I'd consider Future Sight. You can sometimes chain 2-3 cards a turn off it. That's pretty solid value.Jace's Sanctum is going to save you more mana than any mana rock, and that's not even counting the scry trigger.
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You need more equipment to protect Kaalia. It takes about one game for people to realize that when she's dead the deck is dead, so she'll fast become target #1.
That said, I'm not sure Kaervek necessarily does that, though in a newer meta with softer decks he might. In a tighter meta he's just gonna be too slow to really impact anything.
Cutthroat vs. not cuthroat isn't really the point though. It's that some deck architectures generate a game state that drags the table to a halt. You don't need to be running a very tuned Derevi list to blindly toss in a Stasis and have it turn into a slog where nobody can actually PLAY the game. Sure, Zur is a trash commander for trash people, but Zur decks at least end games. The Zur guy is gonna kill someone fast and then kill someone else and someone else and you're done and can shuffle up and play another game. The problem is the decks that make it strategically wise to not really actually DO anything. Everyone sits there fucking around on their phones until they can draw-go and get back to reading Twitter.
I ran Merieke Ri Berit for awhile before realizing that it just created games where people didn't want to play creatures just to have them stolen, so it just drug things out forever. Realizing that was a mistake I turned it into a creatureless Sydri Galvanic Genius deck with a ton of creature hate and board wipes with the thought that I could then animate artifacts and attack. And it just created games where people didn't want to play creatures knowing I'd board wipe every other turn. Now a friend is experiencing the same problem with his Ruric Thar deck.If you like these colors maybe try Mogis as a commander and run a ton of unilateral damage cars like I suggested above, or maybe something like Rakdos Lord of Riots and cheat big fatty Eldrazi or artifact creatures into play?
There's two problems with Kaervek. 1. People absolutely hate commanders that discourage then from actually playing Magic. 2. Kaervek himself is pretty expensive to cast. That means you have a commander who is going to more often than not be the number one removal target at the table while simultaneously becoming prohibitively expensive every time someone removes him. That's a bad combination. I would just run someone else myself as I don't think it's worth the headache, plus I generally wouldn't like the idea of sitting down for a game knowing my deck is going to create a gamestate where people are actively discouraged from playing the game they're sitting down to play. That said, if you're madly in love with this commander here's my suggestions:You need more land. 33 is just not enough. I run more than that in mono-green, which is about the perfect situation for a lean mana base with a 3 cost commander who draw me 1-2 cards per turn. I'd get up to at least 36.Get some ramp so you can get your commander out faster and more consistently. Expedition Map and Wayfarer's Bauble gets and extra land into play, as does Myriad Landscape. I'd get more mana rocks, too. Rakdos Signet, Talisman of Indulgence, Gilded Lotus, and Thran Dynamo would be a start, and all are relatively inexpensive. Find a Chaos Warp. It's deals with any threat, and it's your only way to hit enchantments.I'd swap Go for the Throat into Dark Betrayal's slot, put Hero's Downfall in where Fall of the Hammer is, put Dreadbore where Lightning Strike is to start. There's no reason to run spells that get the job done half the time when you can run ones that get it done 100% of the time, and in EDH Lightning Bolt effects just don't get it done.Find a slot for Vandalblast. Destroying every artifact not yours is never not great.Find a slot for Blasphemous Act. 1 mana to wipe the board after some token deck puts 20 zombies down is never not great.On a higher level, you need a plan about how you're going to win. What does this deck do exactly? Not everything needs to be perfectly synchronized and on theme or anything but you should still have an idea about how the deck will win, and I don't see one here. My suggestion would be to run a ton of effects that do damage to everyone to put the entire game on a clock with the notion that Kaervek can do enough damage on top of the global effects to put you ahead. Stuff like Mogis or Pestilence or Pyrohemia or Mana Barbs or Earthquake or Heartless Hidetsugu. Grind everyone's life down simultaneously but grind theirs faster.
43 lands is probably a bit overkill in a two color deck without ways to play multiple lands per turn. 40 is probably more than enough, and you could easily get away with even less.
If you're only running one artifact, why not swap it for some artifact hate like Stony Silence? Bow of Nylea is never gonna win a game, but Stony Silence absolutely will wreck certain decks. Ancestral Mask would do good work here.I've had good luck with Flickering Ward. Just making your big beater unblockable by whatever color blocker are out is useful, but honestly the real utility is bouncing and recasting it with an enchantress out. You wouldn't guess it but it wins games.
Hall of Gemstone can pretty much turn off entire decks in mono-green.
Hero's Downfall is strictly better than Murder, and it's like two bucks now that it rotated.
Boon Reflection feels like overkill. You're going to have plenty of life gain as-is, and just doubling it doesn't cause added Karlov triggers, nor are you running Sanguine Bond or Defiant Bloodlord to turn the life into damage.Cradle of Vitality could get out of hand fast here.I'd consider running Slaughter. 4 life for a buyback is nothing in this deck.
38 is a lot of creatures in a deck with no gimmicks to play multiple things at once, etc. You're just asking to overextend, lose them all to a board wipe, and be out of gas. I'm not sure I have any deck with over 28, and that's my "creature heavy" deck. My vamp tribal is rocking 20 I think (http://www.mtgvault.com/doctorhydrogen/decks/drana-bloodchief-edh-3/).You're going to need more removal imo or someone is going to drop some really annoying creature and you'll be stuck staring at it, hoping they don't play anything else so you can force an Anowon sacc next turn. I'd find a slot for 2-3 targeted removal spells, at least one of which can hit indestructible guys. Go for the Throat and Hero's Downfall are a decent start. Ashes to Ashes and Sever the Bloodline both exile so they hit indestructible guys.A few more board wipes would be nice. Nevinyrral's Disk is good because it's one of the few ways you have to deal with artifacts and enchantments. Mutilate is good too. You could probably cut a few lands. 40 is a lot in a mono-deck. I'd start at 38, and drop to 37 or 36 if you find you're comfortable.Myriad Landscape is a nice way to ramp a land. Well worth a slot, imo. Cabal Coffers is stupidly good in mono-black, though it is a ten dollar card. IMO it would be the first upgrade I'd invest in. Really any mana doubler is good. I'm using Caged Sun, Extraplanar Lens, Doubling Cube, Gauntlet of Power, and Nirkana Revenent, and if I wasn't a stickler for theme I'd have Magus of the Coffers and Crypt Ghast in too. You can never have too much mana.Or draw! You need some draw or you'll run out of gas. You can't draw too many cars. Anyone who says otherwise is probably a criminal mastermind out to ruin your deck. Necropotence is the best in mono-black, but again it's a ten dollar card. Greed would work okay, and I'm a huge fan of the black small-draw effects (Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Ancient Craving, Ambition's Cost). Draw, draw, draw!Demon's Horn and Staff of the Death Magus aren't ever going to gain enough life to justify a slot imo. If you want another life gain source run Whip of Erebos. It'll probably gain you more life AND it has extra utility.
The Rob Leifeld art of Maraxus is pretty hilarious. He needs some thigh pouches.
That seems like it would be difficult to achieve with four board wipes and three pieces of targeted removal, plus limited ramp and almost no draw. That's not a defensive deck, that's just a deck.Each meta is different though, and maybe yours runs a lot less answers, etc. Have fun w it!
Bowyer Passage would make all your angels nearly unblockable.
Fractured Powerstone seems pretty weak outside Planechase. At the very least I'd swap that with Felwar Stone. That at least has a chance to make you colored mana.I'd also swap Cancel for Dissolve or Dissipate, both of which are strictly better.
Living Death is pretty much the most useful board wipe in Karador, imo. I also swear by Austere Command; the flexibility it offers is almost always worth the two more mana it costs over Day of Judgement/Wrath/Damnation.Spore Frog does stupidly good work in Karador.Though they always feel kinda mean, Fleshbag Marauder/Merciless Executioner/Slum Reaper can just wreck some people's board states.Gift of Immortality is disgusting in Karador, especially when you toss it on something like an Eternal Witness then proceed to sacc it on every person's turn, or grab a land each turn with Wood Elves, or have all your guys indestructible each turn with Dauntless Escort, etc.
All those artifacts you could probably run Dispatch and have it be a Path to Exile without the fetch 99% of the time.
If you like that Evangelize effect you could always run Preacher.That many creatures would probably like Lurking Predators.
Pyromancer's Goggles? Worst case it's a mana rock, but you have 23 spells it could copy. That seems well worth it.
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