Varchild - Ive never been so betrayed vs Purphoros, Kruphix, Ephara

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[@Starsoulklr]

Varchild's ability only effects your opponent's Survivors not the ones you control so you could have saved them for blockers while she's in play.

[@CommanderReplay]

Thanks, I noticed that while I was editing, left in that section though. First game out with it, so still getting a bit used to it.

[@jo_ken]

In other words this was the Kratos story gone wrong with Varchild trying to slay some gods.

[@CommanderReplay]

I played that game for 20 minutes once!

[@CommanderReplay]

Sorry for the delay. C18 kept me real busy, ontop of having a busy week anyway. So I present to you the new Aurelia list. Here are the deletions www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1510699#online , here are the additions www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1510341#online , and here is the final deck www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1530976#online . You'll need to do some fine tuning, (more creatures, more removal etc etc) but this should give you a lot of powerful tools to work with, and you give a decent chance in the game. Also, if you know what type of decks to expect you may want to bring in some specific hate cards like rest in peace for graveyards, conquerors flail for counterspells, and other things like that. I built sort of in a vacuum without any specific opponents in mind. Also if there were any cards that I cut that are really good for specific situations in your meta you'll want to keep those as well. There were a lot of cards I wanted to keep but just couldn't make room for everything. Also be sure to read the descriptions, i put some helpful info there. Best of Luck!

[@rakdos36]

I cant believe it! Kruphix is one of your patreon supporters. Wow even gods sponsor you.

[@bradleyprimeau8663]

I hope you give this deck another try, I love this card, not sure why, but I do, bought it the day it came out.

[@Lucarioguild7]

Bradley primeau Same I love quirky commanders

[@CommanderReplay]

Ill do another as soon as I get a chance. It is fun giving your opponents lots of tokens and then theres mayhem on board. Maybe not the most effective red commander, but certainly a fun one.

[@felipefspb]

Running a Vicious Shadows would've been brutal against the control players, it fits perfectly in the 7 cmc slot instead of Hamletback Goliath. That's something you might want to consider

[@CommanderReplay]

thats a fantastic idea! thanks!

[@Bibbedibabbedibu]

Varchild seems like a really cool commander to build around. And just like in real life, commanding an army and waging war is all about the politics ;-)

[@CommanderReplay]

Lol great point. Yeah gonna need a lot of fine tuning, but certainly fun. Its really enjoyable to see opponents with lots of creatures that they cant block with.

[@jacquesdespadas]

I love that you talk at the end about the good and the bad, possible cuts and replacements, all that. Not something one sees much anywhere else. Unfortunate that you weren't able to get the Sunbird's Invocation down. 6 is a lot to commit if you can't follow up right away, though. Such a crazy card when it sticks! You'll get 'me next time! 😁

[@CommanderReplay]

Thanks! Yeah the key with sunbirds is really getting it down before turn 6. Even just like a minstone into it on turn 5 should be pretty solid. Unfortunately opponent was sitting on the perfect piece of removal for us, hurt pretty bad. That's how it goes sometimes.

[@jamaigar]

Hi! If you've noticed my absence, I was giving your stuff a rest :P I'm glad you showcased Varchild! It was the most experimental an different commander out of the last set, to the point it's difficult to brew with her, so thanks for adding to solve that ^^

[@jamaigar]

Something i wanted to ask you that's sorta on theme, have you tried brewing with extra combat cards? Outside of Narset, who feels too busted and overdone... Oh and Aurelia per sé xd maybe you made and Aurelia deck going deeper into the extra combat thing at some point? It's been tickling my fancy lately, built several etali and a xenagos deck based on the idea

[@CommanderReplay]

No worries, ive been mostly absent over the past 2 weeks as well! Will be getting back on the horse, and working on content again. Got 2 videos planned for today.

[@CommanderReplay]

Yeah ive messed around with them a little bit. If you build an extra combat step deck and are allowed to assemble anything, you likely win the game. I had an Aurelia combat step tribal deck in the past, also an Aurelia combo deck that focuses on all of the infinite combat combos. In a removal light meta, its gonna be a bit too strong. Its about half as good as extra turns (which are really good). In a meta with removal, it would be interesting, probably on par with other turn 6-8 decks. Ive dabbled slightly with mono red, but there isn't a lot of great ways to tutor for your pieces in red (I hate gamble). The one I want to try is Naya combat steps with samut. Etali is certainly a great candidate for extra combats, again I imagine if you attack twice in a turn, unless someone follows that with a board wipe you are going to be very far ahead. Xenagos is also interesting, I imagine that you only need 1 additional combat to be more or less 1 shotting people. Ill see if I can get my Aurelia combat steps deck video together, I have one fimled but need to do a second.

[@jamaigar]

@@CommanderReplay My experience with etali is that it kinda draws 4 cards for each combat step, so having more of them is just good. I made a turbo etali deck that gets it attacking with haste on turn 2 or 3 or dies trying. The deck can overwhelm a 4 player ffa game very quickly and close things up with mass land destruction and stax, that or dies horribly to removal and does almost nothing the rest of the game. It's a quite an extreme experience that i'm not sure is fit for playing with friends you appreciate and you have to drive to meet with them xd can be no fun to you or no fun to them, there's usually no middle ground. It was fun to try and build regardless.

[@BeigeOrangutan]

I was the ephara player this game and I'm surprised I've just now found your channel, you have some really good stuff and I'll definitely be watching your videos from now on. Also i tried to blink ephara with brago earlier on and It sent her to the command zone

[@CommanderReplay]

Hey man glad you found the channel. It was a good game. Varchild played out like I expected it would, get a bunch a people angry at me for attacking them, then get killed. Still fun though. That ghostly prison did some crazy good work for you. Everytime i play ghostly prison, it seems like everyone breaks out there blue control deck with 2 creatures so i don't get much out of it. Yeah i noticed you were missing Ephara at one point and I didn't see what happened, so that would explain it. Hindsight I think i should have just played the supreme verdict, would have slowed things down a bit. anyways GG, and hope you enjoy the content :)

[@BeigeOrangutan]

@@CommanderReplay yea I always add ghostly prison and propaganda to decks that can run it. It was a really good game and look forward to more content from you. Hopefully I run into you on MTGO again

[@spidey2a]

**patiently waits for decklist**

[@CommanderReplay]

wait no more! tappedout.net/mtg-decks/14-12-18-varchild-betrayer-of-kjeldor/

[@emdub9679]

Love the theme the opponents have going

[@CommanderReplay]

yeah if i had known I would have a brought a god deck too!

[@michaelcarriaga2843]

Great name drop mtg goldfish

[@CommanderReplay]

Did I name drop?

[@Zen_Corner]

Now this is something I would play. I think the deck could be really fun and powerful if refined.

[@CommanderReplay]

Yeah its going to take some work. But certainly fun.

[@themoviewatcher]

Looking fwd to seeing more of this cmdr, tuned up, of course...I had a fairly tuned Valduk deck and I just saw this and was like, "Welp, guess I'm goin in on that cmdr instead"...the switch was pretty easy. I just love Disrupt Decorum and this cmdr speaks to me as that kind of effect...good game, though.

[@CommanderReplay]

Yeah I think its going to be a lot of the same cards. Varchild seems really fun, opponents have lots of creatures they cant block with. Not sure which one is ultimately stronger though. This one will take a lot of tuning to get right though. Let me know if you settle on a tight list :)

[@jaklegend3]

11:24 What a nice "oo-oof"

[@CommanderReplay]

OOF

[@CommanderReplay]

Its funny when I go back to edit and decide which sound effects to leave in and which to take out.

[@shatzinorris1417]

Seth played the quest in a Against the Odds. And you just played a Against the Godds.

[@CommanderReplay]

Lol love it. Wish I used that for the name of the video! If I find some free time later today (I probably wont) I might update the thumbnail.

[@spidey2a]

ha, need to see more games with this commander.

[@CommanderReplay]

will play a few more as soon as i have time! Maybe not the strongest red commander, but its fun to give your opponents tokens and see what happens.

[@RatKillerSVS]

Ghostly prison OP, pls nerf! Ephara seems more like typical Brago deck actually. What are your thoughts on stolen strategy/sunbird in an Angels (or actually any Boros) deck? I'm still trying to get more card draw in Boros so I even run Risk Factor.

[@CommanderReplay]

I personally never like to run risk factor, brow beat type of cards, though red gear hulk is an exception to that rule, because you're giving opponent the choice. Now, late in a game if someone is at less than 20 with a number of creatures running around the board, they will probably let you draw. But early game they will probably take the damage. Just my thought, maybe I'm undervaluing a bit, but maybe I'm not. As far as sunbirds and stolen. I think this game was the first time i actually resolved stolen strategy. I Think its going to be really good. Sadly Ive been trying to cover all the new stuff so I haven't had a ton of time to test out everything to the level that I like. Sunbirds is good in the right deck, but also needs a bit of luck. I think its imperative that you get sunbirds down on turn 5 or earlier to have success with it, given the normal pace of commander games that I see these days. If you try to cast it on turn 6 tapping out I think its going to struggle, so you'll want to be running 8-10 pieces of ramp to get it down early. If it sticks in play and you can get like 2 cast triggers with it then its awesome. But it will be a target for removal so thats a concern. With angels its sweet because they all have high CMC, but the 6 cmc slot is also reeeally crowded in a deck like that. So you just need to build with it in mind, and know that it will probably be a target for removal. Id call it medium risk with high reward. I think Stolen Strategy will be better in the long run because its cheaper and you can easily have it down turn 4 with a mind stone, if not sooner. Plus it gives you access to things your deck might not have which can be helpful. Ultimately Id like to play both of the more, just haven't had a chance to test everything to the level that I want to it. Might be playing with some buddies, so maybe ill add those in to see how they do. Good point about Ephara, I wish picked up on that sooner. At some point after I passed without casing the board wipe i started thinking. That the correct pplay is to drop Brago first to setup the ETB creature on the following turn (makes sense right). If i thought about that first that steers me toward the board wipe and at least slows things down a bit, don't know what happens afterwards but at least we remove some important pieces.

[@RatKillerSVS]

@@CommanderReplay Thank you for this in-depth answer. I completely forgot about the red Hulk, gotta run it more often, though it's not exactly on flavour with angels deck. I really wish risk factor had "any target" written on it, but so far it's been ok in paper games, since it's a bit of a political tool - you help me draw, I'll do something for you. Double use instant draw in boros is always a plus. I think it's very possible to have invocation on t5 and it makes for a good enlightened tutor target if land tax is already on the board. Stolen strategy falls into my least favourite category so far - exile and pay, but I could try to get out of comfort zone and try it, although I believe Etali would be better off. But you can tutor up the enchantment on the other hand. Ps. I believe you already know it, but Endless Atlas is really awesome in boros. PPS. Actually, it's a very good cover - to run Ephara as a commander in a brago shell. Less oppressive and with a relative ability.

[@admanios]

Varchild... Against The Gods! Just like Jack Kirby would have written.

[@CommanderReplay]

Wheres my hammer? Oh wait wrong universe.

[@EliPye35]

I had a good chuckle in the post game recap when you said giving the Purphoros player some tokens was probably a bad idea. Odd Commander in wanting you to both Voltron and blink it, which fight against each other.

[@CommanderReplay]

Lol yeah, I just felt like we would have been more on the same page about dealing with Ephara, apparently not! Yeah it is always odd when those 2 things get mixed. It is fun in the chaos that it creates on board. Life totals should drop pretty quickly. But Neheb, Etali and Heartless are gonna be the stronger red commanders if you are after over all power. Fun deck though, need to fool around with more to get a better feel on where it needs to be.

[@edenlee5944]

Looking at the Purphoros player playing a Temple of the False God, reminded me that even though i am a budget player, i am switching out all the Temple in my decks to Ancient Tomb because trading 2 health for 2 mana is nothing to sniff at ;)

[@CommanderReplay]

Oh ancient tomb is incredible. Now, it can kill you if you drop it turn 1 and proceed to use it every turn without gaining some life back.... I've had that happen. But it also allows for things like turn 2 crack a myriad landscape and other explosive plays like that. Temple was more playable a few years back I think, the format was a touch slower, and there were less ramp options available. I actually cut it from one of the only decks I was running it in recently, which is Aurelia angels. That deck could use it because if I got stuck on 4 lands trying to play angels I was going to lose the game anyway. The upside is fine but not insane. So I eventually just cut it for a basic plains for Emeria Shepherd. I have on a few occasions run out of plains to search which always gets awkward.

[@fenixmeaney6170]

Kruphix is a patreon like the Jesus is my copilot bumper sticker

[@CommanderReplay]

1 patreon was harmed in the making of this film.

[@vallhalla101]

If you don't want to use Lightning Greaves, use Swiftfoot boots instead. Hexproof instead of shroud but at the cost of a 1 mana equip

[@CommanderReplay]

Its in there. Getting the deck list posted now. It is nice to run both, but probably too awkward for this deck to run greaves. May need to add champions helm for additional protection.

[@jacquesdespadas]

Whispersilk Cloak? Mana intensive by comparison, but comes with unblockable. Still has the Shroud conundrum.

[@lastresort1plays]

You should run disrupt decorum to force your opponents to attack and maybe even some more goad cards

[@CommanderReplay]

Its actually in the decklist. Im pretty sure with ghostly prison out though, they don't have to attack if they just don't pay the cost. So ephara still a real problem right there. Enchantment removal needed! I do have a small handful of all creatures attack cards in there. They get better if you run some of the other cards that make tokens for opponents as well like akroan horse, but i decided not to go into that route too much since those creatures can block, and the varchild tokens can't. So i just focused up on letting varchild make the tokens and do the damage voltron style. More work needed.

[@viperion_nz]

That was a very short-sighted Porphoros player soooo... playing according to type, I guess

[@CommanderReplay]

Gotta go for them flavor wins.

[@kiba6601]

I've really been wanting to build her but I'm not much of a red player D:

[@sinfulbadger2]

#bringbackneheb

[@CommanderReplay]

Lol Ill see what I can do. Neheb is fun. OP if sticks in play though, and does nothing if it doesn't.

[@ClassicMagicMan]

Second