SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Designing an EDH deck... need to cut ONE card

Posted: Oct 26 2011 11:28 pm

Okay, so I'm designing an EDH deck. The theme is that every single nonland permanent is mythic. At first, I thought I was going to have to mix in some Timeshifted cards to make it playable, but it turns out there are enough playable mythics to make a deck. In fact, there are too many. I need to cut one non-land card from the deck.

Here is the list:

General: Mayael

Admonition Angel
Aether Vial (Relics)
Ajani Goldmane
Ajani Vengeant
Akroma (Divine vs. Demonic)
All Is Dust
Angelic Overseer
Ghideon Jura
Angelic Destiny
Avenger of Zendikar
Apocalypse Hydra
Baneslayer Angel
Batterskull
Balefire Dragon
Inferno Titan
Primeval Titan
Sun Titan
Blightsteel Colossus
Berserk (Exiled)
Chandra The Firebrand
Chandra Nalaar
Comet Storm
Darksteel Colossus
Dragonmaster Outcast
Dragon Broodmother
Eldrazi Monument
Elesh Norn
Elspeth Tirel
Elspeth, Knight Errant
Felidar Sovereign
Garruk Relentless
Garruk Wildspeaker
Garruk Primal Hunter
Gaea's Revenge
Godsire
Grimoire of the Dead
Hero of Bladehold
Kiki-Jiki
Karn Liberated
Karn, Silver Golem (Relics)
Koth
Knight of the Reliquary (Dragons vs. Knights)
Kozilek
Ulamog
Linvala
Master of the Wild Hunt
Mikaeus
Nevinyrral's Disk (Relics)
Novablast Wurm
Platinum Emperion
Platinum Angel
Primordial Hydra
Rampaging Baloths
Sarkhan Vol
Sensei's Diving Top (Exiled)
Skullclamp (Exiled)
Sol Ring (Relics)
Sundering Titan (Relics)
Sword of War and Peace
Sword of Feast and Famine
Thrun, The Last Troll
Thornling
Urabrask The Hidden
Urza's Rage (Phyrexia vs. The Coalition)
Vorinclex
Wurmcoil Engine

Land:

Strip Mine (Exiled)
Eye of Ugin
32 Other Assorted Lands

What one card would you cut, and why? Already cut from the deck: Captain Sisay, Indomitable Archangel, and Transcendant Master.

Other cards, such as Chandra Ablaze, Essence of the Wild, and Liege of the Tangle were never even considered.

Channel, Balance, and Emrakul are all banned in EDH.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Oct 27 2011 12:24 am

This one is actually easy. You can't play Garruk Relentless, he's G/B. So cut him.

34 lands seems really low for this, too.

Posted: Oct 27 2011 06:17 am

I was told, by Jeebus of all people, that you can play Garruk Relentless in a non-black deck. But yeah, a quick Google search is showing that the consensus is that you cannot.

I am actually going to call bullshit on Jeebus later today, because he played Garruk Relentless in his Uril deck and the it being on the board and the need to destroy it fundamentally changed the game and led to his Homeward Path being activated sooner than it would have needed to be.

Maybe I'll cut Platinum Angel, as it isn't really a beat stick and it never lives long enough to matter. The deck only REALLY needs to get to 6 six land, then it just starts using Mayael like a mofo.

I generally run 33% land in any casual deck I make. That was what the Revised rule book suggested, and it never steered me wrong. I know that everyone runs way more than that in Standard these days, but whatever.

I do run 16-17 lands in Draft/Sealed, which is 40-42.5%, because you can't afford to miss land drops in that format.

Posted: Oct 27 2011 06:54 am

I was also told if a card has off-Commander color abilities; like Bump in the Night's red flashback cost in a monoblack EDH, it can't be put in the deck.

Posted: Oct 27 2011 07:12 am

If the card a mana symbol outside the Commander's color ability on it, it cannot be played. Garruk Relentless doesn't actually have a black mana symbol on it, leading to some initial debate, but the consensus is that black is part of its color identity.

I have long proposed a New EDH, which modifies rules in the following way:

1. Lands can only provide mana within your general's color identity. If a land would provide you with mana outside your general's color identity, it provides colorless mana instead.
2. Your deck can include any card that can be played using this mana base. This would allow you to play hybrid cards, single sides of split cards, double-sided cards, Phyrexian cards, and anything out there that might have an alternate mana cost. However, you HAVE to have some way of casting the spell. You can't just throw Verdant Force in a mono black deck because you can reanimate it. However, you can throw Patrician's Scorn in a mono blue deck if you're using U/W hybrids.

Most people I've talked to seem interested in trying these rules. But my playgroup plays at this one guy's house, and he doesn't want to try it out. And he has a handlebar mustache, so we have to listen to him.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Oct 27 2011 10:35 am

Comp rules:
903.4c The back face of a double-faced card (see rule 711) is included when determining a card's color identity.
Example: Civilized Scholar is the front face of a double-faced card with mana cost {2}{U}. Homicidal Brute is the back face of that double-faced card and has a red color indicator. The card's color identity is blue and red.

Posted: Oct 27 2011 10:45 am

Yeah, I agree that it makes sense that double-sided cards shouldn't be allowed and that's the Internet consensus from my research. The official EDH rules do not specifically address it yet, however. If Jeebus hadn't specifically said that double-sided cards only counted the Day side, I wouldn't ever assumed they did.

The argument for allowing double-sided cards with a non-aligned color on the Night side basically boils down to the fact that unlike split or hybrid cards, the double-sided cards only ever check the Day side when they are not both in play and flipped. Garruk is a green card (and only a green card) in your hand, graveyard, and library.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Oct 27 2011 11:36 am

Syd Lexia wrote:

The argument for allowing double-sided cards with a non-aligned color on the Night side basically boils down to the fact that unlike split or hybrid cards, the double-sided cards only ever check the Day side when they are not both in play and flipped. Garruk is a green card (and only a green card) in your hand, graveyard, and library.

That argument breaks down when you bring up stuff like Ancient Grudge. It's always a red card, yet you can't throw it in a green deck.

About the land thing...yeah, not even Wizards goes by the "20 land, 40 spells" thing anymore. Unless you have a hyper-agressive deck that never needs more than 3 or 4 lands, you really want more, and EDH you might want to go with 40, particularly with so many expensive things in the deck (Mayael herself costs 6 to get online) and nothing very cheap to throw out to direct people elsewhere. I agree Plat is a good cut, Angelic Overseer doesn't seem worth it without many humans, Eldrazi Monument doesn't really have anything you can sac to it, and Apocalypse Hydra just seems kind of lame. I also don't see much point to Karn, Silver Golem. I'd cut some of those cards and add more lands.

Posted: Oct 27 2011 12:20 pm

My mistake had nothing to do with counting both faces. Old rules only checked mana symbols against the mana symbols in the general's mana cost. Once they made it color identity, I thought they were checking mana symbols against the general's color identity (only green mana on Garruk) so that ti would be fine, but it turns out they're checking color identities against each other. This is dumb.

Posted: Oct 27 2011 12:27 pm

Oh, and you need to be running 40 lands, dude. You NEED to hit 6 land on turn 6 as often as possible. That means 6 of the 13 cards you've drawn at that point, or 46% of your cards drawn, need to be lands. You may want more than 40 lands since you can't run any ramp effects beyond Sol Ring.

Posted: Oct 27 2011 01:39 pm

I've been told 35-38 is fine. Omnath and Cobra are ramp, too. I'll probably shoot for 38.

Posted: Nov 10 2011 12:58 am

UsaSatsui wrote:

I also don't see much point to Karn, Silver Golem.

Karn is AMAZING. He makes Wrath hit noncreature artifacts and he de-equips things.