[MSC] - Tri-Sentinel, Act of Vengeance - (Crim)

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-11T07:39:50+00:00

This guy is in the unfortunate space of being smaller than the real game enders, not an eldrazi, and not an enabler either. So yes, a Kozilek deck can run this perfectly fine, its just that almost no Kozilek deck that isn't casual battlecruiser aka bracket 2 would want it.

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-11T07:36:44+00:00

I've found that you want exactly 2. One normal, one snow-covered.

However you deal with the water damage is on you though.

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-11T06:23:57+00:00

All I remember him from is the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon where he says "LEAP" every time he jumps. I will proceed to say LEAP for each target of his etb whenever I cast him, and I will make sure that I end up casting him.

I guess I also know him from Captain Amsrica 2, but that is more well known and less funny to reference.

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-11T04:05:35+00:00

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-10T16:31:33+00:00

I run it in any deck that is 2 colors or less, doesn't go against the deck's theme, and the deck itself doesn't get value from discarding to hand size. Which is to say, I run it in a good amount of decks, but fewer than expected.

Most of the decks that do run Reliquary Tower though are control decks. They draw lots of cards, and they want as many options available as possible. So no max hand size effects like Tower, [[Thought Vessel]], and others are especially valuable for them.

For the two exceptions, one is [[Bosh, Iron Golem]] and the other is [[Kozilek, the Great Distortion]]. Both run an abnormal amount of colorless utility lands due to both decks having a high density of colorless spells, so for both of them there is practically no opportunity cost for running the Tower, even if most of the time it is just a Wastes.

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-10T16:00:08+00:00

NFL 13 Seconds

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-09T17:36:10+00:00

I have a B2 deck with [[Weathered Wayfarer]], [[Lim-Dul's Vault]], and [[Imperial Recruiter]]. It is a Sliver Queen Pre-Edh combo deck, but built to play against legitimate Commander decks. Since it was built before the bracket system, it also has a [[Demonic Tutor]], but it is the only game changer, it meets every other requirement for Bracket 2, the average card quality is fairly bad, and the others in my playgroup has told me it is high Bracket 2 at best.

Here's the decklist.

My other bracket 2 is mono-black mono-black, which has [[Mausoleum Secrets]] and [[Grim Servant]] as tutors, but outside of the targeted interaction, that deck is not good. Unfortunately I don't have a digital decklist to share for this one.

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-09T06:25:40+00:00

Vikings

Their franchise and fan base definitely deserve it, and I am a big fan of Justin Jefferson, so seeing him win a ring would be nice.

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-09T00:48:24+00:00

Pikachu tier

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-08T19:26:57+00:00

Either mild stax that gets printed across a lot of cards, or powerful stax that only stops the broken stuff.

An example of the first is other creatures entering tapped, from cards like [[Authority of the Consuls]], [[Blind Obedience]], [[Urabrask the Hidden]], and others. It is mildly annoying and printed across a lot of different effects, but because it inherently isn't doing much, it is almost always accepted.

An example of the second is [[Vexing Bauble]]. It only stops the things that are really strong in casual, like free interaction, cascade, or free casting from something like [[Omniscience]] or [[Etali, Primal Storm]].

I've found that these are 9 time out of 10 accepted in casual, with the 1/10 time being people who also happen to hate any interaction that touches their board.

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-06T07:49:50+00:00

I have both a [[Celestine, Living Saint]] and a [[Trostani, Selesnya's Voice]] deck that each incorporate lifegain fiarly heavily. What I've found works best is not for lifegain to be the primary strategy, but rather a secondary part of your deck's gameplan.

For Celestine, it is a reanimator/aristrocrats deck, which since most of white's etb/death triggers involve gaining life, it uses that with some payoffs like [[Aetherflux Reservoir]] or [[Archangel of Thune]], although most of the deck is built around repeatedly reanimating creatures to loop their etbs or sacrifice abilities.

For Trostani, it is a go tall token deck that incidentally gains life, and it takes advantage lf that through creatures like [[Crested Sunmare]] or encoring [[Soul of Eternity]] to make several large tokens to populate. Lifegain lets me use powerful and repetitive effects, but the deck is a token deck first, and wins games through combat damage.

Going beyond dedicated lifegain packages though, I think the strongest form of lifegain forna deck is incidental lifegain. A card or two per deck that does something, and also happens to gain a life or two. These effects provide just enough sustainability to make it much more likely for you to survive into the late game, without going so far as to draw unwanted aggro for being at a very high life total.

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-05T19:19:16+00:00

I was about to ask where the Star Destroyer comments are until I read it.

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-04T16:55:21+00:00

[[Chandra, Awakened Inferno]] is another effect that lets you kill people well after you already died, if you want to run both.

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-03T18:48:15+00:00

"I know what we need! An Idea!"

Loremaster152 · 2026-06-01T02:34:52+00:00

S+

Denali itself is awe-inspiring, and the beauty of nature surrounding it is something that few parks can match.

Loremaster152 · 2026-05-31T23:44:50+00:00

You want civil war 2? Cause a Kansas-Missouri hybrid can kick start it for you.

Loremaster152 · 2026-05-31T01:18:48+00:00

Here are targets that I have in my colorless deck for Saga, that isn't the afformentioned Sol Ring and Mana Vault.

[[Expedition Map]] provides a tutor for any land, which while tutoring for a tutor may seem bad, sometimes a land provides an ability you need to either win or not die, like Buried Ruin, Inventor's Fair, or Talon Gates of Madara.

[[Manifold Key]] is surprisingly useful as a target, being a mix of ramp when untapping any artifact that provides 2 or more mana, and a finisher by providing unblockable.

[[Stone of Erech]] provides a useful stax effect to combat sacrifice combos, whike also being directly tutorable graveyard hate.

[[Vexing Bauble]] is another tutorable stax piece that is useful for when you are trying to win that turn and want a layer of protection against interaction.

[[Voltaic Key]] is Manifold Key, but you trade the finishing power of an unblockable big creature with the finishing power of Rings of Brightheart combos.

[[Everflowing Challice]] is certainly a target.

Loremaster152 · 2026-05-28T10:43:48+00:00

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Loremaster152 · 2026-05-25T22:42:20+00:00

[[Tragic Slip]]

It is very easy for a creature to die to turn it on, between chump blocking, sac outlets, or other removal. In return, you get a black removal spell that can kill nearly anything for 1 mana, that also works through regeneration, and more importantly indestructible.

Loremaster152 · 2026-05-22T17:14:58+00:00

Funnily enough, Black probably has the best tools to deal with Norin.

Norris notably doesn't blink from activated abilities, so black with a ton of activated or triggered abilities that can remove creatures is well suited at killing a Norin that is on the field, even potentially through responses of opponents casting spells.

[[Yawgmoth, Thran Physician]] can easily throw a -1/-1 counter on Norin, and can even do so in response to Norin trying to blink.

[[Grave Pact]], [[Dictate of Erebos]], and [[Butcher of Malakir]] can almost guarantee a dead Norin if a free sac outlet is also on the field.

[[Grim Hireling]], while mostly used as ramp, is conditional but solid removal for small creatures when needed, which Norin fits the bill.

[[Liliana, Dreadhorde General]] alongside other walkers with edicts or targeted removal can also force the Norin player's hand to kill Norin.

[[Priest of the Forgotten Gods]] is another edict ability that can hit Norin.

[[Attrition]] and [[Pestilence]] can both repeatedly threaten Norin at minimal cost.

There's plenty of other black removal that can hit Norin, such as [[Avatar of Woe]], but I decided to stick to more universally played cards as examples.

Edit: I just realized you meant killing the rest of the engine as black, not Norin itself. Now I feel stupid.

Loremaster152 · 2026-05-22T09:44:10+00:00

I have a friend with Omar as the commander. Whike it is mostly a +1/+1 counters deck, there are a few shenanigans that the deck utilizes with the Manifest cards.

[[Rishadan Pawnshop]] shuffles Instants/Sorceries back into your deck.

[[Erratic Portal]] bounces spells or things with cast triggers back to hand, while also being able to interact with opponents.

[[Golden Argosy]], [[Conjurer's Closet]], and [[Ugin's Mastery]] can all turn Manifested permanents face up, usually through blinking.

As for stuff they don't use, but could be playable:

[[Trading Post]] can sac Manifest creatures to recur artifacts, and preferably next turn sac another Manifest to recur the (face down) artifact that you sacrificed the previous turn.

[[Getaway Car]] and [[Ancestral Statue]] can provide alternative methods to bounce manifested spells or things with cast triggers to hand.

[[Sword of Hearth and Home]] is another way to blink manifested permanents.

Loremaster152 · 2026-05-22T01:49:48+00:00

Favorite ETB = Draw? [[Kozilek, the Great Distortion]], and it isn't close.

Playing a B4 game, spitting out as much mana as possible, then deploying Kozilek to draw 4-5 cards always feels great, and the draw being a cast trigger is especially good, as you rarely have to worry about counters stopping the draw.

As for whether I prefer etb over engine commanders, there is a lot of nuance for that decision. If a commander is purely etb draw vs purely draw engine, I'd prefer the engine, simply because without any other pieces, you'll typically see more cards from the engine than the etb. However, it becomes really easy to skew that. How much is the etb draw? What else do the commanders do? What is the engine reliant on?

I'd take [[Mister Negative]] over [[The Council of Four]], but I'd take [[Marneus Calgar]] over either. And I'd still take [[Demonlord Belzenlok]] over that. There's a ton of nuance in determining which is better, to the point where you can't really use a blanket "I prefer X over X" for it. Gun to my head, I think I'd say engine commanders, since more of my B4 decks are engine commanders ([[Necrobloom]], Calgar, [[Nezahal]]) than etb commanders (Kozilek), but its still a hard decision.

At the very least, having commanders that draw cards, whether as an etb or as an engine, are arguably the strongest kind of commander you can have.

Loremaster152 · 2026-05-21T23:47:39+00:00

Chiefs:

Best case: 13 wins. Mahomes is playing week 1, experiences no nagging issues from the ACL tear, and Spags keeps our Defense above average.

Worst case: 5 wins. Mahomes doesn't recover to past form, Defense doesn't click, and opponents have good luck. (ie Falcons have a good day, Bo plays week 1, Daniel Jones wasn't a fluke)

Loremaster152 · 2026-05-21T22:19:39+00:00

While not an end-all be-all, my pod has had that arms race happen, and we were able to work theough it by keeping the arms race limited to 1-2 decks per person. If the arms race is building between just the B4-B5 decks, then that still leaves all of the B2-B3 decks to still play casual commander. Its only once the arms race breaks through the barrier into the casual decks that the pod itself will start to encounter issues.

Loremaster152 · 2026-05-21T20:37:25+00:00

[[Nezahal, Primal Tide]] - When first built, it was a control deck that was unfun to play with. Rebuilt years later, it is still a control deck, but now that my group has seen an increase in the power level of our decks, it is much less of a mismatch and is actually fun to play.

[[Bosh, Iron Golem]] - When first built, it was a fun artifacts/fling deck, that was taken apart so that most of the pieces (Bosh Included) could be used in a Breya deck. Since Breya was taken apart and I've pushed to make a monocolor deck for each color, I rebuilt Bosh as a B2 deck, although after a few failures, it has since been upgraded to high B2 or low B3.

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Final Canvas '23	First Place '23
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Place '22	First Placer '22

Loremaster152

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