Topic: Crosis EDH needs some red card suggestions

So I recently put up 2 discard/mill themed EDH decks. One of them was previously Dimir, with mirko vosk, mind drinker as the commander, but I recently ran into a couple of decent R/U/B mill cards and also picked up crosis, the purger so I've been tweaking my deck. However, I don't have enough red cards to warrant more than about 5/6 red mana in the deck, which renders crosis pretty useless, so I'm looking for suggestions on red cards I can add that are along the same theme.

Alternatively, if there aren't enough decent ones along the same theme, possible directions I could take the deck to make Crosis a viable option. Or failing that, just telling me to suck it up and go play mirko vosk, mind drinker as I've already had some suggestions for good mill cards that I could drop in over the red ones I have at the moment.

Re: Crosis EDH needs some red card suggestions

For EDH, keep in mind that milling is an extremely difficult strategy as you have to mill 80-90 some odd cards, not just the normal 45 you would have to in normal constructed.

Now, that in mind, there are a variety of fun things you can do with Grixis colors.  First off, non-PW Nicol Bolas is hands-down better than Crosis, the Purger as a general.  He's only one more to cast, is a 7/7 as opposed to a 6/6, and guarantees that they drop their entire hand if he ever connects.

A few milling cards to consider:

Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker: If you're running Grixis, you might as well run this little fella, but keep in mind that your opponent(s) will likely be running 30+ land, making him a bit underwhelming in most situations.

Consuming Aberration: The key here is that it mills ALL your opponents with each trigger and, assuming you're playing more standard EDH with 3-4 players, that means it ends up milling a LOT of cards and can become an enormous threat on its own.

Keening Stone: This is one most people forget about, but it can easily win the game with 4-6 triggers, even in an EDH setting.

Increasing Confusion: Lots of milling, and it can be huge late game when flashed back.  This works wonders when combined with Doubling Cube.

Keep in mind that you'll likely need ways to exile particular cards like the legendary Eldrazi.  These are commonplace in EDH and make it impossible for your strategy to work because of their shuffling the yard back into the deck triggers.

Other items to consider:

Crazy card drawing.  If you can setup a lot of card drawing, then you'll get more options for milling them or otherwise can cost them a ton of cards if they need to discard their hand in response to Mr. Bolas' attack.

To that end, Reforge the Soul, Whispering Madness, and other things to that end are huge.  They can also serve as indirect board wipes when paired with Aetherize (I can say it's hilarious to hose someone's huge attack and then cast whispering madness, causing them to discard all of their stuff and allowing you to draw a ton of cards).

As many board wipes as possible.  Even more so than in normal constructed play, EDH players LOOOVE to clog the board (as I'm sure you're already aware).  So to that end, the degree to which you can clear out everything the better.

Mizzium Mortars, Earthquake, Magmaquake, Pyroclasm, Flame Wave, Rolling Temblor - all of these are viable options as long as creatures don't end up too large - at which point red is at a disadvantage anyway.

I'll openly admit that red is the color that frequently finds itself on the weak side of Grixis given the more unconditional removal available to black and card draw available to blue.  Perhaps some treason style effects would be useful depending on your local matchups.

Feel free to take a look at my Grixis EDH.  I'm normally pretty successful with it, although I'm just playing casually.  The deck is viewable at http://deckbox.org/sets/328755.

Re: Crosis EDH needs some red card suggestions

The deck already HAS Mirko vosk, it was a Mirko Vosk commander deck before, but I was trying to see if I could fit red in there too. I know it's hard to mill people, I'm working on keening stone already, I already have whispering madness and consuming aberration in there. I'm toying with the idea of making the red the counterspells, I.E. Double negative, maybe blistercoil weird, goblin electromancer guttersnipe nivix guildmage. Things like that, so that we've got mill from Black and Blue, and then counterspell aggro from red? Would give the deck another nice dimension to work with.

Re: Crosis EDH needs some red card suggestions

I'm with you that it already has Mirko, I was simply saying if milling is the plan, you should keep him in there.  Every little bit helps.  But definitely don't expect him to mill them out on his own.

Don't forget the more standard fare mill items if you want to run that route.  By this I mean Hedron Crab, Mind Sculpt, Thought Scour, Glimpse the Unthinkable (if you want to break the bank), Breaking//Entering, Psychic Spiral, Sands of Delirium, Traumatize (this one is particularly effective), Jace's Erasure, etc.

You can also abuse draw effects if you have Jace's Erasure - so things like Howling Mine, Font of Mythos, etc. will help you mill them pretty heavily while also replenishing your hand.  It could also pair rather amusingly with Notion Thief and Whispering Madness as they would discard their whole hand, you draw 5-7 cards, and they mill another 5-7 cards.

Another nasty combo, although a bit too cheap for my liking, is to pair Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind with Curiosity.  Then, every time you draw a card, Niv triggers, so you draw, and Niv triggers, and you repeat until the game is over.

I don't know that I'd think of red as being a means for counterspells.  If you're after counters, especially in EDH, you can do a LOT better than Double Negative.  Perhaps you could use red for some added card draw (via looter effects like Nivix Guildmage, Mad Prophet, or Rummaging Goblin) and then for copying spells to maximize effect - so I'm thinking Dual Casting (which works wonders when paired with Blistercoil Weird), any version of Chandra, and things of that nature.

I'd stay away from electromancer or Guttersnipe unless you're really aiming to make the deck more spell oriented - otherwise they'll just be 2/2s in a world of much larger stuff the majority of the time.