The idea of this deck is Voltron Control. I would love to make this into a real, competitive deck. I won't waste your time talking about it, here's the decklist:
Eight mana for that effect is almost certainly not worth it. The only creatures that need to get through are Dexos and Medomai. I like the card, but it simply costs way too much mana. This deck needs to keep its mana untapped as often as possible. Turn 4 is pivotal and this card blanks turn 4 and 5.
He just seems like a more fragile gimmick like Geist, and Geist does not scale well in multi-player.
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Except this gimmick scales MUCH better. Three opponents mean you always have an open board to attack. Not only that, but casting opposing players' spells has the dual purpose of potentially locking your opponents out of their combo, but also net you some serious card advantage and tempo. Geist just deals damage.
Boy oh boy this decklist is everywhere. It looks like youre trying to build a ramp daxos voltron with the intent of not playing your opponent's spells.
Your sovereigns of lost alara targets a grand total of 6 targets. Really only eldrazi conscription because lets face it there isnt any other better target for 6 mana devoted to sovereign.
You have mother of runes and the blue god for a deck with 11 creatures. The ability is wasted. Youre better off replacing these with creatures that are lower cost that would give you better cohesiveness with the other cards you've put out. (Also would battle mastery trigger his ability twice?)
Do you want to protect Daxos and make him the win? Or do you want your deck to constantly be able to do what it needs to do because right now it looks torn between those two ideas and trust me, it isnt going to work trying to do both.
The weird part to me is you have a ton of ramp but obviously bent on playing your general turn 3.
Turn 3 you play your general. You swing, do you cast their card if its valuable? What if its just more ramp. Do you hold yours back for next turn? It seems slightly weird to accelerate this way considering how low cost the rest of your deck is. I estimate Daxos wont hit useful things 50% of the time and even then often times you probably dont want to invest the mana into those cards because it wont help with your board position since oyu just want to ramp into time stretch (Better off playing Augustra IV instead).
Armageddon seems really awkward too unless you have like a whispersilk cloak (which is also awkward since you could put a card like Unquestioned Authority which is much cheaper and since you have only 11 creatures, you wont lose the ability to target your own general) on Daxos since often 1 mana costing removal will get rid of your general. You'd be resetting games with this card more often then ending them I feel like. I dont see the point of Angelic Destiny, youre better off with a lower costing enchantment like Spirit Mantle. At least then you can make sure of your minamo at waters edge each turn to untap Daxos and use him as a pro creature blocker. Because without those cards I dont see the point of Minamo at all.
If you focus your general, you can put creatures like Silent Arbiter. You said you wanted this to be control, it looks to me right now like a really weird ramp which isnt control at all considering you lack a lot of permission. This is in the multiplayer section too so I assume a game of 4 people, hitting one person with Daxos is not enough control to swing the board politically.
I dont see how you plan on playing forbid more than once. With that much ramp you wont have cards unless you hit a sphinx or blue sun. But since you lack the permission often you wont get to play those cards without going punished. Same goes for Force of Will, I dont see how you can afford to give away any card advantage consider your deck is majority artifact (18) and lands (36). Also you have like a total of 20 some blue cards. 5 of which are counters, a few more are removal. I dont think you'd ever want to pitch those, nor jace or tezz since they are absolutely too important to your deck to toss to force of will. I think just replacing it with counterspell or hell even cancel would be better. Try things like Memory Lapse, Lapse of Certainty to manipulate your opponents top card.
I also dont see the point of greaves. Giving your own general shroud seems awful here. Even if you play it turn 2 to just get a turn 3 daxos swing in, your general is dead in the water cuz he is stuck as a 2/2. Seems only viable for late game and even then you dont have creatures that would benefit from having haste. Consider the Hexproof greaves instead. And why even bother with haste? You rarely will be able to play the card you exile on turn 4 especially considering youd rather play like another sword or protection for Daxos.
Again it just bothers me that you wanna play cards like Cataclysm but then you end up in a position thats really awkward where you have your general, an enchantment on him, an equipment i suppose and 1 land. You remove the ability to play cards from your opponents by doing this, thus gaining no further value from Daxos in that regard, if you intend to kill them with this card, those equips better be good and have survived a turn because in my play group swords are destroyed almost instantly. If you have greaves on him its even more awkward. After that, you have incredibly high chances to draw only mana ramp which wont be able to be played until you have at least 2 lands. Why put yourself in that position ever? You end up negating a lot of your own cards with Shroud on him and since you have 11 creatures in your entire deck, I dont see you being able to reliable want to target Daxos when you want to. Eslepth is dead since jumping anything else in your deck doesnt do anything.
Why flagstones with 6 plains? You have 4 fetches already. It just doesnt seem optimal with the mana symbols you have. it seems youre always going to be hurting for white mana over blue since you dont have a lot of permission. I continue to feel all this ramp is unnecessary because you dont have anything to use all that mana on without counting on Daxos hitting something relevant. You tezz for more ramp but at the end of day you just end up BSZ or Sphinxing yourself for more ramp hoping to hit an Eldrazi Conscription? Seems bad with only 4 counterspells. You have scenarios where you have to be already winning to continue to win harder. You also just flat out lose to cards like fracturing gust, akromas vengeance, austere command, any wrath. Cuz as soon as Daxos leaves play you have nothing to do but to play catch up with paying 2 more to play him and hoping to ramp harder than your opponent to get him a few equips/enchants which if youre ramping against a maelstrom wanderer deck or asuza, youre already just out of the game because the other cards in your deck doesnt do anything.
You start off your post being excruciatingly rude. Great start.
Sovereigns, Mom, Thassa, etc are all explicitly for Daxos. This is a Voltron deck and these are some extremely powerful cards for a Voltron deck. They protect and push through Daxos. The mana investment is universally worth keeping Daxos alive. THAT is what the deck wants to do.
You complain about my ramp package, then go on to complain about how I can't stabilize after a board wipe. How does this make any sense? One of the main advantages of a strong ramp package is its ability to do exactly that. If I play intelligently (meaning, I don't need 15 mana if I already have 12 mana available to me) I can stabilize immediately. In this case, stealing my opponents ramp spells becomes extremely useful.
The ramp in this deck is not only for casting my own spells. Having lots of ramp allows me to cast my spells whenever I want and my opponents' spells whenever that suits me. As you said, my whole deck is very cheap. This allows me to cast the spell I steal while still keeping mana up to remove problem permanents and counter spells. How is this a bad thing? The deck is built around Daxos' unique abilities.
I won't disagree that I will get something useful 50% of the time, but that other 50% of the time is loaded with value. This is EDH. The spells are explosive and the creatures are gigantic. Either that or it's a combo piece. If I hit more ramp I will absolutely cast it. Since my overall curve is so low, I will almost always be able to cast that ramp spell and still leave mana open for my spells. More ramp for me is less ramp for them and that is a huge tempo boost.
I admit the permission package needs work. There simply aren't that many tempo counterspells like Memory Lapse. There are 3 or 4 if memory serves. I'll try to get them in. Greaves should be Swiftfoot Boots. That was an oversight on my part.
I don't want to focus too hard on the auras. If I can use an equipment to achieve my goal, I prefer to. I have no desire to get 2-for-1'd (or even 3/4-for-1'd) all the time. I like Battle Mastery (it was in my original list) and I could play one of the Pro-Creatures, but things like Angelic Destiny are useful because they won't (usually) provide card disadvantage.
How can you dislike 'Geddon in a deck with so much artifact ramp? The ability to play some jewelry, cast Daxos, then 'Geddon gives me a MASSIVE tempo boost with plenty of card advantage to boot.
I love Silent Arbiter. This is a reasonable suggestion and will try to find room for it along with the tempo counterspells.
You complain about Cataclysm, but then go on to postulate that I would make terrible plays with it. I'm not going to put myself in those awkward positions. Flagstones is just there for some added value. I admit I could use some more Plains, but Flagstones is just there for a little extra value if I get Geddon'd and when I cast my own Geddon.
In a 4 player game, Daxos will almost always have an open opponent. My ramp package is not just for casting my spells, but also my opponents.
You then go on to complain (again) how I can't "play catch up," but, if I have a strong ramp package, a way to give Daxos haste, and have been playing intelligently; I can get back to par within a turn or two.
Beyond spells like Bribery and Acquire most competitive decks couldn't care less about what isn't on the field or in their opponent's hands. Your own spells will almost always be better for furthering your particular gameplan anyway. You made your card choices with your chosen synergies in mind, right? Besides, playing your opponents spells is something of a crapshoot where consistency is concerned. Bribery and Acquire just do it better and cheaper and they are more consistent.
For a competitive deck you need to ask yourself what this guy has over Geist of St Traft, or Bruna, Light of Alabaster (or whatever) for multiplayer. If you just want to have fun with his abilities however say so, then people can give you more suggestions to put together that kind of list.
Beyond spells like Bribery and Acquire most competitive decks couldn't care less about what isn't on the field or in their opponent's hands. Your own spells will almost always be better for furthering your particular gameplan anyway. You made your card choices with your chosen synergies in mind, right? Besides, playing your opponents spells is something of a crapshoot where consistency is concerned. Bribery and Acquire just do it better and cheaper and they are more consistent.
For a competitive deck you need to ask yourself what this guy has over Geist of St Traft, or Bruna, Light of Alabaster (or whatever) for multiplayer. If you just want to have fun with his abilities however say so, then people can give you more suggestions to put together that kind of list.
First of all, Geist is stone terrible in multiplayer and Bruna is slow as molasses. The better parable is Zur, the Enchanter. The reason to build this over Zur is you can play a more tempo-oriented game. EDH is a format loaded with extra turns, big draw spells, and explosive engines as well as efficient combos. With ways to view/manipulate my opponents top-decks, the random element is reduced. This deck is meant to be mostly ramp and control elements because it's a lot more efficient that way. If I can make my opponents work for me, I can afford to be wincon light. That said, there is enough of a Voltron element that I can be assured damage at my opponents' faces when I need it (and I'm adding a few more powerful enchantments).
Take an average competitive deck. A little less than 40% lands, 10% ramp. What spells fill out the other 50%? Usually huge draw spells, engines, tutors, and combos. That's simply the nature of the format. I will gladly cast any of those at almost any point in the game. Blue decks have an additional percentage of counterspells, but not every deck in my group is blue. Even then, I do have a few explosive spells of my own (Bribery, Time Stretch, sweepers, Conscription), taking their counterspells and protecting my own plays with them is still excellent.
I wrote my response in parts actually so it doesnt feel cohesive as a full and I agree with that, I apologize for the rudeness, that was uncalled for.
My biggest complaint with the ramp comes from my experiences playing Maelstrom wanderer and 2 original voltron decks, Sigg River Guide and Isamaru. I currently pilot a Sigarada enchantress deck.
My Maelstrom Wanderer deck I have often experienced consistency issues in the late game. Early game is fine, getting wanderer out turn 4 or 5 is consistent but due to the amount of ramp I run to get that consistency, often times or not I do not hit good cascade. Arguements aside any bit of ramp casted for free is advantage but I end up digging and top decking and durdling a lot until I hit one card that explodes my board or I get maelstrom killed and play him again. I see this issue with Daxos in your list in the alternative. Unlike Maelstrom wanderer having all that mana ramp does not ensure Daxos will get to do what he does consistently, which is hitting opponents value cards to cast. If he dies for the 2nd time, I think its going to be a rough time because you would have played the ramp in your hand and Daxos is 50/50. I see the same ratios with Maelstrom wanderer and I am running more cards that make wanderer a danger than a single eldrazi conscription.
The other half is the voltron. Sigg river guide for me was amazing because he came built in protection. I could stick cheap things on him like Grafted Wargear and really beat house. That deck had less than 11 creatures. In Isamaru, I ran a mother of runes also but I often found it unremarkable due to the gravepact effects, black suns zenith, mass removal in white, a huge amount of creatures from Green and just bounces on my gear from blue. I could not reliably give Isamaru's voltron cards the protection it needed and certainty mother of runes does not protect Daxos from a Tower of the Magistrate.
Im trying to think of consistent competitive cards that I keep running into and I played a lot french EDH as well so I am not thinking in terms of your meta and maybe that is the problem. My play group can easily allow an armageddon through and even if I have a flagstones (my Eight and a Half Tails permission deck), they would recover just fine.
Back in Maelstrom wanderer if I ramped really fast, I got hammered down by 3 players until they felt I was crippled. I dont see Daxos recovering from a crippled position as well as Maelstrom wanderer and that is why I dont feel ramp is helpful in his board. He should have some since he needs to play more cards per turn than an average UW deck but he should be focused on protecting his board and preventing the crippling ever happens. That is just my opinion on why there is too much ramp in this deck. Consider cheaper ramp in lieu of cards like Gilded Lotus, or Caged Sun that could also maybe draw you advantage. I have seen Druidic Satchel do amazing things. Coldsteel Heart and Land Tax and if you can do the whole snow lands with scrying sheets thing it gives you a lot more digging power. I think to add the amazingness you are seeking for in this list you need passive advantages built into your card choices that would let you manipulate your draws much better. When you want ramp, you have just the right amount and when you want cards to counter, you will have enough. Right now I feel like you will end up with bad amounts of one or the other and end up playing a Johnny mindset.
I can see your argument for Armageddon or Cataclysm, its powerful if you can wipe lands with Daxos out, have a flagstone and proceed to crawl your way back with hitting value off the top of your opponents. But I feel with the list you gave, this isnt an optimized strategy in the list you presented. You could include more permission (which you said you will) and I would add things that would let you tutor for Armageddon. Consider playing Restore Balance for more control and cards like Knowledge Exploitation,Muddle the Mixture, Mystical Tutor, and Personal Tutor to consistently lock the board out when you have Daxos with 1 or 2 pieces of evasion.
I'm redoing the mana base (it was copied and pasted from another list), upping the permission package, and trying something a little different. I'm going to try some board control. One-for-oneing the whole game will only take me so far. I'm thinking Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Aven Mindcensor, and Angel of Jubilation. I know Linvala is anti-synergistic, but I think it will be extremely effective if I play it intelligently.
I agree on Cataclysm feeling out of place, as it is hard to imagine combinations of cards where it actually puts you so far ahead that you win the game (instead of just resetting the game and giving you a slight advantage). Removal on Daxos in response seems like an issue as it will probably put you behind the other players. For mana denial, you could think about reworking the mana base to include more basics and going for Back to Basics (if this suits your meta), which is backbreaking for most EDH decks, while you will be less affected. Another option is to include Mystical Tutor and possibly Personal Tutor as additional tutors for Armageddon , while giving you versatility than Cataclysm . I think you can easily cut Mistveil Plains, Nykthos, Minamo, School at Water's Edge, Flagstones of Trokair, Darksteel Citadel, Sejiri Steppe, Springjack Pasture and Vesuva for three more fetches and 6 basics as these seem rather low impact, slow or narrow.
I would consider Jeweled Amulet over LED (which is mostly good in response to card draw/tutor or for going all in on casting your general, none of which seems very applicable to your deck) as it helps you get Daxos out on turn 2 (as do Lotus Petal , Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox . Caged Sun seems slow and unwieldy in comparison.
Your counterspell package should at least include Counterspell, and you can think about other 'tempo' counterspells such as Remand, Memory Lapse, Complicate, Spell Pierce and Dispel.
The overall decklist looks solid however and I am quite interested in hearing how he performs in actual games.
These are admittedly jankier, but what about something like Griptide or Submerge? Plowing an opponent's creature at eot, then taking it on your attack step seems good. They can also tuck a commander at instant speed in response to them casting a Farseek.
You may also want to look into something like Spin Into Myth, which lets you remove a bothersome creature and also determine just what you're going to be exiling with Daxos.
Putting cards on the bottom of your opponent's deck can also serve to make an awesome win condition, via Tunnel Vision
I didn't realize I didn't post the new list. I still need to make a few cuts and overhaul the mana base. I'll get the latest version up as soon as I can.
This deck really does have a ton of potential, I just think that it should have more interaction with the top of your opponent(s) deck(s). I'm working on making my own Daxos deck soon, so I just wanted to briefly thank you and the other posters for the inspiration and some cards for the list. Looking forward to this
1x Daxos of Meletis
Land (36)
1x Academy Ruins
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Darksteel Citadel
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Flagstones of Trokair
1x Flooded Strand
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Hallowed Fountain
7x Island
1x Kor Haven
1x Mistveil Plains
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Moonring Island
1x Mystic Gate
5x Plains
1x Polluted Delta
1x Rogue's Passage
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Seachrome Coast
1x Sejiri Steppe
1x Springjack Pasture
1x Tundra
1x Vesuva
1x Winding Canyons
Creature (13)
1x Angel of Jubilation
1x Gilded Drake
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1x Medomai the Ageless
1x Mother of Runes
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Silent Arbiter
1x Sovereigns of Lost Alara
1x Spellskite
1x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Sun Titan
1x Thada Adel, Acquisitor
1x Thassa, God of the Sea
1x Armageddon
1x Austere Command
1x Bribery
1x Oust
1x Steelshaper's Gift
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Time Stretch
1x Time Warp
Artifact (15)
1x Azorius Signet
1x Grim Monolith
1x Jeweled Amulet
1x Lantern of Insight
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Strionic Resonator
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Talisman of Progress
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Whispersilk Cloak
Instant (14)
1x Capsize
1x Cryptic Command
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Evacuation
1x Forbid
1x Intuition
1x Lapse of Certainty
1x Mana Drain
1x Memory Lapse
1x Sphinx's Revelation
1x Spin into Myth
1x Sunder
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Angelic Destiny
1x Battle Mastery
1x Detention Sphere
1x Eldrazi Conscription
1x Gift of Immortality
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Steel of the Godhead
1x Thassa, God of the Sea
1x Treachery
1x Unquestioned Authority
1x Vanishing
Planeswalker (3)
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
I like the idea of going with a Back to Basics in the list, but I'd like to test the mana base as it stands first.
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Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort
Except this gimmick scales MUCH better. Three opponents mean you always have an open board to attack. Not only that, but casting opposing players' spells has the dual purpose of potentially locking your opponents out of their combo, but also net you some serious card advantage and tempo. Geist just deals damage.
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EDIT: Cut Voltaic Key for Umezawa's Jitte.
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Your sovereigns of lost alara targets a grand total of 6 targets. Really only eldrazi conscription because lets face it there isnt any other better target for 6 mana devoted to sovereign.
You have mother of runes and the blue god for a deck with 11 creatures. The ability is wasted. Youre better off replacing these with creatures that are lower cost that would give you better cohesiveness with the other cards you've put out. (Also would battle mastery trigger his ability twice?)
Do you want to protect Daxos and make him the win? Or do you want your deck to constantly be able to do what it needs to do because right now it looks torn between those two ideas and trust me, it isnt going to work trying to do both.
The weird part to me is you have a ton of ramp but obviously bent on playing your general turn 3.
Turn 3 you play your general. You swing, do you cast their card if its valuable? What if its just more ramp. Do you hold yours back for next turn? It seems slightly weird to accelerate this way considering how low cost the rest of your deck is. I estimate Daxos wont hit useful things 50% of the time and even then often times you probably dont want to invest the mana into those cards because it wont help with your board position since oyu just want to ramp into time stretch (Better off playing Augustra IV instead).
Armageddon seems really awkward too unless you have like a whispersilk cloak (which is also awkward since you could put a card like Unquestioned Authority which is much cheaper and since you have only 11 creatures, you wont lose the ability to target your own general) on Daxos since often 1 mana costing removal will get rid of your general. You'd be resetting games with this card more often then ending them I feel like. I dont see the point of Angelic Destiny, youre better off with a lower costing enchantment like Spirit Mantle. At least then you can make sure of your minamo at waters edge each turn to untap Daxos and use him as a pro creature blocker. Because without those cards I dont see the point of Minamo at all.
If you focus your general, you can put creatures like Silent Arbiter. You said you wanted this to be control, it looks to me right now like a really weird ramp which isnt control at all considering you lack a lot of permission. This is in the multiplayer section too so I assume a game of 4 people, hitting one person with Daxos is not enough control to swing the board politically.
I dont see how you plan on playing forbid more than once. With that much ramp you wont have cards unless you hit a sphinx or blue sun. But since you lack the permission often you wont get to play those cards without going punished. Same goes for Force of Will, I dont see how you can afford to give away any card advantage consider your deck is majority artifact (18) and lands (36). Also you have like a total of 20 some blue cards. 5 of which are counters, a few more are removal. I dont think you'd ever want to pitch those, nor jace or tezz since they are absolutely too important to your deck to toss to force of will. I think just replacing it with counterspell or hell even cancel would be better. Try things like Memory Lapse, Lapse of Certainty to manipulate your opponents top card.
I also dont see the point of greaves. Giving your own general shroud seems awful here. Even if you play it turn 2 to just get a turn 3 daxos swing in, your general is dead in the water cuz he is stuck as a 2/2. Seems only viable for late game and even then you dont have creatures that would benefit from having haste. Consider the Hexproof greaves instead. And why even bother with haste? You rarely will be able to play the card you exile on turn 4 especially considering youd rather play like another sword or protection for Daxos.
Again it just bothers me that you wanna play cards like Cataclysm but then you end up in a position thats really awkward where you have your general, an enchantment on him, an equipment i suppose and 1 land. You remove the ability to play cards from your opponents by doing this, thus gaining no further value from Daxos in that regard, if you intend to kill them with this card, those equips better be good and have survived a turn because in my play group swords are destroyed almost instantly. If you have greaves on him its even more awkward. After that, you have incredibly high chances to draw only mana ramp which wont be able to be played until you have at least 2 lands. Why put yourself in that position ever? You end up negating a lot of your own cards with Shroud on him and since you have 11 creatures in your entire deck, I dont see you being able to reliable want to target Daxos when you want to. Eslepth is dead since jumping anything else in your deck doesnt do anything.
Why flagstones with 6 plains? You have 4 fetches already. It just doesnt seem optimal with the mana symbols you have. it seems youre always going to be hurting for white mana over blue since you dont have a lot of permission. I continue to feel all this ramp is unnecessary because you dont have anything to use all that mana on without counting on Daxos hitting something relevant. You tezz for more ramp but at the end of day you just end up BSZ or Sphinxing yourself for more ramp hoping to hit an Eldrazi Conscription? Seems bad with only 4 counterspells. You have scenarios where you have to be already winning to continue to win harder. You also just flat out lose to cards like fracturing gust, akromas vengeance, austere command, any wrath. Cuz as soon as Daxos leaves play you have nothing to do but to play catch up with paying 2 more to play him and hoping to ramp harder than your opponent to get him a few equips/enchants which if youre ramping against a maelstrom wanderer deck or asuza, youre already just out of the game because the other cards in your deck doesnt do anything.
Sovereigns, Mom, Thassa, etc are all explicitly for Daxos. This is a Voltron deck and these are some extremely powerful cards for a Voltron deck. They protect and push through Daxos. The mana investment is universally worth keeping Daxos alive. THAT is what the deck wants to do.
You complain about my ramp package, then go on to complain about how I can't stabilize after a board wipe. How does this make any sense? One of the main advantages of a strong ramp package is its ability to do exactly that. If I play intelligently (meaning, I don't need 15 mana if I already have 12 mana available to me) I can stabilize immediately. In this case, stealing my opponents ramp spells becomes extremely useful.
The ramp in this deck is not only for casting my own spells. Having lots of ramp allows me to cast my spells whenever I want and my opponents' spells whenever that suits me. As you said, my whole deck is very cheap. This allows me to cast the spell I steal while still keeping mana up to remove problem permanents and counter spells. How is this a bad thing? The deck is built around Daxos' unique abilities.
I won't disagree that I will get something useful 50% of the time, but that other 50% of the time is loaded with value. This is EDH. The spells are explosive and the creatures are gigantic. Either that or it's a combo piece. If I hit more ramp I will absolutely cast it. Since my overall curve is so low, I will almost always be able to cast that ramp spell and still leave mana open for my spells. More ramp for me is less ramp for them and that is a huge tempo boost.
I admit the permission package needs work. There simply aren't that many tempo counterspells like Memory Lapse. There are 3 or 4 if memory serves. I'll try to get them in. Greaves should be Swiftfoot Boots. That was an oversight on my part.
I don't want to focus too hard on the auras. If I can use an equipment to achieve my goal, I prefer to. I have no desire to get 2-for-1'd (or even 3/4-for-1'd) all the time. I like Battle Mastery (it was in my original list) and I could play one of the Pro-Creatures, but things like Angelic Destiny are useful because they won't (usually) provide card disadvantage.
How can you dislike 'Geddon in a deck with so much artifact ramp? The ability to play some jewelry, cast Daxos, then 'Geddon gives me a MASSIVE tempo boost with plenty of card advantage to boot.
I love Silent Arbiter. This is a reasonable suggestion and will try to find room for it along with the tempo counterspells.
You complain about Cataclysm, but then go on to postulate that I would make terrible plays with it. I'm not going to put myself in those awkward positions. Flagstones is just there for some added value. I admit I could use some more Plains, but Flagstones is just there for a little extra value if I get Geddon'd and when I cast my own Geddon.
In a 4 player game, Daxos will almost always have an open opponent. My ramp package is not just for casting my spells, but also my opponents.
You then go on to complain (again) how I can't "play catch up," but, if I have a strong ramp package, a way to give Daxos haste, and have been playing intelligently; I can get back to par within a turn or two.
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For a competitive deck you need to ask yourself what this guy has over Geist of St Traft, or Bruna, Light of Alabaster (or whatever) for multiplayer. If you just want to have fun with his abilities however say so, then people can give you more suggestions to put together that kind of list.
Oh Rider, my heart will go on...
First of all, Geist is stone terrible in multiplayer and Bruna is slow as molasses. The better parable is Zur, the Enchanter. The reason to build this over Zur is you can play a more tempo-oriented game. EDH is a format loaded with extra turns, big draw spells, and explosive engines as well as efficient combos. With ways to view/manipulate my opponents top-decks, the random element is reduced. This deck is meant to be mostly ramp and control elements because it's a lot more efficient that way. If I can make my opponents work for me, I can afford to be wincon light. That said, there is enough of a Voltron element that I can be assured damage at my opponents' faces when I need it (and I'm adding a few more powerful enchantments).
Take an average competitive deck. A little less than 40% lands, 10% ramp. What spells fill out the other 50%? Usually huge draw spells, engines, tutors, and combos. That's simply the nature of the format. I will gladly cast any of those at almost any point in the game. Blue decks have an additional percentage of counterspells, but not every deck in my group is blue. Even then, I do have a few explosive spells of my own (Bribery, Time Stretch, sweepers, Conscription), taking their counterspells and protecting my own plays with them is still excellent.
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I wrote my response in parts actually so it doesnt feel cohesive as a full and I agree with that, I apologize for the rudeness, that was uncalled for.
My biggest complaint with the ramp comes from my experiences playing Maelstrom wanderer and 2 original voltron decks, Sigg River Guide and Isamaru. I currently pilot a Sigarada enchantress deck.
My Maelstrom Wanderer deck I have often experienced consistency issues in the late game. Early game is fine, getting wanderer out turn 4 or 5 is consistent but due to the amount of ramp I run to get that consistency, often times or not I do not hit good cascade. Arguements aside any bit of ramp casted for free is advantage but I end up digging and top decking and durdling a lot until I hit one card that explodes my board or I get maelstrom killed and play him again. I see this issue with Daxos in your list in the alternative. Unlike Maelstrom wanderer having all that mana ramp does not ensure Daxos will get to do what he does consistently, which is hitting opponents value cards to cast. If he dies for the 2nd time, I think its going to be a rough time because you would have played the ramp in your hand and Daxos is 50/50. I see the same ratios with Maelstrom wanderer and I am running more cards that make wanderer a danger than a single eldrazi conscription.
The other half is the voltron. Sigg river guide for me was amazing because he came built in protection. I could stick cheap things on him like Grafted Wargear and really beat house. That deck had less than 11 creatures. In Isamaru, I ran a mother of runes also but I often found it unremarkable due to the gravepact effects, black suns zenith, mass removal in white, a huge amount of creatures from Green and just bounces on my gear from blue. I could not reliably give Isamaru's voltron cards the protection it needed and certainty mother of runes does not protect Daxos from a Tower of the Magistrate.
Im trying to think of consistent competitive cards that I keep running into and I played a lot french EDH as well so I am not thinking in terms of your meta and maybe that is the problem. My play group can easily allow an armageddon through and even if I have a flagstones (my Eight and a Half Tails permission deck), they would recover just fine.
Back in Maelstrom wanderer if I ramped really fast, I got hammered down by 3 players until they felt I was crippled. I dont see Daxos recovering from a crippled position as well as Maelstrom wanderer and that is why I dont feel ramp is helpful in his board. He should have some since he needs to play more cards per turn than an average UW deck but he should be focused on protecting his board and preventing the crippling ever happens. That is just my opinion on why there is too much ramp in this deck. Consider cheaper ramp in lieu of cards like Gilded Lotus, or Caged Sun that could also maybe draw you advantage. I have seen Druidic Satchel do amazing things. Coldsteel Heart and Land Tax and if you can do the whole snow lands with scrying sheets thing it gives you a lot more digging power. I think to add the amazingness you are seeking for in this list you need passive advantages built into your card choices that would let you manipulate your draws much better. When you want ramp, you have just the right amount and when you want cards to counter, you will have enough. Right now I feel like you will end up with bad amounts of one or the other and end up playing a Johnny mindset.
I can see your argument for Armageddon or Cataclysm, its powerful if you can wipe lands with Daxos out, have a flagstone and proceed to crawl your way back with hitting value off the top of your opponents. But I feel with the list you gave, this isnt an optimized strategy in the list you presented. You could include more permission (which you said you will) and I would add things that would let you tutor for Armageddon. Consider playing Restore Balance for more control and cards like Knowledge Exploitation, Muddle the Mixture, Mystical Tutor, and Personal Tutor to consistently lock the board out when you have Daxos with 1 or 2 pieces of evasion.
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I would consider Jeweled Amulet over LED (which is mostly good in response to card draw/tutor or for going all in on casting your general, none of which seems very applicable to your deck) as it helps you get Daxos out on turn 2 (as do Lotus Petal , Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox . Caged Sun seems slow and unwieldy in comparison.
Your counterspell package should at least include Counterspell, and you can think about other 'tempo' counterspells such as Remand, Memory Lapse, Complicate, Spell Pierce and Dispel.
The overall decklist looks solid however and I am quite interested in hearing how he performs in actual games.
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
Have you considered Moonring Island?
Putting cards on the bottom of your opponent's deck can also serve to make an awesome win condition, via Tunnel Vision
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Do I really need 3 cards that accomplish this goal? I figure Moonring Island and Lantern of Insight should be sufficient.
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