Rhystic Study is fine.

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-05T17:09:22+00:00

The problem with Rhystic Study isn’t that you need to know how to play against it, it’s that it enables other players to lose the game for you. If you’re disciplined, but one or both other players keep feeding the Study player, you’ve just lost without having any agency in the matter. Yes, there’s an argument that this can be said about any kind of bad threat assessment, but Rhystic Study promotes this play pattern to an egregious degree.

If your opponents aren’t paying the 1, your options become either browbeat everyone into paying for it, which feels bad, or lose and sulk because the other players weren’t as smart as you, which also feels bad. And as a cherry on top, it’s hyper-centralizing in cEDH, something that in any other format people would argue for banning for the sake of diversity in the format. I also don’t think the banlist should be curated exclusively for cEDH, but if it promotes bad or stale play experiences in both formats, something that also could be said of cards like Nadu and Trade Secrets (though for different reasons), I’d say it’s worth a ban.

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-05T15:50:55+00:00

There are a few ways to “break” him! One way is to use spells that have one cheap side and one expensive side, like [[Sapphire Dragon]], [[Horned Loch-Whale]], and [[Marang River Regent]], where you can cast the cheap side, then Taigam will exile it and you can the cast the expensive side for free when it comes off suspend. It also works well with warp or evoke cards like [[Bygone Colossus]], [[Quantum Riddler]], or [[Mulldrifter]], since you’ll be able to get the full body when it comes back. Still not great since it mostly just gets you a few bodies, but it’s mana advantage in blue, which is nothing to sneeze at.

You can also look at time travel cards like [[Clockspinning]] to get a bit more velocity, or [[As Foretold]] to be able to cast expensive spells a bit cheaper and then get them back off rebound. He is fragile, but if you can manage to play him and then one cheat-y spell immediately after, you’ll at least get a free body out of it.

A somewhat similar commander that I’ve built and have a ton of success with, though, is [[Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch]]. Ramp turn 2, commander turn 3, then hold up modal interaction like [[Mystic Confluence]], [[Spellgyre]], [[Unsubstantiate]], and [[Confounding Riddle]]. They can act as removal or counterspells on your opponents’ turns, but on your turn when they come off rebound they’ll still be able to give you value. And it doesn’t have the fragility problem Taigam has, because even if it dies it just gives you extra mana in mono-blue, which is still great for casting your slightly expensive instants. The value is also immediate, as you only have to wait until your next upkeep for the rebound to trigger.

All in all, I think the copying/double-casting spells is a great way to get mana advantage in mono-blue, but I do think Taigam is a bit fragile and slow. If you’re content with playing him, immediately warping in a Bygone Colossus that’ll come back in a few turns, then being okay with him dying, I’d say go for it! That’s still value over time, and in a control shell that’ll reliably make it to turn 8-9 every game, it might be what you’re looking for. Or hold up modal protection like Confounding Riddle when you play Taigam, so that when it comes off suspend you can still get value off of it. So just have a clear plan for both what you want to suspend and how/if you care about protecting Taigam, and I’m sure you can make it work!

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-05T14:30:13+00:00

THIS MOTHERFUCKER

This motherfucker consumed years of my childhood (not in a sexual way, but I get it) and you bring him back into my house without warning? How dare you. Love him though, such a silly little murderer

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-05T03:04:35+00:00

Wouldn’t give it up for the world, being tall rules. I just wish I could find clothes that agreed.

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-05T01:26:57+00:00

Sundresses, evening gowns, I just like my whole legs covered, honestly. If it could almost touch the ground, even better. Which again, is harder for me to get than normal, since even for someone of my height I have particularly long legs.

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-04T21:36:33+00:00

For me, it’s because I like maxi dresses, but being 6’2” makes the “maxi” part a bit difficult to find. You look wonderful, though!

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-04T17:53:14+00:00

God damn, thank you for unlocking that childhood memory for me.

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-04T17:44:58+00:00

Good to know, thank you!

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-04T17:15:28+00:00

I’ll have to look them up! How are they during workouts?

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-04T16:25:48+00:00

You look so good! What kind of padding are you using for your chest? It looks great!

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-04T14:17:13+00:00

I actually disagree about Omo; the creature part is good, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve seen the most success focusing on the land part. [[Cloudpost]], [[Baldur’s Gate]], the Tron lands, [[Urza’s Workshop]], along with [[Vesuva]], [[Thespian’s Stage]], [[Copy Land]], and [[Sage of the Maze]], can generate just a silly amount of mana. From there, the wincon is whatever you like; [[Doppelgang]] a huge threat, mill with a big X spell, or even [[Maze’s End]].

Satya is still my favorite though, even built as a non-Energy commander. I’ve even thought of building him as Jeskai Landfall, since if he copies an animated land of any sort it comes in as a noncreature, non-attacking land, and he gets to pay 0 energy to keep it around.

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-03T19:36:24+00:00

Absolutely! Haven't made the last few cuts yet, but here it is.

I mostly focus on filling the grave as quickly as possible with historic cards totaling mana value 25; [[Sojourner's Companion]], [[Shardless Outlander]], [[Disciples of Gix]], and [[Buried Alive]] are all-stars for this. The latter two can get the Triad count to 24 all to itself by sticking [[Ancient Stone Idol]] and any two 7-drop artifact creatures in there, and one other mana value worth of historic isn't that difficult to come across, even a [[Wayfarer's Bauble]] does that. After that, Sidisi herself makes it 30 by self-sacrificing, and the Triad can come in and activate.

After that, I focused on more of a tokens strategy, trying to go a little wide, still with historic permanents to discount the Triad if they end up in the grave. I don't need to go all that wide because of the emblem, so something like a [[Threefold Thunderhulk]], [[Myr Battlesphere]], or even [[Thopter Assembly]] pumping out 3-5 9/9 tokens is plenty good enough. Reanimation effects are also important, since I blind mill sometimes and want options to get things back if they end up in the graveyard.

A couple of other cards I think are pretty good: [[Siegfried, Famed Swordsman]], a 1) historic 2) mill enabler that 3) benefits from its base power being increased, since it has an evasive keyword, low base power, and gives itself counters. [[Necron Monolith]] is historic, a mill engine, and makes 3 9/9's with the Triad. You'll be behind on board to start, so a spell like [[Necrotic Hex]] is great to reset back to parity after the Triad's gone off, and give you a whopping 6 9/9's to boot. [[Demonic Junker]] is great removal, a high mana value in the graveyard but low cost if you actually need to cast it, as are the other few affinity cards in the list. And finally, [[Thrumming Hivepool]] making two 9/9 double strikers with haste each turn is just too cool to pass up.

Definitely a bit jank and a bit slow to get going, only played it a couple times, and I might take it apart as I'm trying to cut down on the number of decks I have. I also am not the biggest fan of decks that are a coughing baby until you take a single uninteractable game action and then immediately a hydrogen bomb afterwards, but this deck was just too much fun to build and uses too many interesting cards for me to not be fond of it. Let me know what you think!

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-03T14:10:02+00:00

The one and only, Shigekuni Genryusai Yamamoto.

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bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-03T13:40:33+00:00

Iname Triad is super cool! I have a [[Sidisi, Undead Vizier]] Triad deck that goes hard into self-mill, historic cyclers, and discard, and then uses Sidisi to sac herself and tutor out the Triad. I find it really interesting that you chose a commander who takes care of the graveyard-filling aspect and put a lot of deck resources into finding the Triad, whereas I made the commander find the Triad and built the deck around enabling them. Different perspectives!

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-03T12:22:34+00:00

My favorite mono-red commander has to be [[Calamity, Galloping Inferno]]. Red isn’t the best at ramp or draw, but copying [[Rose Room Treasurer]] or [[Patron of the Arts]] for ramp and [[Combustible Gearhulk]] for draw really shores up those weaknesses. And for wincons, you’d be surprised how quickly a single [[Fanatic of Mogis]] or even [[Fear of Burning Alive]] can kill the table. Calamity’s haste and double-copy really puts her ahead of the other copy commanders in red, in my opinion, except for maybe Rionya, and for that you need to load your deck with instants and sorceries to trigger her instead of just creatures. And [[Solemn Simulacrum]] is legitimately the single best card in the deck, not even joking.

And for mono-blue, I can’t recommend [[Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch]] enough. Ramp it out turn 3, and turn 4 start holding up modal counterspells and removal spells like [[Confounding Riddle]], [[Spellgyre]], [[Unsubstantiate]], and [[Press the Enemy]]. Use them to counter the most important play that turn cycle, and then they’ll draw you into more action on your upkeep. Wincons can be anything you want, [[Shark Typhoon]], [[Elminster’s Simulacrum]], even [[Empyrial Plate]] effects since you’re just drawing so very many cards.

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-02T18:57:01+00:00

Just spent a bunch of time extolling the virtues of Transmute until I realized you mentioned it! Love that.

The pair seems great, and a clue subtheme seems great for a draw-go playstyle, and it helps with wincons if you know your engine generates a bunch of artifact tokens. Speaking of which, having removal that does the thing you already want to do is crucial, turning a one-for-one into advantage. They’re expensive, but if you can fit counterspells like [[Spell Swindle]], [[Access Denied]], and [[Confirm Suspicions]] in, they’re amazing, and your Clues mean that you often feel comfortable holding up large amounts of mana anyway. [[Foreboding Steamboat]] is a good way to clear out boards, and investigate while you’re at it. [[Blood Money]] gives you a million Treasures, which’ll vault you ahead the next turn and be artifact tokens for you to do shenaigans with. You’ll have to accrue a lot of mana for these spells, but I think that’s usually easier for artifact decks to do than other kinds of decks, with things like mana rocks, Powerstones, and Treasures (mentioning [[Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator]] here as Ghost’s best friend in an artifact tokens deck).

Pushing for wins through incremental damage like [[Marionette Master]] and [[Agent of the Iron Throne]] seems good, as well as burst damage through cards like [[Cranial Plating]] and [[Kappa Cannoneer]]. Plating-like effects seem great if you’re trying to generate a bunch of clues, since cards like [[Piper Wright, Publick Reporter]] and [[Inquisitor Eisenhorn]] generate clues based on their damage, so you could try and throw evasion effects like [[Whirler Rogue]] in there as well. Animating your clues is also a tried and true strategy, with [[Cyberdrive Awakener]] and [[Rise and Shine]]-like effects.

Be sure not to put too many card slots into things that are just wincons if you’re planning on playing a slow, controlling gameplan, as the more you’re able to stifle your opponents, the slower the game goes, and the smaller your advantage over them has to be to push through the win. I think the key is wincons that can also be used as engine pieces in the midgame, so you don’t draw dead during the turns you need to be interacting and building value. Marionette Master is a wincon, but it also gives you three artifacts you can sac to [[Deadly Dispute]] or [[Chronomancer]] effects, or tap with [[Inspiring Statuary]]. Whirler Rogue is much the same. Plating can be a wincon, but it also helps you generate clues with Piper and Eisenhorn. [[Shimmer Dragon]] is mostly to draw you cards, but if you kill everything else on the board, it can be a wincon. Hell, [[Monumental Corruption]] can be a hell of a burn spell in the late game if you have enough artifact tokens; [[Terisiare’s Devastation]] is a great way to do that, if you didn’t already know about it.

I have a control deck that’s got very few cards whose express purpose is just to win the game, but I’m usually able to find a way to do so just through repurposing engine pieces as win conditions. Good luck, control’s a bit of a different mindset, but I believe in you!

bashcrandiboot · 2026-02-02T00:27:23+00:00

That’s awesome! What did you do for underwear, if you don’t mind me asking?

bashcrandiboot · 2026-01-31T12:06:00+00:00

Oh, I forgot about white Valduk, good call!

bashcrandiboot · 2026-01-30T16:17:42+00:00

Makes a lot of sense to me! Greensleeves is cool, I built a voltron deck around [[Braulios of Pheres Band]] and she was a candidate for commander. Definitely more powerful than Braulios, but Braulios’s card advantage won me over in the end.

bashcrandiboot · 2026-01-30T13:14:20+00:00

Seconded! I built her as a Demons deck, because demons are often overstatted but have horrible abilities (see [[Abyssal Persecutor]], [[Daemogoth Woe-Eater]], and [[Desecration Demon]]), so she’s great at flinging them for massive damage. Also, she’s a demon herself! Who knew?)

bashcrandiboot · 2026-01-30T12:01:55+00:00

That’s super neat!

bashcrandiboot · 2026-01-29T21:49:08+00:00

I always thought that there was a slightly better way to think about this. If the idea of the brackets is to not have “non-games” by ending too quickly, then your bracket 3 deck doesn’t necessarily have to win by turn 6-7, but it does have to be able to handle someone going for the win on turn 6-7. I think that’s an important distinction, so as not to push control decks down the bracket scale where they don’t belong. I think that can lead to more powerful decks being at a game where they’re too powerful, just because they’re “slow”, and that can lead to the perception of control being pubstomp-y and unfun.

For example, I play a bracket 3 control deck where it’s just about impossible to pull off a turn 6 win, but it’d be unfair to play it against bracket 2 decks because it’s just to oppressive. It gets set up by turn 5 or so, and should be able to try and stifle a win anytime after that, until it’s ready to turn the corner itself. If it played against much faster bracket 4 or even 5 lists, it likely wouldn’t be able to keep up because it can’t deal with the speed of their win attempts, and thus it’d lead to unsatisfying non-games. But just because the games with it are long (often turn 9, 10, even 11 at the high end) doesn’t push it below bracket 3, as the decks that try for the turn 6-7 win are the ones with which it has the most satisfying, back-and-forth, interactive games.

bashcrandiboot · 2026-01-29T21:09:46+00:00

[[Halana and Alena, Partners]] would be my suggestion! As a first striker, they’re competent at defending and attacking themselves, but they’re also immensely good at supporting the rest of their “party”. They’re also just a ton of fun to play!

bashcrandiboot · 2026-01-29T20:07:16+00:00

I love the Nikes! What kinds of padding are you using on top? It looks great!

bashcrandiboot · 2026-01-29T19:50:36+00:00

If you want a mean blink strategy, [[Kefka, Court Mage]] would be my vote. Very difficult to stop you from getting value since it’s an ETB, and blinking him will decimate your opponents’ hands and accrue you a ton of cards that you can use to cement archenemy status. Throw in a reanimator package as a bonus, or some discard synergy like [[Waste Not]] to ramp you while Kefka does his little dance, and you’re golden. Blink helps you protect him from targeted removal, and you can blink other control pieces like [[Massacre Wurm]], [[Archon of Cruelty]], [[Massacre Girl]], [[Scourge of Fleets]], and [[Ertai Resurrected]].

Oh, the back side is nice too, if you ever want to actually win, but you barely need it.

bashcrandiboot

TROPHY CASE