Extremely Linear Commanders | EDHRECast 214

These commanders do exactly one thing, but they do it well! Let's chat about commanders who encourage linear play patterns, and what that means for EDH games.

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[tfc_mtg]

Thank y'all so much for the shout-out! It was a blast having you on the show. My most linear deck is Light-Paws, similar to Sisay in that having a tutor in the command zone makes things very linear, but still a ton of fun!

[chaffenbake]

At first I didn't see the Buzz around Matt's intro joke, but it ended up really sticking the Landing

[vantharion]

My Kethis list is super variable.
Kethis' activated ability, the 70 legends I run, and the 0 tutors force games to play out very differently.

[holdyourfire]

I played that Acererak deck for a while. It was fun, but it mostly durdled so I kind of lost interest after a while. I could've probably optimized it, but again lost interest. However I've built Thantis the Warweaver twice and loved playing with it. Making everyone attack every turn really mixes it up. Combine it with goad (so they can't attack me) and boast effects (if I'm attacking I want extra value too) and games are so fun. I didn't win much with it. Even with goad I still got targeted a lot since I was mucking up their plans. But it was still fun. May even go for a third build now that I'm thinking of it.

[JuQmadrid]

Arcades, The Strategist decks are super linear as you run 35+ mostly interchangeable walls, but it doesn't really feel repetitive to me.

[zackkelley]

Similitude IS an actual word. As defined by Meriam-Webster AND Oxford 'the quality or state of being similar to something.'.

[evilkniefel]

Oh, lemme tell you about the most linear commander and my lord and saviour Gyruda, Doom of Depths. Playline goes like this: Ramp -> Gyruda -> Trigger -> Hit Clone, clones Gyruda -> Repeat. Works like a charm. Always the same, always fun. But beware on casual tables: "While it is not competitive it still is strong!" Crushes casual decks like there is no tomorrow. Be mindful of your fellow players.

EDIT: And just to be clear. You do nothing else. Only Gyruda triggers. It is the most optimal and most powerful line the deck offers. Trigger Gyruda, hitting clones, milling people, over and over and over and over and over [...] and over again. Slamming krakens on the board like it's nobodies bussiness. You can win by throwing those krakens at people or mill everybody out. Whatever floats your boat as long as its Gyruda trigger related.

[TheScharkyscharky]

Just have build a narset deck after some time of thinking about how to do it a fun way (no extra turns/combats). Ended up as a Dragon's Approach Life burn deck.cant wait to get it to the table

[richardpitt]

One way to stop a deck with a common theme (like tokens, +1 counters etc) being linear is to build a deck that works with different commanders at the helm and rotate them.

I made a tokens deck that works with either Jetmir, Jinnie, Kitt Kanto or Phabine as the commander. They’re all in the deck anyway but it plays very differently depending on who is on boss duties. It varies the power level too.

I used to also do this with a Prime Speaker Zegana and Pir/Tooth deck.

[Okagesan]

I have giggle fits about ya'll's chemistry. I look forward to every episode.

[Badassest]

I love my reality chip deck- its not designed to win because it built to be clone/copy chaos! Whatever you bring to the table is what im playing with;)

[Turkintor]

Sultai Sidisi is one of my favorite decks because of the variance. Living Death always gets something different

[TrueTgirl]

Jetmir reminds me of how the last game I've actually played recently ended. I have him in my Jinnie Fay deck and uh.... dropping him onto a board of 17 creatures then swinging felt a lot like what I imagine craterhoof must feel like. Incidentally, that deck is one of the less linear I have now bc it focuses on stuff like clues, food, and treasure (mostly that last one) and the ability choose if I want creatures or a different resource when I make them. No 2 games I have played with that deck have felt remotely similar in execution but all have been great fun lol.

[JangleSam]

I agree on the Nature's Claim call. Unless your deck is built towards a win that doesn't care about life totals (such as a Fynn the Fangbearer or any kind of infect deck), Nature's Claim is not the best choice you can make. Take the versatility of a Return to Nature, or the split second of Krosan Grip over the one mana spell that still puts you a little further away from knocking out that one opponent.

[vasylpark]

I have a Ayara first of Locthwain deck. The deck pretty much plays the same way each game. play Ayara and play creature based creature removal, clear the board and keep playing creatures until everyone is dead.

[yodabuddy]

In defense to rat colony and apostles, there is also the syr konrad combo where you get all your creatures in your graveyard, then with surgical extraction remove them from your graveyard and deal a lot of damage. My build also splashes in white with Lurrus as the commander, with Bola's Citadel and Children of Korlis as another way to get out rats

[TheIndianaJonas]

I've been playing Phantom Steed on my Yarok since it's release, it is a house, it has so much potential and hidden interactions, you can use it as a pseudo "mass" blink, with a Conjurer's Closet, or Thassa, or any other blink effect really, it leads to so many triggering, and you can also reset the targets as you're developing your board and casting stuff with more powerful ETBs. Also, as mentioned, it works as protection, which is incredible.

[bladetb]

I have several of the decks you guys mentioned. I have a Kadena, Feather, Oloro, Gavi. I like a linearity of my deck so I can know if I'm playing optimally or not. I know what the deck does so I don't need to spend time thinking about what I can do and more about how I can solve what's going on in the game.

[iryanmadayana]

Nethroi can be sooomewhat linear, in that you generally try to ramp, filter, and selfmill turns 1-~6, and then play nethroi on turn 5~7 for a big mass-revive. However, if you do not run any tutors, entombs, or instant win combos, the games can still be quite variable because you never know what exactly you are gonna have in your revive pool. And if there is a decent variety in cards for that, things are gonna be different every time.

[olvynchuru]

One other, less powerful way to use Jetmir is to use him just for the vigilance ability if you control three or more creatures. Then you'd run a bunch of creatures that really benefit from having vigilance (for example, exert creatures like Glorybringer and Combat Celebrant, as well as creatures with tap abilities).

And as for Narset, there's got to be some way to use Narset other than just an extra turn/extra combat phase deck. The card is too open-ended for that to be the only option.