Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!
Last time I left you with 2 more Nephilim to go, so let's finish brainstorming about those two today!
Luckily I've specifically picked those two to be the last ones because I'm the most excited about them... And will probably build decks around them for real in the future.
"Without further ado let's get going:" - Me, last time
Gurmag Angler called, he wants more colors too! Jokes aside, Dune-Brood Nephilim is kind of the fixed version of this Bad Boy:
While Hazezon Tamar is obviously a real legend and actually legal as a commander because of that, Nephilim does most of the things better than he does. The most important difference is that in order to use Hazezon Tamar as efficiently as possible you'll need to be able to play him and sacrifice him BEFORE the tokens come into play so his "remove all Sand Warriors"-trigger hits nothing. That requires a certain amount of cards dedicated for that job that you would rather use for more ramp, carddraw and/or token support.
The second advantage of the Nephilim is - who would've guessed - the fourth color. Out of the two colors that are "missing" on Hazezon Tamar, Black is by far the more fitting one, not only flavorwise but also when thinking about what it has to offer for any Token-Deck:
Both Defense and Offense get a big boost, when you're able to sacrifice creatures to get an effect that's more useful in the current state of the game. Board getting clustered up? Bomb the way free with Attrition by sacrificing some of the tokens you got from connecting the turn before. Forced into staying on defense? Circle of Despair converts tokens into Fogs. Need a big flying creature to win a big stalling game? Flesh-Eater Imp will eat some tokens and then fly over for 10 poison counters. Wanna alphastrike more effectively? Maw of the Obzedat will eat some blocked 1/1s and strengthen the unblocked ones.
Additionally I'd play those (partially non-)black cards:
What I like about "Whenever you connect"-cards is that they scale especially well with token-strategies because if your opponent doesn't have any blockers you'll get a crapton of triggers and if he is able to block a bunch of creatures your few unblocked 1/1s will still get out some value for you.
Breath of Fury is my favourite tech here since it can go "Infinite" if you have a way to give your creatures haste since you'll simply let it jump from token to token while your Nephilim produces new ones each combat step. You'll have to make sure the enchanted token and the Nephilim can connect of course. (Hello Mr. Attrition, how are you doing today?)
Then there are only two things left to do and you'll have a well rounded deck. First add some of the more "classic" token cards to the mix...
...aswell as some ramp spells to fix your mana and boost your token production along with general utility cards.
The rest of the deck then should be shaped to fit personal preference. Play really ramp heavy to maximize the "output" of Dune-Brood Nephilim or go for a more aggressive approach where your commander is just another way of generating a huge board. Whatever you choose there are a few card that I would always play in a Dune-Brood-Deck if you can get your hands on them:
I think given what Dune-Brood Nephilim does, it's pretty self-explanatory why I'd play those cards isn't it?
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Since Khans of Tarkir isn't that old of a set, I guess you might've played with prowess before:
"Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)"
And you've probably really liked what cards with Prowess did... Well, that's what we got here too... On steroids! That have been given steroids! Which have been mixed with anabolics! And that's not even exaggerated...
Let me point out the differences between Prowess and this THINGWITHOUTAKEYWORD:
I won't have to explain what red and green mean here, do I?
Now I can see going two very different ways. Either focusing more on the Abzan-/Simic-side of things and incorporate a general +1/+1-counter theme into the deck...
... or be more drawn towards a voltron build which puts more focus on the Nephilim itself:
"Abzimic"-Style
When going for an Abzan-/Simic-Theme the two Ravnica Blocks and the Tarkir Block are your place to start looking for cards obviously as that's where the mentioned guild and clan have their roots.
Let's see what the first visit to the "City of Guilds" had to offer for us:
The second visit then brought things like this:
And you're probably familiar with some of those cards from the Tarkir Block:
The basic idea behind both of these "organizations" is boosting your creatures further and further both in power and toughness aswell as additional effects for creatures that have a +1/+1 counter on them, while also being able to move those counters around so they're always where you need them most. Of course this is the perfect environment for our beloved Witch-Maw Nephilim since he's pretty good at generating those counters with little to no work. Because of that he's a very good source of counters for you to move around while his second ability also makes him an attractive target for getting more counters aswell.
Voltron-Style
If you really want to focus on your commander though, you should definitely go Voltron here. Personally I'm more drawn to it, mainly because Witch-Maw Nephilim offers the unique opportunity of not requiring many cards that actively boost his power/toughness to be potent. You just need a few spells to get him started aka make him a threat. And that's where the fun starts because your opponents will now try to handle him of course while you protect him. The thing is that all your protection spells and "answers to answers" will increase the threat of your Nephilim even further.
I especially like Molting Skin here because it has the potential to trigger your commander over and over while also being very good at protecting him from death.
Additionally if you have the need to reload your hand those cards be quite what you want:
Those are four of my favourite cards for the deck and this is why:
- Vanish into Memory: Not only does it protect your commander from any sort of removal, but it also draws you card equal to its power plus one, since it puts two counters on it, then draws you cards equal to the power and when you have to discard Witch-Maws toughness is back to one again. That's also the "drawback" of the card... you'll have to start boosting him again, but that shouldn't be a problem with that many cards.
- Give/Take: Three amazing modes on one card. You can use only Give for those last five counters you need for lethal (acutal card + trigger), only Take as a early game Divination or later to net you a bunch of cards for three misely mana, or go completely nuts by fusing the card and drawing at least five cards at the cost of 6 mana. Again, if you drew cards, you'll have to start from scratch but... well you drew cards!
- Rhystic Study: Not necessarily providing as much card draw as the first two cards but it also won't reset our Nephilim for a change. Additionally if your opponents don't want you to draw cards they will have to pay one extra mana for each spell which will make it even harder to get rid of your Nephilim.
- Bound/Determined: Most of the time you will cast it for Bound but there will definitely be times where Determined comes in handy. One of the biggest blowouts for any Voltron-Deck is getting your Commander tucked (= suffled into/put on bottom of your library). To combat that it's always wise to play some cards that let you sacrifice him/her for some last value. And recurring four cards would count as "value" wouldn't it?
If you still want to pack some cards that are only there to strengthen your Nephilim, I recommend focusing on Deathtouch, Indestructible, Hexproof and Shroud aswell as Lifelink to grant you and your commander protection while the combination of Deathtouch and Trample will ensure the maximum amount of damage going through in almost every combat scenario.
And with this, I'll wrap up this monster of a "Brainstorming Commanders". I hope you people still enjoyed it; see you around!
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