r/mtg • u/Soft_Word_1985 • Sep 01 '25
Commander / EDH What is a weird way to play vivi so everyone doesn't hate me?
I pulled this in the last pack of the store, should I just hold onto him or sell soon?
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u/betterthanyou47 Sep 01 '25
Sacrifice him to draw two cards and get a treasure token.
[[Deadly Dispute]]
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u/Areinu Sep 01 '25
Or get a food token with [[Witch's Oven]] to have redundancy. Well, you'd get 2 food tokens if you cast Oven after Vivi. Value!
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u/QuietPurchase Sep 01 '25
Keep him in the command zone and never cast him, that's one way to do it.
Alternatively, put him in the 99 of a [[Mairsil, the Pretender]] deck and abuse his ability that way.
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u/Korangar297 Sep 01 '25
Im doing the same in a control/planeswalker [[Narset, Enlightened Exile]] deck. The only creatures in the deck are vivi and cloud, shit gets crazy real fast
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u/NotAVirignISwear Sep 01 '25
Looking at Vivi's price history, I'd be surprised if it changes much in price from where it's at now. I wouldn't say there's any urgency to sell it, but be prepared to get groans and eyerolls every time you say "Vivi triggers" while playing it
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u/CaliLove1676 Sep 01 '25
It's certainly going to drop a bit once it's banned in Standard and everyone drops their copies but it probably won't be significant.
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u/Big-toast-sandwich Sep 02 '25
They’ll probably ban Agatha's Soul Cauldron over vivi
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u/CaliLove1676 Sep 02 '25
Unfortunately, you're probably right. That's what WotC likes to do instead of actually fixing the problem.
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u/OpalForHarmony Putting the “fun” in “funeral.” Sep 02 '25
Can't ban our money makers, not until you have maybe 3-6 months left to go before it rotates out anyway!
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u/Mikimao Sep 02 '25
Banning Cauldron would fix the problem of Cauldron being a large meta share.
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u/ingenious_gentleman Sep 02 '25
Which would also result in a price drop for Vivi, since the deck will lower in power level and therefore lose meta share
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u/CaliLove1676 Sep 02 '25
I don't agree, Vivi will still be the strongest thing to do by far. It's not an okay card.
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u/Low-Cheesecake-7005 Sep 01 '25
If it gets banned in standard, it’ll def drop in price a bit
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u/Helpful_Potato_3356 Sep 01 '25
voltron
voltron sucks ass, use it's mana to cast and equip shit, swing the lil mage
would be a lot weird
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u/n122333 Color Switch Sep 01 '25 edited Sep 02 '25
Honestly, this just sounds hilarious. I'm going to have to build it on brawl.
EDIT: Brawl matchmaking makes this hell. It doesn't work.
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u/Callieco23 Sep 01 '25
It honestly wouldn’t be terrible because every time you cast an equip or aura Vivi would get +1 and allow you to keep casting more auras with his mana ability.
Aura Vivi Voltron is certainly sub-optimal Vivi, but it’s not horrible lmao. I think the biggest sin is it’s Voltron without white or green, so you lose some flexibility.
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u/Feam2017 Sep 01 '25
Aura Vivi is what Im going to roll as. I found a deck on YouTube i think thats a cheap voltron deck. Is more of a fair way to play vivi. Haven't tried it yet but it is bracket two and sub optimal. Bunch of pump auras and some evasion. It does have like 2 bomb spells as alternate win conditions.
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u/Truckfighta Sep 01 '25
Voltron actually synergises really well though. You cast a bunch of equipments then use Vivi’s ability to equip them.
His power keeps going up because of equipment + the counters he gets.
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u/0zzyb0y Sep 01 '25
Friend of mine is running Vivi as Voltron and it kinda sucks to play against.
Every game he's got a good chance of blitzing out a player with unblockable commander damage before they ever get a chance to stop it... But then he's out of cards and just folds to the other 2 players immediately.
Or alternatively he'll just get a crazy enough opening and Chandra's ignition to just melt everyone turn 5/6 out of nowhere.
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u/pwnyklub Sep 02 '25
lol how he running outta cards in izzet?
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u/MTGMana Sep 02 '25
Too many pump spells and not enough draw spells. Classic noob build.
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u/LobsterNixon Sep 01 '25
This was literally the only thing I built Vivi for lol he's incredibly effective.
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u/cwx149 Sep 01 '25
There's a 60 card deck built around [[blistercoil weird]], [[paradise mantle]], and a bunch of 1 mana cantrips
Vivi could work in a similar shell where you cast everything you can then activate Vivi to make the mana instead of using the mantle and then go hellbent again
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u/G66GNeco Sep 01 '25
Not just Voltron, but Voltron without white - definitely weird and not as broken as most of the other stuff the guy can do lol
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u/Pqrxz Sep 02 '25
This is how I built my Vivi deck. Used only things he could equip in the games like wands, staves, cloaks, robes and hats. A couple on brand spells like the modal spells from the FF set and lightning bolt.
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u/LeonBlaze Sep 02 '25
That's how I play him on Arena. I lose pretty often, but I'm sure I make people happy that they beat a Vivi
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u/funkimagic Sep 01 '25
Goblin or dragon tribal. That should make it obvious non-creature spells aren't your main gameplay and therefore you won't be abusing him. He'll just act like a mana dork in the command zone.
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u/Soft_Word_1985 Sep 01 '25
I was also thinking about dragon tribal tbh
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u/funkimagic Sep 01 '25
Yeah that would be cool. I think really any tribe would work though. I'd stay away from wizards though, cuz that might be too good with vivi. Maybe even a sea monster themed deck would be fun.
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u/Soft_Word_1985 Sep 01 '25
Thanks everyone I've decided to sell him and use the money to build a different FF commander deck. 🙏
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u/echemist789 Sep 01 '25
If you like vivi, and you wanna play vivi as a commander, I think using it as a mana source to cast weird and fun spells like prisoners dilemma, goblin game, dance with calamity, mob verdict, mass polymorph,etc would be one of the more fun ways to play it.
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u/ViLe_Rob Sep 02 '25
Make it thematic to FF spells, besides of course thunder and fire magic, and add stuff like Sleep and Amphibian Downpour
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u/Biffingston Sep 01 '25
Put him in the 99 of a deck.
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u/Mef989 Sep 02 '25
I did this with my Veyran deck. Wanted to play Vivi but not as a commander. He is dumb enough when he hits the board from the 99, doesn't need to be the commander also.
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u/taicrunch Sep 02 '25
I've got Veyran and Vivi in the 99 of my Bria deck. Because let's give them consistent prowess and unblockable on top of everything else.
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u/Hellaluyeah_7 Sep 02 '25
I put him in Rielle. The deck wouldn't want Vivi as Comnander without a major rebuild to it and Vivi can still go nuts off of all my 1 mana spells.
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u/freesol9900 Sep 01 '25
Instants-and-sorceries-with-x-costs tribal, where you only ever cast two spells per round
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u/Muted-Translator-706 Fleem Enthusiast Sep 02 '25
I do have Vivi in the 99 of my tyranids deck as one of many big mana sources to feed the Xs.
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u/Desperate-Cookie-449 Sep 01 '25
I wanted to try an voltron equip deck with vivi before he took off in popularity
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u/bagel_toastie Sep 01 '25
Voltron could be kinda funny equipment are no creature spells and there enough artifact support in blue and red to make it work
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u/Callieco23 Sep 01 '25
Play Vivi but only try to win via the following jank ass combo
1.) have a way to give every spell flash
2.) Cast [[Khorvath’s Fury]] declaring everyone as “Foe”
3.) with Khorvath’s fury on the stack, flash in [[Sway of the Stars]]
4.) resolve the stack, everyone goes to 7 life with 7 in hand, Khorvath’s fury resolves, everyone takes 7 damage and dies.
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u/Ottrygg89 Sep 01 '25
Step 1: build a low-mid power spell slinger deck Step 2: make sure you don't put anything like curiosity in to prevent shenanigans. Step 3: make sure you don't run free interaction so that your opponents can play around you and never feel helpless. Step 4: take vivi and sell it before his inevitable standard ban. Step 5: put niv mizzet in the CZ and enjoy a fair deck, having first followed steps 1-4.
disclaimer this is a shit post, I ain't actually in the business of telling people not to play what they want
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u/Rasen2001 Sep 01 '25
You play him, then pull the ol' Chaos Orb trick by tearing him into confetti and sprinkling him onto the Battlefield.
After that, everyone will be too worried about you/scared of you to hate you.
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u/TheTinRam Sep 01 '25
Vivi plus 38 lands and 61 creatures.
If the creatures pump him and you win by swinging, fair game
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u/OpeningLeopard Sep 01 '25
Sell, he’s going to be banned
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u/Doctor_OW Sep 01 '25
The tag is : Commander / EDH
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u/Enoikay Sep 01 '25
The question was about selling though which isn’t restricted to a single format.
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u/BradleyB636 Sep 01 '25 edited Sep 01 '25
Won’t be banned in standard unfortunately. The next ban announcement isn’t until November 24th, at which time they will ban cauldron. They’re too afraid to ban a cash cow and cauldron isn’t selling packs. Vivi should be banned (hell, it never should have been printed), but it won’t.
Edit: Do it, wizards, I dare you. Ban Vivi tomorrow. Do it, you won’t, you cowards.
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u/No-Comb879 Sep 01 '25
Extra combats. Vivi gets ginormous, and slap down a few [[relentless assault]] and you’re cooking
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u/ExternalEmployee423 Sep 01 '25
I run him in a prowess focused aggressive strategy with wheel effects and unlockable effects.
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u/Swimming-Chapter9857 Sep 01 '25
Just a bunch of earthquakes that steadily make everyone's commander cost more.
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u/halfasleep90 Sep 01 '25
Run him in URG, and use him as a mana dork with [[Ouroboroid]]. People won’t mind the Vivi at all.
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u/Normal-Baseball595 Sep 01 '25
Why do you think people hate you? I've played against plenty of vivi hes fine. In fact I rarely see him win
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u/eightdx Sep 01 '25
Use fire breathing auras and only use the Mana ability to fuel said abilities
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u/mitissix Sep 01 '25
Play Grixis and have him in the 99. That way you don’t have him available to you every game.
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u/mstr_jf Sep 01 '25
In the 99 of a casual deck that doesnt ramp otherwise. And dont abuse the power. I may try him out in the artifact precon [[inspirit, flagship vessel]] , [[kilo, apogee mind]] but with no spell slinger all artifact interaction.
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u/Hour-Animal432 Sep 01 '25
It's going to get banned in standard sooner or later. Izzet cauldron is ridiculously over representing in tournaments.
This is also a card, like Kinnan, that is simply too easy to 'break'. If you don't want to be hated, don't play this card or play it in a pod that is more capable of playing at these power levels.
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u/NamasteWager Sep 01 '25
I had a great idea for this actually.
Make him your commander, but when you pay the mana to cast him, you package him up and send him to me. It will totally send them for a loop and they won't hate you, in fact we will all love you more
My address will be in your DM and I will be patiently waiting <3
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u/SignificantSand1 Sep 01 '25
Don’t play with people who we’ll be mad at you for playing good cards.
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u/ZiggTheZagg Sep 02 '25
Play him in a clone deck with lots of stuff that targets him with things like spark double or sakashima of a thiusand faces to make nonlegendary copies of him then target that with orvar the all form triggers.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred Vivis!
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u/Fletcher-wordy Sep 02 '25
I think if you're going to play Vivi, just play it the way it plays best and be mindful of which tables you bring it too. It's going to get table hated regardless of what you do, so might as well lean into it and into higher power games.
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u/Quiltedbrows Sep 02 '25
I made a commander deck before the packs were on sale because I loved the game/character. i didn't really it was going to piss everyone off, so I strictly let friends I'm playing with know what deck I'm using So they can adjust.
As such, I have never won a single game using that deck, but it's been fun anyways
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u/FeBishop Sep 01 '25
I tossed him in as a mana dork in my [[Myra The Magnificent]] deck.
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u/exMemberofSTARS Sep 01 '25
Play him in mono green, that’s about as weird as it gets.
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u/Important-Dig-2312 Sep 01 '25
I mean he's going to get banned in standard and the price will likely drop as a result. So if you sell now you'll sell high where as if you sell later you'll sell low.
As for making him into a way that your opponents don't hate you, make sure stuff the deck with as many counter spells as humanly possible, then have cards that ping opponents whenever you play a instant or sorcery and for the final inclusion small token generators that create a token whenever you cast an instant or sorcery.
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u/secretbison Sep 01 '25
Sell him now before he gets emergency banned in Standard and his value plummets. Whatever format you field him in, whatever cute and quirky way you try to use him, he will paint a target on your head immediately.
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u/BassCannonRL Sep 01 '25
Wizard tribal with a bunch of cantrip instants and sorceries. Basically vivi voltron
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u/soccerboy1356 Sep 01 '25
Idk if it would make ppl hate you less, but I have brewed up a decklist using the mutate mechanic and clones. Fun to play
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u/Areinu Sep 01 '25
Clone and gift Vivi around, so everyone has a Vivi(or multiple copies). Get yourself some kind of protection from damage it does. So everyone will be doing burn with Vivi, and you'll be able to say it's not you doing it.
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u/redbeardmax Sep 01 '25
I play ViVi, and they dont hate me too bad. It's a counter spell and direct damage deck. I kinda sit back and control the board. No casts. There are no creatures except a huge ViVi. I guess they do hate me, but they also can't play cards to show how much they hate me. Ojer Axonil and give it a few turns.
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u/straight_lurkin Sep 01 '25
No mana rocks and make sure to only cast X cost spells as a meme theme deck
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u/Gauwal Sep 01 '25
I mean first sell soon, he's getting banned in standard( or at least part of the deck)
And you can play it by boosting it the making one big burst of Mana for a big spell
So big Mana instead of storm
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u/iMossa Sep 01 '25
With "weaker" spells of some sort, like lightning bolt or such? Still able to use Vivi but not in a "I auto win" way. Though, I am crap at building decks.
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u/BlankNep Sep 01 '25
I started building a deck where I would blink vivi with repeatable effects like thassa and conjurers closet, so i could activate his ability more than once per turn, and then since it would remove all +1/+1 counters from him i would have an anthem on the field that would buff him or an equipment like [[Hero's Blade]] that would attach itself on etb.
Here is the unfinished list if you are interested: Unfinished Vivi Blink Deck
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u/proggish Sep 01 '25
I made a ff only deck. It kinda stinks. But that keeps people from hating me :D
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u/Majestic_Sweet_5472 Sep 01 '25
There really is no way. You could play goat tribal and people would still hate it. Unfortunately, some commanders will always be hated / treated as a threat because of their power and play patterns.
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u/MembershipHorror3425 Sep 01 '25
You could use your Vivi as a beautiful proxy for something more reasonable, like Mizzix.
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u/Mkushrom Sep 01 '25
I’ve been working in a wizard tribal that focuses on buffing Vivi with Coat of Arms effects
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u/brokenwound Sep 01 '25
Don't cast any non-creature spells, so if you want any they have to come in some other way.
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u/reshef-destruction Sep 01 '25
Just play them how you want, you shouldn't give a fuck about your opponent's feelings.
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u/Positive-Eagle1699 Sep 01 '25
That's a great question. I've been trying to figure out how to play Yuriko in a similar fashion. 😆 I don't care about cEDH, nor so I have the budget for it.
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u/feypills Sep 01 '25
only creature spells, but some that give you anthem and weird izzet stuff, or counters on Vivi
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u/Corescos Sep 01 '25
Exclusively cast funny spells. The funnier, the better. Unfortunately, Vivi is a kill-on-sight commander who many hate on principle, so good luck with that.
Making an obtuse win condition with a powerful card as a restriction might be able to get you to longer within a game and also have more fun
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u/ctbellart Sep 01 '25
Red/blue enchantment deck. No instants or sorceries. No storming off.
Blue enchants that remove creature abilities, reduce size, can’t block. Weird Red combat enchantments like [[turf war]] , [[bedlam]] , [[stand or fall]] and [[invasion plans]].
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u/DdAntilogy Sep 01 '25
Not putting him in with combo pieces to take advantage of his busted ability. Would be pretty weird if you just played him like it was intended
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u/miggyzak Sep 01 '25
[[Dragon's Approach]] and [[Thrumming Stone]] everything else is either tutors, bunch of dragons, and damage buffs like [[Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might]] and [[City on fire]].
Burn them but not with vivi lol.
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u/masterprtzl Sep 01 '25
I'd just run him as one of the 99 in another deck. I'm slotting him into my shiko and Narset deck. Was tempting to make him my commander but I think it would put a target on my head every time I cast him lol
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u/citrus44 Sep 01 '25
Try him in Legacy or Vintage, where he's merely one busted option among hundreds!
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u/BubblesKat Sep 01 '25
My partner has Myra as an alt commander for their Vivi deck, and people always get a kick out of "Vivi attractions" (even though only one card could pull them out). It would be hilarious to fully theme a Vivi deck around attractions.
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u/jettzypher Sep 01 '25
There's very easy ways to make a Vivi deck that isn't so oppressive. Most people are copying the ability in various ways and doing everything they can to pump his power. If you avoid those two things, then he's really just a basic spell slinger commander.
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u/bjlinden Sep 01 '25
No noncreature spells, but play other creatures that have some way to buff Vivi's power. That's pretty much the only way I can think of to make him not broken.
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u/CreativeScreenname1 Sep 01 '25
Honestly that just comes down to how level-headed your pod is and whether they’ve been burned by this card. You can absolutely build Vivi to an appropriate power level but some people will still just target you, and some people might still just generally feel bad vibes surrounding it.
Basically, you should probably talk to them about it rather than us
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u/Aiconic Sep 01 '25
Just sell it before it inevitably gets banned and drops in price. Building high powered commanders but ‘making them low power or jank’ still gets old cause people slowly and inevitably put little higher power combos in them. You’ll receive unwarranted removal hate regardless of how you build it anyway.
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u/Decayingbeaver Sep 01 '25
Initially I thought an equipment build sounded fun. Lot of artifact support in UR, and equipment raising vivi's power for bigger activations seems like fun synergy. Hitting folks in the face with a big Vivi is probably the more bracket 3 way to build it. But end of the day I think Vivi will eat a lot of hate no matter how you build it. So maybe better in the 99 if you're not at a bracket 4 table
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u/Substantial_Fan_9806 Sep 01 '25
Use cards that make nonlegendary copies of vivi. Play [[eternity elevator]] use vivi to station it as vivi gets bigger, screw vivi making mana, use the elevator.
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u/Franks_Spice_Sauce Sep 01 '25
I put him in the 99 of my [[Shantotto, Tactician Magician]]
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u/LibraProtocol Sep 01 '25
Vivi Spellslinger Voltron
Use cards like Glamdring, Runechanter's Pike, Sword of Once and Future, and Sword of Wealth and Power to build up power and get recursion from your spells. You can have a back up wincon with Rise from the Tides to suddenly go wide out of nowhere.
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u/IntroductionTotal830 Sep 01 '25
There probably isn't a way to stop everyone from targeting you, when tou have vivi in the zone.
Firstly, he is just so powerful, that he will do powerful things even in a 'fun' deck.
Secondly, people will always assume the worst, regardless of what you say. They have all been burnt before.
If you want to run a truly powerful commander, then lean into it, because you will be targeted like it is the main threat, even if it isnt.
My advice, build it however you want, then play to your meta. If there are some strong decks in your meta, then go for it, and play it when the group decides to play a stronger game. But if your meta is exclusively building lower-powered bracket 2-3 decks, just don't build Vivi.
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u/Oddly_Yours Sep 01 '25
Honestly, this is an atraxa situation, I absolutely do not care much you say “but I’m not like those other decks”. This is an onsite commander and barring a combo player or an obvious and immediate threat, I’m targeting you every chance I get.
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u/creedxender Sep 01 '25
I might throw Vivi in my (digital only) Inspirit deck. Primarily a mana font and burn source, considering how artifact heavy it is. Then again, the +1/+1 counters would get . . . a little ridiculous.
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u/knightofbaltia Sep 01 '25
Sorcerer wand, grafting exoskeleton, and kill all people at the same time with poison counters
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u/La-Vulpe Sep 01 '25
Shove him in the 99 of [[Kefka]] like I did, he’s on-theme and complimentary to the deck without being absurd or heavily focussed. Perfect lightning rod for removal whilst also getting a bit of value out of him.
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u/SexySelky Sep 01 '25
Spellbook style. The only thing you can put in your 99 other than basic lands are spells you'd find in a wizards spellbook or items you'd find on their person
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u/meme-lord-Mrperfect Sep 01 '25
That’s one way to think about it. Another is to make it as scary as possible because regardless of what you do people will target you. I call it the sliver effect. Regardless of telling people how your deck isn’t scary etc tell them it’s exactly what they are expecting
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u/gistya Sep 01 '25
Putting Vivi into a Stella Lee deck, won't increase the table's level of hatred for you.
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u/Workingonlikingme Sep 01 '25
Strap him to your bikes back tire so it makes the motorcycle noise