Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief | Upping the Average

Check out BOTH decklists here:
archidekt.com/decks/3295467#U...
archidekt.com/decks/3285157#U...)
Check out ALL our decklists here: edhrec.com/articles/edhrecast...
Title sequence by Daniel Woodling / MTG Explainers: bit.ly/3982yYa
Card images courtesy of Scryfall: scryfall.com/
Elevate by LiQWYD / liqwyd
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported - CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/liqwyd-elevate
Music promoted by Audio Library / nw

[@silentkingsubject]

You had me at Poison Ivy, this is the first time i have wanted to actually build a deck for a commander i initially had little interest in

[@pauldyson8098]

I'm glad that you brought up the issues with Mirror Box and Doubling Season/Avix. I also share your love of "Poison Ivy"

[@Mezzamine]

One potential semi-nonbo that's important to keep in mind if you're including it is Auspicious Starrix. It grabs you permanents from your deck on mutating but because it puts then onto the battlefield rather than casting them you won't be able to copy it with Ivy, and you also can't use the mutate abilities of creatures you hit. Still a strong card but enough of an awkward interaction for me to remove it from my own list, especially for 6 mana mutate cost. Also here's an obscure and fun recommendation to try: False Demise, a blue enchantment from Mercadian Masques. 2U to cast, and when the creature it's enchanting dies it comes back to the battlefield under your control - so you can cast it on an opponent's creature and not only will you nab it for yourself when it dies but you also get some emergency boardwipe recovery for Ivy thrown in!

[@sparkfrog777]

Yeah one of my favorite weird colour pie breaks

[@hugmonger]

Yo, that is a super good swap holy crap....

[@simmonsredarmy]

Best MTG content on KZbin. Keep killing it Joey.

[@Slo-Mode]

Thanks for including both lists! I really appreciate you took the time to make both. 😁

[@MrMinger]

Echoing courage has been my secret monster in this deck and I’m glad to see it here

[@retro.7673]

Was waiting for this !! Pulled her as a promo in pre release. Thanks for this video !!

[@Hexatomb]

Mutate is a hilarious mechanic for Ivy, bringing mutate back!

[@BelongsintheTrash]

So glad this came out when it did. I’m finalizing my Ivy Decklist tonight to buy on Friday and I’m glad to have this for some reinforcement on my choices.

[@FlowBerni]

I am so excited for this commander! Currently plan to visit all my friends from the playgroup, so i can look through all their cards and find the sickest auras from all collections.

[@emmabradley235]

I always love these!

[@styfen]

If you go with Echoing Courage. Augmenter Puglist from Strixhaven is a fun one. It can give you a huge pile of Ivys to do stuff with and it also provides a ground blocker or mutate target if desperate.

[@dustinlindgren2702]

Love the list! I would also suggest cutting bear umbra even in the non budget list. The deck doesnt play at instant speed a lot so you dont often need the extra mana

[@natankende4973]

Love it!

[@Slo-Mode]

The poison ivey line though got me good 😂. This video really changed my mind on this commander. I didn't like her at all and now I really want to build her.

[@azatheunholy]

wow loved that .......thx for the vid

[@facelessgames94]

Didn't see if it made the list, not can I remember it's name, but the jank ramp spell "draw card, extra land play, gain life and target creature +1/+1 counter" is a fantastic card to get multiple copies of. If the decks plan is to mutate and copy ivy and draw a ton of cards, being able to dump those lands is a feel good and allows us to keep going

[@sarahbuck2506]

Scale the Heights. Nice suggestion, I'm gonna try that

[@Arohan71]

Joey, how did you know what I was brewing for fun today?

[@valvadis2360]

I would love to see your full enchantress version of this deck, since i find the Mutate-cloning half of this deck confusing.

[@sweetsummer22]

I have her and she's a beast! My new favorite, confusing deck to pilot 😂

[@zomgsignupnow]

Love to see one for tivit!

[@WhirlpoolMaelstrom]

If I didn't already have two Simic decks that i love (Tatyova, Benthic Druid + Adrix and Nev, Twincasters) I would definetly consider playing Ivy. BTW love the series and would love to see your take on a Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter deck.

[@YaBoyEdGames]

Definitely building this deck now. Also might be my favorite high powered option that can even be budget, matching that awesome low budget Sefris build from a few weeks ago. Also curious. What would your best commander be for a deck that wants to run Mazes end. I’m currently using Kenrith but would consider changing.

[@sosukelele]

I hate that I identify so hard with the Poison-Ivy justification

[@lucianodiaz2931]

Missed you man!

[@TheCommunistGamerTV]

Upvoted for the Corrupted Conscience.

[@felipeguidolin1055]

Guys, i have a question... I was checking Elas il-kor, sadistic pilgrim... The "cheap" budget had a really good mana curve, but when I went to check the "cheap average" decklist, it had a completely different build/curve. Is that how it's supposed to work? How can I get that sweet sweet curve I saw in the first place?

[@thedanath]

Iv got Vanishing as one of my auras. Its a great way to protect Ivy and one other creature. Sure you have to leave the mana up for it but as the CMC is so low in the entire deck 2/4 blue mana should not be too hard to leave up.

[@chrisgallo2236]

My average CMC is a little higher but I’ve also included a few more bigger auras and such in the deck. It’s a fun deck though for sure.

[@JakwobTheGreat]

oh my god i want to play this deck SO badly...gonna have to give something up to play it hahaha

[@martinmarek9782]

Hello, I would suggest Orvar, the All-Form, as you are casting single target spells you will be creating copy token of orgin spell target , more blockers

[@mrbonlino]

Love this video! I'm in desperate need to find a Chishiro edhrecast since I've had a chishiro deck for a while, but each version of the deck I build feels clunky and too slow for my group. Having an Edhrecast on him will help put into perspective what to prioritise for Chishiro to flourish or to at least find out if Chishiro as he is, is just too slow for my group. Tl;Dr I'd like a Chishiro edhrecast to see if I'm building him wrong, or if he's plain too slow for my friend group

[@sarahbuck2506]

Shimmering wings or any enchantment you can bounce and cast again cheaply is nice. Got spare mana? 2 more enchantress triggers, 2 more heroic triggers, 2 more enchantments beefing up your Ancestral Mask. I also like Arcanum wings. Get a few Ivy's out with that on, and now whichever one they fail to block gets Eldrazi Conscription or Corrupted Conscience or Colossification -as a combat trick-. Sure you don't get 2 copies, but you've got a good chance of taking out a player in that moment.

[@Inushiak]

I'd also add a Progenitor Mimic.

[@atombasher]

I would replace Sakura tribe elder with emergent sequence. Same cmc but sequence ensures there’s a creature more likely than elder

[@renaudlassartesse6151]

What is the major difference between the two decklists in the description of the video?

[@danaholland6686]

errant street artist is a great low cost copy effect if you copy the copy while its on the stack

[@samuelgreen2443]

I've decided to build this deck and generally stay away from Mutate (I hear it's confusing), but go FULL into clones. Everything that clones, then Mirror Box makes more sense ;) Wanted a deck that makes Mirror Box feel really cool, and she seemed like a great choice in colors I wanted. Goldfishing was pretty confusing! Maybe I'll think about more mutate when I get smart with it :)

[@whipstitchzombie]

request! could you do a treasure-themed video? you kinda did one with prosper a year ago but there's been so much support released since then. my preferred commander is ognis (he's #266 on edhrec right now too) but there's lots of options you could go with

[@merlin0468]

Sorry i have a question, if i cast an aura spell on my creature X when i control Ivy gleeful spellthief and my opponente counter that aura spell i can create a copy of that aura spell on Ivy or not?

[@menozcm]

yes ivy is a cast trigger if they play smart they counter the spell targeting ivy

[@Zeromus5555]

Anyone know where to get those dry erase tokens? They're basically a necessity for this deck...

[@EDHRECast]

infinitokens.com :)

[@corinelliott3596]

Ivy might have to be my next deck.

[@danyx1980]

Just when I was about to build an Ivy deck of my own

[@stepanmovsesian6299]

Since I saw Artisan of Forms in there, and there are a lot of enchantments in the deck, I would add Protean Thaumaturge to the list. Cryptoplasm is another fun one, but some might say it's too much.

[@mathiashls]

Would love to see an Aesi/Reap The Tides episode

[@troytaylor8225]

The last 4 cards of my Ivy deck are supposed to be in my mailbox right now. Let’s see how many cards I need to buy after this video

[@codystinson8019]

Can you do a upping the average on Jodah, Archmage Eternal?

[@xanderjonsiose8776]

I just finished building an Ivy deck and I will surely consider your recommendations like I always do. I have a question about Echoing Courage, though. If a creature is mutated above Ivy, won’t the creature above keep the name and Ivy loses the name? So Ivy’s copy ability won’t work. I hope I understood this wrong.

[@sarahbuck2506]

Whenever a spell refers to itself by name, it just means "this card". If its name changes, the ability will still work the same.

[@xanderjonsiose8776]

@@sarahbuck2506 thank you very much for the clarification. I will definitely add Echoing Courage now to my Ivy deck.

[@NotARealDuck]

I think the only way that I can play this commander in paper is to ditch the mutate mechanic entirely. It's just too cumbersome to track across multiple copies and remembering how many times each one has previously mutated etc as that is not a copied value.

[@ToxicAtom]

Agreed, but I also feel the same about Auras, knowing who has what aura and how many of each are in play and all that, especially when you make token copies of Ivy herself.

[@ArtGuyCharlie]

@@ToxicAtom Something that would make the auras a lot easier would be to pre-make custom copy tokens for all the auras you personally run. Like I'm considering a non-mutate build of Ivy myself for much the same reason as Ross and I was thinking of taking pictures of all the auras I run into an image editing program, turning them black and white, and printing those off to use as my copy tokens. That way Ivy has an actual "card" with all the appropriate text underneath her to reference. At that point you really only have to worry about the auras you copy from your opponents, and it might be worth getting some dry/erase infinetokens for those.

[@Onymbit]

I'm just biting the bullet and getting Infinitokens which will make it much easier. Also if you write multiple auras on one erasable card with pencil. It's a little easier to keep track of.

[@facelessgames94]

Lots of mutate tokens similar to proxies.

[@chachi_arcola]

Don't worry, she won't be on the battlefield long enough for it to matter

[@spencersonnier1]

Two cards I think this deck could use: 1. Khalni Garden. Gives you a creature on turn one to start targeting with mutate and auras. Doesn’t take up a deck slot just replace a forest. 2. Enter the Unknown. Two of your creatures explore and you get play additional lands? Yes please. And if you have multiple copies of Ivy, it’ll get crazy.

[@mn6334]

I think the most important thing to get for any Ivy deck are Infinitokens 🤣

[@nicolasperrin4518]

Was thinking the same, preparing my deck over here but literally won't be able to play it without erasable tokens

[@MTGTrader]

Arcanum Wings. Aura Swap ability is bonkers with things like Eldrazi Conscription or Umbras to save her at instant speed. 😂

[@imanujakku]

Needs more rabid wombat and raised by giants. Ivy also seems like a great threat in an aura centric galea deck.

[@kevinb5417]

You should do Hazezon, Shaper of Sands next.

[@teradul2480]

It's probably not a good card most of the time, but can I interest you on a Rishkar's Expertise?

[@JoseMiguel-il2xl]

Joey please! Could you make a Teysa Karlov Redux?

[@PADisAwsome]

Jaheira, Friend of the Forest for fun ramp! I do the same in a Myrkul list after watching Commander's Quarters video on it.

[@sarahbuck2506]

I love this idea

[@ToxicAtom]

I think the token doublers are there for the copy spell version of the deck, ie. Quasiduplicate and Cackling Counterpart.

[@des-trina]

Indeed, the card is very good for the token copy version.

[@shikabaneconga]

did you include croaking counterpart? cause i got slammed by it in historic brawl, it copies the mutate stack AND ivy's ability, he had like 5 non legendary ivys it was Horrifying

[@origaminosferatu3357]

So sad Adrix and Nev doesn't work, though can confirm Corrupted Conscience and even Raised by wolves are great finishers.

[@coltonjohnson390]

Can we see tetsuo imperial champion next ?

[@casmiry]

How about a non-mutate decklist?

[@jasonskyborn4312]

"Super low land" Me running 28 land Ivy: well...

[@rubyseverinwhitworth9066]

Kind of sad that Xira only has like 100 decks because I want to see how Joey fixes it

[@SmeeGuitar]

raggadragga next plzzz

[@cfrydlewicz]

When Ivy loses her name to a mutation, doesn't that make the Voltron strategy less viable?

[@cmghaman1712]

Commanderness is specific to that original commander, even name changes, the combat damage of it would be considered commander damage.. the other clones don't have such effect

[@FriendlyNewt]

Do Tor Wauki!

[@abdalafadhil9762]

Roon please!!!

[@piralos1329]

Possibly the best card I've ever seen in an Ivy list (and I don't say that lightly) is Second Harvest. It works with mutate or enchantress, or any list that makes tokens, and takes it from good to INSANE. For 4 mana, at instant speed, you create a copy of every token you have. At the minimum, that's an extra Ivy if you have a mutate on top of it. The ceiling? Copying a whole bunch of auras, which in turn trigger all your enchantress effects, and are also just a whole bunch of auras?? You ever seen the damage output from having two ancestral masks??? The card is frankly obscene, and I'm super surprised to see that it never came up!

[@tendo339]

how does it work with the enchantment copies created by Ivy? Does it copy them too ? What are the targets ?

[@sarahbuck2506]

@@tendo339 When an aura enters the battlefield, you choose a legal object to attach it to. It doesn't target if it isn't cast, so it gets around shroud, but you won't get more copies from Ivy since Ivy triggers on casting.

[@ArtGuyCharlie]

Even though it makes her objectively less powerful I want to run Ivy without any mutate cloning shenanigans because that just feels like a nightmare to keep track of that's only going to slow down and overcomplicate the game. Like, she's such a fun commander but constantly having to write the list of mutations down on an infinitoken and having to produce 4-5+ token copies of each enchantment played will absolutely suck out every bit of that fun. One (1) Ivy making one (1) copy of each aura played may not be nearly as strong but it would still be a lot of fun and infinitely easier to manage. Especially when I can just print out black and white versions (or something like that) of the enchantments I run in the deck myself to serve as copies and only have to worry about keeping track of generic copy tokens or infinitokens for my oppnent's auras she copies.

[@GoyfAscetic]

Please up Mayael's Average

[@carolusrex9138]

I had a game where I ended up with 6 Ivy's and every one mana cantrip turned into a 1 mana draw 6 etc😂 first time ever my opponent rage quit

[@jonf2009]

Other good cards that he forgot were both ordeal of nylea and thassa permanent counters multiple copies draw extra cards put more lands from your library into play and then also hidden strings you cast it you target a creature you target a land it exile the original hidden strings upon resolution and you get to exile the copy of hidden strings upon resolution getting you both of them ciphered on to two different creatures permanently.

[@troytaylor8225]

I’m surprised eldrazi conscription and corrupted conscious aren’t on the average list. Give your creature +8+8 or take an opponents creature and give it and Ivy infect. Edit: I finished the video. I see you added corrupted conscious and conscription as a honorable mention but you also made the poison Ivy joke that my deck uses as it’s name on Tappedout lol.

[@stayathomedad4830]

My daughter's name is ivy, I'm making a "poison ivy" and teaching her how to play. This commander don't play no games. So fast it's scary honestly.

[@FlowBerni]

Adrix and Nev still played in 15% of Ivy decks...

[@bigguy90]

hear me out.....gilded goose and birds of paradise!

[@Psil33t]

Can you explain Double Major to me? It targets a creature spell, meaning if Ivy copies it it won't be a valid target because she's not a spell once she's off the stack.

[@tosmart999]

i would love for him to make a series for arena decks for historic brawl

[@jeffsanders5444]

been playing the deck a bunch , playing a ton of auras is awful , people just hold destruction and get a free 1 for 2.

[@chachi_arcola]

Same. She's too easy to remove and without her on the battlefield the deck struggles to do anything. One guy plays a wrath of God, the next guy has a blasphemous act, another is holding up a cyclonic rift. I can't believe this is the average decklist, it's too weak to removal and doesn't have nearly enough of it's own

[@Helixcards]

I think that you are over looking mirror box's last section of text. If you are able to start cloning the nonlegendary ivy. The original ivy will grow bigger with ech token in the field making it reliable commander damage. I do the a similar thing in my orvar voltron deck.

[@danaholland6686]

disagree on adrix and nev as a mutate target its great

[@sarahbuck2506]

The problem is that when a copy of a spell enters the battlefield as a token, the rules don't count it as "creating a token". Adrix won't give you additional copies of your mutate creatures.

[@BrunoNunes83]

kroxa

[@ingolf82]

cutting the bounce land (simic growth chamber) is recommended for any budget apart from super budget. having to bounce a land to your hand is super awkward

[@chachi_arcola]

Where's the removal? Artifact/enchantment removal? Board wipes? I just played 4 games with this deck tonight and if Ivy isn't on the battlefield, the deck does absolutely nothing. You just get swarmed on or outclassed by your opponent's bigger, better creatures. The guy to my left sent one of his six 5/5's in my direction and I had 3 creatures on board and their total power didn't even equal 5, and I'm sitting there holding Three visits, and one of the Wisp auras. If you're playing this version of Ivy against competent opponents with well constructed decks, you don't stand a chance. Needs more removal/boards wipes/unconditional countermagic. Back to the lab

[@blacknyancat5602]

Ivy is great in Arena but not so great in paper Magic. All the copies will give your opponents and yourself a headache to keep track of what's actually in the battlefield. Do yourself a favour and just play this online and not in paper.