Aristocrats Deep Dive | A Complete Guide to the Aristocrats Archetype in Commander

great channel with deep deck analysis you got another subscription!

Awe, I miss joe😢 lol. Great episode 😁

My favorite engine in this archetype is the Scarecrone engine with Wingrattle, Chain Breaker, Poppet, either Metallic Mimic or Mikaeus, and Reaper King.

THE MEATHOOK MASSACRE

Teysa Karlov makes so many mediocre triggers absolutely insane value wise. Surprised she was not here.

Can we get an update on this one?

Good video BUT there are a few you guys missed that are definitely worth mentioning:

This one is a wincon if you have a replacement effect in play.

It’s called ‘blasting station’ it’s both a sac outlet and a damage outlet in 1, 3 mana artifact.

Next, is in my opinion a better card draw engine for death triggers.

It’s called ‘species specialist’. It cost 1 more mana than the others you mentioned but does not drain your life.

Next is a drain outlet that is very similar to Syr Konrad. It does cost 1 more mana but the up side is HOW it does damage. Syr konrad actually deals direct dmg and as such can be prevented. This card states each opponent loses 1 life which cannot be as easily prevented.

It’s called ‘dreadhound’ and like Syr Konrad will also deal dmg on mill.

Next is also a very beautiful aristocrat card that both creates and sacrifices creatures called ‘tombstone stairwell’. What’s great about it is it will spawn and sacrifice tokens on EVERY UPKEEP.

This is both an ETB drain trigger, a sac outlet and card draw(it’s a tap ability tho) called ‘Ayara, first of lochtwain’.

Also worth mentioning that Ayara is also legendary.

Lastly, this is a cost reducer and an ETB drain trigger called ‘bontu’s monument’.

I would have wished to see some blue cards as inspiration for my Grimgrin deck.

I would love an updated Grismold deck tech!! He seems to break some of the exceptions to these guidelines

A card I do recommend for Mardu Aristocrats is Purphoros, God of the Forge. An indestructible enchantment for 4 Mana that deals 2 damage to each opponent whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control (yes, it includes tokens..). It is like the big brother of Impact Tremors. Especially deadly if you play many small creatures and / or token makers.

Im my very first booster pack ever I opened a Liliana, it was $70 at the time I still have that card and it’s the highlight of my collection.

I built wilhelt aristocrats as my first aristocrats deck and I absolutely love it.

As far as I understand, Aristocrats sacrifice live cards. What are the creatures with good on-dying abilities? The "afterlife" cards are nice, but .. what else?

I have an Angel/Cleric based deck, I've something to submit to You to ask some opinions:
-) Priest of forgotten gods (PoFG): it allows some card advantage by sacrificing tokens as card draw and the opponent sacrificing something (the least valuable card, usually); and BB mana. She seems very nice to me
-) Whisper, Blood Liturgist: sacrifice 2, usually tokens, to reanimate. That's nice :D what do you think?
-) Priest of the Fell Rites: 2/2 costing WB that sacrifice itself (and 3 life) for reanimating someone. It sounds great :D also, she can count as a "nontoken creature dying" :D
-) Professor of Symbology: Learns on ETB, which allow to fill the graveyard or take a useful Lesson card :D she balance herself off :D
-) Seraphine of Scales: good with Afterlife 2, but I think it's not enough
-) Angel of Invention: yes, it costs 3WW, but the two drones are sacrifice fodders for PoFG or Whisper. Also, gives +1/+1 to every other creature, which is nice
what about tokens generation?
-) Thraben Doomsayer: he is slow, but he creates a token a turn :D sacrifice fodders on the go :D
-) Valkyrie Harbinger: this recently cheap Angel allows to create a powerful 4/4 flying Angel token with vigilance. That's a thread and fodder generator

gonna disagree on butcher of malakir. cheated this card out multiple times and hes won me countless games. not that you guys arent wrong about him being expensive, he could just be a brick in your hand, BUT being able to revive him from the grave makes him so much more playable than the enchantments especially if you're playing against green.

also he triggers himself on death which has come clutch so many times

I just love how you shit on grave titan every video.

Learned alot! Definitely gonna be playing elenda she is so underused! Maxing it out is going to be expensive for like... 5 of the cards but hey! It's so good even without stuff like dreadhorde general

victimize is op as hell

I understand that cards such as Hunted witness and Doomed traveler seem to be kinda meh to a lot of players, but as someone who's played orzhov aristocrats for a long time, I've noticed that these one drop cards give tons of value for their cmc. They give 2 bodies for just a single mana. That's like 2/3 of the bodies from a ministrant obligation while also being simply 1/3 the cost of a ministrant of obligation. 2 bodies for a single mana is unheard of, and I really don't get why people underestimate it. You can draw like 4 cards by turn 3 with a hunted witness and a skull clamp, or you could have potentially 8 mana on turn 4 with a hunted witness and an ashnod's altar on the field. 1 hunted witness and a yawgmoth basically allow you to distribute 2 -1/-1 counters and draw 2 cards by T4 all on curve. You can even add a 2 and a 3 drop for even more value to basically keep your opponents leagues behind you all in the early game. I just think that these cards maybe deserve a better review imo is all. They seem especially good for going off early or being hyper mana efficient late game.

Just reworked my Teysa deck, and the advice really helped me understand my win cons better and clean up my deck a bit! Thanks for the vid!

No mention of Teysa Karlov?

I really love my Alesha deck that has a aristocrat theme to it.

I don't know about this advice. Everywhere I go, I always get in trouble for letting my sac out

I've always been partial to Teysa Karlov as my Commander in Aristocrats. She doesn't do a lot on her own, but certain death triggers are insane when you double proc then with her effect. And she can also make your tokens useful in situations where you either don't have or don't need to use a sac outlet. Someone swings a wide board at you or a big creature that you can't block, Inkshield it with Teysa on board and you just got a bunch of 2/1 creatures with Flying, Vigilance and Lifelink. Or resolving a sacrifice of Kokusho the Evening Star while she's on board. Huge damage and a ton of healing, especially if you have a Reanimate or something else to pull Kokusho back out and do it again.

I just played a Marchesa, Black Rose deck and won mostly off Oona's Blackguard

Ministrant of Obligation is consistently one of my favorite cards in my Teysa Karlov deck. It's absolutely bonkers. So much value, especially with skull clamp on the board.

Slimefoot might not be the best aristocrat, but i love him anyway :)

I did 5 color eleven and mike aristocrat its cool

Is bloodghast worth running in an aristocrats deck?

can us plz do the artafackt sack vershon plz of Aristocrats

What I love about aristocrat decks is that when I play them I don’t have to care if I lose my stuff because that’s the purpose of the deck. Black loves turning losing into winning 😂

Watching because I'm a Teysa Karlov simp. ♥️☠️

i always correct people when they say Magic is for Everybody, it's really for Anybody.

Cherries is crazy if you think victimize is not EDH playable. it's practically a wincon in my wilhelt deck. Sac a creature: Reanimate 2 creatures tapped from your graveyard for 2B? having it come it tapped is only slow if you're going to combat or if they have activated abilities, but if they're triggered abilities they're good to go (etb's and dying, the exact types of creatures we're running in aristocrats)

Mimic vat is good in Brudiclad

Please do more archetype deep dives!

Awesome video!

You forgot slimefoot the stowaway but it go he is not a main staple of these decks

I'm playing a boros aristocrats, no black at all.

Mitotic slime is a good aristocrats card in my opinion. It's effectively 7 bodies for 5 mana.

Far from the best

I think I need to rewatch this, did I not hear Teysa Karlov mentioned once?

With the Ashnod and Phyrexian versions of Altars, while it does not come up very often, keep in mind that these are mana abilities and cannot be responded to, gets around Split Second and can just help you snowball into other spells. Not a lot of people know that these mana Altars are mana abilities, since they read "sac:make mana".

Sacrificing is the cost, mana is what you get out of it. It's the same as tapping an Elvish Mystic or basic land; they cannot respond to you tapping for mana. Same with the Altars

I’m wondering if Liesa, Forgotten Archangel would be a good aristocrat commander? She doesn’t have a sac payoff perse, but she returns those creatures to your hand at the next end step. NN community any input?

I'm guessing Teysa Karlov isn't on the list because if you already go infinite, going more infinite isn't really helpful 😂 she is still my favorite, but overall great advice and thank you!

The dumbest card in my Teysa Karlov-deck is Commander Greven il-Vec.

Shirei has been my long time favorite edh deck. I always check the new sets to see if there are any new sac outlets/payoffs or good 1 power creatures

How did the not mention Teysa Karlov in the stereotypical aristocrats commanders section?!?! Her ability is literally any time a creature dying causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control, that ability triggers a second time. And as some additional gravy on top, creature tokens you control have vigilance and lifelink. I have a great aristocrats deck with her (she is Orzhov colors for those who don’t know) and it’s so much fun to play.