Orzhov Aristocrats CMC-2
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Feb. 24, 2022, 10:50 p.m. by Unlife
I'm playing around with a possible new deck idea and could use some advice. The design is a Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim + Lurrus of the Dream-Den aristocrat's deck, but I took Lurrus's restriction a step further, and I'm trying to keep everything in the deck at a CMC of 2 or less. Any advice is appreciated, especially if there's some aristocrat combo piece I completely missed. Thanks in advance.
2 CMC Aristocrats
Commander / EDH
1 VIEW | IN 1 FOLDER
legendofa I like the combo, but I'm not sure it'll fit well. I've only got a few clerics at the moment, and while important to the deck, I'm not sure what I'd cut to fit in the pieces. However Starlit Sanctum is a card I've never heard of before now, and it now has a place in both this and my shadowborn deck.
February 25, 2022 11:10 p.m.
First of all, I just want to say that this is a cool concept. If you're looking for a powerhouse aristo-enabler that's 2cmc it's hard to do better than Daxos, Blessed by the Sun. He gives you life on both ETB and on death, and can serve as a greater blocker to boot. You can also sac him with a full board to Ayli to gain a ton of life at once. He's a force in my Teysa deck, and I wish I had added him earlier.
You also have a great 2cmc board wipe in Winds of Abandon if you need it. Like with Cyclonic Rift we overload it to board wipe, but the cmc is 2 because of it's normal single-target version.
If you find you need a synergistic card draw piece, Keen Duelist is a pretty great black draw piece for 2cmc. You pay life for the card, but that won't hurt you at all since you'll never pay more than 2 life and will have some lifegain, but it might punish some of your opponents who are playing bigger pieces much more.
Great and fun idea!
March 3, 2022 3:15 p.m. Edited.
Thank you, I've been enjoying designing decks with additional restrictions, it forces me not to just add the same 40 cards and change the last 15.
Daxos, Blessed by the Sun looks great, especially if I just start casting and sacing from yard even without a combo. Winds of Abandon is even better, I'd forgotten that card existed.
I'm not sure about Keen Duelist, I may be misinterpreting it, but it seems like I'd lose life to my opponents reveal, not my own, which even with lifegain I'd like to avoid for now.
Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.
March 3, 2022 5:37 p.m.
It looks like a fun deck, and I will be keeping an eye on it as you develop it! You are right about Keen Duelist, it is based on your opponent's deck, so it's not as good for that reason. I've mostly just started putting it into my decks for the card draw. It's sort of like a budget Dark Confidant, but if you don't need the draw or play in a meta where many of your opponents are into big mana it's probably less good. After playing Daxos in standard on arena I had sort of forgotten about him until I was tweaking my Teysa deck, and he's been predictably awesome. Take care!
legendofa says... #2
It's not directly Aristocrats-y, but Daru Spiritualist + any effect that targets for + Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim gets you infinite life. Shuko, Lightning Greaves, and Shaman en-Kor all work, and Starlit Sanctum is a redundancy for Ayli.
I don't know if this combo is worth using in this deck, since it's more Cleric tribal than Aristocrats, but the Shuko-Spiritualist-Sanctum version holds a personal meaning to me as the first infinite combo I understood. Now you know a little more about me.
February 25, 2022 2:15 a.m.