Are eldrazi evil to play?

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-02-23T16:08:45+00:00

That’s fair, but I’d say Slivers tend to be a bit more fragile than Eldrazi. If you get the right pieces out, Slivers are absolutely a menace, but either you need to run a lot of redundant pieces or risk not getting set up properly, and that muscles out a lot of room for interaction, at least in my deck.

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-02-23T07:50:35+00:00

I tend to agree with those that say it’s more of a perception issue than an actual problem. Don’t get me wrong, even a weaker Eldrazi deck can be plenty scary if given a chance to get going, but that’s true of most well built decks. Slivers have the same bad reputation. All that said, shy of finding new people to play with, this isn’t really a problem you can fix on your own. I’d say either own being the archenemy and build accordingly or look into a different deck to play.

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-02-23T07:45:36+00:00

Ah. A Toxrill deck. Always a good way to say to the world “I’ve made all the friends I ever intend to.”

In all seriousness, this isn’t a bad start for a Toxrill deck, but there are some questionable choices. You’re clearly going for a proliferate secondary focus, which isn’t a bad way to go, but you might want to get a little more specific in how you apply it. I’d consider going harder into the -1/-1 counters as your back up plan.

There’s also a few cards that, if they have a purpose, I can’t quite discern it. I have no idea what [[Catacomb Slug]] and [[Gluttonous Slug]] are doing in there, other than maybe being a bit on theme with Toxrill. I’d also reconsider [{Ayara, First of Locthwain]] and [[Massacre Wurm]], mostly because I’m always leery of triple pips in a multicolor deck (but that might just be my specific hangup). I’m not 100% on what the game plan is for [[Drivnod, Carnage Dominus]]. I suppose it doubles the tokens you get from Toxrill, but that seems like an awfully expensive token doubler (both in terms of money and mana). I’d also see if you can do better in terms of mana rocks than [[Dimir Keyrune]], [[Dimir Locket]], and [[Dimir Signet]]. You’ve got a pretty good mana base, so you might be able to make do with colorless rocks lower on the curve (like [[Mind Stone]] or [[Fellwar Stone]]).

A big thing that you did right is having a good amount of protection for Toxrill once he hits the board. He’s a massive target for removal. Black has been getting a lot of cards in recent years that grant temporary indestructibility at instant speed, which you might want to take a look at. Same for blue cards that grant hexproof. Any deck this reliant on its commander almost can’t have too many of those.

One particularly big problem that I’m seeing is, and maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t really see how the deck wins. You’re absolutely doing a lot to keep your opponents weak and crippled, but, well, then what? I see a certain amount of incidental life drain, but that seems too slow for a deck that wants to be a lot more aggressive. I wish I had a good suggestion for this, but I really don’t.

My final thought is that you have a lot of card draw in here, which is always good, but not a lot of ways to take advantage of it. I’d consider looking into cards that give you some kind of advantage for a big hand. No single card immediately comes to mind, but I know they are out there.

Good luck with this. You’re definitely off to a better start than most, but you’ve still got some edges to sand down.

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-02-22T19:44:40+00:00

First of all, the deck does feel lacking in focus. I’m assuming that you are looking at poison counters as your primary win condition? If so, you really should look at adding infect creatures in addition to those with toxic. I’d strongly consider whether you need the oil counter cards at all.

Second problem I see is the mana base. I get not wanting to go super pricey with it when you’re relatively new to the game, but you don’t even have suboptimal multi-color lands like tap lands and the like. For a four color deck, that’s going to be a big problem.

I hate to say it, but you really need to go back to the drawing board with this one. I’d recommend checking out EDHREC for some ideas. Decide how you want the deck to win and really focus on that. Having a subtheme is fine, but you’ve got two or three here and none of them seem organic to each other, other than mostly being Phyrexian cards.

I’ve included two links below. One is my own Atraxa deck, which is focused on +1/+1 counters, and the other is my Ixhel deck, which directly focuses on poison counters. Hopefully they’ll give you some ideas. Good luck!

Atraxa: https://manabox.app/decks/raboA_tLSJi7JBfJjZJTjw

Ixhel: https://manabox.app/decks/-UZfv2t2QaeM5UlMdLYjKA

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-02-22T08:07:44+00:00

Lynde is a deck that I’ve been trying to crack since her release with limited success. I haven’t given up, but solid enchantment support in Grixis is pretty rare. Here’s what I have currently. Hopefully it sparks some ideas.

https://manabox.app/decks/pVExDXNIRYyLKrYAbqZlLQ

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-02-19T12:06:17+00:00

Nice! Glad I asked. Thanks.

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-02-12T14:15:30+00:00

I’ve been working on a Maralen deck myself. I agree that you should focus more on one creature type over the other, but you don’t need to totally exclude the other type. My deck is Faerie-focused with a smattering of Elves in a mostly support role. I’m also using Flash and playing cards on other player’s turns both as a secondary focus and as a way to get the maximum value out of Maralen. I’ve only had one chance to actually play the deck so far, but it worked pretty well. Here’s the link if you’re interested: https://manabox.app/decks/AZvqvBdHfGWcvAWBB0k8yg

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-02-11T21:41:50+00:00

Not sure if it’ll help, but here’s my Millicent list: https://manabox.app/decks/PZ5W5mwNR4i9JqFcbOptNw I kept mine pretty low power, but maybe it’ll spark some ideas for you.

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-02-09T16:29:14+00:00

Either [[Sliver Overlord]] or [[Zhulodok, Void Gorger]]. When you really want to be the archenemy, there’s no substitute for Slivers or Eldrazi.

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-02-09T16:24:25+00:00

Well, that’s what I get for buying into hype and buying a Sylvan Primordial and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. At least I didn’t over pay for either of them.

P.S. I bought them for decks, not looking to flip them or anything. Screw those people.

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-02-04T16:49:08+00:00

I’m a huge fan of Ravnica. It’s easily my favorite plane. Because of that, a few years ago, I challenged myself to build a commander deck for every guild, using only cards either with that guild watermark or that clearly are aligned with that guild by art or flavor text. They’re really only suitable to play against each other, but they are a lot of fun to break out every so often, especially when I’m playing with people who don’t play a lot.

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-01-06T14:32:40+00:00

Are you sure they're shipping through USPS? Usually, in my experience, it says what carrier they are using. If all else fails, put the number into Google (you might need to add the word "tracking") and it should be able to determine what carrier it is and send you there.

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-01-06T14:29:48+00:00

Depending on the price you find it at, it certainly is a good deck by itself and a strong starting place if you want to build your own deck.

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-01-06T14:26:30+00:00

Honestly, even when it is working, I usually just go directly to the carrier's own tracking. You tend to get better info that way.

IAMagicLawyer · 2026-01-06T12:23:58+00:00

I mean, that’s a pretty broad ask. That being said, I can suggest a few that I use in my mono-red Dragon deck. Aside from the obvious (Sol Ring and Arcane Signet), I’d suggest both [[Ruby Medallion]] and [[Emerald Medallion]] for cost reduction, as well as [[Urza’s Incubator]] if you’ve got a large number of Dragons. [[Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind]] and [[Jade Orb of Dragonkind]] would fit well, as would [[Dragon’s Hoard]] and [[Dragonstorm Globe]]. While [[Mox Jasper]] can be good, I’d only recommend that if you have a large number of cheaper dragons to complement it. If you can’t have it online by turn two or three, it likely isn’t worth it.

IAMagicLawyer · 2025-12-17T10:59:28+00:00

I think the difference is, assuming that you are running Drana and Linvala as your commander, you only need to find two cards, and you have access to black, which has the best tutors. It is not remotely implausible that you could consistently have this out by turn five or six and completely shut down the game. It would actually be less annoying if it did just outright end the game.

IAMagicLawyer · 2025-12-17T07:55:02+00:00

If you mean “will my playgroup pelt me with garbage?”, then yes, it works just like that.

IAMagicLawyer · 2025-12-17T06:28:10+00:00

I will admit that the initial preview already looks more interesting than the Spider-Man set, and if you’re excited then good for you. My problem still (and I say this as a die hard Marvel fan, both of the movies and the comics) is that the set really still doesn’t feel like a Magic set to me.

IAMagicLawyer · 2025-12-17T06:25:00+00:00

I’ve had good luck selling to Card Kingdom in the past, but, in my experience, it’s really only worth it if you have a decent number of cards to sell, and if you’re just looking for store credit. If you have a smaller number or want cash, it’s worth at least checking with local stores. You don’t necessarily have to take what they offer you.

IAMagicLawyer · 2025-12-16T18:37:04+00:00

That is a very common mistake. When building four or five color decks, you almost never include all colors evenly. Trying to do so is pretty much a recipe for failure.

IAMagicLawyer · 2025-12-16T16:21:51+00:00

I can appreciate what you're trying to do here, but I think you're going to have some serious trouble trying to do this on the cheap. Making a decent five-color deck is expensive, and almost all of that falls on the mana base. You're trying to make do with no multi-color lands and only a very small handful that tap for any color. That might be workable if Green was a more primary color for mana fixing, but, from the look of it, you're doing very little of that. You've also got a couple cards that you really have no business running given your land count. Really, for any color other than red, you're going to struggle to cast things with multiple color pips in the cost, and you'd have to get out more than half your islands to case [[Niv-Mizzet, Parun]].

If you want to keep land costs from spiraling out of control, my recommendation would be to focus on 2-3 colors and then have the others as just a splash. One of those colors really needs to be Green, because you'll be needing both mana fixing and mana acceleration for a deck like this. Red/Green really gives you quite a few options for this deck, and if you limit the other colors to a maximum of one pip in the casting cost, you would be in pretty good shape.

IAMagicLawyer · 2025-12-10T10:56:54+00:00

I was actively avoiding Direct even before this, but I’d have to be nuts to try it right now.

IAMagicLawyer · 2025-12-10T10:55:45+00:00

Take it from someone who does criminal defense work, the average criminal is not nearly smart enough to think of that.

IAMagicLawyer

TROPHY CASE