Staxdrop! (Snowdrop Vorthos Deck)
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 11 | 3 COMMENTS | 1168 VIEWS
Some Changes —Aug. 12, 2022
Added a War Room and some fixing lands, as well as a few other cards. We'll see how 31 lands feels!
Edit: Silverwing Squadron is an objectively good card, and quite a good fit in the deck, but I've noticed I've literally got 8 6 drops, which seems like a lot, and that many is very able to clog my hand. So, I'm going to try to trim a couple for lower to the ground stuff, I'm thinking Squadron will go for Generous Gift, I could use the versatile removal for sure, wipes only solve so many problems. I think I'll just switch the two cards, the other deck cares about tokens as well.
Another thing I'm looking at is another way to recur cards from the graveyard, ideally lands, creatures and/or enchantments, there is always Sevinne's Reclamation I guess, which could easily save my bacon. I mention this because I find the deck has lots of enchantments that it hates to lose to the graveyard, has lots of small creatures that either have good ETBs or have good static abilities and get targeted for removal like Mesa Enchantress, while I have a few ways to sac things in the deck that are especially handy if I have a Sun Titan out, but frankly Glacial Crevasses is interesting even without Titan, it's just hilarious with it.
Edit: Finally pulled the sore thumb that was Auramancer for Sevinne's Reclamation, which is a much better card in this deck. I cannot believe how often I got stuck with Auramancer in my opener and it did nothing but cost me 3 mana for a 2/2 body, at least Reclamation might ramp me 3 times some games.
Edit: I've tossed in Tragic Arrogance, which is super in the Vorthos department, along with Two-Handed Axe, which is another power doubler, a thing this deck loves. I pulled two cards that had bad Vorthos feels in Thermopod and Jazal Goldmane, both are artifacts from when this deck was into Tokens more, and neither is especially useful at any point in the game, offering a small body that can fall victim to my own Stax. In contrast, Arrogance is an insanely good card (one of the best wipes ever printed), and this deck can easily end up with only 1 creature it cares about.
I got my first Meekstone from a store's binder, one that probably hadn't been looked through in an age, that was ~20 years ago now. Even when I didn't really understand the game particularly well, I could see that it had potential. It's a tough card to sneak into decks, but it's a good card to make people's eyes jump out when it hits the table. People tend to remember 'remove this 1 drop or your deck won't work' cards!
The Aura Payoffs are meant to be used in combination with tutors that find Auras for me and mostly the two Auras that can be bounced and recast for WW or RR, Crown of Flames and Flickering Ward, each recast will trigger my various payoffs. I'm not 100% that this is consistent enough, but it feels good when it works, paying RR or WW to draw a card and buff my whole board isn't a bad Commander ability. I have the 2 that cost 1WW and 1RR to do the same, but those feel WILDLY worse, not sure if they'll both stay in.
For the land tutors, technically anything that can find a non-basic Plains can also find me a Mountain Plains like Sacred Foundry (which I intend to add) and Alpine Meadow, but it is a valid concern, I might want to look at more ways to find a Mountain. Still, that's all of 2 of them in the deck, because WotC doesn't like printing Enemy Duals with basic land types it seems.
Haha, yes, the deck is trying to do too many things, that made it really, really hard to get the deck down to 100 cards. It's not really 'done' yet I feel, so it's good to get some feedback. I suspect some of those relatively weak White creature tutors might work, I have a lot of small creatures that I like to get out. If I could fit in more card draw I'd probably solve the main issue that I have, which is running out of cards if I can't set up a draw engine. Some of your suggestions will probably help, thanks for your input!
thefiresoflurve says... #1
I just want to say that the Meekstone with vigilance is clever, I'm really intrigued to see that card used in something that isn't, like, Esper control (LOL).
One thing that jumps out at me is Kor Spiritdancer with only 8 auras in the entire deck. Usually, decks I see that use the spiritdancer have like... 20 auras or so.
Similarly, Glacial Crevasses (8) and Sram, Senior Edificer (9) also have relatively few cards that they actually interact with. Additionally, unless I missed one, none of your land tutors can actually find the mountains that Glacial Crevasses requires?
I get the feeling that the deck is trying to do too many things all at once, if that makes sense.
For the draw issue...
Magus of the Wheel and Wheel of Fate would be good cards to help, although the latter requires a bit of planning/foresight. Aerial Extortionist could work, too, since it also triggers when commanders are cast, and says "Whenever" with no X-per-turn restriction. Aggressive Mining would help you lean into the asymmetrical lands thing, but I wouldn't run it with fewer than 36 land. Battle Angels of Tyr are a bit more on the expensive side, but also great.
July 17, 2022 10:41 a.m.