Aristocrats Deep Dive | A Complete Guide to the Aristocrats Archetype in Commander
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- The only guide to Aristocrats in Commander you'll ever need!
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This is our guide to Aristocrats in Commander! This archetype is all about sac outlets, sacrificing creatures, and gaining value from their death triggers and expendable creatures you have lying around. Let us know if you enjoyed this video!
I love korvold, I just find it cool that a king was turned into a dragon at his wedding and then ate the whole wedding party.
His flavor is really cool that's for sure
Will forever go down as one of those characters that was a great idea, super flavorful but will never be expanded upon
R.I.P.
It doesn’t hurt that he is silly strong 💪.
@@jakeapplegate6642 I mean, that does help
@@elipetrou9308 exactly lmao
I understand that cards such as Hunted witness and Doomed traveler seem to be kinda meh to a lot of players, but as someone who's played orzhov aristocrats for a long time, I've noticed that these one drop cards give tons of value for their cmc. They give 2 bodies for just a single mana. That's like 2/3 of the bodies from a ministrant obligation while also being simply 1/3 the cost of a ministrant of obligation. 2 bodies for a single mana is unheard of, and I really don't get why people underestimate it. You can draw like 4 cards by turn 3 with a hunted witness and a skull clamp, or you could have potentially 8 mana on turn 4 with a hunted witness and an ashnod's altar on the field. 1 hunted witness and a yawgmoth basically allow you to distribute 2 -1/-1 counters and draw 2 cards by T4 all on curve. You can even add a 2 and a 3 drop for even more value to basically keep your opponents leagues behind you all in the early game. I just think that these cards maybe deserve a better review imo is all. They seem especially good for going off early or being hyper mana efficient late game.
Cop: How were you able to beat 12 robbers with your bare hands?
Me: I was listening to Nitpicking Nerds.
Cop: Is that a band?
Teysa Karlov and the Orzhov Church are wondering why you snubbed the death-harmonicon herself in a video about aristocrats.
Love your content! This show has made my regular podcast rotation!
We just missed her to be honest 😅
@@NitpickingNerds Makes a video about Aristocrat's architype misses Teysa Karlov out. Tesya Karlov : "Am I a joke to you ?"
Great video, can tell you guys are passionate about what you do keep it up :)
@@NitpickingNerds Does "Missed" mean Teysa Karlov solo video in the works??? =D
@@NitpickingNerds how you "just miss" the quintessential aristocrat commander in the quintessential aristocrat color combo? Just seems lazy.
Missing Mrs. Deatharmonicon herself huh?
"When we do gameplay, we're gonna have so many episodes where it's just gonna be us building a deck out of spite." That sounds awesome honestly.
So true about accidentally going infinite with the altars. My wife put together a Korvold deck and realized Ashnod's Altar went infinite with Animation Module if Korvold is on the battlefield. Completely insane, draw your library, and Korvold is a kill shot
I've always been partial to Teysa Karlov as my Commander in Aristocrats. She doesn't do a lot on her own, but certain death triggers are insane when you double proc then with her effect. And she can also make your tokens useful in situations where you either don't have or don't need to use a sac outlet. Someone swings a wide board at you or a big creature that you can't block, Inkshield it with Teysa on board and you just got a bunch of 2/1 creatures with Flying, Vigilance and Lifelink. Or resolving a sacrifice of Kokusho the Evening Star while she's on board. Huge damage and a ton of healing, especially if you have a Reanimate or something else to pull Kokusho back out and do it again.
I swear, whenever I start to explore a new aspect of MTG, you guys drop a bomb video on the topic. Unbelievable. You've earned a patron.
Omg thank you!! We are very happy to hear this
Oh hey they're talking about my favorite archetype, neat.
Glad to help
Same! I have four Aristocrats decks. Archetype is sooo much fun.
@@comradelarry2558 I have 3 but I need to build more, that isn't nearly enough.
These dudes never heard of Teysa Karlov. Best commander podcast my ass.
Aristocrats is a great archetype and you did a wonderful job covering it (besides missing Teysa as others mentioned). Thanks for the content!
Just reworked my Teysa deck, and the advice really helped me understand my win cons better and clean up my deck a bit! Thanks for the vid!
My favorite aristocrats deck I own is hands down Chatterfang so powerful with a couple infinite combos & really fun to play plus who doesn't want a squirrel general.
With the Ashnod and Phyrexian versions of Altars, while it does not come up very often, keep in mind that these are mana abilities and cannot be responded to, gets around Split Second and can just help you snowball into other spells. Not a lot of people know that these mana Altars are mana abilities, since they read "sac:make mana".
Sacrificing is the cost, mana is what you get out of it. It's the same as tapping an Elvish Mystic or basic land; they cannot respond to you tapping for mana. Same with the Altars
archetype - * waves arms * deepdive!
That might be a thing now
@@NitpickingNerds yes please
I miss disclaimer guy... he would have said "Disclaimer guy here: the netpicking nerds are not responsible for any injuries suffered or property damage during a robbery"
Im soo happy I can watch this in 4k now!
Woohoo! You can see our pretty faces even more clearly
@@NitpickingNerds its a curse, not a blessing!
Great video as always! Couple of comments from an aristocrats aficionado:
-Pitiless Plunderer is much better than Pawn of Ulamog & co. since he doesn't say "nontoken". He accidentally combos with anything, much like Ashnod's Altar.
I think recently people realized how strong he is since he went from a few cents to 5$.
-Another great card to check out is Chittering Witch. She gives you 4 bodies for 4 mana and can be used as a (inefficient) sac outlet in a pinch.
Grave Pact has prevented so many attacks/created so many concession when it's snuck on. It's kind of salty even for black and has won faster than wipes do sometimes.
Great vid, won't repeat what everyone else already said on Korvold but agree.
I love this video because Aristocrats always kinda confused me, and after watching your breakdown I realized that I've basically been trying to make Karador Zombie Aristocrats, and for some reason that just helps me really focus more on how to properly structure it without getting distracted by other kinds of mechanics and what not. It is up to 6 mass reanimation cards now though with Haunting Voyage joining Living Death, Patriarch's Bidding, Zombie Apocalypse, Eerie Ultimatum, and Rise of the Dark Realms.
pretty good video, i enjoyed it a lot.
ive been playing aristocrats for a long time and ive played pretty much every aristocrats commander. i think by far teysa karlov is the best one. she can win pretty fast with a critical mass and shes great with combos as well.
the fact that she takes 40 pings and makes it 20 to win is so good on its own.
you guys definitely got me off of grave titan which i agree is not good in aristocrats decks.
ministrant of obligation is great for teysa karlov because it represents 3 bodies on its own and 5 bodies with teysa, thats 1/4th of a win right there.
i also am sad yall forgot about my favorite card: tombstone stairwell
any graveyard deck wants it, it makes tokens on each upkeep for everyone and youll have the most creatures in the grave and it sacs for you at the end to trigger everything.
dark prophecy is great, it draws so damn much in token decks like teysa.
i also love the idea of lillianna dreadhorde general, ill try her out and see if shes good.
That tombstone card is super interesting. I might have to try it in my meren deck and see how it goes.
Would you have a decklist that you can share?
So surprised you didn't think of teysa or Ayli. Those are very very good Aristocrats theme commanders. And they can easily be great removal as well.
I love that syr Konrad works with fiery emancipation infect and Lifelink. The deals damage is so much more fun
When considering mazirek as an aristocrat commander, he acts like a Melira with persist creatures. If you have a mazirek + free sac outlet + persist creature on board, that's infinite death triggers. Combo with cutthroat or blood artist for profit.
I like including pattern of rebirth in my mazirek deck to turn a token into a woodfall primus. With mazirek and a sac outlet on board, that's infinite primus triggers. Is it salty? Most likely. But sometimes you just wanna close a game.
Mazirek is not my cup of tea as commander, but he's a seriously sweet card
Judith, the Scourge Diva is my favorite aristocrats commander because of that death trigger. My loop that I like to use with her is with Decaying Soil, Phyrexian Altar, and any creature that is essentially free to cast ie Priest of Gix, Mogg War Marshal, Memnite
Living Death plus Altar of Dementia in a Sidisi deck is the best feeling ever
Edgar Markov with aristocrat sub theme has been working for me
Edgar and a ham sandwich works 😊
I still love Grave Titan in my Ayara deck. 3 bodies, 3 Ayara pings, and 3 sac fodder for Ayara/Phyrexian Tower/an altar. Plus whatever dictate/blood artist type triggers I have. It's a solid card, and fun to reanimate!
Please do more archetype deep dives!
Storytime: Back in Stronghold block WOTC promoted the first tribal set, Legions. I made a Orzhov cleric deck that would attack and have sacrifice effects for extra loss of life effects, my group hated it, LOL. A decade later I realize I had made a Aristrocrats deck. I remade that deck, for giggles, recently with some new Clerics, long live Clerics! :P
they wont live long if you keep sacrificing them
Good video BUT there are a few you guys missed that are definitely worth mentioning:
This one is a wincon if you have a replacement effect in play.
It’s called ‘blasting station’ it’s both a sac outlet and a damage outlet in 1, 3 mana artifact.
Next, is in my opinion a better card draw engine for death triggers.
It’s called ‘species specialist’. It cost 1 more mana than the others you mentioned but does not drain your life.
Next is a drain outlet that is very similar to Syr Konrad. It does cost 1 more mana but the up side is HOW it does damage. Syr konrad actually deals direct dmg and as such can be prevented. This card states each opponent loses 1 life which cannot be as easily prevented.
It’s called ‘dreadhound’ and like Syr Konrad will also deal dmg on mill.
Next is also a very beautiful aristocrat card that both creates and sacrifices creatures called ‘tombstone stairwell’. What’s great about it is it will spawn and sacrifice tokens on EVERY UPKEEP.
This is both an ETB drain trigger, a sac outlet and card draw(it’s a tap ability tho) called ‘Ayara, first of lochtwain’.
Also worth mentioning that Ayara is also legendary.
Lastly, this is a cost reducer and an ETB drain trigger called ‘bontu’s monument’.
I like how the podcast scenario started normal. Aka walking in a grocery store but added twist you’re now fighting someone
Aristocrats are one of the only archetypes I haven’t built yet :p When I build it I will be coming back to this. Great video :)
For me it's the opposite, I've only ever really built aristocrats or elves.
I built wilhelt aristocrats as my first aristocrats deck and I absolutely love it.
Bolas's brick made a return. Nice. Well, good video about aristocrats. Keep up the good work.
GREATEST Commander podcast!! love you guys. good luck to blowing up !
I literally just started building a korvold deck. Great timing boys 👍🏼
Put THAT in the police report!
great channel with deep deck analysis you got another subscription!
My favorite engine in this archetype is the Scarecrone engine with Wingrattle, Chain Breaker, Poppet, either Metallic Mimic or Mikaeus, and Reaper King.
Im my very first booster pack ever I opened a Liliana, it was $70 at the time I still have that card and it’s the highlight of my collection.
For what its worth, the afterlife mechanic is much better when taking advantage of Teysa Karlov doubling death triggers
Athreos god of passage becomes much better too since you were pretty down on it.
I have a few Arisrocrats decks, but only my Teysa Karlov runs Ministrant of Obligation. With Teysa on the field, that makes it five bodies for three mana, four of which have flying, lifelink, and vigilance. The tokens get to be aggressive towards players without flying blockers, gain life, and stay ready to chump block, gain life again, and set off more death triggers. Then, the Ministrant get circumstantially reanimated via Living Death or Reveillark or something onto the battlefield at some point to set off all that value again.
That said, I've cut it from any other deck I tried to put it in. It just doesn't provide the same kind of value elsewhere.
A card I do recommend for Mardu Aristocrats is Purphoros, God of the Forge. An indestructible enchantment for 4 Mana that deals 2 damage to each opponent whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control (yes, it includes tokens..). It is like the big brother of Impact Tremors. Especially deadly if you play many small creatures and / or token makers.
You guys rock
Aw thanks :P
What about aristocats? Personally I think it's way better.
The two are very close
I need to build that
I don't know about this advice. Everywhere I go, I always get in trouble for letting my sac out
personal story time
I got back into the game in 2019, after a 5 year break. My return was the result of living with 3 other mtg players at the time and i was really digging all the new stuff and reprints. One of the first themes i heavily invested in was Aristocrats; I had built two or three of them (one being sek'kuar, which you shouldve included in the video :P).
I am SOO lucky i was obsessed with aristocrats, because almost every god-damn necessary staple is a 40-50 dollar card right now. It is disgusting how expensive aristocrats got in the past two years, and it's all because there are clutch staples that they refuse to reprint lol
I just made a Thalisse, Reverent Medium , token/aristocrat deck an it actually kinda slaps.
What are the best cards so far?
@@NitpickingNerds smothering tithe an pitiless plunderer are the two show stoppers.
That an any "x" spell token generator with all my treasures 🤭
I have used the mimic vat in my meren to extreme effect. Create token to sac token to get death trigger. Create token to block on opponents turn to kill and get effect. Better than you would expect.
I really love my Alesha deck that has a aristocrat theme to it.
Can't wait the battle of Spite Decks
if you can play priest of the forgotten gods turn 2 and do its ability turn 3 it's pretty oppressive
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder is pretty broken as a commander too. Very easily combos and just values out with so many different cards.
I paused mtg for about 2 months, just came back and you guys granted me this video about one of my favourite archetypes to play?! BEST DAY!🙏
So in addition i have a question: you recommended 7-12 sac outlets for an aristocrat deck. But what do you recommend if you have a good sac outlet in your command zone? To my logic you could maybe go below 7 outlets.
You guys are the best😁!
I have yet to make a deck that utilizes an aristocrat theme, but you guys certainly make building one look tempting.
Also, I decided to go searching for that Ferrari comment on your RL video, and um... wow. I don't know why they thought comparing car clubs to a trading card game was comparable. Bafflingly. There are some other very strange takes though on the video. It would seem the RL is just a very divisive topic.
When are those NN gameplay videos dropping?
We are planning on running a Kickstarter later this year
👀
I would love an updated Grismold deck tech!! He seems to break some of the exceptions to these guidelines
This is what I was waiting for 😎
Oh wow that's specific but it's here!
All hail the Kings of Commander
Bow in the presence of greatness!
LADS! You mentioned my girl Shirei! Not expecting that. Thanks!
I have used mimic vat to interrupt combos and reanimate effects by exiling things as they die (even if I put them back) e.g: I exiled triskellion to stop a makaeus-triskellion combo, steal massive creatures from other people and even do a repeatable 3 mana boardwipe with an athertide whale in the vat, and aethersquall ancient on the board
Kinda had a feeling "will they name..." there it is. "And how about..." just incoming. Great job! You might perhaps want to add things to sacrifice, like the Weaponcraft Enthusiast, and talk about the added value of sad robot in this deck. Last I noticed some inexperienced players in my playgroup to hit on aristrocrats and miss out all the things to keep track of, like the right moment to trigger the grave pact effect, when to sacrifice in response to hate and when not to, the thought of getting stuff back (reanimation) vs getting new stuff (draw/token generation), how to play around combat-heavy decks, distributions in your deck (utility creatures, payoff creatures, sac-me-creatures, sac outlets, stuff that doesn't say aristocrats at all, like anguished unmaking). Then there's the pseudo-trap of creatures that sacrifice themselves, like a spore frog. And speaking of it: You forgot good ol' steve! You could probably do two more videos just about aristocrats, so that the deep dive is REALLY DEEP!
Hey, had a bit of spicy stuff for when yall eventually look into spellslinger. Mystic Speculation is a crazy good card in niv-parun. Very efficient
Syr Konrad + Morality Shift w/ an eldrazi in your deck is fun times. Ive seen games where it just wipes the board and kills every opponent instantly, and in case where it hasn't it maimed everyone LOL
Cherries is crazy if you think victimize is not EDH playable. it's practically a wincon in my wilhelt deck. Sac a creature: Reanimate 2 creatures tapped from your graveyard for 2B? having it come it tapped is only slow if you're going to combat or if they have activated abilities, but if they're triggered abilities they're good to go (etb's and dying, the exact types of creatures we're running in aristocrats)
Favorite combo in my hogaak deck is altar of dementia and living death, it isn't infinite but might as well be
This was a great video. Would love to see more like it. Only suggestion is a general suggested outline. You started by saying 5 to 7 sac outlets, but didn't do that for anything else
Awe, I miss joe😢 lol. Great episode 😁
thanks guys great watch
I just played a Marchesa, Black Rose deck and won mostly off Oona's Blackguard
I love most of those cards you guy's dropped in this video
#POOPYBABIES gotta love them. You guys are great
Don't forget about my four-color Aristocounters deck with Ishai and Reyhan at the helm. Gotta get me a new Vorinclex.
"welcome to the best commander podcast IN THE WORLD"
Beezy: *shifty eyes of uncertainty*
Thanks for the video, I love Yawgmoth as my commander!
I feel no one ever mentions Whisper, Blood Liturgist. It does a lot of cool stuff, but people just pretend it never existed. It’s a once per turn (tap), sac 2, reanimate. So much you can do with repeatable reanimates in this kind of deck, especially for free with the upside of sacing two creatures. Worth checking out even with the tapping.
Judith is HIGHLY, HIGHLY undervalued for her strategy. I have built a steal and sac, pinger deck with a goblin and goad subtheme. Judith is really good. I recommend trying her out. She is much better than she seems.
Zirda the Dawnwaker could abuse the heck out of Mimic vat.
Ministrant of Obligation is consistently one of my favorite cards in my Teysa Karlov deck. It's absolutely bonkers. So much value, especially with skull clamp on the board.
I have seen it be awesome in that deck!
@@NitpickingNerds I was going to submit it for a deck tune up but then the price went to the moon 😥 I'm working on building EDH theme decks for each guild using only cards that match the guild aesthetic
I'm guessing Teysa Karlov isn't on the list because if you already go infinite, going more infinite isn't really helpful 😂 she is still my favorite, but overall great advice and thank you!
Finally someone mentions teysa
I was so excited to hear about her then it was just missed. Such travesty. Hahahaha
I would have wished to see some blue cards as inspiration for my Grimgrin deck.
I think Nethroi is a better aristocrats commander than Karador, fight me!
He might be, but nobody can replace Karador in my heart ❤
Awesome video!
Aristocrats is super fun, my third deck was the korvold brawl deck that I turned to commander and have been upgrading more since. I recently built a sweet Orah cleric aristocrats(an excellent home for ministrant of obligation btw). Damn do I love throwing away my creatures for the greater good of my victory. Also I've found victimize to be nuts in my decks, I run it in both my aristocrats decks as a way to sacrifice a creature I would sacrifice anyways to bring back two of my biggest ETB/LTB creatures, card is actually really good. I also run it in my sedris reanimator deck, it's less good here because I have less expendable creatures but the deck is all about cheating in big bois and bringing back both a sphynx of the second sun and a jin gitaxis is worth the risk
My judith deck is not fun so its on my rebuild pile and this vid came at the perfect time. Cheers lads.
Joined as a patreon. Love your work. Hope that doesn't make you feel uncomfortable. Xx
Well done gents.
One of my favorite death trigger payoffs is Spiteful Prankster from Jumpstart. Of course Mayhem Devil as well. Infinite treasure sac kills are the best kills.
Victimize i use to get my key creatures back and to add reanimate redundance, it works very well when you only need to get a specific creature back to win
How did the not mention Teysa Karlov in the stereotypical aristocrats commanders section?!?! Her ability is literally any time a creature dying causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control, that ability triggers a second time. And as some additional gravy on top, creature tokens you control have vigilance and lifelink. I have a great aristocrats deck with her (she is Orzhov colors for those who don’t know) and it’s so much fun to play.
Hey I think you may have forgotten to upload this to the podcast feed. I can’t see it.
As far as I understand, Aristocrats sacrifice live cards. What are the creatures with good on-dying abilities? The "afterlife" cards are nice, but .. what else?
I have an Angel/Cleric based deck, I've something to submit to You to ask some opinions:
-) Priest of forgotten gods (PoFG): it allows some card advantage by sacrificing tokens as card draw and the opponent sacrificing something (the least valuable card, usually); and BB mana. She seems very nice to me
-) Whisper, Blood Liturgist: sacrifice 2, usually tokens, to reanimate. That's nice :D what do you think?
-) Priest of the Fell Rites: 2/2 costing WB that sacrifice itself (and 3 life) for reanimating someone. It sounds great :D also, she can count as a "nontoken creature dying" :D
-) Professor of Symbology: Learns on ETB, which allow to fill the graveyard or take a useful Lesson card :D she balance herself off :D
-) Seraphine of Scales: good with Afterlife 2, but I think it's not enough
-) Angel of Invention: yes, it costs 3WW, but the two drones are sacrifice fodders for PoFG or Whisper. Also, gives +1/+1 to every other creature, which is nice
what about tokens generation?
-) Thraben Doomsayer: he is slow, but he creates a token a turn :D sacrifice fodders on the go :D
-) Valkyrie Harbinger: this recently cheap Angel allows to create a powerful 4/4 flying Angel token with vigilance. That's a thread and fodder generator
Generally speaking, you're right about Butcher of Malakir, but its advantage is the ability to reanimate it. Dictate/Pact do nothing for me in my graveyard, but I can bring Butcher back with Dread Return when I mill both of them off my Mesmeric Orb in Syr Konrad.
Savra is a fun way to turn sacrificing creatures into removal/life gain as bonus value.
Learned alot! Definitely gonna be playing elenda she is so underused! Maxing it out is going to be expensive for like... 5 of the cards but hey! It's so good even without stuff like dreadhorde general
I'm trying to make an Ertai, the corrupted aristocrats/control deck so I'm revisiting this video, we'll see how well it goes.
I generally agree about Ministrant of obligation, but it does go infinite in Tayam aristocrats with Tayam and Ashnod's alter.
Shirei has been my long time favorite edh deck. I always check the new sets to see if there are any new sac outlets/payoffs or good 1 power creatures
Far from the best
I think I need to rewatch this, did I not hear Teysa Karlov mentioned once?
Oooh, Grave Titan sounds great for Aristocrats. 😻
He was in traps!!!
Odd to say that you shouldnt run cultivate because it doesnt synergize with aristocrats and then turn around and say attrition shouldnt be run just because it cant hit black creatures... its a sac outlet with removal stapled to it and i would say hitting 4/5 creatures makes it a pretty good include for aristocrats. In my experience with teysa karlov, your card velocity when youre popping off is so high that it doesnt even matter if attrition is a dead card in hand as you will generally have your removal when you need it