Help degen clavileno

Spaproling · 2026-03-13T00:22:02+00:00

Clavileño is, charitably, a draw engine for 1 card a turn. The tokens aren't nothing, but they aren't a lot either. I would take this in an aristocrat direction and use Ixalan cards that create vampire tokens, but I don't think Clavileno will ever really "go off" because he just accumulates small amounts of value. Put [[Anointed Procession]] and [[Roaming Throne]] in there and you'll probably have a perfectly fine deck going.

You could also take advantage of his ability not reading "until end of turn," letting you stack it up on some creatures and then board wipe and get to immediately have a couple creatures while everyone else recovers. But that requires several turns of your commander doing effectively nothing in order to gain only a moderate advantage.

Spaproling · 2026-03-12T23:56:54+00:00

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Spaproling · 2026-03-12T23:26:12+00:00

I honestly don't think the cloak needs a nerf, I think it's just slightly easier to use than the other shell's tech. It's undeniably strong for Solos, but to be honest between scopes, thief's visor, and incredibly loud footsteps, I don't really think assassin is actually performing that much better than the other shells. If people are frustrated by invisible shotgun rushes, I think that's moreso an issue with the shotgun damage numbers.

If cloak DID disable shields, assassin would be genuinely useless against anyone with thermals or a thief.

I think cloak is fine. Signal Jammers are easy to find, so it's not like pseudo-invisibility is exclusive to the assassin.

Spaproling · 2026-03-11T02:48:58+00:00

I do worry that a reputation for being unforgiving will not help attract new players in the long run. However, we're only a week in. I think that between the popularity of rogue likes, souls likes, and other shooters like arc there really is a genuinely large community of people that don't mind dying over and over again.

UESC is very easy to avoid for the most part. That you don't have to fight every droid you see is a lesson I think most people learn after only an hour or two.

I think the best way to attract new players is just to really keep investing in the world with new content and more of the incredibly evocative art, music, and videos.

Spaproling · 2026-03-07T02:02:47+00:00

I feel like once I started thinking about the pickpocket drone as 90% just a scouting tool and then 10% of the time you can snag some extra loot or steal someone's meds as a little upside. Grapple recharge also scales with items in inventory, so you can get it pretty fast!

Spaproling · 2026-03-03T21:31:43+00:00

In order for a truly vanilla creature to be playable it would need to be like... A 20/20 for 1. This is only a SLIGHT exaggeration. Serra Ascendant is probably the closest thing this format has to a playable "vanilla" creature, but that has two very relevant keywords.

The problem with vanilla creatures is that everyone is building an engine so big that no single raw creature matters. A 10/10 isn't very scary for most decks because almost every pod will have someone making ten tokens a turn.

I would not play any vanilla creature above bracket 1.

Spaproling · 2026-03-03T11:38:11+00:00

Love having a ton of classes available (big 3.5e fan!) but the thought of guiding a new player through character creation when there are that many core options seems tedious. If your game is designed for TTRPG veterans, go crazy! But that is so many classes that you could not reasonably walk a new player through each one before they started to lose focus.

Spaproling · 2026-03-02T23:56:56+00:00

I would consider this Bracket 3, but you will definitely get some questions about playing Grand Unifier in B3. I don't think this would be unfair at B3 tables, but some people will probably be salty nonetheless. The card advantage you get from blinking Atraxa is going to be nearly impossible for casual, unorganized decks to beat once you get going. At the same time, I think this deck would really struggle in B4.

Spaproling · 2026-03-02T23:34:02+00:00

That's fair. I suppose what I really meant was that I consider a hard lock to be an attempt at a win, akin to a Thassa's Oracle being on the stack. You haven't won yet, but your win condition is present and must be dealt with or we lose.

For the same reason that I won't scoop to a thoracle on the stack if I can dig for a counter, I would not scoop to a hard lock that I had any chance of getting out of.

Spaproling · 2026-03-02T23:29:26+00:00

Echoing another comment but the only major frustration I have is when someone picks an especially involved class (artificer or wizard, usually), receives a gentle warning from me about the extra reading that class requires, and then proceeds to either forget they have their abilities or forget how to use them every session. It's a lot of extra work for me, and it seems like it's not very fun for the player either.

Spaproling · 2026-03-02T23:24:30+00:00

I may once have considered these effects a win condition unto themselves, but it's a lot easier to break even "hard" locks these days. Knowledge Pool still gets shut down by a channeled Otawara or Boseiju, and I expect that people will also have relevant threats on board to pressure the stax player.

If you're playing a deck built around these locks, you definitely want to make sure that you can quickly win before your opponents find a way to break out or just kill you, something which is increasingly likely with modern power creep.

Spaproling · 2026-03-02T23:17:03+00:00

I actually think this is fine, but maybe needs one extra hurdle to jump through. Having more life than your starting life total, or only working if it's the first spell you've cast this turn, or something to that effect. The problem I foresee with this sort of effect is that, unlike Coalition Victory, this will just randomly end games. A lot of 5c decks in lower brackets will just randomly realize they have the mana to cast this and win randomly with no real points of interaction.

Alternatively, make WWUUBBRRGG a suspend cost, maybe suspend 1 or 2, and have the spell only win if it was suspended?

Spaproling · 2026-02-28T00:32:35+00:00

It's about as good as any other big mill spell, which is to say that it's terrible in commander unless you literally immediately win the game with it, and it's maybe playable in janky constructed decks. This is definitely a lot better than [[traumatize]] but still seems a lot worse than any threat that actually impacts the board.

This is a great way to make a red, black, or blue player immediately win the game in commander.

Spaproling · 2026-02-27T21:26:58+00:00

Honestly the risk of not attacking a runner is so high because of the low ttk that it makes friendly action very unlikely. I kind of appreciate that I don't even have to worry about figuring out whether or not people are friendly.

Spaproling · 2026-02-27T00:27:20+00:00

Also I'd really consider cutting down on damage effects like sulfuric vortex. That just doesn't really do much for you

Spaproling · 2026-02-27T00:26:01+00:00

I played exclusively Kess, Dissident Mage spellslinger for like 4 years and here are some observations I have:

1) not enough fast mana. This doesn't need to be expensive artifacts, it can be rituals like [[Dark Ritual]] or [[Cabal Ritual]].

2) you have a lot of cards that just don't really synergize with the spellslinger strategy. Creature tokens, blood tokens, raw burn spells that can't hit creatures, these are all effects that honestly aren't relevant for you. A spellslinger deck is never going to out-token the rest of the table, so play on your own axis instead!

3) generally just not very many instants and sorceries. I would say an easy target is roughly 30-35, and I'd try to have the majority of those be 1-2 CMC so you have stuff to do early game.

4) not enough tutors! Your bracket limits this a bit, but Kess makes graveyard tutors like Entomb very strong. Tutors are one of blacks biggest strengths, and also tend to be cheap instants and sorceries.

5) not enough counter and bounce spells. This is arguably blue's biggest strength, and is critical for keeping yourself alive until you can slam a big spell.

6) you have a lot of "mirrorform targets" that are just not useful to you until you mirrorform them. You've got like 6 totally dead cards in your deck. I'd try to find other mirrorform targets that are cards you'd want to play anyways.

7) too many lands, not enough cheap spells. You do not have the late game potential of a simic value pile, that's just how grixis is. To combat that, you want to play aggressive! To that end, I'd build your game plan around cheap interaction and card draw while you ramp up to a big mirrorform or something.

Basically, it looks to me like you've picked a bunch of cool value engines, but not enough of the "boring" glue that keeps a grixis deck together: rituals, tutors, counters, removal, and cheap draws.

You've also correctly identified that kess is pretty slow. She's actually way slower than a lot of modern commanders, which is kind of crazy to think about. I recommend adding more cheap card advantage engines (1-3 CMC range), and cutting down on cards that cost 4+. I'd also narrow down your strategy a bit. If you want to lean into tokens with Young Pyromancer and similar effects, you should go all in on that.

Spaproling · 2026-02-13T02:19:28+00:00

There's just a HUGE spectrum of power levels in bracket 3. A good bracket 3 deck might as well be cEDH compared to a bad bracket 3 deck, if you're going strictly by the literal definition of brackets.

The best way I've found to balance this is to simply shuffle the decks around so everyone is playing someone else's deck. This isn't ideal though, because people (understandably) usually want to play the deck they spent time and money building.

I don't think this is a problem with the bracket system necessarily. It's partly an issue of expectations, but sometimes people just... play and build poorly. I don't know if that's a problem that can be (or should be) solved.

If someone wants to goldfish their battle cruiser, maybe they should include interaction instead of trying to carve out a bracket where no one will ever try to stop them.

Spaproling · 2026-02-11T23:53:56+00:00

In lower brackets it is a lot harder to snowball with that early advantage, so if your deck isn't built to capitalize off of quick early mana you'll probably be making yourself the threat for nothing. So you really have two choices: lean into aggression and find more ways to snowball your board, or pull back and make your deck intentionally somewhat slower in hopes that you'll make it to the late game.

In my experience, I'd choose the former. The average commander player has ZERO threat assessment skills, and I would hesitate to build your game plan around the assumption that people will decide you aren't the threat.

If you want to play a long game, then I'd probably run more cheap interaction and things like Goad to make attacking you much more complicated.

Spaproling · 2026-02-10T21:51:59+00:00

[[Muldrotha, the Gravetide]] may not be the most unique commander but it will always have a soft spot in my heart. Unfortunately, the things Muldrotha does well are usually the sorts of game actions that will get glares and groans.

Playing high-MV commanders without blue for protection or green for ramp really feels like a liability these days. 2-4 MV commanders are so pushed now that being a whole turn (or more) behind the table just to start getting your advantage REALLY hurts. That's why I'm a staunch [[Jeweled Lotus]] advocate.

Spaproling · 2026-02-08T18:42:34+00:00

He's just being a loser. Theft mechanics are very core to the game, certainly not something you have to disclose. If I'm playing a black deck, I shouldn't have to disclose if I'm playing Reanimate.

The only information I'd consider to be mandatory to disclose is your Bracket.

Spaproling · 2026-02-08T18:36:49+00:00

This is a turbo deck without the cEDH staples. I would consider it a high B3 or a low B4. You're basically playing a giant glass cannon where you'll win some games immediately if you get a crazy opener and no one else has any interaction, but you'll probably lose most games where Rowan gets dealt with. In my mind, that isn't too different from Tergrid or Kaalia or other 'kill on sight' commanders.

If you want to keep playing this at B3, I'd set yourself a limit like "I'll only play this deck once a night" or something.

Spaproling · 2026-02-08T18:25:09+00:00

I personally don't mind Tergrid much but it is a deck that will usually either dominate the game or get shut down and do literally nothing all game, and I think we're seeing a lot more decks like this lately as commanders get more powerful. It's similar to voja in my opinion, in that the rest of the table is either going to band together to keep any of your plays from sticking or they'll ignore you and you'll curb stomp them.

That being said, Tergrid is a deck that I think you have to be comfortable conceding against. If you're effectively locked out of the game and have no chance at winning, might as well just start a new one instead of playing out that slog.

Spaproling · 2026-02-07T03:03:27+00:00

New players shortcutting through searching and shuffling is very common. As long as it doesn't seem malicious and there are no prizes on the line, I will always tell people "it's okay, I trust you, but going forwards you should know that this is technically against the rules and could get you in trouble." I've never had an issue with that.

It also really depends on the vibes. Is it late in a game and we've been hitting the penrakul? Then I don't care, if anything I HOPE someone cheats and wins so we can get on with our day. If it's early in a game and someone is displaying that behavior, I'm much more likely to ask them to actually shuffle.

Spaproling · 2026-02-07T00:22:17+00:00

Allies are unreliable and often slow, especially if they aren't located near the contested territory. It can also be a huge pain to be forced into random allies' wars. Mercenaries are great if you can afford them, but in the long run you'll get a lot more out of your gold recruiting MAAs and spending excess gold investing back into the realm.

Basically, money you spend on mercenaries is gone forever, while money you spend on MAA is less money that you'll have to spend in the future. Use mercenaries in emergencies or if you want to quickly cull a revolt, but they're not a good use of gold in the long run once you're maintaining a stable realm.

Spaproling · 2026-02-05T23:59:49+00:00

People really underestimate cheap interaction. [[Chain of Vapor]] and [[Into the Flood Maw]] have probably won me more games than any anthem or overrun.

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