Don't just have one of the ideas, have ALL of them!
Wish that you could see more of your EDH deck, instead of just 30-40% of it every game? (I mean, you have gone through the trouble of selecting all 99 of them, right?
Want to be able to say "hold on, I'm digging for [insert card name here]" and be actually doing it, instead of durdling?
Want to draw your hand size every turn? (well, you also have to dump you hand on the bottom of your library, but shhhh)
Do you want to feel like a true Izzet mage with ideasideasIDEASSS!!1!1! coursing through your brain? Leave the X ramp to those hippieflowerchildren, and the artifacts to the real tinmen.
If so, Arjun, the Shifting Flame is for you!
No idea. Well for starters, "Arjun" is a fairly common Indian name which apparently means "archersilver" (thanks, Jay13x!). It is also the name of a tank produced by India, although as you can see from the picture below, that can't be our guy since it doesn't fly and the front of the tank is not on fire.
Since Wizards hasn't given a backstory for Arjun yet, I decree that the following shall be considered canon:
Long, long ago, in a plane of the multiverse far, far away, a band was formed. And not just any band, but the Greatest Band In The Multiverse (G.B.I.T.M). With the thundering vocals of Keranos, the ethereal harmonics of Melek, the flaming hot riffs of Arjun and the, oh, er, what was it he did again? somethingsomething of Tibor, they toured up and down the Multiverse playing to sold-out crowds. Their music was a heady mix of intense passion and incisive social commentary. Rumour has it even Emrakul was a fan and chomped through planes just to get to the plane they were playing, man. That's dedication there.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Eventually, the trashed hotel rooms, random time rifts and Eldrazi-fied planes got to them. "Creative differences" appeared, and just like that, the Greatest Band In The Multiverse was scattered to the winds. Keranos moved to Theros to jump start a successful solo career. Melek had always been a little bit blue, but got weirder and weirder after the breakup and was unfortunately murdered on Ravnica by a crazed groupie. Arjun went in for some meditation and finding himself and eventually started up a cosmic harmony and motivation hotline where you could hear the Fiery Words of the Sphinx Sphinself, small donation totally optional. And...uh, sorry, who was the last guy again? I forget.
Any resemblance to persons living or dead is totally coincidental
Strengths and Weaknesses
Arjun is the creature-shifted, Commander-legal version of Mindmoil. As your commander, Arjun allows you to riffle through your library really fast. No other commander allows you a fresh hand every spell you cast, which is probably good because any commander who could do that with no restrictions is probably broken. With that amount of filtering, Arjun will get you the right tool for any situation and allow you to play less tutors while still digging for key cards and combo pieces relatively fast. Of course, like the original Mindmoil, Arjun has the same drawbacks and a few more:
Alone, Arjun gives no net card advantage. This is unlike say Azami, Lady of Scrolls where your commander will take care of the draw for you. Sphinxes need feeding, unfortunately.
Building on from that, you need some way to fatten your hand, or else eventually you will only be looking at 2-3 new cards per turn (which is pitiful) or worse, run out of cards.
A CMC of 6 (1 more than the original, but you get a 5/5 flying beatstick for it) means that you need to work on hand fattening even more, because Arjun takes a while to come out and if your opponent is any good (or, worse, playing something fast) you will have already spent some cards on controlling the boardstate, or even just ramp.
You can only play one spell per new hand. There are some ways to get around this, though.
Arjun has no natural protection/hexproof, so you also need to run some ways to protect him (creature kill is more common than enchantment kill). Good thing Blue is the colour of counters, then.
In terms of power level, Arjun is pretty decent, providing an unique ability (Mindmoil) that is in the correct colours (cheap instants galore) to make use of it, as well as giving above average card selection/filtering. However, Arjun is in no way a top tier commander in the vein of Azami/Zur/Edric. There are better draw engines available in UR, 6 mana is steep enough so that Arjun becomes well nigh unplayable after a few deaths, and Arjun doesn't do anything to impact the board when he first shows up. What you should play Arjun for is the fun level, which, if you like drawing cards, is pretty over the top, as well as the unique ability. Besides, he has decent stats, and can get out of hand fairly easily if your playgroup is not super competitve. Plus, for the colours, playing Arjun won't get you focused down immediately unlike Jhoira/Firemind, and is still pretty strong.
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind: Niv 1.0 is pretty much an improved Arjun, but everyone will try to kill you unless you can prove you don't have Curiosity within a 5km radius of your deck. Actually, Arjun would fit pretty well in his deck, just like he fits in Arjun's (and indeed, I run him). Jhoira of the Ghitu: Another top-tier UR commander, basically suspend all the things, hopefully a boardwipe and something big. Similar to Niv 1.0, what you run if you don't mind playing Archenemy. Mizzix of the Izmagnus: Arjun's classmate from Commander 2015. Most often seen in a storm/spellslinger spell because of cost reduction which is always excellent. Melek, Izzet Paragon: The other Izzet spellslinger commander. Is to Mizzix as Arjun is to Niv 1.0, I guess. Nin, the Pain Artist: Blue and red are the main artifact matters colours, and Nin is usually chosen as the artifact commander in UR because she serves as a handy mana sink. Keranos, God of Storms: Goodstuff commander. Or, Reweave into Omniscience! Jori En, Ruin Diver: Another versatile commander - the ability is sufficiently broad to help many different strategies from cantrips to storm to artifacts to chaos. Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius is what Niv 1.0 players play when they want to relax. Tibor and Lumia: your low profile UR guys.
The story of this deck begins about 10 years ago, when I first got into Magic while sitting around waiting to enter university. This was during Time Spiral block, and I started out with B/R burn with some shadow creatures, before moving on to R/W weird gating stuff because I liked the Boros guild (this was just after Ravnica, remember? Something along the lines of Whitemane Lion resetting Keldon Marauders and Lavacore Elemental, with Dust Elemental as a finisher. Anyway, my LGS had binders full of junk rares from Kamigawa and Ravnica (like Hisoka, Minamo Sensei or Reki, the History of Kamigawa), and one of those junk rares was Mindmoil. They were pretty cheap, so I jammed them into my deck and while I didn't run enough draw to make it work (as a new player, my understanding of card advantage was pretty iffy), the handcycling was one of the funnest things about my deck. Sometimes I would literally play Whitemane Lion or Stonecloaker just to grab a new (maybe not better, though) hand.
Fast forward 9 years and now I play on MTGO exclusively, because my irregular working hours make it difficult for me to find a regular playgroup. In my country there are also not very many LGS which deal in MTG (a lot deal in Yu-Gi-Oh or some Cardfight Vanguard nonsense), and those that are are not in my area anyway. I play EDH for the joy of finding new uses for weird cards. I have no inclination to play "goodstuff" commanders or highly tuned/top tier commanders, because they are all pretty same-y and obscure cards are usually obscure because there is something better unless you jump through some number of arbitary hoops. However, this does not mean I build underpowered decks either - I want to build the most effective list with a not-quite-top-tier commander. Being on MTGO, my decks need to be of a certain standard to win - most decks will not be highly tuned Zur/Azami/Narset (and if I see those decks, I usually concede on seeing their commander) but most decks, even for "less powerful" commanders, are usually fairly well tuned. You won't see Skeleton Ship ship tribal, or something someone threw together out of draft leavings - because there is no guarantee people will play something commensurate with your power level. I have designed this deck to work in both multiplayer and 1v1 - because MTGO uses one banlist for both, and sometimes I can't spend so long on a game because of my schedule. Another "advantage" I get from playing on MTGO is that there is no fixed playgroup, so obscure interactions are less likely to draw hate (if I were playing a fixed playgroup, I doubt many of them would let my draw doublers live).
Anyway, Mindmoil! When I first saw Arjun spoiled, I was very excited, because I could finally play with one of my favourite effects "always on" (if I can keep Arjun online, at least). I first used Arjun in a generic U/R combo shell (Palinchron/DEN) to dig for combo pieces, but dismantled that as it felt too similar to every blue deck out there. Besides, I want to play something unique, not a worse Teferi/Azami. I later also tried wizards tribal (I think I also had a artifacts list) but these were too clunky and didn't work well. Finally, I came to the realisation that instead of using Arjun to find my combo, I was better off using Arjun's draw effect as the combo, saving me some tutoring since U/R tutoring is pretty spotty outside of instants/sorceries (which most of my wincons aren't).
Besides, wheeling and wheeling is tons of fun (even with no draw doubler). It's like Christmas every turn - you should try it sometime!
Waitlist: (nil) Non-budget upgrades (these cards are strictly better than what they replace, and the only reason why they aren't being run is because I don't want to spend so much money on pixels):
The key components of my Arjun list are (1) a Mindmoil effect (my commander or the original) and (2) a draw doubler (Alhammarret’s Archive or Thought Reflection). With both on board, I won't run out of cards and I have a repeatable way (every spell cast) to cycle through my whole library. It is difficult (but not impossible) to win without both of these on board, and my first priority every game is to assemble this combination.
Draw Power:
As mentioned previously, Mindmoil does not actually draw me any cards, so unless I run other sources of draw, eventually I am going to run out of cards. Having Arjun on board, but only a 2-card hand is really depressing. Thankfully, Blue is the colour of card draw and Red is the colour of wheel effects, so it's not as if I lack ways to do this!
Alhammarret’s Archive: As mentioned, Arjun's BFF and one half of the "core combo" of the deck. A must-include. Thought Reflection: What's better than one Archive? Two Archives!
Draw spells: From the cheap Brainstorm and Ponder to more expensive stuff like Tidings and draw X spells like Stroke of Genius or Blue Sun's Zenith, blue has no shortage of these effects. Instant speed draw is good, since I can hold mana up for possible counters and draw EOT. Draw spells that say "draw" are good, as these synergise best with draw doublers and on draw effects like Psychosis Crawler. So Brainstorm is preferable, while scry or Dig through Time/Anticipate are not. X spells scale well in both the mid and the late game, especially when they are instant cast. Blue Sun's Zenith: Instant speed, so I can dump all my EOT mana into it. Refills my hand (especially if there is no draw doubler out). A powerful draw spell that can scale and be useful both in the middle or late game. Stroke of Genius: What's better than one Blue Sun's Zenith? Two... Ok, ok, I think you get the point. Seriously though, the duplicate effects are useful with Arjun as one of the drawbacks of the Way of Arjun is that you only get one spell per hand (unless you cast a few spells in response, which depletes your hand faster than if you were to cast one at a time). Brainstorm: The best 1 mana draw spell, bar Ancestral Vision. With a draw doubler, U: Draw 6 cards and place 2 on top of the library! Mystic Speculation: The exception to the instant speed theme, as the decent buyback cost enables me to preserve hand size when I don't have a draw doubler out (essentially replacing my hand for 2U).
Wheels: There are two types of wheels - those that guarantee a draw 7 (Wheel of Fortune, Reforge the Soul, Day's Undoing, Memory Jar, Timetwister) and those that don't (Windfall, Jace's Archivist, Tolarian Winds, Whirlpool Warrior). I much prefer the guaranteed draw 7s as they work in every situation, including when both you and your opponent(s) are low on cards. Wheels can also substitute for draw doublers in a pinch if I only have a Mindmoil effect but no draw doubler. I run the cheapest draw 7s available. Wheel of Fortune: I wouldn't pay fivemana for a wheel effect, but 3 mana is pretty good. The "mother of all wheels". Can be used to draw into more land, or after a Capsize/Cyclonic Rift effect to get rid of difficult-to-remove permanents. Day’s Undoing: The other 3 mana wheel. Unfortunately, it ends the turn after being cast (unless I give it flash) but it's a small price to pay for a cheap wheel.
Future Sight effects:Future Sight, Magus of the Future, Melek, Izzet Paragon. With one of these out, I can play cards off the top of my library, preserving my hand size so I don't run out of cards. The Magus is a bit fragile, so I don't run it. I don't think I have enough instant/sorcery spells to run Melek, plus for a 6 mana guy he/it is also quite squishy. Future Sight: With this out, it is best to prioritise playing spells from the top of my library unless I really, really , really need something in my hand. Lands should also be played off the top whereever possible.
Mindmoil: A duplicate of Arjun's effect is always useful, for when Arjun has bitten the dust a few times and costs 10 or 12 mana, or when something like Sheoldred, Whispering One or Nevermore is stopping Arjun from coming out to play. The effects stack, so I can have both Arjun and Mindmoil out and draw a lot of cards. Consecrated Sphinx: good stuff and a decent flying body. Additionally, it's one of the few cards with draw power to rival Arjun (if it survives) and can be useful to turn on some of the wincons as well.
After assembling the Mindmoil/draw doubler engine, two situations make it even better. The first is having flash on all my spells. This engine can draw a lot of cards, so many that if left unchecked, there is a real risk of decking. One way to avoid this is to discard down to 7 at the end of each of my turns. Unfortunately, this means that I have to play my spells on my opponents' turns, which is where Leyline of Anticipation and Vedalken Orrery come in.
Although I don't run them in my list, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir or Shimmer Myr could make an appearance if you have enough of their specific card type, as well.
The second circumstance that goes well with massive draw is INFINITE MANA sorry, there is no green here, we don't do infinite mana. Instead, I liberate myself from the shackles of actually needing mana to cast spells! Also, I need some wincons, to turn all that card draw into actually winning the game. True story:
(after having both Mindmoil and Alhammarret's Archive out, and playing a random spell):
Opponent 1: Interesting.
Opponent 2: But does it actually do anything?
Me: I'm playing Izzet, I have no idea either!
I originally tried typical blue/UR combos, such as Deadeye Navigator+Palinchron+Stroke of Genius or Archaeomancer+Time Warp, or various Reiterate/Reset thingmajigs. However, after a while I realised that Mindmoil effects don't really lend themselves well to combos (since you can only play one card per hand) and that the combo is Arjun+draw doubler. Eventually, I replaced these multiple card, "stand-alone" wincons with one-card wincons that trigger on the massive card draw I can get once I have a draw doubler and Arjun out.
Mana? What mana?: Omniscience and Dream Halls. With these out, finding a wincon is assured since I can dig through my deck forever. Just make sure I don't accidentally deck myself. Omniscience: Has to be hardcast, which is why I recommend waiting till 10-12 mana to "go off" with Arjun. This is not a turn 3-4 combo deck. However, once Omniscience hits the table it is SO. WORTH. IT. Dream Halls: Don't play this without a draw doubler out, since it really destroys handsize. Also, it helps opponents as well, so (since it is only 5 mana) best to play it when it is time to win and not too early. Somehow, the absence of a colour is also a colour, so Kozilek, Butcher of Truth can be cast off say Izzet Signet.
Chasm Skulker: This can be a wincon in its own right, but given that the squid has no evasion and is cheap enough to come out early, I generally drop it early to act as a roadblock/early defense in case everybody starts poking the UR mage with an empty board. It's wrath-proof anyway (I get an army which is useful), and hopefully (if I'm not drawing too many cards yet) people will save their Path to Exiles and Swords to Plowshares for other, more dangerous, stuff.
Psychosis Crawler: This is probably the best wincon in a vaccuum, as it destroys every opponent instead of just one and can get around Leyline of Sanctity effects (which the next two can't). As a bonus, Fabricate can find it. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind: Similar to Crawler, but more expensive. The upside is that Niv can also clear out other creatures to defend my life total as well. Since Niv only kills one opponent at a time, if there are multiple opponents which need to die, I either Elixir of Immortality to refill my library or discard Kozilek during my cleanup step (sometimes both). Both Elixir and Kozilek will show up again, so it can be repeated for as long as I need. Sphinx’s Tutelage: Same principle as Niv-Mizzet, only 1 opponent at a time but gets around lifegain/damage prevention. Not to be used if there are Eldrazi titans around (which will negate all my mill) or the opponent is heavily graveyard-based. It is the cheapest wincon though, so there should still be a good chunk of mana left on the turn this is cast to get it working. Diviner's Wand: Can be equipped to Arjun, Glen Elendra Archmage or Laboratory Maniac (which is 33% of my creatures :p) for free. Play wheels, draw cards, smash face. It doesn't work as well as the previous 3 wincons because Arjun only has flying as evasion and no trample, but it does work.
Laboratory Maniac is here as a failsafe and also because self-decking in this deck is quite easy, I might as well make it a wincon. Plus, I play on MTGO so it requires the least clicking of any of my wincons (Niv-Mizzet and Tutelage especially are hell on my mouse, considering I have to individually choose targets for each trigger O.o). Another reason why flash is so important, since I can flash in the Lab Man when I find him while drawing through my library.
None of my wincons are actually infinite every if a draw doubler is used (they are all limited by the possibility to deck myself and require a decent source of draw to function in the first place), so if your playgroup frowns on infinite combos or you don't like the concept (I know I don't), all the more reason to play this deck
Defense:
Arjun is 6 mana, draw doublers are another 5-7 and UR is the colour combination with the least creatures. Arjun really hates lesser minds and their swarm tactics. Boardwipes are essential! Of note, in a pinch, X spells can be cast for 0 to get a new hand with Arjun (e.g. cast Rolling Earthquake for R).
Blasphemous Act: 13 damage is nothing to sniff at, and it gets cheaper the more creatures come out. The only drawbacks are that it kills Arjun too and it is sorcery speed, but to Rolling Earthquake for 13 I need what, 14 mana? Plus, I have Mindmoil for when Arjun dies. Rolling Earthquake: Another sorcery speed sweeper, making the cut because it only costs R plus however much damage I want and hits everything, not just non-fliers. Plus it can kill planeswalkers as well if the damage is redirected. Unfortunately, it can also kill me if my life total is too low :s Breath of Darigaaz: A cheaper Rolling Earthquake - more help against pesky planeswalkers. Magmaquake: Instant speed, but kills only non-fliers. Planeswalker killing is welcome as I run few creatures. Starstorm: A (usually better) Magmaquake that only hurts creatures (but can also kill Arjun). I don't ever remember wanting to cycle it, it is that good. Curse of the Swine: For indestructible, protection from red, or things I don't want to damage like Phyrexian Obliterator. Evacuation: For token strategies, when Arjun gets stolen, or to get around indestructible/pro red/hexproof. Cyclonic Rift: Evacuation on steroids, and is useful before a wheel effect (since it can be played for 1U) to get rid of something that would be difficult to destroy otherwise. Steel Hellkite: Awesome piece of colourless mass destruction that unfortunately has to connect. Cyclonic Rift can help with that, though. Vedalken Shackles: This is good enough that I prioritise Islands for it. Repeatable creature stealing can net me emergency blockers, or shut down some low P/T commanders with strong abilities.
Previously in, now cut: Crawlspace: stops swarm tactics, and can be tutored with Fabricate. Haven't seen many token decks on MTGO lately, but I've been seeing more and more planeswalkers. Cut for Breath of Darigaaz.
Counters:
Arjun has no inbuilt protection, hexproof, shroud, nada... Neither does Alhammarret's Archive, Thought Reflection, or Mindmoil. Actually, the only thing that can protect itself in the whole deck is probably Darksteel Ingot which I removed, so nothing protects itself now There are also few ways to deal with enchantments, or indestructible/regenerating creatures. I save my counters for those. Additionally, with a decent number of counterspells, they are more likely to show up in each new hand I get.
I play all the 2 mana "universal" counters I can get my hands on, and the 3 mana ones with upside. I find those above 3 mana too expensive to hold up mana for. Counterspell: How do you play counterspells without Counterspell? Arcane Denial: Good synergy with draw doublers and helps preserve handsize. Mana Drain: Counterspell. With upside?! What were they thinking when they printed this? Counterflux: Uncounterable, helps with storm/cascade. Dissipate: Graveyard strategies? Schraveyard schtrategies. Hinder: Schraveyard schtrategies? Schraveyard schtrategies. Goodbye tuck rule - removed because exile is better now. Void Shatter: Schraveyard schtrategies 2: Graveyard Boogaloo. This was in for a while but now back to Dissipate - on the whole, I don't see much Pyroblast so having something to pitch to Dream Halls is more relevant. Swan Song: A 1 mana counter can surprise people who try to counter Arjun when I have one untapped Island. Plus, UR has issues with permanents. Glen Elendra Archmage: I need warm bodies sometimes. Plus, I run Torpor Orb which can help reduce the need to counter ETB creatures. And it's 2 counterspells in one. All these help to keep the Archmage in, even though it's 5 mana.
Utility:
This is a mixed bag of goodstuff to help with survival. Notably, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Elixir of Immortality are there to prevent self-decking. Since I don't run any max hand size effects, I can wait till the end of my turn to discard back down to 7 and pitch Kozilek to return my graveyard to my library. If I have a 5 card hand, Arjun and a draw doubler:
Play 1st spell - 8 card hand
Play 2nd spell - 14 card hand
Play 3rd spell - 26 card hand
Play 4th spell - 50 card hand
There is no 5th spell, it's a given I won't have 98 cards in my library to draw from so I've just milled myself out.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: Prevents self-decking, and since I aim to hardcast Omniscience, to hardcast him to draw 4 cards is not unreasonable at all. Elixir of Immortality: I need a duplicate Kozilek in case he is stuck on the bottom of my library. Confiscate; further protection against enchantments/lands/planeswalkers which can be hard to deal with in UR. Chaos Warp: same as Confiscate, a catch-all answer. Capsize: A catch-all answer, but also more protection against self-decking (play on Arjun/draw doubler). Buyback preserves hand size and allows me to reuse it repeatedly. Treachery: The "when you play [CARDNAME], untap X lands" spells are pretty good in Arjun, giving me more mana to cycle through my deck faster. I didn't manage to make room for Frantic Search or Rewind, though. Vandalblast: Obligatory mass artifact removal. Relic of Progenitus: Obligatory graveyard hate and cycles to preserve your handsize when you don't need graveyard hate. Torpor Orb: This is a meta call, but with ETB effects and blinking for value pretty popular in EDH, it's usually a solid choice. Arjun doesn't need to give up very much for this effect (I only had to remove my clone effects and Gilded Drake), while some other decks are really shut down by it.
Tutors:
First, I'll list what I don't run, because there are some cards that synergise pretty well with Arjun: Archmage Ascension: There should be no trouble triggering it every turn. The problem is that I need to wait 6 turns for the payoff, and it doesn't dig me out of a hole if played on an empty board. Parallel Thoughts: Tutor 7. But what if the opponent destroys it?
Other blue tutors (Merchant Scroll, Vedalken Æthermage): Arjun draws cards pretty fast, he doesn't need tutors. Besides, with all the infinite mana/draw combos out - I can wait to find say Psychosis Crawler instead of having to assemble both Reiterate/Reset in the same hand and tutors are not so important anymore.
Other red tutors (Gamble): No recursion here, moving on...
Mana accelerants:
Nothing much to say here, just a whole bunch of rocks, because Arjun is 6 mana and most of the support cards are 4-7 mana. Besides, I'm aiming to hardcast Omniscience eventually (unless I can use Dream Halls, there is no way to cheat it in - but if I already have Dream Halls I don't really need Omniscience). Of note, Everflowing Chalice and Astral Cornucopia can be cast for X=0 to get a free new hand, at the price of 1 card.
Mana Crypt: Fast mana is good mana. Besides, the 0 mana rocks can help to get a free new hand. Everflowing Chalice: Scales into the late game, 0 mana rock #2. Astral Cornucopia: Scales into the late game, 0 mana rock #3. Sol Ring: Fast mana good mana. The rocks that give a net gain of mana (Ring/Crypt/Vault) also help to cast more spells when they are played. Mana Vault: FAST MANA GOOD MANA. Coldsteel Heart: At 2 mana, I prioritise rocks that give coloured mana (the exception being Everflowing Chalice because it can scale and cost 0). Izzet Signet: 2 mana rock #2. Sky Diamond: 2 mana rock #3. Chromatic Lantern: 3 mana rocks better have a good effect (i.e. colour fixing for all my lands) Worn Powerstone: Or, be able to tap for 2. Thran Dynamo: 4 mana is expensive for just a rock and 3 is the most efficient I can get for it. They sure don't make rocks like they used to... Caged Sun: The rock to end all rocks, since I run mostly Islands instead of Mountains this can do a passable impression of Omniscience if I have enough lands out.
Academy Ruins: The most important utility land, since I don't run much (if any) recursion this can save key artifacts. Buried Ruin: A worse Academy Ruins is still worth running. Tolaria West: Finds Academy Ruins or any utility land I need. Cavern of Souls: Generic utility land, since Arjun is 6 CMC I'd hate for him to be countered. Strip Mine: Stops other utility lands like Gaea's Cradle, Cabal Coffers, etc.
I could run karoo lands such as Izzet Boilerworks and Coral Atoll, but I don't like having these lands destroyed (my deck is tuned to handle 1v1 as well). Also, I don't run "untap lands" cards other than Treachery, but if you run more similar cards such as Frantic Search, they would work pretty well.
Strategy
My version of Arjun could be characterised as combo-control. As the two colours with the least creatures/board presence and with a commander costing 6 mana, control elements are mandatory to keep the heat off my deck while I set up, and get rid of dangerous commanders/cards/combos as they are played. Key pieces in the deck (Arjun, certain artifacts and enchantments) have no inbuilt protection, neither is this an "artifact deck" that can run things like Darksteel Forge or "voltron deck" that can run things like Lightning Greaves to help with that, so the control elements are important to protect the combo pieces.
The "combo" component of the deck revolves around profiting off draw triggers. Whether it is milling with Sphinx's Tutelage, making a large creature with Diviner's Wand, pinging with Psychosis Crawler or Niv-Mizze, the Firemind, or self-decking with Laboratory Maniac, Arjun provides a repeatable source of draw triggers to utilise. Unfortunately, as mentioned previously, this is only repeatable as long as I have cards in hand, so I need draw spells or even better, a draw doubler such as Alhammarret's Archive or Thought Reflection. Once I get a draw doubler and Arjun or Mindmoil on board, I am able to repeatedly search through my deck with every spell I play, whether it is one of the abovementioned wincons, a counterspell to protect my board, or even just a simple mana rock to get more mana to play even more mana rocks. Even if I didn't manage to find a wincon at first, I should be able to find one pretty quickly. Also, each new hand hopefully contains a counterspell for protection, if not just play an instant to find another.
Early game:
Lay low and build a manabase. Arjun having been out for quite a while already, most savvy players will know that draw doublers are pretty essential to the Arjun player's game plan, so I usually save Archive/Thought Reflection for when I have enough mana to actually "go off". Ditto with most of the wincons - the only ones that I would consider playing out early are Chasm Skulker and maybe Lab Man for early defence. After all, worst case scenario, they get destroyed and Kozilek helps shuffle them back into the deck. Chasm Skulker isn't very good in multiplayer anyway, having no evasion and no inbuilt protection. Arjun needs a lot of mana and a lot of draw to win, and in EDH, everybody is playing their Thran Dynamos and Sol Rings left and right, so rarely does anyone target the non-artifact UR player for "too much ramping".
Mid game:
This is when Arjun can come out, though if I have Mindmoil, I would usually play Mindmoil first unless I need the flier. Before I commit Arjun, though, I would ideally want either Alhammarret's Archive or Thought Reflection in hand first (or a way to tutor for them). A "plan B" would be a healthy handsize (at least 5-7) with decent draw options (wheels or draw X spells) to wheel into a draw doubler fast. Nobody is going to blame you for playing your commander, but once the Archive hits, savvier opponents will start to suspect shenanigans and might try to kill Arjun preemptively. And if there is too much "lag time" between Arjun and the draw doubler, then Arjun could die to whatever collateral damage wrath even if I'm not being actively targeted.
I don't play my wincons until I am actually about to win. No sense playing out say Psychosis Crawler and taking away half the opponent's life in one turn cycle, then letting them all target you when Arjun is capable of killing the entire table in one turn with the necessary cards out.
Late game:
Late game starts when you are ready to go for the win, and in true Izzet fashion, it better be explosive! This is not a grindy goodstuff deck that can just chip away at life totals and amass card advantage.
Let's recap how Arjun wins - by repeatedly drawing cards and using card draw to kill opponents. Therefore, it follows that to win with Arjun I need two things - a way to refill my hand or start with a large enough handsize (since every spell cast off Arjun decreases handsize by 1, which decreases the speed at which Arjun can dig through the deck); and enough mana to keep playing spells, since the primary way Arjun draws cards is by playing spells.
Therefore, it's COMBO TIME! when both these factors are in play:
Card draw: Of course, the best is to have a draw doubler out, but sometimes I just don't have that luxury. A large Stroke of Genius/Blue Sun's Zenith on the EOT before my turn, other hand fatteners such as Consecrated Sphinx, or just "going off" and hoping to find a Wheel of Fortune to help out are all good plan Bs.
Mana: Again, the clear winner is Omniscience, with Dream Halls coming in a close second (because Dream Halls helps the opponent too, and I don't want to keep it around any longer that the turn it takes to win in a "battlecruiser" format like EDH). In a pinch, Caged Sun or just a whole bunch of lands works too, since once Arjun is up and working with a draw doubler, I can just keep on playing mana rocks and cantrips to draw cards. Shoutout to those mana rocks which can be played to net gain mana (Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault) or 0cmc mana rocks which can be played for 0cmc (Everflowing Chalice, Astral Cornucopia).
Once both halves of the combo are assembled, I just play out whichever wincon I stumble across first. If I don't have a draw doubler yet, I would sometimes start the combo if I have Omniscience or Dream Halls out, hoping to draw into a draw doubler or a wheel, but hardly ever the other way round. If all I have is a draw doubler, I usually wait till I have enough mana (maybe about 10-12) to play maybe 4-5 spells to win. Not every hand is going to contain a mana rock or a cheap cantrip.
The other consideration is when to stop the combo. It's non infinite and limited by the amount of cards I have left in my deck, so can't be too greedy. Additionally, once I've started wheeling with Arjun, I usually try to keep a counterspell or 2 in hand, and enough cards left in deck to cast them without decking myself.
It's my turn, and my opponents are at less than 10 life each. Wincon is Psychosis Crawler, I have Arjun and Alhammarret's Archive out, 30 cards in hand and 40 cards in deck. I can't kill them this turn as I will deck myself, so I need to discard down to 7 at EOT keeping at least one counterspell and one cantrip (ensuring I have the mana to pay for both), then kill them on the next upkeep.
It's my turn, and my last 2 opponents are at 27 and 28 life. Wincon is Psychosis Crawler, I have Arjun, Alhammarret's Archive and Omniscience out, 15 cards in hand and 35 cards in deck. I think, OK let's win! and play a Mana Crypt. However, one opponent plays Capsize to bounce my Psychosis Crawler in response to the Arjun trigger. I counter that with a Counterspell, place my now 13-card hand on the bottom of my library and draw 26 cards, hitting each opponent for 26 with 22 cards left in my library. Then, the Arjun trigger for Mana Crypt resolves, I place my 26 card hand on the bottom of my library and draw 52 cards - except I only have 48 cards in my library, so I lose.
What went wrong? I got greedy and didn't leave enough cards in deck to play the winning spell plus one (counter). If none of my opponents were likely to have bounce, or were tapped out, I could have won, but if they were likely to, I would wait till EOT, discard down to 7, then try to win on the upkeep after.
I could play one spell this turn and kill them, but if they respond to that spell with something that kills the Crawler, The draw I can't kill them this turn as I will deck myself, so I need to discard down to 7 at EOT keeping at least one counterspell and one cantrip, then kill them on the next upkeep.
On the upkeep of my next opponent, I play out Magmaquake with x=0, draw 12 and hit everyone for 12. Unfortunately, my new 12 card hand contains Chaos Warp, Counterspell, Arcane Denial, and Swan Song. In this case, although I could play Chaos Warp to continue the combo, I run the real risk of not actually drawing anymore counterspells (and remember, Teferi is still out there untapped). One of the strengths of Arjun is that even if I don't hsve a counter, I can wheel into it - but with half my counters in hand now, I run the risk of not having enough cards in deck to play say Counterflux if it is stuck on the bottom of my library. I would wait till (inevitably) someone tries to disrupt me, and play any counterspell from my hand and then try to win off that. If I wait till my turn, I could also hope to draw into Kozilek, Butcher of Truth (to be discarded at my EOT) or Elixir of Immortality to reshuffle my library.
On the upkeep of my next opponent, I play out Magmaquake with x=0, draw 12 and hit everyone for 12. Unfortunately, my new 12 card hand contains absolutely no instants or cards with flash. I fail to continue the combo, and on the next turn Teferi Mindslavers me and makes me deck myself. I lose.
This illustrates the power of Vedalken Orrery/Leyline of Anticipation - I can win on my opponent's turns, outside their main phase when they can't interact with me except on the stack. If I had one of those, I would just play out any random card (remember, Omniscience!) and continue from there.
Vedalken Orrery and Leyline of Anticipation aren't required to win, but they do help a lot in reducing the number of hands that "whiff". The good thing is that they are not very threatening, so they can come out fairly early.
One last thing: I don't run any max hand size effects (Reliquary Tower, Thought Vessel). While Arjun can draw a lot of card, that usually happens when I'm about to "go off", so I find these effects are "win more". Besides, they necessitate me running "prevent draw" pieces to avoid decking myself (or Lab Man, but how do you know Lab Man won't be hiding in the bottom of your library), which are typically not very good (except maybe Words of War for repeatable Shock, Obstinate Familiar and Words of Wind are meh). Besides, even with a prevent draw effect out, once I have drawn my whole library with Arjun, that's the end - no more draw triggers fun! I would rather use the cleanup phase to trim my hand down to size, then run an old Eldrazi (I use Kozilek, Butcher of Truth) or Elixir of Immortality to return my library to its original condition, ready for more wheels and more draw triggers!
I'm excited for Arjun, the Shifting Flame, mainly because of Mindmoil on a stick? OH YEAH!
It's everything I imagined an ideal Izzet deck to be (sorry UR artifact fans).
Have theorycrafted up a list for Arjun, maybe this can serve as a point for discussion?
I think that Arjun best fits into a combo/control shell, because when Arjun comes online, you get a lot of card selection which helps you find your combo pieces fast, or the tutors to find them. The question is: what can the addition of Red to the traditional Blue control/combo shell (think Azami, Lady of Scrolls) achieve? In my opinion, Arjun gives:
1. better board clear (X spells)
2. uncounterable infinite mana outlets (Banefire)
3. maybe less of a target? (everyone hates monoblue)
4. artifact destruction
Somehow, many of the best tutor targets/combo pieces are 6 mana. Go figure. Also, I play on MTGO, so P3K cards are actually pretty cheap (Capture of Jingzhou is now 0.8 tix, Time Warp is 5-6 tix). I'm aware it's the opposite in paper, so feel free to substitute those. The decklist is ordered by function so cards can be easily replaced with their "strictly better" equivalents, e.g. Steam Vents for Izzet Guildgate. I just grabbed whatever I had lying around in my collection...
I think one big weakness is keeping early aggro off you, and I'd like to hear solutions besides sweepers/Propaganda style effects. Discuss away!
If you have Arjun and Laboratory Maniac on the board, and Tunnel Vision with one other spell (say Counterspell) in hand, you can name Counterspell, place it at the bottom or near-bottom of your library with Arjun's trigger, dump your whole library into your graveyard and play any cheap spell/draw a card to win with Lab Man. And it costs 6 mana too, which makes it another wincon Ethereal Usher can tutor for along with Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Caged Sun, Deadeye Navigator, Knowledge Pool, etc...
Actually, you could build Arjun around UR artifacts/combos. You would lose the "infinite mana outlet" that Nin, the Pain Artist (whom I usually see at the head of such a deck) provides, but you gain much better card selection to actually find those combos. The artifact mana that an artifacts deck require should also help to power out an early Arjun - with only 2 coloured mana in its casting cost, it can be cast and recast fairly easily using artifact ramp.
Yup, it's going to take a while to resolve turns with Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar, having to hold priority through multiple Arjun triggers, etc. But I mainly play Turbofog in Modern and never run out of time (on MTGO), so I think it is possible with some practice
Another possibility (seen in some Keranos decks) is to have only 2 enchantments in the whole deck and Reweave one into Omniscience. Omniscience with Arjun out should be enough to win, since you can just cycle through your whole deck and win with Lab Man or assemble a combo. But I think this is very difficult since both Sphinx's Tutelage and Leyline of Anticipation, and probably also Thought Reflection are too good to pass up (:
If you get a really full grip of cards thanks to thought reflection and the archive maybe firestorm would be good win condition, but it would require a ton of targets on the battlefield to work (since you must choose an additional target for each card you discard). Alternatively Seismic Assault would be a good way to dump the land in your hand.
If you often get to the point where you're nearly drawing your entire deck, then you could use Arjun's ability to stack your deck for something like Goblin Charbelcher.
Deadeye + Palinchron = Infinite mana and infinite creature entering the battlefield Phantasmal Image + Palinchron = Infinite mana, infinite creature entering, and infinite cast triggers.
Cast triggers... Arjun... infinite mana...
Just something to think about.
Edit:
But on the subject of infinite combos that interact favorably with Arjun, throw in Tidespout Tyrant. With Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, and Sol Ring, any 2 of those with Tidespout Tyrant makes infinite colorless mana (or colored with an Izzet Signet added on top) by route of infinite casts. With Arjun, that's roughly equivalent to every card in your hand being a free tutor, so you can go get any draw trigger win condition and end the game immediately. If you have Arjun and Tidespout Tyrant and don't have 2 of those rocks, you can get then very quickly, because you can bounce permanents you don't need back to your hand to keep your hand size from diminishing while you dig. In my Zedruu deck, I've won more than 1 game with 1 or 2 lands left by digging with Mindmoil with Tidespout Tyrant and Warstorm Surge in play looking for the Memnite I needed to kill the table. Trust me, it works.
Turnabout + Reiterate is another one that combos to infinite mana by casting a spell repeatedly, which means it automatically finds you the win condition if you still have at least 1 card in hand.
And you will always find the combo pieces if you can stick Arjun and protect him. I'm entirely positive that this deck does not need 8 slots dedicated to tutors. I'd argue against playing any tutors, frankly. If you have a good amount of cards in hand, you'll find a win condition basically guaranteeed. As you are now, the cheapest spell in your "draw power" even capable of replacing itself is Future Sight. With a draw curve like that, you'll get to Arjun with 2 or 3 cards in hand and the Mindmoiling won't actually accomplish anything. If you play things like Fact or Fiction, or even something like Ponder, you can get deeper into the deck than Future Sight is going to get you before Arjun is out and you're trying to dig for the win condition.
Oh, and play Blue Sun's Zenith. Before you combo off, it makes your hand big. After you make infinite mana, you can kill the whole table because you can put your library in your hand on the first cast and then just dig it back out after it shuffles back in each time.
But on the subject of infinite combos that interact favorably with Arjun, throw in Tidespout Tyrant. With Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, and Sol Ring, any 2 of those with Tidespout Tyrant makes infinite colorless mana (or colored with an Izzet Signet added on top) by route of infinite casts. With Arjun, that's roughly equivalent to every card in your hand being a free tutor, so you can go get any draw trigger win condition and end the game immediately. If you have Arjun and Tidespout Tyrant and don't have 2 of those rocks, you can get then very quickly, because you can bounce permanents you don't need back to your hand to keep your hand size from diminishing while you dig. In my Zedruu deck, I've won more than 1 game with 1 or 2 lands left by digging with Mindmoil with Tidespout Tyrant and Warstorm Surge in play looking for the Memnite I needed to kill the table. Trust me, it works.
Turnabout + Reiterate is another one that combos to infinite mana by casting a spell repeatedly, which means it automatically finds you the win condition if you still have at least 1 card in hand.
And you will always find the combo pieces if you can stick Arjun and protect him. I'm entirely positive that this deck does not need 8 slots dedicated to tutors. I'd argue against playing any tutors, frankly. If you have a good amount of cards in hand, you'll find a win condition basically guaranteeed. As you are now, the cheapest spell in your "draw power" even capable of replacing itself is Future Sight. With a draw curve like that, you'll get to Arjun with 2 or 3 cards in hand and the Mindmoiling won't actually accomplish anything. If you play things like Fact or Fiction, or even something like Ponder, you can get deeper into the deck than Future Sight is going to get you before Arjun is out and you're trying to dig for the win condition.
Great ideas, thanks! Since Arjun's specialty is card selection, you raise a good question - are tutors even necessary? Having no experience with similar generals (Zedruu, Tomorrow) I have no idea, but reducing tutor slots would free up a lot of space for things I want to be playing, hmmm... Needs playtesting, heh.
It's tons of fun, though fragile. The deck is super mana hungry, hence the large amount of ramp. I've included a few different avenues to victory, and in my testing games I just wheeled until I ran into one of them, and then I would commit to that one. The deck doesn't do a ton without Arjun, but the infinite combos in the deck do operate independently of him. My basic plan was generally trying to wheel into or tutor out Alhammarret's Archive or Thought Reflection and then trying to chain spells until I killed the table through either one of the milling enchantments, Psychosis Crawler, or Laboratory Maniac.
I'd like to find some room for some more control elements, and I'm sure more testing will show what I can cut. Currently, Stroke of Genius and Blue Sun's Zenith are on the chopping block--they never were too much help, but I've only played 4 games so far.
A card I discovered while hunting thorugh gatherer--Moonring Mirror is really good, and you only really need one turn of wheeling with Arjun for it to start really paying off. It's slow, but the advantage starts snowballing fast.
Sorry, how does Moonring Mirror help? Example, I have Arjun and the mirror out and 7 cards in hand. I play a spell, put 6 cards on the bottom of library, then exile 6 cards with the Mirror. Doesn't that leave me with no hand until my next upkeep, when I can get back those 6 cards?
Here is what I'm planning on running as soon as release day gets here! I'm going for a win via damage from draw effects, with voltron as a back up. Really excited for this commander!
Basically the deck is mostly centered around appearing as a chaos deck, with slight control elements therein. I want cards with effects that will put a bit of heat on me gameplay wise but brand me as mostly casual. The combo pieces are in there as the endgame, of course.
You'll also notice that I have a pretty distinct lack of instants and sorceries in this deck. That is because while spellslinging is a very real thing, it is pretty crucial in my mind to have board presence (so hence the amount of creatures, which is pretty high for a spellslinging color combination). Maybe that's just my inner GW/GB player griping about the colors he doesn't use, but still! Creatures are nice.
Just a general observation after testing some more today--I removed all the 'no maximum hand size' effects from my deck. They were just too dangerous. There would be times when I had around 40-50 cards in my hand and I couldn't play another spell because I'd just die to an Alhammarret's Archive or a Thought Reflection, and the only way to not implode would be for me to just pass the turn and discard down to a managable hand size. It's weird, because usually when your deck tends to acquire massive hand sizes you'd think you'd want the ability to keep the cards, but there were games where I was thanking my lucky stars I hadn't drawn and played Reliquary Tower yet, so that I could discard down and unlock the ability to cast spells again.
Also in general, making sure to have ways to remove our own draw doublers is also important. Capsize and Chain of Vapor have proven themselves worthy in this regard. I tended to win every game I was able to cast and protect a draw doubler, but I also just lost a game because I couldn't get rid of it and died. I had one hilarious game where I had zero cards in my library thanks to Thought Reflection and Moonring Mirror, and I won by bouncing my own Thought Reflection and finshing off my opponents with a Snapcaster Mage outfitted with a Sword of Feast and Famine, casting Blue Sun's Zenith for 0 without Arjun on the field each turn in order to not draw out and die.
Regardless, the general is still fun, and every game I play is like a puzzle where I have to figure out how on earth I'm going to try to win this time.
Kalkris: I have the feeling all my Arjun iterations so far are a bit light on the ground, as well. I'm not sure if a Wizard theme would help (sorry, I'm not so keen on playing chaos :p). On the topic of chaos, no Eye of the Storm?
Also in general, making sure to have ways to remove our own draw doublers is also important. Capsize and Chain of Vapor have proven themselves worthy in this regard. I tended to win every game I was able to cast and protect a draw doubler, but I also just lost a game because I couldn't get rid of it and died. I had one hilarious game where I had zero cards in my library thanks to Thought Reflection and Moonring Mirror, and I won by bouncing my own Thought Reflection and finshing off my opponents with a Snapcaster Mage outfitted with a Sword of Feast and Famine, casting Blue Sun's Zenith for 0 without Arjun on the field each turn in order to not draw out and die.
Did you have Laboratory Maniac in your 99? If you had Lab Man (even better, with Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir) somewhere, couldn't you have cast Lab Man with flash before eventually decking yourself to win?
Kalkris: I have the feeling all my Arjun iterations so far are a bit light on the ground, as well. I'm not sure if a Wizard theme would help (sorry, I'm not so keen on playing chaos :p). On the topic of chaos, no Eye of the Storm?
Eye of the Storm was a consideration but the issue with that is I play too few relevant spells to benefit at all from that enchantment as much as other people would likely benefit from it. As for Wizard tribal... I have always sort of wanted a chaos deck in UR, and I've not been too keen on Wizard tribal specifically because of decks like Azami, Lady of Scrolls going remarkably ham remarkably fast. I wonder if Arjun will do the same or not, but I feel like this will provide a better theme for me than Wizard tribal. Thank you for the suggestion all the same Oh, and if I could make a suggestion, speaking of Wizard tribal, Sage of Fables combos too nicely with Glen Elendra Archmage to overlook.
And, just having read the above post but Admiral Sultan, I wonder if the lack of a max hand size is a good idea after all I could probably cut Thought Vessel for Chain of Vapor, since that removes the Archive/Reflection and sacs my Tower all in one swoop (it can even do all three if they happen to be out in some semblance of Christmasland), which isn't too bad for a failsafe. I might cut as such based on that consideration.
Oops! This version was from a website that hadn't loaded the C15 cards yet, so Niv was my commander. I have edited my post to reflect his position in my deck now.
I decided against wheel effects other than my commander because I figure he would be enough. But it is definitely something to keep in mind! Thanks for your ideas!
On the subject of casting Laboratory maniac before I milled myself out: ideally I could have, but I would have just decked myself trying to. Lab Maniac was in my hand but by the time I would have finished resolving Arjun's ability afer casting him I would have run out of cards before he actually entered the battlefield, since I would have been drawing upwards of 90 cards thanks to Alhammarret's Archive.
Lab Maniac is one of the more common ways I try to win with this deck, but sometimes I either won't have him or won't be able to cast him without dying, so I'm trying to reduce the chances of the deck being forced to either commit suicide or just stop casting spells until someone happens to kill Arjun for us, which proably won't happen. I played about 8 games yesterday, and in 2 of them I had to stop casting spells and allow myself to discard down so that I wouldn't draw out my deck. If I'd had Reliquary Tower on the field, those would have been 2 games I would have lost.
On the subject of wheels, I've since cut all the wheels from my deck except for Time Spiral and Jace's Archivist. Refilling my hand was nice, but the wheels that just drew 7 didn't do quite enough for me. Jace's Archivist is repeatable so he gets to stay, and Time Spiral has the added bonus of shuffling my graveyard back into my library while also not wasting a turn.
Oftentimes couldn't you just swing with Arjun to force someone to take him off the board? I mean sure, there are weenies, fog effects, and taking it, but it seems like that's an option that we didn't have with Mindmoil alone
I haven't seen anyone offer up Jushi Apprentice (sorry I don't know how to do links) Spiraling Embers and Master the ways also sort of embrace all the card draw. At least that's what I plan to do.
I haven't seen anyone offer up Jushi Apprentice (sorry I don't know how to do links) Spiraling Embers and Master the Way also sort of embrace all the card draw. At least that's what I plan to do.
Fixed, next time use card tags: [.card](name of card)[/card] (without the full stop in the first square bracket).
Iteration 2 is up, with a wizard tribal subtheme. Hopefully, this solves the problem of early defenses since Omenspeaker, etc make good speed bump, if nothing else
Why no Mind over Matter since I have Azami? Because Arjun does a good job of card draw all my himself. Capsize became Venser, Shaper Savant.
Also, all the creatures means Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir becomes more useful (:
Okay, first impressions:
- Biggest problem is running out of gas. By the time Arjun comes out, my hand is only 2 or 3 cards which is pitiful.
- Second biggest problem is early aggro (as expected)
- Swarm tactics are also a problem. Anything like Izzet Staticaster, but more powerful?\
- Archmage Ascension is not very good, 6 turns for it to come online is a loooong time.
- Ditto with Chasm Skulker, but I haven't seen it very often.
- Future Sight/Magus of the Future is great - if they stick
Okay, so, after 2 different games in the span of about 3 days where Possibility Storm has royally given me the finger, I figure I should cut it in favor of Obstinate Familiar. I also found space in the form of removing my Confusion in the Ranks package (and Scoria Wurm, consequently), Insurrection (a bit too big for the deck, as was Knollspine Dragon), and Scrambleverse (both reasons apply here - also, losing most of my good cards in favor of shoddier options makes for worse experiences. Maybe I just played it poorly but it left a lasting impression so out it goes *snip snip*). In comes an Elixir of Immortality for a bit of recursion, Blue Sun's Zenith for added draw, Chain of Vapor as a failsafe, Jace's Archivist and Windfall for more draw power, and Obstinate Familiar as an additional failsafe.
Next on my chopping block are Thieves' Auction (similar reasons to Scrambleverse) and then Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar (because as a few of you running it may have noticed, it's not a draw effect, and it isn't optional either. I might switch out my colored artifact lands in favor of more basics, as well but that might not happen due to a) lack of one more full-art Island readily available, and b) I like these in here. In any case, does anyone have any suggestions for additions in place of Tomorrow and Auction? If possible I would prefer there to be one more red symbol or one less blue symbol in with the card suggested, discounting equal amounts of symbols (in other words, tomorrow and auction are at URRR for colored symbols, meaning a net of RR if you cancel the equivalents out. I'd like to net RRR here if possible).
SECOND EDIT: In come Staggershock (card draw at best, plus a bit of slight spot removal), Shattering Spree (artifact removal, possibly as a failsafe), and Dominus of Fealty (goodstuff with potential).
The wizards weren't really helping against early aggro, mid-game aggro and generaly aggro of any sort, so I dialed up on the board control and mana rocks to get them in there.
Also, apologies to Chasm Skulker. It's an all-star, being either a big beater, an army in a can, or one removal spell down for the opponent. Most of my wins have been either through aggro with Chasm Skulker or more usually Arjun himself. While Lab Man and friends are cute, a 5/5 flying beatstick usually helps close out the game pretty fast after the opponent has had most of their stuff nuked with Starstorm/stolen with Vedalken Shackles or something similar.
Magus of the Future was judged too fragile, whereas Deadeye Navigator stays in over most of the combo pieces because it functions decently well as protection and can combo with some things like Venser, Shaper Savant/Glen Elendra Archmage that stay in due to utility. Other than that, most of the changes are self explanatory.
Don't just have one of the ideas, have ALL of them!
Wish that you could see more of your EDH deck, instead of just 30-40% of it every game? (I mean, you have gone through the trouble of selecting all 99 of them, right?
Want to be able to say "hold on, I'm digging for [insert card name here]" and be actually doing it, instead of durdling?
Want to draw your hand size every turn? (well, you also have to dump you hand on the bottom of your library, but shhhh)
Do you want to feel like a true Izzet mage with ideasideasIDEASSS!!1!1! coursing through your brain? Leave the X ramp to those hippie flower children, and the artifacts to the real tin men.
If so, Arjun, the Shifting Flame is for you!
No idea. Well for starters, "Arjun" is a fairly common Indian name which apparently means "
archersilver" (thanks, Jay13x!). It is also the name of a tank produced by India, although as you can see from the picture below, that can't be our guy since it doesn't fly and the front of the tank is not on fire.Since Wizards hasn't given a backstory for Arjun yet, I decree that the following shall be considered canon:
Long, long ago, in a plane of the multiverse far, far away, a band was formed. And not just any band, but the Greatest Band In The Multiverse (G.B.I.T.M). With the thundering vocals of Keranos, the ethereal harmonics of Melek, the flaming hot riffs of Arjun and the, oh, er, what was it he did again? somethingsomething of Tibor, they toured up and down the Multiverse playing to sold-out crowds. Their music was a heady mix of intense passion and incisive social commentary. Rumour has it even Emrakul was a fan and chomped through planes just to get to the plane they were playing, man. That's dedication there.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Eventually, the trashed hotel rooms, random time rifts and Eldrazi-fied planes got to them. "Creative differences" appeared, and just like that, the Greatest Band In The Multiverse was scattered to the winds. Keranos moved to Theros to jump start a successful solo career. Melek had always been a little bit blue, but got weirder and weirder after the breakup and was unfortunately murdered on Ravnica by a crazed groupie. Arjun went in for some meditation and finding himself and eventually started up a cosmic harmony and motivation hotline where you could hear the Fiery Words of the Sphinx Sphinself, small donation totally optional. And...uh, sorry, who was the last guy again? I forget.
Any resemblance to persons living or dead is totally coincidental
Arjun is the creature-shifted, Commander-legal version of Mindmoil. As your commander, Arjun allows you to riffle through your library really fast. No other commander allows you a fresh hand every spell you cast, which is probably good because any commander who could do that with no restrictions is probably broken. With that amount of filtering, Arjun will get you the right tool for any situation and allow you to play less tutors while still digging for key cards and combo pieces relatively fast. Of course, like the original Mindmoil, Arjun has the same drawbacks and a few more:
In terms of power level, Arjun is pretty decent, providing an unique ability (Mindmoil) that is in the correct colours (cheap instants galore) to make use of it, as well as giving above average card selection/filtering. However, Arjun is in no way a top tier commander in the vein of Azami/Zur/Edric. There are better draw engines available in UR, 6 mana is steep enough so that Arjun becomes well nigh unplayable after a few deaths, and Arjun doesn't do anything to impact the board when he first shows up. What you should play Arjun for is the fun level, which, if you like drawing cards, is pretty over the top, as well as the unique ability. Besides, he has decent stats, and can get out of hand fairly easily if your playgroup is not super competitve. Plus, for the colours, playing Arjun won't get you focused down immediately unlike Jhoira/Firemind, and is still pretty strong.
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind: Niv 1.0 is pretty much an improved Arjun, but everyone will try to kill you unless you can prove you don't have Curiosity within a 5km radius of your deck. Actually, Arjun would fit pretty well in his deck, just like he fits in Arjun's (and indeed, I run him).
Jhoira of the Ghitu: Another top-tier UR commander, basically suspend all the things, hopefully a boardwipe and something big. Similar to Niv 1.0, what you run if you don't mind playing Archenemy.
Mizzix of the Izmagnus: Arjun's classmate from Commander 2015. Most often seen in a storm/spellslinger spell because of cost reduction which is always excellent.
Melek, Izzet Paragon: The other Izzet spellslinger commander. Is to Mizzix as Arjun is to Niv 1.0, I guess.
Nin, the Pain Artist: Blue and red are the main artifact matters colours, and Nin is usually chosen as the artifact commander in UR because she serves as a handy mana sink.
Keranos, God of Storms: Goodstuff commander. Or, Reweave into Omniscience!
Jori En, Ruin Diver: Another versatile commander - the ability is sufficiently broad to help many different strategies from cantrips to storm to artifacts to chaos.
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius is what Niv 1.0 players play when they want to relax.
Tibor and Lumia: your low profile UR guys.
In other colours, Azami, Lady of Scrolls and Arcanis the Omnipotent are pretty good if all you want to do is draw a lot of cards. You could also try Ephara, God of the Polis or Prime Speaker Zegana, but their card drawing requires more build around and the deck plays quite differently.
(and personal bio as well)
The story of this deck begins about 10 years ago, when I first got into Magic while sitting around waiting to enter university. This was during Time Spiral block, and I started out with B/R burn with some shadow creatures, before moving on to R/W weird gating stuff because I liked the Boros guild (this was just after Ravnica, remember? Something along the lines of Whitemane Lion resetting Keldon Marauders and Lavacore Elemental, with Dust Elemental as a finisher. Anyway, my LGS had binders full of junk rares from Kamigawa and Ravnica (like Hisoka, Minamo Sensei or Reki, the History of Kamigawa), and one of those junk rares was Mindmoil. They were pretty cheap, so I jammed them into my deck and while I didn't run enough draw to make it work (as a new player, my understanding of card advantage was pretty iffy), the handcycling was one of the funnest things about my deck. Sometimes I would literally play Whitemane Lion or Stonecloaker just to grab a new (maybe not better, though) hand.
Fast forward 9 years and now I play on MTGO exclusively, because my irregular working hours make it difficult for me to find a regular playgroup. In my country there are also not very many LGS which deal in MTG (a lot deal in Yu-Gi-Oh or some Cardfight Vanguard nonsense), and those that are are not in my area anyway. I play EDH for the joy of finding new uses for weird cards. I have no inclination to play "goodstuff" commanders or highly tuned/top tier commanders, because they are all pretty same-y and obscure cards are usually obscure because there is something better unless you jump through some number of arbitary hoops. However, this does not mean I build underpowered decks either - I want to build the most effective list with a not-quite-top-tier commander. Being on MTGO, my decks need to be of a certain standard to win - most decks will not be highly tuned Zur/Azami/Narset (and if I see those decks, I usually concede on seeing their commander) but most decks, even for "less powerful" commanders, are usually fairly well tuned. You won't see Skeleton Ship ship tribal, or something someone threw together out of draft leavings - because there is no guarantee people will play something commensurate with your power level. I have designed this deck to work in both multiplayer and 1v1 - because MTGO uses one banlist for both, and sometimes I can't spend so long on a game because of my schedule. Another "advantage" I get from playing on MTGO is that there is no fixed playgroup, so obscure interactions are less likely to draw hate (if I were playing a fixed playgroup, I doubt many of them would let my draw doublers live).
Anyway, Mindmoil! When I first saw Arjun spoiled, I was very excited, because I could finally play with one of my favourite effects "always on" (if I can keep Arjun online, at least). I first used Arjun in a generic U/R combo shell (Palinchron/DEN) to dig for combo pieces, but dismantled that as it felt too similar to every blue deck out there. Besides, I want to play something unique, not a worse Teferi/Azami. I later also tried wizards tribal (I think I also had a artifacts list) but these were too clunky and didn't work well. Finally, I came to the realisation that instead of using Arjun to find my combo, I was better off using Arjun's draw effect as the combo, saving me some tutoring since U/R tutoring is pretty spotty outside of instants/sorceries (which most of my wincons aren't).
Besides, wheeling and wheeling is tons of fun (even with no draw doubler). It's like Christmas every turn - you should try it sometime!
1 Alhammarret’s Archive
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Brainstorm
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Day’s Undoing
1 Future Sight
1 Mindmoil
1 Mystic Speculation
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Thought Reflection
1 Wheel of Fortune
Counters:
1 Arcane Denial
1 Counterflux
1 Counterspell
1 Dissipate
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Mana Drain
1 Swan Song
Defence:
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Breath of Darigaaz
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Evacuation
1 Magmaquake
1 Starstorm
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Capsize
1 Confiscate
1 Chaos Warp
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Torpor Orb
1 Treachery
1 Vandalblast
Flash:
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Vedalken Orrery
Wincons:
1 Chasm Skulker
1 Diviner's Wand
1 Dream Halls
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Omniscience
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Sphinx’s Tutelage
Tutors:
1 Fabricate
1 Long-Term Plans
Mana accelerants:
1 Astral Cornucopia
1 Caged Sun
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Izzet Signet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sky Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Academy Ruins
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolaria West
Mana lands:
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Command Tower
1 Highland Lake
1 Shivan Reef
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Temple of the False God
18 Island
8 Mountain
1 Alhammarret’s Archive
1 Astral Cornucopia
1 Caged Sun
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Diviner's Wand
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Izzet Signet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sky Diamond
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sol Ring
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Torpor Orb
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Worn Powerstone
Enchantments
1 Confiscate
1 Dream Halls
1 Future Sight
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Mindmoil
1 Omniscience
1 Sphinx’s Tutelage
1 Thought Reflection
1 Treachery
1 Chasm Skulker
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Steel Hellkite
Instants
1 Arcane Denial
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Brainstorm
1 Capsize
1 Chaos Warp
1 Counterflux
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Dissipate
1 Evacuation
1 Long-Term Plans
1 Magmaquake
1 Mana Drain
1 Starstorm
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Swan Song
Sorceries
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Breath of Darigaaz
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Day’s Undoing
1 Fabricate
1 Mystic Speculation
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Vandalblast
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Highland Lake
1 Shivan Reef
1 Strip Mine
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Tolaria West
1 Temple of the False God
18 Island
8 Mountain
Non-budget upgrades (these cards are strictly better than what they replace, and the only reason why they aren't being run is because I don't want to spend so much money on pixels):
3 Mountain
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Volcanic Island
1 Steam Vents
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Sulfur Falls
The key components of my Arjun list are (1) a Mindmoil effect (my commander or the original) and (2) a draw doubler (Alhammarret’s Archive or Thought Reflection). With both on board, I won't run out of cards and I have a repeatable way (every spell cast) to cycle through my whole library. It is difficult (but not impossible) to win without both of these on board, and my first priority every game is to assemble this combination.
Draw Power:
As mentioned previously, Mindmoil does not actually draw me any cards, so unless I run other sources of draw, eventually I am going to run out of cards. Having Arjun on board, but only a 2-card hand is really depressing. Thankfully, Blue is the colour of card draw and Red is the colour of wheel effects, so it's not as if I lack ways to do this!
Alhammarret’s Archive: As mentioned, Arjun's BFF and one half of the "core combo" of the deck. A must-include.
Thought Reflection: What's better than one Archive? Two Archives!
Draw spells: From the cheap Brainstorm and Ponder to more expensive stuff like Tidings and draw X spells like Stroke of Genius or Blue Sun's Zenith, blue has no shortage of these effects. Instant speed draw is good, since I can hold mana up for possible counters and draw EOT. Draw spells that say "draw" are good, as these synergise best with draw doublers and on draw effects like Psychosis Crawler. So Brainstorm is preferable, while scry or Dig through Time/Anticipate are not. X spells scale well in both the mid and the late game, especially when they are instant cast.
Blue Sun's Zenith: Instant speed, so I can dump all my EOT mana into it. Refills my hand (especially if there is no draw doubler out). A powerful draw spell that can scale and be useful both in the middle or late game.
Stroke of Genius: What's better than one Blue Sun's Zenith? Two... Ok, ok, I think you get the point. Seriously though, the duplicate effects are useful with Arjun as one of the drawbacks of the Way of Arjun is that you only get one spell per hand (unless you cast a few spells in response, which depletes your hand faster than if you were to cast one at a time).
Brainstorm: The best 1 mana draw spell, bar Ancestral Vision. With a draw doubler, U: Draw 6 cards and place 2 on top of the library!
Mystic Speculation: The exception to the instant speed theme, as the decent buyback cost enables me to preserve hand size when I don't have a draw doubler out (essentially replacing my hand for 2U).
Wheels: There are two types of wheels - those that guarantee a draw 7 (Wheel of Fortune, Reforge the Soul, Day's Undoing, Memory Jar, Timetwister) and those that don't (Windfall, Jace's Archivist, Tolarian Winds, Whirlpool Warrior). I much prefer the guaranteed draw 7s as they work in every situation, including when both you and your opponent(s) are low on cards. Wheels can also substitute for draw doublers in a pinch if I only have a Mindmoil effect but no draw doubler. I run the cheapest draw 7s available.
Wheel of Fortune: I wouldn't pay five mana for a wheel effect, but 3 mana is pretty good. The "mother of all wheels". Can be used to draw into more land, or after a Capsize/Cyclonic Rift effect to get rid of difficult-to-remove permanents.
Day’s Undoing: The other 3 mana wheel. Unfortunately, it ends the turn after being cast (unless I give it flash) but it's a small price to pay for a cheap wheel.
Future Sight effects: Future Sight, Magus of the Future, Melek, Izzet Paragon. With one of these out, I can play cards off the top of my library, preserving my hand size so I don't run out of cards. The Magus is a bit fragile, so I don't run it. I don't think I have enough instant/sorcery spells to run Melek, plus for a 6 mana guy he/it is also quite squishy.
Future Sight: With this out, it is best to prioritise playing spells from the top of my library unless I really, really , really need something in my hand. Lands should also be played off the top whereever possible.
Mindmoil: A duplicate of Arjun's effect is always useful, for when Arjun has bitten the dust a few times and costs 10 or 12 mana, or when something like Sheoldred, Whispering One or Nevermore is stopping Arjun from coming out to play. The effects stack, so I can have both Arjun and Mindmoil out and draw a lot of cards.
Consecrated Sphinx: good stuff and a decent flying body. Additionally, it's one of the few cards with draw power to rival Arjun (if it survives) and can be useful to turn on some of the wincons as well.
After assembling the Mindmoil/draw doubler engine, two situations make it even better. The first is having flash on all my spells. This engine can draw a lot of cards, so many that if left unchecked, there is a real risk of decking. One way to avoid this is to discard down to 7 at the end of each of my turns. Unfortunately, this means that I have to play my spells on my opponents' turns, which is where Leyline of Anticipation and Vedalken Orrery come in.
Leyline of Anticipation: I really Anticipate this showing up!
Vedalken Orrery:
What's better than one Leyline...Can be tutored for with Fabricate or protected with Academy Ruins as well.Although I don't run them in my list, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir or Shimmer Myr could make an appearance if you have enough of their specific card type, as well.
The second circumstance that goes well with massive draw is
INFINITE MANAsorry, there is no green here, we don't do infinite mana. Instead, I liberate myself from the shackles of actually needing mana to cast spells! Also, I need some wincons, to turn all that card draw into actually winning the game. True story:(after having both Mindmoil and Alhammarret's Archive out, and playing a random spell):
Opponent 1: Interesting.
Opponent 2: But does it actually do anything?
Me: I'm playing Izzet, I have no idea either!
I originally tried typical blue/UR combos, such as Deadeye Navigator+Palinchron+Stroke of Genius or Archaeomancer+Time Warp, or various Reiterate/Reset thingmajigs. However, after a while I realised that Mindmoil effects don't really lend themselves well to combos (since you can only play one card per hand) and that the combo is Arjun+draw doubler. Eventually, I replaced these multiple card, "stand-alone" wincons with one-card wincons that trigger on the massive card draw I can get once I have a draw doubler and Arjun out.
Mana? What mana?: Omniscience and Dream Halls. With these out, finding a wincon is assured since I can dig through my deck forever. Just make sure I don't accidentally deck myself.
Omniscience: Has to be hardcast, which is why I recommend waiting till 10-12 mana to "go off" with Arjun. This is not a turn 3-4 combo deck. However, once Omniscience hits the table it is SO. WORTH. IT.
Dream Halls: Don't play this without a draw doubler out, since it really destroys handsize. Also, it helps opponents as well, so (since it is only 5 mana) best to play it when it is time to win and not too early. Somehow, the absence of a colour is also a colour, so Kozilek, Butcher of Truth can be cast off say Izzet Signet.
Chasm Skulker: This can be a wincon in its own right, but given that the squid has no evasion and is cheap enough to come out early, I generally drop it early to act as a roadblock/early defense in case everybody starts poking the UR mage with an empty board. It's wrath-proof anyway (I get an army which is useful), and hopefully (if I'm not drawing too many cards yet) people will save their Path to Exiles and Swords to Plowshares for other, more dangerous, stuff.
Psychosis Crawler: This is probably the best wincon in a vaccuum, as it destroys every opponent instead of just one and can get around Leyline of Sanctity effects (which the next two can't). As a bonus, Fabricate can find it.
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind: Similar to Crawler, but more expensive. The upside is that Niv can also clear out other creatures to defend my life total as well. Since Niv only kills one opponent at a time, if there are multiple opponents which need to die, I either Elixir of Immortality to refill my library or discard Kozilek during my cleanup step (sometimes both). Both Elixir and Kozilek will show up again, so it can be repeated for as long as I need.
Sphinx’s Tutelage: Same principle as Niv-Mizzet, only 1 opponent at a time but gets around lifegain/damage prevention. Not to be used if there are Eldrazi titans around (which will negate all my mill) or the opponent is heavily graveyard-based. It is the cheapest wincon though, so there should still be a good chunk of mana left on the turn this is cast to get it working.
Diviner's Wand: Can be equipped to Arjun, Glen Elendra Archmage or Laboratory Maniac (which is 33% of my creatures :p) for free. Play wheels, draw cards, smash face. It doesn't work as well as the previous 3 wincons because Arjun only has flying as evasion and no trample, but it does work.
Laboratory Maniac is here as a failsafe and also because self-decking in this deck is quite easy, I might as well make it a wincon. Plus, I play on MTGO so it requires the least clicking of any of my wincons (Niv-Mizzet and Tutelage especially are hell on my mouse, considering I have to individually choose targets for each trigger O.o). Another reason why flash is so important, since I can flash in the Lab Man when I find him while drawing through my library.
Defense:
Arjun is 6 mana, draw doublers are another 5-7 and UR is the colour combination with the least creatures. Arjun really hates lesser minds and their swarm tactics. Boardwipes are essential! Of note, in a pinch, X spells can be cast for 0 to get a new hand with Arjun (e.g. cast Rolling Earthquake for R).
Blasphemous Act: 13 damage is nothing to sniff at, and it gets cheaper the more creatures come out. The only drawbacks are that it kills Arjun too and it is sorcery speed, but to Rolling Earthquake for 13 I need what, 14 mana? Plus, I have Mindmoil for when Arjun dies.
Rolling Earthquake: Another sorcery speed sweeper, making the cut because it only costs R plus however much damage I want and hits everything, not just non-fliers. Plus it can kill planeswalkers as well if the damage is redirected. Unfortunately, it can also kill me if my life total is too low :s
Breath of Darigaaz: A cheaper Rolling Earthquake - more help against pesky planeswalkers.
Magmaquake: Instant speed, but kills only non-fliers. Planeswalker killing is welcome as I run few creatures.
Starstorm: A (usually better) Magmaquake that only hurts creatures (but can also kill Arjun). I don't ever remember wanting to cycle it, it is that good.
Curse of the Swine: For indestructible, protection from red, or things I don't want to damage like Phyrexian Obliterator.
Evacuation: For token strategies, when Arjun gets stolen, or to get around indestructible/pro red/hexproof.
Cyclonic Rift: Evacuation on steroids, and is useful before a wheel effect (since it can be played for 1U) to get rid of something that would be difficult to destroy otherwise.
Steel Hellkite: Awesome piece of colourless mass destruction that unfortunately has to connect. Cyclonic Rift can help with that, though.
Vedalken Shackles: This is good enough that I prioritise Islands for it. Repeatable creature stealing can net me emergency blockers, or shut down some low P/T commanders with strong abilities.
Previously in, now cut:
Crawlspace: stops swarm tactics, and can be tutored with Fabricate.Haven't seen many token decks on MTGO lately, but I've been seeing more and more planeswalkers. Cut for Breath of Darigaaz.Counters:
Arjun has no inbuilt protection, hexproof, shroud, nada... Neither does Alhammarret's Archive, Thought Reflection, or Mindmoil. Actually, the only thing that can protect itself in the whole deck is probably
Darksteel Ingotwhich I removed, so nothing protects itself now There are also few ways to deal with enchantments, or indestructible/regenerating creatures. I save my counters for those. Additionally, with a decent number of counterspells, they are more likely to show up in each new hand I get.I play all the 2 mana "universal" counters I can get my hands on, and the 3 mana ones with upside. I find those above 3 mana too expensive to hold up mana for.
Counterspell: How do you play counterspells without Counterspell?
Arcane Denial: Good synergy with draw doublers and helps preserve handsize.
Mana Drain: Counterspell. With upside?! What were they thinking when they printed this?
Counterflux: Uncounterable, helps with storm/cascade.
Dissipate: Graveyard strategies? Schraveyard schtrategies.
Hinder: Schraveyard schtrategies? Schraveyard schtrategies.Goodbye tuck rule - removed because exile is better now.Void Shatter: Schraveyard schtrategies 2: Graveyard Boogaloo.This was in for a while but now back to Dissipate - on the whole, I don't see much Pyroblast so having something to pitch to Dream Halls is more relevant.Swan Song: A 1 mana counter can surprise people who try to counter Arjun when I have one untapped Island. Plus, UR has issues with permanents.
Glen Elendra Archmage: I need warm bodies sometimes. Plus, I run Torpor Orb which can help reduce the need to counter ETB creatures. And it's 2 counterspells in one. All these help to keep the Archmage in, even though it's 5 mana.
Utility:
This is a mixed bag of goodstuff to help with survival. Notably, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Elixir of Immortality are there to prevent self-decking. Since I don't run any max hand size effects, I can wait till the end of my turn to discard back down to 7 and pitch Kozilek to return my graveyard to my library. If I have a 5 card hand, Arjun and a draw doubler:
Play 1st spell - 8 card hand
Play 2nd spell - 14 card hand
Play 3rd spell - 26 card hand
Play 4th spell - 50 card hand
There is no 5th spell, it's a given I won't have 98 cards in my library to draw from so I've just milled myself out.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: Prevents self-decking, and since I aim to hardcast Omniscience, to hardcast him to draw 4 cards is not unreasonable at all.
Elixir of Immortality: I need a duplicate Kozilek in case he is stuck on the bottom of my library.
Confiscate; further protection against enchantments/lands/planeswalkers which can be hard to deal with in UR.
Chaos Warp: same as Confiscate, a catch-all answer.
Capsize: A catch-all answer, but also more protection against self-decking (play on Arjun/draw doubler). Buyback preserves hand size and allows me to reuse it repeatedly.
Treachery: The "when you play [CARDNAME], untap X lands" spells are pretty good in Arjun, giving me more mana to cycle through my deck faster. I didn't manage to make room for Frantic Search or Rewind, though.
Vandalblast: Obligatory mass artifact removal.
Relic of Progenitus: Obligatory graveyard hate and cycles to preserve your handsize when you don't need graveyard hate.
Torpor Orb: This is a meta call, but with ETB effects and blinking for value pretty popular in EDH, it's usually a solid choice. Arjun doesn't need to give up very much for this effect (I only had to remove my clone effects and Gilded Drake), while some other decks are really shut down by it.
Tutors:
First, I'll list what I don't run, because there are some cards that synergise pretty well with Arjun:
Archmage Ascension: There should be no trouble triggering it every turn. The problem is that I need to wait 6 turns for the payoff, and it doesn't dig me out of a hole if played on an empty board.
Parallel Thoughts: Tutor 7. But what if the opponent destroys it?
Other blue tutors (Merchant Scroll, Vedalken Æthermage): Arjun draws cards pretty fast, he doesn't need tutors. Besides, with all the infinite mana/draw combos out - I can wait to find say Psychosis Crawler instead of having to assemble both Reiterate/Reset in the same hand and tutors are not so important anymore.
Other red tutors (Gamble): No recursion here, moving on...
Long-Term Plans: Finds anything, at instant speed. With Arjun out, I should be able to reach 3 cards inside my library easily. Without Arjun out, 3 turns is okay. Not good, but okay.
Fabricate: I run a lot of very useful artifacts (Alhammarret's Archive, Crawlspace, Torpor Orb, Vedalken Shackles, Psychosis Crawler) so there are a ton of tutor targets for this.
Mana accelerants:
Nothing much to say here, just a whole bunch of rocks, because Arjun is 6 mana and most of the support cards are 4-7 mana. Besides, I'm aiming to hardcast Omniscience eventually (unless I can use Dream Halls, there is no way to cheat it in - but if I already have Dream Halls I don't really need Omniscience). Of note, Everflowing Chalice and Astral Cornucopia can be cast for X=0 to get a free new hand, at the price of 1 card.
Mana Crypt: Fast mana is good mana. Besides, the 0 mana rocks can help to get a free new hand.
Everflowing Chalice: Scales into the late game, 0 mana rock #2.
Astral Cornucopia: Scales into the late game, 0 mana rock #3.
Sol Ring: Fast mana good mana. The rocks that give a net gain of mana (Ring/Crypt/Vault) also help to cast more spells when they are played.
Mana Vault: FAST MANA GOOD MANA.
Coldsteel Heart: At 2 mana, I prioritise rocks that give coloured mana (the exception being Everflowing Chalice because it can scale and cost 0).
Izzet Signet: 2 mana rock #2.
Sky Diamond: 2 mana rock #3.
Chromatic Lantern: 3 mana rocks better have a good effect (i.e. colour fixing for all my lands)
Worn Powerstone: Or, be able to tap for 2.
Thran Dynamo: 4 mana is expensive for just a rock and 3 is the most efficient I can get for it. They sure don't make rocks like they used to...
Caged Sun: The rock to end all rocks, since I run mostly Islands instead of Mountains this can do a passable impression of Omniscience if I have enough lands out.
Lands:
I try to run more Islands for Vedalken Shackles. Academy Ruins and Buried Ruin to save key artifacts, Tolaria West to find them.
Academy Ruins: The most important utility land, since I don't run much (if any) recursion this can save key artifacts.
Buried Ruin: A worse Academy Ruins is still worth running.
Tolaria West: Finds Academy Ruins or any utility land I need.
Cavern of Souls: Generic utility land, since Arjun is 6 CMC I'd hate for him to be countered.
Strip Mine: Stops other utility lands like Gaea's Cradle, Cabal Coffers, etc.
I could run karoo lands such as Izzet Boilerworks and Coral Atoll, but I don't like having these lands destroyed (my deck is tuned to handle 1v1 as well). Also, I don't run "untap lands" cards other than Treachery, but if you run more similar cards such as Frantic Search, they would work pretty well.
My version of Arjun could be characterised as combo-control. As the two colours with the least creatures/board presence and with a commander costing 6 mana, control elements are mandatory to keep the heat off my deck while I set up, and get rid of dangerous commanders/cards/combos as they are played. Key pieces in the deck (Arjun, certain artifacts and enchantments) have no inbuilt protection, neither is this an "artifact deck" that can run things like Darksteel Forge or "voltron deck" that can run things like Lightning Greaves to help with that, so the control elements are important to protect the combo pieces.
The "combo" component of the deck revolves around profiting off draw triggers. Whether it is milling with Sphinx's Tutelage, making a large creature with Diviner's Wand, pinging with Psychosis Crawler or Niv-Mizze, the Firemind, or self-decking with Laboratory Maniac, Arjun provides a repeatable source of draw triggers to utilise. Unfortunately, as mentioned previously, this is only repeatable as long as I have cards in hand, so I need draw spells or even better, a draw doubler such as Alhammarret's Archive or Thought Reflection. Once I get a draw doubler and Arjun or Mindmoil on board, I am able to repeatedly search through my deck with every spell I play, whether it is one of the abovementioned wincons, a counterspell to protect my board, or even just a simple mana rock to get more mana to play even more mana rocks. Even if I didn't manage to find a wincon at first, I should be able to find one pretty quickly. Also, each new hand hopefully contains a counterspell for protection, if not just play an instant to find another.
Early game:
Lay low and build a manabase. Arjun having been out for quite a while already, most savvy players will know that draw doublers are pretty essential to the Arjun player's game plan, so I usually save Archive/Thought Reflection for when I have enough mana to actually "go off". Ditto with most of the wincons - the only ones that I would consider playing out early are Chasm Skulker and maybe Lab Man for early defence. After all, worst case scenario, they get destroyed and Kozilek helps shuffle them back into the deck. Chasm Skulker isn't very good in multiplayer anyway, having no evasion and no inbuilt protection. Arjun needs a lot of mana and a lot of draw to win, and in EDH, everybody is playing their Thran Dynamos and Sol Rings left and right, so rarely does anyone target the non-artifact UR player for "too much ramping".
Mid game:
This is when Arjun can come out, though if I have Mindmoil, I would usually play Mindmoil first unless I need the flier. Before I commit Arjun, though, I would ideally want either Alhammarret's Archive or Thought Reflection in hand first (or a way to tutor for them). A "plan B" would be a healthy handsize (at least 5-7) with decent draw options (wheels or draw X spells) to wheel into a draw doubler fast. Nobody is going to blame you for playing your commander, but once the Archive hits, savvier opponents will start to suspect shenanigans and might try to kill Arjun preemptively. And if there is too much "lag time" between Arjun and the draw doubler, then Arjun could die to whatever collateral damage wrath even if I'm not being actively targeted.
I don't play my wincons until I am actually about to win. No sense playing out say Psychosis Crawler and taking away half the opponent's life in one turn cycle, then letting them all target you when Arjun is capable of killing the entire table in one turn with the necessary cards out.
Late game:
Late game starts when you are ready to go for the win, and in true Izzet fashion, it better be explosive! This is not a grindy goodstuff deck that can just chip away at life totals and amass card advantage.
Let's recap how Arjun wins - by repeatedly drawing cards and using card draw to kill opponents. Therefore, it follows that to win with Arjun I need two things - a way to refill my hand or start with a large enough handsize (since every spell cast off Arjun decreases handsize by 1, which decreases the speed at which Arjun can dig through the deck); and enough mana to keep playing spells, since the primary way Arjun draws cards is by playing spells.
Therefore, it's COMBO TIME! when both these factors are in play:
Card draw: Of course, the best is to have a draw doubler out, but sometimes I just don't have that luxury. A large Stroke of Genius/Blue Sun's Zenith on the EOT before my turn, other hand fatteners such as Consecrated Sphinx, or just "going off" and hoping to find a Wheel of Fortune to help out are all good plan Bs.
Mana: Again, the clear winner is Omniscience, with Dream Halls coming in a close second (because Dream Halls helps the opponent too, and I don't want to keep it around any longer that the turn it takes to win in a "battlecruiser" format like EDH). In a pinch, Caged Sun or just a whole bunch of lands works too, since once Arjun is up and working with a draw doubler, I can just keep on playing mana rocks and cantrips to draw cards. Shoutout to those mana rocks which can be played to net gain mana (Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault) or 0cmc mana rocks which can be played for 0cmc (Everflowing Chalice, Astral Cornucopia).
Once both halves of the combo are assembled, I just play out whichever wincon I stumble across first. If I don't have a draw doubler yet, I would sometimes start the combo if I have Omniscience or Dream Halls out, hoping to draw into a draw doubler or a wheel, but hardly ever the other way round. If all I have is a draw doubler, I usually wait till I have enough mana (maybe about 10-12) to play maybe 4-5 spells to win. Not every hand is going to contain a mana rock or a cheap cantrip.
The other consideration is when to stop the combo. It's non infinite and limited by the amount of cards I have left in my deck, so can't be too greedy. Additionally, once I've started wheeling with Arjun, I usually try to keep a counterspell or 2 in hand, and enough cards left in deck to cast them without decking myself.
It's my turn, and my opponents are at less than 10 life each. Wincon is Psychosis Crawler, I have Arjun and Alhammarret's Archive out, 30 cards in hand and 40 cards in deck. I can't kill them this turn as I will deck myself, so I need to discard down to 7 at EOT keeping at least one counterspell and one cantrip (ensuring I have the mana to pay for both), then kill them on the next upkeep.
It's my turn, and my last 2 opponents are at 27 and 28 life. Wincon is Psychosis Crawler, I have Arjun, Alhammarret's Archive and Omniscience out, 15 cards in hand and 35 cards in deck. I think, OK let's win! and play a Mana Crypt. However, one opponent plays Capsize to bounce my Psychosis Crawler in response to the Arjun trigger. I counter that with a Counterspell, place my now 13-card hand on the bottom of my library and draw 26 cards, hitting each opponent for 26 with 22 cards left in my library. Then, the Arjun trigger for Mana Crypt resolves, I place my 26 card hand on the bottom of my library and draw 52 cards - except I only have 48 cards in my library, so I lose.
What went wrong? I got greedy and didn't leave enough cards in deck to play the winning spell plus one (counter). If none of my opponents were likely to have bounce, or were tapped out, I could have won, but if they were likely to, I would wait till EOT, discard down to 7, then try to win on the upkeep after.
I could play one spell this turn and kill them, but if they respond to that spell with something that kills the Crawler, The draw I can't kill them this turn as I will deck myself, so I need to discard down to 7 at EOT keeping at least one counterspell and one cantrip, then kill them on the next upkeep.
It's my turn, and my opponents are at 30 life each. Wincon is Psychosis Crawler, I have Arjun, Alhammarret's Archive and Omniscience out, 15 cards in hand and 35 cards in deck. I decide to discard down to 7 at EOT, since one of my opponents is Teferi, Temporal Archmage and he has 6 mana open.
On the upkeep of my next opponent, I play out Magmaquake with x=0, draw 12 and hit everyone for 12. Unfortunately, my new 12 card hand contains Chaos Warp, Counterspell, Arcane Denial, and Swan Song. In this case, although I could play Chaos Warp to continue the combo, I run the real risk of not actually drawing anymore counterspells (and remember, Teferi is still out there untapped). One of the strengths of Arjun is that even if I don't hsve a counter, I can wheel into it - but with half my counters in hand now, I run the risk of not having enough cards in deck to play say Counterflux if it is stuck on the bottom of my library. I would wait till (inevitably) someone tries to disrupt me, and play any counterspell from my hand and then try to win off that. If I wait till my turn, I could also hope to draw into Kozilek, Butcher of Truth (to be discarded at my EOT) or Elixir of Immortality to reshuffle my library.
It's my turn, and my opponents are at 30 life each. Wincon is Psychosis Crawler, I have Arjun, Alhammarret's Archive and Omniscience out, 15 cards in hand and 35 cards in deck. I decide to discard down to 7 at EOT, since one of my opponents is Teferi, Temporal Archmage and he has 6 mana open.
On the upkeep of my next opponent, I play out Magmaquake with x=0, draw 12 and hit everyone for 12. Unfortunately, my new 12 card hand contains absolutely no instants or cards with flash. I fail to continue the combo, and on the next turn Teferi Mindslavers me and makes me deck myself. I lose.
This illustrates the power of Vedalken Orrery/Leyline of Anticipation - I can win on my opponent's turns, outside their main phase when they can't interact with me except on the stack. If I had one of those, I would just play out any random card (remember, Omniscience!) and continue from there.
One last thing: I don't run any max hand size effects (Reliquary Tower, Thought Vessel). While Arjun can draw a lot of card, that usually happens when I'm about to "go off", so I find these effects are "win more". Besides, they necessitate me running "prevent draw" pieces to avoid decking myself (or Lab Man, but how do you know Lab Man won't be hiding in the bottom of your library), which are typically not very good (except maybe Words of War for repeatable Shock, Obstinate Familiar and Words of Wind are meh). Besides, even with a prevent draw effect out, once I have drawn my whole library with Arjun, that's the end - no more
draw triggersfun! I would rather use the cleanup phase to trim my hand down to size, then run an old Eldrazi (I use Kozilek, Butcher of Truth) or Elixir of Immortality to return my library to its original condition, ready for more wheels and more draw triggers!Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
20/11/15
- Memnarch (too many cards)
- Fire Diamond
- Sky Diamond
- Omenspeaker
- Archmage Ascension
+ Island
+ Coldsteel Heart
+ Sea Gate Oracle
+ Brainstorm
26/11/15:
1 Fatespinner
1 Lighthouse Chronologist
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Patron Wizard
1 Realmwright
1 Sage of Fables
1 Stonybrook Banneret
1 Magus of the Future
1 Knowledge Pool
1 Capture of Jingzhou
1 Palinchron
1 Treasure Mage
1 Vedalken Æthermage
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Mountain
3 Island
1 Ponder
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Starstorm
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Treachery
1 Arcane Denial
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sky Diamond
28/11/15:
- Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
- Archaeomancer
- Elixir of Immortality
- Crawlspace
+ Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
+ Blue Sun's Zenith
+ Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
+ Caldera Hellion
1/12/15:
- Azami, Lady of Scrolls
- Dualcaster Mage
- Sower of Temptation
+ Consecrated Sphinx
+ Swerve
+ Gilded Drake
5/12/15:
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Jace's Archivist
1 Windfall
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Ponder
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Caldera Hellion
11/12/15:
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Jace’s Archivist
1 Gilded Drake
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Voidmage Husher
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Windfall
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Rite of Replication
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Teferi’s Puzzle Box
1 Confiscate
1 Mindmoil
1 Torpor Orb
1 Tolaria West
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Day’s Undoing
1 Fabricate
1 Capsize
13/12/15:
1 Swan Song
1 Buried Ruin
1 Shimmer Myr
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Crawlspace
1 Mountain
1 Swerve
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Propaganda
1 Izzet Boilerworks
21/12/15:
1 Shimmer Myr
1 Teferi's Puzzle Box
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Magmaquake
1 Island
1 Astral Cornucopia
18/6/16:
1 Mana Drain
1 Void Shatter
1 Breath of Darigaaz
1 Highland Lake
1 Hinder
1 Dissipate
1 Crawlspace
1 Izzet Guildgate
29/8/16:
In: Dissipate
Out: Void Shatter
I'm excited for Arjun, the Shifting Flame, mainly because of Mindmoil on a stick? OH YEAH!
It's everything I imagined an ideal Izzet deck to be (sorry UR artifact fans).
Have theorycrafted up a list for Arjun, maybe this can serve as a point for discussion?
I think that Arjun best fits into a combo/control shell, because when Arjun comes online, you get a lot of card selection which helps you find your combo pieces fast, or the tutors to find them. The question is: what can the addition of Red to the traditional Blue control/combo shell (think Azami, Lady of Scrolls) achieve? In my opinion, Arjun gives:
1. better board clear (X spells)
2. uncounterable infinite mana outlets (Banefire)
3. maybe less of a target? (everyone hates monoblue)
4. artifact destruction
However, adding Red also gives you color screw, and some of the usual combo pieces (High Tide, Gauntlet of Power/Extraplanar Lens) are less effective.
Somehow, many of the best tutor targets/combo pieces are 6 mana. Go figure. Also, I play on MTGO, so P3K cards are actually pretty cheap (Capture of Jingzhou is now 0.8 tix, Time Warp is 5-6 tix). I'm aware it's the opposite in paper, so feel free to substitute those. The decklist is ordered by function so cards can be easily replaced with their "strictly better" equivalents, e.g. Steam Vents for Izzet Guildgate. I just grabbed whatever I had lying around in my collection...
I think one big weakness is keeping early aggro off you, and I'd like to hear solutions besides sweepers/Propaganda style effects. Discuss away!
2nd version:
1 Diviner's Wand
1 Dualcaster Mage
1 Fatespinner
1 Lighthouse Chronologist
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Patron Wizard
1 Realmwright
1 Sage of Fables
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Stonybrook Banneret
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Voidmage Husher
Draw Power:
1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1 Alhammarret's Archive
1 Brainstorm
1 Magus of the Future
1 Mystic Speculation
1 Future Sight
1 Thought Reflection
Counters:
1 Counterflux
1 Counterspell
1 Dissipate
1 Hinder
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Chaos Warp
1 Chasm Skulker
1 Crawlspace
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Evacuation
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Propaganda
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Rite of Replication
1 Vandalblast
Flash:
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Vedalken Orrery
Combo:
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Knowledge Pool
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Palinchron
1 Capture of Jingzhou
1 Archaeomancer
Wincons:
1 Dream Halls
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Omniscience
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
Tutors:
1 Long-Term Plans
1 Treasure Mage
1 Vedalken Æthermage
1 Caged Sun
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Izzet Signet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
Utility lands:
1 Academy Ruins
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Strip Mine
Mana lands:
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Command Tower
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Shivan Reef
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Temple of the False God
15 Island
9 Mountain
Pending testing: Deranged Assistant, Taurean Mauler, Dack's Duplicate, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth as a better Elixir of Immortality
First version:
1 Arjun, the Shifting Flame
Draw Power:
1 Alhammarret's Archive
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Frantic Search
1 Future Sight
1 Thought Reflection
1 Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
Counters:
1 Counterspell
1 Dissipate
1 Dispel
1 Hinder
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Rewind
Utility/Goodstuff:
1 Æther Flash
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Bribery
1 Chaos Warp
1 Chasm Skulker
1 Crawlspace
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Evacuation
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Molten Disaster
1 Propaganda
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Rite of Replication
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Treachery
1 Vandalblast
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Vedalken Orrery
Combo:
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Knowledge Pool
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Palinchron
1 Banefire
1 Capsize
1 Capture of Jingzhou
1 Mnemonic Wall
Wincons:
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Omniscience
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Tutors:
1 Archmage Ascension
1 Drift of Phantasms
1 Ethereal Usher
1 Long-Term Plans
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Treasure Mage
1 Vedalken Æthermage
Mana accelerants:
1 Braid of Fire
1 Caged Sun
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Izzet Signet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Academy Ruins
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Strip Mine
Mana lands:
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Command Tower
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Shivan Reef
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Temple of the False God
13 Island
9 Mountain
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
I think by Thought's Urn, you mean Thought Vessel?
There are many ways to build Arjun, flashback spells with Past in Flames, Quiet Speculation and Runic Repetition would help to preserve hand size?
If you have Arjun and Laboratory Maniac on the board, and Tunnel Vision with one other spell (say Counterspell) in hand, you can name Counterspell, place it at the bottom or near-bottom of your library with Arjun's trigger, dump your whole library into your graveyard and play any cheap spell/draw a card to win with Lab Man. And it costs 6 mana too, which makes it another wincon Ethereal Usher can tutor for along with Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Caged Sun, Deadeye Navigator, Knowledge Pool, etc...
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
I could change my decklist to incorporate artifacts, most likely replacing the Palinchron infinite mana combos or the Deadeye Navigator stuff with a Basalt Monolith/Power Artifact or Rings of Brighthearth based engine. I also like that most of these cost 2, 3, or 6 mana (unlike Palinchron which is 7 and Capture of Jingzhou/Time Warp which are 5, allowing us to get the best use out of transmute.
Yup, it's going to take a while to resolve turns with Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar, having to hold priority through multiple Arjun triggers, etc. But I mainly play Turbofog in Modern and never run out of time (on MTGO), so I think it is possible with some practice
Another possibility (seen in some Keranos decks) is to have only 2 enchantments in the whole deck and Reweave one into Omniscience. Omniscience with Arjun out should be enough to win, since you can just cycle through your whole deck and win with Lab Man or assemble a combo. But I think this is very difficult since both Sphinx's Tutelage and Leyline of Anticipation, and probably also Thought Reflection are too good to pass up (:
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
If you often get to the point where you're nearly drawing your entire deck, then you could use Arjun's ability to stack your deck for something like Goblin Charbelcher.
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
Phantasmal Image + Palinchron = Infinite mana, infinite creature entering, and infinite cast triggers.
Cast triggers... Arjun... infinite mana...
Just something to think about.
Edit:
But on the subject of infinite combos that interact favorably with Arjun, throw in Tidespout Tyrant. With Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, and Sol Ring, any 2 of those with Tidespout Tyrant makes infinite colorless mana (or colored with an Izzet Signet added on top) by route of infinite casts. With Arjun, that's roughly equivalent to every card in your hand being a free tutor, so you can go get any draw trigger win condition and end the game immediately. If you have Arjun and Tidespout Tyrant and don't have 2 of those rocks, you can get then very quickly, because you can bounce permanents you don't need back to your hand to keep your hand size from diminishing while you dig. In my Zedruu deck, I've won more than 1 game with 1 or 2 lands left by digging with Mindmoil with Tidespout Tyrant and Warstorm Surge in play looking for the Memnite I needed to kill the table. Trust me, it works.
Turnabout + Reiterate is another one that combos to infinite mana by casting a spell repeatedly, which means it automatically finds you the win condition if you still have at least 1 card in hand.
And you will always find the combo pieces if you can stick Arjun and protect him. I'm entirely positive that this deck does not need 8 slots dedicated to tutors. I'd argue against playing any tutors, frankly. If you have a good amount of cards in hand, you'll find a win condition basically guaranteeed. As you are now, the cheapest spell in your "draw power" even capable of replacing itself is Future Sight. With a draw curve like that, you'll get to Arjun with 2 or 3 cards in hand and the Mindmoiling won't actually accomplish anything. If you play things like Fact or Fiction, or even something like Ponder, you can get deeper into the deck than Future Sight is going to get you before Arjun is out and you're trying to dig for the win condition.
Oh, and play Blue Sun's Zenith. Before you combo off, it makes your hand big. After you make infinite mana, you can kill the whole table because you can put your library in your hand on the first cast and then just dig it back out after it shuffles back in each time.
Great ideas, thanks! Since Arjun's specialty is card selection, you raise a good question - are tutors even necessary? Having no experience with similar generals (Zedruu, Tomorrow) I have no idea, but reducing tutor slots would free up a lot of space for things I want to be playing, hmmm... Needs playtesting, heh.
I keep trying to find a home for Aether Flash (early defence, maybe?) but so far it hasn't been successful :s
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
1 Goblin Welder
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Jace's Archivist
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1 Arjun, the Shifting Flame
Planeswalkers
1 Dack Fayden
1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Tezzeret, the Seeker
Artifacts
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Thought Vessel
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Torpor Orb
1 Grim Monolith
1 Izzet Signet
1 Fire Diamond
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Temple Bell
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Coalition Relic
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Alhammarret's Archive
1 Moonring Mirror
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Mystic Remora
1 Jace's Erasure
1 Propaganda
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Dream Halls
1 Mindmoil
1 Mind over Matter
1 Thought Reflection
Instants/Sorceries
1 Pact of Negation
1 Swan Song
1 Mystic Speculation
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Reality Shift
1 Arcane Denial
1 Reset
1 Desperate Ravings
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Fabricate
1 Long-Term Plans
1 Reiterate
1 Windfall
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Time Warp
1 Force of Will
1 Time Spiral
1 Firemind's Foresight
1 All is Dust
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Reshape
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Command Tower
1 Phyrexia's Core
1 Vivid Creek
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Saltwater Cliffs
1 Vivid Crag
1 Steam Vents
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Homeward Path
1 Mana Confluence
1 High Market
1 Buried Ruin
14 Island
6 Mountain
It's tons of fun, though fragile. The deck is super mana hungry, hence the large amount of ramp. I've included a few different avenues to victory, and in my testing games I just wheeled until I ran into one of them, and then I would commit to that one. The deck doesn't do a ton without Arjun, but the infinite combos in the deck do operate independently of him. My basic plan was generally trying to wheel into or tutor out Alhammarret's Archive or Thought Reflection and then trying to chain spells until I killed the table through either one of the milling enchantments, Psychosis Crawler, or Laboratory Maniac.
I'd like to find some room for some more control elements, and I'm sure more testing will show what I can cut. Currently, Stroke of Genius and Blue Sun's Zenith are on the chopping block--they never were too much help, but I've only played 4 games so far.
A card I discovered while hunting thorugh gatherer--Moonring Mirror is really good, and you only really need one turn of wheeling with Arjun for it to start really paying off. It's slow, but the advantage starts snowballing fast.
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
So once you do it a few times and your hand starts getting small, you can practically refill your hand on the upkeep.
Just try not to get the mirror blown up. That would suck.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
1x Arjun, the Shifting Flame
1x Charmbreaker Devils
1x Chasm Skulker
1x Clever Impersonator
1x Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
1x Goblin Electromancer
1x Laboratory Maniac
1x Melek, Izzet Paragon
1x Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1x Obstinate Familiar
1x Psychosis Crawler
1x Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
Enchantment (14)
1x Archmage Ascension
1x Cast Through Time
1x Dream Halls
1x Eye of the Storm
1x Jace's Erasure
1x Jace's Sanctum
1x Leyline of Anticipation
1x Mind Over Matter
1x Shared Fate
1x Sphinx's Tutelage
1x Thought Reflection
1x Treachery
1x Words of War
1x Words of Wind
1x Alhammarret's Archive
1x Diviner's Wand
1x Empyrial Plate
1x Fire Diamond
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Izzet Signet
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Runechanter's Pike
1x Sky Diamond
1x Sol Ring
1x Teferi's Puzzle Box
1x Thought Vessel
1x Vedalken Orrery
1x Worn Powerstone
Instant (13)
1x AEtherize
1x Blue Sun's Zenith
1x Blustersquall
1x Brainstorm
1x Counterflux
1x Counterspell
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Force of Will
1x Mystic Confluence
1x Polymorphist's Jest
1x Reins of Power
1x Stroke of Genius
1x Turnabout
1x Blasphemous Act
1x Blatant Thievery
1x Epic Experiment
1x Haze of Rage
1x Mizzium Mortars
1x Mystic Speculation
1x Ponder
1x Preordain
1x Rite of Replication
1x Time Warp
1x Vandalblast
Land (36)
1x Command Tower
1x Evolving Wilds
14x Island
1x Izzet Boilerworks
1x Izzet Guildgate
8x Mountain
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Rogue's Passage
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Steam Vents
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Swiftwater Cliffs
1x Temple of Epiphany
1x Temple of the False God
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Volcanic Island
URArjun, the Shifting FlameRU
1x Arjun, the Shifting Flame
Creatures: 21
1x Archaeomancer
1x Chasm Skulker
1x Crazed Firecat
1x Creepy Doll
1x Dragon Mage
1x Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
1x Frenetic Efreet
1x Jace's Archivist
1x Karplusan Minotaur
1x Keranos, God of Storms
1x Laboratory Maniac
1x Magus of the Future
1x Mindwrack Liege
1x Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1x Obstinate Familiar
1x Perplexing Chimera
1x Psychosis Crawler
1x Skyclaw Thrash
1x Stormchaser Chimera
1x Tibor and Lumia
1x Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
Artifacts: 16
1x Alhammarret's Archive
1x Commander's Sphere
1x Darksteel Ingot
1x Diviner's Wand
1x Elixir of Immortality
1x Izzet Signet
1x Knowledge Pool
1x Krark's Thumb
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Sol Ring
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Teferi's Puzzle Box
1x Thought Vessel
1x Vedalken Orrery
1x Venser's Journal
1x Worn Powerstone
1x Arcane Lighthouse
1x Cascade Bluffs
1x Command Tower
1x Darksteel Citadel
1x Great Furnace
11x Island
16x Mountain
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Seat of the Synod
1x Steam Vents
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Swiftwater Cliffs
1x Temple of Epiphany
Enchantments: 14
1x Archmage Ascension
1x Awaken the Sky Tyrant
1x Chance Encounter
1x Grip of Chaos
1x Impulsive Maneuvers
1x Jace's Erasure
1x Leyline of Anticipation
1x Mindmoil
1x Planar Chaos
1x Propaganda
1x Psychic Battle
1x Sphinx's Tutelage
1x Thought Reflection
1x Wild Evocation
1x Call the Skybreaker
1x Fiery Gambit
1x Stitch in Time
1x Thieves' Auction
Instants: 4
1x Blue Sun's Zenith
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Chaos Warp
1x Puppet's Verdict
Planeswalkers: 1
1x Ral Zarek
Basically the deck is mostly centered around appearing as a chaos deck, with slight control elements therein. I want cards with effects that will put a bit of heat on me gameplay wise but brand me as mostly casual. The combo pieces are in there as the endgame, of course.
You'll also notice that I have a pretty distinct lack of instants and sorceries in this deck. That is because while spellslinging is a very real thing, it is pretty crucial in my mind to have board presence (so hence the amount of creatures, which is pretty high for a spellslinging color combination). Maybe that's just my inner GW/GB player griping about the colors he doesn't use, but still! Creatures are nice.
Thoughts?
~Lil Kalki
Proud Disciple of the Church of the Wary
Also in general, making sure to have ways to remove our own draw doublers is also important. Capsize and Chain of Vapor have proven themselves worthy in this regard. I tended to win every game I was able to cast and protect a draw doubler, but I also just lost a game because I couldn't get rid of it and died. I had one hilarious game where I had zero cards in my library thanks to Thought Reflection and Moonring Mirror, and I won by bouncing my own Thought Reflection and finshing off my opponents with a Snapcaster Mage outfitted with a Sword of Feast and Famine, casting Blue Sun's Zenith for 0 without Arjun on the field each turn in order to not draw out and die.
Regardless, the general is still fun, and every game I play is like a puzzle where I have to figure out how on earth I'm going to try to win this time.
Also, how about actual wheels like Wheel of Fortune, Reforge the Soul and the new Magus of the Wheel?
Kalkris: I have the feeling all my Arjun iterations so far are a bit light on the ground, as well. I'm not sure if a Wizard theme would help (sorry, I'm not so keen on playing chaos :p). On the topic of chaos, no Eye of the Storm?
Did you have Laboratory Maniac in your 99? If you had Lab Man (even better, with Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir) somewhere, couldn't you have cast Lab Man with flash before eventually decking yourself to win?
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
Eye of the Storm was a consideration but the issue with that is I play too few relevant spells to benefit at all from that enchantment as much as other people would likely benefit from it. As for Wizard tribal... I have always sort of wanted a chaos deck in UR, and I've not been too keen on Wizard tribal specifically because of decks like Azami, Lady of Scrolls going remarkably ham remarkably fast. I wonder if Arjun will do the same or not, but I feel like this will provide a better theme for me than Wizard tribal. Thank you for the suggestion all the same Oh, and if I could make a suggestion, speaking of Wizard tribal, Sage of Fables combos too nicely with Glen Elendra Archmage to overlook.
And, just having read the above post but Admiral Sultan, I wonder if the lack of a max hand size is a good idea after all I could probably cut Thought Vessel for Chain of Vapor, since that removes the Archive/Reflection and sacs my Tower all in one swoop (it can even do all three if they happen to be out in some semblance of Christmasland), which isn't too bad for a failsafe. I might cut as such based on that consideration.
~Lil Kalki
Proud Disciple of the Church of the Wary
I decided against wheel effects other than my commander because I figure he would be enough. But it is definitely something to keep in mind! Thanks for your ideas!
URArjun, the Shifting FlameRU
Lab Maniac is one of the more common ways I try to win with this deck, but sometimes I either won't have him or won't be able to cast him without dying, so I'm trying to reduce the chances of the deck being forced to either commit suicide or just stop casting spells until someone happens to kill Arjun for us, which proably won't happen. I played about 8 games yesterday, and in 2 of them I had to stop casting spells and allow myself to discard down so that I wouldn't draw out my deck. If I'd had Reliquary Tower on the field, those would have been 2 games I would have lost.
On the subject of wheels, I've since cut all the wheels from my deck except for Time Spiral and Jace's Archivist. Refilling my hand was nice, but the wheels that just drew 7 didn't do quite enough for me. Jace's Archivist is repeatable so he gets to stay, and Time Spiral has the added bonus of shuffling my graveyard back into my library while also not wasting a turn.
~Lil Kalki
Proud Disciple of the Church of the Wary
Fixed, next time use card tags: [.card](name of card)[/card] (without the full stop in the first square bracket).
Iteration 2 is up, with a wizard tribal subtheme. Hopefully, this solves the problem of early defenses since Omenspeaker, etc make good speed bump, if nothing else
Why no Mind over Matter since I have Azami? Because Arjun does a good job of card draw all my himself.
Capsize became Venser, Shaper Savant.
Also, all the creatures means Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir becomes more useful (:
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
- Biggest problem is running out of gas. By the time Arjun comes out, my hand is only 2 or 3 cards which is pitiful.
- Second biggest problem is early aggro (as expected)
- Swarm tactics are also a problem. Anything like Izzet Staticaster, but more powerful?\
- Archmage Ascension is not very good, 6 turns for it to come online is a loooong time.
- Ditto with Chasm Skulker, but I haven't seen it very often.
- Future Sight/Magus of the Future is great - if they stick
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
Next on my chopping block are Thieves' Auction (similar reasons to Scrambleverse) and then Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar (because as a few of you running it may have noticed, it's not a draw effect, and it isn't optional either. I might switch out my colored artifact lands in favor of more basics, as well but that might not happen due to a) lack of one more full-art Island readily available, and b) I like these in here. In any case, does anyone have any suggestions for additions in place of Tomorrow and Auction? If possible I would prefer there to be one more red symbol or one less blue symbol in with the card suggested, discounting equal amounts of symbols (in other words, tomorrow and auction are at URRR for colored symbols, meaning a net of RR if you cancel the equivalents out. I'd like to net RRR here if possible).
Thanks all! Keep on wheeling!
~Lil Kalki
EDIT: Also looking to axe Knowledge Pool.
SECOND EDIT: In come Staggershock (card draw at best, plus a bit of slight spot removal), Shattering Spree (artifact removal, possibly as a failsafe), and Dominus of Fealty (goodstuff with potential).
Proud Disciple of the Church of the Wary
In:
The wizards weren't really helping against early aggro, mid-game aggro and generaly aggro of any sort, so I dialed up on the board control and mana rocks to get them in there.
Also, apologies to Chasm Skulker. It's an all-star, being either a big beater, an army in a can, or one removal spell down for the opponent. Most of my wins have been either through aggro with Chasm Skulker or more usually Arjun himself. While Lab Man and friends are cute, a 5/5 flying beatstick usually helps close out the game pretty fast after the opponent has had most of their stuff nuked with Starstorm/stolen with Vedalken Shackles or something similar.
Magus of the Future was judged too fragile, whereas Deadeye Navigator stays in over most of the combo pieces because it functions decently well as protection and can combo with some things like Venser, Shaper Savant/Glen Elendra Archmage that stay in due to utility. Other than that, most of the changes are self explanatory.
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU