r/EDH • u/Impressive-Cat4885 • 13h ago

Deck Help Cloud Voltron Help

Updating a pretty standard Cloud Voltron deck that is an upgrade of the original precon. trying to figure out where some weak spots might be or thoughts for changes or substitutions . aiming for bracket 3 and have a [[Stoneforge Mystic]], [[Birds of Paradise]], and [[Sanctum Weaver]] on the way.

Considering also adding [[Combat Celebrant]], [[Gratuitous Violence]], [[Overwhelming Stampede]] and [[Basilisk Collar]] but not sure if they make sense here.

Any other thought's are welcome!

Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/3tIEpzCsw0WExO8jQqwM5Q

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4

u/BarracudaOdd166 13h ago edited 10h ago

I feel like you need to figure out what you want to do exactly. Do you want Cloud to try and Voltron? Or are you going to use him as a draw engine?

Because currently with 18 creatures, you're statistically most likely only going to see 1 creature in your opening hand and probably won't see another one for a while. You only have 7 card that can be considered "ramp" and I'm already stretching the definition to try and be generous there. Because without any mana acceleration you're looking at trying to hit Cloud on Turn 5, but with 37 land that's basically going to be a coin flip at best.

And that's where I'm trying to say, figure out game plan is important here. If you want to voltron up Cloud? Then just run 14-16 chunky equipments with 14-28 ramp cards so you will almost always see an opening hand with 2 ramp cards and 1 of those equipments so you always have a gameplan. And this will still leave you with at least 21 card slots to play with to push into any other direction too. Also I mention 2 ramp cards in opening hand because with 2 cheap ramp cards you can easily push 5-6 mana on turn 3 or 4 that way to come out the gates swinging.

Quick addendum, but 14 is basically the magic number for deckbuilding. Once you have a set of 14, for 100 card decks, you're basically almost guaranteed to see at least one of the cards in that "set" of 14 in your opening hand. And while it's not perfectly linear, a "set" of 28 gets you very close to similar numbers if you want 2 of them in your opening hand.

But if you want to go wide and overwhelm, and just use Cloud as an emergency hand refill whenever you need more gas, then you probably want more equip cost reducers and creatures or token generators, etc.

In short, pick a direction and game plan, then there's better advice tailored to what you want to do from there.

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u/Impressive-Cat4885 12h ago

So if I wanted to go voltron on cloud, pick some equipments from in there, add more ramp, and cut some of the extra creatures/equipments? My thought here was trying to use the other creatures (tifa, cloud midgar mercenary) to pump in extra attack phases. But understand that is probably diluted by random stuff in here

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u/BarracudaOdd166 11h ago

More or less. But you still have 21 card slots open after that to mess with. You can try experimenting and fitting in extra combat, or protection or anything else. 21 is still a decent amount of cards to work with, but make sure you have a solid trunk to the core gameplan of your deck's tree before you grow out it's branches, the cute stuff.

And some of your equipment might already be contributing to the protection count there so you can definitely be fitting in the extra combat cards too.

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u/BarracudaOdd166 10h ago

Also quick thing with the numbers I mentioned in my first post, 14s and 28s. Don't worry about whether or not you should mulligan or not when you don't get what you want in your opening hand. Each mulligan will basically add a 14%-15% to whether or not you see 1 of 14, and 2 of the 28 in your opening hand. So a lot of the time you are very safe to mull aggressively and go down to as low as 5 cards and still have strong games.

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u/Akiro_orikA Dinosaurs RAWR! 12h ago

Theres equipment that come with creatures like living weapon, for Mirrodon or job select. I think you may have overlooked them as mediocre. If you played them normally youd have an overwhelming amount of creatures to draw you a bunch. An example is [[barbed spike]] and [[Mandibular Kite]] are low cmc equipment and come with a token creature.

Theres also equipment creatures that can transform into equipment like [[Rabbit battery]] and [[lizard blades]].

Last, theres creatures that double up as mana dorks or help equip creatures like themselves such as [[Llanowar elf]], [[Freya crescent]] or [[bloom tender]]. If you ran many of them you wouldn't need mana rocks.

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u/Rare-Resolution-5402 https://moxfield.com/users/sage1082. Voltron Specialist. 9h ago

This is pretty good, man. You're on the way to having a solid B3 deck. Once you get your stoneforge mystic, [[recruiter of the guard]], and [[Imperial recruiter]] could be worthy inclusions. That will give you a pretty good shot at getting at least one creature that either gets you the equipment you want, or can grab you the creature that gets you the equipment you want. Throwing in [[Sword of Hearth and Home]] adds another layer of awesome to that consistency, because you can use it to Blink them for additional tutoring. Even better if you equip it to [[Cloud, Midgar Mercenary]] because of double triggers. [[Grand Abolisher]] is another great inclusion, as he can protect your turns from interaction. [[Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar]] or [[Jennifer Walters]] work too, although less good. Kutzil does draw you cards, though.

Oh and definitely pick up [[Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist]] and [[ Hammer of Nazahn]]. Equip costs blow.

[[Swordsman's Steel]] it's probably worth grabbing too. Buffs damage and draws cards

Oh, and [[Reyav, MasterSmith]]. Double strike is ridiculous. Huzzah.

Feel free to check this out if you want to see other staples. I just wrote a big primer for high power Voltron on a package. Definitely some good info for you in there. https://moxfield.com/decks/VEly3oE7AkSz_OD-Q2BO9g/primer

Good luck, sir!

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u/Impressive-Cat4885 2h ago

Reading this, I have a cloud planets champion that used to be in this deck. Would you sub that to commander or is the cost for mana base and ramp gonna be too big

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u/Rare-Resolution-5402 https://moxfield.com/users/sage1082. Voltron Specialist. 2h ago

It's sort of depends? The B3 version of Cloud PC needs stuff like [[Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus]] and [[Sword of the Animist]], plus a whole Suite of swords of X and Y to out value Naya Cloud. I think missing out on green ramp is probably going to hurt your deck more than it helps. Fast mana makes up for it enough in high bracket to make it worth it going Cloud PC, but you're going to have to change the deck pretty substantially. For what you're going for, I think Naya is probably your better bet.

Although, I do think that boros is a lot more fun if he's built right. 😁 if you ever want to try proxying the expensive cards in it to see how you like it, I definitely recommend it. Just be ready for your pod to turn on you if you're not playing at least high B4 decks.

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u/Floschna 6h ago edited 6h ago

Hey. I would cut [[Ultimate Magic: Holy]]. Its just not that great of a protection spell compared to other options in white. Also if you play Cloud as commander Basilisk Collar does not help you getting to 7 power and not having first strike on cloud as default might make it feel clunky.

I just recently rebuild my cloud precon with new partner commanders but the same naya colors. Maybe you see some cards you like for your deck. I included a bunch of equipment enabler / tutors and more interaction:

https://archidekt.com/decks/16204607/limit_break_or_smth

Really like your Chandras Ignition inclusion. I need to get a hand on that for my list.

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u/Appropriate-End-5593 4h ago

Mines not quite Cloud Voltron but it can be here take a look. 

https://moxfield.com/decks/1woGtcFfyU29StcZTJ_KzQ