#Newish player looking for suggestions

52 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

regal grove
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Hey all I've been playing commander for a couple months and finally wanted to start building my own decks. One of them is with Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd which I really enjoy the theme but just feels weak unless I get the perfect cards. I don't really know how to judge power level but it seems 7 is fairly common and casual which ideally I would like to shoot for. The goal is to go wide with tokens and have creatures like soul warden for lifegain and a couple alt wincons through halo fountain, felidar sovereign, aetherflux reservoir, or blasting station/altar of dementia with an infinite combo. Is that too many for a deck? Any suggestions to make it better would be greatly appreciated! Sideboard cards are the ones I've swapped out and in Considering there's a few that I was thinking about.

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/a6qOhM0-Zk6HXe4vxFtlkA

Moxfield
Blink Dog - Commander (Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd)

A deck created using Moxfield.

rough relic
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I can see where the lifegain is something you wanted to incorporate as your strategy but I feel like sticking with one or two strategies is a good idea.

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You can keep two or three wincons.

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I feel like the deck has too many of the weenies with same effects but as mana value increases not seeing high impact value creatures.

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Darksteel splicer is nice and self contained but feels a little meh for that mana value.

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It works on etb yes but the other part doesn't matter at all since you need non token phyrexians

regal grove
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That makes sense!

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I'll probably get rid of aetherflux and 1 or 2 creatures that give life on other creature etb then

rough relic
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Lifegain has many synergy pieces if you stick with it.

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Your decks going to be etb

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And getting a lot of value out of it

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Also slowly growing your commander to become a monster

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Cathars crusade is good but feels counterintuitive in this deck since you will be blinking your creatures

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You will be losing those counters

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Maybe [[!the ozolith]] [[!resourceful defense]] makes sense in your deck

violet sigilBOT
regal grove
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My idea with cathars was to blink the token generators or go infinite with blinking creature pairs to give infinite counters on the others I had out

rough relic
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Got it.

regal grove
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Those would work well yeah

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Would you recommend leaning more into lifegain or token generation? Is one necessarily stronger than the other in this sort of deck?

wary geyser
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I'd recommend token generation for Phelia. Both strategies are perfectly viable on their own, but Phelia's ability to blink one thing a turn synergizes with token generators more than life gain things (i.e., it's waaaaaay more impactful to blink the Evangel of Heliod or Toby than it is to blink any of the lifegain creatures).

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I'd recommend a few more lands/mana sources as 31 lands and ~5 nonland mana sources is pretty mana light for a deck with so many 5+ drops. Conventional wisdom says to shoot for 34–38 lands, I'd guess this deck wants closer to 35.

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I'd recommend swapping some of the defensive cards for more offensive ones. I know Whispersilk Cloak seems like this amazing card that enables you to continue attacking with impunity, but it's also super clunky in practice as 5 mana to play and equip is often more than you want to pay.

Instead, you could run more removal to clear the way for effective attacks which would be much more versatile throughout the game. [[Lay down arms]] is a fine budget option for a mono-white deck with so many basics.

violet sigilBOT
wary geyser
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Aetherflux Resevoir feels very out of place in a deck that is also running Rule of Law

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I'd recommend swapping The Birth of Meletis with a generic [[Prophetic Prism]] or [[Spare supplies]] kind of card. If you break it down, the saga draws a card, makes a 0/4, and gains 2 life, but it has a strict timing window if you want to blink it. A generic card draw artifact doesn't do as much on it's own, but it will always be there as a backup option (I run a bunch of these in my mono-white blink deck and can assure you that people hate using a removal spell on a Prophetic Prism in a mono-white deck lol)

violet sigilBOT
wary geyser
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I'd recommend swapping Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel with any other land and [[Mind stone]]. Your deck is set up well to draw 1-2 extra cards in a given turn, but rarely would it draw 4+ cards in a single turn when the maximum hand size actually matters. And even if you do draw up 8 or 9 cards, discarding down isn't that bad.

Great alternative land options: https://edhrec.com/tags/blink/mono-white#utilitylands

EDHREC
Mono-White Blink | EDHREC

Popular Mono-White Blink EDH commanders

violet sigilBOT
rough relic
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funny card [[!pentavus]] he comes out you immediately remove 4 counters then bounce him do it again.

violet sigilBOT
rough relic
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if you end up going weenies [[!saradoc]]

violet sigilBOT
rough relic
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[[!spirit bonds]]

violet sigilBOT
regal grove
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Thank you both for the suggestions I really appreciate it! I'll make some changes throughout the day and see how it playtests. What are your thoughts on token doublers like [[!Ojer Taq, Deepest Fountation]] and [[Mondrak, Glory Dominus]]?

violet sigilBOT
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No card found for “Ojer Taq, Deepest Fountation”

regal grove
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[[!Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation]]

violet sigilBOT
regal grove
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Also I know walking ballista + heliod is a really strong and common combo, would it be worth making space for it?

wary geyser
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I'd argue no for the Heliod Ballista combo as your chance of drawing both naturally is really low (15.04% after drawing 20 cards). If the pieces of the combo had natural synergy with other parts of the deck, it might be worth it, but your list doesn't have any +1/+1 counter support.

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Token doublers/triplers are fine for this kind of deck. They tend to be part of your top end cards which are always these splashy/fun cards that help determine the flavor of your deck. Try it out and see if you like them! I do legitimately have a buddy who dislikes using them simply because he doesn't want to do the math and keep track of as many tokens lol

regal grove
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The only reason I would add heliod/ballista is I can tutor for them with [[!Recruiter of the guard]], [[!moon-blessed cleric]] along with the actual tutors

violet sigilBOT
wary geyser
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I'm aware, the 15.04% number was calculated with knowledge of Recruiter of the Guard and Moon-Blessed Cleric

regal grove
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Ahh gotcha then yeah I won't include then them

rough relic
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Ojer taq or Mondrak is good. Especially if you are making tokens as the main theme.

delicate merlin
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i have a phelia deck, i feel like it works well enough. if you want the deck list i can share it to compare the deck lists