There are a couple Zada threads on this forum already, one with an arcane focus and another with a slower, aggressive bent, but I figured mine was going in a different enough direction that I should probably make my own thread, rather than derail discussions on other ways of building Zada.
Red is often touted as the weakest color in commander, and it's difficult to argue otherwise. Along with white, red shares a lack of good card draw and good mana ramp, but the area of commander in which red is most weakened is the addition of more players to kill in a game, as well as the increasing of life totals from 20 to 40. Zada, Hedron Grinder, provides us with the means of counteracting these weaknesses in a way no other mono-red EDH general does.
Zada, Hedron Grinder is, on the surface, a weaker Ink-Treader Nephilim, but that's not particularly relevant given that she is legendary, and the Nephilim is not, so it's merits over hers aren't worth discussing. A Zada deck and a Ink-Treader deck will share a couple similarities, but Zada's restrictions lend herself to a different overall style of play. Before I go into specifics, here's my list, which I've assembled in real life and have been playing with a proxied general--
Inner Fire: it looked cool, but it basically only ended up helping me win games I was already going to win anyways.
Goblin Warchief, Goblin Chieftain, etc: In the end, the deck very rarely ended up 'fairly' killing an opponent, so the added pump from the lords ended up being less important than either playing cheaper creatures, or ones that made other creatures as well. These two in particular were taken out for Ghirapur Gearcrafter and Thopter Engineer, and I haven't missed them. The deck has ways to give all its creatures haste if it needs that.
Siege-Gang Commander, Emrakul's Hatcher, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror-Breaker, other cards with CMC>4: 5 is a lot of mana in this deck. Generally, turn 5 is where you want to start going off, either because you untapped with Zada, or you played her turn 5 with a mana up to start casting cantrips. What I don't want to do ever is be forced to tap out on turn 5 for a card that doesn't immediately let me start progressing towards winning the game. I only run 3 cards with 5 CMC-- Mana Geyser, which immediately repays its mana cost anyways, Thermopod, which does a similar thing, and Reforge the Soul, which barely made the cut, but I kept it in because wheeling is something the deck just desperately needs to do sometimes and there aren't any other options. Other 5 CMC creatures are just too slow for the deck's better draws, and they don't save the deck when it's behind ether. 4 drops are in that awkward spot as well, but they're more playable, as I can cast them turn 4, and then Zada turn 5 with mana open to start casting cantrips. I tried to keep the 4 drops limited to cards that were too powerful to not include otherwise, or were like Koth and Treasonous Ogre, and they could refund themselves. Moggcatcher is awkward because I can't curve it into Zada in any way and still use its ability, but being able to find Krenko, Goblin Chirurgeon, and Skirk Prospector is too important.
Downhill Charge, [[Fists of the Anvil]], other pump spells: The reason I'm playing so few of these is twofold. One, their impact isn't as important in this particular build, as I tend to go off and make enough creatures that I really only need a couple pump spells to attempt to kill the table. Often, it's just one large Balduvian Rage or Blazing Shoal. As for the other, Reckless Charge can be cast twice and can give everything haste if it doesn't already have it, which is valuable if I've cast a Empty the Warrens or used Krenko's ability and need to give my army haste. Crimson Wisps also does this.
The second reason is that Zada decks have a hidden cost to them that isn't obvious until you start playing actual games with her. Though the mana curve of the deck is extremely low, the pump spells and cantrip spells and the cards that otherwise only work well if Zada is on the field have a hidden additional cost that reads "you can only cast this card on or after turn 4, usually after". So even though their mana cost is low, which is important for chaining spells, they don't actually have any use to you until Zada is out, which means that it's easy for a Zada deck to be filled with cards that don't actually do anything early game. I've tried to cut down on that as much as I could while still maintaining Zada's power. Even with my curtailed pump suite, I still have 12 cards that don't do much if Zada isn't there, though Heat Shimmer and Twinflame at least have other possible uses. Occasionally, I do have games where I have nothing but cantrips in my hand but no way to make creatures to actually use them well, and those hands are miserable. I want to have as few games with that happening as possible.
Strionic Resonator: It's cute, but it only starts doing work once you're already going off.
Possibility Storm: I originally ran it, but it is 5 mana. It also had the occasional side effect of turning a ritual into a cantrip that I just really didn't need, and ending my chain of spells prematurely, which was extremely irritating, and led to me outright losing a game I would have won otherwise, because my opponent got to untap and wrath. If you're less concerned with your winrate and precision, however, it is a hilarious card in Zada. Honestly I'd be more interested in Knowledge Pool, as with Knowledge Pool I don't have the awkwardness of totally missing on rituals, and it's not like our opponents can make any use out of most of our spells. Sadly, it still is too slow.
Eldrazi Monument, Swiftfoot Boots, ways to protect Zada in general: Goblin Chirurgeon is generally what I like to fetch when I'm tutoring goblins, but I can't deny that Zada getting focused on by removal is one of the easier ways for the deck to just do nothing. In my testing, I generally just tried to not cast Zada until I could be sure I would get at least some benefit out of it, generally casting her with a mana open for a cantrip or something, but if Zada gets killed, it isn't the end of the world. The deck can just keep building up until it hits a ritual and recasts Zada and tries to win. The monument itself is a card I deliberated about for a while, but in the end, 5 mana is just too restrictive for the deck. In a more traditionally aggressive version of Zada these cards seem better.
Telim'Tor's Edict,Zap: These cards are only good in response to a sweeper. I'm never willing to cash in my field for cards otherwise. I don't play these because they're useless if I'm going off, which is not where I want a cantrip to be. If you have tons of sweepers in your metagame I guess they could use a second look.
I've opted to make the closest thing to a storm deck that can exist in mono red with Zada, and though there are certainly other ways to build her, I think this is the one with the most potential, and the one that is the most unique, as Krenko, Mob Boss is likely going to do straight goblin aggro better than Zada.
The most important spells in this deck are the eight instant spells that have the glorious text 'draw a card' on them. Of these, the ones that draw a card immediately, during your main phase-- Stun, Accelerate, Boiling Blood, and Crimson Wisps-- are most important, but the others are good as well. These cards unlock Zada's true potential, and this deck largely revolves around them.
One of red's biggest weaknesses is it's lack of mana ramp, but red does actually have access to mana rituals. Unfortunately, red generally doesn't have many ways to effectively use these rituals by itself. However, Zada provides this deck with ways to refill it's hand after rituals have been casting, giving us the means to actually make use of the potent rituals red has to offer--in particular Brightstone Ritual and Battle Hymn, which work perfectly with Zada's eagerness to spit out tokens.
While the mana ramp and draw are the most powerful parts of the deck, the deck requires creatures on the board to function, so I've included a number of ways to make our battlefields plentiful. I'm in the market for most cheap token-making spells, so normally unexciting cards like Molten Birth make it in, because while I prefer goblins on the field, Zada just cares about bodies, period. So Ghirapur Gearcrafter and Thopter Engineer have a place in a build with several goblin tribal undertones.
With these three elements combined, Zada can start 'going off', and it's very possible to have a turn where you're just chaining card draws into rituals in order to cast more card draw spells to find more rituals and tokens until you finish off the table out of nowhere.
Most importantly--keeping hands without cantrips or wheel effects is very sketchy. Try not to do it if possible, though you're obviously going to have to do so sometimes.
Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame/Heat Shimmer creates infinite Dualcaster Mages, which is a way for the deck to win without Zada.
Twinflame and Heat Shimmer also work well with Krenko, as you can tap him to make a bunch of tokens, and then cast Heat Shimmer to duplicate all those tokens, make a copy of Krenko, sacrifice the tapped original, and then immediately tap the new Krenko for even more tokens.
Desperate Ritual and Blazing Shoal are fine cards on their own, but if you splice Desperate Ritual onto Blazing Shoal you create the most powerful mana ritual this deck has available to it.
Chaos Warp is in the deck to take out pesky enchantments that hinder us, but it can also be used for a MacGyver-esque Genesis Wave, if for some reason you feel the need to do that. You can target Zada with it, which then targets all your creatures, and trade each out for the top card of your library. This is rarely that relevant, except as a way to randomly ramp yourself in response to a sweeper. The deck runs a *lot* of instants and sorceries, so you'll probably be hitting a lot of land or nothing. You won't do it often, but it's something to keep in mind if your hand wants it.
In general, if you're going off, you need to us the cantrips that draw you a card *that turn*, otherwise you'll grind to a halt and have to wait until your next turn. So make sure you're keeping that in mind.
Sometimes, for whatever reason, whether it be a Propaganda effect or an Ensnaring Bridge or a fog or some other deterrent, you can't actually attack a certain opponent. The deck has three ways to deal with this, outside of casting the lone copy of Chaos Warp.
Fiery Gambit is the most direct way of doing this. The Gambit seems like it's just too cute to actually work, but once you're able to make a ton of tokens, probability starts working out for you. You can just try to go for 2 heads every time and rack up 6 damage each time. I occasionally will cast it and just try to give myself a few different chances to get 3 heads, but if you're trying to win that turn, 6 damage is the most important one.
Purphoros, God of the Forge is pretty self-explanatory. Just drop him, and start racking up damage. The Dualcaster Mage + Heat Shimmer/Twinflame combo is the best way to get a ridiculous amount of triggers. He's also just good in general, and he's a mana sink.
Spikeshot Elder is an innocuous creautre, but if you're being prevented from attacking, you can cast a Blazing Shoal or Balduvian Rage onto Zada for a bunch, and then just spam his ability until the problem player is dead. He's also useful just in general as one of the deck's few forms of creature removal.
Lifegain in general isn't really a problem for this deck to overcome, unless it's infinite life. In whch case, Zada can kill with general damage, but you basically need to be going off and have a huge amount of mana freed up for a Balduvian Rage or Blazing Shoal.
Past in Flames is the most powerful card in the deck, and it's the key to going off as explosively as possible. Gamble almost always fetches Past in Flames, because even if it discards it, I can still flash it back.
The non-cantrip, non-wheel single use card draw spells, Tormenting Voice and friends, are innocuous, but they are important. The deck absolutely needs to find cantrips if it wants to go off, and I'm very willing to cycle through my deck to try and find them. They're also just good for when the deck is going off, and I can use them to just keep digging for more ways to extend my chain.
I've opted for an explosive, fairly uninteractive version of this deck. There are tons of dials that can be turned to personalize this deck, however, and you can easily slow down for some more protection if that is what your meta requires. Just keep in mind the 'hidden cost' of the pump spells when you're making a Zada list, because they can make actually playing the deck more clunky if you add too many.
Memory Jar is a third sweeper available to the deck, but it's 5 mana, which isn't very appealing.
Scroll Rack lets me dig for more ways to chain through my deck, but the deck doesn't have that many ways to shuffle itself, so I'm less certainl of this card's future.
Defense Grid: I want to find an opening for this card, and I probably will soon. It makes killing Zada far more difficult, and we almost never cast spells on our opponents' turns anyways. This card is going in, but I just need to decide on what I want to take out for it.
Zada is tons of fun to play, and she allows for a lot of flexibility in deckbuilding outside of the core of the deck. There are some cards I'm still working on acquiring for the deck, but this list reflects what I actually own. Any and all feedback is more than welcome!
I see your point about Strionic Resonator. It's also good for drawing extra cards when we use a cantrip (especially the first one), but I could definitely see replacing it with another creature or creature source.
Red is often touted as the weakest color in commander, and it's difficult to argue otherwise. Along with white, red shares a lack of good card draw and good mana ramp, but the area of commander in which red is most weakened is the addition of more players to kill in a game, as well as the increasing of life totals from 20 to 40. Zada, Hedron Grinder, provides us with the means of counteracting these weaknesses in a way no other mono-red EDH general does.
Zada, Hedron Grinder is, on the surface, a weaker Ink-Treader Nephilim, but that's not particularly relevant given that she is legendary, and the Nephilim is not, so it's merits over hers aren't worth discussing. A Zada deck and a Ink-Treader deck will share a couple similarities, but Zada's restrictions lend herself to a different overall style of play. Before I go into specifics, here's my list, which I've assembled in real life and have been playing with a proxied general--
1 Zada, Hedron Grinder
Creatures
1 Spikeshot Elder
1 Goblin Chirugeon
1 Goblin Bushwhacker
1 Signal Pest
1 Legion Loyalist
1 Skirk Prospector
1 Young Pyromancer
1 Goblin Piledriver
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Kiln Fiend
1 Goblin Wardriver
1 Goblin Recruiter
1 Goblin Matron
1 Dualcaster Mage
1 Ghirapur Gearcrafter
1 Thopter Engineer
1 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Moggcatcher
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Treasonous Ogre
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Beetleback Chief
1 Thermopod
1 Magmatic Insight
1 Faithless Looting
1 Reckless Charge
1 Gamble
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Twinflame
1 Wild Guess
1 Krenko's Command
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Molten Birth
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Fiery Gambit
1 Mogg Alarm
1 Heat Shimmer
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Past in Flames
1 Mana Geyser
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Tempt with Vengeance
Instants
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Brightstone Ritual
1 Panic
1 Accelerate
1 Aleatory
1 Battle Hymn
1 Desperate Ritual
1 Stun
1 Chaotic Strike
1 Boiling Blood
1 Chaos Warp
1 Balduvian Rage
1 Blazing Shoal
1 Koth of the Hammer
Artifacts
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Ruby Medallion
Land
31 Mountain
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Kher Keep
1 Mutavault
1 Crystal Vein
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Krenko's Command
1 Twinflame
1 Young Pyromancer
1 Mogg War Marshal
1 Ghirapur Gearcrafter
1 Heat Shimmer
1 Thopter Engineer
1 Molten Birth
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 Mogg Alarm
1 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Beetleback Chief
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tempt with Vengeance
Non-ritual Ramp
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Sol Ring
1 Ruby Medallion
Mana Rituals
1 Skirk Prospector
1 Treasonous Ogre
1 Thermopod
1 Mana Geyser
1 Brightstone Ritual
1 Battle Hymn
1 Desperate Ritual
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Magmatic Insight
1 Faithless Looting
1 Skullclamp
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Panic
1 Wild Guess
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Accelerate
1 Aleatory
1 Stun
1 Chaotic Strike
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Boiling Blood
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Balduvian Rage
Tutors
1 Gamble
1 Goblin Recruiter
1 Goblin Matron
1 Moggcatcher
Pure Pump
1 Goblin Bushwhacker
1 Signal Pest
1 Legion Loyalist
1 Reckless Charge
1 Blazing Shoal
1 Spikeshot Elder
1 Fiery Gambit
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
Bodies with Upside
1 Goblin Chirurgeon
1 Generator Servant
1 Goblin Piledriver
1 Kiln Fiend
1 Goblin Wardriver
Utility/Combo
1 Dualcaster Mage
1 Chaos Warp
Going Off
1 Past in Flames
Inner Fire: it looked cool, but it basically only ended up helping me win games I was already going to win anyways.
Goblin Warchief, Goblin Chieftain, etc: In the end, the deck very rarely ended up 'fairly' killing an opponent, so the added pump from the lords ended up being less important than either playing cheaper creatures, or ones that made other creatures as well. These two in particular were taken out for Ghirapur Gearcrafter and Thopter Engineer, and I haven't missed them. The deck has ways to give all its creatures haste if it needs that.
Siege-Gang Commander, Emrakul's Hatcher, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror-Breaker, other cards with CMC>4: 5 is a lot of mana in this deck. Generally, turn 5 is where you want to start going off, either because you untapped with Zada, or you played her turn 5 with a mana up to start casting cantrips. What I don't want to do ever is be forced to tap out on turn 5 for a card that doesn't immediately let me start progressing towards winning the game. I only run 3 cards with 5 CMC-- Mana Geyser, which immediately repays its mana cost anyways, Thermopod, which does a similar thing, and Reforge the Soul, which barely made the cut, but I kept it in because wheeling is something the deck just desperately needs to do sometimes and there aren't any other options. Other 5 CMC creatures are just too slow for the deck's better draws, and they don't save the deck when it's behind ether. 4 drops are in that awkward spot as well, but they're more playable, as I can cast them turn 4, and then Zada turn 5 with mana open to start casting cantrips. I tried to keep the 4 drops limited to cards that were too powerful to not include otherwise, or were like Koth and Treasonous Ogre, and they could refund themselves. Moggcatcher is awkward because I can't curve it into Zada in any way and still use its ability, but being able to find Krenko, Goblin Chirurgeon, and Skirk Prospector is too important.
Downhill Charge, [[Fists of the Anvil]], other pump spells: The reason I'm playing so few of these is twofold. One, their impact isn't as important in this particular build, as I tend to go off and make enough creatures that I really only need a couple pump spells to attempt to kill the table. Often, it's just one large Balduvian Rage or Blazing Shoal. As for the other, Reckless Charge can be cast twice and can give everything haste if it doesn't already have it, which is valuable if I've cast a Empty the Warrens or used Krenko's ability and need to give my army haste. Crimson Wisps also does this.
The second reason is that Zada decks have a hidden cost to them that isn't obvious until you start playing actual games with her. Though the mana curve of the deck is extremely low, the pump spells and cantrip spells and the cards that otherwise only work well if Zada is on the field have a hidden additional cost that reads "you can only cast this card on or after turn 4, usually after". So even though their mana cost is low, which is important for chaining spells, they don't actually have any use to you until Zada is out, which means that it's easy for a Zada deck to be filled with cards that don't actually do anything early game. I've tried to cut down on that as much as I could while still maintaining Zada's power. Even with my curtailed pump suite, I still have 12 cards that don't do much if Zada isn't there, though Heat Shimmer and Twinflame at least have other possible uses. Occasionally, I do have games where I have nothing but cantrips in my hand but no way to make creatures to actually use them well, and those hands are miserable. I want to have as few games with that happening as possible.
Strionic Resonator: It's cute, but it only starts doing work once you're already going off.
Possibility Storm: I originally ran it, but it is 5 mana. It also had the occasional side effect of turning a ritual into a cantrip that I just really didn't need, and ending my chain of spells prematurely, which was extremely irritating, and led to me outright losing a game I would have won otherwise, because my opponent got to untap and wrath. If you're less concerned with your winrate and precision, however, it is a hilarious card in Zada. Honestly I'd be more interested in Knowledge Pool, as with Knowledge Pool I don't have the awkwardness of totally missing on rituals, and it's not like our opponents can make any use out of most of our spells. Sadly, it still is too slow.
Eldrazi Monument, Swiftfoot Boots, ways to protect Zada in general: Goblin Chirurgeon is generally what I like to fetch when I'm tutoring goblins, but I can't deny that Zada getting focused on by removal is one of the easier ways for the deck to just do nothing. In my testing, I generally just tried to not cast Zada until I could be sure I would get at least some benefit out of it, generally casting her with a mana open for a cantrip or something, but if Zada gets killed, it isn't the end of the world. The deck can just keep building up until it hits a ritual and recasts Zada and tries to win. The monument itself is a card I deliberated about for a while, but in the end, 5 mana is just too restrictive for the deck. In a more traditionally aggressive version of Zada these cards seem better.
Telim'Tor's Edict,Zap: These cards are only good in response to a sweeper. I'm never willing to cash in my field for cards otherwise. I don't play these because they're useless if I'm going off, which is not where I want a cantrip to be. If you have tons of sweepers in your metagame I guess they could use a second look.
I've opted to make the closest thing to a storm deck that can exist in mono red with Zada, and though there are certainly other ways to build her, I think this is the one with the most potential, and the one that is the most unique, as Krenko, Mob Boss is likely going to do straight goblin aggro better than Zada.
The most important spells in this deck are the eight instant spells that have the glorious text 'draw a card' on them. Of these, the ones that draw a card immediately, during your main phase-- Stun, Accelerate, Boiling Blood, and Crimson Wisps-- are most important, but the others are good as well. These cards unlock Zada's true potential, and this deck largely revolves around them.
One of red's biggest weaknesses is it's lack of mana ramp, but red does actually have access to mana rituals. Unfortunately, red generally doesn't have many ways to effectively use these rituals by itself. However, Zada provides this deck with ways to refill it's hand after rituals have been casting, giving us the means to actually make use of the potent rituals red has to offer--in particular Brightstone Ritual and Battle Hymn, which work perfectly with Zada's eagerness to spit out tokens.
While the mana ramp and draw are the most powerful parts of the deck, the deck requires creatures on the board to function, so I've included a number of ways to make our battlefields plentiful. I'm in the market for most cheap token-making spells, so normally unexciting cards like Molten Birth make it in, because while I prefer goblins on the field, Zada just cares about bodies, period. So Ghirapur Gearcrafter and Thopter Engineer have a place in a build with several goblin tribal undertones.
With these three elements combined, Zada can start 'going off', and it's very possible to have a turn where you're just chaining card draws into rituals in order to cast more card draw spells to find more rituals and tokens until you finish off the table out of nowhere.
Most importantly--keeping hands without cantrips or wheel effects is very sketchy. Try not to do it if possible, though you're obviously going to have to do so sometimes.
Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame/Heat Shimmer creates infinite Dualcaster Mages, which is a way for the deck to win without Zada.
Twinflame and Heat Shimmer also work well with Krenko, as you can tap him to make a bunch of tokens, and then cast Heat Shimmer to duplicate all those tokens, make a copy of Krenko, sacrifice the tapped original, and then immediately tap the new Krenko for even more tokens.
Desperate Ritual and Blazing Shoal are fine cards on their own, but if you splice Desperate Ritual onto Blazing Shoal you create the most powerful mana ritual this deck has available to it.
Chaos Warp is in the deck to take out pesky enchantments that hinder us, but it can also be used for a MacGyver-esque Genesis Wave, if for some reason you feel the need to do that. You can target Zada with it, which then targets all your creatures, and trade each out for the top card of your library. This is rarely that relevant, except as a way to randomly ramp yourself in response to a sweeper. The deck runs a *lot* of instants and sorceries, so you'll probably be hitting a lot of land or nothing. You won't do it often, but it's something to keep in mind if your hand wants it.
In general, if you're going off, you need to us the cantrips that draw you a card *that turn*, otherwise you'll grind to a halt and have to wait until your next turn. So make sure you're keeping that in mind.
Sometimes, for whatever reason, whether it be a Propaganda effect or an Ensnaring Bridge or a fog or some other deterrent, you can't actually attack a certain opponent. The deck has three ways to deal with this, outside of casting the lone copy of Chaos Warp.
Fiery Gambit is the most direct way of doing this. The Gambit seems like it's just too cute to actually work, but once you're able to make a ton of tokens, probability starts working out for you. You can just try to go for 2 heads every time and rack up 6 damage each time. I occasionally will cast it and just try to give myself a few different chances to get 3 heads, but if you're trying to win that turn, 6 damage is the most important one.
Purphoros, God of the Forge is pretty self-explanatory. Just drop him, and start racking up damage. The Dualcaster Mage + Heat Shimmer/Twinflame combo is the best way to get a ridiculous amount of triggers. He's also just good in general, and he's a mana sink.
Spikeshot Elder is an innocuous creautre, but if you're being prevented from attacking, you can cast a Blazing Shoal or Balduvian Rage onto Zada for a bunch, and then just spam his ability until the problem player is dead. He's also useful just in general as one of the deck's few forms of creature removal.
Lifegain in general isn't really a problem for this deck to overcome, unless it's infinite life. In whch case, Zada can kill with general damage, but you basically need to be going off and have a huge amount of mana freed up for a Balduvian Rage or Blazing Shoal.
Past in Flames is the most powerful card in the deck, and it's the key to going off as explosively as possible. Gamble almost always fetches Past in Flames, because even if it discards it, I can still flash it back.
The non-cantrip, non-wheel single use card draw spells, Tormenting Voice and friends, are innocuous, but they are important. The deck absolutely needs to find cantrips if it wants to go off, and I'm very willing to cycle through my deck to try and find them. They're also just good for when the deck is going off, and I can use them to just keep digging for more ways to extend my chain.
I've opted for an explosive, fairly uninteractive version of this deck. There are tons of dials that can be turned to personalize this deck, however, and you can easily slow down for some more protection if that is what your meta requires. Just keep in mind the 'hidden cost' of the pump spells when you're making a Zada list, because they can make actually playing the deck more clunky if you add too many.
Memory Jar is a third sweeper available to the deck, but it's 5 mana, which isn't very appealing.
Scroll Rack lets me dig for more ways to chain through my deck, but the deck doesn't have that many ways to shuffle itself, so I'm less certainl of this card's future.
Defense Grid: I want to find an opening for this card, and I probably will soon. It makes killing Zada far more difficult, and we almost never cast spells on our opponents' turns anyways. This card is going in, but I just need to decide on what I want to take out for it.
Zada is tons of fun to play, and she allows for a lot of flexibility in deckbuilding outside of the core of the deck. There are some cards I'm still working on acquiring for the deck, but this list reflects what I actually own. Any and all feedback is more than welcome!
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko