Played 3 games this weekend. I don't remember the first one very well, but I remember the last two. Overall, Memnarch was doing some serious work for me this weekend and I very well dominated all of the games, even the third one when I lost. I'll include the stories of the second and third as best as I can remember.
The first game has come to me! It shall be posted as well.
Memnarch, Damia, Chainer, Norin
This game was kinda crazy thanks to the Chaos build that Norin is. I had a pretty strong opener with some early counterspells and I Remanded Damia's T2 Jace. And then Norin played Planar Chaos. I didn't even know that card existed, and it was both awesome/terrible for Damia and I. I had a 50/50 chance that my spells would be countered, including my counterspells and control magic, but it also meant that others had the same chance for having their spells countered for me for free. It was an interesting dynamic for sure and the Planar Chaos stuck around for a few turns while I built up a mana base and cards. Eventually the Chaos is sacrificed and that same turn Norin plays Tempt with Vengeance with a Warstorm Surge. I decline to put three elementals in play, as does DAmia, but Chainer does. Because of the Warstorm Surge, Damia's Jace, Arbor Elf, my Patron Wizard, and Chainer's tokens all die lightning deathss and he swings. On my turn I Fabricate for Vedalken Shackles (prolly my new favorite card in mono-Blue), and play it with 2 up so that I can steal the best creature that anyone tries to play. So, everyone spites me and chooses not to play their best creatures. Sad day. Damia plays Nature's Claim on the Warstorm Surge and Chainer begins to build his hand by tutoring for Mike and Trike, his signature combo piece. And then Norin plays Teferi's Puzzle Box as the last card from his hand. Oh man. This card is interesting because it allows everyone to dig deeper through their deck, but kinda screws up any long-term planning because you get a new hand every turn. With my fresh 6, I play an Island and have some countermagic to stop anything stupid from happening. Damia plays Timetwister, fruther disrupting the hands and plans we may have had, and draws into some more cheap mana effects. Chainer's tutored cards are now relegated to the bottom of his deck, and he casts Chainer on his turn I think. Norin draws Tempt with Vengeance again, and casts it for 9 this time. I opt to take it, and everyone does as well. Norin had played Goblin Sharpshooter the turn previous, and he would have killed me had he remembered the Sharpshooter triggers. So, Norin puts 36 tokens into play and swings them all at me. Gah! I block lots of them but still take 26 damage. And all 9 of my tokens died to his assault as well as 10 of his tokens (I had played Memnarch the previous turn). He put me at 6 life, and had he remembered his triggers I would have died for sure. But, on my turn, I play Palinchron with some counterspells in hand and a Caged Sun. Damia doesn't have the counterspell and I then proceed to steal all the board.
I have to do a few things right now, but I will be back with the other two game reports.
I open with pretty much the god hand of destiny for Memnarch, one I've never even really thought of. In my opener I haveSol Ring and Worn Powerstone, which is a fast start if ever there was one. And I draw, for my first turn, Ancient Tomb. Wow. I have 6 mana on T1, which means I play Memnarch on T2 with an Island that I draw. I have an Arcane Denial in case things get hairy during other player's turns and I begin to just accrue mana. I start stealing things on my T4, mostly artifact mana sources. When I play a Caged Sun, my opponent's just scoop it up. At this point I'm stealing lands, so they would eventually get stolen out of a mana base. A really fast game, and quite brutal if I do say so.
Memnarch, Damia, Animar, Chainer
Well, this game was more like a traditional Magic game than any I've played within recent memory. The game lasted for more than 7 turns! So we start out by doing our normal things, with Animar being really fast as per usual. Now that I'm writing this, I don't remember what happens. I know that there came a turn where I could play Memnarch, so Memnarch is on the table. It's 1 am in the morning, so I'm not playing optimally at all. Damia is playing real well, and because I have Memnarch on the field he's playing pretty conservatively. Animar is deprived of card advantage and with its draw it filters it into a Bane of Progressd. I make a huge misplay here. I play Pact of Negation. Damia COunterspells it. I play Venser, Shaper Savant targeting his Counterspell, which he then recasts countering my Pact. Oops. My whole board is blown up, including my Seat of the Synod. I am pretty crippled after that, and Damia eventually wins it by going Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator. I don't feel too bad about that one, as Damia hadn't won all night.
I realize that Im playing a list that isn't quite accurate according to the OP. I'll make the changes here.
Cut Mind Over Matter for Bribery
I lose an infinite combo piece that I rarely use anymore and trade it for the ability to steal powerful utility creatures and or bombs. The Big Three that I will most likely try to Bribe are Prophet of Kruphix, Consecrated Sphinx, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
Cut Capsize for Boomerang
Quite simply, Boomerang is cheaper and isn't able to be reused. I'll be keeping track if there ever comes a point where I wish I would be able to reuse Boomerang more than once during a game.
Cut Mana Vault for Coldsteel Heart
I didn't like spending mana to untap my mana source and to lose life to it became really annoying. I'd rather steal one from an opponent. Coldsteel Heart generates colored mana and comes down early enough in the game when it can slide underneath counterspells and other game breaking plays.
Cut Extraplanar Lens for Thada Adel, Acquisitor
Thada Adel has made several appearances in and out of this list, although I don't think I have her included in the cards considered section. She is really good in my group because almost everyone uses Islands. So She will be stealing lots of things very frequently that are useful, notably Sol Rings and Sword of Feast and Famines, which are probably the two most played artifacts in my group.
Cut Duplicant for Everflowing Chalice
This is a switch to see if I can increase consistency in the early mana so that I can get into Memnarch faster or the control package that I need to be able to field in the mid-game. Tapping out to exile a creature is pretty dangerous in my group with the ridiculous combos that seem to always be happening. In a more casual group, Duplicant will definitely slide back in.
Cut Thirst for Knowledge for Frantic Search
Dig less than the Thirst but it can be done at instant speed, which is really, really nice. They have similar effects, But Thirst sometimes draws more. We'll see how this goes and whether or not Thirst is better. This could be a swap out again.
Cards that I really want to find room for are Vendilion Clique and Sapphire Medallion. Especailly the Clique; being able to get information on an opponent's hand at instant speed is so useful. And being able to blink it with Deadeye Navigator could be really, really broken.
I;m cutting the Lens because it can get removed and have me lose tempo with the loss of the Island. And besides, with Thada Adel, I can steal yours! It seems that every deck in our playgroup has some relevant artifact to theft , and ones that doubles mana or otherwise create the same type of Lens effect are played. And it's another creature that can hold a sword and die to an Animar if I really need her to. Further, I've found myself never really wanting to tutor for it or otherwise play it if I had the chance to do so. I'll see how it goes this weekend and see if I want the Lens to come back.
Also, generally speaking, I am trying to prepare my deck to enter into an unknown meta. The University that I study at has a Magic Club and I'm not sure what they play there. So I'm trying to remove any possible instances of losing tempo or otherwise "risky" plays. It would feel pretty awful to play a Lens and then have it blown up during the turn cycle by a measly Vandalblast or something. That would be pretty devastating to lose a control deck's most important resource: mana.
Lens more like mana vault. While lens I agree is a card that not only opens you to be 2:1ed but it's so strong that it's worth skipping developing a turn to kill it or counter whatever the lens player follows up with. Mana vault lets you play that bribery you just added turn 2. While I have seen builds mana vault is underwhelming in it's almost never bad even as a suspend 3 mana brown ritual that you can't reuse it's good enough. I can't see any reason for you to cut it here.
Lens more like mana vault. While lens I agree is a card that not only opens you to be 2:1ed but it's so strong that it's worth skipping developing a turn to kill it or counter whatever the lens player follows up with. Mana vault lets you play that bribery you just added turn 2. While I have seen builds mana vault is underwhelming in it's almost never bad even as a suspend 3 mana brown ritual that you can't reuse it's good enough. I can't see any reason for you to cut it here.
Hey Moxnix, glad to see you. I deeply admire your Grixis Storm list and looked at it for a lot of inspiration with an Oona Storm list I tried out.
Anyways, I'm not sure I entirely understand your post here. From what I gather, it sounds like you recommend keeping both the Mana Vault and the Extraplanar Lens? With all due respect, the grammar in your post here makes it a little confusing to understand what you're suggesting. Do you mind clarifying a bit?
You know, in thinking about it a little bit more, maybe I should keep the Extraplanar Lens because it adds more of the most important resource that a control deck needs: mana. I'll have to relook my original reasons for cutting it and see if there's something else that I can cut for it to come back in.
Anyways, I played two games this past weekend that I remember. I swear I played three, but can only recall two. Anyways, the game reports follow here.
Memnarch, Kruphix, Sliver Queen
This game was an incredibly back and forth venture that went on for way too many turns. Seriously, I think it was like 14 or 15 turns before I finally won. That's so unusual it's worth actually mentioning. I like long games like that, but every player had zero card advantage for like 6 turns in a row. Ridiculous. Anyways. The game goes pretty well for me, with Kruphix countering some plays that I couldn't, I counter plays that he couldn't counter, and we countered each other. Sliver Queen starts off with a Survival but is mana screwed however. I had tutored for Vedalken Shackles, and Kruphix was playing mana sources and holding mana up to counter stuff. Sliver Queen filters a creature into an Oracle of Mul Daya. I had the counterspell to counter it, but I was feeling generous, so I allow him at least a turn with it. He doesn't get any lands with it, and then I steal it with Shackles. I had played a Sword of Feast and Famine the previous turn, so I suit up Oracle of Mul Daya with the Sword and go to swing into Kruphix because he has no blockers. And Sliver Queen Sword to Plowshares my stolen Oracle. Curses. I'm tapped out. Kruphix plays Trinket Mage, I think, or Kruphix, God of Horizons. Nope, definitely Trinket Mage because he finds Pithing Needle naming Memnarch. And that's pretty much why the game goes as long as it does; we all have no card advantage and I can't do anything with my general when I cast it. Sliver Queen draws nothing relevant and plays Sliver Queen. I have 5 Islands unfortunately, so I can't steal it outright. I play Sigil Tracer and suit it up with a Sword. Kruphix plays his Prophet and stores some mana during Sliver Queen's turn. Sliver Queen steals it with Sower of Temptation and then I steal it with Shackles. It was kind of ridiculous how many controllers that Prophet had. I suit up the Prophet with my Sword and go to attack Kruphix, but then Kruphix kills his own Prophet with Pongify. Augh! I can't get my Sword to trigger at all this entire game! (Not that it was really relevant because I had two cards in hand for most of the game, holding Palinchron and an Island to bluff counterspells...) Eventually, after lots of turns of Sliver Queen making lots of Sliver tokens, I draw a Mystical Tutor and find Blue Sun's Zenith when Sliver Queen is tapped out and Kruphix has no cards in hand. Sliver Queen has only two cards in hand, so I eventually win with Gauntlet of Power, Palinchron, and something. You know, I don't remember what I did with my infinite mana because there was still a Pithing Needle naming Memnarch. I think I somehow drew Blue Sun's Zenith again. Or bounce the Pithing Needle somehow. Hmmm. I'll have to ask my brother or Dan.
Memnarch, Kruphix, Azami, Talrand
Yay! A mono-Blue party with counterspells galore. Seriously. It was so back and forth. I don't remember the details of this game so much because there was a lot going on. I will correct that when I go home tonight and ask my brother what happened. All i know is that Kruphix (my brother) played Genesis Wave for 19, and I had Sigil Tracer and Trinket Mage that made a copy of the Genesis Wave for me. With the new cards that got put out on the field, I copied it again! It was stupid broken. I only had like 20 cards in my library after that. And then I allow Kruphix's Genesis Wave to resolve, just for hilarity's sake. He puts infinite mana onto the table, and then Azami tries to stop him when he plays Palinchron with Deadeye Navigator on the table. And Azami spends like 10 minutes doing things to try and stop Kruphix, and eventually does with Evacuation with the soulbond trigger on the stack. But Kruphix already has infinite colorless mana with Basalt Monolith and the Mana Reflection he Genesis'ed into. During all of the time that Azami was drawing cards, I was drawing two because I had Consecrated Sphinx. I realized, after I drew into Palinchron, that I needed to draw into Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir to win the game because I had Genesis'd into my own Deadeye Navigator. Eventually I draw into Teferi after Impulseing into him. I play Teferi, and win the game with infinite mana and play Blue Sun's Zenith to have everyone but me draw their decks. It was a crazy game, with all of the broken-ness enabled by Sigil Tracer. I think it earned a solid spot in my deck because I was also able to copy an Arcane Denial with it and Trinket Mage as well. Very pleased with the Tracer currently.
I was saying lens is fine can cut or not doesn't matter it's high risk high reward but you should not cut mana vault it's too good here and in general a better card played in most decks in the format. Sorry for the poor grammar.
Ah. Thanks for that clarification. I'll give Mana Vault another go, and switch it back in for what it originally was in for. It does have strong power in advancing my capability to play expensive spells faster than I should normally be able to.
In other news, I haven't been impressed with Liquimetal Coating. I've played a few gold-fishes and a few 1v1 games, and it doesn't perform in the way I want it to. most of the time, by the time I'm casting Memnarch I am usually tapped out so as not to take advantage of any of his abilities, and when I finally do untap and play the control game, it's almost irrelevant at that point; I can steal the biggest problem permanent on the board, and I only really want to steal one permanent per turn cycle. Bribing for Prophet of Kruphix or Seedborn Muse just helps me get there faster. I'll give it a few more games to see if I ever want to have it in play.
Really like your first-person Memnarch take on it, really well done
Honestly, I think you could keep the Extraplanar Lens. Run it with Snow-Covered Islands so nobody else (99% of the time) gets the advantage from it and you've got some powerful accelerant.
What's up Falkus. Thanks for checking this thread out and I appreciate the compliment. It looks like you just recently joined the forums, so I have to ask, what decks do you play in EDH?
If he plays lens he should continue to play regular islands as I am in his group and I play snow islands in all my decks.
For truth. Death Diamond would actually benefit from my Extraplanar Lens on Snow covered Islands more than I would. His Azami deck is basically an EDH Legacy High Tide Combo deck, and he builds his deck to take advantage of doubled mana sources more than I do. And he is basically the person I am most concerned about at any given stage of the game, every game. Yeah, Dan, you're the boogie man for me. So, in this case, keeping basic Islands is actually better for my playgroup. In a different meta, you're always right Falkus. Snow Covered Lands is tech with the E. Lens normally, but not so for me.
Yeah, instead I use that tech real hard. Of course I'm the boogeyman, I'm the only one in our group good enough to give you a run for your money lol. Just like you're the one I'm worried about every game.
Sometimes, I wonder if people really understood that dynamic in our group. That you and I are so concerned with each other that they can prolly get value plays that can solidify their own board state as long as they aren't too devastating. Anyways.
The new card blue exile card from Fate Reforged is really catching my eye. I'm not entirely sure about the whole manifest mechanic and the rulings on it. What happens when a sorcery or instant is manifested? Does it just become a morph dude that doesn't do anything? In that case, it's freaking broken. You can 2 for 1 an opponent by putting noncreature card from their deck into play in a state that they can't interact with easily. Does anyone understand the manifest mechanic well that could explain it simply?
I was looking at that card as well. It actually looks really good do to the fact that non-creature spells that are manifested do nothing but sit on the field as colorless 2/2s. It looks really good on paper.
Death Diamond, I agree. It definitely replaces Rapid Hybridization because it exiles the creature and also has the potential to put a card from the top of their library into a zone that they can't interact with very well. You would have to wait until the board gets wiped or something for that card to even get into the graveyard, and then after that you have to expend cards to get it back out of the graveyard to do something with said card. I like it a lot personally, especially in mono-Blue. Instant speed exile removal in blue! Finally. And it's fairly cheap too, in terms of CMC, which is even better.
I thought it might replace one of the one drop removals. Animar is the only deck in our meta that it loses value against but even against him now she has to pay full mana for any creature she manifests and animar doesn't get a counter for the manifestation. Still really good.
I played two games lasat night. The reports follow.
Memnarch, Kruphix, Arbiter
This was a game that I had no business winning at all. Kruphix should have won it hands down, but couldn't convert infinite mana into anything. Thanks to MEmnarch, I stole his infinite combo out from underneath him and used it to win. The game started with us all playing landsand doing some cool things. It was a control game through and through and I'm kinda proud that my brother did as well as he did with Kruphix, because he normally doesn't like playing counterspells. Dan is testing his newly forged Grand Arbiter list and it's a tempo control list that relies on creatures with ETB abilities. The game had kinda devolved into a draw go kind of game, except that Kruphix started out the game with Mox Diamond. He chains that into an Oracle of Mul Daya I believe, and accelearates ahead of Arbiter and myself. He plays Basalt Monolith and Mana Reflection and makes infinite colorless mana on T4 or T5 after countering our plays. With his infinite colorless mana he plays Mindslaver, his new test card and passes the turn to Arbiter. I would have Force of Willed his infinite mana, but I was tapped out and Arbiter had just played Grand Arbiter, causing my Force to have a CMC of 1 even when it's supposed to be free. Curses! Grand Arbiter does nothing that affects board state, and Kruphix Mindlsaves me. I have a Blue Sun's Zenith that he uses to target himself to draw 9 cards. He draws into Gemstone Array and stores his infinite colorless mana as infinite colored mana. But still nothing to do with it. And we all saw that he had drawn into no more counterspells. So on my turn I play Memnarch and pass the turn back to Kruphix. He doesn't have an answer for it, and neither does ARbiter. Once it gets to my turn, I steal his Mana Reflection and with my own Grim Monolith (which I'm testing in lieu of Coldsteel Heart currently) and make lots of infinite mana and then steal his Gemstone Array. No one has answers, so I steal all the things, as per usual. Kruphix should have won, but didn't draw into anything to do with his infinite mana.
Memnarch, Arbiter, Kruphix game 2
This was an attrition game that Arbiter played very well. Having a T3 Arbiter was really good cause it tied up Kruphix and I while he was playing faster than us. So he develops an incremental board state of strong ETB creatures. I play a Tezzeret which resolves, and then go tutor for Shackles to try and stop the shenanigans that is happening. On Arbiter's T2 he played Stoneforge Mystic and was finding some Swords to attach to his dudes to turn them sideways. The shackles resolves and Kruphix is mana-screwed after his T1 Exploration. During Kruphix's turn, he tries to transmute Tolaria West but Arbiter plays Aven Mindcensor. That card is secretly so good, especially because I thought it was an ETB triggered ability, his deck-searching restriction. Turns out it's static, and I pretty well lose to that. Kruphix Pongifys a scary dude, and then Arbiter suits up that Ape with Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Feast and Famine. We proceed to die while Arbiter turns the Ape sideways and countering or otherwise controlling our plays. My Intuition is dead in hand because I can't search my library, and Force of Will costs mana, even when I want it to be free. Arbiter closes it out with combat damage and kills me first when I try to cast Memnarch to try stealing his Swords. Krpuhix follows shortly thereafter. It was a good game, and the Arbiter deck played out well.
Overall, I like the deck a lot. I think that I like Grim Monolith better than Mana Vault because I can untap it whenever, so I'll probably make that switch permanenet.
Man, it's been a whirlwind of life since I last posted here. I've gotta get better at maintaining this thread. New semesters and new romances certainly distract a man from the best game in the whirlwind.
I discovered a list jotted down that's a close approximation for the combo version of Memnarch I played back in the day. I will post it both here and on the OP tomorrow. There are a few changes as well to the list that I've made and I have a general observation about my deck as it stands.
Oddly enough, my deck has come to rely on its General, which is an unusual thing to happen to me. Typically I look at my General as a finisher or addition to the deck strategy, not a lynchpin. But I find myself casting Memnarch every game and depending on him to steal away tempo from my opponents as well as manage the board state when I need it to. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing, but there have been a few games where I've been real sad to have him be countered and cost so much more. Commander tax hurts real bad for a control deck, and tapping out has become even more awkward in those situations where I don't have any real plays except Memnarch. I think I'm going to critically evaluate my list and see if there is anything I can do to streamline it so that I either win faster and more brutally or transition it into a more resilient control deck. I've been brewing a Tasigur control list with Avvina's list here in the forums as a baseline, and I am in love with BUG again. That was my original EDH color combo, you know, and I've rediscovered why I like it so much. Ah, nostalgia.
@gma
I think that's the trend that I'll be taking. So I expect to change certain types of cards out to add in some combos that I perhaps have discarded because I wanted to focus more on controlling the board state.
Here's the supra-combo list that's close to what I played, plus or minus a few cards. I'd of course add a few more cards now that there are newer, more awesome cards out there, but this was the general idea of what I was playing. I'll post this in the OP, probably under a new heading.
The list is indeed several cards short. There were a few cards that I couldn't remember that I didn't have written down on this list I found lying around, and I need to add more Islands to the mana base and also include the Mind Over Matter combos I had as well. It was indeed a kind of combo vomit of a deck, where it seemed I could literally just draw into a combo. I stopped liking that kind of strategy because there were too many times where I would draw pieces of different combos tha had no synergy with each other that were kinda dead. I'll take a list at this combo list that I posted and see if there are any other cards that emerge from the dim recesses of my memory. When I streamline my deck this weekend, I'll be doing it with an eye towards making infinite mana., because that's what Memnarch needs.
You are for truth, Etherium Sculptor is not a wizard. No Azami synergy there! My bad.
I've noticed in my games that I draw enough colorless lands as it is. Adding to that density is not something I'm prone to do because I draw on average, over the course of many games, at least 2 colorless lands. And Memnarch is a VERY color hungry deck. I am actually thinking of cutting out a colorless land or two to add more Islands if I can, actually. On top of that, it doesn't seem like High Market is narrow to only to destroying creatures. I think if I've already Shackled them up, that's just as good as making them go away, if not better than having them be in the 'yard. I don't see any other use for High Market outside of that cute synergy, and it seems just that: cute, without adding deeper functionality to the deck. Have you seen otherwise?
I'm a mono blue EDH player myself, so I know exactly where you're coming from. To be honest, I'm a little on the fence about it myself. At times I wish it were an Island and at other times it does amazing work with Vedalken shackles; destroying one creature per turn for only 2 colourless. Regardless, I've never been put into a game compromising situation because of having 1 colourless instead of 1 blue, so I think I'll keep it for the mean time.
Well, I will be testing out this deck this weekend. I made some modifications to it and hopefully that streamlines it a little better. There's a lot of good interactions here that I like, but it might turn out that my newly formed Tasigur deck becomes my preferred deck of choice, as it does the control thing better than this deck, which is a sad thing to say. But! Memnarch will continue on as a deck that I have in my arsenal so that I can continue to maintain this thread, as that was a goal of mine, because I do genuinely enjoy stealing things with Memnarch. Hmm. Maybe if I slide Memnarch into Tasigur... Oh man. That would be awesome. Anyways, the only cards that look genuinely interesting for this deck are Anticipate and... that's about it. There are EDH staples galore in the new set here, but nothing especially striking for mono-Blue yet.
The first game has come to me! It shall be posted as well.
Memnarch, Damia, Chainer, Norin
This game was kinda crazy thanks to the Chaos build that Norin is. I had a pretty strong opener with some early counterspells and I Remanded Damia's T2 Jace. And then Norin played Planar Chaos. I didn't even know that card existed, and it was both awesome/terrible for Damia and I. I had a 50/50 chance that my spells would be countered, including my counterspells and control magic, but it also meant that others had the same chance for having their spells countered for me for free. It was an interesting dynamic for sure and the Planar Chaos stuck around for a few turns while I built up a mana base and cards. Eventually the Chaos is sacrificed and that same turn Norin plays Tempt with Vengeance with a Warstorm Surge. I decline to put three elementals in play, as does DAmia, but Chainer does. Because of the Warstorm Surge, Damia's Jace, Arbor Elf, my Patron Wizard, and Chainer's tokens all die lightning deathss and he swings. On my turn I Fabricate for Vedalken Shackles (prolly my new favorite card in mono-Blue), and play it with 2 up so that I can steal the best creature that anyone tries to play. So, everyone spites me and chooses not to play their best creatures. Sad day. Damia plays Nature's Claim on the Warstorm Surge and Chainer begins to build his hand by tutoring for Mike and Trike, his signature combo piece. And then Norin plays Teferi's Puzzle Box as the last card from his hand. Oh man. This card is interesting because it allows everyone to dig deeper through their deck, but kinda screws up any long-term planning because you get a new hand every turn. With my fresh 6, I play an Island and have some countermagic to stop anything stupid from happening. Damia plays Timetwister, fruther disrupting the hands and plans we may have had, and draws into some more cheap mana effects. Chainer's tutored cards are now relegated to the bottom of his deck, and he casts Chainer on his turn I think. Norin draws Tempt with Vengeance again, and casts it for 9 this time. I opt to take it, and everyone does as well. Norin had played Goblin Sharpshooter the turn previous, and he would have killed me had he remembered the Sharpshooter triggers. So, Norin puts 36 tokens into play and swings them all at me. Gah! I block lots of them but still take 26 damage. And all 9 of my tokens died to his assault as well as 10 of his tokens (I had played Memnarch the previous turn). He put me at 6 life, and had he remembered his triggers I would have died for sure. But, on my turn, I play Palinchron with some counterspells in hand and a Caged Sun. Damia doesn't have the counterspell and I then proceed to steal all the board.
I have to do a few things right now, but I will be back with the other two game reports.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Memnarch, Damia, Chainer
I open with pretty much the god hand of destiny for Memnarch, one I've never even really thought of. In my opener I haveSol Ring and Worn Powerstone, which is a fast start if ever there was one. And I draw, for my first turn, Ancient Tomb. Wow. I have 6 mana on T1, which means I play Memnarch on T2 with an Island that I draw. I have an Arcane Denial in case things get hairy during other player's turns and I begin to just accrue mana. I start stealing things on my T4, mostly artifact mana sources. When I play a Caged Sun, my opponent's just scoop it up. At this point I'm stealing lands, so they would eventually get stolen out of a mana base. A really fast game, and quite brutal if I do say so.
Memnarch, Damia, Animar, Chainer
Well, this game was more like a traditional Magic game than any I've played within recent memory. The game lasted for more than 7 turns! So we start out by doing our normal things, with Animar being really fast as per usual. Now that I'm writing this, I don't remember what happens. I know that there came a turn where I could play Memnarch, so Memnarch is on the table. It's 1 am in the morning, so I'm not playing optimally at all. Damia is playing real well, and because I have Memnarch on the field he's playing pretty conservatively. Animar is deprived of card advantage and with its draw it filters it into a Bane of Progressd. I make a huge misplay here. I play Pact of Negation. Damia COunterspells it. I play Venser, Shaper Savant targeting his Counterspell, which he then recasts countering my Pact. Oops. My whole board is blown up, including my Seat of the Synod. I am pretty crippled after that, and Damia eventually wins it by going Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator. I don't feel too bad about that one, as Damia hadn't won all night.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Cut Mind Over Matter for Bribery
I lose an infinite combo piece that I rarely use anymore and trade it for the ability to steal powerful utility creatures and or bombs. The Big Three that I will most likely try to Bribe are Prophet of Kruphix, Consecrated Sphinx, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
Cut Capsize for Boomerang
Quite simply, Boomerang is cheaper and isn't able to be reused. I'll be keeping track if there ever comes a point where I wish I would be able to reuse Boomerang more than once during a game.
Cut Mana Vault for Coldsteel Heart
I didn't like spending mana to untap my mana source and to lose life to it became really annoying. I'd rather steal one from an opponent. Coldsteel Heart generates colored mana and comes down early enough in the game when it can slide underneath counterspells and other game breaking plays.
Cut Extraplanar Lens for Thada Adel, Acquisitor
Thada Adel has made several appearances in and out of this list, although I don't think I have her included in the cards considered section. She is really good in my group because almost everyone uses Islands. So She will be stealing lots of things very frequently that are useful, notably Sol Rings and Sword of Feast and Famines, which are probably the two most played artifacts in my group.
Cut Duplicant for Everflowing Chalice
This is a switch to see if I can increase consistency in the early mana so that I can get into Memnarch faster or the control package that I need to be able to field in the mid-game. Tapping out to exile a creature is pretty dangerous in my group with the ridiculous combos that seem to always be happening. In a more casual group, Duplicant will definitely slide back in.
Cut Thirst for Knowledge for Frantic Search
Dig less than the Thirst but it can be done at instant speed, which is really, really nice. They have similar effects, But Thirst sometimes draws more. We'll see how this goes and whether or not Thirst is better. This could be a swap out again.
Cards that I really want to find room for are Vendilion Clique and Sapphire Medallion. Especailly the Clique; being able to get information on an opponent's hand at instant speed is so useful. And being able to blink it with Deadeye Navigator could be really, really broken.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Damia, Sage of Stone
Ertai, the Corrupted
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Omnath, Locus of Mana
Also, generally speaking, I am trying to prepare my deck to enter into an unknown meta. The University that I study at has a Magic Club and I'm not sure what they play there. So I'm trying to remove any possible instances of losing tempo or otherwise "risky" plays. It would feel pretty awful to play a Lens and then have it blown up during the turn cycle by a measly Vandalblast or something. That would be pretty devastating to lose a control deck's most important resource: mana.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
Hey Moxnix, glad to see you. I deeply admire your Grixis Storm list and looked at it for a lot of inspiration with an Oona Storm list I tried out.
Anyways, I'm not sure I entirely understand your post here. From what I gather, it sounds like you recommend keeping both the Mana Vault and the Extraplanar Lens? With all due respect, the grammar in your post here makes it a little confusing to understand what you're suggesting. Do you mind clarifying a bit?
You know, in thinking about it a little bit more, maybe I should keep the Extraplanar Lens because it adds more of the most important resource that a control deck needs: mana. I'll have to relook my original reasons for cutting it and see if there's something else that I can cut for it to come back in.
Anyways, I played two games this past weekend that I remember. I swear I played three, but can only recall two. Anyways, the game reports follow here.
Memnarch, Kruphix, Sliver Queen
This game was an incredibly back and forth venture that went on for way too many turns. Seriously, I think it was like 14 or 15 turns before I finally won. That's so unusual it's worth actually mentioning. I like long games like that, but every player had zero card advantage for like 6 turns in a row. Ridiculous. Anyways. The game goes pretty well for me, with Kruphix countering some plays that I couldn't, I counter plays that he couldn't counter, and we countered each other. Sliver Queen starts off with a Survival but is mana screwed however. I had tutored for Vedalken Shackles, and Kruphix was playing mana sources and holding mana up to counter stuff. Sliver Queen filters a creature into an Oracle of Mul Daya. I had the counterspell to counter it, but I was feeling generous, so I allow him at least a turn with it. He doesn't get any lands with it, and then I steal it with Shackles. I had played a Sword of Feast and Famine the previous turn, so I suit up Oracle of Mul Daya with the Sword and go to swing into Kruphix because he has no blockers. And Sliver Queen Sword to Plowshares my stolen Oracle. Curses. I'm tapped out. Kruphix plays Trinket Mage, I think, or Kruphix, God of Horizons. Nope, definitely Trinket Mage because he finds Pithing Needle naming Memnarch. And that's pretty much why the game goes as long as it does; we all have no card advantage and I can't do anything with my general when I cast it. Sliver Queen draws nothing relevant and plays Sliver Queen. I have 5 Islands unfortunately, so I can't steal it outright. I play Sigil Tracer and suit it up with a Sword. Kruphix plays his Prophet and stores some mana during Sliver Queen's turn. Sliver Queen steals it with Sower of Temptation and then I steal it with Shackles. It was kind of ridiculous how many controllers that Prophet had. I suit up the Prophet with my Sword and go to attack Kruphix, but then Kruphix kills his own Prophet with Pongify. Augh! I can't get my Sword to trigger at all this entire game! (Not that it was really relevant because I had two cards in hand for most of the game, holding Palinchron and an Island to bluff counterspells...) Eventually, after lots of turns of Sliver Queen making lots of Sliver tokens, I draw a Mystical Tutor and find Blue Sun's Zenith when Sliver Queen is tapped out and Kruphix has no cards in hand. Sliver Queen has only two cards in hand, so I eventually win with Gauntlet of Power, Palinchron, and something. You know, I don't remember what I did with my infinite mana because there was still a Pithing Needle naming Memnarch. I think I somehow drew Blue Sun's Zenith again. Or bounce the Pithing Needle somehow. Hmmm. I'll have to ask my brother or Dan.
Memnarch, Kruphix, Azami, Talrand
Yay! A mono-Blue party with counterspells galore. Seriously. It was so back and forth. I don't remember the details of this game so much because there was a lot going on. I will correct that when I go home tonight and ask my brother what happened. All i know is that Kruphix (my brother) played Genesis Wave for 19, and I had Sigil Tracer and Trinket Mage that made a copy of the Genesis Wave for me. With the new cards that got put out on the field, I copied it again! It was stupid broken. I only had like 20 cards in my library after that. And then I allow Kruphix's Genesis Wave to resolve, just for hilarity's sake. He puts infinite mana onto the table, and then Azami tries to stop him when he plays Palinchron with Deadeye Navigator on the table. And Azami spends like 10 minutes doing things to try and stop Kruphix, and eventually does with Evacuation with the soulbond trigger on the stack. But Kruphix already has infinite colorless mana with Basalt Monolith and the Mana Reflection he Genesis'ed into. During all of the time that Azami was drawing cards, I was drawing two because I had Consecrated Sphinx. I realized, after I drew into Palinchron, that I needed to draw into Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir to win the game because I had Genesis'd into my own Deadeye Navigator. Eventually I draw into Teferi after Impulseing into him. I play Teferi, and win the game with infinite mana and play Blue Sun's Zenith to have everyone but me draw their decks. It was a crazy game, with all of the broken-ness enabled by Sigil Tracer. I think it earned a solid spot in my deck because I was also able to copy an Arcane Denial with it and Trinket Mage as well. Very pleased with the Tracer currently.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Damia http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=410191
DDFT Legacyhttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=505247
Domain Zoo http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=10212429#post10212429
In other news, I haven't been impressed with Liquimetal Coating. I've played a few gold-fishes and a few 1v1 games, and it doesn't perform in the way I want it to. most of the time, by the time I'm casting Memnarch I am usually tapped out so as not to take advantage of any of his abilities, and when I finally do untap and play the control game, it's almost irrelevant at that point; I can steal the biggest problem permanent on the board, and I only really want to steal one permanent per turn cycle. Bribing for Prophet of Kruphix or Seedborn Muse just helps me get there faster. I'll give it a few more games to see if I ever want to have it in play.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Honestly, I think you could keep the Extraplanar Lens. Run it with Snow-Covered Islands so nobody else (99% of the time) gets the advantage from it and you've got some powerful accelerant.
Damia, Sage of Stone
Ertai, the Corrupted
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Omnath, Locus of Mana
For truth. Death Diamond would actually benefit from my Extraplanar Lens on Snow covered Islands more than I would. His Azami deck is basically an EDH Legacy High Tide Combo deck, and he builds his deck to take advantage of doubled mana sources more than I do. And he is basically the person I am most concerned about at any given stage of the game, every game. Yeah, Dan, you're the boogie man for me. So, in this case, keeping basic Islands is actually better for my playgroup. In a different meta, you're always right Falkus. Snow Covered Lands is tech with the E. Lens normally, but not so for me.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Damia, Sage of Stone
Ertai, the Corrupted
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Omnath, Locus of Mana
The new card blue exile card from Fate Reforged is really catching my eye. I'm not entirely sure about the whole manifest mechanic and the rulings on it. What happens when a sorcery or instant is manifested? Does it just become a morph dude that doesn't do anything? In that case, it's freaking broken. You can 2 for 1 an opponent by putting noncreature card from their deck into play in a state that they can't interact with easily. Does anyone understand the manifest mechanic well that could explain it simply?
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Damia, Sage of Stone
Ertai, the Corrupted
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Omnath, Locus of Mana
Death Diamond, I agree. It definitely replaces Rapid Hybridization because it exiles the creature and also has the potential to put a card from the top of their library into a zone that they can't interact with very well. You would have to wait until the board gets wiped or something for that card to even get into the graveyard, and then after that you have to expend cards to get it back out of the graveyard to do something with said card. I like it a lot personally, especially in mono-Blue. Instant speed exile removal in blue! Finally. And it's fairly cheap too, in terms of CMC, which is even better.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Damia, Sage of Stone
Ertai, the Corrupted
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Omnath, Locus of Mana
Memnarch, Kruphix, Arbiter
This was a game that I had no business winning at all. Kruphix should have won it hands down, but couldn't convert infinite mana into anything. Thanks to MEmnarch, I stole his infinite combo out from underneath him and used it to win. The game started with us all playing landsand doing some cool things. It was a control game through and through and I'm kinda proud that my brother did as well as he did with Kruphix, because he normally doesn't like playing counterspells. Dan is testing his newly forged Grand Arbiter list and it's a tempo control list that relies on creatures with ETB abilities. The game had kinda devolved into a draw go kind of game, except that Kruphix started out the game with Mox Diamond. He chains that into an Oracle of Mul Daya I believe, and accelearates ahead of Arbiter and myself. He plays Basalt Monolith and Mana Reflection and makes infinite colorless mana on T4 or T5 after countering our plays. With his infinite colorless mana he plays Mindslaver, his new test card and passes the turn to Arbiter. I would have Force of Willed his infinite mana, but I was tapped out and Arbiter had just played Grand Arbiter, causing my Force to have a CMC of 1 even when it's supposed to be free. Curses! Grand Arbiter does nothing that affects board state, and Kruphix Mindlsaves me. I have a Blue Sun's Zenith that he uses to target himself to draw 9 cards. He draws into Gemstone Array and stores his infinite colorless mana as infinite colored mana. But still nothing to do with it. And we all saw that he had drawn into no more counterspells. So on my turn I play Memnarch and pass the turn back to Kruphix. He doesn't have an answer for it, and neither does ARbiter. Once it gets to my turn, I steal his Mana Reflection and with my own Grim Monolith (which I'm testing in lieu of Coldsteel Heart currently) and make lots of infinite mana and then steal his Gemstone Array. No one has answers, so I steal all the things, as per usual. Kruphix should have won, but didn't draw into anything to do with his infinite mana.
Memnarch, Arbiter, Kruphix game 2
This was an attrition game that Arbiter played very well. Having a T3 Arbiter was really good cause it tied up Kruphix and I while he was playing faster than us. So he develops an incremental board state of strong ETB creatures. I play a Tezzeret which resolves, and then go tutor for Shackles to try and stop the shenanigans that is happening. On Arbiter's T2 he played Stoneforge Mystic and was finding some Swords to attach to his dudes to turn them sideways. The shackles resolves and Kruphix is mana-screwed after his T1 Exploration. During Kruphix's turn, he tries to transmute Tolaria West but Arbiter plays Aven Mindcensor. That card is secretly so good, especially because I thought it was an ETB triggered ability, his deck-searching restriction. Turns out it's static, and I pretty well lose to that. Kruphix Pongifys a scary dude, and then Arbiter suits up that Ape with Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Feast and Famine. We proceed to die while Arbiter turns the Ape sideways and countering or otherwise controlling our plays. My Intuition is dead in hand because I can't search my library, and Force of Will costs mana, even when I want it to be free. Arbiter closes it out with combat damage and kills me first when I try to cast Memnarch to try stealing his Swords. Krpuhix follows shortly thereafter. It was a good game, and the Arbiter deck played out well.
Overall, I like the deck a lot. I think that I like Grim Monolith better than Mana Vault because I can untap it whenever, so I'll probably make that switch permanenet.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
I discovered a list jotted down that's a close approximation for the combo version of Memnarch I played back in the day. I will post it both here and on the OP tomorrow. There are a few changes as well to the list that I've made and I have a general observation about my deck as it stands.
Oddly enough, my deck has come to rely on its General, which is an unusual thing to happen to me. Typically I look at my General as a finisher or addition to the deck strategy, not a lynchpin. But I find myself casting Memnarch every game and depending on him to steal away tempo from my opponents as well as manage the board state when I need it to. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing, but there have been a few games where I've been real sad to have him be countered and cost so much more. Commander tax hurts real bad for a control deck, and tapping out has become even more awkward in those situations where I don't have any real plays except Memnarch. I think I'm going to critically evaluate my list and see if there is anything I can do to streamline it so that I either win faster and more brutally or transition it into a more resilient control deck. I've been brewing a Tasigur control list with Avvina's list here in the forums as a baseline, and I am in love with BUG again. That was my original EDH color combo, you know, and I've rediscovered why I like it so much. Ah, nostalgia.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
I think that's the trend that I'll be taking. So I expect to change certain types of cards out to add in some combos that I perhaps have discarded because I wanted to focus more on controlling the board state.
Here's the supra-combo list that's close to what I played, plus or minus a few cards. I'd of course add a few more cards now that there are newer, more awesome cards out there, but this was the general idea of what I was playing. I'll post this in the OP, probably under a new heading.
1 Memnarch
Artifacts
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Caged Sun
1 Darksteel Forge
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Grim Monolith
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Mana Crypt
1 Memory Jar
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Planar Portal
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Voltaic Key
Lands
1 Academy Ruins
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dust Bowl
1 Halimar Depths
1 Maze of Ith
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Seat of the Synod
11 Island
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolaria West
1 Aphetto Alchemist
1 Arcum Dagsson
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Drift of Phantasms
1 Fatestitcher
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Grand Architect
1 Lighthouse Chronologist
1 Master Transmuter
1 Palinchron
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Pili-Pala
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Treasure Mage
1 Trinket Mage
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
Sorceries
1 Argivian Restoration
1 Beacon of Tomorrows
1 Fabricate
1 Time Warp
1 Transmute Artifact
Enchantments
1 Power Artifact
1 Rhystic Study
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
Instants
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Boomerang
1 Capsize
1 Cryptic Command
1 Evacuation
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Force of Will
1 High Tide
1 Hinder
1 Mana Drain
1 Misdirection
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Spell Crumple
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
EDIT: Also, Etherium Sculptor is not a wizard!:p
EDH
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls
GBGlissa, the Traitor
Modern
X Affinity
EDH
BUGTasigur, the Golden Fang (French 1v1)
Modern
RWG Burn
I've noticed in my games that I draw enough colorless lands as it is. Adding to that density is not something I'm prone to do because I draw on average, over the course of many games, at least 2 colorless lands. And Memnarch is a VERY color hungry deck. I am actually thinking of cutting out a colorless land or two to add more Islands if I can, actually. On top of that, it doesn't seem like High Market is narrow to only to destroying creatures. I think if I've already Shackled them up, that's just as good as making them go away, if not better than having them be in the 'yard. I don't see any other use for High Market outside of that cute synergy, and it seems just that: cute, without adding deeper functionality to the deck. Have you seen otherwise?
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
EDH
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls
GBGlissa, the Traitor
Modern
X Affinity
EDH
BUGTasigur, the Golden Fang (French 1v1)
Modern
RWG Burn
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager