major plus in my eye. I just through it into any black deck now because I've drawn skullclamp lvl cards with her converting my pieces that are either no long needed, (turn two ramp to get commander at turn 3) into 3 CARDS or a land becuase I am hell bent and need guaranteed cards.
It's weird to me that this guy is as popular as he is. Maybe is because I play a lot of Ob Nixilis Captive Kingpin and Valgavoth strikes me as a worse version of what Ob Nix does. It's true that he has some in-built protection and is easier to trigger, but the limit on triggering only 3 times per cycle and not having trample makes me think that when the hype wears off this is not going to be that good. I hope I'm wrong in the long run tho.
@@pablo.aranda95 I think in a more casual setting he is better, flying helps a bit as evasion but you could also just an equipment to help make up for that. What I really prefer is a) opponents can't see what he gets you so they can't prepare as well and b) he pulls a bit less aggro than ob nix does from what I've seen so in a casual setting that can be to your advantage
You explained perfectly why my Nekusar group Slug&Hug deck doesn't work. Even though everyone is getting resources and I'm definitely the weakest presence on board I'm still getting the most hate because somehow losing 2 life every turn breaks their brain.
But the simic player is getting 32 Scute swarms and no one bats an eye 🙄
Not sure if I'm going to rebuild as a Full on Hate commander like valvagoth
yeah, and they don't realize the math is in their favor if one opponent spends a card to deal damage to each opponent, I would absolutely spend life to make my opponents lose life and not only that but my opponent is spending the mana, and the cards in hand to do this FOR me? That's great! Compare this to group hug where mathematically it's terrible if one opponent gives two of your other opponents a card, that's more resources than they're giving you, but people ignore logic and go with their feelings in commander, so the person pinging them for 1 is seen as less than a threat than the person who ramped 4 turns in a row, or the person who drew 20 cards off rhystic study, or the person who is feeding the empty handed ramp player a full hand.
who knew snail was so handsome!
It’s like an Ob Nix deck for babies. That’s freaking cool!!!
Do you think Pestilence/Pyrohemia are too good, too volatile, too threatening, or just fine for a mid power version of this precon upgrade? Because I know those cards were the first two I thought of when Valgavoth was spoiled, but their inclusion rates on edhrec suggest I'm missing something.
They seem fine, definitely weaker than Sulfuric Vortex style effects as Valgavoth enablers since they cost an extra 3 mana per turn cycle. They might have other upside as board control, though.
Good take, but tbh I just have gone off the Moth boy. He survives a round or two, then removed. Just over and over and over and over. So he's never big enough do real damage, and once I get any card advantage he's gone and it takes me too long to get him back. Ob Nixilis just seems a lot better, especially with the trample giving me a potential wincon.
maybe you should be looking for more protection or hold back the moth for when the heat won't be so on you. I've played some where around 20 games with this deck with like 11 cards changed? 4 of which were lands i believe and it has won more than most of its games. I can't stress enough on holding back valgavoth until someone else has taken a little bit of heat, if you get away with him on board for only 2 turns at a lower power level table the game is overwhelmingly in your favor. Another thing i recommend is holding back your swings with the moth, players are a lot less likely to worry about the 10/10 flying commander on your board if you havent swung with it in a turn or two. Another thing the deck does really well is politicing, you have a lot of removal in your deck, tell your opponents that if they remove your commander your removal will come towards them, tell them you'll give them a heads up on the next board wipe etc.
Would Grievous Wound have a home in this deck?
So much I've seen with this deck has been groups playing all the precons against each other, being nice enough NOT to bully this deck off this table immediately, and then losing to this deck (or its backup commander).
I do like the concept of a precon that sets a clock on a game though. Shuffle this up at your LGS's commander night and your table is almost certainly NOT going to time.
How bout a 100$ budget valgavoth. Harrower of souls?
Still not cnvinced, that you can handle three enemies at once, as they surely hate you! Have not figured out a good way, to do so
Zo-zu the punisher is eyeing this deck a little too hard
Oh this is just Korvold without green :/
im not a fan of Rakdos lord of riots in this deck, it feels rather awkward as this commander wants to have on opponents turn damage so you need a fair amount of big evasive beaters to attack with each turn to really make use of him...
Good thing that big evasive beater is your commander ;)
Card looks sick
Much prefer Lord of Pain as the commander for this deck.
Momory
Love it
Bro Josh Lee Kwai just quit the CAG, get in there I support u
Why do people keep calling this deck Group Slugs? I thought that term was exclusive to Group Hug decks that deal damage to everyone while also helping them? I guess both are called Group Slug?
SNAIL
I prefer ob nixilis to valgavoth
Trying not to be negative but it’s boring to play this deck out of the box. No thought is involved when piloting it, the interaction package is weak simply because of its colours as well. With the cons out of the way, the deck functions very well and seemingly consistent. I’m doing an upgrade challenge with my pod and until I get a little more of a budget to work with, this deck is always going to be targeted first if the gulgari deck isn’t popping off.
cool
You are an immortal super intelligent snail, you and your target (an immortal human who will die if you touch them) have each been given 1 million dollars, your goal is to touch and kill the human, what is your plan?
YHE Archenemy Deck
Its a moth deck
The real Lord of Pain is the RC telling you your recently acquired Mana Crypt is worthless.
i dont understand how glimpse the impossible is protection
It could also be considered Miscellaneous, I just put it in protection because it can be a burst of mana to help recast the commander.
@@salubrioussnail ohh that makes sense, thank you for for the reply mr snail!
Come on Wizards, I know you can do better than "Do the thing, draw a card for doing the thing" designs that you tend to vomit out.
Great video man, but man these commander designs just feel so repetitive and boring.
at least the art goes hard, looks amazing foil
I kinda agree with this comment pretty hard actually. But you can’t deny he’s a really good value engine.
For sure, in this case I think of it as trying to guide players to playing an interesting archetype by putting a "draw a card" carrot in front of them.
o.o
you're handsome
thanks
@@danacoleman4007You’re welcome
Wasn't expecting a face reveal......
This commander is a worse version of Ob Nixilis, captive kingpin. It lacks one of Ob’s forms of evasion and only triggers once per turn and only on an opponent’s s turn. Half the cards in this list go into Ob and they all trigger him, rather than just the first instance.
It's similar, but I disagree that this is just a worse version. Ob's draw can trigger on every turn but it requires the damage to be exactly 1, which narrows the ways you can build him vs Valgavoth. Plus his draw is impulse instead, which is just worse. And Valgavoth hurting opponents with its Ward if they remove it is strictly better than Ob's nothing.
sorry but nah goad is such a cop out strategy . i mean you are rakdos go for the win and pain . if i wanted a goad deck i'd pick a goad commander
Goad is pretty good on its own, and when you’re playing this kind of deck you are gonna get a lot of attention. Goading is a really good way to not only ensure damage off of you but on to your opponent’s. But if you don’t want to play goad because you just don’t want to put that in your deck that’s totally valid.
Patreon gating an opinion on bans...bit of a weird choice, but ok. Really asking for those 300 pennies for your thoughts.
how tf can (casual) edh players even give a frick about the banlist? i just dont get it, i mean theyve proven not to be taken seriously often enough and i dont see why my playgroup should be inflicted with their list. one of my friends plays dockside in a mono red deck without instantly recurring him and breaking the game so why should i tell him to take that out of his deck?
The ability to loop Dockside and make infinite mana is not what makes it broken. What makes it broken is how it is cheap and produces a high amount of mana on ETB, which is powerful in any context, including a casual context
??? just keep playing it in your pod then? just pull it when you go to your lgs? if it's fine in your playgroup then it's fine period?
The ban list exists for players who play with random groups and not a consistent one. I haven’t had a consistent playgroup in 3 years and play with new players practically every week. everyone has their own opinion of what is “fair” and “casual” etc. if your playgroup wants to keep dockside legal it isn’t a tournament nobody cares. Better games will be had on my end 10000% with none of these cards legal this is actually some of the best news I’ve had in commander probably since the prophet ban
You can play Dockside and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Invoke Prejudice and Meddling Kids in your commander decks and no one is going to jail. It's like playing Monopoly and putting the taxes in the middle of the board and taking the money when you land on free parking. Get everyone to agree to your house rules and you're fine.
@@Lazydino59 I've echoed this sentiment in quite a few comment sections. It's for the LGS/Spelltable encounters. And it's also awesome for RUclips edh content. I'm happy never seeing those 3 cards again in commander shows.
The EDH rules committee should have no control over how CEDH is played.
Could have shaved 5 mins, doesn't need to be that deep a dive
Yeah this felt like a very straight-forward strategy
RC: The game is too fast, ban fast mana!
WoTC: Here's a group slug precon!
🤦♂️