Hi! I have a problem with my Merieke Edh. If my opponent does not play anything, I cannot win, as my win conditions are my opponents creatures and spells. What do you recommend me?
Hi there, thanks for your question!
Merieke Ri Berit is an interesting Commander and pretty unique in her colors. She’s the only legendary creature in Esper colors that does what she does, and her closest comparison is probably Rubinia Soulsinger with a Bant color identity. Building a deck featuring either of these Commanders is an interesting challenge in that they want your opponents to be actively doing things in the game so that you can utilize them for yourself.
Having a theme in mind helps to smooth out the deckbuilding process when you’re working on a new list. Building your deck to a mechanical theme specifically is a good way to ensure consistency of play, and with a Commander like Merieke at the helm the most obvious mechanic to build to is theft effects. Turning your opponents’ cards to your favor can be fun if they’re not prepared for it. If you let yourself get too locked into theme, though, you can run the risk of stagnating your build, pushing it too far into one strategy and leaving it defenseless if another player does something outside of your comfort zone.
Deckbuilding in Commander is an ongoing process, and as you play more games with your deck, it starts to tell you what it does well and what it needs help with. In a situation where you’re relying on your opponents’ plays to fuel your own deck, each game will change depending on the decks sitting at the table with you.
I think the best option here is to include a few cards that are legitimate threats of your own. This serves a sort of double duty for you -- not only does it keep your deck going if your opponents aren’t playing the cards you need, but it also baits out your opponents’ cards to answer your threat which you can then use to fuel your theft effects. Esper is no slouch when it comes to playing threatening bodies, either; cards like Sphinx of the Steel Wind and Magister Sphinx require players to sit up and take notice when they hit the field. Consider including creatures that have large bodies but also work as utility pieces in your deck, such as the ever-useful Ashen Rider or Angel of Despair. Another option is a massive, threatening body with extra defenses, like Inkwell Leviathan or Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. Either of those require a response from an opponent which you can turn to your favor.
You can also be proactive in your theft by using your opponents’ cards before they can play them. Cards like Bribery, Praetor’s Grasp and Sen Triplets can help to grab some cards for your personal use before their owner has a chance to use them. The types of cards like these that you’ll be able to include in your deck will be dependent on what your local playgroup brings to the table, but they’re worth considering.
I think the biggest takeaway here is that building to a theme is a good thing but you can’t let yourself be strangled by it. If you’re finding that your opponents are shutting you down because your deck’s card selection is walking too singular a path, you might need to branch yourself out a bit. I wrote a few articles a while back on card selection and deckbuilding to theme as well as individual card evaluation, which might add a bit more insight.
This answer was way longer than I intended it to be! I hope it was helpful for you nonetheless. Good luck in your deckbuilding, and feel free to let me know how it goes as you progress.
Hey friends! I know that I don't do too many personal posts on here, but I have a question for you guys. I recently purchased the Barbieri Tarot, and have been using it/reading it daily for about a month now, but I'm having some trouble with it. It follows the RWS style of deck, but the imagery is very different, as is the LWB with some of its interpretations. So my question is: have any of you guys used the deck? How did you find it to work with? What advice might you have with learning to use the deck with confidence? Thanks a million!!
are there any yugioh players here? i’m trying to ease into “plays more than once every day for a month, once every two years” and need critique on an xyz spam deck i sort of threw together
Don’t ask for help with making your Yugioh deck better and then complain about how the advice doesn’t fit your ‘theme’. You can choose to either have a flavorful deck or a deck that wins but realize that asking for both is too greedy, one sacrifices the others. Again there is nothing wrong with having a flavorful fun casual deck but don’t cry about losing.
@kah-hoa-raverkeinst as a reply in a shorter post. Competitive Yugioh involes a lot of stuff that seems kind of counter-intuitive to instincts but are mathematically most correct. Lets say Card A lets you search for a subset of cards and add it to your hand. Now Card B is searchable by Card A and is the exact card you need for the current situation. So a normal casual player would of course use Card A to get Card B. But now a competitive player will use Card A to get Card C and use that card to get Card D and use that get Card E and use that to get Card B! Now you thinned your deck so your chances of getting good draws is better and you have tons of cards in your graveyard to manipulate. Prophecy and many other competitive archetypes are exactly like this so they can be confusing to people that don’t think 20 moves ahead.
Gonna build a ghostrick burn deck! Any suggestions please? I hear from Kah, that you're great at dueling advice and stuff. :)
Sorry I took so long to to get to this and I am flattered to be called “great” at dueling advice but I warn you that is very relative.
Ghostricks are an amazingly defensive but can sometimes have a hard time going in for the kill which makes them drag the game out long. Most burn decks go through their whole hand quickly and get their opponent’s low on LP but then need to rely on top-deck draws which is not reliable and typically leave themselves wide-open to lose quickly. Together they make a beautiful combo as the Ghostricks protect you, you can rely on slower burn cards which are more effective even though the fast burn cards get more attention typically.
First make-sure you have the honorary Ghostrick, Sealth Bird. This classic burn bird fits right in with Ghostricks flipping strategy.
One of the strongest burn cards in the game is restricted to 2 per deck and still seems to get over-looked a lot, Ceasefire. Now this card is a little anti-Ghostrick since it doesn’t trigger flip effects but as long as you are smart and use it at the right time you will easily deal 3000+ burn damage and not mess up your plans.
Another old-school burn card that is good is Secret Barrel. Again like Ceasefire this is not a burn card you play right away. You take your time to set it perfect. Once you are several turns in and your opponent’s field and hand are full but useless you can unleash this for a lot of damage. Super old card Just Deserts can fill a similar role. Recently a brand new card called Secret Blast is similar but does extra damage if your opponent blows it up (in case you don’t know the way this card works is your opponent targets it with something like MST and you chain it to that which means you get both burn effects of Secret Blast). I would probably not main deck Secret Blast but keep some in the side deck if you think your opponent plays a lot of S/T removal.
If you are feeling risky you can go with the old-fashion gambling burn card, Wave-Motion Cannon. This card alone can kill your opponent but if they destroy it then the card is a waste. I think it has value though because when you have a Wave-Motion Cannon and a Shard Of Greed both face-up, your opponent is going to have a hard time deciding which one to destroy with their one removal card. Don’t try to get too greedy with the damage. If you can make it to turn 3 then you should probably go ahead and deal 3000 damage with it.
Speaking of being dangerous we can deal some deadly damage to our opponents through a little self-infliction. So Dark Snake Syndrome is an old favorite of mine that will let you win as long as you stay ahead of your opponent. Then their is the more popular Ring Of Destruction & Blazing Mirror Force. Both of these are very powerful as they take out your opponent’s best monsters and deal a lot of damage as long as you can take the damage first. Again don’t just trigger these as soon as possible, try to wait to maximize their usefulness.
Speaking of which I almost forgot the amazing Magic Cylinders! Again wait to use it on something powerful.
As we close out remember to have some draw power. As I mentioned I feel Shard of Greed is a legitimate card even if not always the most reliable. Pot Of Duality is great as you probably won’t need to special summon too much. Pot Of Dichotomy should also be good as Ghostricks have a lot of different types and burn decks don’t have a problem skipping the battle phase, the only thing is you need to have a variety of monsters in your grave and sometimes Ghostricks don’t die easily. Finally despite being restricted to 1, a lot of people overlook One Day Of Peace. It may seem like a bad card for a burn deck but as I have said about a lot of cards, it is all about timing and playing it at the right time instead of right away (although sometimes you will want to). Since you can’t take the damage and you get to draw a card now and next card, those 2 cards could be enough burn to win.
So good luck! Burn away! I focused more on the burn part than the Ghostrick part but I figured that side builds itself a bit more and I am less versed with it.
