MTG Salvation

Pretty cool. I am looking to build an Eldrazi EDH deck and I am watching this to see what pans out. Thank you.

One interesting interaction for this deck that I've been curious about is Extraplanar lens + Wastes.

Granted its only really effective if you have a high enough waste count but it allows you to run a mana doubling effect. Its something that an eldrazi deck could really benefit from and it gets around the downside of doubling your opponents mana. I don't know if that alone is worth warping your manabase around but it's something I would really want to experiment with if I built this deck.

Getting the most out of Extraplanar Lens requires cutting too many utility lands IMO. I don't think the mana doubling effect is worth the loss of utility. We already have Doubling cube, which works for all of our generated mana, not just that from wastes. Extraplanar Lens also has a giant target, not that Doubling cube doesn't.

Something that I've started to test is Reality Smasher. This gives us some early protection, and an early way to potentially deal with Planeswalkers. Here's my current list:

Quote from Mentack87 »

Getting the most out of Extraplanar Lens requires cutting too many utility lands IMO. I don't think the mana doubling effect is worth the loss of utility. We already have Doubling cube, which works for all of our generated mana, not just that from wastes. Extraplanar Lens also has a giant target, not that Doubling cube doesn't.

Completely understand the part about having to cut too many non basics. I'm more of a budget player so whenever possible I like to run a cheap manabase. Extraplanar lens rewards you for that so it has some personal appeal.

I've been really turned off of doubling cube ever since a friend pointed out how the math actually works. Rather than doubling your mana, you think of it tapping to add
2(x-3)-x or x-6 to your mana pool, where x is the amount of mana you can produce. So really it only nets you one mana for every one above 6 you can produce and you have to tap out to get that effect (although in a deck without instants that's less of a drawback). I don't know how well that actually plays out but when put in that context it seems really inefficient.

How has Scour from Existence been for you guys?

I went back and forth on the Wastes route with Extraplanar Lens, but agreed with Goblin Screwdriver that you need to cut too many good lands for it to be worth it. However, I'd say if you were running a budget build with them, perhaps Walker of the Wastes wouldn't be a bad pick up for you.

As for Scour from Existence, I like it. My playgroup tends to play a lot of Gods as commanders and having an instant speed removal for them in colorless is great.

Hey gang! I was going to make my own thread to share this Kozilek, the Great Distortion deck, but why waste a new thread when i care share it here. Most Kozilek decks are going to be pretty similar anyways.

I'm going for a no combo mid-range control route that can win through fatty damage while keeping the board on lock. Still pretty optimized - Metalworker and the works - I think, while staying true to my timmy/vorthos ethos.



Watchlist:

Most other "obvious" cards that i'm not running are out due to budget reasons. I will splurge for a sculpting steel just as soon as I find one, will trade it with Junk Diver. Otherwise a few other cards I'm considering are:

• Spatial Contortion is something I'm wondering about. How versatile is it in terms of getting through some extra damage from my commander, v. serving as removal for some low toughness utility creatures. Would have be a stronger contender if Prophet of Kruphix was still around.
• Sword of War And Peace - this deck runs a fair amount of group draw, and cards like Ancient tomb can eat away at my life. Though one of the weakest swords in EDH, I think it can do some work here.
• Ring of Three Wishes - this deck lacks quick answers, and the Ring could help me find what i want, when i need it, or let me tutor for a CMC to toss as a counter spell.

You're missing these rocks: Mana Vault, Grim Monolith and Thran Dynamo. Also, you could use some Voltaic Key action.

I would put Thought-Knot Seer on the chopping block, just because this kind of effect is a lot less good in multiplayer. Same goes for Reality Smasher: it's just a 5/5 beater that gets outclassed pretty quickly in this format.

Thanks for the reply. You're right, thought-knot seer has no place in the deck, and probably serves better as trade fodder in my binder, just saw its $14 price tag. I swapped it for Darksteel Forge. Once I get ahold of Thran Dynamo I'll probably swap out Reality Smasher, though I still like the idea of a reliable bruiser with haste who can make removal a pain. I feel like he gets under the radar and can help finish off players. I dunno. Anyway.

If I do swap in Thran Dynamo I'll probably add Voltaic Key in place of Spatial Contortion.

Howdy, ya'll! Just retooled my Butcher list for the Great Distortion and thought I'd share. The Maybeboard lists the cards that have been shuffled in and out of the deck through it's different iterations of Stax vs Aggro and Control. I rebuilt the deck for the new Kozilek as it is still very powerful, but I can now play it in league without it being completely backbreaking with annihilator on turn 3. Trying to play the deck now as a combination of Aggro and Control. Any and all suggestions are always welcome!

How have people been faring with answers in their deck? I find the problem for me is that i run lots of answers and defensive cards, but there's no really good way to find then when necessary. I played a 1v1 game against Karlov of the Ghost Council the other night and simply could not find any answers early enough. I run Mystifying Maze, Icy Manipulator and some spot removal, but with a turn 2 Karlov on the board, and not enough tutoring power, I'm completely helpless unless I can draw into exactly what I need.

The same thing happened to me again against a Zirilan of the Claw deck. The decks play at a similar speed, but I wasn't hitting my ramp (half the freakin deck is ramp!!) and the Zirilan player was hitting a turn 1 Dragonmaster Outcast followed by a Feldon of the third path and a Zirilan with a sac outlet, I was holding onto one Scour From Existence that I was just waiting to have the mana to cast, but at that point I didn't even know which threat to deal with and I was just overrun by dragons. Had i been able to draw up a wrath, or some significant ramp, things might have changed.

Anyway, tl;dr: I find this deck is amazingly fun, but not interactive enough. It can barely tutor, and I'm at the mercy of whatever I'm holding in my hand, most of what can set up some control states, but very little to directly deal with threats and problems on the board.

There's a lot of answers you really aren't running in the deck whether it be price concerns or just a different playstyle, but cards like Glacial Chasm, Maze of Ith, and Mindslaver stand as auto includes to me. Forcefield has been a defensive all-star for me, but it only works when you can get it and if it isn't out of your price range. If you're running the new Eldrazi tutors, then that should help with getting some answers more consistently, and Newlamog becomes a must. Also, annihilator is one of the most effective answers this deck can produce, but it isn't everyone's playstyle, and certainly won't make many friends. All that being said, when you can't ramp with this deck it can sometimes just sit there and do nothing. Sounds like you just had a bad shuffle.

I'm considering building a rampy Kozilek v2.0 deck as well. I'm considering adding bounce effects to take the card drawing advantage of Kozilek to the max. Has anyone else considered this? So far I'm looking at:

• Blood Clock
  
• Cloudstone Curio
  
• Dragon Mask
  
• Erratic Portal
  
• Noetic Scales
  
• Obelisk of Undoing
  
• Umbilicus

There's both to do it each upkeep (maybe not as useful if you want to swing in for commander damage) but the activated ones could be great with cards like Vedalken Orrery (or Winding Canyons) in play. Return Kozilek to your hand also helps if it were to get destroyed. Yet it's not so expensive to bounce it after attacking and then cast it at the end of an opponents turn (or whenever you need the draw). I dunno, I feel like this might be interesting. Any thoughts?

Sorry about the lack of feedback to users in here. This last month has been a little more busy than usual (mostly IRL stuff involving a roommate situation). I have been playing this deck fairly regularly and it has become apparent that between the effects of my commander plus the speed in which I focus to ramp him in that I generally speaking am the aggressor of the game. I have routinely been able to cast Kozilek between turns 3-5 on a fairly regular basis. In a lot of cases I have disliked a lot of the more expensive defensive stuff that isnt just spot removal / my few wraths so I am making a bit of an adjustment based on that to try out some new stuff.

DECK CHANGE:

• Thopter Assembly -> Bane of Bala Ged generally speaking, when it comes to flying defense, I try to just race people and make them block rather than worrying about blocking myself. The bane has a decent mana cost and its ability on attack is rough. It is more or less an annihilate effect but the cost to cast it is low enough that I want to give it a shot. If my opponents are exiling creatures that makes it harder to block my commander and if they are not exiling creatures they are dropping important resources to it. This in my mind is a shift from a defensive responsive type of creature that I had a hard time pushing to a creature that is much more aggressive and can potentially force my opponents into spot removing and or just having a harder time defending themselves due to.
• Platinum Emperion -> Artisan of Kozilek defending life totals is something more for a control deck. Because I end up being the aggressor more I want to be more aggressive. The artisan can act as a rez for several of the creatures in deck and annihilate 2 is still a very respectable attack effect. Shifting from defensive to offensive for now.
• Shimmer Myr -> Palladium Myr I have not noticed flash for my artifacts to matter enough to justify this. I want flash for my creatures more than I do my artifacts. This potentially still has good synergy with Unwinding Clock but I have not found that alone to be enough synergy for me to keep it in. More ramp instead sounds good.
• Darksteel Forge -> Voltaic Key the forge is really clunky it takes up a whole turn to try to put up a precaution that "might" matter. With how aggressive I have been so far I just find it awkward when it makes its way to my hand. I just want something else and I run enough 2+ mana stones that Voltaic Key seems like a fine mana stone addition.
• Mirrorworks -> Breaker of Armies the problem is that I never seem to have time to drop Mirrorworks. Its a 5 mana card that you drop and then get value after that turn so I have to have it in my opener, ramp into it, and then have more ramp yet to go. So it either slows me down as I need more relevant things yet to drop. Its just been more awkward than I thought it would be here for me. Breaker of Armies makes Kozilek unblockable (huge lure guy in front) and it makes for some awkward combat math for my opponents as well as making them panic about their utility creatures. It seems fun

If anyone has anything they want me to circle back to I will try to. I have kind of half assessed posts as they were made but had a hard time getting around to all of the responses this last month.

The deck has been working fairly well. I noticed that I have been getting clogged up with 6+ mana cards too much though so I am going to go back to basics here and try to dumb it down to faster smaller effects and push Kozilek as my main threat. Its just been too often that I cant draw any cards with Kozilek being cast because too much of my crap costs too much.

CUTS:
1 Duplicant he is expensive to cast and responsive. The problem though is that he can only target creatures, is ETB reliant, and that he sits in hand waiting to be used. Instead I am bringing in two creature spot removal options but ones I can drop in early and draw more cards from kozilek while I wait for a time I want to use them. They also keep me more open to playing defense from big creatures by having the option of instant speed removing things.
1 Bane of Bala Ged trying to cut big fatty beaters and go to kozilek as my main beat down strategy.
1 Sandstone Oracle I like the effect but its still very slow and expensive. Its also kind of doubling up on what Kozilek is supposed to be doing for me.
1 Breaker of Armies I like the effect but I need to trim some of the expensive cards.
1 Artisan of Kozilek I like the effect but I need to trim some of the expensive cards.
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth Hit and miss on cutting him right now to be honest. I need to be moving my hand more for my commander though and he can clog up my hand while also being a little redundant with my commander Kozilek. The other eldrazi offer me unique removal which is why I am keeping the ulamogs in for now but not kozilek.


ADDS:
1 Brittle Effigy spot removal as needed but I can drop it out of my hand early and sit / wait on it.
1 Phyrexian Furnace a little more grave hate. What I like about it though is that its cheap card draw which is more of what I was going for. The fact that it can serve as additional graveyard hate though is nice.
1 Sensei's Divining Top I am a little questionable on adding top yet but it can use extra mana for a few things and I can dig for counterspells in a pinch. It also has good interaction with Rings of Brighthearth if it comes to that I can draw with them combined.
1 Triangle of War more cheap removal. I like that I can drop it and move on to use it later. My commander should be able to fight and kill most things.
1 Mind Stone I am hesitant to add mana stones that only tap for one mana but its still good in the early game and can cycle itself later. Its really never a "bad" draw so its good enough to get in for now.
1 Ratchet Bomb a nice sweeper for tokens. In a pinch I can ratchet it up and use it on something else too.

The goal of these changes was to decrease the overall cost of cards and to stop getting into situations where I have 5 cards that cost 6+ to drop in hand at a time. Too many of these situations have come up where casting Kozilek isnt that beneficial for me so I need to work more on moving my hand faster so I can turn over larger portions of my deck when I do cast him. Too many responsive cards that have to stay in hand is concerning too but at the same time I still need my answers for anything kind of cards.

I like these changes. I always thought it would be better to just let Kozilek do the heavy lifting in terms of damage. This way all you really need to focus on is commander damage, and you can free up some slots for utility cards.

Triangle of War is really cool tech! I've never seen it before. It's also a nice way to get Junk Diver or Myr Retriever in the graveyard in a pinch if you run those cards.

I've been making some changes to my list as well.
In:
Platinum Angel
Clock of Omens
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon

Out:
Reality Smasher
Crucible of Worlds
Blinkmoth Nexus[/card]

Reality Smasher just didn't do anything, while Platinum Angel prevents me from losing, has flying, and can be tutored and made indestructible. Crucible of Worlds was a meta call. It's not really necessary, as most people in my meta don't play things like Wave of Vitriole or other mass land destruction. Blinkmoth nexus also didn't really do anything for me.

ISBP:
I disagree with cutting Duplicant. We have few enough removal options as it is, and this one often becomes a bigger creature after using it. I also disagree with cutting Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. Drawing extra cards and Annihilator 4 is very good, you can sacrifice it to Miren, the moaning Well to gain a ton of life, and the shuffle effect can be relevant.

Quote from Mentack87 »

I've been making some changes to my list as well.
In:
Platinum Angel
Clock of Omens
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon

Out:
Reality Smasher
Crucible of Worlds
Blinkmoth Nexus[/card]

Reality Smasher just didn't do anything, while Platinum Angel prevents me from losing, has flying, and can be tutored and made indestructible. Crucible of Worlds was a meta call. It's not really necessary, as most people in my meta don't play things like Wave of Vitriole or other mass land destruction. Blinkmoth nexus also didn't really do anything for me.

ISBP:
I disagree with cutting Duplicant. We have few enough removal options as it is, and this one often becomes a bigger creature after using it. I also disagree with cutting Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. Drawing extra cards and Annihilator 4 is very good, you can sacrifice it to Miren, the moaning Well to gain a ton of life, and the shuffle effect can be relevant.

Duplicant - I play it for the removal effect. In place of it I am bringing in two spot removal effect. The ones I bring in though I can control the timing of rather than them being sorcery speed only so I view that as superior removal options. If I have Duplicant in my opening hand it means I have to play it early or keep it in hand past when I drop Kozilek aka draw less cards. The big question is going to come down to how much you like the body it provides because without creature tutors, crature abuse the difference between Duplicant and Brittle Effigy is going to be the body you get and the timing you get from the effect. I would argue that I am not loosing the functionality and I am actually improving my ability to curve into games with Kozilek by moving to the Effigy.

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - he has a lot of overlap with my commander was part of the issue. If I draw him when I have the opportunity to cast my commander then there is a question of objectives. I felt like his on cast was less necessary because it overlaps with my commander's so for now I will leave him out in an attempt to cut costs and move the deck more and faster. Its not as if I cant include him again if I feel I am missing him however if and when I have been casting other eldrazi I have found myself wanting the Ulamogs more than a redundant Kozilek.

Just a short recount but I played this deck a little last week and this was the results:

Game 1: Really great looking hand when I had mulliganed to 6. I literally needed to draw a land in the top 3-4 cards and it was like 7 deep to the next land so I stalled out with 1 land in play, Expidition Map, Burnished Heart / Solemn Simulacrum / Sculpting Steel all. It was a great looking hand that should have gotten there but just didn't. Mathematically it should have gotten there between the scry one and two draws before I needed the land but I just couldn't make it come together. I scooped out of this game after missing several turns because I didnt really want to crawl back in late with this deck as well as waste their time.

Game 2: Game went well but my opponents made me worry. Karlov of the Ghost Council had a somewhat bad game though so that helped me because he wasn't drawing well which handicapped him on his lands as well. Daxos the Returned almost sideswiped me out of nowhere but it happened to have been the turn that Karlov dropped an Archfiend of Depravity so instead some 40-50 damage swung at Karlov instead. I managed to win a counterspell war with Azami, Lady of Scrolls which was hilarious as he couldn't counter my counters. I had a Vedalken Orrery + Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger for the later parts of the game I was holding for if Azami tried going off I could jump in with robust removal he would have a hard time interacting with. In the end I ran him over with my commander while keeping Karlov to hold Daxos in check as his defense vs the token swarm left him very crippled. After I finished Azami off, the Karlov player looked to be coming back into the game but a nicely timed flash Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger took out his commander + Coffin Queen he was going to abuse a Kokusho with. I then used my newly added Ratchet Bomb to clear out a Righteous Aura the turn in which I killed Daxos with my commander which let me turn back to Karlov.

Overall, the game went well. Token decks are still kind of a problem as if I had been turned on by Daxos' 11 4/4 tokens I would probably have died on the spot. I might have to further consider things like Crawlspace or Engineered Explosives yet. Ratchet Bomb looks really good so far. I was amused by the potential use of the untapping artifacts / Rings of Brighthearth if I need to ratchet it up quickly.

Still playing Kozilek. I had a fun game last night where I kept getting answered but I also kept answering things.

4 Player FFA game. Opponents were Rasputin Dreamweaver, Lovisa Coldeyes, and Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo (its like a super defensive pillowfort white???).

My opening hand was a little slow but it looked ok.

T1: land
T2: land, Everflowing Chalice for 1
T3: land, Solemn Simulacrum
T4: land, Ur-Golem's Eye, Chromatic Lantern
T5: land, Blinkmoth Urn, Rings of Brighthearth (my plan here was next turn to probably drop a Burnished Hart + Kozilek with the mana option to pop the Hart if I wanted or save it for 4 lands the next turn. Unfortunately the red player wheeled here which made my commander kind of bad too).
T6: land, All is Dust (Rasputin had his commander + Avacyn + Akroma's Memorial. I unfortunately could not deal with the memorial nicely right this second without just doing all is dust + Scour from Existence as my whole turn so instead I opt to dump some of my hand and try to get to a point where my commander is decent. Rasputin side swipes me fairly hard with a Tragic Arrogance which he drops me to a Solemn Simulacrum and lands. He then casts a Medomai the Ageless and takes an extra turn. I cant recall what he does in his extra turn offhand.
T7: land, I offload some of my hand Mana Crypt + Triangle of War + Unwinding Clock and I keep up a Mystifying Maze. I am trying to get to a point where casting my commander gives me another hand to work with. Rasputin tries swinging his Medomai and I maze it for the turn even though it is not attacking me. He grumbles and then goes to cast a kicked Rite of Replication on a Solemn Simulacrum but I still have 2 mana up with a Solemn Simulacrum myself so I fight my Solemn with Lovissa's solemn and I fizzle his Rite of Replication. Rasputin then grumbles about the colorless deck answering his UW deck lol. Lovissa does a Chaos Warp on the Medomai the Ageless. Somewhere soon after this, the memorial ends up dying but I cant recall how.
T8: land, I play a few more minor things I think but I cant remember what they were. I keep up the mana to maze or Scour from Existence. Rasputin takes a small turn but what I dont notice is that he is sitting behind a Winding Canyons. Lovissa tries an Insurrection to hijack a Sun Titan for some value as well as just beat on the Rasputin player who keeps attempting super broken things. Rasputin counters him with a homeward path. Rasputin did pull 2 mana off his commander before the insurrection though to use it for himself and thus he uses a Winding Canyons to throw out a Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or he wont have mana left for it later. The Opal-Eye still has his Sun Titan he played the turn before who almost got borrowed for a turn. He drops a True Conviction and swings at the Rasputin player as he can trade potentially if Kozilek blocks with it.
T9: land, I drop my commander in as I can block with it against the other Kozilek and I have some chaff I can sac in an annihilate pinch. I draw... ok but not super well. Rasputin swings his Kozilek back at the Opal-Eye player for hitting him hard last turn and Opal-Eye ends up sacing down and blocking with his Sun Titan. Rasputin then gets a Sun Titan on his Mimic Vat. Lovissa has scooped at this point for some reason I am not sure about but I think he was having a hard time playing into the game after the Tragic Arrogance not to mention the Homeward Path countering his Insurrection play. Opal-Eye sets up some more defenses. I end up using my Strip Mine on a Tower of the Magistrate (I had a Loxodon Warhammer I wanted to use) and then casting Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to take out a Kor Haven + Mimic Vat. I swing my commander at Rasputin to get 12 damage through. Rasputin on his turn does an Austere Command (I have no 6s in hand ) and gets everythign I have other than Ulamog who is indestructible. He then drops a Duplicant on Ulamog. Opal-Eye keeps defensive.
T10: land, Vedalken Orrery so I can play defensively. Rasputin drops a Myr Battlesphere in with a Mistmeadow Witch with 4 mana up to flicker at least once. I flash an Endbringer at Opal-Eye's end step which I had drawn this turn. On my turn, I kind of get a little too excited and I poke the witch on my main step (I should have done it at endstep to screw with flickers). Rasputin flickers his Duplicant in response. I play a Tabernacle to jack with his tokens. Duplicant comes back in and targets endbringer which Opal-Eye for some reason helps me with a Otherworldly Journey (I dont complain). Rasputin swings some damage at me on his turn but otherwise does not have a lot going on. Opal-Eye remains primarily defensive. I play a Memory Jar + Trading Post + make a goat with the post.
T11: land, My hand is dwindling at this point and I get ready for a Kozilek so I pass turn. I have a few other options with the option of Trading Post recovering an artifact if I want. Rasputin plays an Archaeomancer to recover his Austere Command. Its getting late and I dont respond with the sac the goat to recover my Phyrexian Furnace as I should but at the same time he does not really want to restart the game so he scoops at this point because he is ready to call it a night. I start nibbling at some lifegain creatures that Opal-Eye has with my endbringer. Opal-Eye ends up conceding as I dont think he has a way to really win right now in a heads up with me. He does have a fat stack of life but that wont help against my commander damage.

---

That sort of wraps up that game. It was a fairly good one that started a little slow considering how much ramp I had but I continued to hit my land drops which kept me going. I love how the deck is mostly ramp and answers with my commander benefiting from the ramp while drawing me cards, being my wincon, and giving me control. This deck is a lot of fun.

EDIT: I guess I am going to make one super late change after I posted this.

DECK CHANGE:

Blinkmoth Urn -> Warping Wail after seeing someone hit me a few times with artifact + creature wraths it became a bit more obvious that Blinkmoth Urn seems more and more like an over commitment card. Its cool when you have a ton of artifacts and are not getting blown up. Its also expensive to drop and hard to multi task in a turn because it does not give me mana back the same turn. It also gives mana to opponents first all of which kind of annoy me. Warping Wail on the other hand can give me that middle finger to Austere Command as well as give me a one time ramp bump if I want it.

Ooooo piece of candy. This land is a nice little bit of utility. The ability to tutor for an artifact is fairly wide open for this deck and this land still provides mana, comes in untapped, and probably generates a small bit of life steadily. I have no doubt that this will make its way into this deck when it releases.

In other news, I am contemplating the possibility of perhaps adding Emrakul, the Promised End to my list. The mana cost is not so bad and hijacking a turn allows a lot of screwyness to control players.

Its been a while since I did much for changes. I have been working on a Tymna & Kondo deck that got me thinking that a few more of the super early ramp options might be worth investing in to speed me up a bit more. There have also been a few cards that have not been getting as much milage as I want from them of late.

DECK CHANGES:

• Pilgrim's Eye -> Lotus Petal the pilgrim's eye felt slower in execution than I was really happy with. This deck is very much about moving a lot of ramp very quickly and honestly I felt like the eye was a little too slow. I did like it as a chump block but I needed to be moving faster and getting in play rather than defending myself. Lotus Petal at first glance might seem a little underwhelming but it might be the difference of a turn faster ramping which can result in a turn faster Kozilek.
• Mindless Automaton -> Hangarback Walker mindless is a little odd as I like the things it does but its a little slow to be honest. I dont really like using it as a blocker but the hand moving was just a little slower than I liked with it. I like the Walker because I could see myself dropping it early or late and still getting good results form it. It seems like a card that would work well with the big mana this deck can provide.
• Trading Post -> Avarice Totem I was just never happy to see Trading Post. It was a little clunky, slow, and expensive to turn things over. I like the totem because its very cheap to just put in play and it can really screw with people with its theft option. I can always later swap out a strong threat for a mana stone if I am at 11+ mana and in the early game I can push it from hand quickly both of which I like.
• Reliquary Tower -> Mox Diamond I wanted to try to lower my land count slightly. Honestly this deck does not need the tower as more than 7 cards seems to not ever be a real issue. The mox should help me a little with how aggressive I mulligan and it should move me faster into my other ramp elements.
• Mirrorpool -> Chrome Mox same thing as above. I am too creature light / spell light to really use this land. I am hoping to speed up my first few turns and how quickly I establish my ramp game.

CONSIDERATIONS:

• Codex Shredder
  
• Pithing Needle
  
• Ring of Three Wishes
  
• Predator Flagship
  
• Skyship Weatherlight
  
• Steel Hellkite
  

Several of the bigger cards here are things I am interested in however many of the 4-6 mana cards really get action jammed in my hand in a lot of cases so I am also reluctant to include them. The tutors could help me get All is Dust / Ugin more reliably as they are two cards I wish I could run more of. I am also interested in the flagship as evasion / removal and the hellkite for token answers however their mana costs keep me from pulling the trigger on them in most cases. I am looking forward to these changes as I think all of them should speed me up.

I would replace the chrome mox, as it won't tap for mana. I would instead keep the reliquary tower, and lose the mirror pool or replace it with steel hellkite.

Quote from Mentack87 »

I would replace the chrome mox, as it won't tap for mana. I would instead keep the reliquary tower, and lose the mirror pool or replace it with steel hellkite.

I apologize for the delay. You are correct that the non artifact clause of the Chrome Mox is exceptionally bad for this deck. I was remembering it as just a non-land and then I just forgot to respond to your post at a later point in time. I cant remember what I changed it to in my actual list so I will just pretend it has been in my list for the purpose of making changes rather than try to figure out what I actually put in there instead.

---

Normally I dont do set reviews for my non primers but given how few playable cards Kozilek normally gets in a set and how many interesting ones he got this time I am opting to do a set review this time. Given the number of cards I found worth mentioning I will bold the ones that I find more viable.

Aether Revolt Set Review:

• Cogwork Assembler - I really like the flavor of what they are doing here. The cost of the creature and its stats are all good. But when it comes to the ability I feel like its a little too expensive on the activation for a one turn copy. I would be interested in this mechanic for a little less mana or making a permenant copy. Its interesting and I think its close to where I would be interested in testing but it is just a little too clunky still.
• Gonti's Aether Heart - I do love some extra turns. My bigges issue with this card is that it looks like it would be a challange to make this go off even with an artifact heavy deck. It means dropping it one turn and probably generating the energy for it over the next turn or two. If I had other cards in the deck that cared about energy I think this is a good energy generation method but I just feel its too all or nothing and its spaced out a little too much.
• Hope of Ghirapur - its an interesting card from the perspective of wrath defense and or counterspell defense. Overall though I think its impact is a little too low. Its a cool and flavorful card but I think its role is better filled by something like Defense Matrix as far as counter defense goes.
• Inspiring Statuary - this card is one that I think has a lot of potential. It does not act as a mana stone for the rest of the deck but given how many cheap utility artifacts I have in here, it turns all of them into one mana stones for the purpose of casting my commander. I think it has a lot of potential but unfortunately its not the kind of ramp that ramps my other ramp. Its a little give and take but I think its interesting enough that I want to test it.
• Pacification Array - its sort of like another Icy Manipulator effect but with a lower start up cost as well as worse targeting options. Tapping down defenses is still strong and it can protect from flying / evasive attackers but the loss of the ability to target lands is kind of a big thing to me as I like the diversity of what Icy Manipulator can do.
• Paradox Engine - This card has a lot of potential considering we are a deck that can tempo very well and we have a big hand refill as a commander. The biggest concern I have over it offhand is the mana cost to get it into play means that its hard to play it and then play another card + have the mana stones to really profit from it. This to me means that it will either be slow out of the gates and it will be dropped and pass turn or that its a little more of a mid game card. I will be honest that I am not as sold on this card as it stands just because of its mana cost to play it and then requiring additional things to be cast to trigger it. Don't get me wrong, I am totally thinking of things like Mana Crypt + 0 cost cards just going to town but I also have concerns about this. I want to justify testing it as I think its a card with a lot of potential but I also have concerns about it as it more seems like an infinite combo enabler than something to nicely tempo ramp off of.
• Planar Bridge - Tutor Ugin into play for 14 mana? Seems good. Honestly, Ugin and All is Dust are two of my most impactful cards of this deck and the fact that I could tutor Ugin or a Silent Arbitor into play is kind of a big deal. I had been pushing around the idea of Ring of Three Wishes for a bit but considering the cost of dropping and using it and then casting what I get it felt too clunky. This bridge shortcuts some of it by cutting like exactly 3 cards from the tutor list it can put any of the rest of the deck directly into play. This deck is also a big mana deck so 14 mana is not so unreasonable to be honest.
• Scrap Trawler - Its sort of interesting from the perspective of a recovery plan in case of being wrathed but usually I dont worry about that too much as I usually just go for mashing more Kozilek into more cards drawn. Still, I could see it for those who worry about recovery plans as it could probably pick up a bunch of mana stones and such. It is also interesting from the perspective of the artifacts that sacrifice to do things as many of them have low cost and so they can potentially chain each other.
• Treasure Keeper - from the perspective that it could give a blocker who dies nicely its interesting. From the perspective that it does not really advance anything quickly and it seems more for the value from sacrifice decks I dont think I would run it. Its not a bad creature but its not pushing us forward in ramp or giving us any utility I dont see it making the cut.
• Universal Solvent - This card is freaking sweet from the perspective that it does not clog up our hands. I cant tell you how many times I have been stuck with 6+ mana stuff in hand when I am ready to cast Kozilek and it costs me draw. From that perspective I love this card as in the early game I can just push it out and move my hand more.
• Walking Ballista - This card is great because it can really be pushed around based on where you are in the game. You can drop it with a low counter count to get Kozilek into play and get more cards or you can draw it late and drop it with a bunch of counters. I like this from the perspective of another answer to tokens and just on demand spot removal for utility creatures and such. Its hard to come by unconditional removal in colorless and this is something that plays well into the big mana mentality of the deck as well as helps against tokens (one of the things I have a hard time with).

So, overall thats a lot of cards I have in consideration. Most of the ones I bolded I want to try to get into my list for some testing so I will play with a few things in list.

DECK CHANGES:

• Conduit of Ruin -> Walking Ballista so, the Conduit of Ruin has been a little less impressive than I have wanted it to be for some time now. It can really only tutor for one of two cards and both do sort of the same thing and its tutor to topdeck which has really kind of sucked. I think the Ballista gives me something in place of something that has not really been working so I am interested in seeing its results.
• Chrome Mox -> Universal Solvent I goofed when I added the mox and its not a card that works here. The solvent I am interested in from the perspective that I can get it into play early and not get things stuck in my hand when I go to play kozilek. It is similar in some ways to Unstable Obelisk in that the oblisk is not really good ramp so you drop the ramp element of the card but make it cost less so its easier to get in with excess mana in a turn rather than spending a turn on it. I did consider cutting something like Spine of Ish Sah to make room for this but I needed to cut the mox and the Spine is still an interesting fetch option off of Planar Bridge which I am adding right now.
• Chromatic Lantern -> Inspiring Statuary honestly both of these mana stones have pros and cons. The lantern only really becomes good if and when I get lands that do not tap for mana so shy of that its a really bad mana stone. Given the number of random artifacts that I just vomit into play I think this new one really helps me play Kozilek out faster so I suspect I will get more mana for casting my commander from it at the downside that it does not ramp into other ramp well. The lantern sucked at being ramp anyways so I think this is a fine switch.
• Staff of Domination -> Planar Bridge I honestly had a hard time ever really using the staff. I was not playing the staff to go infinite and the one time I remember setting up the cards that could go infinite with it I did not execute any of the infinite combo with it. Given this and how usually, I am drawing fairly well in the deck I feel that the staff isn't the card that I really need in this deck. The bridge is a much better mana dump and it should give me both offense and defense in that I can toolbox better. Ugin is one of my most wanted cards for this deck so a tutor that can fetch Ugin seems great.