» INTRODUCTION
Much like the deck this thread is still a work in progress, as recent changes have made me decide that it was time to rewrite this first post a bit. Nonetheless, I want to welcome you to my Azami, Lady of Paradoxes deck which I’ve been tinkering around with for some time now, albeit its previous iterations were with different Commanders at the helm.
The deck is currently centered around Azami and her three Paradoxes:
- The first is the obvious inclusion of Paradox Engine
- Secondly, which card to imprint on Isochron Scepter
- And lastly, why the hell are some of these cards in it.
Of those, the third one probably needs explaining most but clarifying it is rather simple (in my opinion). The main reason this deck came to be is because I wanted to experiment with a new playstyle and also make an attempt at stepping away from my usual thematic and synergistic builds. Though being on a budget means I had to cut some corners as well as focus on upgrading it’s efficiency over time.
While finding budget alternatives has been somewhat responsible for some inclusions, the other reason why the deck might seem a little mix and match is because I didn’t want to go netdeck a list and go with that. Sure, I used the information that was available to me, but in most cases I used it as a means to find cards I wanted or could try. A key part for me in this process has been not to just rely on a card because its widely used and because someone else says so, but by simply giving a card a try to see how it performs and what it provides, as well as to see what other changes a card might introduce.
So it’s been a process of a lot of trial and error that has left behind some perhaps more unique inclusions in my list. Furthermore, I’m not expecting this deck to be a finely tuned, competitive deck as some cards I simply deem too expensive to acquire. Instead I aim for this deck to be more competitive than my other decks by including more interaction and the usage of some combo aspects.
Note(s): I’m well aware that there is a fair amount of debate surrounding Paradox Engine and a potential/desired banning of it. While it can do broken things in a deck, I do feel that it’s not essential either. The deck can perform perfectly fine without it for example, I have included it because it helps me push the playstyle of the deck to a less casual and ‘friendly’ playstyle.
» CONSIDERATIONS
As indicated earlier, this deck features and came to be through a fair amount of trying and experimenting with cards and concepts. And while the deck probably is already trying to do a few things too many as it is, there are a few things I’m still interested in playing around with down the road.
» SOURCES & CREDITS
While this deck has evolved and grown over some time, a lot of the information used is thanks to what was provided on here by others. I definitely want to give some credit to them as it has helped me quite a bit when it comes to selecting cards I wanted to try in my particular build. So I do encourage to check out these threads as well.
» OMISSIONS & EXCLUSIONS
This section will probably feature a list that primarily contains cards that didn’t get included for the simple reason of my budget not allowing it. I might one day be lucky to add some of them, but I don’t consider them to have currently much priority in that regard.
Then there are some cards that I have tried in my deck but that I felt were cards that simply underperforming in my list. It’s not that I’m arguing that a card listed here is not good or doesn’t have potential, I’m just not considering it to be a good fit at this time.
» CHANGELOG
Having gone through a few iterations that featured other Commanders at the helm of this deck and the fair share of upgrading that already happened it was challenging to feature a complete list of changes the deck has gone through. So I am mainly limiting this log to the changes I made since Azami went into my Command Zone.
Not being a Storm player and not having a truly dedicated Storm deck, has made Mind’s Desire a weird inclusion. Something that was expected when I sleeved up the card, but the main aim was to explore if it was a direction I might want to pursue and to get a minor glimpse of the challenges of Storm. This past weekend I got to try the card twice and while the impact of each play wasn’t super impactful, the attempts of building up a count was an interesting lesson. I probably could have done far better in them but I feel that the experience here is what counts most for me.
Not too surprisingly, I am going to cut the card. There is potential but I simply don’t feel it’s something I want to pursue further right now. Obviously Storm is challenging in itself, let alone within the EDH format. So it is time to move onto my next experiment with the deck.
Vedalken Mastermind has been an interesting performer, albeit mostly to protect Azami and other wizards from removal. Going through my binder I stumbled upon Cloudstone Curio, this card initially feels like a pass since there aren’t that many ETB triggers to exploit. However, looking at things there is potential for some sort of fun, albeit some of it mostly depends on Magical Christmasland. Though having the card and experimenting being part of the deck’s philosophy for me, I took the gamble and sleeved it up.
Current Thoughts
So the idea is to see if I can have some fun with Curio and Docent of Perfection, any instant/sorcery would drop a token and help me bounce a creature. Either to protect or to simply replay, though it is fairly obvious that Vedalken Mastermind is going to be more efficient at this. That said, Mastermind is fairly vulnerable.
Additionally, I’m bringing in Leyline of Anticipation, so to help keeping up mana and also to play more around counters. Additionally it can help me drop a cheap creature to trigger Curio as well, so why not. I did consider Vedalken Orrery as well but Leyline can potentially come down for free and adds to the devotion for Nykthos. So since I lack certain more expensive mana rocks, it felt like the more decent choice. Also helped that I did have an unused Leyline around, while I still will have to see about acquiring an Orrery.
Along with that I’m considering putting Tim into the deck for a bit and see what this little old school wizard can do.
@NimBalor
Hey man, how's it going? First, I want to thank you for honoring the two lists I host in your OP! Thanks a bunch, and I hope you continue to learn and contribute to these forums.
Your logic for Leyline of Anticipation vs. Vedalken Orrery is sound. I definitely agree with you there that the Leyline is much better than the Orrery in most cases.
I'm curious as to why you have Thought Scour. Is it simply because it's a one mana draw spell?
@NimBalor
Hey man, how's it going? First, I want to thank you for honoring the two lists I host in your OP! Thanks a bunch, and I hope you continue to learn and contribute to these forums.
Your logic for Leyline of Anticipation vs. Vedalken Orrery is sound. I definitely agree with you there that the Leyline is much better than the Orrery in most cases.
I'm curious as to why you have Thought Scour. Is it simply because it's a one mana draw spell?
Thanks. Though I did omit some parts of my reasoning mainly because I had one card over the other. Orrery can be tutored more easily and can be recurred more easily as well, but at the same time suffers from the fact that in my meta artifact removal is at a premium already. So in part lets me save my counters for my more important pieces.
As far as Thought Scour goes, it being a simple cantrip helps but thats not the only reason, as I found it to be decent against some tutors since it can take away the card they put on top, making it a pseudo counterspell. And once it helped me get rid of of a Top as well. Additionally it can help me grab the card I tutored with Long-Term Plans or turn it pretty much into a Mill three with Isochron Scepter and LabMan out.
Fair enough. I see Workshop Assistant. Wouldn't Myr Retriever be a strict upgrade? Othwerwise, I think your list is pretty streamlined. Arcum Dagsson is also an interesting choice with so few artifact creatures in your deck, but it's appeal with Paradox Engine cannot be underestimated.
Fair enough. I see Workshop Assistant. Wouldn't Myr Retriever be a strict upgrade? Othwerwise, I think your list is pretty streamlined. Arcum Dagsson is also an interesting choice with so few artifact creatures in your deck, but it's appeal with Paradox Engine cannot be underestimated.
Probably should upgrade Assistant to Myr Retriever, added Assistant at the time to experiment with the recursion effect since I had a copy of it laying around. Seemed to have forgotten about making that upgrade, so will have to see about making that happen.
Arcum Dagsson is pretty much a remnant of me experimenting with cards, it mainly stuck around because it disrupted the Breya players a fair bit. That said its effect is too niche, so should cut it soon as well. Probably it will get replaced with Phyrexian Metamorph to get some redundancy going.
Decided to take Cloudstone Curio out of the deck for now, mainly because I need it in a different deck and only have a single copy of the card. It will also give me some time to see if it really needs the card or not, so it might go back in again later but for now it's making space for Aetherflux Reservoir to provide an additional win condition to the deck.
Leyline of Anticipation while interesting simply doesn't do enough for me, so it's going out as well. Looking to bring in a copy of Capsize for it instead, as especially with buyback it seems to be something that can work rather well in the deck.
@NimBalor Capsize and Paradox Engine can generate infinite mana accidentally if you have enough mana rocks. I think that Capsize is too good not to include because of its versatility in the early game and power in the late game.
How has Inspiring Statuary been for you? I see its potential, but I don't know if it's relevant enough for your deck. What are your thoughts?
@NimBalor Capsize and Paradox Engine can generate infinite mana accidentally if you have enough mana rocks. I think that Capsize is too good not to include because of its versatility in the early game and power in the late game.
How has Inspiring Statuary been for you? I see its potential, but I don't know if it's relevant enough for your deck. What are your thoughts?
Inspiring Statuary has been a decent performer for me, but its more or less included to somewhat cover not having many fast mana rocks. It let's me use Expedition Map, Lotus Petal as well as generate some benefit from artifacts that normally are only sitting their like Paradox Engine. So it's effectiveness really depends on what you get on the board. I do run Trail of Evidence because of Statuary, the clue tokens provide occasional card draw but with Statuary each token also becomes a little mana rock. It's definitely no real replacement for fast mana but as a budget option its been doing decent enough for me, if left alone it can start scaling quite nicely and if removed then its pretty much removal that isn't used for the more important cards in the deck.
Made some small changes to my list now the Commander 2017 product is out, which for me only featured a few interesting cards that I ended up giving some thought when it came down to including in this deck.
Galecaster Colossus
Initially I felt this card was going to be too expensive to actually run, CMC 7 is a lot after all and being on a stick means the effect is fragile as well. It being a Wizard obviously has some merit in an Azami list and with Paradox Engine you can do a fair bit of bouncing. Things got more interesting for me though when I compared it to a different card I was already considering; Capsize and specifically when you are getting to cast it with buyback. Doing so only costs one CMC less than the Colossus, if you are only bouncing once then Capsize is obviously better, but that changes if you have two or more targets as that's where Colossus might pull more weight. Fragility is obviously something to keep in mind, but also something I'm looking forward to test.
Path of Ancestry
This one is a rather tough call as we don't need it for fixing, which is one of the more important aspects this card gives, and coming into play tapped is definitely a downside that is to be considered. Now, okay my list isn't perfectly tuned and runs some budget alternatives, so it might perhaps mean a little less but still something that I kept in mind. The other question I ran into was if I had enough Wizards to make use of the scry trigger. While the latter is still up for debate I decided to give the card a go, but to do so I took out Thawing Glaciers which comes into play tapped as well so in essence it shouldn't affect the pace of the deck. Next to that Glaciers hasn't really impressed me in the deck so another reason why I can run it here and should Path disappoint as well I can always turn it into a basic island.
Kindred Discovery
Extra card draw seems always nice and ended up putting this card on my radar. The CMC of five was perhaps less impressing but it's easy to see that it could provide a lot of card draw in a tribal deck, which in essence Azami is. However, to me the problem is that with the amount of Wizards in this deck the ETB trigger is limited, which is somewhat the same issue Path of Ancestry has, while to me the on attack is even less likely to trigger since the deck wants to tap creatures for different things. It's still a tempting card but just feel it's not enough for what this deck wants to do, it's more suited for a Wizardball deck.
I already mentioned that I brought in Path of Ancestry to replace Thawing Glaciers, but figured initially that I'd be running Galecaster Colossus instead of Capsize which was slated to replace Leyline of Anticipation. While these are changes I ended up making to the deck, I watched a Laboratory Maniac's brewing video last night and during their building they made an interesting comment about Arcane Denial. It's obviously a good card and more often than not the card draw can be somewhat ignored, but they brought up the interesting point in that this shouldn't be always overlooked when having a budget build. Both sides draw cards, but if the other deck is a more competitive build then its simply likely they will draw a good card while a budget deck has more chance of drawing a lesser card. A reasoning that probably will still have people debating things but an interesting argument for me.
Since I was looking for potential cards to cut already, I decided to give that concept some more thought and for the time being I'm taking out Arcane Denial and using it to bring in Capsize alongside the Colossus. Might be overkill in that department but lets me see which card I end up liking more. Down the line I might take out one of them and consider bringing back in Cloudstone Curio or opt for a different means to bounce my own creatures easily.
Made a minor tweak to the deck this last weekend, which mainly came down to taking out Galecaster Colossus. It's a decent card but I felt it was competing too much with Azami when it comes to tapping down Wizards. Furthermore, Capsize just fits the deck a bit more than the Colossus did, so felt it was just better to side it out.
Instead I brought in Copy Artifact, which can serve multiple purposes in this deck. It can become a mana rock or a copy of any other key artifact on the board. And with that it also forms an alternative win condition for the deck in combination with Dramatic Reversal, Isochron Scepter and Swan Song to create 'infinite' bird tokens. So since I am already running those to begin with it feels like a decent inclusion for the deck.
Path of Ancestry might be going as well, the scry is interesting but so far I found the fact that it comes in tapped more as a nuisance. It's good in your opening hand but beyond that its too slow for this deck. So probably will just replace it with a basic island.
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Much like the deck this thread is still a work in progress, as recent changes have made me decide that it was time to rewrite this first post a bit. Nonetheless, I want to welcome you to my Azami, Lady of Paradoxes deck which I’ve been tinkering around with for some time now, albeit its previous iterations were with different Commanders at the helm.
The deck is currently centered around Azami and her three Paradoxes:
- The first is the obvious inclusion of Paradox Engine
- Secondly, which card to imprint on Isochron Scepter
- And lastly, why the hell are some of these cards in it.
Of those, the third one probably needs explaining most but clarifying it is rather simple (in my opinion). The main reason this deck came to be is because I wanted to experiment with a new playstyle and also make an attempt at stepping away from my usual thematic and synergistic builds. Though being on a budget means I had to cut some corners as well as focus on upgrading it’s efficiency over time.
While finding budget alternatives has been somewhat responsible for some inclusions, the other reason why the deck might seem a little mix and match is because I didn’t want to go netdeck a list and go with that. Sure, I used the information that was available to me, but in most cases I used it as a means to find cards I wanted or could try. A key part for me in this process has been not to just rely on a card because its widely used and because someone else says so, but by simply giving a card a try to see how it performs and what it provides, as well as to see what other changes a card might introduce.
So it’s been a process of a lot of trial and error that has left behind some perhaps more unique inclusions in my list. Furthermore, I’m not expecting this deck to be a finely tuned, competitive deck as some cards I simply deem too expensive to acquire. Instead I aim for this deck to be more competitive than my other decks by including more interaction and the usage of some combo aspects.
Note(s):
I’m well aware that there is a fair amount of debate surrounding Paradox Engine and a potential/desired banning of it. While it can do broken things in a deck, I do feel that it’s not essential either. The deck can perform perfectly fine without it for example, I have included it because it helps me push the playstyle of the deck to a less casual and ‘friendly’ playstyle.
1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Instant (24)
1x Capsize
1x Counterspell
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Dramatic Reversal
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Ghostly Flicker
1x Impulse
1x Long-Term Plans
1x Memory Lapse
1x Muddle the Mixture
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Negate
1x Pact of Negation
1x Rapid Hybridization
1x Reality Shift
1x Remand
1x Snap
1x Stifle
1x Swan Song
1x Thought Scour
1x Trickbind
1x Turnabout
1x Unsubstantiate
1x Whir of Invention
1x Aphetto Alchemist
1x Archaeomancer
1x Docent of Perfection
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Laboratory Maniac
1x Memnarch
1x Myr Retriever
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Prodigal Sorcerer
1x Sage of Epityr
1x Sigil Tracer
1x Trinket Mage
1x Vedalken AEthermage
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Vizier of Tumbling Sands
Artifact (16)
1x Aetherflux Reservoir
1x Coldsteel Heart
1x Expedition Map
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Inspiring Statuary
1x Isochron Scepter
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mind Stone
1x Paradox Engine
1x Prismatic Lens
1x Sapphire Medallion
1x Sky Diamond
1x Sol Ring
1x Star Compass
1x Thought Vessel
1x Copy Artifact
1x Mind Over Matter
1x Mystic Remora
1x Trail of Evidence
Sorcery (4)
1x Day's Undoing
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Ponder
1x Retraced Image
Planeswalker (1)
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
Land (35)
28x Island
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Path of Ancestry
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Riptide Laboratory
1x Seat of the Synod
1x Tolaria West
» CONSIDERATIONS
As indicated earlier, this deck features and came to be through a fair amount of trying and experimenting with cards and concepts. And while the deck probably is already trying to do a few things too many as it is, there are a few things I’m still interested in playing around with down the road.
Still Considered:
- Mind's Desire
» SOURCES & CREDITS
While this deck has evolved and grown over some time, a lot of the information used is thanks to what was provided on here by others. I definitely want to give some credit to them as it has helped me quite a bit when it comes to selecting cards I wanted to try in my particular build. So I do encourage to check out these threads as well.
Azami, Lady of Scrolls (Primer) by Allanon
Memnarch, Stealer of Games (Primer) by Benjameenbear
Dramatic Azami and the Scepter Paradox by Roryrai (on TappedOut)
Azami, Lady of Scrolls That Never End by Death Diamond
This section will probably feature a list that primarily contains cards that didn’t get included for the simple reason of my budget not allowing it. I might one day be lucky to add some of them, but I don’t consider them to have currently much priority in that regard.
Just Too Expensive:
- Snapcaster Mage
- Mana Vault
- Mana Crypt
- Force of Will
- Mana Drain
Then there are some cards that I have tried in my deck but that I felt were cards that simply underperforming in my list. It’s not that I’m arguing that a card listed here is not good or doesn’t have potential, I’m just not considering it to be a good fit at this time.
- Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
- Temporal Mastery
Having gone through a few iterations that featured other Commanders at the helm of this deck and the fair share of upgrading that already happened it was challenging to feature a complete list of changes the deck has gone through. So I am mainly limiting this log to the changes I made since Azami went into my Command Zone.
September 26th, 2017
+ Copy Artifact
- Galecaster Colossus
August 27th, 2017
+ Galecaster Colossus
+ Path of Ancestry
+ Capsize
- Leyline of Anticipation
- Thawing Glaciers
- Arcane Denial
August 20th, 2017
+ Aetherflux Reservoir
- Cloudstone Curio
June 24th, 2017
+ Myr Retriever
+ Phyrexian Metamorph
- Workshop Assistant
- Arcum Daggson
June 13th, 2017
+ Minamo, School at Water's Edge
+ Leyline of Anticipation
+ Cloudstone Curio
+ Prodigal Sorcerer
- Mind's Desire
- Dreamscape Artist
- Vedalken Mastermind
- Island
June 9th, 2017
+ Pact of Negation
+ Retraced Image
+ Thawing Glaciers
+ Island
+ Dreamscape Artist
- Temporal Mastery
- Annul
- Pongify
- Lonely Sandbar
- Remote Isle
Not too surprisingly, I am going to cut the card. There is potential but I simply don’t feel it’s something I want to pursue further right now. Obviously Storm is challenging in itself, let alone within the EDH format. So it is time to move onto my next experiment with the deck.
Vedalken Mastermind has been an interesting performer, albeit mostly to protect Azami and other wizards from removal. Going through my binder I stumbled upon Cloudstone Curio, this card initially feels like a pass since there aren’t that many ETB triggers to exploit. However, looking at things there is potential for some sort of fun, albeit some of it mostly depends on Magical Christmasland. Though having the card and experimenting being part of the deck’s philosophy for me, I took the gamble and sleeved it up.
Current Thoughts
So the idea is to see if I can have some fun with Curio and Docent of Perfection, any instant/sorcery would drop a token and help me bounce a creature. Either to protect or to simply replay, though it is fairly obvious that Vedalken Mastermind is going to be more efficient at this. That said, Mastermind is fairly vulnerable.
Additionally, I’m bringing in Leyline of Anticipation, so to help keeping up mana and also to play more around counters. Additionally it can help me drop a cheap creature to trigger Curio as well, so why not. I did consider Vedalken Orrery as well but Leyline can potentially come down for free and adds to the devotion for Nykthos. So since I lack certain more expensive mana rocks, it felt like the more decent choice. Also helped that I did have an unused Leyline around, while I still will have to see about acquiring an Orrery.
Along with that I’m considering putting Tim into the deck for a bit and see what this little old school wizard can do.
Hey man, how's it going? First, I want to thank you for honoring the two lists I host in your OP! Thanks a bunch, and I hope you continue to learn and contribute to these forums.
Your logic for Leyline of Anticipation vs. Vedalken Orrery is sound. I definitely agree with you there that the Leyline is much better than the Orrery in most cases.
I'm curious as to why you have Thought Scour. Is it simply because it's a one mana draw spell?
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Thanks. Though I did omit some parts of my reasoning mainly because I had one card over the other. Orrery can be tutored more easily and can be recurred more easily as well, but at the same time suffers from the fact that in my meta artifact removal is at a premium already. So in part lets me save my counters for my more important pieces.
As far as Thought Scour goes, it being a simple cantrip helps but thats not the only reason, as I found it to be decent against some tutors since it can take away the card they put on top, making it a pseudo counterspell. And once it helped me get rid of of a Top as well. Additionally it can help me grab the card I tutored with Long-Term Plans or turn it pretty much into a Mill three with Isochron Scepter and LabMan out.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Arcum Dagsson is pretty much a remnant of me experimenting with cards, it mainly stuck around because it disrupted the Breya players a fair bit. That said its effect is too niche, so should cut it soon as well. Probably it will get replaced with Phyrexian Metamorph to get some redundancy going.
Leyline of Anticipation while interesting simply doesn't do enough for me, so it's going out as well. Looking to bring in a copy of Capsize for it instead, as especially with buyback it seems to be something that can work rather well in the deck.
Capsize and Paradox Engine can generate infinite mana accidentally if you have enough mana rocks. I think that Capsize is too good not to include because of its versatility in the early game and power in the late game.
How has Inspiring Statuary been for you? I see its potential, but I don't know if it's relevant enough for your deck. What are your thoughts?
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Galecaster Colossus
Initially I felt this card was going to be too expensive to actually run, CMC 7 is a lot after all and being on a stick means the effect is fragile as well. It being a Wizard obviously has some merit in an Azami list and with Paradox Engine you can do a fair bit of bouncing. Things got more interesting for me though when I compared it to a different card I was already considering; Capsize and specifically when you are getting to cast it with buyback. Doing so only costs one CMC less than the Colossus, if you are only bouncing once then Capsize is obviously better, but that changes if you have two or more targets as that's where Colossus might pull more weight. Fragility is obviously something to keep in mind, but also something I'm looking forward to test.
Path of Ancestry
This one is a rather tough call as we don't need it for fixing, which is one of the more important aspects this card gives, and coming into play tapped is definitely a downside that is to be considered. Now, okay my list isn't perfectly tuned and runs some budget alternatives, so it might perhaps mean a little less but still something that I kept in mind. The other question I ran into was if I had enough Wizards to make use of the scry trigger. While the latter is still up for debate I decided to give the card a go, but to do so I took out Thawing Glaciers which comes into play tapped as well so in essence it shouldn't affect the pace of the deck. Next to that Glaciers hasn't really impressed me in the deck so another reason why I can run it here and should Path disappoint as well I can always turn it into a basic island.
Kindred Discovery
Extra card draw seems always nice and ended up putting this card on my radar. The CMC of five was perhaps less impressing but it's easy to see that it could provide a lot of card draw in a tribal deck, which in essence Azami is. However, to me the problem is that with the amount of Wizards in this deck the ETB trigger is limited, which is somewhat the same issue Path of Ancestry has, while to me the on attack is even less likely to trigger since the deck wants to tap creatures for different things. It's still a tempting card but just feel it's not enough for what this deck wants to do, it's more suited for a Wizardball deck.
I already mentioned that I brought in Path of Ancestry to replace Thawing Glaciers, but figured initially that I'd be running Galecaster Colossus instead of Capsize which was slated to replace Leyline of Anticipation. While these are changes I ended up making to the deck, I watched a Laboratory Maniac's brewing video last night and during their building they made an interesting comment about Arcane Denial. It's obviously a good card and more often than not the card draw can be somewhat ignored, but they brought up the interesting point in that this shouldn't be always overlooked when having a budget build. Both sides draw cards, but if the other deck is a more competitive build then its simply likely they will draw a good card while a budget deck has more chance of drawing a lesser card. A reasoning that probably will still have people debating things but an interesting argument for me.
Since I was looking for potential cards to cut already, I decided to give that concept some more thought and for the time being I'm taking out Arcane Denial and using it to bring in Capsize alongside the Colossus. Might be overkill in that department but lets me see which card I end up liking more. Down the line I might take out one of them and consider bringing back in Cloudstone Curio or opt for a different means to bounce my own creatures easily.
Instead I brought in Copy Artifact, which can serve multiple purposes in this deck. It can become a mana rock or a copy of any other key artifact on the board. And with that it also forms an alternative win condition for the deck in combination with Dramatic Reversal, Isochron Scepter and Swan Song to create 'infinite' bird tokens. So since I am already running those to begin with it feels like a decent inclusion for the deck.
Path of Ancestry might be going as well, the scry is interesting but so far I found the fact that it comes in tapped more as a nuisance. It's good in your opening hand but beyond that its too slow for this deck. So probably will just replace it with a basic island.