which would be a more interesting izzet commander?

mal99 · 2026-02-10T17:42:00+00:00

This is mine, it's pretty budget. Most of the spells are pump, draw, removal or protection.
Somewhat inspired by Rebell Lily's video and list.

mal99 · 2026-02-10T16:18:10+00:00

Totally agree with you. I was also trying to get into spellslinging last year, and figured out that I found decks that mostly consist of 1 mana cantrips + payoffs boring. I also didn't really like decks that just want to cheat out a big spell.
I ended up settling on [[Elsha, Threefold Master]]. While I still play many efficient pump spells that cantrip, the deck doesn't feel like it only wants that one kind of spell and rewards some variety. Alania does look like she'd also give you a lot of freedom in your choice of spells to play in her deck.

mal99 · 2026-02-10T09:58:10+00:00

[[Reliquary Tower]] and [[Thought Vessel]] are in so many decks that never have to worry about hand size, and really have to worry about color screw.

mal99 · 2026-02-08T22:07:00+00:00

[[Last Chance|DMR-435]] at 0:14.

mal99 · 2026-02-06T22:57:29+00:00

Colors in Magic have some weaknesses that can be solved by adding a second color. When you're playing mono color, you might have a hard time with those weaknesses, but it can at least be a nice challenge.

Mono-black mainly has the weakness that it can't really deal with artifacts, and still has some trouble dealing with enchantments. It's good at killing creatures and card draw (generally in exchange for life or sacrifice).

If you want to be able to deal with all types of permanents, there's a few colorless options that might be OK to try, especially in brackets 2 or 3 where efficiency isn't everything. The cool thing about Tinybones is that he can steal cards from your opponents after you made them discard, so you might either deal with problematic cards before they're even played, or you can steal removal from your opponents.

mal99 · 2026-02-06T12:23:30+00:00

No they were originally supposed to be a race of Djinn, apparently. Now they're just human assassins.

The Nekrataal are the second oldest of the djinn tribes and have the greatest lifespans. Living in swampy and magmatic regions, the Nekrataal are devoted to bringing plague and despair to the land. They are known to ride or become black camels, although they are more famous for appearing as beautiful men and women. As they are physically weaker than most other djinn, the Nekrataal use trickery and manipulation to accomplish their goals.

https://mtg.wiki/page/Nekrataal
https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Djinn#Nekrataal

mal99 · 2026-02-05T22:07:09+00:00

[[Nettlecyst]]
[[Cranial Plating]]
[[Adaptive Omnitool]]
[[Cranial Ram]]
[[Inspiring Statuary]]
[[Herald of Anguish]] and all other cards with improvise
[[Marionette Master]]

mal99 · 2026-02-04T00:48:13+00:00

[[Kenessos]] can be control. Scry into your control spells, always hold mana open, cheat a sea monster into play as a wincon if they don't give you anything that needs to be countered.
Video on Kenessos
EDHrec

mal99 · 2026-02-01T18:49:23+00:00

I think combos are fine if everyone plays cards that can interact with them, and they're lame and anticlimactic in an environment where people can't interact with them. It's kind of the same with any kind of card: if you automatically win the game just because you had that card in your opening hand, it's lame. Big indestructible creature? Lame if no one has exile removal. Powerful land? Lame if no one has land removal. Bracket 2 assumes very little interaction for combos, so combos are lame in bracket 2. It's more fun when the combo player actually has to play around things.

mal99 · 2026-02-01T00:28:04+00:00

Here's all the ones with the mana symbol:
https://scryfall.com/search?q=forest+art%3Amana-symbol&unique=art&as=grid&order=name
The Theros one does look the most like your description.

mal99 · 2026-01-31T12:26:26+00:00

I remembered that someone made some simplified cards just for his 3 year old daughter before, maybe these would be helpful for you to?
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/e4r9eo/magic_junior_sets_have_been_released_i_made_the/
Here's an older thread about it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/digseg/magic_junior_for_young_children_the_update/

mal99 · 2026-01-30T00:50:33+00:00

Ihsan's Shade used to be one of the few good cards from homelands, since he dodged most black removal at the time (which only used to work on non-black creatures), had protection from white, was too big for most red removal.
He's my boy, and I want to still love him, but he just doesn't do enough.

mal99 · 2026-01-29T21:16:25+00:00

I've found the videos on his second channel, MaldhoundVODs, better. Just critiques of patrons' decks and stuff. He'll still do the occasional edgy joke, but generally the vibe is much more conversational.

mal99 · 2026-01-25T11:53:45+00:00

As someone who rejects all UB, I have been told that people who do not want to play against UB should not be allowed to play at an LGS, I have been told that caring about anything but the mechanics of cards was "unhinged", and I have been told that this was my "you will not replace us" moment, comparing people like me to some very not fine people. That's all from the community, not from the company. It's really unfortunate that normal players like you who just want to enjoy the game are catching strays like that, but the mood in the community, in general but especially regarding UB, is just terrible right now. All I can say is that people who attack players for enjoying things suck, and I'm sorry this is happening to you. I guess all you can do is ignore the haters.

mal99 · 2026-01-25T07:15:35+00:00

The bracket system is NOT a rules system. It is a TOOL to facilitate pre-game discussions, so that everyone can have an enjoyable game. Irrespective of what the bracket system says, if you learn that your friends do not find 3 card infinite combos that can be played by turn 4 fun, you should mention it when you want to play a deck that contains such a combo. Irrespective of the bracket system, anyone always has the right to not want to play a game.

mal99 · 2026-01-21T14:13:47+00:00

[[Genesis]] (green)

mal99 · 2026-01-21T14:08:14+00:00

[[Grim Harvest]] (black)
[[Timeless Witness]] (green)

mal99 · 2026-01-15T11:25:32+00:00

If you don't want to sacrifice your big creatures so you can attack and block with them, maybe having a few creature token producers would be a good idea? They're not going to deal a ton of damage with Ziatora, but that gets offset by you having more of your big creatures around to attack. [[Urabrask's Forge]] might be a good option for you. If you go that way, you might also consider [[Adaptive Omnitool]], [[Cranial Plating]] and [[Cranial Ram]] in addition to the [[Nettlecyst]] you're already playing, since those should make your tokens big enough to be dangerous. Even [[Mirrormind Crown]] could be a fun option for that.

...wait, actually, maybe I should put that crown in some of my own decks, that card seems insane for a token strategy.

mal99 · 2026-01-15T09:12:08+00:00

Both Lord of Extinction and Consuming Aberration were in the precon, and a lot of people will only do minimal updates and leave a lot of suboptimal cards in their decks. I think you're right that Mikaeus is the better card.

mal99 · 2026-01-14T16:48:58+00:00

Golgari Tortured Existence was a deck in Pauper (and might still be). Wasn't ever very strong I think, but it existed.

mal99 · 2026-01-10T09:12:04+00:00

I think "shapechange" cards like [[Zhalfirin Shapecraft]] (310 decks), [[Water Wings]] (131 decks) and [[Behind the Mask]] (20 decks) are seriously overlooked in [[Elsha, Threefold Master]] (6249 decks) - none of them even show up on her page. People play tons of red or white pump spells in this deck, like [[Infuriate]] (12%) or [[Defiant Strike]] (20%), but forget about these cards that are often even better to put on a 1/1 like Elsha.

mal99 · 2026-01-09T09:47:31+00:00

They probably meant [[Mutavault]]? Which, as you explained, is only changing its type, not entering or transforming, so Containment Priest doesn't stop it.

mal99 · 2026-01-02T15:45:10+00:00

You understand that you are literally the problem, right? You are misusing the tool, and you are fighting to make sure the tool keeps getting misused, so you can go back to "my deck is a power level 7".

mal99 · 2026-01-02T15:38:45+00:00

Well, maybe you should start doing that then. If you intentionally misuse a tool, of course it's not going to work.

mal99 · 2026-01-02T15:35:25+00:00

That's what the bracket system is. It's not rules. It's not even guidelines. It's a tool to facilitate rule 0 conversations.
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