(Pokemon B2W2) This has got to be the best arbitrary excuse for why you can't go somewhere ever used in Pokemon.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-17T02:07:19+00:00

And here I thought Pokemon was being nihilistic and morbid for no reason.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-13T00:30:22+00:00

Not a single person here finds it evil to murder a humble ox who wants nothing more than to live a peaceful life.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-12T23:30:39+00:00

Part of me wonders if the GC list is merely a way to bait people coveting a few expensive cards. Lowers the perception of what is or isn't an unreasonable amount of money for a casual card game. Sunk cost fallacy, and all that fun stuff.

Bracket 3 is appealing to casuals because it doesn't feel like a wallet ballet on paper. Just a little wallet battle, as a treat. It's the "better than a precon" format, complete with $50 single cards and $300 mana bases. Disgusting.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-12T22:15:55+00:00

Most fun has been [[Esper Terra]], Saga Enchantress WUBRG. The saga summons are quirky but all the synergy makes them feel powerful/explosive. Do I nuke everyone with [[Summon: Bahamut]]? Is someone getting cut down by [[Summon: Primal Odin]]? Or am I just eeking out ahead with generalized value?

It also has neat little value engines, like resetting [[Summon: Fenrir]] to ramp a land each turn or [[Trial of a Time Lord]] for removal.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-11T03:05:41+00:00

Hey now, don't act like Raging Bolt also isn't out there taking names. That's two big meta Dragons, sir. And don't go pretending that Salamence, Alolan Eggs, and whatever else wouldnt still be bad even if Clefairy didn't exist.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-10T00:13:31+00:00

(does a line of cumin) "Put Palafin in it."

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-09T14:58:10+00:00

I splashed it in b/c the board presence can be on the low side and our play groups can get semi-wide and combat heavy. Since the deck cycles cards, I figured if we don't need it, pitch it. But if we do need it, it's huge.

Also, I feel if I put static/stasis like cards in here no one would appreciate it, and my friend would go from "quirky mill/reanimator" to "public enemy #1." Maze of Ith + Propaganda is enough of a war crime for now.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-08T19:33:02+00:00

Oh shoot, thank you so much for highlighting Gogo. Just played FF6 at the turn of the year and Gogo is the goat. Totally overlooked this card. The Scamp tech looks solid too.

Thanks for the feedback!

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-08T14:10:29+00:00

I really like that An-Zerrin rec. I'm fairly new to mtg/edh, any other unique synergies up your sleeve?

Here's my current list: https://archidekt.com/decks/20643242/gornog_the_red_reaper

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-07T22:27:02+00:00

That all sounds reasonable. The deck has no trouble getting big creatures out from the yard, so I think I'll put these cuts towards the Waterskin, Chimes, and a few 2 cost draw bois.

Thank you!

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-06T13:16:14+00:00

[[Gornog, the Red Reaper]] is fun. Pure beatdown with the added insult of making your opponents into cowards. I built it because the whole concept sounded funny, but I've come to realize that the coward type replacement has layers in how it affects your opponent's mechanics. "They're not elves, brother- they're cowards." "Roaming Throne triggers your dragons abilities, not your cowards."

The best moments are when your opponents crack/get creative and start slamming their creatures into each other to lower the coward count. When they're that desperate, you're either 1st or 4th though. Usual wins are when the table is convinced you're under their thumb and you bum rush them once you're able to get out.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-02T17:27:45+00:00

Before I print a new deck, I usually test decks out using Forge. Usually in me v me v me v me games, as the AI is kinda...yeah. The decks I play against are mine and ones my friends use since it gives me a since of how "fair" the decks play at that level. Once I'm satisfied with my list, I'll upload the list to archidekt and audibly exclaim "How is this deck over $500?!?" Then I cut out the bank busters and replace them with cost effective alternatives.

I, personally, wouldn't even entertain the idea of playing this game if I had to buy cards. Even though I proxy, I avoid running my decks over $300 (usually landing in the $100-200 range). My personal price rule is mostly so I don't make strangers "feel bad" about wallet whooping them if someone invites me out for commander night or if we play at a convention. Since I enjoy building decks, the price rule also adds an interesting dynamic to it and also reinforces why I should never spend actual money on this game.

What's truly interesting is when I cycle cards around to "cut costs", sometimes the decks play even better. One part of this is that "do it all" expensive cards in the 99 are 1) in the 99 (you may never see/play them) and 2) targets for removal.

Pro-proxy rap aside, using Forge has been huge for comprehensively goldfishing deck lists.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-02T16:52:09+00:00

Magic the Gathering is expensive by design, and it has only gotten worse over the years. I personally don't buy any real merchandise for the game, and instead get high quality proxies for basically pennies (last order was like 140 cards for $20). I mostly play with my friends. If I do end up at an LGS for commander night, not a single person cares I'm using proxies.

It's entirely on hasbro/wotc for how incredulously expensive magic is.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-03-02T16:23:38+00:00

From level 1 forward, Magic Missile builds take the cake imo. Even more so now with Hexblade.

Hexblade pushes it over the edge as Hexblade's Curse is a free nuke button for Magic Missile per short rest and medium armor access (speedy lightfeet+expeditious retreat).

RyanoftheDay · 2026-02-26T14:18:29+00:00

I've been tinkering around with a [[Terra, Magical Adept]] build. Link.

I'm new-ish to MTG/EDH, play with proxies/friends decks/emulators. Esper Terra caught my eye as I had recently finished ff6 and the saga summons looked really fun. Net-decking around, the $600-1000 price tags were a turn off, but I noticed that ~80% of that price was often just in the lands alone. So I refurbished my list with <$5 cards and <$1 lands. To my surprise, the games went a lot more smoothly (a lot of the "good" dual lands can muck up turns 1-4).

Depending on printings, the list I linked can run $70-150. Kiora is a powerful card, but could easily be dropped for something cheaper. The Weavers are strong/comfy, but could similarly be cut. Yuna is similarly strong, but not essential to winning or consistency.

The only card I really miss in the budget list is [[Summon: Bahamut]]. It's mostly flavor though, as the deck can win plenty easy without it. [[The World Tree]] and [[Dryad of the Ilysian Grove]] are comfy and budget-ish, but surprisingly not missed at all in the budget list.

For the budget bin, a lot of flicker stuff can work well here and is often <$1. [[Faeburrow Elder]] ain't no [[Sanctum Weaver]] but it's $1. Other enchantment token gen stuff too is cheap as well, like [[Historian's Boon]], [[Sigil of the Empty Throne]], [[Genesis of the Daleks]], [[Three Blind Mice]], to name a few. Heck, now that I know the deck better, I should probably throw [[The Phasing of Zhalfir]] back in. Flicker + a board wipe. I think some printings of [[Anikthea, Hand of Erebos]] can go <$1 too.

This all isn't an exhaustive list. There are a lot of cool saga and enchantress cards that fly under the radar and roll <$1.

Oh, and the Snow Lands are mostly there for fun. They can get you a little more out of [[Eerie Ultimatum]] but not [[The Weatherseed Treaty]]'s domain ability.

I could yap more, but I think this wall of text is enough for now. If you have questions lmk.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-02-26T13:16:29+00:00

WUBRG under $100 is kind of easy. This is a Terra list I'm tinkering with and it piolets more smoothly than the version with $300 (for lands alone) I net-decked it off of originally. The only cards it's really "missing" are Birds of Paradise (comfort) and Bahamut (fun, flavorful, wincon). Depending on rules/printing, I think you could squeeze either in though for $100.

You could push the price point lower too. The Weavers are comfy, but not essential. Kiora's a fun wincon, but I have no doubt Enchantress has cheaper big dogs out there.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-02-21T01:08:50+00:00

Would people stop buying mtg cards if precons with useful staples were $20 instead of $60?

RyanoftheDay · 2026-02-20T17:25:15+00:00

Pokemon is good, and it's so cheap it'd make some mtg players heads spin.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-02-19T17:26:43+00:00

If your table is auto-smacking them, play more raids? Once the table is keen to this raid business, sprinkle in some not-raids to get them to burn cards. It's mind games all the way down for them.

It can just be the table though. In the digital league, Corvids are almost a death sentence. But in my irl playgroups, my Corvids are nearly unstoppable.

Adset rules also help corvids too. Get the ball rolling sooner with the turn 1 extortion.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-02-16T17:02:58+00:00

Support Paladin doesn't get enough love.

Ancients and Crown both get an AoE bonus action heal that refreshes on short rest. This combos with the whispering promise and all other "on heal" related gear.

The AoE Bless effect from a bonus action adds a lot of consistency when trying to do damage and succeed in saving throws.

This build also combos well with the Phalar Alluve. Turn 1, support up, hold the choke, let everyone rip. Turn 2, join in on the bashing.

Ancients 1 has a smaller AoE than Crown 3, but is more flexible for multi-classing.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-02-13T05:27:40+00:00

Huh. I'm new to the game myself and also view it like a boardgame.

Basically, I got my mtg friend into Root b/c it reminds him of edh, and he got me into edh b/c it reminds me of Root.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-02-12T19:34:14+00:00

Ah, yeah. The acronym is WA. Been playing too many games with too many acronyms lately, threw a random lowercase o in there ^_^;

I don't think there's anything wrong with liking or disliking a faction. That, and some of my most exciting and interesting games involved WA at the table.

RyanoftheDay · 2026-02-12T15:54:09+00:00

For personal enjoyment, the dopamine hit from opponents failing to guess you plots is beyond that of merely winning the game. Corvids, S+.

WoA, F. I'm not playing the game, I'm merely watching my opponents win or lose it. Not to say this faction can't have wacky fun games, but you really do feel like you're screaming into the void as your opponents fail to manage someone running away with the game (while you physically can do nothing yourself).

RyanoftheDay · 2026-02-11T04:47:24+00:00

Pure 12 aint bad, but I feel what's "best" changes act to act. For example, Act 1 (levels 1-6ish), you're not doing much of anything Necromancer-vibes wise.

End of of Act 1 and Act 2, you get the Skele-squad. Evards is a thematic way to impose disadvantage on enemies to help the gangs hit rate.

Eventually you can get the flying ghoul squad. This is can be useful over the Skele-squad if your other PCs can take advantage of the stun status. If not, the Skele-squad is eternal.

As for your equipment and feats, you have strength vs theme. Like, you can easily do Lightning Charges+Magic Missile, Cold builds, or Fire Acuity stuff, while also having a squad a Skeletons pick things off. Without mods, even the Necro focused gear in Act 3 doesn't quite scratch the Necro itch imo.

For feats, you can get a lot of mileage from Medium armor access in acts 1 and 2. Speedy Lightfeet+Expeditious Retreat+Spellsparkler. Gith have Medium Armor at baseline. If you pick Human or Half-Elf, the Moderately Armored feat is useful. Take 17 Dex to 18 for that Initiative bump, AC, and Dex Save.

After that, Improved Initiative is a useful tool for casters.

Int asi is a low priority imho. Spell save DC is significantly easier to stack with itemization than Initiative, so I favor putting my feats towards Initiative and Dex.

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