I play in a very casual EDH group. Mass land destruction and infinite combos are generally discouraged. A typical game unfolds with each of us spending the first 4-5 turns getting our battlefields established, pointing out that everyone else is more of a threat then we are, and then at about turn 6 or 7 all hell breaks loose.
This deck is designed to win in several ways:
(1) Get 3-4 infect creatures on the board, beef them up with auras, give each opponent at least 1 poison counter, and then proliferate like mad. (Possibly each turn with Unwinding Clock, artifact proliferators, mana rocks, and artifact lands.)
(2) Get Sigil of the Empty Throne into play, protect it, play a slew of enchantments, beef up the resulting Angels with auras, attack.
(3) Get Tezzeret the Seeker and Darksteel Forge into play, get Tezzeret’s Ultimate to go off, attack with a swarm of indestructible artifact creatures. (And possibly an even bigger swarm if Mycosynth Lattice is in play too.)
One question I have is about which strategy to use for Enchantment Auras for the Infect creatures. Is it better to focus on making them bigger (+1/+1) or making them unblockable? I decided to go with auras that returned to my hand on their own, with no mana cost involved. Also, I have several ways to make my creatures indestructible, so I wasn't focused on that with the auras.
Another question is whether my mana situation is good or whether there is too much or too little? I’ve only got 35 mana in this deck, but several mana rocks and mana fetches. Should keep the deck clean late in the game and give me plenty of mana up front. May need tweaking.
Hanna can bring Enchantments back to my hand to feed to Sigil, but mostly she can provide insurance incase a key enchantment or artifact gets smoked before I can protect it.
Finally, will this deck even work? What cards are there that would be better than the ones I currently have in? What cards would fit perfectly into this deck that I have completely missed?
Here is a list of cards that I have considered putting in:
I added the Tinker for sure. Blightsteel Colossus on turn two? Yes, please! I also added Thassa, God of the Sea. Besides being an enchantment, the abilities to scry and make one of my infectors unblockable are great.
Also, I made two major updates to the deck: I felt like there were just too few creatures and way too many enchantments (there are probably still too many enchantments). I weeded out several enchantments and replaced them with creatures. I feel the deck is a little more balanced and deadly.
I also tweaked the enchantment auras and focused on those that return to my hand and have low CVC to feed Sigil of the Empty Throne. There are several ways in which my creatures can be made indestructible and/or unblockable, and being infect, and having several proliferators, I decided beefing the infectors up wasn't a priority. Here's the updated deck:
Haha, it did seem too good to be true. Thanks for the heads-up. I knew the banned list was smaller for commander, but I guess even Tinker is too powerful.
On a different note, I'm wondering if Hanna, Ship's Navigator is really the best choice as commander of this deck. She would certainly help if someone destroyed a needed artifact or enchantment before I could protect them, but I don't think I'd really use her to feed the Sigil as I had originally intended.
Since you say your group is casual and discourages potentially unfun things, you may want to double check on their opinion on the Banned-in-Commmander Tinker before adding it.
Whooops! Sorry about that. My friends and I are a bit more casual so we don't always follow the rules sometimes.
If you play casual it is usually not fun to have a god as the commander. I would keep the commander you have and see how it works. The synergy created by Hanna seems to be pretty interesting and fun but not broken.
Yeah, those last two spells are nasty on just about anything, but an indestructible commander even moreso! And WU means you can protect them from being destroyed.
Mirror Entity is always a solid option to consider in W.
I'm working on a WBG Infect deck now myself, and I'm going to try out on of my old favs, Spirit en-Dal for its forecast ability. Rogue's Passage is a thing you'll probably want too.
Whooops! Sorry about that. My friends and I are a bit more casual so we don't always follow the rules sometimes.
If you play casual it is usually not fun to have a god as the commander. I would keep the commander you have and see how it works. The synergy created by Hanna seems to be pretty interesting and fun but not broken.
I know, Hanna just seems to make sense in a deck full of artifacts and enchantments. She may even discourage people from targeting my stuff. They may not want to waste a spot removal card on my stuff if they figure I can just bring it right back to my hand. I may not even have to use her ability; the threat of her ability alone might cause people to use spot removal elsewhere.
One of the guys in my group uses a lot of Gods in his decks, so we're okay with them. I'll try the deck with Hanna and Ephara and see which works best.
Ephara's card draw ability would really be nice if Unwinding Clock was untapping all my mana rocks and artifact lands every turn. (If Mycosynth Lattice is in play, I'll be untapping all my lands.) I can use the mana to proliferate poison counters each turn which would be wicked, or if the deck unfolded differently, I could use the mana to cast enchantment auras, feeding Sigil, pumping out Angels, and triggering Ephara's card draw.
3 Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Creatures - Infectors (9)
2 Blighted Agent
12 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Core Prowler
4 Corpse Cur
2 Ichorclaw Myr
2 Lost Leonin
2 Plague Myr
3 Priests of Norn
4 Viral Drake
Creatures - Non-Infectors (8)
1 Arcbound Worker
4 Ephara, God of the Polis
3 Mesa Enchantress
1 Mother of Runes
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
6 Steel Hellkite
3 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Windborn Muse
Sorceries (3)
3 Fabricate
3 Idyllic Tutor
2 Mine Excavation
Instants (1)
1 Enlightened Tutor
Planeswalkers (1)
5 Tezzeret the Seeker
Artifacts - Mana Rocks (7)
3 Azorius Cluestone
2 Azorius Signet
3 Commander's Sphere
5 Gilded Lotus
1 Sol Ring
2 Talisman of Progress
4 Thran Dynamo
2 Armillary Sphere
1 Expedition Map
1 Wanderer’s Twig
Artifacts (9)
2 Contagion Clasp
6 Contagion Engine
9 Darksteel Forge
2 Dolmen Gate
4 Grafted Exoskeleton
6 Mycosynth Lattice
4 Nevinyrral’s Disk
2 Strionic Resonator
4 Unwinding Clock
1 Voltaic Key
Enchantment - Auras (6)
4 Angelic Destiny
2 Brilliant Halo
5 Corrupted Conscience
8 Eldrazi Conscription
3 Ephara’s Enlightenment
1 Flickering Ward
Enchantments (16)
3 Copy Enchantment
5 Enchanted Evening
3 Ghostly Prison
2 Gossamer Chains
2 Greater Auramancy
5 Inexorable Tide
4 Leyline of Anticipation
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Luminarch Ascension
4 March of the Machines
3 Propaganda
3 Rhystic Study
1 Sigarda's Aid
5 Sigil of the Empty Throne
5 Starfield of Nyx
4 Thopter Spy Network
0 Ancient Den
0 Command Tower
0 Darksteel Citadel
0 Evolving Wilds
0 Flooded Strand
0 Glacial Fortress
0 Hallowed Fountain
0 Mystic Gate
0 Prairie Stream
0 Seat of the Synod
0 Tundra
0 Vivid Creek
0 Vivid Meadow
Basic Land (22)
0 Island (10)
0 Plains (12)
4 Ephara, God of the Polis
Creatures - Infectors (9)
2 Blighted Agent
12 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Core Prowler
4 Corpse Cur
2 Ichorclaw Myr
2 Lost Leonin
2 Plague Myr
3 Priests of Norn
4 Viral Drake
Creatures - Non-Infectors (8)
1 Arcbound Worker
4 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
3 Mesa Enchantress
1 Mother of Runes
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
6 Steel Hellkite
3 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Windborn Muse
Sorceries (3)
3 Fabricate
3 Idyllic Tutor
2 Mine Excavation
Instants (3)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
Planeswalkers (1)
5 Tezzeret the Seeker
Artifacts - Mana Rocks (7)
3 Azorius Cluestone
2 Azorius Signet
3 Commander's Sphere
5 Gilded Lotus
1 Sol Ring
2 Talisman of Progress
4 Thran Dynamo
2 Armillary Sphere
1 Expedition Map
Artifacts (9)
2 Contagion Clasp
6 Contagion Engine
9 Darksteel Forge
2 Dolmen Gate
4 Grafted Exoskeleton
6 Mycosynth Lattice
3 Sculpting Steel
2 Strionic Resonator
4 Unwinding Clock
Enchantment - Auras (6)
4 Angelic Destiny
2 Brilliant Halo
5 Corrupted Conscience
8 Eldrazi Conscription
3 Ephara’s Enlightenment
1 Flickering Ward
Enchantments (15)
3 Copy Enchantment
5 Enchanted Evening
3 Ghostly Prison
2 Gossamer Chains
2 Greater Auramancy
5 Inexorable Tide
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Luminarch Ascension
4 March of the Machines
3 Propaganda
3 Rhystic Study
1 Sigarda's Aid
5 Sigil of the Empty Throne
5 Starfield of Nyx
4 Thopter Spy Network
0 Ancient Den
0 Command Tower
0 Darksteel Citadel
0 Evolving Wilds
0 Flooded Strand
0 Glacial Fortress
0 Hallowed Fountain
0 Mystic Gate
0 Prairie Stream
0 Seat of the Synod
0 Tundra
0 Vivid Creek
0 Vivid Meadow
Basic Land (23)
0 Island (10)
0 Plains (13)
3 Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Creatures - Infectors (7)
2 Blighted Agent
12 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Core Prowler
4 Corpse Cur
2 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Viral Drake
Creatures - Non-Infectors (2)
4 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
4 Windborn Muse
Sorceries (3)
3 Fabricate
3 Idyllic Tutor
2 Mine Excavation
Instants (3)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
Planeswalkers (1)
5 Tezzeret the Seeker
Artifacts - Mana Rocks (7)
3 Azorius Cluestone
2 Azorius Signet
3 Commander's Sphere
5 Gilded Lotus
1 Sol Ring
2 Talisman of Progress
4 Thran Dynamo
Artifacts - Mana Fetch (2)
2 Armillary Sphere
1 Expedition Map
2 Contagion Clasp
6 Contagion Engine
3 Crawlspace
9 Darksteel Forge
4 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Helm of the Gods
6 Mycosynth Lattice
5 Norn's Annex
3 Rings of Brighthearth
2 Throne of Geth
4 Unwinding Clock
Enchantment - Auras (9)
4 Angelic Destiny
1 Aqueous Form
5 Corrupted Conscience
8 Eldrazi Conscription
1 Ethereal Armor
1 Flickering Ward
4 Indestructibility
2 Spectral Flight
2 Spirit Mantle
Enchantments (16)
3 Copy Enchantment
4 Dissipation Field
5 Enchanted Evening
3 Ghostly Prison
2 Greater Auramancy
5 Inexorable Tide
4 Ivory Mask
3 Karmic Justice
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Luminarch Ascension
3 Propaganda
3 Rhystic Study
5 Sigil of the Empty Throne
5 Sphere of Safety
5 Starfield of Nyx
4 Thopter Spy Network
0 Ancient Den
0 Command Tower
0 Evolving Wilds
0 Flooded Strand
0 Glacial Fortress
0 Hallowed Fountain
0 Meandering River
0 Mystic Gate
0 Port Town
0 Prairie Stream
0 Seachrome Coast
0 Seat of the Synod
0 Tundra
Basic Land (24)
0 Island (8)
0 Plains (16)
This deck is designed to win in several ways:
(1) Get 3-4 infect creatures on the board, beef them up with auras, give each opponent at least 1 poison counter, and then proliferate like mad. (Possibly each turn with Unwinding Clock, artifact proliferators, mana rocks, and artifact lands.)
(2) Get Sigil of the Empty Throne into play, protect it, play a slew of enchantments, beef up the resulting Angels with auras, attack.
(3) Get Tezzeret the Seeker and Darksteel Forge into play, get Tezzeret’s Ultimate to go off, attack with a swarm of indestructible artifact creatures. (And possibly an even bigger swarm if Mycosynth Lattice is in play too.)
(4) Get Enchanted Evening and Starfield of Nyx into play, attack with an army of creatures. Attack with an even bigger, indestructible army if Mycosynth Lattice and Darksteel Forge are in play as well.
(5) Get Darksteel Forge, Mycosynth Lattice, and Nevinyrral’s Disk into play, board wipe, attack with infectors.
One question I have is about which strategy to use for Enchantment Auras for the Infect creatures. Is it better to focus on making them bigger (+1/+1) or making them unblockable?I decided to go with auras that returned to my hand on their own, with no mana cost involved. Also, I have several ways to make my creatures indestructible, so I wasn't focused on that with the auras.Another question is whether my mana situation is good or whether there is too much or too little?I’ve only got 35 mana in this deck, but several mana rocks and mana fetches. Should keep the deck clean late in the game and give me plenty of mana up front. May need tweaking.I’m hoping I can do a lot of poison proliferating with the mana rocks, Unwinding Clock, Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine. Or using the Unwinding Clock and mana rocks to cast auras each turn using Leyline of Anticipation and Sigarda’s Aid to feed Sigil.
Hanna can bring Enchantments back to my hand to feed to Sigil, but mostly she can provide insurance incase a key enchantment or artifact gets smoked before I can protect it.
Finally, will this deck even work? What cards are there that would be better than the ones I currently have in? What cards would fit perfectly into this deck that I have completely missed?
Here is a list of cards that I have considered putting in:
1 Argivian Find
1 Conviction
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Daybreak Coronet
1 Disenchant
1 Ethereal Armor
1 Hanna, Ship's Navigator
1 Holy Mantle
1 Indestructibility
1 Infiltrator's Magemark
1 Launch
1 Path to Exile
1 Protective Bubble
1 Shimmering Wings
1 Spectra Ward
1 Spectral Flight
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Spirit Loop
1 Spirit Mantle
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Throne of Geth
1 Tricks of the Trade
1 Vedalken Orrery
Ephara, God of the Polis
Eidolon of COuntless battles
Thassa, God of the Sea
Heliod, God of the Sun
Edit: Forgot about Tinker
BURWGSliver Hivelord's alt wincon deck at Maze's EndBURWG
GWBSidar Kondo and Ikra Shidiq likes big butts
RUMizzix of the Izmagnus Super ThiefRU
BURWGGeneral Tazri, The Megazord AllyBURWG
BURJeleva Mill and Kill BUR
BRGrenzo's get out from under that deck!BR
WUG Roon's Enchanted Evening (enchantment deck) WUG
BUG The Undersea World of Tasigur CousteauBUG
BWGAnafenza, Counter QueenBWG
Good stuff. Thanks!
I added the Tinker for sure. Blightsteel Colossus on turn two? Yes, please! I also added Thassa, God of the Sea. Besides being an enchantment, the abilities to scry and make one of my infectors unblockable are great.
Also, I made two major updates to the deck: I felt like there were just too few creatures and way too many enchantments (there are probably still too many enchantments). I weeded out several enchantments and replaced them with creatures. I feel the deck is a little more balanced and deadly.
I also tweaked the enchantment auras and focused on those that return to my hand and have low CVC to feed Sigil of the Empty Throne. There are several ways in which my creatures can be made indestructible and/or unblockable, and being infect, and having several proliferators, I decided beefing the infectors up wasn't a priority. Here's the updated deck:
3 Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Creatures - Infectors (9)
2 Blighted Agent
12 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Core Prowler
4 Corpse Cur
2 Ichorclaw Myr
2 Lost Leonin
2 Plague Myr
3 Priests of Norn
4 Viral Drake
Creatures - Non-Infectors (8)
1 Arcbound Worker
4 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
3 Mesa Enchantress
1 Mother of Runes
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
6 Steel Hellkite
3 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Windborn Muse
Sorceries (4)
3 Fabricate
3 Idyllic Tutor
2 Mine Excavation
3 Tinker
Instants (4)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Twisted Image
5 Tezzeret the Seeker
Artifacts - Mana Rocks (7)
3 Azorius Cluestone
2 Azorius Signet
3 Commander's Sphere
5 Gilded Lotus
1 Sol Ring
2 Talisman of Progress
4 Thran Dynamo
Artifacts - Mana Fetch (2)
2 Armillary Sphere
1 Expedition Map
Artifacts (9)
2 Contagion Clasp
6 Contagion Engine
9 Darksteel Forge
2 Dolmen Gate
4 Grafted Exoskeleton
6 Mycosynth Lattice
3 Sculpting Steel
2 Strionic Resonator
4 Unwinding Clock
Enchantment - Auras (6)
4 Angelic Destiny
2 Brilliant Halo
5 Corrupted Conscience
8 Eldrazi Conscription
3 Ephara’s Enlightenment
1 Flickering Ward
Enchantments (14)
3 Copy Enchantment
5 Enchanted Evening
3 Ghostly Prison
2 Gossamer Chains
2 Greater Auramancy
5 Inexorable Tide
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Luminarch Ascension
4 March of the Machines
3 Propaganda
3 Rhystic Study
5 Sigil of the Empty Throne
5 Starfield of Nyx
4 Thopter Spy Network
0 Ancient Den
0 Command Tower
0 Darksteel Citadel
0 Evolving Wilds
0 Flooded Strand
0 Glacial Fortress
0 Hallowed Fountain
0 Mystic Gate
0 Prairie Stream
0 Seat of the Synod
0 Tundra
0 Vivid Creek
0 Vivid Meadow
Basic Land (23)
0 Island (10)
0 Plains (13)
I currently have 101 cards in this deck. I'm not sure which to take out...
On a different note, I'm wondering if Hanna, Ship's Navigator is really the best choice as commander of this deck. She would certainly help if someone destroyed a needed artifact or enchantment before I could protect them, but I don't think I'd really use her to feed the Sigil as I had originally intended.
I'm now considering Ephara, God of the Polis. Being an enchantment, she could potentially feed Sigil and help with Nyx, and if I'm able to make a steady stream of creatures with Sigil and Thopter Spy Network, it would be a good card draw source. (Sigarda's Aid and Unwinding Clock would allow me to get angels during each turn.) And I could always put Corrupted Conscience or Grafted Exoskeleton on her and make her evil.
Whooops! Sorry about that. My friends and I are a bit more casual so we don't always follow the rules sometimes.
If you play casual it is usually not fun to have a god as the commander. I would keep the commander you have and see how it works. The synergy created by Hanna seems to be pretty interesting and fun but not broken.
BURWGSliver Hivelord's alt wincon deck at Maze's EndBURWG
GWBSidar Kondo and Ikra Shidiq likes big butts
RUMizzix of the Izmagnus Super ThiefRU
BURWGGeneral Tazri, The Megazord AllyBURWG
BURJeleva Mill and Kill BUR
BRGrenzo's get out from under that deck!BR
WUG Roon's Enchanted Evening (enchantment deck) WUG
BUG The Undersea World of Tasigur CousteauBUG
BWGAnafenza, Counter QueenBWG
Hm yeah Rogue's Passage could be fun. Thanks!
I know, Hanna just seems to make sense in a deck full of artifacts and enchantments. She may even discourage people from targeting my stuff. They may not want to waste a spot removal card on my stuff if they figure I can just bring it right back to my hand. I may not even have to use her ability; the threat of her ability alone might cause people to use spot removal elsewhere.
One of the guys in my group uses a lot of Gods in his decks, so we're okay with them. I'll try the deck with Hanna and Ephara and see which works best.
Ephara's card draw ability would really be nice if Unwinding Clock was untapping all my mana rocks and artifact lands every turn. (If Mycosynth Lattice is in play, I'll be untapping all my lands.) I can use the mana to proliferate poison counters each turn which would be wicked, or if the deck unfolded differently, I could use the mana to cast enchantment auras, feeding Sigil, pumping out Angels, and triggering Ephara's card draw.
If I go with Ephara as my commander, I'll consider putting Leyline of Anticipation and Vedalken Orrery back into the deck along with Sigarda's Aid.