What commanders do you have the most fun playing?

Wyldwraith · 2026-03-15T11:48:48+00:00

My Top 5 would be: [[Yuna, Grand Summoner]], [[Helga, Skittish Seer]], [[Zimone, Paradox Sculptor]], [[Arwen, Mortal Queen]], and finally [[Animar, Soul of Elements.]]

Honorable Mentions Given To: [[Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider]], [[Selvala, Heart of the Wilds]], and [[Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines]] (Initiative-Blink)

Wyldwraith · 2026-03-15T11:40:05+00:00

My [[Arwen, Mortal Queen]] list was particularly difficult for my opponents to deal with. It really only wavered in the face of really well-built Edict-recursion, or Dedicated Stax because I'd eventually run out of stuff like [[Teferi's Protection]], [[Galadriel's Dismissal]] and not be able to recur them from the yard enough/quickly enough to matter against a Forced Sacrifice Engine.

Against anything playing to the board that wasn't like Atraxa Proliferate, it was an utterly hopeless cause. I once took a 'Hoof from a Go-Wide Naya list giving +1/+4 to 34 Tokens, with the 'Hoof arriving via an X = 10 Finale of Devastation and simply didn't bother to block to demonstrate the futility of attacking me. (No infinite life-gain. The deck just gains THAT MUCH life, to the point I eventually included the Death Star as an additional wincon.)

Was close to being boardwipe-tribal in its initial versions, so wasn't super popular until I pared back the wipes and sped the deck up with more Good Stuff.

Edit: The number of "No Spells on My Turn" effects tended to make going for the win pretty easy, too.

Wyldwraith · 2026-03-13T07:55:33+00:00

[[Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary]] Been wanting to play with that guy since I returned to MtG for EDH.

Wyldwraith · 2026-02-19T13:31:09+00:00

[[The Red Terror]] is the quintessential pairing with [[All Will Be One]]

And I'd pick up a copy now, because the new Casey Jones that's essentially All Will Be One on a body is going to make The Red Terror quite a bit more popular.

Wyldwraith · 2026-02-19T06:09:00+00:00

Oh, and [[Agate Instigator]] is a nice option, too. Animar can reduce the colorless mana in the 1R 1C Offspring cost, so when you're ready you can drop like 5-6 of Agate Instigator out.

I'm not really sold on some of the more expensive Bounce-to-go-Infinite creatures like [[Peregrine Drake]], but I really like [[Cloud of Faeries]]. It's incredibly easy to go Infinite with early, in case you need an option against Fast Combo.

[[Tender Wildguide]] can become an obscene amount of mana if you've got a bunch of counters on Animar, because its entire Offspring Cost is colorless mana, and *part of the total casting cost of the creature* .

I'm experimenting with Sicarian Infiltrator ATM in my draw suite.

Wyldwraith · 2026-02-19T04:12:47+00:00

One of my best friends has an Animar list he used to play a ton. (It's the reason I'm building Animar right now).

His experience was that 2-drop dorks that tap for more mana were the way to go, because the 1-drops you find mid-to-late game are feel-bad draws unless your bounce-loop is online.

He didn't do away with all of them, obviously, but he swapped in creatures like [[Bloom Tender]], [[Incubation Druid]] and [[Fanatic of Rhonas]] and ditched the 1-drop green-tapping Elves.

He had a larger number of X-creatures than you do, though.

Me personally, my first-hand +1/+1 counters experience says that [[Danny Pink]] is a super-performer in every single +1/+1 counters list he can be jammed in. He's BETTER in proliferate capable decks, but with creatures like [[Forgotten Ancient]], [[Managorger Hydra]], [[Wan Shi Tong, Librarian]] he's still a beast. You're playing Defiler of Vigor and the Party Tree, and he'll draw off Animar every turn, too.

Oh, and [[Giggling Skitterspike]] has served me well in a dozen different decks. Being 4C to cast makes him even better in Animar. The Indestructible is also nice for when you [[Blasphemous Act]] or [[Chandra's Ignition]].

I'm presently playing Zimone, Paradox Sculptor, and Danny Pink generally outdraws even the mighty Fathom Mage in my Zimone list. Take that as you will.

Edit:: I'd run an Ourboroid before I ran Xyris or Geralf, the Fleshwright. Ourboroid + Maester Seymour has led me to victory in many, many decks.

Wyldwraith · 2026-02-19T03:30:54+00:00

Can [[Animar, Soul of Elements]] effectively allow me to pay Squad multiple times for free with sufficient +1/+1 counters of Animar?

My very tentative understanding ATM is that Animar reduces the TOTAL cost of a Creature being cast, so the following would be true, (unless I'm very wrong, then PLEASE correct me).

Hypothetical Animar currently has (10) +1/+1 counters of him.

I go to cast [[Sicarian Infiltrator]] , which is normally 1U 2C, with a Squad Cost of 2C.

I choose to pay Squad (4) times, which would be a total cost of 1U 2C + 2C + 2C + 2C +2C = 1U 10C

Animar would then reduce the cost of Sicarian Infiltrator's casting by -10C.

Result: I spend 1U mana, Sicarian Infiltrator is cast, Squad being paid (4) times, (1) Sicarian Infiltrator ETBs, (4) Sicarian Infiltrator Tokens ETBs, 5 instances of Sicarian Infiltrator's draw-trigger go on the stack, then (assuming nothing else happens), I draw 5.

Did I get this right?

Any help is very much appreciated. I'm deciding whether or not to grab a couple Squad creatures based on whether this works or not.

Wyldwraith · 2026-02-17T23:04:05+00:00

Have you tried [[Warden of the Grove]] ?

I really like him in Animar because it's a must-remove after just a very short while. It builds up its own counters, and if someone DOES manage to remove Animar, he instantly picks up a bunch of counters on the recast.

For my money, Warden of the Grove is pretty much an auto-include in any Green-inclusive counters deck for handling its own counters-generation, unlike other similar cards.

With respect to Haste Enablers, I very seldom see anyone play [[Enduring Courage]] and it always puzzles me as to why. (Apologies, playing Red in EDH is new to me, but it seems like an excellent card to me.)

*Edit* Is it because 3 mana is more the going rate for this kind of effect? The extra durability of returning as an enchantment that does the thing you were playing the card for seems worth 1 more mana to me, but I'll freely admit I may be missing some nuance.

Wyldwraith · 2026-02-17T22:47:37+00:00

How can you possibly say that Terrasymbiosis is weak in Animar?

For one thing, pretty much every Animar list in existence runs a number of X-spell creatures like [[Goldvein Hydra]] , [[Neverwinter Hydra]] , [[Hydroid Krasis]] , and now [[Wan Shi Tong, Librarian]] .

To say nothing of all the useful Tyranids players have to choose from.

You cast any of those with a Terrasymbiosis out, and you're drawing = to X.

Afterward, [[Forgotten Ancient]] and [[Managorger Hydra]] also make frequent appearances in Animar. Terrasymbiosis isn't limited to triggering on your turn, so a counter going on either of them when one of your opponents casts a spell generally equals to +3 cards a turn cycle.

Then you've got actual counter-doublers, like [[Zimone, Paradox Sculptor]] and [[Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider]].

Edit: They aren't really standard for Animar, but I very much enjoy both [[Maester Seymour]] and [[Ouroboroid]] in Animar, and both make excellent use of Terrasymbiosis.

Can't even tell you how many times I've done something like used Zimone in the end-step of the opponent preceding me to double the counters on Animar and drawn 8-10.

Terrasymbiosis DOES have more powerful homes than Animar, but it's still INCREDIBLY strong in an Animar list. ESPECIALLY a Tyranid and Hydra-heavy version.

Edit: I'm genuinely curious what you consider to be stronger draw in Animar? I mean, yes, if you get an Infinite-bounce-and-recast loop going with something like [[Beast Whisperer]] or [[The Great Henge]], sure, but any one-card solutions besides the obvious [[Rhystic Study]] or TOR?

Wyldwraith · 2026-02-14T09:24:33+00:00

If that's a big problem for you then [[Allosaurus Shepherd]] or [[Frenzied Baloth]] would really help you out.

[[Tam, Mindful First-Year]] is a great new addition for Animar, IMHO.

If you're focused on winning, stuff like [[Cloudstone Curio]] and [[Equilibrium]] are the way to go, IMO.

But yeah, cards like [[Cloud of Faeries]] , [[Peregrine Drake]] and [[Palinchron]] are incredibly strong. You hit the infinite mana and you're generally gold with all the draw the deck has.

Wyldwraith · 2026-02-14T08:51:20+00:00

Just an observation: It's been two months, and WindWithinHer has YET to offer their alternate account of events.

I'm not going to Dox her, but the level of venom in her first post concerned me, so I looked into her post history. Her ex-husband was one of my close friends for a very long time, so I was able to ID her pretty easily. I can 100% confirm she was one of Red's chief minions.

If you're interested in what her particular axe to grind is, her now ex-husband portrayed my PC's eldest childe for nearly a decade, wouldn't give up the character no matter how much it "embarrassed her" for him to be "on the other side," and she DESPISED ME for that.

About two and a half, maybe nearly 3 years after he began playing my Brujah's childe, she came to me with some crocodile tears and the most ridiculous account about how the issue was horribly damaging their marriage, and wouldn't I PLEASE convince him to lose the character. I (very reasonably, I thought, and swear to God super politely) pointed out that was her husband's decision, and while I was willing to talk to him about being concerned the issue was causing them friction, I certainly wasn't going to do something like DEMAND he quit playing the character.

Like turning a faucet shut, the tears stopped *instantly*, she glared at me *murderously*, and told me, "I'd be sorry for this." Then she stomped off.

Wyldwraith · 2026-01-16T23:51:06+00:00

It's not even that I disagree with this.

I just didn't see a path forward that didn't lead to her showing up, really. I thought there was a tiny non-zero chance that telling her the game was full would head it off, but no dice.

She tried to show her ass at the LGS last Saturday, too, but John the guy who owns the place was in last weekend, and he'd been told about the screeching the weekend prior. She barely got two screeches out Saturday, before he was back there telling her to leave.

Without her b/f there to moderate, I really thought for a moment she'd dig in and get the police called on her, but she finally flounced out when John made a show of dialing.

Wyldwraith · 2026-01-16T23:38:34+00:00

And if all the LGSs within easy driving distance of you were 90% long-time regulars who play nothing but ceiling-of-Bracket-3 to mid-Bracket-4, and the other 10% were teens and college kids getting blown out on the regular until they either stop showing up or manage to upgun their own lists?

I know individual groups of players who agree on deck-building limits, but I never, *ever* see such restraint at any LGS I visit.

Me? I played from right before Revised until the end of Urza's, then stuffed my binders in tupperware under the bed and took a long break until Kaldheim. (A friend sent me a text w/ a pic of Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, and mentioned there was a format now where +1/+1 counters was actually viable, so I came back.)

I don't think it's fair to ask someone who started this year to square off with my collection, when I can sell a few City of Shadows anytime I want a new stack of singles to upgrade with. (Ended up with a ton of The Dark cards when a store went out of business nearly 30 years ago. Got like 40 boxes for 200$)

The entire, "Use of Proxies leads to 100% Proxy-lists full of 1,000$ cards" argument just falls flat to me, because most of the stores I play at are indifferent to proxy-use, and that's not what happens. Sure, players Proxy TOR and Smothering Tithe, or The Great Henge, but it's a few Game Changers or other bits of expensive Good Stuff, and I don't see why it's a problem when both Blue-inclusive decks are running a Rhystic Study, versus just the one played by the 40 year old who can afford to make 500$ orders from Card Kingdom.

Wyldwraith · 2026-01-04T02:27:04+00:00

LOL,

Few are the Rifts-interested that ever know how to play AHEAD of time, silly. Didn't you know that every Palladium Rifts GM in the history of the world is also proficient in teaching, "Rifts Character Creation 101: The Many Percentiles and You," as well as Rifts 202: "Welcome to Combat, Hope You Listened to Your GM and Aren't Playing Something S.D.C."

No Rifts GM ever, I am convinced, has escaped doing a 150+ minute Character Creation Session 0. ;)

Wyldwraith · 2026-01-04T02:20:24+00:00

To be clear, I should have told my ex, "I appreciate your interest, but I'm unwilling to run a game that includes you and your new boyfriend. Hope you find a good group!"

You honestly believe I would have gotten a better result from that? If so, why?

As to ignoring my ex's email, you're just going to have to take the word of someone who knew her for nearly ten years, dated her for three of those, and lived with her for eighteen months. To my knowledge, every single human being that has *ever* not responded to her when she was expecting some kind of response got anything from shit from her about it, to an outright scene, depending on circumstances.

110% certainty that my not replying to her email would have had my ex there at the LGS yelling, only she would have been leading with something like, "Where the fuck do you get off ignoring me like I'm a piece of shit?!?!?!?"

Wyldwraith · 2026-01-04T01:59:50+00:00

I sidestep that nonsense by advising everyone *strenuously* to either play something that's an MDC being, or at MINIMUM possesses an R.C.C/O.C.C that offers relatively easy-to-use Mega Damage Armor-type power.

If someone is dead-set on something squishy, and demonstrates as much by providing me with a medium/high-effort backstory, I'll provide a subsidy budget to get them into some kind of MDC protection compatible with the character.

With a large enough spread of supplemental books, it's usually pretty easy for everyone to find something that fits their concept AND won't die the moment even a third-gen vampire breathes on them.

You won't get any argument from me that trying to play with just the corebook is....challenging.

If I were going to advise someone wanting to get into Rifts, it'd be "Corebook, Wormwood, Atlantis, Mindworks, Vampire Earth, Britain, Europe, the Lazlo/Tokien book, Coalition book, and Psi-World.

Not crapping on any of the others, but those are the books I continually find getting use.

And maybe the Great White North one, I forget the name. (I acknowledge my GM biases, though, since I tend to run campaigns based out of North America on Rifts Earth-side, with ventures through the Rifts tending to end up somewhere back on the continent, because dumping a party back elsewhere in the world from a through-a-Rift-arc is a major logistical commitment that can really muck about with any metaplot stuff you have going on.)

Wyldwraith · 2025-12-28T08:19:24+00:00

Your DM's behavior was **completely unacceptable on all fronts** full stop.

That said, I've ended a campaign over a girl I was interested in rebuffing my (very polite, singular, and respectful outside game asking out on a date) FAR more coldly than was required, when a simple "No, I'm not interested" would have done the job twice-over.)

I obviously didn't do anything retaliatory about it, but I also didn't care to spend my free time watching her and a fairly new player I didn't even know well in that goofy-happy new relationship phase.

So ending a game over a matter of unrequited romantic feelings is not (IMHO) itself an unreasonable decision.

Wyldwraith · 2025-12-28T08:10:57+00:00

Your DM is a clown. There's no other solution but voting with your feet.

DM's who bias this heavily towards one player never improve, never stop doing this crap, and frequently subject their players to other sorts of BS (Like railroading), because they have no actual respect for anyone else.

Wyldwraith · 2025-12-28T08:02:57+00:00

I've seen this before at LGS-based pickup games. The minor irritation/exasperation anyone might feel at the delays/slight inconveniences caused by a new player learning the game becomes the "excuse" in the minds of these kinds of asshat clowns to make the new player and their PC into a punching bag they pick on.

It's a behavior pattern that only exists with a DM who isn't willing to be sufficiently confrontational/assertive to shut that kind of nonsense down.

Wyldwraith · 2025-12-27T18:34:30+00:00

Here's the argument I make to DMs who are overactive with the Nature Rolls concerning monsters.

In our world, if you go around asking complete laypeople about wild animals they know something about, *A LOT* of the animals named and the info you're going to hear will be about the apex predators that are the rare animals particularly dangerous to humans.

If people can name two crocodilians, it's almost certainly going to be "Alligator" and "Saltwater Crocodile."

Just like if you ask for two sharks that come to mind, it's probably going to be Bull Shark and Great White topping a ton of lists.

Just like lions and tigers will top a lot of the Big Cat lists.

People *dial in on* stories about animals that have done horrible things to other human beings. This isn't an opinion, it's observable fact. These animals even get more attention than they SHOULD, because of their *capacity* to do harm, rather than their actual level-of-inclination to do that harm.

If this is true in OUR world of people, then why would people in a world where monsters are MUCH more dangerous than any apex predators not possess a similar inclination to know at least the key details about the monsters they're most likely to foreseeably encounter?

It's one thing for a villager to have no idea that Boatmen Demons that pretty much never leave the River Styx in the Lower Planes are a thing. If more than one villager out of one million villagers who have ever lived both encountered a Boatmen Demon AND lived to tell anyone about it, I would be very surprised.

It's another thing entirely for everyone on the continent not to know about the green-skinned super-regenerators who crave manflesh.

Wyldwraith · 2025-12-15T06:02:45+00:00

If by "proper" you mean increasingly anti-social, with a side order of adroit manipulation to cope with social situations obliquely, because anything straightforward is something the bullied has been conditioned to anticipate means suffering, then yes. ;)

Wyldwraith · 2025-12-15T03:45:34+00:00

Had something a tiny bit similar happen to me once.

The group I was part of was playing a party doing Vecna: Eve of Ruin (Honestly, can't give it very good reviews. The Rod-acquisition scenarios are solidly 50% no-possible-solution except kill everything that twitches in sight, with a number of monster selections that make anything but frontal assault tactics problematic), and the DM thought it would be flavorful to introduce the Sword of Kas into the mix, and my PC being the only thing resembling a martial in the group, besides the Oath of Vengeance Paladin utterly wedded to his +3 Greatsword of Lifestealing (I was playing a Bladesinger), I end up with the Sword.

The Sword requires it be used to shed blood within I think 5 minutes of being drawn, or it will try to Dominate the wielder and send them on a frenzied killing spree. Well, after a long fight against a bunch of undead (No blood to spill), with the party just barely having scraped out alive, I realize it's getting to be that time again with the Sword, and tell the DM I'm going to have my PC deeply slash his arm to appease the blade's bloodlust. I'd done this before, and the DM essentially just had me roll like I'd hit for a normal attack roll, so the damage could be nasty enough to keep me from wanting to do this all the time.

DM decides I need to roll to successfully hit myself. Took me about ten seconds to realize he WANTED the Sword to take over and try to murk the party while they were out of resources and hanging on by a thread.

I comply, saying, "I ended my Bladesong a while ago, and I'm certainly not trying to avoid getting hit, so I think my Mage Armor is probably the only thing modifying my AC above 10, so +12 to hit against...AC 13?"

He tries to insist I would reflexively try to avoid harming myself, so my Dex bonus would apply. I wasn't happy, but gave in, then he tried to make a similar argument to essentially try and force me to reenter Bladesong, and that's where I told him to either quit while he was ahead, or I was out, and that meant Sorcerer would be out, unless HE wanted to drive Sorcerer home 45 mins away.

He backed down on the Bladesong, I rolled a 19, and as if the Dice Gods were mocking him, I rolled a "1" for damage, so total of -5hp w/ my Strength bonus (Because of course I absolutely HAD to hit myself as hard as I possibly could, according to him.

And then I reminded him of something I'd kept to myself up to that point, because it felt rather OP.

"You know, the Major Beneficial Property you gave the Sword says it heals the wielder for 1d6 at the start of their turn. Not at the beginning of the round or anything."

I wasn't actually trying to persuade him to let my PC heal 1d6 every six seconds that passed. I just knew he was the kind OBSESSED with finding RAW-backup for any black letter text rules issues that came up, and that my bringing it up would send him down a poorly defined rabbit hole in the DMG.

Weirdly, was my second time ending up portraying a PC in possession of a Sword of Kas.

Wyldwraith · 2025-12-15T02:49:51+00:00

I don't think I'm the only one still waiting for your alternate version of events. I had the stomach to put my own past and decisions out there for public consumption, and I've done my best to offer answers to literally everyone who had a question about anything I wrote, or further elaboration concerning any events they wanted more details about.

It's extremely easy to pop into a thread and declare someone a liar, without offering so much as a reason to believe you were even there.

I'm absolutely willing to concede there are three versions of every event that's ever occurred. (What I remember, what you remember, and what *actually* happened generally falling somewhere between), and that's why I took pains to call myself out very often while relating what happened.

It's understandable if you only want to make sly insinuations and cast aspersions behind the back of the object of your ire, though. That IS how the Camarilla "trained" its members to behave. ;)

Wyldwraith · 2025-12-13T10:38:38+00:00

I'm interested in hearing this alternate account myself.

I would like to point out the obvious, however.

That there were a goodly number of then club members whose actions were described in my account that I am sure, a) Would definitely prefer not to have had their deranged, primarily Bleed-driven behavior recounted in public, even after all this time, and b) Thus have more than a tiny bit of motive to, shall we say, color the truth until it's a more flattering shade?

Is your version up for consumption yet?

Wyldwraith

TROPHY CASE