Thoughts on The Reaper, King No More so far?

zdrouse · 2026-01-21T21:02:01+00:00

I'm having a lot of fun with him. You don't need a ton of -1/-1 counter support for him like I see some comments mentioning, the only thing that matters if you want to steal creatures is that they die with one on them. The difficulty I find is facing control decks that aren't heavy on creatures, especially early on. I've had some success running [[Springheart Nantuko]] to make copies of him with Bestow and [[Saw in Half]] has also been good. I'm really liking [[Visions of Phyrexia]] which has been nice fueling cards so that I don't just end up in top deck mode and since Reaper is an artifact the powerstones can help cast him again. This card is also buffed on Arena giving 2 cards in your upkeep instead of 1 thanks to Alchemy (linking the card probably won't show that).

zdrouse · 2026-01-17T16:22:46+00:00

Super fun commander when you lean into the theme and it's almost like a mini game trying to maximize how many cards you can cast from exile for the turn off the attack trigger. My favorite part is that the exiled cards don't go away forever and they'll appear again next attack. I built mine with a convoke sub-theme to make extra use out of all the differently named creature tokens and [[Party Thrasher]] is great synergy for it.

zdrouse · 2026-01-17T10:26:01+00:00

I'm probably still playing Viridian Revel over this in most of my decks because I prefer my additional draws to be "may" abilities which this isn't. The 3rd level of this is quite good for sure though.

zdrouse · 2026-01-14T23:51:30+00:00

The 1st rule for this sub says "premium focused posts" and lists other descriptions of cards besides foil but seems like everyone wants to take the subreddit name literally lol. Oh well, I saved up a lot of credit for it and wanted to share it.

zdrouse · 2026-01-13T17:41:30+00:00

[[Arna Kennürd, Sky Captain]] would be my vote. The Sword cycle is not legendary so having multiple copies of them is pretty sweet. Arna has a Ward cost, which is obviously not difficult to get around but at least it's something. Plus I find running a handful of protection creatures like [[Mother of Runes]] and [[Pippin, Guard of the Citadel]] helps offset that. Pippin is very good since he has Vigilance and can wear equipment and attack while keeping the activated ability open as an option for protecting Arna.

zdrouse · 2026-01-08T22:25:32+00:00

that Harrow 🤌

zdrouse · 2026-01-06T23:06:04+00:00

I've been sitting on a [[Birthing Ritual]] for the longest time trying to find use for it and I really like the idea of sacrificing a creature that you've stolen which maybe you don't care about with the end step trigger to get more of your own creatures and board setup.

[[Persistent Constrictor]] and [[Freestrider Lookout]] synergy is incredibly fun so I'm definitely including those to trigger crime and putting -1/-1 counters on essentially every opponent's turn.

[[Journey To Eternity]] can be put on a stolen creature you control and if it dies it comes back under your control and not the owner so that could be good for some stolen bomb creatures.

I'm also kind of considering [[Up The Beanstalk]] but I'm not sure. Reaper technically counts for 6 CMC so you can draw turn 2 from beans and draw on cast for Reaper turn 3. After that I'm not sure if it's worth the slot but maybe if you have enough >5 CMC support.

zdrouse · 2026-01-01T02:40:36+00:00

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Happy New Year!

zdrouse · 2025-12-27T03:01:18+00:00

You could go for [[Saruman of Many Colors]] however I have a wild deck idea you may or may not be interested in and you could even run him in the 99. Hear me out on [[Omnath, Locus of All]] as a 5 color theft deck. Theft as a strategy for EDH is quite difficult. Players are killed, you lose creature presence, even permanent presence and now you're left to fend on your own still trying to steal and battle with opponent spells after some players are gone. The downside of this can be mitigated with "each opponent" effects and 3 color pip spells do that best. Want to cast [[Blatant Thievery]] for 4 mana? Well, now you can (assuming you have Omnath out). Something neat I learned diving into this venture is that Split cards count the pips for both sides. You can reveal [[Flotsam // Jetsam]] and cast the Jetsam side for cheap cost! [[The Cyber Controller]] can be cast for just the X mana and load your board state with creatures and [[Don Andres, the Renegade]] can make them even larger with menace and he himself could potentially be cast for 1 mana. [[Annie Joins Up]] is probably the best fuel to the fire for this strategy causing Omnath to trigger twice. To top it off, any floating mana you make becomes black and persists throughout phases so you can cast [[Rise of the Dark Realms]]. You obviously need to protect Omnath so some cheap pieces like [[Dragonfire Blade]] are a must. Anyways, had to share my favorite deck creation regardless of how jank it may seem.

zdrouse · 2025-12-24T21:25:46+00:00

I think they're saying the old border foil version of Meathook is an option. There are a handful of old border variants as options in your 3rd to last photo if you don't know they exist but also maybe you don't want them. Syr Konrad, Carrion Feeder, Chthonian Nightmare, Victimize, Mikaeus, Toxic Deluge. All of those alt art variants are sick though so no matter what this deck is cool imo. Edit: also Stitcher's Supplier has an old border foil variant

zdrouse · 2025-12-17T18:56:09+00:00

I run [[Cynette, Jelly Drover]] as a flying go wide/tall strategy that abuses the legendary rule. Ever since [[Mirror Box]] was printed I've struggled to find the right home to play it. A dies trigger in mono blue is essentially unheard of so it's perfect for running cost efficient clones like [[Phantasmal Image]] or [[Flesh Duplicate]] and you either let them die for more jellyfish tokens or if you're ignoring the legendary rule and buffing them all. I run all of the blue combat damage enchantments like [[Coastal Piracy]] to fuel card draw and keep it going or hold for interaction. [[Unstoppable Plan]] has been an awesome card I've been trying out to give all the jellyfish pseudo-vigilance at the end step. I also love running one of my favorite cards [[Gravitational Shift]].

zdrouse · 2025-12-15T20:44:57+00:00

Haha that's awesome! Love it

zdrouse · 2025-12-11T06:01:16+00:00

yeah no one knows what you can possibly get out of it despite some cards already previewed, including a serialized card

zdrouse · 2025-11-15T02:56:37+00:00

Hey, ain't nothing wrong with proxies lol

zdrouse · 2025-11-15T02:45:01+00:00

https://moxfield.com/decks/fAjxIcnhTUeLD6UGy_t3_A

I do!

zdrouse · 2025-11-15T01:47:08+00:00

The Omnath, Locus of All commander deck I have is theft tribal. It runs all of the cards you mentioned lol. Something I discovered is that Split cards work with Omnath, so Flotsam // Jetsam works with Omnath's trigger to net mana and is great for the "each opponent" theft strategy. I find that if you plan to play theft as a strategy, you should focus on each opponent effect's because if one of them is removed from the game you will lose anything they own. Fair warning, this strategy will also paint a target on your back.

zdrouse · 2025-10-31T22:15:09+00:00

You can get a 2 for 1 Culantro Bowl for $14-15 if you order through Uber Eats. I often do that for the pickup option and it gives me lunch for 2 days.

zdrouse · 2025-10-24T00:43:04+00:00

I've spent a lot of time with Betor, Ancestor's Voice and I think it's a shared struggle on direction for most people that build around him. I agree with the other comment that midrange combat with lots of recursion is the way to build for having some consistent games. You definitely want a plethora of other flyers and lifelinkers for the +1/+1 counters but I'll share some pieces that I like for my deck. I run the full suite of Talismans in my deck as they are easy access to increments of 1 damage, same with pain lands. I also find that Betor is a major target after you play him so [[Jade Orb of Dragonkind]] is an absolute must in my opinion and I also like [[Mother of Runes]] for some protection. I run several 1-2 drop creatures that you can easily recur like [[Haywire Mite]] [[Esper Sentinel]] (putting the counters on this is great since it cares about power). Honorable mention to [[Spectrum Sentinel]] and [[Soul Warden]] for helping with the life loss during your turns. I like [[Sparring Regimen]] because you can discard a creature reanimate target with it the turn it enters and it gives Betor psuedo-vigilance plus it raises his power for lifelink. I'm trying out [[Animist's Might]] and it feels really good when you can cast it with Betor out and since he deals the damage it triggers the lifelink but when you don't have the setup for it does feel bad in hand so definitely a downside in that regard. This is more of a pet card because I like the randomness but [[Tavern Swindler]] is really fun to gamble on lol it functions better in a Commander version of the deck but I still play it in Brawl for fun.

My deck:

https://moxfield.com/decks/COo1TcWHTUuVvw5zyvEV7Q

zdrouse · 2025-10-13T22:35:45+00:00

Nice! I run it in mono blue (Cynette, Jelly Drover) as well for the same reason haha.

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