Commander Challenge: The all seeing, and the one with stolen eyes. Yup, it’s the Partner Challenge
First, before I start on the deck I want to thank you all for sharing, commenting, raising your hands in the air and lending me your energy. This is the first ever deck that’s been truly hyped, and just, damn. I can’t thank you all enough.
I really want to apologize for it being late. Normally decks are supposed to be released the following Sunday of the poll. No excuses, but work has been hectic, and I scrapped the deck Yesterday...I forgot a card existed, and made me happy to rework the deck.
Our budget was a combination of two one-hundred dollar partners. So we had a total budget of $200. We’re at $198.05. (Starcitygames has Commit/memory at $1) Under the wire, but it works.
Here are our Commanders.
The all seeing, the one close to Kruphix. While blinded, she sees the world. She lends this knowledge to you, fellow Planeswalker. What will you do with this knowledge?
Many had complained about Kraum upon seeing him. Well, with his stolen eyes (We all know Ludevic stole some premium eyes). His massive body, he makes our opponents fear going even further beyond their normal plays.
You can view the deck here. Trust me, you’re going to love it.
Read below for what this deck truly does.
So what was the card that made me scrap an entire deck?
One of Bolas’ children. I had just gotten mine in the mail today and it struck me harder than a bag of bricks.
“So wait, you mean to tell me that the partners don’t even do anything? It’s all for some God?”
Welcome to the feelings everyone has on the Amonkhet-block story-line.
Yes, Kydele, and Kraum work to make the Locust God the best God ever.
Before we even start the deck.
“Stop making us wait!”
I need you all to know, there’s only one Commander “Staple” in this deck. That’s Command Tower. There is no Sol-Ring, or Sensei’s Divining Top. Heck there are no Farseeks, or any Sorcery’s that searches for a basic land. Not sure if Cyclonic Rift or Krosan Grip are considered “staples”. If they are, my statement is incorrect and I am sorry.
Oh, there’s also no cards that search for our Combo pieces, or any part of the deck that isn’t land.
Onto the deck!
“About time, Jerk.”
Ok, so with The Locust God in mind, we can actually win in a few ways. One is to generate infinite mana, to cast this classic.
We also have the ability to go and make everyone draw their deck with again, infinite mana, and either a Blue Sun’s Zenith, Nin the Pain Artist, or Stroke of Genius,
How do we go about generating infinite mana?
First we need Kydele out on the field (perferably with Thousand-year Elixir). Then we need to either cast and equip, or just equip Umbra mantle. This would also allow us to just straight up knock someone out with Commander Damage...I just realized that.
The fun way of winning.
Now the other way of winning is to Draw an insane amount of cards and make enough 1/1 tokens to wipe out our opponents. We can use this:
To also win. This helps if we’re against a pesky Pillow-fort decks. We also have cards like Pandemonium, and Impact Tremors, and Last-Ditch Effort. Impact can clear a whole board in one go, without us having to do much, and Last-Ditch effort can at least get one opponent.
From our preview, we still have some Planeswalkers.
Both of these ladies allow for Kydele to produce more mana. Chandra replaces our hand (which can be a great thing if we lack resources), and Kiora gives us the ability to untap her for “free”. We do have Jace, Unraveler of Secrets and Kiora 1.0. Both of them are here to draw cards. This is a far bigger change compaired to the package of Planeswalkers I showed during the week.
What can we do with the tokens if we don’t have any of the above?
Well this requires us to draw into some cards...which then leads us to draw out the deck. Firstly we need The Locust God on the field, followed by Cryptolith Rites + Perilous Forays + Horn of Greed, and a single draw spell. What happens is We draw a card, which gets us a 1/1 haste token. Rites are out, so now it taps for any color of mana, we tap and sacrifice it towards Forays to get a land, which triggers Horn of Greed, and in turn triggers The Locust God, for us to rinse and repeat. We can replace Horn, with Fecundity!
This will let us get out all of our lands with land types! It aids in our quest to draw our other much needed cards. Also, if we have Avenger of Zendikar out/ with tokens, we can make them big, bigger, biggest of them all.
If we have any form of draw in our hand, he allows us to win with Locust doing massive damage. That is, we don’t need to draw 40+ cards to win...more like 20. This aids Avenger as well. If for whatever reason we never cast The Locust God.
At the very worst, we only have like 10 tokens out, and The Locust God, which makes 58 damage. That usually means someone is dead.
The best bank in town!
You might be wondering “Well it must be great to have infinite mana on a turn, but nothing to do with it!”
No worries there. With our Trusty Kruphix out, Kydele’s mana stays (as long as our God here stays out). Not only is this a nice little story throw back, but it makes it sow we can generate a number of mana and save it for a later date.
Ok, so what should a starting hand be? What should we keep?
Alright, well here’s a keeper. That will make your turn 3 play be powerful.
You want to keep a hand of Exploration, four lands (Must be able to produce Green and Blue mana), Umbral Mantle, and Thousand-Year Elixir. This allows us to Cast Kydele on turn two, and have the ability to start on our “Infinite mana quest”. Issues is, we need a draw spell. Well by turn three we can also have Kraum out for some damage. We won’t be doing much until turn 4 or 5. That’s because we need to draw at least four + cards in a turn to make Kydele produce enough mana for something.
Would you add anything, if you had it or had a larger budget?
Yes, there’s plenty.
Respectively, Reflection is $25, cube is $12, Season is $60 (wow!), Nissa is $5, and Hour of Devastation is $10 (expect this to go up).
Both Reflection and Cube make Kydele go far beyond, heck it can make our lands go beyond. Doubling Season is for our Planeswalkers and for The Locust God. We either get our Walkers to go big, or we swarm them faster. Lastly Nissa is there to make the Locusts scary. Oh, Hour is to protect us...we really don’t have a way to constantly stop threats.
I like the deck, but I want it to be more competitive!
An infinite combo wasn’t enough?
“No!”
Hm, ok. Here’s what I would add.
Add:
+Cord of Calling
+Worldly Tutor
+ Skyshroud Claim
+Mystical Tutor
Out:
- Warstorm Surge
- Temple Bell
- Commit/ Memory
- Barrage of Expendables
Overall, I’m hjappy with how this deck came out. First and foremost, we are using one of the New Gods, and the pairing actually works. Kydele will generate at least 1 mana on your opponents turn. Also, while yes, there’s a ton of infinite combos, the deck doesn’t really rely on them to win. We just need some mana, The Locust God, Impact Tremors, and a draw spell. Heck, if we can draw five cards with that combo out, we can deal a whopping 20 damage (Five to each player). That’s nothing to sneeze at!
If playing this deck, and the combo is about to go off (The Locust God one), you must play this song!
Again, I cannot thank you all enough for the love and support you’ve given me. Thank you all for getting the poll out there, and for talking to me about your hopes for this deck.
Until the next article, poll, and stream.
Gryffnwing~
Oh...I’m tagging everyone from before...sorry.@commandtower-solring-go @jolly-ob-saint-nixilis@anxiety-cannon@wolvenmonarch @tibalt-the-fineblooded @iamthezubatman @blogging-phelddagrif@the-izzet-are-my-shizzit @tamiyos-pokedex@commandertheory@commandollar @rhonas-indomitable @thescorpiongod @zurgo-nerdpuncher@commander-cube @yeens-human@legendaryedhplays @mayaels-petting-zoo @glissa-the-traitor @vorthosjay @eugene-thespiritdragon@elspethsunschampion @elvish-memesmith @eloneth @fatesealer-mage@mizzixoftheizmagnus @swagonlord-silumgar@swagcastermage@circlesmadeofglass @phyrexian-without-a-cause @follower-of-liliana @simic-initiate@someonesomewhat @shunthehexmage @captainsqueak@indefinite-free-pizza @kayas-wife @geckomaster25852@hope-of-ghirapur @sylvhem@mtg-realm @misteryada@thegreateyebrows @ezurad
Last reblog got me thinking of Partner Commanders and something about them repressing guilt for the sake of getting the job done.
It's not hard to imagine Nohsi snapping at Viil one time out of stress, saying something about how much he's hurting after losing Forgal but he's out there fighting the battles he's obligated to fight. He was a patient old-at heart plant, but at that time he jumped into a leader/mentor role (Viil) while also accepting the duty that was entrusted to him by someone he deeply respected as a superior (Trahearne) therefore kicking off his desire to please at the same time.
Nohsi and Viil met at a period when they're both mourning the loss of particular Norn they hold in high regard. And as the circumstances of the world dragged both of them along, they both were teetering on contrasting actions as they coped with their respective griefs. Nohsi doubled-down on his serving nature and wanted to break his soft-spoken/nurturing behavior, and Viil was actively fighting his old outgoing and sensitive self by clamming up and putting up a whole stuck-up and arrogant act.
Time alone together on the job proved to break down those bad habits eventually, but the turning point of it was really only thanks to Aurene coming along and unceremoniously choosing Viil as her champion: Forcing Nohsi to relent and let go (clenched fist -> open palm symbolism) , while forcing Viil to take initiative and finally act as he always wanted to instinctively. (Hiding within folded wings -> opening them to fly symbolism)
Lets have a look at the other commanders I got with this.
Or the main ones that came with it. Beautiful artwork combined with pretty nice effects, considering the decks they can combo with. Ikra is just great with any mana ramp/big creatures deck, Ishai can become huge against combo heavy decks, and Reyhan is really good against removal because you’ll never have wasted +1/+1 counters. I like the combo of Reyhan and Ishai much more than Ishai and Ikra, as the Reyhan/Ishai combos well to increase and army and I view Commander as commanding an army with the legendaries as spearheads. On the other hand, Ikra/Ishai can be great for offensive defense to keep regenerating health. I’m not that well versed in commander, so i’m probably wrong.
