Dies to Removal

So if we're going to try and move into becoming a bigger and better community, I think we need to have more interaction between members in the form of comradery instead of criticism. That being said, let's put our collective heads together and try and build a community commander deck once a month.

How it works:
Each poster can submit a total of ten cards, until we reach 99 cards. You can submit your ten cards all at once, or you can stagger them to see what other people propose before using up all of your submissions. You may also use votes to propose to remove a card that's already on the list. You can post as many cards as you want, but once you hit ten cards included into the deck, you are out of submissions. (This may change depending on the popularity of this activity and the time frame that we have left.)

Each time you submit a card, you
should do your best to try and explain both the pros and the cons of the card. Try and be specific, although it is understandable that some cards are just no-brainers. Mana rocks will not count as using up one of your submissions, however proposing to REMOVE mana rocks does count as one, as long as you can make a proper case for doing so!

Players can agree with propositions by thanking the corresponding post. (Unless someone has a cleaner way to handle this, I'm all ears.) Once a card reaches a certain threshold (will change later, for now we'll say 3 votes) it will be added to the list in the original post and it's in the deck!


A few rules to keep things civil, as well as to keep the thread easy to read for archival purposes:

1.) Use lists, preferably numbered or with bullets, to illustrate your pros/cons lists.
2.) Disagreeing with a post is fine, as is responding to allow proper discourse, but remember that this activity is supposed to be light hearted community-building, so keep it
clean and try and remain on point and civil.
3.) Try and use card tags, it makes things easier for those of us who don't have AutocardAnywhere installed or are browsing on our phones.
4.) Stay on focus. Nobody wants to read ten posts about a card that is clearly not a worthy include. If you want to put Door of Destinies in the deck, there should be a thematical and logical reasoning behind it. Try not to waste our time with cards that do not fit the theme of the deck or cards that otherwise make no sense at all. (No, we're not interested in playing Search the City.)


Now that this is all out of the way, I think I'll pick a commander to start off with at random. I just sat on Gatherer and hit the random button repeatedly until I hit a Legendary Creature, and the one I got first was...









So let's get to work!

[deck]Community Sydri, [/deck]


Number of cards submitted:
Sasky: 1. (Cloud Key)
DocLawless: 3. (Power Artifact, Phyrexian Metamorph, Master of Etherium)
DroppinSuga: 3. (Darksteel Forge, Treasure Mage, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas)
Alex: 5. (Arcum Daggson, Darksteel Juggernaut, Reshape, Spine of Ish Sah)
Freedom: 3. (Sensei's
Divining Top, Trinket Mage. Tezzeret the Seeker)
Valdarith: 3. (Enlightened Tutor, Dispatch, Scourglass)

PS: I am completely open to suggestions about a better way to run something like this, feel free to PM me. As it stands, I just kind of came up with this idea off of the top of my head.

I'm going to submit my own card here, and I'm going to start off with what I feel is an obvious include





Pros
1.) Allows for Sydri to kill lands for each blue mana.
2.) Makes some of the non-artifact spells relevant as targets to be animated by Sydri.
3.) Fixes your mana.
4.) Makes All is Dust unplayable, lol.
5.) Negates protections, since all permanents are colorless.
6.) Sydri can animate it to make it hit pretty hard.

Cons
1.) Fixes everyone's mana.
2.) Costs quite a bit of mana.
3.) Might draw hate if your opponents know what it is capable of.
4.) Opens up the entire game to being completely reset by [card]Akroma's Vengeance[/card], Austere Command, Fracturing Gust, [card]Magus of the Disk[/
card], and [card]Nevinyrral's Disk[/card], which are commonly played cards.

I'm going to be a boring person and suggest



Pros:
- Brings back an artifact. What can it bring back? I'm glad you asked! Because I have no friggin clue till people submit more cards.
- Is an artifact. A deathtouch lifelinking 5/5 flyer is insane.

Cons:
- Does not have a beard.

Phyrexian Metamorph



Pros:
- A 3 cmc copy of Wurmcoil Engine, Blightsteel Colossus, or something worse? Yes, please.
- Can target an opponent's junk and not just your own.

Cons:
- Value is entirely dependent on what cards are already in play.

[x] Tallied.

Pros:
1.) Basically another clone for your deck.
2.) Combos with Sharuum.
3.) Cheap to cast.
4.) Plays well with Mycosynth Lattice, allowing you to clone literally any permanent, including planeswalkers.

Cons:
1.) Limited in its uses without Mycosynth Lattice.
2.) The art is hideous.
3.) Arguably not as good as Phyrexian Metamorph.

I almost put up Sculpting Steel.



Pros:
- Combos with Sharuum and Sculpting Steel/Phyrexian Metamorph to exile target player's library.
- Deals with threats before they can even be drawn.

Cons:
- Very limited in power if not cast as a part of the combo.
- Future Shifted card borders are fucking weird.


EDIT: Hmm... if the point is to build a Sydri deck, let's be careful not to build a deck that would be better off as a Sharuum deck...

I saw some Sydri decks that were basically EDH eggs, but I wanted to avoid that, too.

I think Sculpting Steel is good no matter the focus of the deck. Clones are really good.

I'll throw in Darksteel Forge



Pros:
Makes all of our artifacts indestructible
Sydri's homemade critters are now indestructible as well

Cons:
Dat casting cost

[x] Tallied.

I saw some Sydri decks that were basically EDH eggs, but I wanted to avoid that, too.

I think Sculpting Steel is good no matter the focus of the deck. Clones are really good.

I agree. that was meant more as a note to self and a comment on Bitter Ordeal, and other things that can combo with Sharuum.

My 2nd card, Treasure Mage



Pros:
Artifact tutor that can grab us our Darksteel Forge

Cons:
Only puts card into hand
Can only grab cards with a CMC of 6 or greater

[x] Tallied.

Necropotence



Pros:
- Good draw engine. If we take advantage of Sydri's ability to give artifact creatures Lifelink and we get a steady flow of life gain to keep up with the cost, Necropotence upgrades from "pretty good" to "fucking broken".
- Skipping your draw phase puts you out of range of [card]Teferi's Puzzle Box[/card], if you see it commonly, and nullifies decks like Nekusar that turn card draw against you because you don't "draw" the cards you get from Necropotence.

Cons:
- Triple black.
- Discarded cards get exiled, which kinda sucks if you're also running recursion.
- If you're low on life, out of ways to get more, and have no way of popping your own Necropotence, you are either on a clock of
your own doing or not drawing cards at all.
- With access to blue as well, it is perhaps not the most consistent draw engine available to us. It's only really broken with a reliable source of life gain, like from Sydri giving things lifelink. Without that, things like Rhystic Study and Consecrated Sphinx overshadow it.

2nd card: Cloudkey



Pros:
- Artifacts cheaper!
- Combos with [card]sensei's divining top[/card] and future sight to draw your library, cards which I am expecting players to suggest...

Cons:
- Costs 3 mana instead of 2 like the colored medallions.
- Cannot be used to shave a beard.

[x] Tallied.

Cloud Key is a card I've never seen before. I know what I'll be picking up at the LGS tomorrow.

Mana rocks, since they don't take up a card slot and nobody has posted them yet. I think there could be more, but I'm posting the core ones first. Not sure if you guys want colored-rocks, but I would assume that rocks which produce multiple colorless mana are cool as we are running plenty of artifacts.

In case images die: Sol Ring, [card]Mana Vault[/card:
261zpfe0], Grim Monolith, Thran Dynamo, Worn Powerstone, Chromatic Lantern, Basalt Monolith.

Cloud Key is a card I've never seen before. I know what I'll be picking up at the LGS tomorrow.

I would go so far as to call it an EDH staple for any combo-based decks.

Is Basalt Monolith a common rock?

Is Basalt Monolith a common rock?

Yeah it is. I'll add it in.

Which means we would probably like to have Power Artifact too. I'll just use my slots to suggest the combo pieces if no one else does.

Top should be as gimme as Sol Ring.

4th card, then I'm saving my slots for after other people jump in:

Power Artifact


Pros:
- Infinite mana combo enabler when stuck to a Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith.

Cons:
- Only enchants one artifact.

[x] Tallied.

That makes 3 votes for Cloud Key, so into the list it goes. Remember to thank posts if you want to see stuff go into the list.

I guess a good question at this point is what do we want to do with the deck? In general. Combo, aggro, control...? How are we going to win with it?

I like that the deck can play a few degenerate combos that are also individually powerful cards. Power Artifact, for example, is good without Basalt Monolith, but generates infinite mana with it. It could also comfortably house Teferi and Knowledge Pool as well.

That makes 3 votes for Cloud Key, so into the list it goes. Remember to thank posts if you want to see stuff go into the list.

Oops I didn't know about this. I think if users end up being too shy to thank posts we all trust you to make the judgment call and include cards based on your choice.

I guess a good question at this point is what do we want to do with the deck? In general. Combo, aggro, control...? How are we going to win with it?

With Sydri the wonderful thing is we can do all three efficiently.

I'm super happy that the first random general you got is this girl, as I'm quite interested in building a paper deck with her.

Terefi's just good defense. Someone explained to me once that Terefi + Knowledge Pool work to totally prevent opponents from being able to cast spells at all. Does it actually work like that?

That makes 3 votes for Cloud Key, so into the list it goes. Remember to thank posts if you want to see stuff go into the list.

Oops I didn't know about this. I think if users end up being too shy to thank posts we all trust you to make the judgment call and include cards based on your choice.

I'm gong to remove all of the thanks after we're done anyway so don't be shy, it was just the easiest way to record approval without having a bunch of extra posts.

Terefi's just good defense. Someone explained to me once that Terefi + Knowledge Pool work to totally prevent opponents from being able to cast spells at all. Does it actually work like that?

Yeah, it works like that, since your opponent's cannot cast spells while other effects are on the stack. (In this case, Knowledge Pool's ability.) When they attempt to cast a spell, it is exiled via Knowledge Pool's ability and the replacement effect is put on the stack. Then the replacement effect of casting a spell from exile, however, cannot happen because you cannot cast a sorcery while there are other effects on the stack, so priority is passed with the ability fizzling.

I'm going to add four cards, will do them post-by-post for easy voting.



Card: Krark-Clan Ironworks



Pros:
+Great way to get extra value out of your otherwise outdated mana rocks late into the game.
+Great way to get value out of cards that are going to eat removal.
+Animates for 4, which isn't bad.

Cons:
-Costs 4.
-Doesn't do anything on an empty board.

Card: Semblance Anvil

Pros:
+Makes everything cheaper.
+Animates for 3.
+Allows quite a few spells to be free.
+Makes rebuilding after a board wipe significantly easier.

Cons:
-Requires you to exile something to gain its effect, which can be bad depending on your hand.
-Not a great topdeck.

Card: Arcum Dagsson.

Pros:
+Lets you tutor for stuff and puts it DIRECTLY INTO PLAY, which is pretty huge on its own.
+Is clearly a powerful wizard. (He's not even a wizard, what kind of shit is that?)
+It's really hard to populate this list because I think just being able to tutor for stuff is a very powerful ability on its own, but putting it into play is over the top.
+Can do insane stuff with Freed from the Real if we decided to include it.

Cons:
-He's a creature that has a tap ability and no haste.
-Makes you sac an artifact to tutor for one.

[x] Tallied.

Card: Voltaic Construct.

Pros:
+Infinite mana with certain mana rocks.

Cons:
-Mostly just a combo piece, not terribly impressive on its own.

My next submission: Unwinding Clock



Pros:
With the rocks, will give us open mana on every opponents turn
Can be animated and swing for 4

Cons:
None that I can think of

Downside to Unwinding Clock is that it does nothing on an empty board, but I'm all for it regardless. I think the card is very good, it's kind of like a non-creature (read: harder to kill) Prophet of Kruphix or Seedborn Muse, which seems incredibly sweet if we stick to the (thusfar) artifact theme.

No pic now, since I'm on my phone.
Trinket Mage
Pros:
-provides card advantage
-chump blocks
-gets better the more cards you dedicate to it-you can get a mini toolbox
Cons:
-requires that multiple slots are filled with 1-drop artifacts (aren't that good with sydri)
-doesn't pass the vanilla test

[x] Tallied.

Tezzeret the Seeker
Pros:
-tutors
-mana advantage
-ult can win the game
Cons:
-you usually only get to use him once
-he costs 5 mana

[x] Tallied.

Counterbalance
Pros:
-broken with top
-our colors give us a lot of tutors for top
Cons
-not great without top

Sensei's Divining Top
I don't think I have to explain this. We're playing top.

Wrath of God / Terminus
Pros:
-it's pretty much always VCA in a multi-player game
-we play less creatures than everyone else
-it can kill artifacts if we have sydri out
Cons:
-sometimes requires us to tap out.

Card images for Jack's posts, if anyone needs them...

Thanks for that.

I like Terminus over Wrath because tucking someone's general is a big deal. A lot of decks will just fold to that. It's definitely not as playable as Wrath, though. With Terminus we have to be careful to to screw ourselves too much, so we almost have to be behind on the board before it becomes useful.