Raff Capashen, Ship's mage - Planeswalkers

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duducrash
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Post by duducrash » 2 years ago

The deck concept is rather simple. Try not to die and then eventually control the board with planeswalkers. Ideally play walkers with Raff out before we untap so we get them out while holding protection.

Wrath count might be to high compared to counters, and maybe some more creatures? Advice greatly appreciated

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duducrash
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Post by duducrash » 2 years ago

Deck is fairly new! mostly built out of collection with exceptions being the new cards from the past innistrad block, the proliferate cards, will kenrith and the creature that doubles the number of counters.

I have yet to play with the deck properly, only tested with a few friends in a table that had had elfs and goblins, maybe thats why I ended up with so many freaking wipes. The idea is to not die, ATM the deck actually lacks a wincon, second sun is one I was thinkering with, but didn't have one with me and the store didnt have one either, so I'll also appreciate wincom ideas.

Even without wincons I actually won 2 games out o 5 from scoops after ultimates controlled the game

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Post by Arebennian » 2 years ago

I've got a Raff deck and I think a lot of people come to the conclusion that Raff's ability doesn't synergise with Planeswalkers all that well (although, those with static abilities do work better).
You pay the cost of the planeswalker on the end step of your last opponent, but you don't get to activate it until your turn. Whilst this avoids it getting attacked, you're not getting the value out of the planeswalker's sorcery speed activation.

Some sort of artifact combo would be a more optimal build.

Here are some more ideas for you to peruse:
viewtopic.php?t=575
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the ... f-capashen

Neither of the above are mine, but they made me consider how I built mine and I found them to be a good resource and theorycrafting thread.

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Post by Legend » 2 years ago

“Comboing in Commander is like dunking on a seven foot hoop.” – Dana Roach

“Making a deck that other people want to play against – that’s Commander.” – Gavin Duggan

"I want my brain to win games, not my cards." – Sheldon Menery

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duducrash
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Post by duducrash » 2 years ago

Arebennian wrote:
2 years ago
Some sort of artifact combo would be a more optimal build.
I guess most decks would have a more optimal if they focused on artifacts and combo builds but we chose to go different routes I guess, I chose this deck to be a planeswalker control deck. But thanks for the feedback, I'll maybe focus more on artifacts
Legend wrote:
2 years ago
Honor-Worn Shaku
does it work with planeswalkers/enchantments?? thats a really really good catch thanks!

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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

I'll second the call re: lack of synergy between Raff and planeswalkers. If you're looking to build Azorius superfriends, I would suggest Brago, King Eternal or Medomai the Ageless as ways to double-dip on your planeswalker activations. Alternatively, Isperia, Supreme Judge or Ith, High Arcanist could be a good way to ward off attacks. Dragonlord Ojutai could also work if you're looking for something more generic.

I'll also note that Ghostly Prison and Propaganda don't prevent your opponents from attacking your planeswalkers - they only tax your opponents for attacking you directly. Contrast with Sphere of Safety.

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Post by Legend » 2 years ago

duducrash wrote:
2 years ago
Legend wrote:
2 years ago
Honor-Worn Shaku
does it work with planeswalkers/enchantments?? thats a really really good catch thanks!
Yes, as long as they're legendary.
“Comboing in Commander is like dunking on a seven foot hoop.” – Dana Roach

“Making a deck that other people want to play against – that’s Commander.” – Gavin Duggan

"I want my brain to win games, not my cards." – Sheldon Menery

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duducrash
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Post by duducrash » 2 years ago

Mookie wrote:
2 years ago

I'll also note that Ghostly Prison and Propaganda don't prevent your opponents from attacking your planeswalkers - they only tax your opponents for attacking you directly. Contrast with Sphere of Safety.
Great catch! It definitely went over my head, idea was a pillowfort for the walkers.


Idea of the deck is being able to protect the walkers once they are on the Field, being able to play teferi and then wrath is the goal for me, extra turns might be nice though not sure

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Post by duducrash » 2 years ago

I got a bunch of games today and focused on this particular deck! I'm keeping Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage as the commander. I did think about a switch to Medomai the Ageless but I don't necessarily love extra turns and I do like the play pattern. So thanks for the advice. I updated the deck in the OP, i also think the previous deck was all over the place with cards in the wrong section. I did it over the phone so I'll blame that.

I got together with some friends today and did a whole lot of trades and changed my deck between matches a bunch, didn't particularly keep a changelog but made some several changes.

I think the actual build is way more pillow fort oriented, cards like Baird, Steward of Argive Archon of Absolution and Sphere of Safety felt great. I did play against overly agressive decks so I don't know if I tuned to much to that side. one thing that I loved to play with was Rule of Law effects, I think the value planeswalkers bring to the table is too much when you are trading a spell for a spell.

I also revamped the ramp big time. During testing Astral Cornucopia always felt busted but I never got to bust it once during a game.

Early in the changes I took out both X instant spells, but since this deck does play at instant speed, having the mana sink felt good.

it does lack cards like Tormod's Crypt or Soul-Guide Lantern but it is because I just don't have any arround and nobody had a spare one to trade but the deck would greatly appreciate it I think.

Lastly I got one approach of the second sun but since I don't run spell tutors it never came to me at the right time, and I didnt feel like revamping everything to accomdate it

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Post by duducrash » 2 years ago

Cards I 100% will include.

The Wandering Emperor and Farewell .

I don't know if I am including but maybe I'll add a small vehicle package. Since I did have a large wrath package I might gain advantage if I include Vehicles that won't die after wraths. If I do so, I might get some more walkers that produce tokens. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar Elspeth, Knight-Errant and so on. Thing for me is that vehicles are really hard to evaluate for me! Brute Suit Seems nice for my plan, Aerial Surveyor ramps me, Heart of Kiran works with walkers. Smuggler's Copter , Mindlink Mech and Prodigy's Prototype also seem nice.

I'd appreciate input on the vehicles subtheme!

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Post by duducrash » 1 year ago

As I continue to update my decks I've gotten to this one.

I play this as a reactionary control deck. Really slow. I don't want to play a PW and tap out. Ideally I'll play a PW EoT and then untap with interaction.

There is a chance I'll swap Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage for Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion + a blue background . I considered a Grand Arbiter Augustin IV version for a while, but since I run so many wipes I don't want to be overly reliant on a creature. So I'm liking Raff for now.

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Post by duducrash » 4 months ago

Updated the OP in my effort to keep most of my decks updated. This is a sweet one, mostly because I havent seen one like it before, I'm pretty sure there are others arround, but I never actually saw then so I think this is the deck that I built that had less internet imput. The one great catch was Mookie's one that Propaganda and Ghoslty prison were not as synergystic as I tought

This is my take on UW control in EDH, the deck is fairly slow but consistent. It's actually really simple, play Raff so you can play a PW EOT, wrath the board in your turn so the PW is safe. I took the rule of law effects many times they werent doing much. Cut down on the Counters too, I was toying with the idea of having no creatures as a challenge, many times Deepglow Skate and Flux Channeler read "I win, this game will last 20 more minutes but I win."

Since I took most of the hatebears out of my Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck, I think I'll be reaching for this more. I played it this weekend a bunch and if the table is right it is pretty fun. I think this is my deck with the highest winning % ever but I think that might be due to people not catching up to the deck play patterns, I'm sure If I played a BUNCH against the same folks it would win less. The "ramp" is slow most of it is 3MV +. an obvious way forward would be to improve that.

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Post by duducrash » 2 months ago

in

Pit of Offerings - It has been a great card for me. I would run in several decks if I had opened more.
The Mycosynth Gardens
Swords to Plowshares - More spot Removal
Stroke of Midnight - More spot removal
Heart of Kiran - Wanted sad robot in another deck, got this blocker instead here. I have a vehicle subtheme and its a PW deck. Its pretty good in my opinion.

Out

Island
Plains
Solemn Simulacrum
Contentious Plan
Fuel for the Cause

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Post by duducrash » 2 months ago

minor updates

In

Keeper of the Accord - Very good in any non-green deck and this doiesnt play many creatures either so theres that.
Mirage Mirror many cool enchantments to copy actually, have been wanting to try

out

Tezzeret's Gambit -shying away from some proliferate effects
Astral Cornucopia took 3 proliferate cards out recently. it does loose a lot without them

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Post by duducrash » 2 months ago

Out

Experimental Augury - i'm taking out some proliferate

in

Magus of the Moat

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Post by Chromaticus » 2 months ago

I like Brought Back and Cosmic Intervention in all my non green white decks for the interaction with fetches. They also do well in resetting planeswalkers when someone attacks them down.

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Post by duducrash » 1 month ago

@Chromaticus They work awesome with fetches. I think I even had Cosmic Intervention for a while but with only one fetch I would often not have uses for it. When i'm deploying walkers I mostly have them protected. If I had some off color fetches I'd have them for sure

small changes im testing

OUT

Narset, Parter of Veils
Swords to Plowshares

IN

Imprisoned in the Moon
Heliod's Intervention

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Post by pokken » 1 month ago

Teferi, Master of Time is probably the strongest game ending planeswalker recently printed and pretty strong synergy with this deck (even though you would often want to cast it sorcery speed there are times where the board is such that it is correct to flash it in after the guy with all the attackers has passed).

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Post by duducrash » 1 month ago

pokken wrote:
1 month ago
Teferi, Master of Time is probably the strongest game ending planeswalker recently printed and pretty strong synergy with this deck (even though you would often want to cast it sorcery speed there are times where the board is such that it is correct to flash it in after the guy with all the attackers has passed).
You are right. I should probably run him.

I should probably do a double check on the wraths. my match up against midrange grindfests and creature based strategies as a whole is amazing. I will demolish those decks. But the low density of counter spells leaves me dead to other outlets, specially combo

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Post by pokken » 1 month ago

duducrash wrote:
1 month ago
I should probably do a double check on the wraths. my match up against midrange grindfests and creature based strategies as a whole is amazing. I will demolish those decks. But the low density of counter spells leaves me dead to other outlets, specially combo
Something I can say from experience is that people really wear out on that whole midrange spam sweepers stuff. I'd suggest trying to engage from another angle where you can.

cards like Cryptic Command and other reactive spells tend to be a lot more palatable and sometimes can do double duty by giving you more answers to combos as well.

Teferi's Protection, Cryptic Command, and Windshaper Planetar are ones I have had good experiences with (obviously TP is pretty popular lol) but I am sure there are others in UW I'm missing.

Something I'd add is that a lot of times these decks struggle to beat Craterhoof Behemoth too and so having instant speed things is a good answer to that.

--

one more I forgot that's a total different angle, but with proliferate subtheme I would strongly recommend fitting in Mage-Ring Network and Calciform Pools.

You'd be surprised how much ramp you'll end up with using some of that.

You can crib from my Kenrith deck for random proliferate nonsense too, it's pretty focused on that stuff. https://deckbox.org/sets/3353727

Empowered Autogenerator for example will absolutely outperform Thran Dynamo if you go just a little deeper on proliferate stuff (which might be strong and fun). I really like the whole Everflowing Chalice package tbh.

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Post by duducrash » 1 month ago

pokken wrote:
1 month ago
one more I forgot that's a total different angle, but with proliferate subtheme I would strongly recommend fitting in Mage-Ring Network and Calciform Pools.
I had much more proliferate in the past. with Astral Cornucopia Everflowing Chalice But I'm not 100% sure why but people were super scared of proliferation. Maybe of dying out of nowhere? unsure. So I started to take out pieces, and with less proliferation, I ended up with less targets too.

I don't think craterhoof is much of a problem to me, or hasnt been. Because sure, they can have a nasty turn where they play and swing with everything, but with the high density of sweeper, I usually don't allow for such a board to exist to craterhoof to make a mess on. I did like your Cryptic Command suggestion, I'll try it. I'm not sure if you seen, but there are some interesting UW cards from the clue set. in the axis of Windshaper Planetar .

The combo thing I think I really need counterspells or dress downs. This deck performs really for me, I have a really high win % with it. I don't play a lot, more when I'm well rested and everyone is in a mood for such a game. since november this deck is like 9-3. with 1 loss being to a random voltron deck, but I'll discount that because it was a variance thing. I had an emblem, untapping each turn and in 7 draw steps I found lands and mana rocks. It's an anomally. The 2 losses were to me not having anything to do with Thassa's Oracle on the stack. I did get to stop it once, because I had Oath of Teferi and a teferi emblem so I was activating PWs several times a turn and drawing at will. so I could get a counter and stop it. But I'm very light on counters overall

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Post by duducrash » 1 month ago

Some upgrades

In

Castle Vantress
Portal to Phyrexia
An Offer You Can't Refuse

Out

Island
Mindsplice Apparatus
By Invitation Only


As I continue my search for the teferi I can activate every turn and some better counterspells I got some upgrades. Castle vantress was a pretty obious inclusion, if i'm playing flash sometimes I awkwardly sit with nothing to do. Theres also ultimates that give me aditional untap steps. free inclusion. Portal is a bit weird with farewell and sunfall but great card, swaped it for by invation only. offer you cant refuse is a nice counterspell but not the stuff I want to be playing. its a placeholder/test I guess

I also have sections for vehicles (small subtheme) and targeted removal now. targeted removal isn't optimal It could greatly improve

P.S : Farewell was a mistake. I have had in hands and know that the opponent either counters or its demolished. there is no playing arround it, there is no "pick 2 modes" there is nothing. such a dumb lazy card. I don't think its a problem to play it, I think its a design problem

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Post by duducrash » 4 weeks ago

Small changes i'm testing, wont update right now

In
Kairi, the Swirling Sky
Dragonlord Ojutai


Out

Imprisoned in the Moon
Ugin, the Ineffable


I"ll probably get a couple more beaters in Momentum and Teferi, Master of Time . Both of the dragons are just cool and hit face while being card advantage. cast EOT and hit face I guess

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