Friday, April 24, 2020

Casual Snapdax Commander Build

I am so glad MTGO is still around. For all of $10, I got most of the Ikoria cards to test out. Snapdax is all right. This build has a casual manabase. It's just a way for me to understand how the mutate cards work. I went for multiple themes and made sure I had no humans in the deck.









These boards are all from solitaire. I am just learning the cards. I went for devotion in all three colors, added a minor likelink theme, and made sure I could reanimate at times. Amass in general, and Dreadhorde Invasion, specifically, are great with Mutate, especially if you Mutate onto the Amass token when it's a lowly 1/1 with the token on the bottom. This allows you to generate a new Amass token. Nice trick!


Right out the gate, it looks like tokens and artifact creatures are ideal to put mutate cards on top of. I found myself preferring this route.


Experimental Frenzy is a lot of fun in this deck. I prefer dropping it when my hand is down to just this card. Once my hand is filled up, I sac it.


If the top of my library gets clogged by a land, and I already have a few cards in my hand, that's also a good time to sac Experimental Frenzy. 


It can help a lot.


This was a good time to sac it.


Tokens were my most common target for Mutate, and always on top.


Here is a close-up.


Mutate on Crystalline Giant is great!


Regal Leosaur is another standout. Here, the boost is really good.


Sunday, April 19, 2020

Ikoria Deckbuilding Posts

I am really looking forward to this set. Here are the posts for it that I am using to prepare for when I get my hands on these cards.

Ikoria Companion Cards

https://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2020/04/ikoria-companion-cards_19.html


Ikoria Mutate Cards

https://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2020/04/ikoria-mutate-cards.html


Although not really aimed at Ikoria, I am including here selections for Guild Devotion

https://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2020/04/guild-devotion.html


And then, there are the five wedge commanders, the cornerstones of this set.

Ikoria Abzan Nethroi for Commander

https://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2020/04/ikoria-abzan-nethroi-for-commander.html



Ikoria Mardu Snapdax for Commander

https://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2020/04/ikoria-mardu-snapdax-for-commander.html



Ikoria Jeskai Vadrok for Commander

https://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2020/04/ikoria-jeskai-vadrok-for-commander.html


Ikoria Sultai Brokkos for Commander

https://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2020/04/ikoria-sultai-brokkos-for-commander.html


Ikoria Temur Illuna for Commander

https://mtgadventures.blogspot.com/2020/04/ikoria-temus-illuna-for-commander.html


Ikoria Temur Illuna for Commander

Illuna requires some careful considerations. You don't want to exile a bunch of creatures that would help you win the game! The creatures in this deck must be a very small selection of high-impact creatures. Scry is your friend for this deck to maximize the usefulness of this Ultimatum. This is, in my opinion, the wedge commander from Ikoria with the best enchantment. Extra lands and extra cards are a big help in almost ALL situations.


I want to have more mana rocks in this deck that in the other four.


I am showing the Mutate creatures here, but I would be very careful in how many I included. This is a balancing act and if you screw up your balance, you may wind up exiling the very cards you need to win the game. You need one of these to trigger Illuna, but then you don't one any of them coming up i the trigger. A really well thought-out commander this is.





Escape does well in this deck. With Green and some extra land drop effects, you should have plenty of mana in this deck.


You will have very few creatures. I would make them count with non-creature spells that boost them.


Cycling is at home in this deck. I want all the creatures to be non-Humans.


I would add Omnath and turn the deck into a tribal Elementals deck.


The Mythos for this wedge fits with the theme of having the biggest and baddest critter on the board, and then making a copy of it. That would be Johnny heaven!


Ikoria Sultai Brokkos for Commander

Its great to case this commander from the graveyard with Mutte, but it's otherwise a 6/6 5 CMC Trample creature. It's all in on Mutate since all three colors have four mno-color Mutate creatures each and three multi-colored Mutate creatures. This means it's a 'no Humans' deck. The Ultimatum is cool, but definitely not game-ending. It has the beauty of Gifts Ungiven, of course, and that is always fun. The enchantment is awfully specific and is good for feeding the graveyard.

This will likely be the commander I spend the most time playing. It's in the colors of Muldrotha!!


This deck is all-in when it comes to the graveyard. As such, it uses many of the cards Abzan is using.




Here are the uncommon and rare Mutate cards. The black rare (Dirge Bat) is, in my opinion, the best of the batch. I am not sure I care for Deathtouch and Mutate together since all you need for Deathtouch is a lowly 1/1 critter.





Just as with Abzan, you need to protect your graveyard.


The Mythos for this wedge allows you to tutor into your graveyard. I would do it late game and guarantee that I reanimate at the same time I play this card.


Here are some big critters currently in Standard for the Brokos piles.


These caught my eye for this deck. I wish there was more Flash to use Cunning Nightbonder with. It's just one card and gets diluted in Commander. It's a much better Constructed card.



I am convinced Ikoria makes Theros II way better, and that's great news for our poor Theros II set. Escape is at home in this deck.