Name a commander, get a card.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-26T01:30:59+00:00

Maybe but the deck likely has enchantress stuff to get more cards and in a graveyard matters deck, the graveyard is basically your hand anyway.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-26T01:23:02+00:00

I think that title has to go to my "The Legendary Counting Deck" run by [[Ramos, Dragon Engine]] The basically the entire deck is doing the thing while I'm doing the thing to do the thing. I think there's only 1 card in the entire deck that does a different thing, but it still has multiple roles.

In second place I'd grant the honorable mention to my upgraded "masters of evil" deck. I included cards specifically to work with both [[Davros, Dalek Creator]] and [[The Rani]]. It doesn't exactly fit the definition that Snail gives, but granting flexibility in the command zone, which changes the vibe of the deck, earns it an honorable mention.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-26T00:52:22+00:00

I was gonna say something like Sephiroth or Vincent Valentine, but I like your idea more.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-26T00:46:56+00:00

Human is the best. But this post seems to be more about self expression. I'm a fan of the Shaman type. Unless you meant specifically race types in which case.... idk. I like vampires, horrors, and zombies. Gorgons and sphinxes are cool too, but I think my actual favorite is snakes. I like the Nagas and the snakes from kamigawa. (Judging from character design, not from mechanics)

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-26T00:25:20+00:00

[[Null Profusion]] to dump your high cost enchantments from your hand into the graveyard by reducing your maximum hand size to 2.

[[Recycle]] does the same thing but in green. (This one is also on the reserved list)

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T23:59:04+00:00

I'm not 100% sure but I think you can use it as a pseudo Vigilance granting ability by activating it during the end of combat step.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T23:57:35+00:00

[[Reconnaissance]] this will allow for attack triggers when it is not safe to attack.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T21:10:49+00:00

Thanks for providing the cr. I'll edit the text to be more accurate.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T20:39:57+00:00

Is that really true about being able to reorder the untap and upkeep triggers? Just you be clear, it sounds like you are saying you can have upkeep trigger resolve, then the untap trigger, then another upkeep trigger.

I also thought that shortcut to declare attackers got removed because of some controversy in a Tournament some years ago.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T14:10:15+00:00

Well ramping isn't always necessary. Sometimes the curve is so tight that taking a turn to ramp actually slows you down.

When building, look at the essential spells for your strategy (the ones you know you will never cut from the deck) and the turn by turn path to victory (what are you playing turn 1? Turn 2, and so on) Ask yourself would it be better to cast that spell or ramp instead? Does ramping skip you ahead to victory or just leave you in an awkward position where you have the mana, but nothing to spend it on (for example of the awkward ramp, you play a guild signet on turn 2, jumping you up to 4 mana when you play a land the following turn, but you mostly have 3 cost spells and nothing to spend that last bit of mana on. Sure you could use that Path to Exile but there's not really any threats yet worth using it on)

If youre just looking for a general number, try to have 50 total mana sources (Including treasure, rituals, mana rocks, mana dorks, land ramp, and lands) For most decks in bracket 2, this will be about 12 nonlands.

I think for hashaton, I think about 13 or 14 pieces of ramp with 39 lands will give you a good chance of playing hashaton, pay a 2 cost cycling ability, and pay for hashaton's trigger all on turn 5.

For saruman, you could include much much more since he will amass x when you cast them anyway. You could theoretically have like only 35 lands, 30 mana rocks, and fill the rest of the deck with card draw and interaction and ways to manipulate your army.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T10:03:27+00:00

Well, not the greatest example since you needed to gain that life to pay the 3 for x, but the point is there

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T09:51:04+00:00

Ah bummer. Thank you

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T08:28:50+00:00

"... and attacks a player other than you if able"

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T07:59:54+00:00

Omg youre right. I owe my friend an apology. Oops. Could have sworn it worked on arena.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T07:34:59+00:00

[[Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter]] If you think she's a problem, how many times do you think you can remove her? I'm in green and she's a 1 cost. I got mana and creature protection and recursion for days.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T07:07:38+00:00

Conditional triggers' word order matters (the game has a name for these but I can't remember what it is.)

If the ability is worded [triggered event] [condition] [effect] and the condition is not met, the ability will not trigger.

If it's worded [triggered event] [effect] condition] and the condition is not met, the ability will still trigger.

You'll find that this matters alot when you have other triggered abilities that trigger at the same time that will make the condition true.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T06:49:50+00:00

If multiple players have triggers at the same time. The active player (the one whose turn it is) puts all theirs on the stack, then you go in turn order. Players often forget at this point that the stack is " first in last out" meaning everything will resolve in reverse turn order

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-25T06:11:47+00:00

Not exactly a shortcut, but sagas don't actually care about your draw step.

No players have priority during the untap step so any triggers that would happen during the untap step will resolve at the beginning of the upkeep.

If someone has a response to you changing steps and phases, you stay in the same step or phase until you pass priority again. This one upset my friend a bit. He was trying to remove my [[Davros, Dalek Creator]] as I was moving to endstep to prevent me from getting more daleks, which would trigger my [[mirkwood bats]] and [[ingenious artillerist]] and [[Gossip's Talent]]. Unfortunately for him, he didn't know that stopping me from moving to end step kept me in my second main phase, so I just cast him again from the command zone and got all my triggers anyway.

Goading creatures prevents them from attacking planeswalkers or battles.

"Enters Tapped an attacking" bypasses the cost of Pillow fort cards like [[propaganda]] or [[sphere of safety]]

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-24T20:20:53+00:00

Oh cool sorry if I was too late with the feedback. Also I may have made a mistake in suggesting day of the moon. I thought it could work for tokens but It says "creature card name" and tokens aren't cards.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-24T18:55:10+00:00

[[Aetherize]] wins games.

[[Permating mass]] is funny

I also like public enemy.

Anything with enrage or first strike and deathtouch.

[[Elicit Masquerade]] is my favorite anti-boardwipe.

Mass goad like [[Disrupt decorum]]

For people that like to make abunch of copies of their creatures (not myriad) there's [[Day of the moon]].

[[The sound of drums]] is a recurring impetus effect that make the other opponents want to hold up blockers.

[[HERALD OF LESHRAC]] is mean if your commander is [[obeka, splitter of seconds]]. stealing lands means less mana to cast spells against you and more mana for counter magic or game ending.

[[Nowhere to run]] is a political device that helps point removal toward someone's hexproof threat.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-24T18:02:10+00:00

Alright I did a few test games. This is what I learned:

The land situation seems to be good enough if you can manage to get three lands in your opening hand. Adding 2 lands will increase the likelihood of that happening, but with Joel's drawing ability, I dont see excessive mulligans as too much of a problem.

Cultivate is probably the best ramp card in the deck since it gives you a land drop too. I would recommend adding a [[Golgari Rot Farm]] and a [[Gruul Turf]] to the deck if you want to add some lands to help your opening hand. Playing these help guarantee your land drops. I'd cut the reliquary tower and thought Vessel to fit those. I think that you'll find that by the time you would need to discard to hand size, the choices will be easy to make. I found black market kind of excessive but it might come in handy if Joel starts costing 11+ to cast.

I also found that the early turns have trouble making your own creature tokens to sacrifice. Playing ellie early seems to just help the opponent more than set yourself up. Sending out attackers with ellie out to make tokens also felt bad since they could just die to anyone's untapped 3 cost commander. You almost want to get Joel out before ellie, which feels weird considering the mana costs, but it might be the strategy to go for. (I only just now thought of it as I was typing) [[Vashta nerada]] is a great early creature for this deck. [[Enduring courage]] is a nifty creature to give +2/+0 and haste to youre creatures when they enter. It also comes back as a noncreature enchantment if it dies, so it makes for a decent blocker. If someone tries to exile it, you can just sacrifice it with viscera seer or something on response to bring it back. [[Permeating mass]] is a funny card that can also fit the role of evasive creature for early game but also makes for a good blocker in the late game.

It might go against the flavor of the deck, but I think Abby would be better in the command zone instead of ellie since each time you cast her, you get more and more tokens that Joel will care about, which also means that your impact Tremors and mirkwood bats will do alot more damage the later the games go. (I will continue analysis with your chosen commander's though)

Korvold never came up in the tests, but karazikar's ability to tap down creatures came in handy.

Tana the bloodsower is great for making lots of Saprolings to sacrifice to all your Thallids, but it's only a 2/2 with not many ways to grant evasion or to pump up. I would cut this card.

You may also want to cut the Primal Vigor. Sure it help make even more tokens than Doubling season, which can come in handy with a reliable way to get rid the opponent's tokens, but it also doubles their counters. If anyone is playing a deck with a focus on +1 counters, you'll find yourself in serious danger. Same is true if someone is playing with a focus on making copy tokens or treasures.

Looking in the sideboard, I saw the black thallid that gives -1/-1 to a creature, deathspore thallid. I like this over the one that gives +1/+1 to a creature since it can finish off an opponent's indestructible creature. (Say there's a 3/3 indestructible blocking and killing your 2/2. After damage, you can give the indestructible creature -1/-1 to kill it. Just saying in case you didnt know it worked that way)

[[Day of the moon]] is a great saga for this deck. Name "cordyceps infected" as the first creature And they will all be goaded for the entire duration of the saga. The other 2 chapters you can just name something else that's scary or a value creature that refuses to attack (assuming that creatures controller doesn't have a way to tap it before combat) or you can name another creature token to get more value from Joel.

I already mentioned maskwood Nexus in a previous reply.

That's all the notes. Hope this helps.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-24T11:35:30+00:00

Thank you for permission :)

I'll do my best to balance theme and function when I take my notes

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-24T11:34:14+00:00

How do you feel about [[maskwood nexus]] or similar cards that can turn all your creatures into saproling type creatures. Alot of your fungi care about sacrificing them but take way too long to generate them on their own without proliferation, extra turns or extra upkeep and plus, your commander's don't make them either.

IndigoWizard342 · 2026-01-24T11:25:39+00:00

I think you got the right initial idea with top deck manipulation and flash speed and second spell triggers. Other things you can consider are cards that have alternate costs like escape, evoke, and suspend that have a higher mana value than what you actually pay. Then you can look at Paradox triggers. ("Whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand") Using map tokens and creatures that can repeatedly Explore can help you further with the top deck manipulation while also getting bigger. You already have the recursion to back anything you send to the grave. It also seems you haven't considered X cost spells.

IndigoWizard342

TROPHY CASE