Is it Possible to make Atraxa fun in Commander?

[@33elk]

Join the discord to get notified of my weekly deck review streams and other events! discord.gg/NBTgYG2deZ (other videos aren't out yet but will be coming out soon c:)

[@thetrinketmage]

I got mentioned in this video a lot more than I expected

[@KorboQ]

And your package.

[@Therodaas]

That's the power of atraxas proliferate ability.

[@davidhower7095]

I don’t know why but the first thing that came to mind when I heard about this challenge is “Atraxa but all nonland cards start with the letter A”

[@eleanort.t.showbiz7207]

This is such a funny deck concept, I gotta steal it for another commander

[@hoffedemann5370]

Two years ago I made a birthday challenge: which letter of the alphabet is the strongest? A won by far (Approach of the Second Sun + Arcane Denial, Animate Dead, Ancient X Dragon, Avacyn + Armageddon, ...) C and S came right behind

[@meeptoss]

I've done a variant of this using the letter S so I could make *every* card start with the same letter (including the lands)! It was an incredibly fun challenge and I cannot recommend doing it enough.

[@eriks_trip]

this really takes the "cards from new capenna nobody's seen" meme to a new level. fine work

[@dionisiosmarinos4285]

My first thought was : oil up Atraxa (I want to build her as an oil counters commander)

[@sleepyboldhijack]

*America would like to know your location*

[@Robert-rm4gu]

It’s pretty funny, my friend has the deck and also named it Oil Up

[@Terraplant973]

My first thought about Atraxa was stun counters. Spread them everywhere, proliferate them, keep things tapped down forever.

[@wesleymitchell2460]

Sounds suspiciously like a Stax deck.

[@opo33333]

The funniest kind of deck by far

[@justinsnyder9368]

One thought I had was to use Rad counters and try to mill/drain your opponents. Atraxa, being the color hoard that she is, covers the colors of Mothman and therefore allows the best cards from the precon to be melded into an Atraxa Rad counters deck. The hardest part of the deck would be the same as yours, a low count of cards that give initial rad counters, though that can be fixed with tutors.

[@iamthepkmmaster]

I've played against a Rad Atraxa deck, it is fun to go up against. Another way you could build atraxa is energy, still trying to brew that one.

[@granite_4576]

Atraxa Myojin is something I've never seen before

[@cornmaized]

ive seen it a few times its really funny

[@granite_4576]

@ glad to hear it

[@evangrescol7772]

…So fun fact; a while back, I was trying to come up with a commander for my horror movie deck (think like the jumpscare precon but with the Horror creature type limitation). It initially started as a simic deck with Vannifar, but then I found that some sultai cards were great for it, so then it was Kadena. But tbh, there weren’t a lot of morph cards that fit for my vision. At the same time, I really wanted to run some of the white horrors as well as the white face-down support cards from MKM. Eventually, I remembered that Atraxa was, coincidentally, a Horror that had the colors I’d wanted AND supported counters, which was intended to be a subtheme (the monsters being a looming threat while they’re identity is a mystery was the angle I was going for anyway). So, uh, yeah. Now I’m in need of an Atraxa lol.

[@coryirvin6651]

Oh that's fun, would love to see the list!

[@theArcosa]

"Removal MUNCHER!" was a crazy line. Atraxa with 50 shield counters is pretty funny. I was hoping you would put the Fishing Pole tech in though 😂

[@33elk]

the pole was tempting...

[@bignateismydad5167]

I threw together a list with a restriction that each of my cards must mention/use a unique kind of counter. So only one planeswalker, only one card that can add +1/+1s, down to more decidual counters like Dreamtime Whale for time counters, Astral Cornucopia for charge counters, and Perry the Pulverizer for shield counters.

[@Snipfragueur]

So many different brews, it's like Kenrith you pretty much can't fail with Atraxa.

[@GrayVMhan]

There are a bunch of ways to fail with Kenrith tho

[@Snipfragueur]

@GrayVMhan Depends on what you mean by "fail". By fail I thought we meant a deck that can't use its commander ? In the case of Kenrith as long as you reach 5 mana Kenrith can serve as a mana outlet, so he will always be useful, hence why I said that you can't "fail" with Kenrith.

[@paulkelemen4199]

8:38 "Do you play Atraxa?" Elk says, and all I can think of is the "I know what you are." dog. The implied judgment I overread into that statement after how much disdain for Atraxa Elk expressed is unmatched.

[@biobuilder332]

If you ain’t building Atraxa (grand unifier or praetor’s voice) full Phyrexian kindred, you ain’t doing it right.

[@perk2469]

I was literally thinking of this, this weekend. Cause I wanted to make an incubate deck. I decided not to use her. Partially cause I don't have her and also cause she's so popular and strong. I decided to use Tayam

[@33elk]

forbidden archetype! too many do it!

[@SmappyBabbles]

I once made an Atraxa deck that was a hugs deck that focused on putting shield counters and +1/+1 counters on my opponents' creatures lol.

[@richardarmas1742]

I love the content, I always see your videos and think “ thank god an original MTG video idea” apriciate the hard work man keep it up

[@sirjesterful7947]

my first thought after "unique Atraxa" was Mono White Atraxa. What am i using the proliferate for? No clue. I'll workshop it

[@efiug]

Umezawa's Jitte and Lost Jitte seem like good options there since you have some good artifact/equipment tutors in white

[@zackkelley2940]

@@efiug Might I suggest Trade Caravan?

[@Hashbrown1682]

Elk looks like they're in a perpetual state of anxious

[@ney5321]

This deck reminds me alot of my Nardole, Ressourcfull Cyborg deck. The concept of using counters this way is awesome. Nardole would also be a great fit for the deck

[@Lukegamer]

Ive always wanted to built an Atraxa deck around the most random one-off types of counters. Brick counters from Amonkhet, Vanishing counters, etc. Some cards could be quite strong while still being very silly, such as Four Knocks, Crack in Time, As Foretold, Rotating Fireplace, etc. 😂

[@cainancapko4149]

I already have a budget Sultai Energy deck with Xavier Sal as the commander so Atraxa Energy was my first thought in this whole thought experiment

[@JohnyNoToes]

I PRAY we get to see gameplay content of these bad Atraxa's going at each other in a 4 Atraxa pod

[@stevenpoche6988]

Alternate Title: I Added Atraxa to the Bedecked Brokers Precon

[@Tazildayah]

A friend of mine built Atraxa mutate (with some counter support) and uses Atraxa as a good body to mutate onto! Quite a unique take on Atraxa imo

[@chrislol4932]

Wizardcycling is something I never knew existed and it’s just made my combo list insane thank you 😂

[@RadioSilver27]

Makes me want to rebuild my Elf Atraxa deck. Generous Patron alone is amazing on there.

[@RokRoka25]

I inherited someone else's proxy art atraxa and I've been meaning to make a list that isn't mind numbing bog standard. This is great inspo for that!! I feel like a card thats a funny and niche consideration in this deck is wave of terror. Slowly nuke the board each upkeep while all your shield counter'd creatures take the hit and lose a counter. You can even profilerate the age counters to avoid hitting any of your own unshielded creatures.

[@RokRoka25]

And for my own atraxa, I was thinking of something like a keyword soup deck, and use atraxa to share her abilities using odric lunarch marshall swing with a wide board of idk, tokens or something. But I'm unsure of other cards that care about keywords or share, and if in general that theme will be too generic and fall apart.

[@ketchumall8243]

My friend built an Incubate Atraxa list. I felt it was thematic and unique enough that he could confidently say it wasnt was of "those" Atraxa lists. Even if, technically speaking, its still a +1/+1 counters kind of deck. Hes not really running any normal +1/+1 counter stuff. Basically just slapped all Incubate cards into the list with a couple other staples. When he forced himself to run basically ever incubate card he could, it definitely felt unique lol

[@TCG9777]

Isn't every build of Atraxa fun? What constitutes "fun"??

[@ryanrodgers3099]

Shield counters, or just keyword counters in general is a cool direction to take Atraxa, I really dig it. My "barely-hipster" Atraxa brew is Experience counters, but it runs into the same issues that a lot of other lists do. It's cool to proliferate experience counters and get to stupid levels, but playing what amounts to 4 secret commanders means that Atraxa is rarely important to the game plan. Playing her is usually win-more, or she gets removed too quickly to matter. The synergy of experience commanders carries the deck way more than Atraxa herself does. Occasionally Atraxa will close the game out by getting buffed to oblivion with Ezuri and one-shotting people, but she's hardly necessary for that. I haven't played it in quite awhile because of all of this. It feels like I'm playing Atraxa for her colors more than anything, so I've been looking for other commander options. The 5-color Eldrazi experience commander is interesting to me, but feels almost too hand-holdy, maybe in the 99? Since all of the experience commanders are two-colors, this video reminded me of all of the "cares about color pairs" Niv-Mizzets, so maybe one of them will be more interesting to me. EDIT: Kelsen the Plauge is a 3-color experience counter commander, and of course the Eldrazi is colorless with a 5c ability. Still, Niv-Mizzet has me thinking.

[@geeknseek]

You can fit so many shield counters in this thing *smacks top of Atraxa*

[@liamblack3001]

I think generous patron is absolutely strong enough to make the cut in any deck that says proliferate. Its a little more awkward in atraxa since you cant really dig for something that turn but keeping a full grip every turn at the cost of adding equivalent power to your opponents board is a deal worth taking

[@cr4zyhand581]

My atraxa deck uses the level up mechanic. It's very much a grindy mid range deck that will only ever win when noone is running interaction but its the most fun I see me having with that snooze of a commander

[@Scud422]

I've been playing a +1/+1 counters based Atraxa deck for years and I found the best way to keep her alive is with some politics by stating: "As long as she stays alive, whenever I proliferate, I will choose everyone and everything each time." Also, the deck functions really well without her in play.

[@azarty4179]

I got a guy at my LGS who built a myojin atraxa deck which is really fun to play against and isn't something I've seen before

[@Krunschy]

How can Family's Favor be used to start piling on shield counters? Either they block and the counter's gone, or it connects and you're forced to remove the counter for the card.

[@33elk]

should've been more clear. With thrumming bird, grateful apparition, cankerbloom, experimental augury, ripples of potential, etc you can proliferate the counter in response to the trigger. It is possible to use it to counter up atraxa

[@Krunschy]

@@33elk I see, wasn't aware that the deck ran more proliferate on top of atraxa.

[@mightyone3737]

I considered building Atraxa, but I felt like it'd end up costing too much, so I cannibalized the nascent deck for parts (mostly a Selesnya deck, because Selesnya really like counters). The big thing I wanted was to take advantage of Storage Lands, once I have one counter I can just proliferate over and over and can freely use all but 1 counter! I'd also use Mana Batteries, because those are ALSO cool. At some point I might build it (I have the Drop Atraxa, which I think is one of the prettiest cards ever), but I've found I rather like the Selesnya list, and despite looking mostly like a pile of crap it can win by farming Khalni Garden tokens and buffing them till they're tall.

[@tylertesla3678]

I ended up making my Atraxa a level up counters deck using classes and those level up creatures as the main focus with the sub theme in the sagas that are reusable like Vorinclex. I also included a couple other proliferation engines like Agent Frank Horrigan and Inexorable Tire. I'm curious your thoughts on this idea.

[@derAlphabet]

You cutting off Rebel was mean 😅 I really liked your deck and the premise! I love yours for the unbreakable removal magnet and the first one for its inclusion of rare counters. I'm looking forward to the other submissions!

[@Vrezmo]

My Atraxa deck list is a Millennium Calendar secret commander but it definitely doesn’t have an immediate impact on

[@Raven1024]

I like my Atraxa Saga deck. it's built around sagas, proliferation, enchantment recursion, and counter removal so it is titled "DJ Atraxa" because the goal is to have a mixer board of sagas to manipulate.

[@DragonicDude]

My brain would wanna make counters to spend counters sooo i guess like spores counters

[@NazoPureChaos]

Hearing you mention Sagas in Atraxa, then seeing you Bring up Falco Spara later made me think of a horribly ridiculous idea -- Falco Spara Sagas. Falco Spaga, if you will. Play Sagas, turn them into creatures, then use Falco to take off lore counters and cast cards from the top of your library. Boom, value engine! Probably. Not sure how many effects turn enchantments into creatures, might need to make them artifacts first, or lands. Oh, turning them into lands would be cool, cause then you could tap them to cast the cards off the top of your library as well! There you go, Falco Spara and the Artifact Enchantment Land Creature - Sagas.

[@fenixmeaney6170]

I had a teysa, envoy of ghosts "rattlesnake" deck (ie: don't touch me and you won't get hurt). I combined it with the cards from my shalai "can't touch this" deck, using Thalia and gitrog as the commander once I get my hands on a copy of them. First strike deathtouch in the command zone leads to not being attacked as often. There are some cards in blue like aetherize and dissipation field that could be added with a 4/4 flying lifelink vigilance deathtouch lightning rod for removal in the command zone. That's how I'd build her different.

[@ToxicAtom]

Brb stealing the idea to cut the black and make a Falco Spara deck. I love that bird but man every previous attempt to play him put me to sleep.

[@VandersBrews]

One thing that’s really on my mind right now for atraxa is level up creatures. Good vid

[@VendiVidiVinci]

My Idea for atraxa is all the weird counter : +2/+2, 0/-1, spore, etc. However, it is hard to keep track

[@MrThomasCWest]

Radiation counters would be fun too.

[@whitesmith5985]

I was thinking of Luxior the whole time you were talking about the deck. That's likely what I would have done, specifically Voltron. Except I'd make a side mission of how many different types of counters can I get on her, since proliferate increases EACH counter a permanent or player. So in this case, having 11 trample counters, 5 quest counters, and 7 oil counters would actually not only be funny, but very relevant. Since it's built around Luxior, you could along side the wizard package, play an equipment package, with sword of hearth and home, and stoneforge mystic. But maybe equipment is too boring for you lol. PS: One day I'd love to kill someone with commander damage using a planeswalker commander 😂 PPS/PSS: I'm looking into making an Abzan energy deck, so that was my initial thoughts because Atraxa is just Wet Abzan, and proliferate goes well with the lack of good energy providers in those colours.

[@devan9197]

My first thought was tamiyo field researcher secret commander

[@zonko]

I built Atraxa 3 years ago but instead I just did straight up voltron since she has 4 big keywords, and I mostly ignored her proliferate except for natural +1/+1 counter buffs

[@AlluMan96]

I don't know how interesting or unique the deck would be necessarily, but one way to spice up an Atraxa list is to go literally all-in on counters. Ergo, your deck cannot have any cards that do not interact with or mention counters. Want a board-wipe? Filigree Sylex. Want ramp? Start stacking those storage counters. Recursion? Vat of Rebirth. If you're gonna have the most versatile counter-strategy commander out there, you better be using that for literally everything. Again, how fun that would or wouldn't be, I don't know, because your wincon would still just probably be poison or +1/+1s, but it'd at least make day-to-day interactions like spot-removal and whatnot just that little bit more involved.

[@krisjohn4668]

I want to make her the commander of an artifacts and food deck I'd call "Phyrexians? No, I said Pyrexians."

[@spurcalluth6300]

I really want to make level counters work. I hope they bring level cards back someday.

[@crypticmrchimes]

Personally my fantasy route for Atraxa was to make it a secret commander deck for Perrie the Pulverizer in order to get as many nonsensical types of counters as possible. Edit: so apparently we went a bit similar just with different focuses though I will watch this deck with great interest now!

[@iPokemonAi]

Any Atraxa is fun to me but this list looks so cool & innovative

[@perk2469]

Similarly, while using Tayam as my phyrexian kindred commander this weekend, I proliferated like 12 vigilance counters on all of my creatures. I didn't know what to do with it all xD

[@SilverTheReaper]

Okay Im gonna watch the video because of it so I gotta ask. Is the quote in the thumbnail a reference to Ayesha Erotica's song "Emo Boy"?

[@Yeagerallday]

My first atraxa deck was infect which my group hated. My second deck was to just cram her full of combos (broodscale + Rosie cotton for example) and win on t3 which they still hated 😂

[@letrouble5746]

Arven from LotR could be a nice addition. Why settle for shield counter when you can have indestructable counter.

[@sleepyboldhijack]

picked up atraxa for my first super friends deck, would have went with another comander for superfriends but im a mothman player so i thought it would be funny to proliterate rad counters as a secondary deck or secondary mechanic in my deck

[@TheAngelRaven]

Before watching: Atraxa Voltron with equipment that care about counters. Reject good, embrace 4 Mana 4/4 with Soup.

[@TheVoyagingSatyr]

I once joked that I was going to make a group hug Atraxa build because she's such a boring commander. The fact you also briefly considered that for the challenge is really funny to me lol

[@martaneon5310]

Personally, given her Vampire Nighthawk keywords (as well as vigilance), I would make her a keyword soup commander and just ignore the proliferation part

[@epicdude8742]

I don't know why people don't talk about shield counters more, ngl. If you aren't throwing the shielded creature into combat, the sheer disadvantage of throwing two removal spells at a creature to kill it makes shield counters border on being as effective as indestructible for keeping your value creatures alive. Frankly I hope wotc doesn't push shield counter accessability anymore but it seems inevitable at this point. Anyways this was a solid build, since we do have so few shield counter cards there were some fun limitations here and the overkill of loading shield counters on atraxa is funny.

[@jessewahl6471]

10/10 thumbnail

[@hydrolythe]

I actually used to make a deck simular to this one. There’s simply no other commander which allows you to get multiple shield counters on individual creatures. I need to warn that the game plan of shield counters is fragile, as the red player at the table will try to ping multiple instances of 1 damage on your creatures in order to remove them.

[@darebrained]

Keyword soup.

[@idyliawritehorse7509]

It's a fun challenge to take a really straightforward commander and intentionally try to subvert it, while still including some synergies. My mind immediately jumped to keyword soup, but even that is like... too easy. If someone sat down across from me and was like "oh, no, no, this isnt counters atraxa, its keyword soup atraxa!" i'd be forced to roll my eyes a little bit. It'd feel like shallow contrarianism, and I want the good shit, the deep crusty contrarianism... Even {very specific type of counter} tribal like ONLY -1/-1 counters or ONLY verse counters just seems like it's doing a hollow impression of another cooler deck. Stretched to my absolute limit, I think the theme I'd go for is Soulflayer tribal. In this deck I'd run every copy of Soulflayer (Rayami, eater of virtue, altar of the wretched, etc) and the entire point of Atraxa is to player her, kill her, and *permanently exile* her to one of these effects, to grant the creature her keyword abilities -- of course, playing other keyword dense creatures as well. That's crusty contrarian enough for me, I think. Obviously just playing Rayami would be a more faithful execution of this theme, in fewer colors, but playing "hidden commander" Rayami with atraxa instead does allow you to play white cards, and white has the most number of cards that have excessive keywords and care about excessive keywords. That makes it feel distinct enough for me; you have to jump through an extra hoop and find one of these cards, but you also get the upside of higher synergy/card quality once you've jumped through the hoop.

[@hectorrivera7452]

My version is Atraxa Incubate. It is as powerful as it is popular. Which is to say, I rarely win 😂

[@neco-arc]

I really don’t mind atraxa at all. I think she’s a lot more interesting and open-ended than something like Krenko. She’s honestly very slow and fair and props up a lot of jank archetypes. Sure, you could say she cannibalizes more interesting options, but I feel like a hipster 99 doesn’t also need a hipster commander to still be a cool unique deck. Personally I made an all Ajanis deck, where the +1/+1 counter and life gain themes both work well with atraxa’s lifelink and proliferation. It’s not the most creative but I just love Ajani and his cards are really terrible in commander so I need a good blocker/support piece for the deck, as well as all the colors (other than like 1 red ajani I believe) and interesting life gain and +1/+1 synergies. She promotes a unique deckbuilding style and is honestly one of the weakest commanders relative to her popularity. I feel people really only hate on her because she’s popular, but some commanders need to be the most popular. I’d rather it be something open ended and fair. Certainly more interesting than something like yuriko IMO

[@subject1449]

Ima keep it real i clicked for the thumbnail

[@Dank_SomeOne]

Let's go 1 am uploads

[@zonko]

33 Elk is the TF2 Bing Soy of MTG

[@heliacall2904]

Atraxa fading tribal, is almost good, i believe its 15 fading cards and 13 are usable the problem is the (probably) best one isnt legal making it much weirder

[@YashaSkaven]

step 1: dont build infect or superfriends step 2: ur done, thats the only rule

[@nicholasbruce4124]

Elk sounding more s/b per day.

[@JimFaindel]

so your idea of fun is turning Atraxa into Bogles? I am not sure that's an upgrade in terms of fun.

[@Reaprar]

That 'bye' at the end of the video.. hmmm i give it.. 6 months

[@alexliang1040]

I'd disagree with the premise that atraxa is the biggest removal magnet these days..

[@coryirvin6651]

This is a very silly Voltron deck that also seems to keep the main theme of atraxa, which is miserable to play against. For me, I have an Atraxa because it's my vorthos New Phyrexia typal deck. The only poison counters in it are vraska betrayal's sting, and it has to be cards from the New Phyrexia sets. That keeps it pretty narrow and focuses more on pumping Incubate tokens. It's not great but it makes me happy.

[@francomarrongrigio]

I have an Atraxa CEDH deck. Every single card, except for the commander, is proxied. I never used it, because in my mostly casual friend group it would be akin to bringing an assault rifle to a fist fight. This deck is evil. Why did I build it, you may ask? For deterrence. My Atraxa's only purpose is as deterrence against players who deem commander decks unworthy of consideration unless they set you back for more than a grand. I dread the day I have to use it, for it heralds dark times under the dark stars of sweatiness and cringe. Mercifully, for now its cards sit in a plastic binder, printed but uncut. The day they are freed from their prison is the day the world becomes just a bit darker.

[@de245733]

Do anybody ever told you your voice is very soothing to hear?

[@simonteesdale9752]

Hear me out. (Mostly) Ignore the proliferate and use her as a pile of keywords. If she’s gonna eat removal, may as well delve her to Soulflayer. If not, Magestic Myriarch appreciate the keywords. Then you’ve got all the Ikoria keywords-matter cards. Is it good? Almost certainly not. Is it unique? Yes.

[@DeWillpower]

i don't want to sound disrespectful to something you did in the video two times so i'll just leave a neutral but positive 👍

[@yurisbest2892]

this is the brokers from streets of new caphenna, the deck isn't it?

[@ToxicAtom]

Plus a splash of oil, yeah

[@evangrescol7772]

Basically lol. I loved the deck, but I did end up dismantling it (couldn’t keep up with the arms race 😔).

[@devan9197]

Hipster boy lmao

[@Bee-wk7hw]

stun counters :3

[@xenocross6597]

The answer is yes. It’s atraxa. She does everything. People are just cowards who always build poison, or super friends, or generic goodstuff. She can do so much more than that and it infuriates me that nobody does anything else with her

[@XmortoxX1990]

Personally, I never played Atraxa, and probably will never play her. First, she´s kind expensive, and even if I go a bidget route, color fixing for 4 and 5 colors will eat most of the deck´s prize. I also try to avoid the popular commanders in favor of other missrepresented cards, only exception for now being The Wise Mothman, but that was mainly because that precon had many all the things I like about Sultai and Fallout.

[@r.r.theninja6812]

Who the heck plays mana leak??

[@33elk]

I do. It's good.

[@adoo765]

Not if you playing against it

[@CodenameFuyuki]

No

[@eebbaa5560]

i try not to play any commanders from the edhrec top 100

[@33elk]

Yeah I'm the same but a challenge is a challenge!!

[@eebbaa5560]

@ may the odds be ever in your favor lol. i don’t know who else is participating but your videos revolutionized deckbuilding for me

[@ToxicAtom]

I don't intentionally try and stop myself from doing so, it just tends to happen naturally because a lot of the top 100 don't interest me. There are a handful of exceptions, usually precon commanders. most of the time though, popular commanders feel a bit paint-by-numbers to me.

[@Haaskeer]

Looks like a fun deck :) but to me its a little bit too steamlined in the way that ive got the feeling that you do the same thing every time. I like my decks more like a puzzle. For example i have a Burakos/Folk Hero deck and every time i need to find a ways to get my party full and how i can get as much value out of folk hero as possible. But your deck still seems like a cool idea, since who plays Atraxa with shield counters :D I also play a Atraxa deck but with a Myojin subtheme. I try to proliferate the indestructible counters on them as much as possible and do dump stuff with it. That way every game is different since i can play around another Myojin.

[@alderyunker2624]

MEOW

[@skaven969]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2bWd3lnqtCMnK8si=JviAbuq1t1j1WgAI yes she is fun

[@raicudona6395]

Yes, for all commanders yes. That's just common sense. (All commanders can be fun as long as you don't go heavy on the combos)

[@DeWillpower]

:3

[@SoulHydron]

lul