I would even go as far as to say that i would be okay, for entertainment purposes, if they implemented a little controlled randomization. I know its cheating but you also don't have to go full cheat mode. There probably is a reasonable way to do this. The Production quality is just too high to sometimes have people not be able to play the game.
It's not like episodes haven't ever been reshot because someone is just in SUCH a commanding lead. It's too bad they didn't do it with this past game. Oh well
Separate the deck into 2 piles; land and non-land, and then shuffle each pile. Draw 4 from the non-land pile, and 3 from the land pile. Then shuffle the land and non-land piles together and play as normal. Mulligans would work the same as normal EDH except you'd have to mulligan your hand back into each pile, shuffle each pile, then draw the same way. If you mulligan below 7 then scry from the combined and shuffled deck.
I sincerely enjoy the podcast episodes much more since DJ is on the stage. He brings some honest opinions, different insights, and ends becoming a nice discussion and not a "we both agree in everything, we are both best friends". Kind of a more professional vibe now...just my opinion. Love Game Knights too! Not the last one and the core 19 one though.
I absolutwly agree with that. Its more interesting now. Not that Jimmy isnt interesting. Its just that the conversation is moving back and forth a little more.
I have the Emmara Starter Commander deck, and I really like the idea of using Nature's Chosen for the untap category. But what about Halo Fountain? When tapped, you can untap Emmara AND create a 1/1 green and white Citizen creature token in one move... then tap Emmara with another card or in an attack and create a Soldier creature token. And there are other things you can do with Halo Fountain too. IMO, it is CRITICAL to this deck.
Curse of bounty is pretty fun when you enchant yourself. It kind of acts like an anti-attack card because you Untap your creatures when someone attacks you. Josh, what do you think of that?
Richard Pohorelic DJ is an extremely insightful EDH mind but also one who enjoys aspects of the game other than just being competitive. In fact you’ll find that some of the very best players you come across enjoy jank bc it’s a break from competitive
If you don't like his approach to magic, that's fine. You could've just said that. You don't like janky decks. But you also didn't need to mock and insult him when he hasn't done anything to warrant that. You can find that his playstyle does not match yours. No need to be a buttwipe about it though.
A cool line with Nature's Chosen that wasn't mentioned: the enchanted creature can target itself with that second ability. Tap and untap Emmara for a free soldier once each turn, including your opponents' turns. Seems solid on a 1 mana aura.
One similar thing that my playgroup did as far as "how much advantage does doing ____ help your win percentage" was in the particular game mode "Emperor", where you have 2 opposing emperors and each emperor has 2 lieutenants. It's technically a group-game, so everyone gets to draw on their first turn. Out of 15 games, the team that went first won 12 of them. That's an 80% win-rate. Spending the entire game 1 step ahead of the opponents was backbreaking. Our solution was to align the rules more to 1v1, where when you go first you don't get to draw at your first draw step. This hand disadvantage seemed enough to help, because the win-rate has since hovered between 45-55%. Also, my 2 cents on the sol ring question: In free-for-all pod games, I'm fairy sure anyone who started with turn 1 sol ring won that game about 75-80% of the time. And the only times they didn't win, was because the entire group was focusing them into the ground the entire game because they basically HAD to, to combat the insane tempo advantage they had. And while people argue that's the "balance" of sol-ring, is that everyone focuses you into the ground after playing it, Is that really fun? For either party? My opinion is no, no it isn't. Sol ring and mana crypt really should be banned along with the moxen, which are honestly LESS powerful but still banned.
For emperor, we begin the game with the 3rd player of team A taking a turn. Than players individually take turns clockwise. So team B all get turns before it gets back to team A for round 2. We don't play team turns simultaneous like 2 headed giant.
Donna Sprague Yehh we do simultaneous turns like 2HG. Might be interested in trying the individual turns option, but like I said the fix we found pretty much solved the issue so we'll prolly keep it that way since it works for us~
Thanks for the tips! I was putting together an Emmara deck and used some of your ideas today at lunch! For a while it worked out *really well* and I was dumping soldiers onto the board for extra mana, life, +1/+1 counters, and combat damage. Then the board wipes came. I think I'm going to "sideboard" a Second Sunrise, but otherwise it was a lot of fun!
Yeah, I agree with other commenting people. That episode of Game Knights wasn't very satisfying. It was like Josh was plaing solitaire. I'd love to see how other decks play out if they're given a fair chance. Rematch wouldn't be a bad thing tbh...
Note on Curse of Bounty, this is one of the interesting ones where it can be beneficially to curse yourself, it allows you to attack with everything without fear of them attacking back because you untap your things and block with 1/1's
I would really like to see a Command Zone episode going over all of the cards they consider to be staples. Not just stuff everyone thinks they need, but stuff they REALLY NEED. Stuff I’ve noticed is really good based on recent episodes of Game Knights plus them talking about them on the show are Vedalken Orrery, Reconnaissance, Anguished Unmaking, Mystic Confluence, and more I can’t keep track of
Oakhame Ranger! It's a new card that fits into the "pump your team up huge" category, but is way more on-theme with this deck. You can get your tokens as huge as the number of times you can untap a given creature allows. This deck is probably the one place that card can see play.
DJ that was the funniest end step ever! It's crazy that when you're in school it's hard to think that your teachers are normal people that could like the same things you do on their down time
Stop all the DJ hate in the comments. We all love and miss Jimmy , but the idea of you taking that out on DJ is super toxic. Thank you for the deck teck , I'm personally stuck on my decision between Emmara or the new Tristoni for a new deck? Any reason why you chose her over the new Tristoni ??
Thor Pate honestly, i think DJ is outstanding on this show. nothing against jimmy, but DJ brings a completely different point of view to the show where with jimmy, jimmy and josh tend to side for the exact same ideas. if it came down to jimmy leaving for Hollywood and dj took over permanently, i wouldn't mind that one bit...and imo would just make the show better over all.
I prefer Emmara, because having a token generator in the command zone is my favorite way to run a token deck. New Trostani can easily be slotted into a token deck, but Emmara is a buildaround and always gives you some way to make tokens repeatably
Emmara has way more combo potential and you’re better off with her for combos but if you want to play a flat out selesnya tokens deck then Trostanni is better.
@@derekwalter4238 watched within the 1st hour , and I read 3 comments complaining about it ... Maybe the positive comments are now outweighing them but I would not have posted this if it were not present.. I am a fan of all the hosts , tbh I wanna see more of Craig because his aggressive style of play reminds me of my own
52:00 I also thought the table joining up against the player that gets a turn 1-2-3 sol ring or mana crypt mitigated the advantage, especially since so much of the targeted artifact removal is in decks specifically to deal with early mana rocks (at least in my playgroup). However, I will say that it has a way of warping the board and making that early mana rocks a focal point of the early game...
One more nice card you would like to add: Patrol Signaler. It is a 1W 1/1 Kithkin Soldier with 1W, Untap: add a 1/1 Kithkin Soldier Token. Also because they are soldiers (sadly emmara isn’t) maybe try a catapult master.
I'm curious. I love your videos and have learned a ton. I have a question though. At minute 43:30 you talk about Skullclamp being a great way to draw cards because it kills your 1/1 creatures straight away. However, previously in the video you disucss a number of ways to buff those same creatures to 2/2 and above so this seems like a card that would not necessarily be useful unless you got it out early in the game and to put several cards with the goal of getting a card out that would not do what you want it to do when it is possible to get it out does not seem useful. What am I missing?
That deck looks pretty sweet! I think in stronger groups an early Sol Ring or Mana Crypt is probably a significant advantage, but not really for my group.
early quick mana coupled with powerful cards or a draw engine wins games, which is why mana accelerants in commander are so broken and overused. I play at the mid to casual tier so I try to stay away from the big ones but still run some fix and acceleration like signets and land fetch which keep games at a better pace for me turn 3-4 wins are boring and no one gets to have much fun.
Hey Josh i know you are very active in the comments (or at least you ware back in the day ) Thank you for makeing the emmara deck tech i wanted to build her and i have a pretty good grasp on what's supposed to be in there but it's always nice to share opinions. Thank you so much you guys are the main reason why i got into commander in the first place !
@TheCommandZone Yeah i am happy for Jimmy he got such a big role! Also it really looks like you've been working hard but you still manage to stay so positive i get really cranky when i am doing alot of work but still try to stay positive dosen't work everytime tho.
Omg I'm so in love with this channel I've been watching all your game knights etc which thae lead me to this deck you built josh its amazing I love it and wanted to build it myself as my first commander deck but cant afford the cards :c. Anyways keep being the best mtg channel out there and stay safe and strong during these times:) ❤
Honestly your end-question is very difficult. In some decks, that changes everything; that puts 4-mana commanders in the board turn Two, which is usually increasingly valuable. On the other hand, sol ring can be such a trap; I’ve kept terrible hands because “hey, I opened a sol ring and two land,” aside from the hate you draw for being ahead. I’m gonna be thinking about this all day.
I'm gonna keep complaining (in the nicest way possible, I still freaking love all the content y'all make) until DJ is on GameKnights. I do looove this deck though. Emmara was the one legend I was actually interested in building, I was just skeptical because it overlaps a little with my Kumena deck in what it tries to do (tap/untap). But I might make her anyway.
Just watched the Game Knights Episode, very cool win Josh. I was wondering if you had Sigil Captain in there? Very OP if you don't have Divine Visitation on the battlefield yet: Sigil Captain {1}{G}{W}{W} Creature - Rhino Soldier Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if that creature is 1/1, put two +1/+1 counters on it.
I'm curious what you guys think about the card Sands of Time for this deck. It's a tap effect if you already have an untap effect and vice versa. Since it's symmetrical there is the potential for other people to abuse the extra untappings; but it also messes with creatures that can only attack, since once they do they'll always be tapped on their controller's turn (if there's an even number of players). It also makes it trickier to leave up blockers. And it does have some anti-synergy with Seedborn Muse and Quest for Renewal since everyone skips their untap steps. It doesn't pop up on EDHREC and it wasn't mentioned here so I'm wondering if it's because people tried it and cut it or they're just not aware of it.
@@TheMystcast ok how it work is u have staff equip to emmara u tap two mana and pick a player, emmara then makes a token, you sac the token to the altar make two colorless mana, which will untap emmara. Use the two mana to active the staff again and repeat
Regarding the Sol Ring and the Mana Crypt question. -> I have lost ALL Commander games I have ever played since 2014 but one single game. One of the players during our last meeting actually said when we played that with that manapool you must understand that you are a too big enemy to be kept alive. Normally I try do dodge and hide in my "Pillow Fort" but this time I tried beeing aggressive with the Red/Blue insect god. I have all the group of manastones and all the lands that make a 6 manacreature playable. I won my first Commandergame EVER and then "Anton" and his brother killed me the next second. I have not been competetive in Magic since 1995 but both brothers has been recently. "Anton" just said that kind of a mana pool can NOT be allowed. I really understand that YOU DO NOT YET UNDERSTAND that the happy aggrement about NEVER EVER MESS WITH MY LANDS! I am looking forward to the Day that you make a "NO-deck" or should I correctly call it a: "No lands for you my friend in this game". Thank you for the clip that made bother to write this as a zombie after work. Keep it up, want more!
I think a turn 1 sol ring helps, but it also depends on your deck, and how you built it. It is really good ramp, but you need stuff to spend the mana on.
Puppet Strings, Jandor's Saddlebag, Perilous Forrays, and Citanul Hierophants might be decent in this deck. You could also run the Presence of Gond + Midnight Guard combo.
I am actually a fan of MTGGoldfish "soft ban list" since I personally find myself purposefully building decks to counter sol ring/mana crypt/mana vault starts. I feel like starting with them is easily a solid 5% increase in win percentage. You should also pull the stats to how many games are won because someone overloaded a Cyclonic Rift, and if it was any other card in that same situation would the same result be reached. I have personally moved Cyclonic Rift out of all of my decks, and have instead challenged myself to use alternatives.
In my experience Sol Ring increases your win chances in 1v1 or 1v1v1 but once there are three or more players to focus you then you probably loose more often. This is assuming that only one player dropped an early Sol Ring and not multiple players.
Have you ever thought of posting not only your game knights deck list, but then an upgraded version of it? Or perhaps just talking about upgrades and removals? Perhaps a 7/10 version that can be taken to your LGS and be a bit more "sturdy"? I only ask b/c despite the fact that I like the way the meta is for Game Knights, no one I play apparently does. Combo's galore. The only time I really enjoy playing with them is when I force them to play vanilla pre-cons, and even then one of them will want to play Atraxa.
It's a little hard to build five different decks for different meta buddy, I can tell you that nobody is going to blame you for playing the obvious answers to combos like stony silence, rest in peace and torpor orb (a rogue counter like memory lapse or mana tithe help as well) the point is that most hate cards work well regardless of what green-white deck you're playing. (Bane of progress I wouldn't recommend here since most of your deck consists of enchantments) If you don't like your local meta and you have multiple decks try giving a new player one of your decks, twoVtwo with two fair decks is more doable.
I think it does increase the %, but only when you cast your commander during those turns, if not ... well, I think you're basically in the same place as everyone else. Since the commander is probably the most important card in your deck, if you're not able to play it early and take advantage of it then you're not really developing your strategy.
Sol Ring does not equate more wins imo. Sure you get a mana boost, but the table will notice and DO you have the card-draw to back that boost up? There is a reason cards like Rec Sage and the new Knight of Autumn are heavily played.
It wouldn't surprise me if an early sol ring is a detriment. In my group if someone drops a sol ring and/or ramps super hard the first couple turns they become arch enemy until they are nearly dead or someone vandalblasts.
wouldn't running a lot of convoke cards give an easy way to tap Emmara? You can use Emmara essentially as a mana source, and then any tokens she brings in can be used for convoke on the same turn
Interesting question; an enchantment that just said “pay 2, sacrifice a creature; draw two cards.” Would it replace/be an alternate to skullclamp? Or would it just sit there in the bulkrare binder for eternity.
For that whole sol ring debate, (since I don't believe in Twitter so I won't be in those polls), wouldn't a big factor for the turn 1-3 sol ring be determined by the follow up play instead of the actual sol ring? You could drop a sol ring turn 1 and by turn 2 drop a scary 4cmc spell but at the same time you can play a turn one sol ring but have no follow up so by the time you get a scary threat the sol ring might not be a huge factor in casting that spell?
I decided to build the deck after watching the game knights episode and I'd like your thoughs on a few things. How do you like loam dryad and birchlore ranger? Are additional sprinleaf drum effects good? I like selesnya evangel too, seems right on theme. How about great oak guardian for the «less lame than craterhoof win-con» role? Untap and flash seem pretty sweet. I also put dictate of heliod for more flash shenanigans. How much should i care about the lifegain subtheme? I put a bunch of lifegain payoffs stuff, like well of lost dreams, crested sunmare, archangel of thune and some things like soul warden and friends. Worth it?
Opinion - having two games per episode is better than one. Shows more of the decks portrayed, more game situations and interactions, more fun in general
I was really surprised to not see Niv Mizzet on Game Knights. He's the best Commander in the set. Izoni is cool, but I prefer her in the 99 (she's in my Maren deck). Tajic and Aurelia both Boros, do nothing to solve Boros's core deficiencies, and the old Aurelia is a better commander (extra attack steps > mentor). New Trostani is cool but all over the place. Emmara is worse Rhys. And Etrata requires a lot of effort to be effective.
"Emmara's not that difficult to tap" Guys..we need to talk about bringing back phrasing..
We already saw this deck go off. It's the others that are mysteries to us.
airkami i personally wouldnt mind a rematch of the last game knights. that episode and all its land drop misses didnt satisfy my commandzone fix...
I would even go as far as to say that i would be okay, for entertainment purposes, if they implemented a little controlled randomization.
I know its cheating but you also don't have to go full cheat mode. There probably is a reasonable way to do this. The Production quality is just too high to sometimes have people not be able to play the game.
It's not like episodes haven't ever been reshot because someone is just in SUCH a commanding lead. It's too bad they didn't do it with this past game. Oh well
they've already done deck techs on the dimir and golgari decks in the last 2 episodes
Separate the deck into 2 piles; land and non-land, and then shuffle each pile. Draw 4 from the non-land pile, and 3 from the land pile. Then shuffle the land and non-land piles together and play as normal. Mulligans would work the same as normal EDH except you'd have to mulligan your hand back into each pile, shuffle each pile, then draw the same way. If you mulligan below 7 then scry from the combined and shuffled deck.
I sincerely enjoy the podcast episodes much more since DJ is on the stage. He brings some honest opinions, different insights, and ends becoming a nice discussion and not a "we both agree in everything, we are both best friends". Kind of a more professional vibe now...just my opinion.
Love Game Knights too! Not the last one and the core 19 one though.
I absolutwly agree with that.
Its more interesting now.
Not that Jimmy isnt interesting. Its just that the conversation is moving back and forth a little more.
I have the Emmara Starter Commander deck, and I really like the idea of using Nature's Chosen for the untap category. But what about Halo Fountain? When tapped, you can untap Emmara AND create a 1/1 green and white Citizen creature token in one move... then tap Emmara with another card or in an attack and create a Soldier creature token. And there are other things you can do with Halo Fountain too. IMO, it is CRITICAL to this deck.
I use halo fountaine love it
One of the things you could take advantage of Emmara
Convoke + Paradox Engine + Creature based card draw
I mean game knights wouldnt have been much different if you had the squirrels nest combo lol
Very nice...but guys, when DJ is going to join GK?
Maybe when Jimmy comes back.
Curse of bounty is pretty fun when you enchant yourself. It kind of acts like an anti-attack card because you Untap your creatures when someone attacks you. Josh, what do you think of that?
Hey, get DJ on GameKnights!
@@richardpohorelic2172 why he is awesome!
Hell yeah
Richard Pohorelic DJ is an extremely insightful EDH mind but also one who enjoys aspects of the game other than just being competitive. In fact you’ll find that some of the very best players you come across enjoy jank bc it’s a break from competitive
If you don't like his approach to magic, that's fine. You could've just said that. You don't like janky decks.
But you also didn't need to mock and insult him when he hasn't done anything to warrant that. You can find that his playstyle does not match yours. No need to be a buttwipe about it though.
Pretty sure you're in the very small minority here... I want him on Game Nights...
Emmara is two M's one R :)
Whoops! Fixed now. Thanks for the heads up :-)
Great deck tech! Can't wait to see what other Guilds of Ravnica commanders you brew around!
Affinity For Commander I would like to see Niv Mizzet
Altar of the brood is pretty brutal in this deck. I didn't have time to watch the whole thing, but I love your videos!
A cool line with Nature's Chosen that wasn't mentioned: the enchanted creature can target itself with that second ability. Tap and untap Emmara for a free soldier once each turn, including your opponents' turns. Seems solid on a 1 mana aura.
One similar thing that my playgroup did as far as "how much advantage does doing ____ help your win percentage" was in the particular game mode "Emperor", where you have 2 opposing emperors and each emperor has 2 lieutenants. It's technically a group-game, so everyone gets to draw on their first turn. Out of 15 games, the team that went first won 12 of them. That's an 80% win-rate. Spending the entire game 1 step ahead of the opponents was backbreaking. Our solution was to align the rules more to 1v1, where when you go first you don't get to draw at your first draw step. This hand disadvantage seemed enough to help, because the win-rate has since hovered between 45-55%.
Also, my 2 cents on the sol ring question: In free-for-all pod games, I'm fairy sure anyone who started with turn 1 sol ring won that game about 75-80% of the time. And the only times they didn't win, was because the entire group was focusing them into the ground the entire game because they basically HAD to, to combat the insane tempo advantage they had. And while people argue that's the "balance" of sol-ring, is that everyone focuses you into the ground after playing it, Is that really fun? For either party? My opinion is no, no it isn't. Sol ring and mana crypt really should be banned along with the moxen, which are honestly LESS powerful but still banned.
For emperor, we begin the game with the 3rd player of team A taking a turn. Than players individually take turns clockwise. So team B all get turns before it gets back to team A for round 2. We don't play team turns simultaneous like 2 headed giant.
Donna Sprague Yehh we do simultaneous turns like 2HG. Might be interested in trying the individual turns option, but like I said the fix we found pretty much solved the issue so we'll prolly keep it that way since it works for us~
Thanks for the tips! I was putting together an Emmara deck and used some of your ideas today at lunch! For a while it worked out *really well* and I was dumping soldiers onto the board for extra mana, life, +1/+1 counters, and combat damage.
Then the board wipes came. I think I'm going to "sideboard" a Second Sunrise, but otherwise it was a lot of fun!
Yeah, I agree with other commenting people. That episode of Game Knights wasn't very satisfying. It was like Josh was plaing solitaire. I'd love to see how other decks play out if they're given a fair chance. Rematch wouldn't be a bad thing tbh...
Like most Commander games, this one just went just right for him. If it wasn't for that phasing at the key moments, he would have been crushed
26:11 because everyone has Gaea’s Cradle.
I love the flavour text on Reconnaissance. It favours you only if you are informed and know how to use it properly
My respect for that wow thing where you contacted the other gm to stop that student from dropping out of school! what a beautiful story!
Note on Curse of Bounty, this is one of the interesting ones where it can be beneficially to curse yourself, it allows you to attack with everything without fear of them attacking back because you untap your things and block with 1/1's
I would really like to see a Command Zone episode going over all of the cards they consider to be staples. Not just stuff everyone thinks they need, but stuff they REALLY NEED. Stuff I’ve noticed is really good based on recent episodes of Game Knights plus them talking about them on the show are Vedalken Orrery, Reconnaissance, Anguished Unmaking, Mystic Confluence, and more I can’t keep track of
The Sriracha bottle still there
Oakhame Ranger!
It's a new card that fits into the "pump your team up huge" category, but is way more on-theme with this deck. You can get your tokens as huge as the number of times you can untap a given creature allows. This deck is probably the one place that card can see play.
I love the part at 21:43, Josh just realises that DJ was not paying attention..AT ALL! HAHAHA
DJ that was the funniest end step ever! It's crazy that when you're in school it's hard to think that your teachers are normal people that could like the same things you do on their down time
Did you keep the deck together?
Stop all the DJ hate in the comments. We all love and miss Jimmy , but the idea of you taking that out on DJ is super toxic. Thank you for the deck teck , I'm personally stuck on my decision between Emmara or the new Tristoni for a new deck? Any reason why you chose her over the new Tristoni ??
Thor Pate honestly, i think DJ is outstanding on this show. nothing against jimmy, but DJ brings a completely different point of view to the show where with jimmy, jimmy and josh tend to side for the exact same ideas.
if it came down to jimmy leaving for Hollywood and dj took over permanently, i wouldn't mind that one bit...and imo would just make the show better over all.
I prefer Emmara, because having a token generator in the command zone is my favorite way to run a token deck. New Trostani can easily be slotted into a token deck, but Emmara is a buildaround and always gives you some way to make tokens repeatably
Emmara has way more combo potential and you’re better off with her for combos but if you want to play a flat out selesnya tokens deck then Trostanni is better.
I don't see a single comment hating on him. What are you talking about??
@@derekwalter4238 watched within the 1st hour , and I read 3 comments complaining about it ... Maybe the positive comments are now outweighing them but I would not have posted this if it were not present.. I am a fan of all the hosts , tbh I wanna see more of Craig because his aggressive style of play reminds me of my own
DJ is a legend!!! That end step made me burst out in laughter!!! XD
52:00 I also thought the table joining up against the player that gets a turn 1-2-3 sol ring or mana crypt mitigated the advantage, especially since so much of the targeted artifact removal is in decks specifically to deal with early mana rocks (at least in my playgroup). However, I will say that it has a way of warping the board and making that early mana rocks a focal point of the early game...
The first 3minutes felt like a home shopping 🤣😂😅
DJs story in the end step is awesome
The coffee idea is a awesome idea... mix that with. Some magic talk it would be the best TCZ ever... PS Prof has to be there
One more nice card you would like to add: Patrol Signaler. It is a 1W 1/1 Kithkin Soldier with 1W, Untap: add a 1/1 Kithkin Soldier Token. Also because they are soldiers (sadly emmara isn’t) maybe try a catapult master.
I'm curious. I love your videos and have learned a ton. I have a question though. At minute 43:30 you talk about Skullclamp being a great way to draw cards because it kills your 1/1 creatures straight away. However, previously in the video you disucss a number of ways to buff those same creatures to 2/2 and above so this seems like a card that would not necessarily be useful unless you got it out early in the game and to put several cards with the goal of getting a card out that would not do what you want it to do when it is possible to get it out does not seem useful. What am I missing?
That deck looks pretty sweet!
I think in stronger groups an early Sol Ring or Mana Crypt is probably a significant advantage, but not really for my group.
early quick mana coupled with powerful cards or a draw engine wins games, which is why mana accelerants in commander are so broken and overused. I play at the mid to casual tier so I try to stay away from the big ones but still run some fix and acceleration like signets and land fetch which keep games at a better pace for me turn 3-4 wins are boring and no one gets to have much fun.
Finally someone does a deck tech of the only commander I want to build out of the new set.
Hey Josh i know you are very active in the comments (or at least you ware back in the day ) Thank you for makeing the emmara deck tech i wanted to build her and i have a pretty good grasp on what's supposed to be in there but it's always nice to share opinions. Thank you so much you guys are the main reason why i got into commander in the first place !
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed. With Jimmy gone, I'm quite a bit more busy than I used to be but I still try to visit the comments whenever I can. -JLK
@TheCommandZone
Yeah i am happy for Jimmy he got such a big role!
Also it really looks like you've been working hard but you still manage to stay so positive i get really cranky when i am doing alot of work but still try to stay positive dosen't work everytime tho.
Omg I'm so in love with this channel I've been watching all your game knights etc which thae lead me to this deck you built josh its amazing I love it and wanted to build it myself as my first commander deck but cant afford the cards :c. Anyways keep being the best mtg channel out there and stay safe and strong during these times:) ❤
Honestly your end-question is very difficult. In some decks, that changes everything; that puts 4-mana commanders in the board turn Two, which is usually increasingly valuable. On the other hand, sol ring can be such a trap; I’ve kept terrible hands because “hey, I opened a sol ring and two land,” aside from the hate you draw for being ahead. I’m gonna be thinking about this all day.
I just played this deck at a secret Santa deck swap with friends, and ended the game at 78 health. Started at 40. The life gain is no joke!
I'm gonna keep complaining (in the nicest way possible, I still freaking love all the content y'all make) until DJ is on GameKnights.
I do looove this deck though. Emmara was the one legend I was actually interested in building, I was just skeptical because it overlaps a little with my Kumena deck in what it tries to do (tap/untap). But I might make her anyway.
Bought some gruul ones. Only 98 came in the pack
divine visitation and doubling season effects are INFINITE
Wow...I just realized I have been carrying an Infinite combo thus whole time....
Thank you
Just watched the Game Knights Episode, very cool win Josh. I was wondering if you had Sigil Captain in there? Very OP if you don't have Divine Visitation on the battlefield yet:
Sigil Captain {1}{G}{W}{W}
Creature - Rhino Soldier
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if that creature is 1/1, put two +1/+1 counters on it.
I'm curious what you guys think about the card Sands of Time for this deck. It's a tap effect if you already have an untap effect and vice versa. Since it's symmetrical there is the potential for other people to abuse the extra untappings; but it also messes with creatures that can only attack, since once they do they'll always be tapped on their controller's turn (if there's an even number of players). It also makes it trickier to leave up blockers. And it does have some anti-synergy with Seedborn Muse and Quest for Renewal since everyone skips their untap steps. It doesn't pop up on EDHREC and it wasn't mentioned here so I'm wondering if it's because people tried it and cut it or they're just not aware of it.
I like ashnod altar + thronbite staff+ emmara = infinite damage
explain
@@TheMystcast ok how it work is u have staff equip to emmara u tap two mana and pick a player, emmara then makes a token, you sac the token to the altar make two colorless mana, which will untap emmara. Use the two mana to active the staff again and repeat
Tokens die but dont go to graveyard
they do touch the graveyard but they are immediatly exiled after lol
The errata version of the staff in the gatherer says "Whenever a creature dies, untap this creature."
Regarding the Sol Ring and the Mana Crypt question. ->
I have lost ALL Commander games I have ever played since 2014 but one single game.
One of the players during our last meeting actually said when we played that with that manapool you must understand that you are a too big enemy to be kept alive.
Normally I try do dodge and hide in my "Pillow Fort" but this time I tried beeing aggressive with the Red/Blue insect god.
I have all the group of manastones and all the lands that make a 6 manacreature playable.
I won my first Commandergame EVER and then "Anton" and his brother killed me the next second.
I have not been competetive in Magic since 1995 but both brothers has been recently.
"Anton" just said that kind of a mana pool can NOT be allowed.
I really understand that YOU DO NOT YET UNDERSTAND that the happy aggrement about NEVER EVER MESS WITH MY LANDS!
I am looking forward to the Day that you make a "NO-deck" or should I correctly call it a: "No lands for you my friend in this game".
Thank you for the clip that made bother to write this as a zombie after work.
Keep it up, want more!
WHY THE HELL HAS DJ NOT BEEN ON GAME KNIGHTS YET
I think a turn 1 sol ring helps, but it also depends on your deck, and how you built it. It is really good ramp, but you need stuff to spend the mana on.
I'm so happy Reconnaissance is getting the love it deserves.
Puppet Strings, Jandor's Saddlebag, Perilous Forrays, and Citanul Hierophants might be decent in this deck. You could also run the Presence of Gond + Midnight Guard combo.
Hey thats me :D
You rock!!!
You rock!!
Nah... you guys rock!
I think Survivor's Encampment has my favorite (serious) flavor text on any card ever
I am actually a fan of MTGGoldfish "soft ban list" since I personally find myself purposefully building decks to counter sol ring/mana crypt/mana vault starts. I feel like starting with them is easily a solid 5% increase in win percentage. You should also pull the stats to how many games are won because someone overloaded a Cyclonic Rift, and if it was any other card in that same situation would the same result be reached. I have personally moved Cyclonic Rift out of all of my decks, and have instead challenged myself to use alternatives.
Perilous forays in Emmara is lit
In my experience Sol Ring increases your win chances in 1v1 or 1v1v1 but once there are three or more players to focus you then you probably loose more often. This is assuming that only one player dropped an early Sol Ring and not multiple players.
Have you ever thought of posting not only your game knights deck list, but then an upgraded version of it? Or perhaps just talking about upgrades and removals? Perhaps a 7/10 version that can be taken to your LGS and be a bit more "sturdy"? I only ask b/c despite the fact that I like the way the meta is for Game Knights, no one I play apparently does. Combo's galore. The only time I really enjoy playing with them is when I force them to play vanilla pre-cons, and even then one of them will want to play Atraxa.
It's a little hard to build five different decks for different meta buddy, I can tell you that nobody is going to blame you for playing the obvious answers to combos like stony silence, rest in peace and torpor orb (a rogue counter like memory lapse or mana tithe help as well) the point is that most hate cards work well regardless of what green-white deck you're playing.
(Bane of progress I wouldn't recommend here since most of your deck consists of enchantments)
If you don't like your local meta and you have multiple decks try giving a new player one of your decks, twoVtwo with two fair decks is more doable.
This deck is so cool! The game knights was awesome!
I think it does increase the %, but only when you cast your commander during those turns, if not ... well, I think you're basically in the same place as everyone else. Since the commander is probably the most important card in your deck, if you're not able to play it early and take advantage of it then you're not really developing your strategy.
Sol Ring does not equate more wins imo. Sure you get a mana boost, but the table will notice and DO you have the card-draw to back that boost up?
There is a reason cards like Rec Sage and the new Knight of Autumn are heavily played.
Just an FYI, I believe the quote "quantity has a quality all its own" is from Stalin rather than Napoleon
I just played a game last night with new GRN cards in my Rhy's the Redeemed deck those life link tokens are insane. I gained over 200 life.
Emmara + Nature's Chosen is an infinite combo by itself.
Pay (0), tap Emmara: untap Emmara.
It wouldn't surprise me if an early sol ring is a detriment. In my group if someone drops a sol ring and/or ramps super hard the first couple turns they become arch enemy until they are nearly dead or someone vandalblasts.
I have a $50 deck of Emmara where $13 of that is dedicated to Anointed Procession
You can make polls here on youtube in the community tab
wouldn't running a lot of convoke cards give an easy way to tap Emmara? You can use Emmara essentially as a mana source, and then any tokens she brings in can be used for convoke on the same turn
I think if you are last to play the first round, sol ring boosts you up beyond all other players if they didn't drop a solid ring.
I went with convoke emmara cause its has some shenanigans to it like impervious greatwurm and chant of the vitu-ghazi
It's official: DJ is stronger than The Professor. What a workout tearing apart those sleeves.
I'd say Sol Ring helps you win more often than not ...
In my personal experience it has over 30 or so games in the last year.
I would say turn one sol ring alone is a 3 percent win advantage but with a play off a turn one sol ring I would say 6 to 8 percent advantage
3:00 "Strapping Young Lad"
JLK metalhead confirmed?
When josh said he wanted a different win condition that’s not combat damage I knew it would be throne of the god pharaoh
Would really love to see someone play a Captain Sisay Deck on Game Knights
"Prof would just complain about the coffee and how he knows where there is better coffee" hahahahaha
Thanks for your work
Nature's Chosen would be good in Selvala as well to untap her :P
Interesting question; an enchantment that just said “pay 2, sacrifice a creature; draw two cards.” Would it replace/be an alternate to skullclamp? Or would it just sit there in the bulkrare binder for eternity.
I'd be fine playing instant speed for an additional mana. No reason not to play both at that point.
Clark Cannon I hadn’t even thought of that part, shit.
Fast forward to 5:59 if you wanna skip the plugs and promos
The sword equipment cycle was so broken :-D
For that whole sol ring debate, (since I don't believe in Twitter so I won't be in those polls), wouldn't a big factor for the turn 1-3 sol ring be determined by the follow up play instead of the actual sol ring? You could drop a sol ring turn 1 and by turn 2 drop a scary 4cmc spell but at the same time you can play a turn one sol ring but have no follow up so by the time you get a scary threat the sol ring might not be a huge factor in casting that spell?
I decided to build the deck after watching the game knights episode and I'd like your thoughs on a few things.
How do you like loam dryad and birchlore ranger? Are additional sprinleaf drum effects good? I like selesnya evangel too, seems right on theme.
How about great oak guardian for the «less lame than craterhoof win-con» role? Untap and flash seem pretty sweet. I also put dictate of heliod for more flash shenanigans.
How much should i care about the lifegain subtheme? I put a bunch of lifegain payoffs stuff, like well of lost dreams, crested sunmare, archangel of thune and some things like soul warden and friends. Worth it?
Skip to 5:33 for the actual content
Just got her Commander Starter Deck :) is there also a budged upgrade video for this deck? (cant find it)
Opinion - having two games per episode is better than one. Shows more of the decks portrayed, more game situations and interactions, more fun in general
57:51 this is the most savage thing I've ever heard
This deck is a spicy Sriracha Josh Lee Kwai special 🔥👌😂
I like playing Huatli in this deck for that extra value.
ReconnaissanceIs another good way to attack and immediately untap emara
If you want a craterhoof without the blowout you can use its little cousin, the Decimator of the Provinces lol
Nice Story Deej!
I was really surprised to not see Niv Mizzet on Game Knights. He's the best Commander in the set. Izoni is cool, but I prefer her in the 99 (she's in my Maren deck). Tajic and Aurelia both Boros, do nothing to solve Boros's core deficiencies, and the old Aurelia is a better commander (extra attack steps > mentor). New Trostani is cool but all over the place. Emmara is worse Rhys. And Etrata requires a lot of effort to be effective.
Woohoo! 40 dollars saved! Although you are pushing it with no craterhoof. About .5 percent of a sol ring.
Hey Josh any consideration for Wirewood Lodge? Seems super cool in this deck! :)
This deck destroyed everyone in the lastest game knights. Straight nasty.
video starts 5:30
thancc
my guy
Legend
It actually starts at 0:00
Not all heros wear capes!
After watching game knights, i went ahead and bought the promo version of emmera.
i Think the life gain makes me want to run Voracious wurm... Maybe that's just the scrub in me wanting big creatures
I already knew I wanted to play this commander when I saw the preview of the card. So glad Josh saw the same thing and showed what the deck could do 😁