So after a good year and a half running one EDH deck, I decided to dedicate some of my budget towards actually getting a second deck going. Initially, I started working on getting a list going for a Karlov deck, but after I saw an article on SCG a little while back, I decided to try something different.
The deck featured in the article was an Oona list that centered around using Eldrazi Processors and I liked the concept of it quite a bit. So I decided to adapt that list a bit, as for one budgeting meant some restraints and secondly I wanted to see about exploiting black Oblivion Ring effects a bit more in the deck as well.
So I added the list to my Tapped Out and sorted the cards by price, pretty much attempting to find budget replacement cards for every card that was listed as more than $5. Most changes happened to the land base but I managed to bring the list down to under $100 on there, with the only expensive cards currently remaining being Ashiok and Nykthos.
Eventually I will likely be trying to upgrade it a bit, but for the moment I am trying to keep it budget so I can actually get it together. And since budget is an issue I am looking to get some feedback and suggestions for the list before I start gathering up the cards. Don’t want to end up buying too many cards that I won’t need. Just please don’t suggest expensive cards, for me the more budget I can go the better it will be.
Anyways, here is the list I’m currently looking to acquire.
Made a few more small changes to the list because of cards that felt personally a bit better, as well as decided to take out Nykthos and Choked Estuary just to drop the overall cost of the deck a bit more. They will likely get added at a later point but by cutting them for now I can get the deck going a little bit quicker. So I changed up the following:
So have started to trade for several cards now and have ordered several others as well, though still am making tweaks as well as I work towards having my first playable iteration of this deck. Also been going through my small collection to see what cards that I have that might fit into the deck, along with scouring the web for ideas that I could use in the budgeted form of the deck.
The Thallid went out as it was just not efficient enough for what I want it to do, since the token generation on it is just too slow. Reassembling Skeleton will be filling that slot slightly better, even more so than Eternal Scourge due to potential interactions with Skullclamp. The Scourge is an Eldrazi though but got simply cut because I was looking for a few spots to slot in different cards. Dominator Drone was cut for the same reason, as other cards simply might do more for the deck.
Most our creatures are colorless so it reduces the effectivity of Leechridden Swamp, which initially got added because I had a spare copy around. Instead I’m adding newcomer Ruins of Oran-Rief to add some spice to our Eldrazi if need be. Blighted Cataract can be good in a pinch, but we need our mana a fair bit so one of the Blighted lands had to go. This being a budget list that will occasionally face decks with Top and Courser of Kruphix, I decided to add in Duskmantle, House of Shadows for a nice little disruption.
Since I’m lacking the more expensive lands, but did have a Crypt Ghast sitting idle, I figured I’d slot it into the list. While the extort can help with a little survivability as well if the Ghast lasts.
My initial idea for a second deck included Karlov and thus a bit of life gain, something I figured that could be useful here as well to help mitigate the slower pace of the deck and the lack of true bombs, since budgeting forced those real big Eldrazi to be cut. So since we’re already doing a lot of graveyard stuff, its best to just make sure we don’t help any reanimator packages too much either. So I decided to bring in both Crypt Incursion and Suffer the Past into the mix.
The last change I made so far is probably a more debatable one, but I did find a Solemn Simulacrum hidden in my binder so I decided it was time to give the sad robot a go in a deck. With the option to blink it we can gain some advantage out of it after all. To make space I took out the slightly more reliable Worn Powerstone, which I didn’t have yet so it saves me looking for a card as well, even if it’s a cheap one.
- - - - - -
There are a few other changes that I am still considering, but ones I haven’t made a firm decision on just yet.
First of all, I’m not yet too sure about Dreadship Reef in this list, it fixes but takes effort and that in a deck that likes using mana. So am considering to cut it in favor of a simple tapland.
Secondly, I found a Duplicant sitting idle in my collection as well, which could do great work since it exiles a lot, but having Deadeye Navigator in the list as well is going to cause people to have a far more aggressive stance to the deck because it can do truly broken things. Being a budget list I obviously want to have some efficiency but need to be wary not to become a bigger target than the deck can potentially deal with.
Thirdly though to a far lesser extent, when looking at adding some life gain, I did end up considering Tomb of the Spirit Dragon as well, but not sure where to add it in and well Ruins of Oran-Rief felt like a better card to add because it can actually help towards potentially winning.
It's a fun concept indeed, which is why I tried to work with it as well.
Did make a few more changes to the list as I worked on getting the rest of the cards, since going through things I felt it could do with a few more changes to make it suit my needs more.
Most changes were in the mana base. Spawning Pool replaced the Spawning Bed, as though the Scions might be nice, I do lack the big mana generating lands so sacrificing a land hurts a bit whereas Pool can be a bit more versatile in helping it out. Dreadship Reef was just too risky to run as I'd be too likely to get hosed by it, the Salt Marsh is a tap land without benefits but at least guarantees fixing. Replaced Bad River for a Panorma that fetches the needed colors just because it has the potential to actually do something the turn it comes down, which compensates a little for the lack of Urborg.
I did consider running Duplicant in the deck, as I mentioned before, but decided to run it's strictly worse version instead. When it comes to CMC and castability Duplicant wins out, but where I do lack any of the top Eldrazi I figured the Ingester could actually bring a tad bit more to the board. Finding a spot for it was tricky, but decided to take out the Brain Maggot. Both can do some defensive work but with the Ingester I can do a little more offensive stuff as well.
At last night's FNM I did pick up a Strionic Resonator in case I decide to run it, of course, it makes the deck a bigger target so need to be wary of that. If I decide to run it, I'd probably cut the Mesmeric Fiend for it, but not sure yet if I should.
I have looked at it, but currently don't feel like it has a spot in this deck. Sure, it exiles and gives info on what an opponent has, which can be useful in case I want to keep up a counter, but chances are I'd end up having to cut a counter for it and those are fairly important to keep the deck's key pieces around. Thanks for suggesting it though.
Ended up cutting back the black O-Ring tribal a bit more, bringing it back down to just the Faceless Butcher. Instead I wanted a little something that would actually help to push through a little bit more damage, so brought in a Dictate of Erebos. It helps protecting our creatures somewhat and works well with the Scions. Went with Dictate since it is easier to cast than Pact colorwise, but being able to flash it in can be useful too. Not to mention that the deck was somewhat low on 5 drops.
With Kaladesh I'm only going to make minor changes to the list that I'm currently running, which isn't too surprising with the Eldrazi being left behind on Innistrad. Other then that I'm already fairly happy with the deck and just looking to make minor improvements over time. Right now I'm trying to get more games in just so I can tweak things where needed, land base is still something I could upgrade but might opt to invest in an additional deck first.
I wasn't too impressed with Ruins of Oran-Rief so I'm going to cut it, instead I'm looking to add Tomb of the Spirit Dragon. Oona draw's hate so a bit more life can be welcome here and there.
For Kaladesh there was only one card that stood out to me: Panharmonicon, so it is going to be replacing Illusionist's Bracers since our processors rely on ETB effects.
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The deck featured in the article was an Oona list that centered around using Eldrazi Processors and I liked the concept of it quite a bit. So I decided to adapt that list a bit, as for one budgeting meant some restraints and secondly I wanted to see about exploiting black Oblivion Ring effects a bit more in the deck as well.
So I added the list to my Tapped Out and sorted the cards by price, pretty much attempting to find budget replacement cards for every card that was listed as more than $5. Most changes happened to the land base but I managed to bring the list down to under $100 on there, with the only expensive cards currently remaining being Ashiok and Nykthos.
Eventually I will likely be trying to upgrade it a bit, but for the moment I am trying to keep it budget so I can actually get it together. And since budget is an issue I am looking to get some feedback and suggestions for the list before I start gathering up the cards. Don’t want to end up buying too many cards that I won’t need. Just please don’t suggest expensive cards, for me the more budget I can go the better it will be.
Anyways, here is the list I’m currently looking to acquire.
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
Creature (33)
1x Artisan of Kozilek
1x Bane of Bala Ged
1x Bearer of Silence
1x Blight Herder
1x Conduit of Ruin
1x Crypt Ghast
1x Cryptic Cruiser
1x Cultivator Drone
1x Deadeye Navigator
1x Deepfathom Skulker
1x Diluvian Primordial
1x Drowner of Hope
1x Eldrazi Skyspawner
1x Endbringer
1x Faceless Butcher
1x Fathom Feeder
1x Kozilek's Channeler
1x Lord of the Void
1x Matter Reshaper
1x Mind Raker
1x Mindmelter
1x Oblivion Sower
1x Phyrexian Ingester
1x Prophet of Distortion
1x Reality Smasher
1x Reassembling Skeleton
1x Sifter of Skulls
1x Sire of Stagnation
1x Smothering Abomination
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Ulamog's Nullifier
1x Ulamog's Reclaimer
1x Wasteland Strangler
1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
INSTANTS [10]
1x Crypt Incursion
1x Dissipate
1x Faerie Trickery
1x Grip of Desolation
1x Memory Plunder
1x Reality Shift
1x Silence the Believers
1x Spell Shrivel
1x Suffer the Past
1x Void Shatter
SORCERIES [5]
1x Black Sun's Zenith
1x Curse of the Swine
1x Sadistic Sacrament
1x Transgress the Mind
1x Voidwalk
ENCHANTMENTS [2]
1x Dictate of Erebos
1x Hedonist's Trove
ARTIFACTS [10]
1x Crystal Shard
1x Dimir Signet
1x Erratic Portal
1x Everflowing Chalice
1x Hedron Archive
1x Illusionist's Bracers
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Vedalken Orrery
1x Blighted Fen
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Dimir Aqueduct
1x Dismal Backwater
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Duskmantle, House of Shadows
1x Eldrazi Temple
1x Esper Panorama
1x Grixis Panorama
10x Island
1x Jwar Isle Refuge
1x Rogue's Passage
1x Ruins of Oran-Rief
1x Salt Marsh
1x Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
1x Spawning Pool
1x Sunken Hollow
10x Swamp
1x Tainted Isle
1x Temple of Deceit
OUT
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
- Choked Estuary
- Desolation Twin
- Ertai's Meddling
- Descent Into Madness
IN
+ Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
+ Esper Panorama
+ Artisan of Kozilek
+ Slithery Stalker
+ Mesmeric Fiend
OUT
- Slithery Stalker
- Eternal Scourge
- Deathspore Thallid
- Blighted Cataract
- Leechridden Swamp
- Worn Powerstone
- Dominator Drone
IN
+ Solemn Simulacrum
+ Crypt Ghast
+ Ruins of Oran-Rief
+ Duskmantle, House of Shadows
+ Suffer the Past
+ Crypt Incursion
+ Reassembling Skeleton
The Thallid went out as it was just not efficient enough for what I want it to do, since the token generation on it is just too slow. Reassembling Skeleton will be filling that slot slightly better, even more so than Eternal Scourge due to potential interactions with Skullclamp. The Scourge is an Eldrazi though but got simply cut because I was looking for a few spots to slot in different cards. Dominator Drone was cut for the same reason, as other cards simply might do more for the deck.
Most our creatures are colorless so it reduces the effectivity of Leechridden Swamp, which initially got added because I had a spare copy around. Instead I’m adding newcomer Ruins of Oran-Rief to add some spice to our Eldrazi if need be. Blighted Cataract can be good in a pinch, but we need our mana a fair bit so one of the Blighted lands had to go. This being a budget list that will occasionally face decks with Top and Courser of Kruphix, I decided to add in Duskmantle, House of Shadows for a nice little disruption.
Since I’m lacking the more expensive lands, but did have a Crypt Ghast sitting idle, I figured I’d slot it into the list. While the extort can help with a little survivability as well if the Ghast lasts.
My initial idea for a second deck included Karlov and thus a bit of life gain, something I figured that could be useful here as well to help mitigate the slower pace of the deck and the lack of true bombs, since budgeting forced those real big Eldrazi to be cut. So since we’re already doing a lot of graveyard stuff, its best to just make sure we don’t help any reanimator packages too much either. So I decided to bring in both Crypt Incursion and Suffer the Past into the mix.
The last change I made so far is probably a more debatable one, but I did find a Solemn Simulacrum hidden in my binder so I decided it was time to give the sad robot a go in a deck. With the option to blink it we can gain some advantage out of it after all. To make space I took out the slightly more reliable Worn Powerstone, which I didn’t have yet so it saves me looking for a card as well, even if it’s a cheap one.
- - - - - -
There are a few other changes that I am still considering, but ones I haven’t made a firm decision on just yet.
First of all, I’m not yet too sure about Dreadship Reef in this list, it fixes but takes effort and that in a deck that likes using mana. So am considering to cut it in favor of a simple tapland.
Secondly, I found a Duplicant sitting idle in my collection as well, which could do great work since it exiles a lot, but having Deadeye Navigator in the list as well is going to cause people to have a far more aggressive stance to the deck because it can do truly broken things. Being a budget list I obviously want to have some efficiency but need to be wary not to become a bigger target than the deck can potentially deal with.
Thirdly though to a far lesser extent, when looking at adding some life gain, I did end up considering Tomb of the Spirit Dragon as well, but not sure where to add it in and well Ruins of Oran-Rief felt like a better card to add because it can actually help towards potentially winning.
Did make a few more changes to the list as I worked on getting the rest of the cards, since going through things I felt it could do with a few more changes to make it suit my needs more.
OUT :
-1 Spawning Bed
-1 Salt Marsh
-1 Bad River
-1 Brain Maggot
IN :
+1 Spawning Pool
+1 Salt Marsh
+1 Grixis Panorama
+1 Phyrexian Ingester
Most changes were in the mana base. Spawning Pool replaced the Spawning Bed, as though the Scions might be nice, I do lack the big mana generating lands so sacrificing a land hurts a bit whereas Pool can be a bit more versatile in helping it out. Dreadship Reef was just too risky to run as I'd be too likely to get hosed by it, the Salt Marsh is a tap land without benefits but at least guarantees fixing. Replaced Bad River for a Panorma that fetches the needed colors just because it has the potential to actually do something the turn it comes down, which compensates a little for the lack of Urborg.
I did consider running Duplicant in the deck, as I mentioned before, but decided to run it's strictly worse version instead. When it comes to CMC and castability Duplicant wins out, but where I do lack any of the top Eldrazi I figured the Ingester could actually bring a tad bit more to the board. Finding a spot for it was tricky, but decided to take out the Brain Maggot. Both can do some defensive work but with the Ingester I can do a little more offensive stuff as well.
At last night's FNM I did pick up a Strionic Resonator in case I decide to run it, of course, it makes the deck a bigger target so need to be wary of that. If I decide to run it, I'd probably cut the Mesmeric Fiend for it, but not sure yet if I should.
OUT :
-1 Mesmeric Fiend
IN :
+1 Dictate of Erebos
I wasn't too impressed with Ruins of Oran-Rief so I'm going to cut it, instead I'm looking to add Tomb of the Spirit Dragon. Oona draw's hate so a bit more life can be welcome here and there.
For Kaladesh there was only one card that stood out to me: Panharmonicon, so it is going to be replacing Illusionist's Bracers since our processors rely on ETB effects.