I personally preferred the old version of Scry. With the way things are now, I have a very hard time reading the cards, both on the card itself and in the oracle text section. I do like the clicking to bring down information, as it's an excellent feature and streamlines the experience quite nicely. I'd like some kind of option to scale up the images/fonts, as I am no longer able to read the cards without difficulty with the new version.
Yes. If you controlled Death Watch when the enchanted creature died, you will control the triggered ability and you will be able to copy it with the Resonator.
Modus
Your suggestions are as excellent as they are numerous. I feel that, while your idea for extorting cheap cantrips is a good one, it wouldn't work too well for this deck, given that I'd have to extort at least 40 times to kill the board. As far as cheap extort cards are concerned, there's Thrull Parasite in collusion with the ever-delightful Ranger of Eos I'm actually considering Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, both because he's in my colors and because I like his effects; a lifelink token every turn is a pretty nice deterrent to non-tramply creatures.
My primary goal with this deck is to use effects like Extort, as well as the aforementioned Agent of Masks, Subversion (though that one in particular's a tad pricy), Urborg Syphon-Mage, etc, to slowly drain life from my opponents; obviously, such a game plan requires two things: some measure of slowing opponents down until they're naught more than a drained, wizened husk of poverty, and methods to use/profit from the life I'm stealing from my opponents (so card draw like Necropotence, Well of Lost Dreams, life payments like the buyback on Slaughter, things like that).
@Modus Ataraxia
I'd love to hear more about cards that tax opponents just enough to keep me alive, but not to enough to make me the archenemy.
It's an interesting idea to consider, and definitely more in line with Orzhov's flavor; what cards would you suggest (aside from, perhaps, Windborn Muse or Blind Obedience/Kismet)?
I disagree with Blood Clock. It either costs your opponents a measly 2 life, or it enables them to recast ETB abilities (Eternal Witness) over and over again, which is very bad. If you're extorting often with a few players, I highly recommend 3 things: a low overall mana curve, Slaughter, and Scuttlemutt.
You're right, free bounce for my opponents is quite terrible; any other ideas for slow and steady life loss/drain, or ways for me to profit off life loss?
Guys, I just found Blood Clock and Umbilicus. These two are basically the same card; they'd force opponents to choose between life loss and tempo loss, and they'd allow me to fully capitalize on whatever extort permanents I have out.
Delightful suggestions, and Wending, your post is especially useful and insightful. One question: Johnny = WB counterspells? I might disagree with some of what you term as goodstuff (that Urborg Syphon-Mage is exactly what I want to be doing, and I can easily fuel the discarding with Black's "disregard life, acquire cards" and White's "gain all of the life" mentalities.
I pulled a Merciless Eviction and High Priest of Penance at the prerelease, and I might build a budget version of this deck on paper. For now, this will be on Cockatrice (as all my decks are), so budget isn't a consideration. Those two are auto-includes for me; Merciless Eviction is probably my favorite card, in terms of flavor, art, and actual gameplay effectiveness combined. I want to include indestructibility/regeneration for key creatures, especially the High Priest, because that much permanent destruction (especially with Pestilence!) is a beautiful way to deal with threats, as each activation of Pestilence is its own, separate instance of damage.
Any suggestions on win conditions? I can build a deck that can tax opponents all day, but it needs to be able to bring the game to a close. Also, if an opponent can, despite my taxing, keep a permanent on the field that can easily win the game, I'll need to be able to deal with such a thing.
This is great stuff d0su, and I'd love to see it get a sticky somewhere visible. One recommendation is that you anchor links to each question in the beginning, rather than make people scroll through the entire post to find their question. Also, each FAQ entry should be hidden behind spoilers.
I wouldn't worry too much about that thread. It doesn't look like it's been updated for a year and a half.
Another thing. I generally lurk around here for my EDH/Commander advice/strategies/primers (less so with the whining and debates that devolve into whining), and for me, it's nice to have this compilation of format-specific rules info all in one place. And yes, an update + sticky would be lovely. Just my two cents!
Thanks for the help!
That is most definitely *not* Sun Titan-able. Realm Razer costs 6.
Your suggestions are as excellent as they are numerous. I feel that, while your idea for extorting cheap cantrips is a good one, it wouldn't work too well for this deck, given that I'd have to extort at least 40 times to kill the board. As far as cheap extort cards are concerned, there's Thrull Parasite in collusion with the ever-delightful Ranger of Eos I'm actually considering Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, both because he's in my colors and because I like his effects; a lifelink token every turn is a pretty nice deterrent to non-tramply creatures.
@Modus Ataraxia
I'd love to hear more about cards that tax opponents just enough to keep me alive, but not to enough to make me the archenemy.
I pulled a Merciless Eviction and High Priest of Penance at the prerelease, and I might build a budget version of this deck on paper. For now, this will be on Cockatrice (as all my decks are), so budget isn't a consideration. Those two are auto-includes for me; Merciless Eviction is probably my favorite card, in terms of flavor, art, and actual gameplay effectiveness combined. I want to include indestructibility/regeneration for key creatures, especially the High Priest, because that much permanent destruction (especially with Pestilence!) is a beautiful way to deal with threats, as each activation of Pestilence is its own, separate instance of damage.
Any suggestions on win conditions? I can build a deck that can tax opponents all day, but it needs to be able to bring the game to a close. Also, if an opponent can, despite my taxing, keep a permanent on the field that can easily win the game, I'll need to be able to deal with such a thing.
Another thing. I generally lurk around here for my EDH/Commander advice/strategies/primers (less so with the whining and debates that devolve into whining), and for me, it's nice to have this compilation of format-specific rules info all in one place. And yes, an update + sticky would be lovely. Just my two cents!