Bad gifts commanders
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Dec. 3, 2022, 2:35 p.m. by marco-piatti
Hello everyone, I want your opinion on EDH decks based on commanders that are focused on giving "bad gifts" to your opponents. I think the most rapresentative of this category are (and maybe the only ones? I don't know for sure, wouldn't like to be missing someone): Blim, Comedic Genius, Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor and, of course, Zedruu the Greathearted.
I own a Blim deck and i must say that building around him was really complex because it's pretty clear you can't go easy on gifts since are the only weapon of the deck basically but, at the same time, once you start spreading your fantastic gifts, your opponents will start targeting you like crazy.
Since you can't restart the board every other turn (probably you could, but i don't think i could afford loosing my commander so often and there aren't enough asymmetrical boardwipes) and the deck can't be 50% removal (then again, technically it could be but the point of the deck is trying to win according to a specific strategy and not to just survive) other kind of precautions have to be made.
The first one that came into my mind are pillowfort cards like Crawlspace and Marchesa's Decree. They look good on paper, but after you have given an opponent an end stage Demonic Pact or "simply" an Aggressive Mining they are more then willingly to be paying 1 life for each attacking creature (and yes, sometimes the numerical restriction of Crawlspace isn't a factor either when an opponent can swing with huge creatures).
Another "solution" is using token generators like Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs since they give us the resource to block some creatures.
The last strategy to survive that came to my mind is filling the deck with "goad effects": this way our opponents' creatures can stay alive and are forced to attack the other players embracing the group slug theme i actually had in mind when building the deck.
Long story short, the deck has to be a delicate balance of all these strategies to be funcioning as it should and, at the same time, letting us survive till the endgame.
This is all in theory. In the actual games what's your experience when piloting/facing theese kind of decks? And what seem to be the most efficient tacticts?
SteelSentry says... #3
I've had a Zedruu deck for years, and there's 2 important deck building things I've learned about her specifically:
1) Like an ordinary control deck, staying alive is the primary game plan. Pack more removal than normal, especially synergistic cards like Grasp of Fate that you can give away later. Incidental life gain is also really good; sometimes her life gain is more powerful than her card draw.
2) I only pack gifts that won't shut me down if I'm stuck with them: no Aggressive Mining which will just end up killing me when Zedruu is killed in response. Fires of Invention is a great card, especially when you give it to the Storm or Counterspell player. Statecraft is a good wall that keeps alpha strikes in check when you can threaten to hand it off. My favorite wincon, Delaying Shield, often puts people in a position where any attacks coming at me suddenly allow me to delete a player if I feel like it, as well as some other niche upsides.
Of course, symmetrical effects and Auras are some of your best picks since it doesn't matter who controls them.
December 4, 2022 1:34 a.m.
marco-piatti says... #4
DrukenReaps SteelSentry thanks for your advices.
About stax i already run in my blim deck cards like Smoke and and Mudslide. They are very good, unfortunately there aren't many that still give me the possibility to deal damage with blim in order to trigger his ability.
About synergistic removal: i totally see what you mean, for example i run Rakdos, the Showstopper which doesn't count my Commander. The problem is that in my opinion the slots about control card are better used in the goad compartment. The reason is that you basically get to use others players resources instead of denying them. This way they are a little less looking forward to get rid of you (they still have their best creatures, only yes they have to attack and not us). But yes overall i totally see that staying alive with this kind of strategy is the primary goal and removal is super important.
About the gifts:my First version of my deck included only "not very oppressive" ones and it didn't work. It's probabily also because blim triggers on damage so it's less efficient than zedruu and lynde. The problem was that the gifts were not enough impactful and they are the main weapon of the deck. So when i am able to give away one it has to be impactfull.
December 4, 2022 4:42 a.m.
Someone at my local LGS has a Jon Irenicus, Shattered One deck that is super fun to play against. Piloting it looks fun too. It has a really hard time closing the game out though. It's a great deck if you want to finish in second place. And honestly, I always appreciate seeing it because it makes the game more fun. That deck is kind of weak to decks with lifegain strategies, so if it were mine I would probably see if I could fit in an Erebos, God of the Dead.
Also, for any kind of gifts based deck I'd pack multiple land destruction cards because the whole concept folds pretty hard to someone with a Homeward Path.
DrukenReaps says... #2
Only one I can think of that you are missing is Jon Irenicus, Shattered One. I was going to build around him, even made the deck online here Irenicus' Experimental "Donations". Only didn't go through with it after the tests didn't really feel fun to me. Neat concept though. Might revisit it sometime. Though since you mentioned goad he might be just right for you?
It can definitely be hard to balance some decks that need to protect a strategy with still doing the thing... A superfriends list I made was led by Kardur, Doomscourge. Cutting me off from a lot of great walkers but putting goad on a stick in my command zone. Made it hard for folks to clobber my walkers and made other protective effects almost entirely redundant.
I dunno if you could do a similar thing with this strategy? Pack your protection into your command zone and then gift in other ways? Might not be enough gifting cards to make it consistent...
So your deck has 6 parts to it in total. On top of draw, mana, and removal that most decks need to function, you also have gifts, givers, and protection.
Start looking at where you can overlap these things. If you only need 1 giver, your commander, that helps open some slots for other things. If a gift is Steel Golem that can help protect by stopping a creature deck almost entirely until removed. Since you're already using stax pieces in the form of gifts it wouldn't hurt to throw in some traditional stax pieces. Instead of pillow forting why not Smoke, Winter Orb, and friends?
December 3, 2022 5:28 p.m.