Thursday, January 24, 2019

Ravnica Allegiance Nikya Gruul Commander Build

This is an all-creature build. It can drop Nikya very early, and once on the board, the double mana from all your lands lets you drop everything you draw on the board fast... really fast. This deck can swarm effectively turn after turn, but a single board wipe would mean a guaranteed loss.








A turn 4 (turn 5 in a real game) Nykia is no problem.


Soul of the Harvest is here to draw extra cards.


Ghor-Clan Ravager and other creatures with sorcery effects are very useful in this deck since it's an all-creature deck. Here is an example boosting Predator Ooze.


Here are example plays for two creatures that get boosted by the number of creatures on the board: Ulasht, the Hate Seed and Elder of Laurels.


A 16/16 Ulasht, the Hate Seed.


A 21/22 Elder of Laurels.


Experiment One can get very big in this deck.


The board gets filled very quickly. I have an empty hand here.


Here, I have just played Nikya. Let's see how much of my hand I can play in this one turn.


There you have it.


Next turn, I can attack with Grand Warlord Rahda, and cast everything else in my hand during my end step.


Here is a turn 6 'I played everything in my hand.'


Baring a board wipe, devotion to green gets a high number. Let's see how much I can cast with Nikya.


'Look ma, no cards in my hand.' Great card!


Ravnica Allegiance Rakdos Commander Build

It's a six-drop in a color combination that does not get any mana acceleration, but if you do drop it, it will definitely make a splash. I rounded up every good Imp, Devil, and Demon I could from recent sets.








The deck has many ways to ping the opponent, and also multiple ways to give all creatures solid abilities. If I get to drop both Theros enchantments, all of my creatures have Haste and Lifelink. I have too many big critters because of the creature constraint, but the deck still works well with them.


I have a reasonable number of creatures to trigger Cavalcade of Calamities.


This is a modeled, solitaire game. I would love to play this deck against a real opponent on MTGO, but I would never get to cast Rakdos against the most over-powered decks commander can offer.

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Heartless Summoning is great in this deck... really great, actually. I miss-played Soulflayer since I cast it minus Delve, latter is the way to get a bunch of abilities on it. I played a lot of Soulflayer when it was in Standard. That was a lot of fun. Curse of the Pierced Heart is perfect for this deck, especially to enable Ravnica II Rakdos.


Sin Prodder is fantastic. In these modeled games, I always made it draw me cards. I am not sure which way a real opponent would have gone, although my bet will be on NOT letting me draw extra cards.


Here is a properly cast Soulflayer with Flying and Trample.


I don't get many chances to cast my big critters, and I mostly discard them for Soulflayer, but once in a while I get to tutor with Rune-Scarred Demon.


It's fun to fill the board in solitaire to see all the possible interactions. Erebos is fantastic, especially with some Lifelink on the board to replenish the loss from drawing all those extra cards.


Here is a Soulflayer with Flying and Trample from Delve and Lifelink from Whip of Erebos.