Originally this was put together with Crosis at the helm, but after Nov 1st, I will have Nekusar, the Mindrazer. Since I originally put this together because I was looking for a deck that liked to control the board and I wanted to break Underworld Dreams, this card is perfect. However I'm also trying to stay somewhat budget, so I can't afford things like The Abyss. That said however, with the new general being a Zombie, Call to the Grave becomes very much like a budget Abyss.
Why you might play this deck
- You like to control the board.
- You want to stall out the game.
- You enjoy fighting against an entire table
- You hate creatures and activated abilities.
- You enjoy abusing the stack.
Reasons you should not play this deck
- You like to win with combat
- You like to spell sling and play lots of spells every turn
- You don't want to be 'that guy' who plays the 'unfun' deck
- You like creatures.
Basically this plays out as a stax control deck. My goal is to stick something like Propaganda or Land Equilibrium while I work on getting the punishing effects online. Torpor Orb and Damping Matrix have done amazing things for me. However this deck has become more and more of a Winter Orb lock deck, so tutors like Tezzeret the Seeker and Transmute Artifact help get some of those artifacts online, as well as helping to find the Puzzlebox.
Mass bounce is used in combination with the wheel effects and puzzlebox to work as a form of removal, while the deck wins with punishing draws and discards or with cards that deal damage equal to the cards drawn this turn, or the size of a player's hand. Casting Toil // Trouble right after a mass bounce can take someone out, and Evacuation or Sunder plus Runeflare Trap can do it at instant speed.
Winds of Change went to my 93/94 deck and Tainted Aether went to another EDH deck. I'm going to try to get another copy of both. I liked them here, but it's also fun to try new things.
I have an extra Blood Moon in my binder now, I'm not sure it's going to go in here, but it's not out of the question. I also picked up a Liliana of the Veil, but she's in a different deck for now. I do have a Memory Jar, Goblin Welder and a Tangle Wire, just haven't found time to make the changes yet. It's getting lighter and lighter on creatures. I'm thinking Haunted Plate Mail could be an Alternate Win condition, but has poor synergy with Damping Matrix. War's Toll doubles up on the Mana Web effect, but I still need another copy for this deck. I did add a Stranglehold and Lotus Bloom recently too, but again I don't remember what I took out for them. I will have to look at the deck and make updates. Obviously the deck is very artifact heavy, so some cheap mass artifact removal like Creeping Corrosion or Energy Flux becomes hard to deal with, so it's best not to let anyone have any land... From the desolation flavor text "Kill a creature, destroy the present. Kill the land, destroy the future."
I'd love to get a Timetwister for real recursion (Elixir of Immortality sucks)... Maybe sometime next year.
Why you might play this deck
- You like to control the board.
- You want to stall out the game.
- You enjoy fighting against an entire table
- You hate creatures and activated abilities.
- You enjoy abusing the stack.
Reasons you should not play this deck
- You like to win with combat
- You like to spell sling and play lots of spells every turn
- You don't want to be 'that guy' who plays the 'unfun' deck
- You like creatures.
Basically this plays out as a stax control deck. My goal is to stick something like Propaganda or Land Equilibrium while I work on getting the punishing effects online. Torpor Orb and Damping Matrix have done amazing things for me. However this deck has become more and more of a Winter Orb lock deck, so tutors like Tezzeret the Seeker and Transmute Artifact help get some of those artifacts online, as well as helping to find the Puzzlebox.
Mass bounce is used in combination with the wheel effects and puzzlebox to work as a form of removal, while the deck wins with punishing draws and discards or with cards that deal damage equal to the cards drawn this turn, or the size of a player's hand. Casting Toil // Trouble right after a mass bounce can take someone out, and Evacuation or Sunder plus Runeflare Trap can do it at instant speed.
1 Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Creatures:
1 Notion Thief
1 Platinum Angel
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
Planeswalkers:
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
Artifacts:
1 Ankh of Mishra
1 Damping Matrix
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Ivory Tower
1 Mana Web
1 Mox Diamond
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Noetic Scales
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Static Orb
1 Teferi's Puzzle Box
1 Torpor Orb
1 Trinisphere
1 Vessel of Endless Rest
1 Winter Orb
Enchantments:
1 Breathstealer's Crypt
1 Call to the Grave
1 Dissipation Field
1 Land Equilibrium
1 Liliana's Caress
1 Megrim
1 Painful Quandary
1 Pendrell Mists
1 Price of Glory
1 Propaganda
1 Rhystic Study
1 Rising Waters
1 Sunken Hope
1 Underworld Dreams
1 Warped Devotion
1 Aetherize
1 Boomerang
1 Brainstorm
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Dark Ritual
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Evacuation
1 Far // Away
1 Geth's Verdict
1 Runeflare Trap
1 Sunder
1 Turn // Burn
1 Vapor Snag
Sorcery:
1 Barter in Blood
1 Devastation Tide
1 Call to Mind
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Molten Psyche
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Shattering Spree
1 Time Reversal
1 Toil // Trouble
1 Transmute Artifact
1 Vandalblast
1 Windfall
1 Wheel of Fortune
Lands:
1 Command Tower
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Great Furnace
8 Island
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Izzet Boilerworks
6 Mountain
1 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Steam Vents
1 Stensia Bloodhall
8 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Vault of Whispers
Some additional cards I've considered, but either cut or haven't been able to fit in:
Wish List:
Cards I'd like to try that aren't so expensive
Might actually get someday
Probably out of budget:
Some cards I don't want to run:
Death Cloud - seems like too much mana
Wake of Destruction - RRR seems high
Minds Aglow - Reminds me of Prosperity but still doesn't seem good enough.
Comments and criticisms are welcome. I don't have a problem with running $20-$30 cards, but don't suggest Nether Void, because I can't afford it.
Update 10/29
Updating the list. I have swapped out several cards, and have a few more in my binder that I'm trying to work in.
Recent Changes:
-Winds of Change
-Tainted Aether
-Darksteel Ingot
-Stinkweed Imp
-Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
+Mox Diamond - An upgrade from Darksteel Ingot. Something to do with those extra lands.
+Mana Web (Good synergy with Propaganda & Winter Orb)
+Wheel of Fortune (The only reason this wasn't in the original list is that I only have one).
+Painful Quandary - Testing
+Pendrell Mists - Good Synergy with Mana Web, does what this deck wants to do.
Winds of Change went to my 93/94 deck and Tainted Aether went to another EDH deck. I'm going to try to get another copy of both. I liked them here, but it's also fun to try new things.
I have an extra Blood Moon in my binder now, I'm not sure it's going to go in here, but it's not out of the question. I also picked up a Liliana of the Veil, but she's in a different deck for now. I do have a Memory Jar, Goblin Welder and a Tangle Wire, just haven't found time to make the changes yet. It's getting lighter and lighter on creatures. I'm thinking Haunted Plate Mail could be an Alternate Win condition, but has poor synergy with Damping Matrix. War's Toll doubles up on the Mana Web effect, but I still need another copy for this deck. I did add a Stranglehold and Lotus Bloom recently too, but again I don't remember what I took out for them. I will have to look at the deck and make updates. Obviously the deck is very artifact heavy, so some cheap mass artifact removal like Creeping Corrosion or Energy Flux becomes hard to deal with, so it's best not to let anyone have any land... From the desolation flavor text "Kill a creature, destroy the present. Kill the land, destroy the future."
I'd love to get a Timetwister for real recursion (Elixir of Immortality sucks)... Maybe sometime next year.
.