The deck primarily wins Via Synergy Control aspects.
Master of Waves Plus a creature lockdown is a pretty fast way to win
Other wincons are suiting up Blind seer with several swords and making him unblockable and untargetable via protection.
But Primarily I win of grinding out over the long haul which has led to a lot of really fun games
thanks a ton for the response Ulka. What about Invoke Prejudice - How much does this add to the deck / how important do you feel it is to your success? I would love to buy a copy, I am just not sure about it yet.
I remember playing this deck. One of the shortest-lived decks I ever played. Blind Seer is one of the coolest looking creatures though, and the deck does get to run cards you would normally never get to play.
Noteworthy Changes / Includes:
I feel that this deck is incredibly mana greedy, so I have added a few ways to ensure I hit my land drops more. Changed my lands to Snow Covered so that I can capitalize on Scrying Sheets, which will will also grab coldsteel heart. Additionally, threw in Thawing glaciers, which is just another great way to ensure I hit my land drops.
Sunstone would be fun. I need to playtest the deck a few times. I really worry about its lack of interact-ability from turn 1-4. Sunstone may help out with the low creature count, and if you have a slow game start where you don't stick a few 2 drop creatures to give yourself a board presence.
Have you considered Dismiss into Dream? It looks like it could have some devastating impact; though the CMC is pretty ghastly. It would be a bomb though...turns Urza into a murder machine.
A friend built this deck and there were some things I immediately noticed;
Mana Maze is really really bad when you are playing mono blue. Changing the color of the spell doesn't do anything as the color is checked upon cast. All it does is limit your ability to play multiple cards each turn.
Volcanic Eruption is pretty bad because targets are chosen as it is cast. If you are planning on playing vs a lot of mountains it's okay I guess. You can't really change it's wording while it is on the stack to re-target it though because it's picking targets as it is cast.
All of the swords are pretty great, I'd add the rest. You can even use your spells to adjust the protection given by the sword itself permanently (like if you need FaF to give pro white and green for example). I would definitely cut all the bad creatures with protection for more swords.
I would say that you could probably use a few more "generically good" cards like Consecrated Sphinx, Phyrexian Metamorph, etc. Probably a few more mana rocks for consistency. I'd actually consider The Immortal Sun, as it is pretty good all around.
As someone who plays Invoke Prejudice regularly (in my Nezahal, Primal Tide Deck), I can assure you the card is really great at slowing down or even shutting out aggro and mid-range type decks. Dropping it on-curve is a good way to frustrate people looking to play their commander. I do have to explain the card every time though because mine is in Italian and almost no one plays it. That being said, you can't really do anything about controlling the color of their creature spells to force an additional cost unless you do something like change your creatures to another color during their upkeep or something. Like, turning Blind Seer green during their upkeep so a blue player has to pay double for example. Usually, you'll probably just resign yourself to the fact that it just isn't going to be useful against blue creatures though.
I will give you Mana Maze may not be the strongest in the deck but Volcanic Eruption is an absolute house. Sure I cant change the ability with it on the stack but I can change Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to mountains fairly easily. From there Being able to wipe Lands in Blue and clear the board at the same time is worth the hoop to get through.
Swords are on my list to add to the deck but Im working on currently finishing legacy so my budget is tied up there so I wont be picking too many more of them up yet. and Yes once I get all swords in my deck i will probably adjust out some of the protection creatures but until then I love my janky creatures because nothing is more memorable than killing someone with a suited up Narwhals.
Invoke is also on my buy list for the deck but again this was a budget throw together with what I had lying around. I will eventually play it but until then Im not trying to make this the best deck around just one to have fun with.
I Have noticed I do need more Rocks in the deck so that is one I was working on what to cut for some more rocks.
But I do appreciate the Ideas. They have been things I have mulled over prior. Speaking of Mulling mulldrifter is a card i need to find room for.
Is mana maze really that bad in a deck that doesn't seem to do a lot on its own turn? We aren't exactly dumping our hand, but instead, establishing a really mana comsumptive board to abuse. That said though, maybe Arcane Laboratory might be a better card to unilaterally slow down play?
edit -
i only have 1 set of the swords, and unfortunately, they are all spoken for in my latest favorite deck, my Marvel Thor deck (Ragnar) - unless they see a much needed price dropping reprint, i will be unlikely to add them to this deck
Usually what happens to mono blue when mana maze is out is that multi color players will play spells to bait out your one counter for the turn. I would definitely play laboratory over it in here.
What a ridiculously fun deck. Made some minor tweaks to my list. Dropped Volcanic Eruption, never seemed to work out to be useful when I needed it, added in back to basics in its place. I also want to work capsize into my 99. Did not miss the swords of x and y at all, the deck is a blast even without them. Hibernation straight up wins games in this deck, all star of my weekend.
What about a cute combo in the deck, and throwing in Mind over Matter and Temple Bell?
After thinking about it, a cute combo just seems like it would start to warp my build over time. My deck would slowly start to morph into a deck that is more about comboing and seeking out the combo then controlling colors or manipulating the game. No combo!
I spent my early game controlling a fast ramping Vaevictis and trying to keep him off the table. Used Wrath of Merit Lage to delay him, then boxed him out HARD by eventually sticking back to basics. 10/10 would recommend. I protected myself for a long time with a bunch of pro red flying faeries. I am starting to think that there may be value in more pro-x fliers than pro-x ground troops. Leaning towards including cerulean wyvern - though i hate the 5cmc.
Game dragged for a while, Ojutai got killed by Trostani, who was looking strong until i hit a wash out, and blew away all white permanents (after vaevictis was already fairly under control). It straight up wrecked all my opponents. Followed it with a Will Breaker. Now THATS a card. Holy moley is he strong. I kept the table under control at that point with a fist full of counter magic and alpha striked Vaevictis with stolen cards. I then dropped Akroma's Memorial, and began the long haul of whittling down Trostani's life with commander damage. He scooped shortly after i established such strong control, and realized that he wasnt going to sneak a spell by to kill will breaker free his dudes. At some point, i also stuck invoke prejudice, and it made it really hard for the green mages to afford all their critters, even with their piles of mana, because it was so late in the game i could tap a small stack of lands to convert what little i had stolen in their upkeep.
I gotta say, the deck feels so weak, until you get a grasp on the game, then its surprisingly lethal. Didnt hurt that there was a lot of green in the game, and my deck is already tilted towards killing green, and i had an early game 1/1 flier pro red to prevent vaevictis from completely wrecking me.
Yea I still play the list but I haven't played edh in a bit due to life being much busier and the fact I've been focusing more on modern and Cube than I use to.
1 Blind Seer
Artifact (14)
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Caged Sun
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Crystal Shard
1 Distorting Lens
1 Expedition Map
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Heartstone
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Sapphire Medallion
1 Sol Ring
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Vedalken Shackles
Artifact Creature (2)
1 Burnished Hart
1 Torrential Gearhulk
Creature (13)
1 Aven Smokeweaver
1 Coast Watcher
1 King Crab
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Master of Waves
1 Narwhal
1 Sea Sprite
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tidal Visionary
1 Tidebinder Mage
1 Treetop Sentinel
1 Weatherseed Faeries
1 Willbreaker
1 Douse
1 Dream Tides
1 Invoke Prejudice
1 Mana Maze
1 Rhystic Study
1 Shifting Sky
1 Swirl the Mists
1 Tidal Control
1 Training Grounds
1 Well-Laid Plans
1 Wrath of Marit Lage
Instant (20)
1 Alter Reality
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Flash Flood
1 Flashfreeze
1 Gainsay
1 Glamerdye
1 Hibernation
1 High Tide
1 Hydroblast
1 Jace's Defeat
1 Jace's Ingenuity
1 Jaded Response
1 Memory Lapse
1 Mind Bend
1 Spectral Shift
1 Sway of Illusion
1 Whim of Volrath
1 Inundate
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Volcanic Eruption
1 Wash Out
Land (35)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Ash Barrens
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cephalid Coliseum
25 Island
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Soldevi Excavations
1 Strip Mine
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Maybe board:
Breath of Dreams
Sword of war and peace
Sword of fire and ice
Sword of body and mind
Currently Playing:
Multiplayer EDH Lists (click italics for a link to the thread!)
[Primer] Lord of Tresserhorn - Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do[Primer] Roon of the Hidden Realm - Rhino Blink
5 Color Tribal Guide (Slivers, Atogs, Allies, Spirits)
Also Playing (most decklists can be found on my profile)
MarathGeistKamahlGrenzoBolasThassaGitrog
PiratesZurVial Smasher&ThrasiosYennettJhoira(cEDH)Strix(Pauper)
Legacy: Maverick
Modern:
Melira PodRIP 1/19/15GWHatebearsEdit: I did correct this.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Master of Waves Plus a creature lockdown is a pretty fast way to win
Other wincons are suiting up Blind seer with several swords and making him unblockable and untargetable via protection.
But Primarily I win of grinding out over the long haul which has led to a lot of really fun games
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
1x Alter Reality
1x Blue Elemental Blast
1x Counterspell
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Flash Flood
1x Flashfreeze
1x Gainsay
1x Glamerdye
1x Hibernation
1x High Tide
1x Hydroblast
1x Jace's Defeat
1x Jaded Response
1x Memory Lapse
1x Mind Bend
1x Spectral Shift
1x Sway of Illusion
1x Whim of Volrath
Land (35)
1x Academy Ruins
1x Ash Barrens
1x Buried Ruin
1x Cephalid Coliseum
26x Island
1x Myriad Landscape
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Seat of the Synod
1x Soldevi Excavations
1x Strip Mine
1x Aven Smokeweaver
1x Burnished Hart
1x Cerulean Wyvern
1x Chisei, Heart of Oceans
1x Coast Watcher
1x King Crab
1x Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1x Master of Waves
1x Narwhal
1x Sea Sprite
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Tidal Visionary
1x Tidebinder Mage
1x Treetop Sentinel
1x Weatherseed Faeries
1x Willbreaker
Enchantment (11)
1x Douse
1x Dream Tides
1x Invoke Prejudice
1x Mana Maze
1x Rhystic Study
1x Shifting Sky
1x Swirl the Mists
1x Tidal Control
1x Training Grounds
1x Well-Laid Plans
1x Wrath of Marit Lage
1x Akroma's Memorial
1x Caged Sun
1x Coldsteel Heart
1x Crystal Shard
1x Distorting Lens
1x Expedition Map
1x Gauntlet of Power
1x Heartstone
1x Isochron Scepter
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Sapphire Medallion
1x Sol Ring
1x Vedalken Shackles
Sorcery (5)
1x Inundate
1x Recurring Insight
1x Treasure Cruise
1x Volcanic Eruption
1x Wash Out
gonna play test it a fair bit before changing any cards around.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Other cards I've been considering are Shimmer as phasing is a fun headache for causal players.
Dominaria Set Review:
Im only going to comment on cards Im considering as Im doing this on my lunch break.
Artificer's Assistant: Historic scrying is always nice. Im considering this card in nearly every deck I own that can run him.
Karn, Scion of Urza: Card advantage and a decent wincon in the long haul of games. Once his price drops (if it does) I plan to pick him up.
Memorial to Genius: I need card advantage in this deck and honestly being on a land opens up a lot of options for the deck.
Wizard's Retort: A counterspell when we have our seer out. Seems lairght. will need testing
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Blind Seer is one of the coolest looking creatures though, and the deck does get to run cards you would normally never get to play.
Everything combos with Tombstone Stairwell.
1x Blind Seer
Instant (19)
1x Alter Reality
1x Blue Elemental Blast
1x Counterspell
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Flash Flood
1x Flashfreeze
1x Gainsay
1x Glamerdye
1x Hibernation
1x High Tide
1x Hydroblast
1x Jace's Defeat
1x Jaded Response
1x Memory Lapse
1x Mind Bend
1x Spectral Shift
1x Sway of Illusion
1x Whim of Volrath
Land (36)
1x Ash Barrens
1x Buried Ruin
1x Cephalid Coliseum
1x Myriad Landscape
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Scrying Sheets
1x Seat of the Synod
26x Snow-Covered Island
1x Soldevi Excavations
1x Strip Mine
1x Thawing Glaciers
1x Aven Smokeweaver
1x Burnished Hart
1x Chisei, Heart of Oceans
1x Coast Watcher
1x King Crab
1x Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1x Master of Waves
1x Narwhal
1x Sea Sprite
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Tidal Visionary
1x Tidebinder Mage
1x Treetop Sentinel
1x Weatherseed Faeries
1x Willbreaker
Enchantment (11)
1x Douse
1x Dream Tides
1x Invoke Prejudice
1x Mana Maze
1x Rhystic Study
1x Shifting Sky
1x Swirl the Mists
1x Tidal Control
1x Training Grounds
1x Well-Laid Plans
1x Wrath of Marit Lage
1x Akroma's Memorial
1x Caged Sun
1x Coldsteel Heart
1x Crystal Shard
1x Distorting Lens
1x Expedition Map
1x Gauntlet of Power
1x Heartstone
1x Isochron Scepter
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Sapphire Medallion
1x Sol Ring
1x Vedalken Shackles
Sorcery (5)
1x Inundate
1x Recurring Insight
1x Treasure Cruise
1x Volcanic Eruption
1x Wash Out
Noteworthy Changes / Includes:
I feel that this deck is incredibly mana greedy, so I have added a few ways to ensure I hit my land drops more. Changed my lands to Snow Covered so that I can capitalize on Scrying Sheets, which will will also grab coldsteel heart. Additionally, threw in Thawing glaciers, which is just another great way to ensure I hit my land drops.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
One thing to think about is sunstone. It alone is why I run snowlands in most decks
Have you considered Dismiss into Dream? It looks like it could have some devastating impact; though the CMC is pretty ghastly. It would be a bomb though...turns Urza into a murder machine.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Edit: I have been considering Colossal Whale and Stormtide leviathan to abuse landwalking
Mana Maze is really really bad when you are playing mono blue. Changing the color of the spell doesn't do anything as the color is checked upon cast. All it does is limit your ability to play multiple cards each turn.
Volcanic Eruption is pretty bad because targets are chosen as it is cast. If you are planning on playing vs a lot of mountains it's okay I guess. You can't really change it's wording while it is on the stack to re-target it though because it's picking targets as it is cast.
All of the swords are pretty great, I'd add the rest. You can even use your spells to adjust the protection given by the sword itself permanently (like if you need FaF to give pro white and green for example). I would definitely cut all the bad creatures with protection for more swords.
I would say that you could probably use a few more "generically good" cards like Consecrated Sphinx, Phyrexian Metamorph, etc. Probably a few more mana rocks for consistency. I'd actually consider The Immortal Sun, as it is pretty good all around.
As someone who plays Invoke Prejudice regularly (in my Nezahal, Primal Tide Deck), I can assure you the card is really great at slowing down or even shutting out aggro and mid-range type decks. Dropping it on-curve is a good way to frustrate people looking to play their commander. I do have to explain the card every time though because mine is in Italian and almost no one plays it. That being said, you can't really do anything about controlling the color of their creature spells to force an additional cost unless you do something like change your creatures to another color during their upkeep or something. Like, turning Blind Seer green during their upkeep so a blue player has to pay double for example. Usually, you'll probably just resign yourself to the fact that it just isn't going to be useful against blue creatures though.
Swords are on my list to add to the deck but Im working on currently finishing legacy so my budget is tied up there so I wont be picking too many more of them up yet. and Yes once I get all swords in my deck i will probably adjust out some of the protection creatures but until then I love my janky creatures because nothing is more memorable than killing someone with a suited up Narwhals.
Invoke is also on my buy list for the deck but again this was a budget throw together with what I had lying around. I will eventually play it but until then Im not trying to make this the best deck around just one to have fun with.
I Have noticed I do need more Rocks in the deck so that is one I was working on what to cut for some more rocks.
But I do appreciate the Ideas. They have been things I have mulled over prior. Speaking of Mulling mulldrifter is a card i need to find room for.
edit -
i only have 1 set of the swords, and unfortunately, they are all spoken for in my latest favorite deck, my Marvel Thor deck (Ragnar) - unless they see a much needed price dropping reprint, i will be unlikely to add them to this deck
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
What about a cute combo in the deck, and throwing in Mind over Matter and Temple Bell?After thinking about it, a cute combo just seems like it would start to warp my build over time. My deck would slowly start to morph into a deck that is more about comboing and seeking out the combo then controlling colors or manipulating the game. No combo!
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Blind Seer - Me.
Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire (Jund Goodstuff)
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice (Go wide token life gain)
Dragonlord Ojutai (not quite sure what his strategy was, seemed like a UW control deck).
I spent my early game controlling a fast ramping Vaevictis and trying to keep him off the table. Used Wrath of Merit Lage to delay him, then boxed him out HARD by eventually sticking back to basics. 10/10 would recommend. I protected myself for a long time with a bunch of pro red flying faeries. I am starting to think that there may be value in more pro-x fliers than pro-x ground troops. Leaning towards including cerulean wyvern - though i hate the 5cmc.
Game dragged for a while, Ojutai got killed by Trostani, who was looking strong until i hit a wash out, and blew away all white permanents (after vaevictis was already fairly under control). It straight up wrecked all my opponents. Followed it with a Will Breaker. Now THATS a card. Holy moley is he strong. I kept the table under control at that point with a fist full of counter magic and alpha striked Vaevictis with stolen cards. I then dropped Akroma's Memorial, and began the long haul of whittling down Trostani's life with commander damage. He scooped shortly after i established such strong control, and realized that he wasnt going to sneak a spell by to kill will breaker free his dudes. At some point, i also stuck invoke prejudice, and it made it really hard for the green mages to afford all their critters, even with their piles of mana, because it was so late in the game i could tap a small stack of lands to convert what little i had stolen in their upkeep.
I gotta say, the deck feels so weak, until you get a grasp on the game, then its surprisingly lethal. Didnt hurt that there was a lot of green in the game, and my deck is already tilted towards killing green, and i had an early game 1/1 flier pro red to prevent vaevictis from completely wrecking me.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Deck runs a LOT smoother now, just having 3 cards that can oppress the field all by themselves. Do you still play this list at all Ulka?
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage