I've built a ton of EDH decks on MTGO, but I still have a thing for this one deck. I've been talking about it quite a bit here lately, so I think it's high time I post it:
Chaos Corrupts Absolutely
What's the idea behind this deck? Well, in MTG, there are various ways to win the game:
Reduce your opponents' life to zero and be the last one standing.
Add 10 poison counters to your opponents.
Force your opponents to draw an empty library.
Royally screw with the board position so much that your opponents concede in protest.
This deck explores that 4th option, the way to win that MTG doesn't really tell you about. Originally inspired as a EDH version of Darth Parallax's Infinite Universes of Chaos, this deck is meant to break MTG. Just literally break the game. While your opponents are trying to kill each other, you have a hidden agenda to play the practical joker and just #^%$ with people's game states. Even if you don't end up winning for real, you've still just trolled the game and done your job to squirt an acid flower on everybody.
(Side note: I have literally broken MTGO with certain game states that they didn't account for. The Epic cards have been taken out of the deck for this reason, for example.)
I mean, look at this guy. He's nice and smiling. He gives your opponents stuff. He just wants some cards and life in return. Sure, he's been played with in quite a bit of those "Throw bad perms to the enemy" decks (and some of that is in here), but overall, the threat level isn't high for this guy.
Then BAM! You bring out the big guns with cards like Grip of Chaos, Eye of the Storm, Hive Mind, Counterbalance, Knowledge Pool, Teferi's Puzzle Box, and Thieves' Auction. Now the game is truly a new kind of game, a game of YOUR design, with YOUR rules. You've donned your Mad Hatter tophat and shoved the rest of the players down the rabbit hole, all of them on a bad acid trip. With luck, the game is so screwed that they can't even wipe your enchantments properly. GAME OVER, MAN!
I cannot stress how good this card is. Or how funny. People forget about this card easily, because nobody ever sees this card, and they are so used to targeting always working. Well, now it doesn't. In fact, that Acidic Slime that was aiming for one of your enchantments just got redirected to a random land of his You'll probably get a good 2-3 mistaken hits with this card per game, until they really wise up and look for this card. Even then, they are still going to try to cast some targeted spell/ability several times to try to get RID of this enchantment.
Also, with RL MTG, it's got to be funny watching people deal with a "target permanent" card, having to count the number of permanents they have, and then find out that they need a 94-sided die to roll for all of the targets. Be sure to label all of the permanents with a number
This should be one of the first cards you play when you start "The Operation", since it's like a shroud for everything. And if that doesn't work, these will:
Psychic Battle is like Clash for everybody, and everything. Since you're packing a lot of high-end CMC enchantments and artifacts, you should have a pretty good win ratio here. (This is also why all of the "group hug" cards end up working to your advantage, too.)
Counterbalance basically creates a null zone for certain spells. Every turn, nobody knows what the magic number actually is until the first spell is cast, so it's always a fun game of chance here. With cards like Crystal Ball, Sensei's Divining Top, Temple Bell, and Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, you can manipulate the magic number to get rid of bad spells that are trying to get rid of your enchantments (like Counterbalance itself).
This is the UBER TRIFECTA OF DOOM! Maybe throw in a Grip of Chaos, and the game is done. You aren't even playing Magic: The Gathering any more. It's some other weirder game where you're not sure of the rules, like some cavemen trying to play Tri-Dimensional Chess.
For extra double-plus fun, throw the Mind's Desire into the Eye of the Storm. Suddenly, battlefields will start to grow exponentially.
Or Enduring Ideal into Hive Mind. Yes, they will be forced to cast it. Yes, spells will end at that point. Yes, you have a crapload of enchantments in your deck.
Fun times!
If all else fails, f' up the game the ol' fashioned way: by putting everybody's deck in a blender and pushing Puree.
Replenish - Again, more expensive card, but a good one.
Elkin Lair - This is another Wild Evocation. Always good to have these kind of cards for your expensive enchantments/artifacts.
Warp World - Another nice battlefield scrambler, though you do need to be careful of high token counts. Also, more often than not, you will end up with a small amount of creatures to their big nasties, so be careful when and how you cast it.
Dovescape - Certainly a fun card, but it really depends on the meta. If you think people are going to suddenly gang up on you, you might want to re-think this one. Then again, if you already have the lock down with Ghostly Prison or its cousins, then it's probably not much of a gang up at that point. Careful of anti-counter cards, like Boseiju, Who Shelters All or Cavern of Souls, as they'll get the card out the door AND the doves.
Goblin Game - Another bizarre card to play. You can choose to write the number down on a piece of paper and reveal it simultaneously, which is sorta what MTGO does with this weird card. I only exclude it because it's just a one-time shot Sorcery, and not an enchantment. Same goes for Mages' Contest.
Confusion in the Ranks - While most of the enchantments are global (so that you can trade them via Zedruu), I have had this card backfire before, especially with people trying to take Zedruu from me. Since this deck is very creature light, it can be hard to recover him back. Still, if you need some more fun stuff to play with, this card definitely fits.
Shared Fate - Another really bizarre card to play. Problem is that now you can't really play with your own library any more, and chances are that the rest of the players aren't going to pick your deck to play with those cards, either. End result is that the whole deck collapses and fun times are over.
Other Coin Flipping Cards - This deck isn't specifically for coin flipping, but those kind of cards are great for weird game states and mini-games. I used to have a Krark's Thumb in here, too, but now I don't have enough coin flippers to justify it.
(What the hell did you RL MTG players do to Portal? Did you hate it so much that you had deck burning bonfires to get rid of the cards, thus increasing the rarity and prices? Did people mail back their fat packs to WotC in droves, demanding refunds?)
(What the hell did you RL MTG players do to Portal? Did you hate it so much that you had deck burning bonfires to get rid of the cards, thus increasing the rarity and prices? Did people mail back their fat packs to WotC in droves, demanding refunds?)
My Zedruu deck may convert to this approach, but each card was put in because it was synergistic with what I was doing. Scrambleverse and Thieves' Auction were put in for obvious reasons, Grip of Chaos is enchantment protection.
I would like Planar Chaos, but don't have one. I am still running Confusion in the Ranks, but I have enough ways of overcoming the problem of zedruu being taken that it still works out. I haven't tried out Hive Mind, Eye of the Storm or Knowledge Pool, yet, but I might be willing to try it...
This looks absolutely miserable to play against, even on MTGO where it handles all the coin flips/triggers/etc. for you. But I guess that's the idea, right?
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Check out my articles about EDH on MTGO HERE
Most recently looking at Morinfen!
In my MTGO deck, I removed Knowledge Pool and Enduring Ideal because gameplay issues. Epic spells actually don't honor the "can't cast stuff for the rest of the game" rule in MTGO. Knowledge Pool just stuffs the imprint cards into a very small space. (For 4 players, that's 12 cards, so it ends up being mostly unplayable.)
So, I'm been looking for replacements. I think I found a couple of good tutors:
(What the hell did you RL MTG players do to Portal? Did you hate it so much that you had deck burning bonfires to get rid of the cards, thus increasing the rarity and prices? Did people mail back their fat packs to WotC in droves, demanding refunds?)
First off love the idea for this deck, it's a troll deck that doesn't just sit there and blow up lands and what not, instead it shuffles everything around and has creative ways of dealing with situations. That's what I like the most about it.
Some suggestions: Have you tried Djinn Illuminatus, Etherium-Horn Sorcerer or Nucklavee? ( although I don't think its random enough, it will add a little bit of consistency) Each of those cards fit into the theme, via creating chaos with duplicate or cascade, or letting you get back cards that cause the chaos?
I was looking at the deck and as random as Ruhan of the Fomori is I just don't like him at all (which is why I recommended creatures). Other than that the land count seems pretty low, with so many spells costing 5 or more mana. I'd try and adjust it from 35 to more like 37? One land you could consider (which opens up the possibility of Confusion in the Ranks) is Homeward Path.
Hope that helps a bit.
P.S.
I'm a cheap@$$, so I'm not grabbing Mystical Tutor, but I don't have a lot of instants, so there's no need, anyway. Priced at 38 cents, and I can grab stuff like Idyllic Tutor, Open the Vaults, Thieves' Auction, Scrambleverse, etc.
38 cents? On MTGO? What is it $40 at least in real life? lol. Also pretty sure mystical ($8ish in real life) gets instants and sorceries, so its strictly better. Never know when you'll need a Spectral Shift.
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Current EDH decks: WUGPhelddagrifWUG and RWBrion StoutarmRW
Some suggestions: Have you tried Djinn Illuminatus, Etherium-Horn Sorcerer or Nucklavee? ( although I don't think its random enough, it will add a little bit of consistency) Each of those cards fit into the theme, via creating chaos with duplicate or cascade, or letting you get back cards that cause the chaos?
I used to have Cast Through Time, but the main problem with it, Djinn Illuminatus, and Nucklavee, is that there isn't that much in terms of instants and sorceries in this deck. Most of the chaos is through enchantments. Cards like Eye of the Storm and Hive Mind capitalize on the instants/sorceries from opponent decks, and give you access to them.
Possibly, but that counteracts the scramble cards, including Confusion in the Ranks. I guess it doesn't really matter if they get your General or not, since you're just going to get some of their stuff, anyway.
(What the hell did you RL MTG players do to Portal? Did you hate it so much that you had deck burning bonfires to get rid of the cards, thus increasing the rarity and prices? Did people mail back their fat packs to WotC in droves, demanding refunds?)
I'm sure he does, he's talking about MTGO prices (not sure if it is only 38 cents on there) since that why he's taking out cards like Enduring Ideal. Funny the difference in card prices huh?
I was thinking about Homeward Path, not sure if it is a good option since it returns all players creatures, however it is still a possibility.
@SineSwiper: Excellent points about the land. The main reason I fear the low land count, especially after running the deck a few times, is that if you don't get the land early it can really stall you out. Maybe I'm just unlucky.
that there isn't that much in terms of instants and sorceries in this deck.
I understand completely, however the option to duplicate or recast cards that were countered (or could be countered) or had an undesirable effect could be beneficial. However since you use to use Cast Through Time I'm sure you found that it wasn't necessary.
I looked at him as a similar option to Ethereal Usher. Even though he doesn't target cards directly you can still cascade into many cards, i.e. pretty much all your enchantments. It's seems really good as a reactive card to a board wipe or something similar. Even to help even out an unfavorable board position. However I could see it back-firing, and Ethereal Usher seems much more reliable. The bounce could really ignite some shenanigans though. edit: I also like the idea of rolling with a creature that makes you go: Oh well lets see what happens, it could be anything. maybe its not conducive to the general idea though.
(What the hell did you RL MTG players do to Portal? Did you hate it so much that you had deck burning bonfires to get rid of the cards, thus increasing the rarity and prices? Did people mail back their fat packs to WotC in droves, demanding refunds?)
ah, well I'm gonna build this irl and I have a mystical tutor so that'll be going in but yeah i'll look at what I put together and give input Omen machine maybe?
ah, well I'm gonna build this irl and I have a mystical tutor so that'll be going in but yeah i'll look at what I put together and give input Omen machine maybe?
Which would be an awesome card if it wasn't for that whole "Players can't draw cards" thing, and all of the card drawing in this deck. Seriously, the game can easily turn into a 5-card-per-turn affair for each player.
I saw this thread pop up so I figured I was being called into here. How may I help you make this deck even madder?
Tell WotC to create crazier cards. MAKE IT HAPPEN!
Æther Rift would be nice, if it didn't have green in it and applied to everybody. Gerrymandering would be awesome if it was a real non-funny card (and not green).
(What the hell did you RL MTG players do to Portal? Did you hate it so much that you had deck burning bonfires to get rid of the cards, thus increasing the rarity and prices? Did people mail back their fat packs to WotC in droves, demanding refunds?)
(What the hell did you RL MTG players do to Portal? Did you hate it so much that you had deck burning bonfires to get rid of the cards, thus increasing the rarity and prices? Did people mail back their fat packs to WotC in droves, demanding refunds?)
Don't have much experiance with chaos decks in our meta, but if you don't want people to be swinging at your, Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker is an excellant deterent. Worth considering...
Chaos Corrupts Absolutely
What's the idea behind this deck? Well, in MTG, there are various ways to win the game:
This deck explores that 4th option, the way to win that MTG doesn't really tell you about. Originally inspired as a EDH version of Darth Parallax's Infinite Universes of Chaos, this deck is meant to break MTG. Just literally break the game. While your opponents are trying to kill each other, you have a hidden agenda to play the practical joker and just #^%$ with people's game states. Even if you don't end up winning for real, you've still just trolled the game and done your job to squirt an acid flower on everybody.
(Side note: I have literally broken MTGO with certain game states that they didn't account for. The Epic cards have been taken out of the deck for this reason, for example.)
It starts out innocent enough. You have nice player cards like Howling Mine, Mana Flare, Oath of Lieges. Then you have your commander...
I mean, look at this guy. He's nice and smiling. He gives your opponents stuff. He just wants some cards and life in return. Sure, he's been played with in quite a bit of those "Throw bad perms to the enemy" decks (and some of that is in here), but overall, the threat level isn't high for this guy.
Then you put up your defenses like Ghostly Prison, Wall of Frost, Aurification, etc. Okay, fine, so you're not really an aggro deck, but still nothing threatening. Then you ramp it up with cards like Custody Battle, Illicit Auction, and Spectral Shift. Funny man Jokester cards, meant to eliminate threats in unusual ways.
Then BAM! You bring out the big guns with cards like Grip of Chaos, Eye of the Storm, Hive Mind, Counterbalance, Knowledge Pool, Teferi's Puzzle Box, and Thieves' Auction. Now the game is truly a new kind of game, a game of YOUR design, with YOUR rules. You've donned your Mad Hatter tophat and shoved the rest of the players down the rabbit hole, all of them on a bad acid trip. With luck, the game is so screwed that they can't even wipe your enchantments properly. GAME OVER, MAN!
The Deck
1 Zedruu the Greathearted
"Let's be friends!"
1 Howling Mine
1 Font of Mythos
1 Temple Bell
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Kami of the Crescent Moon
1 Gate to the Æther
1 Wild Evocation
1 Mana Flare
1 Oath of Lieges
"Gentlemen. You can't fight in here.
This is the War Room!"
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Propaganda
1 Windborn Muse
1 Konda, Lord of Eiganjo
1 Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer
1 Wall of Frost
1 Wall of Denial
1 Ith, High Arcanist
1 Arbiter of Knollridge
1 Darksteel Myr
1 Aurification
1 Words of Worship
1 Vow of Duty
1 Vow of Lightning
Random Joker Cards
1 Capricious Efreet
1 Custody Battle
1 Illicit Auction
1 Spectral Shift
1 Mind Bend
1 Alter Reality
1 Mirrorweave
1 Ruhan of the Fomori
1 Grip of Chaos
1 Eye of the Storm
1 Hive Mind
1 Mind's Desire
1 Psychic Battle
1 Counterbalance
1 Knowledge Pool
1 Scrambleverse
1 Thieves' Auction
1 Dimensional Breach
1 Teferi's Puzzle Box
1 Enduring Ideal
1 Tide of War
1 Risky Move
1 Zur's Weirding
1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1 Planar Chaos
1 Platinum Angel
1 Fumiko the Lowblood
1 Lightmine Field
1 Aura of Silence
Some Self-Utility
1 Mind Unbound
1 Paradox Haze
1 Crystal Ball
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Open the Vaults
1 Venser's Journal
1 Wild Research
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Hanna, Ship's Navigator
1 Lost Auramancers
1 Sol Ring
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
Land
7 Plains
7 Island
8 Mountain
1 Rainbow Vale
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Caldera Lake
1 Shivan Reef
1 Command Tower
1 Vesuva
1 Izzet Boilerworks
Notable Cards
Also, with RL MTG, it's got to be funny watching people deal with a "target permanent" card, having to count the number of permanents they have, and then find out that they need a 94-sided die to roll for all of the targets. Be sure to label all of the permanents with a number
This should be one of the first cards you play when you start "The Operation", since it's like a shroud for everything. And if that doesn't work, these will:
Counterbalance basically creates a null zone for certain spells. Every turn, nobody knows what the magic number actually is until the first spell is cast, so it's always a fun game of chance here. With cards like Crystal Ball, Sensei's Divining Top, Temple Bell, and Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, you can manipulate the magic number to get rid of bad spells that are trying to get rid of your enchantments (like Counterbalance itself).
For extra double-plus fun, throw the Mind's Desire into the Eye of the Storm. Suddenly, battlefields will start to grow exponentially.
Or Enduring Ideal into Hive Mind. Yes, they will be forced to cast it. Yes, spells will end at that point. Yes, you have a crapload of enchantments in your deck.
Fun times!
Other Potential Additions
Replenish - Again, more expensive card, but a good one.
Elkin Lair - This is another Wild Evocation. Always good to have these kind of cards for your expensive enchantments/artifacts.
Warp World - Another nice battlefield scrambler, though you do need to be careful of high token counts. Also, more often than not, you will end up with a small amount of creatures to their big nasties, so be careful when and how you cast it.
Other Anti-Attack cards - Like Collective Restraint (awesome), Blazing Archon (good, but a high white cost), Norn's Annex (arrow to the knee), Chronomantic Escape (weird), Peacekeeper (nasty). I don't recommend War Tax, since you have to "reload" it before the attack phase of each opponent. Nor Ensnaring Bridge, since you have a bunch of pro-drawing cards.
Dovescape - Certainly a fun card, but it really depends on the meta. If you think people are going to suddenly gang up on you, you might want to re-think this one. Then again, if you already have the lock down with Ghostly Prison or its cousins, then it's probably not much of a gang up at that point. Careful of anti-counter cards, like Boseiju, Who Shelters All or Cavern of Souls, as they'll get the card out the door AND the doves.
Goblin Game - Another bizarre card to play. You can choose to write the number down on a piece of paper and reveal it simultaneously, which is sorta what MTGO does with this weird card. I only exclude it because it's just a one-time shot Sorcery, and not an enchantment. Same goes for Mages' Contest.
Confusion in the Ranks - While most of the enchantments are global (so that you can trade them via Zedruu), I have had this card backfire before, especially with people trying to take Zedruu from me. Since this deck is very creature light, it can be hard to recover him back. Still, if you need some more fun stuff to play with, this card definitely fits.
Shared Fate - Another really bizarre card to play. Problem is that now you can't really play with your own library any more, and chances are that the rest of the players aren't going to pick your deck to play with those cards, either. End result is that the whole deck collapses and fun times are over.
Other Coin Flipping Cards - This deck isn't specifically for coin flipping, but those kind of cards are great for weird game states and mini-games. I used to have a Krark's Thumb in here, too, but now I don't have enough coin flippers to justify it.
I would like Planar Chaos, but don't have one. I am still running Confusion in the Ranks, but I have enough ways of overcoming the problem of zedruu being taken that it still works out. I haven't tried out Hive Mind, Eye of the Storm or Knowledge Pool, yet, but I might be willing to try it...
Most recently looking at Morinfen!
So, I'm been looking for replacements. I think I found a couple of good tutors:
+1 Ethereal Usher
This is solely for the Transmute. A CMC=6 transmute can grab a lot of important cards:
Grip of Chaos
Open the Vaults
Hive Mind
Gate to the Æther
Wild Evocation
Capricious Efreet
Tide of War
Mind Unbound
Mind's Desire
Risky Move
+1 Personal Tutor
I'm a cheap@$$, so I'm not grabbing Mystical Tutor, but I don't have a lot of instants, so there's no need, anyway. Priced at 38 cents, and I can grab stuff like Idyllic Tutor, Open the Vaults, Thieves' Auction, Scrambleverse, etc.
I mostly needed these two to grab my one Open the Vaults. At some point, I'll pony up the bucks for Replenish.
Some suggestions: Have you tried Djinn Illuminatus, Etherium-Horn Sorcerer or Nucklavee? ( although I don't think its random enough, it will add a little bit of consistency) Each of those cards fit into the theme, via creating chaos with duplicate or cascade, or letting you get back cards that cause the chaos?
I was looking at the deck and as random as Ruhan of the Fomori is I just don't like him at all (which is why I recommended creatures). Other than that the land count seems pretty low, with so many spells costing 5 or more mana. I'd try and adjust it from 35 to more like 37? One land you could consider (which opens up the possibility of Confusion in the Ranks) is Homeward Path.
Hope that helps a bit.
P.S.
38 cents? On MTGO? What is it $40 at least in real life? lol. Also pretty sure mystical ($8ish in real life) gets instants and sorceries, so its strictly better. Never know when you'll need a Spectral Shift.
Sig and Avatar Credit: Heroes of the Plane Studios
I used to have Cast Through Time, but the main problem with it, Djinn Illuminatus, and Nucklavee, is that there isn't that much in terms of instants and sorceries in this deck. Most of the chaos is through enchantments. Cards like Eye of the Storm and Hive Mind capitalize on the instants/sorceries from opponent decks, and give you access to them.
Etherium-Horn Sorcerer? I don't really know what this guy does.
Actually, between the:
Getting land is no problem, even with 35.
Possibly, but that counteracts the scramble cards, including Confusion in the Ranks. I guess it doesn't really matter if they get your General or not, since you're just going to get some of their stuff, anyway.
I'm sure he does, he's talking about MTGO prices (not sure if it is only 38 cents on there) since that why he's taking out cards like Enduring Ideal. Funny the difference in card prices huh?
I was thinking about Homeward Path, not sure if it is a good option since it returns all players creatures, however it is still a possibility.
I understand completely, however the option to duplicate or recast cards that were countered (or could be countered) or had an undesirable effect could be beneficial. However since you use to use Cast Through Time I'm sure you found that it wasn't necessary.
I looked at him as a similar option to Ethereal Usher. Even though he doesn't target cards directly you can still cascade into many cards, i.e. pretty much all your enchantments. It's seems really good as a reactive card to a board wipe or something similar. Even to help even out an unfavorable board position. However I could see it back-firing, and Ethereal Usher seems much more reliable. The bounce could really ignite some shenanigans though. edit: I also like the idea of rolling with a creature that makes you go: Oh well lets see what happens, it could be anything. maybe its not conducive to the general idea though.
Sig and Avatar Credit: Heroes of the Plane Studios
Read my sig. The part about the bonfires
ah, well I'm gonna build this irl and I have a mystical tutor so that'll be going in
Sig and Avatar Credit: Heroes of the Plane Studios
Mono
Guilds
Shards WUB Oloro|GWU Roon|RGW Jurassic Park|UBR Nekusar|BRG Kresh|
Clans RWU Narset|WBR Vampires|BGW Doran|UBG Muldrotha|URG Animar|
4-Colors GWUB Atraxa|BRGWSaskia|RGWU Hydra Hug| UBRGYidris|WUBRBreya|
5-Color WUBRG Super Friends
Extra Decks
Which would be an awesome card if it wasn't for that whole "Players can't draw cards" thing, and all of the card drawing in this deck. Seriously, the game can easily turn into a 5-card-per-turn affair for each player.
Tell WotC to create crazier cards. MAKE IT HAPPEN!
Æther Rift would be nice, if it didn't have green in it and applied to everybody. Gerrymandering would be awesome if it was a real non-funny card (and not green).
Maybe Malignus just for laughes?
| B Erebos, God of VampiresB | GYeva SmashG | RBosh ArtifactsR | GURAnimar +1 BeatsGUR | RBVial's Secret Hot SauceRB | UBRNekusar, Draw if you DareUBR | RGBDarigaaz'z DragonsRGB | GBSlimeFEETGB | UBOn-Hit LazavUB | URBrudiclad's Artificer InventionsUR | GUBMuldrotha's ElementalsGUB | WUGKestia's EnchantmentsWUG | GUTatyova - Draw, Land, Go!GU | WGArahbo's EquipmentWG | BUWVarina's ZOMBIE HORDESBUW | WLyra's Angelic SalvationW | WBChurch of TeysaWB | UAzami...WizardsU
Too close for missiles, I'm switchin' to guns
Commanders:
• Karn, the Silver Golem — "Do not talk to me of pigeons."
• Wydwen, the Biting Gale — "The dark storm on the horizon."