nvm, found it under something called basic brushes EDIT: Tried to draw vi Ended up with This is like burning cereal.
I thought of it as nightmare moon, due to the sky. I figure3d out I could make it look like it wa sbending by utilizing layers
Angels and titans and planeswalkers, oh my. I was never much of a planeswalker user myself, outside of my Bolas deck. Not sure why, maybe I'm just too busy building decks around other stuff. And yeah, any tutor cards are absolute game-changers in Commander. My Zur deck packed lots of them, especially because being Zur made it part black which is where most of the tutors are. Zur himself is a tutor on a stick, so the deck was full of 3-drop enchantments that buffed him to all hell. And then Eldrazi Conscription. Good times. XD
Crazy! I realized that my girlfriend wanted to get into Commander recently, so I took apart my Red/White Commander deck (she wants to play Red/White and it's no fun if we have the same deck, plus I think Red/White is kind of weak for Commander). I took a leaf out of your book and started working on a Blue/Red deck that uses Niv Mizzet, Dracogenius as its Commander. I like him for his burn/draw effect, which I can use while casting Blue draw spells and counter spells while waiting for big burn spells and giant dragons to show up in my hand. Even if I don't win with it, it should be fun. And man, those dragons... I've got seven of them in the main deck, with a few other creatures for blocking purposes, and everything else is non-creature spells and lands.
I'm not sure if Dracogenius would make such a good commander actually... 'cause he's not as easy to combo with as his Firemind self. I'm also a bit skeptical of using counterspells in Commander in general, because of how low the chances are of having the right cards at the right time. Blue is picky about timing. What kinda dragons are you using? Knollspine Dragon? :O
I like Dracogenius for the fact that he's a solid 2-per-turn damage and draw. That might not seem like a lot in Commander, but 21 points of commander damage is enough to disable a player even without them losing their 40 life. With his five power, he deals seven damage per turn when his attacks go through, making him a 3-turn-kill that starts on my seventh turn, considering he doesn't have haste and costs 6 mana to cast. That's not too shabby, in my opinion. Sure, his combos aren't great, but he's a decent card on his own. The counters are in there mostly to protect him and prevent blockers from becoming an issue. There are also quite a few take-possession-of-target-creature cards in this deck for that purpose. The dragons I'm using are Moonveil Dragon, Utvara Hellkite, Furyborn Hellkite, Hellkite Charger, Ancient Hellkite, Flameblast Dragon and Shivan Dragon. Spoiler: Dragons Galore!
Eh, I think the combo potential of Firemind Nivvy makes him a better creature, even though he's smaller. With Dracogenius, Niv himself has to be the source of the damage in order to net you a card draw, and his burn ability costs mana. The other Niv just automatically burns things while you're doing other stuff, so he synergizes with any cantrip without costing extra mana. And his smaller body--as well as his lack of haste--can easily be remedied with a Clout of the Dominus. Which gives him some serious evasion too. 'Course, you can also use both. Niv-Mizzet combos with himself after all. Problem, legendary rule? Also lol, I was about to mention the Utvara and Furyborn hellkites next. XD If you wanna grab your opponent's creatures you should also toss in Keiga, the Tide Star. 5 flying damage per turn if your opponent doesn't kill her, and they lose a creature if they do. She is excellent mind games.
I'll look into that. I've known Firemind to garner some hate. Dracogenius being the just-okay-only-slightly-a-threat card that it is, I trust it a bit more. It's the same reason I didn't toss in guttersnipe, actually (well, the dragon theme was also a reason, but that only goes so far). I also like that Dracogenius is a bit stronger, even if that can be made up for. I agree that Firemind is generally the better of the two. However, without certain very specific combos, his ability is kinda lacking in the speed that it takes for me to knock out a fellow player in Commander. Dracogenius is also a better choice with Mark of Mutiny, Twist Allegiance, Traitorous Blood, Act of Treason, Mind Control and Corrupted Conscience in mind. Firemind would have been a better card passively, but I much prefer Dracogenius for what I had in mind. I also really, really (insert really^3104586439591597629589 here) like counters. Counter/Burn Dragon Beatdown was the plan, and Firemind only sort of fit in with that. Don't get me wrong, he's better for the average deck: just not this one in particular. Now, if I were to change my deck and make it more Enchantment/Draw (see: Mind Unbound) oriented with less emphasis on field presence, then Firemind would be a no-brainer. And of course, my theory has yet to be tested. If Dracogenius fails, I know what to do in the future.
Let me know how that goes for you then, 'cause I still don't think I entirely understand what you mean. I'm under the impression that Dracogenius Niv is the one that needs more specific cards in the picture to be comboable; meawhile Firemind combos with anything that says "draw a card". And there are of course several counterspells that do that. lol Also, hnnnng Mind Unbound. I can't believe I didn't know that card existed. I want it for my snake deck... but if only it were cheaper.
Hmm... if your deck is Blue/Green, you might be able to mana ramp it out. Niv Mizzet, Dracogenius isn't really as combo oriented (hence why he isn't usually as good), but whenever I play against Jake (a guy who lives on my floor who taught me Commander) I lose a lot of my field advantage, and my Commander is the only card I can cast consistently. So Dracogenius was my pick based mostly on the fact that he can assist me, by himself with no other cards involved, in gaining hand advantage and thus being able to cast more dragons over the course of the game. He doesn't really drive the deck, he just gets out to push every once in a while.
Ah, I think I see what you're getting at now. I didn't get it at first 'cause that isn't the way I look at Commander, lol. My philosophy was that your commander should be the card that wins you the game (or gets you close) because it's the one card you can cast whenever you're ready. So hence my Commander decks weren't built around a strategy that the commander helped out with; they were built around the commander itself. Also yeah, regarding Mind Unbound, my snake deck does have a bit of mana ramp to it, but it's mainly card draw (what a surprise lol). Mind Unbound also conflicts with Seshiro on my mana curve so I'd have to resolve that somehow. Maybe I should play it as soon as possible because it needs time to charge... or maybe just add more mana ramp so it'll matter less. I'd have to experiment.
