I really wanted to build a deck around [url=https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/large/front/5/a/5a7a212e-e0b6-4f12-a95c-173cae023f93.jpg?1625771723]Brisela, Voice of Nightmares[/url], but it wound up falling flat on its face. As it turns out, building a deck around a single card is hard as jannolor, because if you don’t draw it, you’re out of luck, and even if you do, if something happens to it, you’re sunk. It doesn’t help I don’t play White decks. I think Bruna & Gisela were the only White cards in the whole deck. I just wanted my spooky fusion angel. :(

Might I suggest Kaalia of the Vast in the Commander format? She's black, white, red and her ability is that whenever she attacks you put an angel, demon, or dragon card from your hand onto the battlefield also attacking, and she only costs four mana. Toss in all the tutor cards, plus removal and protection, and just big fat monsters for doing a beat down. It was my first Commander deck and I had a blast with it until I moved on to Nekusar, because killing people with card draw is deliciously evil.

I do like the premise there. Some evil looking magic lady calling on angels & demons to murder her opponents. I particularly like that demons being there too means said angels aren’t necessarily, like, good, so Brisela would fit right in. It also sounds particularly nasty when paired with the [url=https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QT2xzMzTL._AC_.jpg]Subjugator Angel[/url]. I’m not digging the dragon bit too much, but I could just, like, ignore the dragon part. I guess the only issue is I don’t play Commander. I much prefer standard format. My friend insists I make a Commander deck, though, and I do quite like this. Is there any good way of increasing the chances of getting my fusion angels into my hand?

As I said, tutor cards! Usually black spells that let you search your deck for cards and put them in your hand, or in Vampiric Tutors case the top of your deck. And I don't think I used all that many Dragons in mine way back when. Mostly angels and demons. Avacyn, Iona, Aurelia, and for demons Rakdos, Master of Cruelties, and Lord of the Void I think we're my big baddies. I also used a lot of reanimation spells, especially mass reanimation, because people like to bully creature decks.

Ah, I must’ve missed that bit. Are these cards actually called “tutors”; like, if I looked up “tutor cards” would I find them easily enough? Ooh, now that you mention it, didn’t Avacyn get corrupted during Shadows over Innistrad? She almost certainly got a “corrupted form” card. I wonder if it’s any good.. Edit: Went and looked up all this cards. Sadly Avacyn’s corrupted version isn’t nearly as good as her uncorrupted one. A whole lot cooler, though. Honestly, my head is just kinda buzzing now about throwing out a few big creatures, then using that Kaalia/Subjugator combo to just murder my opponent with them being unable to fight back. Know any cards that might go well with that strategy? Another edit: Do you know, actually, if I could control two Legendaries of different names, but the same character? Like Gisela, Broken Blade & Gisela, Blade of Goldnight? I kinda want both Avacyns. :p

A lot of them are, but just googling Magic Tutors should pull up the goodies. Master of Cruelties plus Kaalia can be an insta kill on someone. Can't recall many other shenanigans, it's been awhile. I also loved Sire of Insanity for keeping my opponents hands empty and Armageddon to destroy all lands to keep people from fighting back, because I'm evil. Yes, you can have two different versions of creatures out at the same time. I think they also changed the rules so you can have different versions of Planeswalkers aswell!

I can already see the perfect turn unfolding! Start by playing Subjugator Angel, tapping all opponent creatures! Then use Kaalia to summon Mr. Cruelty, and bam! Instant win! I found four Tutors using Black mana, and they’re all pretty cheap, so that works nicely. Slip in that one jounal from Shadows over Innistrad (which I already own), and I think I have a pretty good chance of getting my good cards into my hand! Armageddon seems particularly fun, because the deck plays around Kaalia subverting high mana costs anyway. Unfortunately I feel I’d be quite bad at using the Sire effectively. :p Heh, if this deck doesn’t wind up being too expensive, I might try to slip the uncorrupted Bruns/Gisela in there for funsies. Them working aside their horrible fusion counterpart seems fun. How much of a Commander Deck should be devoted to Lands?

Around 40, but for more aggressive decks you can go lower. Especially with mana rocks like the Ravnica Sigils and Sol Ring. My Edgar Markov deck only has 34 because most of my vampires are in the 1 to 3 mana cost range.

That means I need 60 actual spells? Eesh, that’s gonna be tough. Even with everything you’ve suggested, I’m only at 16.

Ah, I assumed you knew the format. So in EDH/Commander you pick your Commander then build a deck with 99 more cards that all have to fall within their colors. Cards other than basic lands also have to be unique, meaning no copies but different versions of creatures and planeswalkers are okay. Your Commander sits in a special zone outside of your deck and can be cast at any time. If they're removed from the field they return to that zone and cost an additional 2 to cost for each time they've done so. There's a small list of banned cards but outside of it everything's legal and never cycles out like other formats, but it's also pretty casual so most groups don't care about that. I love it because it's slower and encourages fun over metas, games usually run longer, and I can use almost any card!

I used to collect Pokémon cards and build decks to use against other players, so there was a time when I thought about decks rather frequently. I stopped talking to people irl when I was a HS Sophomore, though, so I stopped playing card games as well. I've since sold my collection of cards for a few hundred dollars. I do occasionally play Magic: The Gathering Online with my family, so I very rarely build new decks for that. It's been a few months since we've played it, but we might play again soon.