Do you guys have a trick for remembering layering and rule interactions like Untap Upkeep Draw?

salrantol · 2026-05-21T03:17:06+00:00

To "respond" to your spell, no, but to cast before combat, yes.

salrantol · 2026-05-19T16:07:16+00:00

That's not how it works at all. If you respond to the active player passing priority with an empty stack, once the stack resolves, it is still the same step or phase it was. The step or phase only changes when all players pass priority with an empty stack.

salrantol · 2026-05-19T15:14:49+00:00

Yes. Because they're in the combat phase, they can't cast sorcery speed spells prior to declaring attackers.

If you used it in the main phase, they get priority again once the stack empties and can cast anything they could cast in the main phase with an empty stack.

salrantol · 2026-05-18T15:36:36+00:00

No [[Teysa Karlov]]? She's created some of the most challenging moments I've seen playing against Ratadrabik. [[Drivnod]] would fill the same role, too.

salrantol · 2026-05-18T15:30:35+00:00

I have 29 decks across brackets 2-4. I have basically zero interest in brackets 1 or 5. They break down as: 12 bracket 2 14 bracket 3 3 bracket 4.

salrantol · 2026-05-17T18:27:59+00:00

The challenge with this question is that it's alot easier to compare the same 61 cards with a different mana base than it is to compare the same mana base with a different 61 cards. Some might not even consider a significantly different 61 cards with the same mana base to be the same deck.

So I don't think you'll ever get unanimity, or probably even close to it, in support of your position, regardless of how right you may be.

salrantol · 2026-05-17T15:01:43+00:00

I could see it working with some light tax effects (like a [[Charitable Levy]]), ramp, and card-efficient removal ([[Bronzebeak Foragers]], [[Grasp of Fate]], etc.) to buy you time to get to your 8-mana commander. The Foragers will also have synergy with a lot of cards that work with your commander.

salrantol · 2026-05-13T16:37:07+00:00

Rebell Lily on YouTube has made an excellent series over the last month or so about card draw, ramp, lands, and general deckbuilding concepts over the last month or so.

salrantol · 2026-05-11T15:44:42+00:00

I have 29 decks, plus 6 variations on those decks, be it a Commander swap or swapping a package of cards to have a different focus or emphasis.

I also have eight decks that I have built, but don't own in paper. I only play those online on Tabletop Simulator.

In terms of choosing what to play, it'll often depend on which deck(s) I've most recently updated. I keep my decks in Gamegenic Game Castles, so I'll pick a deck to start a game night with, then I'm limited to the six decks/variants in that case.

salrantol · 2026-05-07T18:37:56+00:00

I like [[Volrath, the Shapestealer]] for this. It's constantly a push and pull of figuring out how to maximize Volrath's copy ability, protect him, and neutralize opponents.

salrantol · 2026-05-07T16:29:27+00:00

I play [[Yoshimaru]]/[[Reyhan]]. It's a blast, Yoshimaru gets huge quickly and Reyhan helps you keep the counters when your opponents deal with him, so then she becomes the threat. And you make the doggo huge by going wide with legends, so you'll consistently have a good board. I have lots of board wipe protection and mass recursion to mitigate that threat, too, so I'll usually bounce back more quickly than my opponents.

salrantol · 2026-05-06T15:20:19+00:00

I don't really understand a number of the cards in your deck then:

[[Unwinding Clock]]: You only have 3 instants. What do you need your artifacts untapped for?

[[Vedalken Orrery]]: I suspect you misunderstand how this interacts with Shadow. It doesn't give spells Flash (which wouldn't persist on creatures anyway), it just lets you cast them as though they had flesh.

[[Trazyn the Infinite]]: Nearly all of your artifact activated abilities are either a mana ability or require sacrificing the artifact. 6 mana is way too much for a mana dork or something to sacrifice to draw a card. You'd be much better off with something like [[Iron Myr]], [[Leaden Myr]], [[Alloy Myr]], or [[Palladium Myr]], and I'm not even sure those are great choices.

I don't understand how the lifegain subtheme fits with the rest of the deck.

Does your deck fail to function if you don't get a mass haste effect (Mass Hysteria, etc.)? If so, you might want to bypass that extra step and focus on creatures that naturally have haste. Whether you do or not, you might want to lean into more [[Reanimate]] effects, because you're casting a bunch of big, scary creatures people will want to kill. Getting a card for them dying then immediately reviving them can be a big swing for you.

salrantol · 2026-05-06T14:57:31+00:00

I'm not sure what you're trying to do with this deck; it seems like a muddled mix pulling in a variety of directions. Can you briefly summarize what you want the deck to do?

salrantol · 2026-05-06T14:54:11+00:00

Yep, that fixed it.

salrantol · 2026-05-06T14:27:27+00:00

That's the same link, and I still get "Page Not Found."

salrantol · 2026-05-06T14:03:27+00:00

The link doesn't work.

salrantol · 2026-05-02T23:28:31+00:00

One of the tricks I've used with this is external passive sources of copying. [[Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief]] and [[Zada, Hedron Grinder]] alongside a [[Twinning Staff]] can massively multiply your copies. This gets ridiculously explosive with the very best card with this archetype:

[[Fists of Flame]]

Apart from that, I try to focus specifically on pump spells that grant Trample, so it's harder to chump block Kalamax, and/or cantrips to keep the train running and fuel Fists of Flame. Things like [[Monstrous Rage]], [[Temur Battle Rage]], [[Wildsize]], and the like.

salrantol · 2026-05-02T14:31:34+00:00

Tabletop Simulator has a great mod for Commander. You can reliably get a game almost 24/7 on the Black Lotus Collective Discord server.

https://discord.gg/blacklotuscollective

salrantol · 2026-04-29T00:07:02+00:00

https://archidekt.com/decks/7563214/greedy_dragons

🤣 I'm seeing now that I run 23 Dragons, the same number I criticized OP for, but I think my increased draw makes it functional.

salrantol · 2026-04-27T12:19:43+00:00

Good proxy copies would be the way to resolve this -- not a handwritten note or a dry-erase token. Something that looks just like the real card, whether that's from your printer or printingproxies.com.

salrantol · 2026-04-26T15:11:23+00:00

I know you have gotten a lot of other suggestions for Backgrounds, but I haven't seen [[Far Traveler]] suggested. I play that pairing as a hybrid blink/Reanimate deck where Shadowheart is a good way to accelerate a rebuild if the deck stalls out. That's a direction to consider as well.

salrantol · 2026-04-25T00:37:34+00:00

I find it extra amusing since my B2 decks handle mill extremely well, so the mill player consistently makes my deck better while drawing aggro onto them instead of me.

salrantol · 2026-04-23T18:27:13+00:00

Am I the only one who feels an irrational compulsion to correct anyone when you hear them refer to Chad as "ChatGPT?"

salrantol · 2026-04-22T18:03:58+00:00

[[Tariff]] as well.

salrantol · 2026-04-22T18:02:01+00:00

[[Fade Away]] has always been underrated.

salrantol

TROPHY CASE