I'm actually very happy that you've brought these up for discussion. I built a similar list independently of the Primer here and have been piloting it as my only EDH deck for over 3 years now. My meta has always been pretty tuned for competitive play with decks like Azami, Lady of Scrolls, Animar, Soul of the Elements, Sharuum the Hegemon, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, and a really well tuned Prime Speaker Zegana list. I have tried really hard to streamline the deck in a meta full of control and other aggressive combo decks.
Looking at your decklist it seems we definitely agree on a lot of things. I'm glad to hear other people like you have independently reached the same conclusions I did about many of these cards.
I noticed you don't run Crucible of Worlds, which is a card I've been thinking of moving to the sideboard but worried it would be losing out on some valuable tech, so it's good to see you're having success without it. I also noticed you run Null Brooch mainboard--I usually do too, but it's hit-or-miss among Arcum players from what I can tell, some love it some hate it, and sometimes I do board it out myself.
As for your individual card discussion you've got some interesting decisions here. My commentary (in response to your commentary, lol) is written in blue.
Twiddle, Tidal Bore
Both of these cards have been all-stars in this deck. I originally started testing them to increase the blue card count in my deck but found that they have serious applications. Twiddle has extended some game-winning Clock of Omens chains and Tidal Bore has pulled numerous wins out of nowhere. There are other cards that have similar effects but I believe that these two are the best. I would recommend against playing more of these types of effects since they're bad in multiples, but I have never once been disappointed with drawing one These are arguably the most curious cards I've ever seen someone recommend in this primer thread. You've obviously done more playtesting with them than I have, so anything I could say about them would be speculation. But at least in my imagination, I can't see them justifying a card slot. Not that they're bad cards, mind you, I can totally understand what you're talking about when you say you can untap Arcum a 2nd time with them or untap some clutch artifact to pull a win out of nowhere--but they have one-shot value and require that something worth untapping is already on the field. Wouldn't you rather have a Mox Diamond, a Skullclamp, a Mystic Remora, or maybe another prison effect like a Winter Orb? With the possible exception of skullclamp (which needs dorks) those cards give huge advantage without any board state requirements whatsoever.
tl;dr it's not that I think Twiddle and its cousins would be bad, it's just (at least in my head, like I said no playtesting under my belt, so maybe I'm wrong) I can think of so many better cards that I'd much more happily see in an opening hand, I don't know where I'd fit those in.
Master Transmuter
I think that this card is situationally good and I'll often switch it out when there aren't many control decks at the table. That said, against counter and stax-heavy decks, this card allows you to aggressively play around many effects that you normally wouldn't be able to interact with. It's a slow creature but those games tend to take a bit longer. As I wrote in my primer my thoughts on M.T. are basically the same. She's a strong card and can definitely hold her own at a competitive table. That said I used to run her mainboard back in the beginning but ultimately swapped her out for Metalworker when he was unbanned, as he did the same thing she did (getting big artifacts un-stuck from your hand) but faster and better. She's in my sideboard now.
Brainstorm, Anticipate, Impulse
I really like being able to filter draws in this deck as opposed to raw card advantage. Temporarily cutting out Master Transmuter and permanently cutting Copper Gnomes, Scarecrone, and Elixir of Immortality a while back showed me that there are some zones our deck just doesn't interact with as well as it used to, our hand being one of them. Brainstorm lets you filter unwanted cards back easily with the numerous shuffle effects in our deck and the fact that they're instant speed allows you to interact with other players more easily. I feel you, raw card advantage can indeed bite you in the butt when you happen to draw into Possessed Portal, Darksteel Forge, Spine of Ish Sah or a couple other big bombs. I agree that draw filtering is extra-good in Arcum compared to other decks because we rely on keeping things in the library. But at the same time I wouldn't completely discount plain old card advantage, because there's still a lot of cards--the majority of cards, in fact--that we want in our hand instead: lands, dorks, mana rocks, equipment, countermagic, etcetera. As well, keeping a full hand is essential to maintaining tempo, unlike filtering which helps line up future plays but doesn't actually boost tempo or economy. I think those benefits make up for the drawbacks of occasionally topdecking one of the few clunky things.
Notable Exclusions: Force of Will
Force of Will was always a blowout when it was played with a turn 3/4 Arcum cast but otherwise it was lackluster since the deck doesn't have many redundant effects to pitch it besides counterspells and card draw. It went dead in hand often, not because there wasn't enough blue to support it, but because our other options were always better. Its usage is mainly to block those spells that absolutely *need* to be countered or the game is pretty much over, which your opponents tend to play when you're tapped out and they think you can't respond. I would happily pitch a Counterspell to it if I was tapped out and my opponent turns around Ad Nauseam or Doomsday, for example, because even though it's a pretty bad pitch the alternative is losing the game. Jury's still out though on how many blue spells needed to consistently have something to pitch to it, even after I add a few more blue spells in my list I'm still not sure it'd be enough.
Copy Artifact
It always just felt like a value include. I never thought that this deck had really great targets for it and it was normally just another Manakin or something. Still on the fence with this one but I never felt like it pulled it's weight. Even if it does just copy Manakin, the enchantment is cmc2 so you're still getting the full value, and more 2-drop mana dorks is never a bad thing (which is why we already run all of them in the game). But that's just a worst-case scenario; it can copy your vulnerable combo pieces like Rings or Staff so your opponents can't so easily blow them up, it can copy Pithing Needles or other useful artifacts (even those played by your opponents), and all sorts of other goodstuff. Same story for Sculpting Steel, though I'd almost consider it a little worse because of its higher CMC.
Dross Scorpion
I always loved drawing this one in my opening hand as it would speed up the Possessed Portal lock up by a turn, but I never really wanted/needed this one otherwise. If I'm getting it with a tutor, I would just much rather have the more resilient Unwinding Clock Same conclusion here. With creative applications of dying creatures can do a few nifty things with it on the side, like getting some extra untaps out of your mana rocks or Kuldotha Forgemaster or whatever else, but its main usage is redundancy with Unwinding Clock to complete the portal lock combo. I want to cut it, but I have yet to convince myself the redundancy isn't worth it.
Mishra's Workshop
So this is actually purposely left out, not just because it costs as much as a car. I think that you can have crazy early-game blowouts with it, but just as often I have been stuck with it when I need my mana for other things. I think that it deserves an include but I'm not exactly sure where yet. It needs more testing on my part. It is expensive, and in EDH where it only fits in a couple decks and you can only run a singleton in a deck of 99 cards so it doesn't even show up all that often, it doesn't really justify its financial cost (i.e. I wouldn't recommend someone buy it JUST to play Arcum). But the "gold standard" for land inclusions is whether or not it's better than a basic Island, and in this deck Workshop certainly is, even if in a small minority of times you wish it were a regular land most of the time it's going to be single-handedly winning games for you.
Karn, Silver Golem
I think it's a fun card but he's just too slow, too cute, and not easily tutorable. I don't think his combo is why we would want to play him and his activated ability to create more Arcum targets is a little too expensive. Same conclusion. That's why he's next on my cutting block. The Lattice/Karn combo is cute but never actually happens, ever, and using him to make dorks is expensive at 5 mana + 1 per dork.
Strip Mine, Wasteland
There are some lands that need to be answered in EDH. Gaea's Cradle and Cabal Coffers are prime targets but they're slow and we can normally either play faster than those decks are shut them down with Torpor Orb or Grafdigger's Cage. In games that need-to-answer lands start to take over, they're normally answered by other decks in my experience. On top of that, we don't have a consistent way to tutor them and I believe that our land-choices are a bit tight already. I'd leave this to preference, but I still think they pass the "island test." Being able to strip away clutch lands or deny somebody certain colors can once in a while be game-changing, enough to justify (in my opinion) not being an Island. Granted their usefulness will diminish if I cut Crucible of Worlds but I think personally I'd still keep them in anyway.
Thirst for Knowledge
While this is one of the best raw card advantage spells out there, I don't like just drawing a ton of cards in our deck. We often don't interact with our hand as well as we do with the cards in our deck and I would almost always rather this card be an Impulse. I don't think it's bad though, just a personal preference. See above with Impulse.
Spine of Ish Sah
This is great when it's really necessary but Arcum triggers are precious when only 1 or 2 will win you the game. Since cutting it, there have been a couple times that I wanted it in the deck but they're few and far between. If we need to use an Arcum trigger to toolbox, I want it to create an unplayable board-state for a few players instead of answering one permanent. That said, I don't see Null Rod or Stony Silence much in my metagame and I can see how it would sometimes be necessary. Same thoughts on my end. For all practical purposes it's a dead draw in our hand, and it's not really even the greatest Arcum fetch either relative to other fetches which can straight-up win the game. But the biggest weakness of mono-blue decks like ours that there's just no other good "destroy" spells in our color besides maybe Pongify and that other one that's basically the same thing (destroy creature, they get a token). Besides counterspells, we have no other way to deal with Pithing Needle, Null Rod, Aven Mindcensor, and other troublesome permanents besides simply "playing around them" which can be very hard to do sometimes. That's not an Arcum problem, that's a mono-blue problem, and Spine is the one last-resort option we have.
Memory Jar
I can see how this card can cause blowouts if you run out your hand and use Arcum to refill and drop a bunch of permanents. I think that other combo decks are faster than this deck and normally would get more out of this game plan. I think that Arcum triggers are just too valuable to be used like this instead of trying to set up a tutor-chain or putting other people out of the game. I've been thinking about this one too. It's not the greatest target for a tutor. Drawing 7 with Arcum is a cool trick but rarely necessary, if we've already got Arcum online we really don't need to worry about card draw anymore anyway (in fact we'd usually rather *not* pop a Jar at that point, because one of our fat combo pieces might end up in our hand or GY). Meanwhile when Jar is cast from the hand it's like a draw 7 but usually requires waiting till the following turn to pop it (as if you already spent 5 on the jar that turn it's unlikely you'll be able to play anything you draw with it if you pop it right then), and waiting till the next turn gives your opponents time to take better advantage. I've started subbing out Memory Jar from time to time, I'm almost thinking it's more of a sideboard-worthy card, or maybe just cut altogether.
Gilded Lotus
I was on board with this card back when Hinder and Spell Crumple did what we wanted it to. Being able to represent either of those back-breaking counterspells with Arcum was huge but it's just unnecessary now. Unlike Memory Jar tapping Arcum for UUU is something we can take advantage of right away and can be very necessary if we're short on mana to activate a combo, need to cast an emergency counterspell, or otherwise are short on ever-important blue mana symbols. And in a deck full of colorless accelerators, when we're drowning in colorless mana but hurting for blue symbols (with Workshop for example ) Gilded Lotus is exactly what we want to see to solve all our colored needs for the rest of the game. With any untap effect like Clock of Omens it can very easily generate 10+ mana the turn it sees play, and finally it's a combo piece. Maybe I'm just an ideologue but I'm totally sold on Lotus, and by the way I think it's totally worth the 1 extra cmc over Thran Dynamo, like I said if we're drowning in colorless mana such that we can afford a cost of 4 or 5 the last thing we want is another 3, we'd want UUU. I'd need some serious convincing to drop Lotus from the list.
Thanks again for posting, you have a lot of interesting choices here and like I said I'm pleased to see we agree on a lot of things, I always appreciate opportunities to discuss.
So after much discussion and feedback from friends and others I'm beginning to capitulate a little bit on certain things and think much harder about others. Several different players in diverse metas and geographic regions have described cards like Dross Scorpion and even Crucible of Worlds as not pulling their weight. I've also for a really long time disliked Karn, Silver Golem, the "sac all your lands" combo with Mycosynth Lattice is cute but never really comes up (it's only detailed in the primer because one should still be aware of it as a theoretical possibility, even though it only comes up in play so very rarely if ever).
Another two suggestions I've heard from more than a few people is 1) taking advantage of our mana dorks more and using them as broader assets than just mana ramp, for example by mainboarding in broad-spectrum pieces like Winter Orb to play a tougher parity game or by including Skullclamp to eat them for cards; and 2) in the same vein as the Skullclamp thing, adding more card draw and blue goodstuff in general to add overall consistency and deck smoothing, things like Mystic Remora, Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, and Mystical Tutor, which would then maybe even allow for Force of Will.
I realize this represents a divergence from some arguments I've made in the history of this thread, even the relatively recent history. But I do appreciate and seriously consider the feedback people give me, recognizing that I have only one set of experiences and the community consensus is stronger than my own singular opinions, and I don't consider myself above changing my mind--after all, as I like to remind people, there was a day early on back when I didn't run Clock of Omens and argued it was win-more, and it wasn't until users here on MTGS convinced me otherwise on page 2-3 of this thread that I started using it more, and now years later I regularly venerate it as one of our strongest cards.
I've also been thinking really hard about Chalice of the Void, taking a page out of my braids deck brainstorming. Besides the obvious fact that it's an artifact and therefore plugs in to every combo in the deck, when it's set to 0-1-2 it blanks a LOT of the strongest cards in the format, and Arcum's ability avoids it so we can still tutor things like Grafdigger's Cage onto the field when it's set to 1. My concern is that, set to 2, arguably its strongest setting, it also blanks a lot of things in *our* deck (most importantly our artifact dorks). But I can't shake the feeling that a play like T1 Island -> Sol Ring -> Chalice of the Void at X=1 would mangle a lot of enemy hands.
The biggest challenge moving forward will be deciding what to cut (besides the things I mentioned up top, Dross Scorpion + Karn + maybe Crucible) to possibly make all these changes happen.
So I have actually been running with your deck now for the past year I have kept up with all the changes and I have found it to a very solid.
I first want to congratulate you on creating what I think is the best primer for any general so far. I have always believed that primers are well-rounded decks a swiss army knife if you will, that can take on any meta out there it doesn't mean it's going to be the best vs your meta but it can hold its own until you tweak your deck to be more competitive in the meta.
Saying this I believe you should keep this mindset and this primer listed and updated. As If anyone would like to play arcum and see all the wonderfully stupid ***** he can do they don't have to look much further.
Regarding the cuts.... Magic is all about the meta... The Meta isn't worldwide although for most players myself included as I did net deck this after having to retire my knowledge pool / teferi deck when people wouldn't play me anymore. But I haven't seen the failings that some have voiced regarding the cards listed.
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Crucible has saved me from being mana screwed a few times with pain lands. It's helped me bring back the city of traitors when I wanted to drop another land like academy ruins. I've actually played a game where the only blue I got was from the syveluntine temple and I was able to sack and bring it back these are luck luster things but its a very good tool.
It also guaranteed a land drop even if it was a come into play tapped card if I used the 2 blue I would still be on point for that turn and if I drew a land the next draw I wouldn't be behind.
In my meta there is also a ton of Land D. So when you drop this it helps you a ton.
Also, I have 1v1 had people just scoop after T1 land > ring > silver myr. t2 Crucible > Stripmine "Destroy your land" and now I have them a turn behind and I have 4 mana to work with.
Or strip mine was your first card down you destroy 2 lands putting them back to turn 1 and playing with only 1 land so are you but you also have a ring and 1 blue. with a bunch of dorks and mana producing rocks.
Again this is 1v1 only
I guess the strongest reason to not drop this is if you have a lot of Land D in your meta.
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As for Dross Scorpion
This card is a strong 3 for one creature blocker, Sack to arcum, and has a great ability.
He's been pretty good to me and he works great if I can copy him.
As I have had Arcum, Myr turbine, and Dross on the field, some type of copier like copy artifact in my hand. EOT make a guy Sack a guy for Mycosynth lattice. Then I copy the Dross and now I have Infi Arcum Triggers. As I would make a dude Sack the dude and untaped Arcum and Myr Turbine > go get X repeat.
( This was all situational but so is everything really)
This was my best turn ever with him but I haven't seemed to have him as a Dead card he has always been useful in a situation and does at least 1 of the things if not 2 of them that he was designed to do in the deck.
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As for Karn He is fun but he could if the group was running a lot of Snipe combo cards like Cap or the 3 Black one that gets like 3 cards or 15 or something crazy like that.
If they get myco he is kinda just a blocker and a Sack but he is also a bit too costly to cast if your not using him for the Land D combo.
Now I have pulled this off A lot due to my 2 groups actually do not play Caps or that black card, I just can't remember it right now or anything else like that they do play bribery so I guess they could get him after I play myco and destroy my lands.
But if they ran caps and other things that would target myco I don't think he would be that great as a Sack for 5. so this is the only one I see on the chopping block for that all around swiss cheese you have going on here.
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However if you'd like to change the deck and post the new one I think you could go a more focused counter magic route but dropping things like
Karn , Kuldotha, Spine, Possessed portal, memory jar, gilded lotus, or even lotus petal.
Now this is only a suggestion at a glance and this if you're going like I must counter everything and Draw cards route
counters Force, Turn away, stoic rebuttal, arcane denial.
Draw > Stroke to deck everyone after mana combo. or just to draw for yourself. Ponder, Brainstorm, frantic search.
but if you do that you will go from swiss army to Im going to get to this combo ASAP and counter anything you throw at me. and I would also see that this deck would maybe even change completely from what you see now only mana producing artifact dorks and combo artifacts you tutor with arcum.
or you could go Prison Arcum with the winter orb stuff.
So I have actually been running with your deck now for the past year I have kept up with all the changes and I have found it to a very solid.
I first want to congratulate you on creating what I think is the best primer for any general so far. I have always believed that primers are well-rounded decks a swiss army knife if you will, that can take on any meta out there it doesn't mean it's going to be the best vs your meta but it can hold its own until you tweak your deck to be more competitive in the meta.
Saying this I believe you should keep this mindset and this primer listed and updated. As If anyone would like to play arcum and see all the wonderfully stupid ***** he can do they don't have to look much further.
Hi there Leeroy, congrats on your first post here on MTGS and I'm happy to hear you've been enjoying Arcum lately.
Looking over your post I think we're in agreement on most things, but that your meta is a little different than what most people may be dealing with. For example...
Crucible has saved me from being mana screwed a few times...helped me bring back the city of traitors when I wanted to drop another land like academy ruins...
In my meta there is also a ton of Land D...
Also, I have 1v1 had people just scoop after T1 land > ring > silver myr. t2 Crucible > Stripmine "Destroy your land" and now I have them a turn behind and I have 4 mana to work with...
Crucible totally is a great card. Even if I cut it, I'd be cutting it to the sideboard, not just deleting it altogether, with the instruction for people to sideboard it in if they're playing in heavy LD metas or perhaps 1v1s where a strip each turn is game-winning on its own. That's exactly the meta you seem to have described for yourself, so whether or not I move it to the sideboard, you'd be keeping it mainboard anyway.
But the other dominant commanders in the format right now, the ones that people tend to commonly face, like Azami and Teferiwalker and Derevi and Sharuum and so forth, don't use much MLD, so that's probably why a lot of people have been saying Crucible isn't as helpful as they'd like.
Believe me, I love crucible, which is why I've kept it in all this time. I love recurring artifact manlands after saccing them to Arcum, I love recurring City of Traitors and similar cards, I love recurring fetchlands to get a land drop every turn. But my understanding is most people don't consider those effects worthwhile enough, or see them frequently enough, to justify dedicating a slot to Crucible, and in fairness in my own gameplay when I don't happen to have one of those powerful lands then Crucible just sits there and kinda does nothing.
So no matter what I swap out Crucible for, I encourage you to keep your copy in your deck if it's an all-star in your meta, and for sure I'm going to keep my copy on hand to swap in if I ever sit down at a table with a more significant LD presence.
As for Dross Scorpion
This card is a strong 3 for one creature blocker, Sack to arcum, and has a great ability.
He's been pretty good to me and he works great if I can copy him.
In my playtesting over the last couple days I'm having a hard time pulling out Dross Scorpion too. I think I might sooner pull out Palladium Myr.
As for Karn...If they get myco he is kinda just a blocker and a Sack but he is also a bit too costly to cast if your not using him for the Land D combo.
I'm just about 100% set on cutting him at this point. Back in the old days he was worth the spot, but with all the EDH power-creep in recent years the meta than it used to be and he just can't hold his own like he could back then.
I think you could go a more focused counter magic route but dropping things like
Karn , Kuldotha, Spine, Possessed portal, memory jar, gilded lotus, or even lotus petal
Karn, Spine, Jar are the three I'm most looking hard at, for reasons I stated in my post above (Karn's too slow, other decks can make better use of Jar, spine is just a crutch because there's no other removal in mono-blue).
but if you do that you will go from swiss army to Im going to get to this combo ASAP and counter anything you throw at me. and I would also see that this deck would maybe even change completely from what you see now only mana producing artifact dorks and combo artifacts you tutor with arcum.
I think this deck will always be somewhere between those two. Right now I'm just making it a little less toolboxy and a little more combo-y, because I think with the quickening of the meta we can't afford to play the slow, reactive toolbox game as much, but the toolbox will never truly go away. The best toolbox hosers like Torpor Orb and Ensnaring Bridge will stay mainboard, and the more narrow items like Crucible may be swapped out to the sideboard along with Jester's Cap and others.
Just because a card is in the sideboard doesn't mean it's not good, or that it doesn't belong in Arcum, it's just that (like you said) I have to write the primer for the "world meta," and while Crucible might be less useful than Brainstorm in the "world meta," if you're at a heavy LD table then of course Crucible would be much better than Brainstorm and you'd swap it right back in for something.
Have you thought about Isochron scepter to replace null brooch as if you are looking to reload your hand more often and if your looking to counter more it might be a quick "i have mana drain on a stick" or any other counter or even boomarang on a stick.
Have you thought about Isochron scepter to replace null brooch as if you are looking to reload your hand more often and if your looking to counter more it might be a quick "i have mana drain on a stick" or any other counter or even boomarang on a stick.
Null Brooch, for those Arcum players that like it, isn't really meant to be "Negate on a stick" so much as an emergency counterspell to answer those must-counter game-ending spells. Like for example your opponent just cast Ad Nauseam and it's on the stack now, if it isn't countered he's going to draw cards down to like 3-4 life and then combo off somehow with his hand of 25+ cards. At that point, if you've already got Arcum out (which you should), you can tutor out Null Brooch at instant speed, pay your 2 and counter it. You discard your hand along the way but with Arcum out you don't really care as much about your hand anyway, and if the alternative is losing the game then of course it's a worthwhile trade.
When your opponents know you have it in your deck, it actually starts playing a sort of psychological warfare, that whenever you have Arcum and 2 mana untapped, everyone at the table knows you can immediately and at instant speed Negate any big bombs they drop. And with an untap piece, like Voltaic Key or Clock of Omens, along with the mana to pay for it, you can get multiple uses out of it per turn (obviously discarding an empty hand isn't a drawback at all).
Isochron Scepter, while a good card, just doesn't do that. Since it needs the countermagic already in your hand, and there's only a few 2cmc counterspells in a deck of 99 cards, it usually won't actually save you in those "gotta counter this" scenarios, and it's a rather wasteful Arcum tutor.
Many people don't like Null Brooch, because in the "pre-Arcum" turns 1-3 it's usually a dead draw, you can't stick Arcum with an empty hand, the discard is too crippling until Arcum is safely on the battlefield. They choose not to run it and use the free spot to run something else good (like another toolbox piece, or another prison piece), which is a decision every individual Arcum player has to make about their own deck--but in a 99-singleton format where you only have 1 Counterspell, 1 Mana Drain, etc. Isochron Scepter just doesn't have the consistency to be viable I don't think.
So I went out and got a bunch of things for my Arcum deck this pst weekend and saw a Scroll Rack on the cheapside and scooped it up as fast as possible. I came home to check your list and found it wasn't included. It's seems like an autoinclude. Why don't you have it included?
So I went out and got a bunch of things for my Arcum deck this pst weekend and saw a Scroll Rack on the cheapside and scooped it up as fast as possible. I came home to check your list and found it wasn't included. It's seems like an autoinclude. Why don't you have it included?
Couple reasons off the top of my head:
It requires 3+ cards already in your hand (obviously you can activate the ability with 1-2 cards, but it would be pretty bad), and those cards have to be ones that you're willing to trade away. We keep a low curve and every single card in our opening hand should ideally be part of a T1-3 shrouded Arcum blowout. Any cards we do hold onto are the kind we wouldn't ever want to be trading out (like Counterspell). Historically, the reason Scroll Rack was so famously paired with Land Tax is precisely because Land Tax repeatably gives you 3 cards in your hand that you are willing to trade away. Without an engine like Land Tax constantly filling your hand with junk (that you can then swap for non-junk), it loses a lot of utility.
It needs a LOT of shuffle support, even more than similar cards like Sylvan Library and Sensei's Divining Top. Again the classic example is Land Tax because it shuffles your deck every turn. We don't actually have that much shuffle power here; in the decklist as it currently stands, we've got 4 fetchlands, 2 transmutes, and 5 tutors. I'm in the middle of making some changes, but even then there still won't be much shuffle power (maybe I'll add a Mystical Tutor or somesuch). In an EDH deck I'd be looking for something like 20 shuffle effects to keep Scroll Rack working consistently, not 11-12. Yes, Arcum is a repeatable shuffle effect, but he doesn't count--by the time he's out we've already won the game, so any interaction between Scroll Rack and Arcum is simply win-more.
Sensei's Divining Top serves roughly the same purpose ("pseudo-advantage" dig power, better with shuffling) for cheaper and without stipulating that you already need cards in your hand, while also doubling as a key combo piece in the rings/monolith/top engine.
I won't go so far as to say Scroll Rack is a bad card because it isn't, in the right decks and with the right interactions it can be very powerful, and it's a pricey singleton so I don't think you wasted your money if you got it for a bargain. But I also think it's safe to say that most EDH decks just don't have the shuffle power to consistently make use of it. Even decks like ours with tutor-on-a-stick commanders, if the commander is on the field we're not worried about card advantage anymore, we want to be dropping bombs like Possessed Portal or Mycosynth Lattice and winning the game on the spot.
Maybe there's something you see in it that I don't? I wouldn't call it an autoinclude, though.
Hoooookay. Some big changes forecasted here. Been playtesting this for a while, still tweaking it, but I really like it and I think it'll make a lot of the critics happy too:
The overall theme here is that the deck is faster and more streamlined, but arguably a little more vulnerable to the same things it's always been (namely, Null Rod). Spine, Jar, and Crucible, three cards that were very frequently (or in the case of Spine, always) dead draws are moved to the SB, so the only ones left are the absolute essentials (Forge and Portal). Five more of the strongest U draw spells (well, besides Skullclamp) will help with overall deck smoothing. Mox Opal and Diamond, both of which I've argued against in previous months/years for their vulnerability, I think are more essential now in the faster 2016 meta, and I swapped out an island for Darksteel Citadel to more consistently hit the metalcraft. Lastly Winter Orb mainboard because, well, you know.
As I mentioned, my biggest concern here is that without Spine a resolved Null Rod or Stony Silence is game over, whereas before it was *probably* game over but not 100% guaranteed. The good news is, the number of decks that run those cards is few, and Spine wasn't really ever all that great of a solution to that problem anyway.
I still want to fit in Chalice of the Void. I don't know whether to cut one of the copy effects or what for it, but every time I've played it this card has had great results, basically like a mini-copy of Trinisphere. Most deadly at 1 or 2, but never a dead draw and always welcome in an opening hand as you can always just drop for 0 and block all pacts and the best mana rocks. The EDH meta is fast enough now that people are willing to run Mental Misstep mainboard, and Chalice will only get better as the power creep continues.
Also with Skullclamp and more 0 rocks in there I'd also give stronger consideration to Artificer's Intuition, but I'd like to work in Chalice before finding room for that.
I think these changes are good progress, and I hope my friends and other Arcum players out there will test them and find the deck overall better suited to the "global meta." Soon I'll re-write the primer to accommodate them. And remember to hold onto your copies of Crucible, Jar, and Spine for your sideboard--the cards aren't bad, and they still have their uses, like Crucible in a heavy LD playgroup.
These were the kinds of changes I was suggesting when we spoke before.
And it wasn't only you! As I mentioned a few posts back, I've been seeing some patterns in the feedback over the last couple months from quite a few individuals both online and IRL--and when numerous people in a diversity of metas from all around the world seem to be leaning in a similar direction, it's probably time to start jumping on the bandwagon, conceding that I'm just one person and that the community consensus is stronger than my individual experience.
So yes, now that I'm finally changing my attitude on some of these cards, you and many others at last get to say "Aha, Nub, I told you so!" and I will simply have to take it on the chin. But I do think the deck is more finely-tuned for having made these swaps, and hopefully you and everyone else will too.
As an addendum to my above post I think I'm going to be moving Sculpting Steel to the SB and putting Chalice of the Void in its mainboard spot.
Of the 3 copy effects in the deck (other two being Phyrexian Metamorph and Copy Artifact) I think Sculpting Steel is the weakest. The only advantage it has over the others is that it it's a noncreature artifact and can therefore be tutored by Arcum, but I don't think I ever found myself actually doing that, I always had better things to tutor with him. The other two have much more significant advantages I think, Metamorph can copy an enemy creature and give you a dork when you don't otherwise have any, while Copy Artifact is highly efficient at 2cmc.
Copy effects are a good thing in Arcum (or, perhaps it's better to say "more of a good thing") and I'd like to work Sculpting Steel back in somehow if I could. But if I have to be struggling to fit something, I'd rather it be a useful but non-essential card like Sculpting Steel rather than something potentially game-winning like Chalice of the Void.
Btw, these changes will require several sections of the primer to be re-written, there's a lot of text in there on Karn/Spine/Jar/Crucible/etc. that will need to be deleted/reformatted, so it might be several days before I finally get around to updating the main post.
Idk if you still reply to this thread, but i built your deck, and its ultra powerful. I think almost too powerful for my meta. I have problems with a certain deck, and we dont run sideboards so i need to mainboard things. Im having trouble beating a meren deck. It goes two ways, either he casts creatures that make me sack arcum early game, ramps into massacre wurm wiping my mana ramp creatures, or he starts grinding out the game to the point where no matter what i tutor out he gets ahead. ive played 5 games, and lost all of them. Even putting in graveyard hate cards gets me nowhere.
thousand year elixir
impulse (just added today, havent played with it yet)
basalt monolith
brainstorm (same as impulse)
unwinding clock
millikin
grim monolith
trinishpere
crucible of worlds
etherium sculptor
myosynth lattice
mana crypt
transmute artifact
counterspell
myr retriever
copy artifact
rings of brighthearth
myr sire
lotus petal
hangarback walker
chalice of the void (just added in, think it can be very powerful)
kuldotha forgemaster
gilded lotus
Karn, Silver Golem
ponder (recent addition among the other draw cards)
staff of domination
possessed portal
silver myr
mana drain
trinket mage
power artifact
sculpting steel
reshape
mox opal
pact of negation
sensei top
swiftfoot boots
phyrexian metamorph
lightning greaves
fabricate
Tezzeret the seeker
hedron crawler
swan song
myr turbine
darksteel forge
mana vault
voltaic key
thirst for knowledge
nevinyrral's disk
tangle wire
winter orb (mainboarded from the get go, love this card. won me games in my bant deck)
junk diver
muddle the mixture
fact or fiction
sol ring
null brooch
torpor orb
ensarning bridge
manakin
negate (thinking of cutting for stoic rebuttal)
spellskite
plauge myr
metalworker
clock of omens
lands:
13 regular islands (no use for snowcovered)
academy ruins
inkmoth nexus
crystal vein
reliquary tower
tolaria west
strip mine
svyelunite temple
flooded strand
cavern of souls
buried ruin
seat of the synod
scalding tarn
nephalia academy (i play against alot of wheel based decks, its in include for my meta)
polluted delta
ancient tomb
minamo
misty rainforest
darksteel citadel
blinkmoth nexus
mishra factory
hall of the bandit lord
gemstone caverns
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i cut workshop and city of traitors for price reasons. (I had the more expensive cards like mana drain and traded for others. No one had a city for trade and didnt wanna buy it)
i have access to cage if need be, and i have all the sideboard cards that are on the orignial list, just cant actually have a sideboard.
Idk if you still reply to this thread, but i built your deck, and its ultra powerful. I think almost too powerful for my meta. I have problems with a certain deck, and we dont run sideboards so i need to mainboard things. Im having trouble beating a meren deck. It goes two ways, either he casts creatures that make me sack arcum early game, ramps into massacre wurm wiping my mana ramp creatures, or he starts grinding out the game to the point where no matter what i tutor out he gets ahead. ive played 5 games, and lost all of them. Even putting in graveyard hate cards gets me nowhere.
any help?
First of all, yes, I totally still reply to this thread. As the primer-author I'm obligated to keep it updated, and with the exception of the few weeks a year where I go on vacation or get ultra-busy with my life, I'm almost always clicking around MTGS, so my responses usually come within a couple days at most.
also, ive read that you updated the primer a bit, and of course added in a mox diamond haha. may i ask why your going the mana rock route?
I've always gone "the mana rock route" to a large extent. It's just that with recent changes (not yet reflected in the primer, by the way--sometime in the next couple days I have to sit down and re-write it with the new changes) I'm going a little *heavier* on mana rocks, as well as a deck-smoothing monoblue in there which I hadn't previously ran. If I had a choice, I would probably expand the deck-smoothing package, too; I have yet to include Preordain, which should really go in there, and I'm also thinking more broadly about other blue spells like:
But, even if I do decide to add any of those, it wouldn't be for quite some time, I'd have to think long and hard about what to cut (if anything). Arcum in general could also use some new toys, we haven't seen any good artifacts (or especially artifacts that interact with other artifacts) for a long time, not since New Phyrexia really. The last few blocks have been very kind to creature-based decks but not much for the rest of us.
I explained the reasoning more thoroughly in my posts on the previous page, but restated briefly it's because there's been a lot of power creep over the last couple years and EDH is considerably faster now: we've got powerful new commanders like Prossh, Derevi, Brago, and others; powerful format-warping singletons like Deadeye Navigator, Void Winnower, Boonweaver Giant, and currently-banned Prophet of Kruphix; and rising popularity of powerful 99goodstuff decks usually based around Ad Nauseam and/or Doomsday (which I personally am not a fan of, but that's a conversation for another time). Considered together, that's a lot of new "powerful," so if Arcum is going to keep up, he can't afford to play the slower, more reactive game like he used to--particularly considering that, like I said, the last several blocks (pretty much everything post-New Phyrexia) have been very artifact-light, so Arcum hasn't yet had his day in the power-creep limelight.
My go-to answers for graveyard decks like Meren in Teferi are Grafdigger's Cage, Torpor Orb, and Relic of Progenitus, and between mulligans, tutors, and counterspells you should be able to stick and protect at least one of them. If you're running a Tolaria West package, Tormod's Crypt is also an option.
I'd say those 4 together make pretty much the definitive grave hate list in monoblue. All the other good hate comes from WBG, for example Rest in Peace, Withered Wretch, Scavenging Ooze, and so forth.
Grafdigger's Cage is a particular favorite of mine because it also blocks library shenanigans like Natural Order, Green Sun's Zenith, Birthing Pod, and Genesis Wave, all for the low price of 1 (= tutorable by Trinket Mage). Against Meren or any other graveyard deck that doesn't run W, if you can land a GY hate card like Cage they'll usually be forced to immediately find some of their G artifact destruction, which should buy you several turns to combo off without their interference (particularly if they don't have U to help them find the removal). If you have Arcum online you can also just tutor Darksteel Forge so the hate piece is indestructible, which can sometimes actually be game over for them by itself as GB has very little (if any?) "exile artifact."
But besides Cage there's also Torpor Orb as ajacobik mentioned, which should pretty much always be mainboard because it hoses so many things in so many decks. It won't stop Meren from reanimating anything, but it will stop the things she reanimates from triggering anything (like the Fleshbag Marauder and Massacre Wurm you were talking about).
In general actually your list looks very similar to mine. If you want a little more prep against Meren and other graveyard decks, I would for sure move to sideboard (or move to your binder, since you don't get sideboards) Karn, Silver Golem, which I cut from my list in my most recent changes; and also you might also consider swapping out Null Brooch, too, because if your meta is creature heavy it won't really help (just like you're thinking about swapping out Negate for a different counterspell).
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions and also how Chalice of the Void works out for you. I think it's a particularly great card for us because on its own it doesn't fit in many decks besides ours, my experience has been that 0/1/2 drops are simply too important for most decks and we're just "midrangey" enough that we can make it work, but you'll have to keep me posted with how well it does on your end.
Finally got around to formally revising the primer. Had to gut several sections that have stuck around since the post's earliest days that discuss Karn, 3-drop mana dorks like Palladium Myr, and other silly little things. The more I read over my old text, the more I laugh and shake my head at just how much the format has power-creeped from back when I wrote it (October 2012) and today. Back then, Azusa, Lost but Seeking was the best G commander, Hermit Druid was the poster child of everyone's paranoia, Hinder and Spell Crumple were actually great cards, and when people said "Zur" they meant "Zur stax" and not "a Doomsday deck that happens to have Zur as its commander." I think I liked EDH a little more back then, but I've always been a nostalgic sort of person.
I'm continuing to test all the artifacts and creatures in this deck to see which ones perform weakest. As I mentioned in a post above there's a long list of spells I could see going in (mostly more MUC stuff), but I'd have to find more things worth cutting first.
And, as you might expect, I'm extra-eager to see what comes out of Kaladesh, more than I have been for a block in a long time. At best, we'll get some good artifact synergy stuff so maybe we can start getting some of the power creep our way. What would really be a shakeup, though, is if we saw a U or perhaps even UR artifact synergy commander to completely supplant Arcum, and in that case I may have even more primer-rewriting to do.
Looks like we have our first include from Kaladash.
Yes, indeed. This was the sort of card I was talking about in my last post: cards that don't fit in any other kind of deck besides "artifact tribal" like ours. If there's anything that'll kick some power creep our way, it's that sort of thing.
Inventors' Fair on its own isn't game-changing I don't think, but it's a step in the right direction. It also makes a slightly stronger case for cards like Crucible of Worlds and Expedition Map which I don't currently run mainboard.
I'll wait 'till the last of the set is spoiled before I make any more updates to the primer, but this land is well worth the swap over an Island and will for sure be mainboarded.
My first impressions, Workshop Assistant < Junk Diver if only because Diver can eat a Skullclamp and Assistant can't. I dunno if it's worth trying to fit in a 3rd copy after Diver and Retriever, will have to think about that one.
Foundry Inspector looks much more worth an include, if a little worse than Etherium Sculptor. Still on the fence but leaning toward yes.
Also doing some thinking about this guy:
Not an artifact. Easily removable. Competes with Arcum for the 4-drop slot. It's a super tough sell. But hexproof all our artifacts is gold, and I can't hardly remember a game where I wasn't the one with the highest cmc artifact on the board or otherwise tied for it. Nobody plays as many cmc≥3 artifacts as we do. If he was 3cmc or an artifact I'd include him in a heartbeat, as he is now...I dunno.
Honestly I'd be much more easily sold on a 2cmc-tap-for-1 dork like another Manakin than any of these three, that'd be an autoinclude. These guys need some thought, much more on the fence. Given the artifact theme of the set I'm actually somewhat surprised they haven't printed one--we got Hedron Crawler from zendikar 2.0 and that wasn't even about artifacts.
I had almost the exact same thoughts on these cards. I think that Foundry Inspector is worth trying to find a slot for, or at least some playtesting. Padeem, Consul of Innovation looks like a trap to me in this list. Its a fantastic effect, but its too slow for a dedicated combo deck like this. If you play a more toolbox version, or if you have a budget version of this list like I do, its definitely an effect that you want to play.
Padeem isn't an artifact so he's not tutorable when we'd need him (green tutors can find him, lol, but Fabricate, Reshape, Transmute, etc., can't. Can't even Muddle the Mixture him since he's 4), shares CMC with Arcum, and I have the strongest suspicion that if I were to add him to my deck, I would draw him when he's irrelevant and it would slow me down a turn, or I wouldn't be able to find him when I need him. The card draw seems really unimportant to me since 1 card per turn really wouldn't amount to much.
Foundry Inspector seems worth a test, but I'm not overjoyed about more 3cmc fodder. Etherium Sculptor has led to some incredible t2 wins by reducing the costs of Lightning Greaves, Rings of Brighthearth, Hangarback, etc., so I can windmill slam Arcum and pull Monolith + Staff of Domination all in one go, but that was just kind of a, "Tee hee, I have a great frickin' hand" start. Inspector could do the same if the opener has Mana Crypt or Sol Ring in it, but I have no clue what I'd sub out for him. Actually, I just noticed my list still has Myr Moonvessel, so I may try Foundry Inspector in that slot.
I had almost the exact same thoughts on these cards. I think that Foundry Inspector is worth trying to find a slot for, or at least some playtesting. Padeem, Consul of Innovation looks like a trap to me in this list. Its a fantastic effect, but its too slow for a dedicated combo deck like this. If you play a more toolbox version, or if you have a budget version of this list like I do, its definitely an effect that you want to play.
I'll still be playtesting Padeem for a few games, I think he's at least worth a few trials even though he doesn't look that good in theorycraft. Foundry Inspector I'll probably be testing much more rigorously, though; as you said he's probably the most viable out of these three.
I have the strongest suspicion that if I were to add [padeem] to my deck, I would draw him when he's irrelevant and it would slow me down a turn, or I wouldn't be able to find him when I need him. The card draw seems really unimportant to me since 1 card per turn really wouldn't amount to much.
Foundry Inspector seems worth a test, but I'm not overjoyed about more 3cmc fodder.
I know that feel bro (on both of them). With no way to tutor for him he'd basically have to be useful in every single hand to be worth it (think like Snapcaster Mage for other mono-blue decks; untutorable, but never a bad topdeck so practically always makes the cut). And I get the feeling that Padeem just won't meet that standard at his 4cmc. He might end up in the sideboard, will have to see.
As for the Inspector, 3-4cmc fodder is OK when it's very, very strong (see: Metalworker, Phyrexian Metamorph, to a lesser extent Dross Scorpion). The "bad" kind of 3cmc fodder is the type that taps for 1 (Scuttlemutt) or 2 (Palladium Myr). I totally get where you're coming from that the last thing we need is more 3cmc clunk, but we know from playing Etherium Sculptor that a one-sided Helm of Awakening is quite strong and can often easily add up to 3-5 free mana per game, and it might just be strong enough to justify the clunky CMC. Again, we'll have to see in testing.
I'm trying it out a little bit. I don't have a Drain or Flusterstorm so it seems infinitely worse to me right now, but eventually Stoic Rebuttal and Turn Aside will be replaced by those cards. Anyway, Isochron seems okay. Roughly as situational as Dross Scorpion (in that you need to draw a piece naturally and then combine it with an Arcum tap plus whatever you've drawn for maximum value). In a lot of cases, you don't need a Sol artifact to take full advantage of Reversal. A game in which I drew Reversal, I could have tapped Arcum for Rings, but instead went for Scepter while only controlling a Mox Opal and four lands. I wound up netting 5 Arcum taps which secured me the game right there. I'm thinking about moving Scorpion, Myr Moonvessel, and one more card, I'm thinking Gilded Lotus right now (I don't tap Arcum for UUU very often. I've been required to do so maybe once in the three years of playing my deck lol), and I'm going to move in Dramatic Reversal, Isochron Scepter and maybe Mystical Tutor or Merchant Scroll since my instants package is pretty anemic. So far, though, my limited amount of testing the card has proved fairly fruitful since I typically have a mana rock or mana creature of some kind to support the Scepter loop, or at worst Reversal is 1U- Untap Arcum and go get another thing, which I still find pretty valuable.
Now, mind you, I absolutely love Dross Scorpion. It's been in my list since I originally made it back in May 2013, but I've found myself less and less enjoying drawing it because Ad Nauseam or Doomsday decks can deal with Possessed Portal pretty handily (typically speaking, the turn I can get Portal is the same turn they can go off. Losing 1-2 permanents or cards in the turn rotation doesn't hurt them as badly as others, and I can't always seat myself directly to the right of the ADN/Doomsday player). Beyond that, Scorpion really only shines with Turbine, a card I find myself wanting to rely on less and less, lol. There are some corner cases I'm ignoring because they rarely have ever happened to me, but I think the immediate impact of Reversal will be worth the exchange.
Or I could be horribly wrong and it's empty hype on my part, lol. I really like this card in the small amount of times I've drawn it as it has always had some kind of impact on the game, though I am much more cautious about the Scepter since it's largely worthless with most of my deck. Even without the Scepter loop, I think its phenomenal since it can be the difference between a fourth or fifth turn lock.
My list from before the above changes is here, I just haven't gotten around to updating it yet and I seriously need to go to bed:
To comment on the above posts, my reluctance with Isochron Scepter has always been that it would be a dead draw if I didn't have anything in hand to exile with it (compare Null Brooch, which despite its disgustingly steep drawback at the end of the day is still Negate on a stick without any other cards needed).
But, perhaps you guys are right. Now that I'm running a larger instant package--and Dramatic Reversal does look interesting--I think it's at least worth re-considering the actual stick. I've been busy these last couple weeks so I haven't done much playing at all, but I'll start testing it moving forward.
Any results on your end thus far? Let us know whenever you get them.
As for C2016, we've got this one:
I'm not sure how effective it will ultimately be, but the number of "don't mess around on my turn" effects available to a mono-blue deck is pretty limited; that's always been more WG's bag with cards like City of Solitude and Grand Abolisher. Besides our own countermagic, we've got Defense Grid and various forms of broad-purpose mana denial but that's about it. This is simply one more option, and at least on paper it doesn't seem that bad; maybe even a little better than d-grid in our deck since we'll always have dorks to throw it on.
There's also the 4c "artifacts matter" commander, appropriately in the 4 colors most closely related to artifacts, WUBR. Sadly she's not what I was hoping for in an artifact commander. At least on paper she strikes me as more similar to Sharuum than Arcum (i.e. WUBr goodstuff with whatever artifact combo as a finisher) rather than truly an "artifacts matter" deck where synergies between artifacts are the central focus from start to finish. I've already seen at least one person on Cockatrice testing her out as the finisher in a Worldgorger Dragon-Animate Dead loop, complete with Ad Nauseam and Doomsday; but I would call that a WGD deck, not a Breya, Etherium Shaper deck.
I'll be seeing if I can make a competitive "artifacts matter" deck with Breya, similar to Arcum but replacing the tinker-on-a-stick commander with WUB tutos, but at least on paper I get the strong vibe that there's not much to find there that Arcum or Sharuum or AN/Dday/WGD Breya can't do better.
How do you feel about Faerie Artisan's. Overall cost is a bit high but the ability to copy potentially relevant creatures and have them be Arcum targets as a bonus seems like a strong package.
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I noticed you don't run Crucible of Worlds, which is a card I've been thinking of moving to the sideboard but worried it would be losing out on some valuable tech, so it's good to see you're having success without it. I also noticed you run Null Brooch mainboard--I usually do too, but it's hit-or-miss among Arcum players from what I can tell, some love it some hate it, and sometimes I do board it out myself.
As for your individual card discussion you've got some interesting decisions here. My commentary (in response to your commentary, lol) is written in blue.
Thanks again for posting, you have a lot of interesting choices here and like I said I'm pleased to see we agree on a lot of things, I always appreciate opportunities to discuss.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
So I have actually been running with your deck now for the past year I have kept up with all the changes and I have found it to a very solid.
I first want to congratulate you on creating what I think is the best primer for any general so far. I have always believed that primers are well-rounded decks a swiss army knife if you will, that can take on any meta out there it doesn't mean it's going to be the best vs your meta but it can hold its own until you tweak your deck to be more competitive in the meta.
Saying this I believe you should keep this mindset and this primer listed and updated. As If anyone would like to play arcum and see all the wonderfully stupid ***** he can do they don't have to look much further.
Regarding the cuts.... Magic is all about the meta... The Meta isn't worldwide although for most players myself included as I did net deck this after having to retire my knowledge pool / teferi deck when people wouldn't play me anymore. But I haven't seen the failings that some have voiced regarding the cards listed.
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Crucible has saved me from being mana screwed a few times with pain lands. It's helped me bring back the city of traitors when I wanted to drop another land like academy ruins. I've actually played a game where the only blue I got was from the syveluntine temple and I was able to sack and bring it back these are luck luster things but its a very good tool.
It also guaranteed a land drop even if it was a come into play tapped card if I used the 2 blue I would still be on point for that turn and if I drew a land the next draw I wouldn't be behind.
In my meta there is also a ton of Land D. So when you drop this it helps you a ton.
Also, I have 1v1 had people just scoop after T1 land > ring > silver myr. t2 Crucible > Stripmine "Destroy your land" and now I have them a turn behind and I have 4 mana to work with.
Or strip mine was your first card down you destroy 2 lands putting them back to turn 1 and playing with only 1 land so are you but you also have a ring and 1 blue. with a bunch of dorks and mana producing rocks.
Again this is 1v1 only
I guess the strongest reason to not drop this is if you have a lot of Land D in your meta.
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As for Dross Scorpion
This card is a strong 3 for one creature blocker, Sack to arcum, and has a great ability.
He's been pretty good to me and he works great if I can copy him.
As I have had Arcum, Myr turbine, and Dross on the field, some type of copier like copy artifact in my hand. EOT make a guy Sack a guy for Mycosynth lattice. Then I copy the Dross and now I have Infi Arcum Triggers. As I would make a dude Sack the dude and untaped Arcum and Myr Turbine > go get X repeat.
( This was all situational but so is everything really)
This was my best turn ever with him but I haven't seemed to have him as a Dead card he has always been useful in a situation and does at least 1 of the things if not 2 of them that he was designed to do in the deck.
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As for Karn He is fun but he could if the group was running a lot of Snipe combo cards like Cap or the 3 Black one that gets like 3 cards or 15 or something crazy like that.
If they get myco he is kinda just a blocker and a Sack but he is also a bit too costly to cast if your not using him for the Land D combo.
Now I have pulled this off A lot due to my 2 groups actually do not play Caps or that black card, I just can't remember it right now or anything else like that they do play bribery so I guess they could get him after I play myco and destroy my lands.
But if they ran caps and other things that would target myco I don't think he would be that great as a Sack for 5. so this is the only one I see on the chopping block for that all around swiss cheese you have going on here.
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However if you'd like to change the deck and post the new one I think you could go a more focused counter magic route but dropping things like
Karn , Kuldotha, Spine, Possessed portal, memory jar, gilded lotus, or even lotus petal.
Now this is only a suggestion at a glance and this if you're going like I must counter everything and Draw cards route
counters Force, Turn away, stoic rebuttal, arcane denial.
Draw > Stroke to deck everyone after mana combo. or just to draw for yourself. Ponder, Brainstorm, frantic search.
but if you do that you will go from swiss army to Im going to get to this combo ASAP and counter anything you throw at me. and I would also see that this deck would maybe even change completely from what you see now only mana producing artifact dorks and combo artifacts you tutor with arcum.
or you could go Prison Arcum with the winter orb stuff.
Looking over your post I think we're in agreement on most things, but that your meta is a little different than what most people may be dealing with. For example...
Crucible totally is a great card. Even if I cut it, I'd be cutting it to the sideboard, not just deleting it altogether, with the instruction for people to sideboard it in if they're playing in heavy LD metas or perhaps 1v1s where a strip each turn is game-winning on its own. That's exactly the meta you seem to have described for yourself, so whether or not I move it to the sideboard, you'd be keeping it mainboard anyway.
But the other dominant commanders in the format right now, the ones that people tend to commonly face, like Azami and Teferiwalker and Derevi and Sharuum and so forth, don't use much MLD, so that's probably why a lot of people have been saying Crucible isn't as helpful as they'd like.
Believe me, I love crucible, which is why I've kept it in all this time. I love recurring artifact manlands after saccing them to Arcum, I love recurring City of Traitors and similar cards, I love recurring fetchlands to get a land drop every turn. But my understanding is most people don't consider those effects worthwhile enough, or see them frequently enough, to justify dedicating a slot to Crucible, and in fairness in my own gameplay when I don't happen to have one of those powerful lands then Crucible just sits there and kinda does nothing.
So no matter what I swap out Crucible for, I encourage you to keep your copy in your deck if it's an all-star in your meta, and for sure I'm going to keep my copy on hand to swap in if I ever sit down at a table with a more significant LD presence.
In my playtesting over the last couple days I'm having a hard time pulling out Dross Scorpion too. I think I might sooner pull out Palladium Myr.
I'm just about 100% set on cutting him at this point. Back in the old days he was worth the spot, but with all the EDH power-creep in recent years the meta than it used to be and he just can't hold his own like he could back then.
Karn, Spine, Jar are the three I'm most looking hard at, for reasons I stated in my post above (Karn's too slow, other decks can make better use of Jar, spine is just a crutch because there's no other removal in mono-blue).
I think this deck will always be somewhere between those two. Right now I'm just making it a little less toolboxy and a little more combo-y, because I think with the quickening of the meta we can't afford to play the slow, reactive toolbox game as much, but the toolbox will never truly go away. The best toolbox hosers like Torpor Orb and Ensnaring Bridge will stay mainboard, and the more narrow items like Crucible may be swapped out to the sideboard along with Jester's Cap and others.
Just because a card is in the sideboard doesn't mean it's not good, or that it doesn't belong in Arcum, it's just that (like you said) I have to write the primer for the "world meta," and while Crucible might be less useful than Brainstorm in the "world meta," if you're at a heavy LD table then of course Crucible would be much better than Brainstorm and you'd swap it right back in for something.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
When your opponents know you have it in your deck, it actually starts playing a sort of psychological warfare, that whenever you have Arcum and 2 mana untapped, everyone at the table knows you can immediately and at instant speed Negate any big bombs they drop. And with an untap piece, like Voltaic Key or Clock of Omens, along with the mana to pay for it, you can get multiple uses out of it per turn (obviously discarding an empty hand isn't a drawback at all).
Isochron Scepter, while a good card, just doesn't do that. Since it needs the countermagic already in your hand, and there's only a few 2cmc counterspells in a deck of 99 cards, it usually won't actually save you in those "gotta counter this" scenarios, and it's a rather wasteful Arcum tutor.
Many people don't like Null Brooch, because in the "pre-Arcum" turns 1-3 it's usually a dead draw, you can't stick Arcum with an empty hand, the discard is too crippling until Arcum is safely on the battlefield. They choose not to run it and use the free spot to run something else good (like another toolbox piece, or another prison piece), which is a decision every individual Arcum player has to make about their own deck--but in a 99-singleton format where you only have 1 Counterspell, 1 Mana Drain, etc. Isochron Scepter just doesn't have the consistency to be viable I don't think.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
Maybe there's something you see in it that I don't? I wouldn't call it an autoinclude, though.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
Out:
- Memory Jar (to SB)
- Spine of Ish Sah (to SB)
- Karn, Silver Golem
- Crucible of Worlds (to SB)
- Palladium Myr
- 4x Island
In:
- Ponder
- Brainstorm
- Impulse
- Skullclamp
- Mystic Remora
- Mox Diamond
- Mox Opal
- Darksteel Citadel
- Winter Orb
The overall theme here is that the deck is faster and more streamlined, but arguably a little more vulnerable to the same things it's always been (namely, Null Rod). Spine, Jar, and Crucible, three cards that were very frequently (or in the case of Spine, always) dead draws are moved to the SB, so the only ones left are the absolute essentials (Forge and Portal). Five more of the strongest U draw spells (well, besides Skullclamp) will help with overall deck smoothing. Mox Opal and Diamond, both of which I've argued against in previous months/years for their vulnerability, I think are more essential now in the faster 2016 meta, and I swapped out an island for Darksteel Citadel to more consistently hit the metalcraft. Lastly Winter Orb mainboard because, well, you know.
As I mentioned, my biggest concern here is that without Spine a resolved Null Rod or Stony Silence is game over, whereas before it was *probably* game over but not 100% guaranteed. The good news is, the number of decks that run those cards is few, and Spine wasn't really ever all that great of a solution to that problem anyway.
I still want to fit in Chalice of the Void. I don't know whether to cut one of the copy effects or what for it, but every time I've played it this card has had great results, basically like a mini-copy of Trinisphere. Most deadly at 1 or 2, but never a dead draw and always welcome in an opening hand as you can always just drop for 0 and block all pacts and the best mana rocks. The EDH meta is fast enough now that people are willing to run Mental Misstep mainboard, and Chalice will only get better as the power creep continues.
Also with Skullclamp and more 0 rocks in there I'd also give stronger consideration to Artificer's Intuition, but I'd like to work in Chalice before finding room for that.
I think these changes are good progress, and I hope my friends and other Arcum players out there will test them and find the deck overall better suited to the "global meta." Soon I'll re-write the primer to accommodate them. And remember to hold onto your copies of Crucible, Jar, and Spine for your sideboard--the cards aren't bad, and they still have their uses, like Crucible in a heavy LD playgroup.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
So yes, now that I'm finally changing my attitude on some of these cards, you and many others at last get to say "Aha, Nub, I told you so!" and I will simply have to take it on the chin. But I do think the deck is more finely-tuned for having made these swaps, and hopefully you and everyone else will too.
Now if I could just fit in Chalice of the Void...
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
Of the 3 copy effects in the deck (other two being Phyrexian Metamorph and Copy Artifact) I think Sculpting Steel is the weakest. The only advantage it has over the others is that it it's a noncreature artifact and can therefore be tutored by Arcum, but I don't think I ever found myself actually doing that, I always had better things to tutor with him. The other two have much more significant advantages I think, Metamorph can copy an enemy creature and give you a dork when you don't otherwise have any, while Copy Artifact is highly efficient at 2cmc.
Copy effects are a good thing in Arcum (or, perhaps it's better to say "more of a good thing") and I'd like to work Sculpting Steel back in somehow if I could. But if I have to be struggling to fit something, I'd rather it be a useful but non-essential card like Sculpting Steel rather than something potentially game-winning like Chalice of the Void.
Btw, these changes will require several sections of the primer to be re-written, there's a lot of text in there on Karn/Spine/Jar/Crucible/etc. that will need to be deleted/reformatted, so it might be several days before I finally get around to updating the main post.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
any help?
thousand year elixir
impulse (just added today, havent played with it yet)
basalt monolith
brainstorm (same as impulse)
unwinding clock
millikin
grim monolith
trinishpere
crucible of worlds
etherium sculptor
myosynth lattice
mana crypt
transmute artifact
counterspell
myr retriever
copy artifact
rings of brighthearth
myr sire
lotus petal
hangarback walker
chalice of the void (just added in, think it can be very powerful)
kuldotha forgemaster
gilded lotus
Karn, Silver Golem
ponder (recent addition among the other draw cards)
staff of domination
possessed portal
silver myr
mana drain
trinket mage
power artifact
sculpting steel
reshape
mox opal
pact of negation
sensei top
swiftfoot boots
phyrexian metamorph
lightning greaves
fabricate
Tezzeret the seeker
hedron crawler
swan song
myr turbine
darksteel forge
mana vault
voltaic key
thirst for knowledge
nevinyrral's disk
tangle wire
winter orb (mainboarded from the get go, love this card. won me games in my bant deck)
junk diver
muddle the mixture
fact or fiction
sol ring
null brooch
torpor orb
ensarning bridge
manakin
negate (thinking of cutting for stoic rebuttal)
spellskite
plauge myr
metalworker
clock of omens
lands:
13 regular islands (no use for snowcovered)
academy ruins
inkmoth nexus
crystal vein
reliquary tower
tolaria west
strip mine
svyelunite temple
flooded strand
cavern of souls
buried ruin
seat of the synod
scalding tarn
nephalia academy (i play against alot of wheel based decks, its in include for my meta)
polluted delta
ancient tomb
minamo
misty rainforest
darksteel citadel
blinkmoth nexus
mishra factory
hall of the bandit lord
gemstone caverns
_____________________________
i cut workshop and city of traitors for price reasons. (I had the more expensive cards like mana drain and traded for others. No one had a city for trade and didnt wanna buy it)
i have access to cage if need be, and i have all the sideboard cards that are on the orignial list, just cant actually have a sideboard.
I've always gone "the mana rock route" to a large extent. It's just that with recent changes (not yet reflected in the primer, by the way--sometime in the next couple days I have to sit down and re-write it with the new changes) I'm going a little *heavier* on mana rocks, as well as a deck-smoothing monoblue in there which I hadn't previously ran. If I had a choice, I would probably expand the deck-smoothing package, too; I have yet to include Preordain, which should really go in there, and I'm also thinking more broadly about other blue spells like:
- Gitaxian Probe or other cantrips
- Thoughtcast and Stoic Rebuttal, or other metalcraft/affinity things
- Jace, the Mind Sculptor
- Mystical Tutor and Force of Will if the package gets big enough
...with some more viable than others.
But, even if I do decide to add any of those, it wouldn't be for quite some time, I'd have to think long and hard about what to cut (if anything). Arcum in general could also use some new toys, we haven't seen any good artifacts (or especially artifacts that interact with other artifacts) for a long time, not since New Phyrexia really. The last few blocks have been very kind to creature-based decks but not much for the rest of us.
I explained the reasoning more thoroughly in my posts on the previous page, but restated briefly it's because there's been a lot of power creep over the last couple years and EDH is considerably faster now: we've got powerful new commanders like Prossh, Derevi, Brago, and others; powerful format-warping singletons like Deadeye Navigator, Void Winnower, Boonweaver Giant, and currently-banned Prophet of Kruphix; and rising popularity of powerful 99goodstuff decks usually based around Ad Nauseam and/or Doomsday (which I personally am not a fan of, but that's a conversation for another time). Considered together, that's a lot of new "powerful," so if Arcum is going to keep up, he can't afford to play the slower, more reactive game like he used to--particularly considering that, like I said, the last several blocks (pretty much everything post-New Phyrexia) have been very artifact-light, so Arcum hasn't yet had his day in the power-creep limelight.
I'd say those 4 together make pretty much the definitive grave hate list in monoblue. All the other good hate comes from WBG, for example Rest in Peace, Withered Wretch, Scavenging Ooze, and so forth.
Grafdigger's Cage is a particular favorite of mine because it also blocks library shenanigans like Natural Order, Green Sun's Zenith, Birthing Pod, and Genesis Wave, all for the low price of 1 (= tutorable by Trinket Mage). Against Meren or any other graveyard deck that doesn't run W, if you can land a GY hate card like Cage they'll usually be forced to immediately find some of their G artifact destruction, which should buy you several turns to combo off without their interference (particularly if they don't have U to help them find the removal). If you have Arcum online you can also just tutor Darksteel Forge so the hate piece is indestructible, which can sometimes actually be game over for them by itself as GB has very little (if any?) "exile artifact."
But besides Cage there's also Torpor Orb as ajacobik mentioned, which should pretty much always be mainboard because it hoses so many things in so many decks. It won't stop Meren from reanimating anything, but it will stop the things she reanimates from triggering anything (like the Fleshbag Marauder and Massacre Wurm you were talking about).
In general actually your list looks very similar to mine. If you want a little more prep against Meren and other graveyard decks, I would for sure move to sideboard (or move to your binder, since you don't get sideboards) Karn, Silver Golem, which I cut from my list in my most recent changes; and also you might also consider swapping out Null Brooch, too, because if your meta is creature heavy it won't really help (just like you're thinking about swapping out Negate for a different counterspell).
You've already got Torpor Orb mainboard which is great, keep it there; with the 1-3 slots you free up I would probably mainboard Grafdigger's Cage, Relic of Progenitus, and Tormod's Crypt in that order of priority.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions and also how Chalice of the Void works out for you. I think it's a particularly great card for us because on its own it doesn't fit in many decks besides ours, my experience has been that 0/1/2 drops are simply too important for most decks and we're just "midrangey" enough that we can make it work, but you'll have to keep me posted with how well it does on your end.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
I'm continuing to test all the artifacts and creatures in this deck to see which ones perform weakest. As I mentioned in a post above there's a long list of spells I could see going in (mostly more MUC stuff), but I'd have to find more things worth cutting first.
And, as you might expect, I'm extra-eager to see what comes out of Kaladesh, more than I have been for a block in a long time. At best, we'll get some good artifact synergy stuff so maybe we can start getting some of the power creep our way. What would really be a shakeup, though, is if we saw a U or perhaps even UR artifact synergy commander to completely supplant Arcum, and in that case I may have even more primer-rewriting to do.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
WorkshopsLegacy:
Death and Taxes
EDH:
Arcum DagssonMake Paradox Engine Great Again!Urza, Lord High Artificer
Inventors' Fair on its own isn't game-changing I don't think, but it's a step in the right direction. It also makes a slightly stronger case for cards like Crucible of Worlds and Expedition Map which I don't currently run mainboard.
I'll wait 'till the last of the set is spoiled before I make any more updates to the primer, but this land is well worth the swap over an Island and will for sure be mainboarded.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
New Junk Diver
New Etherium Sculptor (costs 3 but no U required)
WorkshopsLegacy:
Death and Taxes
EDH:
Arcum DagssonMake Paradox Engine Great Again!Urza, Lord High Artificer
Foundry Inspector looks much more worth an include, if a little worse than Etherium Sculptor. Still on the fence but leaning toward yes.
Also doing some thinking about this guy:
Not an artifact. Easily removable. Competes with Arcum for the 4-drop slot. It's a super tough sell. But hexproof all our artifacts is gold, and I can't hardly remember a game where I wasn't the one with the highest cmc artifact on the board or otherwise tied for it. Nobody plays as many cmc≥3 artifacts as we do. If he was 3cmc or an artifact I'd include him in a heartbeat, as he is now...I dunno.
Honestly I'd be much more easily sold on a 2cmc-tap-for-1 dork like another Manakin than any of these three, that'd be an autoinclude. These guys need some thought, much more on the fence. Given the artifact theme of the set I'm actually somewhat surprised they haven't printed one--we got Hedron Crawler from zendikar 2.0 and that wasn't even about artifacts.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
Foundry Inspector seems worth a test, but I'm not overjoyed about more 3cmc fodder. Etherium Sculptor has led to some incredible t2 wins by reducing the costs of Lightning Greaves, Rings of Brighthearth, Hangarback, etc., so I can windmill slam Arcum and pull Monolith + Staff of Domination all in one go, but that was just kind of a, "Tee hee, I have a great frickin' hand" start. Inspector could do the same if the opener has Mana Crypt or Sol Ring in it, but I have no clue what I'd sub out for him. Actually, I just noticed my list still has Myr Moonvessel, so I may try Foundry Inspector in that slot.
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
I know that feel bro (on both of them). With no way to tutor for him he'd basically have to be useful in every single hand to be worth it (think like Snapcaster Mage for other mono-blue decks; untutorable, but never a bad topdeck so practically always makes the cut). And I get the feeling that Padeem just won't meet that standard at his 4cmc. He might end up in the sideboard, will have to see.
As for the Inspector, 3-4cmc fodder is OK when it's very, very strong (see: Metalworker, Phyrexian Metamorph, to a lesser extent Dross Scorpion). The "bad" kind of 3cmc fodder is the type that taps for 1 (Scuttlemutt) or 2 (Palladium Myr). I totally get where you're coming from that the last thing we need is more 3cmc clunk, but we know from playing Etherium Sculptor that a one-sided Helm of Awakening is quite strong and can often easily add up to 3-5 free mana per game, and it might just be strong enough to justify the clunky CMC. Again, we'll have to see in testing.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
Now, mind you, I absolutely love Dross Scorpion. It's been in my list since I originally made it back in May 2013, but I've found myself less and less enjoying drawing it because Ad Nauseam or Doomsday decks can deal with Possessed Portal pretty handily (typically speaking, the turn I can get Portal is the same turn they can go off. Losing 1-2 permanents or cards in the turn rotation doesn't hurt them as badly as others, and I can't always seat myself directly to the right of the ADN/Doomsday player). Beyond that, Scorpion really only shines with Turbine, a card I find myself wanting to rely on less and less, lol. There are some corner cases I'm ignoring because they rarely have ever happened to me, but I think the immediate impact of Reversal will be worth the exchange.
Or I could be horribly wrong and it's empty hype on my part, lol. I really like this card in the small amount of times I've drawn it as it has always had some kind of impact on the game, though I am much more cautious about the Scepter since it's largely worthless with most of my deck. Even without the Scepter loop, I think its phenomenal since it can be the difference between a fourth or fifth turn lock.
My list from before the above changes is here, I just haven't gotten around to updating it yet and I seriously need to go to bed:
1x Basalt Monolith
1x Clock of Omens
1x Darksteel Forge
1x Elixir of Immortality
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Grim Monolith
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Mox Diamond
1x Mox Opal
1x Mycosynth Lattice
1x Myr Turbine
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Null Brooch
1x Pithing Needle
1x Possessed Portal
1x Rings of Brighthearth
1x Sculpting Steel
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Spine of Ish Sah
1x Staff of Domination
1x Static Orb
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Tangle Wire
1x Thousand-Year Elixir
1x Torpor Orb
1x Unwinding Clock
1x Voltaic Key
1x Winter Orb
Enchantment (2)
1x Copy Artifact
1x Power Artifact
Land (34)
1x Academy Ruins
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Blinkmoth Nexus
1x Buried Ruin
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Command Beacon
1x Crystal Vein
1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
1x Inkmoth Nexus
1x Inventors' Fair
17x Island
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Mishra's Factory
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Saprazzan Skerry
1x Seat of the Synod
1x Strip Mine
1x Tolaria West
1x Dross Scorpion
1x Etherium Sculptor
1x Hangarback Walker
1x Hedron Crawler
1x Junk Diver
1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
1x Manakin
1x Metalworker
1x Millikin
1x Myr Moonvessel
1x Myr Retriever
1x Myr Sire
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Plague Myr
1x Silver Myr
1x Spellskite
1x Trinket Mage
Instant (9)
1x Brainstorm
1x Counterspell
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Muddle the Mixture
1x Negate
1x Stoic Rebuttal
1x Swan Song
1x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Turn Aside
Sorcery (3)
1x Fabricate
1x Reshape
1x Transmute Artifact
Planeswalker (1)
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Defense Grid
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Jester's Cap
1x Kill Switch
1x Master Transmuter
1x Mindslaver
1x Neurok Stealthsuit
1x Orbs of Warding
1x Ward of Bones
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
To comment on the above posts, my reluctance with Isochron Scepter has always been that it would be a dead draw if I didn't have anything in hand to exile with it (compare Null Brooch, which despite its disgustingly steep drawback at the end of the day is still Negate on a stick without any other cards needed).
But, perhaps you guys are right. Now that I'm running a larger instant package--and Dramatic Reversal does look interesting--I think it's at least worth re-considering the actual stick. I've been busy these last couple weeks so I haven't done much playing at all, but I'll start testing it moving forward.
Any results on your end thus far? Let us know whenever you get them.
As for C2016, we've got this one:
I'm not sure how effective it will ultimately be, but the number of "don't mess around on my turn" effects available to a mono-blue deck is pretty limited; that's always been more WG's bag with cards like City of Solitude and Grand Abolisher. Besides our own countermagic, we've got Defense Grid and various forms of broad-purpose mana denial but that's about it. This is simply one more option, and at least on paper it doesn't seem that bad; maybe even a little better than d-grid in our deck since we'll always have dorks to throw it on.
There's also the 4c "artifacts matter" commander, appropriately in the 4 colors most closely related to artifacts, WUBR. Sadly she's not what I was hoping for in an artifact commander. At least on paper she strikes me as more similar to Sharuum than Arcum (i.e. WUBr goodstuff with whatever artifact combo as a finisher) rather than truly an "artifacts matter" deck where synergies between artifacts are the central focus from start to finish. I've already seen at least one person on Cockatrice testing her out as the finisher in a Worldgorger Dragon-Animate Dead loop, complete with Ad Nauseam and Doomsday; but I would call that a WGD deck, not a Breya, Etherium Shaper deck.
I'll be seeing if I can make a competitive "artifacts matter" deck with Breya, similar to Arcum but replacing the tinker-on-a-stick commander with WUB tutos, but at least on paper I get the strong vibe that there's not much to find there that Arcum or Sharuum or AN/Dday/WGD Breya can't do better.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths