One thing I would add to this deck guide is that Isshin can double triggers when opponents creatures attack with cards like [[Curse of Opulence]] or [[Revenge of Ravens]].
@@Foxpawed Wulfgar also only triggers when you attack with creatures you control, Isshin triggers whenever anyone attacks, so if I understand it right he would also double things like shiny impetus or hissing miasma.
Even more so than the vigilance enchantments, Reconnaissance lets you attack freely without fear of blockers and gives vigilance in a roundabout way. And it costs only W.
Reconnaissance is one of my all time favorites. Over preforms every time I manage to get it out in any sort of combat focused deck. It's some of the best value in the game. Only issue I ever have with it is having to explain why I can untap my creatures after they have already done damage. Some people get salty about that.
Najeela: Porque no los dos? Lets see how many things we can cram into one deck to take infinite combats. (Mine is 'only' sitting at around seven because some like Derevi aren't warriors, and I need enough density to get the combos going. Akki Battle Squad might still get in by virtue of already having Godo, Aurelia and Combat Celebrant + Helm of the Host)
A guide from my heart to yours for covering this commander. Also, Delina + Harmonic Prodigy + Lithoform Engine = 4 rolls? Or do you stack the trigger to go off of harmonic, which doubles delina, which doubles from Isshin, then add a 5th?
I think you get 4 without lithoform. Delina attacking triggers her ability, so it triggers twice thanks to isshin. Delina attacking triggers harmonic prodigy so it also triggers twice. Because isshin says: If a creature attacking triggers an ability of a permanent of your to trigger it happens twice. Delina attacking triggers Harmonic so she copies Delina ability twice too.
@@daanverschaeren7197 It is a replacement effect and as such there are only three triggers and a lithiform copy. Original Isshin (2 instead of 1) Harmonic (3 instead of 2) Lithiform copies a single one of these triggers. You should think of Isshin the same way as something like +1/+1 all star Hardened Scales which just places an extra counter on a creature. Much the same way, the trigger gets added to the stack from the creature with the additional triggers so you creature just creates three triggers. There is no trigger from Harmonic or Isshin as their effect is static and always there.
Fun interaction: A friend stole one of my creatures with Gilded Drake, then I used Delina to copy the GIlded Drake twice and exile the tokens on my enemy's boards after :-D
Isshin and Harmonic are replacement effects and never trigger. They are like hardened scales and could just as easily read "When triggere ability, create that plus an additional one instead". So scenario goes like this, your Delina triggers and you have Isshin and Harmonic on the field, Delina puts three triggers on the stack thanks to Isshin and Harmonic and then lithiform copies one of the triggers creating a fourth trigger that is a copy of a single one of the original three triggers created by Delina.
@@FelipeASaito yeah, well I did. Bushido is a simple ability WOTC could have easily brought back anyway for theme. It doesn't have to be a super powerful ability to be liked. Samurai without it are like dragons without flying, thematically wrong.
Moraug, Fury of Akoum wpuld be a nice addition to this deck, if he gets sword of the animist or sword of hearth and home equipped he potentially gets you a lot of lands and combats due to that landfall trigger.
I really love Isshin, and there's several very different ways to build him: 1. Exalted, with Neo Samurai tribal sub-theme. This is the way I'll be building him, with a few of the spells and equipment that give a creature Changeling so I can also utilize a few cards from #2 without losing out on Samurai triggers, and a few from #3 to fill out the utility. 2. Wide, swinging with as many attack trigger creatures as possible. Especially with extra combat creatures. 3. Pillow-fort / Political, with a bunch of effects like Kazuul and Marchesa's Decree to deter attacks against you, and Curses and other incentives like Breena for your opponents to attack each other. And remember, Isshin copies all triggers of only _your_ permanents, but he copies them whenever _any player_ attacks. Also remember, Isshin only copies _on attack_ triggers. He will _not_ copy "whenever ~ attacks and isn't blocked" (that's a block step trigger) nor "whenever ~ deals combat damage" (damage step trigger)
Cool older card for #3 is Caltrops. It's an Artifact that does 1 damage to each creature that attacks, with Isshin that becomes 2 damage which might not sound like much but when you are leaving back Samurai blockers it makes combat math go more in your favor than you might think. Yeah, it tags your creatures too, but your solo attacker is likely big enough to weather it easier than your opponent's.
All the new samurai have attack trigger abilities Just Voltron up one samurai, swing with that one, and reap the benefits Samurai attack triggers allow discard/draw (akki ronin), discount on next spell (peerless samurai), boost to solo attacking samurai (eiganjo exemplar), casting enchantments and artifacts from the graveyard (norika and heiko yamazaki, respectively), and extra combats (raiyuu, storms edge), probably some more I'm missing.
@juter4397 Bushido actually triggers twice, Isshin activates when a creature attacks, so, If you block with a Bushido creature or they block you, that trigger activates too So, Yeah, you can make Bushido really menacing with him
One card that definitely should go in this deck is Adriana, Captain of the Guard. She gives all your creatures Melee. Melee gives your creatures +1/+1 for each opponent that you’ve attacked with a creature this turn. With Isshin, most of the time it’ll be +6/+6
He’s a pretty rad commander, but in my case I’m excited to add him into my Queen Marchesa humans in the 99. When I have options like Alesha, Adeline, Bruse, Winota, etc. at my disposal he makes them so much stronger
I really like these, prof. My Tovolar deck uses your build/ deck tech as a skeleton, and it will probably be the same for Isshin. 10/10 would love your thoughts on Hinata.
Wow Prof,I'm liking that Isshin and the ideas of putting some of my Eldrazi on with him seems perfect !! Thanks and have an amazing weekend everyone !!Get your Kamigawa on tonight at a pre-release !!
I like this. Though my brain went a different direction, probably because I love voltroning up my commander. So I liked the idea of using exalted. Since a creature attacking will trigger their till end of turn buff, you can make a creature pretty big. There's only one red exalted effect, but there's a pretty decent number in both black and in white. Even if you're not buffing up your commander, using Aurelia in this case you can buff her up attacking alone twice from every exalted creature, then on your second and third combat steps when she attacks alone again, she gains additional +2/+2 until end of turn from every one of those exalted triggers, letting her start to easily pick opponents off. Add in a Sun Titan, and you can also start to rebuild quickly if those creatures die in a wrath as many have low CMC
I didn't get a notification for this post today! :( I'm glad I'm always on the lookout for new content from you anyhow, Prof. Love your wit, and breakdowns!
I also like adding stuff like Rhox Veteran, which serves double duty as both a Battle Cry source to pump all those tokens and a tapper to help clear the way. While trying to brew it, I see a bunch of optional subthemes to lean into, which often lean into each other; go harder into equipments for stuff like Wyleth, Captain's Claws supporting go-wide tokens, even Delver's Torch if you like the Venture cards that benefit from attack doubling like Triumphant Adventurer and Nadaar (who also then supports going wide)
I would also like to mention a third option for enabling your creatures being available for the extra combats: Reconnaissance. Arguably better, even, than just giving Vigilance, as the ability can save your creatures from unfavorable blocks as well.
Thank you professor!!! I was looking forward to make a commander deck the moment I saw the card in the previous and now you made a deck guide for him! Cheers!!!
Another great part about Isshin is that it doubles triggers of ANY creature attacking, even opponents. This doubles things like revenge of ravens or search the premises, providing further disincentive for opponents to attack you. Of course, my favorite way to build him would probably be some insane Hellrider go-wide OTK
I pulled one of these in my prerelease packs and immediately said I wanted to build a commander deck around him. Then I saw this video in my sub box! Good stuff prof!
I love this deck tech! I've been wanting to throw together some kind of tokens list with him (Cavalcade Aggro was one of my favourite standard decks), but I've been really struggling! This video has given me an amazing starting point, and introduced me to a bunch of options I'd never even considered before! Thank you for this!! Ankle Shanker in specific seems like amazing protection!
Another great brew from the professor. I'm looking forward to put my double trigger of angelic exaltation on my krenko tin street kingpin and overrun the bord
Hi Prof! After all the words you had with JLK about deck techs being really hard to time correctly, i think you did a very good job here. It's appreciated, hope you have a nice weekend :)
This commander honestly is so straight forward that I'm not entirely certain a video breaking it down was actually needed. He's a mardu Godo extra trigger that basically just let's you go through combat pretty much however long you want as long as you swing the creatures that give extra phases when swinging. Then you just overrun your opponents with big beefed up humans. I'll watch this video still, out of respect for Prof. and the fact that sometimes he actually surprises me.... but I'm making this comment at 0:01.
Once again, Professor, you have taught and reminded me of a few good ways to use combat. This is why I love your videos, because somehow I always end up learning something I didn't know before or learning more about a strategy or topic I thought I had packed down tight. And even though I found a lot of the cards mentioned to be commander staple good stuff, just compiling them all into a deck with some extra flavor involved while still using some of the best removal in the game is pretty spicy. Even the lack of anthem type cards was pretty shocking to me, considering how much we all enjoy a nice passive boost to our armies of all types. But instead using aggressive pump to make combat an even more scary phase by giving all your stuff big gains while swinging. I'm not in love with the idea, but I do like it. 👍 Love your videos Prof.!
Let's not forget that Wulfgar of Icewind Dale did this first, but both Wulfgar and Isshin have completely separate dynamics and approaches. Wulfgar can get some obscenely massive swings out with stuff like pathbreaker ibex; isshin seems to benefit from a more swarm-based and drain-based strategy with cards like Brutal Hordechief.
I have this commander, and there are some old-school tech cards that were not mentioned in this video. First up, Campaign of Vengeance, which can, if coupled with Alhammerat's Archive, actually drain opponents while you gain twice as much life. Second, Márton Stromgald. For 2/R/R, every turn Márton attacks, your creatures will get +1/+1 for each other attacking creature. AND, on the crackback, you can get +1/+1 for each other blocking creature other than Márton -- and both the attacking bonus and the blocking bonus apply to each other creature! Next up: Adriana, Captain of the Guard. Her Melee ability will trigger twice, since she gives Melee to your whole board. Next up: Commander Liara Portyr. Do you want to cast expensive spells for low cost? Liara does just that! Whenever you attack, you reveal X cards where X is the number of players being attacked. Until end of turn, your spells cost X less to cast, AND you can cast spells from the exiled cards. And with Isshin, this happens twice, meaning that you exile the top 6 (presuming you have 3 opponents), and until end of turn, your spells cost 6 less to cast. Next up: Alesha, Who Smiles At Death. If you're playing a 3 mana value Isshin deck, you can always include this legendary Warrior. Because when she attacks, you can pay hybrid W/B W/B to bring back an a creature tapped and attacking. Pair her with Break Through The Line, and each creature becomes unblockable. Next up: Raiyuu, Storm's Edge. Similar to Aurelia, you can only attack with one creature that is a Samurai or Warrior. Luckily, you can attack with Isshin or Raiyuu, and get multiple attack steps via multiple attack phases. Pair Reconnaissance with this guy, and while you may waste one combat phase, you'll get 2 more after. Next up: Crackling Doom as removal. This card, for R/W/B, deals 2 damage to each opponent, and causes each opponent to sacrifice their highest-power creature. Next up: Behind the Scenes. Should you have trouble getting through because your opponents have bigger creatures, this may be the enchantment for you! At 2/B, this enchantment gives your creatures Skulk, which means creatures bigger than yours can't block. Next up: Exterminatus. This 5/W/B sorcery is extremely powerful. First appearing in Warhammer 40K, this sorcery takes away indestructible from your opponents' permanents, and destroys all non-land permanents in play. If you have the mana, play Boros Charm and you have eliminated all your opponents' permanents, even the ones Ruinous Ultimatum couldn't kill, while keeping your permanents alive. Next up: Reveille Squad. This old-school 2/W/W Human Rebel says that when you're attacked, untap each creature you control. Another creature you can use that people may not expect is Masako, the Humorless, a card from original Kamigawa block. As far as I know, Masako's actual effect has only been printed on her, which is that your tapped creatures can block as though they were untapped. She also has Flash, and only costs 2/W. Honorable Mentions: Brimaz and Chieftain en-Dal. Brimaz, like other creatures like Champion of Bladehold and Grave Titan, makes Cat Knights that are 2/2 and have vigilance on the attack. Chieftain en-Dal is similar to Ankle Shanker, except he does not grant deathtouch. However, he also only costs 1/W/W, where Ankle Shanker costs 2/R/W/B.
Also another way to take this deck is with exalted or exalted like effects! Because he doubles all attack triggers, most samurai from the new set are essentially exalted triggers. So a way you can go is Isshin Voltron, using equipment and reconfigure, as well as exalted to get huge
Professor, I pulled this yesterday out of a prerelease! I immediately decided to build a deck with this Legendary Creature. Thank you so much for this video and all your other videos good sir!
Card for the 99: Sublime Archangel! A 4/3 flier that has exalted and gives all other creatures you control exalted (whenever a creature you control attacks alone, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn). The buff lasts over multiple combats, so say you have Isshin, Aurelia, and Sublime on the battlefield: you get three combats where Aurelia already has vigilance and all exalted triggers trigger twice. Combat 1 she swings as a 9/10, combat 2 as a 15/16, and combat 3 as a 21/22 for a total of 45 damage! Now, even without Aurelia, sublime archangel with Isshin will grant +4/+4 to any solo attacker at minimum, only going up for every additional creature you have (which could be a lot, if you have as many token generators as this deck list suggests).
This deck tech made my day! I have been working on trying to put together a list for this commander since it was spoiled. I think there were a couple hidden gems I hadn't considered yet in here! Also, they NEVER expect a counterspell in mardu!! Lapse of Certainty is also not bad. :)
I know that the professor is making this for Isshin, but I'm just here taking notes for my Wyleth voltron deck, which just became even more powerful because of Raiyuu.
Another good addition to the deck if you want to go less tall and more wide would be Adriana, Captain of the guard. When you attack all three of your opponents (which you kinda have to), each attacking creature gets Melee, aka +3/+3 until end of the turn. Then it doubles to +6/+6. Then, if you have extra combats, Melee triggers once more, and so on and so forth.
After building this deck I plan to enter my LGS blasting "The Only Thing I Know for Real" and communicating with my playgroup exclusively in Jestream Sam quotes.
Hi prof! If you ever read this comment, just wanted to wish you a great day! Your content is always awesome, and this is my way to give back. Today its gonna be THE day. The day to open a booster and get that sweet merfolk youve been looking for
Reconnaissance, an Enchantment for a single White mana that allows you to individually Maze of Ith your own attacking creatures for free. Do it after damage but before the end of combat (or after your own First Strike damage, or to save them from an unfavorable blocker) and it's essentially Vigilance that you have to remember to manually activate. Just keep in mind anything you might have with Shroud/Pro-White. Careful with those Lightning Greaves. That said though, it's considerably more expensive than Serra's Blessing (money-wise, not mana-wise). Definitely the better option if you already have it though.
Currently, undefeated with my Isshin Brawl Deck. Is a fricking Beast. I really mean it. My key cards are: - Curse of Hospitality + Pearless Samurai: Every creature has Trample, and you can cast enemy spells with 1 or 2 less. - Reaper Talisman + Isshin: You get plus 4 life, your enemy gets minus 4 and your Commander gets Deathtouch. - Hoarding Ogre + Isshin: A lot of Treasures - Delina, Wild Mage + Isshin: A lot of heavy creatures to punch people. - The Long Reach of Night: This is a good enchantment, force people to sacrifice their creatures or discard cards. Then transform into a creature that gets pumped out with creatures in the graveyard of your opponent. - Raiyou, Storm's Edge + Isshin: You could get 2 extra Combat Phases. - Grandmaster of Flowers: Perfect to get those attack triggers without risks, just plus one him and abuse the lockdown. My deck is still under testing, I had other cards, but I don't know if I want to keep them. In one of my games, I stole an Ashaya, Soul of the Wild, with my Curse of Hospitality. Cast it for only 3 Mana (I deal damage with my Pearless Samurai with Isshin on the field). The funny part is, Delina also enter the field the same turn that Ashaya, so in the next one... 58 Damage (2 Tokens of Ashaya plus the Original, Grandmaster of Flowers, Isshin, Delina and Pearless Samurai)
Suprised to see Marton Stromgald not make the deck. Costly and fragile but doubling its attack bonus seems sick in my goldfishing so far especially when you stack the attacking creature token abilities right.
With all this token generation, Anointed Procession may be a good include. If you want to double up on an effect, Mirage Mirror may also help accomplish some goals. Myriad may also be a keyword worth looking into for this deck.
I didn't even THINK about Isshin and Annihilator! I built a list focused on the Samurai/exalted gameplan from NEO, but now I'm totally swapping in a few Eldrazi just for giggles.
Prof: We've had commanders that double ETB and death triggers. Now we have a double attack trigger commander! Wulfgar of Icewindale: I'm a gruul commander that's been doing the same thing...am I joke to you?
Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor is hands-down my favorite card for commander simply because she is concerned with causing havoc. Winning is incidental, chaos is everything.
In my playgroup I'm known for playing combat oriented decks almost exlusively: Edgar Markov, Yuriko, Rogues with Swords, Tovolar. I'm rarely winning, but someone has to force lifeloss. So of course I've already ordered cards for my upcoming Isshin deck :)
I can really relate when I bring out Kaalia of the Vast to the table. It’s definitely my favorite. But if I’m not able to protect her and she’s destroyed…… I just get to sit there and not have fun :( while my opponents have the time of their lives. But I don’t blame them I got some nasty combos in there. My table is very competitive EDH players. So it’s to be expected between our playgroup. So if you could imagine it’s very brutal some games. At least the games are relatively short. :)
@@michaelakadap924 I can feel your pain. In fact, I started commander with the original precons and my buddy got Kaalia. So I'm still afraid of big flying monsters cheated into play. But without Kaalia, the mana value of the monsters hurt. That's why I try not to be critically depended on my commanders. Well, Yuriko and Edgar Markov are basically cheating, because commander ninjutsu and emminence. Tovolar's tribe is kinda weak and mostly flyes under the radar, so nobody really cares, but I still got bites of carddraw out of it. Dina is a new favourite of mine and I'm not even attacking with her deck. Next I'll try out a suicidal Willowdusk deck. Could be fun.
Isshen is 100% going into my Saskia, combat matters deck along side Wulfgar and other double trigger effects. Forcing people to attack with cards like Thantis and then swinging in for unblocked big damage is fantastic.
I’ve recently been watching some of your “How to start magic the gathering videos” and I don’t have any local game stores. How do I find cards? I know about the app and I think it’ll be great to learn the game and play. But I want to get physical cards too, where can I find them?
One thing I would add to this deck guide is that Isshin can double triggers when opponents creatures attack with cards like [[Curse of Opulence]] or [[Revenge of Ravens]].
Also, mangara and cunning rhetoric and similar things
Also ghostly prison and sphere of safety
@@legomanwanter Not quite. Those are both static effects, rather than triggered abilities, so they won't be doubled by Isshin
@@legomanwanter lolno
This is the main difference (besides color) between Isshin and Wulfgar, the latter only doubling triggers caused by YOUR attacking creatures.
This guy is the single card that got me the most hyped for commander this set.
I'm literally planning like, 3 decks for this commander.
Damn, I was just hyped about the cyborf fire rabbit with haste xD
I feel the same way about Hinata. Should be some great commanders!
@@enoclopez1378 This card will go very good with Kaalia of the Vast 😂🤣 this will make my deck really busted 😂🤣
As someone who made a tribal samurai/warriors deck with him... I tell you that it's still super fun to play!
@@npsantagadaI want to build the same... is it good?😊
"and now we have a commander that copies attack triggers!"
Wulfgar: Am I a joke to you ?
Wulfgar doesn't have white, which gives by far the beefiest boosts to attack triggers.
@@Foxpawed Wulfgar also only triggers when you attack with creatures you control, Isshin triggers whenever anyone attacks, so if I understand it right he would also double things like shiny impetus or hissing miasma.
@@Foxpawed wulfgar has green. Best attack triggers in the game.
Even more so than the vigilance enchantments, Reconnaissance lets you attack freely without fear of blockers and gives vigilance in a roundabout way. And it costs only W.
Reconnaissance is one of my all time favorites. Over preforms every time I manage to get it out in any sort of combat focused deck. It's some of the best value in the game. Only issue I ever have with it is having to explain why I can untap my creatures after they have already done damage. Some people get salty about that.
woah..this must be mvp! insane value, great suggestion, thx
@@83erMagnum it makes all the small, value-oriented attack triggers much easier to play with. :)
Also just between us, Winota is a great add to this, especially since a lot of the tokens are coveniently non-humans.
Yeah…I learned about Reconnaissance when I first built Alesha, Who Smiles at Death a couple years ago…the card drives people nuts and I love it!
Prof: "Remember combat? It often takes a back seat to combo."
Me: *laughs in Najeela*
Winota:
Jeska/Ishai:
Godo:
Yuriko:
…
Wanderwine prophets!
Najeela: Porque no los dos? Lets see how many things we can cram into one deck to take infinite combats. (Mine is 'only' sitting at around seven because some like Derevi aren't warriors, and I need enough density to get the combos going. Akki Battle Squad might still get in by virtue of already having Godo, Aurelia and Combat Celebrant + Helm of the Host)
🙄
“No one expects a counter spell in Mardu” died 😂
Always great to see some more EDH content from the Prof!
A guide from my heart to yours for covering this commander.
Also, Delina + Harmonic Prodigy + Lithoform Engine = 4 rolls? Or do you stack the trigger to go off of harmonic, which doubles delina, which doubles from Isshin, then add a 5th?
I think you get 4 without lithoform. Delina attacking triggers her ability, so it triggers twice thanks to isshin. Delina attacking triggers harmonic prodigy so it also triggers twice. Because isshin says: If a creature attacking triggers an ability of a permanent of your to trigger it happens twice. Delina attacking triggers Harmonic so she copies Delina ability twice too.
@@daanverschaeren7197 It is a replacement effect and as such there are only three triggers and a lithiform copy.
Original
Isshin (2 instead of 1)
Harmonic (3 instead of 2)
Lithiform copies a single one of these triggers.
You should think of Isshin the same way as something like +1/+1 all star Hardened Scales which just places an extra counter on a creature. Much the same way, the trigger gets added to the stack from the creature with the additional triggers so you creature just creates three triggers. There is no trigger from Harmonic or Isshin as their effect is static and always there.
Ohhh chef love your content
Fun interaction: A friend stole one of my creatures with Gilded Drake, then I used Delina to copy the GIlded Drake twice and exile the tokens on my enemy's boards after :-D
Isshin and Harmonic are replacement effects and never trigger. They are like hardened scales and could just as easily read "When triggere ability, create that plus an additional one instead". So scenario goes like this, your Delina triggers and you have Isshin and Harmonic on the field, Delina puts three triggers on the stack thanks to Isshin and Harmonic and then lithiform copies one of the triggers creating a fourth trigger that is a copy of a single one of the original three triggers created by Delina.
That was the commander tech i was looking for im a sucker for samurais, thx a lot prof
Shame it doesn't double bushido activations. Oh, on that note, where is the bushido?
@@cylonsteve2511 was left in original Kamigawa for not being liked enough
@@FelipeASaito yeah, well I did. Bushido is a simple ability WOTC could have easily brought back anyway for theme. It doesn't have to be a super powerful ability to be liked. Samurai without it are like dragons without flying, thematically wrong.
Kazuul, Tryant of the Cliffs and Breena having double triggers could easily make you arch enemy of the table.
Moraug, Fury of Akoum wpuld be a nice addition to this deck, if he gets sword of the animist or sword of hearth and home equipped he potentially gets you a lot of lands and combats due to that landfall trigger.
Moraug only triggers if land comes in during your main phase. Sword of the animist put lands in play during combat. So sadly wouldnt work.
I really love Isshin, and there's several very different ways to build him:
1. Exalted, with Neo Samurai tribal sub-theme. This is the way I'll be building him, with a few of the spells and equipment that give a creature Changeling so I can also utilize a few cards from #2 without losing out on Samurai triggers, and a few from #3 to fill out the utility.
2. Wide, swinging with as many attack trigger creatures as possible. Especially with extra combat creatures.
3. Pillow-fort / Political, with a bunch of effects like Kazuul and Marchesa's Decree to deter attacks against you, and Curses and other incentives like Breena for your opponents to attack each other.
And remember, Isshin copies all triggers of only _your_ permanents, but he copies them whenever _any player_ attacks.
Also remember, Isshin only copies _on attack_ triggers. He will _not_ copy "whenever ~ attacks and isn't blocked" (that's a block step trigger) nor "whenever ~ deals combat damage" (damage step trigger)
Cool older card for #3 is Caltrops. It's an Artifact that does 1 damage to each creature that attacks, with Isshin that becomes 2 damage which might not sound like much but when you are leaving back Samurai blockers it makes combat math go more in your favor than you might think. Yeah, it tags your creatures too, but your solo attacker is likely big enough to weather it easier than your opponent's.
@@johncreekpaum4998 Yea, Caltrops is a good one, and so are Powerstone Minefield and Lightmine Field.
One of my Professors is actually building this as Samurai tribal, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
@juter4397 I dont think so, since its only when yit blocks or is blocked
@juter4397 no unfortunately Bushido triggers on block
@Brackish it does, and it’s meant as a flavorful deck since he already owns most of the old samurai.
All the new samurai have attack trigger abilities
Just Voltron up one samurai, swing with that one, and reap the benefits
Samurai attack triggers allow discard/draw (akki ronin), discount on next spell (peerless samurai), boost to solo attacking samurai (eiganjo exemplar), casting enchantments and artifacts from the graveyard (norika and heiko yamazaki, respectively), and extra combats (raiyuu, storms edge), probably some more I'm missing.
@juter4397 Bushido actually triggers twice, Isshin activates when a creature attacks, so, If you block with a Bushido creature or they block you, that trigger activates too
So, Yeah, you can make Bushido really menacing with him
There is that three drop that makes a 1/1 for every opponent as well, such a good card
One card that definitely should go in this deck is Adriana, Captain of the Guard. She gives all your creatures Melee. Melee gives your creatures +1/+1 for each opponent that you’ve attacked with a creature this turn. With Isshin, most of the time it’ll be +6/+6
Professor, the fact that you have the Saviors novel in the tab is so incredible. Bless you
He’s a pretty rad commander, but in my case I’m excited to add him into my Queen Marchesa humans in the 99. When I have options like Alesha, Adeline, Bruse, Winota, etc. at my disposal he makes them so much stronger
He is pretty rad, he is going in the 99 of my Najeela
I really like these, prof. My Tovolar deck uses your build/ deck tech as a skeleton, and it will probably be the same for Isshin. 10/10 would love your thoughts on Hinata.
Helm of the host is also immensely good in this deck, always worth it
How about Blade of Selves?
@@LadyLunarSatine I have the blade of selves in the deck as well. Had to take out the helm for how good it was 😅
this is absolutely the deck i’m getting
Wow Prof,I'm liking that Isshin and the ideas of putting some of my Eldrazi on with him seems perfect !! Thanks and have an amazing weekend everyone !!Get your Kamigawa on tonight at a pre-release !!
Good day to you Professor!
I know you said on Command Zone deck techs aren't the most popular for views, but I love the combo ideas that show up in these videos.
Thanks Prof!
I love when you do deck techs, you always seem to find recommendations that nobody else is talking about!
I like this. Though my brain went a different direction, probably because I love voltroning up my commander. So I liked the idea of using exalted. Since a creature attacking will trigger their till end of turn buff, you can make a creature pretty big. There's only one red exalted effect, but there's a pretty decent number in both black and in white. Even if you're not buffing up your commander, using Aurelia in this case you can buff her up attacking alone twice from every exalted creature, then on your second and third combat steps when she attacks alone again, she gains additional +2/+2 until end of turn from every one of those exalted triggers, letting her start to easily pick opponents off. Add in a Sun Titan, and you can also start to rebuild quickly if those creatures die in a wrath as many have low CMC
I didn't get a notification for this post today! :( I'm glad I'm always on the lookout for new content from you anyhow, Prof. Love your wit, and breakdowns!
I also like adding stuff like Rhox Veteran, which serves double duty as both a Battle Cry source to pump all those tokens and a tapper to help clear the way. While trying to brew it, I see a bunch of optional subthemes to lean into, which often lean into each other; go harder into equipments for stuff like Wyleth, Captain's Claws supporting go-wide tokens, even Delver's Torch if you like the Venture cards that benefit from attack doubling like Triumphant Adventurer and Nadaar (who also then supports going wide)
Yes finally edh deck tech from my favorite UA-camr
I would also like to mention a third option for enabling your creatures being available for the extra combats: Reconnaissance. Arguably better, even, than just giving Vigilance, as the ability can save your creatures from unfavorable blocks as well.
Thank you professor!!! I was looking forward to make a commander deck the moment I saw the card in the previous and now you made a deck guide for him! Cheers!!!
Another great part about Isshin is that it doubles triggers of ANY creature attacking, even opponents. This doubles things like revenge of ravens or search the premises, providing further disincentive for opponents to attack you. Of course, my favorite way to build him would probably be some insane Hellrider go-wide OTK
I'm going for a defensive kinda deck with him, just don't attack me and it won't hurt you kinda vibe 😂
0:47 is my favourite thing I've seen all week.
I wanted to build this deck from the moment I saw Isshin can't say how excited I am to see a vid from the prof about it
I pulled one of these in my prerelease packs and immediately said I wanted to build a commander deck around him. Then I saw this video in my sub box! Good stuff prof!
Doubling tokens from Adeline, Resplendent Cathar would also be really powerful in a deck like this.
Big fan of Miyamoto Musashi's book. Super excited to play this commander who is obviously inspired by him.
As someone who practiced Niten Ichi Ryu a while back, I MUST build him
I love this deck tech! I've been wanting to throw together some kind of tokens list with him (Cavalcade Aggro was one of my favourite standard decks), but I've been really struggling! This video has given me an amazing starting point, and introduced me to a bunch of options I'd never even considered before! Thank you for this!! Ankle Shanker in specific seems like amazing protection!
Another great brew from the professor. I'm looking forward to put my double trigger of angelic exaltation on my krenko tin street kingpin and overrun the bord
Hi Prof! After all the words you had with JLK about deck techs being really hard to time correctly, i think you did a very good job here. It's appreciated, hope you have a nice weekend :)
This commander honestly is so straight forward that I'm not entirely certain a video breaking it down was actually needed. He's a mardu Godo extra trigger that basically just let's you go through combat pretty much however long you want as long as you swing the creatures that give extra phases when swinging. Then you just overrun your opponents with big beefed up humans. I'll watch this video still, out of respect for Prof. and the fact that sometimes he actually surprises me.... but I'm making this comment at 0:01.
Once again, Professor, you have taught and reminded me of a few good ways to use combat. This is why I love your videos, because somehow I always end up learning something I didn't know before or learning more about a strategy or topic I thought I had packed down tight. And even though I found a lot of the cards mentioned to be commander staple good stuff, just compiling them all into a deck with some extra flavor involved while still using some of the best removal in the game is pretty spicy. Even the lack of anthem type cards was pretty shocking to me, considering how much we all enjoy a nice passive boost to our armies of all types. But instead using aggressive pump to make combat an even more scary phase by giving all your stuff big gains while swinging. I'm not in love with the idea, but I do like it. 👍 Love your videos Prof.!
Let's not forget that Wulfgar of Icewind Dale did this first, but both Wulfgar and Isshin have completely separate dynamics and approaches. Wulfgar can get some obscenely massive swings out with stuff like pathbreaker ibex; isshin seems to benefit from a more swarm-based and drain-based strategy with cards like Brutal Hordechief.
Thank you.
I was planning a Samurai tribal deck already, with Winota in the deck as well. Thanks for giving me a good way to start building up the deck.
Not enough comments are talking about your suit, looking great prof!
Sweet, he's one of the two commanders I want to eventually build from this set. Thanks for the guide/video, Brian.
I have this commander, and there are some old-school tech cards that were not mentioned in this video.
First up, Campaign of Vengeance, which can, if coupled with Alhammerat's Archive, actually drain opponents while you gain twice as much life.
Second, Márton Stromgald. For 2/R/R, every turn Márton attacks, your creatures will get +1/+1 for each other attacking creature. AND, on the crackback, you can get +1/+1 for each other blocking creature other than Márton -- and both the attacking bonus and the blocking bonus apply to each other creature!
Next up: Adriana, Captain of the Guard. Her Melee ability will trigger twice, since she gives Melee to your whole board.
Next up: Commander Liara Portyr. Do you want to cast expensive spells for low cost? Liara does just that! Whenever you attack, you reveal X cards where X is the number of players being attacked. Until end of turn, your spells cost X less to cast, AND you can cast spells from the exiled cards. And with Isshin, this happens twice, meaning that you exile the top 6 (presuming you have 3 opponents), and until end of turn, your spells cost 6 less to cast.
Next up: Alesha, Who Smiles At Death. If you're playing a 3 mana value Isshin deck, you can always include this legendary Warrior. Because when she attacks, you can pay hybrid W/B W/B to bring back an a creature tapped and attacking. Pair her with Break Through The Line, and each creature becomes unblockable.
Next up: Raiyuu, Storm's Edge. Similar to Aurelia, you can only attack with one creature that is a Samurai or Warrior. Luckily, you can attack with Isshin or Raiyuu, and get multiple attack steps via multiple attack phases. Pair Reconnaissance with this guy, and while you may waste one combat phase, you'll get 2 more after.
Next up: Crackling Doom as removal. This card, for R/W/B, deals 2 damage to each opponent, and causes each opponent to sacrifice their highest-power creature.
Next up: Behind the Scenes. Should you have trouble getting through because your opponents have bigger creatures, this may be the enchantment for you! At 2/B, this enchantment gives your creatures Skulk, which means creatures bigger than yours can't block.
Next up: Exterminatus. This 5/W/B sorcery is extremely powerful. First appearing in Warhammer 40K, this sorcery takes away indestructible from your opponents' permanents, and destroys all non-land permanents in play. If you have the mana, play Boros Charm and you have eliminated all your opponents' permanents, even the ones Ruinous Ultimatum couldn't kill, while keeping your permanents alive.
Next up: Reveille Squad. This old-school 2/W/W Human Rebel says that when you're attacked, untap each creature you control. Another creature you can use that people may not expect is Masako, the Humorless, a card from original Kamigawa block. As far as I know, Masako's actual effect has only been printed on her, which is that your tapped creatures can block as though they were untapped. She also has Flash, and only costs 2/W.
Honorable Mentions: Brimaz and Chieftain en-Dal. Brimaz, like other creatures like Champion of Bladehold and Grave Titan, makes Cat Knights that are 2/2 and have vigilance on the attack. Chieftain en-Dal is similar to Ankle Shanker, except he does not grant deathtouch. However, he also only costs 1/W/W, where Ankle Shanker costs 2/R/W/B.
Also another way to take this deck is with exalted or exalted like effects! Because he doubles all attack triggers, most samurai from the new set are essentially exalted triggers. So a way you can go is Isshin Voltron, using equipment and reconfigure, as well as exalted to get huge
Professor, I pulled this yesterday out of a prerelease! I immediately decided to build a deck with this Legendary Creature. Thank you so much for this video and all your other videos good sir!
I'd love to see a deck for a less popular commander from the set like Greasefang
YES MORE OF THIS!!!! Love the deck tech content prof!
It is your Neon Destiny to play this commander
Time to see what i have to buy before it spikes
Really cool video, Prof! Always enjoy your deck techs.
Probably won't use him as a commander but I am excited to make my Kaalia of the Vast deck that much more degenerate with him in it.
When I saw the title you had my curiosity.
When I saw the inclusion of Eldrazi you had my attention!
I hope to one day graduate Magic University! All hail the Professor
Prof this was super good. Can't wait to see more men I enjoyed that it was concise to the point and under 10 minutes
Card for the 99: Sublime Archangel! A 4/3 flier that has exalted and gives all other creatures you control exalted (whenever a creature you control attacks alone, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn). The buff lasts over multiple combats, so say you have Isshin, Aurelia, and Sublime on the battlefield: you get three combats where Aurelia already has vigilance and all exalted triggers trigger twice. Combat 1 she swings as a 9/10, combat 2 as a 15/16, and combat 3 as a 21/22 for a total of 45 damage! Now, even without Aurelia, sublime archangel with Isshin will grant +4/+4 to any solo attacker at minimum, only going up for every additional creature you have (which could be a lot, if you have as many token generators as this deck list suggests).
This deck tech made my day! I have been working on trying to put together a list for this commander since it was spoiled. I think there were a couple hidden gems I hadn't considered yet in here! Also, they NEVER expect a counterspell in mardu!! Lapse of Certainty is also not bad. :)
I know that the professor is making this for Isshin, but I'm just here taking notes for my Wyleth voltron deck, which just became even more powerful because of Raiyuu.
I love your EDH deck techs prof, hope to see more soon!
I'm surprised Etali didn't get a mention, but you've difinitely given me some thoughts to get start with :)
I think the art from Sera's blessing was very pretty.
The great proffessor in a new class for the channel
Found out that it also counts triggers when enemies attack you, so Revenge if Ravens is actually kinda cool in the deck tech too
I thought it was when creatures you control attack would cause a triggered ability it triggers twice not enemy’s
@@daemon1954 It will work both ways :), played some brawl on mtg arena with him running
Mangara, the Diplomat and doubled my card draws.
Another good addition to the deck if you want to go less tall and more wide would be Adriana, Captain of the guard. When you attack all three of your opponents (which you kinda have to), each attacking creature gets Melee, aka +3/+3 until end of the turn. Then it doubles to +6/+6. Then, if you have extra combats, Melee triggers once more, and so on and so forth.
that intro sent me into a fit of giggles, great job
he's definitely going in my attack triggers saskia deck. wulfgar is already a powerhouse there and i cant wait to have both out
I’d love to see a video on Tatsunari Toad Rider, seems like a cool new commander from NEO
I'm just now getting into the wedges and shards with my 32 Commander decks and this deck is looking like a lot of fun
Thanks for the video, this also gives some ideas for a historic brawl deck
Great to see this video as I was just wondering what to do with Isshin since I got it as my prerelease promo
Kind of surprised Etali, Primal Storm didn't make the list, but always solid content from the Prof.
Great deck tech. Looks like a lot of fun. I’m gonna get this deck immediately!
After building this deck I plan to enter my LGS blasting "The Only Thing I Know for Real" and communicating with my playgroup exclusively in Jestream Sam quotes.
I can't wait to put Isshin in my Awaken the Blood Avatar deck 😍
Hi Prof! I know it's been a while, but it is nice to see the long hair back, I personally think it suits you quite well.
Isshin ended up being my prerelease box promo, can't wait to build him as a commander!
Hi prof! If you ever read this comment, just wanted to wish you a great day! Your content is always awesome, and this is my way to give back. Today its gonna be THE day. The day to open a booster and get that sweet merfolk youve been looking for
Reconnaissance, an Enchantment for a single White mana that allows you to individually Maze of Ith your own attacking creatures for free. Do it after damage but before the end of combat (or after your own First Strike damage, or to save them from an unfavorable blocker) and it's essentially Vigilance that you have to remember to manually activate. Just keep in mind anything you might have with Shroud/Pro-White. Careful with those Lightning Greaves.
That said though, it's considerably more expensive than Serra's Blessing (money-wise, not mana-wise). Definitely the better option if you already have it though.
Why does no one remember Wulfgar of Incewind Dale as the first commander to double attack triggers??? It was printed last year!
I own a Wulfgar deck and nobody seems to remember that Adventure in the forgotten realms came out in 2021...
He's going to be in my kaalia's deck
Maybe Tatsunari can promote frog decks
Currently, undefeated with my Isshin Brawl Deck. Is a fricking Beast. I really mean it. My key cards are:
- Curse of Hospitality + Pearless Samurai: Every creature has Trample, and you can cast enemy spells with 1 or 2 less.
- Reaper Talisman + Isshin: You get plus 4 life, your enemy gets minus 4 and your Commander gets Deathtouch.
- Hoarding Ogre + Isshin: A lot of Treasures
- Delina, Wild Mage + Isshin: A lot of heavy creatures to punch people.
- The Long Reach of Night: This is a good enchantment, force people to sacrifice their creatures or discard cards. Then transform into a creature that gets pumped out with creatures in the graveyard of your opponent.
- Raiyou, Storm's Edge + Isshin: You could get 2 extra Combat Phases.
- Grandmaster of Flowers: Perfect to get those attack triggers without risks, just plus one him and abuse the lockdown.
My deck is still under testing, I had other cards, but I don't know if I want to keep them. In one of my games, I stole an Ashaya, Soul of the Wild, with my Curse of Hospitality. Cast it for only 3 Mana (I deal damage with my Pearless Samurai with Isshin on the field). The funny part is, Delina also enter the field the same turn that Ashaya, so in the next one...
58 Damage (2 Tokens of Ashaya plus the Original, Grandmaster of Flowers, Isshin, Delina and Pearless Samurai)
Awesome thanks Professor! 🤘🏼👏🏼
Suprised to see Marton Stromgald not make the deck. Costly and fragile but doubling its attack bonus seems sick in my goldfishing so far especially when you stack the attacking creature token abilities right.
Dang it Prof, I have bills to pay! This is dangerous stuff you're putting out!
Awesome vid as always.
With all this token generation, Anointed Procession may be a good include. If you want to double up on an effect, Mirage Mirror may also help accomplish some goals.
Myriad may also be a keyword worth looking into for this deck.
Holy moly I didn't think about all the possibilities of Isshin, he looks like a kill on sight general lol
Great video, Prof!
Thx prof .... but now i have 173 cards in the deck... yay :P
Woot Woot was gonna build this deck and using parts from my Wulfgar Deck
I didn't even THINK about Isshin and Annihilator! I built a list focused on the Samurai/exalted gameplan from NEO, but now I'm totally swapping in a few Eldrazi just for giggles.
Prof: We've had commanders that double ETB and death triggers. Now we have a double attack trigger commander!
Wulfgar of Icewindale: I'm a gruul commander that's been doing the same thing...am I joke to you?
Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor is hands-down my favorite card for commander simply because she is concerned with causing havoc. Winning is incidental, chaos is everything.
Oh man, a professor deck tech of the new jetmir cat demon would be amazing!
This is a surprisingly decent Curse deck. A good chunk of them trigger on a creature attacking.
In my playgroup I'm known for playing combat oriented decks almost exlusively: Edgar Markov, Yuriko, Rogues with Swords, Tovolar. I'm rarely winning, but someone has to force lifeloss. So of course I've already ordered cards for my upcoming Isshin deck :)
I can really relate when I bring out Kaalia of the Vast to the table. It’s definitely my favorite. But if I’m not able to protect her and she’s destroyed…… I just get to sit there and not have fun :( while my opponents have the time of their lives. But I don’t blame them I got some nasty combos in there. My table is very competitive EDH players. So it’s to be expected between our playgroup. So if you could imagine it’s very brutal some games. At least the games are relatively short. :)
@@michaelakadap924 I can feel your pain. In fact, I started commander with the original precons and my buddy got Kaalia. So I'm still afraid of big flying monsters cheated into play. But without Kaalia, the mana value of the monsters hurt. That's why I try not to be critically depended on my commanders. Well, Yuriko and Edgar Markov are basically cheating, because commander ninjutsu and emminence. Tovolar's tribe is kinda weak and mostly flyes under the radar, so nobody really cares, but I still got bites of carddraw out of it. Dina is a new favourite of mine and I'm not even attacking with her deck. Next I'll try out a suicidal Willowdusk deck. Could be fun.
Isshen is 100% going into my Saskia, combat matters deck along side Wulfgar and other double trigger effects. Forcing people to attack with cards like Thantis and then swinging in for unblocked big damage is fantastic.
I’ve recently been watching some of your “How to start magic the gathering videos” and I don’t have any local game stores. How do I find cards? I know about the app and I think it’ll be great to learn the game and play. But I want to get physical cards too, where can I find them?
Thank you for leaving in the blooper :D