So I've had a fun time this week. I wanted to try and construct a deck that didn't utilise +1/+1 counters or tokens.
To be honest I failed. But neither of the above are the central theme of this deck unlike my last couple of deck-building guides.
I'm guessing that I also had a little bit of inspiration still in me from last week's post when I finally settled on my chosen commander.
I first chose the colours I wanted to be in. I've covered White, Red-Green mand Blue-Green most recently.
In the end I decided I wanted to be in Black but also wanted another colour and finally after looking for a while settled for Blue.
In the end I went for Vela the Nigh-Clad and I chose her for a very specific reason I'll talk about in a bit.
But first let's take a closer look at her.
I've already mentioned her colour identity so just to note she has a CMC of 6. That puts her in the middle of Commanders that I have looked at. It means you need to be aware of your mana base and make sure you're running plenty of lands and mana rocks (artifacts that can be tapped for mana).
If you haven't already bookmarked it go and book mark http://manabasecrafter.com/ it's the best resource for working out what lands, creatures and artifacts to play depending on your chosen commander.
Vela is a Human Wizard and although I'm not going tribal that may or may not be pertinent later on.
There are two things going on here.
1. Vela has Intimidate and gives it to other creatures.
To recap; A creature with intimidate can't be blocked, except by artifact creatures and by creatures that share a color with it.
So that's one way we could approach the deck. Intimidate our way to victory either via commander damage or with normal damage.
2. Vela has the following ability:
Whenever Vela the Night-Clad or another creature you control leaves the battlefield each opponent loses 1 life.
What's so intriguing about this is the phrase 'leaves the battlefield'.
This includes;
- Returned to hand
- Exiled
- Sent to the graveyard either because the creature died or was sacrificed.
Unfortunately it's Red. If it wasn't it would be the first card on my list.
If you think back to last week's post and the infinite flicker (exiling a creature that returns to the battlefield) combo. Then you'll realise that Vela with the right cards can be awsome....more of that later.
Finally she's a 4/4 a reasonable body but I'm using her for her abilities not a beat stick.
So I've already mentioned flickering but, crucially last weeks post was all about Eldrazi Displacer which was a White creature. Don't be disheartened though because Blue has a creature that we can use in its place.
Deadeye Navigator! As a bonus Deadeye also only costs 1U rather than 2C to trigger.
I'm not going to go for the really big guns with this combo but I am going to include Cloud of Faeries and Peregrine Drake to the deck as both can make this combo work and win me the game.
I don't want to overload the deck with infinite combo possibilities while I find they are fine if you play them once every-so-often this deck for me isn't just about a combo it's about how I can interact with the people I'm playing with.
All these cards have something in common. I can use them to target my own permannets or my opponents.
Bouncing your opponents permanents can play havoc with their board state. Venser is especially powerful as he can act like a temporary counter spell and he has flash so can be played at any time you can cast an instant.
Doing this with creatures is great but there is another way. To do it with a sorcery or better yet an instant. However, sorceries and instants are one off spells or are they?
Okay it costs a total of 6 mana to cast it and pay the Buyback cost but it is worth it to be able to use the car on demand.
There is also another way:
You can't use it to target the creature you are casting which is a shame but it is still a very useful repeatable ability.
You might not realise this but there is yet another way!
Both Erratic Portal and Crystal Shard have the caveat that the creature's controller can pay 1 to avoid the effect. So play them on your own creatures. That's what you really want to do because with Vela in play you get to damage your opponents.
So what sort of creatures are you going to play where it makes sense to return them to your hand?
Solemn Simulacrum is just a hand way to hunt for lands in a mana hungry deck. Duplicant and Phyrexian Ingester are great for removal. Especially the Ingester which ingest pretty much anything you could want it to.
Drowner of Hope and Dread Drone both produce Eldrazi tokens that can be sacrificed for mana - triggering Vela.
Sengir Autocrat is great because he kills his own serfs so when you bounce him back to your hand you get not 1 but 4 triggers for Vela.
Gray Merchant is just a way of causing additional pain to your opponents.
What would be even better is a way to have them leave play and return to play so that their enter the battlefield effects trigger and Vela also triggers.
Conjurer's Closet is great because it doesn't require an activation cost. However, Nephalia Smuggler does exactly what we want it to as well.
There are a couple of other artifacts that have effects that synergies well with this deck.
Both Minion Reflector and Mimic Vat put tokens into play that are a copy of a creature. Copy the right creature and you get its ETB trigger when you create the copy and Vela's trigger when the token leaves play.
Mimic Vat specifically requires a nontoken creature that has died and is off to the graveyard. So I included a couple of ways to do this.
Both given token creatures which can then be sacrificed triggering Vela both also give me the ability to sacrifice a creature so it can then be exiled to Mimic Vat.
Then again if we are sacrificing creatures might we not want them to come back into play again?
Mikaeus, in this guise gives, your non-human creatures Undying. This means you can sacrifice them and they'll come back into play with a +1/+1 counter on it. If you then exile them and return them to the battlefield they'll loose that +1/+1 counter and be ready to be sacrificed again.
The opposite of Persist is Undying. Rather than add a +1/+1 counter you add a -1/-1 counter. The cool thing about Puppeteer Clique is you get to take control of a creature from an opponent's graveyard that then gets exiled at the beginning of your next end step. If you want to keep the creature exile it with Conjurer's Closet and it'll avoid the trigger from the Clique.
Undying and Persist can be used alternately to constantly bring a sacrificed creature back to the battlefield. In this deck I'm not playing a sacrifice outlet that would make this work. However, if I wanted I could always add Ashnod's Altar or something similar.
Speaking of Persist I'm also playing Glen Elendra Arch Mage.
Again once you've sacrificed her and she has activated her Persist you can always return her to your hand, exile her and return her to the battlefield or use Undying on her to give you a handy counterspell that just won't go away.
Sometimes its hard to categorise every creature I'm playing. In this case Kokusho because he makes a great creature to exile to Mimic Vat or just as a sacrifice target for Mikaeus.
I'm playing Zulaport Cutthroat as he offers an alternative damage option to Vela.
I'm playing Zulaport Cutthroat as he offers an alternative damage option to Vela.
Then there's Tetravus because he just creates Tetravites and Exiles them for me triggering Vela.
Butcher is just there to make my sacrifices have a greater impact on the board state.
On the other hand sometimes it's easy.
Both Erebos and Arcanis have been included to fuel my deck's draw ability. Along with these I'm also playing a couple of enchantments.
Rhystic Study, because if you're playing Blue you should be playing it. Dire Undercurrents because it has great synergy with the deck.
I'm only playing the four draw cards in this deck when usually I'd aim for 6. I'm going to test it out and see how it goes and if I need to I'll be adding a couple of extra options at a later date.
I feel at this stage I should mention Myriad.The token creatures created by this ability are exiled at the end of the turn. Self exiling tokens are just what's needed to trigger Vela. Especially as it produces two of them. If they get blocked and die so much the better it also trigger the Cutthroat if it's in play.
As such I'm playing both on colour Myriad creatures and Blade of Selves. There are also some great creatures which you can equip the Blade too, such as Kokusho.
Now for something completely different: Day of the Dragons.
When you play this all creatures get exiled. Vela is triggered even if she leaves play at the same time as the other creatures leaving play. So you get all those triggers.
The idea is then to let Vela go to the command zone and recast her. Once you have done that return Day of the Dragons to your hand.
All the dragons are then sacrificed for more Vela triggers and your creatures return to play.
It's expensive but it should be fun to play.
These are three more spells I've chosen to play because copying creatures is fun. I will say if I had to cut any cards in the deck Fated Infatuation would be one of the first because I prefer the bigger more splashy effects of Rite of Replication and the reusable Flashback ability of Cackling counterpart.
The last card I want to mention to today is Voidwalk.
I don't think I've ever really paid much attention to any other card with the Cipher ability. However, Voidwalk just seemed too good not to include in the deck. Cipher this on a creature and you get to exile a target creature that comes back into play at the beginning of the next end step. Useful to trigger Vela, activate an ETB effect. I'm not sure it's that useful to target an opponents creature unless you are doing something political.
Other than this I have the usual mix of counter spells, man rocks and a single lonely tutor.
Next week I'm going to be mana Rocking and Rolling.
Until then happy shuffling.
Phil
As such I'm playing both on colour Myriad creatures and Blade of Selves. There are also some great creatures which you can equip the Blade too, such as Kokusho.
Now for something completely different: Day of the Dragons.
When you play this all creatures get exiled. Vela is triggered even if she leaves play at the same time as the other creatures leaving play. So you get all those triggers.
The idea is then to let Vela go to the command zone and recast her. Once you have done that return Day of the Dragons to your hand.
All the dragons are then sacrificed for more Vela triggers and your creatures return to play.
It's expensive but it should be fun to play.
These are three more spells I've chosen to play because copying creatures is fun. I will say if I had to cut any cards in the deck Fated Infatuation would be one of the first because I prefer the bigger more splashy effects of Rite of Replication and the reusable Flashback ability of Cackling counterpart.
The last card I want to mention to today is Voidwalk.
I don't think I've ever really paid much attention to any other card with the Cipher ability. However, Voidwalk just seemed too good not to include in the deck. Cipher this on a creature and you get to exile a target creature that comes back into play at the beginning of the next end step. Useful to trigger Vela, activate an ETB effect. I'm not sure it's that useful to target an opponents creature unless you are doing something political.
Other than this I have the usual mix of counter spells, man rocks and a single lonely tutor.
Next week I'm going to be mana Rocking and Rolling.
Until then happy shuffling.
Phil
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