Mono-Color, Low-ish Power

[Remillo]

Hey folks,

So, the people that play at my shop vary greatly in power level from the lowest of the casual, to the semi-competitive nature of me and my friends.  However, sometimes I find myself at a table with weaker decks, and even my weakest just seem to tower far above in terms of strength and efficiency.  To combat this, I'm probably going to build two, three, maybe even a full set of five Mono-colored decks with relatively low power.  I've already picked out my White and Blue concepts, and I'm gonna look to you guys for interesting ideas for Red and Black (I've had a {Yeva, Nature's Herald} deck for a while that I can piece back together).  I'd prefer quirky, less common generals, too, something that's unexpected, but cool to build around.

Current In-Progress:
{W} {Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero} - White Weenie/Rebel Tribal. 
Rebels are surprisingly versatile, and Sivvi allows you to find anything that you need, whether it's a pro-Black blocker or a {Defiant Vanguard} to wreck an attacker's face.  The deck generally tries to go on the Aggro plan until being able to Sivvi out a {Mirror Entity} and activate it for some ridiculous number (through Caged Sun, Nythos, etc.) to just destroy people.  Also, there's never a time where Rebel-ing out a {Bound in Silence} ISN'T hilarious.

{U} {Patron of the Moon} - Combo/Control (Wizard Tribal Subtheme)
This is one that I've wanted to build for a while.  The main 'combo' of the deck, is having a Mana Doubler (Caged Sun, Extraplanar Lens, High Tide, etc.), Patron of the Moon, {Amulet of Vigor} and some Moonfolk with cheap, game-winning abilities to just loop the ability with Patron's and 1) Make infinite 1/1 Fliers, 2) Mill everyone to death, 3) Bounce everyone's creatures, etc.  With enough doublers, it can also go infinite mana to make people (or everyone) draw out with Blue Sun's, Prosperity, etc.  I consider it low power because the combo is somewhat easy to disrupt and takes time to assemble.  I'll complement it with a Counterspell suite (most expensive card will be one of my two spare Force of Wills) so things hopefully don't get too out of hand.

Those are the ideas I'm throwing around right now.  I also want to keep my monetary investment fairly low (purchasing higher-powered cards that will go in to other decks, like Cavern of Souls and Caged Sun are fine), so buying more expensive cards that really only work in these decks is iffy.  I'll probably start building Sivi in the coming week, since she can work pretty well as she is.

Thoughts, questions, concerns, donations?

[Yawgmoth85]

For blue I would do a {talrand the sky summoner} alotta diversity and synergy with the merfolk. You could mill, voltron or mass draw. {krenko mob boss} could be fun for red. But I suppose my main question is why make a less powerful deck? Unless ur goal is longer games. As much as I hate a {rafiq of the many} deck (and I do hate it lol) it makes myself a better player and my decks stronger after battling toe to toe with a monster. I've tryed making not necessarily "weaker" decks but they always end up the mr.hyde and not the dr.jekyl I originally planned. You could a always try a Pauper style deck where u choose a uncommon creature as ur commamder and only commons within the deck itself. Your group would also have to do the same they make for very interesting games. And it eliminates alotta naughty combos and cards with no rares or mythics allowed in the deck. Just a thought.

[Remillo]

For blue I would do a {talrand the sky summoner} alotta diversity and synergy with the merfolk. You could mill, voltron or mass draw. {krenko mob boss} could be fun for red. But I suppose my main question is why make a less powerful deck? Unless ur goal is longer games. As much as I hate a {rafiq of the many} deck (and I do hate it lol) it makes myself a better player and my decks stronger after battling toe to toe with a monster. I've tryed making not necessarily "weaker" decks but they always end up the mr.hyde and not the dr.jekyl I originally planned. You could a always try a Pauper style deck where u choose a uncommon creature as ur commamder and only commons within the deck itself. Your group would also have to do the same they make for very interesting games. And it eliminates alotta naughty combos and cards with no rares or mythics allowed in the deck. Just a thought.

Well, the philosophy here is that I'll have something to fit in with any group I find myself in, without just completely destroying everyone.  I enjoy a good, interesting game, but I'm somewhat competitive; if you give me an opening to go for the win, I'll take it and run with it.  One of the groups at my store plays on a considerably lower power than me and some of my friends, and I never feel right 'dumbing down' my pace and style of play to compensate to make sure they're also having fun.  When I'm playing at Full Steam, none of us are having fun because people just die.  When I'm dumbing it down, I'm not having fun, which defeats the purpose of playing.  So, I'm going to put together some of my more quirky (Patron of the Moon Combo) or pet (Rebel Tribal) ideas and see where they place on the power scale.  Hopefully, it'll be at the point where I can play the decks at their full power, while still not totally outclassing the weaker decks at the shop.  Last year, a buddy and I built a new Pauper EDH deck each week to have duels, but my cardpool and deck building with that restriction aren't crazy enough to be competitive with traditional EDH decks.(If that makes any sense at all)

As for Talrand, I've thought about it, but it just lends itself to the stigma of Spell-Slinging Control, which I want to avoid.  While Patron will have a control package, it's not the main focus of the deck.  Also, Patron is so obscure that people wont actually have any idea what I'm doing until I'm beating them with it, which is part of how I like my combo decks.

[AdamS]

{lady orca} seems like a prety low power commander to use seeing that she has no abilitys of her own

[FustyDavorite]

 {Heartless Hidetsugu} or {Godo, Bandit Warlord} would be my choices for red. With heartless you could have a deck the lies low, not taking much of a part in the game, creeping board state, when you drop your commander. That's when you get to mess with the political side of EDH, and you screw with the game a bit.
On the other hand, there's godo. It could be argued that he's a plausible commander, for obvious reasons. But not for the one I'm thinking. I think godo would make for a fun samurai tribal (which I admit is extremely limited), and I would love to see it get pulled off. And toss a batterskull in for the what nots.

[Sparkle Ninja]

There's always {Balfor the Stout} or whatever his name is

[DimirOverlord1300]

For black I'd run either {Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief}, {Mikaeus, the Unhallowed}, or {Maga, Traitor to Mortals}. Then again those can be pretty competitive, so if you want something quirky either use that rat guy and go {Relentless Rats} or use {Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker} and use {Shadowborn Apostle}s.

[PrEZchoICE1]

{Taniwha} is a fun commander

[Spencer Addington]

{DARIEN KING OF SOMETHING}!!!!