#commander challenge

[gryffnwing-blog]

Oh yes

Working on The Locust God deck, and I’m loving it. Even without the Green from the Partner deck. This is going to be so much fun. Like holy hell.

[gryffnwing-blog]

Look at what we Built: Commander Challenge Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis.

Look at these two buff, silky smooth. Gorgeous abs, big butt. 

Shit, what was I talking about. Oh yeah, hot guys and their deck. Woooooo boy/girl/non-binary folks. We are entering a rabbit hole.  See below for more.

WE. DO. NOT. HUG. If you want to see the full deck without the need for explanations. See here.

We’re a four...three color control deck. We built a civilization through war. Guess what, we now have a diplomatic way of solving issues. We built it, and we will tear you down... if you’re a threat. 

See this asshole. This asshole is ban-worthy for all the hell he has given me. Now, now we use them. We have 19 creatures out of 23 that have an ETB trigger. My favorite is this little dude: 

HOT DAMN! We return lands. Ok, so anything that isn’t a Green ramp deck (yup those exist). Set them back. On their turn if you want. Or we can do this...

It’s like Mist-bind Clique. So we blink on their untap step. We lock them down. So yeah, make them cry. We built a great city, we are keeping it that way. Next up we have a package of fuck you, you’re the moon/tree and insect.

This paired with Song of the Dryad (Holy shit it’s almost $8. Why? Is this some sort of legacy deck? Damn, thank goodness I still own mine.) Oh yeah, and Darksteel Mutation. These are the best. Planeswalkers, Eldrazi, hell Commanders themselves. THEY. ARE. USELESS! Oh yea, we have Thespian stage that then copies those things and now we have a functioning copy of them (that works with at least Song of the Dryad). Other enchantments we run are Curse of Exhaustion for those pesky Combo/ Control players. You will know who they are, and you should laugh at them. Next is Suppression Field a card that makes our main dude, Deadeye, sad. Try not playing that when we have him out. Though it shuts down everything else that’s annoying. Lastly, this thing: 

Watch this card. It says “Make everyone know who the threat is”, and then you have the ability to of course, say no, and shut them down. * Note: Please for the love of God, don’t say no to the Graveyard player. It’s bad enough that we don’t have graveyard hate in this deck. DO NOT FEED THEM! We have the best Green card ever 

That’s right, for nine mana, we can get whatever we want to win. Or, we get the things that make our opponent go....

Which is the entire deck. Now it wouldn’t be a control deck if we didn’t play some control-ish instants. We have Redirct, Wild Ricochet, and Swerve. These let us make big plays. That control player got a great Blue Sun’s  Zenith, or maybe a they just have a Time Warp going off. Well now it’s ours. We have  the Chaos Warp for the laughs. We can’t tuck Commanders, but we can sure as heck tuck every other problematic card out there.Even our own Suppression Field. Lastly I want to talk about the Planeswalkers. Our budget allows for some of the best. We have Ajani Vengeant for land lock down, Garruk for ramp, Tiny Jace for that “group hug”, and Venser. Venser is a play maker. Let’s say we some how lost Deadeye, well we can blink our Eternal witness to get it back. He’s a slower version of  Deadeye. He also has this -1 that says (My big dudes get in there). It’s really nice, especially for a control deck with creatures. Now before I talk about Big Dude plays, I want to talk about our General(’s). It may seem like we never need to cast them. No, you are mistaken. Early on they are our ramp and draw. We may never need to drop our big name creatures until we have a full field of lands. This throws off our opponents. Also a 2/8 blocks for days. Now for some Big Dude Plays. Keep a hand of ramp. We have a draw engine with our general, so if we can ramp them out on turn three, do so. This usually means we have at least five mana on turn three. Next, if we can get a blue Sun’s or Sphinx’s Rev. off on turn 4/5 to draw 3+, then we are good to go. Aggressively build up our defenses. Cast curse of Exhaustion early and target the combo or control player. We don’t want them to counter our tooth and nail, or any other vital pieces. From there try and get out an Iona or Jin-Gitaxias. Lock out one or all opponents. You’ll know who the threat is. From there, if you draw Tooth and nail, we can get Deadeye and Gulf Squid. If we don’t win, then something went terribly wrong. What should I add if I have a larger budget? Things to add: Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite  Chandra, Torch of Defiance/ Jace, Architect of Thought Nissa, Steward of the Elements Mirari’s Wake Elesh Norn is a thorn for token decks. Chandra is early ramp. gets draw. If we get the emblem. Something went right., Nissa is for that sweet sweet scry. If we get her 0 off, cool. We have many creatures in our deck. If we can get a top out to control what happens, we can possibly cast an Iona for free. Lastly, Mirari’s Wake is for the best ramp ever. It didn’t make the cut for one reason, and that’s because I wanted a bit more control over this. Jace is there for mini fact or Fiction. What to remove: Rite of Replication Shapeshifter’s Marrow Thought Prison 1 Plain We’re at 37 lands, so we can go down one. Rite works with most of our deck, and can target other things, but it isn’t necessary to win. Shapeshifter’s Marrow allows for some cool plays. I.E; force your opponent to show us their next draw, and maybe get something good. Playing with other peoples stuff is nice. Lastly Thought Prison is meant to annoy control/ combo players. While a fun card, a Mirari’s Wake is so much nicer. Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis can be played so many ways. From Hug, to control, to walls, to Voltron. My take can throw a play group off. More or less it’s a one hit wonder. Because after the first game, they’ll know you’re a threat. Now you can take out some of the threats like Iona, Jin, and Terastodon. So you’re playing the lock down, but you’re not totally oppressive. We don’t have infinite mana, so we cannot fully destroy a field. This is deliberate, because at six maan, we can lock out all of our opponents with Deadeye + Gluf Squid. As  always thank you so much for voting and reading. I really love how this deck turned out. It went through a vast array of things. I originally wanted to make it a Chaos deck, but thought to myself, “Nah, games within games is annoying.” If you guys have any question, please feel free to ask! Thanks for reading. I will see you all in the next article. EDIT: Our Budget was $220 for the deck. We made it under the cut! Gryffnwing~

[gryffnwing-blog]

Commander Challenge: Faith Edition; The Old Gods, and the New.

Last week we had a Battle of Gods, and their people.

No, not that. With Amonkhet fully released, and people still playing in the pre-releases. Many of you have seen the new Gods. Well, many years ago. We were introduced to the Theros Gods, the old ones. This battle is only between the mono colored Gods of Theros, and the Gods of Amonkhet. If you don’t need to see who is battling who. You can voter here.

Ignoring the possibility that Bontu could attack, we have have an Aristocrat effect every turn. The added bonus of scrying, in black. Makes it seem that this God wants us to see how quickly we can win. Deck Price: $120

Red likes to rush into battle. Well, red’s biggest folly is using its entire hand too quickly. In some cases, our hand loses value over time. With Hazoret, we either get a 5/4 beater without a hand, or a world shock when our hand isn’t that great. Deck Price $150

Ok, we’re in blue. We can always attack with Kefnet. We also have the ability to draw a card every turn. Late game we have a full hand, and a big bird God swinging in. Deck Price $100 

Oketra, the pretty kitty Goddess. With our budget, we’re going to make the deck amass a field so we can swing with her. A higher budget could have allowed us to build her as a Voltron styled deck. We just don’t want to buy $15 swords. Deck Price $100

Snek Snek, Rhonas the Snek God! In the color of “My turn two creature is a 5/5.” We will have Rhonas online, whenever we cast them. Go, give them a mighty push! Show them your ferocity! Deck Price $120 The Old Gods.

Simple, yet effective. He makes sure that people can’t go past their 40 life limit. For we must all meet our maker. He will let us Draw, for a price. Deck Price $100

He killed Elspeth. We don’t like him. Though he does make a 2/1 every turn. I mean, that’s ok. He killed Elspeth though... Deck Price $90

Give us Trample, gives us bigger dudes. What’s not to like? Reliably a 6/6 Nylea is pretty sweet. Deck Price $100

One of the best Red Generals, with the ability to make tokens into damage. While we will incorporate some of that into the deck, we will add another theme to him. Deck Price $150

She doesn’t have that fancy Bident anymore, but she’s mean, blue and totally all about them control. With the ability to scry every upkeep, and to make one of our peeps unblockable. There are plenty of sea-faring creatures that would love to smack into an opponent. Deck Price $100 So vote for the one that deserves your faith. Remember to vote here. The poll ends on Saturday at 12pm E.S.T As always. Thank you for reading.  I will see you all in the next article. Gryffnwing~

[gryffnwing-blog]

Commander Challenge: Alesha Who Smiles at Death, and news on Commander Challenge. Commander Challenge is going on a week break

I’ll be posting Alesha’s deck tomorrow. As for the new poll, well that’s on hold. I’ve just picked up a job. My hours are all over the place. So I’m trying to balance work, my business (Streaming, articles, and an online site), as well as looking for a full time job (stable hours). I need to take a break. Work on the Ishkanah deck, and the Rhonas deck. I need to find out what my regular hours are going to be, so I can stream-line my streaming/ get art done for it. I am truly sorry for not being able to finish things within the weeks time. I also apologize for taking a break. Hopefully in a weeks time, I’ll have a solid grasp on a schedule for everything. Perhaps I’ll start something better. For all of my followers, mutual’s, friends. Thank you for your support, and your understanding. You guys are what keeps me going, and I am truly truly grateful for you all. Sincerely, Gryffnwing~

[gryffnwing-blog]

Special Announcement: Commander Challenge - Amonkhet

Hapatra is in the lead, with Neheb in second. Bontu, Kefnet, and Rhonas are tied for third. No one else is on the board. You can vote here.

You can see all the contestants here.

That’s not the special special announcement. 

Something that I’ve noticed, I average around 10-15 votes each week. Which is pretty awesome! I want more, I crave the attention! “Thought you didn’t care about the likes and reblogs?” You’re right, I don’t voice. I just want to see the votes doubled. “Why, not like anyone gets anything out of it.” Ah, that’s where you’re wrong. If we can get to 30 votes this week. The article will be postponed until the following Saturday. I will take that article and do a video on explaining the deck. It will average anywhere between 5-9:55 minutes, because Youtube limits the time of your videos early on. So what do you guys say? Do you think we can get there? If we can’t, the article will still be posted on the normal Tuesday schedule. Anyway, as always. Thank you for reading, and my the votes ever be in favor of your champion. See you all in the next article. Gryffnwing~

[gryffnwing-blog]

Commander Challenge Polls

For those of you unaware, I do weekly polls now. Why? Because it’s easier on my soul. This week, the poll is on the five Planar Chaos Wedge Dragons. You can see them here.  Now the poll swings in the favor of Intet the Dreamer. This powerful girl has and is dominating this challenge. The only Dragon not on the board is Numot the Devastator. Guessing people don’t like Land Destruction? Well, if you haven’t voted, or you want your followers to vote. Send them here .  As always, thank you. Gryffnwing~

[gryffnwing-blog]

For Innistrad! Thalia, Heretic Cathar Commander Challenge

Do you like strong, powerful, sword-wielding women? Do you like locking down your opponents? Is your favorite show Xena, Warrior Princess? Would your ideal date be taking down a corrupt organized religion and being praised by the last non-corrupted Angel of your world? Then Thalia, Heretic Cathar, might be for you.

        Thalia’s new iteration taxes just your opponent. She saw the Church of Avacyn do it, now she’s taxing unrighteous people. (Those taxes are allocated to public schooling, developments in new technology, and, and fixing infrastructure). While she’s not locking down control or combo heavy decks, she does slow them, and aggressive decks down.

This build here will not only complement her abilities, but give you something she sorely needed on Innistrad. An army. 

       Thalia has a total of 26 creatures under her command. Cards like Captain of the Watch, Knight Captain of Eos, and the king Himself, Darien, bring add soldiers to your party. Where late in the game, White Sun’s Zenith allows you to flood the field with roaring thunder! To back up your army, True Conviction gives them Doublestrike, and if need be, Lifelink. You know, just in case you’re low.

      The rest of the deck is a pseudo stax’s/ control deck. The Package of Tectonic edge/ Strip Mine, with Sun Titan allows us to get rid of pesky lands. Next we have Magus of the Tabernacle, and Kataki, War’s Wage. In the early game, they can tie up our opponent’s mana, but be warned, if we over extend, or have to tap out in order to keep our field. Brace yourself, you will lose.

     Our control package contains, Blind Obedience, Curse of Exhaustion, Hushwing Gryff, Loxodon Gatekeeper, and a few others. Early on, like our staxs package, we want to cause our opponents game to go slow. Heck, if we get Thalia out on turn three, we have a great set up. (As a reminder, Blind Obedience can be used in this deck, since Extort’s mana cost is a reminder. Weird rule, but it works for us.) Our spells, like Harmless Assault, Safe Passage, Pollen Lullaby, allow us to survive large assaults. If we want to be cruel, we can cast Equal Treatment, to either help get rid of large creatures, or upset the burn player.

      The rest of the deck is odds and ends for each individual package. Glory for example can protect our creatures from a large Magmaquake, or it can allow us to alpha strike, when our opponents have blockers. Our lonely Planeswalker, Elspeth, allows us to field an army, gain much needlife, and after a turn, even the playing field (If we have tokens, go us!). Sword of the Animist, and Tamiyo’s Journal can be found with Thalia’s Lancers; who has a total of 7 cards to find. Though with the two artifacts, one allows us to find lands and makes sure we can build up to big plays, and the journal allows us to draw cards. Which in White, we sorely need.

      As a control deck, we don’t have a lot of big plays. Normally we are waiting for someone to tap out, or make a misplay. Even though we can build an army, it is better for us to restrain ourselves, as to not lose our advantage. One big play is to White Sun’s Zenith at the end of our opponents turn, and pump them with Soul of Theros, with a True Conviction on the field.

      Before we go into upgrades, @kayas-wife wanted this build for $100, and our total was, minus basic lands, $100. Not bad for a deck that could help reclaim Innistrad. Here’s the full build Thalia!

If you want to upgrade this deck, there are plenty of options. Firstly, we remove Truce, for Silence. If we are going the control route, we want to hinder, not help. Next, replace Norn’s Annex with a Conjuror’s Closet. That will help us get some steam with our Sun Titan, and our token producers. If you want to go deep into your wallet, I would go for a Crucible of Worlds. This lets us go for a direct approach to land destruction. Lastly, the package of Sol Ring, Thran Dynamo, Sensei’s Divining Top, and other cards for ramp/ card draw. I would also add an Ajani Goldmane, for our tokens. There are a ton of ways to build Thalia, and this is just one.

Thanks to @kayas-wife for suggesting the idea.

Next week’s build is Kari Zev, for @someonesomewhat

[gryffnwing-blog]

A little thing on Commander Challenge

So I’ve been doing Commander Challenge for a little over a month now. One thing I’ve noticed, is that very little interact with it. Now, I’m not just talking about the posts themselves, but with ideas, and messaging me about them. While I am grateful that I have two people that constantly give ideas, that in turn can make others feel either left out, or that I might not pick them. My mate brought up a good point, that I just didn’t think. It can be awkward. Even if I have asks open, with Anon on, people may not come. So it was suggested that maybe I put up a straw poll instead; which doesn’t give the option of giving anonymous ideas. Though what it does allow is a more organized way of doing things. By using Strawpoll, I can create just that, a poll. People can vote on the ideas presented, anonymously, and I get solid data. This is turn though, means people who wanted specific things, will no longer be tagged. The other issue faced, is the budget. That seems to be a thing left up to me, unless I put up two polls. Which can cause confusion, and might only have one poll being answered. While I love making decks under $100, the norm does seem to be a range between $50- $100. Which means $100 is the new budget? (Ha, puns).  Also, I think I need to use tags more efficiently. There seems to be little to no interaction at all with the ones I am using. Maybe I’ll re-brand the challenge ,who knows. What do all of you think? Those who have done Commander Challenge, is this a route you want the article to go? If so, how many options should I give? Should the new budget be $100, or should I vary it?  I want to thank everyone who has participated with this page, and with these articles. Thanks again. -Gryffnwing (Leaving this to keep questions open)?