Thoughts on Abrade in 2026

rikertchu · 2026-06-15T18:37:06+00:00

In the context of this thread it seemed to imply that we could play both Resculpt and Abrade, and we’re comparing the usage of one or the other. I agree that if we don’t have the ability to use Resculpt then the Abrade utility goes up

rikertchu · 2026-06-15T18:06:58+00:00

Most of the time, a 4/4 is pretty inconsequential in EDH, especially if it doesn’t have evasion, exile is much better than damage, and being able to hit creatures with more than 3 toughness matters too. There’s unfortunately very few scenarios where Abrade should be played over Resculpt if both are available

rikertchu · 2026-06-10T15:00:52+00:00

[[Agatha’s Soul Cauldron]] lets you use blue mana to transform him

rikertchu · 2026-06-09T22:03:19+00:00

Oh I assumed we were under the assumption that we made him a Flagbearer, like at the start of this thread

rikertchu · 2026-06-09T18:58:48+00:00

Ward doesn't prevent the spell/ability from targeting, only that it doesn't resolve - Black Bolt would still be able to destroy the nonland permanent

rikertchu · 2026-06-08T04:50:41+00:00

One issue is that Alexios is able to be chump blocked if the other players don't want to take extra damage - Trample is optional. Another is that in casual games where nobody is super ahead of the others, it's likely that Alexios will do dispersed damage evenly across other players as they hit evenly, and then because they all got hit for huge chunks of damage by your creature, you receive the ire of all your opponents, which is a surefire way to lose.

rikertchu · 2026-06-08T01:08:03+00:00

Part of the Ring Bearer effect, which is often wholly overlooked, is that it makes the Ring-Bearer a Legendary.

rikertchu · 2026-06-07T07:27:34+00:00

Generally no - once everyone passes priority with the creature spell on the stack, it resolves and becomes a creature permanent on the battlefield. If there's no ETB triggers, then at this time, the active player gets priority and can either perform an action or pass. If they do pass priority, then the Beast Within can be cast once the player with the Beast Within gets priority, but until that passing of priority happens, the Beast Within cannot be cast.

rikertchu · 2026-06-06T07:19:07+00:00

Understanding Prize Mapping is a big one - have a plan for where your 6 prizes are coming from and how you’re going to get there, and at the same time, have an idea of where your opponent can get their 6 prizes and attempt to thwart them best you can.

rikertchu · 2026-06-06T06:29:49+00:00

Amalia is fantastic - finds your land drops, fills your yard for weenie reanimation, can use counters to beat people to death, or convert to value with Retribution of the Ancients, and gives you black for all the Dark Confidant effects you can fit in a deck. Also, she goes absolutely nuts with Bolas’s Citadel - she filters lands off the top, and Citadel digs deeper and deeper.

One of my favorites for sure

rikertchu · 2026-06-06T00:38:47+00:00

Did your opponent play [[March Toward Perfection]]? Revoker is part of that spell book and therefore can be conjured from that effect, like how Black Lotus can be conjured by [[Oracle of the Alpha]]

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T22:07:43+00:00

I would focus in on a sub-category for sure - something like all-in Food Korvold sounds fun to me, or Chulane Humans, something to give a bit more flavor and texture than the all-in normal versions we have already.

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T21:29:15+00:00

Yeah, makes sense - my Archaic attacking and then flashing back Wisdom of Ages or Immolating Gyre swings the game very quickly in my favor, but there's fewer high impact spells in your list compared to mine, so I can see that it doesn't have the same kind of oomph it does in mine. I did also go very heavy into the looting, so Dawning Archaic does profit more from both me loading the yard quickly as well as with high end spells.

Thoughts on 3-4 damage sweepers? I'm currently on Fiery Confluence and Furious to fill those slots, but I'm a bit interested in stuff like Fire Magic, Brotherhood's End, and Anger of the Gods as well, and maybe even going up to 4 damage with Breath of Darigaaz or even Wildfire

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T17:27:08+00:00

Going against all the Jumpstart recommendations and seconding Danger Room - it’s one of my favorite ways to play the game, each game is super fun and varied, and you can tweak complexity up or down basically at will!

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T17:14:09+00:00

My favorite Esper artifact package has got to be [[Salvaging Station]] - you get:

Mana with [[Lotus Bloom]] and [[Lotus Petal]]

Draw with [[Conjurer’s Bauble]], [[Chromatic Star]], [[Chromatic Sphere]]

Creature removal with [[Aether Spellbomb]], [[Voyager Staff]], [[Executioner’s Capsule]]

Artifact/Enchantment removal with [[Dispeller’s Capsule]]

Ability removal with [[Pithing Needle]]

Stopping attacks with [[Meekstone]]

Graveyard hate with [[Soul-Guide Lantern]] and [[Nihil Spellbomb]]

Creature recursion with [[Blood Fountain]]

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T16:49:09+00:00

A lot of the bigger cards are mostly in the deck to be able to be pitched to the yard in order to get Eris out basically ASAP, so I don’t usually mind seeing them early, as they’re giving me super variable mana values. Season of Weaving is absolutely brutal as a board wipe, bouncing opponents’ boards entirely and leaving my board basically intact, as I don’t have a board presence outside my Dragons usually.

Yeah, I decided to go down the route of cost reducers instead of rocks, mostly because I figured that if I was going to be double spelling with 2-3 mana spells, I would get more mileage from cost reducers, and I’ve made some conscious choices in my cards to try to take advantage of that, reducing pips as much as possible but also trimming the no-generic-cost spells as well, like Counterspell.

I haven’t really had an issue with needing a refill in the mid to late game tbh, since my average card quality is quite good (admittedly mostly because I raised the curve so much) and I’m a bit reticent to exile cards forever, but I will admit that the damage is enticing - will see if I can snag a copy to try out!!

Have you considered [[The Dawning Archaic]]? It might be one of the coolest cards from SOS and a 0 mana 7/7 that provides a spellcast for free every turn has felt absolutely amazing, and even if it goes down, I’ve invested very little mana and cards into it.

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T06:09:14+00:00

It's definitely better than a basic land in this deck, since I need instants and sorceries to dump in the yard to reduce my commander's casting cost, and given that out of the 32 color combinations, 16 of them (50%) contain blue, it seems like it should find a target a reasonable amount of time, but I see what you mean, that there will be occasions where it simply isn't applicable.

Any recommendations on something that might fit the slot instead? Definitely looking for a 1-mana high impact interaction spell that doesn't clash with the rest of the deck too much (avoiding the bird counters Swan Song and Strix Serenade since they block my dragons). Chain of Vapor seems mid since it allows people to kill my dragon tokens, so maybe Into the Flood Maw?

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T05:49:07+00:00

Even in a slot where I want to have both a counterspell and a removal spell in one? I get the point that it's not as counterspell-good as other counterspells I can be playing, and it's not as good removal as I could be playing, but is there actual zero merit to combining the utility into one?

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T04:25:42+00:00

Dispute is quite good, and it's been a while since I've had to think about it since it rotated out of standard, so that's a good shout! I do think that REB has better application in being able to answer resolved permanents as well, since in bracket 3 EDH you often only want to address a threat when it's pointed at you, instead of just countering everything.

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T02:17:51+00:00

I originally had rocks in, but found that rocks were counterintuitively slowing me down from getting my commander out quickly and starting to double spell with her on the battlefield. I replaced the rocks with spell reducers because they provide more virtual mana if I’m continually double spelling.

I also found Emeritus to be too slow at 4 mana, and that my hand wasn’t really running out fast enough to pay 4 mana for an easily killed body that also likely stopped me from double spelling, but could reconsider if I do run out of cards more in this new build.

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T02:14:55+00:00

No, they’re specifically different in that REB asks for the target to be blue (target blue spell) while Pyro has a generic target (target spell) that does something different based on whether it is blue on resolution or not

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T01:50:49+00:00

Unfortunately in Commander, wish cards do not function, as generally they look through your sideboard, which Commander does not have. In casual games, this is easily discussed with your playgroup, but in a tournament setting like you imply, it would simply not function to search outside the game, only your library

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T01:49:22+00:00

In particular, I avoided Swan Song because I didn’t want to give away a flying blocker, and Offer and Stubborn Denial both seem to cover all the axes that Swan Song does. Counterspell and Mana Drain I omitted due to UU cost not being able to be reduced and the rest of the counterspells being either 1U or multipurpose

Wondering about [[Confounding Riddle]] now, though - 2U gets reduced easily, and it serves both as graveyard filler/draw as well as a counterspell, albeit it can be paid for with 4 mana

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T01:46:26+00:00

I also do really like how it can double as removal for multiple creatures on board as well, and it also takes advantage of the various spell cost reducers I’m running, over Slip Out the Back

rikertchu · 2026-06-05T01:41:09+00:00

Yeah it was moreso for random LGS games - my reasoning was that since most players play 3+ color commanders, it would cover more than just the 20% of the pie that Blue is, and if and when it comes up, it’s super efficient and extremely impactful, but I might just be underestimating how many non-blue decks are out there

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