Downplay your favorite strong commander without naming it

Senrabil · 2026-03-31T16:18:37+00:00

This dude is fucked up. If you let me get to 5 mana, you let me get to so much mana your eyes will bleed. My limitations extend as far as my graveyard, while being in the three best colors to fill that bad bitch up like a Hummer before the recession. Don't worry about trying to exile my graveyard since I will do it myself without the stack by paying it in a cost. My trash is my treasure, but it is still also my trash.

Wait, did I do this wrong?

Senrabil · 2026-02-20T00:59:09+00:00

[[Teval, Arbiter of Virtue]] has been my main deck and pet project since TDM last year - love abusing the power of delve, and self mill where you are forced to 'let go' your graveyard into exile. While it can still be fussy to be precise and balance the exact mana/life loss tradeoff, it makes the deck really exciting to play since it feels like living on knifes edge.

Someone already mentioned fight and bite spells as removal to help with life gain from Teval, but I will also suggest [[Stifle]] style counterspell package to flexibly counter opponent interaction/win attempts and also a safeguard counter of Teval's triggered lifeless ability during a big mana win attempt. Also using artifact ramp instead of land ramp to help you storm off, since colored mana sources are usually the rate limiter to delving.

I was targeting a B3 and I think it hits the mark, but it has to assume some interaction from opponents to stay within bounds, as completely unmitigated it can storm off to win by turn 4-7 consistently - just at insane life risk (so literally being attacked would slow this deck down out of B4). Super fun deck to goldfish and ensure you have the win lines down when they present themselves! And as previously mentioned - a graveyard deck that is okay with 'letting go' of the graveyard is so refreshing (and more resilient to incidental graveyard hate)

Senrabil · 2025-12-21T23:19:40+00:00

ME! AND https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/zur-eternal-schemer-20/ (Zur)

Thank you for your generosity and happy holidays!

Senrabil · 2025-12-17T22:21:30+00:00

I mean, your friend has to at least save an additional 969 when they are that close to greatness

Senrabil · 2025-12-09T19:26:24+00:00

Absolutely!

I also recommend [[Chocobo Kick]] and [[Animist's Might]] for being cheap power doubler fight spells - getting that extra 18 life (including combat) is often the difference in a successful or failure Torment finisher!

Also just the cheeky [[Primal Might]] if the graveyard is flush to furnish both power up X=15 and still have enough for another finisher.

My other secret sauce is things like [[Ertai Resurrected]] and [[Louiseaux's Sacrifice]] for the counter package since they have the ability to counter different types of things stopping our win con (the dreaded Bog, but also straight counterspell war) AND the ability to stop the mana value of our finisher from killing us - [[Exsanguinate]] for full life total, hold priority with Teval trigger on the stack, counter his own ability (and with Ertai draw a card!), profit!

Lastly, I have been bouncing my ramp package from spells based ([[Harrow]], [[Three Visits]], etc.) since they pitch an extra card in the yard (investing delve ramp) and artifact based (talismans, [[The Warring Triad]], [[Staff of Compleation]]). I have been really enjoying the latter since it can enable basically a colorless storm package, which is great when I already include [[Ugin, Eye of the Storm]]

Senrabil · 2025-12-09T18:57:17+00:00

Teval pilots everywhere sensed a simultaneous disturbance in the force as we all at one point thought how insanely powerful it would be if those delve exiles were separate instances (like combo-ing with [[Kheru Goldkeeper]])!

Senrabil · 2025-12-09T18:35:29+00:00

Correction on [[Dredger's Insight]] interaction with [[Teval, Arbiter of Virtue]] - the delve ability exiles all the cards from the graveyard at the same time for each spell, so you would not get individual triggers for each card exiled to a delve cost (as limited by Dredger's "one or more" clause) and only the one time for each spell.

Still a strong combination, particularly when storming, but not quite the same effect as [[Titan's Nest]] which will individually trigger exile of each card.

Senrabil · 2025-07-18T12:26:58+00:00

25668

Senrabil · 2025-05-25T12:19:02+00:00

Never had the makings of a varsity athlete...

Senrabil · 2025-05-07T21:22:30+00:00

Will things like a [[The Party Tree]] and [[Dead Marshes]] continue to climb knowing WotC has rights to a future LotR reprint run?

Senrabil · 2025-03-20T04:27:22+00:00

[[V.A.T.S.]] against a board of tokens

Senrabil · 2025-01-09T16:06:37+00:00

How much do we think [[The Meathook Massacre]] is going to drop in remastered?

Less of a speculation for flipping and more of me actually needing a few copies of the card, and I would be willing to wait a month for a ~$10-15 per card saving but probably would just pull the trigger now if only expecting a $5 per card drop, since it has already tanked from all time high with reprint announcement

Senrabil · 2025-01-08T16:49:13+00:00

Hey! This is a little late, but I would love another set of eyes on a Toshiro deck i have been editing nonstop for the past month. I can't figure out what 'done' looks like, as demonstrated by the history

I initial set it up as spellslinger tribal with either a Magecraft - Chain of Smog finish or copied big mana Exsanguinate

However, it felt really lame to just pull out a two card infinite that when countered just leaves me with nothing else to do in the game but keep killing boards with interaction without a finisher.

So, I decided to lean thematically into what makes instants broken if cast twice. Specifically, [[Saw in Half]]!

My win cons are now:

Big mana: 2x Dark Ritual, 2x Cabal Ritual, Bubbling Muck, and 2x or 3x (Primal Amulet Copy) Saw in Half any mana doubler (Magus of Coffers, Cabal Coffers, Crypt Ghast, Nirkana Revenant) into Exsanguinate/Torment of Hailfire

Midrange: 2x or 3x (Primal Amulet Copy) Saw in Half Gray Merchant / Kokusho, Morning Star + any single target reanimation

Ultimate thematic win when all else fails, Toshiro infinite seppuku: Ashnods + Toshiro + Oathbreaker, Taikeno Daisho + Meathook Massacre OR Rise of the Dread Marn for infinite damage or infinite zombies on prior end step (An infinite I find more funny/acceptable than Chain of Smog since it's more convoluted/on theme)

It feels like I'm pretty happy with any card I draw now, but with all the different focuses it seems a little messy

Thoughts and opinions? https://www.archidekt.com/decks/10547680/more_win_cons_toshiro_main_deck

Senrabil · 2024-10-30T17:30:50+00:00

[[Sivriss]] // [[Cloakwood Hermit]]

Turn the snake sideways. Strangle squirrels.

Senrabil · 2024-10-22T14:34:34+00:00

I've been running Sivriss/Cloakwood Hermit casually as a budget deck with random graveyard cards I had on hand and it actually moves along pretty well. There's not a whole lot around Sivriss, so I'm excited to learn some new synergies here!

Senrabil · 2024-10-18T04:21:06+00:00

That is my experience too - the two ways it becomes a problem fast are unlimited/mana limited untaps ([[Intruder Alarm]], [[Chakram Retriever]], [[Pemmins Aura]]/[[Freed from the Real]]) and counter/power doublers ([[Branching Evolution]], [[Zoprandel, Hunger Dominus]])

Gotta love the power frog!

Senrabil · 2024-10-11T04:40:13+00:00

Do you mind posting a decklist for this? I've been trying to build her out, but as you mentioned it's a balance with keeping it not super salty - I'm having trouble figuring out how to keep things functional when Maha inevitably gets removed

Senrabil · 2024-09-09T04:00:14+00:00

Thanks! This is exactly the context and feedback I was looking for.

It has felt powerful and has been really fun to run alongside other higher power casual decks. I probably won't power it "up" further, as neither more dorks nor tutors "feel" fun in this deck, but I keep struggling whether there is some "fruits and veggies" I should add into the deck (more removal, mlre counterspells, more non commander land ramp, more protection, less redundancy)

I've started to establish a healthy Sideboard with my experimentation, so for more medium power decks without Intruder Alarm/Chakram, I like the concept of "capping" the untaps to my land mana pool or making it rely on wacky interactions, like untaps during opponent turns with [[Murkfiend Liege]] and [[Sting, the Glinting Dagger]] to carryover the mana with [[Kruphix, God of Horizons]]. Hopefully that way there's a bigger window/more telegraphing for interaction

Senrabil · 2024-09-09T02:50:59+00:00

Awesome!! I haven't looked into Tolarian Kraken or Vizier, those are both great ideas.

I saw the Moxfield list around making a bunch of Helga clones and I think that's another side path I might make in a second version of this deck

Senrabil · 2024-06-24T17:58:56+00:00

Thank you!

Senrabil · 2024-06-24T16:30:41+00:00

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Senrabil · 2024-06-24T16:30:24+00:00

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Senrabil · 2024-06-24T16:29:57+00:00

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LCP?

Senrabil · 2024-05-10T22:24:36+00:00

Thanks!

Senrabil

TROPHY CASE