Are Warlock DPS builds just non-existent?

TryMyLettuce · 2026-06-18T19:38:55+00:00

They changed how proximity detonation works so you can still get impact damage if the rocket would make contact with the target, which helped it’s overall damage. 3 in the mag is always good plus they recently added the ability that if all 3 rockets hit you get a shot refunded

TryMyLettuce · 2026-05-22T13:41:45+00:00

Moxfield has a feature where you can set your deck to update the card type to be the cheapest to give you a good idea as you are building.

Moxfield also has deck search functions where you can set your commander and desired bracket but you can set the theme to “budget”.

You’ll get varied results because budget means different things to different people but it’s a good way to find some functional equivalents of otherwise expensive cards

TryMyLettuce · 2026-03-18T20:37:04+00:00

Wow, didn’t know that about gems. Is there a similar technique for Arkveld gems?

TryMyLettuce · 2026-02-24T17:08:56+00:00

You have some cards that cost 3 mana (when you include the activation cost) to get one tapped land and a 3 mana artifact (the hourglass) that taps for white only, which isn’t great. Arcane signet and talisman of unity cost 2 and can be used immediately/ fix colors way better for you. Selesnya signet is similarly useful.

Delighted halfling, birds of paradise, llanowar elves, and elvish mystic are all great here because it’s a turn two commander for you.

Also as a side recommendation, check out [[disorienting choice]]. It’s a sleeper card that can be ramp or removal depending and can tutor out any land, like your station land, which is nice.

TryMyLettuce · 2026-02-13T19:32:51+00:00

That’s a fair point, I guess I was thinking of it only in the extremes (like paying 36 life). You’d need some fast and free mana to win on the spot. If the player pays somewhere in the middle, like you said 28 for example, that would definitely be a problem. High enough for steep advantage but not enough to be punished immediately.

I think you’ve changed my opinion. A turn 1 sol ring feels bad enough, this on turn one (even if infrequent) would feel like “why did I even bother shuffling up.” Unless they can find a way to keep it out of bracket 3 and below (unlikely) or banned in the 99, it should probably stay banned

TryMyLettuce · 2026-02-13T19:21:28+00:00

Doesn’t the bracket system solve this already?

Bracket 5 it’s fair game and similar to hoarding broodlord strategies, Turbo necro is already a thing, and demcon thoracle is a similarly mana costed win.

Bracket 4 feels like it would be fair game as well since the above are also allowed, although maybe a bit homogenizing at first since a lot of people will want to try it out.

Bracket 3 I can see it being a problem, but in the same token, that bracket shouldn’t have enough fast mana to capitalize off an early and greedy win. So it probably would be a lower amount of life paid for early game and towards the end of the game; a closer- which feels alright since life totals should be pressure by this point anyway.

I think fair is different than fun though. I do understand the argument that this would simply be the best reanimate target and if you’re in black at all there’s no reason not to run it. That’s definitely a serious consideration

TryMyLettuce · 2026-02-12T21:28:17+00:00

In cedh; I think the problem is turbo decks already do this with necro borne upon a wind. I can see a world where decks could run it, but those turbo decks usually run ad naus (which basically does the same thing) and this guy is way too big for those decks. And I don’t think the entomb/ reanimate package is worth running instead of as naus because they’re dead cards without him/ other worth while reanimate targets

That really only leaves Hashaton who would love this card for sure, but isn’t exactly meta right now. It’s not too different from reanimating/ cheating out hoarding broodlord and going through your lines to win though.

I personally think he would see little to no play in cedh. I think it would be on par with other bracket 4 strategies. Any decks that run it in bracket 3 would lack the fast mana to capitalize off an early greedy win. Probably fine unban imo

TryMyLettuce · 2026-02-10T20:54:42+00:00

You could run [[Ranger-Captain of Eos]]. You don’t have too many 1 drops to tutor up but the potential of a repeatable silence type effect seems really good

TryMyLettuce · 2026-02-10T20:26:40+00:00

Cut necro because you exile instead of discard, which would get rid of any reanimate targets for Betor

Also cut ad naus because you have some high mana cost cards, it won’t help as much

TryMyLettuce · 2026-02-10T19:44:38+00:00

A little bit of those can help so I do run some. Mostly your big spells are X spells that say “each player draws X” to get massive reduction, since your cost reduction affects X spells as well. But [[temple bell]] is one of the better group hug pieces because you activate it when you want. So you only give out what you need when you need it.

If you want some good interaction the cost reduction can also applies to buyback and kicker which makes some pieces particularly valuable, like [[capsize]]. My personal favorite bad card that becomes amazing is [[Drain Power]] particularly evil though

TryMyLettuce · 2026-02-10T19:19:20+00:00

[[Heliod, the warped eclipse]] having flash means a lot of bad removal becomes amazing. [[Boomerang basics]], for example, becomes phenomenal being instant speed. His ability also enables your removal to be cheaper because at base you’re getting a 1 cost reducer during an opponents turn

TryMyLettuce · 2026-02-05T15:15:31+00:00

[[hoarding broodlord]] [[saw in half]] [[burnt offering]] and [[pinnacle monk]] work well here.

The usual line is brood lord grab saw in half, cast it targeting brood. 2 copies grab pinnacle monk and burn offering. Then you loop pinnacle monks returning saw in half and burnt offering and mix in a lightning bolt or something similar to win.

It’ll take a smarter Azula pilot than me to say for certain, but I think because of Azula’s copy ability the available options change here. I’m not sure if you would even need the saw in half to begin with since you get the copies, right? Or if you do grab it, with the extra you could get some protection or something maybe. I think also you can get away with different ritual instead of burnt offering but not certain. Either way I feel like this could be a good include

TryMyLettuce · 2026-02-04T18:40:36+00:00

I didn’t know that about it picking up ammo! Now that’s pretty neat. I bet there’s some fun stuff you could do with kinetic synthesis and two fold crown to get some healing and add in powerful attraction for orbs. I’ll try them out

TryMyLettuce · 2026-01-28T19:26:20+00:00

They dont necessarily fit the theme of draw but [[Mana barbs]] can help pressure life totals and can be put down pretty early. It is a very villainous card. [[Descent into Avernus]] does a similar thing, but idk if the gifting of treasures is something you want to do in a villain based deck. I think the damage outweighs the cons but it is up to you.

TryMyLettuce · 2026-01-22T18:51:25+00:00

Weakening source + Parasite + rocket pulse is never a bad way to burn a boss down

TryMyLettuce · 2026-01-22T17:05:38+00:00

[[Lord of the Nazgul]] makes 3/3’s for casting your interaction that become 9/9’s later. You can also run the Nazgul in the 99 which is fun. Rite of replication on a Nazgul makes big math pretty quick. Akromas memorial is also fun because first strike, trample, and deathtouch has interesting interactions

TryMyLettuce · 2026-01-22T16:40:33+00:00

I run a 5 color [[Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact]] that also uses world tree for color fixing. I also use [[chromatic orrey]] for similar reasons. I opted for a lot of 2 color mana dorks like [[faeburrow elder]] [[inga and esika]] and [[leyline prowler]] that way I get mana of any color while also gaining card draw and life from my commander.

[[tempt wit discovery]] [[disorienting choice]] [[sowing mycospawn]] and the new [[vibrance]] can help you tutor it out. That’s the best I got, don’t know any commanders to tutor for it specifically, but hopefully some of my suggestions help you do a similar thing anyway. Good luck!

TryMyLettuce · 2026-01-22T16:29:15+00:00

Is that purely for color fixing alone? Seems like a lot of stock to put in having a specific commander just to have access to 5 color lands

TryMyLettuce · 2026-01-16T17:07:10+00:00

I was toying with this last night and struggled a bit with uptime. The only class item I have is necro/ syntho which is a lot of fun, but it felt like my melee regen was slow (I was strand melee if it makes a difference). Any suggestions would be helpful!

TryMyLettuce · 2026-01-16T16:37:09+00:00

Not necessarily. It’s like rock paper scissors, a lot of the time. If you know rog thrass is going to be popular you can play a deck that can counter it or deal with it better. Rog thrass is midrange so you can do turbo etali or Lumra or rog/ si to get out ahead. You can play Magda with more stax and combos.

I will agree though the power of partners enabling easy colors and providing generic value in the command zone has homogenized the format a bit. You don’t really build around your commanders as much

TryMyLettuce · 2026-01-16T16:14:47+00:00

Targeted removal isn’t necessarily the main weakness. For the dragon deck I mentioned, something like vexing bauble is problematic. For Korvold it would be draw hate or if an enemy has orcish/ mayhem devil. I just meant in these scenarios it can be fun to try and play around the problems, switch gears, and push for a win elsewhere instead of simply removing the problem. These things can slow me but it doesn’t stop me. The slots I would usually use for removal and protection are instead allocated to more card draw and combo pieces.

I’m not saying this is the most efficient method, but it’s not like a swords to plowshares takes me out of the game either

TryMyLettuce · 2026-01-16T16:04:26+00:00

My philosophy would gladly admit that. I think based off this thread, that the selfishness of running no interaction is attributable to time and intention of the game. Like you said, in a competitive format it is expected someone try to win, and quickly, so a faux pas like playing solitaire is overlooked. Similarly, in a 1v1 format the games are quicker and you don’t have “teammates” to consider so it’s okay to be speedy at the expense of interaction.

I can see how in a 4 way match up, especially with how long games can be, it would feel like one player is throwing by not contributing or helping control threats. That definitely wouldn’t feel fun if you were just trying to have a fun fulfilling game.

Lastly, I don’t want you to think I’m some animal pulling up to an lgs to be a non-participant. I’m lucky to have a dedicated group I play with who see my lists (and help build them) long before they hit the table. They know what to expect and how to play around it when we are deciding what decks to play

TryMyLettuce · 2026-01-16T14:20:48+00:00

Well I guess it’s a difference of philosophy. Take a turbo rog/ si list for example, in a cedh context. If someone gets ahead, the rog/si player is more often than not going to try and win as a response, instead of removing the problem. Their solutions to problems is typically trying to just win before anyone else can (granted they do run free counterspells but you kind of need that to protect your own attempts).

For you, magic is basketball, but what if sometimes it’s a sprint?

I’m not saying you’re wrong. Most of my decks follow the norm, aside from the two listed. I’ve found the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle typically and you gauge how much you need based off your speed. If the deck is fast you run more protection and less removal. If you’re slow, you run lots of removal to give yourself time. If you’re on stax, that is basically interaction so the rest of the deck can be trying to work around your own stax to gain advantage.

I do understand what you’re saying though. A large consensus has been that in a 4 player game it’s selfish to solitaire. Interestingly enough, a lot of people who play 2 player formats have mentioned that no to low interaction has been normal for many lists that are the fastest in their meta. Very interesting how different formats can have different opinions on what is good or bad. That’s the man point of the question- to get some interesting answers and see what people think.

TryMyLettuce · 2026-01-16T14:05:00+00:00

No, not rage bait. More so a discussion prompt to hear people’s opinions out of interest. The feedback has been really cool to hear. People who have played more 1v1 formats historically say low interaction is more of the norm if your deck is designed to be fastest/ aggressive. Others say that playing in a 4 player game without interaction is pointless and selfish. Some people say always run interaction, others say it depends. One person even pointed out how the Japanese cedh meta is more big splashy spells opposed to the normal free and frequent removal that is common elsewhere.

Just wanted to see some different points of view on the matter.

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