I love insects, and I've gone through using both grists, and I'm currently using zask and I have Amzu in the deck but I think you just gave me a great idea for how I could restructure it so that it's still a graveyard deck that is like almost immune to graveyard hate. I might just brew it to be less insect focused and more focused on graveyard shuffling.
Oh my gosh that’s a crazy synchronicity! I was looking for new commanders to build and thought Torgaar would be super cool so I built the deck all today (still 30 cards over). I was actually thinking of looking back on your Egon, God of death video for some references. Later this same day I get home and click on this TH-cam video and what do you know you put together the exact same Torgaar strategy as I did!
You are right that Amzu does not need tons Insects to work. But you should definitely run cards that create Insect tokens from synergistic effects. Crawling Infestation and Sensation let us mill two cards each at the start of our turn (which are optional), and with both on the board once each turn we create an Insect when a creature and a land is put into our graveyard from anywhere (Creature for Infestation, Land for Sensation). Iridescent Hornbeetle makes a number of 1/1 Insects at the end of our turn equal to the number of +1/+1 counters we've placed on our creatures, so getting a large MV card out of the graveyard can give us a pretty sizable board of Insects. And even if they're only 1/1s, enough 1/1s with menace do become a legitimate threat. Thran Vigil is a pretty good card as well. Because let's not forget the amazing evasion that Amzu has built in. Flying and menace, in most cases, may as well read "can't be blocked." And other cards that generate value when cards leave our graveyard are must-haves. Defiled Crypt/Cadaver Lab from Duskmourn is a fantastic include here (Crypt makes a 2/2 Horror Enchantment Creature, Lab returns a creature from the graveyard to hand for B). As are Tormod (tapped 2/2 Skeleton), Desecrated Tomb (1/1 Flying Bat), Insidious Roots (0/1 Plant, grows our Plants each time it makes a Plant, and turns our creature tokens into ramp), Skeleton Crew (2/2 Skeleton Pirate which also can get itself out of the graveyard for repeatable 5/5 Insects with sac outlets), and Chalk Outline (2/2 White/Blue Detective and a Clue from investigate).
Ive been building an Awaken The Blood Avatar deck with the exact same "this card costs 2 less to cast for each creature sacrificed" extra cast cost, so a lot of those tips for torgar were super helpful to meA
Finally built Lulu and Clan crafter. My pod was not happy, no matter how many ways I pleaded. It's budget, no fast mana, only 25 lands...crushed them with value.
Livaan deck build would work even better with the new Miss Bumbleflower since it's any type of spell and you can even draw from it. I built mine with Willbreaker and for some reason I haven't seen anyone mention it or using it. Weird since it's a staple in Kenrith decks.
Oriq Loremage is just an all-star. I think some that would be cool in the insect deck are a Currency Converter and Containment Construct are interesting cards in that deck!
For the Livaan background, i wouldnt be surprised if he had the Criminal Past background. As that gives you Menace & "+X/+0 equal to the amount of creatures in your graveyard". As that seems like it would get you massive quickly, and is a Black card.
I didn't think about the cards that shuffle themselves back in if they are put into the graveyard for Amzu. I was thinking about cards that just put a card from graveyards into the bottom of the library. Most of the artifacts that do that are about 5 mana. They did make some cheaper ones in newer sets.
That Geralf 0 cmc artifact idea gets even crazier when consider cards like Retract and Hurkyl's Recall -- pay a small amount to return all your cmc 0 artifacts and do it all again! :D
You should do one for Parnesse of the subtle brush, she’s super underrated and has an easy infinite with an ally with any creature copying spell and is complimented by cards like crafty cutpurse to pull the rug out from under an ally and having an ally allows you to get big spells like clone legion off because of the help you could give to an ally, but you get to choose after you cast it which is huge
I built a Livaan with Raised by Giants to make a Gruul spellslinger voltron deck. It's pretty good, but recently have been considering swapping out some cards to make it more resilient
Something I saw recently and I think is very cool (though a bit Monolith) ... Kess, Dissident Mage with Adventures .... very very nice because of the interaction
Oh, that is nice! My failed attempt to close the game with moonshaker contributed to today's video. Jokes aside, it was quite a game mainly due to the incredible outcome. 🙂
i like play kozilek in my blue deck so i can discard it on my end step and shuffle my grave back into my library, cause it routinely draws 5+ cards a turn. and discarding it makes sure i dont accidentally deck myself out by drawing. 🤷♂️ its saved me that heartache quite a bit, and its saved me the game from a bruvac deck once lol.
Speaking of Thrasta....... i added him in to my Adrix & Nev, Twincasters token deck in exchange for Apex Altisaur 😅 keen to see how nice it is having 2-3 7/7's with Trample/Haste & Hexproof when they first come out, and how much my opponents enjoy seeing 21+ damage coming their way depending on the cards i have in play/still able to play once i drop that bomb out
I was actually thinking about Torgaar recently and the idea I came up with was almost a group hug style deck mixed with wound reflection type effects. I want to help my opponents gain life above their starting total, so when I cast Torgaar they end up losing more than 20 life + wound reflection = KO. I didn’t get to putting a deck together, but if anyone has a deck list like that I’d be happy to see it!
green red black gorilla deck. this deck makes the earfquake. its off topic deck but i still wanted to share it. i play vintage more than the other formats because i can breaks from magic and return still pick up where i left off at in vintage format: kird ape abyssal persecutor simian spirit guide wall of roots ragavan, nimble pilferer army ants dwarven blastminer violent ultimatum casualties of war gorilla shaman sideboard: 4 damping sphere 1 carpet of flowers 2 shatterstorm 2 creeping corrosion 4 pithing needle 1 red elemental blast 1 boil
Livaan with the Flaming fist background can be deadly as a voltron deck. Livaan easily becomes a one shot threat with a few pump spells. He is instantly in one shot range after casting jeska thrice reborn, pumping him with the 3 mana and using her ability to make him do triple dmg. I call it one punch maan livaan.
So i build a Sivriss/cloakwood hermit deck just like Amzu for a budget league, as sivriss is milling and then returning things so i run all the leaves the grave effects like him in it (except Amzu as he doesnt fit the current budget rules at all)
Amzu is one of my favorite commanders from this year I use this build and my pod hates it because I just use the biggest creatures I use shadow of mortality to drag it out of my graveyard and then just discard and redo lol
I have a torgaar edh deck for 6 or more years that pkays with my own life, it's amazingly funny to play with and against! Its in my profile SilencedDax in tappedout, maybe you saw it Demo hahaha I love the amzu idea too!
So I have a Geralf the Fleshwright Zombie deck, and it performs fantastically. It had originally been an Aristocrats theme with Visionary Stitcher at the helm. It is substantially better than that
I realy hate the new design of make tokens with counters or make x/x tokens where x is different all the time. Those effects are complicating the game in unnecessary ways. Rant over 😅
That was a fun game, and what a surprise ending with the False Cure. Neat interaction
I love this series and now here’s Torgaar my beloved? yippie!!
Nice to meet a fellow Torgaar fan out in the wild
Great video. I keep trying to find different commanders to try to build around. These were definitely some cool ideas.
That Torgarr build is soo cool. Gonna definitely be building it!
That was a great game from all parties involved, one of my favourites this year.
I love insects, and I've gone through using both grists, and I'm currently using zask and I have Amzu in the deck but I think you just gave me a great idea for how I could restructure it so that it's still a graveyard deck that is like almost immune to graveyard hate. I might just brew it to be less insect focused and more focused on graveyard shuffling.
Oh my gosh that’s a crazy synchronicity! I was looking for new commanders to build and thought Torgaar would be super cool so I built the deck all today (still 30 cards over). I was actually thinking of looking back on your Egon, God of death video for some references. Later this same day I get home and click on this TH-cam video and what do you know you put together the exact same Torgaar strategy as I did!
You are right that Amzu does not need tons Insects to work. But you should definitely run cards that create Insect tokens from synergistic effects. Crawling Infestation and Sensation let us mill two cards each at the start of our turn (which are optional), and with both on the board once each turn we create an Insect when a creature and a land is put into our graveyard from anywhere (Creature for Infestation, Land for Sensation). Iridescent Hornbeetle makes a number of 1/1 Insects at the end of our turn equal to the number of +1/+1 counters we've placed on our creatures, so getting a large MV card out of the graveyard can give us a pretty sizable board of Insects. And even if they're only 1/1s, enough 1/1s with menace do become a legitimate threat.
Thran Vigil is a pretty good card as well. Because let's not forget the amazing evasion that Amzu has built in. Flying and menace, in most cases, may as well read "can't be blocked." And other cards that generate value when cards leave our graveyard are must-haves. Defiled Crypt/Cadaver Lab from Duskmourn is a fantastic include here (Crypt makes a 2/2 Horror Enchantment Creature, Lab returns a creature from the graveyard to hand for B). As are Tormod (tapped 2/2 Skeleton), Desecrated Tomb (1/1 Flying Bat), Insidious Roots (0/1 Plant, grows our Plants each time it makes a Plant, and turns our creature tokens into ramp), Skeleton Crew (2/2 Skeleton Pirate which also can get itself out of the graveyard for repeatable 5/5 Insects with sac outlets), and Chalk Outline (2/2 White/Blue Detective and a Clue from investigate).
Ive been building an Awaken The Blood Avatar deck with the exact same "this card costs 2 less to cast for each creature sacrificed" extra cast cost, so a lot of those tips for torgar were super helpful to meA
We actually have 3 mono-blue Geralf's now. The original (Stitcher Geralf) was in Commander 2014 😉
Finally built Lulu and Clan crafter. My pod was not happy, no matter how many ways I pleaded. It's budget, no fast mana, only 25 lands...crushed them with value.
What? I gotta see this list. Sounds like the perfect deck to get an ex player back into the game.
Super cool ideas, Demo, and other contributors! 🎉
Livaan deck build would work even better with the new Miss Bumbleflower since it's any type of spell and you can even draw from it. I built mine with Willbreaker and for some reason I haven't seen anyone mention it or using it. Weird since it's a staple in Kenrith decks.
Can we get the Torgaar decklist?
I have torgaar in my Chauner, Nigthtmare Adept graveyard toolbox deck, and he really overperforms. Such an awesome flexible card, highly underrated
Oriq Loremage is just an all-star. I think some that would be cool in the insect deck are a Currency Converter and Containment Construct are interesting cards in that deck!
For the Livaan background, i wouldnt be surprised if he had the Criminal Past background. As that gives you Menace & "+X/+0 equal to the amount of creatures in your graveyard". As that seems like it would get you massive quickly, and is a Black card.
Amzu is so cool. Great idea with that one
I didn't think about the cards that shuffle themselves back in if they are put into the graveyard for Amzu. I was thinking about cards that just put a card from graveyards into the bottom of the library. Most of the artifacts that do that are about 5 mana. They did make some cheaper ones in newer sets.
4:36 you can also add Cascade/Discover effects to Geralf
Brash Taunter would be pretty funny in that Livaan idea
That Geralf 0 cmc artifact idea gets even crazier when consider cards like Retract and Hurkyl's Recall -- pay a small amount to return all your cmc 0 artifacts and do it all again! :D
You should do one for Parnesse of the subtle brush, she’s super underrated and has an easy infinite with an ally with any creature copying spell and is complimented by cards like crafty cutpurse to pull the rug out from under an ally and having an ally allows you to get big spells like clone legion off because of the help you could give to an ally, but you get to choose after you cast it which is huge
I built a Livaan with Raised by Giants to make a Gruul spellslinger voltron deck. It's pretty good, but recently have been considering swapping out some cards to make it more resilient
Something I saw recently and I think is very cool (though a bit Monolith) ... Kess, Dissident Mage with Adventures .... very very nice because of the interaction
Oh, that is nice! My failed attempt to close the game with moonshaker contributed to today's video. Jokes aside, it was quite a game mainly due to the incredible outcome. 🙂
i like play kozilek in my blue deck so i can discard it on my end step and shuffle my grave back into my library, cause it routinely draws 5+ cards a turn. and discarding it makes sure i dont accidentally deck myself out by drawing. 🤷♂️ its saved me that heartache quite a bit, and its saved me the game from a bruvac deck once lol.
Speaking of Thrasta....... i added him in to my Adrix & Nev, Twincasters token deck in exchange for Apex Altisaur 😅 keen to see how nice it is having 2-3 7/7's with Trample/Haste & Hexproof when they first come out, and how much my opponents enjoy seeing 21+ damage coming their way depending on the cards i have in play/still able to play once i drop that bomb out
That last one, Warlock class would also be good. The 3rd level doubles life loss for each opponent on end step.
I was actually thinking about Torgaar recently and the idea I came up with was almost a group hug style deck mixed with wound reflection type effects. I want to help my opponents gain life above their starting total, so when I cast Torgaar they end up losing more than 20 life + wound reflection = KO. I didn’t get to putting a deck together, but if anyone has a deck list like that I’d be happy to see it!
green red black gorilla deck. this deck makes the earfquake. its off topic deck but i still wanted to share it. i play vintage more than the other formats because i can breaks from magic and return still pick up where i left off at in vintage format:
kird ape
abyssal persecutor
simian spirit guide
wall of roots
ragavan, nimble pilferer
army ants
dwarven blastminer
violent ultimatum
casualties of war
gorilla shaman
sideboard:
4 damping sphere
1 carpet of flowers
2 shatterstorm
2 creeping corrosion
4 pithing needle
1 red elemental blast
1 boil
Salubrious Snail has a cool video on a Sharuum Astral Slide cycling deck
Livaan with the Flaming fist background can be deadly as a voltron deck. Livaan easily becomes a one shot threat with a few pump spells. He is instantly in one shot range after casting jeska thrice reborn, pumping him with the 3 mana and using her ability to make him do triple dmg. I call it one punch maan livaan.
I have a goad deck with Livaan and Noble Heritage and it is inspired by berserk
Old stickfingers is so good in the Amzu deck
Iridescent Hornbeetle would be good in that Amzu deck
One of my unique builds - at least it seemed that way - is Bruna WU Self-Mill. Pretty fun.
Do you have a list for this ! ?
Just in time for my morning commute lol
7:14 you’re thinking about Popular Entertainer
The Torgaar deck is interesting.
So i build a Sivriss/cloakwood hermit deck just like Amzu for a budget league, as sivriss is milling and then returning things so i run all the leaves the grave effects like him in it (except Amzu as he doesnt fit the current budget rules at all)
Amzu is one of my favorite commanders from this year I use this build and my pod hates it because I just use the biggest creatures I use shadow of mortality to drag it out of my graveyard and then just discard and redo lol
Grist the Hunger tide should also be very good in the Amzu deck or not ?
Entomb, Unmarked Grave, Corpse Connoisseur, Oriq Loremage, Vile Entomber, Lively Dirge, Buried Alive
I have a torgaar edh deck for 6 or more years that pkays with my own life, it's amazingly funny to play with and against!
Its in my profile SilencedDax in tappedout, maybe you saw it Demo hahaha
I love the amzu idea too!
Tainted remedy works with Torgaar too.
ill try it the other way around and put torgaar into my gollumn deck lol this will be fun
Torgar plus False Cure is a pretty hilarious coup de grâce to anyone at 10 life or below. Good call.
I can see Amzu as a pure reanimate/graveyard hate deck
So I have a Geralf the Fleshwright Zombie deck, and it performs fantastically. It had originally been an Aristocrats theme with Visionary Stitcher at the helm. It is substantially better than that
Lets go!!!!
Perhaps "Unique builds for 5 commanders" would be less ambiguous.
Tainted remedy
How about 5 unique commanders; 5 unique builds?
some of the commanders aren't very unique. i've done atraxa on this series before.
@@edhdeckbuilding 5 commanders ; 5 unique builds then :)
FIRST WOOT
Reading geralf gives me headache
I realy hate the new design of make tokens with counters or make x/x tokens where x is different all the time. Those effects are complicating the game in unnecessary ways.
Rant over 😅