I run both the Hart and Sad Robot. My issue is what I'm going to cut with Arguel's Blood Fast, sure Greed is the obvious choice but I want more draw in the deck, not less.
He used to. He explains here his reasoning for the cut.
I still run Rector because nobody wants to block and kill it so it makes a good attacker for carrying the Sword or keeping the occasional planeswalker in check.
There just aren't really any sacrifice outlets in the deck (aside from Razaketh in some) that would be necessary for making it consistent to sac it when you want to, and none that I can think of aside from him that help the deck's gameplan without taking up the slot of something that does. And Razaketh himself is a repeatable tutor for 1WB and 2 life, making Rector a bit more redundant.
As for Overwhelming Splendor and Curse of Exhaustion, another aspect of the design is to make most effects symmetrical to mitigate drawing aggro, since everybody ends up under the same restrictions. It's also good to use them defensively, such as playing Crackdown when somebody else has a big green army, because then it looks like you're helping out the other two players. I see those two as quite likely painting a bigger target on you because they single out a specific player with immediately strong effects.
I'm pretty sure that I could probably still be running the Rector, especially now that Big Ole Raz came home to roost. It just felt that I didn't really have much control over when she'd pop, while this is the sort of ability that's ideally utilised on your exact terms. Perfect enchantment slam windows presented themselves and went by as I didn't have Attrition (the only sac outlet during her life in the list). And then she'd eventually die as a chump or in a wrath or something. Well, what to get? Sheesh, I don't know. I'd often default to Debtors' Knell, another card with a tumultuous life in the 99, simply because it was the most value at the time, or no-brain windmill slams like Skybind or True Conviction. It felt good, but also felt like there was a wide margin for it to be even better which I couldn't properly utilise. Given the fact that the deck can spit out sac fodder for three mana a pop, there's always the potential to run some good outlets. I haven't spotted any that would be worth the deck's time though. Maybe I'm missing some obvious ones, feel free to chip in.
The curses are weak for what the offer. Why bother with Curse of Exhaustion when you can just Rule of Law the table? I've always had a soft spot for making symmetric effects asymmetric via witty building, and Daxos is great at that sort of thing. Similarly, there was a guy who swore by Humility, and Overwhelming Splendor is a new-school spin on the idea which I hate. There's nothing wrong with single-target kneecapping, especially if it's a hell of a kneecapping. A well placed Nevermore, Darksteel Mutation, Consulate Crackdown etc. have been known to win games, and the whole joke is that they hinder the opponent enough that the target it painted on you doesn't hugely matter - they can't do much to you over it, and their fellow game participants are not likely to rush to their aid as it's not in their interest to undo the damage. Overwhelming Splendor would be a similar sort of single-target problem solution, but at eight mana it feels too expensive.
With regards to the draw discussion earlier, Greed effects don't stack. I like diversifying my draw portfolio, as this way if I draw multiples I can actually make active use of them. What does a second Greed effect do? Give you an extra experience counter? Sit in your hand until the first one goes away? Slot in more draw, go ahead, but try to make it so you can actually use it if it comes in clumps.
So yeah, as I mentioned, I've kind of been out of sync with the magical cardboards recently. I haven't fully clicked with the local meta, which led to me not having shown up there in ages. And there's only so much Hilarious and Original TM Cockatrice action I can handle, with Daxos not being a particularly good deck to venture there with either. If any of you feel that I'm missing some hella obvious cards in the 99, or am running some hella questionable cards in the 99, please say so. I have a long history of dubious includes and weird omissions, so go forth and say things if you see things to say.
After this weekend's game, I'm pretty much on board that Razaketh, the Foulblooded is a good thing to include, so I'll probably be moving that over from Chainer pretty soon.
Casual group, but it kindof turned into Archenemy, too. Daxos vs Arlinn Kord wolf/werewolf tribal vs Kaseto, Orochi Archmage snake tribal (mostly).
The discussion in the thread since the last update got me thinking quite heavily about the "appearing bad" aspect of the deck. True, something like Burnished Hart can reap good rewards if left unattended, especially if the right companion pieces come along, but it's the equivalent of laying down on the ground and exposing your stomach as a sign of surrender. Life is already hard enough being Daxos, and opening the deck up to being even further behind the game state by willingly ramming clumsy three-mana allotments down the drain with the realistic possibility of disruption is not exactly where you want to be. A lot of theoretical scenarios with hypothetical hand curves were considered, and the conclusion is that Solemn Simulacrum provides a surprisingly similar amount of benefit with way less tempo loss and risk. Skullclamp is getting the axe on slightly similar grounds - the situations where we're in control of actually reaping the rewards are surprisingly narrow, and more often than not the 'clamp is parked on a blocker in a "let's see what happens" sort of ordeal. Sound similar, maybe like a certain four-drop creature? It's cheaper and repeatable, and works like mad with one experience counter or disposable x/1's, so it slid under the radar of cuts a bit.
The last deck that I built that I was excited about was a foray into Mardu with Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Tymna the Weaver. While the list ended up scrapped for reasons I still don't fully understand, it taught me the importance of acquiring bonus cardboard and curving out properly. As such, I got a burst of motivation to try and sort out the game's early plays a little, with the motivation going up in flames with the realisation there really isn't much I can do I'm not already doing. Getting Daxos out early would involve some of the zero-mana rocks or Mana Vault, none of which we really want here. In the end, the Burnished Hart trail was followed, and plays were examined for their clumsiness with the commander and main game plan. Chromatic Lantern costing three was a major problem for the Mardu heap, and ended up canned very early in the deck's life. The problem was less glaring here, but there's no denying it spends a bit too many of the resources we'd like to allocate to furthering the game plan. Plus, it goes up in flames when artifacts get wiped and that's that. Mind Stone was considered as a replacement in the interest of having something to do turn two, but in the end it's Crucible of Worlds that gets the slot. The value this thing brings to the table is tremendous, in spite of sharing the CMC of the Lantern you don't feel obliged to chase it out early, setting it down whenever you feel is convenient and making land drops you'd otherwise miss, accruing a constant, harder to disrupt advantage. Plus, it acts as a shield of sorts for the big mana lands, allows Strip Mine shenanigans, and feeds off symmetric discard like nobody's business. And if you do end up setting it down early to make repeated use of that one fetch you drew, that's one mana screw you just dug yourself out of far better than you would have with a single extra mana. The marginal, marginal benefits of blowing all that money on the perfect mana base.
Another efficiency-dictated swap is Erebos, God of the Dead for Arguel's Blood Fast. This surprises no-one and is the obvious Ixalan include most of us are going to make. Turns 4-5 are some of the most critical for the deck's well-being, and this is phenomenal in that window. Play it, maybe get a card, maybe make a Daxos man, the sky's the limit. True, both Greed and Erebos come down effortlessly turn four, but this not only comes down turn four, it also lets you immediately replace it if no other plays are available, accruing options for what to do after you untap. And later on in the game, the 1/2 mana cost divergence between this and Greed doesn't make a huge deal of difference anyway. Plus, if you're stunted after a greedy keep, as I've been known to do sometimes, this comes down super early and helps you find mana if you need. But wait, there's more! Well, in all honesty, not much more. The Diamond Valley flip is not something I imagine is going to happpen too often, but it's a nice perk to have and might help you get back on the horse a little.
And, finally, there's the long-avoided inclusion of Cabal Coffers. Right on the first freaking page of this thread, Damnosus points out that it's fine to run it as long as you don't actually consider it a land, and that observation is surprisingly accurate. It's not your typical land, and you drop it either when you can support it or have ran out of other drops to make, which also happens sometimes with greedy keeps Given the deck's propensity for basic acquisition, as well as the fetches and fetchable duals, accruing the three swamps to make this be mana positive is perfectly doable, and has happened just about every single time this thing showed up, Urborg or not. The marginal benefits of the perfect mana base continue. And obviously it gets silly with Urborg, but that's EDH 101. Thanks to all of you who kept talking me into this over the years, and sorry for taking so long. As mentioned, seeing how this isn't a "normal" land drop, I've bumped the land count to account for it.
The changes help move the deck in a direction I'd be happy for it to continue down - less reliance on artifacts and the mercy of my opponents, efficient early game and robust late-game value. Around the time the deck became playable, it was rammed full of rocks of all shapes and sizes, and a Vandalblast variant made it as miserable as wiping the enchantments, if not more. Now there are literally four conventional rocks left in the list, but there's still a heavy emphasis on acquiring lands, be they of the big mana variety or just a constant stream of land drops. If those engines blow up, all the work they did is still going to be on the table for the deck to reap the benefits of. I'm striving for this sort of approach for the 99 as a whole - even if someone Auster Commands my board, they can't eat the experience counters that are already on Daxos. If any of you have ideas how to emphasise this, please fire away.
If you're running Burnished Hart, I can confirm it should be cut for Thaumatic Compass. They both fulfill similar functions but the Compass turning into a Maze of Ith is so valuable. The amount of times I could just say "I have a Maze" and then someone wouldn't attack me brings more value than it appears. What would happen is I would suddenly have one more mana to play with EOT, which let me make another Daxosman or active Erebos, God of the Dead/Arguel's Blood Fast an additional time. The mere threat of making an attack useless did more than make them attack elsewhere, it freed up mana to do other things.
Since the deck easily hits 7 lands, it is easy to flip the Compass. I don't know if it is worth replacing Sad Robot with due to the Robot's innate value of land into play, draw upon death and willingness to chump anything that comes our way. But the Compass should probably replace your worst mana option.
I can attribute meaningful impact in 3 games that let people leave Daxos alone which is the perfect environment for him. I am also a firm believer that players tend to repeat actions that 'worked' so when they get stressed (and a multiplayer game is quite stressful on the brain, there's tons of distractions outside of the game and within the game there's lots of information to keep track of), they repeat themselves. If you get attacked early, people will keep repeating that action until some new stimulant or punishment comes along. Maze of Ith is one helluva "Don't attack me" which then translates to people forgetting to attack you even when you're not invulnerable.
Daxos needs plenty of time so anything that steers people away from him is great.
Well. Cloudstone Curio + Reconnaissance + Land Tax is a thing. Personal best of 14 experience counters this game, even though the only enchantments I had all game were these two, Skybind, and No Mercy. I acquired 11 during the single turn I did the Cloudstone trick. Imagine having flash.
Skybinding lands used in the above is like getting the counters for free. Cracking Marsh Flats and making a Spirit to Skybind Sun Titan and recur Flats before each End Step is probably the best ramp I've every had with this deck.
Yep, that sounds pretty ridiculous. Machine gunning cheap enchants, be it either via Cloudstone Curio like you, or just bouncing Flickering Ward, gets insane with Skybind and can get downright mind-boggling if you have Serra's Sanctum. And yeah, that Sun Titan trick sounds juicy. More marginal benefits of the optimal mana base!
I playtested Thaumatic Compass in a few games yesterday, and I'm not sold at all. Ramp is most appreciated early on, and this thing is like a weird late game Mind Stone of sorts. The " : fetch land" ability got used all of once in a weird situation, and just wasn't that good either. The Maze of Ithness was okay, but I'm just not feeling it. Seems like there's many, many better options to choose from.
Time for a massive, unsolicited text dump! Around a year ago, Patron of the Orochi got one of these as the list turned two and I was trying to tune up any loose screws, especially given the fact that the deck had fully immersed itself in its combo element a couple updates prior.
The deck saw some interesting changes in 2017, and easily the greatest of these was the addition of Razaketh, the Foulblooded. Big Ole Raz is freaking ridiculous, as initially hoped for, and effortlessly weasels his way into the pantheon of the true greats of the deck. I cannot recall losing a game after casting him, a feat not even Skybind or Thoughtrender Lamia have accomplished. He doesn't even necessarily need follow-up plays, he can work with what you have available when he hits. Surely there are a few spare spirits, an exploited Weathered Wayfarer or something that you can part with in the name of winning the game if it becomes necessary to get Raz value on the spot because removal. Sculpt the perfect grip and glide your way to glory. Hot damn!
Also, surprisingly, the maximum pimping of the mana base turned out to be actually quite good, especially when Crucible of Worlds comes out to play too. I've kept hella sketchy three landers with a fetch and the Crucible and done just fine, failing to draw any land for ages yet going about my day unperturbed, free from mana screw. A wonderful value upgrade, that one. Is it worth the ridiculous money required? Realistically, probably not, but seeing how this is one of my pet decks and now I feel fine with proxying the fetches/Crucible in anything else that may need them, plus I haven't actually built anything in quite a while, I guess I'm okay with it. Your mileage may vary. Also, Coffers does indeed work pretty well, and is the most reliable of the big mana lands, especially if Urborg comes out to play. Obvious stuff that is obvious, really. And here you all were, trying to persuade me to do this for years.
Speaking of that, I know I'm not the best at judging cardboard, but I greatly welcome all your feedback and may have gotten a bit better at listening to it if Anointed Procession is anything to go on (and me playtesting Thaumatic Compass and Mirage Mirror recently as well). I'm just a guy tainted by his playing experience and preferences, and while I try to keep my build meta-agnostic I do have my biases and preferred play style. As such, I went through both the deck and the thread, picking out cards that may not have gotten their due or may be unjustly coasting along for the ride, and tried my best to give the 99 a slight polish to match it up to the current trends in its gameplay.
The cuts should be reasonably self-explanatory, given my reasonably recent revelation as to just how removal dense the list has gotten. Oh no, Act of Authority is gone! Now I can only Anguished Unmaking, Utter End, Cast Out, Grasp of Fate or Aura of Silence a problem enchantment away, and add Consulate Crackdown for artifacts! Oh no, with Seal of Doom gone, that's only the first four of the above, plus Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Attrition, Doomwake Giant, Darksteel Mutation, plus all the variably screwy pieces of fort and wraths! Yeah, the removal package is still a little ridiculous in here, but the deck enjoys having ways to answer threats. These two options just happen to be the weakest of the bunch. Idyllic Tutor is a great card, but it's a late game one if ever there was one. The 3cmc just about guarantees this isn't coming out any time within the early game, and even in the mid game it's pretty clunky more often than not. Who'd have thought one mana more from Demonic Tutor and the slight loss of range would make such a difference? One could argue that Big Ole Raz takes over after this card in a way. Sure, you can't pull a funny on someone and turn their commander into a bug with five mana up, but that's a small price to pay for what he ends up doing.
The fourth cut is a somewhat sensible straight swap. Merciless Eviction was consciously left out of the deck when it was crafted and played up to half a year ago, as my meta very prominently featured a guy keen on using other people's 99s against them. As such, like hell I was going to give him an easy out to eat my freaking board, especially given the fact I had other perfectly serviceable options at my disposal. However, I have now moved away from said meta, so this is no longer a concern. I ran the card for a short while when I couldn't find Elspeth, Sun's Champion, taking the deck for some games in a different playgroup, and the Eviction worked like a charm. As such, if polishing up the deck is the name of the game here, it makes sense to include it. The upgrade is obvious - Consulate Crackdown only hits artifacts, in a non-permanent fashion, and is just one mana cheaper. True, the list likes its brown, so the lack of asymmetry of the wipe may hurt a bit, but the deck doesn't crutch on mana rocks super hard anymore so there's that. I imagine using common sense will do the trick, sometimes eating that Crucible to screw others out of the game will be worth it. Plus hey, that versatility will surely come in handy. I'll be sure to report back if I ever exile enchantments with this
Emeria Shepherd's third tenure in the list is directly inspired by the land upgrade. Fetches (and Crucible) are great synergy with her, and the inclusion of the discard package makes it more likely for her to have targets to resurrect or buffer your hand with if you need to keep something crucial from being dribbled. It feels like she got the axe at the wrong time, as she got removed in the very update that introduced the discard package. I'm quite good with those screwups, aren't I? Last time around she was already pretty good, and I mentioned in the update post how she would go full potato with Skybind and Sword of Rampant Growth. Now she has quite a few more cards that will make her imminently useful, so she's here to stay hopefully. I mean, Necropotence took three tries too It should also be stated that I fully pondered the ramifications of Seal of Doom being removed at the same time as the Shepherd gets reintroduced, and I came to the conclusion that I have enough creature control as is. Reconnaissance was cut to make room for more removal (funny how the trend is reversing now), and the update post acknowledged there was nothing wrong it it, but it was just utility. That's not the complete picture - broken vigilance allows for the use of Sword of Rampant Growth with impunity, and is a ridiculously potent offensive and defensive tool at every stage of the game. Thanks to lyonhaert for making me remember this thing has merit. And, lastly, there's Teferi's Protection. This one's inspired by the main forum Daxos discussion (great to see the commander getting some action!), which started with OP asking how not to get rekt by Merciless Eviction. And this is pretty much the only way. So I found room, called up my ever-patient playtest buddy, and never once cast the card. However, the very fact it existed and sat in my hand made me feel extremely safe and in control. The array of things it can potentially protect from is ridiculous, and the 3cmc fits perfectly with just holding up mana and if you don't need it then making a dude. Bonus points for getting it off Big Ole Raz
So, that's it for the swaps. However, a lot more pondering/playtesting happened, so here are some notes on that in case any of you see any flaws in my logic. Plus, future me enjoys reading those
Deck weak spots:
Crackdown - I think this one's just mainly down to not having had a good Crackdown game in a while. You know the one I mean, where it comes out and locks up pretty much everybody who isn't you and you feel like the king of the universe. Still, even at its worst it's a deterrent, making people reluctant to turn their high power dudes sideways. This buys you time. Time translates to experience clicking up in the background, which makes you win. Plus, the deterrent affects high power things, which the deck is a little worse at handling than swarms of small creatures. Not a bad fail case to have really.
Kaya, Ghost Assassin - The weakest part of the discard suite, as she dies to things being turned sideways at her. This cannot be said about Oppression et al. Plus, even when left alone, she only dribbles a card from the table 2 out of 3 turns, and the other modes are very seldom used (I mean, apart from flickering her to reset loyalty to keep on doing her -2). However, in spite of her fragility, she's largely left alone even when people have the power to take her out. I'm not sure why this is really, probably a psychological thing due to all of her abilities being quite unthreatening. Plus hey, drawing off her is nice, and it's not like there's anything else discard-centric raring to go off the bench.
Possible Includes:
Academy Rector - The second of the debatable AKH cuts, I still don't feel that I have enough sacrifice potential to make use of her ability on my own terms, and I'm not seeing any good sac outlets I'm missing. By all means feel free to point some out to me if you want to, having fodder on tap would make them great.
Dusk // Dawn - A possible victim of having been cut too vigilantly when the push for reducing the deck's reliance on removal began, but it really was the worst of the wraths at the time and the removal-reducing push has continued since.
Marchesa's Decree - A card advocated here quite a bit, it somehow ended up having the reverse effect when in my hands. How? Don't know. But I'd play it, cycle it, get smashed into, have monarchy taken away from me, have trouble regaining monarchy, unwittingly hand out cardboard around the table, and often get smashed into some more in the process. Apparently underdeveloped spirit hordes are not super good at effectively retrieving the crown, and once people punch you and realise you're punchable they keep doing it, especially if they're familiar with the deck's penchant for forting up. Yeah, I have no idea either.
Words of Waste - A neglected member of the discard family, trialled as a potential Kaya swap. Played like dirt - not only is the effect delayed to your next turn most of the time, it takes mana to pull off. Seeing how discard likes to be established early, not only will you be stiffing yourself on a card when calling this up (while everybody else gets a delayed loot of sorts for their draw), it also eats up your mana. True, it has synergy potential with the draw options in the deck, but the base mode of operation was so horrid that the idea got very quickly shelved.
Yawgmoth's Will - Suggested way back when and largely ignored, I took it out for a spin to see how it would handle. It might just be me, but it plays super clunky. Having a Recollect in the deck would be pretty dece, and while this may be a Recollect++ it forces all of the action into a single turn, making you either feel like you're missing out or coming out super late. The only one I ever cast that I was happy with was with five mana, getting back a fetch, Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor. Replenish this is not.
The point of Marchesa's Decree is to not try to re-take the crown until you're able to with ease. Monarchy causes people to feud, which is perfect for Daxos to sit in the background, accumulating power due to being left alone and then coming out unstoppable at a later date.
Thing is, as mentioned, I don't get left alone. I still somehow end up getting more flak than I normally would, even when not attempting to retake the crown. No idea why, I don't understand it either.
That is odd. I wonder about the nuances of that flak though. Like if you're getting flak from opponents when they're not the monarch (because another opponent is getting cards because of you), or if it's also from the opponent who is the monarch. If it's the latter (everybody) then it could be some sort of, "you brought this weird mechanic into this game and now we can't get rid of it and it's messing with the politics".
So I finally read through your long post again to see if there was anything I wanted to comment on. Really, I'm probably going to catch mine up more to what you're running now with Emeria Shepherd and whatnot.
The one I worry about is Teferi's Protection. A number of the enchantments keep other players in check (e.g., Rule of Law) and if you resolve Protection, they're let loose. I'll have to try it sometime because mostly they're only let loose on each other for that trip around the table.
Given the choice between letting them loose forever after a boardwipe, or letting them loose for one turn at each other by responding to a boardwipe, the choice seems pretty obvious really
Just popping back in here with a brief PSA - if you're running Big Ole Raz (like you should be) and Emeria Shepherd, run Solemn Simulacrum as well. Repeat after me: "In response to ETB trigger, sacrifice, draw, tutor, resolve ETB trigger, get plains, return Sad Robot [...]". Positively hideous. Just as I was considering taking Depression Automaton for testing other things, how silly of me. Yeah, the Shepherd really seems to work well these days. The aforementioned triple delight involved me tutoring the Shepherd and a plains in response to Razzo being shot out. And even without Razzo, the fetches and Crucible and discard and stuff really make her come online. Anyway, enough rambling - just had to share this brief moment of dumb with you all.
The last update got me thinking a bit, having identified the arguably weakest spots in the 99. What could I do with them to help tighten up the list? I kind of talked myself out of screwing with Crackdown when I wrote the post, noticing its pillow fort utility even when not working as intended. Kaya, though, that's a whole different story. She performs adequately, but having realised her weaknesses I re-analysed what I could remember of her coming down on the table, and she does get swung at from time to time. Couple that with no experience and the slightly higher mana cost than the rest of the discard suite, and a slight outlier for testing other options presented itself.
Keeping it in the family of widely understood cardboard economy, I tried Bob. As a wise man once said somewhere on these boards, paying 4 life per card to Sylvan Library is perfectly acceptable in the format, and a Bob whammy nets a lower average. Plus, it'd be something to do in the early turns! Playtesting revealed that the whammies did add up, especially if something else life-happy came out to play. As such, often the development turned into a struggle of trying to get some lifelink online, but then you also had the conflict of needing bodies to lifelink versus trying to play out all the nice options on tap. He just didn't sit right. As such, a return of Painful Quandary was considered - it'd bump me up from the slightly morbid 31 enchantment count, plus it wasn't that bad here, was it. In a perfect world, this slot would be Chains of Mephistopheles now, but that's not happening is it. I think I found the correct answer though.
Now this is a cardboard that I should have considered long ago, but likely didn't as it's not an enchantment. The Uba impedes hand size development like an absolute boss, and combos drastically well with all the other discard. Necrogen Mists et al. start chewing away at hands permanently, and soon everybody's in Topdeck: the Gathering. And if they don't use what they flip immediately, it goes away forever! This forces people into quirky lines of play at every stage of the Uba's life, as given the choice between using something right now or losing it forever leads to the former more often than the latter, even when the latter would have been the correct play. And if you don't like what they flipped, and happen to have Skybind around... well, here's stupid use #97 for Skybind, I guess. Hello second potential draw step lock! And, just as extra gravy, Honey Necro don't care. Mwahaha!
An interesting note is that in spite of all this potential nastiness, the Uba doesn't seem to garner too negative a reaction. Used my standard playtest buddy who's quite outspoken when things that he's unhappy playing against happen, and he didn't mind it too much. He said it made the game more interesting, while also admitting the benefit that Daxos would get from it. Perfect then - legit flying under the radar, not because of badness though. Speaking of under-the-radar-because-bad, with Kaya gone that's probably the last of that removed from the list. The only remaining under the radar piece is Sword of Rampant Growth, but as we all know this one's actually good
I'm a big fan of using artifacts to support the enchantments, and that one is an excellent find. I'd considered saving up to eventually get a Chains, but the more functional deterrent is how often I know I'd have to explain how it works. Even in the same evening, to the same people. No, thank you. Finally got to use Ice Cauldron one evening recently (different deck, of course), and quickly realized that I better be able to use it a lot for its functional value to overcome the overhead cost of educating players.
Every time I muster the shambling fail elemental within me to front N money for a Chains, it turns out to have gone up to N+100. At this point I'm considering just getting it over with, getting an Italian one and having it altered to a flowchart. I'm hanging in there for now though
Some Italian versions of cards are pretty cheap, but that one doesn't appear to be. I was able to get an Italian Field of Dreams for a mere 25% of the price of the English version (new condition, too), but Italian Chains looks to be 75% of English. The flowchart would be a nice touch, though.
Yet another spoiler season is upon us, and they made a card which I'm a bit on the fence about. Namely, the WB part of the enchantment/land cycle (Profane Procession/Tomb of the Dusk Rose) isn't quite as obvious a slam as I was secretly hoping it would be, given the UR Tolarian Academy equivalent or even the toy GB got. It fulfils a very similar role to Attrition, so if it's going to get a slot it's probably going to be this one. I'm having trouble deciding which one is better, does any part of the following reasoning speak to you more?
Cost of Activation - Attrition only needs to do its thing, while Procession needs . Importantly, the cost can be further reduced by using random debris from Sunspeth, Depression Automaton, whatever fell into your lap from a Daxos death, or just an earlier spirit. The fact Attrition can come down on a board and potentially start shooting things out for a black a pop reeks a bit of Big Ole Raz, who still has a 100% win rate upon resolving. Meanwhile, Procession requires 5 mana per shot, no questions asked, no backdoor clauses.
Board Presence - As an extension of the above, the Attrition bullets have legs. They can punch people. They can sit around and deter attacks. Hell, they can block and then live out the bullet dream and shoot out a different attacker. This model synergises better with the game plan, as you can make spirits and only repurpose them to frag things if the circumstances demand it. However, this also makes it somewhat Daxos dependent.
Unlimited Usage - This is probably a reasonably minor quip, but you can kill as much stuff as you want with Attrition. Eat three non-commander things with Procession, thwap, you get the land, there's your removal stick gone. You can nominally reset it with Skybind or Cloudstone Curio for more fun, but those are but two cards in the 99 and can't be guaranteed to be on tap.
Exile - Ever since regeneration went to hell, there's been a prolonged push towards indestructibility. What once used to turn up once in a blue moon now crops up with frightening regularity on creatures, equipment, reactiveoptions... plus, graveyard shenanigans happen every now and then, and having Agent of Erebos around isn't always a given. The stronger the removal the better.
No Target Limitations - Speaking of the stronger the removal the better, this doesn't have a nonblack clause. While black isn't super prominent in the odd Naya-heavy slog of my preferred meta, which may lead to Attrition performing better than it would otherwise in the wild, it is one hell of a commander colour as evidenced by people being surprised in this thread that Urborg doesn't just auto-show-up from some party at my tables.
Theft Shenanigans - While Attrition gels better with the deck's typical undisrupted play style, this offers some insurance in case things go south. Once three non-commander Skittles are eaten, this thing flips and you get to lay claim to them on your own board. Theft is a ridiculous effect in commander, and Procession offers three instances of you getting someone else's choice minion (it's not like you'll eat a basic mana chicken with this) to eventually come aid your side of the battle. Trace amounts of Daxos independence!
I'm having trouble picking here, in all honesty. For every bit that I get excited about having the theft clause as another attempt at Daxos independent value, I recall a recent game where a guy set down Qasali Pridemage and Trygon Predator, tapping out in the process, and I untapped, slid in Attrition, nuked the Pridemage and persuaded the Trygon at gunpoint to go somewhere else. But then I also recall the Hammer of Nazahned Rafiq that came around a few turns later... it's a tough call. I'm leaning very, very slightly towards Profane Procession on similar grounds to me running Righteous Aura over sac outlet versions of this style of effect.
Since I'm already making a post here, Uba Mask got its multiplayer debut yesterday. Sceptical calls of "why did you even put this in the deck" morphed to silent, frustrated scoops over the period of about half an hour. Next game, it got Beast Withined on sight. I'll take it. Also, as mentioned, Big Ole Raz still has a 100% win rate, with my absolute favourite appearance of his being in a surprise comeback that was had later on in the Uba-got-Beast-Withined game yesterday. Daxos died a few times and was my only creature, my board was nine mana, an Anointed Procession and some random enchantment stuff that only matters in the context of the story for providing mana next turn. Untap, Big Ole Raz, rip a spirit for Serra's Sanctum, get ten mana from Sanctum plus another land, set down Skybind and Sphere of Safety, flick Sanctum and black-granting land, end step they return. Oh boy! Where did this come from! Proceed to build my army while holding the power to phase out at the cost of a spirit if anybody got silly, piece together some sort of win once the turn got back to me. Felt good. Felt quite like a Patron of the Orochi circa 2014 build game it's fun to see what the deck can do these days. I'm so happy that the thread talked me out of my lunacy on Anointed Procession, that thing's been a silent hero in the back lines for quite a while too.
The joys of Magiccardmarket, it's more like half price this side of the pond. Nice catch on the Field of Dreams, where/why do you use it?
Shoot, I didn't realize I hadn't answered that. It was going to be for a Phelddagrif politics/control deck. But I also seem to like collecting unique effects.
Quote from Rumpy5897 »
Sceptical calls of "why did you even put this in the deck" morphed to silent, frustrated scoops over the period of about half an hour.
I can quite easily envision an alternate reality wherein the three-set blocks never went away, and Ixalan has three sets, and the third set has a GW Serra's Sanctum flip. It's kind of disappointing that there was no Sanctum flip in this version of events, but it is the least notorious of the Urza lands and there's no explicit enchantment support in the set (in spite of the fact the flip lands are enchantments!). Feh, we gotta live with what we got. And what we got is pretty juicy, RIX is easily my favourite set since AER.
No amount of speculation is going to sub in for some good old playtesting. Having barfed out another needless wall of text above, I swapped in Attrition 2.0 and went to town. And it worked, pretty damn well in fact. I set up an Arcanis the Omnipotent, the good Niv-Mizzet, and something I don't remember, flipped, spat out the Arcanis, had the table scramble to remove him, and then blow removal on the land. This provides sturdy disruption and value in a Daxos-independent manner, if needed. And it not needed, just holding the mana for it throws people off their preferred game plan as you advance with bodies. A four man pod saw my valiant playtest friend, who I bring up here a lot, have a good thing going with his Marchesa. However, I had Attrition 2.0 armed and pointed at his important pieces, so he just derped around for value. As did I, ditching the table's hands off collateral damage with Lamia. Had he tried to eat the Lamia, I'd have swallowed his engines like Skittles. The perspective of exile/theft seems to throw people off more than the original. I'll take it.
Then, scrolling through new spoilers, I saw Azor's Gateway/Sanctum of the Sun. I chuckled to myself - what a ridiculous flip condition! Plus, surely, the resulting land has to be winmore. I subbed it in for the most situational card in the 99 (Crackdown) and went to town. Goldfishes proved surprisingly promising. Scratching my head in disbelief, I snagged a playtest partner to see it in actual action, and it still played like an absolute superbeast. Turns out that having a super cheap exile-loot rock is fantastic for smoothing out any stage of the game, the costing makes it work fantastic in the crucial early game buildup (bonus points for landing this off a Mana Crypt/Sol Ring to kick things off!), and if you do manage to get it to flip then it's game over. I guess the deck does get a new Sanctum in the end? Not quite what I had in mind, but I'll take it.
There are now a high number of high-yield lands in the list, plus if Attrition 2.0 flips then that's also an interesting land to use multiple times in a turn. Cue Deserted Temple! I mean, mono-black lists that have Coffers and maybe Nykthos sometimes run this, we have those, Sanctum, and now potentially the two flip lands. Seems worth. Since I'm still leery about my basic count, and like symmetry, I took out the worst of the duals to make room. All of the colourless utility lands pull their weight.
It should be of note that Rings of Brighthearth is looking like a decent include these days. While making two dudes for five instead of six is hardly game breaking, copying fetches, going infinite with Deserted Temple and a big mana land and getting more value off the activated bits and pieces all sound quite tasty. However, I'm a bit sceptical towards the include, the most important factor being that if the infinite mana combo proved too easy to access, I'd go out of my way to get it online every time I could. I know how I roll, and I know I'd rather have this particular list be combo-free. Plus, I don't want to venture too far out into artifact dependency land. The options I'm running now all tend to offer lasting impact, be it via irreversible disruption, land drops, or just card filtering (if somebody pops the new thing). The Rings' utility would fluctuate wildly on a per-game basis. And yeah, I saw that three-mana wrath in the spoiler, and it's good, but I don't think it's better than any of the wipes I've already got.
So let’s get some of the questionable decisions out of the way:
Axis of Mortality and Debtors’ Knell – These are essentially the Bubbles and Buttercup to True Conviction’s Blossom in the realm of “haymaker enchantments” to nab in the event of Academy Rector’s untimely demise. Both of them are on trial status, since they are somewhat dependent on what the rest of the table is doing to be effective, but I’d be lying if I said they didn’t appeal to my inner Timmy.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel – Right… so this isn’t a devotion deck. But this serves as a way to win the game when combat isn’t an option (prison mirrors are fuuunnnn). A few activations with the help of Cloudstone Curio or Skybind can go a long way.
Underworld Coinsmith – Very clearly an underpowered card in a battlecruiser format – I have no excuse for its inclusion, other than I like it. Incremental lifegain can occasionally keep your head above water if you’ve got Necro in play, I guess.
Faith’s Reward – Largely because I haven’t stumbled upon a Teferi’s Protection, but this is still a card that people refuse to play around. Affectionately called “Ctrl+Z” by myself and nobody else. I don’t get my token army back, but I got to put Skybind and about six thousand enchantments back on the table. Guess who’s blinking his tapped lands and making a fresh army on your end step!
Much like Daxos, reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Nice to see you back in here Yeah, some other folks have been running around with Gary, you're not alone. Teferi's Protection is ridiculously flexible, Faith's Reward only catches a fraction of the cases the Protection is able to handle but it'll make for a reasonable stand-in until you cross paths with the superior version. The thread talked me out of Axis of Mortality when it came around, it's probably the only questionable include along with the Underworld Coinsmith really. One of those slots would probably be better off as a Big Ole Raz. You could consider swapping Attrition for the Daxos-independent Attrition 2.0, and I've had a good degree of success running Uba Mask instead of Kaya, Ghost Assassin (but you already have Chains of Mephistopheles, so there's that).
Also, seeing how I'm tossing a post up, I'm getting a little leery towards Azor's Gateway. On the whole, its performance has been fine - the loot rock has helped me dig my way out of some patchy draws, one game I fed it five lands straight to kick off the proceedings as I was flooding like mad, and obviously things get ridiculous post-flip. However, it's extremely feelbad to get it removed, especially if it's over halfway to the flip. Yeah, that's removal that is now not going to eat Skybind or something of that tier, and the loot rock provided filtering before it went, but I can't get myself to be fully reasonable here at this point. Also, there was that one game I threw because of sheer greed - I was using it to pick the best of two topdecks, and I chose Big Ole Raz over Cast Out when I didn't have the real estate to support him and was still in the process of stabilising. I couldn't bear the thought of not having Raz given the chance to have Raz Plus, the card's been getting a lukewarm reception online, with the land being likened to running a 'walker for the ultimate, and the only decks excited to see it being ones that abuse untaps. However, if it does flip, it pretty much wins the game on the spot as solid command zone mana sink. What do? Help me out, fellow Daxos men!
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
I still run Rector because nobody wants to block and kill it so it makes a good attacker for carrying the Sword or keeping the occasional planeswalker in check.
There just aren't really any sacrifice outlets in the deck (aside from Razaketh in some) that would be necessary for making it consistent to sac it when you want to, and none that I can think of aside from him that help the deck's gameplan without taking up the slot of something that does. And Razaketh himself is a repeatable tutor for 1WB and 2 life, making Rector a bit more redundant.
As for Overwhelming Splendor and Curse of Exhaustion, another aspect of the design is to make most effects symmetrical to mitigate drawing aggro, since everybody ends up under the same restrictions. It's also good to use them defensively, such as playing Crackdown when somebody else has a big green army, because then it looks like you're helping out the other two players. I see those two as quite likely painting a bigger target on you because they single out a specific player with immediately strong effects.
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
The curses are weak for what the offer. Why bother with Curse of Exhaustion when you can just Rule of Law the table? I've always had a soft spot for making symmetric effects asymmetric via witty building, and Daxos is great at that sort of thing. Similarly, there was a guy who swore by Humility, and Overwhelming Splendor is a new-school spin on the idea which I hate. There's nothing wrong with single-target kneecapping, especially if it's a hell of a kneecapping. A well placed Nevermore, Darksteel Mutation, Consulate Crackdown etc. have been known to win games, and the whole joke is that they hinder the opponent enough that the target it painted on you doesn't hugely matter - they can't do much to you over it, and their fellow game participants are not likely to rush to their aid as it's not in their interest to undo the damage. Overwhelming Splendor would be a similar sort of single-target problem solution, but at eight mana it feels too expensive.
With regards to the draw discussion earlier, Greed effects don't stack. I like diversifying my draw portfolio, as this way if I draw multiples I can actually make active use of them. What does a second Greed effect do? Give you an extra experience counter? Sit in your hand until the first one goes away? Slot in more draw, go ahead, but try to make it so you can actually use it if it comes in clumps.
So yeah, as I mentioned, I've kind of been out of sync with the magical cardboards recently. I haven't fully clicked with the local meta, which led to me not having shown up there in ages. And there's only so much Hilarious and Original TM Cockatrice action I can handle, with Daxos not being a particularly good deck to venture there with either. If any of you feel that I'm missing some hella obvious cards in the 99, or am running some hella questionable cards in the 99, please say so. I have a long history of dubious includes and weird omissions, so go forth and say things if you see things to say.
Casual group, but it kindof turned into Archenemy, too. Daxos vs Arlinn Kord wolf/werewolf tribal vs Kaseto, Orochi Archmage snake tribal (mostly).
Just the highlights:
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
1 Burnished Hart
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Skullclamp
1 Arguel's Blood Fast
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Solemn Simulacrum
The discussion in the thread since the last update got me thinking quite heavily about the "appearing bad" aspect of the deck. True, something like Burnished Hart can reap good rewards if left unattended, especially if the right companion pieces come along, but it's the equivalent of laying down on the ground and exposing your stomach as a sign of surrender. Life is already hard enough being Daxos, and opening the deck up to being even further behind the game state by willingly ramming clumsy three-mana allotments down the drain with the realistic possibility of disruption is not exactly where you want to be. A lot of theoretical scenarios with hypothetical hand curves were considered, and the conclusion is that Solemn Simulacrum provides a surprisingly similar amount of benefit with way less tempo loss and risk. Skullclamp is getting the axe on slightly similar grounds - the situations where we're in control of actually reaping the rewards are surprisingly narrow, and more often than not the 'clamp is parked on a blocker in a "let's see what happens" sort of ordeal. Sound similar, maybe like a certain four-drop creature? It's cheaper and repeatable, and works like mad with one experience counter or disposable x/1's, so it slid under the radar of cuts a bit.
The last deck that I built that I was excited about was a foray into Mardu with Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Tymna the Weaver. While the list ended up scrapped for reasons I still don't fully understand, it taught me the importance of acquiring bonus cardboard and curving out properly. As such, I got a burst of motivation to try and sort out the game's early plays a little, with the motivation going up in flames with the realisation there really isn't much I can do I'm not already doing. Getting Daxos out early would involve some of the zero-mana rocks or Mana Vault, none of which we really want here. In the end, the Burnished Hart trail was followed, and plays were examined for their clumsiness with the commander and main game plan. Chromatic Lantern costing three was a major problem for the Mardu heap, and ended up canned very early in the deck's life. The problem was less glaring here, but there's no denying it spends a bit too many of the resources we'd like to allocate to furthering the game plan. Plus, it goes up in flames when artifacts get wiped and that's that. Mind Stone was considered as a replacement in the interest of having something to do turn two, but in the end it's Crucible of Worlds that gets the slot. The value this thing brings to the table is tremendous, in spite of sharing the CMC of the Lantern you don't feel obliged to chase it out early, setting it down whenever you feel is convenient and making land drops you'd otherwise miss, accruing a constant, harder to disrupt advantage. Plus, it acts as a shield of sorts for the big mana lands, allows Strip Mine shenanigans, and feeds off symmetric discard like nobody's business. And if you do end up setting it down early to make repeated use of that one fetch you drew, that's one mana screw you just dug yourself out of far better than you would have with a single extra mana. The marginal, marginal benefits of blowing all that money on the perfect mana base.
Another efficiency-dictated swap is Erebos, God of the Dead for Arguel's Blood Fast. This surprises no-one and is the obvious Ixalan include most of us are going to make. Turns 4-5 are some of the most critical for the deck's well-being, and this is phenomenal in that window. Play it, maybe get a card, maybe make a Daxos man, the sky's the limit. True, both Greed and Erebos come down effortlessly turn four, but this not only comes down turn four, it also lets you immediately replace it if no other plays are available, accruing options for what to do after you untap. And later on in the game, the 1/2 mana cost divergence between this and Greed doesn't make a huge deal of difference anyway. Plus, if you're stunted after a greedy keep, as I've been known to do sometimes, this comes down super early and helps you find mana if you need. But wait, there's more! Well, in all honesty, not much more. The Diamond Valley flip is not something I imagine is going to happpen too often, but it's a nice perk to have and might help you get back on the horse a little.
And, finally, there's the long-avoided inclusion of Cabal Coffers. Right on the first freaking page of this thread, Damnosus points out that it's fine to run it as long as you don't actually consider it a land, and that observation is surprisingly accurate. It's not your typical land, and you drop it either when you can support it or have ran out of other drops to make, which also happens sometimes with greedy keeps Given the deck's propensity for basic acquisition, as well as the fetches and fetchable duals, accruing the three swamps to make this be mana positive is perfectly doable, and has happened just about every single time this thing showed up, Urborg or not. The marginal benefits of the perfect mana base continue. And obviously it gets silly with Urborg, but that's EDH 101. Thanks to all of you who kept talking me into this over the years, and sorry for taking so long. As mentioned, seeing how this isn't a "normal" land drop, I've bumped the land count to account for it.
The changes help move the deck in a direction I'd be happy for it to continue down - less reliance on artifacts and the mercy of my opponents, efficient early game and robust late-game value. Around the time the deck became playable, it was rammed full of rocks of all shapes and sizes, and a Vandalblast variant made it as miserable as wiping the enchantments, if not more. Now there are literally four conventional rocks left in the list, but there's still a heavy emphasis on acquiring lands, be they of the big mana variety or just a constant stream of land drops. If those engines blow up, all the work they did is still going to be on the table for the deck to reap the benefits of. I'm striving for this sort of approach for the 99 as a whole - even if someone Auster Commands my board, they can't eat the experience counters that are already on Daxos. If any of you have ideas how to emphasise this, please fire away.
Since the deck easily hits 7 lands, it is easy to flip the Compass. I don't know if it is worth replacing Sad Robot with due to the Robot's innate value of land into play, draw upon death and willingness to chump anything that comes our way. But the Compass should probably replace your worst mana option.
I can attribute meaningful impact in 3 games that let people leave Daxos alone which is the perfect environment for him. I am also a firm believer that players tend to repeat actions that 'worked' so when they get stressed (and a multiplayer game is quite stressful on the brain, there's tons of distractions outside of the game and within the game there's lots of information to keep track of), they repeat themselves. If you get attacked early, people will keep repeating that action until some new stimulant or punishment comes along. Maze of Ith is one helluva "Don't attack me" which then translates to people forgetting to attack you even when you're not invulnerable.
Daxos needs plenty of time so anything that steers people away from him is great.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Skybinding lands used in the above is like getting the counters for free. Cracking Marsh Flats and making a Spirit to Skybind Sun Titan and recur Flats before each End Step is probably the best ramp I've every had with this deck.
old thread
old thread
old thread
R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
I playtested Thaumatic Compass in a few games yesterday, and I'm not sold at all. Ramp is most appreciated early on, and this thing is like a weird late game Mind Stone of sorts. The " : fetch land" ability got used all of once in a weird situation, and just wasn't that good either. The Maze of Ithness was okay, but I'm just not feeling it. Seems like there's many, many better options to choose from.
The deck saw some interesting changes in 2017, and easily the greatest of these was the addition of Razaketh, the Foulblooded. Big Ole Raz is freaking ridiculous, as initially hoped for, and effortlessly weasels his way into the pantheon of the true greats of the deck. I cannot recall losing a game after casting him, a feat not even Skybind or Thoughtrender Lamia have accomplished. He doesn't even necessarily need follow-up plays, he can work with what you have available when he hits. Surely there are a few spare spirits, an exploited Weathered Wayfarer or something that you can part with in the name of winning the game if it becomes necessary to get Raz value on the spot because removal. Sculpt the perfect grip and glide your way to glory. Hot damn!
Also, surprisingly, the maximum pimping of the mana base turned out to be actually quite good, especially when Crucible of Worlds comes out to play too. I've kept hella sketchy three landers with a fetch and the Crucible and done just fine, failing to draw any land for ages yet going about my day unperturbed, free from mana screw. A wonderful value upgrade, that one. Is it worth the ridiculous money required? Realistically, probably not, but seeing how this is one of my pet decks and now I feel fine with proxying the fetches/Crucible in anything else that may need them, plus I haven't actually built anything in quite a while, I guess I'm okay with it. Your mileage may vary. Also, Coffers does indeed work pretty well, and is the most reliable of the big mana lands, especially if Urborg comes out to play. Obvious stuff that is obvious, really. And here you all were, trying to persuade me to do this for years.
Speaking of that, I know I'm not the best at judging cardboard, but I greatly welcome all your feedback and may have gotten a bit better at listening to it if Anointed Procession is anything to go on (and me playtesting Thaumatic Compass and Mirage Mirror recently as well). I'm just a guy tainted by his playing experience and preferences, and while I try to keep my build meta-agnostic I do have my biases and preferred play style. As such, I went through both the deck and the thread, picking out cards that may not have gotten their due or may be unjustly coasting along for the ride, and tried my best to give the 99 a slight polish to match it up to the current trends in its gameplay.
1 Act of Authority
1 Consulate Crackdown
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Seal of Doom
1 Emeria Shepherd
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Reconnaissance
1 Teferi's Protection
The cuts should be reasonably self-explanatory, given my reasonably recent revelation as to just how removal dense the list has gotten. Oh no, Act of Authority is gone! Now I can only Anguished Unmaking, Utter End, Cast Out, Grasp of Fate or Aura of Silence a problem enchantment away, and add Consulate Crackdown for artifacts! Oh no, with Seal of Doom gone, that's only the first four of the above, plus Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Attrition, Doomwake Giant, Darksteel Mutation, plus all the variably screwy pieces of fort and wraths! Yeah, the removal package is still a little ridiculous in here, but the deck enjoys having ways to answer threats. These two options just happen to be the weakest of the bunch. Idyllic Tutor is a great card, but it's a late game one if ever there was one. The 3cmc just about guarantees this isn't coming out any time within the early game, and even in the mid game it's pretty clunky more often than not. Who'd have thought one mana more from Demonic Tutor and the slight loss of range would make such a difference? One could argue that Big Ole Raz takes over after this card in a way. Sure, you can't pull a funny on someone and turn their commander into a bug with five mana up, but that's a small price to pay for what he ends up doing.
The fourth cut is a somewhat sensible straight swap. Merciless Eviction was consciously left out of the deck when it was crafted and played up to half a year ago, as my meta very prominently featured a guy keen on using other people's 99s against them. As such, like hell I was going to give him an easy out to eat my freaking board, especially given the fact I had other perfectly serviceable options at my disposal. However, I have now moved away from said meta, so this is no longer a concern. I ran the card for a short while when I couldn't find Elspeth, Sun's Champion, taking the deck for some games in a different playgroup, and the Eviction worked like a charm. As such, if polishing up the deck is the name of the game here, it makes sense to include it. The upgrade is obvious - Consulate Crackdown only hits artifacts, in a non-permanent fashion, and is just one mana cheaper. True, the list likes its brown, so the lack of asymmetry of the wipe may hurt a bit, but the deck doesn't crutch on mana rocks super hard anymore so there's that. I imagine using common sense will do the trick, sometimes eating that Crucible to screw others out of the game will be worth it. Plus hey, that versatility will surely come in handy. I'll be sure to report back if I ever exile enchantments with this
Emeria Shepherd's third tenure in the list is directly inspired by the land upgrade. Fetches (and Crucible) are great synergy with her, and the inclusion of the discard package makes it more likely for her to have targets to resurrect or buffer your hand with if you need to keep something crucial from being dribbled. It feels like she got the axe at the wrong time, as she got removed in the very update that introduced the discard package. I'm quite good with those screwups, aren't I? Last time around she was already pretty good, and I mentioned in the update post how she would go full potato with Skybind and Sword of Rampant Growth. Now she has quite a few more cards that will make her imminently useful, so she's here to stay hopefully. I mean, Necropotence took three tries too It should also be stated that I fully pondered the ramifications of Seal of Doom being removed at the same time as the Shepherd gets reintroduced, and I came to the conclusion that I have enough creature control as is. Reconnaissance was cut to make room for more removal (funny how the trend is reversing now), and the update post acknowledged there was nothing wrong it it, but it was just utility. That's not the complete picture - broken vigilance allows for the use of Sword of Rampant Growth with impunity, and is a ridiculously potent offensive and defensive tool at every stage of the game. Thanks to lyonhaert for making me remember this thing has merit. And, lastly, there's Teferi's Protection. This one's inspired by the main forum Daxos discussion (great to see the commander getting some action!), which started with OP asking how not to get rekt by Merciless Eviction. And this is pretty much the only way. So I found room, called up my ever-patient playtest buddy, and never once cast the card. However, the very fact it existed and sat in my hand made me feel extremely safe and in control. The array of things it can potentially protect from is ridiculous, and the 3cmc fits perfectly with just holding up mana and if you don't need it then making a dude. Bonus points for getting it off Big Ole Raz
So, that's it for the swaps. However, a lot more pondering/playtesting happened, so here are some notes on that in case any of you see any flaws in my logic. Plus, future me enjoys reading those
Deck weak spots:
Possible Includes:
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Definitely going to go back to using more effective cards instead of some of the "cute" cards I've been testing.
old thread
old thread
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
The one I worry about is Teferi's Protection. A number of the enchantments keep other players in check (e.g., Rule of Law) and if you resolve Protection, they're let loose. I'll have to try it sometime because mostly they're only let loose on each other for that trip around the table.
old thread
old thread
old thread
R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
Keeping it in the family of widely understood cardboard economy, I tried Bob. As a wise man once said somewhere on these boards, paying 4 life per card to Sylvan Library is perfectly acceptable in the format, and a Bob whammy nets a lower average. Plus, it'd be something to do in the early turns! Playtesting revealed that the whammies did add up, especially if something else life-happy came out to play. As such, often the development turned into a struggle of trying to get some lifelink online, but then you also had the conflict of needing bodies to lifelink versus trying to play out all the nice options on tap. He just didn't sit right. As such, a return of Painful Quandary was considered - it'd bump me up from the slightly morbid 31 enchantment count, plus it wasn't that bad here, was it. In a perfect world, this slot would be Chains of Mephistopheles now, but that's not happening is it. I think I found the correct answer though.
1 Kaya, Ghost Assassin
1 Uba Mask
Now this is a cardboard that I should have considered long ago, but likely didn't as it's not an enchantment. The Uba impedes hand size development like an absolute boss, and combos drastically well with all the other discard. Necrogen Mists et al. start chewing away at hands permanently, and soon everybody's in Topdeck: the Gathering. And if they don't use what they flip immediately, it goes away forever! This forces people into quirky lines of play at every stage of the Uba's life, as given the choice between using something right now or losing it forever leads to the former more often than the latter, even when the latter would have been the correct play. And if you don't like what they flipped, and happen to have Skybind around... well, here's stupid use #97 for Skybind, I guess. Hello second potential draw step lock! And, just as extra gravy, Honey Necro don't care. Mwahaha!
An interesting note is that in spite of all this potential nastiness, the Uba doesn't seem to garner too negative a reaction. Used my standard playtest buddy who's quite outspoken when things that he's unhappy playing against happen, and he didn't mind it too much. He said it made the game more interesting, while also admitting the benefit that Daxos would get from it. Perfect then - legit flying under the radar, not because of badness though. Speaking of under-the-radar-because-bad, with Kaya gone that's probably the last of that removed from the list. The only remaining under the radar piece is Sword of Rampant Growth, but as we all know this one's actually good
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
old thread
old thread
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
Attrition Strengths:
Profane Procession/Tomb of the Dusk Rose Strengths:
I'm having trouble picking here, in all honesty. For every bit that I get excited about having the theft clause as another attempt at Daxos independent value, I recall a recent game where a guy set down Qasali Pridemage and Trygon Predator, tapping out in the process, and I untapped, slid in Attrition, nuked the Pridemage and persuaded the Trygon at gunpoint to go somewhere else. But then I also recall the Hammer of Nazahned Rafiq that came around a few turns later... it's a tough call. I'm leaning very, very slightly towards Profane Procession on similar grounds to me running Righteous Aura over sac outlet versions of this style of effect.
Since I'm already making a post here, Uba Mask got its multiplayer debut yesterday. Sceptical calls of "why did you even put this in the deck" morphed to silent, frustrated scoops over the period of about half an hour. Next game, it got Beast Withined on sight. I'll take it. Also, as mentioned, Big Ole Raz still has a 100% win rate, with my absolute favourite appearance of his being in a surprise comeback that was had later on in the Uba-got-Beast-Withined game yesterday. Daxos died a few times and was my only creature, my board was nine mana, an Anointed Procession and some random enchantment stuff that only matters in the context of the story for providing mana next turn. Untap, Big Ole Raz, rip a spirit for Serra's Sanctum, get ten mana from Sanctum plus another land, set down Skybind and Sphere of Safety, flick Sanctum and black-granting land, end step they return. Oh boy! Where did this come from! Proceed to build my army while holding the power to phase out at the cost of a spirit if anybody got silly, piece together some sort of win once the turn got back to me. Felt good. Felt quite like a Patron of the Orochi circa 2014 build game it's fun to see what the deck can do these days. I'm so happy that the thread talked me out of my lunacy on Anointed Procession, that thing's been a silent hero in the back lines for quite a while too.
old thread
old thread
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
1 Attrition
1 Crackdown
1 Temple of Silence
1 Azor's Gateway
1 Deserted Temple
1 Profane Procession
No amount of speculation is going to sub in for some good old playtesting. Having barfed out another needless wall of text above, I swapped in Attrition 2.0 and went to town. And it worked, pretty damn well in fact. I set up an Arcanis the Omnipotent, the good Niv-Mizzet, and something I don't remember, flipped, spat out the Arcanis, had the table scramble to remove him, and then blow removal on the land. This provides sturdy disruption and value in a Daxos-independent manner, if needed. And it not needed, just holding the mana for it throws people off their preferred game plan as you advance with bodies. A four man pod saw my valiant playtest friend, who I bring up here a lot, have a good thing going with his Marchesa. However, I had Attrition 2.0 armed and pointed at his important pieces, so he just derped around for value. As did I, ditching the table's hands off collateral damage with Lamia. Had he tried to eat the Lamia, I'd have swallowed his engines like Skittles. The perspective of exile/theft seems to throw people off more than the original. I'll take it.
Then, scrolling through new spoilers, I saw Azor's Gateway/Sanctum of the Sun. I chuckled to myself - what a ridiculous flip condition! Plus, surely, the resulting land has to be winmore. I subbed it in for the most situational card in the 99 (Crackdown) and went to town. Goldfishes proved surprisingly promising. Scratching my head in disbelief, I snagged a playtest partner to see it in actual action, and it still played like an absolute superbeast. Turns out that having a super cheap exile-loot rock is fantastic for smoothing out any stage of the game, the costing makes it work fantastic in the crucial early game buildup (bonus points for landing this off a Mana Crypt/Sol Ring to kick things off!), and if you do manage to get it to flip then it's game over. I guess the deck does get a new Sanctum in the end? Not quite what I had in mind, but I'll take it.
There are now a high number of high-yield lands in the list, plus if Attrition 2.0 flips then that's also an interesting land to use multiple times in a turn. Cue Deserted Temple! I mean, mono-black lists that have Coffers and maybe Nykthos sometimes run this, we have those, Sanctum, and now potentially the two flip lands. Seems worth. Since I'm still leery about my basic count, and like symmetry, I took out the worst of the duals to make room. All of the colourless utility lands pull their weight.
It should be of note that Rings of Brighthearth is looking like a decent include these days. While making two dudes for five instead of six is hardly game breaking, copying fetches, going infinite with Deserted Temple and a big mana land and getting more value off the activated bits and pieces all sound quite tasty. However, I'm a bit sceptical towards the include, the most important factor being that if the infinite mana combo proved too easy to access, I'd go out of my way to get it online every time I could. I know how I roll, and I know I'd rather have this particular list be combo-free. Plus, I don't want to venture too far out into artifact dependency land. The options I'm running now all tend to offer lasting impact, be it via irreversible disruption, land drops, or just card filtering (if somebody pops the new thing). The Rings' utility would fluctuate wildly on a per-game basis. And yeah, I saw that three-mana wrath in the spoiler, and it's good, but I don't think it's better than any of the wipes I've already got.
*heaves a decklist into the thread*
1x Daxos the Returned
Enchantment (28)
1x Act of Authority
1x Arguel's Blood Fast
1x Attrition
1x Aura of Silence
1x Authority of the Consuls
1x Axis of Mortality
1x Blind Obedience
1x Bottomless Pit
1x Chains of Mephistopheles
1x Crackdown
1x Darksteel Mutation
1x Debtors' Knell
1x Flickering Ward
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Grasp of Fate
1x Necrogen Mists
1x Necropotence
1x Nevermore
1x No Mercy
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Phyrexian Reclamation
1x Righteous Aura
1x Rule of Law
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Seal of Doom
1x Skybind
1x Sphere of Safety
1x True Conviction
1x Anguished Unmaking
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Faith’s Reward
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Utter End
Land (38)
1x Barren Moor
1x Caves of Koilos
1x Command Tower
1x Concealed Courtyard
1x Fetid Heath
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Godless Shrine
1x Isolated Chapel
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Orzhov Basilica
1x Orzhov Guildgate
10x Plains
1x Scoured Barrens
1x Secluded Steppe
1x Serra's Sanctum
1x Shambling Vent
8x Swamp
1x Tainted Field
1x Temple of Silence
1x Temple of the False God
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of the Archangel
Artifact (6)
1x Cloudstone Curio
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Orzhov Signet
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Wayfarer's Bauble
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Kaya, Ghost Assassin
Creature (12)
1x Academy Rector
1x Agent of Erebos
1x Burnished Hart
1x Doomwake Giant
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Emeria Shepherd
1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1x Monk Idealist
1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
1x Sun Titan
1x Thoughtrender Lamia
1x Underworld Coinsmith
Sorcery (8)
1x Beseech the Queen
1x Extinguish All Hope
1x Idyllic Tutor
1x Merciless Eviction
1x Replenish
1x Rout
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Vindicate
So let’s get some of the questionable decisions out of the way:
Axis of Mortality and Debtors’ Knell – These are essentially the Bubbles and Buttercup to True Conviction’s Blossom in the realm of “haymaker enchantments” to nab in the event of Academy Rector’s untimely demise. Both of them are on trial status, since they are somewhat dependent on what the rest of the table is doing to be effective, but I’d be lying if I said they didn’t appeal to my inner Timmy.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel – Right… so this isn’t a devotion deck. But this serves as a way to win the game when combat isn’t an option (prison mirrors are fuuunnnn). A few activations with the help of Cloudstone Curio or Skybind can go a long way.
Beseech the Queen – Yep. Still here. Nope, still no Demonic Tutor.
Underworld Coinsmith – Very clearly an underpowered card in a battlecruiser format – I have no excuse for its inclusion, other than I like it. Incremental lifegain can occasionally keep your head above water if you’ve got Necro in play, I guess.
Faith’s Reward – Largely because I haven’t stumbled upon a Teferi’s Protection, but this is still a card that people refuse to play around. Affectionately called “Ctrl+Z” by myself and nobody else. I don’t get my token army back, but I got to put Skybind and about six thousand enchantments back on the table. Guess who’s blinking his tapped lands and making a fresh army on your end step!
Much like Daxos, reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Also, seeing how I'm tossing a post up, I'm getting a little leery towards Azor's Gateway. On the whole, its performance has been fine - the loot rock has helped me dig my way out of some patchy draws, one game I fed it five lands straight to kick off the proceedings as I was flooding like mad, and obviously things get ridiculous post-flip. However, it's extremely feelbad to get it removed, especially if it's over halfway to the flip. Yeah, that's removal that is now not going to eat Skybind or something of that tier, and the loot rock provided filtering before it went, but I can't get myself to be fully reasonable here at this point. Also, there was that one game I threw because of sheer greed - I was using it to pick the best of two topdecks, and I chose Big Ole Raz over Cast Out when I didn't have the real estate to support him and was still in the process of stabilising. I couldn't bear the thought of not having Raz given the chance to have Raz Plus, the card's been getting a lukewarm reception online, with the land being likened to running a 'walker for the ultimate, and the only decks excited to see it being ones that abuse untaps. However, if it does flip, it pretty much wins the game on the spot as solid command zone mana sink. What do? Help me out, fellow Daxos men!