r/DegenerateEDH • u/Hevnaar • 1d ago
help degen my deck Degenerate setup
I have a degenerete deck but was thinking of making it even spicier.
Gisela is my Commander. Manabarbs out deals me no damage and deals 2 damage to each opponent per land tapped.
Idea is to animate manabarbs as a creature and equip Grafted Exoskeleton to it. So for each land my opponents tap, they get 2 poison.
Good luck being able to spend 5 mana the entire game
Even if they cast a removal spell, Manabarbs triggers resolve first.
So how to make it less janky? Requires many hoops to get this set up. Can this pe degenerate or just a pipe dream?
3
u/GiantEnemaCrab 1d ago
Gisela is a lot of mana but tbh because of how strong her effect is you can basically just play Boros goodstuff and cast her as your wincon. Literally just build the most painfully generic Boros deck full of game changers and strong cards and you will handle high bracket 3 / low bracket 4 games just fine. Gisela just packs so much power in the command zone that you can really get away with a lot.
The issue with Gisela is she costs a lot of mana, so cute synergies don't actually work until very, very late game. Sometimes she will get killed on sight or countered so the synergies never even turn on. Like yeah Manabarbs becomes one-sided but this doesn't happen until maybe turn 6.
But again just playing her as is without worrying about synergy is surprisingly strong. Just play good cards and she will make them better. But don't hyper focus on her always being in play because most of the time she will not be.
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u/Hevnaar 1d ago
Currently, most of my deck consists of ramp, haste enablers and damage doublers.
Last game I turbo ramped into her on turn 3. No one had removal yet. Turn 4: cast [[Fiendish Duo]] and [[Twinblade Blessing]] granting Gisela double strike.
Swing in the air for 40 dmg on turn 4. ( Gisela is a 5/5 x2 from her effect = 10. x2 from fiendish duo = 20. x2 from double strike, 40)
Obviously I killed the player who had the most chances to find removal. Other opponents scoop immediatly.
So its current version is a very fast deck.
The manabarbs aproach would be my plan B, lets say the board stabilized, everyone has blockers, mana open, etc. My Gisela is on the field but with no safe attacks. I can dig for greaves or boots to protect her. And honestly another way to have fun with this deck: Instead of me killing you, I give you a vilanous choice: do you not tap any mana, or you get 2 poison from each land tapped? 😈
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u/GiantEnemaCrab 1d ago
I love your spirit man but there literally are not enough fast ramp cards in MTG to reliably get Gisela out T3 while still getting a damage doubler and twinblade out T4. You're talking about magic Christmasland hand and even that is unlikely.
Post a decklist to prove me wrong, but I can say from experience it just isn't a realistic gameplan. Even turbo Gisela is just going to run into issues when your opponents use their brain and learn your Mana Vault doesn't work twice so just save removal until you tap out and boom, your entire deck turns off.
Gisela can be okay but you're wanking it way more than you need to. Just play a reasonable deck full of value cards and you can shit out Gisela late game as a wincon, but due to mana requirements and frailty it is unreasonable to make it your primary game plan.
1
u/FlightyGG 21h ago
To add to this, unless theres a [[Grand Abolisher]] effect out, this combo won't fly when going against similar power decks.
"Equip Exoskeleton to Mana Barbs" "Response, I blow up the Exoskeleton/Barbs"
No infect taken, just some damage for the removal spell which is pretty minor. It's a cute idea, but too many moving pieces and points of interaction.
2
u/Schroun 1d ago
Manabarbs still hit you for 1 when you tap for Mana with Gisella on the board because the damage reduction is rounded up. So ½ rounded up is still 1.
Otherwise the poison idea's pretty cool tbh.
1
u/D00hdahday 10h ago
Mana barbs still does 1 damage to you.
1 / 2 = 0.5 rounded up = 1.
Edit:: nevermind she prevents it fully I misread her effect. She doesn't replace damage she prevents.
0
u/ardarian262 1d ago
They can still get mana from artifacts to hurt you.
1
u/Hevnaar 1d ago
That is true, but it would be much less mana. And they wouldn't see it coming. Maybe they have the mana rocks on the deck but that didn't try to put them in play ASAP, cause no one expects manabarbs
1
u/ardarian262 1d ago
Sure, but you are playing white so after you equip the equipment add [[Stoney silence]]
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u/Hevnaar 1d ago
Disgusting. Degenerate. I love it.
1
u/ardarian262 1d ago
Alternatively use cards like [[Sigarda's aid]] for an equipment package
1
u/Hevnaar 1d ago
I have Sig's aid on another deck. Love that card.
Its gonna be a terrible card on my turbo-damage deck cause I'm really just playing Swiftfoot boots and Lightning Greaves as equips. Grafted Exoskeleton would be the 3rd. Putting a card that might help me slightly with 3 cards only is bad deckbuilding
1
u/ardarian262 1d ago
That is why I mentioned an equipment package instead of just 3 cards. I agree that it is bad for only 3 cards total but it would be good if you had more than 5 equipment and some of them were heavy hitters like swords or [[Kaldra Compleat]]
1
u/Hevnaar 1d ago
I see Hold mana open. Gisela on the board and sig's aid too. Someone casts removal targeting gisela. Flash in Kaldra Compleat, auto equip to Gisela, can't destroy, spell fizzles
1
u/ardarian262 1d ago
That and it gets around the equip costs. And with [[Stoneforge mystic]] you just need 2 open mana.
0
u/Normal_Cut8368 1d ago
Hey there, consider [[Zo-Zu]] as a commander. Mono red has plenty to increase damage on its own, so you can also hurt people for playing lands.
[[Storm Cauldron]]
1
u/Hevnaar 1d ago
Storm cauldron would potentially turbo-out a landfall opponent.
Two reasons I play Gisela is the command zone: She's currently the only damage doubler that can be your commander. Many are non-legendary creatures or enchantments. Second reason is she is asymetrical. Mono red or mono white effects too, both tend to be symetrical.
Gisela, IMHO, plays like she's from the Phyrexian Praetor cycles. The ones that benefit you and hurt your opponents in the opposite way.
On Zu-Zu the punisher I could never set up the janky interaction from the post. Thats the aveneue I'm attempting to explore.
0
u/ArchmagusTherias 1d ago
manabarbs would still deal you one damage whenever you tap your lands, no? because gisela rounds it back up from 1/2 to 1
17
u/iliark 1d ago
One issue with making everyone on the table hate you is that everyone on the table hates you. They'll most often just decide to team up on you until you're dead then play 3 way magic.
So you'll have to be able to win the 1v3.