Just so you know guys, I have been eying this deck for a while and I'm starting to build it using my talrand as fondations. Gonna be a blast to combo all the things. Keep up the good work!
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Playing modern: all BGx, storm, burn, green eldrazi, dredge.
Hey man, thanks for the support. It feels like mono-Blue has kinda just been sitting around for the past couple of sets, but I'm loving what is being hinted at with the new set, Magic Origins. So I'm glad that this thread has been useful for you! What's your list look like?
I didn't play mono-Blue this weekend like I thought I would, as there was a massively long game that I played with Tasigur that prolly an hour and a half to finish. At the end of that, I needed to go home after rolling the table with my Kaalia deck a few times. I hope to be able to play a game or two with Memnarch this weekend to see how the new changes work out. I added another infinite mana combo, but I'm thinking I might just stay with the control shell that I like so much. Although Tasigur is filling that role for me, so I might dedicate Memnarch to supra combo again. We'll see.
You might want to stick to control a bit more. Yes you could combo faster, but sometime you need more ways to secure a win or keep another blue a** hole of winning before we do.
Or to keep the green and red players from bashing our head in.
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Playing modern: all BGx, storm, burn, green eldrazi, dredge.
Ah, I'm glad that there's another supporter of control in the world. Memnarch is perfectly situated for that role and I really enjoy the times when I grind out the whole table and steal their boards away from them.
I gather that if you're building this from a Talrand shell than you will have quite a number of counterspells and draw pieces. What kind of control cards are you rolling with?
I'm having the hardest time finding a stupid palincron in my 8 shops area -_- WTH!!!
I must say I'm a huge propaganda fan, cryptic command of course and the infamous evacuation board lock. I also really like jace, architect and tamyo. But my best defense? Politics
I'll update you with my first list once I have the v.1 rolling. Should be next friday.
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Playing modern: all BGx, storm, burn, green eldrazi, dredge.
Been looking at this list for a bit now, and I must say, I approve! I love control, and while combos are rather annoying for me, I very much prefer the idea of a competitive, back-and-forth game with a combo that eventually wins to one where turn 3-4 someone starts playing solitaire for 15 minutes and kills the table. Yeah, I've had that happen to me, and it's really irritating.
Personally, I prefer to use creatures that are really hard to answer like Ulamog (indestructible, and I always immediately give him boots or greaves) or Bolas himself (he gets equipped immediately, they have no hand once he hits, and he kills in 3 hits since he's my general) as a wincon frequently backed up with counterspells for the turn I drop them at least rather than a combo, but still.
Part of my preference here is because I'm still somewhat of a Timmy who found out while playing standard that the best way to win with the absolute biggest creatures in the game without relying on smaller ones early on was control. Kind of an odd path, but I'm still a control mage through and through, and as a control mage, I like this list, and it's tempting to build Memnarch even with my disdain for infinite combos.
So thanks for posting this!
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy, and good with ketchup.
@ Kazog
The quest for the Palinchron is a worthy quest, and one that will be rewarded abundadntly with infinite life and opulence and mana. I look forward to seeing your list, as I just added the Evacuation board lock as well as one of my intended changes.
@ Jemolk
Comrade! Welome to our brotherhood of control! I appreciate your appreciation and support your playstyle. That is my preferred playstyle as well, so I understand how you play already. Even with your disdain for combos, the current decklist is quite stream-lined for control. If you took out Palinchron, the premier combo piece of the deck, the rest of the deck is still incredibly solid. Most of my wins come from actually grinding out the game and stealing my opponents' permanents one turn at a time. Eventually, I have enough mana and enough counterspells to control the game taht no one wants to play anymore and they most of the time concede to me. For example, if I steal someone's Prophet of Kruphix and it somehow lives, I have yet to lose a game. Not through actual play, but because no one wants to face that kind of pressure (I always steal their mana base first, to limit their interactions with me for the rest of the game). Consider sleeving Memnarch up without infinite combos and see how you like it. I think it will fulfill your playstyle very nicely. And also introduce a new color to your repertoire of decks.
So I played a single game this weekend with Memnarch because my friends and I Prereleased instead. And it was a glorious game. Memnarch now has this reputation of being the control ninja in my playgroup, and so the gameplay slowed WAAAYYYY down. I just left mana open, held onto my counterspells, and played things as I needed to. The game was progressing beautifully, with me having spent only two spells because everyone else was controlling the table for me. That was rather unusual, to say the least. Eventually, we had to stop playing because the Prerelease started, but I felt extremely confident tht I would have taken the table. I played against Prossh, Chainer, and Brago, and Prossh was being controlled by everyone else. It was great. I had Evacuation and Archaeomancer in hand and every deck at the table needed creatures to win. So I felt supremely in control of the situation. I will hope to play more games this weekend, depending on how my weekend unfolds, but carry on mono-Blue! Remind the Magic community why the most dangerous card in the game is actually this one! Hahaha.
@Kazog
Hey man, have you settled on a particular list for Memnarch? I'd love to have more lists floating around, as I feel strangely alone in piloting this mechanical, magical madman of a commander and I'd love to discuss a list that isn't mine, haha.
@Jemolk
It sounds like you're more a true control player than I am, at least from what you've described. Controlling the table until you land a big fattie and then swinging in with it to win the game, that's the take I think you have when you're playing Magic. Do you have any creatures that you recommend for this type of strategy? Also, if you have brainstormed a possible list with your particular playstyle in mind, what does it look like? I have a combo-tastic list in my OP, but I think it would also be useful to include a pure control list as well. It would prolly include cards like Propaganda, Back to Basics, etc.
Updated my list a while back but haven't tracked the changes here. The changes are mostly in my spell suite, particularly the instants that are being run.
-Rapid Hybridization +Reality Shift
I think this is a strictly better upgrade because exiling is better, for this deck, than killing something to a place where it can be reanimated again. Also, there is the funny ability to deck people with the card if you have infinite mana and infinite recursion happening.
-High Tide +Archaeomancer
I lent my deck to a Legacy player who has disdain for EDH as a format, and he liked my deck. Looking through it, he commented that permanent sources of mana doublers were much more effective than a single shot mana doubling effect that can help other people. I agreed, and so I'll slide Archaeomancer back in to see if I miss High Tide.
-Frantic Search +Impulse
I did NOT like the dicard part of Frantic Search and Impulse helps me dig deeper. So I'll easily make this switch and not look back. My Tasigur likes Frantic Search much more than I do anyways.
-Liquimetal Coating + Stroke of Genius
After drawing it a few times and being useless in my hand for all of those times, it's gone. I never needed it when I had it, and I never wanted to cast it when I did, constantly wishing it was card draw, a counterspell, or something that would do something without Memnarch.
+Trickbind
Apparently my OP list is actually 3 cards short of a full 100. Awkward.
+Extraplanar Lens
For the same reasoning as Trickbind.
And now I've realized that I'm actually one card short of a full 100 cards in my real life deck. I've either lost a card and its sleeve or I just never had one. If so, how exciting! A free card slot to fill... the possibilities are endless!
Wouldn't snow-covered islands be a better choice compared to regular islands for extraplanar lens? To reduce the chance of your opponents getting extra mana every time they tap their islands?
@Glokkss
You are correct that Snow-Covered Islands are definitely a better choice for the interaction with Extraplanar Lens. In an unknown meta, I would probably do that. However, Snow-Covered Islands are actually the norm in my playgroup, which I understand to be a little unusual. So if I were to use Snow-Covered Islands, I would actually be helping my opponents more. And besides, my Islands are all pimped out with foils and full-art Zendikar and Unglued Islands. I really like to look at my mana base while I'm playing.
Ha! Im hoping tonight I'll be able to play with my mechanic madman here. It's been a looooong time since I pulled him out and Memnarch pines to see the light of day. As well as most of my Magic cards. Life has been very, very busy as of late and I'm glad that it's steadying out now. Whew.
This is true, sir. Azami is prolly the deck of yours that I fear the most because you only need one turn to go off and it's SO annoying when I choose the wrong turn to tap out and watch you double, triple, or occasionally quadruple your mana and then take FOREVER to Mind's Desire into the win. It's like a death of a thousand cuts, hahahaha. And yes, giving you more mana to be able to abuse that ability would NOT be ideal.
So. My Magic-ing ability is about to be severely reduced as I move into the summer because of several life events. The most awesome of which is getting married to the most beautiful brunette I've met and had the chance to interact with. Huzzah! As such, my days will be filled with planning this special day, moving into an apartment together, and other life details. So, for a while, I will be theory crafting and commenting on what I think is good based on my vast Magic experience. So, ladies and gentleman, carry on with your Mono-Blue adventures as I take some time to settle into a glorious life! I hope this list serves as a good base for Mono-Blue control and that you find out why U is the best color in Magic!
Welcome back, me, to my own Primer! After being married and settling in, I was able to break out Memnarch a few times and play a few 1v1 games with my friend's Animar deck. They were good games, but Animar has too much tempo going on for Memnarch to handle it alone in 1v1. Primeval Titan is unbanned in my group, so I Bribery'ed it from his deck once, which was pretty sweet, but otherwise it was a pretty unfavorable match for me. Glimpse of Nature is pretty busted in Animar, at least in my friend's configuration, and I just lose to it if it resolves.
Anyways, it's good to be back. I made some changes to my decklist that need to be accounted for, as well as a discovery: Dralnu, Lich Lord is a Wizard. I didn't know this, and I am definitely considering switching Memnarch into a heavily blue-based Dralnu deck. I need to theorize a decklist and then post it here for critique, but I'm excited by the challenge of recreating one of my favorite decks from the a very powerful deck already. Basically, I'm going to add a few black cards to Memnarch and switch the General to Dralnu. I'll update the OP and theorize a Dralnu list in a while.
So I was able to play another game with Memnarch on Saturday. It was a good game, but I had the misfortune of losing to a Niv-Mizzet deck that I provided many of the good cards for. Anyways, the game report follows.
5-man game with Memnarch, Brago, Yisan, Kaalia, and Niv-Mizzet
So the game opened up and I had a really strong hand of Everflowing Chalice and a couple of permission pieces, Tezzeret the Seeker, and lands for the rest. I figured I could ramp up into Tezzeret and get Vedalken Shackles as fast as possible. Kaalia wasn’t doing much this game because of all the blue permission at the table and was playing pretty conservatively. Niv-Mizzet was playing control and Brago was leading the game with tempo throughout most of it. Yisan was being piloted by a new player and so he wasn’t really doing anything until he played Primeval Titan. Niv made a copy of it and when Yisan attacked into me with his Titan I stole Niv-Mizzet’s Titan to block the other one. That was pretty sweet. Brago played Lavinia of the Tenth and detain on my mana rocks was really bad. I had fetched for Sol Ring a few turns earlier and it was lame having my mana shorted. I drew into a Consecrated Sphinx and attempted to play it and protect it. Brago wanted to Remand it to my hand again, and I Counterspelled it. This let Niv-Mizzet cast Enter the Infinite from his hand with Niv on the field. I Evacuated the board in response. I drew into Cryptic Command and evaluate my hand and Niv’s hand. He has way more cards and at least one free spell, and the Deadeye Palinchron combo in my hand is weak to it. I decided to pass it over to Niv with the hopes that other of my opponents would help counter the Omniscience that we all knew was coming. Kaalia had Red Elemental Blast and I had my Cryptic, but it wasn’t enough to stop Niv. He made infinite mana and killed us all with Fireball. It was a good game, and I wish I could have drawn one more counterspell. It was a good game.
Here are the changes to my OP list that I need to document.
-Thought Reflection +Mind Over Matter
I wanted to add another infinite combo and Mind Over Matter just seems so good sometimes. I watched a Niv-Mizzet deck abuse that recently and it's pretty gross.
-Hinder +Time Warp
Hinder lost a lot of coolness when the tuck rule for commander was implemented. Hinder'ing a general was sometimes the most awesome play of all time against certain decks. Not anymore. I wanted to add a Time Spell effect because I'm playing mono-Blue. And I want it to be good, but I think I need to take it out. I will replace it with Mana Leak actually.
-Mind Stone +Treachery
Replaced a mana rock with a free removal spell that is a little more flavorful and also very relevant to a resolved general.
The mechanic madman of mono-Blue returns! I played a few games yesterday and I have a game report to share. I think I need to update the OP again as my list has changed again and I need to add a few cards to my consideration list.
5 Man Game with Freyalise, Memnarch, Liliana, Animar, Glissa
This was a really weird game that I don't think I should have won. MVP of the game, far and away, was Rhystic Study drawing me ALL the cards. So I had a 2 land hand with Rhystic Study in play and I figured that I would be able to draw a third land and play my Study to catch up on land drops through card draw. I miss my T3 land drop and thankfully, Liliana has wrathed twice by my T4 to keep Freyalise Elfball and Animar contained. I finally got my third land drop and put Study into play as fast as I could. Animar was stuck on land drops and Freyalise was taking its time to rebuild his board again, spamming elves like a boss. This meant that I had draw triggers for days. Freyalise would miss triggers on purpose so that he could draw with me using Mind's Eye, so that was pretty odd. You shouldn't give mono-Blue cards... Anyways. I play a few counterspells to keep Freyalise contained and manage my mana tightly, keeping mana for at least one counterspell at all times. Thankfully, Freyalise never assembles the critical mass to go off, as I keep bouncing Freyalise as she's about to ultimate and other ways to contain his board. Animar and Glissa really aren't doing anything and Liliana is just being cute with Fleshbag Marauder and Heartless Summoning and a Bloodgift Demon. On T7, no board state had really progressed to become threatening and Freyalise was missing 1-2 more elves to have his Elvish Archdruid go off with Umbral Mantle. I had drawn 12+ cards off of Rhystic Study triggers, so I had drawn into Caged Sun, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Palinchron. I had drawn Sol Ring, Gilded Lotus, and Coldsteel Heart and played them the previous turn, so I had some great mana availability that I couldn't have had without Rhystic Study. I play the Sun first, then Metamorph as a copy of it, and then played Palinchron to make infinite mana. The Liliana player had never seen Memnarch go off, so I explained how the Palinchron combo worked with the mana doublers and how I would win. Once he realized that I would steal all the permanents, including his flipped Liliana, for the rest of the game and kill him with his own dudes (cause Memnarch is above such dirty work) he scooped them up too.
Mono-Blue triumphs again! But I really shouldn't have. Liliana's Toxic Deluge and Black Sun's Zenith really bought me time to get to the late game that would have been won by either Animar or Freyalise. Elfball vs. Animar is a crazy, way-too-fast match up that escalates out of control too fast sans wrath effects.
The cards I need to add to my consideration, for my own reference, are Vendilion Clique, Magus of the Future, Alhammarett's Archive, Tezzeret the Seeker, and Grim Monolith.
I made the updates to the OP list and included the cards I mentioned as well as updated the current decklist. I'm hoping that I will be able to test this new list in the future as I am particularly excited about Vendilion Clique and Grand Architect. They seem to be great cards in theory and in my goldfishes, but real life testing is always necessary.
EDIT: Also, for those who are looking to see some more discussion on Memnarch, check out HedronMyr's Thread. He and I go back and forth about some card choices and some meta choices that make sense for him. He's an intelligent poster and his list has become, in my opinion, very well streamlined since it was first posted.
I played 3 games with our Artificer of Madness. Won 2, lost 1 to a friend's Damia deck that I haven't lost to in a really long time, so I was happy for him. The game reports follow.
Game 1 Brago, Chainer, Memnarch
This was a great game that highlights the power of Vedalken Shackles. Chainer opens with a Leyline of the Void and basically doesn't do a whole lot during the game, finally building board presence as I am about to win. Brago is doing some cute things, by playing Sword of Feast and Famine T3 and equips it to a dude that I don't remember. I had opened with a couple of mana rocks and had tapped out for an early Arcanis the Omnipotent. Brago Reality Shifted it and it became a Cyclonic Rift morphling. Boo. When he tried to equip his dude with the Sword, however, I returned the favor, Reality Shifting his dude, which turned out to be Deadeye Navigator. Chainer is doing Bloodghast shenanigans and otherwise not doing much. I play a Thran Dynamo and play...something. Don't remember. Brago plays Brago, equips his morph dude with the Sword, swings at Chainer since I have a morph dude to block with, and untaps into Lavinia of the Tenth. So annoying, Lavinia. My mana rocks are detained, but I draw into and tap out to play Tezzeret the Seeker and grab Vedalken Shackles so I can steal Brago during his declare attackers step. He manifests his morph dude into the Deadeye and swings into my Tezzeret. I block with my morphling and my stolen Brago. Chainer untaps and plays a tutor and Necropotence. I untap, draw into Palinchron. And I laugh to myself. I untap my Shackles, since I don't have a dude under it, play my seventh Island, steal Brago's Deadeye with Shackles and play Palinchron. I proceed to steal all the things with Brago's Deadeye enabling me and kill everyone with Brago, Sword-ed up Deadeye, and Lavinia. It was pretty fun to win with a stolen card.
Game 2 Damia, Chainer, Memnarch
My best friend's Damia deck is $5K in foils and other expensive cards, so it's a beautiful deck to play against. However, he has consistently not been very good when I play against it, so tonight was an exception. He goes first and does Mana Crypt into Azusa, Lost but Seeking and plays two more lands on his turn. Wow. I haven't even drawn a card and he has 5 mana in play. Chainer and I both just sit there and pass the turn to him. He plays two more lands and plays a T2 Damia. I have a Capsize that would have been great had I gone first or if Damia was just a turn slower, but alas. I was a turn slow. Damia draws 6 cards, plays some more lands and plays another piece of ramp, of which I don't remember. Chainer plays Necropotence again and I Capsize on my turn to stop Damia for a turn. Damia draws a card and taps out for Time Stretch. I wish I had Misdirection at this moment, but instead I Force of Will it. I have 2 cards in hand, Deadeye Navigator and Caged Sun. I'm only at 4 mana though, so there's not much I can do yet. Damia plays Leyline of Anticipation and as Chainer and I pass again, he's building up a large board presence and card advantage, Damia flashes in Damia to draw fresh cards and even more ramp. Chainer and I do nothing of importance, and Damia EOT Lim-Dul's Vault into Tooth and Nail. We lose as he gets Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator and Blue Sun's Zenith us out of the game. Fast, fast start for Damia and I finally get to see what his deck is supposed to do.
Game 3 Memnarch, Arcum, Sliver Queen
So I had just played Kaalia, as a throwback, and I had mopped the table pretty quickly there so the table was gunning for me. Kaalia is almost undefeated against my friend's Animar deck, which is why I built Kaalia in the first place, and the streak continues. Anyways. I open with a fast start of T1 Sol Ring and all the counterspells. I Mana Drain Sliver Queen's T2 Sliver and on my turn play Gilded Lotus with Counter mana up. I Arcane Denial another card to draw some more cards and settle into my control role. And I do it really well, drawing more counterspells and card draw. Also, Bribing Sliver Queen's Consecrated Sphinx on T4 was pretty awesome too, so I skyrocketed ahead in card advantage. At some point, I play Tezzeret the Seeker and find Vedalken Shackles. And I threaten to steal anything, until Sliver Queen plays Homeward Path. Augh. I play Counterbalance and find Sensei's Divining Top to create a good soft lock with Counterbalance. In total, I counter 5 or 6 spells with Counterbalance. So good to me this game. When Prophet of Kruphix comes into play on Sliver Queen's side of the board, I totally steal it. He taps his Path at his end step so I have to give back his Prophet. Arcum isn't doing much because I've countered a lot of his relevant spells and he's running out of gas. I make the mistake of fighting over Prophet when I should have been casting Memnarch and stealing the Homeward Path, and I waste 3 turns and a lot of cards. The game stagnates and I finally bounce the Prophet and counter it. At this point, I realize I've been making that mistake of not playing Memnarch and so I do, with Caged Sun and Phyrexian Metamorph as a copy of the sun. Tezzeret is adding me lots of mana with my Sol Ring and Gilded Lotus and I dig into Deadeye Navigator and Palinchron by Topping into Future Sight and using Top + Future Sight to draw for 1. I Memnarch the table again and kill everyone with Sliver Queen's Sliver Queen and Sliver swarm. Good games, and I shouldn't have made the play mistake of trying to get Prophet for so long when I could have been Memnarch-ing the land instead. Duh.
The cards that really shined for me these games were Tezzeret the Seeker who pretty much always found the next best card of Vedalken Shackles. Counterbalance was also incredible, countering 5 spells minimum for me throughout the course of game 3. I think I will add a few more elements into my deck to take advantage of Counterbalance, such as fetch lands and possibly Jace, the Mind Sculptor. The changes were great, and I didn't see Vendilion Clique or Grand Architect at all, so I still need to see how they'll perform.
EDIT: In the other Memnarch thread, I pose the same question here, but I think I want to have it posted here as well. Against the supra fast Damia deck, I think I want to trim my deck down and add some more, faster mana as well as some cheaper removal spells. Gilded Drake, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization are the ones I'm considering for cheaper removal and I want to get Mana Crypt in here. All is Dust hasn't been performing well and hasn't been a card I want to see in many of my games, so I think it's going to finally get the cut for good. How can we beat faster combo decks? The best ways, that I've found, are to play more removal, faster mana, or mana denial on them. Do you think there are ways to incorporate more of these elements in our deck? Back to Basics is hard to tutor for but can be really powerful when timed correctly, but it might be too slow. Any thoughts? I want to strengthen the control elements of the deck, not skew my list towards faster combo if I can help it.
Really glad to have found your primer. I have a Teferi, Temporal Archmage deck that definitely aspires to be something similar to this. Im still gradually funneling money into the deck, but the game plan is pretty much the same; get mana and make big threats while controlling the boardstate. My meta however, is far less tuned than yours. The two decks that remotely compete with my deck so far are a Daretti deck that aspires to be a comboish deck someday, and a Chainer deck that sort of goes for good old fashioned Chainer value. As such, the most effective way to beat these decks is to have better value than them, making mana faster, having more efficient threats, and so forth. So, bottom line, I guess our metas are in separate stages of development. As far as you gaurding against combo, I think it very much depends on the kind of combo decks you're up against. The best answers to combo are seldom universal, except for counterspells, which you seem to have the cream of the crop of. I guess I would look at the decks your friends have, evaluate what you think are the "must answer threats" and pick silver bullets from there. While I think those cards MIGHT be dead in certain match-ups, I suspect that if your deck is anything like mine, you either have gas in hand, or value set up on the battlefield at any given point in time, making the dead card regrettable, but not a deathblow. Thanks for the primer, and I hope this helped a little!
Hello Tigerbaron2! Glad that my Primer was of use to you in giving a little direction; it's the reason that I made it. I encourage you to continue to optimize your list and play as efficiently and effectively as you can. Your optimization will hopefully cause your friends to increase their own skill level and create stronger decks, which will make games in the future more exciting.
I think I would want to try more of the faster mana plan. That seems to be the best way to beat other decks, generally, so I'm going to seriously look for a Mana Crypt. I need it to make more mana faster as I have the other good control pieces of fast mana (Grim Monolith, Sol Ring, etc.).
Any other suggestions for beating fast combo decks? I'm trying to handle fast mana decks like Grixis Storm, Azami Control-Combo, Animar fast combo, and Damia fast mana. I have a 2HG tourney this weekend and I'm torn about what to bring for the tourney.
@Tigerbaron
Do you have a list you want to post up? I think this would be a good place to post your list for suggestions and critique, as I think it's one of the more active mono-Blue threads here in the forums.
Some more game reports to share. I have a tourney that I am planning on going to this weekend. As such, I changed my list slightly.
-All is Dust -> Rapid Hybridization
I made this switch because spot removal is a little more important to me then an expensive mass removal spell. I expect there to be a lot of combo decks that depend on their commander, and being able to kill it and make those commanders more expensive and slow them down into the late game is what I need to do.
-Counterbalance -> Island
I was finding that I was a little inconsistent in my land drops. I don't have the land package and the complete Counterbalance package I want to make Counterbalance super effective.
3 Man Memnarch, Animar, Oona
This was a game of legends and I was the control player at the table. And I eventually lost to Oona who waited until the opportune moment to win the game. Which took forever, but that's neither here nor there. I started out strong with some counterspells in Mana Drain and Force of Will. I countered Animar with Force of Will and then again with Mana Drain, so Animar was out of the table. I played a Grim Monolith on my T3 to put me into a T4 Bribery which stole Animar's Primeval Titan (it's unbanned in our playgroup). And, in hindsight, I should have grabbed Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre instead and won on my T4, but alas. I wanted to play a long game instead. My bad... Oona was slowly building his card advantage and played a few non-threatening card advantage engines and was accumulating cards. I was attacking with Prime Time and building up my mana base, but it wasn't getting me there. I played some mana rocks and drew into Recurring Insight I targeted Oona, who had a full grip, and was looking good. It was around this time that Animar got back into the game. He played Animar and I had enough mana for one counterpsell at the moment and he began to spew forth his creatures. He ended with Soul of the Harvest with enough mana to chain some more creatures and potentially win on the spot. I decided to tap out and counter the Soul and leave myself open to Oona. Who tapped out to play Time Stretch. Boo. He took 4 turns in a row, missed his infinite combo of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Mnemonic Wall and eventually tutored for Palinchron and Deadeye Navigator. He made infinite mana and Oona'ed our libraries. Sad day.
I played a game last night with Azami, Oona, and Nekusar Waste Not combo. It was a competitive table, no doubt, and Azami won unfortunately.
4 Man with Oona, Azami, Nekusar, Memnarch
So I am last in turn rotation and I had a pretty good start with Sol Ring, Worn Powerstone and some other spells. But Nekusar had the best start with a T2 Nekusar into a T3 wheel, and it goes downhill from there. I start with Sol Ring and then go into Worn Powerstone on my T2 and try for a Tezzeret the Seeker on my T3 to go and get Vedalken Shackles so I can stop Nekusar's shenanigans. Aazmi counters Tezzeret and I become sad. Azami is playing at instant speed due to an opening Leyline of Anticipation, and misses a land drops. Oona is doing the typical spider strategy (waiting for the opportune moment) and Nekusar is just having fund playing rocks and finding things to do. He plays a few more mana stones and then plays Wheel of Fortune. 7 damage to me from the 4 I've already taken, and I'm at 29. On my T4, I make a mistake that causes me to die, in the long run, but I don't think I could have overcome it anyways. On my turn, I cast Consecrated Sphinx and Oona responds, after its resolution, by Pongifying it. I spend a Mana Drain to protect it so I can draw into a removal spell for Nekusar, which will kill me. Oona plays a Phyrexian Metamorph as a copy of Sensei's Top and Azami is being conservative, playing at instant speed. Azami tries for an EOT Extraplanar Lens on Snow-Covered Islands, but Nekusar Glen Elendra ARchmages it. I've drawn a few more cards to get me down to 21 life and I stop there because I'm afraid a couple of wheels will kill me and I need to survive until I can draw into a removal spell or soemthing. Nekusar plays windfall when I have 11 cards in hand and then plays Waste Not. Ow. 11 damage for e'erbody except Nekusar. On his end step, I Mystical Tutor for Rapid Hybridization to try and kill it, but he spends his last Archmage negate on it. I play another wizard Archaeomancer to get the Hybridization again and cast it again targeting Nekusar. Oona counters it. BOOOO. I am basically dead in the water to another wheel, having only a Mindbreak Trap to protect me and only 3 mana to cast things. Azami has the highest life total of Nekusar's opponents, and passes the turn. Nekusar plays Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Waste Not, and then Molten Psyche. Mindbreak Trap was free! and I windmilled that card onto the table. Nekusar looked dismayed and played Teferi's Puzzle Box. With no way to deal with it, I die during my draw step. Azami lets Nekusar kill Oona, who was also at 8 life, and then Snaps Nekusar to his hand. And then proceeds to win by storming with Mind's Desire into Laboratory Maniac. It was a long game. And what I should have done, instead of tapping out for the Consecarated Sphinx and protecting it, I should have gone for Memnarch to try and steal Nekusar permanently and reduce my damage output. Alas! I chose to cast the Sphinx instead. A great game though.
So the new ban is an interesting discussion. I personally am of the opinion that Prophet of Kruphix needed to be banned. Bribery just got a lot worse, honestly, and I might cut it since it basically was Prophet all the time. Same CMC, same speed, and a little more recurrable with the way blue decks capitalize 'yard recursion.
Being able to generate mana outside of the color of your general is a boon to this deck. I can now activate abilities of permanents that I steal that are outside Blue and that makes for additional, non-anticipated layers of future complexity to games. Although, I guess if I'm stealing things and can activate abilities of the things that I steal I'm doing pretty well and am probably going to win the game.
The new mulligan rule doesn't affect my list too much. 35 lands with the density of mana rocks makes this deck have some good opening 7's, so I can't feel bad about that.
Question: There are 13K, nearly 14K views on this thread. Are none of you mono-Blue players? I feel like consistent mono-Blue players are few and far between on these forums. I call out to yon mono-Blue players! Let our mono-Blue might be revealed to the world that we may convert the heathen Red and Green players that still walk in ignorance of the power of U! Even the Creator favors the glorious and superior Island!
Long time lurker of this thread and I must say I am very glad to see you active again. Thanks for all your updates I really appreciate it.
This was the first EDH deck I built (I currently have this and Bosh). My favorite thing to do in TCGs is to steal my opponents stuff. Memnarch lets me do this as a total win condition. Its great. I play against competitive generals, but some of their deck lists aren't completely optimal (by choice).
I didn't play mono-Blue this weekend like I thought I would, as there was a massively long game that I played with Tasigur that prolly an hour and a half to finish. At the end of that, I needed to go home after rolling the table with my Kaalia deck a few times. I hope to be able to play a game or two with Memnarch this weekend to see how the new changes work out. I added another infinite mana combo, but I'm thinking I might just stay with the control shell that I like so much. Although Tasigur is filling that role for me, so I might dedicate Memnarch to supra combo again. We'll see.
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
Or to keep the green and red players from bashing our head in.
I gather that if you're building this from a Talrand shell than you will have quite a number of counterspells and draw pieces. What kind of control cards are you rolling with?
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 must say I'm a huge propaganda fan, cryptic command of course and the infamous evacuation board lock. I also really like jace, architect and tamyo. But my best defense? Politics
I'll update you with my first list once I have the v.1 rolling. Should be next friday.
Personally, I prefer to use creatures that are really hard to answer like Ulamog (indestructible, and I always immediately give him boots or greaves) or Bolas himself (he gets equipped immediately, they have no hand once he hits, and he kills in 3 hits since he's my general) as a wincon frequently backed up with counterspells for the turn I drop them at least rather than a combo, but still.
Part of my preference here is because I'm still somewhat of a Timmy who found out while playing standard that the best way to win with the absolute biggest creatures in the game without relying on smaller ones early on was control. Kind of an odd path, but I'm still a control mage through and through, and as a control mage, I like this list, and it's tempting to build Memnarch even with my disdain for infinite combos.
So thanks for posting this!
EDH:
Nicol Bolas (Control)
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund (Dragons)
Doran, the Siege Tower (Treefolk)
The quest for the Palinchron is a worthy quest, and one that will be rewarded abundadntly with infinite life and opulence and mana. I look forward to seeing your list, as I just added the Evacuation board lock as well as one of my intended changes.
@ Jemolk
Comrade! Welome to our brotherhood of control! I appreciate your appreciation and support your playstyle. That is my preferred playstyle as well, so I understand how you play already. Even with your disdain for combos, the current decklist is quite stream-lined for control. If you took out Palinchron, the premier combo piece of the deck, the rest of the deck is still incredibly solid. Most of my wins come from actually grinding out the game and stealing my opponents' permanents one turn at a time. Eventually, I have enough mana and enough counterspells to control the game taht no one wants to play anymore and they most of the time concede to me. For example, if I steal someone's Prophet of Kruphix and it somehow lives, I have yet to lose a game. Not through actual play, but because no one wants to face that kind of pressure (I always steal their mana base first, to limit their interactions with me for the rest of the game). Consider sleeving Memnarch up without infinite combos and see how you like it. I think it will fulfill your playstyle very nicely. And also introduce a new color to your repertoire of decks.
So I played a single game this weekend with Memnarch because my friends and I Prereleased instead. And it was a glorious game. Memnarch now has this reputation of being the control ninja in my playgroup, and so the gameplay slowed WAAAYYYY down. I just left mana open, held onto my counterspells, and played things as I needed to. The game was progressing beautifully, with me having spent only two spells because everyone else was controlling the table for me. That was rather unusual, to say the least. Eventually, we had to stop playing because the Prerelease started, but I felt extremely confident tht I would have taken the table. I played against Prossh, Chainer, and Brago, and Prossh was being controlled by everyone else. It was great. I had Evacuation and Archaeomancer in hand and every deck at the table needed creatures to win. So I felt supremely in control of the situation. I will hope to play more games this weekend, depending on how my weekend unfolds, but carry on mono-Blue! Remind the Magic community why the most dangerous card in the game is actually this one! Hahaha.
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
Hey man, have you settled on a particular list for Memnarch? I'd love to have more lists floating around, as I feel strangely alone in piloting this mechanical, magical madman of a commander and I'd love to discuss a list that isn't mine, haha.
@Jemolk
It sounds like you're more a true control player than I am, at least from what you've described. Controlling the table until you land a big fattie and then swinging in with it to win the game, that's the take I think you have when you're playing Magic. Do you have any creatures that you recommend for this type of strategy? Also, if you have brainstormed a possible list with your particular playstyle in mind, what does it look like? I have a combo-tastic list in my OP, but I think it would also be useful to include a pure control list as well. It would prolly include cards like Propaganda, Back to Basics, etc.
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
-Rapid Hybridization +Reality Shift
I think this is a strictly better upgrade because exiling is better, for this deck, than killing something to a place where it can be reanimated again. Also, there is the funny ability to deck people with the card if you have infinite mana and infinite recursion happening.
-High Tide +Archaeomancer
I lent my deck to a Legacy player who has disdain for EDH as a format, and he liked my deck. Looking through it, he commented that permanent sources of mana doublers were much more effective than a single shot mana doubling effect that can help other people. I agreed, and so I'll slide Archaeomancer back in to see if I miss High Tide.
-Frantic Search +Impulse
I did NOT like the dicard part of Frantic Search and Impulse helps me dig deeper. So I'll easily make this switch and not look back. My Tasigur likes Frantic Search much more than I do anyways.
-Liquimetal Coating + Stroke of Genius
After drawing it a few times and being useless in my hand for all of those times, it's gone. I never needed it when I had it, and I never wanted to cast it when I did, constantly wishing it was card draw, a counterspell, or something that would do something without Memnarch.
+Trickbind
Apparently my OP list is actually 3 cards short of a full 100. Awkward.
+Extraplanar Lens
For the same reasoning as Trickbind.
And now I've realized that I'm actually one card short of a full 100 cards in my real life deck. I've either lost a card and its sleeve or I just never had one. If so, how exciting! A free card slot to fill... the possibilities are endless!
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
You are correct that Snow-Covered Islands are definitely a better choice for the interaction with Extraplanar Lens. In an unknown meta, I would probably do that. However, Snow-Covered Islands are actually the norm in my playgroup, which I understand to be a little unusual. So if I were to use Snow-Covered Islands, I would actually be helping my opponents more. And besides, my Islands are all pimped out with foils and full-art Zendikar and Unglued Islands. I really like to look at my mana base while I'm playing.
Ha! Im hoping tonight I'll be able to play with my mechanic madman here. It's been a looooong time since I pulled him out and Memnarch pines to see the light of day. As well as most of my Magic cards. Life has been very, very busy as of late and I'm glad that it's steadying out now. Whew.
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
So. My Magic-ing ability is about to be severely reduced as I move into the summer because of several life events. The most awesome of which is getting married to the most beautiful brunette I've met and had the chance to interact with. Huzzah! As such, my days will be filled with planning this special day, moving into an apartment together, and other life details. So, for a while, I will be theory crafting and commenting on what I think is good based on my vast Magic experience. So, ladies and gentleman, carry on with your Mono-Blue adventures as I take some time to settle into a glorious life! I hope this list serves as a good base for Mono-Blue control and that you find out why U is the best color in Magic!
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
Anyways, it's good to be back. I made some changes to my decklist that need to be accounted for, as well as a discovery: Dralnu, Lich Lord is a Wizard. I didn't know this, and I am definitely considering switching Memnarch into a heavily blue-based Dralnu deck. I need to theorize a decklist and then post it here for critique, but I'm excited by the challenge of recreating one of my favorite decks from the a very powerful deck already. Basically, I'm going to add a few black cards to Memnarch and switch the General to Dralnu. I'll update the OP and theorize a Dralnu list in a while.
Good to be back, Memnarch.
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
5-man game with Memnarch, Brago, Yisan, Kaalia, and Niv-Mizzet
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
-Thought Reflection +Mind Over Matter
I wanted to add another infinite combo and Mind Over Matter just seems so good sometimes. I watched a Niv-Mizzet deck abuse that recently and it's pretty gross.
-Thada Adel, Acquisitor +Laboratory Maniac
I added Lab Man so I have the potential to just win out with Azami and Mind Over Matter.
-Coldsteel Heart +Sapphire Medallion
Different mana rock that can actually add me more mana during a turn than the 'Heart can.
-Hinder +Time Warp
Hinder lost a lot of coolness when the tuck rule for commander was implemented. Hinder'ing a general was sometimes the most awesome play of all time against certain decks. Not anymore. I wanted to add a Time Spell effect because I'm playing mono-Blue. And I want it to be good, but I think I need to take it out. I will replace it with Mana Leak actually.
-Mind Stone +Treachery
Replaced a mana rock with a free removal spell that is a little more flavorful and also very relevant to a resolved general.
Cards that I want to add are:
Alhammarret's Archive
Grand Architect
Thirst for Knowledge
Swan Song
And I will also be thinking on a revised Dralnu list too so that I can post a new alternate control list for people to evaluate.
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
5 Man Game with Freyalise, Memnarch, Liliana, Animar, Glissa
This was a really weird game that I don't think I should have won. MVP of the game, far and away, was Rhystic Study drawing me ALL the cards. So I had a 2 land hand with Rhystic Study in play and I figured that I would be able to draw a third land and play my Study to catch up on land drops through card draw. I miss my T3 land drop and thankfully, Liliana has wrathed twice by my T4 to keep Freyalise Elfball and Animar contained. I finally got my third land drop and put Study into play as fast as I could. Animar was stuck on land drops and Freyalise was taking its time to rebuild his board again, spamming elves like a boss. This meant that I had draw triggers for days. Freyalise would miss triggers on purpose so that he could draw with me using Mind's Eye, so that was pretty odd. You shouldn't give mono-Blue cards... Anyways. I play a few counterspells to keep Freyalise contained and manage my mana tightly, keeping mana for at least one counterspell at all times. Thankfully, Freyalise never assembles the critical mass to go off, as I keep bouncing Freyalise as she's about to ultimate and other ways to contain his board. Animar and Glissa really aren't doing anything and Liliana is just being cute with Fleshbag Marauder and Heartless Summoning and a Bloodgift Demon. On T7, no board state had really progressed to become threatening and Freyalise was missing 1-2 more elves to have his Elvish Archdruid go off with Umbral Mantle. I had drawn 12+ cards off of Rhystic Study triggers, so I had drawn into Caged Sun, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Palinchron. I had drawn Sol Ring, Gilded Lotus, and Coldsteel Heart and played them the previous turn, so I had some great mana availability that I couldn't have had without Rhystic Study. I play the Sun first, then Metamorph as a copy of it, and then played Palinchron to make infinite mana. The Liliana player had never seen Memnarch go off, so I explained how the Palinchron combo worked with the mana doublers and how I would win. Once he realized that I would steal all the permanents, including his flipped Liliana, for the rest of the game and kill him with his own dudes (cause Memnarch is above such dirty work) he scooped them up too.
Mono-Blue triumphs again! But I really shouldn't have. Liliana's Toxic Deluge and Black Sun's Zenith really bought me time to get to the late game that would have been won by either Animar or Freyalise. Elfball vs. Animar is a crazy, way-too-fast match up that escalates out of control too fast sans wrath effects.
The cards I need to add to my consideration, for my own reference, are Vendilion Clique, Magus of the Future, Alhammarett's Archive, Tezzeret the Seeker, and Grim Monolith.
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
In other news, the new Sphinx of the Final Word looks amazing. I want it, and I think I might either replace Bribery or All is Dust with it. And of those, All is Dust has been less used in games overall.
EDIT: Also, for those who are looking to see some more discussion on Memnarch, check out HedronMyr's Thread. He and I go back and forth about some card choices and some meta choices that make sense for him. He's an intelligent poster and his list has become, in my opinion, very well streamlined since it was first posted.
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
Game 1 Brago, Chainer, Memnarch
Game 2 Damia, Chainer, Memnarch
Game 3 Memnarch, Arcum, Sliver Queen
The cards that really shined for me these games were Tezzeret the Seeker who pretty much always found the next best card of Vedalken Shackles. Counterbalance was also incredible, countering 5 spells minimum for me throughout the course of game 3. I think I will add a few more elements into my deck to take advantage of Counterbalance, such as fetch lands and possibly Jace, the Mind Sculptor. The changes were great, and I didn't see Vendilion Clique or Grand Architect at all, so I still need to see how they'll perform.
EDIT: In the other Memnarch thread, I pose the same question here, but I think I want to have it posted here as well. Against the supra fast Damia deck, I think I want to trim my deck down and add some more, faster mana as well as some cheaper removal spells. Gilded Drake, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization are the ones I'm considering for cheaper removal and I want to get Mana Crypt in here. All is Dust hasn't been performing well and hasn't been a card I want to see in many of my games, so I think it's going to finally get the cut for good. How can we beat faster combo decks? The best ways, that I've found, are to play more removal, faster mana, or mana denial on them. Do you think there are ways to incorporate more of these elements in our deck? Back to Basics is hard to tutor for but can be really powerful when timed correctly, but it might be too slow. Any thoughts? I want to strengthen the control elements of the deck, not skew my list towards faster combo if I can help it.
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
My Peasant-Cube-in-Progress http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/15395
I think I would want to try more of the faster mana plan. That seems to be the best way to beat other decks, generally, so I'm going to seriously look for a Mana Crypt. I need it to make more mana faster as I have the other good control pieces of fast mana (Grim Monolith, Sol Ring, etc.).
Any other suggestions for beating fast combo decks? I'm trying to handle fast mana decks like Grixis Storm, Azami Control-Combo, Animar fast combo, and Damia fast mana. I have a 2HG tourney this weekend and I'm torn about what to bring for the tourney.
@Tigerbaron
Do you have a list you want to post up? I think this would be a good place to post your list for suggestions and critique, as I think it's one of the more active mono-Blue threads here in the forums.
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
-All is Dust -> Rapid Hybridization
I made this switch because spot removal is a little more important to me then an expensive mass removal spell. I expect there to be a lot of combo decks that depend on their commander, and being able to kill it and make those commanders more expensive and slow them down into the late game is what I need to do.
-Counterbalance -> Island
I was finding that I was a little inconsistent in my land drops. I don't have the land package and the complete Counterbalance package I want to make Counterbalance super effective.
3 Man Memnarch, Animar, Oona
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
4 Man with Oona, Azami, Nekusar, Memnarch
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
Being able to generate mana outside of the color of your general is a boon to this deck. I can now activate abilities of permanents that I steal that are outside Blue and that makes for additional, non-anticipated layers of future complexity to games. Although, I guess if I'm stealing things and can activate abilities of the things that I steal I'm doing pretty well and am probably going to win the game.
The new mulligan rule doesn't affect my list too much. 35 lands with the density of mana rocks makes this deck have some good opening 7's, so I can't feel bad about that.
Question: There are 13K, nearly 14K views on this thread. Are none of you mono-Blue players? I feel like consistent mono-Blue players are few and far between on these forums. I call out to yon mono-Blue players! Let our mono-Blue might be revealed to the world that we may convert the heathen Red and Green players that still walk in ignorance of the power of U! Even the Creator favors the glorious and superior Island!
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
This was the first EDH deck I built (I currently have this and Bosh). My favorite thing to do in TCGs is to steal my opponents stuff. Memnarch lets me do this as a total win condition. Its great. I play against competitive generals, but some of their deck lists aren't completely optimal (by choice).
1x Basalt Monolith
1x Caged Sun
1x Coalition Relic
1x Coldsteel Heart
1x Darksteel Forge
1x Expedition Map
1x Extraplanar Lens
1x Gauntlet of Power
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Grim Monolith
1x Mana Vault
1x Mindslaver
1x Mycosynth Lattice
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Planar Portal
1x Rings of Brighthearth
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Staff of Domination
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Vedalken Shackles
1x Voltaic Key
Enchantment (3)
1x Future Sight
1x Power Artifact
1x Rhystic Study
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
Instant (18)
1x Arcane Denial
1x Blue Sun's Zenith
1x Capsize
1x Counterspell
1x Cryptic Command
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Evacuation
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Forbid
1x Force of Will
1x High Tide
1x Mindbreak Trap
1x Misdirection
1x Muddle the Mixture
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Pact of Negation
1x Sunder
1x Swan Song
Sorcery (5)
1x All Is Dust
1x Bribery
1x Fabricate
1x Time Warp
1x Transmute Artifact
Creature (16)
1x Archaeomancer
1x Blightsteel Colossus
1x Consecrated Sphinx
1x Deadeye Navigator
1x Drift of Phantasms
1x Gilded Drake
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Grand Architect
1x Palinchron
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Pili-Pala
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1x Treasure Mage
1x Trinket Mage
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Academy Ruins
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Maze of Ith
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Riptide Laboratory
1x Scrying Sheets
1x Seat of the Synod
23x Snow-Covered Island
1x Thawing Glaciers
1x Tolaria West
I know Planar Portal is slow...but its one of my favorite cards. But this list seems mostly stockish with some of my own spice.
I'm not a fan of the new mulligan rule, but I think its for the better. The new rule is less easily abused and sets up more fun games.