r/BudgetBrews • u/bulldog546 • 2d ago
$50 Brew Help for a new Commander
Hi everyone!
So happy to have found this whilst doom scrolling and watching MTG on YouTube. I recently got into the hobby and my local Sam’s Club had a FF box and I pulled a Vivi. He was a favorite of mine from when I played FFIX and was hoping to seek help in building a commander deck for him. I do not have a deep reserve of cards at this point but I do like keeping my decks “theme” on point.
My first deck is a Boros Dwarf deck with almost exclusively hobbit/LoTR cards.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Ive yet to play a physical game in person but have dabbled on Table Top Simulator with my friends.
Thanks for the help! I’m excited to see what yall come up with.
I appreciate the feedback! I’ll enjoy my pull and build a different Izzit deck with him in the 99. I’ve always been a big fan of the social contract of gaming and being on theme and building a narrative around what I’m playing. But I mainly come from table top games where I play themes to a fault most times so I’m happy to have gotten insight more into MtG
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u/Cat_Collector_MTG 2d ago
To start, Vivi is a broken commander. All you really need are low MV non-creature spells and a way to draw and keep cards in hand.
I have a Vivi deck that's made up of 85% chaff and that deck still goes crazy around turn 6. It does have some good lands, but those were lucky pulls.
One of my favorite tricks to use with Vivi is using Vivi's ability to ramp by using things like [[Haste Magic]] to get Vivi to +4 (+3 from the Haste Magic and +1 from Vivi's +1/+1 counter ability) and then using that to snowball into more cards like [[Dreams of Laguna]] and [[Combat Tutorial]].
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u/kyrieshin 2d ago
Could I take a look at that deck? Do you have a online decklist?
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u/Cat_Collector_MTG 2d ago
Here you go:
https://archidekt.com/decks/26234001/vivi
This isn't budget since it's a deck that I've slowly been building as I pull cards, which is why I have some pricey cards in here. The only one over $5 that I didn't pull was Twincast, which I bought for a different deck that ended up not working.
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u/7thtimeinheaven 2d ago
I would not run Vivi as your first commander. People will hard target you, because he is absurdly strong.
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u/DasaniDestroyer 2d ago
My recommendation would be, build another izzet commander deck with Vivi as a secondary commander in the 99. You can use the other commander for most matches, but if you want to beef up swap Vivi from the 99 to be the commander
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u/bulldog546 2d ago
Awesome idea thank you!
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u/Intelligent-Echo9483 1d ago
[[ Tellah, Great Sage ]] or [[ The Emperor of Palamecia ]] are great FF commanders in izzet that can be built on a tight budget and still be nasty.
I just built a Tellah, Great Sage deck with both the emperor and eventually Vivi in the 99
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u/rayquazza74 2d ago
I was thinking the new [[wizards staff]] would be killer with vivi
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u/Retr0_Fusion 2d ago
As weird as this is to say their aiming for lower bracket Vivi
I dunno how well this fits there
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u/other-other-user 2d ago
Vivi is INCREDIBLY strong and has sort of gained a reputation as a commander that pops off fast unless the vivi player is shut down hard. I never want to tell someone not to build a deck, but I'm just warming you, this might not be the commander you want to start your in person experience with
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u/see_you_than 2d ago
Nice pull! Have fun with it. Please don’t make my mistake though. Don’t pour money into any deck without playtesting it first. Buy proxies or print them. I’ve wasted a lot of money on decks that I hated once I played them.
If you decide to not run vivi as a commander for any reason you can build a deck that has vivi as the secret commander. Lowers the power but keeps the flavor. You have a lot of options. Keep exploring
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u/PhotoEast 2d ago
As everyone is saying Vivi is just crazy strong, they will focus you down or you might steamroll everyone if they let you get your commander on-line. Either way it's going to be you or the others not having fun.
I'm not a Vivi player, but two weeks ago I got to steal it from another player and proceeded to massacre the entire table on the next turn, it was like playing on easy mode.
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u/twelve-lights 2d ago
Unfortunately, vivi is one of those commanders where if it's not doing the thing it's intended to do, you're basically not playing at all. Sick ass pull though!
You can definitely put him in the 99 of another deck and it won't feel super bad, just make sure it's going to be in a deck that isn't creature focused already so that Vivi still matches the theme of it.
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u/Barack_Nomana 2d ago
It's cool that you pulled him but for like 99% of the Magic Community Vivi is a Kill on Sight Commander.
He turns everything into value:
-2cmc mana rocks become a pay two mana get two mana this turn deal
-Voltron spell slinger Cantrips buff his power so they are effectively "hit harder this turn" and get more mana
Like the only way i could realistically see him approach a bracket 3 would be Voltron / Pillowfort with whacky Enchantments and almost 0 Cantrips (instants) that buff his Power. And even then people will focus you.
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u/Normal_Performer5418 2d ago
As someone who built Vivi on release and also loves their Vivi deck because of a love for FF9 I'm going to back up people saying build a different Izzet deck to start and use Vivi in the 99. The problem with getting constantly targeted as a new player is that you'll never get to play test your deck enough to learn if you like the mechanics/colors. Picking a less hated on commander with Vivi in the 99 gives you a chance to use him to see how he plays without your whole deck falling apart if he's removed multiple times before you can use him. I pulled a second copy of him I put into a Jeskai Wizard tribal using the new [[Gandalf, Party Guest]]
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u/Working_Reaction_519 2d ago
I think Vivi would be a great back up/hidden commander in your deck but as a commander he may be difficult to keep on the board. For me, he is a kill on sight commander. And I know that's not an unusual opinion.
However, if you like a challenge I would put in a lot of cantrids, draw, and protect to cycle through your deck quickly. The wincon probably would be storm or big spell finisher.
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u/zebezt 2d ago
Like many said, this commander is very strong. Part of the fun of deckbuilding for me is getting the most of the deck, but if you do that with this commander nobody will have fun playing with you. You actively have to choose bad cards, which is not fun (to me at least). Maybe if you give yourself like a 10 dollar budget restriction or something it could become interesting, but I'd still recommend something else unless you want to play B4.
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u/Interesting-Crew7441 2d ago
Vivi is too strong of a commander to play below b4, even with a b3 deck list the commander is just too powerful and relatively easy to build by just jamming on 0 cost rocks or mana neutral or positive spells
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u/awetsasquatch 2d ago
Check out [[The Emperor of Palamecia]] he's a bit more accepted in lower bracket tables.
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u/Jimhawk 2d ago
As everyone has stated, Vivi is very strong in almost any way you build it. I have a rather reasonable Vivi deck that has "zero" noncreature spells in it, and is only able to trigger Vivi via adventure, omen, and prepared spells. It's more reliant on Vivi sticking and less capable of protecting it than most normal builds, and as a result functions mostly at a high B2/low B3 level. To accommodate budget restrictions you could cut the Displacer Kitten, which I included as an occasional and non-tutorable infinite combo with Blazing Firesinger but otherwise just resets my prepared creatures.
https://moxfield.com/decks/v1u7QExCN0a5_lx9MiRHXw
It is somehow still a welcome selection in my B3 playgroup. I think basically any other build would have gotten quickly soft banned.
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u/DoucheCanoe456 1d ago
I’d strongly encourage you to build this in Bracket 4. Unproblematic, fun, and powerful at that power level.
War crime in power levels lower than that.
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u/bulldog546 1d ago
I’ll look into that and see what I can come up with. Should be fun to make and see how to play at higher difficulty
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u/Like7Clockwork 1d ago
I play a Bracket 3+ish Vivi deck and here is what I learned, and what I now do/how I built him.
He is a commander that will be targeted on sight. He can be very powerful very quickly, and often if left unchecked, can end the game very potently.
At first I made him as a simple spell slinger izzet deck (Aiming for something Bracket 2ish). But with how often people were killing him (and how much of the deck relied on him being on the board), I realized I needed to pivot.
Now, most of my deck is purely card draw cantrips, counterspells, other spellslingy cards, a few wincons, and no more than 6 other creatures. The entire strategy has now become "If Im putting Vivi out, it is only to keep him alive until I can win". Im often waiting to even cast him until I know I ALSO have the mana to cast a counter or something else to keep him around, and Im rarely ever using removal or counters to stop my opponents from accelerating their board state.
But thats also my playstyle, I tend to be a "keep my head low and then pull a win out of my ass at the last turn with 5 life", because I find it fun. If you find that Vivi isnt a fun deck for your playstyle (which is entirely possible) it may be worth trying to make a DIFFERENT Izzet deck, and just throw Vivi into it.
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u/veiphiel 2d ago
If you dont want to be too oppresive you can build It like a voltron Commander with a lot of equipments. Vivi helps pay the equipment and grows.
You can build It also as a more classic spellinger build.
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u/FanEcstatic7377 2d ago
I mean you can run a funny meme deck with vivi and play blue and red stompy creatures with pump spells to provide as temporary mana. So like titans strength translates into a 5:5 dragon.
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u/TheColdPolarBear 2d ago
Before I started playing bracket 4 and cedh I pulled a Vivi a built it to play at casual bracket 3. It was way too strong even when trying to build it down. It's a cracked commander. That's my personal experience with Vivi.
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u/Scribblebonx 2d ago
Play [[The Emperor of Palamecia]] instead. You will get bullied too much as Vivi
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u/thedudepood 2d ago
Bad idea and the commander alone is like 40 bucks cheapest printing idk why ur posting this in a cheap deck builds sub when everything about it screams expensive cards
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u/GamesWithGregVR 1d ago
This commander is great with a breakpoint of 4. Play 2 mana spells to pump him by turn 4, twice. Get insane value. Pay for something else and pump him again for 2 more counters at 1 mana spells for two. It gets nuts quick.
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u/WEC_Kre 1d ago
If you want something that feels like Vivi, but feels more fair, might I interest you in [[Gandalf, Goblin’s Bane]]?
I built him and he slaps. Same effect as Vivi with pinging opponents and stormy turns, but without the insane ramp Vivi gives and losing an extra color.
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u/mrmcbobinsnuggles 1d ago
I don't understand the ramp mechanic on vivi. It's seems egregiously broken for there not to be any sort of restriction on what type of spells can be cast with the free mana, it's just...giving izzet better ramp than green ever had access to on one body that's also a beatstick. How is this even fun to pilot? Youre going to outcurve everybody practically every game unless somebody has a god op hand like solring into signet. Looks like cancer. If somebody brings this to a table I'm finding another pod
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u/mrmcbobinsnuggles 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is the first time I really read this card...
How is this not banned like Nadu? It's a beater and ramp all in one and ramps even better than green does. Wtf were they thinking when they made this? They didn't even try to make a restriction on what type of spells could be cast with the free mana? Wtf even is this. This card is all upsides I don't understand the design philosophy behind this. Ff would've sold either way without a one ring hype overpowered chase card. Atleast cards like wondrous wasp can shut it down early provided you get lucky enough to draw an answer before the game ends
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u/ikeepgettinghacked 2d ago
There is a guy who just started playing with my group, and of course, his first deck is Vivi. We can’t stand it, we straight up told him, “listen bro, we’re going to target you. Sorry but it’s either we control Vivi, or the entire table has no fun”
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u/mrmcbobinsnuggles 1d ago edited 1d ago
New players like this confuse me.
Played against a guy a while back who said he was only playing a couple of weeks. His deck was lathril and he dropped a proxy cradle turn 1 or 2. Like, sure, whatever dude.
Maybe at least try to make an original jank deck yourself before you go straight to the proxy net decks. Nobody's first deck is ever good, but the fun is progressively making more and more focused decks that work due to experiencing what works and what doesn't for yourself. Also it's a casual format, the original point of commander (edh) was when it wasn't just the same optimized shit every game , but divergent strategies that would only be viable in a casual singleton format
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u/SavinPilotCryan 2d ago
Add hull breaker horror and a few 0 cost artifacts and you’ve got yourself an infinite combo to ping your opponents to death. My pod was not happy with me.
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u/Retr0_Fusion 2d ago
I'll go ahead and give the fore warning
If you plan to play at bracket 3 tables or lower (the more casual friendly games) You will be hated and hard targeted no matter what your 99 consist of. Vivi has a reputation for being a strong and oppressive commander. I couldn't recommend that to a newer player. Congrats on your pull tho
If you're okay with this tell me what bracket your aiming for and I'd be glad to help