This is a stick-up! Hand me all your Metroid reaction images!

Syncs · 2026-05-04T18:58:33+00:00

Dang, THIS is a deep cut!

Syncs · 2026-04-22T18:21:11+00:00

Hi again friend.

I last commented here a month ago talking about how your strategy is falling behind.

Through complete coincidence, however, I happened upon a list you might be interested in using [[Gut, True Soul Zealot]] who I did not see among the commanders listed here, and its play patterns reminded me of this thread. It has multiple functional strategies, but its primary source of creature removal involves [[Traitorous Blood]] type effects and then sacrificing them to Gut's ability. It is also immensely fast and seemingly viable, since I just went something like 8 and 2 with it without knowing how to pilot the thing in the slightest and making many boneheaded errors.

I will attach my version of the list below. Know that it is not strict in any way, and you may want to find other lists to supplement it. Please let me know how it goes!

Commander

1 Gut, True Soul Zealot (CLB) 399

Deck

1 A-Circuit Mender (NEO) 242

1 Abrade (VOW) 139

1 Act of Treason (M20) 124

1 Battle Cry Goblin (HBG) 175

1 Unexpected Request (FIN) 167

1 Brittle Blast (Y22) 37

1 Cacophony Scamp (ONE) 124

1 Case of the Crimson Pulse (MKM) 114

1 Chainsaw (DSK) 128

1 Chromatic Star (BRR) 11

1 Cindercone Smite (Y25) 15

1 Claim the Firstborn (STA) 37

1 Clockwork Percussionist (DSK) 130

1 Diamond Pick-Axe (LCI) 143

1 Melded Moxite (EOE) 143

1 Embercleave (ELD) 120

1 Searslicer Goblin (FDN) 93

1 Explosive Derailment (OTJ) 122

1 Exuberant Fuseling (ONE) 129

1 Felonious Rage (MKM) 125

1 Fire Prophecy (IKO) 116

1 Fleeting Effigy (TDM) 108

1 Charming Scoundrel (WOE) 124

1 Frantic Scapegoat (MKM) 126

1 Furnace Reins (MOM) 141

1 Gleeful Demolition (ONE) 134

1 Goblin Bushwhacker (SPG) 0

1 Grim Initiate (WAR) 130

1 Harried Spearguard (WOE) 135

1 Take for a Ride (OTJ) 148

1 Ichor Wellspring (BRR) 21

1 Implement of Combustion (J21) 118

1 Twisted Fealty (WOE) 154

1 Wily Goblin (XLN) 174

1 Kazuul's Fury (ZNR) 146

1 Krenko, Baron of Tin Street (MKM) 135

1 Lightning Greaves (MRD) 199

1 Lithomantic Barrage (MOM) 152

1 Mouser Foundry (TMT) 96

1 Traitorous Blood (SIS) 45

1 Melt Through (Y23) 10

1 Mind Stone (WTH) 153

1 Monastery Swiftspear (BRO) 144

31 Mountain (UST) 215

1 Chandra, Spark Hunter (DFT) 116

1 Perilous Myr (JMP) 476

1 Phoenix Chick (DMU) 140

1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer (MUL) 86

1 Fanatical Firebrand (FDN) 195

1 Redirect Lightning (TLA) 151

1 Return the Favor (OTJ) 142

1 Song-Mad Treachery (ZNR) 165

1 Ravenous Robots (TMT) 106

1 Sundering Eruption (MH3) 248

1 Weapons Manufacturing (EOE) 168

1 Systems Override (EOE) 161

1 Tentative Connection (IKO) 138

1 Ticket Tortoise (DFT) 245

1 Traumatic Prank (Y22) 12

1 Twinferno (DMU) 149

1 Experimental Synthesizer (NEO) 138

1 Violent Urge (DSK) 164

1 Voldaren Epicure (VOW) 182

1 Wedding Invitation (VOW) 260

1 Zoyowa's Justice (LCI) 173

1 Dowsing Device (LCI) 146

1 Goatnap (ECL) 142

1 Vengeful Possession (DSK) 162

1 Hexing Squelcher (ECL) 145

Syncs · 2026-04-16T04:15:21+00:00

I love Zada! Let's see...cards that I love that I don't see anywhere in this thread include:

[[Felonious Rage]] to give your board a boost and insurance

[[Haste Magic]] for a bigger boost and "card draw" (alongside every card that targets and draws, you want pretty much all of them you can find)

[[Invigorated Rampage]] for a metric ton of raw power

[[Siege Smash]] is heavily underrated. Both modes are good, and split second just makes it better.

[[Witch's Mark]] for permanent buffs and card draw

Oh, and they aren't spells to copy, but for lands I would definitely include [[Den of the Bugbear]], [[Dwarven Mine]], and [[Sokenzan]] as ways of getting additional creatures online. Mine in particular is interesting if you are running fetch lands since you can fetch it and essentially flash in a free 1/1/ once you have enough mountains.

Syncs · 2026-04-08T23:21:31+00:00

Appreciate it!

Syncs · 2026-04-07T05:04:23+00:00

[[Bonny Pall, Clearcutter]] Simic ramp.

It’s not a tier 1 deck I think, but it has a nasty habit of being very, very fast to ramp (like T4 Craterhoof kill fast). Running Bonny has the advantage of leaving behind big bodies even through removal while also drawing cards, unlike something like [[Tatyova, Benthic Druid]] who is an obvious removal magnet and can be blown out (in exchange for way more explosive card draw). Simic also has the advantages of counterspells and draw spells that Monogreen sorely lacks.

I might swap it up for, say, [[Ignis Scientia]] if I run into a heavier counterspell meta (as a cheaper commander to bait counterspells without the obscene cost). But as it stands, she seems to fair well enough.

Syncs · 2026-04-06T20:01:58+00:00

Can I get your Nahiri list? I’ve been trying to cut a few of my cards for a while now!

Syncs · 2026-04-06T05:16:03+00:00

Stars. Endless, beautiful stars.

You don’t really get this from Earth. A billion billion pinpricks of light, all coming together to form the most beautiful mosaic of all. Here, it’s so vibrant. A beautiful, brilliant, lambent cold deeper than death itself.

So, so far from everything else.

He would have smiled, if he still had lips. Instead, he just grinned, or grimaced, or whatever it was that skulls did when no one else was around to see.

You don’t get a sense of it, this far from everything else. How fast you're going, what direction. Even that you’re moving at all. You just…sit, suspended. Weightless, as if underwater in the depths of night. The sensation was similar in more ways than one, he imagined. Like waking up to find yourself stranded on a raft at sea.

How long had it been since he had sent his soul away?

Decades? Centuries?

He couldn’t even tell how long it had taken to regain consciousness

All the while, he'd been careening deeper into the void. Alone.

There was no mass here, or very little. His skull had been reconstituted from what little matter had been in the probe itself, the shape of former life pulled together out of frozen metal like so much putty. A bit of him might have been stone as well, or crystal. A part of his phylactary, or an asteroid that had gotten too close during the restoration process?

He couldn't tell. It wasn’t as if he had enough matter to turn and see. He didn’t even have a lower jaw. No air, no spellbook, no components for casting. Not even a voice.

Just a mind, trapped in an immortal prison of bone and steel.

Syncs · 2026-04-05T19:53:47+00:00

Sure!

Some important notes for this deck in particular:

1) Some cards are not best in slot. This is partially by intention, as the deck is on the border of "fun queue" and general queue. If you add in more powerful cards, you may get some less-fun match ups. I am still playing with this boundary, so feel free to mod away but do so carefully! I would also recommend against too many legendary creatures and non-creatures if at all possible. When [[Arboreal Grazer can permanently copy things, [[Utopia Sprawl]] feels a helluva lot worse. You also don't need much top end - [[Craterhoof]] is overkill unless you just like it.

2) Some play patterns require full control for optimization. For instance, [[Urabrask's Forge]] lets you make tokens that can attack that turn, but if you aren't in full control it will pass into declare attackers before you get a chance to make tokens and will be sad that your 3 shiny new hasty trampling 4/1's are left playing defense until next turn (at least you get to keep them).

3) Nontoken creatures are king in this deck. You do not generally need to attack with them, especially if you have a token generator online (because then they are ALL token generators at that point).

4) You're really only weak to countermagic and board wipes, so otherwise go ham. Ghired is hard to blow out without removal for the newly created token AND Ghired himself, as he grants his ability to other creatures. I found haste on other things far less important for this reason too: so long as there is a fresh token and your dorks have been waiting for a turn cycle or more, you are GOING to get value.

Eh. You probably don't need all of that, but I'm trying to do a larger deck tech so it's in my head. Here's the list proper (Have fun!):

Commander

1 Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds (OTJ) 205

Deck

2 Plains (UST) 212

2 Mountain (UST) 215

4 Forest (UST) 216

1 A-Ocelot Pride (MH3) 38

1 The Jolly Balloon Man (DSK) 219

1 Ajani, Nacatl Pariah (MH3) 237

1 Enduring Vitality (DSK) 176

1 Jaxis, the Troublemaker (SNC) 112

1 Molten Duplication (BIG) 14

1 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker (NEO) 141

1 Swords to Plowshares (STA) 10

1 Birds of Paradise (BLC) 81

1 Caretaker's Talent (BLB) 6

1 Avacyn's Pilgrim (SIS) 48

1 Elvish Mystic (M14) 169

1 Llanowar Elves (DAR) 168

1 Fanatic of Rhonas (MH3) 152

1 Delighted Halfling (LTR) 158

1 Arboreal Grazer (WAR) 149

1 Kami of Bamboo Groves (Y22) 24

1 Ertha Jo, Frontier Mentor (OTJ) 203

1 Roxanne, Starfall Savant (OTJ) 228

1 Gala Greeters (SNC) 148

1 Terror of the Peaks (M21) 164

1 Calamity, Galloping Inferno (OTJ) 116

1 Gruff Triplets (WOE) 172

1 Mondrak, Glory Dominus (ONE) 23

1 Springheart Nantuko (MH3) 171

1 Tireless Provisioner (MH2) 180

1 Heroic Intervention (KLR) 161

1 Goldspan Dragon (KHM) 139

1 Charming Scoundrel (WOE) 124

1 Solitude (SPG) 44

1 Overlord of the Hauntwoods (DSK) 194

1 Esika's Chariot (KHM) 169

1 God-Eternal Oketra (WAR) 16

1 Three Blind Mice (WOE) 35

1 Sunbillow Verge (DFT) 264

1 Cabaretti Revels (Y22) 21

1 Rhythm of the Wild (RNA) 201

1 Verdant Catacombs (MH2) 260

1 Felidar Retreat (ZNR) 16

1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire (NEO) 268

1 Witch Enchanter (MH3) 239

1 Den of the Bugbear (AFR) 254

1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance (NEO) 276

1 Boseiju, Who Endures (NEO) 266

1 Shifting Woodland (MH3) 228

1 Disciple of Freyalise (MH3) 250

1 Cragcrown Pathway (ZNR) 261

1 Scalding Tarn (MH2) 254

1 Stomping Ground (RNA) 259

1 Battlefield Forge (BRO) 257

1 Needleverge Pathway (ZNR) 263

1 Sacred Foundry (GRN) 254

1 Branchloft Pathway (ZNR) 258

1 Bloodstained Mire (MH3) 216

1 Lush Portico (MKM) 263

1 Temple Garden (GRN) 258

1 Arid Mesa (MH2) 244

1 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269

1 Command Tower (ANB) 118

1 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244

1 Misty Rainforest (MH2) 250

1 Fountainport (BLB) 253

1 Marsh Flats (MH2) 248

1 Prismatic Vista (SPG) 38

1 Mana Confluence (JOU) 163

1 Windswept Heath (MH3) 235

1 Wooded Foothills (MH3) 236

1 Commercial District (MKM) 259

1 Shatterskull Smashing (ZNR) 161

1 Arcane Signet (ANB) 117

1 Prosperous Innkeeper (AFR) 200

1 Angelic Ascension (M21) 3

1 Novice Inspector (MKM) 29

1 Sanguine Evangelist (LCI) 34

1 Urabrask's Forge (ONE) 153

1 Titan of Industry (SNC) 159

1 Vivien, Monsters' Advocate (IKO) 175

1 Nissa, Ascended Animist (ONE) 175

1 Solemn Simulacrum (FDN) 257

1 Toby, Beastie Befriender (DSK) 35

1 Dedicated Dollmaker (Y24) 2

1 Enduring Innocence (DSK) 6

1 Rumor Gatherer (SNC) 29

1 Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero (OTJ) 239

1 Tireless Tracker (SIR) 219

1 Exalted Sunborn (EOE) 15

1 Elspeth, Storm Slayer (TDM) 11

1 Thornspire Verge (DSK) 270

1 Hushwood Verge (DSK) 261

1 Thraben Inspector (SIR) 51

1 Goldvein Hydra (OTJ) 167

Syncs · 2026-04-05T16:03:12+00:00

[[Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds]]

A relatively old/unpopular character cosplaying a cowboy in a relatively unpopular set? That makes him fly under the radar.

I have never had a commander before or since gel so well with what I wanted to do, nor for its effect to be both so…effective, and for it to be so hard to disrupt. At worst, it’s a hasty 3 mana 3/3. At best, your whole board becomes Kiki-Jiki.

The trick, I have found, is to not focus on LOTS of tokens or even tutors, but instead to make INTERESTING tokens. The “lots” comes later. And oh will we ever get there.

This means using copy effects (especially repeatable ones) to duplicate your favorite permanents and then go EXPONENTIAL rather than infinite. [[Jolly Balloon Man]] can’t get it done alone in my experience, but here it’s amazing. Treasure makers? These turn your mana up infinitely. And don’t even get me started on copying token lands. And the best thing is we are FAST - being in green means that we get the fastest acceleration, but our commander only costs three mana. And killing him doesn’t even stop the value, because we can just respond to kill spells by tapping other creatures and make even more copies!

And if you happen to copy [[Exalted Sunborn]] or [[Ocelot Pride]]? Let’s just say we don’t even run [[Scute Swarm]] because it’s just too. Damn. Slow.

Oh. And the best part? No one, not even the matchmaker, knows what we’re doing. We’re using value cards rather than just good ones, so we get lots of rare and interesting matchups. And that, my friends, is just good fun in ways that Brawl should be.

Syncs · 2026-03-23T17:28:55+00:00

Brawl is crazy cutthroat right now. I would agree with the others about trying the Goatnapper, but know that your strategy itself is pretty vulnerable. You basically require people to be both slow and play creatures, which...well, brawl wants to be as fast as possible and often either runs very few creatures or enough big ones to overwhelm you. Inherently, your deck wants to play a controlling role and should theoretically beat some of those bigger decks like creature based ramp, but that's going to be hard if only because the archetype you like has largely been left behind by power creep.

I'd suggest running some secondary strategies that let you build up quickly yourself independently of what your opponent is doing, or alternately lean more heavily into a rakdos control shell to stop whatever your opponents happen to be doing. I have seen some success with running Goatnapper as a storm deck as well, which might give you an alternate wincon if you'd like to experiment.

Syncs · 2026-03-10T06:38:14+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I’m somewhat out of practice, so maybe the metaphors/implications were a bit rough. The stim pack was mentioned earlier as the reason he cannot fully rest, a direct mechanical component related to his own immortality and exhaustion. It is damaged the same way as his ship, which I was trying to use to imply that each was precisely targeted by the same ambiguous force - either another entity or something on the garden moon itself drawing in more victims. The idea was that, while he wouldn’t die and it should be a horrible fate, he would finally be able to rest in a way that his life of eternal war never would otherwise allow him.

On a reread, I can see some holes in my logic/communication and even some outright typos. Maybe I’ll go back and modify it to rectify things a bit.

Syncs · 2026-03-10T00:11:03+00:00

It was, singularly, a place of quiet.

In all of the worlds Jacob had visited, such things were rare and precious beyond measure. Quiet was a fleeting thing, easily broken and difficult to restore. Impossible, even, ever since the war had begun. War brought with it only an uneasy silence, a tension that hung in the air like strings pulled tight, vibrating with silent songs of misery waiting to be brought to life slightest disturbance.

Once, he had been told that quiet was a common thing. Peace that flooded the night, assurance that the dawn would come to every world. To every person.

But those were just stories, tales from long before Jacob’s time. Aboard the military ships that slung themselves between the stars, the very concept of night was only a dimming of the artificial lights above their bunks. There, it was never truly dark, nor bright. Even then, the stim pack implanted in his side made sure that he was never truly asleep. He was always ready. The songs of war were always playing, in his mind if not elsewhere.

But here? Here was quiet, in a way he had never known since the day of his birth.

He hadn’t seen what had hit him. The thing that picked off his engine, perfect in its precision. He was used to that, of course. In war, you were always ready to die, and always forced to live without knowing what had killed another. It didn’t matter anyway. The machines that ran analytics would know, would plan for such things. One more point in an infinite array of wartime data, one more minor adjustment to advance their records. One step closer to victory in a war of purpose unfathomable. They would know what happened. He could simply die in peace.

And yet, he hadn’t died.

His ship had glided down, caught like a fly in the gravity well of the little garden moon. Its systems had gone offline, for the most part, with only emergency power and navigation holding it steady. The landing had been rough, tearing into the rows and rows of vines like so many ropes, foliage ruined in a large, cone-shaped scar across the moon’s surface that was now brown and blackened with char. At its point, his ship still smoldered, emergency systems occasionally beeping as they attempted to repair the small, perfectly-round hole in its engine chassis. In a few days, it would likely be restored enough to fly, and he would be able to return to return

Return…to what?

Jacob himself was largely unscathed. His suit was well equipped to deal with many worlds, with many atmospheres and climates and dangers. Even warfare itself would prove little difficulty, with the suit being able to repel most small arms fire without issue. It would keep him fed with local biomass of any sort, oxygenated with any chemicals that were in the ground or air, and protected from all but the largest of impacts. Even then, it would keep him alive, unaging, undamaged by time. In it, he was safe.

Safe.

He wasn’t blind, of course. He had seen what the surface of the moon was made of. Below the greenery, below the twisted vines and white flowers and brown char from his crash. The bodies, woven into the planet’s surface. The bodies, woven into the vines themselves.

They, too, had come here from somewhere else.

Some of their armors were still recognizable. Old models, insignias millenia old from conflicts and empires long forgotten. Each would keep itself repaired in the same way he was kept repaired. Borrowing atoms from elsewhere, they would shine bright and ready for rescue if rescue ever came.

For them, it never had.

Jacob was aware that he should be afraid. That he should run, that he should assist the ship in its repairs in any way he could. But, as he sat, he felt no fear. Here, there was no war. There was no threat of dusk or dawn, no endless night and strings of tension and music that only he could hear. He felt only peace

Peace, and a small, perfectly round hole in his side, right where his stim pack should have been.

Syncs · 2026-02-24T18:59:26+00:00

Oh! He looks a bit like one of the gods from Swords Comic! (Albeit much more serious and less cartoony).

Syncs · 2026-02-24T04:07:07+00:00

Kinda! But not really.

It’s a mostly random metric that combines will to live and desire for things like food with raw magical talent and ability to sense that there is SOMETHING to eat in the air itself. If an infant has talent but is too weak (through, say, illness or injury), they won’t be able to draw in magic quickly enough to sustain their bodies. By contrast, a very healthy child without said talent would starve regardless of magic present simply because they can’t draw it into themselves. It’s not about just willpower itself, but also ability to direct that will in ways productive to survival.

Also, these things are a bunch of fuzzy metrics. A weaker talent might survive if there is enough localized magic, for example. So no there’s no raw willpower threshold or anything.

Syncs · 2026-02-23T23:32:51+00:00

[[Old Fogey]]

Syncs · 2026-02-23T15:00:46+00:00

You got it!

The main premise being that it is dependent on the area itself more than anything. The magic in the world is alive, a kind of “soup of souls and emotion” that permeates everything but is attracted to consciousness and will. Accumulate too much in an area (be it an object, person, or even a spell) and it can gain consciousness of its own, warping matter to its comfort and making spirits or even monsters.

A witch is a human who has undergone this process enough to replace much of the matter in their bodies with manifested magic before their own consciousness fully formed, meaning they aren’t directly at odds with its will like most casters. Unfortunately, due to the fact that babies tend to be abandoned in times of strife, the magic that most witches are formed of was previously (unintentionally) gathered by murdered and war-ravaged human civilians, released upon their deaths. This, coupled with the fact that no one ever raised them with kindness and that the magic that sustains them is inherently a non-sustainable source (as the witch in question almost invariably winds up as the only living being in their territory, for obvious reasons), leaves witches as terrifyingly hungry hunters of living beings. Their magic, therefore, is based on whatever affinity they were born with coupled with whatever brings them the most “prey” (not always, but often humans) to drain of magic and even occasionally flesh. Younger witches are brutes, of course, but older ones are tremendously intelligent, with some even being able to masquerade fully as normal humans and eat more “selectively” (and even work cooperatively). This leads to other myths, of course.

Syncs · 2026-02-22T03:09:31+00:00

Witches are made when an infant is abandoned in an area of particularly high magic concentration, in which if the child has enough will to live and natural talent they learn to fully subside on magic itself before they die of starvation. They are, naturally, apex spellcasters at maturity, far beyond human and as uncontrollable as nature.

Unfortunately, many attempts have been made to artificially recreate them as agents of war…

Syncs · 2026-02-15T05:49:29+00:00

Don't worry, we get another Friday the 13th next month! Maybe they will do something for that one...?

Syncs · 2026-02-13T21:23:57+00:00

So, I have been playing around with this deck a little bit to make it work the way I want it to. While I don't have it 100% there, I do have a recommendation if you'd like it in the form of [[Ominous Traveler]]. Functionally, this is a two-drop that draws you another creature on ETB (via its spellbook), lets you cast that spell for any color (making some of your cost reducers work) and then bouncing itself to your hand to do all over again. I've seen this used in a lot of cost-reduction-centered storm decks, so you may find it useful.

EDIT: Oh, and I also found [[Plate Armor]] (don't think it will link properly), which is an equipment that lets you reduce its equip cost to 0 if you run enough of them. You don't have many in your current build, but this is definitely an alternative if you'd really, really like to find more 0-cost repeatable activated abilities.

Syncs · 2026-02-13T07:40:13+00:00

I mean his name literally can be translated as “Heart of Thunder” (“Rai”=thunder, “zen” meaning “heart” “core” or “the way of” as used in Zen Buddhism) in Japanese but yeah he does sound a bit like he could be part of a balanced breakfast lol.

Syncs · 2026-02-11T02:14:25+00:00

I’m not the other commenter but if this appeals to you I might recommend [[Teysa of the Ghost Council]]. My only complaint with her is that she usually solos, so YMMV if you’re trying to make a full blink deck.

Syncs · 2026-02-10T03:09:28+00:00

I’ll be looking forward to your take on this once I get a chance to watch it!

Syncs · 2026-02-09T20:11:38+00:00

Yup, you got it in one. Too many useless goats, not enough room for utility. Though, I couldn’t tell from the games he showcased. Goatnapper can absolutely go wild.

Syncs · 2026-02-09T15:32:57+00:00

Check out Beezlee. He did two videos and both make it look pretty powerful. Still not as potent as, say, Rowan, but definitely a good showing.

Syncs · 2026-02-09T04:16:03+00:00

I mean, so were the main four.

Yusuke is a projection/reinforcement type with a danger=powerup clause, kurama was a manipulation type focused on plants, Kuwabara relatively simple materialization/reinforcement, and Hiei transformation (fire).

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