The steam limits your vision as you steer your small boat across the Shivan Reef. Spires of volcanic rock jut out of the water and the very water boils with the head of the underground volcano. Your robe begins to become damp as you sweat profusely in the sweltering heat. The air feels heavy in your throat as you sail through what feels like a giant sauna. Small drakes dart through the sky, parting the steam and revealing rays of bright sunlight. You spy something shifting in the steam, but it turns out to simply be an Air Elemental, drifting with the heat currents.
Suddenly, you hear the beating of huge wings, and the steam is parted, revealing an enormous indigo dragon. Its wings are a sunset red, and its neck and wrists are adorned with golden jewelry. Could this be the being you have been searching for? It looks at you, and your boat grinds to a halt. You can feel the enormous presence of its mind pressing down on your own, ebbing and flowing like a cool stream. Somehow, the dragon's presence brings relief from the sweltering heat. It speaks in your mind.
"Greetings, planeswalker" Its voice is calm and cool and unmistakably female. This is her. The dragon known as "The Dreamer" a being said to be able to call down the wrath of the Blind Eternities with a simple roar. You bow to her, and she inclines her head in return. "I have foreseen this day, planeswalker. You have sought me out as one of the few being in the Multiverse capable of leading your great armies to battle." You nod. It was true, out of all the great legends of The Multiverse, this dragon was one of the few capable of leading your forces. The dragon bares its teeth in what you assume to be a smile, and swoops down from her perch, scattering steam and picking your boat straight out of the water. You feel her mind once more.
"Very well, let us begin."
Introduction
Awhile back, I had a deck built around Animar, Soul of Elements that was basically a modified version of the "Mirror Mastery" Commander Precon. The deck never did very well, because my friends weren't fans of me having a ton of free or close to free creatures, and because I ended up frontloading the deck with way too many huge creatures I thought would be awesome to play for a discount, neglecting early creatures to put counters on my general. Eventually, I ended up scrapping the deck, and didn't really build anything else in those colors for awhile. Eventually, I ended up wanting to build RUG again, but I didn't want to build another Animar deck. At that point I had already traded my one copy of Riku, and I didn't really want to make a deck around copying things anyway. No, what I wanted to make was a deck around monsters. (This was right after I saw Pacific Rim, so monsters were on my mind) primarily dragons, but with the capabilities and card drawing of blue. I love dragons, so I knew I had to play Intet.
Please note that this list isn't optimized. I'm missing a lot of lands and staples that I probably should have, because of money and a lack of a playgroup currently. This list is what I personally like to play with Intet, and if you disagree, or like to use Intet differently, then you are more than welcome to do so.
Why Intet?
Intet the Dreamer is a powerful creature with some nice abilities for Commander. Let's break it down.
Intet, the Dreamer: It's a simple name, but hints at mystery. Who is Intet? What does she dream about? She apparently dreams about things from other worlds and brings them to life, and also seems to have some sort of sleep disorder wherein she can only dream after beating an opponent's face. Pretty cool.
3URG: Like all of the Legendary Planar Chaos dragons (and the original Primevals.) It'll cost you six mana to get Intet on the field. Her mana cost means we're probably going to want some ramp or cost reducers if we plan on playing her, but even then only expect to only cast her maybe two or three times on average. Her color combination is interesting as well, it's usually referred to as RUG or, less commonly, Ceta.
Blue is the color we usually think of when we think of card draw and library manipulation. Blue can draw cards, it can look at cards, and it can even rearrange or flush away unwanted cards. In addition, blue is one of the two colors, along with red, that is best known for its instants and sorceries. Card draw spells, bounce spells, and especially counterspells all fall under the domain of blue. Blue is usually the color that gets the most efficient evasive creatures, giving us creatures with flying or ones that can't be blocked.
Red is the color of fire, lightning, and emotion. Red, like blue, is a color known for its instants and sorceries, most notably, its burn spells. Red's creatures are usually small, fast, and often fragile, none of which is good for Commander, but if you're willing to shell out more mana, you can get some devastating heavy hitters. Red is one of the worst colors for evasion, but does manage to get giant flying evasive creatures in the form of dragons, which of course, work great with our dragon general. In recent years, red has gained card draw in the form of "Looting" or, discarding a card to draw a card. This is weak compared to most of blue's card draw, but it still exists as an option. Red and blue in combination can be potent. Red is also the color of haste, letting your giant creatures smash through right away.
Green is the creature color. If you want big, efficient beaters, green is your color. Wurms, hydras, elementals, green's creatures are not only big, but often come at less of a cost than you might get creatures of the same size in other colors. Green is also the color of mana ramp, whether through doubling effects or through land searching, green can accelerate you into large creatures and spells and help you fix your colors. Many of greens spells care about creatures or lands.
Legendary Creature- Dragon: She wouldn't be a Planar Chaos dragon without that Dragon subtype! As a dragon, Intet is fit thematically to lead an army comprised of many dragons, and, as we'll see later on, there are a few cards in the deck that care about her being a dragon
Flying: Evasion is important, especially when your general can possibly be dealing lethal Commander damage, and also for our next point.
"Whenever Intet, the Dreamer deals combat damage to a player, you may pay 2U. If you do, exile the top card of your library face down. You may look at that card for as long as it remains exiled. You may play that card without paying its mana cost for as long as Intet remains on the battlefield": So, essentially, Intet can let you play the top card of your library for 2U instead of its mana cost. Note that you don't have to play that card right away, but can play it as long as Intet is around. This means that hitting a spell that might not be useful at a certain point in the game is okay, you can ration it for later. As long as you're connecting with Intet and she remains on the battlefield, you essentially get a second hand that can be played for free. However, hitting land or small creature off Intet never feels good, so we'll probably want to include a few different kinds of library manipulation.
6/6: It takes four hits for our Commander to kill someone with Commander damage, disregarding any power or toughness modifiers. Even disregarding Commander damage, 6/6 is going to put a reasonably sized dent in someone's life total, especially if we're swinging with a bunch of other big creatures.
So, that's Intet in a nutshell, but let's take a look at the competition. What are our other choices of generals? There are only three generals besides Intet that can command a URG deck:
Animar, Soul of the Elements: Protection from two of the biggest removal colors are nice, and both his abilities are relevant. Overall, he lends himself to a completely different deck than Intet, probably one trying to win with some sort of creature based combo. His starting power and toughness leave him extremely vulnerable to red based removal, but his casting cost makes it fairly easy to cast him a few more times. While Intet probably fits somewhere into an Animar deck, Animar is a completely different strategy.
Riku of Two Reflections: Here's a general that loves value. Suddenly you're getting twice as much value out of every creature or spell you play. Despite only costing 1 less to cast than Intet, Riku has 4 less power and toughness. This makes him more vulnerable to removal and not as effective in combat. While he and Intet are probably more similar, I think he really has more in common with Animar than with our general. He offers a lot of value, but on a fragile body.
Maelstrom Wanderer: This seems to be everybody's go to URG general, and it's not hard to see why. He gives all your creatures haste, can kill in three hits, and gives you two extra spells when he enters the battlefield. Why play Intet over Wanderer? For one, control. Intet gives you more control over when you play your spells. You can play the spells you get off of Intet for free and as if they were in your hand for as long as the dragon remains on the field. The Wanderer requires you to play whatever he cascades into right away, and you often don't know what you might get. Maelstrom wanderer is also a 7/5. While he has one more point of power than Intet, he also has one less point of toughness, making him more vulnerable. And while he has haste, he lacks any type of evasion. He also costs 1 more than Intet, making him harder to cast and recast.
Before we move onto the deck, let's summarize:
You may like Intet if:
You love dragons.
You like playing free spells.
You like being able to win with Commander damage.
You like to play huge monsters.
You like taking risks and gambles.
You may not like Intet if:
You like to play with small creatures that give you value.
You like to combo every game.
You don't want to win through combat.
You don't like to take risks.
You don't like dragons. (Does anyone actually dislike dragons?)
Can you harness the power of a dragon that can bring the fury of a thousand planes down on an opponent with a single roar? Do you want to ride your scaly, winged monstrosities to victory? If so, read on.
"She displays the enigmatic wisdom of a sphinx, yet her heart beats red with the fire of a true dragon."- Jace Beleren
Playing the Deck
Using Intet: Intet's ability is best paired with a high level of large creatures and spells and a fair amount of library manipulation. Intet is best when played as early as possible and flooding the board with threats and free spells, using the cards exiled under her as a second hand your opponents will have trouble interacting with. Exiling counterspells under Intet is very, very fun, letting you counter things even when you have no mana up.
I won't lie though. Intet isn't a sure thing. No matter how much library manipulation you pack in your deck, no matter how many big creatures you cram in those 99 cards, you're still going to hit land with Intet at some points, and it's going to suck. However, packing in some good library manipulation should help minimize that.
Hatching Plans:
How do we want to play this deck? It really depends on the game. In most cases, this deck wants to go on the attack, but it can also play defense, grinding out advantage through card draw and removal. Sure, your opponents can keep killing your guys, but you'll also be killing a few of there's, and you're packing quite a few big guys.
Early Game: This is all about the ramp. You have nine ramp spells in the deck, and a lot of card draw, so utilize it. Landing early bodies like Wood Elves and Fierce Empath is also nice, but you probably don't want to go on the offensive yet. Try and get out some enablers for later. Fires of Yavimaya especially. Play your little creatures and try not to look too threatening. You can even play nice by using Jace Beleren.
Mid-Game: Try to start setting up some creatures here. If you can get Dragonspeaker Shaman online, then here's where you can really explode and take your opponents by surprise. If not, however, you should have enough lands to at least play a few of the smaller dragons. Hold onto counterspells, but save them for stuff that either outright kills you or is really bad and can't be dealt with another way.
Late Game: Try to be threatening while not being the actual threat (If there is a threat at this point, earn some goodwill by helping to crush them. But not before they've done some damage to everyone else.) Make use of your general, she's one of the best cards in your deck. You don't want the whole table to turn against you. Play big creatures and big spells, but don't explode unless you think you can take on the whole table. There are a few cards in here, like Lurking Predators and Wild Pair that are going to make you a target, so if you can't handle the heat, save those cards for the final push. If there are still too many players to safely take on at once, try and focus on only have one or two threats out, but replace those threats as soon as they go down. Lay down a steady stream of large creatures, and then prepare to truly explode when you're down to one or two opponents. (Who are hopefully beaten down already.) Because you really only want one or two threats on the board at a time, this is going to free up your time to kill
Themes of the Deck
Stompy: First and foremost, this is a stompy deck. You have a lot fatties and not too much on the smaller end. In addition, your general also boasts some impressive stats. This deck wants to win on the shoulders of giants.
Dragon Tribal: This isn't the most tribal dragon deck ever, but there are a few cards that care about dragons. Dragonspeaker Shaman, Kilnmouth Dragon, Imperial Hellkite, Utvara Hellkite, and Scourge of Valkas all do better in decks with a high number of dragons. Over half of this decks threats are dragons, including Intet, so you're covered here.
Free Spells: Not a huge theme. Besides Intet the Dreamer, Lurking Predators and Wild Pair are the only cards that can let you play spells for free. Diluvian Primordial technically fits into this category as well. Rewind is also technically free, but you need to have at least four mana to cast it.
Library Manipulation: Things that let us rearrange or look at the top cards of our library are very nice considering our general. I didn't include too many of these spells, as our deck isn't heavily focused around winning with Intet's ability by cheating out giant expensive creatures, as much as utilizing it to be able to do more on your turns. (If you want to make it more about winning off of Intet, consider some of the Eldrazi.)
Combo: Yes, there is a two card combo in this deck. The interesting thing is that, while it is a two card combo, there are four cards in the deck that can achieve the combo, two cards for the first part, and two for the second. This is the Hellkite Charger + Bear Umbra combo, but it's a combo that can also be achieved using Sword of Feast and Famine and Aggravated Assault.. Both methods of achieving the combo gives you infinite combat steps. It's not the most surefire way of winning, but it can steal games out of nowhere. This is far from a combo deck, but combos can be really fun sometimes.
Acknowledgement:
Thanks to user rhakee for the inspiration for this thread with his own "Teneb, Lord of the Stars" thread.
Card Choices
Acidic Slime: One of the best cards for dealing with artifacts and enchantments. Comes in and destroys something and then sticks around to most likely take out a creature.
Ancient Hellkite: Big stompy dragon. Good attacker, can be used as removal.
Bloom Tender: Ramps a lot, can tap for URG at best. Can really accelerate your mana, and late game you can hold it back to pay Intet triggers.
Bogardan Hellkite: Flash and the ability to spread damage around make this guy devastating. Not bad size either, but you're playing him more for the removal than for his body.
Consecrated Sphinx: Big flyer, not bad on attack, good on defense. Ridiculous card draw.
Engulfing Slagwurm: Attacks and blocks like a champ. Anything blocking this guy is getting slaughtered and you'll gain some life.
Eternal Witness: The only method of recursion. Can recur whatever you need, from fatties to counterspells. Amazing card, doesn't really need much of an explanation.
Fathom Mage: Good source of draw that can turn into a beater quickly. Almost every other card in the deck can trigger this girl, so you can end up drawing upwards of three cards.
Fierce Empath: Chump blocker that tutors for a threat. A good way to set up early game, a good way to keep the stream of threats coming later on.
Hoard-Smelter Dragon: Big dragon that can get bigger by smashing your opponent's artifacts (and by extension, their hopes and dreams) and then belching them out again onto your opponent's face.
Imperial Hellkite: Big smashy dragon that tutors for other dragons. It's the only morph creature in the deck, so watch out.
Kilnmouth Dragon: Even if you only have one other dragon in your hand, this guy gets scary. If you have two or more, he can be a game ender.
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius: Big creature and card draw, all wrapped up into one. If you have extra mana, he can ping an opponent for more cards, or take care of a smaller creature.
Prognostic Sphinx: Works great in combination with Intet. At three power, he's not exactly impressive, body-wise, but he's a good little attacker. Can protect himself from removal, although in this deck, he's probably not worth it unless you're holding E-wit or are connecting with Intet.
Prophet of Kruphix: This gal is ridiculously good. She's fragile and is going to paint a target on both herself and you, but if you can keep her around, she essentially gives you extra turns. Is great with stuff like Flametongue Kavu.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: Mana ramp, plain and simple. Nothing much to see here.
Scourge of Kher Ridges: Giant swingy dragon that can double as mass removal and board control. Be careful, his second ability can wipe out all your dragons too.
Scourge of Valkas: One of the cheaper dragons, firebreathing lets him be a nice beater. His ability is great, and lets him do a nice Bogardan Hellkite impression when you play dragons.
Soul of the Harvest: Big tramping attacker that also draws you cards when you play things. Awesome!
Sphinx of Jwar Isle: This card has so much going for it. First off, it has some pretty amazing art. It's a pretty big evasive attacker that your opponents will have a hard time interacting with. As an added bonus, it turns Intet's ability into a precision weapon instead of a shot in the dark.
Steel Hellkite: Can deal with token swarms and random hard to deal with permanents. Is also a big splashable dragon that can be pumped.
Stormbreath Dragon: Another cheaper dragon in the deck, he comes online early and gets in for some damage. Protection from one of the best removal colors is nice, as is his monstrosity. Remember that it can be activated at instant speed and has the potential to finish off multiple opponents.
Thunder Dragon: AMAZING art. It's a giant dragon that can deal with swarms and act as board wipe. Not the most powerful creature in the deck, but it pulls weight.
Two-Headed Dragon: On top of flying, it also can't be blocked by two or more creatures and can be pumped for a lot. This guy can finish at least one player off.
Urabrask the Hidden: What's better than giant beaters? Hasty giant beaters! His second ability is just icing.
Utvara Hellkite: Makes more dragons when you attack with dragons! Can become really scary really fast if it's allowed to stick. Amazing synergy with Scourge of Valkas.
Wood Elves: Ramp on a chump blocker. It brings the forest in untapped which can be important at times.
Cultivate, Explosive Vegetation, Search for Tomorrow, Reap and Sow: Ramp spells. Thin out your deck and accelerate you into fatties. Reap and Sow entwined for 1G off of Intet is fun.
Hull Breach: IMO one of the best ways to deal with artifacts and enchantments.
Ponder and Preordain: Smooth out your draws and have good synergy with Intet.
Jace Beleren: A cheap planeswalker that isn't too threatening. Can let you play nice in the early game, and draw you cards later on. Has slight synergy with Stormbreath Dragon. His ultimate could technically win games I suppose, but in this deck it might as well just not even exist.
Beast Within: I don't think I need to explain this one.
Counterlash: Expensive counterspell, but it can net you something more expensive while also countering a spell. Most of the time you probably want to save this for a creature, but it'll counter anything in a pinch. A great card to have under Intet.
Dispersal Shield and Spell Rupture: Cheap, splashable counterspells that are enabled by your fat creatures.
Dissolve: A Cancel that has synergy with Intet. Can also smooth out draws. Scry is good, guys.
Power Sink: The only card in the deck that has negative synergy with Intet. It's a great counterspell though, so it's worth it.
Prophetic Bolt: No, it doesn't synergize with Intet, but it is a great removal spell that gets you a card.
Rewind: The "Free" counterspell. You'll need to hold open four mana to play this, but it's still good. I like it with both Intet and Prophet of Kruphix.
Signal the Clans: A cheap, instant speed tutor. You're not exactly guaranteed the card you want, but a lot of the beaters in here are fairly interchangeable. Another good way to keep the beats coming.
Bear Umbra: A powerful green enchantment that does a lot in this deck. It can pump and protect a creature as well as free up all your mana as soon as you turn that creature sideways. This means you can use Intet damage triggers, you can leave mana open for counterspells, or play twice as many things. It also combos with Aggravated Assault and Hellkite Charger.
Bident of Thassa: I've grown to really love this card. It's mostly in here for the card draw, but it can be fun to make an opponent crash their army into a stalled board, or into your Engulfing Slagwurm or Acidic Slime.
Fires of Yavimaya: Another haste granter. As an added bonus, it can pump one of your creatures.
Lurking Predators: This works pretty well with everything that synergizes with Intet. Can land you some free creatures and make your opponents wary of playing too many spells. Be wary, it can paint a target on your head or force you to walk right into board wipe.
Wild Pair: Lets you do twice as much and acts as something of a tutor. Similar but also different to Lurking Predators. Remember, it counts total P/T, so you can grab Scourge of Valkas off Prognostic Sphinx.
Explorer's Scope: Synergizes well with Intet, ramps, and can get you out of dead draws later in the game.
Signets: More ramp/fixing.
Sword of Feast and Famine: Pro green and black is fairly huge, the pump is nice. Making an opponent discard a card can go either way, but untapping a bunch of lands is amazing. Combos with everything that combos with Bear Umbra, although Umbra is better at the combo, because it untaps your lands as soon as you attack.
Desolate Lighthouse: Can filter through your deck. Be careful though, you don't have much in the way of recursion, so don't throw away a threat you can use unless the card you're drawing is super important.
Raging Ravine: A creature that dodges boardwipe and can get scary big. It sucks to get your land killed, but it can't be countered, so there's a plus. Also, it's a dual land. Go mana fixing!
Intet, the Dreamer: It's a simple name, but hints at mystery. Who is Intet? What does she dream about? She apparently dreams about things from other worlds and brings them to life, and also seems to have some sort of sleep disorder wherein she can only dream after beating an opponent's face. Pretty cool.
"She displays the enigmatic wisdom of a sphinx,
yet her heart beats red with the fire of a true dragon."
-Jace Beleren
3URG: Like all of the Legendary Planar Chaos dragons (and the original Primevals.) It'll cost you six mana to get Intet on the field. Her mana cost means we're probably going to want some ramp or cost reducers if we plan on playing her, but even then only expect to only cast her maybe two or three times on average. Her color combination is interesting as well, it's usually referred to as RUG or, less commonly, Ceta.
Blue is the color we usually think of when we think of card draw and library manipulation. Blue can draw cards, it can look at cards, and it can even rearrange or flush away unwanted cards. In addition, blue is one of the two colors, along with red, that is best known for its instants and sorcery. Card draw spells, bounce spells, and especially counterspells all fall under the domain of blue. In addition, blue is usually the color that gets the most efficient evasive creatures, giving us creatures with flying or ones that can't be blocked.
Red is the color of fire, lightning, and emotion. Red, like blue, is a color known for its instants and sorceries, most notably, its burn spells. Red's creatures are usually small, fast, and often fragile, none of which is good for Commander, but if you're willing to shell out more mana, you can get some devestating heavy hitters. Red is one of the worst colors for evasion, but does manage to get giant flying evasive creatures in the form of dragons, which of course, work great with our dragon general. In recent years, red has gained card draw in the form of "Looting" or, discarding a card to draw a card. This is weak compared to most of blue's card draw, but it still exists as an option. Red and blue in combination can be potent. Red is also the color of haste, letting your giant creatures smash through right away.
Green is the creature color. If you want big, efficient beaters, green is your color. Wurms, hydras, elementals, green's creatures are not only big, but often come at less of a cost than you might get creatures of the same size in other colors. Green is also the color of mana ramp, whether through doubling effects or through land searching, green can accelerate you into large creatures and spells and help you fix your colors. Many of greens spells care about creatures or lands.
As for your list, lets start with the mana base. I know this list is on a budget but now is the best time to get your hands on shocklands. Once they rotate out of standard and stop being opened, then their price is gonna go wayyyy up. Those and grab the taplands (Rootbound Crag and company) with make things much more stabilized.
Your curve is super high. You have so many high cost enchantments and creatures and very little ramp. Lower your curve by taking out some unnessesary fatties for ramp. Creatures or spells, you can run whatever fits your playstyle. Also, Add some small utility dudes like Fauna Shaman and Coiling Oracle.
Don't run cards that are synergetic with Intet. You're gonna hate yourself when you exile Clan Defiance when you really needed a fatty. Look over your list and make sure you could run everything successfully with Intet. Counter Magic is pretty awesome with her. I mean, you exile a counterspell with her, then sit back and wait for someone to try to remove her, and be like, "Oops". Draining Whelk is good. Plasma Capture is another interesting counterspell. But run more counter magic. Don't think of it as douchebag cards, but rather protecting Intet. You have access to blue and green, don't dismiss the resources they offer you.
If you're doing dragons, Sarkan Vol is a thing, if you can find one.
From just looking over the list, just drop out the fatties and redundant cards for more ramp, counter, and utility. I'll come back later with more suggestions but start with that, see where it goes Fantastic list and awesome intro.
Thanks for the suggestions! Unfortunately, I'm broke and have no playgroup, so obtaining any cards is basically just not happening. Luckily, I DO have some taplands, Hinterland Harbor and Rootbound Crag, and they got added in.
I took out two lands in the deck for more ramp, Search for Tomorrow and Reap and Sow. Counterlash seems like a fun, if expensive counterspell, while Spell Rupture seems good as it's nice and cheap and splashable, and they'll usually end up paying 5 or more. The only card in the deck that now doesn't synergize with Intet is Power Sink, which is staying.
38 is still a good land count, and ramp is better to hit off of Intet than land. You'll also notice the incredibly synergistic Prognostic Sphinx.
I cut Wrecking Ogre and Butcher Orgg. Both are cool, but Orgg isn't quite as good as Balefire Dragon, and Ogre, while it can pull out a surprise general damage win, isn't really much more than a glorified pump spell that never feels great to be cast on it's own. Explorer's Scope synergizes really well with Intet, because it triggers on attack, meaning you can look at the top card, play it if it's a land, or if it's not, figure out if it's something you don't mind casting with Intet. It doubles as ramp and can save you from dead draws on later turns.
Garruk is good, but I wanted more countermagic instead, and we're basically just playing him for his first ability. Krosan Drover isn't as good as Cultivate. It doesn't ramp you up as quickly, has poor pt/cost ratio, and paints a target on itself and you. Dragonspeaker Shaman is good enough. Rewind is excellent, and Dispersal Shield will regularly be letting you counter five cost spells or more. Eternal Witness is self explanatory. I find Brainstorm is be somewhat underwhelming in EDH and both Preordain and Ponder synergize with our General better, as well as just smooth out our draws. Last card I took out was Mercurial Chemister. In a deck with very little recursion, throwing away a possible threat card to kill a creature isn't that great. Drawing two cards is okay, but for a 5 mana 2/3, we could do a lot better.
I'm getting the deck a lot closer to where I want it. I think priorities right now are possibly Mystic Snake or another counterspell to replace Essence Backlash, and maybe one more counterspell after that. I'm not sure if I want Jace Beleren to stay in the deck or not, I might take him out. Garruk, Primal Hunter might be a more fitting planeswalker for this deck, but in the end I'm not sure this deck even needs a planeswalker. More card draw, maybe, or another counter.
I dislike Fauna Shaman in this deck, it has the same problem as Chemister. Sure, you can basically trade one threat for another, but you're most likely not getting the first threat back. Fauna Shaman is better in a deck that can make use of the cards she's discarding. Coiling Oracle is an option. Bloom Tender would actually be awesome in here, I think.
I'm thinking Niv Mizzet might need to go. He's a dragon and a fatty, but his color requirements are terrible. I don't really want a lot of counterspells (Sorry, they're not my favorite thing to do in the game. I'll put a fair few in my heavy control decks like Sharuum, but if I have something like Mimeoplasm or Intet that's just trying to do something else entirely, I prefer to just stick to that plan. I do like having counterspells under Intet though, so the ones I put in are staying in or getting removed for other spells.)
The steam limits your vision as you steer your small boat across the Shivan Reef. Spires of volcanic rock jut out of the water and the very water boils with the head of the underground volcano. Your robe begins to become damp as you sweat profusely in the sweltering heat. The air feels heavy in your throat as you sail through what feels like a giant sauna. Small drakes dart through the sky, parting the steam and revealing rays of bright sunlight. You spy something shifting in the steam, but it turns out to simply be an Air Elemental, drifting with the heat currents.
Suddenly, you hear the beating of huge wings, and the steam is parted, revealing an enormous indigo dragon. Its wings are a sunset red, and its neck and wrists are adorned with golden jewelry. Could this be the being you have been searching for? It looks at you, and your boat grinds to a halt. You can feel the enormous presence of its mind pressing down on your own, ebbing and flowing like a cool stream. Somehow, the dragon's presence brings relief from the sweltering heat. It speaks in your mind.
"Greetings, planeswalker" Its voice is calm and cool and unmistakably female. This is her. The dragon known as "The Dreamer" a being said to be able to call down the wrath of the Blind Eternities with a simple roar. You bow to her, and she inclines her head in return. "I have foreseen this day, planeswalker. You have sought me out as one of the few being in the Multiverse capable of leading your great armies to battle." You nod. It was true, out of all the great legends of The Multiverse, this dragon was one of the few capable of leading your forces. The dragon bares its teeth in what you assume to be a smile, and swoops down from her perch, scattering steam and picking your boat straight out of the water. You feel her mind once more.
"Very well, let us begin."
Card Choices
Ancient Hellkite: Big stompy dragon. Good attacker, can be used as removal.
Balefire Dragon: See Ancient Hellkite
Bloom Tender: Ramps a lot, can tap for URG at best. Can really accelerate your mana, and late game you can hold it back to pay Intet triggers.
Bogardan Hellkite: Flash and the ability to spread damage around make this guy devastating. Not bad size either, but you're playing him more for the removal than for his body.
Consecrated Sphinx: Big flyer, not bad on attack, good on defense. Ridiculous card draw.
Diluvian Primordial: Big flyer. Can generate ridiculous advantage.
Dragonspeaker Shaman: Can make all your dragons a lot cheaper.
Engulfing Slagwurm: Attacks and blocks like a champ. Anything blocking this guy is getting slaughtered and you'll gain some life.
Eternal Witness: The only method of recursion. Can recur whatever you need, from fatties to counterspells. Amazing card, doesn't really need much of an explanation.
Fathom Mage: Good source of draw that can turn into a beater quickly. Almost every other card in the deck can trigger this girl, so you can end up drawing upwards of three cards.
Fierce Empath: Chump blocker that tutors for a threat. A good way to set up early game, a good way to keep the stream of threats coming later on.
Flameblast Dragon: See Ancient Hellkite and Balefire Dragon
Flametongue Kavu: Removal, an okay body. Not bad to play off Intet. It's a good card, doesn't really need much explanation.
Hellkite Charger: I'm a fan of Relentless Assault effects. This one comes attached to a big dragon. Combos with Bear Umbra and Sword of Feast and Famine.
Hoard-Smelter Dragon: Big dragon that can get bigger by smashing your opponent's artifacts (and by extension, their hopes and dreams) and then belching them out again onto your opponent's face.
Imperial Hellkite: Big smashy dragon that tutors for other dragons. It's the only morph creature in the deck, so watch out.
Kilnmouth Dragon: Even if you only have one other dragon in your hand, this guy gets scary. If you have two or more, he can be a game ender.
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius: Big creature and card draw, all wrapped up into one. If you have extra mana, he can ping an opponent for more cards, or take care of a smaller creature.
Prognostic Sphinx: Works great in combination with Intet. At three power, he's not exactly impressive, body-wise, but he's a good little attacker. Can protect himself from removal, although in this deck, he's probably not worth it unless you're holding E-wit or are connecting with Intet.
Prophet of Kruphix: This gal is ridiculously good. She's fragile and is going to paint a target on both herself and you, but if you can keep her around, she essentially gives you extra turns. Is great with stuff like Flametongue Kavu.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: Mana ramp, plain and simple. Nothing much to see here.
Scourge of Kher Ridges: Giant swingy dragon that can double as mass removal and board control. Be careful, his second ability can wipe out all your dragons too.
Scourge of Valkas: One of the cheaper dragons, firebreathing lets him be a nice beater. His ability is great, and lets him do a nice Bogardan Hellkite impression when you play dragons.
Soul of the Harvest: Big tramping attacker that also draws you cards when you play things. Awesome!
Sphinx of Jwar Isle: This card has so much going for it. First off, it has some pretty amazing art. It's a pretty big evasive attacker that your opponents will have a hard time interacting with. As an added bonus, it turns Intet's ability into a precision weapon instead of a shot in the dark.
Steel Hellkite: Can deal with token swarms and random hard to deal with permanents. Is also a big splashable dragon that can be pumped.
Stormbreath Dragon: Another cheaper dragon in the deck, he comes online early and gets in for some damage. Protection from one of the best removal colors is nice, as is his monstrosity. Remember that it can be activated at instant speed and has the potential to finish off multiple opponents.
Thunder Dragon: AMAZING art. It's a giant dragon that can deal with swarms and act as board wipe. Not the most powerful creature in the deck, but it pulls weight.
Two-Headed Dragon: On top of flying, it also can't be blocked by two or more creatures and can be pumped for a lot. This guy can finish at least one player off.
Urabrask the Hidden: What's better than giant beaters? Hasty giant beaters! His second ability is just icing.
Utvara Hellkite: Makes more dragons when you attack with dragons! Can become really scary really fast if it's allowed to stick. Amazing synergy with Scourge of Valkas.
Wood Elves: Ramp on a chump blocker. It brings the forest in untapped which can be important at times.
Cultivate, Explosive Vegetation, Search for Tomorrow, Reap and Sow: Ramp spells. Thin out your deck and accelerate you into fatties. Reap and Sow entwined for 1G off of Intet is fun.
Hull Breach: IMO one of the best ways to deal with artifacts and enchantments.
Ponder and Preordain: Smooth out your draws and have good synergy with Intet.
Jace Beleren: A cheap planeswalker that isn't too threatening. Can let you play nice in the early game, and draw you cards later on. Has slight synergy with Stormbreath Dragon. His ultimate could technically win games I suppose, but in this deck it might as well just not even exist.
Beast Within: I don't think I need to explain this one.
Counterlash: Expensive counterspell, but it can net you something more expensive while also countering a spell. Most of the time you probably want to save this for a creature, but it'll counter anything in a pinch. A great card to have under Intet.
Dispersal Shield and Spell Rupture: Cheap, splashable counterspells that are enabled by your fat creatures.
Dissolve: A Cancel that has synergy with Intet. Can also smooth out draws. Scry is good, guys.
Harrow: Instant speed ramp.
Power Sink: The only card in the deck that has negative synergy with Intet. It's a great counterspell though, so it's worth it.
Prophetic Bolt: No, it doesn't synergize with Intet, but it is a great removal spell that gets you a card.
Rewind: The "Free" counterspell. You'll need to hold open four mana to play this, but it's still good. I like it with both Intet and Prophet of Kruphix.
Signal the Clans: A cheap, instant speed tutor. You're not exactly guaranteed the card you want, but a lot of the beaters in here are fairly interchangeable. Another good way to keep the beats coming.
Aggravated Assault: Can be subbed in for Hellkite Charger with the infinite attack step combo. A good enchantment by itself. Has synergy with Steel Hellkite and Utvara Hellkite as well.
Bear Umbra: A powerful green enchantment that does a lot in this deck. It can pump and protect a creature as well as free up all your mana as soon as you turn that creature sideways. This means you can use Intet damage triggers, you can leave mana open for counterspells, or play twice as many things. It also combos with Aggravated Assault and Hellkite Charger.
Bident of Thassa: I've grown to really love this card. It's mostly in here for the card draw, but it can be fun to make an opponent crash their army into a stalled board, or into your Engulfing Slagwurm or Acidic Slime.
Fires of Yavimaya: Another haste granter. As an added bonus, it can pump one of your creatures.
Lurking Predators: This works pretty well with everything that synergizes with Intet. Can land you some free creatures and make your opponents wary of playing too many spells. Be wary, it can paint a target on your head or force you to walk right into board wipe.
Wild Pair: Lets you do twice as much and acts as something of a tutor. Similar but also different to Lurking Predators. Remember, it counts total P/T, so you can grab Scourge of Valkas off Prognostic Sphinx.
Explorer's Scope: Synergizes well with Intet, ramps, and can get you out of dead draws later in the game.
Signets: More ramp/fixing.
Sword of Feast and Famine: Pro green and black is fairly huge, the pump is nice. Making an opponent discard a card can go either way, but untapping a bunch of lands is amazing. Combos with everything that combos with Bear Umbra, although Umbra is better at the combo, because it untaps your lands as soon as you attack.
Kessig Wolf-Run: Pumps a guy and gives it trample. Not bad. makes stuff like Acidic Slime more useful.
Desolate Lighthouse: Can filter through your deck. Be careful though, you don't have much in the way of recursion, so don't throw away a threat you can use unless the card you're drawing is super important.
Raging Ravine: A creature that dodges boardwipe and can get scary big. It sucks to get your land killed, but it can't be countered, so there's a plus. Also, it's a dual land. Go mana fixing!
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As for your list, lets start with the mana base. I know this list is on a budget but now is the best time to get your hands on shocklands. Once they rotate out of standard and stop being opened, then their price is gonna go wayyyy up. Those and grab the taplands (Rootbound Crag and company) with make things much more stabilized.
Your curve is super high. You have so many high cost enchantments and creatures and very little ramp. Lower your curve by taking out some unnessesary fatties for ramp. Creatures or spells, you can run whatever fits your playstyle. Also, Add some small utility dudes like Fauna Shaman and Coiling Oracle.
Don't run cards that are synergetic with Intet. You're gonna hate yourself when you exile Clan Defiance when you really needed a fatty. Look over your list and make sure you could run everything successfully with Intet. Counter Magic is pretty awesome with her. I mean, you exile a counterspell with her, then sit back and wait for someone to try to remove her, and be like, "Oops". Draining Whelk is good. Plasma Capture is another interesting counterspell. But run more counter magic. Don't think of it as douchebag cards, but rather protecting Intet. You have access to blue and green, don't dismiss the resources they offer you.
If you're doing dragons, Sarkan Vol is a thing, if you can find one.
From just looking over the list, just drop out the fatties and redundant cards for more ramp, counter, and utility. I'll come back later with more suggestions but start with that, see where it goes Fantastic list and awesome intro.
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BGW Teneb, the Harvester [Primer]
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I took out two lands in the deck for more ramp, Search for Tomorrow and Reap and Sow. Counterlash seems like a fun, if expensive counterspell, while Spell Rupture seems good as it's nice and cheap and splashable, and they'll usually end up paying 5 or more. The only card in the deck that now doesn't synergize with Intet is Power Sink, which is staying.
38 is still a good land count, and ramp is better to hit off of Intet than land. You'll also notice the incredibly synergistic Prognostic Sphinx.
I cut Wrecking Ogre and Butcher Orgg. Both are cool, but Orgg isn't quite as good as Balefire Dragon, and Ogre, while it can pull out a surprise general damage win, isn't really much more than a glorified pump spell that never feels great to be cast on it's own. Explorer's Scope synergizes really well with Intet, because it triggers on attack, meaning you can look at the top card, play it if it's a land, or if it's not, figure out if it's something you don't mind casting with Intet. It doubles as ramp and can save you from dead draws on later turns.
Garruk is good, but I wanted more countermagic instead, and we're basically just playing him for his first ability. Krosan Drover isn't as good as Cultivate. It doesn't ramp you up as quickly, has poor pt/cost ratio, and paints a target on itself and you. Dragonspeaker Shaman is good enough. Rewind is excellent, and Dispersal Shield will regularly be letting you counter five cost spells or more. Eternal Witness is self explanatory. I find Brainstorm is be somewhat underwhelming in EDH and both Preordain and Ponder synergize with our General better, as well as just smooth out our draws. Last card I took out was Mercurial Chemister. In a deck with very little recursion, throwing away a possible threat card to kill a creature isn't that great. Drawing two cards is okay, but for a 5 mana 2/3, we could do a lot better.
I'm getting the deck a lot closer to where I want it. I think priorities right now are possibly Mystic Snake or another counterspell to replace Essence Backlash, and maybe one more counterspell after that. I'm not sure if I want Jace Beleren to stay in the deck or not, I might take him out. Garruk, Primal Hunter might be a more fitting planeswalker for this deck, but in the end I'm not sure this deck even needs a planeswalker. More card draw, maybe, or another counter.
I dislike Fauna Shaman in this deck, it has the same problem as Chemister. Sure, you can basically trade one threat for another, but you're most likely not getting the first threat back. Fauna Shaman is better in a deck that can make use of the cards she's discarding. Coiling Oracle is an option. Bloom Tender would actually be awesome in here, I think.
I'm thinking Niv Mizzet might need to go. He's a dragon and a fatty, but his color requirements are terrible. I don't really want a lot of counterspells (Sorry, they're not my favorite thing to do in the game. I'll put a fair few in my heavy control decks like Sharuum, but if I have something like Mimeoplasm or Intet that's just trying to do something else entirely, I prefer to just stick to that plan. I do like having counterspells under Intet though, so the ones I put in are staying in or getting removed for other spells.)
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