In case you somehow missed it, the general strategy is to play your mana rocks, poop out Daretti, throw things into your graveyard, then trade your rocks for jocks and beat your opponents to death. Pure and simple as a hammer to the forebrain.
Jank I need to justify: Warping Wail: This card is criminally underrated. All three modes are relevant in the typical game of EDH, but the counter is something no one ever sees coming. This single card (well, also Sea Gate Wreckage) is a big reason for having half the land base able to produce colorless. Mishra's Factory: A vanilla 2/2 in a deck without Swords is the opposite of impressive, but it's a random blocker that can turn into an artifact to be welded in a pinch. It also happens to be my favorite Magic card by a significant margin. Pentavus: This card gets a lot of hate for some reason, but it's an absolute monster. There's a reason it saw play in Vintage, though admittedly that deck did lean heavily on Mana Drain. Near-unlimited chump blocking as well as being food for welding/Skullclamping is just too much value. Never leave home without it, folks. Prismatic Lens: Okay, I can't defend it. It's purely a budget option, and not a very good one at that.
Notable omissions: Staxeffects: No doubt these would make the deck far more competitive but that's not really the goal of this deck. Expensivemanarocks: Frankly, I just don't want to make the investment yet. There's an argument to be made for Mana Crypt since it slots into virtually every deck, but I'm still reluctant to spring for it. Metalworker: See above. Basalt Monolith: It combos with Rings of Brighthearth. Even though I don't really have much to do with that infinite mana unless I build around it's still an infinite combo and for both personal and playgroup reasons I try to avoid them. Yes, I'm aware I'm running Mindslaver and Nevinyrral's Disk/Darksteel Forge. Mycosynth Lattice: The only reason to run this card is to make your opponents even more miserable with the above Disk/Forge lock and otherwise sets you up to get blown out with Vandalblast. It's a groan inducing card either way. Blightsteel Colossus: A fine win condition to be sure, but it's not weldable, and is a little more than I want to spend on a card that goes into one deck. A lot of players also intensely dislike infect and this is my big dumb casual deck. Wheel of Fortune: Budget constraint or else it would easily have a slot. Ancient Tomb: See above.
Chopping block: Platinum Angel: A 4/4 flyer for 7 that doesn't do anything sucks. I threw it in because I own one but I'm super dissatisfied with how it performs. Compares very unfavorably with Sandstone Oracle and Platinum Emperion on both fronts. Silent Arbiter: While it does a great job of protecting Daretti it has a tendency to slow games way down and is essentially a stax card. It's good but like other stax cards it can be unfun to play against.
Potential replacements: Scarecrone: I still haven't played with it, but more recursion in a recursive deck seems good. Myr Retriever/Junk Diver: Weldable targets that generate value. Not much else to say, really.
Pia's Revolution might be good. Then again it might not be if you intend on welding everything. I don't have enough experience with Daretti but it seems worth considering.
Conqueror's Galleon is a card i'm warming up to more and more, a deck like this that's light on advantageous draw can use the options it provides, being able to return any card is just gravy.
Given the amount of artifacts you run, Inspiring Statuary can be a real thing.
Unstable Obelisk can also be a good inclusion. It's ability is expensive to use, but it gives you a way to deal with enchantments without having to blow up the entire board.
Contagion Engine seems like a good inclusion too. It's a way to remove/weaken a lot of creatures and can quickly become a one-sided wrath, and on top of that it helps you get to Daretti's emblem faster which is something that seems nigh impossible otherwise given the amount of activations needed to ultimate.
With a few exceptions I'm not a fan of punisher cards. I feel like the damage aspect is too weak and the recursion will rarely happen unless someone is at low life which means you're probably ahead. If I could target creatures it would be a different story. On the other hand 3cmc for a ton of damage/recursion after a board wipe seems fun.
I love this card from a flavor perspective, so I'll give it a shot. I like the random ramp aspect and all of the activated abilities are relevant here. I'm also a big fan of the aesthetics of the new flip cards. That map look for the lands is very nice.
It's too bad it can't pay for artifacts or it would be an auto-include hands down. As is, I could see it only being relevant on less than ten cards, which doesn't seem worthwhile unfortunately.
Well, I'm running Spine of Ish Sah and All is Dust only hits seven cards in the 100, but removal on a rock that can be recurred seems okay. It was in the precon so I got to play with it a little and it was okay. The problem I have with it is that a ten mana Vindicate topdeck is pushing it even in a deck with a lot of acceleration.
You know, I saw this in a lot of lists and considered it but for some reason (see: stupidity) I never thought about using it on Daretti. Sigh. Please forgive me.
Okay, you caught me, this isn't exactly a new take on Daretti but for posterity's sake I'm posting it.
1x Daretti, Scrap Savant
Land: 37
1x Buried Ruin
1x Command Beacon
1x Crystal Vein
1x Darksteel Citadel
1x Drownyard Temple
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Great Furnace
1x Hanweir Battlements
1x Inventors' Fair
1x Kher Keep
1x Maze of Ith
1x Mishra's Factory
18x Mountain
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Sanctum of Ugin
1x Sea Gate Wreckage
1x Sequestered Stash
1x Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
1x Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
Artifacts: 31
1x Alhammarret's Archive
1x Conqueror's Galleon
1x Contagion Engine
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Darksteel Forge
1x Everflowing Chalice
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Fire Diamond
1x Hammer of Purphoros
1x Hedron Archive
1x Ichor Wellspring
1x Mana Vault
1x Mind Stone
1x Mind's Eye
1x Mindslaver
1x Mirage Mirror
1x Mirrorworks
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Oblivion Stone
1x Prismatic Lens
1x Rings of Brighthearth
1x Sculpting Steel
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Spine of Ish Sah
1x Thought Vessel
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Trading Post
1x Ugin's Nexus
1x Worn Powerstone
1x Bosh, Iron Golem
1x Combustible Gearhulk
1x Duplicant
1x Goblin Welder
1x Hellkite Igniter
1x Karn, Silver Golem
1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
1x Lodestone Golem
1x Myr Battlesphere
1x Pentavus
1x Platinum Emperion
1x Precursor Golem
1x Sandstone Oracle
1x Scrap Trawler
1x Scuttling Doom Engine
1x Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Soul of New Phyrexia
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Steel Hellkite
1x Thopter Assembly
1x Wurmcoil Engine
Instants: 2
1x Chaos Warp
1x Warping Wail
Sorceries: 7
1x All Is Dust
1x Blasphemous Act
1x Faithless Looting
1x Gamble
1x Scrap Mastery
1x Trash for Treasure
1x Vandalblast
In case you somehow missed it, the general strategy is to play your mana rocks, poop out Daretti, throw things into your graveyard, then trade your rocks for jocks and beat your opponents to death. Pure and simple as a hammer to the forebrain.
Jank I need to justify:
Warping Wail: This card is criminally underrated. All three modes are relevant in the typical game of EDH, but the counter is something no one ever sees coming. This single card (well, also Sea Gate Wreckage) is a big reason for having half the land base able to produce colorless.
Mishra's Factory: A vanilla 2/2 in a deck without Swords is the opposite of impressive, but it's a random blocker that can turn into an artifact to be welded in a pinch. It also happens to be my favorite Magic card by a significant margin.
Pentavus: This card gets a lot of hate for some reason, but it's an absolute monster. There's a reason it saw play in Vintage, though admittedly that deck did lean heavily on Mana Drain. Near-unlimited chump blocking as well as being food for welding/Skullclamping is just too much value. Never leave home without it, folks.
Prismatic Lens: Okay, I can't defend it. It's purely a budget option, and not a very good one at that.
Notable omissions:
Stax effects: No doubt these would make the deck far more competitive but that's not really the goal of this deck.
Expensive mana rocks: Frankly, I just don't want to make the investment yet. There's an argument to be made for Mana Crypt since it slots into virtually every deck, but I'm still reluctant to spring for it.
Metalworker: See above.
Basalt Monolith: It combos with Rings of Brighthearth. Even though I don't really have much to do with that infinite mana unless I build around it's still an infinite combo and for both personal and playgroup reasons I try to avoid them. Yes, I'm aware I'm running Mindslaver and Nevinyrral's Disk/Darksteel Forge.
Mycosynth Lattice: The only reason to run this card is to make your opponents even more miserable with the above Disk/Forge lock and otherwise sets you up to get blown out with Vandalblast. It's a groan inducing card either way.
Blightsteel Colossus: A fine win condition to be sure, but it's not weldable, and is a little more than I want to spend on a card that goes into one deck. A lot of players also intensely dislike infect and this is my big dumb casual deck.
Wheel of Fortune: Budget constraint or else it would easily have a slot.
Ancient Tomb: See above.
Chopping block:
Platinum Angel: A 4/4 flyer for 7 that doesn't do anything sucks. I threw it in because I own one but I'm super dissatisfied with how it performs. Compares very unfavorably with Sandstone Oracle and Platinum Emperion on both fronts.
Silent Arbiter: While it does a great job of protecting Daretti it has a tendency to slow games way down and is essentially a stax card. It's good but like other stax cards it can be unfun to play against.
Potential replacements:
Scarecrone: I still haven't played with it, but more recursion in a recursive deck seems good.
Myr Retriever/Junk Diver: Weldable targets that generate value. Not much else to say, really.
Anything obvious I'm missing?
[Primer] Erebos, God of the Dead
HONK HONK
Conqueror's Galleon is a card i'm warming up to more and more, a deck like this that's light on advantageous draw can use the options it provides, being able to return any card is just gravy.
Given the amount of artifacts you run, Inspiring Statuary can be a real thing.
Unstable Obelisk can also be a good inclusion. It's ability is expensive to use, but it gives you a way to deal with enchantments without having to blow up the entire board.
Contagion Engine seems like a good inclusion too. It's a way to remove/weaken a lot of creatures and can quickly become a one-sided wrath, and on top of that it helps you get to Daretti's emblem faster which is something that seems nigh impossible otherwise given the amount of activations needed to ultimate.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
I love this card from a flavor perspective, so I'll give it a shot. I like the random ramp aspect and all of the activated abilities are relevant here. I'm also a big fan of the aesthetics of the new flip cards. That map look for the lands is very nice.
It's too bad it can't pay for artifacts or it would be an auto-include hands down. As is, I could see it only being relevant on less than ten cards, which doesn't seem worthwhile unfortunately.
Well, I'm running Spine of Ish Sah and All is Dust only hits seven cards in the 100, but removal on a rock that can be recurred seems okay. It was in the precon so I got to play with it a little and it was okay. The problem I have with it is that a ten mana Vindicate topdeck is pushing it even in a deck with a lot of acceleration.
You know, I saw this in a lot of lists and considered it but for some reason (see: stupidity) I never thought about using it on Daretti. Sigh. Please forgive me.
Thanks for the feedback!
- Silent Arbiter
- Platinum Angel
+ Conqueror's Galleon
+ Contagion Engine
I love how explosive this deck can be. Daretti + Alhammerret's Archive + Combustible Gearhulk + Sculpting Steel is maximum fun.
[Primer] Erebos, God of the Dead
HONK HONK