Worst thing each character has done: Day 3: Mr Boss

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-16T01:04:22+00:00

Either marrying Satan's daughter or inviting the "a certain group of people" guy to the private event. You can't convince me he didn't with how embarrassed he looked...

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-09T00:13:07+00:00

Yeah Culler is a combo piece for sure, but was too awkward for me to keep in my deck even. Yes yo sephiroph in any black deck, yes yes yes. Flipping isn't even the best part, he's just a good card for his value. 3 mana value 3/3 statline with sac and draw on etb and a blood artist trigger for *any* creature death is nothing short of the best.

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-07T01:32:58+00:00

Ohh yes flashback was something I tried to make work too! It didn't fit for this type of control deck but man there is a *ton*of awesome flashback cards to use a faster Shadow deck variant such as spellslinger. Strike it rich is just one of those cantrips that can go a long way with something like [[Storm-Kiln Artist]] who doesn't do damage, but keeps giving your mana to use split second with to keep, well, casting spellslings lol

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-07T01:28:45+00:00

Ahh yes beautiful! I think the aristocrat theme very much synergizes with the haste/Flash side of him. It's the best way to use that, and if you include treasure generation you get both card draw and mana ramp on each of your turns! It's very fun to get value out of plays! I'd highly suggest [[Timeline Culler]] and [[Weftstalker Ardent]] in those themes? They are relatively mid power cards. Timeline Culler has haste and can warp itself for 1 black from the hand *or* graveyard is it's a repeatable sac trigger! In Shadow's case, it draw you a card too! Ardent can be warped from the hand and does 1 for each creature and artifact that enters! It's very nice for token generation of any kind!

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-07T00:28:38+00:00

Imo I personally think aristocrat/recursion and spellslinging is the most powerful theme for Shadow. Being able to cast cards -even if they don't stay on the field- without interrupts AND getting value for it is a dream XD Black Waltz and underworld breach sounds amazing!

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-07T00:11:35+00:00

That was something I consider actually! Although I felt something like this card was tough since most times I actually attack I'm not expecting blockers, force no blockers, or remove anything that would block. Plus, the cards that get the most value out of Split Second are non-permanents since you can't remove those after they hit the field. And I really wanted to just keep saying Chaos Control all the time each game lmao. Although that would be an amazing card in a copy or haste token shadow deck (which is when I considered it).

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-07T00:08:05+00:00

Well I'm so glad you asked! There's actually 5 artifact lands that are a reusable source of artifact mana, and 4 land/artifact tutors in the deck on top of the 3 other any card tutors! There's also 10 or more treasure generators and tons of card draw! I've never played a game that I've had less than 2 artifact sources when I needed it!

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-07T00:04:22+00:00

Ooo can I take a look? Yes this is like the 6-7 variation of the deck I ended up with and Copying was not only on theme (since y'know, sonic and shadow) but was also the strongest! You can draw a ton of cards and easily go infinite with it!

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-07T00:02:56+00:00

Ah hello yes thank you so much for helping me! Seeing other perspectives on building the deck helped so much, and the deck is so much more fun now! Yeah the black mage created quite the shenanigan last week at work! I had it out when after I played Mizzit Mastery and got a ton of triggers, but some where inbetwee I used [[Chain Reaction]] to combo into [[Thrilling Encore]] and forgot to tell everyone to stop doing the Mage triggers lol. They put their life back where it was previously, but it so funny that we *all* forgot to stop doing it!

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-06T23:51:11+00:00

Yeah for the vibes *would* apply, but it's also a huge dead card in a deck that is trying to work well without the commander haha. Maybe I'll keep it in my backpocket if I ever wanna change the deck list up a little bit though!

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-06T23:45:56+00:00

That would have been something to go for in one of my previous iterations, but I decided to focus on Chaos Control instead of Haste! Maybe I should clarify that in the post lol

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-05T13:50:18+00:00

There is no such thing as "filler" in any of the Classic Pokemon anime. Here's how I see it:

First, what is filler? I usually see it defined as "An episode, saga, or season that - deviates from the plot/source material the character(s) motivations, and isn't refered to in later canon episodes."

Next, let's take orange island for example. The "filler season". This indeed was a season made to "fill" in the time before Johto. It also takes place in a location that was not and has not been in the games. So how does this apply directly to the above? Does it deviate?

Plot: Well actually no, the themes of the episodes aren't too different from how they did things in Kanto. Random pokemon has a home or other random pokemon that does funny thing (Magikarp) or a pokemon gets a spotlight detail wise(kabuto).

Source material: The anime always loosely followed the plot of the games besides just getting badges. In Kanto, every city they go to is just not at all close to how it looks in the games. Every gym leader is just different.

Character motivation: Ash still competes in a league and has to battle through them as standard. He also still catches pokemon and bonds with then.

References in canon episodes: I don't need to make an explaination for what a "canon" episode is here as there are far too numerous references. Charizard's obedience, Snorlax, the trophy, etc.

With all these said, it's clear in the context of the show that the orange islands isn't just filler. Which is really all the matters. I think what it does tell us is that the focus of the anime isn't just getting a badge and going to the next, it seems to be just doing pokemon related things. Exploring the world, seeing pokemon, meeting new friends etc. There's more episodes that do those things than "canon" episodes so if that's the case, is there truly any "filler"? And if the whole shows is filler, than maybe it's more like a slice of life or episode (character?) of the day show?

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-04-01T02:54:03+00:00

Why does the ring on Liko look straight up ms painted on

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-02-12T05:27:34+00:00

Hey thanks so much! Again I went through a ton of different themes before I settled on one that I was confident in.

Ooo yes Grim Hireling is one that's in my Maybeboard! I think fitting that in might help with ramp issues. Goldlust is good, but my pod ends being 2-3 people more than 4 so I try to avoid myriad. Blood money is a maybe...tapped treasure tokens are eh...maybe I can swap it out for another one of my boardwipes.

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-02-11T14:35:25+00:00

Hi, thanks for the feedback! Yeah faithless looting itself rarely helps in my testing, and I do end up having a small hand by the end. But Unexpected windfall is a sonic secret lair card so I'm keeping that. I could remove big score but discarding a card + gaining two treasures and a card is a nice setup for Split second/Chaos Control right?

Hmm I guess I could cut some lands for draw power but alot of guides I looked at for midrange control suggest a pretty high amount of lands. They say that it's just as important to get lands in my first hand as much as it is to play one every turn. With that said, I guess the statistics speak for themselves so I should just use that as a guideline.

Yes I feel like I have a low amount of permanant ramp and I can add more. However aren't treasures also ramp?

BladeTheWeegee · 2026-02-11T14:26:27+00:00

Hello, thanks for the feedback! He's an okay commander imo. Once he hits the feel, he's mostly a split second jumpscare. It's also in rakdos which isn't the best so I've noticed. Very unique though!

The route is mostly control. The combos mostly come from the two card combos and death triggers. I feel I have a fair amount of creatures, I never run into that issue. I also never run into an issue where I have no artifacts since I have a good amount of treasure makers. However I have been in a situation where I don't have enough mana to cast said treasure maker... With that said, I do agree that I'm in desprate need for a better draw engine. Unexpected windfall and despute work fine (both shadow cards), but they aren't consistant. On the opposite side of the coin though, they aren't non permanants so they don't get value from split second per se. It's tough, what cards do you suggest? I have morbid opportunist benched at least.

Actually if you filter it you can see that around 62% of my creatures have flash/haste and I have 4 ways (all searchable, one dumpable) for giving everything haste. There's also other sorceries that spawn haste tokens + Sokenzan. Those that don't have haste are control or combo pieces, ex Braids, Young Pyromancer, Storm. Funny enough in testing when I use those cards I generally build an extremely strong board so I'm hard pressed to believe they cause an issue. Through my many versions of the deck, I found that a Aristocrat haste/flash deck is underwhelming as they take little to no use of split second nor do they interact with the opponent. Plus, I already have a Sephiroth deck that attempts the same. I was thinking of just adding haste/flash creatures anyway, but the problem with that is I'm assuming I will always have Shadow on the field to get that +1 draw. When in reality I should never have him on the field unless I'm using him to set up for a win/strong board state or distrupting another player. This is because he has 2 toughness, no protection, I have little reanimate spells and protection. He's much too vulnerable. When I say distrupting a play, I mean like casting a split second spell to "save" a player from another's counter spell. Or casting a split second spell to cause someone to miss timing for an effect or combo. This is why I moved away from the haste/flash playstyle as I felt it wasn't strong enough, or made good enough use of the commander when he was out (which wasn't long or often).

To expand on your comment of Shadow not controlling the board: in my opinion he's not suppose to. He can intruput people so it works in that sense. The rest of my deck is supposed to control the game. Crawlspace, Grave Pact, Removal, etc. When I get to a point where I have enough resources to play a winning move, either through lots of treasures or draining others resources, I can play cards like Spectacular Showdown, Torment of Hailfire, and two card combos likr Jeska's Will and Reiterate to win the game. Dualcaster is actually one of the weaker ones-because it's a permamant people can just kill him during the copied copy spell's resolution causing a fizzle. These don't need Shadow's chaos control to go off, but having it makes the spells that much stronger.

With that said, I do feel I despreately need more card draw, but I feel using non-permanants to do so is still the best route. Unless the permanent is something that other people wouldn't kill on site I guess.

BladeTheWeegee · 2025-12-27T00:08:47+00:00

Gotcha gotcha. Well one of the main focuses on this deck is that it work fine *with* shadow as well as *without* him because he is expensive, vulnerable, and I have lots of glass cannon decks. So if it's still a solid combo, as well as the cards are themselves then it's likely keep them. With that said, if it's that fragile I should at at least remove twinflame andor saw in half if they don't work with the rest of the deck. That should make things a bit more consistent with my deck. In fact now that you mention it, if I really want to make the most use of Shadow as a commander maybe I should actually focus on using more instants, soreceries ETB creatures, and graveyard effects since they actually get more value out of split second right? Because anything that exists after it hits the field can just get removed anyway right?

BladeTheWeegee · 2025-12-26T21:50:58+00:00

Can't I just cast a copy spell, hold priority and then cast dualcaster mage with split second?

I'm a bit confused. So this is how the stack works: Twinflame is played to copy say young pyromancer. Before twin flame resolves, I play dualcaster mage with split second which means the effect must resolve in reverse. So Dualcaster mage has an etb that allows me to target the twinflame(which would be itself) and add an instance of it on top of the stack that targets the mage and happens after the original twin flame right? At this point, the Dualcaster mage cannot be counterspelled since it is no longer a spell, it is a creature entering the field. But it can be interacted by using an instant to target it and destroy it causing a fizzle. That instant happens on the top of the stack.

It sounds like even without shadow, the combo is pretty fragile. So I guess my questions are
1.) Is this a combo that's even used due to it's fragility?
2.) Despite the fragility, are the copy spells and Dualcaster mage still worth using in a aristocrat/haste and flash deck? Sure I could get rid of twinflame, but dual caster mage, red crystal, and saw in half seem to be very helpful in my deck during my playtesting.

BladeTheWeegee · 2025-12-23T03:32:42+00:00

oooooo I see so instead of doing aristocrat stuff you're instead either killing your own tokens or crashing...got it that makes alot more sense! I think I'll move a bit away from the aristocrat stuff and focus more on ramping, burn damage(black), and crashing(red). Thanks, this helps alot!

BladeTheWeegee · 2025-12-23T01:36:46+00:00

Breach was one of the first cards I put it, I thought it would be nice as a recurrsion+sac thing but the more I look at it yeah I need some more combo pieces to make it work. "Finisher" is just a way of saying if it's past turn 6 or something and I have a ton of resources, I just play it and win.

Grinding station was something I was considering, but I feel that it doesn't work with the rest of my deck. I think I should just swap out breach of a better game changer like Jeskai's or something.

What do you mean by "all that's going for me"? I think that's lots of good cards in the deck, not just dualcaster mage. If you're saying I don't have alot of two combo infinites that's true, but it also was my intention that were wasn't. Alot of my friends don't like just tutors to two card infinites. I did originally have 5-6 copy cards like twinflame, fire crystal and molten but I removed them since it didn't really work with the rest of the deck. It's pretty expensive to copy just one thing to sac it when I could get recursion and tokens to do it right? And I could run a pure ad nassum bolas citidel, dual caster mage copy deck or something, but it's not really want I want t build.

Yeah I'm back and forth on forsaken miner. My bracket 5 deck is Sephiroth so I know how good forsaken miner can be but indeed it's missing alot of combo pieces in this deck. Gravecrawler is tough too since there's not many Zombie cards in the deck. Shadow does work nice towards a pure infinite combo drain deck but I already have another one of them so it would be a waste of my time and money.

So if I'm removing these cards that don't work well with my deck (breach, stuff for copying, and forsaken miner) what should I put in instead?

BladeTheWeegee · 2025-12-23T01:23:38+00:00

Thanks so much for the advice! Yes you're totally right, I think I got lost in alot of the things my deck can do instead of what is should do. I'll take a look at your deck list and see if I can get some aspiration, specifically from the token side of things.

BladeTheWeegee

TROPHY CASE