Sorry I missed these two comments for so long. I've been checking in occasionally on mtgsalvation, but apparently I'm no longer notified of posts in this thread.
Congrats on the deckbuild! Zedruu was my first commander, and it has had quite a few iterations throughout the years. I was wondering if you've tried homeward path in your deck. It works well with Starke of Rath and a couple of other creatures that exchange as a result of an activated ability. Also, since you are drawing so many cards, Wild Research might be useful to make sure you can draw what you need. My version of the deck is more of a exchange / control version, but I like some of your ideas.
I have not considered Homeward Path, as I prefer not to be donating creatures in the first place due to fragility. But I have been with Sudden Substitution, so maybe it's worth a test run. I don't see myself moving towards much more theft than that though.
A while back you posted a Mathas, Fiend Seeker deck that I thought was pretty cool. Did you ever update that?
I update that as more cards to give people tokens come out, but I'm not gonna pretend I put a lot of thought into that process. Flipping through it just now, it looks like the recently printed changes are Generous Gift, Massacre Girl, and Chandra, Awakened Inferno, and I picked up a Dousing Dagger that I just didn't own before.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
Sudden Substitution is getting a chance in here. As far as corner cases and fringe interactions, I think this card is more complex than some entire decks I've played. I haven't had enough experience with it yet to gauge the power in my deck, but the intrigue level is off the charts. Being able to trade like a Howling Mine on the stack with a creature in play seems pretty alright. And even better than trading a preordain, I can trade things like Firestorm or Nahiri's Wrath with no targets, or Pentad Prism cast with colorless mana. Or Chrome Mox lets them ramp, but they have to put the card in, and I get split second Naturalize-proof Control Magic.
Split second is already a weird mechanic that have some fringe benefit with Eye of the Storm or Knowledge Pool. Just being able to say "no, I get to use these, stay out for a second is sweet. Then with Thousand-Year Storm out, you can do some creative stacking of triggers to effectively give the spells in the Eye split second (you have to cast the split second spell out of eye last, but then all the spells trigger TYS anyway and you get all the storm copies with split second still on the stack, and then use the copies of Sudden Substitution on the originals cast out of Eye of the Storm and take control of a bunch of creatures. Then if you're like 6 levels deep on shenanigans, you can do things like cast a spell with Sudden Substitution already in Knowledge Pool, then respond to your own spell with another, cast Sudden Substitution out of the pool to steal a creature and give them the first spell, then resolve the original Knowledge Pool trigger to exile the spell anyway.
Precursor Golem is kind of interesting with it. It doesn't trigger the golem, but I can trade 1/3 of my Precursor for a noncreature spell, or trade like 1/3 of an Arcbond for their creature. And while I'm not playing any cards that lose the game at the moment, I can do really fringe things like kill every creature except an Inferno Titan, pump it to 100 power, and then donate a Vanish Into Memory to someone.
But even more thought provoking than all of those interactions with other cards in the deck is the fact that you don't have to control either target. You can use this spell to donate people each other's creatures, or use it as a political redirect on targeted removal. Without playing anything yourself, Sudden Substitution can be killer disruption just by rearranging people's pieces. Things like taking the commander from the player with no other creatures and swapping it for another player's Earthcraft on the stack. With split second. This card is going to be really hard to play optimally, but it's gonna make some sweet blowouts sometimes.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
With my focus shifting towards MTG Nexus i'd like these removed from the future deck pool. Thx.
You're cool. I stopped updating this one about when Nexus went live, just a little too real life busy at the moment to restart a project like this. I'll adjust the thread title accordingly.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
I've begun migrating this thread over to MTGNexus, making it more detailed and prettier than ever. I've got a text document saved with notes of suggestions made in this thread so I can eventually port over a lot of that discussion value.
I have every intention of continuing to check up over here if anyone comments on this thread, but if the future is anything like today as far as salvation working, that may not always be an option.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
This card was not picked randomly, but it picks randomly itself, so I consider that a reasonable trade.
I know that I'm half a year shy of my intended tenure on this thread, but this is the thread's finale, my final Random Card of the Day. I don't know if anyone has a mind to pick up where I left off with a new random card thread here on Salvation, but there is a successor already rolling elsewhere full of familiar faces for those interested.
It's been great doing this, thank you to everyone who made this thread fun every day.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
EDIT: Must just be my work computer as I can see on my phone.
Can you guys please give a very brief explanation on what this site is? Does Salvation still exist through Magic Find? Is Nexus separate?
MTGNexus is the replacement for Salvation that started when Salvation was set to close down. Even though Salvation was bought and is now going to stay running, Nexus was brought online because at that point it'd be a shame not to.
It's largely the same format and community as Salvation, but the staff from here that we know and love are in full control of the operations.
Edit: at the risk of overstepping some boundaries, I'll link you to this.
Can you think of any fun stuff to use with the newly unbanned Painter’s Servant? It doesn’t seem to do much with the current build, but possibly opens up new avenues?
Painter's Servant is super neat, I fully intend to play it somewhere in one of my decks, but probably not here. It does, I believe, literally nothing at the moment.
If you were so inclined to make Painter's Servant a Zedruu card, I'd like to see 5 or 6 colors matter cards worth playing on their own. Dream Halls for sure would be fun. Off the top of my head, color lords would work and are already acceptable just as Mirrorweave targets, so something like Grand Architect. The cards from Ravnica with radiance might have something. Tibor and Lumia could be worthwhile (too bad Swans has flying). I hate to ever consider Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, but 1-2 mana discount on every spell could be nutty. Circles of Protection are neat sometimes. I'm sure there are gems waiting to be found.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
That's exciting! I don't know about Paradox Engine ban because I think by now anyone playing it knows what they"re doing and the combos have ceased to be accidental, but it is I guess not an easy card to use fairly because you have to cut yourself off of mana rocks and card draw on purpose.
I love the Painter's Servant unban. That card is an excellent example of the opposite of Paradox Engine, it's very easy to avoid playing the cards that make it feel bad in your own deck if you're not trying to be that person.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
Sure, there is Assassin's Trophy. But many cards that say "destroy target planeswalker" are not efficient. You just cannot show that they are anywhere near the efficiency of creature/artifact/enchantment removal. That's just a function of planeswalkers not existing for the first 75% of magic.
I'm not proposing banning any card, so don't let that color your response.
Even ignoring combat, Narset goes to 3 on the first activation... Lightning Bolt?
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
I have not considered Homeward Path, as I prefer not to be donating creatures in the first place due to fragility. But I have been with Sudden Substitution, so maybe it's worth a test run. I don't see myself moving towards much more theft than that though.
I update that as more cards to give people tokens come out, but I'm not gonna pretend I put a lot of thought into that process. Flipping through it just now, it looks like the recently printed changes are Generous Gift, Massacre Girl, and Chandra, Awakened Inferno, and I picked up a Dousing Dagger that I just didn't own before.
Sudden Substitution is getting a chance in here. As far as corner cases and fringe interactions, I think this card is more complex than some entire decks I've played. I haven't had enough experience with it yet to gauge the power in my deck, but the intrigue level is off the charts. Being able to trade like a Howling Mine on the stack with a creature in play seems pretty alright. And even better than trading a preordain, I can trade things like Firestorm or Nahiri's Wrath with no targets, or Pentad Prism cast with colorless mana. Or Chrome Mox lets them ramp, but they have to put the card in, and I get split second Naturalize-proof Control Magic.
Split second is already a weird mechanic that have some fringe benefit with Eye of the Storm or Knowledge Pool. Just being able to say "no, I get to use these, stay out for a second is sweet. Then with Thousand-Year Storm out, you can do some creative stacking of triggers to effectively give the spells in the Eye split second (you have to cast the split second spell out of eye last, but then all the spells trigger TYS anyway and you get all the storm copies with split second still on the stack, and then use the copies of Sudden Substitution on the originals cast out of Eye of the Storm and take control of a bunch of creatures. Then if you're like 6 levels deep on shenanigans, you can do things like cast a spell with Sudden Substitution already in Knowledge Pool, then respond to your own spell with another, cast Sudden Substitution out of the pool to steal a creature and give them the first spell, then resolve the original Knowledge Pool trigger to exile the spell anyway.
Precursor Golem is kind of interesting with it. It doesn't trigger the golem, but I can trade 1/3 of my Precursor for a noncreature spell, or trade like 1/3 of an Arcbond for their creature. And while I'm not playing any cards that lose the game at the moment, I can do really fringe things like kill every creature except an Inferno Titan, pump it to 100 power, and then donate a Vanish Into Memory to someone.
But even more thought provoking than all of those interactions with other cards in the deck is the fact that you don't have to control either target. You can use this spell to donate people each other's creatures, or use it as a political redirect on targeted removal. Without playing anything yourself, Sudden Substitution can be killer disruption just by rearranging people's pieces. Things like taking the commander from the player with no other creatures and swapping it for another player's Earthcraft on the stack. With split second. This card is going to be really hard to play optimally, but it's gonna make some sweet blowouts sometimes.
You're cool. I stopped updating this one about when Nexus went live, just a little too real life busy at the moment to restart a project like this. I'll adjust the thread title accordingly.
I have every intention of continuing to check up over here if anyone comments on this thread, but if the future is anything like today as far as salvation working, that may not always be an option.
This card was not picked randomly, but it picks randomly itself, so I consider that a reasonable trade.
I know that I'm half a year shy of my intended tenure on this thread, but this is the thread's finale, my final Random Card of the Day. I don't know if anyone has a mind to pick up where I left off with a new random card thread here on Salvation, but there is a successor already rolling elsewhere full of familiar faces for those interested.
It's been great doing this, thank you to everyone who made this thread fun every day.
That doesn't seem like a terrible rate, 4 mana for an almost Sleep... oh wait.
MTGNexus is the replacement for Salvation that started when Salvation was set to close down. Even though Salvation was bought and is now going to stay running, Nexus was brought online because at that point it'd be a shame not to.
It's largely the same format and community as Salvation, but the staff from here that we know and love are in full control of the operations.
Edit: at the risk of overstepping some boundaries, I'll link you to this.
"For as long as that card remains exiled" is 100% the best text on this card.
I can imagine making this card exceptionally large, but for it to be deadly, I think I would want to fling it.
Painter's Servant is super neat, I fully intend to play it somewhere in one of my decks, but probably not here. It does, I believe, literally nothing at the moment.
If you were so inclined to make Painter's Servant a Zedruu card, I'd like to see 5 or 6 colors matter cards worth playing on their own. Dream Halls for sure would be fun. Off the top of my head, color lords would work and are already acceptable just as Mirrorweave targets, so something like Grand Architect. The cards from Ravnica with radiance might have something. Tibor and Lumia could be worthwhile (too bad Swans has flying). I hate to ever consider Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, but 1-2 mana discount on every spell could be nutty. Circles of Protection are neat sometimes. I'm sure there are gems waiting to be found.
I love the Painter's Servant unban. That card is an excellent example of the opposite of Paradox Engine, it's very easy to avoid playing the cards that make it feel bad in your own deck if you're not trying to be that person.
It's cards like this that remind you how not often they print first strike aggressively.
Even ignoring combat, Narset goes to 3 on the first activation... Lightning Bolt?
That a very grim way of absorbing knowledge.
I was checking like once a week and it just timed out nicely.