This deck has been Retired. When you've got a dozen EDH decks to choose from and you never choose to play one, it's a sign that it just isn't fun enough anymore. Mono-blue combo is powerful but so... repetitive. Besides, I wanted to strip out some of the rares.
This deck started as a Lorthos deck, so it has a lot of tapdown and general blue effects. However, everyone got so scared of what I was dropping (Lorthos, Whelk, Sphinx Ambassador), that they kept killing or fettering what I had. I decided to demote Lorthos and promote Kira to general because A) she costs a lot less and comes out much earlier, B) she's harder to remove, and C) she protects the whole army, making it more expensive to target my stuff. Here's the list:
The deck has a really nasty land-lock combo going with Quicksilver Fountain and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds/Ghost Town. Once everyone's land has been flooded, you keep it that way by dropping one of those lands, waiting until your last opponent's turn, and during the end step (after the Fountain's remove counters trigger has failed to trigger because there is one non-Island in play) bounce the land back to your hand. Rinse and repeat. You have plenty of usable land, but no one else can produce their non-blue colors. Academy Ruins is in there because Quicksilver Fountain will inevitably be destroyed at some point.
CUMULATIVE CHANGES:
DEMOTED - Lorthos, the Tidemaker
PROMOTED - Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
- Binding Grasp, + Desertion
- Sunken City, + Sakashima the Impostor
- Island, + Ponder
- Mind Games, + Rite of Replication
- Research the Deep, + Guile
- Island, + Reliquary Tower
- Island, + Halidar Depths
- Aethersnipe, + Capsize
- Whiplash Trap, + Evacuation
- Giant Oyster, + Thada Adel, Acquisitor
- Djinn of Wishes, + Ixidron
- Island, + Academy Ruins
- Exclude, + Lighthouse Chronologist
- Empress Galina, + Rayne, Academy Chancellor
- Vedalken Plotter, + Palinchron
- Linessa, Zephyr Mage, + Leyline of Anticipation
Made a couple changes. Added Guile for its interaction with Kira's countering ability (not to mention a hard to block 6/6 for 6 is good) and added Rite of Replication for multiple cloning. Took out Mind Games and Research the Deep.
the king of blue tap down is missing. you need stasis
I've thought about trading for a Stasis, but I'm really not sure how to best abuse it. I don't have vigilance or anything, so it looks like it would just stall out the game until I ran out of mana. Unless I'm missing something?
You might want to consider rayne, academy chancellor either as a suppliment to your general or as the general herself. She's an excellent, cheap source of card advantage so long as you are playing things that people want to get rid of. Along that vein, vanishing is excellent for damn-near perfect general protection and damn-near permanent general removal (if it sticks on a general, barring any effects that sacrifice as a cost, you can always phase it out in response to anything happening to it).
Got another Capsize - what should I take out? I'm thinking Aethersnipe. While I love having another 4/4 body for my general to protect, its lack of evasion and similar costs (3 or 6) make me think it would be the least missed.
You might want to consider rayne, academy chancellor either as a suppliment to your general or as the general herself. She's an excellent, cheap source of card advantage so long as you are playing things that people want to get rid of. Along that vein, vanishing is excellent for damn-near perfect general protection and damn-near permanent general removal (if it sticks on a general, barring any effects that sacrifice as a cost, you can always phase it out in response to anything happening to it).
academy ruins + expedition map seems like a huge mana drain - essentially paying 6 mana (tapping three land for the ruins ability, then another three to play and pay for map) just to get a land each turn would put me out of the game, not accelerate me.
Rayne, however is some nice card advantage - especially if Kira is in play and forces a double target. I'll look for one.
I added Ixidron in place of Djinn of Wishes. Djinn was a little too random, while Ixy is such a great piece of disruption. I also added Academy Ruins in place of an Island, even though I'm not running that many artifacts. I know I had said Cumber Stone might be headed out, but it really helped slow down the general damage one game until I was able to stabilize. It's getting harder and harder to figure out what to cut, so feel free to make suggestions.
I'm thinking I may even want to increase the land count. I played a game recently where an opponent put out Mana Flare, and the extra mana let me dominate the game. Seriously, never play Mana Flare against a control deck. In fact, never play it. I have never lost a game where my opponent dropped it.
I finally added Rayne, Academy Chancellor. Looking forward to using her with my general. Kira counters the first targetted spell or ability, so they have to use two, and now I can draw cards off each one, really making it a bad idea to use targetted removal on me.
I also added Lighthouse Chronologist. That guy is a house in multiplayer, and my general's protection should let him do his thing that much longer.
To make room for these, I cut Empress Galina and Exclude. How did I pick these? Someone was looking for blue cards, and he had cards I really wanted, so I let him strip cards out of a couple of my decks. These were the only two I didn't have extra copies of at home.
Props for someone else building a Kira deck. I took mine apart a while ago, but I rebuild it, several sets have come out since then, and I decided to re-tool it and have another go with it. It annoys people to no end when they have to double-target and/or use 2 spells to kill one creature. Heading out, but I will share some of what I added/changed with my list when I get back later on.
Keep in mind that the lands stay as Islands even if Quicksilver Fountain leaves play. The only thing that can change them back is Quicksilver Fountain's EOT check or something like Aether Snap. This can also allow you to do some neat things like bounce it before your turn ends if you don't have Oboro, Palace in the Clouds.
In the theme of tapdown, you could also consider Opposition.
Keep in mind that the lands stay as Islands even if Quicksilver Fountain leaves play. The only thing that can change them back is Quicksilver Fountain's EOT check or something like Aether Snap. This can also allow you to do some neat things like bounce it before your turn ends if you don't have Oboro, Palace in the Clouds.
In the theme of tapdown, you could also consider Opposition.
Very true on bouncing the Quicksilver Fountain. I love it when an opponent drops a land and plays a shatter/naturalize effect expecting to get all their lands back to normal only to learn they are now stuck with a bunch of Islands.
Opposition is a good card, but I play multiplayer more than duels, and I really don't think I have enough creatures to use it against multiple opponents.
Finally got my hands on a Palinchron. Aside from being practically free to cast and hard to remove, it combos with Gauntlet of Power to create infinite mana. Unfortunately, I really only have one way to abuse infinite mana, and that's Capsize. What else would be good with it? All I can think of are Distorting Wake and Alexi, Zephyr Mage.
This deck started as a Lorthos deck, so it has a lot of tapdown and general blue effects. However, everyone got so scared of what I was dropping (Lorthos, Whelk, Sphinx Ambassador), that they kept killing or fettering what I had. I decided to demote Lorthos and promote Kira to general because A) she costs a lot less and comes out much earlier, B) she's harder to remove, and C) she protects the whole army, making it more expensive to target my stuff. Here's the list:
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
TAPDOWN
1 Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor
1 Brine Elemental
1 Cephalid Retainer
1 Frozen Aether
1 Lorthos, the Tidemaker
1 Merfolk Seastalkers
1 Pestermite
1 Sleep
1 Somnophore
1 Thundercloud Elemental
BOUNCE
1 Capsize
1 Evacuation
1 Into the Roil
1 Inundate
1 Kederekt Leviathan
1 Man-o'-War
1 Reality Strobe
1 Riftwing Cloudskate
1 Spin into Myth (anti-General)
1 Wipe Away
COUNTER
1 Desertion (also Steal)
1 Draining Whelk
1 Hinder (anti-General)
1 Scattering Stroke (mana accel)
1 Shimmering Glasskite
1 Spiketail Drakeling
1 Summoner's Bane
1 Willbender
1 Gather Specimens (anti-General)
1 Guile (when combined with counter)
1 Quicksilver Elemental
1 Rite of Replication
1 Sakashima the Impostor
1 Sphinx Ambassador
1 Take Possession
1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
DRAW/FILTER
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Mulldrifter
1 Rayne, Academy Chancellor
1 Theft of Dreams
1 Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
OTHER CREATURES
1 Ethereal Usher (Tutor)
1 Inkwell Leviathan (Beater)
1 Ixidron (Disruption)
1 Lighthouse Chronologist (extra turns)
1 Palinchron
1 Scrivener (Recursion)
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
OTHER ARTIFACTS
1 Cumber Stone
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Neurok Stealthsuit
1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Ovinize
1 Ponder
1 Pongify
1 Siren's Call (1-sided Wrath with taps)
MANASCREW COMBO/TUTORS
1 Drift of Phantasms
1 Expedition Map
1 Fabricate
1 Ghost Town
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Quicksilver Fountain
1 Spreading Seas
1 Tolaria West
OTHER LAND
1 Academy Ruins
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Halimar Depths
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Reliquary Tower
28 Island
The deck has a really nasty land-lock combo going with Quicksilver Fountain and Oboro, Palace in the Clouds/Ghost Town. Once everyone's land has been flooded, you keep it that way by dropping one of those lands, waiting until your last opponent's turn, and during the end step (after the Fountain's remove counters trigger has failed to trigger because there is one non-Island in play) bounce the land back to your hand. Rinse and repeat. You have plenty of usable land, but no one else can produce their non-blue colors. Academy Ruins is in there because Quicksilver Fountain will inevitably be destroyed at some point.
CUMULATIVE CHANGES:
DEMOTED - Lorthos, the Tidemaker
PROMOTED - Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
- Binding Grasp, + Desertion
- Sunken City, + Sakashima the Impostor
- Island, + Ponder
- Mind Games, + Rite of Replication
- Research the Deep, + Guile
- Island, + Reliquary Tower
- Island, + Halidar Depths
- Aethersnipe, + Capsize
- Whiplash Trap, + Evacuation
- Giant Oyster, + Thada Adel, Acquisitor
- Djinn of Wishes, + Ixidron
- Island, + Academy Ruins
- Exclude, + Lighthouse Chronologist
- Empress Galina, + Rayne, Academy Chancellor
- Vedalken Plotter, + Palinchron
- Linessa, Zephyr Mage, + Leyline of Anticipation
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
Traumatize? Top? lightning greaves?
I dunno, just suggestions, you also MIGHT like mistband clique, exhaustion, or cryptic command.
I've thought about trading for a Stasis, but I'm really not sure how to best abuse it. I don't have vigilance or anything, so it looks like it would just stall out the game until I ran out of mana. Unless I'm missing something?
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
You might want to consider rayne, academy chancellor either as a suppliment to your general or as the general herself. She's an excellent, cheap source of card advantage so long as you are playing things that people want to get rid of. Along that vein, vanishing is excellent for damn-near perfect general protection and damn-near permanent general removal (if it sticks on a general, barring any effects that sacrifice as a cost, you can always phase it out in response to anything happening to it).
academy ruins + expedition map seems like a huge mana drain - essentially paying 6 mana (tapping three land for the ruins ability, then another three to play and pay for map) just to get a land each turn would put me out of the game, not accelerate me.
Rayne, however is some nice card advantage - especially if Kira is in play and forces a double target. I'll look for one.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
I'm thinking I may even want to increase the land count. I played a game recently where an opponent put out Mana Flare, and the extra mana let me dominate the game. Seriously, never play Mana Flare against a control deck. In fact, never play it. I have never lost a game where my opponent dropped it.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
I also added Lighthouse Chronologist. That guy is a house in multiplayer, and my general's protection should let him do his thing that much longer.
To make room for these, I cut Empress Galina and Exclude. How did I pick these? Someone was looking for blue cards, and he had cards I really wanted, so I let him strip cards out of a couple of my decks. These were the only two I didn't have extra copies of at home.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
Keep in mind that the lands stay as Islands even if Quicksilver Fountain leaves play. The only thing that can change them back is Quicksilver Fountain's EOT check or something like Aether Snap. This can also allow you to do some neat things like bounce it before your turn ends if you don't have Oboro, Palace in the Clouds.
In the theme of tapdown, you could also consider Opposition.
Very true on bouncing the Quicksilver Fountain. I love it when an opponent drops a land and plays a shatter/naturalize effect expecting to get all their lands back to normal only to learn they are now stuck with a bunch of Islands.
Opposition is a good card, but I play multiplayer more than duels, and I really don't think I have enough creatures to use it against multiple opponents.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
Mind's Desire, Stroke of Genius, and Brain Freeze are all good ways to finish things off.