UL's Better Deckbuilding: Melira, Sylvok Outcast EDH

Welcome Back to Better Deckbuilding!

After months of testing a bunch of multi-colored failures, I decided to dedicate myself to another set of mono-colored Commander decks. Soon I'll have a double rainbow in my portfolio, and though I don't know what that's supposed to mean, they are surely going to be bright and vivid and bursting with cool ideas.

Melira's the first deck that's stuck in a couple months, and while my list isn't 100% tuned and ready, it is well enough long that we can talk about its oddities and its Hipster-chique today on TGZ.

WHY MELIRA?

Long story short, a Melira style deck is almost the exact opposite of all the things I'm doing in Silvos, my other mono-Green deck. Where Silvos costs 6, Melira costs 2. While Silvos beats face with his size and synergies, Melira's 2/2 body isn't likely to be winning with 21 Commander damage. And most importantly, while people might be expecting Silvos in the face, seeing Melira means people have a good idea that you're going to be doing something that's either 1) Not trying to win the game or 2) Something that exceeds what most people consider "fair."

If this were an in-class assignment, the
Design team's parents would've probably
gotten a call to schedule a teacher
conference. 

Alone, these aren't reason enough to confirm building a deck around her, but they are good for the purposes of doing the research for tangible, structural design.

From Standard and Modern, Melira is a component to value when used with Birthing Pod and other sac outlets. However, without access to low-cost value like Murderous Redcap, Melira's breakability is held in serious check. Short of the beat-me-over-the-head nonsense with Woodfall Primus, Cauldron of Souls, and a very silly flyer damage trigger with Aerie Ouphes, we're left with little design space for a combo deck as resilient as Sharuum or Saffi- but it still has potential.

THE STRATEGY

So with a few nice combo tricks with your basic sac outlet package (Phyrexian/Ashnod's Altar, Altar of Dementia, Birthing Pod, and Greater Good), we can assemble some infinite nastiness with Woodfall/Ouphes and give this deck a powerful backbone. This is why I've jokingly called it, "Bad Saffi." But how do we get there? How do we make it consistent? How do we make it resilient?

The answer was simple: We create engines to go along with what we've got already. So we splash in a little bit of the artifact power I use in Glissa T's, and Voila! Like Frankenstein's Monster, Melira's beginning to will herself into an identity. It's Alive!

Although the design is going to be similar, and even have some cards in the other two, it's still got to be different and consistent. So let's look at what gets powered up in this design.

THE CARDS

As I've already mentioned, the world accepts that WP is OP. Still, it would be difficult to talk about this deck and not mention it, because it is the most powerful card in the deck with Melira and a sac outlet in play. Cheating it in can be pretty easy with Pod, but casting it is still fine.

I only have one copy of Woodfall, mostly so I won't totally abuse it. Still, this is the first time it's been a featured part of what I'm trying to do in a deck, and I think that always makes certain cards in any decks, like people in certain job positions, a lot more powerful. Specializing the labor, as I've said before, makes bad cards better, and better cards great.

The optimal setup is to get Woodfall in with Altar of Dementia and Melira, for super-feel-bad-rage-quits. That sounds pretty aggressive, but it's like any other red button- just because it's there, doesn't mean you have to push it. Without access to reliable artifact tutors, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get there either.

Speaking of which- Forgemaster and Skyship Weatherlight are my best ways to go get an artifact I want, which is obviously terrible because of the 8 mana or three permanents I have to give up to get this online.

Still, I don't mind the challenge. I'm potentially looking into playing Darksteel Colossus as a way to give the deck a little more of that "Green Beats Down" plan, as well as a little sturdiness for the mill combo decks that have begun to start popping around (Phenax is a problem).

What's better about Forgemaster over Weatherlight is that I have the option of beating face, it can be sacrificed, and I can potentially target it with a Cauldron of Souls to get it back and re-use it. Real decks are never going to give me the chance, but in more casual 1v1 and multiplayer games I have been able to get this going.

Another quality of Melira that's different from Glissa T's and Saffi is that this deck is very midrange-y. Again, here's another five-cost piece of value that's generally good, but obviously better in a Green deck with sac outlets and creatures you want to see more.

With Genesis in the graveyard and sac outlets in play, it keeps your opponents holding up a lot of unnecessary removal in the early game. Later on, it can be trouble, but with Melira preventing poison strategy, and access to some incremental life gain in addition to not being attacked, it will probably be used to prevent you from going downhill at them moreso than them pointing at your guys to win the game, which I prefer most of the time.

Especially when Phil Collins and the gang (Before he sang Lion King songs, he was in a band called Genesis) can go get it back.

Seedguide Ash has been one of the best value cards so far. Although I'm sporting 38 lands, it's easy to fall behind in some cases. In a game already, Seedguide dug me out of a 3-turn mana starve, and proceeded to come back via Genesis, yielding huge value.

This is a card I'm particularly happy about because it's one I haven't been able to power-up in design. Most mono-Green decks want to get his ability in a force chump situation or battling with it downhill.

Here, I'm going to get his ability no matter what, and that's pretty cool.

...And now for something that doesn't cost five.

I threw Rusalka in at the last minute, guessing I'd be taking it out later when I get my Phyrexian Altar in the mail this week, or another cheaper sac-outlet equivalent.

What I've realized through playtesting, is that the deck really needs this Starving Ghost Grandmother. It being a creature means I can tutor up an outlet. Our colors being green and having plenty of ways to get mana means this ability isn't hard to trigger, and gaining a little life along the way secures Starved Rusalka a spot in my starting 99 for now.

Also, another odd thing I realized was how much Birthing Pod still wants to have a few 1-drops, regardless of importance.

As it is a work in progress, here's the link, check it out, and be sure to give me some more ideas.

Melisandre Pod- Melira, Sylvok Outcast EDH

Pass Turn.
-UL

UL's Better Deckbuilding: Silvos, Rogue Elemental EDH

Heya Zoners!

Landdrops is back again with another installment of Better Deckbuilding.

I know it hasn't been too long since the last one, but I've got quite a few in the works, and whether it's the lucky "W" I picked up in a sweet match last night, or the fact that I've got so many new decks coming down the pipeline that I need to talk about ones I haven't even talked about yet, we're here. Either way, it's good news for the TGZ faithful out there- more decklists is way more fun, all the time.

So I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but Yeva's been enjoying a nice little pension and sipping pina coladas on some remote island for a while, enjoying her retirement. I was told she won't be missed, and that's fine.

But much like a crappy hydra, when one of my monochromatic "heads" gets chopped off, something needs to grow back.

Enter Silvos, the biggest, beatdown-iest Bulbasaur-like thing of a Hulk I could find when I was trolling for new mono-Green leadership.

WHY SILVOS?

Having played Yeva so long, I felt that I'd lost sight of my green roots, and I wanted to get back. When I first started playing Commander, Grandpa Growth and I liked to pick generals based on their ability to damage and regenerate when all our plans went to mush. Silvos had been a guy on my radar for a long time, and when our games started getting more technical, and I needed different kinds of support, he kinda went backwards in line.

However, since I began creating my monochromatic decks, I've had this idea for a strong Voltron-based Green deck that incorporated more of Green's contribution to the color pie- ramp, combat tricks, and just generally being the big beatstick on the block. Thanks to several new cards and the re-emergence of Chroma as Devotion, this deck had some design space to work with.

THE STRATEGY

Essentially, Silvos was genetically engineered in the Mirari for 21 damage beats. In my playing of the deck so far, it has been the most efficient and effective way to get the game over with, and we do it by any means necessary, whether it's a few choice equipment, Auras, or even combat tricks.

Having so many different kinds of pump methods for Silvos means the deck is able to put a much more serious clock on an opponent than they might expect. With trample, and a regenerate trigger supported by ramp, and natural tutor power for tuck effects, chances are we're probably not going to lose our 3GGG investment on Silvos.

Not only does this mean we're going to have our Commander beating face, but it also means we have three green mana symbols, which gives us a nice solid chunk of Devotion. This is one of the new qualities that Theros has brought out int he 8/5 Elemental, and something I thought would be a nice thing to exploit that's kinda different than the better green decks, Omnath and Azusa.

THE TECH

We'll start off with perhaps the most obvious card. In a deck where creatures and spells both put lands into play, this card is mega value of the highest degree.

I finally got this card out of the deck last night, and netted about 15 life, six +1/+1 counters, and four beast tokens- all in about 4-5 turns.

My playtests of the card had given me a little taste of this, but until the moment arrived, the power of this card was still not fully understood.

Now, I get it. The +1/+1 counters are incredible on Silvos, and the life gain is a significant improvement from just playing Nylea's Disciple.

Canopy Cover is really underrated. Not only does it provide evasion in the colors of stompy creatures, but it also provides protection.

This is one of the cheeky ways I can build into Silvos, and one of his pieces of protection. If Cover resolves, you're not doing much in the way of stopping me.

Although flying and reach are probably in any decent deck, it's still not terrible. Most people want to attack with their flying creatures against green decks, this is a nice budget card that can get the job done if you've got a green Aura-Voltron deck or just a deck that needs something like this.

At long last, I finally made this card ridiculous. Previously seen in early episodes of The Stack, and possibly in many other decks, I finally got this card out with a way to dig into optimal disruption.

Seriously- you should've seen the amount of times I cast Krosan Grip, cycled Krosan Tusker, and Beast Within'ed in the game I was in last night.

When you have real stuff to go get, this card is seriously bananas when the deck has a fairly balanced amount of permanents, or is really deep in relevant kinds, like creatures and instants.

Definitely an All-Star where I've got it, and it's about time.

Greater Good is a fantastic card, but I don't want to play it in every deck (especially considering how much I abuse it in the one deck I do play it in).

So for all those times I don't have Greater Good, this is Momentous Fall aka the Tempo Draw Spell. It's pretty great, facilitating both relevant life gain and powerful card draw.

I've comboed this card with a Reincarnation before, and so that's a thing- but even if you aren't, hopefully you're refilling your hand or getting the card(s) you need.

The last card I'm going to talk about is Primal Bellow. GG used to have a 60-card deck where he beat the tar out of our little playgroup with big dudes and this card. Though it isn't very good, it's still kind of good with some support and proper tempo.

The cheap casting cost of this card makes it probably the best little spell I play short of Berserk, which I can't justify buying yet. So budget begets budget, and playing Primal Bellow has been a nice spell anyway.

Well, that's all I got for today. Here's my list, so you can comment, +1, or critique.

UL's Silvos, Rogue Elemental EDH

Until then, take it sleazy.
-UL