This is my personal cEDH deck! I'm really glad you're talking about it. There are some other things you missed and some that I actually don't see in Zakie's decklist that are also very cool lines that Vadrik makes possible too. One is that he turns Fervent Mastery, Intuition, Firemind's Foresight, and Invert//Invent into 1-card win conditions. You mentioned invent a little but its quite important that there are so many singular cards that can present a win, several of which are at instant speed. The lines for them are a little long so I won't go over them in this comment but if you want to know I can type out how they work. One of the other things is that you are missing some of the best buffing spells, specifically the ones that do something else so they aren't "just" voltron-esque cards. You mentioned Sudden Breakthrough but there's also Zhalfirin Shapecraft, Blazing Crescendo, and Experimental Augury which all "draw" cards, Serum Snare which is also a bounce, and Slip out the Back which protects your vulnerable commander. The deck can also be tuned towards being able to "manually" storm off if you want to. Several (usually) bad cards become quite a lot better at this when they cost considerably less like Epic Experiment, Apex of Power, and Storm King's Thunder. Bonus Round also helps here a lot. I could talk about this commander for a long time. He's definitely underrated and I think he's quite strong. He's also as you said: the type of commander that is interesting in that they make "bad" cards much better. A Vadrik deck doesn't look like many other decks at all. Glad to see you spotlighting him!
This is a very cool deck, I never thought much of this guy cause of the day night thing but I didn’t realize if you pump his power, it makes the discount bigger
If you equip him with diviners wand, (for 0 as he is a wizard) then cast a X draw spell, he'll get +x/+x for each card drawn, you can potentially storm you entire deck especially if you draw into more rituals and X draw spells. Diviners wand being a 3 cmc equipment is super easy to tutor for in izzet too
I've personally lost a game to a vadrik player comboing with Storm Kiln Artist, Seething anger, and an x draw spell. He relied a decent bit on playing many small equipments that increased vadrik's power, specifically cards like Beantown beatstick that give treasures. Early equipments and early vadrik work really well with the big score effects. Rituals arent even super necessary to pop off because the cost reduction makes every splashy 4 or 5 cmc spell 1 mana which draws into plenty of good stuff.
Decks like this benefit from the "its all in hand" aspect, as you can dodge all the people that only react to what they see on the board. People will attack the black players first because of life payments and so the innocent looking UR deck gets additional time and stays around longer than it should.
I happen to play Vadrik since day 1. It folds to absolutely every piece of stax conceivable (Deafening Silence turn oners) while not representing card advantage in the Command Zone. Fun and fringe at best.
What's your opinion on Divide by Zero and Enthusiastic Study with Environmental Sciences, Expanded Anatomy, Introduction to Prophecy and Introduction to Annihilation on the Sideboard? I think they offer a lot of flexibility and free value on the learn spells and for only 1 mana.
Vadrik is my budget deck I built for $30 USD and its hilarious how my friends that play with higher power commanders (not cEDH level) have a hard time dealing with it.
Thats how i discovered Vadrik in my lgs budget league, I switched to Vadrik and lost 2 games across the last 18 games of budget league. It took me 1 sessiom before i decided this has CEDH potential and Ive played him ever since
Im torn between Vadrik and Mizzix. Vadrik costs fewer mana but doesn’t reliably accrue spell discount magnitude like Mizzix does. Also, if Vadrik leaves the battlefield then you will have a harder time rebuilding your position due to his power being reset whereas experience counters from Mizzix will almost never go away. Sure, Vadrik probably gets an edge in combat due to pump spells and equipment but are those kind of cards what you would ideally run in cEDH? I don’t know.
So I always say Vadrik is much more explosive and has a higher ceiling whereas Mizzix is more reliable and resilient. I personally chose Vadrik as I find it incredibly easy to get that large mana reduction,
I spent a couple of months playing Vadrik in casual, and found the Shroud aura to bite me back more often than what you'd think. I recommend swapping it out.
I would not put lunar frenzy in the cedh version because at worst its 1 mana +1/+0 and you can get cards that always give +2 or +3 power for the same cost
@@wittmoneyman Its just my opinion, but getting discount with Mizzix is easier. 1 is not enough. 2 is already ok. But yeah, Vadrik has lower mana cost, so i m not quite sure who s better. Also, if 1 discount is enough then we go to "why not new Urabrask?"
3 mana is ofc better, the ease of which to increase the cost reduction (literally dont do anything and your spells get cheaper and cheaper), the explosiveness of Vadrik is more (pump spells just go crazy) i always say Mizzix is more resilient (recast him and still get the cost reduction) but Vadrik is more explosive
@@zacperin7459 you dont need to be explosive. The deck spins around 2-3 counters, and spells like Stroke of genius are just bad cards. Also, the problem with pumping spells is the same weakness as classic Animar's: you need one part of the deck to simply make it start doing something, and other part of deck to contain actual business. Real upside of Vadrik is his mana cost. If i ll feel like 1 exp is enough, i ll switch to him.
NO! My Vadrik cEDH strategy has been exposed! He's been pretty low-key up til now. However, the way I build him, he can win on turn four 100% of the time when left alone, and in some cases, even earlier, given the right hand.
Vadrik, the Wizard who Lifts. Nuff said
This is my personal cEDH deck! I'm really glad you're talking about it. There are some other things you missed and some that I actually don't see in Zakie's decklist that are also very cool lines that Vadrik makes possible too. One is that he turns Fervent Mastery, Intuition, Firemind's Foresight, and Invert//Invent into 1-card win conditions. You mentioned invent a little but its quite important that there are so many singular cards that can present a win, several of which are at instant speed. The lines for them are a little long so I won't go over them in this comment but if you want to know I can type out how they work.
One of the other things is that you are missing some of the best buffing spells, specifically the ones that do something else so they aren't "just" voltron-esque cards. You mentioned Sudden Breakthrough but there's also Zhalfirin Shapecraft, Blazing Crescendo, and Experimental Augury which all "draw" cards, Serum Snare which is also a bounce, and Slip out the Back which protects your vulnerable commander.
The deck can also be tuned towards being able to "manually" storm off if you want to. Several (usually) bad cards become quite a lot better at this when they cost considerably less like Epic Experiment, Apex of Power, and Storm King's Thunder. Bonus Round also helps here a lot.
I could talk about this commander for a long time. He's definitely underrated and I think he's quite strong. He's also as you said: the type of commander that is interesting in that they make "bad" cards much better. A Vadrik deck doesn't look like many other decks at all. Glad to see you spotlighting him!
@veil9 do you have a decklist? Love this.
This is a very cool deck, I never thought much of this guy cause of the day night thing but I didn’t realize if you pump his power, it makes the discount bigger
Never looked at this dude close enough. Insane power
Some very impressive gameplay with this deck!!
If you equip him with diviners wand, (for 0 as he is a wizard) then cast a X draw spell, he'll get +x/+x for each card drawn, you can potentially storm you entire deck especially if you draw into more rituals and X draw spells. Diviners wand being a 3 cmc equipment is super easy to tutor for in izzet too
YYEEESSSS I LOVE VADRIK
love this commander sooooo much!!!!!! 💣💣💣
I used to play mizzix a lot and this guy reminds me of her a lot :o
I've personally lost a game to a vadrik player comboing with Storm Kiln Artist, Seething anger, and an x draw spell. He relied a decent bit on playing many small equipments that increased vadrik's power, specifically cards like Beantown beatstick that give treasures. Early equipments and early vadrik work really well with the big score effects. Rituals arent even super necessary to pop off because the cost reduction makes every splashy 4 or 5 cmc spell 1 mana which draws into plenty of good stuff.
Decks like this benefit from the "its all in hand" aspect, as you can dodge all the people that only react to what they see on the board.
People will attack the black players first because of life payments and so the innocent looking UR deck gets additional time and stays around longer than it should.
I have a casual Vadrik deck and Fist of Flame is a great card in this deck
I also really like Inexorable Tide with Vadrik
"Zhalfirin Shapecraft" is awesome in this deck. Gives Vadrik +3 power and draws a card for U.
Wow, what a great pick. I'm a big fan of "perfect home" for cards, and this one fits so well.
Water Wings is better
Runechanter’s Pike is sweet in this deck
I happen to play Vadrik since day 1. It folds to absolutely every piece of stax conceivable (Deafening Silence turn oners) while not representing card advantage in the Command Zone. Fun and fringe at best.
I originally struggled with this a decent amount but have balanced out a decent amount of burn/bounce that its rarely a case of gameover to stax
@@zacperin7459 Got a decklist somewhere by any chance?
With electrodominance and reiterate and Vadrik with 4+ power we can win by dealing damage with electro and recast it infinitely with reiterate
You only need 3 power to perform this combo but yes its one of my fave wincons
What's your opinion on Divide by Zero and Enthusiastic Study with Environmental Sciences, Expanded Anatomy, Introduction to Prophecy and Introduction to Annihilation on the Sideboard? I think they offer a lot of flexibility and free value on the learn spells and for only 1 mana.
They are not that good. The cards are just a bit expensive.
Izzet builds are the best from krarkashima, niv bizness, and now vadrik storm chaser
;) I think extra turns is good for Vadrik
Vadrik is my budget deck I built for $30 USD and its hilarious how my friends that play with higher power commanders (not cEDH level) have a hard time dealing with it.
It really feels like a good budget commander.
@cedhtv It really is! I'll share the list later in the discord.
Thats how i discovered Vadrik in my lgs budget league, I switched to Vadrik and lost 2 games across the last 18 games of budget league. It took me 1 sessiom before i decided this has CEDH potential and Ive played him ever since
I actually had to drop him from a set of budget decks I'm tuning to play together. It was too difficult to keep him in line with the other decks.
I like it. Might change my Eruth list for this. Not really competitive though. Just more of a Solitaire simulator.
Im torn between Vadrik and Mizzix. Vadrik costs fewer mana but doesn’t reliably accrue spell discount magnitude like Mizzix does. Also, if Vadrik leaves the battlefield then you will have a harder time rebuilding your position due to his power being reset whereas experience counters from Mizzix will almost never go away. Sure, Vadrik probably gets an edge in combat due to pump spells and equipment but are those kind of cards what you would ideally run in cEDH? I don’t know.
So I always say Vadrik is much more explosive and has a higher ceiling whereas Mizzix is more reliable and resilient. I personally chose Vadrik as I find it incredibly easy to get that large mana reduction,
I spent a couple of months playing Vadrik in casual, and found the Shroud aura to bite me back more often than what you'd think.
I recommend swapping it out.
In casual it's bad if you want to pump vadrik a lot, in cedh getting him to 3 or 4 power ks enough
Woot
No Firemind's Foresight?
I personally cut it for invert invent
Lunar frenzy is kinda good by being 1 red double vadrik power
Ended up cutting this but if you lean more into x spells or big spells it would definitely be included
I would not put lunar frenzy in the cedh version because at worst its 1 mana +1/+0 and you can get cards that always give +2 or +3 power for the same cost
Very similar to mizzix
Why not Mizzix?
Why Mizzix and not Vadrik?
@@wittmoneyman Its just my opinion, but getting discount with Mizzix is easier. 1 is not enough. 2 is already ok.
But yeah, Vadrik has lower mana cost, so i m not quite sure who s better.
Also, if 1 discount is enough then we go to "why not new Urabrask?"
@@DenisLyametsat that point why Urabrask and not Bergi?
3 mana is ofc better, the ease of which to increase the cost reduction (literally dont do anything and your spells get cheaper and cheaper), the explosiveness of Vadrik is more (pump spells just go crazy) i always say Mizzix is more resilient (recast him and still get the cost reduction) but Vadrik is more explosive
@@zacperin7459 you dont need to be explosive. The deck spins around 2-3 counters, and spells like Stroke of genius are just bad cards.
Also, the problem with pumping spells is the same weakness as classic Animar's: you need one part of the deck to simply make it start doing something, and other part of deck to contain actual business.
Real upside of Vadrik is his mana cost. If i ll feel like 1 exp is enough, i ll switch to him.
NO! My Vadrik cEDH strategy has been exposed! He's been pretty low-key up til now. However, the way I build him, he can win on turn four 100% of the time when left alone, and in some cases, even earlier, given the right hand.