Just thought I would share the list I am currently running for my Sakashima deck, as there haven't been many updates on this general in a while. It has been optimised over a few months to play in a quasi-competitive multiplayer environment that is online play. Not that it justifies playing this deck! I may add some card analysis later on, but I just wanted to put this up for scrutiny/testing if anyone wanted to give it a spin.
Thanks for reading!
Card Analysis
Artifacts
Crucible of Worlds - Utilising this artifact to bring back fetch lands ensures that you will have a constant stream of islands. This card has some very nice synergies in combination with Dreamscape Artist and the landfall ability on Roil Elemental. The other use is of course to bring back Stripmine and Wasteland to soft lock your opponent's lands, this should generally be used in the very late game as you ideally do not want to compromise your land drops, or generally annoy everyone...
Crystal Shard - The utility on this is amazing, allowing you to return your opponents' creatures to their hand if they tap out, or force them to keep a mana open to pay for the cost. Using it on your own creatures can be even more helpful, should you decide to abuse some ETB effects on your Clone creatures and Solemn Simulacrum. It can also be used to return Snapcaster Mage for more flashback goodness... you get the idea.
Extraplanar Lens - Mana acceleration. Can be a bit of a set back if someone decides to destroy it as they get a two for one, but if left undisturbed you will generate a massive mana advantage that is generally only seen in green. Snow-Covered Island is tech. Tip for others, if you see a blue deck drop this, get rid of it ASAP, you will find it very hard to keep up otherwise.
Journeyer's Kite - Land fixing. Generally doesn't get focused, very nice for deck thinning and ensuring you get that land drop.
Lightning Greaves - 0 Equip really makes this equipment amazing. The shroud can be useful for protecting your creatures and the haste can be used to finish opponents off. Very useful the majority of the time.
Mana Crypt, Sol Ring and Mind Stone - Mana accelerants, which are even more effective in mono decks. Mind Stone can be used later in the game to provide that little extra card that you needed whilst providing early mana. Better than all the 2 mana artifact accelerants, with the only drawback being it produces colorless.
Mimic Vat - Recently returned from the grave. The ability to choose better creatures when they die is especially useful. Using it in combination with Keiga, the Tide Star and High Market is particularly strong.
Mind's Eye - This card is absolutely insane and is an auto-include in the majority of my EDH decks. Using the artifact acceleration or a nice Mana Drain to get this into play early on can turn you into a powerhouse. The deck doesn't run any instant draw spells (except Cryptic Command and Fact or Fiction I suppose) as this is simply more effective in generating card advantage.
Sculpting Steel - I can be anything you desire... that's in play that is. Amazing utility and can generate virtual mana advantage in some cases. Don't forget that you can use this to copy Phyrexian Metamorph!
it looks like we have quite a different approach to building sakashima. my list had far less counters, being that you actually want things to resolve (so you can copy them!). i think i run about 6. i also included a set of finishers that would benefit from being copied, like frost titan, chancellor of the spires and sphinx of uthuun. there are too many occasions when i am pitted against with few-to-no creatures, or decks with creatures i wouldn't want to copy. another key card i play that you do not seem to have is vedalken shackles, which probably isnt included due to your low island count. i honestly wouldn't be so quick to dismiss this card from MonoU.
oh, by the way....vesuvan shapeshifter is probably one of the top 3 clones. i would greatly advise his addition to your list.
(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?)
How are you missing the best Multiplayer theft card? Blatant Thievery???
Earlier versions of the deck had Blatant Thievery, but it got pushed out in favor of cards such as Bribery and Acquire. I can see the value in it, I mean 2.3 mana to steal a permanent is nuts, but the mana cost is extremely high, which would generally leave me tapped out. Another problem is that it generates a lot of hate from the other players, ideally you don't want to be targeted. I may try to include this in the deck again somehow for further testing, but I don't know what should be cut in its place.
it looks like we have quite a different approach to building sakashima. my list had far less counters, being that you actually want things to resolve (so you can copy them!). i think i run about 6. i also included a set of finishers that would benefit from being copied, like frost titan, chancellor of the spires and sphinx of uthuun. there are too many occasions when i am pitted against with few-to-no creatures, or decks with creatures i wouldn't want to copy. another key card i play that you do not seem to have is vedalken shackles, which probably isnt included due to your low island count. i honestly wouldn't be so quick to dismiss this card from MonoU.
oh, by the way....vesuvan shapeshifter is probably one of the top 3 clones. i would greatly advise his addition to your list.
Knowing when to use your counters is what makes or breaks the blue mage. The deck doesn't run that many counters, only about 6 hard counters, the other 4 being steal/copy/redirect effects. When I play the deck I don't counter everything my opponents play, they are generally used to stop infinite combos or to hold board position. The deck has to deal quite often with generals such as Riku of Two Reflections and the occasional Uril the Mistwalker/Zur the Enchanter where early and effective counters are absolutely necessary unless you want you and the other two players to get walked over.
On the note of finishers, the deck used to run Sphinx of Magosi, but I generally find that my opponents play nice enough creatures that I can steal/copy and then control the board from there. A Sunder can be used as a finisher once you have board control, if you use it with Land Equilibrium you pretty much seal the deal.
Vedalken Shackles - This card is amazing, but you are correct, due to the low island count I have kept my distance from this card... It's definitely worth giving a spin at some point.
The Cryptoplasm is simply way too slow and generally gets blown up before your turn or draws attacks from other players. If you play him early you probably won't have any decent creatures to copy and you will not be able to make use of ETB effects (which some early creatures have), which is a pretty big setback for costing 1 less.
The only one I would consider again for the deck would be Vesuvan Doppelganger, but that would be contested with Body Double which is the other card fighting for Clone's spot.
I have started to add some analysis to the cards in the deck, starting with the artifacts.
Please keep the suggestions coming, although I should probably include a section for cards that have already been tested...
Vedalken Shackles is now up for consideration, I can only imagine the hate that it will draw if I eventually include it.
With so few Snow-Covered Islands, I would recommend Gauntlet of Power over Extraplanar Lens. Lens is cheaper, but it is also much less useful at the point in the game where you can drop it, since it also costs you a land.
Also, if you're playing Gauntlet instead of Lens with snow islands, other blue decks (which play basics) will frequently lay off you for a while, as they're getting a nice boost too. I run both Lens and Gauntlet in my Thada Adel list and I like both, but Lens is not very good if I've only got 4 or 5 islands. (I run 28 snow islands in my Thada deck). The +1/+1 from the gauntlet is also very nice, but if most of your creatures are cloning things, it may be less desirable. You could also consider Caged Sun over Gauntlet, to ensure that it will only affect your board, but it tends to get hated on more than the other two since it's completely asymmetrical (and it costs more, too).
Also, if you're running Scrying Sheets, it's better to have more snow cards. You've got 11 that I can see, including the Scrying Sheets. I suggest either cutting Scrying Sheets, or adding in a few more snow cards for it. One useful candidate would be Coldsteel Heart.
With so few Snow-Covered Islands, I would recommend Gauntlet of Power over Extraplanar Lens. Lens is cheaper, but it is also much less useful at the point in the game where you can drop it, since it also costs you a land.
Also, if you're playing Gauntlet instead of Lens with snow islands, other blue decks (which play basics) will frequently lay off you for a while, as they're getting a nice boost too. I run both Lens and Gauntlet in my Thada Adel list and I like both, but Lens is not very good if I've only got 4 or 5 islands. (I run 28 snow islands in my Thada deck). The +1/+1 from the gauntlet is also very nice, but if most of your creatures are cloning things, it may be less desirable. You could also consider Caged Sun over Gauntlet, to ensure that it will only affect your board, but it tends to get hated on more than the other two since it's completely asymmetrical (and it costs more, too).
Also, if you're running Scrying Sheets, it's better to have more snow cards. You've got 11 that I can see, including the Scrying Sheets. I suggest either cutting Scrying Sheets, or adding in a few more snow cards for it. One useful candidate would be Coldsteel Heart.
I will have to disagree with you on the Extraplanar Lens, I have found it to be a very useful mana accelerant, even with the low number of Islands the deck runs. I would argue that it is even better than the Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun as the +1/+1 bonus is negligible in both, the mana cost is quite high and in the first case benefits other decks running blue. I would have to agree with you in that regard.
I hadn't really thought much about the Scrying Sheets, it has been useless in the majority of cases. I have decided to replace it with Tower of the Magistrate to aid in dealing with equipments.
I'm having a bit of thoughts about Academy Ruins. It's an amazing land, don't get me wrong, but it tends to draw a lot of hate as people think I'm running Mind Slaver combo, when in reality the only time I've used it was to return a Phyrexian Metamorph. Especially in this deck I am not finding it to be very useful and therefore I am tempted to swap it out in favor of another Island.
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1 Sakashima the Impostor
Artifacts - 13
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Crystal Shard
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Journeyer's Kite
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mimic Vat
1 Mind Stone
1 Mind's Eye
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
Creatures - 19
1 Clone
1 Dreamscape Artist
1 Drift of Phantasms
1 Duplicant
1 Gilded Drake
1 Heidar, Rimewind Master
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Roil Elemental
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
1 Trinket Mage
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Voidmage Husher
1 Control Magic
1 Copy Artifact
1 Copy Enchantment
1 Land Equilibrium
1 Mystic Remora
1 Rhystic Study
1 Steal Enchantment
1 Treachery
Instants - 22
1 Capsize
1 Commandeer
1 Counterspell
1 Cryptic Command
1 Desertion
1 Ensnare
1 Evacuation
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Forbid
1 Force of Will
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Mana Drain
1 Misdirection
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Pact of Negation
1 Pongify
1 Redirect
1 Sunder
1 Trickbind
1 Turnabout
1 Twincast
1 Acquire
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Bribery
1 Rite of Replication
Planeswalkers - 2
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
Lands - 32
1 Academy Ruins
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Flooded Strand
1 High Market
1 Maze of Ith
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Seat of the Synod
10 Snow-Covered Island
1 Soldevi Excavations
1 Strip Mine
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Tolaria West
1 Tower of the Magistrate
1 Vesuva
1 Wasteland
Just thought I would share the list I am currently running for my Sakashima deck, as there haven't been many updates on this general in a while. It has been optimised over a few months to play in a quasi-competitive multiplayer environment that is online play. Not that it justifies playing this deck! I may add some card analysis later on, but I just wanted to put this up for scrutiny/testing if anyone wanted to give it a spin.
Thanks for reading!
Card Analysis
Artifacts
Crucible of Worlds - Utilising this artifact to bring back fetch lands ensures that you will have a constant stream of islands. This card has some very nice synergies in combination with Dreamscape Artist and the landfall ability on Roil Elemental. The other use is of course to bring back Stripmine and Wasteland to soft lock your opponent's lands, this should generally be used in the very late game as you ideally do not want to compromise your land drops, or generally annoy everyone...
Crystal Shard - The utility on this is amazing, allowing you to return your opponents' creatures to their hand if they tap out, or force them to keep a mana open to pay for the cost. Using it on your own creatures can be even more helpful, should you decide to abuse some ETB effects on your Clone creatures and Solemn Simulacrum. It can also be used to return Snapcaster Mage for more flashback goodness... you get the idea.
Extraplanar Lens - Mana acceleration. Can be a bit of a set back if someone decides to destroy it as they get a two for one, but if left undisturbed you will generate a massive mana advantage that is generally only seen in green. Snow-Covered Island is tech. Tip for others, if you see a blue deck drop this, get rid of it ASAP, you will find it very hard to keep up otherwise.
Isochron Scepter - This is a recent re-addition to the deck, so it's still undergoing some testing. Its targets in the deck are: Hurkyl's Recall, Mana Drain, Muddle the Mixture, Mystical Tutor, Pact of Negation, Pongify, Redirect, Trickbind and Twincast. You can generate some serious virtual card advantage with this thing.
Journeyer's Kite - Land fixing. Generally doesn't get focused, very nice for deck thinning and ensuring you get that land drop.
Lightning Greaves - 0 Equip really makes this equipment amazing. The shroud can be useful for protecting your creatures and the haste can be used to finish opponents off. Very useful the majority of the time.
Mana Crypt, Sol Ring and Mind Stone - Mana accelerants, which are even more effective in mono decks. Mind Stone can be used later in the game to provide that little extra card that you needed whilst providing early mana. Better than all the 2 mana artifact accelerants, with the only drawback being it produces colorless.
Mimic Vat - Recently returned from the grave. The ability to choose better creatures when they die is especially useful. Using it in combination with Keiga, the Tide Star and High Market is particularly strong.
Mind's Eye - This card is absolutely insane and is an auto-include in the majority of my EDH decks. Using the artifact acceleration or a nice Mana Drain to get this into play early on can turn you into a powerhouse. The deck doesn't run any instant draw spells (except Cryptic Command and Fact or Fiction I suppose) as this is simply more effective in generating card advantage.
Sculpting Steel - I can be anything you desire... that's in play that is. Amazing utility and can generate virtual mana advantage in some cases. Don't forget that you can use this to copy Phyrexian Metamorph!
Sensei's Divining Top - Eeeh... top shuffle top draw counter... Fixes your draws.
oh, by the way....vesuvan shapeshifter is probably one of the top 3 clones. i would greatly advise his addition to your list.
Definitely. Anything Vesuvan should be on this list, including the other (older) clone chick.
With a commander like her, I'd put every clone I could find.
Earlier versions of the deck had Blatant Thievery, but it got pushed out in favor of cards such as Bribery and Acquire. I can see the value in it, I mean 2.3 mana to steal a permanent is nuts, but the mana cost is extremely high, which would generally leave me tapped out. Another problem is that it generates a lot of hate from the other players, ideally you don't want to be targeted. I may try to include this in the deck again somehow for further testing, but I don't know what should be cut in its place.
Knowing when to use your counters is what makes or breaks the blue mage. The deck doesn't run that many counters, only about 6 hard counters, the other 4 being steal/copy/redirect effects. When I play the deck I don't counter everything my opponents play, they are generally used to stop infinite combos or to hold board position. The deck has to deal quite often with generals such as Riku of Two Reflections and the occasional Uril the Mistwalker/Zur the Enchanter where early and effective counters are absolutely necessary unless you want you and the other two players to get walked over.
On the note of finishers, the deck used to run Sphinx of Magosi, but I generally find that my opponents play nice enough creatures that I can steal/copy and then control the board from there. A Sunder can be used as a finisher once you have board control, if you use it with Land Equilibrium you pretty much seal the deal.
Vedalken Shackles - This card is amazing, but you are correct, due to the low island count I have kept my distance from this card... It's definitely worth giving a spin at some point.
Both Vesuvan Shapeshifter and Vesuvan Doppelganger were in the deck at the start, along with creatures such as Cryptoplasm and Dominating Licid. I personally prefer Clone over any of these cards, the Vesuvan Shapeshifter activation cost is too pricey for what he does, I prefer to land a Clone on the correct target and then bounce him back to my hand if I really need to with Crystal Shard if I need to copy something else.
The Cryptoplasm is simply way too slow and generally gets blown up before your turn or draws attacks from other players. If you play him early you probably won't have any decent creatures to copy and you will not be able to make use of ETB effects (which some early creatures have), which is a pretty big setback for costing 1 less.
The only one I would consider again for the deck would be Vesuvan Doppelganger, but that would be contested with Body Double which is the other card fighting for Clone's spot.
I have started to add some analysis to the cards in the deck, starting with the artifacts.
Please keep the suggestions coming, although I should probably include a section for cards that have already been tested...
Vedalken Shackles is now up for consideration, I can only imagine the hate that it will draw if I eventually include it.
Also, if you're playing Gauntlet instead of Lens with snow islands, other blue decks (which play basics) will frequently lay off you for a while, as they're getting a nice boost too. I run both Lens and Gauntlet in my Thada Adel list and I like both, but Lens is not very good if I've only got 4 or 5 islands. (I run 28 snow islands in my Thada deck). The +1/+1 from the gauntlet is also very nice, but if most of your creatures are cloning things, it may be less desirable. You could also consider Caged Sun over Gauntlet, to ensure that it will only affect your board, but it tends to get hated on more than the other two since it's completely asymmetrical (and it costs more, too).
Also, if you're running Scrying Sheets, it's better to have more snow cards. You've got 11 that I can see, including the Scrying Sheets. I suggest either cutting Scrying Sheets, or adding in a few more snow cards for it. One useful candidate would be Coldsteel Heart.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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I will have to disagree with you on the Extraplanar Lens, I have found it to be a very useful mana accelerant, even with the low number of Islands the deck runs. I would argue that it is even better than the Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun as the +1/+1 bonus is negligible in both, the mana cost is quite high and in the first case benefits other decks running blue. I would have to agree with you in that regard.
I hadn't really thought much about the Scrying Sheets, it has been useless in the majority of cases. I have decided to replace it with Tower of the Magistrate to aid in dealing with equipments.
I'm having a bit of thoughts about Academy Ruins. It's an amazing land, don't get me wrong, but it tends to draw a lot of hate as people think I'm running Mind Slaver combo, when in reality the only time I've used it was to return a Phyrexian Metamorph. Especially in this deck I am not finding it to be very useful and therefore I am tempted to swap it out in favor of another Island.