So I mad my first EDH list for a relatively untested meta the only generals I know of for sure in my meta is Scion of the Ur Dragon which screwed me over with a tutored Hellkite Tyrant so I added cranial extraction effects. I can't afford original duals or fetches and can slowly add better cards to the deck. I'm not sure what all to change to make it flow better aside from maybe more tutors.
Your list is a decent starting point for a fresh Sharuum pilot. The first thing to you'll want to shore up is the mana base, which includes you mana rocks. As you drop the average CMC of your mana base, you'll be able to do more. Cards like bitter ordeal and salvaging station get better when you loved the curve of your deck.
I've noticed that Sharuum pilots fall into two camps: those that play counterspells (answers) and those that play threats. I personally don't play counterspells because it's difficult to both be tapping out and having mana open for counterspells. In your list, if you chose to ditch the counterspells, you'd have space for the necessary tutors to answer your problems, like using them to findCap and Bitter ordeal fast enough to strip Scion of its critical dragons.
As the deck becomes more efficient, even your conditional tutors start making their way out of the deck, but for now they are a necessity. You need to even out the tempo lost from an untuned deck that's just starting to come together.
Specifically with this deck, the very first acquisitions I would make would be as follows:
Lands: ancient den and city of traitors (the fetches and duals work best As a package and not piecemeal). These lands tap for 2 each, and go a long way in aiding faster starts.
Artifact mana: mox opal, mana crypt. They are very expensive, but thy double as food for salvaging station and time sieve and help you fly out the gates
Artifact creatures: Karn, silver golem- this guy opens up a whole new dimension to the deck, killing broken mana, punishing non green ramp strategies to wraths, he is an excellent defender, and he can use your artifact mana to push players off the table. Sometimes, he can even give certain artifacts summoning sickness to keep them from going broken.
Instants/ sorcerers: I'd suggest something to help you either rebuilt from a mass wipe, or to push you very far ahead. For me, second sunrise, roar or reclamation, and open the vaults have seen play, and they can rises defensively to help recover or offensively to push the advantage.
Planeswalker: Tez agent of Bolas is a house, but you may want venser to help reset you mana rocks so you can keep using them in the Abscence of voltaic key. You also have enough creatures to make the +1 worth it.
This list made my friends stop wanting to play with me.
When I make most EDH decks, I focus on cool/fun effects in the colors I'm playing. When I made this deck, each and every card was picked for one of two reasons; it wins me the game, or it protects the cards that win me the game.
Also, Leyline + Entomb Magister Sphinx + Sharuum on their end step is fun.
Like I was saying before, I can tell from the list that you're going to need time to get it where you want. As you start adding things in, then the engines and interactions in your deck can change accordingly. Building Sharuum is a abr of love. If you eventually want to get it to a combo list but can't just yet, that's fine. Make the strongest interactions with what you have, because every new inclusion will make you scrutinize the other 98 in your deck.
There's a lot of good info on these boards here, if you know where to look. Welcome to the Sphinx club buddy.
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If you want to stop Scion, the best way is to tuck him or destroy his mana base.
Scion is mana intensive, and it can be very hard to come back from land destruction.
I realize the bad sphinx's are the worst part of my list and will likely cut them. I've made some changes since I last posted due to being able to luck out in trades and get a Wasteland and some other things. Stopping Tyrant is doable now but still hard I'll likely pick up Tezz 2.0 today and find something to cut for it I used to love that card when I started playing mtg with friends on cockatrice.
I wanted to get Tezz 2.0 and All is Dust but I don't have much availability in my area for either. I'll try to get the list in the first post updated with all the changes I made tomorrow. I'm kinda intrigued by the Sun Titan package but not sure if I want it.
Also any reason to use Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth I managed to pick one up a few weeks ago but I'm not sure what I'd use it for. Also how well does that Sun Titan engine work with Oblivion Stone? If I nuke everything does he stick around and the gift returns again?
You typically want to crack Oblivion Stone before you cast the Titan. You can then cast him and recur the stone before you start getting all your permanents back again. Or you can just reanimate him with Unburial Rites/Necromancy. If you don't want to sink money into trying the package out, proxy the few cards up and give it a test run.
I'm only missing a few parts of the package and I need them for a cube eventually so I'll be able to pick it up in the next few days. Not sure what I'd cut for them though. I'll update the list in the OP shortly.
I'd like to cut Sovereign and Master Transmuter preferably for All is dust and Tezz 2.0 but availibility. Aside from those two I'm not sure what else I would cut to work in that package.
Vindicate is a bit out of my price range and the glass is there mostly due to a lack of board wipes at the moment. It's actually a card I'm not so attached to. Anyways I played it a little and it feels like I am prone to running out of gas and just hitting rocks or lands and my opponents end up with to much that I can't answer. I feel like I want more catch all wipes like disc and Akroma's Vengeance but I'm not sure.
I generally agree about threats>answers, but I like to have a couple of the later too. Just make sure that you hold them close to your chest until they either prevent a loss, or enable a win. There will be times you need to clear that Torpor Orb, or Leyline of the Void.
If you are frequently running into situations where you are running out of gas, then I would recommend taking a couple of redundant or weak cards and replace them with boosts to card draw (Siphon Mind, and Mind's Eye are both great!). Windfall is one of the most powerful cards in Sharuum IMHO. There is nothing like dumping a hand full of rocks and trinkets, Windfall on turn four-five for a full hand, and pushing Sharuum out for that one expensive artifact you discarded, leaving you with a flush board and full hand when many are still ramping.
You may also want to have a couple of cards which really help you defend passively such as Ensnaring Bridge, Crawlspace, Norn's Annex and the like. The simple truth is that you will have fewer combat creatures than other decks, so you want to dissuade them from attacking you, and swerve to that other guy. Be the guy bunkered in on top of the hill so that you are an unappealing target, but don't be throwing out so much coverfire that the board feels they must push through to answer you.
I'm probably going to add Windfall, Thirst for Knowledge and readd Forbidden Alchemy as well. I'll hold off on adding the Sun Titan recursion package for now. Also sm I correct feeling that Seachrome Coast is Probably my best choice to cut for Ancient Tomb?
Any other cheap $ wise digging pieces I could consider? I'd like to get Intuition but costing 30 something dollars doesn't make me so keen on it.
Sadly nothing replaces Intuition. But if you're running FoF, Forbidden Alch that's the best you can do. I've always been a huge supporter of Lim-Dul's Vault and Tainted Pact, although the latter requires a singleton land base.
My LGS isn't opening any copies of the commander boxes for singles so I'll need to wait on that for sure looks like an interesting card. I did a little testing on cockatrice and liked the additional draw so I'll be sure to slot more in.
So I worked in quite a few things into the list since I last updated and have a Tezz 2.0 on the way which I'm not sure what to cut for him. I've not been able to test it much lately either so I've not made a decision on the whole Sun Titan engine.
I'm also working on a Sharuum list, it will be my first real EDH so naturally I've got a few questions, I'm not trying to go for a super competitive build but I would like to be able to win games. Is Memory Jar or Thran Dynamo a must have? Also I see a lot of lists run reanimation packages but have few creatures, why? Is Copy Artifcat worth buying for the deck? I don't have Bazaar or a Workshop, is Tolarian Academy a must have? What amount of land is ideal? How does this list look to start off?
Ideally I'd have Scroll Rack, Transmute Artifact, and a few other sweet cards to power up the deck, maybe even some reanimation spells but this is the list I can build without having to spend more than 50$ to get a few cards I don't own.
Forgot to put Artificer's Intuition in the deck, any ideas on what to remove or should I not include it? What about Lotus Bloom, worth acquring? what would it replace?... There's so much that can go in the deck and I am at a complete loss trying to figure out what is optimal.
Memory Jar is one of the most useful cards in a Sharuum list, I'd definitely look at picking one up. Copy Artifact works as an additional combo piece with Sharuum and can be used to copy artifact ramp if you need to power out something in the early turns. My list runs reanimation because I have a small number of lethal creatures that can quickly win the game if they hit the table. Sun Titan, Magister Sphinx, and Sphinx of the Steel Wind are all incredibly dangerous cards in the right circumstances. Tolarian Academy is banned in Commander. Lotus Bloom is an awesome piece, especially if you're running Salvaging Station and friends to recur it.
I'd say you're running a really high density of creatures. Blightsteel can't be reanimated, Inkwell is too much to hardcast and a waste of a Sharuum cast, and Wurmcoil is less terrifying in EDH than he is elsewhere. Treasure Mage seems like a wasted slot. You're also probably never going to need Lightning Greaves unless you want to devote your deck to aggro/reanimator (which is dumb with this general).
Thanks! That's the kind of feedback I was hoping for. Embarrassingly, I found your list almost immediately after making my post.
Shredder is in there just for testing alongside the whole Sun Titan package so i'll probably drop Dispatch for the Tezz who'll arrive soon then pick up the Jar later.
I think it has some potential as an easily recurred artifact that can recur any card and some utility of dumping artifacts I don't want in my hand off the top but want in the grave when I have Top or Crystal ball up and running. I had some fun with it in standard alongside Trading post so I feel like it has some potential.
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Sphinx Summoner
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Duplicant
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Sun Titan
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Venser the Sojourner
1 Artificer's Intuition
1 Rhystic Study
1 Gift of Immortality
1 Animate Dead
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Brainstorm
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Dispatch
1 Oblation
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Bitter Ordeal
1 Preordain
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Open the Vaults
1 Ponder
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Unburial Rites
1 Fabricate
1 Terminus
1 Windfall
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Dispeller's Capsule
1 Expedition Map
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Time Sieve
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Crystal Ball
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Jester's Cap
1 Trading post
1 Salvaging Station
1 Codex Shredder
1 Lotus Bloom
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Azorius Signet
1 Azorius Cluestone
1 Dimir Cluestone
1 Dimir Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Orzhov Cluestone
1 Mind Stone
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Buried Ruin
1 Academy Ruins
1 Esper Panorama
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Ancient Den
1 Temple of the False God
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Watery Grave
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Nimbus Maze
1 Thespian Stage
1 Ancient Tomb
9 Island
2 Plains
2 Swamp
I've noticed that Sharuum pilots fall into two camps: those that play counterspells (answers) and those that play threats. I personally don't play counterspells because it's difficult to both be tapping out and having mana open for counterspells. In your list, if you chose to ditch the counterspells, you'd have space for the necessary tutors to answer your problems, like using them to findCap and Bitter ordeal fast enough to strip Scion of its critical dragons.
As the deck becomes more efficient, even your conditional tutors start making their way out of the deck, but for now they are a necessity. You need to even out the tempo lost from an untuned deck that's just starting to come together.
Specifically with this deck, the very first acquisitions I would make would be as follows:
Lands: ancient den and city of traitors (the fetches and duals work best As a package and not piecemeal). These lands tap for 2 each, and go a long way in aiding faster starts.
Artifact mana: mox opal, mana crypt. They are very expensive, but thy double as food for salvaging station and time sieve and help you fly out the gates
Artifact creatures: Karn, silver golem- this guy opens up a whole new dimension to the deck, killing broken mana, punishing non green ramp strategies to wraths, he is an excellent defender, and he can use your artifact mana to push players off the table. Sometimes, he can even give certain artifacts summoning sickness to keep them from going broken.
Instants/ sorcerers: I'd suggest something to help you either rebuilt from a mass wipe, or to push you very far ahead. For me, second sunrise, roar or reclamation, and open the vaults have seen play, and they can rises defensively to help recover or offensively to push the advantage.
Planeswalker: Tez agent of Bolas is a house, but you may want venser to help reset you mana rocks so you can keep using them in the Abscence of voltaic key. You also have enough creatures to make the +1 worth it.
Blue: teaching Magic players manners since 1995Shops: Teaching blue players manners since 2009
This list made my friends stop wanting to play with me.
When I make most EDH decks, I focus on cool/fun effects in the colors I'm playing. When I made this deck, each and every card was picked for one of two reasons; it wins me the game, or it protects the cards that win me the game.
Also, Leyline + Entomb Magister Sphinx + Sharuum on their end step is fun.
Padeem, Consul of Innovation - Artifact value/combo.
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant - Sultai zombie reanimator.
There's a lot of good info on these boards here, if you know where to look. Welcome to the Sphinx club buddy.
Blue: teaching Magic players manners since 1995Shops: Teaching blue players manners since 2009
Padeem, Consul of Innovation - Artifact value/combo.
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant - Sultai zombie reanimator.
Scion is mana intensive, and it can be very hard to come back from land destruction.
Oblation, Condemn and Terminus are really good.
Blind Obedience will stop surprise attacks.
Soul Snare will keep him from attacking you.
You can also just counter him into oblivion.
WBRG Saskia the Unyielding
WUB Sharuum the Hegemon
RWU Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest
RG Wort, the Raidmother
WU Brago, King Eternal
B Chainer, Dementia Master
Unless someone has a black creature, big weakness in my meta.
..
Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort
I wanted to get Tezz 2.0 and All is Dust but I don't have much availability in my area for either. I'll try to get the list in the first post updated with all the changes I made tomorrow. I'm kinda intrigued by the Sun Titan package but not sure if I want it.
Also any reason to use Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth I managed to pick one up a few weeks ago but I'm not sure what I'd use it for. Also how well does that Sun Titan engine work with Oblivion Stone? If I nuke everything does he stick around and the gift returns again?
I'm only missing a few parts of the package and I need them for a cube eventually so I'll be able to pick it up in the next few days. Not sure what I'd cut for them though. I'll update the list in the OP shortly.
I'd like to cut Sovereign and Master Transmuter preferably for All is dust and Tezz 2.0 but availibility. Aside from those two I'm not sure what else I would cut to work in that package.
If you are frequently running into situations where you are running out of gas, then I would recommend taking a couple of redundant or weak cards and replace them with boosts to card draw (Siphon Mind, and Mind's Eye are both great!). Windfall is one of the most powerful cards in Sharuum IMHO. There is nothing like dumping a hand full of rocks and trinkets, Windfall on turn four-five for a full hand, and pushing Sharuum out for that one expensive artifact you discarded, leaving you with a flush board and full hand when many are still ramping.
You may also want to have a couple of cards which really help you defend passively such as Ensnaring Bridge, Crawlspace, Norn's Annex and the like. The simple truth is that you will have fewer combat creatures than other decks, so you want to dissuade them from attacking you, and swerve to that other guy. Be the guy bunkered in on top of the hill so that you are an unappealing target, but don't be throwing out so much coverfire that the board feels they must push through to answer you.
Sadly nothing replaces Intuition. But if you're running FoF, Forbidden Alch that's the best you can do. I've always been a huge supporter of Lim-Dul's Vault and Tainted Pact, although the latter requires a singleton land base.
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Time Sieve
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Thopter Assembly
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Bitter Ordeal
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Intuition
1 Reshape
1 Fabricate
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Vindicate
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Day of Judgment
1 Wrath of God
1 Detention Sphere
1 Mortify
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Dispatch
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Revoke Existence
1 Disciple of the Vault
1 Mana Vault
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Opal
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Master Transmuter
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Memory Jar
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Sphinx Summoner
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Trinket Mage
1 Treasure Mage
1 Brainstorm
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Ponder
1 Windfall
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Darksteel Forge
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Frantic Search
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Dimir Signet
1 Azorius Signet
1 Faith's Reward
Ideally I'd have Scroll Rack, Transmute Artifact, and a few other sweet cards to power up the deck, maybe even some reanimation spells but this is the list I can build without having to spend more than 50$ to get a few cards I don't own.
Forgot to put Artificer's Intuition in the deck, any ideas on what to remove or should I not include it? What about Lotus Bloom, worth acquring? what would it replace?... There's so much that can go in the deck and I am at a complete loss trying to figure out what is optimal.
Thanks! That's the kind of feedback I was hoping for. Embarrassingly, I found your list almost immediately after making my post.