How Good is Greed in These Decks?

Commander Deck Help forum

Posted on Oct. 17, 2021, 8:51 p.m. by DemonDragonJ

I have a copy of Greed in three of my EDH decks: my red/white/black deck, my black/white/blue deck, and my black/white/green deck. Notice that each deck also contains the color white, to ensure that I shall be able to gain life to pay for Greed's ability.

However, gaining life is not a central theme of any of those decks, only a incidental ability, and, since they are all three-colored decks, I may not be able to reliably pay the black mana required to use Greed's ability, so I am wondering if that card is a good card to have in those decks, and, if it is not, what card I should put in its place.

What does everyone else say about this? How good is Greed in those decks, and, if it is not good, what are some potential cards to replace it?

Grubbernaut says... #2

Greed is a "fine" card, but will always be worse than Necropotence for a point of comparison. If budget/not playing proxies is a concern, keep playing Greed; if it's not, Necro all the way.

October 17, 2021 10:18 p.m.

TypicalTimmy says... #3

Repetition is key to success, in all things in life. This is true with financing, learning a new skill like playing a guitar, pulling oneself out of depression, and yes winning in MTG.

The more reliable of a deck you have, the easier you will win. Reliability can often be found in using repetition. If you have multiple copies of similarly-functioning cards, the likelihood of at least drawing into one of them throughout the course of the game greatly increases - and your potency exponentiates as you get more and more online.

For example, in my Lathliss deck I have many, many cards that do ETB damage effects;

I also have many, many cards that all enable haste;

My point is, having repetition in decks is a great way to ensure your deck functions the way it should, at all times. Is Greed strictly worse than Necropotence? Sure. But is having a second drawable engine a good idea? Yes.

I think it's fine. If it's budget and that's what you can afford without proxies, keep it. If you can afford Necropotence, put that in instead. But if you can make room for both, or even a few more, go for it.

Even if you only get 1 card off of Greed per rotation of the table, because you leave a single pip of open at all times just in case, that's still a lot of advantage.

Consider it in this regards: The very first time you activate Greed, it effectively becomes a Cantrip - It replaced itself in your hand. Every moment thereafter is gravy. With just one activation per rotation of the table, you effectively double your draw:

  • Draw step
  • Activation

This is immense. Just that one card really does help out a lot. Greed isn't a terrible card - Necropotence is just better. But being "better" does not automatically make everything else "shit".

Dragon Tempest is strictly better than Impact Tremors, but being able to hit 1 damage to each opponent over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over again, it all adds up. Nobody's laughing when Impact Tremors dishes out 10 damage to three opponents - a total of 30 damage over the table. That is a HUGE, heh well, impact.

I'd say keep it. It does more good than you might think ;)

October 18, 2021 2:22 a.m. Edited.

plakjekaas says... #4

Guys, the worry described is not enough black sources to reliably draw cards with Greed. How dare you suggest the Necropotence :p

Try Painful Truths, in widely spread 3color decks, that's as reliable as it gets for black carddraw.

October 18, 2021 4:03 a.m.

RambIe says... #5

All depends on the deck
In competitive when you can turn 1 Dark Ritual, Necropotence dump 30 life and drop a game winning combo on turn 2 Necropotence is the clear choice

Optimized decks could go either way

Focused and tuned decks that are not combo focused benefit more from Greed were an early game necro keeping 7 cards in hand will run you out of life way before end game comes

As for not able to pay to activate 1st balance your colors, your going to want to cast and or activate your commander so you need consistent access to black. 2nd never activate greed on your turn. Paying for it will leave you short of casting what ever you draw. Instead mana dump into it at the last end step before your untap phase.

October 18, 2021 12:01 p.m.

RambIe says... #6

Keep in mind card draw is only an advantage if you have the resources to support it
If you have already blown all your resources in casting and can't afford to activate greed then you don't need to draw becouse what ever you do draw will just be a dead card in hand anyways

October 18, 2021 12:35 p.m.

RNR_Gaming says... #7

Greed is a fine card - it's not super powerful but has some cool synergy with other cards that let you cheat on mana like krrik and is an excellent mana dump. These are how I'd rate similar cards but I view things through a competive lens so if you like these cards please take it with a grain of salt.

Underworld Connections - 1/5 - was excellent in standard but opens you up to 2 for 1s via the land destruction player.

Phyrexian Arena - 2/5 - oof waiting till upkeep for a card? It's good in those slug fest mid-power games but way too slow for anything high power

Greed - 2.5/5 - good mana dump and can synergize with some other stuff too solid but not too powerful

Arguel's Blood Fast  Flip - 2.5/5 - essentially the same thing as greed but with a lower cmc but a higher activation cost and the back side could be relevant..

Erebos, God of the Dead - 3/5 - a stax piece + a draw engine? Very solid and will annoy any life gain player

Bolas's Citadel - 4/5 - value town city furniture. This is one of the strongest black cards printed in years. Combo enabler and let's you cheap on mana with like if this cost any less I'd bet itd be a 30 dollar card in like another year or 2 if it's not reprinted

Necropotence - 5/5 - the cream of the crop draw engine. Like god damn this is the value city furniture in the best part of town.

October 18, 2021 4:50 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #8

Would Smothering Tithe be a good replacement for Greed in those decks? It has the same mana cost, and is a tax on other players.

October 30, 2021 11:48 a.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #9

FartSeize, Damnable Pact is an excellent card, but it is a one-time effect, whereas Greed can be used repeatedly.

December 13, 2021 6:05 p.m.

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