Rhoda, Geist Avenger & Timin, Youthful Geist | Cut-Rate Commander | Tapdown Tribal

Poll - / @grazzetmtg
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Cut-Rate Commander - Episode 36 - Featuring Rhoda, Geist Avenger & Timin, Youthful Geist
The Unlikely Duo of Cathar and Geist team up to bring us the first Cut-Rate Commander build of the year in a tapdown focused build aiming to keep our opponents creatures taped down while we crack in.
Being in Azorius, we certainly have no shortage of both repeatable tapdown effects to keep our opponents creatures tapped down turn after turn to shut down blockers, screen attacks, and slowly grow Rhoda over time, as well as big AOE tapdown effects that affect all creatures for any given opponents or even the entire board, bringing all their defenses down while giving Rhoda a huge power boast and potentially enabling her to 1 shot them. And of course, since we'll be tapping down so many of our opponents creatures, we'll be running a handful of payoffs to ensure we get extra value and utility our of them as we do so. From there, we just need to keep Rhoda on the board through our counterspells and means to grant her hexproof and indestructible, and she'll be avenging Timin as she eliminates our opponents through commander damage.
Let me know if the comments below if you agree with my choices and/or what you would add to the deck instead. Also, let me know know who you would like to see next by voting on in the comments on the three choices of commander listed at the end of the video.
Decklist - www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4521...
All art used is copyright of Wizards of the Coast

[@prizum217]

Absolutely fantastic breakdown of curve and card roles! I appreciate seeing less flashy or popular commanders. Keep up the good work!

[@GrazzetMTG]

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the positive feedback!

[@jasonmckeogh7376]

I’m not gonna lie these two commanders looked underwhelming but this deck seems powerful! Keep ‘em coming!

[@GrazzetMTG]

Glad you think so and will do!

[@othellosmistake]

I'm always looking for something new for my casual play group. This looks perfect for that.

[@GrazzetMTG]

Hope you enjoy playing it - I know I had a decent time when testing it!

[@drakejosey1960]

Literally have been struggling for 4 hours to make these commanders work. Found this at a perfect time! Almost lined up with perfectly with what I am going for.

[@bgfouryou]

Love these videos. Keep up the fantastic work!

[@GrazzetMTG]

Glad you enjoy them and will do!

[@BoronBullet]

Definitely thinking of picking up this one. Appreciate the good work as always !

[@GrazzetMTG]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@nickatwork]

Good to have ya back after the break! My vote is for Anje. Seems interesting

[@GrazzetMTG]

Good to be back and thanks for voting! Anje can certainly make for a good blood focused commander, so lets see if she make it to the top of the poll!

[@CJVIagic]

Good to see another video from you! I look forward to them.

[@GrazzetMTG]

Glad to hear you enjoy them! With the holiday season over I should hopefully be good for a good stretch of build before my next break, so look forward to that!

[@jodylester9118]

I just got into Magic in the past month and these two popped up in the Millicent deck I started with. They didn't synergize with the rest of the deck, but still won me a couple rounds so I pulled them out with the intent of building a deck around them. This video has been super helpful and insightful! I didn't realize there were so many options for tapping oposing creatures!

[@GrazzetMTG]

Glad my build was able to provide some inspiration for your own!

[@lionlanger1804]

Hey I have been playing the deck for a while and updated it quite a bit but I have to say the basic deck you presented slapped already. The cool thing is that the commanders are cedh viable (not crazy good but viable) and you can build them from a budget to infinity really they slot in whit what money you have available and how much you wanna spend. In general, your channel is a hidden gem! Please continue the good work and maybe when you revisit this deck with a how to upgrade guide I can help yo! :)

[@GrazzetMTG]

Glad you enjoyed the build and are enjoying the channel! I may have to revisit older decks and give them upgrades, but that will have to wait for when I have more time. Thanks for the offer though!

[@Heavyarms525]

Really happy with this deck. Looking forward to it all year… 😉

[@GrazzetMTG]

I see what you did there! Glad yo hear you enjoyed it!

[@Draylock1287]

I was brewing this partner pairing and I'm so glad you did this vid to get some ideas ^3^

[@GrazzetMTG]

Hope that it helps you out with your build!

[@Draylock1287]

@@GrazzetMTG Oh it has Territorial Hammerskull and Sentinel of the Eternal Watch as well as Icing Death were immediately added to keep the board locked down as much as possible. I do run more counter magic but that's cause I was fortunate enough to get some low cmc counterspells.

[@geogaddimaxima7421]

happy new year!

[@GrazzetMTG]

Same to you!

[@bartoszbanysz1578]

You can also add willbreaker if you want your opponents to concede

[@GrazzetMTG]

That is very true - and considering how may targeting effects we have, we actually may be better off keeping Willbreaker alive instead of Rhoda if we get them onboard - if we don't mind the table attempting to throttle us afterwards.

[@brandonruiz5277]

You sold me on these two, this pair looks like they could slay lower/mid tier commanders.

[@GrazzetMTG]

Yeah, I would say so - they can't tangle effectively with some higher tier contenders but that are certainly fun in more mid tier levels.

[@afspeellijstnaruto]

These commanders actually look pretty fun to play ! I think they would do well in a Derevi deck. Got to admit, I was not very enthousiastic about the precon they were in (just not my cup of tea), but these are interesting!

[@GrazzetMTG]

Fair, sometimes the alternative commanders are bit more interesting then the face commanders in the precon and the argument could certainly be made that this was the case here.

[@pacoval4577]

good vid. these two are really underdog commanders but tapping is a fairly widely represented mechanic and they deserve their own deck apart from the spirit token Millicent one.

[@GrazzetMTG]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@simonadatcu8472]

Hi grazzet! My vote is for Gronlok, the Omnivore. Just not frog tribal though!😉

[@GrazzetMTG]

Gronlok certainly benefits from having frogs around, but its less about the tribe and more about self mill and getting value from doing so.... with frogs..... Its going to have a decent number of frogs is what I'm saying (assuming he is able to hop across the finish line when the poll ends).

[@doodlehumper3529]

So I was wondering, would willbreaker be a good card to add to the deck? It would remove a lot of creatures that can grow rhonda, but it will make every tapper into a Trapper

[@GrazzetMTG]

Willbreaker would be a good include considering how much targeting we're running, but the instant they hit the board the game plan changes from keeping Rhoda alive to instead keeping Willbreaker alive, then focusing on stealing all our opponents creatures. Its a good card no doubt, but forces us to switch gears as soon as it hits the board, so do be aware of that if your considering running it (that and the table may not be too happy with you either).

[@luiscordero9171]

Nice deck. Did you consider putting in Dismiss into Dream?

[@GrazzetMTG]

I did and while it can work great, I didn't get a whole lot of mileage out of it unless I drew it really late once Rhoda was already pumped up. Still, it a great include if you want to go from tapping creatures to destroying them.

[@bgfouryou]

Voted for grolnok. Just finished it for my wife but would love to see what direction you took it. Thank you.

[@GrazzetMTG]

Thanks for voting! The frog seems to have a solid lead for the time being, so if he is able to keep it you may just see my build soon!

[@elohimttv5806]

1 year later, you updated the decklist? :O

[@MajorLeeAwesome]

I always see wayfarers bauble in these lists, but why does no one use expedition map as well?

[@GrazzetMTG]

Expedition Map is a good card but isn't ramp - since it fetches the card and puts it into the hand instead on into play, which doesn't speed up our mana base (since we are still limited to one land drop per turn). So unless we need to tutor up a specific land, Wayfarer's Bauble tends to be the more common pick since it does let us get a extra land into play (assuming we made our land drop for the turn) after it fetches it up. Hope that helps explain why you may see most lists include the Wayfarer's bauble over Expedition Map (Though they are both good cards).

[@MajorLeeAwesome]

Indeed. Thanks!

[@Galchoo1]

Dang it, that deck was so good I got stuck in holiday travel hell just so I see it super late! The Ghosts Of COVIDs Past seem to be trying to keep me away from regularly helping you with the algorithm and witnessing your growth as a creator... Ah, well. At least testing will be a treat after I set up my Uni stuff! My vote goes for Team Goad, because Anje is not THE Anje and while the ExileFrogJank stuff is yet another interesting spin on Simic, it is also yet another spin on Simic. Also goading is much cooler IMO. Day 158 of waiting for the GrazzetMTG face reveal. If you had to make any series/franchise you know get the Universes Beyond treatment, which one would you pick? I would choose YuGiOh for the memes alone.

[@GrazzetMTG]

Glad to hear that you were able to travel safely over the holidays and thanks for the vote, late or not! Regarding Universes Beyond, Warhammer 40k would honestly have been my first choice since I am a big fan of the IP, but since they're doing that already, Yu-gi-oh or Pokemon would be a hilarious take and Marvel and/or DC seems like only a matter of time (either of which I am game for).

[@ayasolaris4971]

woah first video of 2022 ive seen

[@GrazzetMTG]

Well I hope you enjoyed it!

[@ayasolaris4971]

@@GrazzetMTG I did thank you! =)

[@Zeromus5555]

I love these two but they're so overcosted... should have been 3cmc for rhoda and 4 for Timmin