Kami of the Crescent Moon plays differently than most monoblue decks. In this decklist, you're actively giving your opponent card advantage, and you're perfectly happy to do so. This is largely because mana restrictions - both due to the one-land-per-turn rule, and a few various slowdown cards - ensure they're not going to be able to use all of them. Meanwhile, you have a handful of free spells, some cheap counterspells in case they do use a few cards in a single turn, and a relatively low-cost way to get a 15/15 onto the board.
Despite the presence of some of the least-fun cards ever printed (Stasis and Winter Orb), this deck turns some of the most fun cards ever printed (Kami of the Crescent Moon, Time Warp) into absolute powerhouses. Time Warp in and of itself is pretty fairly costed for an extra attack phase and land drop, and the card you draw for that turn is essentially making it a "cantrip". But when you're drawing two or three cards during that extra turn... and one of them is another Time Warp type of card... things start to get obscene. It is not uncommon for my opponent to pass the turn to me with one card in my hand, and by the time it's their turn again, I've got a full hand, 3 additional lands in play, and an enviable board position.
I should add... while many players groan at the thought of going against someone with multiple Time Walk cards, the reality is that this deck plays very fast. Most extra turns are simply:
- draw
- draw
- play land
- draw (Temple Bell/Jace/Jace2.0)
- cast Time Walk
- start next turn
If we had a chess clock in Magic, I've no doubt that we'd spend less time during my turns than my opponents turns.
A more appropriate complaint about this deck is the occasional necessity of using Stasis-type cards to lock things down for a while. This makes for a pretty boring game. Sometimes it is done from a strong position (that is, I already have some kind of bounce spell in my hand like Boomerang that I'll use to bounce Stasis during my opponent's end step a few turns later, get a free untap, play a couple of Time Walks, and either win soon, or put myself in a pretty dominant position). Sometimes it's done from a weak position, though, as a last resort if I'm in serious trouble, don't have a bounce spell in hand, and basically need to hope for something lucky. Either way though, the cards are in there because they're good, and no serious player will object (lest they be subjective, foolish, and largely hypocritical).
The top 5 are probably my favorite. Prohibit if you expect counter wars, Disrupt if you expect counter wars or Duress', Turnabout if you expect a lot of draw-go, Pendrell Mists if you expect non-elf creatures, and Commandeer if you expect planeswalkers.
Matchup data - play record, matchup advice:
I have a tough time classifying decks into those that are competitive, those that are clearly casual, and the many shades of gray in between. So for this current report, I've just divided things into two:
Competitive/semi-competitive commanders:
317 wins, 149 losses
6 5 Adun Oakenshield
0 2 Akroma, Angel of Fury
10 6 Animar, Soul of Elements
3 1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
20 5 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
9 2 Captain Sisay
5 2 Damia, Sage of Stone
12 8 Doran, the Siege Tower
11 4 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
5 5 Gaddock Teeg
15 6 Geist of Saint Traft
2 1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
5 6 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
12 3 Griselbrand
8 5 Horde of Notions
2 0 Iname, Death Aspect
5 6 Jenara, Asura of War
12 1 Jhoira of the Ghitu
11 1 Kaalia of the Vast
3 0 Kami of the Crescent Moon
8 3 Karador, Ghost Chieftan
1 0 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
5 2 Krenko, Mob Boss
20 8 Maelstrom Wanderer
1 0 Merieke Ri Berit
2 5 Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
2 1 Nin, the Pain Artist
22 10 Radha, Heir of Keld
14 5 Rafiq of the Many
10 2 Rhys, the Redeemed
5 3 Ruhan of the Formori
2 0 Saffi Eriksdotter
4 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
6 6 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
4 2 Sygg, River Cutthroat
13 8 Talrand, the Sky Summoner
5 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
10 1 The Mimeoplasm
3 4 Thraximundar
5 0 Vendilion Clique
4 2 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
15 14 Zur, the Enchanter
Casual commanders:
103 wins, 12 losses
1 0 Angus MacKenzie
1 0 Ashling the Pilgrim
3 0 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 0 Bosh, Iron Golem
1 0 Braids, Conjurer Adept
2 0 Bruna, Light of Alabaster
2 0 Child of Alara
1 0 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
0 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 0 Ertai, the Corrupted
3 0 Ghave, Guru of Spores
2 0 Ghost Council of Orzhova
1 0 Glissa, the Traitor
1 0 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
1 0 Heartless Hidetsugu
5 2 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 0 Isperia, Supreme Judge
2 0 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 0 Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
1 0 Kaervek the Merciless
1 0 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
2 0 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
2 1 Kresh the Bloodbraided
1 0 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
2 0 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
1 0 Lovisa Coldeyes
4 1 Lyzolda, the Blood Witch
2 0 Mangara of Corondor
2 1 Maralen of the Mornsong
2 0 Mayael the Anima
0 0 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 0 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
4 0 Obzedat, Ghost Council
1 0 Olivia Voldaren
0 1 Omnath, Locus of Mana
1 0 Oona, Queen of the Fae
3 0 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 0 Radkos, Lord of Riots
1 0 Ramses Overdark
4 2 Riku of Two Reflections
1 0 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
2 0 Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
3 0 Sen Triplets
1 0 Sharuum the Hegemon
1 0 Sisters of the Stone Death
1 0 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
1 0 Sliver Overlord
1 0 Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
2 1 Tetsuo Umezawa
5 0 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
2 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 0 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
7 1 Uril, the Miststalker
2 0 Wort, Boggart Auntie
1 0 Wrexial, the Risen Deep
1 0 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
1 0 Zedruu the Greathearted
How to play specific matchups:
Animar, Soul of Elements - fairly vulnerable to counters and bounce spells, and this makes up fully 1/4 of the decklist. The slowdown cards, including even Stasis, aren't too helpful here. I used to play Overburden which unsurprisingly murders Animar. Without it, the matchup gets a little worse, but I wouldn't expect any issues here. I had a few successful matches against Animar before I started keeping track in the table above.
Doran, the Siege Tower - a ton of annoying cards in this deck, all available on turn 1. Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Swords to Plowshares, Oust, etc. Success really depends on how many of those the Doran player has in the opening hand. Also the presence of some artifact-based card drawers (Howling Mine, Temple Bell, Font of Mythos) is helpful, since Doran has far less ways to remove them once they land. One well-timed bounce spell on Doran can really slow down their clock, and they have virtually no defense against the play-Stasis-for-a-couple-turns-then-bounce-it strategy. I've had some success against Doran thus far, but it feels like it should be more like 50/50.
Ezuri, Renegade Leader - gets destroyed by Stasis, like most decks, and Static Orb is somewhat painful as well. Thankfully you can save counterspells for their creatures and not worry much about Kami being killed (except for a lone copy of Beast Within). This is one matchup where I'd probably hold off on casting Kami immediately, and instead focus on countering key spells early: Earthcraft, Priest of Titania, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, Eladamri, Lord of Leaves, Elvish Archdruid, Crop Rotation, etc. Cast Kami on turn 4 or so, if you have a 2-mana counter for Ezuri. Or, if you have something like Force of Will or Daze in hand, you could cast Kami on turn 2. Bottom line though is that you can't be without counters in this matchup. They have a handful of individual cards that will end the game immediately or the next turn after resolving.
Geist of Saint Traft - originally regarded as possibly the worst matchup for the deck, I've been encouraged by recent results. It has a fast clock that's hard to stop, but the biggest disruption to the Kami strategy comes from removing Kami himself. Er, itself. The Stasis cards are big help, but you have to be very careful to ensure you actually get to bounce it on your opponent's turn. To this end, I'll sometimes bounce it before I absolutely have to - it's kind of a game theory thing. The Geist player will save their Into the Roil or Disenchant until they feel they're in a good position to untap and take advantage of it being gone. The Kami player's job is to bounce it during their last turn before that moment.
Kaalia of the Vast - contains all of the annoying cards in Doran, but is a much easier matchup because it typically has a slower clock. Kaalia is much easier to disrupt, coming into play a turn later, and really her ability is in many cases not that impactful in this matchup. Looking at 3drinks list there's only a few cards which cannot be allowed to hit the table: Iona, Shield of Emeria, Radkos the Defiler, Rune-Scarred Demon (maybe). A few others are problematic, but not deadly.
Maelstrom Wanderer - most of my losses to this commander have come against "goodstuff" versions that pack a bunch of solid enter-the-battlefield creatures, and play Wanderer when they're out of gas and/or hit 8 mana. These decks are problematic because the creatures they play (example, Acidic Slime) provide solid tempo in the short term and a quickly accelerating clock in the long term. Against ramp versions of Wanderer, I have had no problems whatsoever. There's so few must-counter spells in those lists, and so few cards that really disrupt your own gameplan, that you're essentially goldfishing, while countering a spell or two, here and there, just because you have open mana and some counters in hand.
Radha, Heir to Keld - the clock that Radha decks provide isn't that problematic... what really is annoying is the excessive amount of burn. Sticking Kami on the board for any period of time is tough, though it is nice that the burn spells can be Misdirectioned on an otherwise empty board to protect Kami, while something like Terror cannot. As in all matchups against removal-heavy decks, the artifact card drawers (Howling Mine, etc.) are very effective.
Talrand, the Sky Summoner - I've had some success against this deck thus far, because it generally ends up being a counter war when they tap out on turn 4 to play Talrand. As long as I have two counters I can play, or a counter and a bounce, or something like that, I'm OK. The games I tend to lose are those in which the Talrand player plays Vendilion Clique or Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, allowing them a better chance to win a Talrand counter war (Vendilion), or to avoid it altogether (Teferi).
Vendilion Clique, Wydwen, the Biting Gale - these decks play similarly, but a 7-turn clock is an eternity for the Kami deck, drawing tons of cards during that time. All it takes is one Mana Short or Gigadrowse during this time to force a counter battle on their turn, then untap and go wild with some Time Warps. Wydwen thankfully plays a bunch of dead cards in the matchup, and its return-to-hand ability is entirely useless in this matchup. Vendilion's ability to strip a card can be deadly, and also ensures you can't slow down the 7-turn clock by bouncing it. Against Wydwen, bounce spells can be used to buy an extra turn off of the clock.
Zur, the Enchanter - similar problems to the Doran matchup with the cheap hand disruption and removal spells. The difference being, of course, that Zur wins in one swing while Doran takes 5. Still, over time I've found myself removing the more expensive spells in my deck in favor of more cheap counters and bounce, and I think that has greatly benefitted me in matchups like Zur and Talrand, where I can punish them for having to spend 4 mana in their main phase just to try to get their commander on the board.
As evidenced by the commander, this deck is perfectly content to allow an opponent to draw plenty of cards. There are two reasons for this: one is that they still have some limit to what they can cast each turn, due to mana limitations. And two, because drawing lots of cards leads each player to be better able to execute their strategy. And since my strategy is to take lots of turns and not let them execute their strategy... things often work out well when everyone draws lots of cards.
Counterspells are largely self-explanatory. Commandeer is an interesting way to net a planeswalker, but is usually used to protect Kami on turn 2 or 3 when I've tapped out to play it, or Jace, or something like that.
Bounce spells are again largely self-explanatory. They serve two purposes: one is to ensure you don't die to your opponent's creatures and permanents. The second is to bounce cards like Stasis during your opponent's end step, allowing you to untap, possibly play some Time Walks, and then replay Stasis again with just the two lands needed to cast it tapped.
These help ensure your opponent can't play all of the spells they draw. Stasis is really in a class of its own here, locking down your opponents lands and creatures. Winter Orb and Static Orb are significantly inferior, but still OK. Winter Orb is best against control, while Static Orb is best against decks looking to swing with lots of guys. Pendrell Mists is not a great way to tap out on turn 4, but it's one of the few ways blue has to permanently destroy an opponent's creature set.
Gitaxian Probe knowing whether to play Kami immediately on turn 2 or not. I used to play Peek and Clairvoyance as well, but have added a few additional turn-1 plays (Lotus Petal, etc.) that make me less likely to be able to play those before a turn 2 Kami.
The two one-mana Tutors are mostly for non-blue matchups, where Polymorph will win the game. Even if it won't, putting Temporal Mastery on top, if I have Kami or some other card-drawer on the board, will get back the card disadvantage I lose with these spells.
Long-Term Plans is amusing in this deck because it's usually more accurately short-term plans. About 90% of the time, I'll play it during my opponent's end step and have the card I tutored for in my hand during my next turn. Stasis is a common fetch target, as are the Time Walks and Polymorph. This card bounces in and out of the decklist.
Of course, not all of these are true Time Walk spells, but they're close. As mentioned above, this deck truly does not care if its opponent draws a ton of extra cards. Exhaustion is essentially a 3-mana time walk as my opponents creatures and lands are usually tapped out. Mana Short is great at forcing a counter war during my opponent's turn (or ensuring it doesn't happen during mine). Also has cute interactions with Pendrell Mists and the Pact cards like Pact of Negation (you'll drain their mana while those effects are on the stack, and thus they'll have none... save for artifact and creature sources... when the pact and Pendrell triggers resolve).
Gigadrowse is the closest to a true Time Walk, allowing me to usually tap all of my opponent's lands if they're playing control, or all of their creatures as a pseudo-fog and a couple of lands if they're playing aggro.
I rarely pay the buyback of Walk the Aeons. This deck has no way to cheat extra lands into play, so losing three turns worth of lands is painful. Recently, I've removed it and am reasonably happy with the decision.
I *think* these are all worthwhile. Debating this. If you can land Kami turn 1 or turn 2 with a counter backup, the card disadvantage pays itself back rather quickly. Definitely worth considering removing these though - losing a turn-1 Kami to something like Sword to Plowshares or Terror or Lightning Bolt is a huge hit to card advantage, since your opponent got an extra card from Kami, and you spent two cards putting a Mox or Petal or Gemstone Caverns into play.
Budget Considerations
This deck is fairly cheap for EDH, as far as I can tell, at around $800. If you're looking to make it more budget-friendly, you can swap Savor the Moment or Walk the Aeons for Capture of Jingzhou and save more than 1/4 of that total.
The four fetchlands are nice to have, but far from crucial to the deck. Jace, the Mind Sculptor can be cut as well if on a strict budget. That's another 1/4 of the deck, and now we're at $400 and we've only lost one card that wasn't replaced with something nearly as good (Jace). (Note that if you do cut the fetchlands, you're also losing a lot of the power of Brainstorm and Scroll Rack, so those should then be cut as well).
Next I'd consider cutting Personal Tutor and Wasteland for price concerns. Personal Tutor is kind of on the fence right now anyways. Wasteland is nice, to be sure, but sometimes I miss the U I'd get from an Island in its place for things like Stasis upkeeps and Gigadrowse.
Now we're at $300, and still have only removed only one card that's completely irreplaceable. You'd be hard-pressed to find an EDH deck for this price that is more competitive than this.
If more cuts were needed, I'd consider Force of Will and Temporal Manipulation. They're both key to the deck strategy, but you could try Savor the Moment (or Beacon of Tomorrows perhaps) in place of Temporal. Both cuts would really hurt, but to chop off over 1/3 of the remaining cost and put the deck somewhere around $190 would be pretty spectacular.
There is another school of thought with the Kami/Howling Mine/Font of Mythos decks in which they simply try to lock things down and get the opponent to die of pain from things like Black Vise and an abnormally large hand. This is an awfully slow clock at 3 damage per turn. I've tried such a decklist and was almost immediately dissatisfied with it. Not saying it can't work, but I had a lot of failure in the testing I did with it.
Savor the Moment - I have a tough time with this one. Played on turn 3, it's not great, because it leaves me - at best - with one open island the next turn. I should really consider it a turn 4 play, so that I can presumably end the extra turn with two islands untapped and be able to play a 2-mana counter or bounce spell during my opponent's next turn. Still, a 3-mana Time Walk is a rare thing, it lets me do what's most important anyways (draw cards), and it probably should get a slot.
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur - in the place of Emrakul, I just found him a little lacking. One of the bigger problems is actually that if he dies, I have no way to get him back. And it's really hard to swing for 21 with Kami, even if I have the game under control, without decking myself.
Panoptic Mirror - I already have about 6 cards that are a 2-card gamewinning combo with this. Still, it's hard to spend all of turn 5 doing nothing to impact the board, and it's near impossible against control decks to tap out turn 5 *and* during your upkeep of turn 6. Still... 2-card gamewinning combos can win games that are otherwise looking very bad, so it's worth considering. Especially because the Time Walks are already in the deck and very useful as it is.
Beacon of Tomorrows, Time Stretch - 8 mana is a lot to pay for a Time Walk, but the chance of redrawing it in later turns makes me want to try it. Likewise, Time Stretch seems too costly, but I do occasionally find myself in long games with 10+ mana on the board. The problem is, there's only so many cards you can put in a decklist that you don't want to see in your opening hand, before your opening hands start getting very bad.
Rhystic Study - can sometimes win games if I can't lock things down and my opponent is playing a ton of spells. But, smart players will generally treat it as a one-sided Sphere of Resistance, which is nice, but not amazing. Tapping out on any turn, even turn 3, has to be really worthwhile, and this isn't quite making the cut at this point.
Muddle the Mixture - I have a love/hate relationship with this. I want to up the counterspell count a bit, and the transmute ability is a great way to fetch Stasis. Still, spending 3 mana plus the 2 for Stasis leaves me in a tight spot. And if I wait a turn to untap the 3 islands I spent transmuting, and then cast the Stasis, it's far less effective because my opponnent now knows it's coming. One thing I started doing recently was transmuting for Mana Vapors, which has worked out well. It becomes a pseudo-time-walk for 2UUU, with a bit more utility in case I actually want to cast Muddle.
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage - I feel like this is a bit of a win-more card. I tried it briefly and it was very good, but I couldn't get over the prospect of having it clog up my opening hand sometimes. Will definitely get another chance at some point.
Counters are almost always useful. This deck has a harder time against blue, largely because tapping out for a 5-mana Time Walk spell can be devastating to see countered. Delay I've been slow to try because it's only 100% useful in this deck against counterspells. If I'm countering a threat, I actually typically don't have the game locked up 3 turns later when the original spell resolves. At least with Memory Lapse, they have to spend the mana again to cast it.
Time Spiral - could be particularly impactful after having dumped my hand to something like Foil, especially if I draw into a Time Walk. Timetwister, too, has some interesting applications, if I dump my hand early to put a Mox or Gemstone Caverns in play, and/or to protect Kami's first turn on the board.
Call to Mind - I really liked Snapcaster Mage in this deck before I removed it for the Polymorph package. This costs 1 more and is not nearly as good, but does still get me back a Time Walk most of the time. Worth considering.
Trade Secrets - worth considering, as it fits with the whole theme of this deck. At worst, against a smart opponent, it's a draw-4, which may well be useful with all the ways I end up emptying my hand early on in games.
Mind's Eye - again with the 5-mana spells that require me to tap out... obviously a beast in my deck, but paying all of this mana quickly puts me in a position that I try to get my opponent in... with a full hand and not enough mana to play all of that goodness.
Mystic Remora - may have a place in this deck to help with control matchups. Still, I'd have to play it, and then get into a counter war (or two) pretty quickly to really take advantage of it.
Aetherize - this has benefits and costs versus Evacuation. Aetherize is cheaper to cast and won't bounce my Kami. On the other hand, Evacuation bounces troublesome non-attacking creatures too (Mother of Runes for example) and allows me to use it at their EOT and ensure I can untap and play a planeswalker without worrying about it being attacked the following turn (barring hasted creatures, manlands, etc).
Swan Song - this card has some potential. We don't do a lot on turn 1, and the ability to halt a Duress or a Land Tax on the play on turn 1 is pretty solid and worth a 2/2. Not a slam dunk, but could be good.
Dissolve - three mana is too much to pay for a counterspell in a lot of circumstances. I think something like Exclude would be better in this slot, if you're dying for a counter with some utility.
Other needs going forward
I'm currently trying to find some additional cards to force action on my opponent's turn and get them tapped out for my turn so I can chain a few Time Walks with impunity. Fact or Fiction might be the most powerful traditional card for this purpose, but the card advantage really isn't the primary thing I'm looking for... I'm looking for lands to get tapped. (This is why inferior cards in the abstract, like Mana Short, have made the cut already, but Fact or Fiction has not. I don't want the cards from FoF, I want them to tap lands to try to counter it.
Hey! I'm by no means an expert on Blue decks; I just wanted to chime in and say that I really LOVE the novelty of this deck. I got to play against it (yep, that was me testing the new Borborygmos ramp deck lol) and I can attest to feeling completely lost at first in not knowing what to expect or what were my priority targets. The auto-draw effects actually work well for you in this meta when you're the one with the combo and all the delay in the world. <3
As for the problematic matchups, I have a few suggestions:
Geist is a jerk. I like Curfew, which ought to be especially one-sided in this deck. Added bonus for giving you more juice out of your other two ETB creatures. Cuts are tough here, though... maybe Flusterstorm? Call me crazy.
Thrax is a jerk. Dissipation Field could help delay the game in your favor against several decks. Good thinking putting that on your list. This seems like the right deck for it.
I'm not sure what to suggest for Oath. Dumb card.
I put Tectonic Edge in all of my decks. Well, maybe not in my 5CC deck, but it definitely fits a mono-U deck.
Riley, that was fun. RG has been my favorite color combo since 1994, when my friends and I first started playing. We divvied up the cards we had so that I got all the red and green, another friend got black and white, and the last friend got blue and artifacts. Let's just say that split worked well for me
Dissipation Field is in my consideration pile. I used to play it with the intention of foiling multiple creature attacks, and I felt like Overburden and Propaganda were better at that (they are). But in fact, for Thrax and Geist, Dissipation Field would be pretty sweet. Might remove Pendrell Mists to put this back.
Curfew is interesting. Certainly I'm happy to bounce Snapcaster or Vendilion, but neither of them stick around very long. Bouncing Kami during my opponent's turn is a bad idea, from the Howling Mine perspective, though.
I should say, there's nothing wrong with having bad matchups. I don't necessarily feel like I absolutely have to beat Geist, or that I should sacrifice my winning percentage in other matchups to improve that one.
I think Tectonic Edge should definitely be in the main deck. I'm just wary of adding too many non-islands, since I really need UU available on turn 2 (if not for Kami, then for Counterspell). But there are a number of lands which make my life miserable, most notably Cavern of Souls as you found out much to your delight. Temple of the False God is interesting too, but I'd have to give it more thought. The 5th mana is the most important in most games, allowing me to begin casting the major Time Warp spells. Temple as my 5th land drop would only really help if I have Walk the Aeons in hand and no other time walks.
Emether, does your friend happen to have the list handy? I can tune this deck for percentage points here and there, but I have no idea if there's something I'm just completely missing. As for the round times, agreed on that. Half the reason I have the Mind Over Matter/Temple Bell combo in there is because it is one way to immediately end games.
One major alteration: removed Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique in favor of a Polymorph package (Polymorph and Reweave) which is already winning games for me. Thanks Virtus for the idea and Evergreen for Reweave, which is better than Mass Polymorph due to instant speed.
One major alteration: removed Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique in favor of a Polymorph package (Polymorph and Reweave) which is already winning games for me. Thanks Virtus for the idea and Evergreen for Reweave, which is better than Mass Polymorph due to instant speed.
Haha, oh now that's brilliant. You don't need Green to play an Oath strategy, I see. =P
I don't think you need the MoM/ Temple Bell combo anymore. I recommend replacing them with Frantic Search and See Beyond just in case you draw into Emrakul.
MoM gives some really fun plays, but yeah. Safe to remove. I've also removed Grim Monolith, adding in Frantic Search and Dissipation Field.
I actually like Lat-Nam's Legacy better than See Beyond, purely for the instant speed, as it's deadly to be tapping out with this deck when not absolutely necessary.
For Tezzeret... unfortunately Stasis is not a hard lock without Frozen Aether. In my very first incarnation of the deck, I did have Tezz in there, but my artifacts have gone down and down over time. I also can't justify tapping out on turn 5 for anything but a Time Warp. It's suicide to let my opponent have a free turn that far into the game without much possibility of a counter from me. I'm actually removing a bunch of main phase cards in the deck... things like Fellwar Stone, Sapphire Medallion, Grim Monolith. Despite their nice interaction with Winter Orb, I feel like I should really just be dropping Kami turn 2, then leaving counter/bounce mana up in subsequent turns until I can begin taking extra turns.
Had a nice match win 2-1 against GAAIV. Keeping him off the table ensures I'll actually be playing my spells while he sits with a full hand of things he doesn't have the mana to cast all at once.
Lost 2-1 to Doran and Skullbriar. Both were moderate bad beats, which is not to complain about them but rather to say that they were certainly competitive, and I think in the long run both are favorable for this deck.
Zur continues to be a problem and is probably worse than I originally thought, I think I got a couple of singleton games against it which I lost both. Hopefully it continues to dominate tournaments and gets the banhammer, which would certainly help this deck.
Other than that, I think I've won every match in the last week, against a variety of decks (some more competitive than others).
Recent and future additions:
Leyline of Anticipation has been amusing so far. Creates some extremely interesting strategic opportunities and makes Kami significantly better if I'm able to play it during my opponent's turn and get the first extra draw myself.
Wash Out needs to go in. A great spell for early swarms.
Gigadrowse is an interesting possibility. An expensive pseudo-Time-Walk (I don't care how many cards my opponent draws, since they can generally only play 1 or 2 per turn due to mana constraints) that I can play at instant speed. Has some cute additional interactions as well, such as tapping my Static Orb or Howling Mine during my opponent's upkeep (along with their creatures and lands).
Exhaustion deserves a place as well. Might actually be better than Savor the Moment, which is OK so far, but not amazing. Again, I don't mind if my opponent draws 2+ cards per turn since they can't play them faster than I can counter.
Mishra's Factory and other manlands: would create an additional uncounterable Polymorph target, and possibly give some defense against the most common way Emrakul is dying (Diabolic Edict).
I *really* miss Snapcaster Mage though. It was my only way to recur Time Walks, outside of Timetwister. And my only way to recur Timetwister at all. Recall could be interesting, but I'm not often in a position to pay 22U for it *and* cast a Time Warp in the same turn. And casting it just for 11U and a card seems like a waste.
Currently testing: Leyline of Anticipation - excellent so far. Easy to use if not in opening 7 (Foil, Force of Will, Commandeer, etc.) Exhaustion - awesome. Perfect for this deck. Gigadrowse Mana Short - usually not as good as Exhaustion, but in some ways better. Boomerang - I get a ton of wins from Stasis, bouncing at my opponent's EOT, untapping, taking a couple of time walks, and then replaying it. But, I often find myself with Stasis and without means to bounce it.
* * * * *
Not sure how much I like the Polymorph plan. I don't have a sense of when to go for it and when to hold back. And even once I figure that out, there's still a surprising number of ways for opponents to handle it. I've removed Reweave, because it's just too slow. I can still get Polymorph by drawing it, or from three different tutors, so hopefully I can still get it most times I want it.
Current record:
20-11 vs "top tier" generals
5-6 vs "mid tier"
3-0 vs "casual"
For Withdraw... most creature-heavy decks let me do my thing, and the high counterspell count combined with the handful of slowdown cards is sufficient to ensure 30 life is enough. The only deck I can think of with a high creature count and a fast start, that spends all of its mana, and also tries to slow *me* down is Doran. I suppose Adun as well; not sure if Duress/Thoughseize/Inquisition of Kozilek is played in there, but if so, Withdraw would help as well. Rafiq is perhaps another matchup where it would be useful; if I get a bad opening hand, I can lose to a turn 3 Rafiq. Withdraw would be really good in those matchups, but I think I'm in good shape with them for the most part. I strongly prefer bounce which is able to return Stasis or Winter Orb during my opponent's end step.
As for Expedition Map, I've never thought of it actually. You are right that Reliquary Tower isn't by any means a requirement, but it occasionally is useful. It's actually very comforting in control matchups where we're both just playing draw-draw-land-go. If I am forced to discard down to 7, then I am often in no better position than my opponent - in a counter war, we'll both have the same amount of mana available and about the same number of counters we can play. If I am able to hold upwards of 10 or 12 cards, then Commandeer, Foil, Disrupting Shoal, Misdirection, and Force of Will ensure I will win the counter war. Academy Ruins is not worth fetching, and if I need another Wasteland, I'd probably just add Ghost Quarter. Having mana open turn 1 is nice for Force Spike, Flusterstorm, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, and of course Peek and Clairvoyance which give me great insight into whether I should play Kami on turn 2. So I'm hesitant to even tap out on turn 1 for Expedition Map, because the land it fetches won't be as useful as the turn 1 mana might be during my opponent's turn.
I think at this point I am looking for one more card which could force a counter war, or a tap out, on my opponent's turn. Mana Short has been great for this (and for non-control matchups as well, frankly) and Gigadrowse may actually be even better since it hits artifacts and mana critters too. I removed Reweave because it's so painful in the opening hand, but maybe it could fill this need. Or Fact or Fiction.
83-38 against decks I thought were trying to be competitive. I stopped trying to distinguish these into multiple tiers because I found the line between to be impossible to draw.
12-1 against decks I thought were more casual-oriented.
Biggest thing right now is deciding whether to replace Emrakul with Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. May play around with that configuration and see how I like it.
Shoot, I have, and I've been playing it. Forgot to add it into the updated decklist. It's got a ton of utility - it's either a Mana Short, a Fog, or a mega Dark Ritual if I have Emrakul in hand and 10 lands on the board.
Bump for updated match record. Also moved a few commanders from "competitive" to "casual". Still have no real good way to measure this unfortunately, so it's pretty arbitrary.
3) removed Peek after having removed Clairvoyance a few weeks ago. Not being able to see what card those will become is unfortunately problematic. Occasionally the one-mana cost is annoying too.
4) removed Leyline of Anticipation. I'm more and more embracing the idea of letting opponents draw tons of cards, so Leyline's ability to let me get Kami's draw first isn't great anymore. And while I might enjoy it to be able to play a time walk in an opponent's turn, I don't miss that too much.
5) Removed Evacuation. Added Rushing River. Evacuation was just too costly, though I will miss occasionally tutoring for it. Rushing River can be played a little sooner, gives me one more possible bounce card for EOT-bouncing Stasis and the like, and can always function as a painful Withdraw, or a more expensive Aether Tradewinds in cases where I want to maybe bounce Stasis and an opponent's permanent.
All in all, the deck is still getting more focused on beating decks that pack counterspells, so I've removed a bunch of my cards that only serve to defend against creatures (Evacuation, Overburden, etc.)
I really like how this list is turning out. Quick question: do you really want all those time walk effects? Don't get my wrong, I love Exhaustion and Gigadrowse, but do you really need Walk the Aeons?
The buyback of Walk the Aeons is occasionally relevant, but then again, so is the extra mana in the casting cost. I'm certainly trying to lower the curve of the deck and minimize the number of pricey main phase spells I have. If I had to cut a time walk, it would probably be the first one to go. (and that might be the next move I make, since I'm really running out of cards to remove in order to test new ideas). I just hesitate because once you've got a drawer or two on board, topdecking a time walk is often what ends up blowing the game open.
Anyways, it's certainly worth trying, so I'll probably cut it for the next spell I try. I want to give Mindslaver, Jace, Architect of Thought, and Negate another chance. Maybe I'll pull it for Jace and succeed at lowering the curve a bit.
Exhaustion, by the way, is probably the card that gains the most from being in this deck. It's absolutely amazing.
Updated decklist.
Curve is somewhat lower; counterspell count has been raised, particularly among the 2cc counterspells, adding Delay and Memory Lapse, removing Commandeer and Logic Knot (which is 2cc late in the game, but too often a subpar Power Sink early on).
Updated match results.
Some recent good performance against top-tier generals (Geist, Zur, GAAIV) has made them look a lot better. Some subpar performance against what used to be byes (Animar, Talrand), but overall I think it's been a good progression for the deck. Amazingly, starting to get meaningful sample sizes for a lot of these opposing commanders, which is astounding considering there's about 100 of them out there.
so the general jist is to play general, counter their things. try to force a stasis. Once it resolves wait or force them to tap out, then take extra turns until you can safely polymorph into emrakul and protect him? or how do most games play out?
Stasis wins a good amount of games, but even with all of the card drawing, I only see it in the minority of games.
Most games play pretty differently. Against blue decks with counters (i.e. Talrand, Zur), it ends up being a counterspell fight over their commander resolving. I do OK at this since they're 4 mana behind right from the start due to just playing their commander. Against decks with burn and removal, I'm generally looking for some of my artifact-based card drawers. Against super-high casting cost commanders (Maelstrom, Griselbrand), I generally have a pretty easy time since they're spending their turns casting ramp spells and I can generally have free reign for a while.
Sometimes I can just get a turn 3 or 4 Emrakul, which is nice.
Sometimes I am able to drop a couple of card drawers and then chain a few extra turns. The Stasis/Static Orb/Winter Orb don't work well with the time walks so most likely I just use them to stall for a bit, draw a bunch of cards while not much happens on the board, and then bounce them at the end of my opponent's turn so I can untap and take extra turns at that point.
Hey there, I've been looking for a mono blue EDH deck to play that's a bit off the beaten path and found your excellent primer. I hope you do agree that imitation is in fact the sincerest form of flattery
Anyways, what I was wondering about, what do you think of Torpor Orb? It is 2 mana in a main phase, but it doesn't hurt this deck at all while potentially neutering enemy creatures.
Also, while the meta I'm playing in is basically purely 1on1, it does use the normal ban list and normal commander rules (40 life, tucking possible, ..). Consequently I can't use Emrakul. I was wondering with what to replace him, right now I'm considering Blightsteel Colossus.
Torpor Orb is on my radar. But, most decks it is good against (Animar, Iname, Karador) are pretty good matchups already. Recently, I've been moving towards adding counterspells (especially in the 2-mana slot) and they've helped me a great deal against control decks without sacrificing too much of my ability to beat non-control decks. If Torpor Orb drew a card, like Tsabo's Web, I'd definitely play it. But between being dead against some of the better decks (Geist, Zur, GAAIV), having to spend mana in the main phase for it, and only helping matchups I feel good about already, I just haven't tried it yet.
I haven't updated it in a long time, partly because it was so hard to actually find competitive decks to play it against. But it may well be the best deck in the format with some minor metagame tweaks, and it is unquestionably the most fun (for the pilot). What's better than getting to play Sol Ring? Playing your opponent's Sol Ring as well
Your Thada Adel deck certainly looks interesting but she's not quite my style. Kami looks much more intruiging, plus I love that deceptive "group hug" look about him That and budget considerations.
Also, the number of finishers seems low (not that I've acually tested the deck yet..). But if you slap a Runechanter's Pike on the little Kami he should get quite a bit more formidable. I wonder if that might be worth a slot.
What I'm basically wondering is, can you reliably finish the game with only Polymorph and Shackles most of the time?
...with "Other" being things like decking, getting killed by a Dark Confidant, etc.
If I were to add an equipment for Kami, I would make it something better than Pike. Maybe the best Sword for the metagame, or Jitte.
I actually really like the Eldrazi mechanic of shuffling my whole graveyard into the library. If you've used up a bunch of time walks, or bounce spells, and need another one, it greatly helps there. So I'd probably recommend Ulamog instead of Emrakul, although that's a huge downgrade. If there's not a lot of Wrath of God spells in your metagame, maybe Kozilek, for being easier to cast and because 4 cards is probably better than destroying one, for this deck.
Despite the presence of some of the least-fun cards ever printed (Stasis and Winter Orb), this deck turns some of the most fun cards ever printed (Kami of the Crescent Moon, Time Warp) into absolute powerhouses. Time Warp in and of itself is pretty fairly costed for an extra attack phase and land drop, and the card you draw for that turn is essentially making it a "cantrip". But when you're drawing two or three cards during that extra turn... and one of them is another Time Warp type of card... things start to get obscene. It is not uncommon for my opponent to pass the turn to me with one card in my hand, and by the time it's their turn again, I've got a full hand, 3 additional lands in play, and an enviable board position.
I should add... while many players groan at the thought of going against someone with multiple Time Walk cards, the reality is that this deck plays very fast. Most extra turns are simply:
- draw
- draw
- play land
- draw (Temple Bell/Jace/Jace2.0)
- cast Time Walk
- start next turn
If we had a chess clock in Magic, I've no doubt that we'd spend less time during my turns than my opponents turns.
A more appropriate complaint about this deck is the occasional necessity of using Stasis-type cards to lock things down for a while. This makes for a pretty boring game. Sometimes it is done from a strong position (that is, I already have some kind of bounce spell in my hand like Boomerang that I'll use to bounce Stasis during my opponent's end step a few turns later, get a free untap, play a couple of Time Walks, and either win soon, or put myself in a pretty dominant position). Sometimes it's done from a weak position, though, as a last resort if I'm in serious trouble, don't have a bounce spell in hand, and basically need to hope for something lucky. Either way though, the cards are in there because they're good, and no serious player will object (lest they be subjective, foolish, and largely hypocritical).
Let's cut to the chase:
1 Kami of the Crescent Moon
Card drawing for everyone:
1 Howling Mine
1 Temple Bell
1 Jace Beleren
1 Dictate of Kruphix
Card drawing for me:
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Dig Through Time
Free Counters:
1 Mental Misstep
1 Daze
1 Foil
1 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
Counters:
1 Disrupt
1 Force Spike
1 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
1 Memory Lapse
1 Arcane Denial
1 Mana Leak
1 Miscalculation
1 Remand
1 Counterspell
1 Forbid
1 Condescend
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Into the Roil
1 Boomerang
1 Capsize
1 Repeal
1 Cyclonic Rift
Slowdown:
1 Stasis
1 Winter Orb
1 Static Orb
1 Storage Matrix
1 Pendrell Mists
Utility:
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Stifle
1 Brainstorm
1 Personal Tutor
1 Withdraw
1 Cryptic Command
1 Leyline of Anticipation
Time Walks:
1 Mana Vapors
1 Temporal Mastery
1 Exhaustion
1 Mana Short
1 Turnabout
1 Time Warp
1 Temporal Manipulation
1 Capture of Jingzhou
1 Temporal Trespass
1 Gigadrowse
1 Polymorph
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Land:
29 Island
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Wasteland
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mutavault
Acceleration:
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Jeweled Amulet
Those are the cards I really like. But as you can see, it's not 99 cards. Some other considerations to fill it:
The top 5 are probably my favorite. Prohibit if you expect counter wars, Disrupt if you expect counter wars or Duress', Turnabout if you expect a lot of draw-go, Pendrell Mists if you expect non-elf creatures, and Commandeer if you expect planeswalkers.
Matchup data - play record, matchup advice:
Competitive/semi-competitive commanders:
317 wins, 149 losses
6 5 Adun Oakenshield
0 2 Akroma, Angel of Fury
10 6 Animar, Soul of Elements
3 1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
20 5 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
9 2 Captain Sisay
5 2 Damia, Sage of Stone
12 8 Doran, the Siege Tower
11 4 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
5 5 Gaddock Teeg
15 6 Geist of Saint Traft
2 1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
5 6 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
12 3 Griselbrand
8 5 Horde of Notions
2 0 Iname, Death Aspect
5 6 Jenara, Asura of War
12 1 Jhoira of the Ghitu
11 1 Kaalia of the Vast
3 0 Kami of the Crescent Moon
8 3 Karador, Ghost Chieftan
1 0 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
5 2 Krenko, Mob Boss
20 8 Maelstrom Wanderer
1 0 Merieke Ri Berit
2 5 Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
2 1 Nin, the Pain Artist
22 10 Radha, Heir of Keld
14 5 Rafiq of the Many
10 2 Rhys, the Redeemed
5 3 Ruhan of the Formori
2 0 Saffi Eriksdotter
4 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
6 6 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
4 2 Sygg, River Cutthroat
13 8 Talrand, the Sky Summoner
5 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
10 1 The Mimeoplasm
3 4 Thraximundar
5 0 Vendilion Clique
4 2 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
15 14 Zur, the Enchanter
Casual commanders:
103 wins, 12 losses
1 0 Angus MacKenzie
1 0 Ashling the Pilgrim
3 0 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 0 Bosh, Iron Golem
1 0 Braids, Conjurer Adept
2 0 Bruna, Light of Alabaster
2 0 Child of Alara
1 0 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
0 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 0 Ertai, the Corrupted
3 0 Ghave, Guru of Spores
2 0 Ghost Council of Orzhova
1 0 Glissa, the Traitor
1 0 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
1 0 Heartless Hidetsugu
5 2 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
1 0 Isperia, Supreme Judge
2 0 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 0 Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
1 0 Kaervek the Merciless
1 0 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
2 0 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
2 1 Kresh the Bloodbraided
1 0 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
2 0 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
1 0 Lovisa Coldeyes
4 1 Lyzolda, the Blood Witch
2 0 Mangara of Corondor
2 1 Maralen of the Mornsong
2 0 Mayael the Anima
0 0 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 0 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
4 0 Obzedat, Ghost Council
1 0 Olivia Voldaren
0 1 Omnath, Locus of Mana
1 0 Oona, Queen of the Fae
3 0 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 0 Radkos, Lord of Riots
1 0 Ramses Overdark
4 2 Riku of Two Reflections
1 0 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
2 0 Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
3 0 Sen Triplets
1 0 Sharuum the Hegemon
1 0 Sisters of the Stone Death
1 0 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
1 0 Sliver Overlord
1 0 Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
2 1 Tetsuo Umezawa
5 0 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
2 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 0 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
7 1 Uril, the Miststalker
2 0 Wort, Boggart Auntie
1 0 Wrexial, the Risen Deep
1 0 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
1 0 Zedruu the Greathearted
How to play specific matchups:
Animar, Soul of Elements - fairly vulnerable to counters and bounce spells, and this makes up fully 1/4 of the decklist. The slowdown cards, including even Stasis, aren't too helpful here. I used to play Overburden which unsurprisingly murders Animar. Without it, the matchup gets a little worse, but I wouldn't expect any issues here. I had a few successful matches against Animar before I started keeping track in the table above.
Doran, the Siege Tower - a ton of annoying cards in this deck, all available on turn 1. Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Swords to Plowshares, Oust, etc. Success really depends on how many of those the Doran player has in the opening hand. Also the presence of some artifact-based card drawers (Howling Mine, Temple Bell, Font of Mythos) is helpful, since Doran has far less ways to remove them once they land. One well-timed bounce spell on Doran can really slow down their clock, and they have virtually no defense against the play-Stasis-for-a-couple-turns-then-bounce-it strategy. I've had some success against Doran thus far, but it feels like it should be more like 50/50.
Ezuri, Renegade Leader - gets destroyed by Stasis, like most decks, and Static Orb is somewhat painful as well. Thankfully you can save counterspells for their creatures and not worry much about Kami being killed (except for a lone copy of Beast Within). This is one matchup where I'd probably hold off on casting Kami immediately, and instead focus on countering key spells early: Earthcraft, Priest of Titania, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, Eladamri, Lord of Leaves, Elvish Archdruid, Crop Rotation, etc. Cast Kami on turn 4 or so, if you have a 2-mana counter for Ezuri. Or, if you have something like Force of Will or Daze in hand, you could cast Kami on turn 2. Bottom line though is that you can't be without counters in this matchup. They have a handful of individual cards that will end the game immediately or the next turn after resolving.
Geist of Saint Traft - originally regarded as possibly the worst matchup for the deck, I've been encouraged by recent results. It has a fast clock that's hard to stop, but the biggest disruption to the Kami strategy comes from removing Kami himself. Er, itself. The Stasis cards are big help, but you have to be very careful to ensure you actually get to bounce it on your opponent's turn. To this end, I'll sometimes bounce it before I absolutely have to - it's kind of a game theory thing. The Geist player will save their Into the Roil or Disenchant until they feel they're in a good position to untap and take advantage of it being gone. The Kami player's job is to bounce it during their last turn before that moment.
Kaalia of the Vast - contains all of the annoying cards in Doran, but is a much easier matchup because it typically has a slower clock. Kaalia is much easier to disrupt, coming into play a turn later, and really her ability is in many cases not that impactful in this matchup. Looking at 3drinks list there's only a few cards which cannot be allowed to hit the table: Iona, Shield of Emeria, Radkos the Defiler, Rune-Scarred Demon (maybe). A few others are problematic, but not deadly.
Maelstrom Wanderer - most of my losses to this commander have come against "goodstuff" versions that pack a bunch of solid enter-the-battlefield creatures, and play Wanderer when they're out of gas and/or hit 8 mana. These decks are problematic because the creatures they play (example, Acidic Slime) provide solid tempo in the short term and a quickly accelerating clock in the long term. Against ramp versions of Wanderer, I have had no problems whatsoever. There's so few must-counter spells in those lists, and so few cards that really disrupt your own gameplan, that you're essentially goldfishing, while countering a spell or two, here and there, just because you have open mana and some counters in hand.
Radha, Heir to Keld - the clock that Radha decks provide isn't that problematic... what really is annoying is the excessive amount of burn. Sticking Kami on the board for any period of time is tough, though it is nice that the burn spells can be Misdirectioned on an otherwise empty board to protect Kami, while something like Terror cannot. As in all matchups against removal-heavy decks, the artifact card drawers (Howling Mine, etc.) are very effective.
Talrand, the Sky Summoner - I've had some success against this deck thus far, because it generally ends up being a counter war when they tap out on turn 4 to play Talrand. As long as I have two counters I can play, or a counter and a bounce, or something like that, I'm OK. The games I tend to lose are those in which the Talrand player plays Vendilion Clique or Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, allowing them a better chance to win a Talrand counter war (Vendilion), or to avoid it altogether (Teferi).
Vendilion Clique, Wydwen, the Biting Gale - these decks play similarly, but a 7-turn clock is an eternity for the Kami deck, drawing tons of cards during that time. All it takes is one Mana Short or Gigadrowse during this time to force a counter battle on their turn, then untap and go wild with some Time Warps. Wydwen thankfully plays a bunch of dead cards in the matchup, and its return-to-hand ability is entirely useless in this matchup. Vendilion's ability to strip a card can be deadly, and also ensures you can't slow down the 7-turn clock by bouncing it. Against Wydwen, bounce spells can be used to buy an extra turn off of the clock.
Zur, the Enchanter - similar problems to the Doran matchup with the cheap hand disruption and removal spells. The difference being, of course, that Zur wins in one swing while Doran takes 5. Still, over time I've found myself removing the more expensive spells in my deck in favor of more cheap counters and bounce, and I think that has greatly benefitted me in matchups like Zur and Talrand, where I can punish them for having to spend 4 mana in their main phase just to try to get their commander on the board.
Card choices:
As evidenced by the commander, this deck is perfectly content to allow an opponent to draw plenty of cards. There are two reasons for this: one is that they still have some limit to what they can cast each turn, due to mana limitations. And two, because drawing lots of cards leads each player to be better able to execute their strategy. And since my strategy is to take lots of turns and not let them execute their strategy... things often work out well when everyone draws lots of cards.
Counterspells are largely self-explanatory. Commandeer is an interesting way to net a planeswalker, but is usually used to protect Kami on turn 2 or 3 when I've tapped out to play it, or Jace, or something like that.
Bounce spells are again largely self-explanatory. They serve two purposes: one is to ensure you don't die to your opponent's creatures and permanents. The second is to bounce cards like Stasis during your opponent's end step, allowing you to untap, possibly play some Time Walks, and then replay Stasis again with just the two lands needed to cast it tapped.
These help ensure your opponent can't play all of the spells they draw. Stasis is really in a class of its own here, locking down your opponents lands and creatures. Winter Orb and Static Orb are significantly inferior, but still OK. Winter Orb is best against control, while Static Orb is best against decks looking to swing with lots of guys. Pendrell Mists is not a great way to tap out on turn 4, but it's one of the few ways blue has to permanently destroy an opponent's creature set.
Gitaxian Probe knowing whether to play Kami immediately on turn 2 or not. I used to play Peek and Clairvoyance as well, but have added a few additional turn-1 plays (Lotus Petal, etc.) that make me less likely to be able to play those before a turn 2 Kami.
The two one-mana Tutors are mostly for non-blue matchups, where Polymorph will win the game. Even if it won't, putting Temporal Mastery on top, if I have Kami or some other card-drawer on the board, will get back the card disadvantage I lose with these spells.
Long-Term Plans is amusing in this deck because it's usually more accurately short-term plans. About 90% of the time, I'll play it during my opponent's end step and have the card I tutored for in my hand during my next turn. Stasis is a common fetch target, as are the Time Walks and Polymorph. This card bounces in and out of the decklist.
Of course, not all of these are true Time Walk spells, but they're close. As mentioned above, this deck truly does not care if its opponent draws a ton of extra cards. Exhaustion is essentially a 3-mana time walk as my opponents creatures and lands are usually tapped out. Mana Short is great at forcing a counter war during my opponent's turn (or ensuring it doesn't happen during mine). Also has cute interactions with Pendrell Mists and the Pact cards like Pact of Negation (you'll drain their mana while those effects are on the stack, and thus they'll have none... save for artifact and creature sources... when the pact and Pendrell triggers resolve).
Gigadrowse is the closest to a true Time Walk, allowing me to usually tap all of my opponent's lands if they're playing control, or all of their creatures as a pseudo-fog and a couple of lands if they're playing aggro.
I rarely pay the buyback of Walk the Aeons. This deck has no way to cheat extra lands into play, so losing three turns worth of lands is painful. Recently, I've removed it and am reasonably happy with the decision.
Largely self-explanatory.
I *think* these are all worthwhile. Debating this. If you can land Kami turn 1 or turn 2 with a counter backup, the card disadvantage pays itself back rather quickly. Definitely worth considering removing these though - losing a turn-1 Kami to something like Sword to Plowshares or Terror or Lightning Bolt is a huge hit to card advantage, since your opponent got an extra card from Kami, and you spent two cards putting a Mox or Petal or Gemstone Caverns into play.
Budget Considerations
This deck is fairly cheap for EDH, as far as I can tell, at around $800. If you're looking to make it more budget-friendly, you can swap Savor the Moment or Walk the Aeons for Capture of Jingzhou and save more than 1/4 of that total.
The four fetchlands are nice to have, but far from crucial to the deck. Jace, the Mind Sculptor can be cut as well if on a strict budget. That's another 1/4 of the deck, and now we're at $400 and we've only lost one card that wasn't replaced with something nearly as good (Jace). (Note that if you do cut the fetchlands, you're also losing a lot of the power of Brainstorm and Scroll Rack, so those should then be cut as well).
Next I'd consider cutting Personal Tutor and Wasteland for price concerns. Personal Tutor is kind of on the fence right now anyways. Wasteland is nice, to be sure, but sometimes I miss the U I'd get from an Island in its place for things like Stasis upkeeps and Gigadrowse.
Now we're at $300, and still have only removed only one card that's completely irreplaceable. You'd be hard-pressed to find an EDH deck for this price that is more competitive than this.
If more cuts were needed, I'd consider Force of Will and Temporal Manipulation. They're both key to the deck strategy, but you could try Savor the Moment (or Beacon of Tomorrows perhaps) in place of Temporal. Both cuts would really hurt, but to chop off over 1/3 of the remaining cost and put the deck somewhere around $190 would be pretty spectacular.
Notable omissions (things I've tried):
There is another school of thought with the Kami/Howling Mine/Font of Mythos decks in which they simply try to lock things down and get the opponent to die of pain from things like Black Vise and an abnormally large hand. This is an awfully slow clock at 3 damage per turn. I've tried such a decklist and was almost immediately dissatisfied with it. Not saying it can't work, but I had a lot of failure in the testing I did with it.
Savor the Moment - I have a tough time with this one. Played on turn 3, it's not great, because it leaves me - at best - with one open island the next turn. I should really consider it a turn 4 play, so that I can presumably end the extra turn with two islands untapped and be able to play a 2-mana counter or bounce spell during my opponent's next turn. Still, a 3-mana Time Walk is a rare thing, it lets me do what's most important anyways (draw cards), and it probably should get a slot.
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur - in the place of Emrakul, I just found him a little lacking. One of the bigger problems is actually that if he dies, I have no way to get him back. And it's really hard to swing for 21 with Kami, even if I have the game under control, without decking myself.
Panoptic Mirror - I already have about 6 cards that are a 2-card gamewinning combo with this. Still, it's hard to spend all of turn 5 doing nothing to impact the board, and it's near impossible against control decks to tap out turn 5 *and* during your upkeep of turn 6. Still... 2-card gamewinning combos can win games that are otherwise looking very bad, so it's worth considering. Especially because the Time Walks are already in the deck and very useful as it is.
Beacon of Tomorrows, Time Stretch - 8 mana is a lot to pay for a Time Walk, but the chance of redrawing it in later turns makes me want to try it. Likewise, Time Stretch seems too costly, but I do occasionally find myself in long games with 10+ mana on the board. The problem is, there's only so many cards you can put in a decklist that you don't want to see in your opening hand, before your opening hands start getting very bad.
Rhystic Study - can sometimes win games if I can't lock things down and my opponent is playing a ton of spells. But, smart players will generally treat it as a one-sided Sphere of Resistance, which is nice, but not amazing. Tapping out on any turn, even turn 3, has to be really worthwhile, and this isn't quite making the cut at this point.
Muddle the Mixture - I have a love/hate relationship with this. I want to up the counterspell count a bit, and the transmute ability is a great way to fetch Stasis. Still, spending 3 mana plus the 2 for Stasis leaves me in a tight spot. And if I wait a turn to untap the 3 islands I spent transmuting, and then cast the Stasis, it's far less effective because my opponnent now knows it's coming. One thing I started doing recently was transmuting for Mana Vapors, which has worked out well. It becomes a pseudo-time-walk for 2UUU, with a bit more utility in case I actually want to cast Muddle.
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage - I feel like this is a bit of a win-more card. I tried it briefly and it was very good, but I couldn't get over the prospect of having it clog up my opening hand sometimes. Will definitely get another chance at some point.
Cards I'm considering (things I haven't tried):
Counters are almost always useful. This deck has a harder time against blue, largely because tapping out for a 5-mana Time Walk spell can be devastating to see countered. Delay I've been slow to try because it's only 100% useful in this deck against counterspells. If I'm countering a threat, I actually typically don't have the game locked up 3 turns later when the original spell resolves. At least with Memory Lapse, they have to spend the mana again to cast it.
More bounce - for my cards and theirs - is always useful. These are next in line to be tried.
Intuition - such a powerful card, but not as much in this deck since (a) once a card is in my grave, it's pretty much gone, and (b) I don't quite have the redundancy I'd like. Still, the ability to EOT tutor for either Mystical Tutor, Personal Tutor, and Polymorph, or Time Warp, Temporal Manipulation, and Capture of Jingzhou, could each be useful.
Time Spiral - could be particularly impactful after having dumped my hand to something like Foil, especially if I draw into a Time Walk. Timetwister, too, has some interesting applications, if I dump my hand early to put a Mox or Gemstone Caverns in play, and/or to protect Kami's first turn on the board.
Call to Mind - I really liked Snapcaster Mage in this deck before I removed it for the Polymorph package. This costs 1 more and is not nearly as good, but does still get me back a Time Walk most of the time. Worth considering.
Trade Secrets - worth considering, as it fits with the whole theme of this deck. At worst, against a smart opponent, it's a draw-4, which may well be useful with all the ways I end up emptying my hand early on in games.
Mind's Eye - again with the 5-mana spells that require me to tap out... obviously a beast in my deck, but paying all of this mana quickly puts me in a position that I try to get my opponent in... with a full hand and not enough mana to play all of that goodness.
Mystic Remora - may have a place in this deck to help with control matchups. Still, I'd have to play it, and then get into a counter war (or two) pretty quickly to really take advantage of it.
Aetherize - this has benefits and costs versus Evacuation. Aetherize is cheaper to cast and won't bounce my Kami. On the other hand, Evacuation bounces troublesome non-attacking creatures too (Mother of Runes for example) and allows me to use it at their EOT and ensure I can untap and play a planeswalker without worrying about it being attacked the following turn (barring hasted creatures, manlands, etc).
Swan Song - this card has some potential. We don't do a lot on turn 1, and the ability to halt a Duress or a Land Tax on the play on turn 1 is pretty solid and worth a 2/2. Not a slam dunk, but could be good.
Dissolve - three mana is too much to pay for a counterspell in a lot of circumstances. I think something like Exclude would be better in this slot, if you're dying for a counter with some utility.
Other needs going forward
I'm currently trying to find some additional cards to force action on my opponent's turn and get them tapped out for my turn so I can chain a few Time Walks with impunity. Fact or Fiction might be the most powerful traditional card for this purpose, but the card advantage really isn't the primary thing I'm looking for... I'm looking for lands to get tapped. (This is why inferior cards in the abstract, like Mana Short, have made the cut already, but Fact or Fiction has not. I don't want the cards from FoF, I want them to tap lands to try to counter it.
As for the problematic matchups, I have a few suggestions:
Geist is a jerk. I like Curfew, which ought to be especially one-sided in this deck. Added bonus for giving you more juice out of your other two ETB creatures. Cuts are tough here, though... maybe Flusterstorm? Call me crazy.
Thrax is a jerk. Dissipation Field could help delay the game in your favor against several decks. Good thinking putting that on your list. This seems like the right deck for it.
I'm not sure what to suggest for Oath. Dumb card.
I put Tectonic Edge in all of my decks. Well, maybe not in my 5CC deck, but it definitely fits a mono-U deck.
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
Dissipation Field is in my consideration pile. I used to play it with the intention of foiling multiple creature attacks, and I felt like Overburden and Propaganda were better at that (they are). But in fact, for Thrax and Geist, Dissipation Field would be pretty sweet. Might remove Pendrell Mists to put this back.
Curfew is interesting. Certainly I'm happy to bounce Snapcaster or Vendilion, but neither of them stick around very long. Bouncing Kami during my opponent's turn is a bad idea, from the Howling Mine perspective, though.
I should say, there's nothing wrong with having bad matchups. I don't necessarily feel like I absolutely have to beat Geist, or that I should sacrifice my winning percentage in other matchups to improve that one.
I think Tectonic Edge should definitely be in the main deck. I'm just wary of adding too many non-islands, since I really need UU available on turn 2 (if not for Kami, then for Counterspell). But there are a number of lands which make my life miserable, most notably Cavern of Souls as you found out much to your delight. Temple of the False God is interesting too, but I'd have to give it more thought. The 5th mana is the most important in most games, allowing me to begin casting the major Time Warp spells. Temple as my 5th land drop would only really help if I have Walk the Aeons in hand and no other time walks.
Emether, does your friend happen to have the list handy? I can tune this deck for percentage points here and there, but I have no idea if there's something I'm just completely missing. As for the round times, agreed on that. Half the reason I have the Mind Over Matter/Temple Bell combo in there is because it is one way to immediately end games.
Haha, oh now that's brilliant. You don't need Green to play an Oath strategy, I see. =P
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
I actually like Lat-Nam's Legacy better than See Beyond, purely for the instant speed, as it's deadly to be tapping out with this deck when not absolutely necessary.
For Tezzeret... unfortunately Stasis is not a hard lock without Frozen Aether. In my very first incarnation of the deck, I did have Tezz in there, but my artifacts have gone down and down over time. I also can't justify tapping out on turn 5 for anything but a Time Warp. It's suicide to let my opponent have a free turn that far into the game without much possibility of a counter from me. I'm actually removing a bunch of main phase cards in the deck... things like Fellwar Stone, Sapphire Medallion, Grim Monolith. Despite their nice interaction with Winter Orb, I feel like I should really just be dropping Kami turn 2, then leaving counter/bounce mana up in subsequent turns until I can begin taking extra turns.
Had a nice match win 2-1 against GAAIV. Keeping him off the table ensures I'll actually be playing my spells while he sits with a full hand of things he doesn't have the mana to cast all at once.
Lost 2-1 to Doran and Skullbriar. Both were moderate bad beats, which is not to complain about them but rather to say that they were certainly competitive, and I think in the long run both are favorable for this deck.
Zur continues to be a problem and is probably worse than I originally thought, I think I got a couple of singleton games against it which I lost both. Hopefully it continues to dominate tournaments and gets the banhammer, which would certainly help this deck.
Other than that, I think I've won every match in the last week, against a variety of decks (some more competitive than others).
Recent and future additions:
Leyline of Anticipation has been amusing so far. Creates some extremely interesting strategic opportunities and makes Kami significantly better if I'm able to play it during my opponent's turn and get the first extra draw myself.
Wash Out needs to go in. A great spell for early swarms.
Gigadrowse is an interesting possibility. An expensive pseudo-Time-Walk (I don't care how many cards my opponent draws, since they can generally only play 1 or 2 per turn due to mana constraints) that I can play at instant speed. Has some cute additional interactions as well, such as tapping my Static Orb or Howling Mine during my opponent's upkeep (along with their creatures and lands).
Exhaustion deserves a place as well. Might actually be better than Savor the Moment, which is OK so far, but not amazing. Again, I don't mind if my opponent draws 2+ cards per turn since they can't play them faster than I can counter.
Mishra's Factory and other manlands: would create an additional uncounterable Polymorph target, and possibly give some defense against the most common way Emrakul is dying (Diabolic Edict).
I *really* miss Snapcaster Mage though. It was my only way to recur Time Walks, outside of Timetwister. And my only way to recur Timetwister at all. Recall could be interesting, but I'm not often in a position to pay 22U for it *and* cast a Time Warp in the same turn. And casting it just for 11U and a card seems like a waste.
Leyline of Anticipation - excellent so far. Easy to use if not in opening 7 (Foil, Force of Will, Commandeer, etc.)
Exhaustion - awesome. Perfect for this deck.
Gigadrowse
Mana Short - usually not as good as Exhaustion, but in some ways better.
Boomerang - I get a ton of wins from Stasis, bouncing at my opponent's EOT, untapping, taking a couple of time walks, and then replaying it. But, I often find myself with Stasis and without means to bounce it.
* * * * *
Not sure how much I like the Polymorph plan. I don't have a sense of when to go for it and when to hold back. And even once I figure that out, there's still a surprising number of ways for opponents to handle it. I've removed Reweave, because it's just too slow. I can still get Polymorph by drawing it, or from three different tutors, so hopefully I can still get it most times I want it.
Current record:
20-11 vs "top tier" generals
5-6 vs "mid tier"
3-0 vs "casual"
For Withdraw... most creature-heavy decks let me do my thing, and the high counterspell count combined with the handful of slowdown cards is sufficient to ensure 30 life is enough. The only deck I can think of with a high creature count and a fast start, that spends all of its mana, and also tries to slow *me* down is Doran. I suppose Adun as well; not sure if Duress/Thoughseize/Inquisition of Kozilek is played in there, but if so, Withdraw would help as well. Rafiq is perhaps another matchup where it would be useful; if I get a bad opening hand, I can lose to a turn 3 Rafiq. Withdraw would be really good in those matchups, but I think I'm in good shape with them for the most part. I strongly prefer bounce which is able to return Stasis or Winter Orb during my opponent's end step.
As for Expedition Map, I've never thought of it actually. You are right that Reliquary Tower isn't by any means a requirement, but it occasionally is useful. It's actually very comforting in control matchups where we're both just playing draw-draw-land-go. If I am forced to discard down to 7, then I am often in no better position than my opponent - in a counter war, we'll both have the same amount of mana available and about the same number of counters we can play. If I am able to hold upwards of 10 or 12 cards, then Commandeer, Foil, Disrupting Shoal, Misdirection, and Force of Will ensure I will win the counter war. Academy Ruins is not worth fetching, and if I need another Wasteland, I'd probably just add Ghost Quarter. Having mana open turn 1 is nice for Force Spike, Flusterstorm, Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, and of course Peek and Clairvoyance which give me great insight into whether I should play Kami on turn 2. So I'm hesitant to even tap out on turn 1 for Expedition Map, because the land it fetches won't be as useful as the turn 1 mana might be during my opponent's turn.
I think at this point I am looking for one more card which could force a counter war, or a tap out, on my opponent's turn. Mana Short has been great for this (and for non-control matchups as well, frankly) and Gigadrowse may actually be even better since it hits artifacts and mana critters too. I removed Reweave because it's so painful in the opening hand, but maybe it could fill this need. Or Fact or Fiction.
83-38 against decks I thought were trying to be competitive. I stopped trying to distinguish these into multiple tiers because I found the line between to be impossible to draw.
12-1 against decks I thought were more casual-oriented.
Biggest thing right now is deciding whether to replace Emrakul with Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. May play around with that configuration and see how I like it.
said the Wydwen player to the Kami player.
SWEET REVENGE.
Also, a few major deck updates:
1) removed some cards in favor of more counters (Muddle the Mixture, Logic Knot, Memory Lapse
2) removed all planeswalkers not named Jace.
3) removed Peek after having removed Clairvoyance a few weeks ago. Not being able to see what card those will become is unfortunately problematic. Occasionally the one-mana cost is annoying too.
4) removed Leyline of Anticipation. I'm more and more embracing the idea of letting opponents draw tons of cards, so Leyline's ability to let me get Kami's draw first isn't great anymore. And while I might enjoy it to be able to play a time walk in an opponent's turn, I don't miss that too much.
5) Removed Evacuation. Added Rushing River. Evacuation was just too costly, though I will miss occasionally tutoring for it. Rushing River can be played a little sooner, gives me one more possible bounce card for EOT-bouncing Stasis and the like, and can always function as a painful Withdraw, or a more expensive Aether Tradewinds in cases where I want to maybe bounce Stasis and an opponent's permanent.
All in all, the deck is still getting more focused on beating decks that pack counterspells, so I've removed a bunch of my cards that only serve to defend against creatures (Evacuation, Overburden, etc.)
Anyways, it's certainly worth trying, so I'll probably cut it for the next spell I try. I want to give Mindslaver, Jace, Architect of Thought, and Negate another chance. Maybe I'll pull it for Jace and succeed at lowering the curve a bit.
Exhaustion, by the way, is probably the card that gains the most from being in this deck. It's absolutely amazing.
Updated decklist.
Curve is somewhat lower; counterspell count has been raised, particularly among the 2cc counterspells, adding Delay and Memory Lapse, removing Commandeer and Logic Knot (which is 2cc late in the game, but too often a subpar Power Sink early on).
Updated match results.
Some recent good performance against top-tier generals (Geist, Zur, GAAIV) has made them look a lot better. Some subpar performance against what used to be byes (Animar, Talrand), but overall I think it's been a good progression for the deck. Amazingly, starting to get meaningful sample sizes for a lot of these opposing commanders, which is astounding considering there's about 100 of them out there.
Most games play pretty differently. Against blue decks with counters (i.e. Talrand, Zur), it ends up being a counterspell fight over their commander resolving. I do OK at this since they're 4 mana behind right from the start due to just playing their commander. Against decks with burn and removal, I'm generally looking for some of my artifact-based card drawers. Against super-high casting cost commanders (Maelstrom, Griselbrand), I generally have a pretty easy time since they're spending their turns casting ramp spells and I can generally have free reign for a while.
Sometimes I can just get a turn 3 or 4 Emrakul, which is nice.
Sometimes I am able to drop a couple of card drawers and then chain a few extra turns. The Stasis/Static Orb/Winter Orb don't work well with the time walks so most likely I just use them to stall for a bit, draw a bunch of cards while not much happens on the board, and then bounce them at the end of my opponent's turn so I can untap and take extra turns at that point.
Anyways, what I was wondering about, what do you think of Torpor Orb? It is 2 mana in a main phase, but it doesn't hurt this deck at all while potentially neutering enemy creatures.
Also, while the meta I'm playing in is basically purely 1on1, it does use the normal ban list and normal commander rules (40 life, tucking possible, ..). Consequently I can't use Emrakul. I was wondering with what to replace him, right now I'm considering Blightsteel Colossus.
For 1v1 with the real banlist, I would heartily recommend my Thada Adel deck, which nicely fits your monoblue desire as well:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=442721
I haven't updated it in a long time, partly because it was so hard to actually find competitive decks to play it against. But it may well be the best deck in the format with some minor metagame tweaks, and it is unquestionably the most fun (for the pilot). What's better than getting to play Sol Ring? Playing your opponent's Sol Ring as well
Also, the number of finishers seems low (not that I've acually tested the deck yet..). But if you slap a Runechanter's Pike on the little Kami he should get quite a bit more formidable. I wonder if that might be worth a slot.
What I'm basically wondering is, can you reliably finish the game with only Polymorph and Shackles most of the time?
Polymorph - 75%
Hardcast Emrakul - 5%
Vedalken Shackles - 5%
Scoop - 10%
Other - 5%
...with "Other" being things like decking, getting killed by a Dark Confidant, etc.
If I were to add an equipment for Kami, I would make it something better than Pike. Maybe the best Sword for the metagame, or Jitte.
I actually really like the Eldrazi mechanic of shuffling my whole graveyard into the library. If you've used up a bunch of time walks, or bounce spells, and need another one, it greatly helps there. So I'd probably recommend Ulamog instead of Emrakul, although that's a huge downgrade. If there's not a lot of Wrath of God spells in your metagame, maybe Kozilek, for being easier to cast and because 4 cards is probably better than destroying one, for this deck.