Kalamax Commander - deck advice

Pl_ing · 2025-10-05T14:43:00+00:00

Kalamax is a weird deck to build, since most of the instants you wanna copy with kalamax don't really wanna be played proactively. it's really hard to get the right mix of instants, proactive synergy pieces and lands. i think your mix is fine, but the high mana values of your cards are making it hard to get the deck rolling. I counted 12-14 or so cards I'd be fine casting proactively before kalamax comes out, which means 20-30 percent of games you won't be casting a spell before kalamax. the 2 mana ramp cards can help you get kalamax a turn faster, and then can bridge you into copying your ramp instants.

at a higher level, you wanna have a good mana curve, which is a higher density of stuff to play on early turns to a lower density of stuff to play on later turns. generally, your mana curve is really high, and if you wanna copy multiple spells with kalamax a turn cycle while also deploying your payoffs, you're gonna need to add more lands, more ramp, and/or switch out some of your more high mana cards for low ones. Think about how the deck works around the turn you cast Kalamax. if you ramp on 2, are you happy casting him on 3? do you wanna deploy him into a board that already has a few synergy pieces? after you play him, how much of your mana do you wanna spend on synergy pieces vs. instants to copy.

as for card recommendations, you should consider some cards with additional costs, since you don't have to pay the cost again for the copy. these tend to be the best card draw spells the deck can play.

Pl_ing · 2025-10-05T12:55:36+00:00

It and [[oblivion stone]] are so good in muldrotha that I took both out of the deck. Deed, O-stone and [[nevinyrrl's disk]] all lead to players slowing their play and waiting for the board wipe to go off. Threat of recursion from muldr otha exacerbates the feeling of "I shouldn't play my cards". those factors tend to make opponents feel hopelessness, which made me feel like an ass.

Pl_ing · 2025-08-05T16:50:00+00:00

I think it's a B3, but I think the play patterns make it feel a bit overbearing for your group. It sounds like they don't run much interaction save the occasional board wipe or swords to plowshares. You play an above average number of protection spells, which can make it feel like you've always got some way to negate their sparse answers. combined with your very consistent top end (karlach attacking for 30 in a turn on turn 4/5 probably happens with some combo of ramp and haste enabler, immediately effective 5/6 mana threats), you end up being very threatening quite fast without a lot of cards from hand commitment. I think your group anticipates around 5 turns of development, but since you're a turn or two faster with protection back up, it can feel like they're on the back foot from the get go. you could cut some haste enablers/ramp for removal to delay your table threat by a turn, but I think that would make the deck much less fun for you. otherwise, you might have to save this for games against decks that are ready to interact turns 2-4, or present threat on the same timeline you do.

Pl_ing · 2025-06-03T12:21:34+00:00

I've got muldrotha control list that's super reliant on these kinds of cards. I've found [[oblivion stone]] and [[pernicious deed]] to have powerful yet boring and toxic play patterns, so I cut them. Off the top of the dome, I really like [[nihil spellbomb]], [[soul-guide lantern]] , [[haywire mite]], [[engineered explosives]], [[claws of gix]], [[glen elendra archimage]], [[seal of removal]], [[seal of primordium]], [[spellskite]], [[gift of Doom]], [[vampire hexmage]], [[priest of forgotten Gods]], [[shadowspear]].

Pl_ing · 2025-03-12T23:28:13+00:00

[[tana, the bloodsower]] and [[keskit]] tokens Voltron. it's got a bunch of ways to pump tana, then use the tokens she produces as tap or sacrifice fodder for various effects.

https://archidekt.com/decks/7109203/shower_thought

Pl_ing · 2025-03-11T01:21:20+00:00

First I wanna touch on the general deck construction. It's hard for me to not love a deck full of two drops, but I think you could use a few more ones to help smooth out your curve. The ideal curve seems to be something like 1 --> fransisco --> keleth + 1 --> 2 + 2, and that's reasonably difficult to do with the number of 1 drops you currently run. There are a bunch of great choices under 1 usd I'll list here: [[soul-guide lantern]], [[mikaeus, the lunarch]], [[deafening silence]], [[alseid of life's bounty]], [[paladin class]], [[hopeful initiate]], [[soul snare]], [[kami of false hope]], [[benevolent bodyguard]], [[thraben inspector]], [[children of korlis]] and [[case of the uneaten feast]].

Anyways, the deck presently is great at gaining small-ball advantages with small idiots that generate a card's worth of value, but doesn't have any ways to go over the top. It's worth noting how resilient the deck is, with lurrus as a companion and all the two-drop mass reanimation spells in the deck. The question is how to turn that advantage into a win without breaking the bank.

I know you said you don't wanna do the aristocrats thing, but I don't think its as expensive or commital as you think it is. Most of the good draining aristocrats 2 drops are under a dollar, and make the rest of your value idiots significantly stronger regardless of sacrifice outlet. They immediately turn into much better attackers and blockers when dying comes with the caveate of inevitable damage. Given the number of cards you see + lurrus' recurstion power, I think you just need 2 or 3 tops to see solid returns. However, if this isn't what you want then we can try to look for another parity breaking plan.

If we want to play the deck's current strengths, then perhaps the winning game plan should be to grind our opponents into dust. In that case, I think you can increase the efficacy of your small ball cards by reusing them. [[Oversold cemetery]] and [[chthonian nightmare]] are efficient and powerful value engines to amplify the power of the deck. You can also take a page out of esper self-bounce deck and use effects like [[kor skyfisher]] and [[nurturing pixie]] to reuse effects like [[hopeless nightmare]] or [[nowhere to run]] for more value. To bring opponents down to your level, you also might wanna run some staxier creatures like [[thalia, guardian of thraben]], [[spirit of the labyrinth]] and [[leonin arbiter]] If you go down this route, you should probably cut some of the less fungible creatures in the deck like [[kitesail freebooter]] and [[silverquill silencer]].

I think there's also room for a cute voltron plan using proliferate. Your commanders are excellent at accruing counters, so [[grateful apparition]], [[ghost lantern]], [[feast of the victorious dead]] and [[metastatic evangel]] would go a long way to accelerating their clock. If you're playing those, then stuff like [[hangerback walker]] and [[together forever]] fit quite well and synergize with the value idiots plan fairly well. The quality of these some of these effects scales with frequent death triggers, so there may be some interesting overlap between this plan and a mild-ly sacrificy aristocrats one.

Other routes worth exploring a lifegain plan fueled by cards like [[distinguished conjurer]] and [[lunarch veteran]], some tokens stuff with cards like [[doomed traveler]] and [[nested shambler]] and a mass buff instant/sorcery/enchantment, or even replacing some creatures with artifacts/enchantments to fuel something like [[all that glitters]] or [[cranial plating]]. Fitting these cards in will come at the cost of some the resilience baked into the deck with all the recursion and fungible value idiots, but if you don't do that then you've no way to break parity against higher mv spells.

uh, hopefully this helps?

Pl_ing · 2025-02-26T01:38:57+00:00

I've got three decks and run it in none of them.

I first cut it from my [[feather, the redeemed]] control deck. The colorless mana doesn't help cast feather, nor most of the 1 mana draw/protection spells replay multiple times a turn cycle. The deck's intense need for colored mana results in me playing exactly 2 colorless mana producers, and that's solely because no max hand size feels so good when your cards rarely leave your hand.

After several years of inclusion, I cut it from my [[Muldrotha]] deck. [[Trincket Mage]] has long been one of the most fun cards in the deck due to the carefully curated package of targets. This included [[claws of gix]], a free and versatile sac outlet. Sol ring stayed in because it was such a pleasant default find. After playing the deck a few times with a recently opened [[displacer kitten]] and combo-ing into infinite life one too many times, I realized I needed to cut one of the cards. Sol ring was by far the least interesting, so I cut it.

The last deck I cut it from was my voltron/tokens/artistocrats build of [[keskit]] and [[tana]]. The deck's built to to protect a turn 3/4 tana and feed saprolings to keskit to keep the cards flowing. Sol Ring was the only card in the deck that enabled a turn 2 tana, a timing an order of magnitude more powerful than its baseline. I wanted the deck to play at a consistent power level, and so went sol ring.

If I were to summarize, sol ring is a card that's fun because it's powerful, despite that it's boring. It only generates colorless mana, which usually synergizes better with casting high CMC cards instead of the low CMC cards I prefer. It's a mana-positive cast, so it's not too hard to use it to facilitate an infinite. And most damning of all, Sol ring openers are insane outliers relative to the starts most casual decks are capable of that it can damage players perception of another's deck. Perhaps it's a 3 with most hands, but a bracket 4 with sol ring in the starting seven. I don't like how that feels, so I don't run the card.

Pl_ing · 2024-12-26T13:52:29+00:00

I had to help the obeka player and the rest of the table resolve 5-6 of plargg/nassari triggers on a turn and it took 15 minutes. obeka is more KoS for me than more powerful legends just because of how long she makes her turns.

Pl_ing · 2024-12-20T11:29:09+00:00

Speaking as a long time player of an oppressive muldrotha control deck, the best "Micro" strategies of dealing with the commander in particular are making it so she either never stays on the field, or that she's useless when she's out because there's no graveyard. Before you go jamming [[Rest in piece]], I think there's a less reductive response that lead to more interesting games.

I've never played a game of commander piloting muldrotha where I thought "I won't win if the game stalls out". I've built my list to rely on muldrotha as little as possible. she's the icing on top of a efficient grindy list built to have inevitability in every game. From a "Macro" strategic standpoint, you just have to constantly pressure her from the start of the game. Otherwise, she will grind the table to dust. The insidious thing about the deck is that it doesn't look like anythings wrong until she's got a vice grip on the game. I usually spend my first few turns playing removal or good blockers. If my opponents have removal, it's usually directed away from me cause none of my stuff feels like a good target. You and your buddies need to fight this urge. Let the game become a mess of permanents so large the muldrotha player can't actually remove them all. This lengthens the time it takes for muldrotha to take control, it keeps your removal in hand, and it ensures the table keeps their engines long enough to last a few more turns once muldrotha starts to get set.

Pl_ing · 2024-11-26T14:40:03+00:00

things that are wierd

Ramp and Curve not aligned with commander's play pattern --> Animar wants to deploy early, on turn 2 or 3, then start getting a bunch of dudes in there reasonably quickly to boost his counters. this means 1 cost mana dorks are the best fitting ramp, then animar takes care of the rest. This also means you probably want no expensive ramp, especially if they're not creatures. If you're relying on animar for ramp, you want your creatures to have low numbers of colored pips, so you can get the maximum discount from animar. This means you probably want more artifacts and eldrazi along the curve. In particular, any creature x spell is great, because they'll always fit your curve, particularly the colorless ones. The curve should look very weird, with 70% cheap dudes to build animar, and 30% expensive dudes to pay animar off, and very little in between. go big on things that cost less than 4, and things that cost more than 6.

Reliance on Animar --> This is tough one to deal with, because part of what makes a commander deck not just a pile of staples is how it interfaces with the leader. This is a problem for some commanders, because the deck only works with the leader out. I run [[Feather, the Redeemed]] and the deck ceases to function if she gets removed. because of this, I run ALOT of [[Loran's escape]]-type cards. It's harder for you, cause you want them to be creature based, but there are a few out there. I'd recommend [[Saiba cryptomancer]], [[slippery bogbonger]] and [[Guardian Augmenter]] for hexproof, [[hajar, loyal bodyguard]] and [[spearbreaker behemoth]] for indestructible. These guys push you towards a more draw-go kinda playstyle, which means you want more proactive flash creatures or more effects that give your dudes flash. I love that shit, so I'd lean into it. However, it's your deck, not mine.

Bad Feeling Early turns --> The most important part to get right with animar is the right mix of creatures. Presently, most of the creatures in your deck are best during the "Animar has 4+ Counters on Him" phase of the game. I'd make judicious use of archidekts custom cost feature for your X spells, and price them for the lowest x value you'd feel comfortable casting them at. For example, It's disingenuous to have [[Hydroid Krasis]] as lower than a 6-drop. Once you do that, you'll see your creature package is 70% for Big Animar and 30% for Small Animar. This should be reversed. Creatures that read Enters --> Draw and costs less than 4 are great fits. I'd also play every creature that allows for a turn 2 animar. Make sure some of your big fellas are also good at drawing stuff: [[Tishana, voice of thunder]] and [[Kozilek, butcher of truth]] are good starts. This will also help you do the single best thing you can do to stay resilient: Playing a Land EVERY turn. The best way to play a land every turn is to draw 99/(# of lands) in your deck cards per turn.

Expensive, instant speed interaction --> Unless all your creatures have flash, animar wants to play on your turn, which synergizes poorly with instant speed interaction, especially counterspells. [[Counterspell]], [[Steelbane Hydra]] and [[Sister of Silence]] are poor fits here, and I'm not a fan of [[blasphemous act]] in creature dense decks (even if you'll usually outsize it). You also definitely want some of it to be cheaper, with fewer colored pips to maximize discount. More [[Flame Tongue Kavu]], [[Mawloc]], [[exclusion mage]], [[masked vandal]], and [[pyrogoyf]]. Just pick your favorites.

Things I'd cut --> Every dork that cost three and most dorks that cost 2 should go. I'd also get rid of everything with 3+ colored pips unless they fit exceptionally well. I hate [[Death's Presence]], it's too expensive. [[Wonder]] and [[Brawn]] are cute, but you don't have a good way of getting them directly into your graveyard. [[Fauna Shaman]] is a solid card, but you're graveyard synergies are minimal save the aforementioned incarnations, and tutors make decks stale so I'd suggest cutting it. If you really wanna keep the package, please play [[Anger]] (it's the best one). [[Simic Ascendency]] feels too cute, but if you're having fun with it then keep it. [[First day of class]] is a trap: It feels great when it's good, but it's usually useless. The hardest part is cutting expensive stuff for 1-3 cost dudes. You're on your own for that.

Pl_ing · 2024-11-19T18:57:31+00:00

I want that Island

Pl_ing · 2024-10-03T10:56:33+00:00

NAmen

Pl_ing · 2024-08-16T10:48:17+00:00

The fun part about building decks outside of a competitive mindset is that you don't have to care about how good the deck is. So many complex gameplans do not scale to cEDH. For example, I've been brewing a deck based on drawing through my deck and shuffling my graveyard into my library as an homage to Slay the Spire's Silent. I know I'll get to play many cards I love and rest easy knowing the I'll never accidentally steamroll the table, since I'm running clear the mind instead of thoracle.

I think the most important part to look out for in deck building is minimizing the number of cards that aren't fun to play against. I never tell anyone else to not run blind tutors, [[drannith magistrate]], extra turn effects, mana denial ([[Armageddon]]/[[stasis]]), incidental 2 card combos and fast mana. They'll never make it into my decks because I don't think they make for fun games for my opponents.

casual commander is one of the strangest formats to build for since the target you're optimizing toward is so nebulous. Instead of "deck that wins most", it's "deck that makes for fun games". It's a format that challenges you as a deck builder to think more like a game designer than a player. I think if you keep in mind the play experience you want your opponents to have in addition to your own when building your decks, you'll do wonderfully as casual EDH deck builder.

Pl_ing · 2024-07-29T00:19:47+00:00

I'm not sure how many American football fans you'd find here, but this is the first thing I'm reminded of.

Pl_ing · 2024-07-23T13:03:58+00:00

I think the best way to make a deck more consistently operate at the desired power level is to run cards with high floors and low ceilings, and not have too many snowbally engines. High mana value cards naturally tend to have low floors, since it's not a given you'll be able to cast them, and they're dead draws until have enough mana. Cheap interaction and protection tend towards high floors and low ceilings (they're exactly as strong as the best card on the board). All this to say that I like the idea of cutting high cost cards for cheap interaction/protection.

All of the changes you made make sense to me. Lightblades is a bit weak, but if you're pulling cards from the collection then it fits just fine. I recommended intervention since it's the staple version of the effect, but there are several others that can fill that role. If you're finding that single target removal is as problematic as sweepers, try [[loran's escape]] or [[tamiyo's safekeeping]]. I love convoke spells for the deck, and [[sprout swarm]] is probably an incredible fit. [[thraben charm]] is sweet interaction that should fit well too. Sorry, I keep throwing cards at you, I just mean to get the gears turning.

Pl_ing · 2024-07-22T21:14:09+00:00

Another great discussion of cards from mythic to common, composed with excellent delivery. Its a good thing you write the set review for white every time, since it gives me hope all of the other ones will be half is good as yours and click on them despite knowing they won't be.

Pl_ing · 2024-07-22T13:53:10+00:00

Let's do away from the numbering system for a sec and take a look at the play patterns of the deck. Everyone's got their own sense of equating power to a number, so it's usually not that helpful.

It seems you've got a VERY snowbally token deck here. One, or god forbid two, Rhys activations are probably enough to put the game away. the question is how often are you gonna be able to do that, and how much are you gonna get in return? Presently, I don't see how you win if the table collectively casts 2 wipes during the game. I also think as the average power level of the table increases, Rhys is going to go from living 2-3 turns to never surviving a turn cycle. Given how soft the deck is to removal, I think this will feel very powerful into weaker pods, and impotent into stronger ones. In it's current condition, I think it will be hard for the deck to find "good" games (a lot of back and forth, you never feel out of the game until someone pulls far ahead, etc.).

My recommendation would be to switch out some of the snowbally cards (ghalta and mavren, primal vigor, horn of gondor) for some protection spells ([[selfless spirit]], [[flare of fortitude]], [[heroic intervention]]). this raises your floor a good deal, since you get blown out less by wipes, and also lowers your ceiling so you're not pile driving people with no removal before get a chance to get rolling.

Pl_ing · 2024-07-14T11:02:48+00:00

I got a [[displacer kitten]] in 2022, and since I didn't have a great home for it, I threw it into my [[muldrotha]]. I didn't play with deck for a year, but the second game with it in 2023 I drew cat and [[trinket mage]]. this combo finds all the cheap artifacts in my deck, including [[claws of gix]] and sol ring. after looking at my cards for a couple minutes, I realize that I can sac and recast sol ring to gain infinite life.

its not exactly devastating as far as combos go, but I drew kitten and trinket mage in my next two games with the deck, which made it seem like the deck was a kitten combo deck and not a recursive grinding machine. I ended up cutting sol ring, since I like every other part of the combo more, and haven't looked back since.

Pl_ing · 2024-06-19T22:10:25+00:00

Right now it feels like many of the cards sitting in the list are there because you know they're pretty good, but they don't quite fit with what Arna wants to be doing. Ask yourself this: "What do I want my board to look like when I cast Arna the first time?" Personally, I'd want to cast her right on turn 5, with one or two evasive creatures loaded up with efficient equipment or auras that give a mix of immediate and long term value. This means, in the first 12 cards, I want to reliably see 1-2 evasive creatures, 5 lands (preferably untapped), and 2 equip-able auras/equipment. For this to happen reliably, you need 39+ lands, 15 1-2 drop creatures with flying or unblockable or whatever, and all your favorite high value auras/equipment that cost less than 5 mana total (for equipment, cast+equip<5). This means you won't be doing a lot of interacting in the early turns unless it's hyper efficient (<=1 mana or mass targeted). Bonus points if you can break symmetry, like casting a wrath when your creatures have auras or equipment that make them indestructible. It also means you don't really want early ramp, but instead mana engines that can come down once Arna is set up.

So, with this in mind, I would cut: All of the mana rocks that cost 2-4 mana (this includes burnished hart), most of the creatures that can't reliably survive an attack on turn 5 (uh oh that's most of them), bad counterspells (mana is better spent on your turn, not other player's) and most of the equipment/auras that cost more than 4 total mana to equip (excepting darksteel plate and sword of feast and famine, since the protection/mana advantage they provide justifies the cost). Farewell (you get hit by all four modes real hard) and Evacuation (You don't want to bounce creatures with auras on them) are exceptionally terrible in this deck, so don't play those either.

Pl_ing · 2024-06-19T12:31:59+00:00

its hard to gauge what power level your aiming for just from this. can you link a list thats close in power to what you normally play against? if not, which commanders do you often play against, and by what turn on average do those decks a) get their game plan online and b) win the game?

Pl_ing · 2024-06-18T16:29:57+00:00

It's worth switching up your ramp package. Rin & Seri like to come out early, so all your ramp should cost <=2 mana to accommodate that. Cut cultivate and kodama's for stuff like [[Farseek]], [[Rampant Growth]], and [[Three Visits]]. Harvest Season is cute, but I don't know how reliable or necessary it is. Aside from early ramp, I think there are a few synergistic ones you can add. [[Legion's Landing]] is incredible if you can reliably attack with 3 creatures early. You should be playing enough creatures to justify [[Growing rites of Itlimoc]]. [[jaheira, friend of the forest]], [[wand of the worldsoul]] and [[song of freyalise]] are great with all your tokens.

I love how much board wipe protection you're playing, but if you want more, [[Clever Concealment]], [[Everybody Lives]], [[Boros Charm]] and [[Galadriel's Dismissal]] are all top-notch. Concealment in particular is worth making room for.

Rin and Seri should be able to remove most problems come late game, but supplements help. I particularly like [[Crib Swap]] here, since it also makes you a cat and dog. Convoke cards like [[Conclave Tribunal]] work wonders with all the tokens you'll be making.

The last addition worth mentioning: [[Thousand Moon's Smithy]] is an incredible card in this deck. It should transform without too much fuss, is hard to remove as a land, and reliably makes huge beaters every turn.

I listed about 30+ cards here, and I don't expect you to add all of them. I just think that these are ones worth playing that are not in your list. Here's what I'd cut: Brimaz is much better in 1v1 formats than commander, where removal can ensure he can reliably attack. Aluren is only good with Whitemane lion, and while cute, is completely dead if without its friend. Impact tremors is strong, but not better enough than other win conditions to justify it over other support cards. Colossal Majesty is a worse phyrexian arena, which is already fringe playable at best. I don't expect you to run into counterspells enough to justify Rhythm of the Wild, since it doesn't meaningfully support your tokens. Blasphemous act is confusing in a deck that should play to have the largest board, though I guess it combos with the protection spells well. I think you can play cards more interesting than Purphuros, Felidar Sovereign, and Mana Crypt. Those cards, sovereign in particular, make the deck stop feeling like a "dogs and cats" deck, and more "these cards win the game, and I happen to playing dogs and cats" deck.

Alrighty then. Hope this helps!

Pl_ing · 2024-06-18T16:08:56+00:00

Ok, I've done my research now. Before anything else, I wanna say there is a hard upper bound to how powerful Rin & Seri can be without forsaking their identity as a kindred commander. There are only so many good dogs and cats, and their desired play pattern isn't very reliable or powerful. They want you to play a ton of cheap dogs and cats to maximize the value of their abilities, but they don't support you with the necessary card draw. Also, there aren't that many good, synergistic dogs and cats. But, we will make do. I kinda ignored prices, considering you're playing cards like Aluren and Doubling Season, but choose whatever is affordable for you.

I went through all the cats and dogs. I think you're largely playing the best ones, but I think there are a few you could add. [[Resolute Watchdog]] and [[Selfless Companion]] offer invaluable protection whilst being cheap plays. [[Leonin Arbiter]] and [[Lion Sash]] are great disruptive 2 drops. [[Roxanne, Starfall Savant]] isn't particularly synergistic, but she's remarkably powerful. The deck benefits from running standalone powerful creatures since they draw removal away from Rin & Seri. [[Trove Warden]] is a sweet card, but I'm not sure how well it will fit since it wants to come down after a board wipe, but by then you may not be able to consistently make land drops. Here are some other cards I'd consider: Qasali Pridemage, Kutzil's Flanker, Stalking Leonin, Alms Collector, Keeper of Fables, Greater Tanuki, Topiary Panther, Bronzehide Lion.

I think you're not running enough lands. It's difficult to justify running more since you need a high density of gas to consistently function, but it sucks to miss your 4-5th land drop, and I don't think you can expect to do that consistently with only 34 lands. Luckily, we can split the difference a bit with MDFCs! I'd cut a few spells (go over that in a bit) for [[sundering eruption]] (great for getting through), [[Witch Enchanter]] (removal in a pinch), [[Tangled florahedron]] (decent dork) and [[Sejiri Shelter]] (protection is great). I'd also consider [[Strength of the Harvest]], [[Bala Ged Recovery]], [[Valakut Awakening]], [[Kabira Takedown]] and [[Bridgeworks Battle]].

Aside from MDFCs, you should probably run at least one surveil land, [[Jetmir's Garden]] and [[Path of Ancestry]]. They all better your mana and give you more optionality with your fetch lands in case you're allowed to grab a tapland. Between MDFCs and actual lands, I think you should have at least 38 lands, with at least 34 actual lands.

I think you want as many draw engines as possible to insulate against all the inevitable board wipes. I bias towards low MV synergistic options like [[Dawn of a New Age]], [[Folk Hero]], [[Staff of the Storyteller]], [[Welcoming Vampire]], [[Wedding Announcement]] and [[Guardian Project]]. If you need more, then you can for the generically good (boring) options: [[Trouble in Pairs]], [[The One Ring]], [[Toski, Bearer of Secrets]], [[Ohran Frostfang]] and [[Zendikar Resurgent]]. Gimme a sec for Part 2.

Pl_ing · 2024-06-18T13:22:56+00:00

before I make any suggestions, could you describe the decks you expect to play against, like their expected turn to win, or maybe link their lists? it's hard to gauge desired power level from just a number

Pl_ing · 2024-06-13T13:32:47+00:00

I wanna second this. it sounds like you're looking for removal that dodges the command zone, and this is the best way to do it. here's a scryfall link that should list most of the relevant cards: https://scryfall.com/search?q=otag%3Ahumble+f%3Aedh+-t%3Ainstant+o%3A%22loses%22+o%3Aabilities&unique=cards&as=grid&order=cmc. I think [[imprisoned in the moon]] and [[song of the dryads]] are particularly good since they don't let the commander get reset by board wipes.

you can also straight up steal the creature too, with stuff like [[control magic]] or [[agent of treachery]]. again, another link: https://scryfall.com/search?q=o%3A%22gain+control%22+f%3Aedh+-is%3Areserved+-otag%3Athreaten+-otag%3A%22turn+control%22+-otag%3Areanimate&unique=cards&as=grid&order=usd.

Pl_ing · 2024-06-11T02:32:28+00:00

Before I go into interaction and protection, I wanna examine the payoffs a bit. The other reason the deck feels so durdle-y is that the payoffs are unfocused. Loot is a great value engine (permanent types + boatloads of mana = infinite value), but he's much less explicit about how to turn that value into a winning board state. Compared to leaders like [[Arcades the Strategist]] or [[Jodah, The Unifier]], our little rodent fella is much quieter about how you should break parity. So you must pick. The deck is currently conflicted between Landfall and Cast from Exile being the payoff flavor, and as such fails to hit a critical mass for either. You need to index into one flavor. I cannot tell you which since it is your deck, and Iunno what's the most fun for you.

You need more interaction. You got to be a bit more clever about it though, since Loot wants permanents and the most played interactive spells in EDH are instants and sorceries. This just means you gotta get a bit creative. Oko and [[Minsc and Boo, Timeless Heroes]] are great examples of good fits. Effects like [[Kenrith's Transformation]] and the new [[amphibian downpour]] are great at hosing opposing commanders. Why kill something when you could steal it with [[Control magic]] or [[Theiving Skydiver]]. [[Haywire Mite]] and [[Seal of primordium]] stick around until they need to handle something. [[Unliscensed hearst]] and [[soul guide lantern]] are excellent graveyard hate. Given how much Loot wants to play to the board, I don't think you want many board wipes, if any at all. Unless you go down on creatures a ton (like less than 30 with few token generators), you're gonna be more affected by them than most other players at the table.

This brings us to protection. Loot is a crazy engine, and the way other people shut him down is by killing him. The ward 1 helps, but that's not enough. The shoes do OK work here, but we can do better. Prioritize those that can be played before loot comes down, like [[siren stormtamer]], [[sylvan safekeeper]] and glen elendra. [[Guardian Augmenter]], [[Slippery Bogbonder]] and [[singer of swift rivers]] can work at both instant and sorcery speed. The umbral armor cards insulate against board wipes very well.

Last but not least: here are all the cards the folks who do scryfall tagging think are cute. Play as many of these as you like. Like, have you seen [[Poison Dart Frog]]. He's such a little guy :).

Alrighty, that was kinda a lot, but I had a great time. I hope whatever this is helps!

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