I feel so lucky to be making this GMAD. The last GMAD was the first one I had ever participated in and I already get to do my own. Thank you everyone.
I've been curious as to what the best way to make a Hedron Alignment deck would be since the card was spoiled. So I want to make a deck around this card where the only conceivable way for the deck to win is with Hedron Alignment. This card should be plan A,B,C, and D. I don't care what colors the deck ends up being. As for budget restrictions I'm going to say any card not on the reserved list is fair game. That should keep the deck budget enough for my taste.
Unfortunately every try hard from Sacramento to Shanghai preaches from the top of their 27 lands + Mana Reflection that Tooth and Nail and Time Stretch are fine to play in the same turn but Armageddon is unfair.
I think the hardest part is getting one into exile. The first card that came to mind isn't on the reserve list but is expensive. Adding 4 Force of Will.
Pull from Eternity as an emergency measure in case multiple Hedron Alignments get exiled. We'll probably want to go WU anyway for enchantment tutoring and recursion.
This card does all the work without need for enchantment tutors. For 3 mana, at instant speed (opponent's EOT just before your upkeep), it puts 2 in your graveyard and 1 in hand!! Then you use one of the many cheap exile effects to exile one from your graveyard (e.g. tapping Relic of Progenitus). So once you naturally draw/cantrip into 1 Alignment, just Intuition for the other 3 to win.
Case 1: If you have 1 Alignment on the battlefield, cast Intution for 3 Alignment, then exile 1 card from your graveyard to win the game.
Case 2: If you have 1 Alignment in hand and Intuition, it's the same thing as case 1. Just cast the Alignment first, obviously.
Case 3: If you have 1 Alignment in exile already (e.g. Force of Will) and 1 on the battlefield, cast Intuition for the remaining 2 Alignments + Noxious Revival. If opponent puts 1 Alignment in hand (and 1 in graveyard), win. If opponent gives you Noxious, cast Noxious for free to put one Alignment on top of your library and draw it.
Case 4: If you have 1 Alignment in graveyard already (e.g. discard, removal) and 1 on the battlefield, Intuition for 2 Alignments + Noxious Revival. Do the same thing, and then just use an exile effect to exile one of the ones in your graveyard.
Case 5: If you have 1 Alignment in the graveyard already (e.g. discard, removal), 1 on the battlefield and 2 more in hand somehow, Intuition for 3 Force of Will. The next time opponent casts a spell, counter it exiling 1 Alignment and then win the game.
There are other uses too, like just going for 3 copies of a card you need in a pinch. As you can see, Intuition does a ton of work in this deck and helps you adapt to all sorts of situations.
I want to add 4 Dig Through Time to the deck. It allows us to exile an Alignment from our graveyard while digging for either more alignments, ways to get them, or just other useful cards. I'd imagine this will end up being some kind of control shell since there is no way this deck will be fast enough that we can just ignore our opponents, to that end Dig through time will also generate CA at instant speed.
Unfortunately every try hard from Sacramento to Shanghai preaches from the top of their 27 lands + Mana Reflection that Tooth and Nail and Time Stretch are fine to play in the same turn but Armageddon is unfair.
For a control shell, we need some defense. Propaganda seems useful at holding off attackers. Its mana cost also works with the Sol Lands we might have to run to accelerate into all the 2U cost stuff. And it pitches to Force of Will!
I'm going to add 3 Auramancer to the deck. I think the biggest problem we are going to have is keeping one on the field. Once our opponent figures out what we're doing they will enchantment hate and with only 4 copies it is going to be hard to keep one in each position. Also I want to say the min land pool is 24 so I'm adding in 24 randoms as filler I'm sure we'll hammer the base sometime
Counterspell is a must-have in a control deck. We should be able to get away with UU as long there is a splash of white. Otherwise, Mana Leak might be better.
As for budget restrictions I'm going to say any card not on the reserved list is fair game. That should keep the deck budget enough for my taste.
I hate to be that guy, but Intuition is on the reserved list. It's one of the best cards so far, but I'm just throwing that out there.
I also have no idea if this is supposed to fit into a specific format (Dig through time is not legacy legal, and is restricted in vintage).
I don't mean to be negative, I like this card as a theme. These are just observations, and perhaps I'm over thinking it.
I'm just going to add 4x Ponder. It helps us fill the graveyard for dig through time by being a cheap spell that cantrips while also filtering card draws.
I'm going to add 3 Auramancer to the deck. I think the biggest problem we are going to have is keeping one on the field. Once our opponent figures out what we're doing they will enchantment hate and with only 4 copies it is going to be hard to keep one in each position. Also I want to say the min land pool is 24 so I'm adding in 24 randoms as filler I'm sure we'll hammer the base sometime
How? Hedron Alignment is hexproof. Unless opponents are maindecking Fracturing Gust, I don't see enchantment hate being an issue.
I guess in big multiplayer games there's risk of stuff like Pernicious Deed and Oblivion Stone, so a little recursion wouldn't hurt, but we do have 4 Force of Will + 4 Counterspell protection already... Alignment seems much more vulnerable in the graveyard (where it can be gravehated into exile) or in your hand (where it can be discarded to your graveyard). It seems pretty safe on the battlefield.
Actually, how safe it is on the battlefield is why I think 1 on the field + EOT Intuition is the easiest way to win. It gives opponent very little time to respond to the copies in your hand and in the graveyard, the zones with the biggest weaknesses. If you just put one copy in each zone slowly over the course of 10 turns, then it's a lot more likely that you'll get disrupted.
Are we allowed to use Intuition then? He didn't say anything when I added it. OP, what do you say?
If Intuition is allowed, then I'm adding 2 Noxious Revival. It's also Alignment recursion, like Auramancer. Except that it can be cast for free at instant speed to dodge graveyard hate, and it's necessary to make some of the Intuition piles.
As for budget restrictions I'm going to say any card not on the reserved list is fair game. That should keep the deck budget enough for my taste.
I hate to be that guy, but Intuition is on the reserved list. It's one of the best cards so far, but I'm just throwing that out there.
I also have no idea if this is supposed to fit into a specific format (Dig through time is not legacy legal, and is restricted in vintage).
I don't mean to be negative, I like this card as a theme. These are just observations, and perhaps I'm over thinking it.
I'm just going to add 4x Ponder. It helps us fill the graveyard for dig through time by being a cheap spell that cantrips while also filtering card draws.
side note: ponder is also restricted in vintage, but legal in legacy if this ends up fitting into a specific format, numbers may need to be trimmed.
Oh. So it is. Intuition is on the reserved list so it can't be part of the deck. That is kind of unfortunate. That makes the current deck is as follows.
Unfortunately every try hard from Sacramento to Shanghai preaches from the top of their 27 lands + Mana Reflection that Tooth and Nail and Time Stretch are fine to play in the same turn but Armageddon is unfair.
How? Hedron Alignment is hexproof. Unless opponents are maindecking Fracturing Gust, I don't see enchantment hate being an issue.
I guess in big multiplayer games there's risk of stuff like Pernicious Deed and Oblivion Stone, so a little recursion wouldn't hurt, but we do have 4 Force of Will + 4 Counterspell protection already... Alignment seems much more vulnerable in the graveyard (where it can be gravehated into exile) or in your hand (where it can be discarded to your graveyard). It seems pretty safe on the battlefield.
There's a multitude of ways for them to target this card directly or indirectly I guess I should have been more precise. They could bomb it out of our hand/ go after it indirectly with declaration in stone/ cataclysmic gearhulk/ forced random discards
Less specifically enchantment hate and more hand hate.... I need to learn to specify lol
There's a multitude of ways for them to target this card directly or indirectly I guess I should have been more precise. They could bomb it out of our hand / forced random discards
lol yeah, I just said it's weaker in hand than on the field.
But discard is not even bad anymore. With Intuition cut, we're not tutoring 2 to the graveyard. So unless they have discarded THREE copies of Hedron Alignment, we can work with one or two being sent to the yard (Dig Through Time can exile one).
/ go after it indirectly with declaration in stone/ cataclysmic gearhulk
Declaration in Stone cannot kill it since it's not a creature. Even if it hit noncreatures like Maelstrom Pulse, those effects still have to target the first copy and cannot hit Hexproof. Do you mean Declaration of Naught? GMAD doesn't make sideboards, so I don't think we should build around narrow sideboard answers that nobody should be maindecking.
I'm trying to brainstorm other ways we can assemble the Voltron...
Doomsday is interesting. If we already have one Alignment on the battlefield and 3 more in the library and/or graveyard (or 2 in library/GY and at most 1 in exile), cast Doomsday. Make the following pile:
Doomsday will exile the last copy. EOT cast Thought Scour, milling 1 Alignment + some dud card and drawing 1 Alignment. Upkeep, the zone check happens and you win the game! If opponent has some response at instant speed, then you have Gaea's Blessing next turn to recover pieces and try again.
Doomsday also lets you ignore discard and removal, since it treats graveyard the same as library. As long as you have 1 on the battlefield and no more than 1 in exile, you can create that Doomsday pile and win.
If you have 2 copies in exile, you can create a different Doomsday pile that includes the singleton Pull from Eternity. Something like EOT Brainstorm, keeping Pull from Eternity + 1 Alignment in hand, then cast Pull to put 1 copy in your graveyard. Win on upkeep.
Doomsday seems to do it all.
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Another option is Insidious Dreams, pitching one Alignment in hand and 1-2 other cards to find the remaining Alignments we need and cards to do zone transfers. Just pray opponent doesn't have mill and that we can afford to go down X+1 card disadvantage without dying to opponent...
There's Parallel Thoughts, exiling a combination of Hedron Alignments and cantrips like Careful Study. Since you can choose to replace each draw one by one, you are never forced to draw ALL copies of Hedron Alignment in the exile pile. You can always keep one in exile. So then you just need to Careful Study into 2 copies and discard one (plus some other card in hand), with the last copy still in exile. Win on upkeep.
There's also Foresight. Cantrip into 2 Alignments, casting 1 and keeping the other in hand. Then use Foresight to exile the remaining 2 copies and put one in the graveyard with Pull from Eternity. This seems rather convoluted in comparison. It's also vulnerable to discard.
Since we established the battlefield is probably the safest zone (well technically exile is but it's harder to pull from if you get an extra) getting multiples into play then transferring them into appropriate zones might be a thought.
Zur the enchanter is a good way to search and get them into play.
As far as moving them there are some fun things you can do. Abjure for example is a 1 mana counter spell that also sacrifices one of them. Angelic purge will let you sacrifice one while exiling another.
I'm going to add 4 Temple of Enlightenment to the deck. It seems that we are currently UW at the very least so some fixing is in order. Temples are useful for smoothing our draws out and helping us find our combo cards.
I'm not adding them since these were other peoples suggestions but I like the idea of Gifts Ungiven as a pseudo Intuition replacement and Angelic Purge as a way to sacrifice or exile redundant alignments and as an all around decent control card. If we do add Gifts we could reasonably replace half our Propagandas with Ghostly Prisons in the off chance we find ourselves wanting to tutor for one of those.
Unfortunately every try hard from Sacramento to Shanghai preaches from the top of their 27 lands + Mana Reflection that Tooth and Nail and Time Stretch are fine to play in the same turn but Armageddon is unfair.
3 enlightened tutor. Best way to find Heston alligent
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I guess gifts really would warp the deck as we'd start looking for functionally similar cards with different names. I do like Intuition better.
I'm going to just add some Gitaxian Probes for now. We're a combo deck, it lets us do some digging and it gives information. It fills the graveyard for Dig through Time, casts for zero mana, and pitches to force of will.
I really love Gifts. But I don't see how it helps much. This pile only finds ONE Hedron Alignment (and Dig Through Time). It's much more like a single tutor than Intuition, which finds THREE Hedron Alignments in one go. Fetching multiple copies at once is a huge difference in a deck that needs 4 to go off.
Enlightened Tutor is the same problem. Since you guys seem keen on Enlightened Tutor and Gifts and this is a group thing, I'd vote for Enlightened Tutor over Gifts. At least it's easier to use. I'd also support Zur the Enchanter (suggested above) because that card is really fun. Zur finds Propagandas too.
Personally, I think Parallel Thoughts or Insidious Dreams are more effective at finding ALL the copies of Hedron Alignment (and zone-moving tools) with only 1 card. Doomsday is even better, but that's probably on the reserved list.
EDIT: I won't add any cards yet. I don't want to influence the outcome too much, just tossing out combo engine ideas. I'll wait to see which direction you guys settle on first.
Gifts is definitely slower, but it does allow you to keep chaining tutors. (snapcaster + gifts, or dig through time). It just changes a lot about how this deck would be built.
As far as Parallel Thoughts, I think it's too risky. If the Parallel thoughts gets destroyed, a Hedron Alignment could be stuck in exile face down. Keep in mind this ruling:
1/22/2016 The Hedron Alignment in exile must be face up. If it’s face down, it won’t count, even if you are allowed to look at it.
Also keep in mind the fact that Pull from eternity only grabs face up cards, and suddenly Manipulate fate looks better, and I think Manipulate fate is bad here. We are a control deck so far. We have tons of counters, and gifts and dig are instants, so we should have plenty of time to play draw-go while digging when we have mana.
At this point I think I'm just going to keep tweaking the manabase and let others account for the cards. I'm going to add 4 Flooded Strand to the deck. These will helps us fuel delve and also create a stepping stone for us to play a third color.
Unfortunately every try hard from Sacramento to Shanghai preaches from the top of their 27 lands + Mana Reflection that Tooth and Nail and Time Stretch are fine to play in the same turn but Armageddon is unfair.
Gifts is definitely slower, but it does allow you to keep chaining tutors. (snapcaster + gifts, or dig through time). It just changes a lot about how this deck would be built.
Yeah, I see how it eventually leads to a win. But each Gifts only finds one. You're committing 4-6 mana per turn for 3 turns in a row (or spread out) to dig into 3 copies. And you would need more than one copy of Snapcaster and Noxious in order to chain it another time. And then you're still on the hook figuring out how to move the copies to the appropriate zones. It works, but it's really durdly. Costs a ton of mana, spread out over several turns, and involves new cards to add. Opponent has to be a locked-out Goldfish to let us spend this many resources durdling instead of controlling his plays. There must be something better.
Keep in mind this ruling:
1/22/2016 The Hedron Alignment in exile must be face up. If it’s face down, it won’t count, even if you are allowed to look at it.
Huh, I didn't know this. OK, that makes cards like Parallel Thoughts a lot worse. I assumed, from RTFC, that just knowing it was in Exile was enough.
Manipulate Fate is still awful. Wrong zones. Too much effort to get them back.
Maybe something as simple as Sensei's Divining Top and shuffle effects is a better way to dig over that time than durdling with Gifts recursion. Top also lets us search for controlling answers to the board while looking for combo pieces, where as with Gifts you have to go all-in on the durdle.
We could run Extract maybe? It probably wouldn't be too bad as a one of that we could fetch with Gifts. It has the upside of being able to target an opponent if we already have an alignment in exile.
Unfortunately every try hard from Sacramento to Shanghai preaches from the top of their 27 lands + Mana Reflection that Tooth and Nail and Time Stretch are fine to play in the same turn but Armageddon is unfair.
I've been running this deck with some success in casual for a few months now.
Your first and pretty much only goal is to resolve an Intuition, backed up with Force of Will. Once you can do that, you might be in a position to win. If you DO NOT do that, you will basically never win with Hedron Alignment.
This is a combo deck. You will never be the beatdown. You should also let go ANY notion of being a control deck. That will not help you whatsoever. This deck is a 100% Grade A COMBO deck. Think Dredge. Except for the Force of Wills, it is basically uninteractive. Game Plan: You find your pieces as quickly as humanly possible, back them up with a FoW, or die.
I have some suggestions.
Drop the white lands and white cards. They're really not helping. Force is often THE card that decides a win or loss, so up the # of blue cards to the highest possible %.
Of course, Diamonds & Lotus Petals will pick up the slack on your manabase too... And both of these also supercharge your Delvespells.
The sooner you can attempt your Intuition, the better your odds of winning. Once again, I recommend Mox Diamond & Lotus Petal because they will help you power out your Intuiton as fast as Turn 1. How? By also including thesetwo.
I've been running this deck with some success in casual for a few months now.
Your first and pretty much only goal is to resolve an Intuition, backed up with Force of Will. Once you can do that, you might be in a position to win. If you DO NOT do that, you will basically never win with Hedron Alignment.
Hey, the first two cards suggested were Force of Will and Intuition. I think many of us agree that this is the best way to win with Hedron Alignment. The problem is, according to this GMAD's rules, we aren't allowed to use Intuition (reserved list).
...
Yeah, just let that sink in.
That fact changes it a lot. This can no longer be an "EOT Intuition + protection" combo deck. And all the enablers outside of Intuition suck (except Doomsday, which seems to be unpopular). So we are forced to be a control deck that slowly assembles the combo while controlling the game. It will not be competitive but could be casual fun in a very uncompetitive meta.
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I've been curious as to what the best way to make a Hedron Alignment deck would be since the card was spoiled. So I want to make a deck around this card where the only conceivable way for the deck to win is with Hedron Alignment. This card should be plan A,B,C, and D. I don't care what colors the deck ends up being. As for budget restrictions I'm going to say any card not on the reserved list is fair game. That should keep the deck budget enough for my taste.
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Force of Will
4 Hedron Alignment
1 Pull from Eternity
This card does all the work without need for enchantment tutors. For 3 mana, at instant speed (opponent's EOT just before your upkeep), it puts 2 in your graveyard and 1 in hand!! Then you use one of the many cheap exile effects to exile one from your graveyard (e.g. tapping Relic of Progenitus). So once you naturally draw/cantrip into 1 Alignment, just Intuition for the other 3 to win.
Case 1: If you have 1 Alignment on the battlefield, cast Intution for 3 Alignment, then exile 1 card from your graveyard to win the game.
Case 2: If you have 1 Alignment in hand and Intuition, it's the same thing as case 1. Just cast the Alignment first, obviously.
Case 3: If you have 1 Alignment in exile already (e.g. Force of Will) and 1 on the battlefield, cast Intuition for the remaining 2 Alignments + Noxious Revival. If opponent puts 1 Alignment in hand (and 1 in graveyard), win. If opponent gives you Noxious, cast Noxious for free to put one Alignment on top of your library and draw it.
Case 4: If you have 1 Alignment in graveyard already (e.g. discard, removal) and 1 on the battlefield, Intuition for 2 Alignments + Noxious Revival. Do the same thing, and then just use an exile effect to exile one of the ones in your graveyard.
Case 5: If you have 1 Alignment in the graveyard already (e.g. discard, removal), 1 on the battlefield and 2 more in hand somehow, Intuition for 3 Force of Will. The next time opponent casts a spell, counter it exiling 1 Alignment and then win the game.
There are other uses too, like just going for 3 copies of a card you need in a pinch. As you can see, Intuition does a ton of work in this deck and helps you adapt to all sorts of situations.
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
1 Pull from Eternity
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
1 Pull from Eternity
4 Dig Through Time
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Propaganda
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
1 Pull from Eternity
4 Dig Through Time
3 Auramancer
Instants (13):
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
1 Pull from Eternity
4 Dig Through Time
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Propaganda
24 Seat of the Synod
I'm going to add 3 Auramancer to the deck. I think the biggest problem we are going to have is keeping one on the field. Once our opponent figures out what we're doing they will enchantment hate and with only 4 copies it is going to be hard to keep one in each position. Also I want to say the min land pool is 24 so I'm adding in 24 randoms as filler I'm sure we'll hammer the base sometime
3 Auramancer
Instants (17):
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
1 Pull from Eternity
4 Dig Through Time
4 Counterspell
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Propaganda
Lands (24):
24 Seat of the Synod
I also have no idea if this is supposed to fit into a specific format (Dig through time is not legacy legal, and is restricted in vintage).
I don't mean to be negative, I like this card as a theme. These are just observations, and perhaps I'm over thinking it.
I'm just going to add 4x Ponder. It helps us fill the graveyard for dig through time by being a cheap spell that cantrips while also filtering card draws.
3 Auramancer
Instants (17):
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
1 Pull from Eternity
4 Dig Through Time
4 Counterspell
4 Ponder
Enchantments (8):
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Propaganda
24 Seat of the Synod
side note: ponder is also restricted in vintage, but legal in legacy if this ends up fitting into a specific format, numbers may need to be trimmed.
How? Hedron Alignment is hexproof. Unless opponents are maindecking Fracturing Gust, I don't see enchantment hate being an issue.
I guess in big multiplayer games there's risk of stuff like Pernicious Deed and Oblivion Stone, so a little recursion wouldn't hurt, but we do have 4 Force of Will + 4 Counterspell protection already... Alignment seems much more vulnerable in the graveyard (where it can be gravehated into exile) or in your hand (where it can be discarded to your graveyard). It seems pretty safe on the battlefield.
Actually, how safe it is on the battlefield is why I think 1 on the field + EOT Intuition is the easiest way to win. It gives opponent very little time to respond to the copies in your hand and in the graveyard, the zones with the biggest weaknesses. If you just put one copy in each zone slowly over the course of 10 turns, then it's a lot more likely that you'll get disrupted.
Are we allowed to use Intuition then? He didn't say anything when I added it. OP, what do you say?
If Intuition is allowed, then I'm adding 2 Noxious Revival. It's also Alignment recursion, like Auramancer. Except that it can be cast for free at instant speed to dodge graveyard hate, and it's necessary to make some of the Intuition piles.
3 Auramancer
Instants (19):
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
1 Pull from Eternity
4 Dig Through Time
4 Counterspell
2 Noxious Revival
4 Ponder
Enchantments (8):
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Propaganda
24 Seat of the Synod
If Intuition is ruled out of the deck, then ignore this addition.
Oh. So it is. Intuition is on the reserved list so it can't be part of the deck. That is kind of unfortunate. That makes the current deck is as follows.
3 Auramancer
Instants (13):
4 Force of Will
1 Pull from Eternity
4 Dig Through Time
4 Counterspell
4 Ponder
Enchantments (8):
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Propaganda
24 Seat of the Synod
There's a multitude of ways for them to target this card directly or indirectly I guess I should have been more precise. They could bomb it out of our hand/ go after it indirectly with declaration in stone/ cataclysmic gearhulk/ forced random discards
Less specifically enchantment hate and more hand hate.... I need to learn to specify lol
lol yeah, I just said it's weaker in hand than on the field.
But discard is not even bad anymore. With Intuition cut, we're not tutoring 2 to the graveyard. So unless they have discarded THREE copies of Hedron Alignment, we can work with one or two being sent to the yard (Dig Through Time can exile one).
Cataclysmic Gearhulk cannot kill it. You sacrifice down to one enchantment. You can choose to keep Hedron Alignment as your one enchantment.
Declaration in Stone cannot kill it since it's not a creature. Even if it hit noncreatures like Maelstrom Pulse, those effects still have to target the first copy and cannot hit Hexproof. Do you mean Declaration of Naught? GMAD doesn't make sideboards, so I don't think we should build around narrow sideboard answers that nobody should be maindecking.
Mass removal like Pernicious Deed and Oblivion Stone can kill it, yes.
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I'm trying to brainstorm other ways we can assemble the Voltron...
Doomsday is interesting. If we already have one Alignment on the battlefield and 3 more in the library and/or graveyard (or 2 in library/GY and at most 1 in exile), cast Doomsday. Make the following pile:
Thought Scour
Hedron Alignment
Atogatog
Hedron Alignment
Gaea's Blessing
Doomsday will exile the last copy. EOT cast Thought Scour, milling 1 Alignment + some dud card and drawing 1 Alignment. Upkeep, the zone check happens and you win the game! If opponent has some response at instant speed, then you have Gaea's Blessing next turn to recover pieces and try again.
Doomsday also lets you ignore discard and removal, since it treats graveyard the same as library. As long as you have 1 on the battlefield and no more than 1 in exile, you can create that Doomsday pile and win.
If you have 2 copies in exile, you can create a different Doomsday pile that includes the singleton Pull from Eternity. Something like EOT Brainstorm, keeping Pull from Eternity + 1 Alignment in hand, then cast Pull to put 1 copy in your graveyard. Win on upkeep.
Doomsday seems to do it all.
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Another option is Insidious Dreams, pitching one Alignment in hand and 1-2 other cards to find the remaining Alignments we need and cards to do zone transfers. Just pray opponent doesn't have mill and that we can afford to go down X+1 card disadvantage without dying to opponent...
There's Parallel Thoughts, exiling a combination of Hedron Alignments and cantrips like Careful Study. Since you can choose to replace each draw one by one, you are never forced to draw ALL copies of Hedron Alignment in the exile pile. You can always keep one in exile. So then you just need to Careful Study into 2 copies and discard one (plus some other card in hand), with the last copy still in exile. Win on upkeep.
There's also Foresight. Cantrip into 2 Alignments, casting 1 and keeping the other in hand. Then use Foresight to exile the remaining 2 copies and put one in the graveyard with Pull from Eternity. This seems rather convoluted in comparison. It's also vulnerable to discard.
I'm voting for +4 Doomsday.
I'm thinking Gifts Ungiven into a pile of Dig Through Time, Hedron Alignment, Noxious Revival, Snapcaster Mage... of course that pile includes 2 cards that are not in the deck.
Zur the enchanter is a good way to search and get them into play.
As far as moving them there are some fun things you can do. Abjure for example is a 1 mana counter spell that also sacrifices one of them. Angelic purge will let you sacrifice one while exiling another.
I'm not adding them since these were other peoples suggestions but I like the idea of Gifts Ungiven as a pseudo Intuition replacement and Angelic Purge as a way to sacrifice or exile redundant alignments and as an all around decent control card. If we do add Gifts we could reasonably replace half our Propagandas with Ghostly Prisons in the off chance we find ourselves wanting to tutor for one of those.
The current deck is as follows.
3 Auramancer
Instants (13):
4 Force of Will
1 Pull from Eternity
4 Dig Through Time
4 Counterspell
4 Ponder
Enchantments (8):
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Propaganda
4 Temple of Enlightenment
20 Seat of the Synod
I'm going to just add some Gitaxian Probes for now. We're a combo deck, it lets us do some digging and it gives information. It fills the graveyard for Dig through Time, casts for zero mana, and pitches to force of will.
3 Auramancer
Instants (13):
4 Force of Will
1 Pull from Eternity
4 Dig Through Time
4 Counterspell
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
Enchantments (8):
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Propaganda
4 Temple of Enlightenment
20 Seat of the Synod
I really love Gifts. But I don't see how it helps much. This pile only finds ONE Hedron Alignment (and Dig Through Time). It's much more like a single tutor than Intuition, which finds THREE Hedron Alignments in one go. Fetching multiple copies at once is a huge difference in a deck that needs 4 to go off.
Enlightened Tutor is the same problem. Since you guys seem keen on Enlightened Tutor and Gifts and this is a group thing, I'd vote for Enlightened Tutor over Gifts. At least it's easier to use. I'd also support Zur the Enchanter (suggested above) because that card is really fun. Zur finds Propagandas too.
Personally, I think Parallel Thoughts or Insidious Dreams are more effective at finding ALL the copies of Hedron Alignment (and zone-moving tools) with only 1 card. Doomsday is even better, but that's probably on the reserved list.
EDIT: I won't add any cards yet. I don't want to influence the outcome too much, just tossing out combo engine ideas. I'll wait to see which direction you guys settle on first.
As far as Parallel Thoughts, I think it's too risky. If the Parallel thoughts gets destroyed, a Hedron Alignment could be stuck in exile face down. Keep in mind this ruling:
Also keep in mind the fact that Pull from eternity only grabs face up cards, and suddenly Manipulate fate looks better, and I think Manipulate fate is bad here. We are a control deck so far. We have tons of counters, and gifts and dig are instants, so we should have plenty of time to play draw-go while digging when we have mana.
edit: oh, and doomsday is not reserved list. There are other ways to win with doomsday though.
3 Auramancer
4 Wall of Omens
Instants (13):
4 Force of Will
1 Pull from Eternity
4 Dig Through Time
4 Counterspell
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
Enchantments (8):
4 Hedron Alignment
4 Propaganda
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Flooded Strand
16 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Yeah, I see how it eventually leads to a win. But each Gifts only finds one. You're committing 4-6 mana per turn for 3 turns in a row (or spread out) to dig into 3 copies. And you would need more than one copy of Snapcaster and Noxious in order to chain it another time. And then you're still on the hook figuring out how to move the copies to the appropriate zones. It works, but it's really durdly. Costs a ton of mana, spread out over several turns, and involves new cards to add. Opponent has to be a locked-out Goldfish to let us spend this many resources durdling instead of controlling his plays. There must be something better.
Huh, I didn't know this. OK, that makes cards like Parallel Thoughts a lot worse. I assumed, from RTFC, that just knowing it was in Exile was enough.
Manipulate Fate is still awful. Wrong zones. Too much effort to get them back.
Maybe something as simple as Sensei's Divining Top and shuffle effects is a better way to dig over that time than durdling with Gifts recursion. Top also lets us search for controlling answers to the board while looking for combo pieces, where as with Gifts you have to go all-in on the durdle.
Your first and pretty much only goal is to resolve an Intuition, backed up with Force of Will. Once you can do that, you might be in a position to win. If you DO NOT do that, you will basically never win with Hedron Alignment.
This is a combo deck. You will never be the beatdown. You should also let go ANY notion of being a control deck. That will not help you whatsoever. This deck is a 100% Grade A COMBO deck. Think Dredge. Except for the Force of Wills, it is basically uninteractive. Game Plan: You find your pieces as quickly as humanly possible, back them up with a FoW, or die.
I have some suggestions.
Drop the white lands and white cards. They're really not helping. Force is often THE card that decides a win or loss, so up the # of blue cards to the highest possible %.
You MUST hit Intuition. However, there exists a backup option: Lim-Dul's Vault. This card can dig like no other. Run 4x. Replace your W/U lands with Underground Sea or Watery Grave to help support Vault.
Of course, Diamonds & Lotus Petals will pick up the slack on your manabase too... And both of these also supercharge your Delve spells.
The sooner you can attempt your Intuition, the better your odds of winning. Once again, I recommend Mox Diamond & Lotus Petal because they will help you power out your Intuiton as fast as Turn 1. How? By also including these two.
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Hey, the first two cards suggested were Force of Will and Intuition. I think many of us agree that this is the best way to win with Hedron Alignment. The problem is, according to this GMAD's rules, we aren't allowed to use Intuition (reserved list).
...
Yeah, just let that sink in.
That fact changes it a lot. This can no longer be an "EOT Intuition + protection" combo deck. And all the enablers outside of Intuition suck (except Doomsday, which seems to be unpopular). So we are forced to be a control deck that slowly assembles the combo while controlling the game. It will not be competitive but could be casual fun in a very uncompetitive meta.