MTG Salvation

Tibor and Lumia was my first EDH deck. At the time, I had no idea how to build one, and even though I had been playing Magic for almost ten years, the deck came out pretty bad. I was playing stuff like Inflame: with my general out, this basically dealt 3 damage to each non-flyer for 1 mana! I still think that's kinda cool. But I quickly realized that cheap tricky stuff was not the essence of EDH, and slowly began substituting out cards. After two years, I think I had replaced almost every single card in the deck, à la Theseus's Ship, and I was left with some kind of spell-copying, resource stealing strategy, and when Dragon's Maze came out, I replaced the general with Melek.

But there were two cards I was very sad to take out when I switched generals: Ixidron and Mogg Infestation. They were the two cards that made Tibor and Lumia legitimately good. So recently, I decided to rebuild an actual Tibor and Lumia deck, and try to strike a balance between fun and good, probably leaning more towards fun. You'll see very few EDH staples/ "goodstuff"-style cards here, and a few "WTF" choices (my favorite possibly being Kincaer Harpoonist.) Hopefully more than a couple of cards will be unfamiliar to you. One of the reasons I built this was so I could have fun playing against less-experienced opponents. That said, this is not a bad deck.

Suggestions are welcome, of course, but this deck has a definite theme going, and I want to stick with it. I'm also trying to avoid "mean" stuff like infinite combos, giving Tibor and Lumia deathtouch, stuff like that.

One note: This deck was partially built with Etherium-Horn Sorcerer in mind, because that card is just awesome. You'll see no counterspells/ copy spells/ redirection spells (at least that cost less than 6), instead I use permanents that have those kinds of abilities.

It's awesome!

I especially like your use of Forbidden Orchard, since it has no drawback.

I'm surprised you aren't running Favorable Winds. It's not "good," but it's not bad, either, and it's very on-theme. Similarly, Skyblinder Staff.

Magosi is bad. I know, I want it to be good, too, but it's not. I've tried. It's bad. Did you mean Minamo, School at Water's Edge?

Instead of Loxodon Warhammer, consider Basilisk Collar. It's risky, but so powerful.

Tolarian Winds is on-theme card draw, and often digs pretty deep. It's better in combo, though. I'm not saying you should run it, I'm just throwing it out there.

The artifact-creature from Theros that sacs to put two basics into play is potentially better than Armillary Sphere, although you have lots of retrace so I'm not sure. If you want lands in your hand, Journeyer's Kite might be better. Also, it's a kite, which is more fly-y than an armillary sphere.

Thanks! Yeah, Favorable Winds was definitely a card I was considering adding. I just wasn't sure how good a Glorious Anthem-type effect would be in EDH. Skyblinder Staff is also pretty funny. I'll see if I can fit it in.

I think you're being kinda harsh on Magosi. It's true that it seldom works, but the opportunity cost is fairly low (it's just a land that comes into play tapped.) There have been a few times I've skipped my third turn and then done some crazy things late in the game.

If I had an extra Minamo I would play it for sure, but I only have two and they're in decks where the general actually has a tap ability. And they're not exactly cheap cards...

I really don't want to do deathtouch. Feels cheap. I like lifelink, but no deathtouch.

I do like Journeyer's Kite. It's certainly slower than Armillary Sphere, but it does thin out my deck late game and it works with retrace.

I'm pretty sure the opportunity cost is the turn you skip for the *chance* to take another one later. You just have to hope no one blows up your land, stifles/hush's/trickbinds your activation, or clockspinning/hexmage/hex parasite's away the counter, or just kills you before you can take the extra turn.

And once you've got it lit and ready to blow, you can't use it for mana because if you do, you can't activate it in response to stripmine or whatever.

And, even if you do activate it, it goes back to your hand!

Maybe you could do something with Giant Fan or something?

Well, I meant the opportunity cost for having it in your deck versus, say, an Island. There's nothing forcing you to skip your turn.

Usually if you just try your best to never tap it for mana once the counter's on, there's not much anyone can do to deprive you of the extra turn. Stifle effects and Wipe Away are pretty much it.

Anyway, I have had success with it. My playgroup isn't especially cutthroat.

Ooh, also, the wizard equipment from Lorwyn block is an interesting include if you have sufficient instant-speed draw power and/or a draw loop to exploit.