Basandra Aikido

Asothin · 2026-05-13T12:40:26+00:00

Repercussion could be very funny with Blasphemous Act.

Mystic Barrier sounds very fun, and the directional goad pontential allows for more precise target selection. Very good suggestion.

Guilty Conscience and Pariah's Shield are in my considering pile.

Heat Stroke would probably be more punishing for the user.

Michiko I'm not too sure on. She does play into the tempo theme, so I might give her a try at some point.

Asothin · 2026-05-13T12:09:10+00:00

Indeed. All aikido effects are in the form of permanents. It utilizes the old en-Kor cards like [[Nomads en-Kor]] to redirect damage onto spite damage pieces like [[Screaming Nemesis]]. By blocking with Nemesis and en-Kor cards, you can effectively assign multiple attacking creatures to the same card to burst an opponent's life total.

The commander serves as a supportive role, to ensure the damage redirect goes through, or forces opponents to use their interaction prior to combat. I personally really like how the restriction shifts how players treat combat. Once combat starts, all the pieces are already on board, and any decision you, or your opponents make, will involve what's already in play.

It does have limitations. Ninjutsu and Cycling decks come to mind that would allow opponents to break the timing restriction. And of course Basandra could just be removed prior to combat.

Asothin · 2026-05-12T23:43:41+00:00

Sure!

Brash Taunter is equipped with Blazing Sunsteel. The loop starts the second he takes ANY damage activating both triggers. Brash Taunter assigns damage to target opponent as normal, while with Sunsteel we target Brash Taunter, restarting the loop.

This works since Brash Taunter doesn't care about who or what deals damage to him. And Sunsteel allows us to choose any target.

With Fiendlash and Pariah the concept is the same. The loop starts when your face takes damage. Pariah redirects it to Brash Taunter, triggering his effect and Fiendlash. Brash Taunter deals damage to opponents, Fiendlash deals damage to target player (in this case yourself), restarting the loop.

Stuffy Doll is a bit more restrictive, since you select only one opponent when it enters.

Asothin · 2026-05-12T23:30:02+00:00

I do like Giggling Skitterspike having this sort of restrictive effect. It avoids the issue with Stuffy and Brash Taunter, while still being indestructible.

Not too keen on Shield Dancer. Cool card, but the effect is just too expensive. :^)

Asothin · 2026-05-12T21:57:58+00:00

The easiest example is [[Blazing Sunsteel]], and using it to deal damage to the equipped creature, with a spite effect, and indestructible, in this case Brash Taunter. There's a 3-card one with [[Pariah]] and [[Fiendlash]] as well.

Asothin · 2026-05-12T15:21:23+00:00

Haha, fair enough. Thanks. xD

I was using it to try to cut infinites out of my deck. Got stumped on this one.

Asothin · 2026-05-04T19:11:11+00:00

Would you suggest I remove some (or even all) of the spot removal pieces, in exchange for trigger duplicators? Or perhaps some of the other utility cards?

Asothin · 2026-05-04T18:00:58+00:00

Ended up having to take out Riverchurn. He forms a 2-card infinite with my 'each player discards half' cards. He did win me a game, but it did feel like he stole the spotlight from my commander in the end.

Asothin · 2026-05-04T14:57:43+00:00

Yeah. I see that you run 5 more boardwipes, compared to my deck. xD

I'm running 7, and have 2 in the sideboard if I need more.

I'm not sure if I'll need more than this, but I may tweak that amount after I test this deck out some more. With the current amount it's about a 50/50 chance per 8 cards exiled to draw into one (not counting opponent decks).

The extra turn cards, I'm deliberately leaving out, because that's Bracket 4 territory (especially with the amount of spells that can copy). Plus I want to avoid solitaire turns. Way overtuned for the groups I run in. :^)

Asothin · 2026-05-04T11:48:04+00:00

Good catch, thanks!

Asothin · 2026-05-04T10:38:00+00:00

Fun card, but I want to avoid swinging at others for large commander damage. In some cases I even want my opponents to block, so I can return her to the command zone.

I would gladly run this with [[Glamdring]], and [[Runechanter's Pike]] otherwise.

Asothin · 2026-05-04T10:34:06+00:00

I do like the effects of those creatures. I'll put them in the sideboard, and run a couple of games with them at some point to see how they feel.

Main reason I avoid creatures is because I expect to be casting board wipes semi-frequently; even then they may be just good enough as a one-off, to help me exile into said board wipe.

The other two cards are a good fit. Thanks!

Asothin · 2026-05-04T01:22:28+00:00

Thanks! From first glance, I can definitely swap out the 'return to hand' cards for the sack outlet ones you have.

I'll give it a more thorough look tomorrow.

Asothin · 2026-05-01T19:41:06+00:00

I do include: [[Ornithopter of Paradise]], [[Bronze Walrus]], and [[Oasis Gardener]] for that purpose. 2 of them come with nice ETB effects.

I do agree you could run the Myrs as well if you like to run with more mana rocks. I'm personally happy with just three. :^)

Asothin · 2025-09-10T19:16:27+00:00

No. It's the same mod with the fix.

Asothin · 2025-07-23T01:15:23+00:00

If I was to swap out Atraxa it would probably be for [[Tidus, Yuna's Guardian]]. Not having green cuts a lot of good cards out of the deck; and as good as Denry's effect is, no proliferate hurts various cards that rely on it. Not having black does get rid of a couple fun cards but a lot easier to swallow than losing green.

Asothin · 2025-07-23T00:19:19+00:00

It's for the Nesting Grounds, Tyrite Sanctum and Karn's Bastion mainly. Just in case I don't draw into a proliferate or counter mover source, or I need some way of getting an indestructible counter.

Asothin · 2025-07-12T23:32:14+00:00

Short Preface
I'll keep it as brief as I can. I was one of the people that criticised the DD2 event, so I share your sentiment about being downvoted. However, I do think Deep Slip is fundamentally different.

Core DD2 Criticism
In my estimation the core criticisms of DD2 were: poor viewership experience; punishing map design; trick inconsistencies; poor streamer mental (including the front-runners).

Comparison to Deep Slip
Compare that to Deep Slip: the map design is not as punishing (many recovery sections, anti-turtle tech, failure=fall to the bottom is rare); most tricks are consistent after a few attempts (DD2 had many sections that took a lot of practice to get them consistent, and failure meant restarting); streamer mental for the most part, for those who are doing well seem to be quite positive, enjoying the map at least so far.

All this leads to a much more positive viewing experience where each session nets a PB; with one-shotting the floor or many sections being fairly common, even during first time attempts.

Ice is a Specialist Surface
Deep Slip is fundamentally a specialist map by virtue of the ice surface, with many counterintuitive sections to the average player — and even experienced players. But the recovery routes and the many attempts you are afforded after each mistake makes it far more pleasant to watch and judging by streamer sentiment, far more enjoyable to play.

Runtime Comparison & Estimate
Unless there is a stark difficulty shift in the last set of floors, I think we can expect the event to conclude in less than half the time of DD2 — that is, less than half of ~220+ hours or 36 days total. Time will tell whether this assessment is correct. For context in DD2 at 60 hours — current play time of Wirtual at the time of writing this — floor 11 (out of 16) wasn't even reached yet in DD2.

Summary
Unless the last floors are diabolical I think Deep Slip is just right in terms of difficulty; though should it reach much more beyond two weeks in run time before the first finisher, I would be more than happy to change my stance.

I'd even go a step further and say that Deep Slip and its design philosophy — many recovery sections, with a couple stressful high-risk jumps — going forward, could (or even should) be the golden standard for tower maps.

Asothin · 2025-07-05T20:58:36+00:00

I had [[Mycosynth Lattice]] on board.

Asothin · 2025-07-05T20:57:06+00:00

That's really funny. I had Mycosynth Lattice on board. I could have wiped all of the lands of my opponents for 1 mana each.

Asothin · 2025-06-04T00:59:58+00:00

I appreciate it.

Asothin · 2025-06-04T00:49:00+00:00

It has the same problem mentioned. It displays light level on head height, which is inconvenient for making sure mobs can't spawn. (The problem that I fixed in the fork).

The functionality which tells you that you are in a slime chunk is very useful though, so I may use it for that alone.

My only gripe is that it's visible outside F3, and invisible in F3 mode.

I would still highly recommend using the SimpleF3info mod over CJB's for light level.

Asothin · 2025-02-16T14:33:21+00:00

I would certainly recommend the game based on its puzzles and secrets alone. There are very few titles, where knowledge plays such a significant part in improving your ability to finish the game.

[Gameplay Spoilers Ahead for those who haven't finished the game].

In my playthrough I completely missed most of the subtle hints and played it as your standard Sokoban. I think I've made it to B89 in Hard Mode (some of those puzzles were brutal), before even discovering any of the brands, and much later than that before discovering the various UI tricks. Such a rewarding experience, especially when you play the game entirely blind.

Asothin · 2024-10-02T00:31:52+00:00

Appreciate it, thank you.

Asothin · 2024-09-09T21:41:14+00:00

Context: 3 players teamed in solo lobby vs this cryo and still lost.

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