I love Zada, one of my favorite decks. Originally built it as a pauper commander deck and it still held up in playgroups for only $30. Recently upgraded it to normal commander and it’s been awesome! Get a good token generator out, play zada, play a cantrip and you overwhelm your opponents with card advantage.
Rielle the Everwise is probably one of the more flexible niche commanders to build around. You can play a riskier hard monolith Rielle where you are heavy into instants and sorceries that have powerful effects like "discard your hand, draw that many". Or you can go for a more moderated Cycling strategy where you look to have a more steady growth of your hand that is less dependent on having Rielle but significantly benefits from having her on board.
@@braylin2993 I still run some explosive cards, but they're fewer due to my friend group being VERY familiar with how powerful Rielle can be if she stays in play
Oh boy, Rielle is my favorite! I run heavy interaction and 1-Mana Cylcing as much as possible, keeps my hand more than full and cards like irencrag pyromancer or Alandra, Sky Dreamer, make perfect use of this.
Bouns commanders great for this strategy that weren't mentioned are: Marisi Lathril wilson Aragon (uniter) Kykar Veteran Ivy Narset (either one) Hinata Orvar Kalamax Myrel Zethi Saskia Slicer Gargos Ezio Nadu Elsha Maarika Magar Zurgo
My feather is a spellslinger deck (I rarely remove players via commander damage without a permanent giving her buffs), and lightning bolt is a inferior option to reckless rage (same cost instand which deal 2 damage to target creature you control and 4 to target creature an opponent controls), because you can use RR over and over again, and I'd say fall of the hammer and rabid gnaw are also better if you're able to repeatedly buff her. As for path to exile, that's part of my ramp and is used as removal in emergencies only.
I also have a xiris combat trick and wheels deck, I've been trying so hard to find card like xiris that completely changes how you play the game, such unique commander
Kalamax is also a really good option for full Voltron Stompy! Many tricks are instants, and the damage he can put out in a turn is insane. Just Berserk or Might of Oaks are almost one-hit. Temur also has the same insane card pool as Xyris. Plus the instant subtheme allows for some side sheninigans, especially with modal cards. Faster than Xyris but more glass canon-y
Ever since my first pre release, I've loved using combat tricks, and have since cultivated my love for them greatly in limited environments. I've long been enamored with the idea of a combat trick centered commander deck, so I'm really glad to see someone talking about it. My first attempt was centered around Gallia. Haste enabler in the command zone with payoffs for multiple attacks on a 2 mana 2/2 seemed pretty good, but I've realized satyr's just aren't that well supported or cohesive of a tribe, and what little synergy they do have revolves around enchantments. I've since moved on to Grand Warlord Radha as my main contender for my combat trick commander deck magnum opus. I still really want to build her, but I'm having trouble working enough card draw into the deck while also having a good amount of combat tricks. Pulling Muerra at my bloomburrow prerelease has made me consider her as well; the impulse draw is a great way to be able to reliably cast your combat tricks, but there is the downside of having to spend the mana she produces before combat. This would probably be fine, as you could just play creatures with that mana before combat and tap your lands for tricks during combat, but being limited to an admittedly very synergistic creature type has made me apprehensive of building around her too. Xyris seems like a really good fit for the archetype, though I do still think I wanna try Radha first. Sorry for the rant, and any suggestions for how to build the archetype or this deck would be appreciated.
The strongest pump spell deck I've played is John Benton. The weakest but also super funny is Red Death Shipwrecker Crab Gains. And the most spicy is Kitt Kanto pump spells.
This is definitely how I built my Obeka deck when she came out, and it's worked pretty well so far. As a bonus, since she has 5 toughness, you can run some of the Rakdos/Vampire tricks like Lash of Malice and Augur Spree as versatile removal pieces.
My go to strategy for building a budget deck is to find a category of cards that are cheap (usually jank creatures but any permanent type works) and share some fairly useful traits. This strategy is touched on in the beginning of the vid but can largely can be applied to nearly any archetype if you have an eye for it. My two favorite budget decks are xyris which is mentioned here, and i have a durnan + agent of shadow thieves as well that i built as a
Gonna give Xyris a go, it seems super sweet. New cards like Agate Instigator, Molten Gatekeeper, and Coruscation Mage seem like easy includes as well. Great video as always!
@@willmckenna xyris is my fave. Easy and simple to play once you know the cards in your deck and get past the "I just drew a million now I have to replan the rest of my turn"
I have a friend that plays a deck like this. Queen marchesa is his commander. It’s difficult to assess his threat level because he puts out very little spells on the board and keeps his cards in hand, but I’ve died to him out of nowhere too many times so I usually just target him from the start haha
I saw this video, had a look at some commanders, and saw Tana, the Bloodsower / Jeska, Thrice Reborn. Just built it and dang, it seems sweet. I figure you could probably get a pretty reliable t6/7 swing for 20+, make 20 saprolings, next turn maybe you cast Might of the Masses and zero Jeska again, swing for 60, kill someone, make 60 more tokens, and go from there.
Thats an awesome deck idea! Was thinking about Tana / Ishai! Both make for crazy good colors for combat tricks and can work really well together! Quite interesting, you might see a deck tech soon...
If you like combat tricks and a bit of control, you should look at Narset, Enlightened Exile. Crazy buff to all creatures and spell recursion in one commander!
I'm a new player with pretty limited card selection, but I actually just made a more casual 80ish boros build Bruenor, lots of combat tricks and all of my equipments. The wife plays a very mean green and black with Dina type effects throughout so I'm looking forward to testing. Big fan of the white instants that grant boosts and flying. We have fun and try not to get too hasty to win quickly, but Im eager to see how these perform during combat phases.
Don’t forget Minsc and boo. I have made a menacing $100 budget deck that kills people so fast. It’s removal, card draw and with his ability to fling, you double all the buff spells. (Boo isn’t your commander so this doubling makes up for the lack of commander damage)
Also, just watched your “why you lose in commander” video and I think flubs is a great follower of your rule. I have a cedh list that sets up with extra lands, cobra effects and crucible effects and waits. When everyone is empty handed it can just explode
I recently built an aggro pdh deck using Rograkh and Kediss. I never played this aggro in edh, so I wanted fo try it. It's not super strong, but certainly a fun archetype to build around.
See in my obeka deck the goal is to find and play timesifter "at the beginning of each players upkeep, all players exile the top card of their library, the player who exiled a card with the highest mana value takes an additional turn after this one" Load obeka up with a bunch of damage boosting and whack in for that sweet 6 - 12 ish damage and upkeeps. Gone are the days where the game had a normal turn order, hope you like tracking turns like initiative x'D
Another strategy I really like that just doesn't have enough support from what I can tell is creatures with combat abilities that make them stand out. Such as being able to block multiple creatures or only being able to be blocked by a certain amount of creatures.
Ironic that I saw this video right after ordering cards to make a Zada, Hedron Grinder deck... coming from LoR I was really surprised by how rare combat tricks seem for people to consider in MTG.
A straight up Voltron commander is kinda hard, especially in red. I think the reason Zada works so well is because it multiples every combat trick you play rather than one source benefiting!
I've been contemplating a combat trick heavy pauper commander deck since I saw Grenzo's Ruffians, stacking combat tricks on top of his melee ability means he can get big damage pretty fast for pauper, and his second ability means it doesn't matter who you hit, EVERYONE takes that all as commander damage, so you can target the player with the slowest start and everyone dies for not being able to protect them.
Everyone does not in fact take commander damage. They will all take damage but only the player attacked will take combat damage thus be counted as commander damage. The others will still lose the same amount of life tho
Cool video - clear and concise 🎉 I enjoyed learning about the combat tricks theme/archetype! I was unfamiliar with it before (mostly because I prefer different style of gameplay), but might give it a go in the future 🫡
I recommend you try out Sergeant John Benton. He has the same both players draw effect as Xyris. He is green and white so you have great protection and good combat tricks. And he is way faster then Xyris as he costs only 3 mana and has haste and trample. With an elf turn 1 you start swinging and drawing by turn 2. So for everyone that wants to completely focus on combat tricks this is a very good and cheap commander. The cheapest build I've seen was just 15$.
I have Xiris from Kalimax precon and don't now what to do with this commander. Thanks for idea how to bulid him around combat tricks. I don't have any deck with this theme.
I declare combat tricks as being part of my deck in the same way that I mention when there are infinite combos in my deck; in my opinion, combat tricks are massive feels bads in casual commander (sometimes on either side of the play) and it's helpful to notify that people should at least consider combat potential beyond what they have available to assess in the visible board state.
I could see that, but MTG and EDH are very similar to a game like poker, having that 4th dimension to the game of bluffing and hidden information is what makes the game so interesting. I feel it adds more depth to the game aside from something like Infinite combos, lots of combos are very un interactive and lack counterplay, but combat tricks always require a decision to be made on the blocker if they are willing to call a bluff, chump a creature, or just concede to the damage!
Yup! Every color in the pie has great access to tricks. black and blue get a bit creative with it usually, but all colors have access to great options!
Have build a Skullbriar recently.....going to dissemble it soon. It is not my type of deck: short turns, too many luck with draws, all eggs in one basket.....too risky, too random and too easy to play against.
How so? Pretty much every combat trick is super cheap. every color have access to great combat tricks which gives alot of flexibility. Combat tricks allow for interesting and interactive gameplay. Are these not all true?
It's all fun and games till you eat a deflecting palm
Definitely a risk i'm willing to take!
@@deckdriverMTG My favorite is Deflecting Palm with a damage doubler/tripler in play. Ba-BOOOMM!
I love Zada, one of my favorite decks. Originally built it as a pauper commander deck and it still held up in playgroups for only $30. Recently upgraded it to normal commander and it’s been awesome! Get a good token generator out, play zada, play a cantrip and you overwhelm your opponents with card advantage.
Zada gets out of hand super fast! It's a really fun deck to play!
Rielle the Everwise is probably one of the more flexible niche commanders to build around. You can play a riskier hard monolith Rielle where you are heavy into instants and sorceries that have powerful effects like "discard your hand, draw that many". Or you can go for a more moderated Cycling strategy where you look to have a more steady growth of your hand that is less dependent on having Rielle but significantly benefits from having her on board.
My Rielle runs both! Games are either slow and grindy or I pop off and find exactly what I need
@@braylin2993 I still run some explosive cards, but they're fewer due to my friend group being VERY familiar with how powerful Rielle can be if she stays in play
Oh boy, Rielle is my favorite! I run heavy interaction and 1-Mana Cylcing as much as possible, keeps my hand more than full and cards like irencrag pyromancer or Alandra, Sky Dreamer, make perfect use of this.
Bouns commanders great for this strategy that weren't mentioned are:
Marisi
Lathril
wilson
Aragon (uniter)
Kykar
Veteran
Ivy
Narset (either one)
Hinata
Orvar
Kalamax
Myrel
Zethi
Saskia
Slicer
Gargos
Ezio
Nadu
Elsha
Maarika
Magar
Zurgo
My feather is a spellslinger deck (I rarely remove players via commander damage without a permanent giving her buffs), and lightning bolt is a inferior option to reckless rage (same cost instand which deal 2 damage to target creature you control and 4 to target creature an opponent controls), because you can use RR over and over again, and I'd say fall of the hammer and rabid gnaw are also better if you're able to repeatedly buff her. As for path to exile, that's part of my ramp and is used as removal in emergencies only.
I also have a xiris combat trick and wheels deck, I've been trying so hard to find card like xiris that completely changes how you play the game, such unique commander
I absolutely LOVE Xyris! He's so fun and interesting, also in my favorite colors!
Kalamax is also a really good option for full Voltron Stompy! Many tricks are instants, and the damage he can put out in a turn is insane. Just Berserk or Might of Oaks are almost one-hit. Temur also has the same insane card pool as Xyris. Plus the instant subtheme allows for some side sheninigans, especially with modal cards. Faster than Xyris but more glass canon-y
Ever since my first pre release, I've loved using combat tricks, and have since cultivated my love for them greatly in limited environments. I've long been enamored with the idea of a combat trick centered commander deck, so I'm really glad to see someone talking about it. My first attempt was centered around Gallia. Haste enabler in the command zone with payoffs for multiple attacks on a 2 mana 2/2 seemed pretty good, but I've realized satyr's just aren't that well supported or cohesive of a tribe, and what little synergy they do have revolves around enchantments. I've since moved on to Grand Warlord Radha as my main contender for my combat trick commander deck magnum opus. I still really want to build her, but I'm having trouble working enough card draw into the deck while also having a good amount of combat tricks. Pulling Muerra at my bloomburrow prerelease has made me consider her as well; the impulse draw is a great way to be able to reliably cast your combat tricks, but there is the downside of having to spend the mana she produces before combat. This would probably be fine, as you could just play creatures with that mana before combat and tap your lands for tricks during combat, but being limited to an admittedly very synergistic creature type has made me apprehensive of building around her too. Xyris seems like a really good fit for the archetype, though I do still think I wanna try Radha first. Sorry for the rant, and any suggestions for how to build the archetype or this deck would be appreciated.
The strongest pump spell deck I've played is John Benton. The weakest but also super funny is Red Death Shipwrecker Crab Gains. And the most spicy is Kitt Kanto pump spells.
This is definitely how I built my Obeka deck when she came out, and it's worked pretty well so far. As a bonus, since she has 5 toughness, you can run some of the Rakdos/Vampire tricks like Lash of Malice and Augur Spree as versatile removal pieces.
My go to strategy for building a budget deck is to find a category of cards that are cheap (usually jank creatures but any permanent type works) and share some fairly useful traits. This strategy is touched on in the beginning of the vid but can largely can be applied to nearly any archetype if you have an eye for it. My two favorite budget decks are xyris which is mentioned here, and i have a durnan + agent of shadow thieves as well that i built as a
Sounds super Creative! I love how flexible budget decks can be because of how many usually unseen cards there are!
This video inspired me to build a Velomachus deck focusing on combat tricks 🙏
Gonna give Xyris a go, it seems super sweet. New cards like Agate Instigator, Molten Gatekeeper, and Coruscation Mage seem like easy includes as well. Great video as always!
Thank you! Bloomburrow and MH3 brought a few more impact tremor effects which just go straight into that deck! Super awesome stuff!
@@willmckenna xyris is my fave. Easy and simple to play once you know the cards in your deck and get past the "I just drew a million now I have to replan the rest of my turn"
I used combat tricks in my kaalia deck cause everyone anticipates a demon entering the battlefield tapped but no one expects a Rally of Wings 😁
Blue combat trick: shore up (untap and other stuffs)
I have a friend that plays a deck like this. Queen marchesa is his commander. It’s difficult to assess his threat level because he puts out very little spells on the board and keeps his cards in hand, but I’ve died to him out of nowhere too many times so I usually just target him from the start haha
I saw this video, had a look at some commanders, and saw Tana, the Bloodsower / Jeska, Thrice Reborn. Just built it and dang, it seems sweet. I figure you could probably get a pretty reliable t6/7 swing for 20+, make 20 saprolings, next turn maybe you cast Might of the Masses and zero Jeska again, swing for 60, kill someone, make 60 more tokens, and go from there.
Thats an awesome deck idea! Was thinking about Tana / Ishai! Both make for crazy good colors for combat tricks and can work really well together! Quite interesting, you might see a deck tech soon...
If you like combat tricks and a bit of control, you should look at Narset, Enlightened Exile. Crazy buff to all creatures and spell recursion in one commander!
I'm finding out Jeskai is a super sleeper combat tricks deck!
I'm a new player with pretty limited card selection, but I actually just made a more casual 80ish boros build Bruenor, lots of combat tricks and all of my equipments. The wife plays a very mean green and black with Dina type effects throughout so I'm looking forward to testing. Big fan of the white instants that grant boosts and flying. We have fun and try not to get too hasty to win quickly, but Im eager to see how these perform during combat phases.
Don’t forget Minsc and boo. I have made a menacing $100 budget deck that kills people so fast. It’s removal, card draw and with his ability to fling, you double all the buff spells. (Boo isn’t your commander so this doubling makes up for the lack of commander damage)
Also, just watched your “why you lose in commander” video and I think flubs is a great follower of your rule. I have a cedh list that sets up with extra lands, cobra effects and crucible effects and waits. When everyone is empty handed it can just explode
@@beckhamjenkins4798 sounds so interesting! im thinking in doing a gruul deck, mind sharing your list?
Minsc and Boo is AWESOME for a strategy like this! And definitely still on the cheaper side of things!
Mind sharing a list sir?
minsc and boo is also just an insane card lol
Wanna draw cards? Try Sergeant John Benton. I run him in my human deck and he should be a General by now.
Tana/Sidar is my favorite combat trick deck. Naya gets great access to instant speed buffs and you get Sidars unblockable ability to resolve THEN buff
That's definitely an awesome partner combo to use! Partners offer so many choices for combat trick decks!
I recently built an aggro pdh deck using Rograkh and Kediss. I never played this aggro in edh, so I wanted fo try it. It's not super strong, but certainly a fun archetype to build around.
See in my obeka deck the goal is to find and play timesifter "at the beginning of each players upkeep, all players exile the top card of their library, the player who exiled a card with the highest mana value takes an additional turn after this one"
Load obeka up with a bunch of damage boosting and whack in for that sweet 6 - 12 ish damage and upkeeps. Gone are the days where the game had a normal turn order, hope you like tracking turns like initiative x'D
Boyle has polymorphic combat tricks. Changing your base power by a lot. It’s very underrated and I use it in my Glenn deck.
Another strategy I really like that just doesn't have enough support from what I can tell is creatures with combat abilities that make them stand out. Such as being able to block multiple creatures or only being able to be blocked by a certain amount of creatures.
Blocking multiple creatures doesn’t have a Keyword, but there’s Menace, Fear, and Intimidate. These affect how many or what can block your things.
@maximillianhallett3055 yeah I know. I just like those lesser known abilities. I wish they were more common.
Ironic that I saw this video right after ordering cards to make a Zada, Hedron Grinder deck... coming from LoR I was really surprised by how rare combat tricks seem for people to consider in MTG.
Great video! I’m trying to build a Rosnakt combat trick deck but just feels a bit to underpowered compared to the commanders you mentioned
A straight up Voltron commander is kinda hard, especially in red. I think the reason Zada works so well is because it multiples every combat trick you play rather than one source benefiting!
Sergeant John Benton is hands down the best combat trick commander I’ve ever played. So fun too!
It seems like a very fun build around I must say!
I've been contemplating a combat trick heavy pauper commander deck since I saw Grenzo's Ruffians, stacking combat tricks on top of his melee ability means he can get big damage pretty fast for pauper, and his second ability means it doesn't matter who you hit, EVERYONE takes that all as commander damage, so you can target the player with the slowest start and everyone dies for not being able to protect them.
Everyone does not in fact take commander damage. They will all take damage but only the player attacked will take combat damage thus be counted as commander damage. The others will still lose the same amount of life tho
Recommend Aragorn, King of Gondor imo :) When monarch, your whole board is basically unblockable. Just go wide, summon Aragorn, then swing everywhere
I think Aragorn, The Unifier is super awesome too! Lots of creative ways to build combat tricks!
Combat tricks sounds fun for pauper commander
Cool video - clear and concise 🎉 I enjoyed learning about the combat tricks theme/archetype! I was unfamiliar with it before (mostly because I prefer different style of gameplay), but might give it a go in the future 🫡
Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I recommend you try out Sergeant John Benton. He has the same both players draw effect as Xyris. He is green and white so you have great protection and good combat tricks. And he is way faster then Xyris as he costs only 3 mana and has haste and trample. With an elf turn 1 you start swinging and drawing by turn 2. So for everyone that wants to completely focus on combat tricks this is a very good and cheap commander. The cheapest build I've seen was just 15$.
I definitely have to try him out! Sounds like a fun build around and super budget friendly!
I have Xiris from Kalimax precon and don't now what to do with this commander. Thanks for idea how to bulid him around combat tricks. I don't have any deck with this theme.
*Underrated
The Moxfield link in the bio just redirects to my own profile, btw
Thank you! I'll update the links
Combat trick zada is one of the best for 1v1 if you want to, in 1v3, i have moved towards zada storm, and the deck goes off t4 earliest
Pillowforting and adding tricks to opps vs opps fighting is the way
I declare combat tricks as being part of my deck in the same way that I mention when there are infinite combos in my deck; in my opinion, combat tricks are massive feels bads in casual commander (sometimes on either side of the play) and it's helpful to notify that people should at least consider combat potential beyond what they have available to assess in the visible board state.
I could see that, but MTG and EDH are very similar to a game like poker, having that 4th dimension to the game of bluffing and hidden information is what makes the game so interesting. I feel it adds more depth to the game aside from something like Infinite combos, lots of combos are very un interactive and lack counterplay, but combat tricks always require a decision to be made on the blocker if they are willing to call a bluff, chump a creature, or just concede to the damage!
Can every color pull off this archetype effectively
Yup! Every color in the pie has great access to tricks. black and blue get a bit creative with it usually, but all colors have access to great options!
Unless you are a collector, the ability to proxy makes card prices irrelevant.
That's true, and I'm all for proxies. Some people really enjoy having the real cards sometimes so budget decks are nice for that.
are you snails friend? I feel like he made a video about a Xyris combat tricks deck his friend has a while back lol
Sadly I don't know him, but that Xyris deck is super creative and cool!
Have build a Skullbriar recently.....going to dissemble it soon. It is not my type of deck: short turns, too many luck with draws, all eggs in one basket.....too risky, too random and too easy to play against.
Golgari is a hard combo to play combat Tricks in, luckily skull briar keeps the buffs you give it!
To win combat, you just need to wipe the board every turn
Monsterous Rage in a Singleton-Format, where do you get the first Monster Role?
No Zaxara equals No good. I.E. means that: Zaxara equals good
This video is bad and wrong.
How so? Pretty much every combat trick is super cheap. every color have access to great combat tricks which gives alot of flexibility. Combat tricks allow for interesting and interactive gameplay. Are these not all true?
Wanna draw cards? Try Sergeant John Benton. I run him in my human deck and he should be a General by now.
i have a jon deck and consistently takes a player out by turn 4 with commander dmg. Love it haha