I have a small group of friends that get together once a week or so to hang out, play video games and play Magic. We typically do a cube draft or EDH. I decided that I needed to make the most insane EDH deck possible. I've played it many times, and it's always been a huge hit -- all the crazy interactions that come about from this deck result in raucous laughter.
It's not around to win (though it amazingly CAN win) it's around to make as many changes to the game rules and provide as much amusement as possible. It has big flashy artifacts and enchantments that modify the global game state, instants and sorceries that change everything very quickly and a few cards that actually keep the deck from losing.
With that, the deck!
Karona is chosen because, well, if you're building a crazy deck the needs 5 colors, then you need the craziest general for 5 colors. And that is, without a doubt, Karona. If I could've chosen an Enchantment as my general, I would've gone with Genju of the Realm.
Karona has hit play a grand total of 5 times. 4 times have been to outright swing and eliminate a final opponent with one swing (Eldrazi spawn tokens, Minions, or once with the Sphinx). Once was to help everyone eliminate a troublesome player. But that's another story.
Card choices and Primer:
Creatures, Instants and Sorceries are complete.
Creatures:
Enigma Sphinx: A recurring flying blocker, that can cascade into some additional craziness? Enigma Sphinx fits very well here, and enjoys the distinction of being the only creature truly crazy enough for the deck.
Enchantments: (Primer coming soon)
Soothsaying: It's Top #3. It filters, it shuffles, it reorders the top of the library. It's a solid card, if not strange.
Copy Artifact: For every reason that sculpting steel is in and then some. Copy artifact is a strange card by itself. It becomes an artifact that is still an enchantment. This was the last white bordered card in Karona, until I replaced it with a French BB.
Sterling Grove: Protect those enchantments from all but board sweepers! Search out whatever the scariest enchantment is!
Spirit of Resistance: Stay alive! Pair with Maelstrom Nexus so that enemies have to cause life loss to win, or find an answer to enchantments!
Copy Enchantment: Almost any enchantment on this list is made crazier by having a copy. For the same reasons as Sculpting Steel and Copy Artifact, this was an auto-include.
Awakening Zone: Make a blocker every turn, keep me alive, and sometimes mana acceleration. And, rarely, it becomes a win condition by smashing in with Karona and her army of Eldrazi Spawn!
Dueling Grounds: Another "Keep me alive" card. It also does change the attacking and blocking rules as a bonus, in that it makes only one creature able to attack and block each turn.
Opalescence:
Humility:
Leyline of Anticipation: Vedalken Orrery #2. So much fun that it was added twice. Copying either does nothing, but I wanted to make sure I could cast at "instant speed." It's got the added "Leyline" bonus. Start with it in the opening hand and live the dream!
March of the Machines:
No Mercy: Another of the "keep me alive" cards. No one wants to swing into No Mercy without an indestructible creature.
Upwelling
Endless Whispers
Near-Death Experience: It's strange, it changes the way to win, it pairs beautifully with Angel's Grace, and I've won enough games with it to be sold. There's not much like dropping the Grace to drop to 1 and flashing Near-Death Experience in at the end of the opponent's turn.
Enchanted Evening
Cowardice
Dream Halls: If you've seen some of the classic decks that run Dream Halls, you'll know just how crazy this card can be. It makes every standard counter spell strictly better than Force of Will. I completely changes the casting cost payment system for all players. It can ramp a tremendous number of things out early, and discarding isn't necessarily a drawback if you can replenish them back out.
Future Sight
Psychic Battle
Shared Fate
Confusion in the Ranks
Maelstrom Nexus: It's a WUBRG enchantment. That's pretty strange already. Granting Cascade doesn't necessarily change the rules, but it's a phenomenal way to accelerate more if the strange things out.
1x Forced Fruition
1x Hive Mind
1x Infernal Genesis
1x Grip of Chaos
1x Wild Evocation
1x Eye of the Storm
Divine Intervention: I treat Divine Intervention like the ultimate group hug win condition for Karona. There are two cards in Magic that outright in their text cause the game to end in a draw. This, and the alternate win condition of Celestial Convergence. Getting Divine Intervention to tick down is a fantastic way to end a long game.
Instants:
Angel's Grace: The games that Karona has won have often been due to a well timed Angel's Grace. Whether that gives enough time to setup Legacy Weapon, enough time to draw the Evacuation, a setup for Near-Death Experience, or even just getting Divine Intervention to go off, Angel's Grace has been there. Thanks Angel's Grace!
Evacuation: Evacuation keeps me in the game. That lethal strike comes in and suddenly, creatures go away. Since there is at most one creature out for Karona (or maybe some Spawn and Minion tokens) it's a fantastic delaying tactic.
Mirrorweave: "It was a bad day to be a pest token." Way back when I ran Reins of Power, I was able to Mirrorweave an Arcbound Ravager, making all creatures 0/0s, and kill the infinite combo my opponent had previously setup. He had made one billion pest tokens, swung the ravager, I Angel's Graced, then Mirrorweave/Reins'd next turn for the win. Mirrorweave causes just enough chaos to be a perennial favorite of the deck. It was in from day one and I've never thought of pulling it.
Sorceries:
Wheel of Fate: Everyone can see it coming, and it certainly makes the oncoming turns interesting. It's especially hilarious if Hive Mind is out or it can be set to go off the same turn as....
Hypergenesis: Everyone puts permanents into play! Hooray! This can make things crazy, quick, with the right enchantments in hand.
Shahrazad: There is entire section of the rules devoted to Shahrazad. There has to be. It makes sub-games. It makes games within the game. Great way to get a global decree of "draw?" Hive Mind + Copy Enchantment + Shahrazad. In a 3 player game, that makes 5 sub-games. It might be too crazy for the deck, but it's wonderful. Sometimes people will play the subgames instead of conceding, too!
Replenish: Gets the enchantments back when something does, inevitably happen.
Rite of Replication: Everyone has their own Rite of Replication story. I once cast a kicked Rite targeting Maelstrom Nexus (thanks Opalesence!). That's a lot of Cascade on future turns. Copying generals keeps you alive. Copying a Darksteel Colossus, with kicker, is amazing.
Open the Vaults: Same deal as Replenish. Gets the artifacts back too, and for everyone!
Time Spiral: Refills hands, recycles graveyard. Refilling my hand makes more crazy happen. As does having 6 to play with when untapping!
Brilliant Ultimatum: It's Fact or Fiction that casts! It doesn't really change the rules, but it is a strange card and, again, can bring the crazy out faster!
Reverse the Sands: Keeps me alive. Not much to say about this one, other than it has done a great job of keeping me alive. Oh, and the reminder text is fantastic. "Each of those players gets one life total back."
Warp World: What doesn't Warp World do? The deck is mostly permanents, so it's not going to often miss. It shuffles generals away, can totally change the power balance in any game, and can bring out some of the crazy enchantments!
Conflux: Conflux isn't strange. Conflux is awesome. Searching for the craziest card, or most needed card, of every color is simply fantastic. One card should always be Maelstrom Nexus. It's too good to pass up!
Artifacts:
Expedition Map: Fetch land #6. And it can grab whatever land I need to fill out my colors, whether that's Reflecting Pool or Serra's Sanctum.
Sensei's Divining Top: I asked myself "Is top too good?" The answer was a resounding "it depends on what you use it for!" I realized that top, here, doesn't become degenerate. At least most of the time. It makes the crazy happen more reliably. It's mana fixing when it needs to be, it digs for crazy things when it needs to dig. Pair it with Future Sight and, yes, it does become quite stupid.
Crystal Ball: For the same reasons as Top, this is top notch fixer. Look and find what you need or want next turn.
Fist of Suns: It doesn't make mana, but this is the best fixer in the deck. So many things cost over 5, and the deck can reliably make WUBRG.
Proteus Staff: This is a recent addition, but so far it seems hilarious. Any large creatures sent my way get replaced with the next creature in line. And, yes, sometimes I can use it to sort my deck. I think that that does violate a rule or two.
Sculpting Steel: For all the same reasons as copy artifact. There are great targets for extra artifacts, especially with Mycosynth Lattice out. Copying Uril with Sculpting Steel may sound wrong, but it's so right.
Vedalken Orrery: Anything is made better by doing it in response. A particular favorite is, in fact, to use the declare blockers step of the attack phase to play a Warp World.
Seer's Sundial: No, this isn't crazy. But it helps refill my hand and make the late game lands useful and not dead cards.
Teferi's Puzzle Box: The puzzle box is fantastic. It really does muck up the drawing rules. Instead of drawing, get rid of your hand and get the same number of cards back (plus your normal draw).
Memory Jar: Again, From the Vault. And it does fill and filter through the hand. It helps fill the graveyard for a crazy Replenish.
Timesifter: Bring a journal. Keep careful track of who gets the next turn. This is a strange and wonderful card to play with. It will completely change the turn order. To make things truly insane, copy it or get someone to cast Time Warp or Time Stretch. Keep a journal. You'll lose track.
Mycosynth Lattice: Because it changes everything to an artifact. They can all be creatures now, or indestructible, or both! Everything! Caution, as Lattice + March of the Machines will in fact put all land into the graveyard as a state based effect.
Planar Portal: As I write this, I'll be looking for something crazier. There's enough filtering and searching between Soothsaying, Top, Ball and Conflux. Portal isn't crazy, it just tends to be slow search.
Legacy Weapon: BOOM. Keeps me alive, can lock a 2 player game down, and can really keep things from getting too out of hand. Shared Fate becomes a problem? Shoot it down!
Darksteel Forge: It makes all your artifacts indestructible. What's not to love?
Lands and other mana sources:
Academy Ruins: Recurring some of the artifacts here is just crazy, and Ruins doesn't exactly become broken in Karona's world. It just recurs craziness!
Coalition Relic: One of the best 3 drop fixers available.
Obelisk of Grixis: I need lots of blue, not much red or black. It seemed like the best choice of obelisk to keep around.
Gilded Lotus: Absolutely awesome acceleration and fixing.
Darksteel Ingot: Ditto, and indestructible to boot!
Fieldmist Borderpost, Veinfire Borderpost, Firewild Borderpost: The border posts help with mana, obviously. Sometimes they help with acceleration. Occasionally, the latter two are targets for Conflux or help activate Spirit of Resistance.
Mirrodin's Core: 5 Color, more or less unconditional.
Vesuva: It's a clone land! How strange is that? It had to be in here! Copy the best land on the table and fix colors!
Reflecting Pool: In this deck? Taps for any color. Period.
Tolaria West: Strange ability on a strange land. And it Transmutes for Hypergenesis, Wheel of Fate, or any land.
Serra's Sanctum: I was shocked that it's not banned in EDH, but so be it. It makes a lot of white/colorless mana.
Akoum Refuge, Graypelt Refuge: Strictly better than ETBT duals.
Rupture Spire: 5 color for a marginal drawback in EDH.
Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, Esper Panorama, Grixis Panorama, Bant Panorama: Discount fetches! As much as this deck looks like it costs it started out as a budget deck (and, really, the biggest cost was Shahrazad).
Vivid Meadow, Vivid Creek, Vivid Marsh, Vivid Crag, Vivid Grove: Some of the best uncommon fixers in years.
Arcane Sanctum, Crumbling Necropolis, Jungle Shrine, Seaside Citadel, Savage Lands: As above. Strictly better than ETBT duals!
Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest: One of each basic.
Snow-Covered Plains, Snow-Covered Island, Snow-Covered Mountain: Why, you ask, are there snow covered lands here? I'll tell you. It's to be able to say: the deck is entirely unique cards. I was really close on basics for a long time. And someone suggested filling out the lands with Snow-Covered lands. So it is done.
Triumphs and cut cards:
This new list has a few roundabout ways to win -- the most hilarious being Angel's Grace + Near-Death Experience, the silliest being Karona leading and army of Eldrazi Spawn, and the most brutal being the lockout from an active Legacy Weapon and way too much mana.)
Cuts: Since I'm actually starting to document this deck's exploits, I feel the need to list some of the cut cards.
Cards like Sands of Time and Fatespinner were judged to be "not fun" since they just brought the game to a halt -- or at least a goodly slowdown. Ensnaring Bridge was particularly bad about this, despite how much it might have saved me on occasion.
Burning Wish was in the deck at one point. It was cut because it couldn't consistently make the crazy happen. The only trick it could really pull off was after Shahrazad, in the sub-game it could be used to wish for the main game Shahrazad, straight off the main game's stack. It pulled the trick off once or twice, but there's only so many sub-sub-games one can have.
Day of the Dragons similarly felt like more of a one trick pony. It's best feature was the auto-draw when it's played and Opalescence is out. I've pulled that off once, but once again Day isn't all that crazy except in a limited circumstance.
Eon Hub, as one person to respond pointed out, matches the "change the game rules" philosophy quite well. The problem is that Karona has some upkeep effects that really need to trigger. Like Wild Evocation, Near-Death Experience and numerous others. The balance said "one crazy effect or five crazy effects?" Paradox Haze was there for a little while, but it just didn't feel like it was doing enough. One upkeep seems to be right, even though that is "normal."
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Posted Jan 24, 2011-
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Posted Jul 21, 2010-
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Posted Jul 4, 2010T3: Awakening Zone
T4: Dueling Grounds
T5: No Mercy
T6: Mycosynth Lattice
T7: Fist of the Suns (from spawn tokens), Divine Intervention
T8: Vedalken Orrery
T9: Game ends in a draw -- Though I could have flashed in a Warp World in response to the Divine Intervention trigger.